Men Who Saw Revival [IP26]

Andrew Murray
When the Spirit of God brings bona fide spiritual revival to the Church it is
often not only an astounding but also an overwhelming experience for those
who are part of it. During times of spiritual awakening God’s Spirit works so
powerfully in people’s lives that previously careless non-Christians become
intensely convicted of their sins and cry out to God for salvation through faith in
Jesus Christ. Christians, too, earnestly repent of their sins and are tremendously
quickened in every area of their spiritual lives—worship, prayer, study of
Scripture, holy living, evangelism, service and more.

Such periods of revival have sometimes been so overwhelming that they have
not always been neat and orderly. But because genuine revival is the work of
God’s Spirit it always produces truly spiritual results that are in keeping with
God’s will as revealed in His Word.

In 1857-1858 what became known as the Prayer Meeting Revival swept across
the United States. That mighty working of God’s Spirit next ignited powerful
revivals in Ireland and Wales in 1859, then brought widespread spiritual
awakening to South Africa beginning in 1860. After the revival’s dramatic
beginning in Montagu, South Africa, it spread to Worcester, where Andrew
Murray, at thirty-two years of age, had recently been called as pastor of the
Dutch Reformed Church. 

The awakening there actually began on the farm of David Naude in the rural
Breede River ward of the Worcester parish. Three individuals— Naude’s son
Jan, Jan’s cousin Miss Van Blerk and an old native farmhand named Saul
Pieterse—had been faithfully meeting weekly for several months to pray for
revival. Miss Van Blerk taught the servants on the farm and was particularly
distressed over their spiritually needy condition. She became so burdened for
them that she prayed almost continuously for a week. Then one evening shortly
thereafter, God’s Spirit moved suddenly and mightily on a meeting she was
holding for the servants. The spiritual distress of the people became so great that
she ran from the meeting place to seek help with the situation.

The emotional strain of the sudden, ongoing awakening soon overtaxed Miss
Van Blerk, and she retreated to Worcester for a week. Upon her return to the
farm, the workers came out, singing, to greet her. Reportedly nearly everyone
on the farm was converted.

As news of these developments quickly spread, people from neighbouring farms

—“young and old, parents and children, white and black”—promptly began
streaming to the previously-neglected prayer meeting. According to one
person’s description, the people who gathered there were “driven by a common
impulse to cast themselves before God and utter their souls in cries of
penitence.” 

Murray came to lead one of the meetings not long after the revival first broke
out. But after giving his careful instructions and inviting individuals to pray one
at a time, the whole group immediately burst into simultaneous prayer, pleading
for mercy and forgiveness. With that the convicting power of God also gripped
Andrew Murray. He realized it was a work of God. For the next six weeks all
Andrew could do was sit in the back of the church and weep. He would not
preach. He just sat there and wept. Finally, after six weeks they carried him to
the pulpit in his chair; and when he opened his mouth, it was as if words
burning with divine fire proceeded from his lips.

The revival became a community-wide awakening as people became converted.

Some came to the services with the intent of mocking the strange behaviour of
the worshipers, only to find themselves also seized with the same conviction.