Day 10: We Pump the Same

“I am convinced that God will soon send a great spiritual awakening to our country and the world … .” These words came from Bill Bright, founder and director of Campus Crusade for Christ International. In a warm yet urgent three-page letter, Bill had invited Christian leaders in the United States to join him from December 5–7, 1994, for three days of prayer and fasting in Orlando, Florida. The names of seventy-two distinguished Christian men and women who made up the Invitation Committee told me that this gathering would be a first in recent memory.

But it was Bill’s own story that convinced me I had to attend: “For me, the call to fast and pray for our nation began in earnest on July 5, 1994, when I began a forty-day fast for revival and awakening in America and the fulfillment of the Great Commission throughout the world. On the morning that I began my twenty-ninth day of fasting I was reading in 2 Chronicles, chapters 28–30, when God’s holy Word spoke to my heart in a most unusual way… As I read that Hezekiah, King of Judah, wrote a letter to the leaders of Israel and Judah inviting them to join him in celebrating the Passover in the newly opened, cleansed and dedicated temple… I felt impressed by the Lord to write letters to hundreds of the most influential Christians in this country, inviting them to gather in Orlando… to fast and pray. We do not have a political agenda. This will be strictly a time for fasting and prayer and for seeking God’s direction on how we, His servants, can be instruments of revival for our nation and the world. By God’s grace, this could be one of the most significant prayer and fasting gatherings in modern history.”

I accepted Bill’s invitation and went to Florida. Based on all that happened in Orlando, I can say that, by God’s grace, Bill’s hope and prayer came true. As one of nearly seven hundred participants, our unity was expressed best by author/speaker Kay Arthur who gave the memorable illustration of two different heart tissues beating at different rhythms, yet when they physically touch each other, they beat in unison. “When we touch Jesus,” she says, “we pump the same.”

Today, more and more of these people are saying, “There is such a desperation in our world, it’s time we got on our faces with one another to break down barriers and build bonds of love and trust.” The biblical evidence of Hezekiah and others shows that revival is of God. The historical precedence of former Great Awakenings suggests that revival in our nation could come again. The reality that our ever-darkening world is now being pierced by extraordinary truth indicates that the early light of revival is already dawning.

Jeremiah 29:12 New King James Version (NKJV)
12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

1 Corinthians 1:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
Sectarianism Is Sin
10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Matthew 18:20 New King James Version (NKJV)
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

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Phillips, Tom (2016-11-01). Jesus Now: God Is Up to Something Big (Chapter 5 p. 120-121). BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC.