Day 12: Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

It happened on the Hebrides Islands, off the western coast of Scotland in 1947. A group of five to seven very godly men had become concerned about their home and country. After working all day, they would go home for dinner and dedicate the evening to their families. Then, around ten o’clock, when they were tired and ready to go to bed, they would walk out into the night and meet together in a lighted barn. There they would pray— sometimes five, sometimes six, sometimes seven of them.

For two long years, they went to the barn, night after night. “Oh, God,” they cried out, “do something for our islands.” One night in 1949, two years after they had begun meeting, as they gathered in the barn, one of the men opened his Bible to Psalm 24 and began to read. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart…” (Psalm 24: 3–4). Suddenly the truth hit these men. “Is it possible,” they asked, “that for two long years we’ve been praying night after night, sacrificially, for the Lord to move on our islands— and yet our hands are not clean? Is it possible our hearts are not pure?” That night, they prayed the words from the book of James, “Therefore confess your sins to one other and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (5: 16 ESV).

History records that these men left the barn that night, and on the way to the village, they topped the hill and looked down the road. There, in the ditch, they saw two town drunks on their knees, stumbling and mumbling. As the believers came closer, they realized the two men weren’t drunk at all. They were sober, and they were praying. They were on their knees, under conviction of sin, asking God to forgive them. At 1:30 a.m., lights in the village were on. The people had awakened from their sleep. Dozens of families, realizing their separation from God, had gotten up from their beds in consternation to try to find someone awake with whom they could talk. The people invited Duncan Campbell, the great evangelist from England, to visit their homeland. He came, preached, and great revival broke out— a revival that was born through prayer in a barn.

Psalm 24:1-4 New King James Version (NKJV)
The King of Glory and His Kingdom
A Psalm of David.
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.

James 5:16 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Matthew 5:8 New King James Version (NKJV)
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
   For they shall see God.

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Phillips, Tom (2016-11-01). Jesus Now: God Is Up to Something Big (Chapter 5 p. 128-129). BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC.