By Hyman Appleman (1902-1983)
In the first part of this article, Appleman looked at the three reasons for revival, as well as the personnel of revival. In this next part, he explores the price of revival. Let's listen in:
We have considered the purpose and the personnel of a revival. Now let us think about the price of a revival. What is the price of a revival? What did Moses have to pay? What did Samuel have to pay? What did Elijah have to pay? Isaiah? Hezekiah? What price did Joshua have to pay? What price did Peter and Paul and Luther and Wesley and Whitefield and Spurgeon and Moody and Billy Sunday have to pay? Each of us has to pay the same price—exactly the same price. There is no difference. There never will be any difference. God has never changed His terms. Power is costly. The most expensive power in all the world is the power of Pentecost. The price is high—but we can pay it. Here is how.
We must have a personal devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will study the biographies of these men I mentioned, you will find that they were characterized by one outstanding attitude. They were in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I must fall in love with Jesus. Passion and devotion to Christ will take care of the sin problem in our lives. If we love Jesus we will hate the Devil, hate the world, and hate sin. If we really love Jesus, all that might put a shadow between Him and us will be a horrible detestation to us. I wish I could go to each of you, one by one, and ask you, “Do you love Jesus?” I wish I could press the question upon you until your hearts responded with the answer, “Yes, I love Jesus more than I love life itself.”
– We must visit for Jesus’ sake.
– We must invite for Jesus’ sake.
– We must sacrifice for Jesus’ sake.
– We must attend services for Jesus’ sake.
– We must give our money for Jesus’ sake.
– We must preach for Jesus’ sake.
– We must win souls for Jesus’ sake.
We must have a personal devotion to Jesus—not in word only, but with all our hearts, with all our souls. There must be a passionate devotion that will wake us in the night, that will be with us in the day, that will beset us on every hand, at home and abroad. “Jesus, Jesus, blessed Jesus!”— that must be the cry of our hearts.
The second price of a revival is a purposeful compassion for the souls of men. I say “purposeful” because I mean it. There is compassion and compassion.
B. B. Crimm held a revival in Lawton, Oklahoma when I was a soldier at Fort Sill. He could tell fascinating stories about dogs. I went every night I was not on duty. Church members sobbed and wept over his dog tales, but I knew that most of them never prayed, never sought the lost. I do not know what you call that in English, but the Jewish name for it is hypocrisy. It is lying. By compassion I do not mean the compassion which causes one to weep when a moving story is told. I mean the compassion that burns high and clear when there is no revival that flames on Monday even more than on Sunday, and is higher on Tuesday than on Monday. I mean the kind of compassion that gives us no rest nor peace until we give the best of our thought, the best of our talents, the best of our time, the best of our efforts to seeking out the lost for the Saviour.
– We need a purposeful compassion that will wake us in the morning crying, “O Lord, for Jesus’ sake, save our city.”
– We need a compassion that will drive us to our knees and make us say when we go to bed at night, “O Lord, for Christ’s sake, save our people.”
– We need a compassion that will seek out and make opportunities to witness for Christ day and night. That is purposeful compassion.
The third price that we must pay for this revival that God wants, that you, Christian reader, want, that I want, is persistent intercession. We must have not only personal devotion to Christ, purposeful compassion for the souls of men, but persistent intercession.
– We must pray without ceasing.
– We must pray as we have never prayed before in all our lives.
– We must pray for ourselves.
Pray for our fellow church members, pray for the backslidden, the indifferent, the unconcerned, the unconsecrated, pray for the pastors, pray for the evangelists, pray for the choirs and pianists. We must literally saturate our towns with prayers. If I were to ask you the question “Do you believe God answers prayer?” you would answer immediately, “I surely do.” Do you? Do you believe God answers prayer? How do you know? Has someone told you? Do you know it “secondhand”? Have you ever tested the truth of the statement? Has God ever answered prayer for you in a mighty, miraculous way?
If you believe the Bible is the Word of God, if you believe the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ, if you believe there is a God in heaven, if you believe God can give us a revival, if you want to see a torrential visitation of God’s Spirit, I challenge you, I appeal to you, I implore you, I beseech you, from this moment on, without rest or cessation, let us—all of us, each of us—lift our cities to God’s throne of grace. Let us keep them there in the white heat of our prayers until God answers by fire and sends us a revival from above.
This is God’s plan for a revival. Comply with it and the heavens will flood the earth with showers of blessings. Let us plead God’s grace until the Holy Spirit creates within our hearts a burning passion for Christ, a purposeful compassion for souls, a ceaseless intercession for power and victory.