A Different Climate Change
Prayer and the Welsh Revival
Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left. (Jonah 4:11, NIV)
Evan Roberts had long prayed for a move of God in Wales, even as a youth.
When he preached at a series of meetings in 1905 at the age of twenty-seven, things began to happen. Social problems and vices greatly diminished, and court dockets rapidly reduced. People gathered with expectancy. Many publicly confessed their sins, and conversions multiplied into the tens of thousands in what became known as the Welsh revival. An entire region was changed, and the revival influenced many other cities and regions around the world.
God is able to do that, you know. He can change the spiritual atmosphere of entire cities and regions through the prayers and service of his people. It’s a biblical and historical pattern.
God changed the city of Nineveh through a call to repentance, even after his prophet, Jonah, initially resisted giving the message.
Through prayer and fasting, the evil agenda of Haman was turned into a great opportunity and promotion for the Jews of ancient Persia in the book of Esther.
Peter healed a man in Lydda, and seemingly the entire city turned to the Lord (Acts 9:32-35).
And countries like South Korea, provinces in China, cities in the United States, regions of Africa, and many other places have seen revival in response to concerted prayer.
Through acts of faithfulness, backed in most cases by the prayers of his people, God has transformed vast spiritual climates to be more open to him.
Secret prayer is the springtime of life. —Evan Roberts
We can pray for our cities and regions knowing that God has compassion for them. Sometimes such prayers go on for years before we see their fruit, but virtually every mass spiritual awakening in history can be traced back to small groups of believers who prayed intensely and persistently for God to move in their areas. Moments of breakthrough often come with simple acts of obedience and declarations of the Good News as catalysts, but those breakthroughs have been long in the making.
God moves human hearts, human prayers call out for God’s intervention, and power falls. Whenever we lament the condition of our world, we have at least one powerful option: to pray diligently for God to move in it.
Excerpted and adapted from The One Year Praying in Faith Devotional by Chris Tiegreen (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2021), 102.