What will it take to bring revival? I want to share an illustration that involves a unique region found in South Africa and Namibia: Namaqualand. It is an unusual place because for many months, no rain falls. The whole land is dry and arid without any real vegetation. However, when the spring rains fall, this region becomes the most glorious pageant of colorful flowers. The seeds of thousands of flowers are all there below the surface. But it takes the rain to make them germinate.
I believe most of the traditionally Christian nations today are like Namaqualand. They have been very dry and seemingly lifeless. But underneath the surface, there are seeds of gospel truth that have been sown in those nations for hundreds of years. If God were to pour out His Holy Spirit on those dormant seeds, we would see an amazing display of transforming life and beauty.
What Is Our Part?
What part do we have to play in the outpouring of the rain of the Holy Spirit? To answer this question, we can look to the book of Joel, which opens with a picture of desolation. There were no crops, either in the fields or on the fruit trees. Everything was withered and destroyed. There was no food for the people or their animals. But then, we read this:
Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him? (Joel 2:12–14, NKJV).
What was required of the people? Getting desperate.
And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions…. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:28–32).
This passage very clearly describes the end of the age—”the great and awesome day of the Lord.” Why is it that whoever calls on the name of the Lord in this situation will be saved? Because the Holy Spirit will have been poured out. When the Holy Spirit is poured out, we will see people streaming into God’s kingdom.
An Appeal for Prayer
I want to make an appeal to you. When I was pastoring in London in the 1950s, we prayed every week for revival in Britain. Personally, I don’t believe those prayers went unheard, even though that was more than half a century ago. I believe this is also true for all the nations where faithful believers have prayed for decades for revival. However, the final answers are going to require the prayer of desperation.
You must come face-to-face with the fact that there is no other hope. Nations will be lost unless God intervenes—and God is waiting for the cry of desperation. It is no use trying to be desperate. Only the Holy Spirit can pour out upon you and me the Spirit of grace and supplication.
Here is my appeal, and I want to say it very carefully. I trust you will ask the Holy Spirit for guidance before you respond. I believe God put it in my heart to ask if you would be one of those who would commit themselves, as the Holy Spirit empowers and enables you, to pray the prayer of desperation. Praying in this desperate way will require a recognition that you have come to the end of yourself.
Please consider my challenge carefully. I don’t want you to make a superficial response to God. However, I am hoping you have heard the Holy Spirit ask, “Are you willing to let Me make you desperate for revival in your nation? Are you willing to let Me break through in your life, change your priorities, and, if necessary, cause you to fall on your face on the floor, day after day, until you see the rain fall from heaven?”
Prayer like this is a calling for those whom the Holy Spirit leads. It is not for everybody. The cry of desperation is supernatural and is released by the Holy Spirit. Please understand that if you do not feel called to this, it is not because of any shortcoming in yourself. This is a call from the Holy Spirit and is not based on any merit within ourselves. If He does not lay this on your heart, then it is because He has something else for you to do.
Therefore, take a moment now and listen to the Spirit. If you believe God may wish to use you in this way, then simply express your willingness to follow Him in this calling with the following prayer:
Father, I stand in awe in Your presence. Thank You for the challenge of Your Word that has come to me. I cry to You for mercy for my nation. God, have mercy on us! In judgment remember mercy. Enable me by Your grace and by the Holy Spirit to experience a breakthrough in prayer—to pray in desperation for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I ask You to draw this nation back to You. Father, I pray for You to move by Your Holy Spirit to bring revival to our land—and throughout the earth. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
Excerpted from The Coming Revival, © 2019 by Derek Prince Ministries, published by Whitaker House. Used with permission.
Bible scholar and spiritual patriarch Derek Prince (1915–2003) taught and ministered on six continents for more than 60 years, imparting God’s revealed truth, praying for the sick and sharing his prophetic insights. He is the author of more than 80 books, many of which have been translated and published in more than 100 languages. Prince pioneered teaching on such groundbreaking themes as generational curses, the biblical significance of Israel, and demonology. Derek Prince Ministries, with 60 outreaches around the world, carries on the good work that God began in and through him. Visit whitakerhouse.com/product/the-coming-revival/.
