{"id":98,"date":"2011-11-22T16:59:49","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T16:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/?p=98"},"modified":"2011-11-22T17:09:36","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T17:09:36","slug":"price-and-power-of-revival-by-duncan-campbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/?p=98","title":{"rendered":"Price and Power of Revival by Duncan Campbell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unction From On High<\/strong><\/p>\n

THERE IS A POWER THAT IS placed at the disposal of the Church that can
\noutmaneuver and baffle the very strategy of Hell, and cause death and defeat to
\nvanish before the presence of the Lord of Life. Barrenness is made to feel His
\nfertilizing power. Yet, how is it that while we make such great claims for the
\npower of the Gospel, we see so little of the supernatural in operation? Is
\nthere any reason why the Church today cannot everywhere equal the Church at
\nPentecost? I feel this is a question we ought to face with an open mind and an
\nhonest heart. What did the early Church have that we do not possess today?
\nNothing but the Holy Spirit, nothing but the power of God. Here I would suggest
\nthat one of the main secrets of success in the early Church lay in the fact
\nthat the early believers believed in unction from on high and not entertainment
\nfrom men.<\/p>\n

One of the very sad features that characterizes much that goes under the name
\nof evangelism today is the craze for entertainment. Here is an extract from a
\nletter received from a leader in youth work in one of your great cities:
\n“We are at our wits’ end to know what to do with the young people who made
\na profession of conversion recently. They are demanding all sorts of entertainment,
\nand it seems to us that if we fail to provide the entertainment that they want,
\nwe are not going to hold them.” Yes, the trend of the time in which we
\nlive is toward a Christian experience that is light and flippant and fed on
\nentertainment. Some time ago, I listened to a young man give his testimony. He
\nmade a decision quite recently, and in giving his testimony this is what he
\nsaid: “I have discovered that the Christian way of life can best be
\ndescribed, not as a battle, but as a song mingled with the sound of happy
\nlaughter.” Far be it from me to move the song or happy laughter from
\nreligion, but I want to protest that that young man’s conception was entirely
\nwrong, and not in keeping with true New Testament Christianity. “Oh, but,”
\nsay the advocates of this way of thinking, “how are we to get the people
\nif we do not provide some sort of entertainment?” To that I ask the
\nquestion, how did they get the people at Pentecost? How did the early Church
\nget the people? By publicity projects, by bills, by posters, by parades, by
\npictures? No! The people were arrested and drawn together and brought into
\nvital relationship with God, not by sounds from men, but by sounds from heaven.
\nWe are in need of more sounds from heaven today.<\/p>\n

Pentecost was its own publicity. I love that passage in Acts that tells us that
\n“when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together.” What was
\nnoised abroad? That men and women were coming under deep conviction. That was
\nGod’s method of publicity, and until the Church of Jesus Christ rediscovers
\nthis and acts upon it, we shall at our best appear to a mad world as a crowd of
\ncommon people in a common market babbling about common wares. The early Church
\ncried for unction and not for entertainment. Unction is the dire and desperate
\nneed of the ministry today.<\/p>\n

Power Before Influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Further, the early Church put power before influence. The present state of our
\ncountry presents a challenge to the Christian Church. Those who have eyes to
\nsee tell us that at this very hour forces are taking the field that are out to
\ndefy every known Christian principle. In many quarters there is today a growing
\nconviction that unless God moves, unless there is a demonstration of the
\nsupernatural in the midst of men, unless we are moved up into the realm of the
\nDivine, we shall soon find ourselves caught up in a counterfeit movement, but a
\nmovement that goes under the name of evangelism. There are ominous sighs today
\nthat the devil is out to sidetrack us in the sphere of evangelism, and we are going
\nto become satisfied with something less than Heaven wills to give us. Nothing
\nbut a Holy Spirit revival will meet the desperate need of the hour.<\/p>\n

The Watchword of the Early Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

The early Church, the men of Pentecost, had something beyond mere human
\ninfluence and human ingenuity. But what do we mean by influence? The sum total
\nof all the forces in our personality–mental, moral, academic, social, and
\nreligious. We can have all these, and we can have them at their highest level,
\nand yet be destitute of power. Power, not influence, was the watchword of the
\nearly Church.<\/p>\n

While at the Keswick Convention, it was my privilege to spend an afternoon with
\na leader in foreign mission activity. I was arrested by what that man said to
\nme. Here are his words: “Our Bible schools are turning out young men and
\nyoung women who are cultured and polished, but who lack power.” I want to
\nsuggest that he was near to the truth. We may be polished, we may have culture,
\nbut the cry of our day is for power from on high.<\/p>\n

A Young Woman<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could take you to a little cottage in the Hebrides and introduce you to a
\nyoung woman. She is not educated. One could not say that she was polished in
\nthe sense that we use the word, but I have known that young woman to pray
\nheaven into a community, to pray power into a meeting. I have known that young
\nwoman to be so caught in the power of the Holy Spirit that men and women around
\nher were made to tremble–not influence, but power.<\/p>\n

The Apostles were not men of influence–“not many mighty, not many
\nnoble.” The Master Himself did not choose to be a man of influence.
\n“He made Himself of no reputation,” which is to say that God chose
\npower rather than influence. I sometimes think of Paul and Silas in Philippi.
\nThey had not enough influence to keep them out of prison, but possessed the
\npower of God in such a manner that their prayers in prison shook the whole
\nprison to its very foundations. Not influence, but power.<\/p>\n

The Place of Power<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, that the Church today, in our congregations and in our pulpits, would
\nrediscover this truth and get back to the place of God realization, to the
\nplace of power. I want to say further that we should seek power even at the
\nexpense of influence. What do I mean by that? I mean this: never compromise to
\naccommodate the devil. I hear people say today, “These are different days
\nfrom the days of the 1859 Revival or the Welsh Revival. We must be tolerant and
\nwe must try to accommodate.” The secret of power is separation from all
\nthat is unclean. We must seek power even at the expense of influence.<\/p>\n

Separation Unto God<\/strong><\/p>\n

Think again of the great Apostle Paul. What an opportunity he had of gaining
\ninfluence with Felix. Had he but flattered him a little in his sin, he could
\nhave made a great impression, and I believe he could have got a handsome
\ndonation for his missionary effort by being tolerant, by accommodating the
\nsituation. But Paul chose power before influence and he reasoned of sin, of
\nrighteousness, and of judgment. Let Felix say what he will, let Drusilla think
\nas she chooses to think, I must be true to my conscience and to my inner
\nconvictions and declare the whole counsel of God and take my stand on the solid
\nground of separation unto God. Now the person who will take his stand on that
\nground will not be popular.<\/p>\n

He will not be popular with some preachers of today who declare that we must
\nsoft-pedal in order to capture and captivate. Here I would quote from the
\nsaintly Finney: “Away with your milk and water preaching of the love of
\nChrist that has no holiness or moral discrimination in it, away with preaching
\na Christ not crucified for sin.” Such a collapse of moral conscience in
\nthis land could never have happened if the Puritan element in our preaching had
\nnot, in great measure, fallen out.<\/p>\n

Hear a Highland minister preaching on this very truth: “Bring me a God all
\nmercy but not just, bring me a God all love but not righteous, and I will have
\nno scruples in calling Him an idiot of your imagination.” Strong words,
\nbut I say words that I would sound throughout our land today, in this age of
\ndesperate apostasy, forsaking all the fundamental truths of Scripture. Here you
\nhave the Apostles proclaiming a message that was profoundly disturbing. We are
\nafraid of disturbing people today. May God help us; may God have mercy upon us.<\/p>\n

A Wave Of Real Godly Fear<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would to God that a wave of real godly fear gripped our land. Let me quote
\nfrom a sermon delivered by the Rev. Robert Barr of the Presbyterian Church of
\nSouth Africa: “This is what our age needs, not an easy-moving message, the
\nsort of thing that makes the hearer feel all nice inside, but a message
\nprofoundly disturbing. We have been far too afraid of disturbing people, but
\nthe Holy Spirit will have nothing to do with a message or with a minister who
\nis afraid of disturbing. You might as well expect a surgeon to give place to a
\nquack who claims to be able to do the job with some sweet tasting drug, as
\nexpect the Holy Spirit to agree that the tragic plight of human souls today can
\nbe met by soft and easy words. Calvary was anything but nice to look at,
\nblood-soaked beams of wood, a bruised and bleeding body, not nice to look upon.
\nBut then Jesus was not dealing with a nice thing; He was dealing with the sin
\nof the world, and that is what we are called upon to deal with today. Soft and
\neasy words, soft-pedaling will never meet the need.”<\/p>\n

Finally, the early Church believed in the supernatural. Someone has said that
\nat Pentecost, God set the Church at Jerusalem on fire and the whole city came
\nout to see it burn. I tell you if that happened in any church today, within
\nhours the whole of the town would be out to see the burning, and they would be
\ncaught in the flames.<\/p>\n

A Fire Needed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is fire we want. The best advertising campaign that any church or any
\nmission can put up is fire in the pulpit and a blaze in the pew. Let us be
\nhonest. We say “God, send revival,” but are we prepared for the fire?
\nI believe we have only to regard and observe those laws and limits within which
\nthe Holy Spirit acts, and we shall find His glorious power at our disposal.
\nSurely that was the conviction that gripped an elder in the Isle of Lewis when,
\nin a situation that was difficult and trying, he cried, “You made a
\npromise, and I want to remind You that we believe You are a covenant-keeping
\nGod. Your honor is at stake.” That man was at the end of his tether; that
\nman was in the place of travail.<\/p>\n

Absolute Surrender<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revival is not going to come merely by attending conferences. When “Zion
\ntravailed she brought forth children.” Oh, may God bring us there, may God
\nlead us through to the place of absolute surrender. Is it not true that our
\nvery best moments of yielding and consecration are mingled with the destructive
\nelement of self-preservation? A full and complete surrender is the price of
\nblessing; it is the price of revival.??<\/p>\n

Duncan Campbell (1898-1672) – A fiery Scottish preacher used of God in revival.
\nHe is most famous for being involved in the Lewis Awakening in the Hebrides
\nIslands in Scotland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unction From On High THERE IS A POWER THAT IS placed at the disposal of the Church that can outmaneuver and baffle the very strategy of Hell, and cause death and defeat to vanish before the presence of the Lord of Life. Barrenness is made to feel His fertilizing power. Yet, how is it that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7XeBW-1A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.watchmansjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}