Rev Tony Higton’s Network for Revival -September 2019 Newsletter

We are pleased to reproduce the latest Newsletter of Rev Tony Higton’s, Network for Revival.

Please go to networkforrevival.co.uk for further details or contact Tony at email: tony@higton.info

Network for Revival September 2019

I am currently dealing with three major foundations for prayer for Revival. In the last issue I dealt with Praying in holiness (http://networkforrevival.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Prepare-13-August-2019.pdf). In this issue I deal with Praying in faith. In the next issue I plan to deal with In-depth Intercession. The Lord has taught me so much since I have been praying for Revival and I want to share it with you. I’m sure he has a lot more to teach me later but I’m concentrating on these three for the time being.

How to pray for Revival: Pray in faith

Let me admit to begin with that, although I have been a believer for decades, and have experienced innumerable blessings from the Lord, nevertheless I have had a natural tendency towards rationalism. Often, I think I’ve hoped that God will answer my prayers, rather than strongly believed he will. In the last four years, since I’ve been seriously praying for revival, God has put me through a crash course in what faith really is. This has transformed my attitude. I say this to encourage you, because I’m going to write some challenging things. What I want to say is that if God can do this for me, he can do it for anyone! So please resist discouragement.

Remember what the writer to the Hebrews says about faith in Heb 11:1 (I prefer the older NIV translation) “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The NIV Application Commentary, referring to the Greek, states that this verse means “Faith is a ‘resolute confidence’ in what we hope for and a ‘vital certainty’ about what we do not see.”

How do we reach that sort of faith? I want to share just two things we need to remember about faith.

Faith is a relationship of trust

Growing in faith is not trying to ‘work up’ our faith, or trying to make ourselves believe. It is focusing on God. Faith is fellowship. To grow in faith we need to concentrate, prayerfully, on the character of God. We need to remember that he is love. He always acts, and reacts, in love. He cannot do otherwise because he is love. It follows that he is utterly faithful and reliable. This means that if he says he will do something we can utterly rely on him doing so. He cannot fail. The idea that faith is fellowship is a very simple, and yet, very profound thought. To meditate on the love and faithfulness of God is life-transforming. It greatly strengthens our faith.

Faith is taking God’s promises seriously

I have known these promises for many, many years but it is only recently that it has really dawned on me how utterly amazing they are. As I have meditated on them I have become much more confident in prayer, much bolder in expecting God to answer prayer. I believe God is waiting for people who will really take his promises to answer prayer seriously, not toning them down. He has committed himself to answer our prayers if we are fulfilling the simple conditions. He has put his promises in writing. Here are the amazing promises from the lips of Jesus himself:

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Mt 21:22).
“Everything is possible to the one who believes” (Mk 9:23).
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you receive it and it will be yours (Mk 11:24).
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt 7:7).
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my
Father in heaven” (Mt 18:19).
“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn 14:14).
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (Jn 15:7).

The conditions are clear

• We need to “remain” in Christ and to ensure his words “remain” in us (so that we discern the will of God).
• We need to pray in the name of Jesus
• We need to agree in prayer with another believer
• We need to persist in prayer (asking, seeking, knocking).
• We need to believe we receive the answer before we see it physically.

Meditating prayerfully at length on the love and faithfulness of God and on his amazing promises to answer prayer will profoundly strengthen our faith – including for revival. Let’s do it!

Quotations about Revival

When he arrived in Lewis, Duncan Campbell was asked to speak at an evening meeting in Barvas church. He wrote about what happened: “We got to the church about quarter to nine to find about 300 people gathered. I would say about 300 people. And I gave an address. Nothing really happened during the service. It was a good meeting. A sense of God, a consciousness of His Spirit moving but nothing beyond that. So I pronounced the benediction and we were leaving the church I would say about a quarter to eleven.

Just as I am walking down the aisle, along with this young deacon who read the Psalm in the barn, he suddenly stood in the aisle and looking up to the heavens he said, “God, You can’t fail us. God, You can’t fail us. You promised to pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground-God, You can’t fail us!”

Soon he is on his knees in the aisle and he is still praying … Just then the door opened–it is now eleven o’clock. The door of the church opens and the local blacksmith comes back into the church and says, “Mr. Campbell, something wonderful has happened. Oh, we were praying that God would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground and listen, He’s done it! He’s done it!”

When I went to the door of the church I saw a congregation of approximately 600 people. Six hundred people–where had they come from? What had happened? I believe that that very night God swept in Pentecostal power-the power of the Holy Ghost. And what happened in the early days of the apostles was happening now in the parish of Barvas.”

That young deacon was taking God’s faithfulness and amazing promises very seriously.

Lord, inspire our faith by your love and faithfulness and help us to take your promises to answer prayer (including for revival) with full seriousness.

God bless you

Tony