If there is anything that is greatly needed in this world at the present time, it is for a mighty work of the Lord, like those which were witnessed in bygone days. It is wonderful to see people praying sincerely for this in these days, but the Lord must first work in the lives of those who confess to know Him as Saviour. It is easy to look at the lives of others and see their needs but we must look at our own hearts and ask the Lord to reveal anything to us, which would be a hindrance to His will for our own lives – and for the spreading of the gospel to the wider community.
“As in the days of Noah…” (Matthew 24v37-39) I feel like many, that we are living in those days and sometimes we feel society can’t get much worse. However, if we haven’t got a love in our hearts for every soul we come into contact with, whatever their spiritual standing, then our personal needs are very great indeed. The Lord loved them all enough to die for them and we who profess to know Him should be filled with that same love. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” (1John 4v18)
My husband gave his testimony recently at one such prayer meeting north of the border in Co. Tyrone and it brought back memories of how we met for the very first time, in the home of a mutual friend in Dublin whom I had met on a trip to Israel. We were just strangers, meeting over a cup of tea, but later that summer evening we all went out to a restaurant and then walked on a moonlit beach, known locally as the “Velvet Strand.” My friend and another friend walked away ahead of us and Martin and I walked together, talking of our respective lives. I told him the story of how I became a Christian and he immediately appeared very interested. He had by then stopped going to mass and would have described himself as a humanist/agnostic. I returned to my friend’s home for the rest of the weekend – and he to his but we kept in touch by landline and letter; there were no mobile phones in those days!
Those were the days of the “troubles” in Ireland and Martin and I came from completely different backgrounds in every sense, coming from opposite sides of the border; in fact we were different in many many ways, including the significant difference that he was from a Roman Catholic background and I wasn’t. However, it troubled me mostly in those early days that we were definitely “unequally yoked” should things continue as they were and yet I know now that the Lord was working His will out through it all. When I first met his family and stayed with them every other weekend, I found them very warm people and everything worked very well, despite obvious differences. However, Martin was genuinely interested to find a church in the area that we could both go to which wasn’t easy back then. On the other hand, when he visited me and my family we would all go to church and it was there, one Sunday not long after we met, that Martin trusted the Lord to save him, after hearing a sermon entitled “Who then can stand before me?” preached from the Book of Job. He trusted the Lord quietly in his seat but said nothing to anyone until later when we were at home and he was quite emotional about this miraculous change in his heart, which only the Lord can do.
Strangely enough, his family I believe, liked me as a person and my family liked Martin, although both sides of the family had been concerned in those days of political turmoil, but I praise God that His will was accomplished in the end. Today we still pray for remaining relatives on both sides of the border and when I see what a miracle the Lord can do in our lives – I know that He can do it in any life. He can in fact, as Charles Wesley’s hymn “O for a thousand tongues” goes… “break the power of cancelled sin.”
We pray for the forthcoming meetings and prayer meetings in different locations across Ireland, that God would bless and that there would be a movement of His Spirit – something which we haven’t seen since the 1859 Revival. The latter took place 165 years ago, but to this day it is still talked about and its influence is to some degree still felt. Today there are many counterfeit “movements of the spirit” and I believe discernment is needed in this area. The Lord was never the author of confusion and mayhem – but we know who is. We continue to pray on for the great need in these days and that nothing would stand in the way of the Lord’s working upon lives, drawing souls to Himself and others into a deeper walk with Him.
Elizabeth Burke's Blog 