Prayer Journal

Sunday, December 10, 2000
345/21
Read the Bible through in OneYear

"The history of past revivals portray this truth in full color. Whether you study the Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Welsh Revival, the 1906 outpouring on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, or any other period of revival, you always find men and women who first inwardly groan, longing to see the status quo changed - in themselves and in their churches. They begin to call on God with insistence; prayer begets revival, which begets more prayer." Jim Cymbala

It's just a little church in a broken-down, crime-ridden neighborhood of New York City. Normally, it wouldn't seem to be a place where God could show himself mighty. But He did exactly that! In fact, I doubt that any church in the world has been more visited by a more diverse group of people than has the Brooklyn Tabernacle. From the drug addict to preacher; from prostitute to fashion model; from hispanic to every race of man, profession, calling nor sin stands in the way of God's drawing people to hear Brooklyn's testimony.

But, it wasn't always a cheery picture of success at Brooklyn. There was a time when the church almost folded. In his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, Pastor Cymbala said that things were so bad that even he didn't want to come to church. Then, God impressed him to put prayer ahead of everything else, even preaching. Tuesday night prayer meetings were established and what happened on Tuesday night was, to this observer, the very essence of visible revival among God's people.

From a meager start of twenty people meeting in the basement twenty-five years ago, over 6,500 people today pack into four services on Sunday. In 1999 alone, the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, Jim Cymbala, was a key speaker in several differing denominational conventions. Christian leaders around the world wanted to know what made the difference at Brooklyn, hoping that somehow that information could be used to transform their own church.

As a result of their attitude and spirit of prayer, the church grew closer together in love and unity. Prayers were visibly answered. People were joining the church with skill and talents to build up the body. Unsaved relatives and total strangers began to show up and the church began to operate like an emergency room where one person would perform triage and another surgery.

Speaking personally, I can say that walking into a room where Brooklyn is ministering through word or song, or even picking up a book authored by Pastor Cymbala, one quickly realizes there's an anointing of God upon their ministry. There's no other way to explain the powerful way God is using this unlikely example of revival.

In the same way the early church was in favor of all the people (Acts 2:47), Brooklyn is proving that things haven't changed that much over the course of 2,000 years. Even today, when God's Spirit moves, people are drawn to Him. Maybe it's time to evaluation our own churches and determine if we need to have a three hour prayer meeting every Tuesday night and watch God move among us.    Just Thinkin' WebServant

 

(1) Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire; Copyright © 1997 by Jim Cymbala. Published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530.
(2) Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society
(3) The images used herein were obtained from the Learning Company's ClickArt Christian Graphics Deluxe product, (c)1999 The Learning Company, Inc and its subsidiaries, 88 Roland Way, Novato, CA 94945 USA. All Rights Reserved.

Prayertower