THE SEEDS of REVIVAL
Insight on Preparing for Revival
by David Smithers
Evan Roberts, while reflecting on the
problems of The Welsh Revival of 1904, once wrote, "The mistake was to become
occupied with the effects of the revival and not to watch and pray in protecting
the cause of the revival." The lasting success of the next move of God may very
well depend upon our willingness to receive Mr. Roberts WARNING! There are many
today who are foolishly pursuing the effects of revival at the expense of
neglecting the conditions of revival. No harvest is ever any greater than the
seeds and soil in which it was planted. To neglect the seeds of revival is to
ultimately plague the fruit of revival. A rich source of instruction on this
subject is found in the obscure writings of Frank Bartleman. Mr. Bartleman was
an active participant in the famous Azusa Street Revival of 1906. While I can
not endorse all of Mr. Bartleman's doctrines and opinions, it would be foolish
to ignore his genuine spiritual insight.
Unlike many other Church historians,
Bartleman paid careful attention to each step the Holy Spirit took in preparing
God's people for revival. In fact he wrote more about the Church's preparation
for revival than he did about the actual revival. Being a man gifted and active
in intercession, he was aware of a revival coming to Los Angeles long before
many others. As Bartleman watched and prayed, he was able to accurately trace
the Spirit's preliminary movements among the churches in Los Angeles. It is
these kinds of observations that make Frank Bartleman's writings so rich and
prophetic for our needy generation. Undeniably, revival is a miraculous work of
God, BUT true revival never comes apart from the preparation and the
participation of a remnant of God's people. Oh, how the Church needs to
rediscover the unchanging principles of revival. It is time for a new wave of
young pioneers to rise up and cooperate with the Holy Spirit's revival process.
It is time for us to break up our fallow ground and once again nurture the
fruitful seeds of revival. Let's now go back with Mr. Bartleman through his own
personal records and writings, as he identifies these precious seeds.
Almost a year before The Azusa Street Revival, in an article written for God's
Revivalist, Frank Bartleman urged the Church to prepare herself for a mighty
visitation. He writes, "Christendom is rapidly assuming an attitude of
expectancy, the great prerequisite for a visitation from God. The Lord is
choosing His workers, our chance is at the door. This is a time to realize the
vision of service, we can not afford to miss the blessing and reward He desires
for us. It may be our last great chance to win souls for heaven. Oh what a
privilege! What a responsibility!" Bartleman later recorded in his autobiography
(My Story: The Latter Rain) how many Christians missed The Azusa outpouring
because of their own unwillingness to seek revival on God's terms. He writes,
"During those months preceding the Pentecost,
the Spirit was constantly seeking a company through which He could manifest
Himself, and gather the people. He used various agencies and instruments just as
far as He could. After the Spirit had made several desperate efforts, and a
number had failed Him, He finally succeeded with a crude, weak body. There was
little to commend itself even in this, aside from a desperate abandonment and
childlike faith. But these were the prerequisites for the beginning of the
work."
On December 22, 1904, Frank Bartleman and his wife and two daughters moved to
Los Angeles. He had a unexplainable impression that God was getting ready to do
something wonderful in the Los Angeles area. For months he moved around the city
visiting and preaching at various Holiness missions. During this time he also
came into a deeper dimension of prayer and intercession. He had been
corresponding with Evan Roberts and had received encouragement from him to pray
for a mighty awakening in California. Soon Bartleman began to increasingly
experience seasons of intense travailing prayer. After visiting Joseph's Smale's
First Baptist church, Mr. Bartleman was greatly encouraged to find some tokens
of what he had been praying for. Bartleman writes, "June 17, 1905 I went to Los
Angeles to attend a meeting at the First Baptist Church. They were waiting on
God for an outpouring of the Spirit there. Their pastor, Joseph Smale, had just
returned from Wales. He had been in touch with the revival and Evan Roberts and
was on fire to have the same visitation and blessing come to his own church in
Los Angeles..."
Upon Joseph Smale's return to Los Angeles, he
quickly organized his church into small home prayer groups. He also encouraged
his people to look for the return of the apostolic gifts to the church. The
prayer meetings lasted fifteen weeks and almost immediately produced a deep
sense of need and expectation for revival. Bartleman describes the meetings as
follows, "(Pastor Smale) started prayer meetings in his church to wait on God
for an outpouring of the Spirit similar to that which they were having in Wales.
God wonderfully anointed him to exhort the people. He was full of faith for
mighty things. These prayer meetings ran for a number of weeks, and there was
much spontaneous worship and some very wonderful healings. Faith increased
rapidly for extraordinary things. God made Pastor Smale a regular Moses to lead
us toward the promised land. But soon the church dignitaries could tolerate the
new, spontaneous order no longer. They ordered it to cease, or the Pastor to
resign. The consequence was the Pastor wisely decided to go on with God, and the
Lord and the people went with him. The cloud moved. A New Testament Church was
formed. Here God wonderfully led and blessed, up to the Spring of 1906."
Sadly, the freedom in prayer and worship that Joseph Smale had encouraged was
ultimately not accepted by some of his fellow Baptists. One of the first signs
of this was seen in their open attack on the Spirit of prayer. Bartleman
describes one such occasion, "At Smale's church one day I was groaning in prayer
at the altar. The spirit of intercession was upon me. A brother rebuked me
severely. He did not understand it. The flesh naturally shrinks from such
ordeals. The groans are no more popular in most churches than is a woman in
birth-pangs in the home. Soul-travail does not make pleasant company for selfish
worldlings. But we cannot have souls born without it. Child bearing is anything
but a popular exercise these days. And so with a real revival of new born souls
in the churches. Modern society has little place for a child-bearing mother, and
so with the church's regarding soul-travail. There is little burden for souls.
Men run from the groans of a woman in travail of birth, and so the church
desires no groans today. She is too busy enjoying herself." Again Bartleman
comments on the Baptist leader's unwillingness to go on with God. "I went to
Smale's church that night, and he resigned. The meetings had run daily in the
First Baptist Church for fifteen weeks. It was now September. The officials of
the church were tired of the innovations and wanted to return to the old order.
He was told to either stop the revival, or get out. He wisely chose the latter.
But what an awful position for a church to take, to throw God out. In this same
way they later drove the Spirit of God out of the churches in Wales. They were
tired of His presence, desiring to return to the old, cold, ecclesiastical
order. How blind men are! The most spiritual of Pastor Smale's members naturally
followed him, with a nucleus of other workers who had gathered to him from other
sources, during the revival. They immediately contemplated organizing a New
Testament church..."
Pastor Smale established the First New Testament Church in Burbank Hall at 542
South Main Street, Los Angeles, in early 1906. For months the newly organized
church experienced great freedom and blessing. However, before long they too
were struggling to keep in step with the Spirit of revival. Bartleman became
very concerned for this little fellowship which once looked so promising. "The
New Testament Church seemed to be losing the spirit of prayer as they increased
their organization. They now tried to shift this ministry on a few of us. I knew
God was not pleased with that, and I became much burdened for them. They had
taken on too many secondary interests. It began to look as though the Lord would
have to find another body. My hopes had been high for this particular company of
people. But the enemy seemed to be sidetracking them now, leading them to miss
God's best for them. They were now even attempting to organize prayer, a thing
impossible. Prayer is spontaneous. I felt it were better not to have organized
than to lose the ministry of prayer and spirit of revival as a body. It was for
this they had been called in the beginning. They had become ambitious for a
church and organization. It seemed hard to them not to be like the other nations
(churches) round about them. And right here they surely began to fail. As church
work increased the real issue was lost sight of. Human organization and human
programs leave very little room for the free Spirit of God."
"It is very easy to choose second best. The prayer life is needed much more than
even buildings or organizations. These are often a substitute for the other.
Souls are born into the Kingdom only through prayer. I feared the New Testament
Church might develop a party, sectarian spirit. A rich lady offered them the
money to build a church edifice with. The devil was bidding high. But she soon
withdrew her offer. I confess I was glad she did. They would soon have had no
time for anything but building then. It would have been the end of their
revival. We had been called out to evangelize Los Angeles, not to build up
another sect or party spirit. We needed no more organization nor machinery than
what was really necessary for the speedy evangelizing of the city. Surely we had
enough separate rival church organizations already on our hands. Each working
largely for its own interest, advancement, and glory. The New Testament Church
seemed to be drifting toward intellectualism. I became much burdened for it. I
felt the New Testament Church was failing God, and I was looking to see where
the Spirit might come forth. The curse everywhere was spiritual pride. Hiding
their nakedness from God. The oil (The Holy Ghost) ceases to flow, as in
Elijah's time when there are no more empty vessels to be filled . People do not
sense their need of God. But wherever there is a hungry heart, God will fill it.
'The rich or (full) He has sent away empty.'"
"They did not break through at Pastor Smale's assembly (The First New Testament
Church). There was too much reserve there. God had taken them as far as He
could." Yet God was still determined to find a people whom He could use to bring
revival. He now moved in among a small group of humble and praying people at 214
N. Bonnie Brae Street. Bartleman found himself among them just as the revival
fires started to burn. He writes, "March 26, I went to a cottage meeting on
Bonnie Brae Street. Both white and colored saints were meeting there for prayer.
I had attended a cottage meeting shortly before this, at another place, where I
first met Brother Seymour. He had just come from Texas. He was a colored man,
very plain, spiritual, and humble. He attended the meetings at Bonnie Brae
Street. He was blind in one eye. There was a general spirit of humility
manifested in the meeting. They were taken up with God. Evidently the Lord had
found the little company at last, outside as always, through whom he could have
right of way. There was not a mission in the country where this could be done.
All were in the hands of men. The Spirit could not work. Others far more
pretentious had failed. That which man esteems had been passed by once more and
the Spirit born again in a humble stable, outside ecclesiastical establishments
as usual. A body must be prepared, in repentance and humility, for every
outpouring of the Spirit. They decided to wait on God in a ten-days special
petitioning of God and in yielding themselves to Him. The time had come. God had
found the right company at last."
Soon the meeting at Bonnie Brae became dangerously crowded and another place had
to be found for the prayer services. The meeting was moved to 312 Azusa Street
under the leadership of William Seymour. Discerning as usual, Bartleman
describes the spiritual atmosphere in and around the new meeting place; " They
opened public meetings in old Azusa St. in an old Methodist Church that had been
for a long time in disuse, except as a receptacle for old lumber, plaster, etc.
It was very dirty. A space was cleared large enough to seat a score or two of
persons. We sat on planks resting on old nail kegs, if I remember correctly. But
God was there. The work began in earnest. The fire had fallen. It was on the 9th
of April 1906, that the Spirit was first poured out on Bonnie Brae. On April
18th we had the terrible San Francisco earthquake. It had a very close
connection with the Pentecostal outpouring... This shook the whole state, as
well as the nation. Men began to fear God... Their conscience needed to be
knocked at. This paved the way for the revival. Otherwise they would have mocked
us.... God suddenly shut up many little Holiness Missions, Tent meetings, etc.,
that had been striving with one another a long time for the preeminence. It
would not work any more. They had to come together. God only could tame them.
There was little going on anywhere else, but at Azusa St.
All the people were coming. Even Pastor Smale
finally came to Azusa Mission to hunt his people up. Then he invited them back
to let God have His way. The fire broke out at his own Assembly also. When God
dries a place up, it is dry. This, many churches which opposed the Azusa work
soon found out to their sorrow. And many are yet sorrowing over it. They would
not take God's way. They were also among the prophets, but when the Lord came He
did not come through them. This killed them. They would not go to Azusa, nor let
Azusa come to them. Azusa was despised in their eyes." Bartleman continues, "The
present Pentecostal manifestation did not break out in a moment, like a huge
prairie fire, and set the world on fire. In fact no work of God ever appears
that way. There is a necessary time for preparation. The finished article is not
realized at the beginning. Men may wonder where it came from, not being
conscious of the preparation, but there is always such. Every movement of the
Spirit of God must also run the gauntlet of the devil's forces. The Dragon
stands before the bearing mother, ready to swallow up her child.-(Rev. 12:4.)
And so with the present Pentecostal work in its beginning. The enemy did much
counterfeiting. God kept the young child well hid for a season from the Herods,
until it could gain strength and discernment to resist them."
Frank Bartleman's writings are a prophetic reminder that there are distinct
seasons of revival that require our preparation and cooperation. Revivals don't
just mysteriously happen, they are born through a cooperative effort between the
Church and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins this process by filling us
with a holy discontentment over our own impotence and spiritual barrenness.
Next, in response to our hunger, He imparts a divine seed vision for revival
deep within us. God then requires us to become broken and willing to cooperate
with this vision in an ongoing process of faith, humility, repentance and
prayer. Truly, God is the only one who can open the womb of revival, yet no
revival is ever born without much costly travail and cooperation by the Church.
In the Kingdom of God there is no such thing as the luxury of a surrogate mother
or a cesarean. We must become willing to be painfully stretched and disfigured,
as we carry and nurture the growing sparks of revival within us. Sleepless
nights, a change of appetite and unusual pains are all part of carrying a
developing child. Are you willing for your life to be radically changed and
inconvenienced in your pursuit of revival? God longs for a help-meet, a
co-laborer, a bride through which He can father a revival of His presence. In
God's love and wisdom He has sovereignly chosen to use frail human beings in
this birthing process. Therefore it is possible for us to hinder or even
completely abort the work of revival within us. Let us BEWARE lest we quench or
miscarry the work of the Holy Spirit through our own unbelief and neglect. Like
the young virgin Mary, it's time for us to totally yield to the Father's desire,
saying " Let it be done unto me according to your word." Luke 1:38.
I believe the opportunity for a lasting
revival stands before us today. We need to recognize the time of our visitation.
The Holy Spirit is imparting the vision for revival within many hearts. This is
no time to be experimenting with untested church growth theories, borrowed from
books. Clever human schemes will never substitute for a lack of true heart
preparation and travailing prayer. By neglecting these, I fear many are
needlessly squandering away their last opportunity for true revival.
"Opportunity once passed, said Frank Bartleman, is lost forever. There is a time
when the tide is sweeping by our door. We may plunge in and be carried to
glorious success and blessing and victory. To stand on the bank shivering from
timidity, or paralyzed by stupor at such a time is to miss all, and most
miserably and eternally fail. Oh, our responsibility! The mighty tide of God's
grace and favor even now is sweeping by us, in its prayer directed course."
Opportunity is pounding at our door. The Father is searching for a people who
will yield to His revival birthing process. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and
from throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose
heart is LOYAL to Him." (2 Chronicles 16:9)
The Father has already begun this process among some of His praying people.
Still if such a remnant of revival pioneers are to succeed where so many others
have failed, they must avoid the mistakes of their forefathers. Within nine
years of the Azusa Street Revival, Frank Bartleman was expressing deep concern
for the future of the Pentecostal movement. He recognized that many of the
revival participants had become distracted by the effects of the revival and
thus lost sight of God's primary purposes for revival. By neglecting the roots
of the revival, Bartleman believed they had inadvertently cursed the spiritual
fruit they so dearly desired. Our modern churches must take heed and learn that
there are no shortcuts to lasting revival. " Except a kernel of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.
(John 12:24)" There will be no true and lasting revival until we die to our own
pride and selfish ambition. We must let God the Holy Spirit have control of His
Church again. We need to repent and let the knocking Bridegroom back into His
house. In early 1905 Frank Bartleman wrote, "I received from God the following
keynote to revival: The depth of a revival will be determined exactly by the
depth of the spirit of repentance..." Again he writes, "A body must be prepared,
in repentance and humility for every outpouring of the Spirit." This is one of
God's great unchanging laws of true revival. It applies to all people and for
all times. We can not afford to ignore these clear warnings from our spiritual
forefathers any longer. There will be no glorious, end-time harvest until God
finds a people who will embrace and nurture the fruitful seeds of revival;
FAITH, HUMILITY, REPENTANCE and PRAYER.
References Used: How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles - by Frank Bartleman, MY
STORY: The Latter Rain by Frank Bartleman, The Apostolic Faith Restored by B.
F. Lawrence, The Time of Our Visitation by Frank Bartleman, God's Revivalist,
The Revival by Frank Bartleman, Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic
Movements by Burgess, McGee and Alexander, Vision of The Disinherited by
Robert M. Anderson
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