Broken

By James A. Stewart

    During the mighty days of revival in Latvia when God brought His church out of bondage into a glorious elevated position with Christ in the heavenlies, I discovered over a period of four years that it was necessary for us all to be periodically broken down before the Lord, and to renew our vows of devotion and loyalty.  There was always a tendency to relax in our fervor and to rely upon a past experience. We soon realized the necessity to watch and pray and keep abiding in Christ by the systematic reading of His Word and prompt obedience.

    One of the local churches that had experienced possibly the mightiest awakening of all and who saw the mighty movement of God in the salvation of souls, within nine months was found sleeping. The very first night of my series of meetings on my return to that church, I was appalled at the deadness and coldness I felt in their midst.

    I was heartbroken as I told the group of some five hundred believers that it was impossible for me to preach that night, and that unless they repented of their sin and came back to their “first love” we might as well close the meetings. The Spirit dealt faithfully and tenderly with them until Calvary’s Love broke them down afresh before the face of the Lord God.

    In bitterness, humiliation and shame they confessed that they had taken the Lord’s presence for granted as He had been so gracious and glorious to them during the past months. Their biggest sin was their presumption upon the continued unsought blessing of the Lord. They had let their fire burn low in this careless attitude.

    The majority of these dear saints had been mighty intercessors, but now were seldom found in their prayer closets. I knew that drastic action was necessary, and so called at once a late prayer meeting along the line of Joel’s prophecy, chapter two: “Blow the trumpet in Zion.”

    – From the book Drops From The Honeycombs.  Used by permission of Revival Literature, P.O. Box 505, Skyland NC 28776.  revivallit.org