(Compiled
and Edited 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 cannot 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 seeks 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 cannot
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 an
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 Smile 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 worldliness.
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 newborn souls in the
churches. Modern society has little place for a childbearing mother, and so
with the church's regarding soul-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 or 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 neither 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
writing 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 caesarean. 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 helpmeet, a co-laborer, and a bride through which He can father a revival
of His presence. In God's love and wisdom He had, out of His sovereignty,
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 fro 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 is 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 purposed 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 stupid 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 time. We cannot 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; FATIH, HUMILITY, REPENTANCE and PRAYER.
References Used:
Taken from: THE
WATCHWORD No. 50
Visit The
Watchword website.