Today only you can pre-order my upcoming book, THE 7 PS OF PRAYER, at 40% off of the cover price! The book will be released in September.
~ Rhett Wilson, Sr.
Click here to go to End Game Press store.
"My heart is stirred by a noble theme; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer." - Psalm 45:1
Today only you can pre-order my upcoming book, THE 7 PS OF PRAYER, at 40% off of the cover price! The book will be released in September.
~ Rhett Wilson, Sr.
Click here to go to End Game Press store.
“Five Prayer
Meetings Go Round the Clock” – Washington, D.C.
“City’s
Biggest Church Packed Twice Daily for Prayer” – New Haven, CT
“Ice on the
Mohawk Broken for Baptisms” – Schenectady, NY
These were
actual headlines in American newspapers during the 1857-1858 Prayer Revival
that swept across our nation.
In the midst
of great moral decay, a decline in religion, and a pending financial banking
collapse, God was at work. Jeremiah Lanphier invited people to pray with him in
an old church building at noon on 09/23/1857 in New York City. Six people
gathered. The next week it was twenty and the next forty.
Prayer
meetings sprung up all over the city, and in six months, 50,000 people were
meeting daily for prayer. The services were marked by spontaneity in hymn
singing, Bible reading, but primarily intercession for spiritual needs.
The revival
spread to other cities. Church historian J. Edwin Orr believed nearly one
million people were converted those two years. With no well-known leader, this
movement was marked by churches in the same region of differing traditions and
denominations, united for the cause of revival.
After months
of praying, one night it was as if God visited the congregation, setting off a
chain reaction within the city. Dr. John Girardeau preached every night for
eight weeks, preaching on sin and repentance, faith and justification and
regeneration to crowds from 1500 to 2000. Many whites and blacks were converted.
Revival
spread to other nearby places. In Beaufort, SC, for example, “a small church
reported seeing 400 new members join their assembly in just a few days” (Yuen).
The revival and awakening crossed denominational and social lines.
Today, God
is doing something unusual across our nation. Singer Michael W. Smith recently told
CBN, “God is on the move. I’m so grateful that I’m alive to get to see it. I
think what we’ve prayed for for so long is actually happening. … There’s this
resurgence of faith.”
Recently the
faith-based hit The Jesus Revolution passed $40 million at the box
office and is now the highest-grossing movie for its studio, Lionsgate, since
2019.
Dr. Timothy
Tennent, President of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky,
recently wrote, “An awakening is where God begins to stir and awaken people up
from their spiritual slumber. This is definitely happening not only in Wilmore,
but as this move of God spreads to other schools and communities across the
nation and even the world. There are many reports that this is what is
happening. [W]e must keep our hearts and eyes fixed on Jesus and ask him
to complete the work he has begun so that, over time, there is a lasting
transformation in the lives of those who are being touched by God.”
When I was a
young man, a popular Christian song spoke of the river of God flowing. While
the river of God seems to now be flowing through America, may we not just stand
on the bank and watch. May we jump into its flow.
We are not
trying to push a program, denomination, or agenda. We are wanting to call God’s
people to gather humbly to ask the Lord to cause His river that is flowing to
sweep through this area.
I don’t want
to get in God’s way or miss what He was doing. One of the most damning verses
in the Bible speaks of Jesus’ visit to his home area: “And so he did
only a few miracles there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). Imagine
being in the physical presence of Jesus Christ and choosing to not believe
because He did not fit my expectations. McDow and Reid share, “An
institution can be in revival even when some members are skeptical of God’s
movement. . . . When revival erupts, the tendency is to expect all to receive
immediately what God is doing, but this is never the case. Skeptics are
witnessing things beyond their experience” (Firefall: How God Shaped History through Revivals, Create Space Publishing).
Dr. Joe
Youngblood and I hope to build a connected prayer network in Lancaster County.
We’d love to get the name of a potential prayer coordinator and the name of a
pastor from every interested church. Feel free to contact me at rhettwilson2003@yahoo.com or Joe at joeyoungblood18@gmail.com.
We want to
invite any Jesus-followers who believe His Word to join in praying for revival
and spiritual awakening to join us for our second Concert of Prayer on May 7 at
Catawba Baptist Church in Lancaster at 7pm.
Roy Hession
said, “Prayer is the foundation of revival, and testimony is the spark that
ignites it.” Let’s lay the foundation together.
Every one of us have a small handful of people who made a giant impact on our life. Dr. Charles Stanley was one of mine.
I first tuned into his ministry as a freshman in college, listening to the InTouch radio broadcast on Greenville, South Carolina’s WLFJ or Black Mountain, North Carolina’s WMIT. During those years I probably heard his sermons three of four times weekly. Attending a liberal religious college, which jettisoned the authority of Scripture and basic evangelical theology, his preaching helped anchor me in eternal truths.
My first
year of school, I picked up his book, How to Listen to God, which had a
shaping influence on my nineteen-year-old life. The first of more than two
dozen of his books I would eventually read, I experienced his practical
teaching that drew deeply from the Bible but also was illustrated with personal
experiences. In that book I would find what was one of his constant
exhortations: develop a lifestyle of meditating on the Word of God, expecting Him
to guide you.
The next
year, Thomas Nelson released Stanley’s The Wonderful, Spirit-Filled Life,
and he preached a four-part sermon series about the Holy Spirit on his radio
and television broadcast that coincided with the release of the book. It was my
first practical introduction to the Spirit-filled life as a young adult. I devoured
the book and messages, pouring over the material as he step by step explained
what the Bible says about the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a
believer.
My senior
year of college, he released the book and series, The Source of My Strength:
Relying on the Life-Changing Power of Jesus Christ to Heal Our Wounded Hearts.
Sharing openly from his own struggles, including the inferiority he developed
growing up in poverty without a father, Stanley explained how to trust God with
problems in our lives such as loneliness, fear, abuse, and guilt. At the time,
I was dealing with an array of hurts and problems stemming from my own father’s
poor choices. I vividly remember Stanley’s teaching being a balm to my wounded
spirit, helping me learn to lean on the Lord as my healer and restorer. To this
day, I think I’ve given more copies of The Source of My Strength away to
people than any other book.
His
Preaching
I first learned how to preach from listening to radio preachers like Stanley. His winsome, conversational style combined with practical exhortations and challenges to trust God marked his teaching. He regularly said, like Jesus, “Now listen!”
To this day,
I hear teaching from the InTouch app weekly. Having listened to him regularly
for more than thirty years, I recall some of the great themes of his preaching
and books:
Intimacy
with the Lord
Stanley told
listeners that God wants a close relationship with them. Through sermons like
“Favorites vs. Intimates,” he explained how the Lord desires to reveal Himself
to them in ever-deepening dimensions. I once heard him say, “Far more important
than As in the classroom is your intimacy with God in your dorm room.”
I only met
Dr. Stanley once quickly at a book signing at the 1999 Southern Baptist
Convention in Atlanta. After waiting in line, when I got to him, I handed him a
book to sign and said, “Dr. Stanley, thank you for teaching me about intimacy
with God.” He stopped, lowered his pen, and stared directly into my eyes. Then
he emphatically said, “That is the most important thing!”
Obedience
to God
When his
grandfather, George Washington Stanley, shared with young Charles that if God
told him to run straight into a brick wall, he should duck his head and trust
God to remove the wall, a deep rudder formed in his life.
Charles’
most familiar phrase, “Obey God and leave all of the consequences to Him,” is
written in large letters along the wall of InTouch Ministries in Atlanta. He
taught that obedience is a joy and privilege – and a necessity for those who
will experience God’s best.
The Empowerment
of the Spirit
I heard him say numerous times that if he were Satan, he wouldn’t try to make good people bad. He would simply try to convince Christians and churches they could do God’s work in their own strength. After going through a deep struggle in his thirties, Stanley learned what it means to abide in Jesus. He wrote in his book, The Spirit-Filled Life, “To abide in Christ is to draw upon His life. . . . The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in us.”
In the 1990s
I got a cassette tape of Stanley preaching at Dallas Theological Seminary - a
sermon entitled “Spirit-Anointed Preaching.” He told preachers they must learn
to move between time at their desk studying to time on their knees, stretched
out on the floor talking to God, listening to Him, and asking for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit on their life, ministry, and preaching.
Fight
Your Battles on Your Knees
Stanley’s
mother first taught him the importance of prayer, and throughout his life he
became a man of prayer. In his book, Living the Extraordinary Life, he
wrote, “Is your prayer life pitiful or powerful? No one else can put on your
spiritual armor for you. If you want God’s best in your life, get on your
knees. Divine, supernatural power is available if you will cry out to God and
claim it by faith.”
Stanley
faced many battles in his life, including a fierce one before becoming Senior
Pastor of First Baptist Atlanta. During that time a senior lady in the
congregation taught him a vital lesson. Showing him a painting of Daniel in the
lions’ den, she told him to notice that Daniel’s eyes were not on the lions but
on the Lord. Stanley later became President of the Southern Baptist Convention
during some critical years of the Conservative Resurgence, presiding over the
largest-ever-attended meeting of more than 45,000 messengers in 1985 in Dallas,
Texas.
Guidance
from the Lord
Stanley believed God could and would speak to and guide every believer who seeks Him. He wrote in How to Listen to God, “I believe one of the most valuable lessons we can ever learn is how to listen to God. In the midst of our complex and hectic lives, nothing is more urgent, nothing more necessary, nothing more rewarding than hearing what God has to say. . . . His voice waits to be heard, and having heard it, we are launched into the greatest, most exciting adventure we could ever imagine.”
To the
Ends of the Earth
Dr. Stanley preached, taught, and wrote about the God of Abraham, David, Daniel, Ruth, Peter, and Paul. But, as a young man, Charles wanted to know and experience that God. And he was motivated his entire ministry to help people all over the globe learn to walk with that same Lord. The God of the Bible is not limited to olden times. He is alive and real today, desiring an intimate relationship with men and women.
That living
God put His hand on this young man, raising him up to be one of the most
influential preachers of the Gospel in his generation. Decades before
podcasting, Facebook live, and webcasting, a few faithful preachers like Charles Stanley had the vision to maximize modern technology to spread
God’s Word.
Stanley and InTouch Ministries never stopped pursuing ways to keep sharing the message in every way possible. His obituary shares, “At the time of his death, Stanley’s messages were heard in more than 127 languages around the world via radio, shortwave, the Messenger Lab project, or TV broadcasts. Stanley was the country’s longest-serving pastor with a continuous weekly broadcast program.”
Stanley
represented a generation of stalwart Bible preachers and pastors like Adrian
Rogers, Jerry Falwell, Jack Hayford, Charles Swindoll, and others who are finishing their
tasks and moving on to heaven. These giants leave incredible Gospel legacies.
As our world seems to turn further away from the God of the Bible, may the Lord raise up others to take their place. As we see our Elijahs taken away and their mantles fall, may we stand on the bank of our Jordans and cry out, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah - or Charles Stanley?” And may we walk forward in His presence and anointing.
Some of Stanley's contemporaries respond to his death:
“There are few places in the world where Charles Stanley
cannot be heard and seen through In Touch ministries. He was truly the world’s
pastor. It was my privilege to serve with him, preach for him and walk through
some crucial times with him. He was a consistent proclaimer of God’s Word and
touched millions of lives.”—Jimmy Draper, former SBC president
“Much will be written and spoken about the incredible, global and timeless impact of Charles Stanley’s life and ministry. My thoughts today are filled with gratitude for the impact of Charles’ warm, personable and welcoming spirit. Thank God for unleashing His powerful truth through Charles Stanley.”—Tom Elliff, former SBC president
“Charles
Stanley was a reluctant president of the SBC. He responded to the need of the
hour and the requests of God’s people. Characterized by his gracious actions
toward all, Dr. Stanley modeled the life of Christ. His fervency in prayer,
alone with his Lord was profoundly experienced by all who knew him well. Who
will take the place of my friend Charles on his prayer rug before God?”—Paige
Patterson, former SBC president
“Charles
Stanley was a giant among us. Faithful pastor. Courageous SBC leader. Minister
to the world. Well done, good and faithful servant.”— Jerry Vines,
former SBC president
“We lost a
warrior for the faith. He was God’s man at a critical juncture of Southern
Baptist and evangelical Christianity’s struggle for biblical integrity. His
television ministry became an incredible entree for many of us to share the
gospel with seekers. We are diminished by his absence but enlarged by his life
and ministry.” — Jim Henry, former SBC president
“I don’t
know of any Southern Baptist pastor whose sermons have helped to build up
believers and reach people for Christ more than Charles Stanley.”—Bryant
Wright, former SBC president
My and Tracey‘s trip to Wilmore, Kentucky, resulted in another added blessing.
Decision
magazine decided to use my picture of the auditorium at Asbury university as
their cover photo for the April edition!
My friend Lee Weeks quoted
me in their cover story, and they used two more of my pictures in the story.
I’ve never
had a photograph published in anything!
I heard they are sending hundreds of copies of the magazine to Asbury. Read Lee's entire article, "Signs of Revival," here.
Holidays, particularly religious ones, carry with them a lot of memories that invoke various emotional responses.
Dick Cheney’s autobiography In My Time reviews the lives of political figures who have shaped America the past several decades. Cheney rubbed shoulders with many of Washington’s elites, gleaning wisdom from some of their lives.
Careful observers gleaned one valuable lesson from observing
the leadership of Gerald Ford: some actions are only justified by time.
At the time, this action cost Ford – some speculate that it
cost him the reelection. There was immediately a firestorm of
controversy and criticism. Ford’s approval rating dropped from 71% to
49%. The press condemned Ford, and he endured much negative criticism as a
result.
However, more than thirty years later, Cheney writes, the
wisdom and generosity of Gerald Ford’s instincts have been recognized for their
courage and honored for their rightness. But at the time the pardon was
controversial and unpopular.
The Right Choice
Wisdom beckons that at times the right choice is the
unpopular choice. The right choice may be greatly misunderstood and even
condemned. It takes courage to make the right choice. And in time, even those
who criticize that person may see years later that it was the right choice.
Many years ago, my parents left a toxic church
situation. When they joined the next church, the pastor told them, I
don’t know what happened at that church, but everyone who comes here from there
comes hurting. Before they left, Mom warned some persons of the unwise
and ungodly path of the senior pastor. Mom and Dad received an incredible
amount of criticism and ostracism for their stance. The pastor told the staff
to not have conversations with them. My parents left their church of 25+
years belittled, bruised, and broken. Several years later, however, after
several hundred people and most of the staff left the church, an ex-staff
member commented to me in retrospect, Mrs. Wilson was right.
One of the traits of a godly man or woman is this: a godly
person does not play to the crowd. A wise person does not make
his judgments solely based on public opinion. King Saul in the Old
Testament lived most of his reign working to make himself look good in front of
others. The fruit of his character revealed a pitiful life, not so different
than the lives of some Hollywood favorites or political figures that woo the
crowds but lead miserable lives of shallow character.
The roar of the crowd and public opinion are often fickle and sway with the wind. As with President Ford's day, systems of people are quick to make fast judgments and shift blame to scapegoats to manage their current stress. But the perspective of years often reveals a different reality.
Be willing to make the hard decisions when necessary. God
will be pleased, and time will tell.
Life contains difficult choices. One of those choices is whether or not to defend yourself.
When someone else has spoken despairingly about us – whether verbally or in writing –the natural instinct within most people is to rise up and defend self. They’re not going to say that about me, we think. Being misunderstood or misrepresented makes matters even worse, leaving us wanting to “set the record straight.”King David experienced such a time. When his son Absalom attempted to seize the throne, Absalom and his cohorts spread negative reports about the king. When the usurper’s army was moving in on Jerusalem, David and his people had to flee quickly. As they fled along the road, David encountered came out cursing continually. The old man took the opportunity to throw stones at the king and call him a “worthless fellow.” Nothing like kicking a man when he is down.
Interestingly, God’s Word says all of King David’s mighty men were at his right hand and at his left. He could have retaliated. One of those mighty men, Abishai, even asked David for permission to go over now and cut off his head. And I’m sure Abishai would have enjoyed it! Instead, David refused to retaliate. He refused to return evil for evil. He refused to return a bad report for a bad report. He even refused to respond! David quietly entrusted himself to the Lord: Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of cursing today (2 Samuel 16:12).
And then what did David do? He and his men went on the way. They moved forward and kept going.
The Lord Jesus responded similarly. He, too, was misunderstood and mistreated. Mocked and maligned, he was led on a path out of Jerusalem and nailed to a tree. Instead of returning evil for evil, he gave a blessing. While cursed and killed, the Bible says that he committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:22-23).
When we feel mistreated, maligned, or misunderstood, instead of lashing out in retaliation, the model of Jesus serves as a governor to our all-too fleshly mouths. He quietly entrusted Himself to God.
In her devotion Streams in the Desert, L. B. Cowman writes,
“What grace it requires when we are misunderstood yet handle it correctly, or when we are judged unkindly yet receive it in holy sweetness! Nothing tests our character as a Christian more than having something evil said about us. This kind of grinding test is what exposes whether we are solid gold or simply gold-plated metal.
Picture courtesy of Pixabay.