A Cry Up for Revival

Putting the “Oh” Back into Our Prayers

By Byron Paulus

Embedded in my memory are several agonizing cries. As a teenager, I will never forget the heartbreaking cry of my mother as I watched two Army officers approach the back door of our farmhouse to tell our family about the death of my older brother in Vietnam. That piercing cry still echoes in my heart.       

As a husband, my own cry joined my wife Sue’s when we found out the heartbeat of our unborn child had ceased. At the gravesite, we united our cries in deep anguish.

And many times, my cries have been with and for the suffering of dear friends. In one instance, I was on the phone with one of my staff when I heard the scream of his wife in the background as their infant daughter breathed her last breath, losing her battle with leukemia.

A fallen soldier, a dying infant, a bereaved mother.

What circumstances or experiences have caused you to cry out?

 

It’s Time to Cry Up

But crying out is not always the same thing as crying up. Sometimes our cries are born out of anger—cries at or cries for or cries because. But the kind of crying we need goes beyond these kinds of cries.

We need a vertical cry. Like the cry of Moses when he asked God to spare the nation from destruction. Or when the Israelites got together to repent after the ark of God had been stolen and the nation had lost the glory of God. Like the cry of Psalm 85, when broken hearts looked toward heaven and pleaded, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (v. 6, esv). Or when Isaiah cried with prophetic passion, “Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1, nlt).

Isaiah’s plea is the cry of the soul for God to come in all His glory.

 

A Sacred Cry

Have you ever been so swept up in the purposes of God, the lostness of the world, the brokenness of your own condition, the desire for Christ’s honor that you lifted your eyes to heaven and wept? Have your tears for the “Kingdom of God to come” ever rivaled the most agonizing human cries of despair or bondage or sorrow?

This kind of heartfelt, passionate cry and anguish of soul is a part of seeking God with fervency, just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane (Heb. 5:7). And like Jesus experienced, there is often great personal sacrifice to truly seeking and obeying God.

But some things are so important that they are worth the cost. And once you see the value of the power and presence of God, as well as the alternatives without Him, I believe you will cry out to God like you never have before.

I recall a seminary student who, in his quest to learn more about revival, asked to meet with me. It was more than four decades ago, but it seems like yesterday. After about an hour, he asked if we could pray together. I was new in ministry, so I was taken back when he positioned himself prostrate on my office floor. With a broken, grieving heart, he audibly cried out to the Lord, “I want revival more than I want to breathe.”

His prayer sent waves of conviction into my heart that have not subsided over these many years.

The cry of a God-seeker is not a morbid, defeated cry. It is a cry of hope. A cry that looks at heaven and, therefore, changes the way we live on earth. A cry that resets priorities and rearranges schedules. A cry that will turn you from a prayer spectator to a prayer participant. A cry that will take you to places you’ve never imagined and demand sacrifices on a level you never anticipated, but also cause you to love and live more like Christ than you ever expected.

 

A Prayer to Change Your Life

This cry, this one cry, is a turnaround moment. It’s a moment when we admit that we don’t have the answers. We don’t have solutions. We can’t fix what’s broken in our world. Our one cry upward to God, born in humility, is our ultimate admission of need before Him. And when we admit our need, when we humble ourselves before the Lord, He gives grace. And everything changes. Not because of us, but because of Him.

We cry up to God in that sacred moment when we realize we have nothing else to offer. We have nothing we can do. But we come to the realization that God has everything to offer that really matters: His amazing presence!

I had always struggled with prayer. Everything from knowing what to pray to simply doing the necessary hard work of prayer. I struggled with both desire and discipline.

But my greatest struggle was lack of confidence. Assurance that what I was praying was actually God’s will. As a result, I prayed with little passion . . . until . . . I began praying Scripture.

Not just any Scripture, but a specific, biblical prayer for revival. It changed my prayer life and changed me. That prayer was birthed in the heart of Isaiah and has been passed down for more than 2,500 years. A model prayer for today as much as yesterday.

God’s will is never contrary to God’s Word, so I can always pray with boldness for the practical pleas embodied in Isaiah 64.

Isaiah’s prayer begins and ends with verses punctuated with the words: “Oh” and “O.” In the middle of this prayer (vs. 8, esv), the word “O” also appears as if the passionate cry of our prayer is as vital as the prayer itself. Words overflowing with passion from a heart that’s overflowing with desperation and faith in what God could do. A passionate heart focused on God produces passionate praying. And being faith-filled intensifies the cry.

The most passion-filled praying person I have ever known was Leonard Ravenhill. I vividly remember Leonard lying prostrate on the platform at our staff gathering when he cried out “Oh!” multiple times. Urgency filled his prayer for revival. He later made the following statement—one that has shaped my thinking ever since:

If we are willing to live without revival, we will.

Are you willing to live without revival? Willing to live without personal revival? Marriage revival? Church revival? National revival? Or even worldwide revival?

Does the lack of the glory of God in the Church (Eph. 3:21) produce a sense of urgency in your heart? How much does it bother you that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is not filling the earth (Hab. 2:14)? Is it producing a pain and corresponding passion in your heart?

If not, what is standing in the way? What are you passionate about—more than the Most High God of Heaven receiving His due glory?

Another Ravenhill quote that I memorized and recite to myself often, relates to why we as a Church overall do not pray. Grasp this quote. Memorize it. And then ask God for the grace to avoid these prayer pitfalls at all cost:

• We are so self-sufficient we do not need to pray.
• We are so self-satisfied we do not want to pray.
• We are so self-righteous that we cannot pray.

 

“Wake Me Up, God”

Another mentor of mine is someone few people have ever heard of, yet his impact on the world this past half-century remains profound. His name was Bill McLeod. It was in his church in 1971 that the famed Canadian Revival broke loose. That single, small church in Saskatoon was an unlikely place for a widespread movement to begin. Much like Asbury, God chose to honor a praying man, a praying church—one that understood the nature of revival and believed it was possible.

The greatest impact Bill McLeod had on me personally was when he shared that, during that revival, he asked God a favor with a corresponding promise. He asked God to wake him up in the middle of the night, and if He did, he would get up to pray. And he would specifically pray for revival.

For more than 30 years, God woke him up every night. And Bill told me that each time he got up and kept his promise to pray. Often for more than an hour, praying for nations of the world. And for various revival ministries and individuals, including me, before the Lord. I was humbled beyond measure.

I wish I could say I was as faithful as Rev. McLeod. I did ask God to wake me in the middle of the night, almost 25 years ago now. And God has woken me up most of those nights. And I have prayed for revival many of those times. And, almost always, I pray through all 12 verses of Isaiah 64—asking God for a deeper sense of urgency.

Will you join me? Will you ask God to wake you up in the middle of the night? And when He does, will you pray through Isaiah 64, using the guide in the sidebar? Will you ask God to put an “Oh” in your prayer life?

What if all who read this article would unite in this biblical prayer? Is it possible the windows of heaven would open and He would hear our cry and come down in our day?

BYRON PAULUS is founder and president of OneCry . He is also CEO-emeritus of Life Action Ministries. He and Bill Elliff coauthored the book OneCry: A Nationwide Call for Spiritual Awakening.