Hope Undaunted: Renewing a Vision for Revival

This summer I stopped by city hall and asked for a map of my community. I intended to prayer walk as many streets as possible, especially during my church’s designated month of prayer and fasting. As I walked, I prayed for a Christ-awakening to come to every household. My tennis shoes grew a little more worn and my map filled up with blue highlighter as I marked off the streets I covered.

I have prayed this way for several years, asking God to send revival and spiritual awakening to my community and this nation. Yet the spiritual darkness only seems to increase. I wish I could say my hope is undaunted, meaning “not intimidated or discouraged by difficulty, danger, or disappointment.” But at times I struggle with discouragement.

Yet, God has allowed me to see the very thing I’m praying for—and that keeps the flicker of hope alive in my heart. In 2004, I traveled to Almolonga, Guatemala, to walk the streets of a community that has experienced the reviving presence of Jesus Christ. I witnessed God’s power to radically change people and society in answer to desperate prayer.

A Hopeless Place

Almolonga was once devastated by spiritual darkness. Rampant drunkenness and crime created overcrowded jails. The people worshiped demonic spirits. Poverty and abuse enslaved the town. People were hostile toward any attempts to share the gospel. A sense of hopelessness had settled on the townspeople.

When thugs threatened the local pastor’s life, he did the only thing he knew to do. He called his small church to prayer. Desperate prayer. Late-night prayer. Contending prayer. Prayer that doesn’t give up until God answers.

As the believers cried out to God, He met them in miraculous ways. Families were restored. Crime almost ceased. In fact, today the police no longer carry guns—only whistles to manage the traffic. Some 30 bars were replaced by the same number of churches. It is estimated more than 80 percent of the people in this community of 20,000 are now followers of Jesus Christ!

I heard testimonies of how God healed many of the people so they could work in their fields. Not only did He restore them to health and hard work, God also increased their crop production in dramatic ways, earning Almolonga the nickname, “Valley of Miracles.”

These believers asked me to share a message with my own church and community. “Prayer is what we do—it is our work. God gets all the glory,” they said repeatedly. The pastor implored me to make it clear to others back home that revival is not a program or strategy: “You must humble yourselves and pray. There is no other way.”

Hope Undaunted

So I continue to pray for my community and nation. I invite others to pray with me. I still feel disheartened at times, but I often ask the Lord to renew my vision for revival.

I pray this issue will do the same for you. Jim Jarman writes about staying encouraged even when hope for revival is deferred. Dan and Melissa Jarvis describe the biblical pattern for revival in Scripture, reminding us of historical moves of God, and encouraging us to trust Him and to pray expectantly. Mark Partin offers revival-directed prayers of returning to our first love, based on the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2.

You must humble yourselves and pray. There is no other way. I believe this. I pray my hope is strengthened and undaunted as I look toward another great move of God.

CAROL MADISON is editor of Prayer Connect.