Y Friday, July 11, 2008Y
2:30 pm
A. Charles Finney was a lawyer in New York in the mid-1800’s. He set aside his law practice in response to an anointing of the Holy Spirit that came upon Him. He began to go into extended times of prayer and fasting.1. In 1857, Finney helped bring 500,000 people to the Lord in a period of eight weeks in the New York area. Later it was found that about 80% of the converts from that time were still walking with the Lord. This result was attributed to their prayer lives.
2. Two men, Daniel Nash and Abel Clary, would go ahead of Finney to the cities in which he was about to preach. They would labor and cry out for the breakthrough of God in those cities. It is notable that within three months of Nash’s death, Finney’s itinerant ministry stopped and he went into the pastorate. The revival power of God that was released during Finney’s travels was directly related to prayer.
B. John G. Lake lived in the late 1800’s. He was born and raised in the United States, but went to South Africa for about five years. While there, he took part in over 100,000 healings. He returned to the U.S. to live in Spokane, Washington. The healing ministry continued, and again over 100,000 healings were recorded.
1. He lived a life of fasting and prayer, asking for the Holy Spirit’s power to be released. He would set aside whole hours throughout the day for prayer and meditation. Almost every night he would preach on healing and then pray for the sick. He was determined to pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s power.
2. He contended for even greater breakthroughs of the Spirit’s power even after he saw healings begin to take place. He has stated that at times he could actually feel the conscious flow of the Holy Spirit through his hands. Even then, every time God answered his prayers, God created even more intense longing for greater consciousness and intimacy with God.