Several months ago, I was wanting to share how women were used in the great mighty works of God in past centuries to usher in revivals and Spiritual Awakenings. A friend shared the following article with me. I will be paraphrasing some of the devotional due to space.
E Michael and Sharon Rusten in a devotional in “One Year Book of Christian History” wrote the following:
In 1856 in Ulster, Ireland, James McQuilkin was invited to tea. There a visiting woman skirted the civilities of discussing the weather and spoke openly on a subject McQuilkin found uncomfortable: the condition of his soul. After another guest described the nature of her Christian experience, the visiting woman said to McQuilkin, “my dear, I don’t believe you have ever known the Lord Jesus.” McQuilkin later wrote, “I knew that she spoke what was true of me. I felt as if the ground were about to open beneath me and let me sink into hell. As soon as I could, I left the company. For two weeks I had no peace day or night. At the end of that time I found peace by trusting the Lord Jesus.”
The following year McQuilkin felt a burden to pray for his neighbors and asked three friends to join him. Once a week the men gathered in a school house to pray for each person in their community by name. This was September of 1857. Unknown to them, God was laying on the hearts of many others to start prayer groups in Northern Ireland. Pastors started preaching about revival.
After nine months of prayer McQuilkin’s prayer group saw their first conversion. One morning in the city of Ballymena a young man fell prostrate in a crowded marketplace and called out, “Unclean, Unclean! God be merciful to me a sinner.”
March14, 1859 McQuilkin’s prayer group responded to an invitation to a prayer meeting. The church was so crowded they moved it to the street. Hundreds knelt in the mud and rain confessing their sins and praising God. They were the first of one hundred thousand people God called to Himself in 1859. A reporter to Ulster reported that the “Ulster movement touched off revivals in England, Scotland and Wales and it all started with an unknown woman unafraid to speak spiritual truth over tea.”
We never know what will be the effect our conversation will have on others. The woman at tea had no idea that God would use her to launch a nationwide revival. Our responsibility is to faithfully share God’s truths as we go about our daily lives and leave the results to Him.
“I have not been afraid to speak out, as You, O Lord, well know. I have not kept this good news hidden in my heart; I have talked about Your faithfulness and saving power.” Psalm 40:9-10
Joy,
Phyllis