An Article of Faith

In the spring of 2011 God brought revival to The Summit Church in North Little Rock, Ark. And “everyone – and I mean everyone,” testifies Pastor Bill Elliff, “was talking about Christ.”
“One Friday night,” Pastor Elliff continues, “I discovered that my college son had been out all night with some buddies in an impoverished area of our city sharing Christ. He and his friends had gone by a local grocery store around 2 a.m., come to our house and made sandwiches for the homeless, and gone out the rest of the night witnessing! (I know this because we found the residual effects in the kitchen the next morning!).
“The next day my other son joined them. The following day, my youngest daughter became upset that we would not allow here to go to this rough area of the city with her brothers. So she and her friend went to a local store and shared Christ with 22 people! I thought, ‘What in the world has happened to my children! I can hardly get them out of bed and now I can’t stop them for telling about what they’ve seen and heard!’”
When God comes in revival we are overwhelmed and spontaneous with the only message that really matters – the message of salvation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – the Jew first and also the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16 NLT.)
At Pentecost Peter stood to preach and in one of the most amazing displays of divine might – 3,000 people were pierced to their heart and brought to repentance, faith, and confession of Christ. The Jerusalem church was born in an instant.
R.A. Torrey recounts this amazing story of unity is a small town: “Up in a little town in Maine, things were pretty dead some years ago. The churches were not accomplishing anything. There were a few godly men in the churches, and they said: ‘Here we are, only uneducated laymen; but something must be done in this town. Let us form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man. Who shall it be?’ They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and centered all their prayers upon him. In a week, he was converted. They centered their prayers upon the next hardest man in town, and soon he was converted. Then they took up another and another, until within a year, two or three hundred were brought to God, and the fire spread out into all the surrounding country. Definite prayer for those in the prison house of sin is the need of the hour.” (Taken and adapted from: OneCry: A Nationwide Call for Spiritual Awakening. Visit www.onecry.com.)
“If My people,” declares the LORD, “who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV.)

Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.