Prayer and Revival Quotes

This is a collection of quotes that I have found from my own reading. They are from or about well known revivalists that connect prayer and revival. I hope they stir you to pursue God with your whole heart. -Alan Garrett

 Jonathon Edwards

"When God has something very great to accomplish for his Church," says Jonathon Edwards, "It is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people"

"If we are not to expect that the devil should go out of a particular person, that is, under a bodily possession, without extraordinary prayer, or prayer and fasting; how much less should we expect to have him cast out of the land and the world without it!"
(Revivals of Religion, Finney, CBN University Press: 1978, p. 126-127)

Charles G. Finney

"The Winter of 1857-1858 will be remembered as the time when a great revival prevailed throughout the Northern states. It swept over the land with such power, that for a time it was estimated the not less than fifty thousand conversions occurred in a single week. This revival had some very peculiarly interesting features. It was carried on to a large extent through lay influence, so much so as almost to through the ministers into the shade. Indeed daily prayer meetings were established throughout the length and breadth of the Northern states. (Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, p 442, Revell 1908)

"Indeed daily prayer meetings were established throughout the length and breadth of the Northern states There was such a general confidence in the prevalence of prayer, that the people very extensively seemed to prefer meetings for prayer to meetings for preaching." (Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, Revell: 1908, p 442 & 144)

"It was common for new converts to be greatly exercised in prayer; and in some instances, so much so, that they were constrained to pray whole nights, and until their bodily strength was quite exhausted, for the conversion of souls around them." (Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, Revell: 1908, p 441)
"Truth, by itself, will never produce the effect, without the Spirit of God, and The Spirit is given in answer to prayer. Probably in the Day of Judgment it will be found that nothing is ever done by the truth, used ever so zealously, unless there is a spirit of prayer somewhere in connection with the presentation of truth. But to expect the conversion of sinners by prayer alone, without the employment of the truth, is to tempt God" (Whittaker, Seven Guides to Effective Prayer,1987, Bethany House)

"Unless I had the spirit of prayer I could do nothing. If even for a day or an hour I lost the spirit of grace and supplication, I found myself unable to preach with efficiency, or to win souls by personal conversion. (Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, p 142, Revell 1908)

Prevailing or effectual prayer is that prayer which attains the blessing that it seeks. It is that prayer which effectually moves God. The very idea of effectual prayer is that it effects its objects.
-Charles Finney, quoted by Oswald J. Smith, The Revival We Need, p27

Richard J. Foster

"Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession. We must hear, know, and obey the will of God before we can pray it into the lives of others." (Foster, Celebration of Discipline, Harper & Row:1988, p. 39)

Paul Y. Cho

"I believe the way into power, especially in prayer, is to fast and pray." (Cho, Prayer: Key to revival, Word: Waco 1984, p. 113)

"If we can combine this intense natural desire with our natural spiritual desire for communion with our spiritual source, then what results is a much greater intensity." (Cho, Prayer: Key to revival, Word: Waco 1984, p. 115)

"Through fasting and prayer, you can so concentrate the power of prayer on your own lusts: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life; that you can live a holy and pure life in God's presence. (Cho, Prayer: Key to revival, Word: Waco 1984, p,7)

William Booth

"You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God...This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame."
-General William Booth, Quoted http://www.sermonindex.net/mail_si/oldpaths/oldpaths_sept2.pdf

William Seymore and the Azusa Street Mission Revival

According to John G. Lake, William Seymore told him that "for two and a half years he had been praying for five hours a day because he had such hunger for God (Robeck, Azusa Street, p.35).
"Before arriving in Los Angeles, William Seymor had committed himself to the personal discipline of spending five or more hours each day in prayer. In those first weeks following his arrival in Los Angeles, William Seymore had increased this prayer time." (Robeck, Azusa Street, p.93).

"I saw, too, that they has a wonderful spirit of prayer upon them; I never had seen such people to pray. Such liberty and unction in prayer and such continuance in prayer; and that, not merely at public meetings and altar services; but in cottage prayer meetings, and in all-nights of prayer, and in the smaller gatherings of two and three, how remarkably have I found the spirit of prayer and intercession upon them. -George B. Studd." (Robeck, Azusa Street, pp.138-139).

"Anyone who reads the accounts of worship at the Azusa Street Mission will conclude that prayer was probably the centerpiece of the revival." (Robeck, Azusa Street, p.139).

"Prayer-especially spontaneous and boisterous prayer-seemed to bathe all the events of the revival." (Robeck, Azusa Street, p.139).