It was during his first visit to Britain on a preaching mission, that D.L. Moody heard the words which set him hungering and thirsting after a deeper walk with God and which marked a new beginning in his life. The words were spoken to him by Henry Varley, a well-known evangelist of that time, as they sat together on a seat in a public park in Dublin. The words were these:
"The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully consecrated to Him."
"He said 'a man'" thought Moody, "he did not say a great man, nor a learned man, nor a 'smart' man, but simply 'a man.' I am a man, and it lies with the man himself whether he will or will not make that entire and full consecration. I will try my utmost to be that man." The words kept ringing in his mind, and burning their way into his soul until finally he was led into the deeper, richer, fuller experience for which his soul yearned. (Source: J. Gilchrist Lawson)
Ezekiel 22
23 Again the word of the LORD came to me:
24 "Son of man, say to the land, 'You are a land that has had no rain or showers in the day of wrath.'
25 There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her.
26 Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
27 Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain.
28 Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says'-when the LORD has not spoken.
29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.
30 "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.
31 So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD."
God was looking for a man. Not a group of men. Not a collection of men. Not a cluster of men. Just one man. But He found no one. Where was the man that God was looking for?
Because of Israel’s spiritual poverty and spiritual pollution, Ezekiel had prophesied the fall of Jerusalem. But his message fell on deaf ears. The people of God had become worthless and useless to God. They had violated some of the Ten Commandments and they had become proud and disrespectful to God. Their disobedience would eventually lead to their destruction and the corruption was so complete that when God searched for a man to stand in the gap, to build up the wall, none could be found. (Source: Walvoord and Zuck)
Where was the man that God needed? He had always found his man before.
When God wanted a man in the midst of a desperately corrupt culture, He found Noah.
When God wanted a father for His people, He found Abraham.
When God needed an honorable man to save not only His people but the people of a foreign nation, He found Joseph.
When God needed a deliverer of His people, He found Moses.
When God needed a king for His people, He found David.
When God needed a prophet to confront the prophets of Baal, he found Elijah.
When God needed someone to whom He would give a double portion of His Spirit, He found Elisha.
When God needed someone to be a testimony and witness in Babylon, He found Daniel.
And where is that one man today?
We have seen that man before in people like D.L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, and others: surrendered to God, pursued Him with passion, and consumed with fire from heaven.
But where is that man today? Where is that man for our generation?
There may be some today that would say there will never be another man like Billy Graham; that there will never be another man like Moody, never another man like Spurgeon.
There are some who might say that Billy Graham was a man whom God used in his generation, in his own day, but that the world will probably never see that kind of ministry and that kind of response to the gospel again. There are some that might say that we will never see another Moody or Spurgeon. indicative of Christian leaders who say that we are living in a post-Christian era, giving up on God and sounding like it is time to lock the doors, clock out, and go home.
We know that our culture and our generation are far from what we desire it to be, but, are we past the point when God can use one individual, like a Billy Graham, to call our nation and our world to repentance?
In days gone by, God has usually used one man (sometimes several men) to be His vessel for sending a great movement of His Spirit throughout a nation.
In the First Great Awakening, during the 18th century, in Great Britain and colonial America, God used men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John and Charles Wesley.
In the Second Great Awakening, God used men like Francis Asbury, Charles Finney, and Peter Cartwright, a missionary who helped start the Second Great Awakening and who personally baptized twelve thousand people.
Included in the Second Great Awakening, was Jeremiah Lanphier, one man determined to see a great movement of God in New York City. Little did he know that the simple prayer meeting he started by himself during his workplace lunch hour would ultimately result in more than 50,000 people a day praying for revival. And those prayers would usher in, what Perry Miller of Harvard would later refer to as, "The Event of the Century", an awakening formally referred to as "The Layman's Prayer Revival."
During the Second Great Awakening, scholars estimate that possibly a million people came to Christ in 1857 and 1858. Therefore, in less than one year, nearly 20% of the American population was swept into the Kingdom of God. Three years later, in 1861, though the Civil War had begun, the revival continued, as both union and confederate soldiers were converted by the thousands.
The latter half of the 1800’s gave the world men of God, such as D.L. Moody, William Booth, Hudson Taylor, George Mueller and great theologians such as Charles Hodge and B.B. Warfield.
In 1904, in the country of Wales, God used Evan Roberts, who prayed, “Lord, bend me”, to bring one hundred thousand souls to Christ in just nine months, from November 1904 to August 1905.
But where is the man of God for our generation?
Where is the man of God who will pursue righteousness rather than recognition?
Where is the man of God who will pursue holiness rather than happiness?
Where is the one who will be a man after God’s own heart?
Is it you?
Would you be the man who would rise up and say to God?
“Lord, I want to be that one man through whom the world can see what You can do through one individual fully consecrated to You. I will take the mantle. I will take the next step. I will do whatever it takes. I will be the one who flings himself upon You, no matter what the cost, no matter what others might say. I will be the one who doesn’t care about being famous; who doesn’t care about being recognized; who doesn’t even care never to be asked to preach at the next big pastor’s conference. All I care about is being right with You and being used by You, Lord. I will be the one who wants to know You more intimately and who wants to know You more deeply. I will be the one who wants to experience more of Your holiness and wants to experience more of Your power. I will be the one who wants to know the depths of Your love and I will be the one who wants more of You in my life. Lord, I want You. I want Your hand upon me and I will be that man who is fully and totally consecrated to You. Lord, I will be your man”.All it takes is one man.
On June 5, 1989, almost nobody knew the man’s name. Nobody outside his immediate neighborhood had read his words or heard him make a speech. Nobody even knows what happened to him even one hour after his one moment that was seen in the world's living rooms through television. But one man stood before a column of army tanks near Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, to protest the Chinese government’s violence towards Chinese students who supported a democratic form of government.
The meaning of his moment — and it was no more than that — was instantly decipherable in any tongue, to any age group: millions of people knew what the "tank man" (also know as the “Unknown Rebel”) did.
A small, unexceptional figure in slacks and white shirt, carrying what looked to be his shopping bag, posted himself before an approaching army tank, with a line of 17 more tanks behind it. The first tank swerved to the right; and this one man moved to his left to block it. Then, the tank swerved left; and this one man moved to his right. Surprisingly, the “tank man” then climbed up onto this vehicle of war and said to its driver, "Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you."
One lone man stood up to machinery, stood up to armed forces and to all the massed weight of the People's Republic of China and stopped a brigade of 18 tanks. As soon as the man descended from the tank, anxious onlookers pulled him to safety, and the waters of anonymity closed around him, his name never known yet will be remembered for his courage. (Source: CNN)
Just one man. That’s all it took.
And maybe that is what it will take for God to send His Spirit to our generation for another great spiritual awakening. He has done it before. I believe He can do it again.
"The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully consecrated to Him."
Kenny
