Preparing for revival

Many must have prayed for revival in Wales. Evan Roberts prayed for countless hours, but with no evident response. "I prayed and prayed," he said, "but nothing seemed to give me relief." Then one night, he was wakened at one o'clock in the morning.

"I found myself with unspeakable joy and awe in the very presence of the Almighty God. For the space of four hours I was privileged to speak face to face with Him as a man speaks face to face with a friend. At five o'clock it seemed to me as if I had again returned to earth.

"Every morning for three or four months always I enjoyed four hours of that wonderful communion with God. I cannot describe it. I felt it and it seemed to change all my nature. I saw things in a different light, and I knew God was going to work in this land, and not in this land only, but in all the world."

He had a crisis experience with the Holy Spirit during a meeting in the chapel at Blaenannerch. "I felt a living force come into my bosom. It held my breath and my legs shivered. . . The living force grew and grew. I was almost bursting. . . What bothered me was God commending His love.

"I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me, and the tears of perspiration flowed freely. I thought blood was gushing forth. . . For about two minutes it was fearful. I cried 'Bend me. Bend me. Bend us' . . . What bent me was God commending His love and I not seeing anything in me to commend.

"After I was bent a wave of peace came over me. . .  As they sang, I thought of the bending at the Judgment Day, and I was filled with compassion for those who would be bent on that day, and I wept."

Evan Roberts was a changed man. He wrote to a friend: "I have received three great blessings. First, I have lost all nervousness. Second, I can sing all day long. Some physical impediment obstructed me before. And third, I have gone as hard as flint. Thanks be to God, what an easy thing it is to thank now."

He asked his friend Sidney Evans: "Do you think it is too much to ask God to give one hundred thousand in Wales?"

It was not presumption. So many people were converted in the months of revival.