Throughout history, God has had a habit of bringing the right men and women along, at the right time, to a nation that needed to hear the message of revival and restoration back unto the Lord. When the situation in a nation became dire through people living as if they are and were a law unto themselves, often His appointed messengers would miraculously show up on the scene. Divine intervention became a mark of grace upon the land, a calling which, if and when answered, led to “times of refreshing” for any and for all.
One of the most well-known and outstanding times in which God called people, and people answered, goes back to 17th century Britain. After the War of the Spanish Succession in which Britain fought France, Britain entered into a time of peace and prosperity.
Along with this came a growing sense of spiritual rot, in the midst of their ease, a malaise that impacted every area of British culture and society in that day and time. Some felt that heartlessness was marking the age in Europe and greatly impacting Britain and France.
It was into this growing spiritual darkness that John Wesley came, being born in 1703 at Epworth in Great Britain. Little did he know that he would be used by God to radically shift his age into a deeper place of spiritual growth and hope, and that his impact would last well beyond the scope of the years that he lived.
John and his brother Charles, the esteemed hymnist, were born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley. John was born into a cultural swamp where both religion and politics were answering to the call of men, and ignoring the call of God.
John and Charles had, for the most part decent but strict childhoods. As he grew, John was known for a quick and studious mind and for intricate rules of self-discipline he adopted in an effort to find and know God.
But God wasn’t moved to deal with John on the basis of John’s personal rules and efforts to subdue his carnal self. God moved in Wesley, and after a period of internal struggle, John found that his heart was “strangely warmed” and he knew then that he had come to believe in God due to the action of God upon his heart. It was a sovereign moment for John, one he had longed for and one that he desperately needed.
As the call on the Wesley’s life grew louder and more frequent, the brothers knew that they could not ignore the voice calling them into action. Churches would frequently deny them the pulpit wherein to preach, so it was George Whitfield, the famed preacher who had preached so successfully in America, who, once back in England, asked John to stand in for him and preach at two particular locales that Whitfield would not be able to reach. Both of these locations would require outdoor preaching, and John struggled with the idea of this, (since English tradition held that preaching should only occur inside a church) yet he made his decision, preaching outside for the first time on April 2, 1739. One scholar stated that this represented a “new era in the religious history of England”. While things like preaching outside may not seem like a big deal to us today, each generation has issues that they struggle to overcome when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel, and each generation must work to overcome these things to make the road clear and clean that the Truth may be preached and heard and acted upon.
John crossed a necessary line, and the fruit of these endeavors led to the greatest spiritual awakening in British history. Thousands came to faith in Christ over the course of John and Charles’s ministry efforts. These moves of God have become known as the “Wesleyan Revivals” and they spread across Great Britain in waves, year after year. God listened to thousands of cries from thousands of hearts who had been prepared for that time to respond to the message of the Gospel.
Additional thousands were trained to do as the Wesley’s had done, and so John duplicated his and his brother’s efforts by raising up faithful people to follow the Lord. John and Charles formed “societies” all over England, and provided direction and training that was effective and simply stated.
The impact of the Wesley brothers would be hard, perhaps, to overstate. Their work eventually led to the conclusion of slavery in England, and as a result of England taking that step, France was forced to eventually do the same.
Revival comes with a cost to the individuals that become the figurehead in these movements. It was said that John fell off of his horse hundreds of times because he would spend hours writing letters to the various societies he and his brother and others trained, while on horseback, and the letters instructed those who later became known as Methodists. It was not uncommon for John to spend up to 15 hours a day writing to whomever might need it. He didn’t seek comfort or money. One story goes that one morning, after sleeping out under the stars, John’s long hair (he had been too poor to afford a British wig at that time) had frozen to the ground. When John roused himself, he could not get to his feet, and he had discovered that his long hair had frozen to the ground overnight! He endured many, many assaults and attacks from many quarters, yet still worked hard and stayed single minded in his faith and in his assurance that God indeed held him in the palm of His hand.
John Wesley is recognized as one of the most influential leaders in British history, and the impact of his ministry would be hard to overstate. God used John and his brother Charles to do mighty things, and the revivals that followed continue to impact the nations today.
Original writing by REVIVALin2020©