Right off of the coast of Scotland are a series of rugged islands populated by people who are as rugged as the land they inhabit. It has a natural beauty to it, invoking memories of ages past.
The winds blow cold through the islands year-round and the people have learned how to survive and thrive in those places. They are resourceful and hardworking and historically always have been.
One of the islands is known as the Isle of Lewis, situated further out in the ocean than the Isle of Skye. It was on the Isle of Lewis in the parish of Barvas there were two godly sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were both aged; one was blind and the other struggled with arthritis. They were largely unable to leave their home, but they had a thirst and a genuine hunger for the people of the Scottish isles to find their faith again and to know the God of creation. They had come to know that many of the young people in their parish had no thoughts of God, no interest in coming to know Him and no desire at all to live a life impacted by the truth.
These ladies didn’t have a well-funded marketing organization. But they were godly women who knew the Lord of the earth, so they prayed. They invited a handful of people into their house and held prayer meetings night after night. The Lord began to impress Isaiah 44:3 on their hearts and minds which states” For I will pour out water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants…”
These few godly people were not deterred by what they didn’t have. They could pray, and they had the faith to do it. So, they did.
They were convinced that God would honor His word and promises. Their lives and prayers moved the Presbytery of the Island of Lewis to do something. They called the faithful in that area to recognize how the community had moved away from God and a resolution was passed that was read in local churches on Sunday. As this went on, the ladies and their tiny prayer group increased their praying and as they did, their faith grew and grew and grew. These godly women led this prayer group for roughly six weeks and invited the parish preacher to take part and he did. Eventually, following the leading of the Holy Spirit they were convinced that they all needed to cry out to God for “clean hands and a pure heart!”
As they did this the move of God began to unfold. One of these sisters had a vision of a strange man preaching in the pulpit and she could not shake the image from her mind. Through various connections they were pointed to a man named Duncan Campbell, who at first wasn’t available to go, but God spoke again to these godly women and they stated “That is what man is saying, but God has said otherwise, and the man, whoever he is, is going to be here in ten days.” Duncan Campbell’s plans fell through for another conference he was supposed to attend and where he was supposed to preach, and he was, in fact, on the Isle of Lewis within ten days just as the sisters said.
The move of God began to spread out across the parish and began to reach to other towns and villages. People began to encounter God all over the island, whether they were in church, or in a barn, bar, house or field. There were some bars in these places that would just empty out and stay empty. Once people came to the Lord, there was no reason to drink their pain away daily anymore.
There is even the story of seven educated men, all communists, who would not care to ever set foot in a church. A lady in the village was convinced that she was shown that there would be seven men from that particular village who would all encounter God, become men of faith and would later become pillars in the local church. Soon, this lady would be gratified to hear that God indeed did keep his word. All seven men came to Christ after calling out to God for several days. He heard them and brought them home.
Another interesting and necessary fact about this revival was that no one needed to get the word out that a move of God was coming. God was simply felt and known everywhere. No newspapers had to tell anyone to be at a certain church at a certain time to hear a speaker. There were not teams of advance men and women preparing the way. When people came to the Lord, He simply answered. And He came to the islands powerfully. Time would fail us if we mentioned each and every story that occurred.
When God comes, you know it. Your innermost secrets are revealed and you find that you are perfectly willing for that to be the case. You don’t mind putting off everything else to see Him in prayer. There is not a worry in your heart and mind about time, because with Him, He satisfies the needs of our innermost being and relates to us in a way that changes us powerfully, even to the point of feeling fully and completely reborn.
The Revival in the Hebrides Islands remains, to this day, a powerful testimony of what God does when we His people are in the right place with Him, and ready.
He simply comes to us. And that is most powerfully enough.
Original writing by REVIVALin2020©