A call for revival

Sarah Breuel at Lausanne, in Seoul

When The Other Cheek asked who was the most memorable or challenging speaker at the Lausanne conference of evangelicals held last month in Seoul, South Korea last month the name Sarah Breuel came up time and time again. Sarah Breuel is the director of Revive Europe, and a Brazillian missionary serving in Italy. She was Included in Christianity Today’s ’33 under 33′ list of leaders to watch. In Soeul she spioke on Revival and Repentance: Lessons from Global Movements, and her talk clearly made an impact. All of her Lausanne talks are at https://lausanne.org/leader/sarah-breuel Here are some highlights from her talk on revival.

She begins by refering to a local revival in Pyongyang in 1907.

“It was a meeting of Korean church leaders and Kil Sun-ju. He stands up and publicly makes a confession. He shares that his friend had died and had left him his inheritance to take care of his friend’s family, but he had been using the money instead for himself after hearing him one leader after another stand up publicly confessing their sins. That moment marked the beginning of a powerful move of God here in Korea in 1907. You see repentance paves the way for revival. Like Peter says in Acts three, repent them and turn to God so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. You see in scripture repentance, in times of refreshing, they are deeply intertwined times like King Josiah. He finds the law and his heart is broken and he cleanses the idols in the nations and God moves in the land or times like in Nineveh, they hear a call for repentance from all people from the prophet Jonah and they declare a citywide fest and God’s spares his judgement.”

“Jesus’ ministry itself was preceded by a call of repentance. Can you imagine so many flocking to the desert to confess their sins? You see the Christian history in many ways is like a successive stories, a story of successive renewal movements. Digging into revival history make us hungry. Stories like we just heard in the Borneo jungles and stories like 10% of the total population of Manhattan. Imagine 10% of the total population of your city joining the churches in two years. Why? Because of prayer.”

Later, she challenges us to recognise potential revivals. 

“You see, it’s easy to recognise revivals when we are centuries removed. But friends, we can be a little sceptical when we hear stories of early seeds of revival. In our time last week, the 24/7 prayer movement celebrated 25 years of nonstop prayers. I’m talking about 25,000 prayer rooms in 78 nations. These alongside prayers of countless intercessors, many here in Korea and around the world, around the world, many intercessors, nameless intercessors like myself, these prayers are flooding the gates of heaven. What if God hears us? What if the dam breaks? February last year there was an ordinary chapel in Asbury University in Kentucky and 18 students lingered. What followed was an for 16 days that draw together 60,000 people from every continent.

“I saw with my own eyes what I only read in history books. Students came from 300 campuses to Asbury from 300 different campuses. They came back to their campuses praying, God send Revival to my campus. This is a picture of the Passion conference. 55,000 university students, they’re praying in trios asking God send revival to our campuses.

“In the last months, we are seeing the beginnings of an early move of God among university students in North America. Auburn University last year, last fall, 200 baptisms in one night, Florida University, February this year, 300 baptisms in one night a month ago, Ohio University, 60 baptisms in one day, four days ago, four days ago, our Kansas University baptisms up until the midnight.

“The other side of the ocean, these two pastors from London, they crossed the ocean. They went to Asbury and when they were there they felt convicted of the spirit of an unspoken competition between them. God convicted them and they prayed. God sent revival to his church. When they got back, they started putting together joint prayer. Grant, this is London happening these months they have been gathering a thousand students for all night prayers. I’m talking about 12 hours interceding from revival in this generation. Can you hear the rumbling?”

And a call to repent.

“And this is a time to us to repent not only personally but also corporately on behalf of our nations. What can we repent from? We will talk in our tables and we will see what the Holy Spirit will bring up as we hear from one another.

“Let me just bring some things that have brought in prayer. I’m a fruit of North America missionary movement. Jacqueline and Paul Willis, they were this young couple and they moved to a small town on the bottom of the Amazon and they share about Jesus in that people in that tiny town. And one of the people that they shared the gospel with was Lizette, who was my grandmother. That’s how the gospel entered my family.

“So to the North American missionary movement, so many of us here, our fruit of your faithful mission work, we honour you. This narrative that the mission movement just aided colonialism, France, it has been crippling your boldness and zeal. Can I say, as a leader from the global south, we need you fully at the table. Do not retreat. Stand up.

“To Latin America. Look what God has done. God has turned a missionary field into a missionary force.

“My husband and I are missionaries in Italy and we are just two out of 40,000 Brazilian missionaries in the field today. Take up your place, Latin America.

“And [as] for Africa who could have imagined that in only 120 years, Christianity will grow from 9 million to half a billion. There is a roar in the African church that we as the global church are yet to hear it. Roar, Africa, roar.

“And to Asia.What a joy to finally have our brothers and sisters from China here with us teach us. Teach us your hard fought lessons, learning [from] persecution. Korean church teach us how to pray. Lead us Asia and as God is raising the global south, friends, can I say some of us in the West might be tempted [to think] we [are in] control. Some of us in the global south be tempted to think that it is the global south, independent from the west. Friends let us repent. Let Jesus to guide us of how he looks like to have true partnership. Jesus is building his church and it is one global church. It is the north and south and east and west.”