Confession Repentance and Revival
JONATHAN GOFORTH – Revivalist in China! by David Smithers
“You must go forward on your knees,” was the advice
Hudson Taylor gave to a young Canadian missionary named
Jonathan Goforth. Mr. Goforth faithfully and fervently followed this
advice throughout all has missionary endeavors in China. Yet,
after thirteen years of faithful praying and preaching, and what
most would consider a very successful ministry, Goforth became
restless and dissatisfied. It was at this time an unknown party
from England began sending pamphlets on the Welsh revival of
1904. Goforth was deeply stirred as he read these accounts. “A
new thought, a new conception seemed to come to him of God
the Holy Spirit…” He then gave himself to much more prayer
and Bible study. Goforth now found himself being driven by a
fresh vision, a vision for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Soon he began to meet daily with other missionaries to pray for
revival. These men vowed to God and to one another that they
would pray until revival came to China. In 1908 Jonathan Goforth’s
prayers and dreams began to be realized. Goforth began going to
different missionary stations and simply led his fellow missionaries
in prayer. Then suddenly earnest prayer gave way to the open
confession of sin.
It was when the Christians came clean, confessed and forsook
their secret sin, that the Holy Spirit rushed in like a mighty wind.
Truly it was this open and honest confession of sin that was the
most striking feature of the revival. Everywhere Mr. Goforth went
revival would spread, and almost always in the same way. First
prayer was encourage among the Christians, which then
spontaneously led to heart- breaking confessions of sin. And
then like a flood, the lost were brought into the kingdom by the
thousands. “Men were searched as with fire.” One after another
broken-hearted believers emptied themselves through the
uncovering of all secret sin. Mr. Goforth clearly identified
unconfessed sin among Christians as a major hindrance to
God-sent revival.
Walter Phillips describes for us one of Mr. Goforth’s revival
meetings: “At once, on entering the church one was conscious
of something unusual. The place was crowded to the door and
tense, reverent attention sat on every face. The people knelt for
prayer, silent at first, but soon one here and another there began
to pray aloud. The voices grew and gathered volume and blended
into a great wave of united supplication that swelled until it was
almost a roar. Now I understood why the floor was so wet – the
very air was electric and strange thrills coarsed up and down
ones body.”
When Mr. Goforth preached, “The cross burned like a living fire in
the heart of every address.” It was the person of Jesus Christ who
was exalted throughout the entire revival as a King and Savior
who must be reckoned with. In the midst of this great revival
Jonathan Goforth clearly saw that all of his previous sweating
and striving had reaped only frustration. He came to the firm
conviction that revival is only born through humility, faith, prayer
and the power of the Holy Ghost. Goforth writes, “If revival is
being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still
enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in
human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchange-
able truth that ‘It is not by might, but by My Spirit.'”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
by David and Patricia Knowles
- What is Revival and what is NOT Revival
- How did the revivalists pray?
- Exciting accounts of events in past Revivals to thrill and inspire us today.