Psalm 85:4-9 - Return to us, God of our salvation, and abandon your displeasure with us. 5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger for all generations? 6 Will you not revive us again so that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your faithful love, Lord, and give us your salvation. 8 I will listen to what God will say; surely the Lord will declare peace to his people, his faithful ones, and not let them go back to foolish ways. 9 His salvation is very near those who fear him, so that glory may dwell in our land.
G. Campbell Morgan - “Revival cannot be organized, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.”
1904 – 1905
The Beginning: On the second Sunday of February 1904, in the town of New Quay, a young girl named Florrie Evans (1884–1967) stood during a youth meeting and shared a simple testimony: “I am not able to say very much today, but I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart—He died for me.” As she spoke, the room reportedly grew still as people became deeply aware of the overwhelming presence of God. Those simple and heartfelt words became one of the sparks that helped ignite the Welsh Revival. What began in a small gathering of young people quickly spread to neighbouring churches as others caught the same spiritual hunger and passion for God.
Main Leader: Evan Roberts (1878–1951)
*Evan Roberts was born in Wales into a deeply devoted Christian home where prayer, Scripture, and church life shaped him from an early age. Though he spent many years working in the coal mines and later as a blacksmith apprentice, he became known as a young man with an unusual passion for prayer and seeking God. Roberts often spent hours praying alone and with others, asking God to move powerfully across Wales. During this season, he sensed God giving him a burden for revival and a vision of countless people turning to Christ. What began as a quiet hunger in one young man’s heart eventually became part of a spiritual awakening that spread across an entire nation.
*In 1904, while studying for ministry, Roberts attended a service where he experienced a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit that deeply transformed his life and ministry (Lord, Bend Us). Soon after, he began speaking at small gatherings, but the meetings quickly grew as people were convicted, renewed, and drawn back to God. Within weeks, the Welsh Revival became national news, and thousands gathered to hear the message. At the center of Roberts’ preaching were four simple but powerful calls: confess known sin, remove anything questionable from your life, obey the Holy Spirit immediately, and publicly confess Jesus Christ. His story reminds us that revival often begins with ordinary people who are fully surrendered to God and willing to seek Him with humble and obedient hearts.
Question – What does the Welsh Revival teach us about some sails we can set to catch the wind of the Spirit?
· Jeremiah 29:13 - You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
· Matthew 6:33 - But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
· 2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
· 1 Peter 5:6 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
“We must go lower so that Jesus may be lifted higher”
metanoi - μετανοέω
· Matthew 1:15 - The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.
· Acts 2:38 - And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
G. Campbell Morgan - “No books, but, oh my, I nearly wept tonight over the singing of our last hymn. . . . When these Welshmen sing, they sing the words like men who believe them. They abandon themselves to their singing. We sing as though we thought it would not be respectable to be heard by the man next to us. No choir, did I say? It was all choir! And hymns! I stood and listened in wonder and amazement as that congregation on that night sang hymn after hymn, long hymns, sung through without hymn-books”