Plead the Promises

Plead the Promises
Bill Hyer

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is the model of all the great revivals in history, and Acts 1:1-14 tells us key components about revival. In Acts 1:4-8, we see another key component to revival which is to plead the promises of God.

In these verses, Jesus spoke to the Apostles two times about the promise of the Father to pour out the Holy Spirit in power. First, “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). Then again, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Acts 1:8). Here is the promise of God revealing God’s purpose. Knowing this, they committed themselves to pray by pleading the promise of God.

One of the great revivals in history took place in the Hebrides in northwest Scotland from 1949-1952. Before the revival, the region was very religious, even legalistic, but spiritually dead. One of the great evidences of this was that the church literally had no young people. There were two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith. Peggy was 84 and blind, Christine was 82 and bent over with arthritis. However, they were burdened because of the desperate spiritual state of their church. Believing God, they pleaded the promise in Isaiah 44:3, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground." God answered their prayers, with a multitude of young and old turning to Christ in the revival.