Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
CITY ON A HILL
was the key: prayer must prevail, and obedience to the Spirit
was vital. In past revivals God used women and children to
melt the hearts of sinners, meetings ran themselves and the
ministers simply prayed. In Wales the miners would hurry
from the coal faces to chapel where there were cries for mercy,
songs of deliverance, testimony, tears, hearts poured out in
praise and great love.
We needed that. Our large meetings, which were now mainly
in Northampton, had lost something of their spontaneity. Now
we found that prayers, confessions and simple testimonies
carried power. There was a renewed emphasis on the blood
of Jesus. We were inspired afresh to proclaim the sinner’s
gospel, to concentrate on Calvary and trust that a heart for
community would arise from deep repentance. Along with
our twelve verse hymns on the ways of God and of Zion, we
now sang two-line songs on the name and blood of Jesus.
As one meeting drew to a close we sang of the departed
saints: ‘Come let us join our friends above.’ It was very moving
but seemed strangely out of the flow. Two days later a
brother was killed on his motorbike. It had been his last hymn
on earth.
As eternity drew close again, we started revival meetings
in Northampton. ‘Can you determine when you die?’ asked
Noel. ‘Then let us live for God now rather than for this passing
world.’ Friends had already died through accident or
drugs. We felt we had failed them. The stakes were high, and
the young evangelists longed to snatch people out of the fire.
These Northampton meetings ran four nights a week in a
small dusty hall above the Co-op. They were serious but not
glorious. A local pub lost two regulars and a brick was thrown
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