The Calvary Road | Page 2

Revival. What they
had to say was very different from much of what I had associated with
Revival. It was very simple and very quiet. As they unfolded their
message and gave their testimonies, I discovered that I was the neediest
person in the conference and was far more in need of being revived
than I had ever realised. That discovery, however, only came slowly to
me. Being myself one of the speakers, I suppose I was more concerned
about others' needs than my own. As my wife and others humbled
themselves before God and experienced the cleansing of the precious
Blood of Jesus, I found myself left somewhat high and dry--dry just
because I was high. I was stumbled by the simplicity of the message, or
rather the simplicity of what I had to do to be revived and filled with
the Spirit. When others at the end of the conference testified of how
Jesus had broken them at His Cross and filled their hearts to
overflowing with His Holy Spirit, I had no such testimony. It was only
afterwards that I was enabled to give up trying to fit things into my
doctrinal scheme, and come humbly to the Cross for cleansing from my
own personal sins. It was like beginning my Christian life all over
again. My flesh "came again like that of a little child," as did Naaman's
when he was willing to humble himself and dip himself in Jordan. And
it has been an altogether new chapter in life since then. It has meant,
however, that I have had to choose constantly to die to the big "I," that
Jesus might be all, and constantly to come to Him for cleansing in His
precious Blood. But that is just why it is a new chapter.
At that time my wife and I had been issuing a little paper which we

called "Challenge," in which we were seeking to lead young Christians
into a deeper experience of the Lord Jesus. It was natural, then, that in
the following issue we should put down what God had shown us. We
simply put down in print the Message of Revival as it had come to us.
There was a sudden and surprising demand for the little paper, because
it carried this simple message. As we continued to write further of the
Message of Revival in subsequent issues, the demand continued to
increase surprisingly. Letters came in almost every day telling of the
way God was blessing His people through it, and asking for further
supplies. Requests began to come from far away countries, to which the
little paper was finding its way, and news began to come of the
beginnings of revival in the lives of God's people in various parts.
Translations too were made into French and German. We had been
caught up in the current of God's working beyond anything we
expected or deserved. Indeed we had nothing to glory in, for it became
evident that revival blessing was not so much the result of "Challenge,"
as that "Challenge" was the result of revival blessing. God was at work
in many hearts and in many parts. The testimony of those who had been
revived made others hungry, who in turn found their way to the Cross,
and so the blessing spread from life to life. And wherever the blessing
spread, the little paper seemed to go, for it sought to put in clear and
Scriptural language what so many were beginning to experience.
The connection of all this with the present little book is that this book is
simply a collection of some of those numbers of "Challenge."
Circumstances make it difficult at the moment for us to continue to
send out further issues of "Challenge," and yet the requests for back
numbers have continued to come in. There is obviously a need for this
simple Message of Revival to be made available to a wider circle of
readers, for there is a growing thirst in God's people for the Rivers of
Living Water. And so, encouraged by God's blessing on what has gone
before, we have put together some of the more helpful numbers of
"Challenge," together with two extra chapters, and send them on their
way, looking to God to use them as He will. We cannot boast that this
contains an orderly treatment of our subject chapter by chapter. Each
article was designed to be complete in itself, and therefore now that
they are put together in one pamphlet, there cannot but be a good deal

of overlapping, and certain things will be seen to be repeated again and
again. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as an ordinary book, and the
chapters might best be read each one on its own, rather than the whole