DAY 15

MORNING

PSALMS 75–77

Psalm 77:14 “You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among peoples.”

A More Excellent Way

Summary of sermon preached by John Wesley117

1 Corinthians 12:31 says “Covet earnestly the best gifts; And yet I show unto you
 a more excellent way.” In the previous verses, St Paul has been speaking of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit: such as healing the sick; prophesying in the proper sense of the word, that is foretelling things to come; speaking with strange tongues, such
 as the speaker had never learned; and the miraculous interpretation of tongues. These gifts the apostle allows to be desirable; yeah he exhorts the Corinthians, at least the teachers among them to covet them earnestly, that they might be qualified to be more useful either to Christians or Heathens. “And yet,” says he, “I show unto you a more excellent way;” far more desirable than all these put together.

It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian; and from a vain imagination of promoting the Christian cause and heaped riches and power and honour upon the Christians in general but in particular upon the Christian clergy. From this time they almost totally ceased; very few instances of the kind were found. The real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian church was because the Christians were turned Heathens again, and had only a dead form left.

Tuttle, a historian, comments regarding Wesley and spiritual gifts:118 “some argue that Wesley sounded somewhat ambivalent at times with regard to some of the more ‘extraordinary’ gifts as they surfaced within the 18th century Evangelical Revival (no doubt concerned about the charges of ‘enthusiasm’ against the people called Methodist). However, on at least one occasion Wesley defended the gifts of the spirit. In a letter to Conyers Middleton,119 Wesley defined, described, and defended a whole host of spiritual gifts, including casting out demons, speaking with new tongues, healing the sick, prophecy, visions, divine dreams and discerning of spirits.”

Prayer

Lord, help us to make love our aim and to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:39). Help us to fan into a flame the gift of God within, we pray. If vain imagination riches and power side-lined the church in the past, rescue us today from the same fate. Breathe your breath on us again. Breathe on the dry bones and call forth your Church into that more excellent way, that it might accomplish your purposes in the power of your Holy Spirit.

117 Wesley, J. Sermons Volume 7, ‘The more excellent way’, 26,27.

118 Tuttle, R.G John Wesley and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.


119 Wesley, J. Sermons Volume 10, 1–79.

DAY 15

EVENING

PSALM 78

Psalm 78:4 “We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.”

Youth Awakening

As the awakening began to gather momentum in April 1739, many 
more people responded to Wesley’s preaching with signs following. Wesley wrote in his journal entries how some young people were impacted:120

Tuesday 21 April 1739

... a young man was suddenly seized with a violent trembling all over and in a few minutes, the sorrows of his heart being enlarged, sunk down to the ground. But we ceased not calling upon God, till he raised him up full of “peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” On Easter-day it being a thorough rain, I could only preach at Newgate at eight in the morning and two in the afternoon; in a house near Hannah Mount at eleven, and in one near Rose-Green at five. At the society in the evening many were cut to the heart and many comforted.

Tuesday 23 April 1739

... In the evening at Baldwin Street, a young man, after a sharp (though short) agony but both of body and mind, found his soul filled with peace, knowing in whom he had believed.

April 25 1739

To above 2000 at Baptist Mills I explained that glorious scripture (describing the state of every true believer in Christ — everyone who by faith is born of God) Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry “Abba, Father.”

April 26 1739

While I was preaching at Newgate on these words, “He that believeth hath everlasting life,” I was insensibly led, without any previous design, to declare strongly and explicitly, that God willeth “all men to be” thus “saved” and to pray that “if this were not the truth of God, he would not suffer the blind to go out of the way; but 
if it were, he would bear witness to his word.” Immediately one and another, and another 
sunk to the earth: They dropped on every side as thunderstruck. One of them cried aloud.
We besought God in her behalf, and he turned her heaviness into joy. A second being in same agony, we called upon God for her also, and he spoke peace into her soul. In the evening I was again pressed in spirit to declare that “Christ gave himself a ransom for all.” And almost before we called upon him to set his seal, he answered. One was so wounded by the word 
of the Spirit, that you would have imagined she could not live a moment. But immediately his abundant kindness was showed, and she loudly sang of his righteousness.

Prayer

Lord, we pray for the youth and the students in our land—the next generation. Let them hear the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. violently apprehend them with your deep and enduring love. Show them tangible evidence of your abundant kindness. Set them free from bondage, adopt them into your family, the family of God, that they might receive a spirit of adoption, crying “Abba, Father.” You did it in the Methodist awakening. Do it again, we pray!

120 Wesley, J. Journal, April 21-26th 1739 , Vol 1, 187–189.