ONCE AGAIN

In October a group of Christians from a number of churches in Cambridge will be gathering to pray regularly on Thursday nights from 7.30-9.30pm. This group is seeking the Lord to build a house of prayer for the nations in Cambridge with a focus on night and day prayer. In October we will be praying through the 150 psalms, using this 30 day devotional and praying in particular for a national awakening in our land once again, particularly mindful that it was in Oxford that the Lord moved powerfully over 250 years ago in raising up John Wesley, some biographers suggest in direct answer to the prayers of Latimer and Ridley in 1555.

John Foxe in his ‘Book of Martyrs’, records Ridley’s words to Latimer as they were being burnt at the stake, on 16th October 1555 as ‘ Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’ Foxe also records Latimer’s prayers in the Tower of London, shortly before this, while he awaited execution. He prayed, ‘that God of his mercy would restore His Gospel to England once again; and these words ‘once again, once again he did so beat into the ears of the Lord God, as though he had seen God before him, and spoken to Him face to face.’ Just under two centuries later, John Wesley’s heart was strangely warmed at a quarter to nine at Aldersgate on 24th May in 1738, when he heard Luther’s Preface to Romans being read aloud. Latimer’s prayers were being answered.

Wesley’s evangelistic zeal led him to travel on horseback a quarter of a million miles, and the Gospel was preached in England, once again . This 30 devotional is aimed to remind us of how the Lord answered Latimer’s prayer through the life of John Wesley, when his heart was strangely warmed at Aldersgate. Skevington –Wood in his classic biography of Wesley says ‘The kindling was to be felt throughout the land as a consequence. It was indeed a strange warmth, as Wesley so accurately analysed it, for he was not a man given to emotional impressions. That this should happen to him of all people was sufficient to attest it as a work of supernatural grace’ As a boy John Wesley had nearly died in a fire at his father’s rectory in Epworth. He referred to himself in the words of scripture as “a brand plucked out of the fire.” Zechariah 3:2.

‘The symbolism of fire links the upper room in Aldersgate Street with the blazing parsonage at Epworth. The brand plucked from the burning had now found his destiny. Henceforth the flame within would carry him throughout the land to ignite the tinder of revival. “Guarding the holy fire; that was what he was doing” writes Prof Bonamy Dobree. He was himself a flame going up and down the land, lighting such candles as by God’s grace would never be put out; and as one reads (Wesley’s) colossal journal one gets the impression of this flame, never waning, never smoky, darting from point to point, lighting up the whole kingdom, till in due course it burnt out the body it inhabited.”

•We remind you Lord of the prayer of Latimer in the Tower of London. In your mercy, restore your Gospel to England once again. Latimer and Ridley followed you to a martyrs death. Stir yourself to act Lord. Remember Latimer and Ridley, Lord…. and ‘Let the candle of your Gospel burn brightly across this land once again. Pour out your spirit again! And as the House of Prayer in Cambridge begins this season of prayer we pray particularly for Oxford that you would pour out your spirit on that city ONCE AGAIN. Raise up evangelists like Wesley, in Oxford to ignite the tinder of revival…once again, Lord!