DAY 7

MORNING

PSALMS 35–36

Psalm 36:8 “You give them drink from your river of delights.”

“My Heart was Strangely Warmed”

John Wesley had written in his Journal on the day of his conversion “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”64 This Reformation truth that by grace we are saved through faith had deeply impacted John Wesley’s heart. Some call it Wesley’s evangelical conversion, others see in it a complete turning-point in
 his life, experientially, psychologically and theologically.65 One biographer devotes a chapter of almost one hundred pages to what he calls “the conversion”, in which “theory had become fact, expectation had become fulfilment, desire had become possession”.66 Dean Carpenter considers it “One of the three most momentous conversions in Christian history,67 along with those of Paul and Augustine.”

Before Wesley could preach the Good News of the Gospel to England he needed to receive it himself, and this had now happened. He preached a gospel of grace. Scores of entries in his Journal are simply a variation on
 that theme. “I offered the grace of God ... I offered the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... I proclaimed the name of the Lord ... I proclaimed Christ crucified ... I proclaimed the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ... I proclaimed free salvation ... I declared the free grace of God ... I exhorted the wicked to forsake his way ... I began to call sinners to repentance ... I invited all guilty helpless sinners.”68 Wesley’s preaching to the poor in England was a river of grace. Wesley had felt the grace of God himself and later it was his desire that his audience would not just hear it, but feel it too. His biographer says, “It was his burning preoccupation”. After preaching in Edinburgh many years later Wesley said “I am amazed at this people ... use the most cutting words, and apply them in the most pointed manner, still they hear, but feel no more than the seats they sit on.”69

Prayer

Lord, we pray for a new spiritual thirst and a new spiritual hunger in our land. Have mercy on the lost, those who are completely unchurched. Lord, let them drink from your river of delights. Pour out a river of grace on our land. Just as John Wesley felt the depths of YOUR love in the depths of HIS heart and went on to preach a gospel of grace to the minds and the hearts of a poor and needy nation, do it again Lord.

64 Wesley, J. Journal, 103.


65 Davies, R. Methodism, 57–60.


66 Schmidt, M, John Wesley: a theological Biography, Vol 1, 263.


67 Carpenter, S.C. Eighteenth Century Church and People, 197.


68 Wesley, J. Journal 174 4th April, 1739, vol III 429, 15th September, 1749, 444, 24th October 1749, vol IV, 202, 17th April 1757, vol III, 281, 24th February, 1747, vol 11, 185, 29th April 1739, vol IV, 56, 28th March, 1753, vol III, 334, 21st February, 1748, 88 30th September, 1783.


69 Skevington-Wood, A. The burning heart, 150.

DAY 7

EVENING

PSALM 37

Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Inspired by the Primitive Church

The term ‘Early Church’ meant the church of the first three or four centuries for Anglicans in the 18th century. The term ‘primitive Church’ for Anglicans meant the Church of the New Testament period. Following Aldersgate, Wesley focused more and more upon 'the primitive Church'.70 In Wesley’s sermon ‘The Mystery of iniquity’71 he said:

Persecution never did, never could give any lasting wound to genuine Christianity. But the greatest it ever received, the grand blow which was struck at the very root of that humble, gentle, patient love, which is the fulfilling of the Christian law was struck in the fourth century by Constantine the Great, when he called himself a Christian and poured in a flood of riches, honour and power upon the Christians more especially upon the clergy ... Just so, when the fear of persecution was removed and wealth and honour attended the Christian profession, the Christians did not gradually sink but rushed headlong into all manner of vices ... and this is the event, which most Christian expositors mention with such triumph! ... Rather it was the coming of Satan and all his legions from the bottomless pit: seeing from that very time he hath set up his throne over the face of the whole earth, and reigned over the Christian as well as the pagan world with hardly any control! ... Such has been the deplorable state of the Christian church from the time of Constantine to the Reformation. A Christian nation, a Christian city (according to the scriptural model) was nowhere to be seen; but every city and country a few individuals excepted, was plunged in all manner of wickedness.72 Wesley believed the Church of England as 
he knew it was as fallen as was Christianity generally.73 His dream was of the restoration of primitive Christianity. In larger measure he saw many elements of new Christianity restored: anointed preaching of the Gospel, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, large numbers coming to faith and many healed and restored from the oppression of the enemy.

Prayer

Lord, we cry out to you that you would come and do a new thing in our land today. We thank you for changing the spiritual landscape in the 18th century England through a life laid down for you, Lord Jesus. We pray for anointed preaching, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, healing and deliverance AGAIN. We delight in you, Lord Jesus. We yield to your sovereign purpose for our nation today and say come and renew us by your Spirit. Pour out your Spirit on us, today!

70 Snyder, H. The Radical Wesley, 80-81.


71 Wesley, J. Mystery of Iniquity, LX1, 253.

72 Wesley, J. Volume VI, 246–247.


73 Snyder, H. The Radical Wesley, 81.