“How desperate are we for another historic revival?”
Pastor Lawrence Khong – the closing speaker at PraySingapore on October 7, 2018 – began his segment by showing a video of Billy Graham’s 1978 series of evangelistic rallies here in Singapore.
“In 1978, at the Billy Graham rallies, about 3% of the population of Singapore had an encounter with God and opened their heart to Jesus Christ. Many of them are pastors in churches today,” said the Senior Pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church.
“How desperate are we for another revival? Are we filled with a sense of divine discontent? Is there an inner cry of mourning deep within our hearts for a genuine, God-sent revival?
“Do we want to see another visitation of God in Singapore – greater than in 1978?”
Pastor Khong then opened the Bible to the book of 2 Kings, which sees Israel facing an impending threat of destruction from the Assyrians. Jehoash, a wicked king of Israel, went to the prophet Elisha for counsel.
Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.” (2 Kings 13:18-19)
According to Pastor Khong, Elisha definitely knew what Jehoash was doing: “In ancient warfare, it would take more than 3 battles to strike a decisive blow. It would take 5 or 6 decisive wins to destroy the enemy completely. But Jehoash only struck 3 the ground times.
“Where was the desire for victory? Where was the hunger? Perhaps he was battle-weary. After all the battles he had fought, maybe 3 more battles was all he could handle.”
The problem, according to Pastor Khong, was half-heartedness.
How desperate are we for another historic revival?
Scanning the thousands dressed in red at the National Stadium, Pastor Khong declared: “Today, God has miraculously gathered a great company here to strike the ground for a spiritual revival and for the shalom of Singapore.”
He added: “This is a miracle, and I believe God is pleased!
“God is asking, how hungry are we for revival, for a fresh visitation in this land? Will we stop at 3? 10? 100? What if it takes more than that?
“God says: Show me your heart of desperation. Show me your heart of discontent at the status quo. Show me how passionate and how desperate you are for revival.”
Finally, Pastor Khong then got the attendees to strike their PraySingapore clappers in unison – symbolically striking and claiming Singapore’s destiny.
He then led the attendees in a prayer of repentance on behalf of the land, and invited God to have His way here in Singapore – pleading for revival to come.
Shouting above the claps reverberating throughout the stadium, Pastor Khong urged the church to imagine the Sports Hub packed for all 3 days of Celebration of Hope, the evangelistic event that will take place in May 2019: “Can you see people coming down from every corner of the stadium? There’s going to be a mighty harvest!”
