A simple invitation to pray - 1898, Moody Bible Institute
It was just a simple invitation to pray that led a small group of people in 1898 to meet on Saturday evenings from 9 to 10 for prayer. They met at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to cry out for an awakening. Within a short time, the group grew to 300 passionate intercessors. A few members remained to agonize and intercede into the early hours one Sunday morning.
R. A. Torrey joined this small group to pray for a worldwide revival. During that intense intercession, Torrey asked God to send him around the world. Within a week of the close of the prayer meeting, two strangers approached Torrey and asked him to come to Melbourne, Australia to preach. These two men had left Australia months before in search of a man that they believed God would use to bring revival to their nation. Upon meeting Torrey, they felt they had found God’s man.
The result of that Chicago prayer meeting was an invitation for Torrey to come to Australia. Torrey arrived in Australia in 1902. 15,000 tried to pack themselves into the meeting hall. It is estimated that Torrey and his partner Alexander led over 100,000 souls into the Kingdom of God.
All this had its beginning in Chicago with a small group of people praying, “Revive thy work, Oh Lord!” May God raise up such prayer warriors in our day who will daily cry out, ” REVIVE THEY WORK, OH LORD!”