He was a twenty-six-year-old Welsh coal miner when God called him to do something very similar to what Daniel did centuries before. I should mention that many other believers had been praying similar prayers for years. But he was the vessel God chose to use in 1904.
His name was Evan Roberts. He was raised in a Calvinistic Methodist home. He worked in the coal mines with his father, then later worked for his uncle as a blacksmith. He was very devout and known to be a man of prayer. While studying for the ministry at Newcastle Emlyn he attended a service held by evangelist Seth Joshua and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He returned to his hometown, hoping for an opportunity to preach the gospel. His pastor did not let him preach on Sunday or at the Monday prayer meeting. So, Roberts just attended the prayer meetings and let God begin using him to minister extemporaneously. People responded to his ministry so well that he began ministering night after night, with people staying up until early in the morning.
Years of prayer had built up and, in God’s time, there was an explosion of conversions, vibrant preaching and singing, and a manifestation of the Gifts of the Spirit. Over 30,000 people were said to have converted within a few month’s time. Over the next year or so it is estimated that 100,000 people made a commitment to Christ. Not only that, but five years later, 80 percent of the converts were still attending church.
The social changes in Wales were drastic. Bars were nearly empty, judges had no cases to prosecute, and policemen were laid off, for lack of work. Illegitimate births dropped 44 percent within a year. Some even claimed that since the miners cleaned up their language and stopped cursing, the horses slowed down and mining productivity declined.
This move of God was so exceptional that people began travelling from all over the world to Wales to see what was taking place. The Welch revival had a direct influence on what would become the Asuza St. Revival in America. This revival was the beginning of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement which has changed the Christian community.
Looking back at how it all started, some have pointed to a prayer that Roberts prayed as that young Bible student. Keep in mind that Roberts was devout, and God had stirred his faith in several ways. For example, he told several people that he had experienced visitations from the Holy Spirit where he saw “all Wales being lifted up to Heaven.” On another occasion he asked his roommate, who would later be his brother-in-law, if he believed that God could give them 100,000 souls. That lead to the now famous three-word prayer that he began to pray: “Lord bend us.” Those three words describe introspective prayer perfectly.
Can we sincerely pray those three words “Lord bend us?” Do we care enough about what he is doing to change what we are doing? Can we be introspective enough to let Him take things out of our hearts that don’t align with what He is doing? If so, we can expect amazing results, even though we are in the middle of a world-wide pandemic.