NEWS FEATURE: Bill Bright hosts nationwide prayer, fasting event

c. 1998 Religion News Service HOUSTON _ Four years ago, a 40-day fast upended Bill Bright’s understanding of how God would use him and other Christians to bring revival to America. Each spring since then, Bright, an evangelical leader for almost 50 years, has fasted again. He believes the biblical model for holiness _ seeking […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

HOUSTON _ Four years ago, a 40-day fast upended Bill Bright’s understanding of how God would use him and other Christians to bring revival to America.

Each spring since then, Bright, an evangelical leader for almost 50 years, has fasted again. He believes the biblical model for holiness _ seeking God’s face in prayer and fasting _ is the best path to personal righteousness and global evangelism.


On Thursday (Nov. 12), Bright will do it again, hosting a national three-day”Fasting and Prayer `98,”event, based in Houston but linked by satellite in an ambitious”virtual prayer meeting”connecting the Houston gathering with church sites and prayer groups across the country.

With leaders like Bright and Promise Keepers’ Bill McCartney at the helm, evangelicals across the country believe they are seeing a nation on the brink of a spiritual revival.

At the same time, national woes _ including the moral and ethical scandals plaguing the Clinton administration and Congress _ fuel the fervor for revival and are bringing thousands of evangelicals together in groups large and small for prayer, fasting and evangelizing.

The Houston event, to be simulcast in English and Spanish, will be convened by some of the nation’s most respected evangelicals _ including Bright and McCartney, but also the Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.

Other leaders speaking during the meeting are Paul Cedar, chairman of Mission America; Bishop Wellington Boone, a Promise Keepers speaker and head of Wellington Boone Ministries; and Kay Arthur, an internationally known Bible teacher and founder of Precept Ministries.

Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951, is at the forefront of the prayer and fasting movement, which he and others hope will woo a wayward America back to its religious roots.”I have spent over 47 years in evangelism. I’ve spent thousands of hours with our staff in strategy and planning sessions,” said Bright, who turned 77 last month (Oct. 19).

But, he said, only after he turned to prayer and fasting _ drinking only water and juice each day _ did he really began listening to how God wanted things done.”If you follow the logic of this, you come to the conclusion that if the Great Commission (evangelizing the world) is going to be fulfilled, it will be done God’s way,” Bright said.”Therefore it is more important that my heart be right with God than that I be a great evangelist or great strategist. … The power and wisdom of man is so small compared to the incredible and awesome power of God.”


He said his goal has always been to build strong disciples, or Christians with enough faith, biblical knowledge and zeal to prompt others to a conversion experience.

In American history, it took that sort of energy to prompt earlier periods of great spiritual fervor, commonly known as”great awakenings.”Most historians date the first one in the first half of the 18th century and the second in the early 19th century.

Such movements always have begun with a significant prayer movement, said Jerry Wiles, chairman of the Houston Committee for Fasting and Prayer `98.”I think this is another sign of the many signs that we’re on the verge of another Great Awakening,” Wiles said, comparing the revival of 1726 in America to the current growth of fasting and prayer among evangelicals.”Many of us are praying that will happen. We have not had a national revival in America in 150 years.” Bright said fasting is an essential seed for revival.”When you spend time with the God of the universe, something absolutely incredible happens,” he said. Despite years of Bible study, private prayer and devotions, he said, his life has been different since his first 40-day fast.

It initiated in his life an intimacy with God that has deepened each year since, he said.”First of all, no one can spend a protracted, extended period of 2-to-3 days, or 40 days (fasting and praying) without something wonderful happening,”Bright said.”It’s just like in a human relationship. You spend time together, you talk to each other, there’s a bonding.”You do that in all earnestness for a few days, certainly for 40 days, and the old master ego that can destroy us _ it’s the key to all temptations _ becomes crucified with Christ. The way to overcome that powerful attraction and the demand of the ego is to spend time with God.” Wiles takes the concept of fasting one more step.”If people can’t fast from food, then they can fast from TV, entertainment, special events,”he said.”I think the Lord honors that if our goal is to have (time for) a more intimate, personal relationship with God.” Previous annual Fasting and Prayer gatherings have been held in Orlando, Los Angeles and other cities. Wiles, who has fasted for 40 days and participated in the national sessions, said the earlier meetings and other trends are bringing momentum to the movement as the millennium nears.

While denominational differences still divide at the organizational level, the linkages provided by such events as the Houston gathering can create personal relationships and community partnerships, Wiles said.”Believers across denominational lines are coming to realize fasting is a part of the spiritual discipline that has been neglected,”Wiles said.

DEA END RNS

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