During a visit to Germany and preparations for the Berlin Prayer Initiative in 1997, I had an unusual visionary experience during the night in which I saw pin pricks of light approaching amidst great darkness. As they got closer, I could see that they were warriors with burning swords that began to cut through the dark canopy overhead. I then heard the words, “These are the intercessors” and afterwards “New Reformation.” A few days later, I received a communication from a mission leader that had also visited Europe, in which he was calling Christians in Europe to pray and work for a “New Reformation”! As you must know, 2017 is the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation and there are a number of celebrations and observances being planned there and elsewhere. Why don’t we pray for a New Reformation, not just for Europe but for our whole world?

Two years ago, a German prayer leader friend and I visited Herrnhut, the small village in SE Germany where Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians began a prayer chain in the 18^th century that went on for over 100 years and sent out about 300 missionaries. They were the first Protestants to go to the ends of the earth with the Gospel for the unreached. Herrnhut means “The Lord’s Watch”, an identity that was dusted off and revived a few years ago when some local believers there started up a 24/7 prayer chain once again!

During our visit, we joined the local church for their Sunday service and as we worshipped, I noticed lovely young children dancing so freely and un-self consciously in the presence of the Lord directly in front of us. Putting aside his own sermon, the pastor asked my colleague and me to share and pray fatherly blessings over the whole congregation. I felt moved to pray that from this fabled place a new and great revival would flow out to Germany, Europe and beyond. 

A couple of the Moravian descendants later took us to the local cemetery where we stood amongst the 6000 graves of Count Zinzendorf and the godly saints who prayed in "the Lord's watch" from 1727 for 100 years. I was deeply moved to hear about the children of that day who went out in the fields in the night and cried out to the Lord. Adults in neighboring homes tried to get them to shut up; however, they were irrepressible and kept on praying! These same Moravian children who cried out to God in the fields at night later went out as the first Protestant missionaries, many of them never coming back to their homeland but laying their lives down for the Lord among the unreached peoples. Others returned and are buried here. The women who were guiding us around showed us those graves and those of Zinzendorf and his family.

I felt the Lord stirring me that this ground still has powerful, earned spiritual authority, so that like the ancient prophets did, they could pray, speaking out things that the Spirit puts in their mouths for the revival and transformation of nations and it will happen. Adding to this conviction, I was told that in 1989 a prayer gathering in Herrnhut with hundreds of German intercessors had proclaimed with faith and authority the end of the Berlin Wall. It obediently came down soon after they were praying this! Indeed, as one theologian affirmed, history belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being! 

Germany has been an engine of periodic revival in its history, not only as the home of the Reformation in the 16^th century but also the great Pietist revival that swept through the country in the 17^th century. Count Zinzendorf was the product of Pietism, an awakening focusing on prayer and Bible study in home gatherings that brought many dead Lutheran churches to life. Prepared as he was by one revival, Zinzendorf welcomed the persecuted Moravians to his estate and became the vehicle for another one that impacted the rest of the world so deeply from such a small rural village. Wow!

Could it be that in our day the Lord is getting ready to unleash another awesome revival through united prayer that will impact the world in social transformation and mission breakthrough like the one that flowed out of 18^th century Herrnhut? New united prayer movements have arisen in recent years within Europe and globally, and I believe we are all asking God to do that very thing. The role of the children and youth will of course once again be crucial; therefore we need to support and empower them in every way we can so they can take their places in both the prayer and mission movements in every nation on earth.

Towards the end of seeing such transformational revival and mission breakthrough in the nations, we in the IPC along with other prayer and mission leaders (about 120) will meet in Herrnhut, May 8-12, to pray, deliberate and strategize together. Would you please join with us over the coming weeks and during those crucial days we will be together in that historic place of prayer, revival and mission. Would you please pray that our world will be blessed once again with a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit that affects Germany, Europe, and beyond?

The Lord stands ready to transform not just individuals but also nations, regions, indeed our whole world, when His people pray with faith and expectation that He will answer. “According to your faith, it will be to you”, He said.

John Robb

IPC Chairman