Andrew Murray: The Revival He Tried to Stop

Vintage portrait of Andrew Murray, the South African pastor and author of Abide in Christ, who witnessed the 1860 Worcester revival
07/29/2026|Rodney Coe|, ,

The prayer meeting would not quiet down. Sixty young people were crying out to God at once in a little stone church in Worcester, South Africa, and the new pastor did what most of us would do. He tried to take control. Then a visitor touched his arm with a warning. Be careful what you do, for it is the Spirit of God at work here. That moment changed Andrew Murray forever, and it can change the way you walk with God today.

The Night Andrew Murray Tried to Stop a Revival

The year was 1860, and the revival Murray’s missionary father had prayed for across many Friday evenings had finally come. Murray stepped back and watched God work. The meetings ran night after night. Hardened men wept over their sins, and prayer spread from town to town across the colony. Murray later called it the mightiest work of God he ever witnessed. If you have been reading our Where Heaven Came Down stories, you already know the pattern. Sometimes the most spiritual thing a believer can do is get out of the way.

What Two Years of Silence Taught Him

In 1879 Murray’s throat failed, and doctors ordered nearly two years of total silence. One of the most gifted preachers alive could not preach a single sermon. In that stillness he learned the lesson that would fill his books. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). Fruit flows from connection to the vine. When his voice returned, Murray wrote Abide in Christ, With Christ in the School of Prayer, Humility, and Absolute Surrender, feeding believers for more than a century. Others have walked that path of forced quiet too. Charles Spurgeon preached through depression his whole life. Christmas Evans had to ride into the mountains to get his fire back. God has a classroom of silence for every servant He plans to use.

How to Abide When You Cannot Perform

Maybe you are holding something with a white-knuckled grip. A ministry that must succeed. A child you cannot fix. Andrew Murray learned to open his hands, first before a moving of the Spirit and later in a season of forced quiet. You can abide today. Sit with the Lord before you strategize. Pray before you push. Let the life of the vine produce what your effort never could.

God still works when we surrender control. He worked in a crowded church in Worcester, and He will work in you.

And that, friend, is how God lifts up your day.

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