Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Reliving the spirit of the Moravian movement

By Austen C. Ukachi
09 July 2017   |   2:10 am
History is a great teacher, if only we can leverage on the lessons it teaches us. The Moravian revival of 13th August 1727 has come and gone, but the spirit of the movement lives on.

Ukachi

History is a great teacher, if only we can leverage on the lessons it teaches us. The Moravian revival of 13th August 1727 has come and gone, but the spirit of the movement lives on. There are four main areas the Church can leverage on and re-enact the successes of the Moravians. First was their tenacity and commitment to raise a 24/7 prayer altar in line with Leviticus 6:13. Second was their mission emphasis to the nations. Third, was the lesson of their motto, which says, “The Lamb has conquered, let us follow him.” Fourth, was their adoration of the Lamb of God, which inspired them to go out on selfless missionary service.

The Holy Spirit outpouring among the Moravian brethren awakened the spirit of prayer within the community. The Lord told them to start a 24/7 prayer altar in line with Leviticus 6:13. They held on tenaciously to this command and prayed ceaselessly for 100 years. The spirit of prayer was not just for the adults of the community, but even spread to the children as well. The children were also touched by God and were actively involved in daily prayers. The children’s prayers and supplications had a powerful effect on the whole community. Many Christians have adopted the practice of the Moravians in different ways.

A lot of prayer goes on in the Church in Nigeria, but much of it is self-centred and selfish; they are not Kingdom based prayers. The distorted emphasis in our prayer is the reason we have not seen any revival or transformation in our society. The Church needs to return to a Christ-centred and Kingdom focused prayer.

Second, the modern missionary movement draws a lot of inspiration from the Moravians. As a follow up to their prayers, the Moravians sent out missionaries to several locations in the world. They were seized with a missionary passion that never left them. Zinzendorf, their leader said, “I have but one passion—it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field, and the field is the world, and henceforth that country shall be my home, where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.”  By 1832, they had 42 Moravian Mission Stations around the world. By 1882, they had a total of 2, 158 missionaries across the globe. Where would the world have been today, but for the efforts of missionaries, who spanned out across the globe since the 18th century. The Church needs to rediscover the vision and spirit of missions.

The third legacy of the Moravians is their motto. “The Lamb has conquered, let us follow him.” Their motto gave voice to the victory of the lamb at the cross of Calvary. Truly, Jesus has conquered His enemies at the cross of Calvary. He conquered Satan (Rev.5: 6); He conquered sin (Rom 6:6); Jesus conquered death (Heb.2: 14-15); and He conquered the world (John 16:33). Now, He has given us the authority to go and spread the news of His victory to the world. The challenge is how far we have followed the leading of the Lamb of God.

The fourth legacy of the Moravians was their adoration of the Lamb. To the Moravians, the Lamb of God and His sacrifice deserves their total submission. The Church needs to emphasise the sacrifice of the Lamb on the cross of Calvary. A historian once wrote, “If we would have emulated the spirit of the Moravians in the 18th century, Christianity would be much further advanced today.” This is the essence of this article. Contact: pastoracukachi@gmail.com

In this article

0 Comments