God Has His Ways

Charles was an avid student of the Bible and an evangelist that held powerful revival meetings and helped change the course of American Christianity. He truly was a man sold out. So much that over half of a million souls were converted through this one man’s ministry.

There’s a powerful story told of how in the spring of 1821, Charles was holding revival meetings in the Philadelphia area. Lumber stacks would float down the logs on the Delaware River from the hills and mountain regions of Pennsylvania to this area.

During that spring, several lumbermen came to hear Charles speak. Some were converted and then returned to the wilderness regions where there were no churches or schools.

They began to pray for an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, told others what they had seen and heard and began telling others that they needed salvation as well. Their efforts were blessed, and revival began to spread among the lumberjack camps. It continued to the extent that people would fall under conviction and be converted without having ever attended a church or heard a minister speak.

Some seemed to be very unlearned but were being drawn to this gospel message. In some cases, people would wander off just to inquire of what they should do to be saved because the pull of conviction was so strong on their hearts.

In the spring of 1829, three men from the lumber region came to inquire how they could get some ministers to come and help them. They said that there were more than 5,000 people who had been converted in an area of 80 miles of the wilderness region without ever hearing a minister speak of the gospel.

Only converted laymen spoke, yet thousands of lives changed. Charles Finney certainly made a difference, and you can, too.