John Hyde: An example of an intercessor for revival – Part 25

John Hyde is an example of an intercessor that prayed down revival in the Punjab area of India. His dedication to the word of God and to intercession for revival and lost souls is a challenge to our self-seeking generation that is so steeped in materialism and the social media and careless about praying for revival.

John Hyde, also called “Praying Hyde,” was the son of a devout Presbyterian pastor from Illinois by the name of John Nelson Hyde. Once John’s older brother, Edmund, heard his father fervently pray that God would send workers into the harvest. That motivated Edmund to enroll into the seminary, with the intention of being one of the labourers at the harvest field. But it wasn’t long before he became ill, and his dream was cut short by his death. It was then that his brother, John, caught the vision and studied to go to the mission field in Punjab, India.

According to Steve Porter, “In 1904, a group made up of Indian converts and American missionaries led by John Hyde, united at Sialkot (now known as Pakistan) for the first annual convention of the Punjab Prayer Union.

Participants set aside half an hour each day to pray for revival, and the result was a stunning anointing that fell upon them all. Each year thereafter the group gathered to fast and fervently pray for the lost.

Hyde supervised the prayer sessions, and those involved were astonished at his vision, discernment and incredible burden for souls.

Then in 1908, Hyde was inspired to pray for the impossible: the salvation of at least one convert each day in India. God answered this prayer with an enthusiastic “yes,” and by the end of the first year, 365 converts had been added to the Kingdom. Then he began to pray for two souls a day, and as a result 800 responded to the Gospel that year. Yet he wasn’t satisfied; he still wanted more.

When the 1910 convention gathered, those nearby were dumbfounded by Hyde’s faith and the way he prayed, as he demanded, “Give me souls, oh God, or I die!” During that session he shared his latest vision, that he was again doubling his goal; he wanted four souls a day and would accept no less. By then he had acquired the name “Praying Hyde,” and revivals in major Indian metro areas sought to engage his prayer efforts. In fact, there was such a tremendous weight on his spirit when the numbers didn’t add up, that he couldn’t eat or sleep until he had prayed it through and felt God move in response. As a result, the numbers continued to multiply exponentially.”

God’s vision to John Hyde transcended the Punjab region; it extended to his global Church. Steve records that before his death, he wrote the following: “On the day of prayer, God gave me a new experience. I seemed to be away above our conflict here in the Punjab and I saw God’s great battle in all India, and then away out beyond in China, Japan, and Africa. I saw how we had been thinking in narrow circles of our own countries and in our own denominations, and how God was now rapidly joining force-to-force and line-to-line, and all was beginning to be one great struggle.

That, to me, means the great triumph of Christ. We must exercise the greatest care to be utterly obedient to Him who sees all the battlefield all the time.” Contact:pastoracukachi@gmail.com