When I heard of the Hebrides Revival this week I looked it up on YouTube and found this video that looks like it was made in the 90s. Crazy stories:

• Two sisters in their eighties, one completely blind and one with arthritis, received a vision from God about young people filling the churches (there were none at the time; you’d get in trouble for wearing the wrong color shoes!) so they began to pray
• “People all over the islands had the sense that God was telling them to ‘ask Me for revival.’ This was a divinely orchestrated movement to petition God for revival.”
• “20,000 converts during the first five weeks”
• “75% of those saved during the Hebrides Revival were saved before they came to church”
• A church meeting in one town, and hundreds falling under conviction at a town several miles away
• A family comes to Christ, and the Holy Spirit simultaneously falls on the daughter in London
• “Several police courts became idle, with no cases to try.”

What if Whole Peoples Came to Christ?

Jesus didn’t say, “Make disciples in all nations.” He said, “Make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Both the Greek ethne (nations) and Aramaic ‘ammamē (peoples) point to distinct groups with their own land, shared identity, and spiritual allegiance.

Jesus isn’t calling us to just reach our individual friends. He was calling us to disciple entire peoples—to bring whole communities under His reign and rule.

Somewhere along the way, we shrank the gospel—from discipling peoples to saving individuals. We started thinking in terms of souls instead of societies, persons instead of peoples.

What if we believed what Jesus actually said?

1. God Deals with Peoples

From the very beginning, God worked with peoples, not just individuals. Back in the day, a “nation” or “people” could have been 50,000 to 500,000 people. Think of that when you pray for your city.

• Genesis 12:2–3 – God promises Abraham that he will become a great nation, and through him all peoples on earth will be blessed.
• Exodus 19:6 – Israel is called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation—a collective identity under God.
• Deuteronomy 32:8–9 – God assigns nations their boundaries and portions according to His purposes.
• The prophets consistently addressed entire nations—Israel, Judah, Egypt, Assyria, Moab—not just individuals.
• In Jonah 3, the entire city of Nineveh repents. It wasn’t just a few personal conversions—it was a collective turning to God.

2. Jesus Deals with Peoples

Jesus didn’t come to reduce God’s mission to individual salvation. He came to extend the kingdom of God to all peoples.

• Matthew 11:20–24 – He rebukes whole cities that rejected Him.
• Luke 19:41–44 – He weeps over Jerusalem, grieving a people’s blindness.
• Matthew 25:31–46 – He speaks of nations being judged, not just individuals.
• Matthew 28:18-20 – He gives His final command: “Disciple all nations”—all peoples. This was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and the expansion of Israel’s priestly calling to the world.

Jesus didn’t just care about individuals—He cared about cities, generations, regions. What if God will judge your city as a whole? You know how the best player in the league doesn’t win MVP unless the team does well? What if your city is your team—not just your church. We’re supposed to help them all win.

3. Revivals Come to Peoples

God hasn’t stopped working at the scale of peoples. Time and again, He has moved in ways that reshape entire communities.

• The Great Awakenings (18th–19th centuries) didn’t just convert individuals—they shaped laws, education, economies, and public life across England and America
• The Welsh Revival (1904–1905) brought an entire society under conviction—taverns closed, crime dropped, and hymn singing filled the mines
• The Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909) ignited a Spirit-filled movement that crossed nations and cultures, shaping millions globally to this day.

Jesus is more than willing to bring us the nations to disciple. But we’re structured for like 5% growth, our grandkids getting baptized, or a few of our friends getting saved. If your city turned to God, how would the churches disciple them?

Let’s Pray for Peoples

Even though most of us haven’t seen it with our own eyes, yet we can choose to still believe.

• Because Jesus is King of Kings: Jesus Christ, who is… the ruler of the kings of the earth. – Rev 1:5
• Like Paul prayed for Israel: Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. – Ro 10:1 and all Israel will be saved – Ro 11:26
• Like Jesus cared about his city: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together – Luke 13:34
• For this kind of result: This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord – Acts 19:10 and The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. – Acts 13:49

Prayer initiatives seem to be rising up all around. Could we be in a Hebrides moment? Let’s pray Bible-size prayers. Let’s expect Bible story results.