Just before the outbreak of the First World War, the Spirit of God began moving upon a young Gaelic-speaking lad from the Highlands of Scotland and preparing him for ministry in the kingdom of God. One evening while he was playing “the pipes” for a dance outside of Oban, the Holy Spirit sovereignly convicted him of his sin and sent him fleeing from the noisy crowd.

No one seemed to understand his sudden disappearance. He fled for home, ran into the barn, fell face forward in the straw, and cried out to Heaven, “God, I do not know how to come. I know not what to do, but if You will save me as I am, I’m coming now!” God answered in a mighty way and young Duncan Campbell rose from the floor of the barn as a totally new man in Christ. Of that experience, he later wrote, “God did a sovereign and supernatural work and set me gloriously free. I believe that I can honestly say that godliness – godliness – characterized every part of my being, body, soul, and spirit, in that wonderful experience.”

Duncan would desperately need the memory of that night later in France when he lay dying on a World War I battlefield. Severely wounded and unable to move out of the path of a charging cavalry, he was kicked in the spine by a horse. Finally, the young soldier was retrieved from the field, strapped across the back of horse, and carried to a distant army hospital. The pain was incredible. Again he prayed, not just for healing, but also for holiness.

From his operating table, he cried out to God in his Gaelic tongue, “Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be!” Though his prayers, shouted in Scottish, could not be understood by another person around him, the cry brought the power of God into the room and seven other men were wonderfully converted. While the medics worked on his body, God continued the work of grace in his heart. When Duncan finally left the hospital, he was aflame with God’s anointing to preach the Gospel.

As one who knew God in the experience of life, the truth of the Scripture, and the power of the Holy Spirit, Duncan soon became one of the most sought-after ministers in the British Isles. He was a frequent conference speaker, and like the early disciples, God “confirmed His word with signs following”. As a young preacher, Duncan learned to recognize the Shepherd’s voice and he quickly learned to obey. During a time of great crisis in his life, he sought God for a fresh empowering; that prayer resulted in his receiving the baptism of the Spirit. This encounter with the Holy Spirit went beyond all of his expectations. Of it, he said, “…As I lay there, God, the Holy Ghost, came upon me. Wave after wave came rolling over me until the love of God swept through me like a mighty river! …I was so wrought upon by the Holy Ghost that I cried and laughed and prayed.”

Campbell’s obedience was thoroughly tested one evening as he sat on the platform of the Bangor Convention, Britain’s largest Christian gathering, where he was scheduled as the final speaker. Suddenly, his friend – the Holy Spirit – spoke again. It was a shocking message; one that Duncan would have postponed if he could. He was instructed to leave the Convention immediately and go to the tiny island of Berneray. Over the protests of his leaving the Convention early, Campbell went anyway. He flew first to Glasgow, then to Stornoway, and then traveled by car to the ferry that would take him to the island. Arriving at Berneray uninvited, and unannounced, Duncan discovered that both of the island’s churches were closed and that there was no minister among the 500 inhabitants. Stopping a lad, he inquired if there was a church elder still living on the island. When he learned that there was, Duncan sent the boy to the elder with the message: “Duncan Campbell has arrived”. A few minutes later the boy returned saying, “Hecktor McKennon was expecting you to arrive today and you are to stay with his brother. He asked me to tell you that he has called a meeting at the church at nine o’clock tonight and he expects you to address it.”

Duncan fully understood what was happening; God was working, and that night the Holy Spirit fell on the hilly island of Berneray! During the evening sermon nothing dramatic occurred; but at eleven o’clock, as the congregation was walking home, the main body of the people winding down the slopes 300 yards below them, Hector McKennon suddenly jerked Duncan to a halt. He snatched off his hat, “Stand, Mr. Campbell. God has come! God has come! See what is happening!” Duncan looked toward the people and saw them falling among the heather and crying out to God. The wind of the Holy Spirit was blowing upon that Scottish hillside in such power that the people, unable to continue homeward, fell to the earth travailing in prayer and repentance until four o’clock the next morning. God came upon the island of Bereray and touched every family and household.

How had it happened? Hector McKennon was a man of prayer. Duncan Campbell was a man of obedience. And as Duncan love to preach, “God is a covenant-keeping God!” Hector McKennon had entered a covenant of prayer with the Lord for the reviving of his island. Specifically, he asked God to send Duncan Campbell to preach for them. He voiced that prayer the very day that Duncan was sitting on the platform of the Bangor Convention. Three times that day Hector’s wife had walked to the barn door where he had locked himself into pray. Each time she had heard him say, “I don’t know where he is Lord, but You know and You send him!” About ten o’clock that night Heaven answered Hector and the elder rushed out of the barn with full knowledge that Duncan Campbell would arrive the next evening. The townspeople were then notified. Now that is prayer! That is the prayer of faith! Hundreds of miles away, it moved Duncan Campbell from his chair at the Bangor Convention and threw a holy firebrand on the island of Berneray. “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,” says Campbell. Pray church, pray! Cry out for your own island of Berneray! And may God raise-up many more obedient servants like Duncan Campbell.