Although well read in the Bible, Roberts had only minimal education and, at the age of eleven, began work in the coal mines. Always something of a contemplative, Roberts lived in a world where God, heaven and spiritual powers were very real to him and he spent hours in prayer, enjoying fellowship with God. For eleven years he prayed for a new revival and spoke of how, in a vision, he had seen a piece of paper with the figure of 100,000 written on it; the number of souls who would be saved.