145 Sermon Illustrations on Revival

“‘when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly ’” (v.24, NKJ)

— For reading & meditation: 2 Samuel 5:17-25

Having recognised the urgent need for revival, we must ask: Will we see another great spiritual awakening in our own day? I cannot say with certainty, but I most definitely feel so. There are clear signs that a revival is on the way, but before looking at them, pause with me to focus on the passage before us today. Soon after David had been made king over Israel he was threatened by the Philistines. His first concern was to find what God wanted him to do about it. After getting divine permission to proceed, he led a bold frontal attack that carried the day.

Later, however, the Philistines returned and took up the position that they had occupied before. Without presuming on past guidance David again sought God’s direction and obtained permission to attack. However, this time he was led to make a detour and take up a position behind the enemy, near the mulberry (or balsam) trees. God said: “When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then bestir yourself; for then has the Lord gone out before you, to smite the army of the Philistines” (v.24, Amplified Bible).

These two battles illustrate the difference between the normal activity of the Holy Spirit in the Church and the way He operates in revival. In the first we see David acting under God’s direction and with His enabling. In the second it is God who takes the field and David follows on behind gathering up the spoils of victory. We have witnessed for decades the normal operation of the Spirit; the time has now come to prepare for revival.

PRAYER:

O Father, quicken my faith to believe for an outpouring of the Spirit as great if not greater than at Pentecost. I want to live in Your Word and Your Word to live in me. Fill Your Church with Your glory – and let it overflow. In Jesus’ Name I ask it. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:

Psa. 85:1-13; Hab. 3:1-19

1. What was the psalmist’s prayer?

2. What was his expectation?

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” — (2 Peter 3:18)

— For reading & meditation: 2 Peter 3:10-18

We examine one more reason why some people regard revival as unnecessary and irrelevant — the fact that emotions kindled in revival are not unmixed spiritual experiences. Critics point out that revival brings to the fore not only the spiritual side of human nature but the baser and more carnal side too. Here again we must listen to the truth in this criticism before attempting to answer it.

It is true that in revival the spiritual is often mixed with the carnal. Williams put it like this: “When our soul came to taste the feasts of heaven, the flesh also insisted on having its share, and all the passions of nature aroused by grace were rioting tumultuously.” And this was at the high point of the Methodist revival when none can deny that the Holy Spirit was mightily at work. Revival does not abolish in one fell swoop human carnality or the defects of our nature.

In the years immediately following the great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost there were clear evidences of carnality at work. Paul’s letters are full of exhortations to resist carnality and subdue the works of the flesh. The great revivalist Jonathan Edwards said that if the Corinthian Church had been left to themselves they would have torn themselves to pieces – yet clearly the Spirit was at work in their midst. The apostle greets them as “the church of God ‘called to be saints’” (1 Cor. 1:2, AV). We will never understand revival until we understand its primary purpose. And what is that? It is not to bring saints to perfection in a day, but to wake up the drowsy.

PRAYER:

Father, thank You for reminding me that revival, like conversion, does not produce “instant” saints. Help me understand that although character may come out of a crisis, more often than not it is the result of a process. In Christ’s Name I ask it. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:

Rom. 8:1-17; Gal. 5:25; 6:8

1. What does Paul teach about the Spirit and the flesh?

2. What new law does he talk about?

“Your troops will be willing on your day of battle” (Psalm 110:3)

— For reading & meditation: Psalm 110:1-7

On this our final day we ask again: Has God something bigger for us than we are at present seeing? I hope I have convinced you that He has! How can we be open to receiving it? It comes at the precise moment God appoints but it is carried down from heaven on the wings of fervent believing prayer.

Dr A. T. Pierson said: “From the Day of Pentecost until now, there has not been one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer though only among two or three, and no such outward or upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have declined.” Revivals are born in prayer and sustained by prayer. Just as there are signs concerning the second coming, so there are signs that the Lord is not far from reviving His whole Church.

In the early days of the Salvation Army in France, the eldest daughter of General Booth, known by her French rank as the “Marechale”, found herself at one point in an extremely discouraging situation. She wrote to General Booth asking for his advice, which came in these words: “Take your eyes off the waves and fix them on the tide.” I give you now that same advice. Don’t let your eyes become focused on the waves, with their advances and retreats. Keep your eyes on the tide and ask yourself: Is it rising? If you look with the eye of faith I think you will see that it is. When it breaks I pray that it will not find you or me unprepared, but that we shall be a people who are willing in the day of God’s power.

PRAYER:

Father, I don’t know whether I will live to see a world-wide revival but I want to live to experience a personal revival. Take me on from this point to know You in a much greater way. In Christ’s Name I ask it. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:

Ezek.37:1-14; 2 Kings 3:16-17; Isa.40:3-5; Rev. 22:1

1. What was God’s message to Ezekiel?

2. What will you do to bring about revival?

Every week during the fall, approximately 70,000 attend NFL games in cities like Detroit and Houston. They pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for the privilege, and, if all goes well, they come away with some happy memories.

Every week throughout the year in China, approximately 70,000 people do something very different: they, too, pay a price, but it’s not measured in money. And what they come away with not only changes their lives but promises to change a nation, a continent, and even the world.

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, ten thousand Chinese become Christians every day. That’s 70,000 a week!

At the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were 4 million Christians in China. Today, there are an estimated 111 million, which makes China the third-largest Christian country in the world, behind the United States and Brazil. By 2050, the Center estimates that the number of Christians will have doubled.

The explosive growth of Christianity in China is only part of a larger story. The ordeal of Korean missionaries at the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan reminds us of Christianity’s growth in Korea.

A happier story is the one Chuck told “BreakPoint” readers about the people called the Nagas. Little more than a century ago, these people living in the area where India and Burma meet were headhunters. Today, an estimated 90 percent of the population attends church on Sunday, and Christian leaders there have set the goal of sending 10,000 missionaries to the rest of Asia.

The ASIA TIMES columnist “Spengler” recently wrote that China may soon occupy the role that the United States has occupied for the past 200 years: “the natural ground for mass evangelization.” He adds that “if this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it.”

He foresees Chinese Christians, like their Korean counterparts, “[turning] their attention outward.” Only, with a Christian population fifteen times the size of Korea’s, and a Chinese Diaspora all over the world, the impact will be far greater. “Spengler” uses the word “earthquake” to describe it.

According to John Allen of the National Catholic Report, the most “audacious” Chinese Christians dream of taking the Gospel along the historic “Silk Road” into Muslim lands. As David Aikman has written, they believe it is their task to complete the mission of preaching the Gospel in every land. To that end, Chinese Christians are already secretly “training missionaries for deployment in Muslim countries.”

This is what “Spengler” means by an “earthquake.” As he puts it, “the greatest danger to Islam” comes from Chinese Christians looking westward towards Jerusalem.

What’s remarkable is this vision is taking shape even as Chinese Christians undergo persecution. Then again, Christianity’s initial explosion took place under even worse conditions. So it probably shouldn’t surprise us that there are more Chinese worshipping in “house churches” than belong to the Communist party.

According to “Spengler,” the “fearless” Chinese evangelists may do more to transform their nation and the world than all the armies and diplomats combined. That would be an earthquake worth experiencing.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5968]

1. Renew Thy church, her ministries restore:

Both to serve and adore.

Make her again as salt throughout the land,

And as light from a stand.

Mid sombre shadows of the night

Where greed and hatred spread their blight,

O send us forth with pow’r endued:

Help us, Lord, be renewed!

2. Teach us Thy Word, reveal its truth divine:

On our path let it shine.

Tell of Thy works, Thy mighty acts of grace:

From each page show Thy face.

As Thou hast loved us, sent Thy Son,

And our salvation now is won,

O let our hearts with love be stirred:

Help us, Lord, know Thy Word!

3. Teach us to pray, for Thou art ever near:

Thy still voice let us hear.

Our souls are restless till they rest in Thee:

This our glad destiny.

Before Thy presence keep us still,

That we may find for us Thy will

And seek Thy guidance ev’ry day:

Teach us, Lord, how to pray!

4. Teach us to love, with strength of heart and mind,

Ev’ryone, all mankind.

Break down old walls of prejudice and hate:

Leave us not to our fate.

As Thou hast loved and giv’n Thy life

To end hostility and strife,

O share Thy grace from heav’n above:

Teach us, Lord, how to love!

Revival (Continued)

A proof that misery and sadness are endemic in the human race is that we need a host of comedians to try to raise a laugh.

At his expulsion from Eden, man took the wrong turn, and he has been on the wrong road ever since.

We have been spiritually satisfied with so little for so long- when there is so much land for us to possess!

Today there seem to be no recognized limits governing personal behavior. The password seems to be: do what you want, with whom you want, where you want, when you want.

If our nation has to break down materially in order that God may break through and revival break out, is the Church mature enough to welcome this?

Revival, like charity, begins at home.

Holiness teaching contradicted by unholy living is the bane of this hour.

God’s problem today is not Communism, nor yet Romanism, nor liberalism, nor modernism, nor humanism. God’s problem is dead fundamentalism

America needs a Joan of Arc. The British need another Boadicea to wage war on her immorality. Both nations need another Jeremiah to weep over their sins, another John the Baptist to call them to repentance, and another Elijah to bring fire down from heaven that the multitude may cry again, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, HE is God!”

We go down to our knees, or we go down to oblivion.

We have labored in the flesh too long. We have interpreted success by material gain – bigger buildings for our churches, bigger crowds for our hearers, bigger offerings, as proofs of His favor. We have had pygmy preachers too long. God, give us giants! We have had promoters too many. Lord, send us revivalists! We have played evangelism with a hundred gimmicks. Lord, give us, in this dark hour of human history, some John the Baptists to burn and shine, some Knox to say, “Give me Scotland (or England, or America), or I die!”

Maybe, nay, surely we need ten days in an Upper Room or maybe more suitable for us a basement to mourn the departed glory, to apologize for our arrogance in preaching so long without a NATIONAL revival.

The last revival mentioned in the Old Testament is found in the book of the prophet Joel. He proclaimed a solemn feast and said, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar.” Well, let’s face it, who weeps anymore?

Before Jesus comes I am convinced that we will see a great, sweeping Pentecost that will out-Pentecost Pentecost. God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, as Joel said. Our sons and daughters will prophesy. God will produce a race of spiritual giants for the last mighty ingathering. Today God has these leaders hidden, but in the great Day of the Lord He will bring them to light, and the last shall be first. I pray that day will come soon.

Let the Church live again with holy passion and America will be reborn. THERE IS NO OTHER DOOR OF HOPE.

God said, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh… BEFORE the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” (Acts 2:17, 20) If it is true that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world, and it is true; if it is true that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church, and it is true; then what have we to fear?

Spiritual and moral revolution is only possible to men whose “eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

In a recent article in the “Berean Call” magazine entitled, “Revival or Apostasy?”, Dave Hunt quite rightly points to much about the ‘revival’ movements of our day that is extremely dubious, and he also outlines the vast number of Scriptures speaking of deception and seduction arising from within the church in the Last Days. Obviously, I would agree with a tremendous amount that Dave Hunt writes here, though I feel he probably goes too far in some areas. His analysis of what the Bible says about the End Times is spot-on.

The fact is, the Bible contains little else but continuous warnings concerning the Last Days, that great seduction and deception will prevail to an enormous extent during that time. How many of us have really allowed that to sink in? DECEPTION AND SEDUCTION will overwhelmingly characterize the very days we live in — the Bible says so! Yet do we hear many popular “prophets” warning often of this deception? No, they are too busy promoting the “Great Revival.” I have to agree with Dave Hunt that perhaps the “revival” that these men are promoting may turn out to be just another chapter of the deception that is already being embraced.

But Dave Hunt also claims in the same article that there is to be NO TRUE REVIVAL AT ALL in the Last Days. (This is a common theory in some conservative circles). Could this really be true? Could it be that the idea of a great last-days Revival is a false hope? No, I really cannot go along with this statement, and I will show you why.

Number 1. The Revival that I believe in is not merely some “anointing-fest”, where all is rosy and “fun.” In fact it will hit today’s church like an earthquake — a tidal wave of REPENTANCE. I have studied true Revivals, and if it is one thing that characterizes them it is SORROW, REPENTANCE and very often, LARGE SCALE REFORMATION. This is the kind of Revival I believe in. (-Particularly as it relates to the church. The “harvest” amongst the unchurched will come once the church has been purified, as always).

Number 2. The Bible DOES prophesy a great outpouring of God’s Spirit “upon all flesh” in the Last Days (Joel 2:18-32, Acts 2:16-18), but note that “Joel’s Army” of locusts comes through first and devours everything. The true outpouring comes AFTER this army of locusts. Please note also that the Bible prophesies that just before the end, God will send “Elijah the prophet” to bring a powerful move of repentance. (Malachi 4:5-6). This is very significant. For God only sends in His Elijah’s when His people have fallen into a very low spiritual state.

What occurred when Elijah came the first time? The Priests of Baal were utterly routed and put to the sword, and the people of God fell on their faces, crying, “The LORD He is God, the LORD He is God.” From a position where there were only 7,000 in the land who had not bowed the knee to Baal, suddenly here was a true, massive Revival of REPENTANCE and SORROW. The fear of the Lord was re-established, and godliness returned to the land. This is what Elijah ministries do. This is their specialist role. We see this also with John the Baptist, who came with a “baptism of REPENTANCE”, and we are told that ALL JUDEA went out to him in the wilderness, and were baptized by him.

It is also clear that God sends in His Elijah’s to “prepare the way” for the Lord’s coming. John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus’ first coming and Malachi declares that the same will occur before Christ’s return. God will send in His Elijah! (Mal 4:5-6).

Now I would like to link these aspects together, because this seems to be the only way it makes sense. Firstly, as the Bible declares, we have great apostasy and deception in the church in the last days. (Similar in scale to the days of Baal and Jezebel). Next, we have Joel prophesying that after the “locust” invasion, things will be reversed suddenly, and once the locusts have been banished there will be a great outpouring of God’s Spirit. We likewise read that Elijah the prophet will come just before the end, preaching a powerful repentance message, and the people will hear him, otherwise God will “come and smite the earth with a curse”.

I believe that these things are connected. In other words, I believe that it is the Elijah or the Elijah ministries (whatever) that will be sent in by God, preaching repentance and leading the coming true REPENTANCE REVIVAL. And it is they who will cause the great turning, and also the outpouring of God’s Spirit “upon all flesh” to come. For we are in that kind of situation again. It is truly an hour when the Elijah’s of God are desperately needed once more.

I hope this makes as much sense to you as it does to me. I have pondered this quite a lot. Yes, there is great apostacy prophesied, but also great victory in that God’s Elijah will come “to restore all things” (which is what God always sends them in to do), just prior to the “great and terrible day of the LORD”.

Just a note here though: I believe that even greater deception will arise just after this Revival — immediately before Christ’s return. (A counterfeit “Elijah” ministry of some kind?) And everyone will be forced to choose.

Why we shifted our family (-six children) and our entire ministry from New Zealand to Kansas City in 2004.

• Why I have carried a burden for Kansas City for over ten years –-from the other side of the world.

• Why I believe that Kansas City is the key city for Revival in America.

• Why KC’s Revival cannot be allowed to be “lost”.

A lot of Christians do not seem to realize how much America owes to the great Awakenings and Revivals that God has sent at regular intervals for the past 250 years. Most seem to think it is the “Constitution” that has made America what she is. But I tell you, if it weren’t for the sweeping Revivals that God has sent again and again, then it is possible America would only be a fraction of the nation she is today. Spiritually, those Awakenings brought the people back to God, time and time again — before it was too late. They were Revivals of deep repentance and turning from sin. Yet even now, the devil is at work to destroy everything that remains.

I have studied Revival history for many years, but it only dawned on me recently:- There is a 50-YEAR PATTERN to these Awakenings that God has been sending to America. Do you realize that roughly every 50 years, GOING BACK CENTURIES, a massive Revival has hit the USA? This is almost unique in history. Do you realize what would happen if the devil managed to stop this pattern occurring? It would be a disaster of colossal proportions. And guess what?- The next Awakening is due right now. It has been 50 years since the last one and the “window” is opening again. But I have to ask the question:- Is the church in America ready?

For many years, the whole theme of my ministry has been Revival, Repentance and Prayer. But I have to say that I have never come across a place that has more CONFIRMED prophecies of Revival over it than Kansas City. There are many places that have grand prophecies over them, but I am talking here about CONFIRMED promises from God. To me, these are so strong over KC that I have staked my entire family’s future, and shifted half way around the world to be here. That is how strongly I believe these things. I am convinced that Kansas City is UTTERLY CRUCIAL to God’s plan for the next Great Awakening. In fact, without her I believe that all may be lost.

And yet as things stand right now, this Revival seems to have been largely de-railed. The agonized cry of my heart for the last ten years has been — “This move CANNOT be allowed to be lost”. I had no idea when God would ever allow us personally to come to KC, but I carried this burden for years. I could not help it. When you understand the history of what happened here, I think you will see why. I hope you find the below history enlightening:

KANSAS CITY’S “LOST” REVIVAL

A lot of people have heard of the “Kansas City prophets’, though some may have a rather negative reaction to that phrase. People associate something unsavory with it. But the origins of that movement are far from unsavory. In fact, I believe that God wanted to do something very powerful in Kansas City that has now been “lost” for over a decade. I believe that ultimately He wanted to raise up “John-the-Baptist” type preachers — the “Charles Finneys” and Jonathan Edwards of today’s generation. (For God has used such “prophetic” preachers in every Revival). But sadly, it seems that the Kansas City movement spun apart before these “John-the-Baptists” could arise. Here is what happened:

In late 1982 a young preacher by the name of Mike Bickle shifted to Kansas City to begin a work here following several powerful prophecies that he should do so. (He had been pastoring in St. Louis up to this point). Today Mike is a well-known Christian author, speaker and founder of the “International House of Prayer” in KC. But back in 1982 he was simply an unknown 27-year-old pastor and intercessor who commonly spent several hours a day in prayer. Just before arriving in Kansas City he had had the most powerful visitation from God that he had ever experienced, where a holy presence filled the room and he heard what he described as “the audible voice of God”. He was literally trembling under the fear of the Lord. He had never experienced anything like it in his life.

During this visitation God told him that there would be “four standards” upon which the work in Kansas City was to be built. These were: (1) Night and day prayer; (2) Holiness of heart; (3) Unwavering faith; and (4) Extravagant giving to the poor.

He was also told that this work would “touch the ends of the earth” but that he must guard against those who would try to “tone it down” in any way. The Lord also placed a very strong emphasis on one particular statement that He made that day: “I am going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity IN THE EARTH in one generation.”

As you can imagine, Mike was stunned by this experience, and resolved to follow through on every aspect of what God had spoken to him. The story of what followed could be dismissed by skeptics as the most arrant fiction –-except for the fact that it truly happened just as I am telling you. Please do not dismiss it. Everything I am relating here did actually happen, and there are plenty of witnesses still around to confirm the truth of what I am saying. It is a mind-boggling story.

A friend of Mike’s had discovered, while researching the early history of Kansas City, that the founding fathers had actually named her “The Prophetic City”. And almost as soon as Mike began his meetings here, he found that a number of the “prophetic” Christians in town felt compelled to join him. This was a little unnerving, as he had never been surrounded by such people before.

Not long after his arrival, Mike had a dream in which an angel literally appeared to him and said: “Proclaim a fast — to pray night and day for Revival in the city and the nation. Five hundred people will gather. It will be like unto Daniel 9.” (Which is the passage that recounts Daniel’s 21 days of prayer and fasting). Mike couldn’t get the dream out of his head and the very next day one of the prophetic people that he had met said to him: “You had a dream last night in which an angel spoke to you, didn’t you? I myself saw the same angel and he told me, “Give the young man Daniel 9 and he will understand.’” Mike was utterly astonished that someone could tell him his own dream like that! The prophet went on to say: “500 people will gather. And to show you how important this gathering is in God’s purposes, God will send a COMET, totally unpredicted by scientists, to show that this whole thing is of Him.”

Now, it is important to understand that Mike was a complete “nobody” at this point. He was new in town and his little church probably numbered less than 40 people. Who on earth was he to proclaim a fast and gather a multitude to pray for 21 days? Yet he knew that God had placed a calling on his life, and he decided to go ahead. The day chosen for the beginning of the fast was May 7th, 1983.

To Mike’s astonishment, over 500 people responded to the call! They prayed eighteen hours a day for 21 days, crying out to God for Revival. And not only that, but just as the prophecy had stated, right when the fast was beginning an unknown comet was suddenly reported –-a comet passing so close to earth that it was easily visible to the naked eye for several days. It was absolutely amazing. (The Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock made the closest known approach that a comet has made to Earth in the last 200 years –-right then in early May 1983). I have to say, as someone who studies Revival, I have not come across ANY Revival movement in history that has had a more powerful beginning.

This was just the start of a whole series of incredible events that showed that God was restoring the “Prophetic” ministry to the church. In fact, I regard this as the founding of the modern Prophetic movement as we know it today. Some people have argued with me that there are several different “streams” of the Prophetic, and this is certainly true to a degree. There is “Morning Star” and Bill Hamon’s stream, for example. But it is very clear to me that the “foundations” of today’s Prophetic movement, and the great explosion that we have seen in the Prophetic ministry over the last 20 years, stem directly back to Kansas City. This was the founding movement, the watershed-event that God used to kick-start the whole thing in modern times. And it was supposed to lead to all-out Revival.

But sadly, about 8 years later, it all came apart in a terrible spiritual “train-wreck”. I am not going to dwell on the reasons, or apportion blame in any particular direction. (By this time a number of well-known prophets such as John Paul Jackson and Bob Jones had been involved for some years). But suffice it to say that there were some crucial mistakes made and things began to spin very badly out of control. The “Kansas City prophets” (as they came to be called) ended up being featured in a very negative light in Charisma magazine (-with “front cover” exposure) and a Kansas City pastor circulated a very damning report about them all over town. One of the prophets got involved in a quasi-sexual relationship with a woman, and others were simply asked to leave town. The whole “prophetic” side of the ministry seemed to blow apart. (-This was around 1991). The prophets scattered everywhere.

It truly was a disaster. Not just for the Prophetic movement, but for the Church as a whole. For I am convinced that what God wanted to raise up out of Kansas City was a prophetic voice to call the Laodicean church to repentance before it was too late (-particularly in America). That was the ultimate goal. (There were prophecies referring to this). But all that we are left with now is a hollow shell. And I am convinced that this “train-wreck” affected more than just Kansas City. I believe it greatly impacted the entire Prophetic movement for the worse.

Ultimately, the Prophetic movement was not supposed to be just about “revelatory” experiences or great dreams and visions. It was not supposed to be about selling books or holding conferences. It was supposed to bring a word that would shake the church out of her slumber — that would pierce her heart with “godly sorrow” and deep repentance before it was too late. It was supposed to bring shaking and change. It was supposed to act as a “John-the-Baptist” to the nation. That is what has very much been lost — I am convinced of it. What a tragedy.

After 1991, Mike Bickle’s church in Kansas City seemed to meander along for quite some time, wondering what to do with itself. (It was quite a big church by this stage). Eventually Mike left pastoring to concentrate on raising up a 24-hour prayer center in the city. This has been a huge success, and you have to commend Mike for at least resurrecting something out of the mess, and fulfilling one of the original “four standards” — ie. Night and day prayer. But as for the “prophetic” side of things, little of it truly remains. So much has been lost.

I am personally convinced, however, that the Prophetic mandate over Kansas City has never been rescinded –-and that the original calling still remains. When I am preaching in Kansas City I tell them this very thing. I believe it very strongly. In fact, for ten years now I have had such a burden to see KC come into her promises and fulfill her calling. Until 2003 I had never even visited the place, as I was living thousands of miles away at the “ends of the earth” in New Zealand. But the vital importance of Kansas City haunts me even now, and I am unable to let her go.

There is a great move of God hanging over the city that I do not believe has been “aborted” but more “suspended”. It has been left hanging. And time is running out. It is probably the most prayed-for city in America. But there is still a terrible danger that all may be lost. I literally cannot stand the thought of it. All those years of prayer by so many people. All those confirming signs. Such a promising move. What a victory for the devil if he can keep it from happening. It simply cannot be allowed. And the most serious aspect of all is this: -What happens to America if her “Prophetic city” is lost? What if the church never hears the “voice” that was supposed to rouse her from her slumber? Will she awaken in time or will she lose her Revival?… As of this date, these questions remain unanswered. All we can do is keep preaching and praying until the new “John-the-Baptists” arise.

It presupposes that the church is sunk down in a back-slidden state, and a revival consists in the return of the Church from her back-slidings and the conversion of sinners.

1. The foundations of sin need to be broken up. A revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church. Back-slidden professors cannot wake up and begin right away in the service of God without deep searchings of heart. The fountains of sin need to be broken up. In a true revival, Christians are always brought under such conviction; they see their sins in such a light that often they find it impossible to maintain a hope of their acceptance with God. It does not always go to that extent, but there are always, in a genuine revival, deep convictions of sin, and often cases of abandoning all hope.

2. Revival is a new beginning of obedience with God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with humility, and a forsaking of sin.

3. Back-slidden Christians will be brought to repentance. A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with deep humility, and a forsaking of sin.

3. Christians will have their faith renewed. While they are in their back-slidden state they are blind to the state of sinners. Their hearts are hard as marble. The truths of the Bible appear like a dream. They admit it to be all true; their conscience and their judgment assent to it; but their faith does not see it standing out in bold relief, in all the burning realities of eternity. But when they enter into a revival, they no longer see “men as trees, walking,” but they see things in that strong light which will renew the love of God in their hearts. This will lead them to labor zealously to bring others to Him. They will feel grieved that others do not love God, when they love Him so much. And they will set themselves feelingly to persuade their neighbors to give Him their hearts. So their love to men will be renewed. They will be filled with a tender and burning love for souls. They will have a longing desire for the salvation of the whole world. They will be in an agony for individuals whom they want to have saved–their friends, relations, enemies. They will not only be urging them to give their hearts to God, but they will carry them to God in the arms of faith, and with strong crying and tears beseech God to have mercy on them, and save their souls from endless burnings.

4. A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians. It brings them to such vantage ground that they get a fresh impulse towards heaven; they have a new foretaste of heaven, and new desires after union with God; thus the charm of the world is broken, and the power of sin overcome.

5. When the Churches are thus awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow. Their hearts will be broken down and changed. Very often the most abandoned profligates are among the subjects. Harlots, and drunkards, and infidels, and all sorts of abandoned characters, are awakened and converted. The worst of human beings are softened and reclaimed, and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holiness.

6. When a revival can be expected? A revival may be expected when Christians have a spirit of prayer for a revival. That is, when they pray as if their hearts were set upon it. When Christians have the spirit of prayer for a revival. When they go about groaning out their hearts desire. When they have real travail of soul.

America has been taking it easy. But I want to serve notice on every evil, demonic force attacking us: we are awake now.

I greet you with Jesus' joy. I am so glad to be in the house of the Lord. I was out in Arizona when the FAA shut down the airways. I had no way to get here to be here with you, and I was just frantic, because I really wanted to be able to man this post and be in this position with you today. So I'm glad to be here. I was frantic. I was running everything as best as I could. Between my computer and my cell phone, I was giving it the best I had long distance. So I'm with you, and I'm aware and I feel you and I understand so specifically the challenges before us, and it's just good for us to be together in the house of the Lord. I want to go to the word of God. I want to spend the time that I have with you in a very, very significant and essential way, sharing what I believe that the Holy Spirit has defined for me to share with you today. I want you to go to the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 13 , verses 3 through 39.

"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man which sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, sir, did you not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, an enemy has done this. The servants said unto him, shall we not go to gather them up? But he said, nay, lest while you gather the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn."

Can you say amen?

Remain standing. We're going to pray, but I'm going to be talking to you this morning about the gathering of America, the gathering of America. Whether you realize it or not, there is something going on quite serious before our eyes. I want to talk to you about it today. I want to use this text merely as a backdrop, a canvas on which I will attempt to paint some of the contemporary issues and challenges that are facing our country today and put that in context with the text that we're sharing today and where we are in the scheme of God's purpose and will for our lives. I think it's very significant. It's certainly on my heart today, and I believe that I have a word from God, and I want to share it with the house today.

Amen. I want you to be praying with me.

Father, in the name of Jesus we thank you for your word. We know that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. Great God that you are, use the next few moments that we talk together to inspire and challenge and transform us that we might be the people that you are calling for in this last day. I thank you for what you have already done, but more specifically, I thank you for what you're going to do. Great is our God and his people, and I praise you for being our strength, our shelter and our fortress. In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. I was somewhere in the Midwest of our country. I woke up in the morning and found myself wiping sleep out of my eyes. I had gotten in like one or two o'clock in the morning, very, very late, having ministered and shared in another part of the country, and slept in late that morning and woke up to the sound of aircraft crashing into the World Trade Center.

When I first looked at it, I would have thought that it was a movie produced in Hollywood. It was shocking to me how distinctly different it was from entertainment to recognize that something was happening in our country, and something that we have never seen before in this generation and certainly not in this way.

Originally in my mind, I thought that perhaps a pilot had had a heart attack, lost control of the aircraft and that some accident, some hideous, deplorable accident had occurred, and before I could digest that, the second aircraft came in, and suddenly I knew that that could not be an accident, and all of a sudden, the horror, the utter horror of what had happened began to sink into my mind and into my heart, and from that time unto this, it has been in the forefront of my mind almost continuously, as I wrestled as a passenger and as a religious leader in this nation and in this world to digest and understand specifically what is going on in our country.

I hasten to tell you today that this is perhaps, I believe, the most serious days that I have ever witnessed in the 44 years of my life, and I hope that you don't take it lightly or merely think that it's just some tragedy, some unfortunate dilemma that has come against us that will be dismissed and replaced with other headlines.

We have certainly had our share of tragedies, Columbine and the Oklahoma City bombing and all the other things that have riddled and shaken us and challenged us. We have had aircraft to fall out of the sky, to explode in the middle of the air and been devastated by the tragedies that we have seen down through the years. We have fought our share of skirmishes and conflicts and even wars, as it were, but all of them dim in comparison to what is confronting this nation today.

Was it the Holy Spirit? Was it emotions run wild? An incident that took place on this day, April 9, 1906, swelled the stream of Pentecostalism and helped it become the fastest-growing Christian movement of the world. At its center stood a thirty-six year old black man, missing an eye.

William Seymour, one of the most influential black men of the twentieth century was born in 1870, the son of ex-slaves. They raised him Baptist. Seymour, however, was deeply influenced by the holiness movement which taught that in addition to salvation, there was a second work of grace -- sanctification. Certain holiness groups insisted that there would be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit before the rapture (when the church is caught up into heaven).

One of those who was convinced that the Spirit was about to be poured out was Charles F. Parham. He founded a Bible school in Topeka where on the first day of the twentieth century, January 1st, 1901, Agnes Ozman spoke in an unknown tongue (some said it was Chinese). Parham moved on to Houston, Texas, and set up another school. Seymour's pastor arranged for him to attend Parham's classes. Because of the state's segregationist laws, however, Seymour had to listen and take notes from the hallway. Parham taught that in every instance of Holy Spirit filling, God would give the believer the ability to speak in a foreign languages for the purpose of evangelism.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, members of the Second Baptist Church prayed earnestly for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. One of their members traveled to Houston in 1906, heard Seymour speak, and invited him to fill an empty pulpit in Los Angeles. Seymour came, described tongues as the evidence of filling with the Holy Spirit -- and found himself locked out of the church. The Holiness Church Association of Southern California condemned his message. Seymour preached from the home of a sympathetic church member. On this day, April 9, 1906, Seymour and some of his listeners spoke in tongues. Such crowds gathered after that that the porch of the house collapsed.

Eventually, Seymour and his followers found an unused sanctuary at 312 Azusa Street. For pews they used planks atop barrels. Crowds gathered. The press jeered. But Seymour held three services a day, seven days a week for three years. White and black alike, men and women of many doctrinal backgrounds, confessed their sins, testified of God's power and spoke in tongues. Some who listened marveled to hear uneducated blacks speak major world languages. Others reported babble. But the Azusa Street Revival, as it came to be called, had an impact that is felt to this day, wherever its participants went.

Parham came and denounced Seymour's work as “spiritual power prostituted.” But Seymour told his audiences, “Don't go out of here talking about tongues; talk about Jesus.”

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copyright © 2004 by Christian History Institute

Building a fire is one of those things a man is just supposed to know how to do. I hate to have my fire fail in front of other people frankly, so I can really empathize with my friend Rich who set out to get a fire going one winter that I was with him. He was trying to get this thing going in his fireplace when we were with him one Sunday afternoon. So, of course, he did all the right things. He rolled up the necessary amount of newspaper. He stacked logs with plenty of room for air circulation. Now, he didn't have much kindling. That was the only weakness in his fire. Well, the fire flared, and then it sputtered, and then it smoldered. So real quick, he rolled up two or three tight paper logs, and a newspaper, and that didn't do anything. Then finally, he said, I thought it was kind of strange, but he said, “I've done all I can do. Only God can start it now.” We talked for about an hour without a fire, and suddenly this little flame appeared. It grew steadily, it became a really cozy fire, and Rich and I just looked at each other and smiled!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “You Built it - He Starts it.”

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Chronicles 7:14 where God says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” This, of course, is the classic formula for revival - that Holy Spirit take-over of a life or a church or a community or even a nation. And God says that, “I'll make sure that your sins are dealt with, your relationships are restored, your prayers are answered, the power is released, the lost get swept into the kingdom.” That's the history of revival, and a lot of us are restless for more. We haven't seen that kind of power released and that more we want in our soul is called revival - this overwhelming sense of the personal presence of Jesus Christ.

No man starts revivals. You can't, in spite of the fact that it's sometimes scheduled on some church bulletin board - “Revival This Week!” No, it's like Rich's fire. You might say, “Well is there anything I can do to help it happen?” God says, “If you will, then I will send the fire.” You can create the conditions in which God can spark revival. You can prepare it. He says humble yourself. That means bringing yourself to Him; asking Him to bring you into a total sense of dependency on Him - a sense of personal powerlessness. Then He says, “Pray.” This is desperate prayer, recognizing where the power is, and going to the throne room of God boldly and passionately.

Then He says, “Seek my face.” That's what a baby does. They want to touch your face to get to know you, just to touch your face. This is beyond knowing about. This is saying, “Lord, I really want to touch you deeply.” Then He says, “Turn from your wicked ways.” This is where a lot of us stop. In essence, we don't want to deal with our sin, except to maybe feel sorry for it. But He says this is beyond feeling bad about it. This is turning from it. This is abandoning it. This is throwing it in the fire.

In essence, you want revival so much, you want this spiritual take-over so much, this power so much, you will do whatever it takes to get God's best. And then the fire starts. God says, “Okay, then, I will hear from heaven, I will forgive your sin and heal your land - new beginnings, healing broken things - a great new start.”

Let's begin to talk to each other about getting the logs and the kindling together, and then let's start to build that fire that we all really want and desperately need in our spiritual saneness and mediocrity. And then, with the fervent prayer of people who are tired of the cold spiritually, let's ask God to do what only He can do and make it into a blazing fire.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

It will take more than talk and prayer to bring revival. There must be a return to the Lord in practice before our prayers will be heard in heaven. We dare not continue to trouble God’s way if we want Him to bless ours…

If we are foolish enough to do it, we may spend the new year vainly begging God to send revival, while we blindly overlook His requirements and continue to break His laws. Or we can begin now to obey and learn the blessedness of obedience. The Word of God is before us. We have only to read and do what is written there and revival is assured. It will come as naturally as the harvest comes after the plowing and the planting.

Yes, this could be the year the revival comes. It’s strictly up to us. The Size of the Soul, 10-11.

“Lord, I’m beginning to get the picture that there’s a real key to seeing the revival for which so many are praying! I pray indeed that this would be the year when Your people will get serious about heart-felt obedience to Your commands. Then send the great revival among us! Amen.”

Mr. Moody tells us a remarkable incident in connection with an early visit to London. He had gone there for a visit. He was unknown in London, hence he did not expect to preach; but a little while after arriving there he was invited to preach for a certain church, which he did. He described the ceremony as a very cold and uninteresting service to him, but he announced that he would preach again that night.

Upon reaching the church, he noticed that the atmosphere had changed, he did not know just why. At the close of the meeting he was led to give an invitation for those who wanted to be saved to stand. A great crowd of people stood. He left the next day for Dublin, Ireland. Shortly after arriving there he received a telegram from the church to return, stating that the whole community was in an upstir and clamor for a series of meetings. He went back and found that a great revival was beginning, and hundreds of people were being converted.

Not long after he learned the secret. An invalid lady, who could not attend the church, was praying for a mighty outpouring of the Spirit upon the church. She prayed for months. Once she saw in the papers' accounts of some of the Moody meetings in America, and, although she had never heard of Mr. Moody before, she began to pray that God would send him to her church in London for a revival. One Sunday morning her sister, upon her return from the service, informed her of Moody's presence and his preaching, whereupon she spent the whole afternoon in prayer that God would make that night a night of power. That explains the difference between morning and evening services!

Oh, I tell you what we need in the churches is praying members! Oh, if we could find even one who would thus resolve to pray to God for salvation and power to come upon the church. This is the need of today-importunate prayer, like the Syro-Phoenician woman's "Lord, help! Lord, help!" (Matthew 15:22-28).

Did you ever hear of the prayer meeting that shook America? Find a U.S. history book and read about the Fulton Street prayer meeting on September 23, 1857, started by Mr. Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier, a simple merchant in New York. Times were as difficult then as they are right now in America. People were disheartened by depression, unemployment, crime, bankruptcy, and empty church pews. Mr. Lanphier had a great burden for prayer and asked for a noon prayer meeting once a week in his church. The consistory let him do it. They hadn’t much else left to do but to close the doors like other churches had done for lack of membership.

On that September day Mr. Lanphier took his place at noon in an empty church. For half an hour he prayed alone, but when the meeting closed at one o’clock, there were six men who had joined him in prayer. Out of that humble meeting came the Spirit wind of a great revival that shook America. It happened so fast that only six months later people prayed everywhere -- the churches couldn’t hold them anymore, and in Philadelphia the biggest tent was put up to provide a place for as many as 150,000 praying people who gathered to change America. History tells us that a million people were converted, the churches filled up again, and crime rates went down.

God hasn’t changed -- we have. It is time to do first things first again. And the first and most important thing is consistent, fervent prayer.

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Source: THESE TIMES, Copyright (c) 1978, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com

Since February 1975, when God led me to establish the Jerry Drace Evangelistic Association, He has allowed me to preach in more than 1,000 churches across our nation. In His divine providence He has placed me in the company of some of His choicest servants as well as some who seek to be served. Throughout the past 31 years I have kept notes and observations on each of the pastors, staffs and churches where my team and I have been privileged to present the claims of Christ. I am sure some of these observations will be misunderstood, others will be embraced. I wish to share only 13 in hopes they will serve as a catalyst for your own reflections:

• I have observed the lowering of the standards of holiness from the pulpit to the pew. It appears we are seeking to develop happy churches, but not holy churches. One pastor stated that he wanted his people to leave the Sunday morning worship feeling “affirmed, approved and applauded”. Whatever happened to leaving feeling confronted, convicted, confessed and cleansed? Spurgeon put it in perspective years ago when he said, “Of all the griefs the church ever feels, the keenest is when those who once stood in her midst dishonor the name of Christ by unholy living.”

• I have observed the seductive fashions of the world being worn in the worship centers of our churches. Teenage girls and sometimes their mothers wear clothes to church they neither could wear to school nor in the workplace. The same applies to the male gender. We have developed such a laxity in our attire the result has numbed the spiritual senses of being in the presence of Deity. I am fully aware that God looks on the heart, but clothing, or the lack thereof, should not distract from looking into His face.

• I have observed more and more churches having fewer and fewer revivals. Of course, the rural church will always hold a revival, whether they actually have one or not, the third week of August. Vance Havner once said, “Preachers speak of ‘holding revivals’. Somebody ought to turn one loose!” Real revival -- which takes prayer and preparation and sees scores ushered into the Kingdom and church members rekindling the fire within -- is quickly giving way to one-day events. We have stopped singing “Take Time To Be Holy,” because we don’t have the time.

• I have observed more and more churches decreasing from mortification rather than increasing due to salvation. There is more life outside in most church cemeteries than inside on the pews. At least in the cemeteries the grass grows and the flowers bloom. If there is not a revival in our land many of our rural churches will become bed and breakfast inns and our larger churches will be turned into antique malls. If you don’t believe this, visit Great Britain.

• I have observed more and more churches growing by transferring letters rather than transforming lives. It doesn’t take a genius to build a church numerically. Given the right staff and programs you can fill a church. However, there is an eternal difference between filling a church with people and filling the people inside the church.

• I have observed more and more pastors and evangelists preaching someone else’s sermons rather than studying and preaching their own. The call to preach has been replaced with the desire to succeed. Being an expounder of the Word requires time alone with God. Being a mouth for God to the people of God is an awesome responsibility. Preaching someone else’s anointed sermon doesn’t guarantee your anointment. If the sermon isn’t gathered and set ablaze in the pastor’s heart it likely won’t spread to the hearts of the church members. Some of the greatest proclaimers of the Good News are seldom heard because they neither pastor a mega-church nor are the featured speakers on Christian cruises.

• I have observed unethical and even immoral conduct by religious leaders with little or no remorse on their part once their deeds were made public. The graveyard of compromise is filled with those who listened to the sirens of the world. Accountability and integrity were sacrificed for personal gain and puffed-up egos. When Christian leaders become legends in their own minds the ice has already broken.

• I have observed the policies of the community dictating the policies of the church, especially in the area of sports. We now schedule the events of the church around the athletic calendar of our schools or recreational departments. We have surrendered to the god of sports. Many of our parents allow their children to play their favorite sport on Sunday morning with the rationale, “What can we do about it?” These same parents wouldn’t allow their children to skip school for a church event. We even close our churches on Sunday nights if it is a national holiday. Good thing God doesn’t cancel His services.

• I have observed more and more churches teaching the latest trends in church growth rather than the doctrines of the Scriptures. We have churches full of people who can quote from the latest church growth guru, but for the life of them they can neither recall nor defend any of the doctrines of the Bible. We can be seeker friendly and purpose driven, but if we fail to seek Christ and find our purpose in Him alone all the books, seminars and mega conferences will only impede the salvation of the lost and the disciplining of the saved.

• I have observed us becoming a people who enjoy the expression of worship without encountering the experience of worship. No one enjoys beautiful choruses more than me, yet with the freedom of style which this has ushered into our churches we must be careful not to allow our performance to overshadow His presence. Celebration without commitment leads to worthless worship.

• I have observed religion becoming big business. Christian recording artists are now referred to as superstars and certain pastors are touted as religious CEOs. Religious leaders have evolved from troublers of society to trend-setters in society. We have religious personalities who are known as much for their political creeds as their theological convictions. Simple statements from the Bible are marketed into multimillion-dollar enterprises. An executive in a Christian publication company once told me, “It’s all about the buck.” You half expect to see certain religious organizations listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

• I have observed a few proclaimers who have comprised their call because of a cowardly commitment to the truths of God’s Word. This brings about a deceitful delivery of devilish doctrines. The end result is a man who panders to the people and prostitutes the proclamation in the process. When wickedness enters the doors of the church it soon spreads throughout the land without any opposition. Satan himself could not have better allies than pastors who refuse to preach the truths of the Scriptures and church members who refuse to live godly lives.

• I have observed a righteous remnant in every church who have a hunger and thirst for experiencing God to the fullest. It is this group, both young and old, who will pass on the teachings and doctrines of Holy Scripture to the next generation. Praise God for ministers and members who are not driven by fashions and trends, but remain faithful and true to fulfilling the Great Commission.

I’ve heard many “calls” for revival recently but with very little teaching and exposition on revival. It seems that in these urgent days there are too few leaders who actually are leading God’s people corporately to repent, pray, seek holiness and return to God.

Do we not realize that scripturally it is impossible to have a call for revival without a call for repentance? This has always been God’s requirement for His people. The passionate, unceasing corporate prayer that is always present in revival is desperately lacking as well. In short, I see little evidence of sincere brokenness among God’s people for our present condition or the condition of our nation.

We call for revival without actually crying with tears and brokenness for revival. The “call for revival” seems almost like a spiritual fad, with no true passion and sincerity of heart. Many will say “amen” when they hear mention of the need for revival. But the “call” is fleeting and soon passes away. And then we quickly move on to other activity and return to our business as usual with no follow-through by the leaders of God’s people.

We must understand that a true call for revival is first and foremost a recognition that we’ve departed from God. It demands a radical response from God’s leaders and His people. Revival has always been, and remains to this day, God dealing with the sin of His own -– not the world.

Therefore, if we never recognize our need for repentance of sin, then our “call” for revival is in vain. Isaiah warned God’s people: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you; so that He will not hear”(Isaiah 59:1-2).

This lack of recognition among God’s people to see their present spiritual condition frightens me. The continued neglect of dealing with the sin of God’s people is both obvious and appalling. Have we moved so far from God that we remain content in our sin? Do we not fear the judgment of God? Week after week, wherever I go, I hear no mention of our desperate need of God. There’s no spontaneous concern or cry to God. It’s simply not on the minds and hearts of God’s people -– at least where I am and where I travel.

Let me draw to your attention to several things that God’s people must do immediately.

First, we must seek God to grant us broken and contrite hearts. “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’” (Isaiah 57:15). And again, “[O]n him will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2).

Next, spiritual leaders must “return to Lord” –- and stay there. (Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:1-7; Acts 6:1-4).

Third, the people of God must pray corporately with one heart and one mind. (Acts 1:14; Acts 2:1; Acts 4:31).

Fourth, God’s people must be immediately obedient to all God reveals to them. (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

Then, continually bear witness to God’s people of all that God is doing. (Acts 1:8; Acts 14:21-22, 26-27)

Finally, we should expect and experience Christ’s fullness of joy. Jesus said: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:9-11).

The immediate need for revival among God’s people is “life and death” for our nation. Apparently, there are too many of us who simply don’t believe that, and there are far too few who sense the awful judgment that is to come if we do not see revival. Believe Christ’s warning: “[U]nless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Let us, therefore, repent and return quickly to the Lord.

At Wheaton College in 1995, students stood in line from early evening until 6:00 the next morning to confess and forsake the sins and gods of their lives. This continued for a week. They filled garbage cans with unwholesome videos, catalogs of covetousness, sports equipment that took away from worship, immodest clothing, liquor, unwholesome books and magazines, and other items the Lord nudged them to throw away. It’s garbage day, folks.

It’s time to get rid of the garbage that is polluting your life and this church. It’s repentance time. God desires a clean heart -- if you have garbage you need to get rid of, now is the time to do it.

[see also HolwickID #3514]

Ezekiel 18:31b-32 is the heart cry of God to His covenant people, Israel: “‘...why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore, turn and live!’” God had just reminded His people that if “a righteous man turns away from his righteousness ... and dies ... it is because of the iniquity that he has done that he dies” (Ezekiel 18:24-26, 26).

Like the “house of Israel,” God’s people continue to sin against God in our day and live without any awareness of the consequences.

We seem to be totally indifferent to any judgment whatsoever, as if that only happened in the Old Testament. But, of course, that’s just not true. It was to the people of God in Rome that Paul wrote: “... the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” For anyone who sins and continues to sin without repentance -– especially God’s people -– it leads to “death.”

And did Jesus not warn God’s people that they must repent or perish? Read the accounts in Matthew 4:17, Luke 13:1-9 and Luke 17:20-36. Repentance among God’s people requires an immediate turning that changes our heart, will and actions. Repentance requires a changed lifestyle. Therefore, we too must heed Christ’s warning for our own generation.

We must possess a wholehearted desire to return to God.

Many of us today are aware that America is in desperate need of revival, but we haven’t made the connection. While we see the spiritual darkness around us, we do not recognize that the greater problem is with the light! Light dispels darkness! Jesus said that His disciples are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). When the light of Christ is dimmed by our sin, the darkness flourishes. But when we repent, His light shines in us and through us to a watching world; people “see” and God is glorified!

For now, however, America continues to move steadily closer to God’s judgment. And there remains a prevailing carelessness among God’s people concerning this activity of God.

Revival tarries because God’s people will not repent, and we see no reason to do so. So, even if we recognize that the times are urgent and the spiritual climate is dark, and even if we cry unto God for a mighty revival, without our repentance He will refuse to hear us because we keep iniquity in our hearts.

We must, therefore, heed His call: “‘... Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:7b). We must repent and return to Him in holiness, love and obedience, or the nation will surely perish under the judgment of our sin! (2 Peter 3:9).

A small church pastor in Texas is encouraging other small churches not to limit God after his congregation committed themselves to prayer and then saw God bring substantial results.

“I believe that there is a mindset now that if I’m not a mega-church pastor, I don’t count,” Kenny Rawls, pastor of First Baptist Church in Nixon, Texas, told Baptist Press. “I want the nation to understand that the majority of churches that are Southern Baptist are smaller-population churches.

“God has planted that church there for a reason, and every pastor who carries the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a mega-church pastor,” he said. “I want the smaller churches to realize they can reach people and make a difference to the Kingdom of God.”

Rawls points to his own small congregation in a community that is 85 percent Hispanic, about 45 miles east of San Antonio. More than two years ago, the church decided to designate a prayer time each Tuesday morning.

“We really didn’t have a big turnout,” said Rawls, a master of divinity student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

But a few powerful prayer warriors emerged from the group, setting an example for the rest of the congregation.

“Prayer is a spiritual and a physical practice,” he said. “It’s sort of like going to the gym. When you go to the gym, you don’t just go in there and start lifting enormous amounts of weight. You condition your body for it. Prayer is the same way, but I find that the more that you pray, the hungrier a person gets to pray.”

Last December, the church’s leadership team began to strategize about the prospect of revival that had been part of their prayers for nearly two years.

“People think revival is just a one-week thing that you put on to get lost people into your church and see if they’ll be saved,” Rawls said. “But the word revival actually comes from a Latin word. ‘Re’ means ‘to do again,’ and ‘vive’ means ‘to live.’ It literally means ‘to live again.’”

They settled on 2 Chronicles 7:14 as a theme verse and began to unpack, phrase by phrase, what that verse means in a modern context. The verse says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Rawls said the group concluded that if they would do those four things mentioned in the verse, then God had promised to do those three things. To spread the message to the entire congregation, the deacons started hosting Sunday evening Bible studies in their homes. The church, like many these days, had been having low attendance at their Sunday evening services and decided to alter their approach.

“We decided to do home Bible study groups, and they worked out phenomenally well,” Rawls said. “We were running just a few people on Sunday night and we basically doubled and tripled our numbers.”

The groups studied what it means to be humble, what it means to pray, what it means to seek the face of God and what it means to turn from their wicked ways. All along, each group kept a poster board and a marker on hand.

“After they did their Bible studies on Sunday nights, we asked the participants to write down who it was that God was leading them to pray for,” the pastor said. “They began to fill the poster boards up with people who maybe didn’t know Jesus or maybe needed to have a closer relationship with Jesus or maybe were just struggling.”

Leading up to a revival in the spring, the home Bible study groups placed their poster boards in a prayer room at the church, where people signed up for time slots to pray around the clock for the people listed on the boards. Someone was at the church praying 24 hours a day for a full week before the revival, Rawls said.

During the four-day revival, First Baptist Nixon saw 84 people make public decisions for Christ. They were seeing God answer their prayers.

“We have had over 40 baptisms this year,” Rawls said. “My first year we had 32, the second year we had 27, and we’re over 40 this year. We’ve seen at present over 300 people come to the Lord in the past two and a half years. We’re averaging about 150 on Sundays, but we’re growing. Our worship services are very powerful. They’re moving. God is at work in this town.”

The week of July 28, the church had more than 200 children in Vacation Bible School.

“From the pulpit, I do not sacrifice the Word of God. We preach the message. We preach the Bible,” Rawls said, noting that most of the Hispanic people who attend speak English. “We talk about sin. We talk about heaven and hell. We preach the Gospel in love, and we ask people to repent. People need to know that Jesus loves them.”

Rawls has taken some heat from people who can’t understand how a church that has seen more than 300 people accept Jesus in the past three years has only half that number in the pews each week. The main factor, he said, is that most of the people who are coming to Christ are coming from a strong culturally Catholic background.

“We have had people that literally have come to Jesus Christ, and because they have accepted Christ, their entire families have turned their backs on them,” Rawls said. “We have a person here who joined our church from a Catholic background, accepted Jesus and was baptized. Their family went and purchased a tombstone and put the person’s name on it. In other words, they were saying, ‘You’re dead. We don’t even know you.’

“What you’ve done is you’ve gone against all of their culture. That’s why these people who have accepted Christ, for many of them it’s real, but there now is that internal struggle,” he said.

Despite the culture he’s up against, Rawls continues to push his congregation toward prayer and make frequent visits to people who still need to know Jesus or be encouraged in their new life in Christ.

“It is so possible for God,” he said. “We limit God, and it is possible for small churches to blow the doors off because people want to hear about Jesus Christ.”

In 1872, D. L. Moody made a trip to England for rest, with no intention of preaching. While he was in London, a pastor spotted Moody and asked him to preach for him the next Sunday and Moody agreed. On Sunday morning the church seemed indifferent to his message.

But when he spoke that evening, the response was completely changed. After the sermon, Moody asked those who wished to become Christians to stand, and hundreds stood up. Moody thought that they must have misunderstood him, so he asked them to sit down and he repeated the invitation more clearly, asking all who wanted to become Christians to step into the inquiry room. So many people crowded into the room that extra chairs had to be brought in. Moody was amazed, thinking that they still did not understand. So he asked all of those who were in earnest to meet the pastor there the following night.

The next day, Moody sailed across the Irish Sea, but he no sooner reached Dublin than the pastor sent an urgent message for him to return, because more inquirers came Monday night than had been present on Sunday! Moody returned and preached for ten days, during which 400 people made professions of faith and joined that church.

Moody sensed that someone had been praying for this church. He began asking and finally was led to a bedridden girl, Marianne Adlard. She lay twisted and distorted by her suffering, but she spent many hours daily in prayer. She had been asking God to send revival to her church, which she never could attend because of her illness. She had read of Moody’s work in Chicago, and she specifically asked God to bring this man to her church to preach.

When her older sister returned from that lifeless morning service and told Marianne that a man named Moody from Chicago had preached, she spent the afternoon in prayer until the Lord gave her assurance that He would bring revival. Marianne Adlard prayed daily for D. L. Moody as long as he lived.

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(adapted from Lyle Dorsett, A Passion for Souls [Moody Press], pp. 161-162; and D. Edmond Hiebert, “The Significance of Christian Intercession,” Bibliotheca Sacra [Jan.-Mar., 1992, pp.20-21).

It took a religious revival to save one of the nation’s first secular universities. Given the state of our college campuses today, it’s a history lesson worth learning.

Before his death on July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson left explicit instructions on what the epitaph on his tombstone should read: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, & Father of the University of Virginia.”

Yet within a few years after his death, his beloved University of Virginia was in deep trouble, and what would wind up saving it would have been a shock to its founder.

As Carlos Santos and Rex Bowman tell us in their book, “Rot, Riot and Rebellion: Mr. Jefferson’s Struggle to Save the University That Changed America,” Jefferson’s vision for UVA was that of an “academical village” and a “forward-looking community with no religious affiliation.” It was to be a place where “Virginia’s best minds could go to study with the world’s best scholars.”

But within a few years after its founding, UVA was none of these things. As Santos told Public Radio’s “Backstory,” the level of violence at UVA during its first decades is difficult for the modern mind to fathom. The young men attending school in Charlottesville had “hair-trigger tempers” and the slightest insult was to set off fights that employed every conceivable weapon: teeth, fists, rocks, knives, firearms, and even bombs. One student even murdered a professor!

As Santos told “Backstory,” every attempt by the faculty to reign in the culture of violence and disorder “failed miserably.”

The violence at UVA literally brought Jefferson to tears and had him, as well as the faculty, concerned for the future of the university. It called into question Jefferson’s controversial vision of a secular university where the pursuit of truth would be unencumbered by religious dogma. Virginia taxpayers questioned whether their money should go to pay for this failed experiment.

Obviously, UVA survived and went on to thrive. But why? Because, as UVA historian Peter Onuf put it, UVA students didn’t get enlightened — ”they got Jesus.” The Second Great Awakening swept through Charlottesville and changed the university’s culture.

Even though some students were still “acting out,” Onuf says there was also “the beginnings of a new culture on the campus–a more evangelical, religious culture.”

The irony of evangelical Christianity saving Mr. Jefferson’s university is not lost on Onuf and the other historians at “Backstory.” Ironically, shortly before his death, Jefferson said that “I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.”

But his rationalist deism was not up to the task of taming the unruly passions of young men. It was Christianity that, as Onuf tells us, “finally [succeeded in] creating that kind of serious student that Jefferson had been looking for . . .” It took “serious Christians” to do the kind of “serious thinking” Jefferson had in mind.

A lot has changed since then. Colleges and universities are trying their hardest to limit or even eliminate Christian expression on campus while, at the same time, dealing with epidemics of binge-drinking and even sexual assault among their students. While Jefferson didn’t live to see the impact of Christianity on his beloved university, today’s college administrators have no such excuse.

It’s also a reminder of why we should never stop praying for revival. The first and second Great Awakenings changed the course of American history. Why should we doubt that a third one would do the same? So, pray, my friends, for revival.

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Copyright (c) 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Let us be clear on this indisputable fact: The Lord is God.

There is no glory greater than His glory. What He desires to do, He is able to do. We can look back in the story of our nation and see the Lord is able to pour out His Spirit with such power and effect that the whole nation is deeply stirred. We have names for such times: the Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening and, more recently, the Jesus Movement.

Not that long ago...

I was there in the Jesus Movement and saw my college campus profoundly changed. The playlist of the nation’s pop radio stations included songs about Jesus at the top of the list, not the bottom. There were record-setting numbers of conversions in churches of all sorts. Jesus was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. The Gospels inspired two hit Broadway musicals that are still touring today. My wife and I saw one of them (“Jesus Christ Superstar”) again just a few months ago. Profound changes in worship were set in motion and are still creating ripples in today’s churches.

The chaos and upheaval of the ‘60s ended with a mighty movement of God in the’70s, making Jesus an unavoidable part of the national cultural and religious conversation.

But not now...

Let us also be clear on this indisputable fact: That kind of movement of God is not sweeping America today. Why?

Is there no need for such an outpouring of God today? I can’t imagine anyone arguing that position. Is God less able to stir the nation today than He was in years past? This cannot be the case. Is God less interested in igniting the fires of revival and awakening today than He was in our past? Given His love for sinners revealed in Scripture and demonstrated in His suffering on the cross, such antipathy toward us could not exist.

Where is the mighty movement of God stirring our nation? Forget the nation as a whole. Where is the stirring of God in a mighty way even within our churches?

I suggest one factor in the lack of an outpouring of God’s Spirit in our churches and nation today is the widespread absence of a particular kind of prayer. It is not an uncommon prayer in Scripture: David prayed it; Isaiah prayed it; Nehemiah prayed it; Paul prayed it. While not an uncommon prayer in the Bible, it does appear to be an uncommon prayer today, perhaps because it is embarrassing.

The “S” word and me

The embarrassing prayer is an acknowledgement that I still have a problem with sin, as does my church and my nation. All of us know sinful acts are a problem, but we rarely acknowledge they remain a problem after we begin walking with Jesus. We become more likely to confess the sin of others than to confess our own.

Consider the poignant wrestling with sin expressed by Paul in Romans 7:14-25. Should we not expect battles with sin to be part and parcel of our journey with Jesus as well? Unfortunately, when my repentance is connected only with yesterday’s news of my conversion, God’s activity in my life also becomes yesterday’s news.

What should we do?

I suggest you bring Psalm 139:23-24 into your active prayer life: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

For all of us, the battle with disobedience and sin is part of the journey as we follow Jesus. My disobedience is never a lesser sin than someone else’s disobedience. Being unaware of our own sins does not indicate sin is no longer a problem.

If Psalm 23 is a part of your prayer life, Psalm 51 should be as well. We do well to remember David’s prayer of confession and repentance in Psalm 51 did not come in his youth. It came long after he was a man “after God’s own heart.”

Praying an embarrassing prayer is much preferred to living an embarrassing life.