======================================================================== KEYS TO REVIVAL by Greg Frizzell ======================================================================== Summary: nil Duration: 1:31:26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nil ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alan, brother, will you come and just lead us. I just feel that you're supposed to do this for a little while. Amen, church? Amen? Come on, brother. Just come in. I'm just going to give two or three announcements while he's getting ready to go. Again, if you have cell phones, be sure they're turned off and not distracted or silenced. Again, if there's anybody who wants a quiet place to pray, off to my left, your right. If anybody needs a nursery, there's one out there provided. Also, in front of the sound booth back there, there's a little box. We're not going to hold any offerings as such, but if anybody wants to bless the local church here for the expenses that they have chosen to shoulder at this time, they've provided food and all the facilities, you're welcome to do that. There's a little box back there. That's everything. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, but sometimes I wonder what he can do through me. No great success to show, no glory of my own, but in my weakness he is there to let me know. His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. You carry us when we can't carry on. Raised in his power, the weak become strong. His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. But we can only know the power that he holds when we understand just how deep our own weakness goes. Then his strength in us begins when ours comes to an end. And then he hears our humble cry and proves again. His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. You carry us when we can't carry on. Raised in his power, the weak become strong. His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. So in Jesus' name we press on. In Jesus' name we press on. Dear Lord, with the prize so clear before our eyes, we find your strength to press on. So when the valley is steep, when the mountain is steep, when the body is weary, and when we stumble and fall, when the struggle is hard, when we're battered and scarred, when we've spent our resources and when we've given our all, in Jesus' name we press on. Dear Lord, with the prize so clear before our eyes, we find your strength to press on. Lord, I'm yours. Lord, I'm yours. I've been born with life so precious. I'm brand new. I'm brand new in you, my Jesus. Lord, I'm yours. I am yours. You hold all my life in your hands. And when I hear your spirit calling me, I will follow. I will follow because I am yours. Pick up thy cross and follow me. I heard my Savior say, I gave my life to ransom thee. Surrender your all today. Lord, wherever you lead, we'll go. Lord, wherever you lead, we'll go. We will follow you, Christ, because you love us so. Wherever you lead, we'll go. It may be through some shadow's day, or o'er some stormy sea, we'll still follow you, Christ, whatever the cost. Wherever you lead me, wherever you lead, we'll go. Wherever you lead, we'll go. We will follow you, Christ, because you love us so. Wherever you lead, we'll go. You just ask one thing, Jesus, just be Jesus in me. No other me but thee. Let your resurrection power come and fill me this hour. Jesus, just be Jesus in me. Let's sing those words, Jesus, be Jesus in me. No other me but thee. No other me but thee. Resurrection power, resurrection power, fill me, fill me this hour. And Jesus, be Jesus in me. Our Heavenly Father, we bless your name, Lord, tonight. And we worship you, Lord, for who you are. Oh, Jesus, be Jesus in me. No other me but thee. Resurrection power, fill me this hour. And Jesus, be Jesus in me. And Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true with thanksgiving. I'll be a living sanctuary for you. Wherever he leads, I'll go. Wherever he leads, I'll go. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so. Wherever he leads, I'll go. Can you stand and lead us in prayer, please? Amen. Brother Craig, if you'll come. Brother Don had asked me earlier if Leon would come give his testimony. Leon is a man that we as a church begin to pray for by name, he and his brother, many, many months ago. And I'd said more than once that the day God saves Leon also be the beginning of revival in Barnsdall. And he calls me big brother, I call him little brother. You can see why that's funny right now. But he's going to share with you. First of all, I want to thank you, Jesus, for giving me time to speak tonight, dear Lord. I want you to protect all these speakers. The God-fearing people that come to preach, dear Jesus, we appreciate it immensely. Okay, here we go. Thank you, Jesus. On December the 22nd of last year, I had a doctor's appointment. I had to go take a stress test. I went over and took the stress test. You don't hear from him unless something's wrong. About three or four days after that, he called me and said he needed to talk to me again. So I go back over there. He said, I had a heart transplant or bypass. They're 96. Well, two of them plugged up. Anyhow, getting back to the deal. The main artery in there showed I had it blocked 70%. He said, well, we're going to have to go back up in there and check it, see if we can put a stent in there. I've got a couple of stents already in there. Two of them had plugged before, and he unplugged them, or it was almost plugged. But anyhow, I went back to the 26th. He said, you're going to have to go up in there and see what he can do. I said, well. I swore I wouldn't do it again. My wife, she didn't want me to do it. But I thought, well, I better go do what he says. So I go back over there. He made me an appointment for the 2nd of January. So I go over there. Brother Brian and Jeff, Brother Jeff come over there. All my family was there before we went into the deal. They prayed for me. I was laying there on that deal, and they put their hand on my knee. When they was praying, I felt a little tingle. I went in there to get the treatment. He went up in there, and he was jabbing around on there. First thing he came back up and said, there's not no blockage in there. How can you find any? I said, well, thank you, Jesus. Tell us what happened before you were ever healed. New Year's Eve when you came to my office. Oh, yeah. I forgot the best part, didn't I? I'm nervous, you see. Anyhow, Jeff had been trying to get me to come to church for 4, 5, 6 years. I wouldn't pay no attention to him. He kept on nagging and nagging. Finally, I said, well, I might go to church, but I said it's not going to be out there on a hill. I said, I don't believe the way they do. Anyhow, I was laying there. The 30th of December, I was laying there. I stay in the front bedroom, and there's a guard light out there in the front. It shines through the window. It's not real bright, but you can see light through it. I've got one of them digital clocks there on the end of the bed. Anyhow, I go to bed about between 11 and 11.30. I'm laying there, and I had this congestive heart failure, and I can't lay on my back and sleep. So I was laying there on my back. Well, I'd never prayed in 40 or 50 years. I decided to flop over on my left side and go to sleep. Well, when I turned over, I died. Everything went black. I couldn't see nothing, no feeling, no nothing. I don't know how long I was there. It seemed like five or ten seconds, but I don't have any idea how long it was. Well, when I finally came back around, I checked my pulse. I said, Lord, if you'll let me get through this tonight, I'll get right with you tomorrow. So I didn't sleep real well that night, needless to say. But anyhow, the next morning, I went down to Jeff's, and I told him what the deal was. Well, we came out and got with Brother Brian, and I got right with the Lord, and I've been happy camper ever since. And I know he's still alive because he can look at me and see what he's done to me. Thank you, Brother Brian. I'm not going to let him go yet. One more thing. What did you do the next day? Your brother. Well, me and my brother, we hadn't spoke for four or five years. We got a little fused. Well, the next day after I got saved, I went up there to apologize to him. Well, I went up there, and his daughter's pickup was sitting there. So I said, well, I don't want to go in there while he's got company. He'll have to blow up. Well, I went back to town, and the Spirit wouldn't let me go home. I stopped down at the Gertz Cafe and sat there for a minute. I said, well, the Spirit told me to go back up there and apologize, so I went back up there and apologized. We've been friends ever since. Amen. Thank you, Brother Adrian. Praise the Lord. Good evening. Welcome. Why don't you step up here, and Brother Joel, you come up here and pray for Greg and Mark Greening. Are you here tonight? He's not here. Brother Greg, Gordon, you want to come up here, too, again and join us for prayer? Lord Jesus, we commit our brother to you today, Father God. We pray, Lord Jesus, that as he speaks your word, that you would fill him full of the fire of your Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus. That you'd fill him full of your power and your anointing to speak your word of truth, Lord. Lord God, we pray, Father God, that you would fill him with a mind of wisdom, Lord Jesus, to accurately divide your word, Lord Jesus. We pray that you would keep him from temptation, Lord, to only speak your word of truth and integrity, Father God. We pray, Father God, that you would come through with such an anointing that you would touch every heart in this place, Lord Jesus. That you would touch every mind, Lord Jesus. That, Lord, that your fire would cleanse out the sin of our hearts, Lord Jesus. And that your fire would bring us to repentance, Lord Jesus, before you, Lord God. We pray that over our brother today, Father God, and over this place, in Jesus' name. Yes, Father, we just commit, Lord, this meeting to you, God. We commit this meeting to the authority and headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, Father, we thank you that this dear brother, Greg, is here to minister your word, Lord, by your Spirit, for your glory. And we just stand in awe of not of a man, but, Lord, of you and how you use servants, how you use vessels for your honor and your glory. Lord, let no flesh get glory here, Lord. Not one person in this room be any glory unto, but unto the Lord of heaven and earth. Unto his Son, Jesus Christ, be all the glory and honor. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I'm incredibly honored to be here tonight. I know this is God's remnant. Folks that gather from all over the country, even parts of the world. For no other purpose than to glorify the living God. You know, when we stand in this place tonight and think about what God is doing and where we really are, there's hope. And the message I sense God wants me to bring tonight is that there really is hope that there's a breakthrough that really can happen. But we have to truly understand where we are. You know, in Matthew 16, 1 and 2, the Word of God says that we're to understand the signs of the times. If I were to ask you, where are we really tonight? I mean, really? You know, we've had prayer and awakening conferences now for 20, really in some places, 30 years in this country. And yet, our nation is now in the biggest collapse in the history of the world. Why is that? And yet, there's hope. God's remnant is deepening. There's a turning point in some parts of the world. We're seeing it, not so much in North America yet. But tonight, I really believe God wants us to see how to go past the wall that we sometimes seem to hit. We pray, we pray. We see God do some wonderful things. We see some mercy drops. But somehow, so far, there's been a wall. We haven't quite gotten past it. What is it that God is saying to His church tonight? That He gets glory. That He can finally pour out His mighty presence in such a way that no human can touch it or take credit. We are at a desperate turning point. If I were to ask you tonight, what are the signs of the times? We could all state most of them. You know that North America is the only major continent where Christianity is not expanding with all our churches. That's an astounding sign. We know that 70 to 75 percent of churches in America and Canada, for that matter, are either plateaued or declining. Now, what we're going to look at for just a moment is what God must quicken in our heart to make sure we really do understand just how desperately urgent it really is that we cannot just keep having prayer movements. It has to have a turning point. Something, the break has to come. Where is that? When does that happen? Baptisms, as you know, in America for the last ratios have been going like this for 50 straight years. We're going to kind of take a moment and see where we really are. Now, what's happened to programs and strategies and innovative methods? Well, they've all just exploded through the roof. That's interesting. In the middle of all of our education and strategies, the baptisms have been going like this. Now, what's happened to morals and family strength and church unity in America and Canada in the last 40, 50 years? Well, they really haven't gone like this. I don't have to tell you. They've gone like this. What we're in right now is not a decline. It can only be called an unmitigated collapse. It's happened on our watch, our prayer movement. You say, well, Brother Greg, you're being negative. Not at all. Don't hear that at all. The prayer movement's deepening. That's the hope. But there has to be a turning point. We can't just keep being content, which you're not. You're the remnant. But where are we? The baptisms like this, the morals like this. We're seeing something that is incredible. Many of the baptisms that are, the few that are being baptized are not there in three months. Evidently, there's a lot of false evangelism going on. So we're really at an urgent moment. This is interesting. In fact, this has never happened, to my knowledge, in the history of Christianity. We're now in the middle of a 30-year prayer movement in America. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, more books have been written on prayer, revival, awakening in the last 30 years than the 300 before that. We've seen an incredible explosion of strategies and prayer movements and prayer ministries in the last 30 years. Yet in the middle of that, America has moved to not the edge of judgment, in judgment. In fact, in many ways, if you know the signs of judgment, they're screaming at us that we're right on the edge of cataclysmic judgment. Now, the question is tonight, how could this have happened? Praise God, there's an answer. And praise God, the Word of God says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And guess how it was before most of the last mighty explosions of the manifest presence of God? It was really dark most of the time. But folks, in some ways, not as dark as where we are now. America's been really bad before, but we've crossed some barriers. What is God saying to His church right now to take us to a place where He's able to really release His manifest presence? Not just mercy drops. I mean like the mighty flood of God. If I were to ask you tonight, can you clearly remember 1904? I think I know what your answer would be. Nobody can remember that. The reason I ask, that's the last time there's really been, and this may be arguable, but probably the last time there's been a real global awakening that swept the entire earth. None of us really remember that. We've seen mercy drops. We've seen some little splashes since then. But nothing like the real thing when God just explodes in power. In fact, one of the disturbing signs that we're going to try to address tonight is that we really have seen a lot of little mercy drops that really don't become a flood. We're seeing an enormous number of little flashes of revival that just really quickly fizzle out. Why is that? We need to understand that. Otherwise, we keep doing the same thing. And one of the worst things that could ever happen to us is that we begin to think we're further advanced than we really are. And that can happen to all of us. And pride can get a hold of us even at the point of prayer. It really can. We can think we're more spiritual or more powerful than we really are. But folks, there's good news tonight. Someone said the prayer movement in America, the only way you can explain how we've had this big, loud, conspicuous prayer movement, and things have not declined but collapsed. Someone said, well, it's been a mile wide but a half inch deep. It's been an awful lot more about give me, give me, and bless me, bless me than cleanse me, change me, use me, and glorify yourself only. But great news tonight, folks, it really is deepening. And most of the prayer movement, a lot of it's been very real. It's just deepening now. And I'm convinced of the core of my being the group that gathers in places like this. You're that part that's deepening. So I want to try to bring some things tonight from the Word of God, I believe God wants me to share with you, that basically is the turning point where we go past the wall we've been kind of coming up to. And we really see, the Word of God says in 1 Corinthians 4, 20, that the kingdom of God is not in talk. Now, we can all talk good. We can all, most of us, not me, but most can preach good. And we can do good meetings, and we know how to do prayer conferences. But where's the explosion of baptisms? That's not the only sign. But where's the explosion? I mean the real thing. That's what we're going to see tonight where God brings us to. And praise God, there is tremendous hope, even in darkness. Even if the bottom really falls out. And it very well may. But that's when the presence of God can explode like a river. I'm going to ask you to take your Bible and turn to, well you don't have to turn to 2 Chronicles 7, 14. I do want to quote it in the spirit of the Hebrew text. Sometimes we miss it a little bit in the English. But if you would turn to Acts chapter 1 and verse 4 through 8. That is such an incredible, beautiful picture of the turning point. When I mean we're not just praying for a Bible, we're seeing it. When we're not just crying out. I mean the presence of God, it's not a little drop. I mean it's the kind that changes communities. I love what happened in Wales in 1904. Just remind us who God really is. You know, 1900, that little country was about as dark as it could be. In fact, in some ways they were worse than us. In some ways they weren't. But the people of God began to do the two things we're going to talk about tonight. They took their quiet times deeper and really embraced cleansing. Not legalism, but grace-based cleansing. And I mean the presence of God started teaching them how to pray for a Bible. How to experience the fullness of God. They didn't have little quiet times. They had intense, powerful times along with God. Then they embraced prayer meetings. Real prayer meetings about souls and about the presence of God. About repentance and getting right with each other. And man, it wasn't long. Well, it was about four years. But in 1904, there came God's suddenly moment. Isn't that a nice thought? We've been praying for 30 years for a mighty move of God. But you know Richard Owen Roberts, one of the greatest men of God of our generation. And someone asked him one time, Do you have much hope for America? He said, If you're asking me do I see a lot of good signs, no. And if you're asking me do I see a lot of health in the church, no. But then he got that twinkle in his eye. And he said, But you know what, I believe in the God of suddenly moments. You know folks, when God really moves, I mean when it's His time, we don't tell Him when. But all of a sudden, He's so real. Anything we thought before was revival, we find out. Man, He's so real. In Wales that happened in 1904. All of a sudden His manifest presence, His glory, His holiness. He made Himself so real that within 6 months, 100,000 people joined the churches by conversion. Now let's put that in perspective. You know what that would look like in America. Percentage wise, based on population. In fact, there was a little miner by the name of Evan Roberts, believing God for that very thing. 100,000. Well, to do that in America, you and I would have to believe God for 30 million Americans to get radically born again and join churches and go to work for God and still be there 5 years later for that to happen in the next 6 months. Would that change America? Everything from Washington to Hollywood and everything in the middle. Ladies and gentlemen, that's basically what God did in Wales in 1904. That's the God we're praying to and the God whose presence we're in tonight. But how does He do it? What's the principle? What does He want to do in us so that suddenly moment comes? So we don't spend the next 10 years just having conferences and just praying. That's tremendous because that's where it all comes from. But there's got to be a turning point. Well, these passages really, really tell us. Before I read the Word of God, I always pray. You know, we should never, ever read the Word casually. So I'm going to ask that we bow before God one more time. And I so praise God. You're not here to hear speakers. You just want to hear God. In the quiet of this moment, just between you and God, would you just praise God for giving His only Son to die for you? Just praise God for Jesus right now. Would you praise Him that His grace is greater than all of our sin and weakness? That He justifies us, though we're a work in progress? Would you praise Him that with God nothing is impossible? Would everyone ask God to give me His words in the Holy Spirit and us ears to hear? Oh, Father, how we praise You that by the blood of Your Son we can call You Abba, Father. That we can come, Lord, to Your very throne. And, God, we come only in that blood, only in that name. Father, we know we can't worship, we can't pray, we don't have an ounce of sincerity or purity without Your grace. But thank You, Lord, that we're not without Your grace. And it's in that grace, Lord, that we come. And, Lord, we're asking You tonight, just take us to a whole new level of just loving You, Lord. And, Lord, just trusting You. And, Lord, surrendering everything to You. Lord, by Your grace that we're utterly dead to ourselves that You alone may live. Lord, take us to a whole new level of faith tonight. And, Lord, a new level of turning points. So, God, we can see the breakthroughs in our marriages and churches. And, Father, help us not to get so enamored with what needs to happen in America. We miss our families and church. Father, tonight, take us to deeper faith, deeper love, deeper passion, deeper power, deeper surrender that You alone may get glory, that the break-in may finally come. We ask it for Your namesake, for Your pleasure. God, we confess Your name's the only name that matters. And, God, Your kingdom's the only kingdom that counts. And, God, Your will is the only will that really is any matter. And, Lord, that we matter only because we matter to You. And I've been created in Your image. We praise You. We honor You. We exalt You, Lord. Take this time. And, Lord, take us to a whole new surrender to You that You get glory for. We ask it in Jesus' blessed holy name. Amen. Well, 2 Chronicles 7, 14, as someone said, it's the most quoted and least experienced passage in all the Bible. I hope that's not true, but it may be. But let me quote it in the spirit of the Hebrew text. It really would read in the context more like this. If my people, which are called by my name, will desperately, in utter brokenness, humble themselves before me. It's not, God, we need You. It's, God, we've got to have You. And, God, we're undone. And, God, we desperately need You manifest. It's a desperate kind of humbling. It says, if we will pray. But it would really read more like, if my people will fervently cry out to me with utter fasting and tears, not just, Lord, it's in revival, but that kind of prayer that the Spirit of God gives. We can't work it up or fake it, but He says, that's what we have to have, and He'll give it to us if we want it. And so, He'll even give us the want it. We can even ask Him to strengthen our will. Isn't that great? Much of what we have is a will problem. If we wanted to pray more, we would. We can trust God and ask Him for that. He can even do that. My people will cry out fervently. And then it says, and seek my face. Well, that means to admit His face has not fully turned toward us. It's very important that as prayer members we stay very humble. And not start thinking we're further along than we really are. At the same time, we don't be discouraged. We shouldn't be. But folks, pride is a very subtle thing to get a hold of us. So, we must humble ourselves to admit, Father, we haven't seen the breakthrough yet. And we're not satisfied with mercy drops for Your name's sake. And Lord, we want to seek Your face. That means intimacy, total surrender to Your Lordship. Not just, God, fix our economy. Or, Lord, God, don't let us be persecuted. Boy, if that's our motive for revival, we can forget it. That's worthless, that's shallow. In the early church, they rejoiced because they were beaten half to death. God can give us that passion and grace. We have to want it. And He'll give it to us. And the remnant's headed there. It's exciting. So, my people will pray that way. Seeking my face, my glory, my kingdom. Not our comfort, not just our pleasure. Or us to brag about it. But then He said, and turn from the wicked ways. That would mean, God, go through me with a fine-tooth comb. Especially my motives. Especially my inner meditations. That unyielded self that will hide on us. It's just, Lord, I want You to have everything. He said, then. Which says a lot different than just saying a little four-line prayer. And so, what God is calling us to is that passion of prayer. And God's seeking heart that He gives us. And that's what He's doing in this remnant. And it's going to a whole new level. Here's the good news tonight. There's a little remnant of believers. And not just in America, but especially around the world. And I tell you, in the last three to five years. I'm talking about the intercessors now. I'm talking about people that do know God, walk with God. Listen. It is altogether different now. The time they spend has just exploded. It's happened. And many times they've got tears running when they pray they never have had before. And they're getting words from God. They're not just hoping God will send revival. They know He's going to in their church because they've got a word and they believe in God. Folks, revival doesn't come from just hoping one will come and saying, Boy, we need it. It comes from having the kind of faith where you really believe it by revelation. And it's a word. And that's where He's taking it. That's what's happening in that remnant. They're seeing breakthroughs in their marriages. For years, they've seen their kids and grandkids kind of struggle. Some of them have them going the wrong way. Did you know we're in an epidemic of ministers and Christian leaders whose families are being spiritually slaughtered? I mean, an epidemic. It's not a little. It's just an explosion among many intercessors. But guess what? In this little remnant, they're getting a little better handle on some real warfare. And I mean, they're seeing some mountains come. They're seeing these kids change. They're seeing their neighbors get saved, which is really what it's about for the glory of God. It's not just praying. Man, they're seeing the souls get saved. They're seeing the mountains move. They're seeing the marriages change. And it's happening. Tell me, are you in that remnant? I mean, no hands or anything, but just be honest. Are you really there? I mean, we can all go to conferences. You know, we can all get up here and give sermons. What's the reality? You got it. You probably wouldn't be here. And that remnant's growing, folks. Well, he says, when you pray like that, and it's God's grace in us, he said, I'm going to hear, I'm going to forgive, and I'm going to heal the land. But let me look, if you will, to Acts chapter 2. I'm sorry, Acts chapter 1 and verse 4. Acts chapter 1 and verse 4. And being assembled together with him, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait. And, of course, we understand that didn't mean go have a committee meeting or go have a meal. It meant go really pray together, united, really seek God. But not just pray and seek God, but believe God. That they were really believing God for something. Look what verse 5 says. John truly baptized with water. You should be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And they were believing God for that. Of course, that hadn't happened to them yet. If you're saved, he's in you. He's come inside of you. But the Bible does also clearly say that to save people, we can really lose the fullness. We can really lose the full power. We can really lose the full yieldedness. Therefore, the Spirit gets kind of grieved and quenched. And it's subtle, but it's very real. So he was talking about them not only having the Spirit, but obviously walking in the power of the Spirit. Verse 8, he says, this is what it's going to look like. And it's a pretty good measuring stick. It really is. You know, we're really a generation. We've got so many study courses, and they're really good. We've got so many ministries, so many tapes, and really good stuff. And this passage didn't exactly apply to this, but I think it's kind of in the ballpark. It says, sometimes we can be ever learning and ever coming to the knowledge of the truth. We can be ever talking and studying, but not really moving into the real manifest presence of God in our local churches. That's where it really hits the road, not at a conference, but at the local church and in the family. Well, he says, this is what it's going to look like. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me right here in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. Man, you talk about a miracle. What was right outside those doors? You know, sometimes, well, it's tough in America today, boys. Hard to reach people. What was outside those doors? The Roman soldiers who wanted to hang them on a cross. The Jews who wanted to kill them. Every cult in the world. Talk about a demon-possessed atmosphere. It was incredible what they were facing. He said, you're going to walk right up to those Romans and those Jews. You're going to win them to Jesus. That's what he was saying. You're not going to hide anymore, because they've been hiding. But he also, he wasn't telling them it was going to be a miracle by the minute. He also said, many of you are going to die. Going to die. They're going to kill your children. Did you know that's what's happening in India and places around the world? I was with a bunch of men in India about three years ago, and they were from North India. And they said they've already killed one or two of our friends, and when we go back home, some of us are going to die. They know who we are. And you know what? They're going to kill our children. You know, it's one thing to give your own life. What about giving your child to be tortured? You know what I saw in those men's eyes? It broke me. It humbled me. It changed my life. I saw joy. I saw joy. I saw determination. And when I got back to the States to my safe place, three months later, I heard three of those men were dead, and two others had to just leave their houses and leave everything. But, oh, the power of God in those men's lives and ministries. Folks, he's taken us to a kind of joy that doesn't get shaken by the economy or anything else. He's taken us to a kind of power we'll witness, and it works. You know what happened. The Spirit of God came, and they went out witnessing, and the first thing they got accused of was being drunk. Anybody accused of being drunk lately? They had so much joy and so much boldness, so much power, but it wasn't long that they realized these guys aren't drunk because their words didn't hit them here. Their words went straight here. And that's what we lack today so much. Well, yeah, we can be good talkers, but it's not in talk, it's not in slickness. It's real power. Well, they had it, and the world got reached. That's what's happening in so many places around the world. And we ask the question, how did they get that? What was that? We've got the Spirit in us, so where is that? Well, we want to talk for just a moment about the one thing that has to happen in us as individuals to go past that barrier and really move into that next realm where the Spirit of God explodes finally. And that doesn't mean we measure everything by experiences. We'll go through valleys. We'll go through times of warfare. It's not all measured by numbers. The folks ought to be there sometimes. But we see these mighty moves of God. We should never be satisfied that it never happens. And so here's what God is doing right now in this remnant. Let me give you one other Scripture that illustrates the kind of prayer we're talking about. What we're saying is in Acts they had a type of prayer. That 10-day prayer meeting, that's pretty intense. And there's not just a prayer meeting. Folks, it was a cleansing meeting. You say, how do you know? It doesn't say it. Well, that's kind of what they did that time of year in that type of thing. But you know what they had to decide in that 10 days? They had to decide, we're ready to walk out there and get our heads cut off. They had to decide that because up to that point they'd been hiding. You know, now I believe in that 10 days they prayed, they sought God, they were getting ready to surrender their whole heart, and that's always the missing key to revival. It's not just prayer. It's always prayer and utter yielding. That's it. That's the big missing element. But praise God is coming back. Well, they had that, and God at His point in time, He moved that suddenly moment. They were totally different. They went out. They witnessed. It wasn't fancy. I jokingly say if you read Peter's sermon, you know what? He'd have flunked a preaching class at seminary. There wasn't three points and a poem in there. Anyway, it's a rough old sermon, brother. But the power of God was so that a rough fisherman, 3,000, got baptized on the spot. You know how much power that was? You know what those people were doing? They got publicly baptized. They were becoming a public enemy of the Roman government, putting their head on the chopping block. That's repentance. That's salvation. We don't get that kind of power by just studying Bible and doing conferences. It's about a certain type of personal and corporate prayer. But we're going to see the personal for just a moment. James 5, 16. You're very familiar with this passage. Probably don't even have to turn to this one. The great revival passage, as a matter of fact, at least the principle is. It says, Well, I'm sorry. It says, You know, that's a real big little so that. That so that means that the deep, deep, deep cleansing and utter brokenness and humility doesn't happen first, neither does it release the power of God. That's what it means. But then it goes on to give a principle about revival producing or any kind of producing prayer. It says, There's an implied word here. The implied word is only. It is only the effective, fervent. That means anointed, impassioned, real spirit anointed. It is only the effective. You know, that would mean it's got a lot of faith in it. That means we're not just saying prayers. We're believing. It's effective. It's strategic. It's guided by the spirit. You know, revival producing prayer is never general. Never general. You ever read the great prophets of the Bible that within the prayers they prayed when God did mightily? Boy, they didn't say God send revival. Man, they understood what God had to do to send revival and they were praying those things with God. Their prayers deepened. The prayers of Daniel, prayers of Nehemiah, obviously the prayers of Jesus. Did you know we see that in history? Those men and women God used to birth those mighty turning points when the spirit of God did explode. When you go back and read their prayers, honestly they had about ten or twelve elements in them. Really, God generally does about at least seven or eight things in his church to really bring the manifest presence of God. Do you know exactly what they are? And are you praying those by the spirit of God? I'm not saying there's exactly eight. I'm sure most of you do. You're doing it. But did you know we've done studies that the vast majority of believers don't have any earthly idea in the world how to seek God's face? They'll say God send revival. They say it two or three times and then we start looking at each other. They don't know what else to say. Well, these folks, when it says the effective, that means we're really praying with the spirit of God. It's not just some general little flippant one-line prayer. It doesn't mean it's legalism or complicated. But we're praying with God. We're praying in real faith. We've got the fervent anointing of God. And obviously all that comes from the righteous man, which means the utterly, totally yielded heart, not just somebody that's saved back there somewhere. And so this is where God is taking us. How is he doing it? Well, he's doing it the same way he always does it. Folks get a, believers get a vision for intimacy and surrender to Jesus. They get a vision for Jesus himself, not just some blessing, not just some answer, not just some miracle, which is fine. But they really want time with Jesus. You know, first thing Jesus said when he said teach us praise, he said shut the door and go in your closet. Now he was saying a lot of things about the Pharisees and legalistic. He was not about that. But we see in the life of Jesus, he always made much, much, much time to be alone with the Father. And we see that in this remnant I'm telling you about of pastors and lay people in this country. That is the common denominator. Over the past three or four years, God has convicted them. They've stopped short. They're rushing God. And they've settled for more average type devotions rather than this fervent, effective, absolute yielded heart. And what we're seeing there, they're realizing, is that they've shortchanged the cleansing part. They were quite a bit on the asking part, maybe even pretty good on the praise part and the petition part, even a little bit on the intercession. But that really absolute searching of the heart, not legalism, but spirit-led, grace-based, biblical, absolute search. That's missing in a lot of lives. You go back and look at Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield and Wesley and on and on and on and on. Men, I mean, really, really knew God. And that was never missing in their quiet times. It's coming back. People are understanding. I've been rushing God. We're the busiest society. I'm sure Canada is a lot like America, but we're the busiest society. In fact, we're called the instant society. Do you know why we're called the instant society? We invented everything instant. Instant coffee, instant tea, instant soup, instant breakfast, instant bank business. We invented it. Guess what else we tried to invent about 40 years ago? Instant quiet times. No muss, no fuss. Read a scripture or two, read a devotion, say a prayer, and you're done. And I know this group right here, you're doing a lot more than that. But folks, most aren't. And you know what? Even many leaders, what's really being seen is even many of us that have been intercessors, the Lord's taken us to a whole new level of cleansing. Let me give you an illustration. By the way, you know better than to pray for experience, don't you? That's a lot like praying for patience. Be careful. I didn't know any better. Right when I graduated from seminary in 1983, I prayed, Oh, Lord, give me experience. What did he ever? First church out of seminary was the most horrible. And this is not an opinion. This is what history professors said. This is the truth. It was the worst moral and legal scandal and disaster in the history of the entire Southern Baptist Convention. It was my first church. Now, praise God, I didn't cause it. It happened before I got there, okay? I could have caused it, but I didn't. But right before I went to this church, when an associate pastor, minister of evangelism, about to go to my first church, it was in a very big, large southern city. It was in a very high crime area. I was scared to go, honestly, because it was going to be a very tough situation. Right before I went there, I turned on the 6 o'clock news, and there was that church on the 6 o'clock news. It wasn't a publicity campaign. They were leading a woman out of that church in handcuffs. Accused of child sexual abuse in the church daycare. This was 1984. You hadn't even heard of such a thing. Biggest scandal and most horrible thing in Memphis, Tennessee. And this church is now in a horrible mess. And three weeks later, they called, and they said, We can't call a staff member. To be honest with you, I went, I'm glad you can't. I was scared to go. But then it kept getting worse every day, and they called me back, and they said, Would you still pray about coming? I said, Oh yeah, I'll pray about it. I thought, I'm not going. But I prayed, and God said, You're going. Folks, I hadn't been there six weeks. That thing blew up like an atomic bomb. They arrested the pastor that was there. Accused of child sexual abuse. Now a lot worse. Now devil worship in the church baptistry. And then they arrested two more people. And I'm right in the middle of this now. Kid right out of seminary. The legal bills started exploding. This was a church about 200 or 300 on a Sunday morning. Had a big billing debt. Didn't have any money. The legal bills started exploding. The summit got to three million dollars. It was just hopeless. And they forgot to tell me the church was divided right down the middle without the legal battle. I mean, folks, it was bad. Well, it gets even worse. Six months into this, I'm now their pastor. I have no experience. I have no idea what to do. I'm scared to death. So, we do have a program to get our hands on. We even started a good prayer ministry. I mean, we tried everything. Good stuff. That church was dying. Folks, this stuff, these legal battles went on for five solid years. I'm not exaggerating. That church was on the 6 o'clock news for five years, about three or four nights a week, leading the former pastor out of the church in handcuffs. Now, what kind of chance is a church like that? Well, it didn't have a chance. Neither did I. I was so beat up and worn down. And I was kind of moaning and groaning. Lord, we've done all we can do. We went to 10,000 people in six weeks. About 30, 40 little old people went door to door. 10,000 people in six weeks and not one person visited our church. It was that bad. Lord, we've done all we can do. And, Lord, we've had a prayer ministry. And, Lord, I've had a good quiet time. And I'm just going to have to get out of the ministry. I'm just beat up. That's when the Lord showed me what was wrong. And, you know, by human standards, I had an okay quiet time. But God showed me, you're stopping short. You're rushing me. And He said, what you're really doing, you haven't embraced the absolute deep cleansing of your heart. And I thought I had, you know. And you know what we're finding in a lot of precious Americans, even some intercessors. What we mean by embracing deep cleansing of the heart and what God means are really different. And what we mean by absolute yielding and what they understood in the great awakenings is different. But God's helping us come back to a deeper yielding. And, of course, have you ever noticed the Lord is always right when He says something to you? And sure enough, He was right. So He showed me this list of about 200 scriptures that was in some of the great awakenings. He said, pray through that one real slow. I started that. Folks, it wasn't long. He started showing me attitudes. People, I said I'd forgiven down deep, deep, deep. I really hadn't. Selfishness, deep, deep, deep down. I didn't realize was there. And the Lord started doing the work. And I was so beat up. I was really beat up. But the joy came back. And the situation was worse than ever. I mean, it was awful. You know what? They thought I was having a nervous break down there. I was up there so full of joy. They said, Greg, you need to go see a doctor. I said, I'm not crazy. Let me tell you what's happened. And the Lord had become real. See, folks, He don't need good situations to give us joy or power. But you're not going to get it in shallow prayer time on the run or cleansing that's about one and a half pages long. Now, I'm not talking about legalism here. I'm not talking about you've got to do it every day or God won't fill you. I'm not talking about that. But we are talking about really, truly deep, deep, deep yielding. And that's where many are missing. Well, the Lord began to do a work, and then the Lord led me to ask the people if they would change their quiet times from the 10 or 15 minute kind to really, and not legalism. We said, shoot for 30 minutes to an hour. And again, don't get out of clock necessarily, but just, and really embrace this deep cleansing. And God had shown me if just a remnant of your people would really go to that level, He said, I can begin to move in this church. But if they won't, I'm not going to do much. Well, let me tell you what happened. I challenged them to take their quiet times, you know, 30 minutes to an hour and really add absolute deep cleansing of every area of their life and begin to pray for souls. There was a little woman in my church named Polly. She was about the quietest, shyest woman I've ever known in my life. In fact, she had a stuttering problem. And she had a lot of pain in her life. She was a nice Christian lady. She was kind of an intercessor. And she prayed quite a bit. But there was a level of absolute yielding she thought she'd experienced. She really hadn't. You know what? If we were really doing revival praying, more of our churches would be in revival. And again, I'm not saying that about you, because your church may well be. But what we're seeing, many have gotten content, just pray for year after year after year after year for revival, and it never comes. There comes a point. Some of it's timing. Some of it's timing. But with many, there's a deeper level of faith that He's going to take us to and a deeper level of yielding and power. A deeper level of fullness. Well, Miss Polly, she heard about this quiet time, and she realized, I'm not doing that. She embraced this. And the Lord started showing her things in life over that month. He showed her about 12 things in her life, some attitudes, some things down deep. And she was a nice lady, you know. And then the woman began to change. And she started saying things like, an hour just flies. Didn't even realize it's gone so fast. She said, Brother Greg, she said, I didn't know God could be that real to you. She even said, I used to think people that said God spoke to me were weird. I thought they were hearing voices. She said, boy, God speaks to you. You know, I never could have said it as well as she did. She said, when you get your heart absolutely clean, I mean, the real thing. She said, you know what? Your hearing clears up, doesn't it? Folks, it really does. God's holy. We're under grace, but folks, that doesn't mean sin's no big deal anymore. Well, it kept getting better, and Polly started seeing power. I mean, she started seeing answers. She'd been praying for it for 20 years. And now, boom, boom, she was seeing some incredible things. But the biggest change, and folks, this is where God's taking the remnant. This is where He's calling us to go. You know, with God, it's all about heart. It's not so much what we know. It's the heart. It's the passion. It's not the lips. It's the heart. Loving Him, loving souls, loving His presence, hating sin, not because I might hurt from it or might miss a blessing, but because it grieves Jesus. And Polly got the heart of God after about three months. She came to me one day, and she said, Brother Greg, I've still got pain, but I've got joy like I've never had in my life. And she said, Brother Greg, I've still got problems, but I've got peace now. She said, Brother Greg, it's so different. She said, I've grown more in three months than I've grown in 30 years. This was an intercessor now, before this. And she said, Brother Greg, I always knew I was supposed to pray for lost people, and I prayed for a few. But she said, Brother Greg, now that Jesus is just so real to me, she said, I can't keep from praying for lost people. She said, I've got 30 lost people I'm praying for on every single day. I said, 30? That kind of convicted me, you know. And she said, yeah, 30. And then she said something that really spoke to me. She said, Brother Greg, I want to ask you. She said, sometimes when I'm praying for them, I love them so much, I want to see them saved so bad. She said, sometimes I feel tears rolling down my face. She looked at me. She said, I've never done that much before about lost people. She said, I do that about my problems. But she said, Brother Greg, is that normal? You know, I had to say to her, probably for most believers, it really isn't, unfortunately. But I said, it's real normal for Jesus. Please don't stop. She said, I'm not going to stop. He's more real than he's ever been in my life. And then she came to me the final month. See, the reason I'm telling you this, this is where he's taking us. He's taking us to a new passion about souls, about himself, about holiness. Not legalism, but the joy of holiness. And his presence. And it's incredible. But the fourth month she came and said, Brother Greg, I've got to talk to you. And remember, she's real shy and stutters. And she said, Brother Greg, I'm scared to death. I said, what happened to your peace? Why are you scared? She said, well, Brother Greg, this morning in my time with God, he told me I've got to go witness to all 30 of those lost people. She said, I'm not certified. I'm not trained. I said, I don't care if you're trained or not. I said, can you read? She said, yeah. I said, take this little track. I think it's Billy Graham's track. Read these five scriptures real slow, one at a time. I said, when getting this one about repentance, make sure they really mean they mean something. That there's not some flippant little prayer. She said, just read these scriptures. I said, I thought the way you're praying, that's it. And you know what? She said, well, I think I can do it. And you know, ladies and gentlemen, God wouldn't let her not do it. Over about the next six weeks, she went to all 30 of those lost people. One by one. You know what? I've been to most of them. They didn't much want to hear me. And some of them heard me preach, and they didn't get saved. But when that little woman went up to them in the power of the Holy Spirit of God, praying for them like she had been for about two months. And our church at that time was not in revival. And I want to tell you, he used that little woman to start that church in revival. Not me. He used that little woman. And I'll tell you what happened. She went to those 30 people. And some of them were teenagers that she knew and had a burden for. And the people who went with her said, you know, it wasn't very pretty. She stuttered. She'd have probably flunked this whole winning class. But the power of God bestowed on that little woman. At 21 out of 30, got saved on the spot. And you know what? I know what you might think. You'd be right to think it. Well, did they just say the prayer to be nice to Polly or to get her to leave? That's not salvation. I'll tell you what her fallout rate was. It was zero. I baptized 21 over 21 in about six weeks after the little lady left with Jesus. God used that little intercessor, that quiet, shy, little beat-up woman, to bring our church from just praying for revival to actually seeing it. Are you a Miss Polly yet? We're not going to say 21 out of 30 every four months. I'm not trying to put anybody on a false guilt trip. It's not always that fast. But, folks, it's time to see the power and some fruit. We can't just be content just to keep praying. And praying that doesn't connect with souls and neighbors and family, if it gets too general, it's not quite in line with the Holy Spirit. He's both. And you know what? It's so exciting. We're seeing God's intercessors, God's remnant, come back to a surrendered heart. And they're getting a joy. They're getting a faith they never had. Their faith is going deeper. They're getting a power when they pray. They're getting the tears back. And they're beginning to see. And, again, it's not all about just seeing the result. We have to pray sometimes for years. Nothing wrong with that. But tonight, can you see Brother Greg? In that area. That area. And this is what he's asking us to covenant to do. And it's a covenant, not a feeling. He's asking us to covenant. I never will forget it. Polly said, What do I need to do to go deeper with God? I said, You need to show up for practice. She said, You're starting a class. I said, I can't help you. I said, Would you set that clock 30 minutes to an hour early? Get along with God and really embrace that cleaning. Don't think, I don't need it. If I needed it, I'd just know it. Maybe not. She did that, and some people in the church did that, and God's so moved. Now, the second thing God's doing. He's not only calling us. This is exciting. God's people really are praying those 10 or 12 things scripturally that God has to do to bring revival. I mean, they know exactly what they are. They are praying them. I'm not going to name them here. I'm sure you know them, but if you don't, they're on a little card back there you can get right out of Scripture. But really, there's about 10 or 12 things, at least 8, that God really has to do in this church to really bring the mighty move of His Spirit. And he says we're co- laborers with Him. He wants to do it through our prayers. It's all Him, but He wants our prayers to line up with His mind and Spirit and be specific and be strategic. That's really happening. I do conferences a lot, and I often will ask people, how many of you believe revival in spiritual ways? I only hope for this nation. Every hand will go up. Then I'll let people bow their heads. I'm not trying to embarrass anybody. I'll say, how many of you in your daily quiet time, man, do you passionately cry out, plead with God, at least in 7 or 8 specific ways for God to move? Now, be honest. Don't raise your hand if you don't. You know what happens? Usually about 2 or 3 percent of the hands can remain up. Many have gotten stuck praying kind of on the surface. But the great news tonight, that remnant, man, they've given God time. Their prayers are now going deeper. They're praying in the mind of God. Not perfectly, but they understand the mind of God. They're praying with Him. Am I describing you tonight? Probably am. But if I'm not, would you be willing tonight to say, I want to become a Mr. and Mr. or a teenage poly. We're seeing teenagers take their prayer lives deeper. You wouldn't believe what he's doing to their lost friends and their parents. Oh, God is so moving. But it starts when we're saying, God, I want to go to the effective, fervent prayer of an absolutely yielded heart that really does bring the flood like it did with Elijah. And tonight, it's time to move toward the flood. We can't just keep year after year doing conferences. And we can. And it's in God's time. I don't know it's timing. Doesn't mean anything's wrong. But we need to make sure it isn't. And that's what he's doing. There's a second thing God's doing in his remnant right now that relates to 2 Chronicles 7, 14, relates to James 5, 16. It's in the area of united prayer, prayer groups, prayer in families, prayer with husbands and wives. This is crucial and often omitted. Prayer meetings. Something happened in the 1950s. A good question would be, what happened in the 1950s that caused baptisms to start going like this and morals like this? What happened in the 1950s in the church in North America? Well, programs exploded. Strategies exploded. Education exploded. Innovative methods, all that exploded. Family stuff exploded. You know, leadership materials, all that exploded. All that went through the roof. But what happened in the 1950s? Prayer meetings. Those prayer meetings basically left the church. Now, what did Jesus say? Matthew 21, 13, Mark 11, 17. He said, My house shall be called a house of strategies, committees, preaching. Sure. Called the house of prayer. What kind of prayer was he talking about when he said that? Well, you just say prayer. When you're at church, he was talking about the corporate prayer of the temple. The early church, we would all agree, they're our pattern. They're the example. What kind of prayer did they have? Corporate, continuous. When the day of Pentecost came, they didn't stop. They just went into second gear. Sure, they witnessed. Sure, they preached. Sure, they taught. But they were constantly praying together corporately for souls. You know what happened? When that hopeless church I told you about in Memphis, and it was just hopeless, and we were dying and all that, the turn started when the people, the intercessors in the church, took their quiet times even deeper. They weren't content just to keep praying. They took their cleansing even deeper, and then God's Spirit began to move. And the next thing God said to me, He said, You're not a New Testament church. You know, you never want to hear that from the Lord. How do you define a New Testament church? Well, we would say by doctrine. Yes, but that's not all. It has to be by doctrine and practice. It has to be both. And if we don't have powerful united... It doesn't mean they've got to be a big number. They may not be. But if we don't have powerful united corporate prayer in church, and powerful prayer groups united together in church, and if husbands and wives are not praying together at home, Jesus said, My house shall be called a house of prayer. Obviously, that's the temple He's talking about, the church. But also, where is this temple now? To us. That would certainly mean our families. So what we've seen in America is that the devil duped the church into thinking just studying about prayer or studying about this, that, and the other, doing conferences about it, was the same as in our churches and families absolutely uniting together in corporate prayer. And we weren't doing that in that church in Memphis. And so the Lord showed me, if you'll call your people back and start one. I said, Lord, they won't come. He said, I don't care. It's not their church. You've got to decide whose church it is, who we're going to please. Start real prayer. He let me start it with a prayer group. And I invited all 300. By that time it wasn't 300, but five years into this thing. I told them, folks, we're going to meet for about two and a half hours. I said, we're not going to eat anything. Boy, that made it real bad. And I said, I'm not going to bring you devotion. What in the world are we going to do? The first 30, 40 minutes you're going to be alone with God with scriptures laying in search of every corner of your whole heart. Then we're going to come out and worship God together a little while. Then, you know, the list of 60 lost people we've been praying for for five years and only four or five of them have been saved. We're going to pray for every one of them name by name as the Spirit of God leads us. We're going to fast by the Spirit of God, not legalism, not to brag about it, but we're just going to obey Him. He didn't say if you fast. He said when you fast. He said we're just going to obey Him. And we're going to then pray for that point the Spirit of God in our church, His manifest presence. And we weren't unified. I'd done conflict resolution. It was running out of my ears. Those people weren't unified. And the Lord said we're going to pray for unity, real unity. And so they began to do that and after promoting it for six weeks and telling them we're going to show you how. You don't even have to pray out loud if you don't want to. It's going to change your life. It's going to change your family. It's going to be the most wonderful thing. It's going to change our church. Only 12 people showed up. I didn't think we'd have 12. So what God's doing in His remnant right now, He's helping us to start prayer groups and get real serious about it. He said, well, you find one. It may be only two or three. It may be, or start prayer meetings and they're doing it, especially at home. Folks, if husbands and wives aren't praying together, I'm not talking about praying at a meal. We're not talking about just saying a little, you know, now I'm going to lay me down and sleep. We're talking about really praying together. And one of the things we're noticing is that the families that really get back to this and take it serious and really learn how to recognize strongholds in their kids. The Bible says we've got weapons, 2 Corinthians 10, 5. That will demolish them. That doesn't mean you put up with it. That means they're gone. Most people don't know what their weapons are. Couldn't name them. Not praying together. There's a power in praying together that's this unique. He said when two or three are together in my name, there's something that's, it's always been all history revivals. The remnant's coming back to this. And those prayer groups are now getting deeper. They're adding that cleansing. And they're getting the tears and they're getting promises. They're getting faith. And the power of God's being released. It's happening. They're not just praying forever. They're seeing the breakthrough come in their church, their local church, in their family, in those lost neighbors. When this bunch did this within four months, I've never seen anything like it. Number one, God did a work in us. Tears started flowing. People started getting promises, just like this church has seen. And it's incredible. Within four months, 45 of the 60 had been gloriously born again. I mean the real thing. Their list grew to about 190 of them got saved within a year. And I've never seen anything like it in my life. And we'd always done the outreach. And we all always do that. But oh, the presence of God. And the manifest presence of God set it on the church. And I don't want to mislead you or overstate. This church didn't have sweeping revival. It was a good mercy drop. That's all. And it was sure His grace. We didn't deserve it. Folks, He's pretty gracious. If we'll humble ourselves to say, Father, I want to go back to a deeper level of uniting with others. That's what's happening in God's remnant. Has that happened in you? I'm sure it has in many of you. But if it hasn't, tonight God might say to you, is there a prayer group you could pray more regularly with? Or maybe decide we're going to pray together in our family deeper. We're going to learn how to tear down strongholds. It's happening. You know, Gallup Research did a poll. A few years back. You know, Gallup, they're not Christian. They did this poll, and they found out it's about one in two marriages end in divorce. That's no surprise. But this group asked them to do another type survey. And you know what they found? They found the families that really prayed together. And again, I'm not talking about just said a prayer at a meal. I mean really prayed together regularly. You know what the divorce rate was? It was one in 1,256. And I have to believe the one might have been lying. I don't know. But folks, what a difference it makes. It's not what we believe about prayer. It's not what we study about it, what we preach about it, what we talk about it. It's what we do. It's the depth. It's the real tears. The real cleansing. Praying those 10 or 12 things in the power of God. And it's happening. It really is. I'll give you one illustration that may encourage you. Because we are in an epidemic of godly people with kids and grandkids being slaughtered. There was a woman in my church named Addie. And I've seen men do the same thing. But Addie's son Darren was moving away from God. He was 19. He was in a nosedive. He was just wrecking his life. And she was so burdened. She'd pray for three years. Prayed her head off that Darren would be touched. And she was a nice Christian lady. But again, she'd stop short of the kind of quiet time we're talking about tonight and praying with others the way we're talking about tonight. And she heard this message I'm bringing to you tonight. And it dawned on her I'm stopping short in my quiet time, but I'm also not praying with others in the kind of united, fervent prayer that really does bring the breakthrough and tears down the strongholds. So she came one Sunday and she said, I want to go deeper and I want to make a covenant with God not by my emotions, but by His will in me. And she did. And she committed extra time to God. She embraced this deep cleansing. She said, God, show me how to tear down these strongholds in my son's life. Lord, show me what my weapons are and how to use them. And she began to go deeper. And over about seven weeks, every Sunday, she'd come down to the altar. And this was a nice lady, but God had showed her things in her heart deep down that were, you know, real deep. People she said she'd forgiven down deep she hadn't. Began to show her unbelief in her heart. You know, folks, Jesus said, It'll be unto us according to our faith. It's real easy to get the faith beat out of us today. It's real easy. And you don't even realize it's happening sometimes. But real deep in our heart, we're not expecting God to break through anymore. And Addie was there. And so God showed her a lot of things in her heart. By about the sixth week, I saw her face change in the prayer meeting. And she'd stand up before and she'd cry. She was so burdened for Darren, but her face changed. She had a big old smile on her face. And she said, Y'all keep praying for Darren, but God's going to touch my son. And boy, I had to ask her. I said, Addie, have you seen Darren lately? Because he wasn't saved. And she said, Oh, I know he's not saved. I said, Addie, why are you so happy? What's going on with you? Listen to what she said. This is so powerful. And this is what God's done to bring revival in local churches and in neighbors and in families. She said, Brother Greg, seven weeks ago, I was praying hard, but there was some things deep in my heart I hadn't yielded. They were hindering the Spirit. I didn't even know it. And she said, Brother Greg, my faith wasn't mountain moving. She said it was less than it takes. And then she said, God's shown me some things about strongholds, but the biggest thing, she said, Brother Greg, two weeks ago in my time with God, God gave me two promises for my son. I don't know how, when my son's going to be saved. I think he's going to be a minister. I thought, Boy, I hope you're right. Well, you see what happened to her? She was now praying with a word from God. Well, some prayers take years, even when you get a word from God. This was a nice quick one. A month later, the church started at 10 o'clock at night. The buzzer rang. It was Darren out there. He was nervous. I thought, well, he's on drugs. He looked awful. He was pacing back and forth. I went to the door and he ran in. So I got to talk to him. I went down to my office and he kept saying, I can't stand it. I said, well, can't you stand it? He said, I don't know what's the matter with me. I said, what's the matter with you? Finally, I said, Darren, just stop. What's happening? He looked at me and said, Greg, I don't know what's wrong with me, but for the last seven weeks, all I can think about is God. I said, Darren, what do you mean by that? Because he'd get in trouble before and he'd even pray the sinner's prayer and he didn't mean it and nothing happened. But that man was under conviction, folks. I mean conviction. He said, I've got an evil heart and I can't change. That man got on the floor and got saved. He got up. You could see it. His face was different. Sunday morning, he ran down the aisle. The church rejoiced. God gave him those beautiful singing voices you've ever heard in your life. He's now one of the strongest deacons in Nashville, Tennessee. Two years ago, at his own expense, went on a big, dangerous mission trip to Russia. Last year, a big, expensive mission trip to Germany. Guess what happened last November? He got ordained as a minister. Precious intercessors. Our God has not lost his power. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, just like in 1904 in Wales. He's the same yesterday, but we cannot be content just to keep praying, unless that's what he wants. If we've done all we can do, if we're a Miss Polly, then we're there. We just wait. And many are getting there. But tonight, one other thing I share with you. What he's doing in this effective, fervent prayer of an absolutely yielded heart, and this search meal God, he's giving us joy when the answers don't come. You know, sometimes he has to say no. Sometimes we're not going to see revival where we are. Somebody else may get to. We don't. Sometimes we're not going over a mountain. We're going through it. In fact, a lot of times. Sometimes he doesn't remove all the warfare. In 1994, I had a disease. You get them a tick bite called Lyme's disease. They didn't know what I had. I got mistreated. It ended up doing devastating damage to my neurological system. In other words, it did real serious brain damage. People say, we can tell that. But it wasn't the kind that make you dumb, but it totally destroyed my energy. They said, you're going to quit the pastor. I'd been a pastor for 10 years. And they were right. I couldn't function. And they said, you can't write any more books, that's for sure. And they were right. Just right before I quit, I was begging God to heal me. And you know what God said to me? Boy, I didn't want to get... Of all the passages in the Bible, I didn't want to hear this one. It was 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Paul was begging God to remove his thorn, and God said no. God kind of said the same thing to me. I was in awful agony, awful weakness. I had no quality of life. He said, I'm going to heal you. But he said, I'm going to show you something missing in your prayer time. And you know what? There I was. We'd seen a touch of revival in 1989. But by 1984, ever so slightly, I'd slipped away from that deeper surrender. Didn't even know it. He said, I'm going to take you back deeper. And he said, I'm not going to heal you. But you're going to have more joy than you've ever had. And you're going to have a lot more power than you ever had when you were healthy. That's 30 books ago. And I wasn't a writer when I was healthy. I can't write anything, folks. Listen, if God can use me, he can use anybody. I'm so unworthy. Tonight, what he's doing, because there's going to be times he's going to have to say no. There's going to be times the situation's not going to change. What he's after is joy in him and contentment in him. No matter what the bank account says or what the doctor says or what the situation is, folks, this is what he's after. Because probably hard times are really coming. But you know what? God's remnant tonight is going deeper. I'm going to ask right now with our heads and hearts before God. With every head and heart, just for a moment, bow before God. I feel led tonight to kind of share two messages. But I want us to have a time between these to just reflect. And then we're going to have a major time to reflect toward the very end tonight. But with your heart bowed before God, I'd ask you to pray through this. Are you in that remnant? And I'm talking about what we say, but I mean the heart of hearts, that in your heart chamber, you and God, that you can say that there's a passion, there's some tears, at least some, for souls, for lost neighbors, for the unlovely people around me, for my church. I hadn't given up on my church. The enemy gets us to give up on our immediate surroundings sometimes. Maybe tonight you'd say, Brother Greg, I've heard that no from God. Brother Greg, God took my Isaac. And your heart is hurting. You don't know why. But tonight, God is, you sense Him calling you back to an intimacy, back to a surrender, back to a cleansing. And this is pretty black and white, whether doing it or not. Unless we think we're better than Jonathan Edwards. Is that deep cleansing, that ever deepening cleansing, as the Scripture calls it, is that happening? Is that real? Tonight, would you, maybe it is where it needs to be, but maybe tonight you'd say, I sense God's calling me deeper. That's where the passion comes from. That's where the greater faith comes from. It's all His grace. That's where the power comes from. Maybe tonight you'd say, Man, we need that breakthrough in my church. We need that breakthrough in my family, my kids, my grandkids. We're seeing grandparents get a hold of this and God's touching their grown kids. Maybe tonight you've got a daring. And tonight you say, Dear God, I'm not content just to keep going along, rocking along here. Oh God, take me to a level that there can be a breakthrough in your time. Maybe the daring's your church. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's an area of your own heart. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's anger. Maybe it's unclean thoughts. But there's a breakthrough that's needed. There's something that's held you back. There's a foothold in your life. And tonight you say, Oh God, make me a Miss Polly, a Mr. Polly. God, protect me from any way thinking I'm further along than I really am. Because with our Lord, it's all about heart. It's all about the passion inside. Not emotion, but deep spiritual passion. This is not a guilt trip. This is what He wants to give us. Father, tonight, just water what's been said. And Lord, if there are prayers that need to be prayed for some darings, for some churches, for some hearts, for some marriages, Father, just help us cry out to You now knowing You'll heal, knowing You'll give us a new fire. Lord, we can't work up what we've talked about tonight. But Lord, if we'll yield, You'll give it to us. Oh Father, help us hunger and settle for nothing less. I'm just going to ask, dear friends, for these moments that if you need to pray with your wife about someone, your church, a loved one, or if you need to slip to this altar, just talk to God about a heart more on fire. Whatever it might be. If you need to testify, we're just going to quietly wait. There's something God's calling you to. Talk to Him about it. Just do it. Don't be afraid. There's hope. There's a breakthrough. Just talk to God. We're going to have a few moments just to quietly wait before God before I move again into Scripture. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/bKZ6-Rl0IK4.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/greg-frizzell/keys-to-revival/ ========================================================================