Preparation & Price For Revival - Part 1

As the responsibility at this point in this meeting is on me, I tell you I can't do a thing, not a single thing for that plan to be fulfilled other than to totally submit to you, and I do. You can do anything you want through me. I'll shout, lie on the floor, laugh, weep, be silent, speak, I don't care, just you do your thing, your way, because it's the only way you can get the glory. And I have a passion for you to be glorified. And that's not, I can't even take credit for that, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. The yearning of my heart is that you three in the Trinity will be able to say, when my part is finished here, my will in tower honor at the Faith Bible College was done on earth as it was intended in heaven. And you've said you fulfill our desires as we delight ourselves in you. So I thank you, you're going to do your thing so you can get your glory, so that this nation can be absolutely changed, not challenged, changed, changed. I'm believing for a mighty upheaval in the Holy Spirit, so that this nation's destiny can be fulfilled. Thank you that you are the one who instigated all this, therefore you will fulfill what you have started. In Jesus' name, amen. Dear June Dooney, the coordinator for the Lydia movement in New Zealand, my dear friend, precious woman of God, she pointed out to me this incredible statement that is on the wall, this is a copy of it, over there, just in front of those cameras. I don't know how many of you are aware of this, I was deeply moved and impacted by it, I'm going to read it to you. This was Captain Pedro Fernandez de Queiroz, a Portuguese navigator who became the first recorded European explorer to actually lay claim to the lands of Australia and New Zealand. This was the prayer he prayed. He recalled, first of all, how his countryman, Christopher Columbus, had found the new land of North America. Now it was his turn to find, claim, and name the South Land of the Holy Spirit. That's what he named his name. And this is the prayer he prayed. Let the heavens and the earth, the waters and all those here present, witness that I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Queiroz, in the name of Jesus Christ, hoist this emblem of the Holy Cross on which his person was crucified, and whereon he gave his life for the ransom and remedy of all the human race, on this day of Pentecost, 14 May, 1606, I take possession of all this part of the South, as far as the Pole, in the name of Jesus, which from now on shall be called the Southern Land of the Holy Ghost. And this always and forever and to the end, that all natives in all the said lands, the Holy and Sacred Evangel may be preached zealously and openly. That's our heritage. That's what this message is all about this afternoon. That man prayed that. It was a prayer given by the Holy Spirit, and God has yet to fulfill it. There are millions don't even know his name in these islands, let alone the fulfillment of that. But this is what revival's all about and spiritual awakening. This afternoon we're going to go right in to part two. If you're here this afternoon and were not here last night, then do yourself not a favor. It is absolutely essential that you hear last night's message, because I have come to give one message, and it's in two parts. And it's like saying I've read the Bible, and you've only read the New Testament. You must, in order to fulfill the purpose of being in this room this afternoon, get the tape and hear part one of the message, which was the vision and purpose for revival and spiritual awakening in New Zealand. This afternoon, it's the preparation and price for revival and spiritual awakening. One, to understand, and the points are going up at my, as my sharp friend up in the balcony is doing his thing up there, and you will see he's got point one. To understand the vision and purposes for revival and spiritual awakening by studying, this is the first preparation, by studying the revivals in the word of God, and from reading the historical accounts of subsequent revivals. By studying the revivals in the word, and reading the historical accounts of subsequent revivals. I've been studying the word of God since I was converted. I was converted at the age of five. I was reading pretty soon after that. And I've been studying revival from the word, reading the word but studying from revival for 46 years. The second thing is to, because that's where it comes from, it's all founded in the word of God. Second is to commit ourselves to God, to be used of him to bring it about at any cost. You can be full of all the knowledge of the history of revivals in the word and out of the word, and just be a reporter or encyclopedia. It's another thing to commit ourselves to be used of God to bring about what we study at any cost. That's the second thing. The third is to realize our total dependence on the Holy Spirit to conceive the burden for revival in us. It is totally, it's a totally supernatural thing that can't be received any other way. You will never have a burden for revival unless it is conceived in you by the Holy Spirit. The only way Mary could conceive and then carry the burden of having Jesus, God's son in her womb for nine months, was for her to submit to the Holy Spirit in faith. And she declared that, be it unto me according to your word. And God is waiting for us to say, be it unto me according to your word. I want this conception for this burden. So we may be saying today, as Mary did, well how can this thing be? How can I become an effective intercessor for revival on a sustained basis? I hope you're asking that question. The answer isn't complicated. It's the same as what happened to Mary. The answer was, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Terribly simple. Little children can understand it. And they get the message much quicker than adults. You can teach intercession for revival to children or he'll catch it like this, because they're uncomplicated. That means they're humble, they're not proud. He will impregnate your spirit with a burden for revival. And right now in this room, you have either been impregnated by it or you haven't. And only God knows the answer to that. Every time we go again to God in prayer for revival, which is every time, asking for the Holy Spirit to come upon us to either impregnate and then cause the baby that grows from the conception, every time you pray more, the baby grows bigger. The burden becomes greater. Until you're full-blown with it and you live with this full-blown burden. And if I didn't understand that there is one thing greater in importance and priority than carrying a full-blown burden for revival, I would say you're consumed by it. But you're not, because we're not meant to be consumed by anything less than a longing to be like Jesus. That's what we're destined for. To know Him, to be like Him. We're destined to be conformed to His image. And that's got to be the consuming passion as the first and foremost, because that's what we're destined for. And then secondly, out of that comes this all-encompassing burden that affects all our choices in relation to what God wants to do. Revival is not the end. It is the means getting us ready for the end. That's why last night's message is totally essential to understand today's message, because we were looking at purpose. He will increase that burden in us until it causes a paradigm shift in our thinking, in our way we intercede. Listen, spiritual leaders, in the way we plan our services, in the way we preach, in the way we prioritize our ministries. I said to my darling son-in-law, not-in-law, this morning, well, J.V., what was your take on last night? He gave exactly the answer that I wanted from him. He said my mind was going like crazy on how this was going to affect my life and my ministry and all that comes through me as a leader. That was the right response, which means he'd already received that it is the Word of the Lord and I'm going to do something about it. And his mind was going, like I call, like a tin of worms. And it affects all our thinking and the way we lead and speak. Because, as we learned last night, revival is the greatest thing and the greatest need for the Church to meet the greatest need for the world, which is a spiritual awakening, so that Jesus can come back soon. Fourthly, our praying for revival must be with the understanding of our desperate need for it. And there is no substitute. Revival is the greatest means of meeting our needs in the body of Christ because the spirit of the world has so invaded the Church, it is almost unrecognizable from the world in lifestyle, values, and conversation. Isn't that appalling? It's true. This motivates us to cry out to God like young Jeremiah in Jeremiah 14, verse 7. Oh Lord, though our iniquities testify against it, do it for your name's sake, for our backslidings are many. We have sinned against you. This is not in my notes, but it's in my heart, and I'm being pondered by the Spirit to say it. I carry it in my heart all the time. When you really study the Word of God, you will see that so many times it was youth that God used to spearhead some of the greatest needs of God's Spirit. Never, ever underestimate a child or youth. As I have studied the history of revivals, I have found that at least twice, at minimum twice, mighty outpourings of the Holy Ghost started with children, not youth, children. One was in Ireland in a classroom, in a school, a public school in a classroom, where one little boy came under conviction of sin, and he was so troubled in his soul, and it was in such distress that the kind teacher saw, got another elder boy in the classroom who was responsible, and she assigned him to take the little boy home because he was in such distress. And on the way home, the older boy was a Christian and led the younger boy to Christ. The young boy, they both turned around, went back into the classroom, and the little boy, new convert, just said when he got inside the room, he looked at the teacher and he said, Oh, I am so happy I have Jesus in my heart. And the Holy Ghost moved in mighty power that affected the whole district. The whole district was turned upside down. The boys in the classroom automatically, under the Holy Spirit, bypassed anything of the teacher, sovereignly walked outside the classroom and went around the courtyard apart from one another with their faces to the wall in the courtyard, wailing and weeping and groaning under conviction of sin. No man had said anything. The kid had testified. The girls' classroom upstairs heard this, came under the same conviction, and there were wailings and weepings up there. All the teachers came under conviction of sin, and there was such a horrendous upheaval and move of the Holy Spirit that somebody contacted, there weren't telephones, so somebody must have gone and got the word out to the parents and the friends who were responsible for the children. Some would be guardians while others were working. And then as soon as the parents and the friends who were responsible for the children hit the place in the schoolroom, they came under the same convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and the place was a mess. Revival's messy. When you pray for rain, expect mud. That's not all. That's not all. They're all screaming out because they're all getting converted, and they're all under conviction, and they needed help. Help means weeping and wailings and going on. And then they realized they needed ministers, and so somebody got out and went to, and about six ministers around the place came in, and they were counseling the people till 2 a.m. in the morning. A child. A child. No wonder the Word of God says a little child should leave them. So that's just a school. And then on another occasion, a Sunday school teacher who had been doing his homework and praying like mad for his class of children, small class of children, was about to leave at the call of God and go to somewhere else, and he was praying a tremendously impassioned prayer of blessing over these children that he had taught every week. And as the school teacher was praying, the Spirit of God fell upon the children. And again, there isn't time because there's so much to give you this afternoon. We could be here literally, literally easily all afternoon and into night just on this half of the message. I don't know how to discharge what God has put in my heart in the time frame I'm given. I've just handed it over to Holy Spirit, He knows. And what happened in that Sunday school classroom again started a whole revival in a district, in a city. Are you a Sunday school teacher? Are you a day school teacher? If you've got a passion and burden for revival, He can start it right with you if you'll pay the price and if you will not limit the Holy One of Israel in children. As parents, you should be praying, use my children in revival. I haven't the slightest doubt that my six grandchildren are all going to be mightily used by God in revival. How do I know? I'm praying for it, believing. And they're going to have to resist incredible pressure from the Holy Ghost in answer to my prayers. Not to. John says that's cool because he's got four of them. A spiritual awakening. Think of the, before I say the sentence, think of the hardest hardened sinner you know. The one you've been praying for the most. The most or the most unlikely person you could think of ever to be converted. You think of somebody in the government circles, a few two guys. Yeah. These two darling men, do you know, do you know why they're, do you know why they're in government, these two darling guys that I love to date, ex-YOM leaders? I've been praying them into it. For decades and decades and decades I've been praying God put, God fearing men and women of your choosing into the government in New Zealand. Put them there, put them there. So I nearly did double the amount of cockwheels when I heard that these two guys had responded to the call of God. Good for you. Good on you mate. In Isaiah 59 verse 19 God tells us that when the enemy comes in, comma, like a flood the Lord will raise up a standard against him. The enemy has come in with such an unprecedented, inconceivable, horrendous flood of filth that it's going to take the standard of a titanic tidal wave of gigantic Holy Spirit proportion, I guess that's a tsunami, to knock him down and drown him out. We need to be desperate in prayer for the millions of so-called born-again Christians who've never won a soul to Christ. We were born to reproduce normally, mostly in the natural. God has his exceptions with those he wants to use, who he can only use by being single. But the majority are born to reproduce and we're born again to reproduce. There are millions more who seldom, if ever, witness to non-Christians. Millions more who've never done a thing about being obedient to the Great Commission. In Matthew 28, I remember sitting in the back seat of a car. What nation was I in? Canada, I think. And I was being driven to speak at a conference. The lady was in the front seat here and then there was a lady on the driver's side. And the lady in the front seat started to share how God had called her to be a missionary. Where was it? In the South Sea Islands or something. And she kept saying, Why me? Just imagine God calling me to leave Canada and go to the South Sea Islands. And she was sort of overcome by the wonder of this sort of amazing phenomena. Everything was coming from her. This is an amazing phenomena that I should be called. My response in the back seat is, What in the world are you freaking out about when God tells us all that we are to go? Go means a change of location in the English language as I understand it. And she's freaking out because all he's done is given her where. We should all be expecting to go. We should all have a story of divine guidance to stay. Our response is to keep praying. Psalm 85 verse 6, Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? And Lamentations 5 verse 21, Turn us back to you, O Lord, and we will be restored. That's why being conformed to his image is the greatest thing. Turn back to you. The more you're with him, the more you'll be like him, the more you love him, the more you praise him, the more you worship him, the more you study the word about him, the more you have a passion for him, the more you study his ways as a leader and as a man and as a friend and as a person, the more you get like him. I've had YWAM leaders say to me affectionately, not critically, Joy, you are so radical. But it was said with affection and a tinge of, but we do receive grace to cope with you. And my response is, would to God I was a thousand times more like Jesus and so much more radical. If Jesus was in the flesh here, that's radical with a capital R. Full blown, quadraphonic sound, amplified, radically real. That's my definition of Jesus. That's what I want to be. God has shaped, yes, history around the church. Think about it. God has shaped history around the church, never the governments, the church. And he expects the church to shape the history of the nations, never the governments. Therefore all revival praying should start with a burdened heart for the body of Christ in every nation and continue until our prayers become desperate before God. In my book on intercession, oh, it's not here. Where, please. Thank you. In my book on intercession, thrilling and fulfilling, here, chapter eight is devoted entirely to one of the most important messages I have ever given in my life, second to the series I'm giving last night and today. And it's how to pray effectively for every nation of the world. You can be a history maker in your bedroom and never go outside the door and shape the nations of the world. Under God, by his Holy Spirit and by his grace, that's what I've been doing. That's been the most powerful part of my ministry, is hidden away, praying, chapter eight in that book. And there's not a single one of you in here who has any excuse than to do exactly the same thing. How do I know? Because as a very young woman, young wife, young mother, I remember going to, walking down out from my little home to my little post box and as I walked back, it's as vivid today as it was decades ago. It's as vivid, I can remember it just as though it was a moment ago. As I walked back to the front door of that little house, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, you are called, you are called automatically, as every other Christian is, to intercede for the nations of the world, every nation of the world, because as a Christian, I have put you in the world and the world consists of the nations of the world. Therefore, you as a Christian are responsible to pray for every nation. No man told me that. The Holy Spirit said that to me. And people who I respect greatly and love dearly, say that I have an unusual call upon my life and the ministry of intercession has been imparted to me as a specialty. Baloney! It's hogwash. It isn't true. I prove it by my call, which is you are a Christian, not I am calling you apart as a special intercessor. It wasn't that. It was you're a Christian. Are you a Christian? Do you belong to this world? Are you part of the world? Yes. Therefore, we as Christians, as part of the world, have an automatic responsibility. That's what he said to me. You're just a Christian and you're part and therefore you've got a responsibility. It was a totally new concept to me. I'd never heard it before. I said, you're right, of course. What did I do? Got inside the door as soon as I could possibly do so, at the right moment, dropped on my knees and said, which nation? And he said, Afghanistan. I found that exciting. Wasn't sure where it was. Had to get a map and find out. Who cares? God knew. You see, as far as I'm concerned in relation to the ministry of intercession and to the nations of the world, God only sees two categories. Thank you. Who was that who helped me? I always knew I needed you, Jill, my darling little daughter there. Two categories, the obedient and the disobedient. Which category are you in? I love the way, I love the way God has trained me. It's so opposite from all the ways of men. You know, you don't hear that stuff in Bible colleges or seminaries. I wish to God he did. I'm praying that it will come. I remember as a young wife and mother in my late twenties, being on the phone and at a Bible school from this nation, student in his second year at a Bible college, a Bible college like this, desperately needing counsel on the phone. And I said, you know, what you need to do is to wait on God. And he said, well, what on earth does that mean? It was totally foreign to him. I said, you mean in my naivety, I said, you mean you don't have a course in your college, your Bible college, on waiting on God? It's one of the absolute basics, essentials for the Christian life to operate. He said, no, I've never heard of it. So that immediately gave me a burden for the Bible colleges of the world right there. I became accountable because I learned they weren't basing their... Thank you, darling. Thank you. What would I do without my family? And on the Word, it's not based on the ways of God. Imagine having a Bible college without a course on the waiting on God. Later on, later on in my life, let this one blow you out of your tree. God had by now sent me around the world teaching the character and the ways of God in the nations of the earth, mostly to spiritual leaders. And word got out in the 70s in Southern California that this little lady from New Zealand was always talking about knowing God. And apparently in the testimony that they were given, a lot of lives were radically changed. So I was approached by the heads of a seminary. Now, here's all the ones that are all getting their degrees. I don't have any degrees. Only because God saw that it was better for me to just keep being himself in me without them. That's all. If you've got them, well, God bless you. And as long as you just keep being like Jesus, He'll use them. So... But it's probably harder for you than for me. That's why it's easier for God to work with children. And so I had this invitation from this seminary of higher learning where they were... From this seminary, they were all going to be... They'd all have their doctorates. They were all there to get their doctorates in whatever. And they brought the little lady in who didn't have any letters after her name at all to teach on knowing God because they didn't have it in their curriculum. A theological seminary, Theo, the knowledge of God, and it's not in the curriculum. Unreal. Unreal. No more comment. I went... God, this is your thing, and I don't know where I am in the notes, so you're going to have to help me. Oh, yes. Isaiah 64, 7. And there is no one who calls on your name who stirs himself to take hold of you. Now, that's desperate praying. When I first read that verse decades ago in my life, I said, oh, so you're challenging me and you're saying there's no... You're looking down on the earth and you're saying there's nobody who calls on your name who stirs themselves up to take hold of you. Well, I'm going to make history right now. I said that to God. So you'll never be able to have that verse as you can't say there's nobody. So I stirred myself up and laid hold on God and started to cry out in desperation for the nation he put upon my heart. Ezra is one of the classic examples in scripture of a desperate intercessor. He obviously took that challenge in Isaiah 64, 7 and responded to it in identification of repentance, which is what the ministry that God has raised John up around the earth, International Reconciliation Coalition, it's all about identification of repentance. The most marvelous thing that God has done, an essential movement that had to take place before ever revival can come is international reconciliation. And it is one of the greatest thrills and fulfillments of my life to have a child who is bringing unity wherever there is disunity. Ezra 9, verses 5 through 6, at the evening sacrifice, now this guy's desperate, I arose from my fasting, as if that wasn't enough, and having torn my garment and my robe, I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, and I said, Oh my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads and how guilt has grown up to the heavens. I know what it's like often in intercession for a nation to have my head down like this. Jim is my marvelous, marvelous prayer partner, the best partner I've ever, ever had. We pray together all the time. Most nights, like I mean nearly every night in our home, is a serious prayer meeting. And he's here to verify. As I name out the pride, the unbelief, the divisions, the jealousies in the body of Christ, and my head goes down lower and lower, and I put my hand over, I'm embarrassed about our sins in the body of Christ. I'm embarrassed to be an American citizen and to have to name the sins before you God. I understand that it's part of desperate praying. You can't even lift your face because you are identifying. You're seeing it as God sees it fractionally. Was there ever time, if ever there was a time in the history of this nation of New Zealand when we need to cry out as David did in Psalm 119, verse 126? It is now. That verse will be on the screen, and this is it. It is time for you to act, O Lord, for we have regarded your law, your word, as boring. Every major problem we are facing in this nation of New Zealand comes from our blatant rejection of the standard of God's holy word, the Bible. You may say amen. I was deeply grieved to learn recently from one of my darling grandchildren, J.B. and Jill's daughter, Jenny, and her beautiful fiancé, Raphael, who's come from Switzerland and who is in youth of the mission. I'll be married on March the 5th in Kona, Hawaii. And as Raphael was in my home, he had been telling me how he had been sent as a leader from Kona, Hawaii, where he and Jenny are stationed on staff there. They had been assigned, Raphael had been assigned to lead a team right here in Auckland. And he was telling me how most of their witnessing on the outreach team was to the prostitutes up in Karangahape Road in Auckland. And I was utterly fascinated at the method that God had shown them. Raphael's 22, 22. But what I'm going to tell, I should tell you this, I was deeply grieved to learn recently that prostitution has been legalized in this country as well as same-sex marriages have also been legalized. Horrendous, horrific things to take place. Things that we would never have dreamed of and our wildest dreams when we lived here 34 years ago would take place. And Raphael told me that they used to go out in the night when the prostitutes would be walking the streets, often in the early hours of the morning, and they would take them hot coffee and something to drink and hot tea and they would minister to their physical needs because the girls didn't have much on and sometimes it would be cold out there. And the teens would go and just minister the love of God and speak to them, give them a hot drink. And Raphael said, I couldn't get over the response of one girl to me when Raph said, And you know, not only does God love you and accept you, but we do too unconditionally. And God hasn't given up on you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. And we're going to pray for you. Give us your name because we're going to continue to pray for you. And this prostitute said, Oh my, I sure need prayer. She said, I haven't got... My grandma died recently and I don't have anyone now to stand in the gap for me. What does that tell you? She has a background. Only a girl with a background of Christianity knows the word standing in the gap for me. And she was so grateful that someone from Switzerland who had been sent by God to Hawaii and then sent by God to Auckland, New Zealand speaking with an accent would come and say, Jesus loves you and here's hot coffee and something to eat and I'm going to pray for you ongoingly. We need desperate intercessors like young Jeremiah who said in Lamentations 2 verse 11, My eyes are spent with... See a young man, get it? Raphael 22. Jeremiah, young, young prophet. One of the greatest intercessors in the Bible is Jeremiah, a young man weeping for prostitutes. Listen to it. My eyes are spent with weeping. My soul is in torment. My heart is poured out in grief because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. That was an impassioned prayer from a young man who was a seasoned desperate intercessor. Have you noticed that desperate people are never self-conscious? Have you ever heard a drowning person say, It would be nice if I could have some help now. I mustn't get radical, but help would be, you know, it would be nice just now. It's help! I'm drowning! If we ask God to give us His heart for prostitutes and pray desperate, I'm talking about the prostitutes in this nation because it's legalized, and pray desperate prayers for their salvation, for their healing, and their total deliverance in time, God would answer our prayers if everyone in this room did it. I've been doing this from the moment Raphael told me some weeks ago, or months, a couple of months ago that this was happening. I've been praying for the prostitutes in New Zealand, for God to deliver them, save them, heal them, and I thought if I could just get those bods down in Taronga to join me. Do you know what would happen? Prostitution would go out of business. The girls would find Christ and they wouldn't want all the rest of the junk. Think about it. That's exactly God's strategy. How do I know? He gave it to me. Will you take the challenge? If I, in America, can have a burden for the prostitutes in New Zealand, can you have a burden for the prostitutes in your country? What are you going to do about this challenge? Regularly? You're going to take it on? June Dooney is. Anybody else going to join her? Put your hand up. You're going to pray for the prostitution? Do you want... Those of you with your hands down, thank you for the relatively few who responded, a quarter of you. What the heck goes wrong with the rest of you? Don't you care about their desperation? Do you say, therefore, when you hear it has been legalized from the government, the highest authority in the land, that it has been legalized, do you say, oh, isn't it awful? Or do you say, God, that's a challenge. You have an answer. Show me your answer. A crisis gives us unique opportunity for radical action. Do you know that in the Chinese language the word crisis and opportunity are exactly the same word? I love that. They're really clued up there. Crisis, opportunity, same word. When the enemy gains a victory in society and he has gained an enormous victory in society and has two incredible strongholds in here through prostitution being legalized and same-sex marriages, the Christians should seek God for a strategy to prove that greater is he who is in us than he that is in the world, James chapter 4, verse 7. God, I pray, my obviously preaching didn't get all these people to commit themselves to the prostitute, but my praying can do more than my preaching. So I pray that there will not be one person at the sound of my voice who you will let go and you will be like the hound of heaven and you will burden them and bug them in the spirit until they receive the burden to pray for the prostitutes of this land until there are no prostitutes and there is therefore... they can put what language they... laws lay like out, but there's nobody in business. Do it. I pray asking you to do it because I believe talking to you about men is obviously more powerful than talking to you about men. Talking to men about you I mean. So I just trust you. I trust you to burden everyone in this room until they become committed and until these laws become obsolete in Jesus' name. And I ask that the same thing you'll show us a strategy in the body of Christ in New Zealand to outwit the strategy of the enemy on this legalized same-sex marriage ruining the families. You have a plan. You are greater. We seek your face for it until we find it in Jesus' name. Yes, of course. Yes. ...that you are going to start revival in this nation through the prostitutes first. I'm believing for that. I'm standing up... Thank you. ...and I'm declaring, Lord, that you will begin to take hold of some of these young women, Lord, to be trapped in this life, Lord, and you will move the tower. Amen. And you will move the tower together. And you will have your way, Lord. Yes. I am believing, Lord, that Hay Road there in Auckland will be transformed, Father, and you will begin a church, Lord. Amen. Amen. Yes. Amen. Amen. Yes. Amen. Amen. Now that was worth coming to town on the floor. Thank you, darling June. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your obedience to God. You can interrupt anything, you can argue anywhere at any time, because you've got it. The fifth point in today's message, the fifth price for revival is to pray for it with diligence and determination while ever there's breath in our body and until God answers. You can see it up on the screen. Isaiah 62, verses 6 through 7. I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent. I'm going to illustrate from the life of Marie Monson who was a single Norwegian woman sent by God to be a missionary in China. And I'm quoting from a book called The Awakening which recounts the revival in China from 1927 to 1937. An amazing little woman of God. You see, there is no age group that cannot be vitally involved in revival and who cannot be used of God to start revival, be it a child or an elderly person, a single woman, an older man. It doesn't matter. As you study the history of revivals, you see God takes always the unusual in our thinking to start praying. Remember it was Seth Joshua who prayed for a lad from the coal mines or a boy out in the fields. Did you know God reminded me this morning in my room, and I have read at intense interest for myself, Billy Graham's life story. He was just a farm boy, relatively uneducated. Do you know why? Because he had to get up at 3 o'clock every morning, every morning, every day of the week, and go out and milk the cows before going to school. And after lunchtime in the classroom, that dear boy's head was just nodding like this and he was just fighting sleep every afternoon, five days a week, and couldn't absorb. God used a farm boy to be the greatest evangelist internationally of our time. God loves to do it. Never despise youth or the elderly. It's those two little... One woman in the Hebrides Island was 90 and bowed down, and the other one was in her 80s and was blind, and they prayed with one of the deacons in a church. In other words, every single one of us, regardless of age or status or anything or condition in health, can be a catalyst under God's hand for revival. If you will have the vision, if you will capture the burden, if you will say, I am available. Holy Spirit's telling me to stop and just waiting on him. He's just given me an awesome understanding in relation to you in this building. He said to me, it were better for these people not to have come to this conference and heard what I'm saying through you and not be obedient. It would be better that they didn't come than to hear and not obey because the accountability on you is tremendous. With this kind of clarity and strength of truth that is coming to you, you will be accountable and God will hold you accountable at the judgment seat of what you have done with this message. If you come to critique the message and the messenger, if you are passive, sitting there passive, and say, no, I'm not going to commit myself to pray for prostitutes like some of you did. He's warning you in his love for you. The price of disobedience will be 10,000 times higher than the price to obey. I did not have that in my heart to say. The Holy Spirit gave it to me to say. And you could see I didn't know what to say. He's giving you an opportunity to take seriously this weekend. The first thing I said when I came and sat down here, do you remember? I hope you will take this weekend as seriously as God and I have. The price of disobedience is always a thousand times higher than the price to obey because we've always got grace to obey. And we come under God's judgment when we don't obey. Marie Monson writes in her amazing little book out of The Awakening. Listen to it. We heard of the revival in Korea. Now remember, she's a single woman from Norway in China as a missionary. We heard of the revival in Korea which began in 1907. It was a mighty movement and had been born through a prayer revival among missionaries. Oh, to be able to go there and bring back some of the glowing coals to our own mission field in China. But the journey was long and very expensive and she didn't have any money. As I prayed for the money, she said, and looked for an answer, a definite word from the Holy Spirit was given to me instead. This is what he said. What you want through that journey may be given you here, right here in China, in answer to prayer. The words were a tremendous challenge. I gave my solemn promise. Then I will pray until I receive. Having pledged myself to be an intercessor for revival in China, I set out to cross the floor of my room to my place of prayer in order to pray this prayer for revival for the first time. I had not taken more than two or three steps before I was halted. Then, what then happened can only be described as follows. It was as though a giant boa constrictor had wound its coils around my body and was squeezing the life out of me. I was terrified. Finally, while gasping for breath, I uttered the one word, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Each time I spoke out that precious name, it grew easier to breathe, and in the end, the serpent left me. I stood there dazed. The first conscious thought was, oh, then prayer for revival means as much as that. I'm just quoting her words. It's not the best English, but it's her words. Oh, so that's what that means. And therefore, my promise should be kept as much as that. If the enemy thinks it's worth killing me for me to be an intercessor for revival until it comes, then I'd better... That's how seriously the enemy's taking it. I'd better take it that seriously. That experience helped me to endure through the almost 20 years which were to pass before the first small beginnings of revival were visible. Truly, God works unhurriedly. The Holy Spirit's speaking to me again sovereignly. He's saying, you've been praying desperate, diligent, determined, faithful prayers for revival for 46 years, and you haven't seen it for this nation yet, but he's saying, what I'm going to bring will make anything that has preceded revivals look like something, a hole in the wall. In other words, joy, it will be worth waiting for. 46 years will seem as nothing because of the tidal wave of my Spirit that will come if my people will heed this word. Thank you for that encouragement. You can interrupt this message any time you like because it's your message. Thank you for that encouragement. It's marvelous. Thank you. A God-given... Later in her report, Marie Monson shared that, quote, the burden for prayer was heavy upon me. There had been times, for instance, when traveling with fellow missionaries, when the burden was so great that I had to withdraw from the general conversation in order to concentrate inwardly in silent prayer. That's a burden for revival. A God-given burden for revival is a fire within your spirit ignited by the Holy Spirit that burns incessantly and is refueled every time you pray for it. Listen to Ezekiel 427. The scripture is there. I will kindle a fire in you and the blazing flame shall not be quenched. Ezekiel 427. We're consumed with Christ-likeness and then out of that and a passion for His word, which He is the word, and out of it comes the vision and burden for this thing called revival until we see it fulfilled. I remember standing up, preaching on revival in Nebraska. Was it south of Nebraska or north Nebraska? It doesn't matter. No, I've got the wrong state. No. What's the little tiny state? There's not many people and a lot of farm people that we went to. Dakota. Yes. Yes, thank you. I sure needed you, Jill. Thank you. It was in north or south Dakota and one of the most unimpressive parts of the states from anybody's opinion but God's. And I was speaking and I remember the burden and the long, the desperate longing for revival is so great and it's been so long since I've prayed and I remember the Holy Spirit challenging me right in the middle of the message, like He's speaking to me in this one, like this. And He said to me, are you willing to keep up the discipline and the fervor and the desperation and go to heaven and never see it? And I broke down. I said to the people, the Holy Spirit's just spoken to me and I said, I've got to weigh this. I can't say yes quickly. It's what I live for. And I wept and wept and wept and wept in the pulpit as I faced what it would mean never to see it, never to be part of it, something you live for with a passion. And I came through with God's grace to say, yes, you can take me to heaven and I'll watch it from there if more glory can come to your name. This is one thing that we cannot organize. As my beloved friend Leonard Ravenhill many, many years ago told me, joy, it cannot be organized. It has to be agonized. Revival praying inevitably means going deeper in intercession because we're praying for the deepest thing to happen. When Elijah prayed a one-sentence prayer on Mount Carmel, fire fell from heaven. This was a sign and a wonder. Ah, but listen, when it took, but it took Elijah's desperate, determined, diligent, prevailing, persistent intercession before God sent the rain, which is a sign of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The prophet Isaiah understood the difference between praying for a display of God's power and a display of God's awesome presence in revival. There's a vast difference. You can see the power and not be changed, but you can't be in that outpoured presence and not be changed. Isaiah 64, 1 to 3, Oh, that you would rend the heavens, says desperate, young, young prophet Isaiah. Oh, that you would have rend the heavens, that you would come down. Now, I want you to see there's something very significant in these familiar prayers that you may not have seen before because some of you have already switched me off and say, Oh, I know that prayer, I've been praying that prayer for years. You could be in the Lydia movement and be in that, but have you noticed this? I shared this with Benny Hinn in a restaurant in Newport Beach and it blew his mind. He said that is absolutely wonderful joy and it has transformed my thinking and he has gone out. He went the next day out to a great big conference and preached it, what I'd given him in the restaurant. And it has become a theme of his life and he is being used of God to reach more multitudes in this generation for Christ than anyone I know on the planet. Ten million people in India in three days he will be speaking to. Twenty million people in three different crusades he's having within weeks of each other. And Benny said, I have never seen that joy. He's a dear, humble, precious man of God, close friend of mine. And this is what I was pointing out to him. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, not the fire of your power, but at your presence as fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. His presence doesn't need to have anything spectacular. He's here in his presence right now and we haven't seen a sign or a wonder yet, but his presence is here. He's shown up and you and I know it. When you did awesome things for which we did not look, that's the best definition in the Bible I know, when you did awesome things for which we did not look, you came down, the mountains shook, not at your power, at your presence. Three times the prophet cries out, show up and show off. That's my version of this. It's your presence we need. It doesn't matter whether there's any signs or any wonders. I've been more times than I can remember or count at Benny Hinn meetings, where the power of God, you talk about, I've seen power manifest in the most incredible ways. I've seen great big strong muscle men moving under the power of God as though like corkscrews, being just screwed in the air like corkscrews and then twisting around on the ground. Not demonic spirits, under the power of God and hardly being able to, big heavy men having to lift them and move them into their seats again, under the power of God. But that's nothing, it's nothing compared when Benny Hinn leads by the hour in worship, worship, worship, worship to Jesus, uninterrupted worship, and the presence of God comes and that's when the miracles come. As he says, the miracles are born on the wings of the worship to God. And his consuming desire is your presence, your presence. And we've watched the marked increase in depth and breadth in his ministry when it's the presence. Because he sat on a program interviewing me once, I've done 29 programs with him, and one of them he said to me, you know, Joyce, there's nothing like the power of God. This was before I gave him the verse. And I said, oh yes there is, Benny, on the program. I said, oh yes there is. What is it? I said, his presence. Oh, tell me more. You see, that's the humble, hungry heart. He doesn't care if he's being taught by a woman on television with 160 nations watching. No wonder God does what he does with him. God, wherever Benny is right now, in the middle of an enormous crusade, we ask for your mighty presence to come right down in just an awesome way, just an awesome way, as never before, in unprecedented waves of your presence, right now, in Jesus' name, and cover that darling man, Lord. Cover him. Let him be under the shadow of your wings, Lord. Safest place I know. Thank you, Jesus. Your protection. Energize him. Give him more revelation of yourself and use him more mightily to reach more millions for your glory. Amen. It means asking God for a revolution of righteousness to invade the church and overflow out to the unconverted. Isaiah 45:8 Rain down, you heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up. Let them bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it. That's one of the most powerful verses that we can pray for revival. Have you got it? Isaiah 45:8 Have you got it marked down so you can pray it again? And I love the last part. I, the Lord, have created it. It's present tense. It's not past. I'll do it again, if you will obey. I love using the powerful prayer in Psalm 45, verses 3 to 4. Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, with your glory and your majesty, and in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness, and your right hand shall teach you awesome things. I've got those words, truth, humility, and righteousness, underlined in my Bible. I've written nothing better, nothing more powerful. Truth, humility, and righteousness. As we pray all the prayers for revival from the prophets in the Bible, we sense their intensity, and that helps our intensity. One of my most used revival prayers in this category comes from Habakkuk 3, verse 7. In short, it's short, simple, and intense. Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds. O Lord, renew them in our day, in our time make them known, in wrath remember mercy. Very short prayer. Now this is how I interpret that prayer for worldwide revival. This is my version. This is how I've prayed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. It's the way I interpret that. That's Habakkuk. This is joy under the Holy Spirit. Dear Lord, as you know, I've been studying revivals and revival praying in your word for decades, and avidly reading everything I could get my hands on about subsequent revivals, asking questions, and learning from those who've been in revival, and praying fervently and frequently in revival for going on for 50 years, getting there, going on to there. As a result, I am awestruck at who you are. Go back to the original, you see. I stand in awe of your deeds. I'm awestruck at who you are and how you work. It makes me tremble before you and experience the fear of the Lord at a deep level. On the other hand, it deeply inspires me to keep on asking you with boldness and childlike expectation that you will show up and show off big time in my generation. Let this world see what you're really like because they don't have a clue how magnanimous and magnificent and magnetic and monumental and majestic and miraculous and meek and merciful you really are. Come on, God. Do something of your breathtaking, really big stuff that only you can do now because I'm getting weary of always hearing about it in the past. Please bring the revival scene up to date in this 21st century. Only then will we, the church, have a chance of repenting of our pride that we have chosen to live by any other standard than what you came to model for us as Son of Man because we can't repent of what we cannot see or sense. We so desperately need the outpoured Holy Spirit to come in revelation of our hearts as only you know them and bring the depth of conviction that motivates us to have a change of life. Only the Holy Spirit in revival can enable millions more of us in your church to choose Christlikeness as our goal and enable us to fulfill it. Only the flame of the Holy Spirit can ignite our hearts with your love for a world hurtling towards hell and motivate us to get out of our comfort zones and get involved in bringing them to Jesus. Now, because you have graciously revealed to me something of what we may expect when you justifiably display all your attributes, I plead with you to have mercy on us because that means you're going to show your wrath, your judgment, everything. I recall reading from your word that you are a great and terrible God as well as one of unending mercy. Because of the mind-boggling display of yourself and your ways as a result of Habakkuk's prayer, because I've studied how God answered, I am daring to believe that because the need of this generation is a million times greater than in Habakkuk's day, you will answer the cries of my heart for your glory alone and do something greater than in his day. In Jesus' name and for the sake of the incredible price he paid on the cross to redeem mankind, amen. Now, the Bible describes how the prophet Habakkuk's prayer was answered in verse 3 and 15. And with this, we will close and have a break. But this is how God answered the prayer. You may turn it up. It's very fascinating. Habakkuk 3 in your Bibles. And you can go through it with me. What I want to point out is the different ways God's attributes are displayed. Okay? Habakkuk 3 through verse 15. You know, we could be all day just looking at the first two words. What are the first two words? Tell them to me. The Lord or God came. If there was nothing else, that would do me. That would do me. God came. Habakkuk 3 after the prophet's prayer. Then in kindness, the Holy Spirit describes how he came. The Holy One from Mount Paran. Now, verse 3. All right? What is that attribute? Holiness. This is what I want you to see. This is on the board, is it? Oh. Okay, dear. So it's... Did we not have it on the chart? Okay. Holiness. I want us to see. His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praises. So, that's His glory. His glory covered the heavens. Holiness, glory. His brightness was like the light. That's brilliance. This is what we can expect in revival. He has rays flashing from His hands and there His power was hidden. Spectacular power. Before Him went pestilence and fever followed at His feet. Verse 5. Judgment. He stood and measured the earth. All this matches Isaiah 24 that we were having from the worship leader. Just a parallel. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and startled. Oh, I can't go over that. Do you know how big God is? He looked. He looked. Didn't open His mouth. Didn't raise a finger. Didn't sneeze. He looked and startled the nations. That's my God. And the everlasting mountains were scattered. The perpetual hills bowed. The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation. All He'd done was look. Now, I've called that sovereign power over the universe. See that? At the light of your arrows they went as the shining of your glittering sphere. That is earth-shaking awesome power. You getting it? Good. You marched through the land in indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. That's wrath. That's worse than judgment. You went forth for the salvation of your people. For salvation with your anointed. Verse 13. That's deliverance. His ways are everlasting. That's our eternal God. Now, that's what God did when a prophet prayed a prayer for revival. The effect on the prophet Habakkuk was as follows. Listen to it. When I heard, my body trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself that I may rest in the day of trouble when He comes up to His people. He will invade them with His troops. Verse 16. Revival is very, very awesome. It is the unleashing of the Holy Spirit. It is no light matter. Okay? Here's how it happened in Wellington, New Zealand in 1922. Taken directly out of the book about Smith Wigglesworth's life. 1922, Wellington, New Zealand. When Smith Wigglesworth was ministering in Wellington, New Zealand, he called for a special prayer meeting with a group of 11 leaders, spiritual leaders. After each of them had prayed, Wigglesworth rose to seek the Lord, and the presence of God began to fill the room. Soon the glory of God became terrible. The light became too bright, the heat too intense, the other men couldn't take it any longer. Every one of them left the room. Only Smith Wigglesworth could continue in the Shekinah glory of God. Another minister heard what had happened and determined at the next gathering, no matter how strong the presence of God became, he would stay until the end. Once again the holy presence of God filled the room and the glory of God became unbearable. Everyone left except this one leader, and Wigglesworth. But the one other leader would not be overcome and driven out by the manifest presence of the Lord. Wigglesworth just kept seeking God. But it was too much. Wigglesworth was caught up in the spirit, radiant with holy fire, and even the determined minister couldn't stand the intensity. Soon enough he was gone too. That's what a demonstration of the glory of God is. I'd rather be burned to a crisp in revival. I mean it with my whole being and be in his manifest presence, even if he took me to heaven because my mortal frame couldn't take it, than be outside his manifest presence by choice. What about you? Continued after the break.