Revival Forum 89 - Part 1

What's the greatest need in the church today as you would see it from what you've observed and I'm sure if we digested some of your books That we may have insight into but what would you perceive brother Ravenhill to be the greatest need in the church in America? Specifically today, I won't give you my opinion. I'll give you a Bible opinion from Jeremiah chapter 1 to Verse 13 my people have committed two evils They've forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewn them out systems broken systems that can hold no water It's amazing to me when every pastor that comes. Oh, I'm in a mega church, you know We get 4,000 something I've got nothing to do with your church Every church in America nearly is filled Sunday morning. How many people you have in your prayer meeting? The prayer meeting has almost died Not just in Presbyterian churches, but in Pentecostal churches in Baptist churches. I have a prayer meeting Thursday morning for For pastors about 20 come some Come 200 miles some come 300 miles round trip and the last five or six weeks We've all ended up on the floor in tears praying for one thing revival. Nobody's praying for his church I believe the spiritual condition of America at this moment is lower than it was in the revival of the 1700s with Jonathan Edwards We forsaken God particularly we forsaken the prayer meeting What would happen if you had a choir like say you have at First Baptist or somewhere I first baptized in Dallas or Good brothers first Baptist Church in Atlanta. I stayed there a month once you without 200 people in the choir What if only 10% turned up for choir rehearsal on Friday night? Do you think you might get the resignation of the choir master? But supposing a guy with 26,000 members had 10% come to the prayer meeting. He'd die of shock you see We have had people last just a year ago. Now. We finished our 500th prayer meeting every Friday night and It was a prayer meeting in most churches now the preacher preaches Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night forget it One of the young pastor that comes to us He got moved by the power of God. He went to his church and said look I'm gonna preach Sunday morning Sunday night, but not Wednesday night. We're gonna pray. He's in a country church He went from 60 Wednesday night to six. They don't want to pray We had a prayer meeting where people drove four five and six hours and there were people that came and they belong to famous churches in California and they came over and said look we know why God's brought us in this area We need to learn to pray. We went to a very popular church It's attended by dozens hundreds of film stars and others, but there's no prayer life there But you know what happened when they come three or four times they quit Do you know why? Because we have men that used to mumble in their prayers and it pleased God to educate them in the spirit And I would go on Wednesday night. I go Friday night There was one in a full-blooded American Indian. He was dying in the gutter snow falling on him He was a victim of drugs and drink and God awakened him He got wonderfully saved and he got an anointing in prayer to hear that man pray for the American Indians they're the most neglected people in America today and And the Indians somehow don't go after them. You can't go on the reservations. They kill you all they say listen You stole our land. You stole our oil. You stole our mineral rights. You stole our fishing rights get out of here And I've told him stay with it stay to your people with your people. Don't let somebody else wear your crown you see some of us we were walking around eternity and God was going to put a crown on my head and I didn't do the job So he passes it to Dale. He's gonna wear it for a billion years every time I see him I thought that should have been my crown, but that's my fault. It's not the devil's fault No, man, take thy crown. That's that's a warning against deacons, but anyhow Don't let a man take your crown. God has given you a job. Do it. Did you die? That's what it takes brother Leonard. What is the nature? And the content and the direction of those prayer meetings for the average lay person who has not been able to attend Where do you begin? What do you pray for? What do you target? What happens in those prayer meetings that are so unusual and what are the kinds of prayer meetings that we need to start having in our churches Well, we have different target. I call it target praying for instance when we pray for all the Husbands of the wives or Fathers of the children who are there whose daddies were not saved. Maybe not even church Maybe we concentrate on unsaved fathers unsaved husbands and at a time we concentrate on teenagers You see there's something about covenanting in prayer I Went to dr. Toto's church. Thank you, and I stayed there for two weeks and I had the privilege of praying with him. It's a wonderful man he wasn't the greatest preacher ever heard they had an intimacy with God like nobody else and I Remember one day. He said Len don't let anybody Diminish your appetite or zeal for prayer He said I'll tell you what happened in World War one the finest young men in our in our church went to war they were drafted 30 of them and we covenanted with their parents and wives We covenanted in prayer that not one of those men would get killed or seriously injured and every man came back The only one that was lame was his own son But he said if we can covenant in prayer like that Why don't you count your covenant in prayer in your churches? Not one of our girls in our churches is going to get pregnant not one of our boys is going to go into drink We're not just going to raise nice healthy children. We're going to do more than that We want to produce spiritual offspring and the reason those superstars that came to our prayer meetings Didn't continue well, they had men that were praying with anointing Again, they heard this fellow crying with tears for the different tribes in America It's astounding that a lot to an accord to American Indians. Where's David Brainerd today? There isn't a brain of there. How do we have how do we have a right? to pray for revival when in the 20th century There are so many people who believe Theologically that things are just going to get worse and worse and worse And God certainly is not going to send a revival. So why are you wasting your time praying that God will send one? Well, you get a nucleus of people you get together and talk with the deacons and others But it says here they're forsaken me. So what? How many deacons come to prayer meetings one night I was standing on the platform with Charles Stanley there were maybe Over a thousand people there. I think he asked 50 deacons and I said Charles, where do you 50 deacons tonight? He said Ryan count 15. I said well fire the rest What did they do in the upper room when the Holy Ghost came they games gave themselves continually to fundraising did they? What did they do? Give ourselves continually to prayer. I Like the figure I'm going to speak maybe one day. I think Hannah is the best type of an intercessor I know that all the qualifications she had grief. She suffered she mocked and Yet year by year. It wasn't once they scorned her But when she got pregnant she didn't care a hill of beans about anybody Well, let me say this too. I think there's a danger of seeking revival To justify my ministry to prove we're the best people in town We mentioned it with Paul this morning. What does it say? The Lord whom you seek we're not seeking him we're seeking revival we're seeking healing we're seeking miracles It's not that we need if we get God who gets all that's needed and revival is when God comes down Picked up the book for me, please. Here's a little book. I hope you'll all get it's come down Lord It's a good book. Of course. It's from England, but apart from that Get a copy if you can it's published by It's published by banner of truth, but I'm out this page 23 Now this is revival. I think revival is the most prostituted word That we have in our vocabulary today either revival or faith We don't know much about either Revival stops the traffic as dear Tosia used to say Leonard when revival comes It it changes the moral climate of a community Taverns closed down nightclubs closed down. It's I mean, there's a war going on now dear