Revival Conference 2007 - Ralph Sutera - Part 2

A spiritual experience that only Christians can have. You cannot revive something that has never been vived. You see, an unconverted man has never been vived. We are now talking about to be revived is to return to where nothing stands in the way to hinder a relationship with God and with man. Nothing stands in the way to hinder that relationship. Well, when I think in terms of reviving, there are all kinds of definitions that can be given. Here's one that I like. It is when hidden springs spring forth. There are hidden springs underneath, and all at once they spring forth. Springs of prayer and fasting and genuine seeking God for a moving of the spirit. And I wonder even in this very area, where are those springs that are underneath, that have been praying and seeking God sometimes for years? And many times you go into a community and they'll begin to say, well, here's a group of people that have been praying for so many years, all by themselves, for a revival. Hidden springs. Well, I could talk about D.O. Moody's hidden springs in his ministry. I could talk about Billy Graham and the people that were prayer warriors behind him. I could talk about Charles G. Finney, but let me just share personally just some of the hidden springs that have been behind our ministry for the years. Well, we were in a western Canadian city. Mrs. Follis was a member of the church. We were there for one week of evangelistic meetings. And I need to say to you by way of background that Lou and I had 18 years of evangelism as straight evangelists after leaving university and starting the ministry. And then God Almighty began to work in changing all that. And I'll get to that in a minute. But here's one of those hidden springs. Mrs. Follis. After we were in her church, she and her husband prayed for us every single day for four years. When revival broke out in western Canada, we had a weekend conference in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan. And she and her husband drove over the Canadian Rockies. And they were there in the middle of the winter, all bundled up, this elderly couple. And my brother thought he would honor them. And he asked them to come forward and say a few words to about 700 people there. And they stood up and she said, and my brother, who was kind of excited to see all these people that come from all over western Canada for this conference. He said to her, he said, what do you think of all this? And she kind of stood rather still and nonchalant as it were. She said, this is nothing. Well, here's my brother with 700 people. What do you think of all this? This is nothing. That's a real starter for you. And but he could tell that she was saying something more than that. And he questioned her a little further. Say, are you trying to say something else? She said, and she turned and said, this is only. Well, now that's getting a little substance, isn't it? From nothing to only. This is only God answering prayer. That's all. And then she told that crowd, and we heard it for the first time, that when we were in her church, God laid this ministry on her heart. And for four solid years, she and her husband had prayed for us every single day that God would transform our ministry from evangelism into a ministry of the, into the inner life of the church and revival. So this is nothing. God answering prayer. That's all. One of those hidden springs. A year after the revival broke out in Western Canada, one of the men, Bernard Palmer, who wrote the Danny Orless series books for boys and girls a number of years ago, was in South India. He was at a giving convention. And he said, and he began to share with the Gideons what he saw in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in the revival. He was there when it happened. And when he got finished, two Gideon brothers came running up to him, and they said to him, where did you say that happened? In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in Western Canada. Oh, they said, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. He said, why? Because we asked God to lay on our hearts a sister city on the North American continent to pray for a revival, and God gave us the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to pray for a revival. And here they are, one year later, they hadn't even heard the revival broke out. Gideon's right. Well, there was a missionary on an airplane. And an evangelist friend of ours said, when I get on the plane with people like that, I just kind of want to find out exactly what they know about answers to prayer. So I asked the missionary, can you tell me of a prayer that you prayed, and you know God exactly answered your prayer? And the missionary said to this evangelist, yes, I began to pray for a revival for Canada, and especially for Western Canada. God laid that on my heart. And it's interesting that a short time later, I heard that there were two little twins that were up there, and a revival broke out. And God answered my prayer. He didn't spring, spring it off. Bill McLeod, the pastor of the church, got so tired of playing the religious games with divine truth with his people that he literally laid aside many of his pastoral duties so that he would just give himself to ministry of prayer, intercessory prayer. And he prayed. Well, I can tell you he prayed five years for a revival. He prayed with other pastors, including Henry Blackaby, who was a pastor in the same city at the time. And in the midst of it, then God just encouraged him to lay aside even more, to just call his whole church to pray. But his people didn't know that on his face, in his office, day after day, here he is calling on God for a genuine revival. Well, there it is. Didn't we hear last night the importance of prayer for a revival? Here's the pastor. Here are all these people springs, spring forth. Well, when Lou and I found ourselves in a Western Canadian city of Prince George, British Columbia, the pastor said to us, said, fellas, my part in this ministry is to pray. If you need anything, you talk to the associate. I have to pray. And he would sit on the platform night after night, very somber, very sober. And we hardly knew exactly what was taking place. A week and a half into the crusade where God began to work at such a powerful level. He came to the platform one night. It was as if a bird let out of the cage. And he stood up. He said, folks, I want you to know that God answered my prayer. He set me free. He said, and he told the congregation that for one solid year, he had not prayed a night. He had not slept the night through without God waking him up in the middle of the night, calling on God for a revival for a city, for the province, for the country. And one solid year interceding like that. And he said, last night, God said to me, all right, my child, I've answered your prayer. Now rejoice. Hidden Springs. That man, Cliff Dietrich, godly man, just passed away about a month ago. Hidden Springs. Well, what happened? Duncan Campbell found himself in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a year before the revival took place. The church was so cold and so backslidden that they couldn't even get 50 people to come to hear him speak. Here he's talking about the great revival in the Hebrides and all the Scotland and so on. And he couldn't get more than 50 people. But God revealed to him, and I'm not exactly sure how, whether it was a dream, a vision, but knowing that godly man and how God used him so powerfully, revealed to him that a revival was going to break out in western Canada.