What Will It Take For Revival To Come

And that is exactly what's happening right now at this very moment with what God has put on your heart, Dan, to do right now at this time. So I believe that this is divine. Now, the first real great awakening that I experienced in my own ministry was the Jesus Movement. In 1965, I came to Christ in the very beginning of that Jesus Movement, and our ministry became known as one of the leaders of the Jesus Movement in Chicago. But a lot of that began with prayer. There was a call. There was a call of God for His people to pray and to seek His face. And by the way, it was not really an organization, or a denomination, or a church. It was just the call of the Spirit of God. And there were prayer meetings. I remember in Monroe, Louisiana, where I saw God move, and in a little church where we had 25 people, and the Spirit of God came and sent revival, and it grew to where we ended up in the Civic Center. And without publicity or any of that, it was just a move of the Spirit of God. But there were day and night, day and night, there were young people praying and seeking the face of God. We had a coffeehouse, and we turned the coffeehouse into a prayer house. And so God called His people to pray. And then there was this move of God all across America. It had nothing to do with us. It was just what He was doing in other places. And the Spirit of God in California, at Asbury, there in Monroe where we were, God was moving. But it began with a call to prayer. It began with a call to prayer. And so what is happening now is extremely important. What God told Jeremiah, call unto me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you know not. That call is still the call today. It's the call to pray for revival, to pray for God to do beyond anything that we could think or imagine or dream, to pray and to seek His face. So one characteristic that has been true in all revivals is prayer. When I went into Romania, and that was the first time I saw, I mean, a revival transform a nation, where after the coming of the move of God's Spirit in the nation, the nation was no longer the same in any way, culturally, politically, in any way, spiritually. I mean, there was a transformation within the country. But I remember the first time that I went into the country. When I went into Romania, I was invited to preach at a church. No one knew that I was coming, because during those days in communist countries, it was very dangerous. And so they couldn't tell if a foreigner was coming. And I got there an hour before the service was to start, and I couldn't hardly get in to the auditorium, because it was packed with people. Now, do you know why it was packed an hour early? They were praying. They were seeking God. You see, that church was where the revival began. And there was a pastor, five years earlier, who had called the people to pray. And he told them to pray in an unusual manner. He said, you pray that one day we would stand in the great stadiums of the nation. You pray that one day on television and newspapers, we will be able to proclaim the gospel. And the people said, pastor, that can never happen. It's impossible. Don't you know? We're thrown in prison. We lose our jobs. We lose our education. Well, that can never happen. He said, with men, it is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. So you pray. You pray. And the church prayed, and the rest is history. I'll tell you a little bit about that more later on in this broadcast. But prayer was at the very heart of the beginning of that great move of God's spirit, where an entire nation was changed. And then the third great revival that I've seen awakening is taking place right now. I shouldn't say was. It is taking place right now, and it's in one of the most unusual places, and that is Iran. And in Iran, God is moving in a mighty way at this very moment. In 1998, I was challenged by a friend. I can't mention his name, but I was challenged to go to Iran and pray. And there were 10 of us that went in. And for two weeks, we just walked the streets of the major cities of Tehran, of Isfahan, of Mashhad. We went into those places, and we walked, and we prayed, and we just asked God to move. I have friends from the Assembly of God church there that told me, they said, Sammy, it used to be that when we had two people come to Christ in a year, we thought we had revival. Well, now they're having thousands, thousands every week come to Christ. God is moving in such a mighty way in Iran. In fact, perhaps the fastest growing church in the world is China and the church in Iran. And so God is moving. But it began with prayer. Prayer is where it began. And that's why what we're doing right now is so critically important. We must pray. We must seek the face of God. We must ask God to move and work in this generation, in this moment of history. Now, there's a second characteristic that I have found that have been in all three of these great outpourings of God's spirit in my own personal life as I've observed. And that is that prayer was always birthed in the context of darkness. When darkness was covering the culture, when darkness was covering the nation, that's when God began to move in the hearts of the people. The people's hearts became desperate. I came to know Christ, and I remember in the 1960s, there were racial tensions similar to what we have today. There were riots in the city similar to what we're having today. There was political upheaval similar to what we're having today. But I want to tell you what. People began to pray and seek the face of God. And you know what? In the midst of the darkness, the light of God began to shine. And I remember God calling me, and as I prayed and sought the face of God, He told me to go to Chicago, go to the hardest, most difficult area of Chicago. We went to the highest crime rate area of Chicago. My wife and I moved in there, didn't know anybody. We rented a house in the highest crime rate area of the city of Chicago and began to pray and ask God to move and work. And then we began to go out on the streets and preach the gospel, and God moved in a mighty way. I get letters from all over today, people telling me how they committed their lives to Christ in Chicago during those days. And so it's in the midst of a darkness. In Romania, I tell you, in 1975, the pastor called the people to pray, and they began to pray, and God began to move. But it was 15 years before there was this great outpouring of the Spirit of God. And they prayed, and they prayed, and they prayed. But the more they prayed, the darker it became. But when the light of the glory of God exploded on the scene, oh, I tell you, everything changed. Well, of course, we know right now in Iran, it is a very, very dark place, but it's in the midst of the darkness that God is moving at this very moment. Now, I share that with you because there's a third characteristic, and this is the most exciting part of it, is that when the Spirit of God comes, there's always a great harvest of souls. You see, the purpose of revival is not to have revival. The purpose of revival is not just so we can shout hallelujah, and there's a lot of hallelujah when revival comes. The purpose of revival is to fulfill God's original intent. And what was His original intent? Well, we find in Genesis chapter 1 and verses 27 and 28, when God created man, this is what He said to him. He said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. You see, God's original intent was that this planet that He created would be filled with people who knew Him, who loved Him, who walked with Him, who were in fellowship with Him. He wanted this world filled with people who knew Him. So when revival comes, when the Spirit of God really is poured out, the purpose of that outpouring is to bring us back to that original intent of God when He created man, that this world might be filled with people who knew Him, who know Him, who love Him. Let me just walk you through the scriptures on this, because this is really exciting. This is the ultimate purpose of what we're praying for. And when you begin to pray according to God's purpose, when you begin to pray according to God's will, we know that He hears us. That's what the scripture says. And if we know that He hears us, then we know that we have the petitions we've desired of Him. So when we begin to pray according to the purpose and the plan and the will of God, the kingdom of God comes, the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. So what is that purpose and what is that plan? I think it's important for us to understand that as we pray. Well, first of all, when God created man and He told him to be fruitful and multiply, the context of that is very important. This was before the fall of man. When God created man, He didn't create man as a robot. He created man as a living soul with the ability to think, to feel, and to choose. You see, He wanted us to love Him because we chose to love Him, not because we were programmed to love Him like a computer, but because we chose. That's what love is. And so He wanted this world filled with people like that. And when God gave that command to be fruitful and multiply, man was in that right relationship. But we know what happened. Man made a choice, and man sinned, and man went his own way, and devastation and evil filled the earth. And so what did God do? He sent His judgment. His judgment came, and the whole world was wiped out except for one man and his family. Noah and his family were saved. You remember the flood came, and when Noah came off the ark, do you remember what the first thing God said to him was? Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Nothing had changed from Genesis chapter 1 to Genesis chapter 9. Nothing had changed in the heart of God. He wanted this world filled with people who knew Him, who loved Him, who walked with Him, who were in fellowship with Him, who brought glory to Him. Well, we know what Noah did. He blew it too. And then we find Abram, a man who just in the pagan context believed in the one true and living God, and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. And do you know what God said to him? He said, and it's very interesting the word that's used. He says, I'm going to multiply your seed. As far as the sea, sands on the seashore, the stars in the sky, I'm going to give you that. I'm going to multiply your seed, because God wanted that kind of faith, that kind of relationship with people, this world filled. And of course, we know that that was actually fulfilled in the person and through the person of Jesus Christ. Now, when we get to Jesus and the Gospels, we find that Jesus, all God, all man, the Son of God, the Son of Man, God came out of eternity into human flesh, clothed Himself with human flesh, walked and lived a holy, sinless, perfect life. And then He died on a cross, was buried in a bar of tomb, arose from the grave on the third day, and He appears to His disciples. And what does He tell them? He says this, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Now, what had He just commanded them? He had just commanded them to go and make disciples. So you make disciples who make disciples. Multiplication. We get into the book of Acts and we find the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. But then we come to a place where it says in Acts chapter 2, and 3,000 were added unto the church. Peter, the coward, became Peter, the courageous. When the Holy Spirit was poured out, he became courageous and he preached the gospel in 3,000 converted. But watch what happened. In Acts chapter 6, it stops using the word added, and it uses the word, the disciples were multiplied. And then we find in Acts chapter 12, that the word of God was multiplied. And we find this spiritual multiplication taking place. And then we find that the apostle Paul, Saul, who became the apostle Paul, was in a prayer meeting with some guys, in a prayer meeting. And in that prayer meeting, God calls them out to go to the non-Jewish world to bring the good news. And the word begins to spread. And then Paul writes to young Timothy, and this is what he said, the things that you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust the faithful men who will be able to teach others also. The word of God spreads, spiritual multiplication. The world, the world, the world was on the heart of God. And hallelujah. Do you know what we see in the book of Revelation? Gathered around the throne of God are men and women from every nation, from every tribe, from every language, from every ethnic group. It's all fulfilled. And we are on this journey. You look at the Bible, it's this journey to the fulfillment of God's original intent. And the purpose of revival is to bring us back to that original intent of God that the world would be filled with men and women who know Him, who love Him, who walk with Him. Now all of that is to say this, I believe this with all of my heart, we are on the verge of the greatest move of God in the history of the church of Jesus Christ. I believe we could see one of the greatest outpourings of the spirit. I believe we are being brought to that moment. And that's why I was so excited to hear what Doug was sharing because we are at a moment. Now you say, Sammy, why do you believe that? Well, Matthew chapter 24, Jesus is talking about the last days. And by the way, I'm just going to be upfront here. I don't know when Christ is coming again. I don't know when all of these things are going to happen. But one thing that he says that's really important for all of us to remember is this, in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 14, he says, and the gospel of the kingdom shall go into all the earth, all the world, and then the end shall come. Right before the end, the gospel is going to go into the whole world. Now revival always brings a great harvest. In the Jesus movement, that first revival I talked about, there was a great harvest. Many of the leaders, Christian leaders today in the church came out of that movement back then. I can tell you that in Romania, the harvest was absolutely extraordinary. In fact, there was a five-year period. In December 1989, there was a pastor who was to be arrested in Timisoara, and Christians from all the churches, all the denominations made a human chain around his home to protect him. And the Securitate came in and began to shoot, killing innocent men, women, and children. And when the blood of the martyrs began to flow into the streets, there was a release of the glory of God among the people of God. 200,000 people gathered in the main square, and Peter Dugalescu, a pastor friend of mine, stood and began to preach the gospel, and people began to shout. These were atheists. People have been trained all of their lives that there is no God. They've been trained in scientific atheism, and they began to shout, there is a God, there is a God, there is a God. Revival erupted in Timisoara, and this scene spread to every city in the nation, every major urban center. And I tell you what, friends of mine called me and said, Sammy, you must come in. I went into Romania, and I saw things I never dreamed I would see during the revolution. I walked in there, and people would just run up to you on the streets. I'm not talking about church people. I'm talking about just common everyday people would run up to you. They'd begin to shout, there is a God, there is a God, there is a God. Friends said, Sammy, you must come back, and you must preach. You must preach in a stadium. And in May of 1990, for the first time in the history of Romania, I stood in a stadium and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. And right before I stood to speak, my translator turned to me, and he said, Sammy, do you know what today is? I said, what are you talking about? And he said, today is the day that God has answered the prayer that our pastor 15 years ago taught us to pray that one day we would stand in the great stadiums of the nation and preach the gospel. And I want to tell you what, for the next five years, I went to the major cities of Romania and stood in the stadiums, packed stadiums, and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a harvest. I tell you, when God comes, when God comes, when revival comes, there will be a harvest. There will be a harvest of souls like you have never seen. I've never seen anything like it. In fact, we had a problem with follow-up because we had counselors trained and everything and ready to, you know, give Bibles to people. We couldn't do it because people would just swarm. They just went crazy. So we had to start meeting the next few nights in theaters with all the new believers, and we would start counseling them and ministering to them in theaters and giving them Bibles there because there was such a hunger for the word of God. That was a move, an outpouring of the spirit of God. And now today in Iran, I can tell you, you don't hear this on the news, but I can tell you there is a move of God's spirit in Iran that is taking place. It is just absolutely incredible. People are coming to Christ. People are suffering for their faith. It's just the most amazing thing that is taking place in Iran. People are having dreams. People are having visions, nobody telling them about Christ, and they're becoming believers in Jesus. It's just absolutely amazing. So all of this is to say that in these three great awakenings that I have seen in my ministry and life, in all of them, the purpose is for this great harvest. The purpose is to bring us back to the original intent of God, that this whole world would be filled with people who know Him, who love Him, who walk with Him, who are in fellowship with Him, who give glory and honor and praise unto Him. The whole world be filled with His glory. And we, right now, I believe because of technology that God has given us, I mean what we're doing right now, I can tell you that right now there are people around the world who are watching this, not just people here in the United States. But listen, what God is doing, it's bigger. It's more than anything that any of us can imagine. God is wanting to send a revival. God is wanting to send a revival. So what I want us to do, we're going to just take a few minutes and we're going to pray and then I'm going to come back and share some more about that revival and what it will take and about prayer and the things that are needed. So I want us to just spend a few minutes and pray. And this is what I want us to do. I want us to ask God to search our hearts. Just search our hearts and try us and see if we've left our first love. You know, in Ephesians, it says to the church of, not Ephesians, the book of Revelation, it says to the church of Ephesus that it was a good church. It had suffered. It had gone through great trials. It stood true to the word of God, but it had left its first love and had lost that passion for God's original intent. Do you remember when you first came to Jesus? Do you remember when you first came? You know, sometimes we make this real complicated. It's not complicated. It's real simple. Do you remember when you first came to know Jesus? You just loved him and you wanted to tell others about him. You wanted to share him with other people. Do you remember that? Well, that's what I want us to do. I want us to return, to return. The book of Hosea, you know, is a book about revival. Hosea brought a message to God's people who desperately needed revival. And in Hosea chapter six, he said, we need to return to the Lord. Those of us who have turned to the Lord, we need to return to the Lord. And so I want us just right now to just, in a very simple way, ask God to search our hearts and show us where we've lost our first love and ask him to bring us back to that first love, that he would do that, that great and deep work in our hearts and in our lives. Would you do that with me now? I know everybody prays different. I saw Doug praying with his eye. I'm going to close my eyes. I just like to get my focus. I'm looking into the camera right now. I don't want to look in the camera. I'll just get my focus on God. You can leave your eyes open. You can walk around, kneel, you can stand, whatever way is best for you. But it's your heart. It's your heart. So I want you right now to just go before God and say, oh God, search my heart. Father, I come in the name of Jesus and I ask you to search our hearts. Try us, Lord. See if there'd be any wickedness about us. Lord, bring us back. Bring me back to my first love. Lord, revive me. Lord, bring me back to that passion and that intimacy and that simplicity of love for you. God, I pray for the men, the pastors who are on this broadcast. Lord, bring them back to the first love. I pray for the women, Lord, many of them prayer warriors. Bring them back to their first love. Lord, I pray for every person who's joined us right now from around the world. Bring them back to their first love. Oh God, I pray in the name of Jesus that your spirit would move. Come, Holy Spirit. Come right now. We welcome you. We welcome you. And I'm just going to be silent for a moment. Come, Holy Spirit. We welcome you in Jesus' name. Thank you, Father. Amen, amen, amen, amen. I want to take the next few minutes and just talk about what I believe it will take for revival to come, for us to be back on that path of God's original intent. And there are three things, and we're going to break this and we're going to pray about each thing. The first thing, there must be a new seeking of God's face. Now, we all know the scripture says in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, Brother Doug quoted that passage in our last session, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face. Now, this phrase, humble themselves and pray and seek my face, those are all intertwined. You can't separate them from each other. Prayer demands humility of heart or it's not genuine prayer. Remember what Jesus taught his disciples about praying and he taught about two men. One said, I'm glad I'm not like this sinner. But the one who said, oh God, have mercy on me, that was the one that got hurt because that's true prayer. That's authenticity. You see, God is holy. He is absolute purity. And there's a shallowness, I think, to a great extent, a superficiality in our confession today. And I believe it's because our confession is built around comparing ourselves. I'm not like this brother. I'm not like this sister. My church is not as bad as that one. But I want to tell you something, when you see yourself in the light of the holiness of God and you come into his presence and you seek him, your heart, there is no room for arrogance. There is no room for pride. You know, my heart, I mean, it's broken. I don't know how to describe it over the sin. And you're thinking I'm going to say in our nation, no, over the sin in the church, over the scandals in the church. I mean, hey, this has been going on decade after decade after decade. And we've almost lost our credibility. And it seems like every time you turn around, there's another person, another leader, another well-known person. And, you know, sometimes I just want to get it together. And the Lord reminds me, were it not for his grace, there I go. There I go. You know, I have a pastor friend. He's the first person ever shared Jesus with me. And in junior high school, middle school, basically, he talked to me about Jesus. And I think it was the seventh grade, he witnessed to me. And this guy, I mean, he's been sharing Jesus since he was a kid and he's still sharing Jesus. He's still hot-hearted for Christ. And I just love him. Pastor Truman, he just means so much to me. And to this very day, he's still sharing the love of Jesus Christ with other people. But Truman, when I first became a Christian, I became a Christian when I was at LSU, a student, a freshman at LSU. I gave my heart to Christ and began to follow him. And Truman, I was living in San Antonio where I live now. And Truman, but I grew up in Baton Rouge and Truman was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And so he came through San Antonio, he was on his way to Arizona. And the reason he was going to Arizona was he's going to spend 40 days in the desert, praying and fasting. I mean, I was a fairly new guy in ministry and I said, I'd never heard anything like that. And I said, Truman, 40 days? He said, yeah, I'm going 40 days, just got my Bible, got some drinks, going out there with water and some juices and stuff. And I'm going to go out there and I'm going to seek the face of God. He says, I just need God to speak to my heart. And I said to Truman, I said, hey man, you got to come back through San Antonio. When you come back through, I want you to stop. And I want you to tell me what God told you. Okay. And I want to hear whatever. I mean, if you're going out there in the desert 40 days and going to pray and fast, I want to know what God told you. So he left, he went to the desert 40 days, came back, stopped in San Antonio. We sat down in my home. I said, okay, Truman, I'm all ears. What did God tell you? What did God say to you? And he said, Sammy, I read the Bible through and through. I prayed, I sought the face of God, and God only told me one thing. I said, okay, what did he say? He said, God said to me, Truman, you look at other people and you say, you see someone who commits adultery and you say, oh, that's terrible. I'd never do that. You see someone who, who cheats on their taxes and you say, oh, that's terrible. I'd never do that. You see someone who lies. You say, oh, that's terrible. I'd never do that. You see someone who commits adultery. See, that's terrible. I'd never do that. You see someone who commits murder. You say, oh, that's terrible. I'd never do that. And the Lord said to me, you can never again say that there's only one thing you can say by the grace of God. I'll never do that because in your own flesh dwells no good thing. God spoke to my heart and God has reminded me of that, that in my flesh dwells no good thing. Every scandal I have the potential for, every failure I have the potential for in my flesh. My only hope is in Jesus. And that's the position that we've got to come to God in, in prayer. That's the position that we've got to take. That's what 2 Chronicles 7, 14 says. If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray. You see, we've got to come, not with a spirit of arrogance, man, these guys, man, you know, Lord strike them dead. No, it's, oh God, I need you. And if it's left up to me, I'm going to be just like that. Lord, Lord, I need you today. I need you today. The church needs you. My family needs you. Lord, we need you today. Come in a spirit of humility saying, crying out, oh God, I need you. That's the kind of prayer. That's the heart of prayer. That's the spirit of prayer. That's the attitude of prayer in which we must approach the throne of God. One of humility that says, oh God, I need you. And when we come to him, what are we coming to him for? We're coming to seek his face. He's coming, we're coming to seek his face. My people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face. You see, I think in America, we're very practical, entrepreneurial type of people in this country. And I think we're so used to seeking the hand of God because the hand of God shows us how to do things. You know, it just gives us a good program, good plan, good strategy, good plan that we've got, you know, and we can do this. Just tell me one, two, three, four, how to do this and we'll get it done. And so we come say, God, tell me how to do this. Lord, I need to know how to do this. Show me how to do that. And Lord, how can I build this church? What can we do in COVID? Lord, how do we deal with this COVID thing? When you seek his face, you're not asking him to do something for you. You're wanting to get to know him. You're wanting to know him. When you come face-to-face with a person, you look into their eyes, you see what's in their eyes, you see what's in their heart, and you have a communion, a communion, a communication that takes place face-to-face. And so what happens in that is you get to know him. You get to know what's on his heart and he sees what's on your heart. And it's out in that kind of context that God works. So first of all, we humble ourselves. We pray. We pray from a spirit of humility, but we seek his face to get to know him. And when you pray in that kind of way, God will do extraordinary things. He will do extraordinary things. So we need to pray and seek his face. Prayer is always got to be in the priority, the kind of prayer that is rooted in humility, the kind of prayer that is a prayer that wants to know him. Now, let me just say, God will do great things. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which you know not. Jeremiah 33, I come back to that again. God will do great and mighty things, but we're praying because we want to know him. And when you get to know him, you're going to become like him. And the great protection against scandal is becoming like him, becoming like him. For the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and meekness and self-control. Against such, there is no law. You see, when you seek him and you get to know him, he's going to fill you with his presence. And oh, what we need are men and women who are full of the Holy Spirit, full of God, full of the presence and the power of God. We need men and women who have the mark of Christ upon their soul. We need men and women who know God in such an intimate and such a real way. And so I want to encourage you right now to just set aside time to say, Lord, I want you, Lord, I need you, Lord, I'm going to seek you and just humble yourself and go before God. And let's spend some time just humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God and asking God to do a mighty work in our hearts and in our lives, saying, God, come right now, break me. And let me just, let me just, before we pray, let me just share one story from history. You may know and someone in this session probably has already shared the story of Evan Roberts, but Evan Roberts, that revival in Wales, it began when young Evan Roberts went before the Lord and he began to cry, bend me, oh God, bend me. That's what we need. We need to be bent and broken, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Oh God, you will not despise. You know, Doug shared something in the last session and he said, you know, God's using broken people. It's broken people. You know, brokenness does not have to come from failure. Now I agree with him because I look around and I see people who have failed. There's that spirit of humility in them. And because of that, they're broken, they come before God, there's a broken heart, a contrite spirit, and God is raising them up. And the way you're raised up is by humbling yourself. You humble yourself and He exalts you. And so there's that broken spirit. But let me just say, it doesn't have to come through failure. You see, you can choose to humble yourself. You can choose to humble yourself. And when you look into the face of Jesus and you see Him in His holiness, you see Him in His purity, you're going to say, oh God, I'm not like Jesus. Make me more like Jesus. Oh God, break me. Lord, strip me of everything that's of self. And Lord, make me more like Jesus Christ. And He will. He will make you more like Jesus. So right now, I want us just to pray and ask God to break us and just make us more like Jesus, more like Jesus. So let's go to God in prayer right now. Father, oh Father, hallowed be Your name. You are holy. You are pure. Oh God, and I'm so unholy. I'm so impure. Cleanse me, Father. Lord, bend me, break me, Father. Strip me of everything that's of self. Father, I confess so many times I think I can do it. But Lord, I cannot. Lord, without You, I can do absolutely nothing. So Father, strip me of everything that's of the self-like. Oh God, break me, bend me, melt me, mold me. And then Father, fill me, change me, use me. Oh Father, I seek You. I want You. Lord, we want You. Right now, why don't you just say to Him and say, Father, I want You. Just turn your heart towards heaven and just cry to God and say, Father, I want You. Lord, I need You. Just pour your heart out to Him. Just cast yourself on Him. Just say, Lord, here am I. Here am I. Bend me, break me. Is there a young Evan Roberts out there? Is there an old Evan Roberts out there? Is there one that would say, God, bend me and break me? Tonight, Father, I pray that Your Spirit, Lord, You are in this room with me. You are in that room with Dan. You are in that room there in other parts of the United States. Lord, You are in the room with those people around the world. Father, You are everywhere. Your Spirit is omnipresent. And Father, I'm asking You in the name of Jesus to bring brokenness into our hearts. Father, help us to humble ourselves under Your mighty hand and to seek Your face and to pray, Father, and seek Your face. Thank You, Father, for what You're going to do. Thank You, Father. Hallelujah. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, and amen. Oh, I tell you what, God is so good. I want us to go back again to that 2 Chronicles 7-14 as we talk about some of those things that must be in place if we are to see revival. The first is humble, pray, and seek His face, that humility of heart where we humble ourselves and we're praying and we're seeking the face of God. But then there's a second thing, and turn from your wicked ways. There must be a turning from our wicked ways. We have to turn from the things that do not please God, and we must turn to Him. And there must be repentance. In the Romanian revival, I mentioned to you the pastor who taught the people to pray. Well, there was something else he did. He not only taught them to pray, but he called them to repent. And in fact, some friends in Romania years later sent me a copy, a video copy of the message that he preached when he preached this message when revival broke out in the church there, and there was this great move of the Spirit of God. And I found that it was very interesting because I knew those days. I knew exactly what had happened. You could not film, you could not record, you could not do anything. But sometimes ladies would bring in their purses little cassette tape recorders, and they would stuff them in there, and they would then record when the pastor would begin to preach. That's the only way it could be recorded. So someone brought in their purse a small tape recorder and recorded it. So it was being recorded from the audience, not from the pulpit or from the microphone. And so he's preaching, and he starts off preaching, and he begins to preach. And this is his message. The repenters must repent. Now, in those days, evangelical Christians, all the evangelicals, the Pentecostals, the Baptists, the Brethren, which were the three main groups of evangelicals in the country at that time, were called repenters. That was a derogatory term. It was what the world called them. Now, I wish the world called Christians in America repenters. I wish we were known for our repentance. But they were known for their repentance. They were known that when you became a Christian, your life was changed. You were a new person. You were a different person. So they were called repenters. But this was his message. The repenters must repent. You see, his church was a good church. It was a typical church, but it was a sleepy church. And it had become asleep in the context of the culture, of the darkness that had surrounded them. Everybody was, oh, well, it's bad, but we just take care of ourselves, and we be careful. And he began to preach the repenters must repent, that the repentance did not begin on the outside. The repentance began on the inside, the inside of the church and the inside of the hearts of the people in the church. And it was very interesting because he preached this message at a baptismal service on a Sunday morning. And he preached this message. And as he preached, you could hear an occasional amen, amen, amen. And then the further he got into the message, you could hear someone sniffling and beginning to cry. And then as the message continued on and he came down harder on the repenters must repent, you could hear the crying begin to be surrounding whoever the person that had the tape recorder. And it got louder and louder. And as he continued to preach, the repenters must repent, the repenters must repent. Oh, the weeping and the wailing got so loud that you could no longer hear his message. People all over the auditorium were crying and weeping over their sin. And the repenters began to repent. And the Spirit of God came. And the Spirit of God moved in a mighty way because the repenters repented. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, when the American church, when we begin to repent, when we quit saying it's the Democrats, it's the Republican, it's this nominee, it's that nominee, when we tell God, it's me, it's me, it's me, Lord, I need you to do a work in my heart. You see, that's what revival is. Revival is a work that expresses itself out into the culture. An awakening is a move of God that ends up changing the culture. But listen to me, it begins with the church. It begins with the people of God. And in the book of Acts, it says that we're to repent of our sins. And then it goes on to say, so that there may be seasons of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord. Oh, God's presence fills His people when there is repentance in our lives. And oh, there are seasons of refreshing. Now, let me say this. I think it's important for us to define revival and what it is we're shooting for and what it is that we want. There are times and seasons of refreshing. Let me say, I believe and I pray every day for God to revive my heart today. I need personal revival on a daily basis. But there are times and there are seasons of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord. And let me explain to you what I believe happens. You see, the purpose, the ultimate purpose of God for your life is that you be conformed into the image of Jesus. How do I say that? Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 says that He preordained or predestined that you would be conformed under the image of Christ. In other words, what God's will, what God's purpose, eternal purpose for your life is, is that you become like Jesus. And the whole of the Christian life ought to be becoming more and more and more and more and more like Jesus. And the older you get, the more you ought to become like Jesus. But in order to become like Jesus, you've got to change. You cannot remain the same. And what happens, and especially with a lot of older Christians, what happens is we come to a place where we get satisfied. Oh, Hey, I'm not out cheating on my wife. I'm not out beating up anybody. I'm not out this or that. And we get satisfied. We get complacent and we quit being made more like Jesus. Listen until the day I die. I want to be more like Jesus every day. I want to be more like Jesus, more like Jesus. Now, what happens is we, as you grow in Christ, as you're filled with the Holy spirit, you become more like Jesus and it becomes a part of your character. It becomes a part of your nature. It just flows out of you. It comes forth from you, that which is in you, the Holy spirit who is filling you with that love and that joy and that peace and that patience and kindness, it just grows in you. But what happens is we often come to these, what I call strongholds. These are things that have been built up since childhood. There are things that every one of us have in our lives that if left unchecked, I mean, they're going to come out and they're going to come out in a bad way. That's what happens with scandal. Somebody came up against something. Some leader grew to a certain place, became satisfied. I'm a leader in the church. Now I'm doing this and this and this. And that stronghold was never dealt with. And the Holy spirit comes, the Holy spirit comes and he convicts. And I believe this happens. If you know that Jesus, he will convict you. He will, he will penetrate your heart. He will speak to your heart and he will show you what you need to do. And at that moment, it's critical because this is what I call a breakthrough moment and revival is a breakthrough. A season of refreshing is a breakthrough in our lives. And so we come up against that moment and there's something in our lives that we've struggled and struggle and struggle and struggle with. And God brings us to that place and we finally just give up. We fall flat on our face and we say, God, I can't do it. I'm turning to you. Deliver me, set me free by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, by the empowering of the Holy spirit. Lord, I cast myself upon you. I cannot do it. I turned from myself and I'm turning to you and I'm looking to you. That's repentance. I'm looking to you. I'm turning to you for victory in this area of my life. And the spirit of God comes and does what man cannot do. He does the supernatural. And there is that breakthrough that takes place in your life. There is a season of refreshing and all your thrust and a whole new realm of joy, a whole new realm of victory, a whole new realm of growth, a whole new realm of character development of becoming like Jesus Christ. And you see, that's what repentance brings. That's what when you come to that place of repentance. So the revival is to bring you to that place where there can be that breakthrough in your life. And by the way, churches, entire churches can need that breakthrough. By the way, the nations can need that breakthrough and we need one right now. I believe what God's doing is he's bringing us to a place to show us what's been in our hearts for a long time. We need to repent. The repenters must repent. And our repentance is from self to God. It's from realizing I'm wrong. I've messed up. I've blown it. God, I need you. I need you. I desperately need you. And that repentance brings us back to him, to seeking his face. And so what I want us to do is I want you just, we're going to have just a moment of silence. A moment of silence. And in this moment of silence, anything the Lord has spoken to you about in your life that you need to repent of, that you need to deal with, I want you just to confess it. I want you just to confess your inability to overcome it. And I want you to turn to Jesus right now and just ask Jesus, say, Jesus, set me free. Lord, I'm turning to you. I'm repenting. I'm turning away from this, but I can't do it. But I'm turning to you. I'm trusting you. Fill me with your spirit. Take control of my life right now. You just ask him to do that. So let's just take a moment. Be still. Be still. What is it that he's showing you? What is he saying to you right now? Confess it. Turn to him. Turn to him right now. Just turn to him and ask him to set you free. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus. Oh Lord, for a mighty, mighty work of your spirit. Change our hearts, oh God. Lord, we cannot change ourselves, but you can change us. Change our hearts, oh God. Thank you for what you're going to do. Thank you, Lord, for what you're going to do. We love you. We bless you. We praise you. We adore you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You know what? If during this time the Lord's shown you something and why don't you just write in the comment section, Lord, I repent. I repent. Just say those words. I repent. And we'll pray for you. And there'll be others who will be praying for you, just lifting you up. And I'll tell you what, if you got through the first part, humble yourself and pray and sink my face, you won't worry about what people will think. So just say, I repent. You don't have to put specifically what, just in your heart, if it's an attitude, whatever it might be, just say, I repent. And just type that in, just write that into the comment section right now. And then I want us to go to this last segment that I want to talk about and that is characteristic what needs to be in place for revival. First, we talked about humbling ourselves and praying and seeking his face. Then we talked about turning from our wicked ways. And then he says, he will heal our, hear our prayer and forgive our sin and heal our land. One of the great characteristics of revival is not only do we see the character of God and we're broken over our sin, broken over our lack of holiness, our lack of purity in our lives, but when we see God, we see his heart and we see what's on his heart. You see revival, normally there are two, two things that normally cause people to cry out for revival. One is they see the darkness around them. They see the darkness in their own lives. They see the lack of holiness and they're broken over their sin. But the second thing is they see people and they see the love of God for people. And when they see the heart of God, they cry out and they say, Oh Lord, I'm not like Jesus. I don't love people like he loves them. Lord, give me your love. Baptize me in your love. Charles Finney talked about an experience where he had, where there was, where he met with the Lord. And it was as though there were waves of liquid love that just flowed through him. And he went outside and he spoke to people and just speaking to them, they would come to Christ. Oh, when the love of God so fills our hearts and so fills our lives, oh, there will be something that will happen that will be attractive to people and people will want what we have. We will begin to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. One of the things that happens that spurs revival, I saw it in the Jesus movement, I saw it in Romania. And I tell you what, in Iran, in one of the hardest places in the world, I'm seeing it there. And that is people become courageous. They become courageous for Christ. When the Holy Spirit comes, listen, Peter, who was a coward who denied Jesus three times, stood with great courage and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. And 3000 people were converted. And you find Thomas, who doubted, went to India and preached the gospel and was willing to die for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, listen, what happens is we begin to see the heart of God and feel the heart of God and act out of what's on God's heart, not just his character, but his heart. And his heart loves people. The heart of God has not changed, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. And the heart of God is for people. I think the first revival that I ever experienced, and maybe I need to go back and share with you my testimony of how I came to Christ. I did not grow up in a Christian family. Going to church, I had a good family, by the way. I have nothing but fond memories of my father, my mother. I love them. I miss them so much, but I had a good family, but they weren't Christians. We didn't go to church. And then I went to LSU, and at LSU, my life was empty. I had two scholarships, had everything a young person could want, but I was empty on the inside. And then I went and heard a man preach in a Baptist church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I heard Doug mention James Robison in the last session. It was James Robison who was preaching, and James was preaching the gospel just passionately, and he gave an invitation for people to come to Christ. And that night, I went down to the front of that church, and I knelt, and I prayed, and I called unto God. Jesus Christ came into my heart. He changed my life, and oh, I was so on fire for Him. I wanted to tell everybody about Jesus. Some of my friends and I started meeting early in the morning at the state capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There was a hill that overlooked a lake, and on the other side of that lake was where I was born. We would go to that hill, and we would pray, and we would seek God, and we would memorize scripture and read the word of God together. Those days were so fresh and so real and so wonderful, and we just met with the Lord. We met with the Lord, and it was so good during those days. But one day while we were praying, one of my friends, Fred, Fred Koch, he may be watching this right now, but Fred said, Sammy, I think, you know, I was praying. I believe God wants us to go across the river and preach the gospel. Well, I knew what he was saying because Baton Rouge is on the east side of the Mississippi River, and on the west side at that time is where the nightclubs, strip joints, drug hangouts were, and he was saying, we need to go over there and preach. I said, Fred, I don't think so. He said, well, you pray about it. Well, I made the mistake. I prayed about it, and God put it in our hearts, and we went across the river. I won't go into the whole story, but we preached the gospel. People came to Christ, and oh, my heart was so on fire for Jesus. I started a Christian youth movement, and I didn't know anything. I just started calling churches, saying, bring your young people. Let's start a youth movement for Jesus, and then I was just so on fire for the Lord, and my heart was passionate for Christ, and oh, I loved him, and for the next two years, I lived with this passion for Jesus. Everywhere, anywhere, I'd tell people about Jesus, but something happened. People began to say, hey, you need to calm down. This is okay, but you need to settle down. By the way, every time our pastor, bless his heart, every time he'd give an invitation, which was every Sunday, I would go forward. I mean, I didn't know. All I knew was, hey, he'd say, if you want to get right with God, say, yeah, I want to get right with God, and I'd go to the altar, and I'd pray, and some of the people were kind of, hey, this guy's every week doing this, and our pastor said, hey, you leave him alone. God's got his hand on Sammy. God's doing a work in Sammy, and I'm so thankful for our pastor having that spirit and that heart, but I just was on fire for the Lord, but after a couple of years, people began to say, you need to calm down, so I got what I call, I got in a rut. I didn't turn away from God, didn't turn away from Jesus, didn't turn away from the faith. I just got in a rut, comfortable Christianity, and I lost the joy. I got married, and by the way, I had surrendered to the ministry. I was preaching the gospel, doing youth revivals and things like this, but I lost that personal joy, and one day, I met a man by the name of Leo Humphrey. Leo was a redheaded fireball. He was a seminary student, and he had a ministry in the French quarters of New Orleans, and he would go out on the streets witnessing and sharing Jesus with people. I'll never forget, I went with him down on Bourbon Street. We were passing out tracks, and one of the guys who had a mafia guy, he had a nightclub there, and Leo said, hey man, your name's in my book, and the guy said, what book? He said, my prayer notebook, and so he just began to pray. Dan, I'm sorry, I've been going on too long here. I can't hear you, Dan. Have we lost something? Let me finish this story, and I'll close her up, okay? Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me, Dan? Okay, let me finish this story, and I'll finish, but anyway, Leo was on fire for the Lord, and Leo just had a heart for God, and Leo just witnessed everybody, and I thought this mafia guy was going to kill us, and two weeks later, we came down the street passing out tracks, and the mafia guy came running up, and the mafia guy said to Leo, he said, man, please take me my name out of that book. I haven't been able to sleep for two weeks, and Leo had just prayed for him not to be able to sleep until he gave his heart to Christ, and that's just the way Leo was. We would go into restaurants. He would witness to everybody in the restaurant, and one day, Leo and I were out on the beach together, and I told Leo, I said, Leo, man, I love God. I love Jesus, but I have to be honest with you, Leo. I've lost that first love. I've lost that first love. I don't have that passion to win people to Jesus, and we went out on the beach, and we prayed that night. I thought we had prayed for maybe 20 minutes, but I looked, and the sun was rising. We had prayed all night long, and that night, I gave myself completely to the Lord, and God just filled me with His love. The love of God just saturated my life. The love of God just filled my life, and oh, I want to tell you what I experienced revival. That was the first time that I experienced revival in my Christian walk, in my Christian life, and that revival came. It gave me a new passion, a new love for people. It renewed that love, and one of the things that I find that's so easy, the older you get in Christ, the longer you've been a Christian, you lose that love for reaching others for Christ. You've developed friendships, and it's the way it should be. Your friendships are other Christians, but you lose that heart for those who don't know Jesus Christ. I want to just encourage you. I want to encourage you to just ask God to send revival, and to give you a fresh love for Jesus. Let's pray for that right now, and then I'm going to bring ... I don't know what's happened here, so I'm going to bring Dan on, but let's pray, and let's ask God to give us a fresh passion for sharing Jesus with the lost world. Father, I come to you right now, and I'm asking you in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit would fill us, baptize us with your love. Give us a fresh love for you, a fresh love for people. Father, a fresh love for sharing Christ with others. Oh, Lord, I pray that your Spirit would move and would work in us and among us. Thank you, Father, for what you're going to do. I pray in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit would work. Thank you, Father, for what you're going to do. I love you. I bless you. I praise you and adore you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. We've got a little bit more to share, but I don't know if ... Dan, why don't you come on? I'm not sure what was happening there. If I need to just wrap this up, or if I've gone over, or if there's something you need to share. Can you come back on with us at this time? Okay, I can't hear you. I'm not able to hear you, Dan. Are you muted? While Dan's getting that ready, I didn't want to say anything. Dan asked me about my book, Multiplying Disciples, that's coming out. I didn't want to take that to talk about this. I just want to say that this whole thing of spiritual multiplication I think is really important. I have a book that's coming out at the end of September about it. I believe that's what God is saying in this generation, that we need to make disciples who will make disciples. We need to be reaching the world. We need to be filling this world with people who know God, who love God, who walk with God, and helping them to do the same thing. I just finished in May. Listen, I saw the greatest outreach of my life in ministry. We reached more than 15 million people. Immediately, many of those, many thousands of those were integrated into small discipleship groups. We've been given technology. What we're doing here right now, and I realize we've got a little technical problem, but what we're doing right now is that which will enable us to do far beyond anything that was ever possible before. The Apostle Paul, if he had the tools that we have today, no telling what he would have been doing. We need to take the tools that God has given us. I thank the Lord for Dan and what he's doing with this. We need to take the tools that God has given us and use them for his glory. The solemn assembly of prayer, of repentance, of a passion for people, of seeing God send a revival, we need to take this to the world, to the world, to the whole world. Dan, are you able to communicate yet with us? Nope, still not able to hear you. Okay. Uh, okay. Uh, we're, we're not able to hear. I hope that you're able. Is everyone able to hear me? Are you able to hear me, Dan? Okay, good. Good. Well, listen, let me, let me just maybe wrap her up here for the next five minutes or 10 minutes here. Let me wrap it up, uh, with talking about really what I believe God wants to do. We are living as, as Doug shared at the very end. I mean, I can't, I don't know when crisis coming, but I know this. It seems like the whole earth is growing the Corona virus. And then listen, I mean, it's a dark time. It's a tough time. And, and you know, you say, Sammy, you seem very optimistic. I don't tell you what, I don't have anything to be optimistic about in the flesh. I have two friends in the ministry who have died from the Corona virus. My sister four weeks ago died from the Corona virus. So this is a dark time for me. This is a difficult time for me, but I, I have seen in the past what God has done in the darkness. And when darkness begins to fill the world, that's when God is ready to move and God is ready to work. So we need to call on God. We need to seek God. Dr. Roy Fish, who was a professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, great man of God, a great professor of the great historical revivals and awakening. He and I were doing a conference together on, on the second great awakening. And we were talking about that and speaking about this at a conference in Louisiana. And we had a question and answer time where people asked Dr. Fish and myself questions. And one of the questions that was asked Dr. Fish was this, and Dr. Fish has gone on to be with the Lord now, but they ask him this question, Dr. Fish, do you see any hope for revival in America? Now it's a good question. And then this was maybe 10 years ago. Do you see any hope for revival in America? And this is what he said. He said, I only see one hope. There's only one thing that gives me hope. When I look around at our circumstances, there's only one thing that gives me hope. And that one thing is this, that we are hopeless. We are hopeless. And because we are hopeless, that's when God's people cry unto him. And that's what I see right now happening with the coronavirus, with the riots that are taking place. And by the way, I mean, this is something that's happening around the world, but people have become hopeless. And because we are hopeless, God is giving us hope. It's in our hopelessness that we humble ourselves. It's in our hopelessness that we cry out unto God. We pray and we seek his face. It's in our hopelessness that we are willing to repent. It's in our hopelessness that we look unto him, Christ, the hope of glory. He is our only hope. And so I believe that what Dr. Fish was saying is God is bringing us to this moment, to this place of hopelessness so that Christ would be our only hope of glory, not our programs, not our talent, not our even technology, not our churches. I mean, listen, God just allowed us to get shut down. And he's speaking to us. He's speaking to us. You know, when the coronavirus came back in March, when everything began to shut down in March, the Lord spoke to my heart and reminded me of something. Thirteen years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and I had surgery. And the doctor said for three months, I would not be able to travel. Well, for an evangelist, an international evangelist, that's a tough thing. For three months, I couldn't do anything. And I said, God, what's going on here? And the Lord spoke to my heart, one verse of scripture, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in all the earth. And for the next three months, couldn't travel, couldn't do anything. People sent me books, people sent me DVDs, all these things. They said, Sam, you're going to need something to occupy your time. I said, no, I know what this is about. I know what this is about. This is about me meeting with God. And I took my Bible and I read my Bible and I prayed. I got my worship music, put on my little earphones and, and I just worship Jesus Christ. And I want you to know God met with me during those three months. It was three of the greatest months of my life. I met with God and God met with me. And the Lord reminded me of that when this coronavirus, because in Italy, in Iran, in India, in Russia, in Brazil, in the United States, in the cities and the countryside, all over the world, the church was shut down and the Lord spoke to my heart. He's calling us to be still and know that He is God. And my concern is we've gone through almost a year of this and we hadn't got it yet. We've got to seek Him. We've got to be still. We've got to know that He is God. We've got to know that He is our only hope. And so I want to, in closing, call you to find a place, to find a time, to get away, to meet with God. And we're supposed to social distance. Hey, for the Christian, that means we can get along, we can get with God, we can meet with God. So let's take this time and let's seek Him. This is a unique moment in history. I mean, period. And let's take this moment to seek God and ask Him for the greatest outpouring of His spirit that the church has ever known. I believe that's what's happening today. I believe that's what this moment is all about. It's about being still and knowing that God is God. Our theaters are shut down. Our sports arenas are shut down. It's time. Oh, Christian, it's time to be still and know that He is God. Let's pray. Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus. And Lord, we ask You to, Lord, we ask You to do a work. I ask You to do a work in my heart. I ask You to do a work in the life of the church, Father, that You would call us unto Yourself. And in these moments, in these days, that Lord, we would just get quiet. We would come before You. We would be still and know that You are God. You are Jehovah God. You are God. You are Jehovah Rapha. You are God, our healer. You are God, our Lord. You are almighty God. Oh, God, I pray that we would know You. Come, Lord. Come, I pray, in these moments, in these days. And Lord, I pray that we would get to know You in a way we've never known You before. Thank You, Father, for what You're going to do. Send revival, I pray, in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Father. I love You. I bless You. I praise You. You're a good God in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, and amen. Oh, it has been such a blessing to be with You during this hour and a half that we've had together. And I hope that this will be a moment in the history of the life of the church, those of you who have been a part of this, that you will seek God in a way in which you have never sought God before, that you will seek Him, to know Him, to walk with Him, to be refreshed with Him. So, Dan, thank you so much for inviting me, for allowing me to be a part of this, and I appreciate it so very much. Can you hear me now, Sam? I can hear you now, brother. Well, brother, I apologize for the interruption and distraction on that. I don't know what happened there with the sound. It wasn't on your part. Apparently, your sound continued on. It was on my end for somewhere here in the laptop that was the feed that we lost it. But sorry for that distraction right there as you were concluding, but way to carry on, brother. Well, praise the Lord, and thank you for doing this, and I just pray that this will be the catalyst.