The Billy Graham Crusades of the 1940's and 1950's introduced a new hymn that was embraced in Evangelical churches of that day.
The powerful anthem, "How Great Thou Art," remains a fixture of unbridled praise in many churches today. The song focuses the eyes of the singers away from their own significance, and upon the sovereignty and the majesty of God.
Reflecting upon the answered prayers of millions of people who called out to God for mercy during this recent election, leads me to keep praying for them to give Him ALL the glory for it.
There is a prophetic sign that stands in front of the old courthouse in Dayton, Ohio. It states, "Remember the promises you made in the attic."
These words refer to the prayers and promises made to God when a raging river flooded the Main Street of the city and claimed the lives of 300 citizens. Frantic citizens were forced to run to high ground or climb into their attics and call out to God for mercy.
The apex of the sign marks the high water mark of The Great Dayton Flood that was caused by the overflow of the Great Miami River sweeping through Dayton, Ohio in 1913.
Standing 10 feet above street level, the words of this sign serve as a powerful reminder of the tendency of people to call out to God in a crisis to broker a deal with Him. With the passing of the crisis, their promises made in the attic are often forgotten.
Receiving God's mercy from Him is not an end in itself. It is an invitation to a long walk of obedience with Him. Jesus called it "The Yoke" and He leaned into it. He invited His followers to do the same.
President Trump has literally written the book on, "The Art of the Deal." As skillful as he is at making a deal, Mr. Trump requires a guiding hand upon his life greater than his own. Pray for him to hear the voice of Jesus inviting him to take His yoke upon him.
During the election of 2016, Evangelicals voted in record numbers for Mr. Trump. Millions more prayed for Mr. Trump and this election with a renewed passion for God's mercy to be poured out upon their nation. Undoubtedly, their prayers were heard and answered.
Desperate people drowning in a flood of leaks revealing unabated national corruption, prayed and made promises to God in the attic that they should never forget.
NOTE TO SELF: Never turn making deals with God into an art form. You are always the junior partner in the deal. Any art of the deal is not based upon your power. The deal is empowered by God, not you. "How Great Thou Art," indeed.
Obedience requires a close walk with God, and a long memory. God always keeps His promises. Never forget yours. You have survived the flood. "Remember the promises you made in the attic."
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Value
"I walk in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice, to endow those who love me with wealth."
Proverbs 8:20
"Your net worth is determined by what money cannot buy, and death cannot take away."
Adrian Rogers
The Wise value God's wisdom, and appropriate His gifts. Fools change the price tags on what is most precious to God, and sell their souls to buy into the world's system. The Wise never let the system overshadow The Savior.
NOTE TO SELF: To stay away from the gray, walk in His light.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Blind
"A spirit of confusion has settled over the land, and blinded the people of this nation. This is a spiritual condition that can only be removed by the healing hand of God.
Spiritual Awakening, both personal and corporate, restores sight to the blind. It begins in the lives of God's people to transform them into guides, not to feed their pride.
Yelling at people who have lost their sight and their minds does not give them a clearer picture of God's love. Blind people need a guide, and God has assigned His people the role of guiding them to Him.
The longer the church postpones praying for blind people to see The Light, the farther this nation drifts from the one thing it needs the most, Spiritual Awakening.
"Prayer is how we set our sails to catch the wind of Heaven."
G. Campbell Morgan.
NOTE TO SELF: Your prayer of desperation is not a curse. It is a gift from God, preparing you to receive His mercy, and to share it with others. The more desperate you are to repent from your own blindness, the closer you get to seeing Spiritual Awakening. When you become desperate, don't become despondent. The Father inclines His ear to hear the cries of His children.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Words
Before, during and after this election. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
Under the initials TLPM I have expressed a few personal thoughts on revival. More often I have quoted others.
Revival is the great need of my life, my church, my nation, and the world. I encourage you to pray with me for the next Great Awakening.
• The Promise of Revival: Hope
“When we pray, we are helpless, but we are not hopeless.”
TLPM
“If there is any one single thing that encourages me, about revival, there is a growing corporate gathering of prayer like never before for revival.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“Live in the hope that God can bring Spiritual Awakening. If there is no hope you will not pray. Hope is such a powerful drive to our actions.”
Bob Bakke
“There are wide differences on the definition of revival, but at least we can agree on these two: (1) The nearness of God. “The nearness of God is my good.” Psalms 73:28 (2) There is always the rapid flow of the Word of God.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“Where there is something lacking in the American Church pray for God to supply what is lacking that would usher in revival. Introduce the Theology of Hope to your church and to your community.”
Bob Bakke
• The Patience of Revival: Waiting on God
“These are correcting seasons that reset the course of a church, and it will never be the same. It seems there is gasoline on the floor and we are waiting for a match. Even with unusual prayer, there is some reason God is delaying. It’s not normal, but don’t give up.”
Bill Elliff
“Revival can come in like a flood, but also like an incoming tide.”
Bob Bakke
• The Person of Revival: The Spirit
“There is no revival, personal or corporate, without the ministry of The Person of The Holy Spirit. There is no Spiritual Awakening without The Spirit.”
TLPM
“The whole work of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. “
Bob Bakke
• The Product of Revival: Cleansing
“Revival produces a cleansing, not just a cleaning. There is a difference between taking my suit to the cleaners and being cleansed. In revival, The Body of Christ is not an empty suit. It exhibits the character of Christ, The Fruit of The Spirit, to the honor and glory of God.”
TLPM
“The greatest regret in my life are the seasons when I lacked moral earnestness. Christ said Nathanael was a man who knew ‘no guile.’ He was a man with no fishhooks, or practiced deceit. When you fish with a hook, you disguise it. You want fish to think you are there to feed them, but you are there to feed yourself. Be the man who is genuine, morally earnest. You are what you are. You are not deceiving anyone. You live what you proclaim. You aren’t morally earnest if you are talking above your own practice.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“I don’t pray because I am holy. I pray because I am not.”
Doug Small
“God change us from teachers to preachers. Demolish, penetrate, and incinerate the sin that resists the power of Your Word. Touch my lips with the fire of your altar that is so hot and so holy that nothing stands in its way or stands in your presence.”
Richard Owen Roberts
• The Presence of Revival: The Saturation
“When Spiritual Awakening comes, there needs to be a full-orbed embracing of the manifest presence of God to step into their city.”
Bob Bakke
“Revival is God.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“Revival is a people saturated with the Presence of God.”
Duncan Campbell
• The Path of Revival: Forgiveness
“There must be a forgiving spirit. The number one issue is unforgiveness. God is merciful. He expects his children to express it to others. PLEASE FORGIVE US.”
Byron Paulus
• The People of Revival: Humble
“A new baptism of humility is needed. A Prayer Culture is a humble culture. All is at risk without it. Too often churches look like combines running over one another in the field.”
Doug Small
“A man becomes significant the moment he encounters God. His life takes on cosmic significance.”
A.W. Tozer
“History is transformed among friends. Spend your life making friends.”
Bob Bakke
“We need a creation of a relational construct, a prayer and renewal canal system. We must do it together.”
Doug Small
• The Process of Revival: Surrender
“Surrender to the cause of God. Never surrender to the darkness. The race is won by those who keep running in the darkness.”
Byron Paulus
“Pain is one of God’s best creations, an essential tool to remind us something is wrong. It can be ignored momentarily, but there reaches a point where pain must be addressed.“
Bill Elliff
“Revival is messy because it is war. Our blessing is not in our effort but in our obedience.”
Doug Small
“God’s judgment is crucial. It is a necessary part of the process of God. Pain happens when we walk Away from Him.”
Bill Elliff
“God’s remedial judgment leads to a remedy.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“There is a difference between commitment and surrender. When you sign a blank sheet of paper and God fills in the blanks, it is surrender. When you read the fine print before you sign, it is a commitment.”
Byron Paulus
• The Praying of Revival: Extraordinary
“Our tendency is to rush out and help God do this. God works in the climate of prayer. Prayer is behind closed doors, and God opens closed doors as a result of prayer.“
Michael Catt
“Prayer is not the side room of the church. It is the foundation.”
Bill Elliff
“Let a man ask in faith. Lay hold of the truth. God knows we are going to quit when we started. Praying is a costly, not cheap. You can’t pray for revival without it costing you. Having set our hearts, let us not cease until God answers our prayer. God does not pay attention when we know that quitting is in our heart.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“United prayer is important to God. There is an authority and a power of God that is not given to an individual.”
Bob Bakke
“Catalytic events are used by the Lord. The National Day of Prayer is one to gather around, but the little things feed the big things. Keep praying and keep joining together on a small scale and it will lead to a bigger scale.”
Bob Bakke
“There are differences between union, uniform and unity. United prayer is about unity.”
Brent Brooks
“Extraordinary prayer is more praying than I am doing right now.”
Ronnie Floyd, quoted by Bill Elliff
• The Preaching of Revival: Transformational
“Teaching informs people. Preaching moves people. It is transformational. Preach with fire, hammer and sword. Preaching does not leave people unchanged. It incinerates, pulverizes, and penetrates. It is foolishness to believe there is salvation without brokenness.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“Speak the Word of God with boldness. In Acts when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they had a Holy boldness.”
Richard Owen Roberts
“Repent and return is the message of revival. It is not possible to walk in two directions at the same time. Oh that American would repent and return. Fast Day Messages of the early pulpits of America dealt with repentance.”
Richard Owen Roberts
• The Purpose of Revival: The Glory of God
“Revival Realties: Its about Him. A Spiritual Awakening is an invasion of the King and His Kingdom. It takes one word to define revival – GOD. It starts here. National Awakening begins with personal reviving.”
Bill Elliff
“The great sin of America is the racial barriers, and the church has modeled what is sinful not what is biblical.”
Brent Brooks
• The Perpetuation of Revival: Persistence
“God is the author of revival and brings it to pass by the preaching of The Word of God. Preach the word and trust God to bring revival to His people.” Richard Owen Roberts.”
“Remain persistent. Remain persistent. Remain persistent.”
Brent Brooks
“As long as we living for the affirmation of men, we live in need of something we should only be receiving from God. Praying for deliverance from that is very crucial to revival.”
R. O. Roberts
“George Whitefield’s greatest contribution to The First Great Awakening was digging trenches between what God was already doing in other places.”
Bob Bakke
“We started well. Now we are much engaged but not very useful. With excellent minds, we have thought more of our ideas than your ideas, always proclaiming what we think is truth and not what you have given us as truth. We have all been in the flesh. In spite of all that is wrong, you have brought us together at this time. There is a great work to be done through us through your word and your spirit. We will be your men, preaching like we have never done. May they hear us expounding the very word of God not just informing, but preaching for an encounter with you that is transforming, “
R. O. Roberts, Final Prayer offered at The National Revival Symposium
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
Featured
The Election
This election is about God's economy.
This nation is marked by a spirit of rebellion that has led to the RUNAWAY INFLATION of unbridled pride, the OVERWHELMING DEBT owed for the sin of abortion, the DEVASTATING DEFLATION of child-like humility, and the pressing need to OVERHAUL NATIONAL HEALTHCARE with a healing only the hand of God can bring.
Read 2 Chron. 7:14 to see if you are in line with His plan for God's promise of economic recovery.
Prayer humbles spiritually bankrupt people to invite His Holy Spirit to bring recovery to their hearts first. Overflowing with His mercy, repentant people fill the pews, and flood the altars of their churches with cries of intercession for their nation.
"My people humble themselves and pray...and turn from THEIR wicked ways..." 2 Chronicles 7:14
NOTE TO SELF: Prayer turns God's light upon your own sin, softens your heart to repent from it, and prepares you to turn from your way to His way. Make America PRAY Again.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Prayer
"I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."
(Portion of a prayer of our second President of the United States, John Adams, written in a letter to his wife Abigail, now inscribed over the entrance to the State Dining Room in the White House.)
"Reflecting on how far we have shifted from the foundation of this early prayer, I am moved to pray, "Holy Father, this nation and Your people do not deserve your mercy, but we are in desperate need of it, individually and corporately. Please favor us with an outpouring of a prolonged and powerful movement of Your Holy Spirit that saturates Your people and cleanses the Church of Your Son and our Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ. We are sinners who have willfully missed the mark of Your holiness and relentlessly preferred our way over Your will. We deserve Your judgment, but we cry out to You, O Father, as Your wayward children and plead for Your mercy. Hear our prayer and "Heal our land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) In the name of Jesus. Amen."
God still answers the prayers of His people. When we fail to pray, we get what we deserve, man-made solutions and self-made leaders. They always fall short. Join me in praying for a prolonged movement of God's Spirit that has His handprints all over it, and cleanses His people of their prayerlessness.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Leadership
"Secularism’s worldliness will only tolerate Christianity so long as its carnal tranquility is not disturbed or its authority challenged. But let the Christian bring his biblical values to the political arena, and he is immediately denounced as narrow-minded, out of step, behind the times, and a religious bigot."
David Lane
These words of my friend come to my mind as pastors prepare their people to take a stand to protect Religious Liberty.
Praying and preaching must lead to equipping. Preachers racing to the microphone, seeking the spotlight or posing for photo ops with politicians will not change the direction of a nation. Sermons alone will not lead people to be registered to vote, or equip them to vote with a Biblical perspective. This requires relentless, courageous leadership.
If secularists were intimidated by preaching, they would already be paralyzed with fear. They are not. They brazenly demand pastors submit their sermons to the governing authorities and stop their preaching.
Entrenched politicians and relentless secularists are only afraid of mobilized voters. Politicians are only actors performing a script written by the audience. It is time for a rewrite.
Until preachers lead their people to register to vote and mobilize them get out and vote, the secularists will never exit the stage. The establishment politicians of both parties and the secularists need a huge case of stage fright. It will only happen when "We the people" show up to vote them off the stage.
Religious Liberty is protected by the salt and light expressed by Christian citizens who actually register to vote and get out and vote.
Pray for all of your elected leaders, but hold them accountable. Remove those who refuse to listen to your voice. GO VOTE!
The Stewards
Patrick Henry was spot on when he called for the American people to be ever vigilant to the abuses of an overly aggressive and ever expanding government. The Constitution of this nation has two enemies. There are those who abuse power, and there are those who refuse to protect it from those who abuse it.
Religious Liberty must be secured by courageous Christian citizens who understand they hold dual citizenship. They know this world is not their final home. It only serves as God's Waiting Room. Still, Jesus told His followers to be salt and light in it.
"As He is, so are we in this world."
I John 4:17b
Government is not a man-made curse. It is a gift from God. "We the people" are not the owners this government, but as citizens we are the stewards of it.
Ignoring a gift from God, leads to the abandoning of the responsibilities that accompany His gift. The price of Liberty requires paying attention. Christian citizenship is expressed by two simple, yet powerful acts. They are: "Registering to Vote" and "Voting Christian Convictions."
Pastors! Pay attention. Lead your people to show up and vote to STAND UP for Religious Liberty!
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Concert
Spiritual Awakenings have always been marked by concerts of prayer. You may feel you are praying all by yourself, but you are not alone.
Spirit led prayer often begins in the heart of one man, one woman, or one young person. The enemy tries to convince these prayer warriors into believing that they are alone. They are not.
Christ's Spirit calls on prayer warriors to pray together. He skillfully maneuvers them into new positions and relationships in a concert of voices crying out to The Father.
Spiritual Awakening is an answer to prayer. Concerts of prayer release greater power than a single person could ever generate alone. Together the cries of desperate people encourage one another to believe God for what often seems to be unbelievable.
NOTE TO SELF: You are called to prevail in prayer. Settle for nothing less than a Spirit-led revival. What looks impossible with man is still possible with God. Through answered prayer Christ Jesus turns the impossible into the HIM-possible.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
The Shade
My heart was drawn to this passage of Scripture this morning.
"The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand." Psalms 121:5
Matthew Henry explains, "4. He not only protects those whom he is the keeper of, but he refreshes them: He is their shade. The comparison has a great deal of gracious condescension in it; the eternal Being who is infinite substance is what he is in order that he may speak sensible comfort to his people, promises to be their umbra-their shadow, to keep as close to them as the shadow does to the body, and to shelter them from the scorching heat, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, Isa. 32:2. Under this shadow they may sit with delight and assurance, Cant. 2:3.
5. He is always near to his people for their protection and refreshment, and never at a distance; he is their keeper and shade on their right hand; so that he is never far to seek. The right hand is the working hand; let them but turn themselves dexterously to their duty, and they shall find God ready to them, to assist them and give them success, Ps. 16:8."
NOTE TO SELF: In the cool of the day and in heat of the battle, God is at your right hand. He casts a giant shadow. Cast your cares upon Him. When you pray in the name of Jesus, you rise to work and you stand to fight in His shade.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
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