The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events analyzed through the lens of scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. In the Old Testament book of Zachariah, chapter 1, verse 3, the word of God says, quote, Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Hi, Alex McFarland here. I want to talk to you about revival.
Spiritual awakening, a move of God's Holy Spirit. What would it take to see a Christian revival in America within the next twelve months? We're going to talk about this, and our nation really needs it. And there are three hundred forty five thousand estimated entities, groups, Formations spread throughout our nation that absolutely could be used of God to ignite such a spiritual awakening, not only saving millions of souls, impacting millions of families and communities, but actually. Changing the course of history.
And what are these 345,000 entities that could be the spiritual change agents used by God?
Well, of course, they're the churches that are spread out throughout. America and into the really the spiritual vacuum. That our nation finds itself in, I would submit to you that each born-again Christian in America must. Must give themselves to revival. It's like Charles Finney said two centuries ago: we should seek revival like we seek our next breath of oxygen.
In this message and in several messages that follow, I'm going to talk about what real revival is. And I truly believe that we are in the days where we should expect a great move of God. I think we are in the days foreseen by Joel. The prophet Joel in chapter 2, verse 28, where he said, It shall come to pass afterward, in other words, at the later times, it shall come to pass that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
And for all of our material wealth, our achievements, our global clout, the United States really is in deep trouble. And spiritual emptiness. I wrote about this in an op-ed on the Reformation. You know, so many think of October 31 as Halloween, but really for Christians, that's Reformation Day. And I've spoken about that at length.
I wrote an editorial that I Think is probably populating news sites around the country right now. But it was a time somewhat analogous to the moment in which we live. And Luther, that was really on a spiritual quest of his own, did a fairly localized act. He nailed the theses, the 95 grievances, to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. But one man in one place ignited a movement that changed Europe, saved millions of souls, and ultimately paved the way for the belief in human rights, the concept of self-government, the United States of America.
We call it the Reformation. It began October 31, 1517, but we need that again. And it could happen, and my friend, God could use you to help ignite that.
Now, most churches are declining right now. And there's a rise of secularism. Atheism.
Now, there are young people going back to church, and our own ministry is seeing thousands saved every year. But for many that maybe were raised in church, like in the times of Luther, church involvement is routine, it's just ritualistic, and many, many Christians are just going through the motions without really any. Sense of eternity and the fact that every single day we, the church, we are called to handle the materials of eternity. And so we need a revival. We need an awakening.
And I want to talk about the realizations that, if they take place in our own heart and life. It could change our nation. I would say we're living in a very materialistic, physicalistic. Empiricist time, what am I saying? There's really a loss of awe.
and a loss of the transcendent.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, throughout human history, people would look up and they would see the stars in the heavens and they would cry out to God. You know, it's like Psalm 19: the heavens and earth declare the glory of God. You know, I think about the great philosopher Immanuel Kant, who said that two things bring awe and wonder and the fear of God: the starry heavens above and the moral law within. But we've got such technological mastery going on, so many material comforts, that we really don't sense a dependence of God, a fear of God, and really the awe of the infinite. And it's like.
In Psalm 14, verse 1, where it says, The fool has said in his heart that there is no God. Without God, truly up there in heaven, and within our midst imminent, transcendent, we just depend on ourselves. And when there is no sense of the sacred, Then just the secular and the physicalist take the preeminence. And I would tell you, nowhere is our abandonment. of the sense of that which is sacred, More prominent Our abandonment of our of sacred truth, sacred space.
And go. God-informed living, it's in our loss of a moral compass. killing the unborn. betraying Our marriage vows, living for pleasure rather than living for spiritual growth and the glory of God. Hebrews 11, 6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God.
For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Now, very often when we think about this, without faith it is impossible to please God. We're thinking about without Salvation faith. without saving faith. But I would submit to you that really means also without living and walking and going through each day with a sense that we live as Luther would say, corum Deo. In the eyes of God, everything we do is before the eyes of our Maker.
And if you know Christ, your Saviour, we're not living corum Deo. We're not living before God, we're living really just for ourselves. There's a moral emptiness and really a spiritual apathy. anemia, spiritual lethargy. The emptiness of our times really is shown forth in the spiritual confusion.
We've got biological confusion. I mean, people that don't even know what a male or a female is. They think they're trapped in the wrong body. And 2 Timothy chapter 4. The Apostle Paul says this: The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into error or myths.
You know, I think about how many people after Charlie Kirk was shot, people just with No compassion whatsoever said, Oh, well, he had it coming. He brought it on himself by, you know, he was transphobic. And so many things that people have said that are just unrepeatable. There is just this spiritual. aversion to any sort of objective truth or hard and fast rules about reality.
Maybe it's intellectual laziness, spiritual lethargy, or just overt reprobate rebellion. But when we don't acknowledge God, we don't acknowledge the righteous boundaries He has revealed to us that we really do know. to keep us in line and in check.
Well, we've got to take a break. We're going to come back and we're going to talk further about why we need a moral awakening, a spiritual revival. and what each one of us can do to help contribute. to them. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert.
Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Would you like a book to help you understand the biblical prophecies, the passages about the end of time? Hi, Alex McFarland. You know, for well over a decade, Bert Harper and I have been on the nationally syndicated AFR show, Exploring the Word. Over 3,000 shows we've done together, and Bert and I have a brand new book as of fall 2025: 100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times.
You can get it at booksellers everywhere. Our brand new book, Bert Harper, Alex McFarland, Exploring the Word, 100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times, published by our great friends at Broad Street Publishing. Check it out, and we believe it will help you understand how. how to live and thrive in these last days. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely.
Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here. We're talking about America's need. For spiritual awakening and what each of us can do to play a role in bringing this about.
In the first segment, I was talking about the loss of Fear of God, the loss of Awe of God. And just the gratitude every day is a gift. As I record this show, I just a couple of hours ago finished doing a funeral. It was a Christian lady, lived a great Christian life, and as is the case with most funerals, dozens and dozens of people came out to talk about this lady and the impression that she had made on their lives. And several family members shared testimonies and wept.
Tears, remembering You know, precious, precious times that had come along. And one young man was talking about his grandmother and he said, How I just wish I could tell her I love her one more time. We really need to remember every day is a gift. and we know inevitably in this fallen world people and things and Even pets and animals, they come into our lives and they go from our lives. People live and they die.
And a sense of awe and gratitude, this transcendence that we're here in this world for just a brief moment. I talked about the spiritual emptiness and the moral confusion that really is throughout our culture. And the Apostle Paul warned about this in 2 Timothy chapter 4. You know, even about, you know, I think of the shooting of Charlie Kirk. And we've gotten so much email from people, you know, because Charlie was with us in our conference just two and a half weeks before he died.
And we've had people email in just very vile curses. Purse filled emails and say, well, he had it coming because he was transphobic and he said things we didn't want to hear. Paul said in Second Timothy, the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine. but will have itching ears, and they will accumulate to themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth, and will wander off into myths or error. Or falsehoods because of the crisis of truth.
And we have a crisis of identity, a crisis of the soul. Our nation needs a spiritual awakening. And friend, you can play a role in making that happen. And I've preached, done many messages on how, yes, you can. Can play a role in bringing about spiritual awakening, and you must, we all must.
You say, me? You know, what could I do?
Well, Jesus said, We're the salt of the earth, and we're a city on a hill, and a light held up high cannot. Fail to be seen. And so we must shine the light of the gospel and let it radiate through our words, our actions, our influence on others. Another reason that we need a revival has been the decline in the influence and really the cultural irrelevance of the church. The question has been asked, is there any entity more visible but less influential than the Church?
And I've shared many times: 345,000 churches, half a million ordained clergy, 120 million people. Born-again adults, we should have evangelized America three times over. and headed out to South America. And the Arabic world and the Asian world, and to a degree we have, but we have the numbers. And God can use us.
But yet, Christianity has, in so many churches, been plateaued or declining. And we need I'm going to give some principles for revival in this message, but I think because of the the deadness in many a church, there's not a lot of hope. And there are just generations that have never seen an authentic move of God.
Now, traveling as I have for three and a half decades, I've been very privileged to see some amazing movements of God, and we can have it again. I've told the story about early in our youth ministry when during a vacation in Bible school, Angie and I and the kids at Macedonia Baptist Church in rural North Carolina, we had seen a number of teenagers get saved in a trailer park. A pretty bad move. little neighborhood. We had a beach trip coming up, an end of summer, a little getaway to treat.
Our kids that had worked hard in various missions projects. We always did this. And we prayed about it and we said, let's take it. Take The trailer park kids. which we did, And they were new to church, and frankly, they were from a very different socioeconomic.
Level from the rest of our youth group. But our youth group really rose to the occasion, and the kids loved them. They played Frisbee and you know, went to the beach, went fishing.
Well, it was about the third day And we had had supper, and it was about 6:45, and we're going to have devotions. We've got about 40 youth in a big House we had rented. Got a dozen adults.
Well, one of the teens. From the Trailer Park. Before we started our devotion time, he asked if he could say something. And I said, of course. And he.
began to say how much he appreciated that we had invited them. and they had come to our VBS, they had gotten saved, And lo and behold, they come on a beach trip. and it's very touching. He said uh I just don't know what to say. You all have been so good to us and And we even had spaghetti.
and I've never had spaghetti, but about once in my life And we were here at the beach and we ate spaghetti, And a week ago, I had never heard of Jesus, and now he's in my life. And so this teenage boy is kind of stammering. about how grateful he is And he begins to cry.
Well, something happened that pure honesty and innocence. the atmosphere in the room changed. It's a couple of minutes till seven PM And One by one, my four dozen kids begin to give testimonies. And more and more begin to cry. All I can say is it was a revival of weeping.
But it was not only tears of gratitude and tears of joy, there were some tears of repentance.
Some of my kids began to. Confess sins. And I just periodically I was kind of like letting this go where it where it would go.
Well, some of my adults began to pray, some of my youth began to pray. And I realized that the devotion was going on And finally I just said Let's sing and we I think we might have sung Amazing Grace, one verse. We looked up. and it was nearly one AM.
Now get this. We started shortly before seven. And my kids, my I had a great youth group, but you know. Forty five minutes to an hour was about the attention span. And for over five hours we were united in prayer, worship.
Sharing from the heart, weeping. I had teenagers, they were saying, I'm so grateful for my parents. I've been disrespectful to my mom and dad, but my mom and dad are so good to me. And Jesus, I'm sorry, and I want to be grateful again. And when I get home, I'm going to tell my mom and dad how much I appreciate all they do for me.
It was unbelievable.
Now, this was two decades and a half ago. And whenever I see some of these youth groups that were ever on that trip, they'll say, Mr. McFarland, do you remember that night? I'm like, yeah. when for five hours plus.
We prayed and worshipped. And it was like 45 minutes. Folks, when the Spirit of God moves and there is just this return to joy in the Lord. It's like time stands still. Because it really does when Jesus enters the room.
Now, stage 10, we're going to come back and talk more about a move of God's Holy Spirit that our nation needs. that we could experience. And to make it happen, you can play a role. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this.
Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics. Teaching in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses. Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way.
With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event. Visit alexmacfarlane.com. Or you can contact us directly by emailing. Booking at alexmcfarland.com.
He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland's here. We're going to resume our look at revival.
But I want to give God the glory for the release of my 21st book. Just came out a couple of weeks ago. 100 Bible Questions on Prophecy and the End Times. Written with Bert Harper, my co-host on Exploring the Word, which is heard live five days a week on the American Family Radio Network. Published by Broad Street.
It's available at Amazon, Barnes Noble, wherever you buy books. If you have a local Christian bookstore, try to support it. But otherwise, please go in your Barnes Noble and ask for it. 100 Bible Questions on Prophecy and the End Times. This has fresh research about things like AI.
Will artificial intelligence play a role in the end times? And what about the Antichrist? Is there an Antichrist alive on planet Earth right now? Will China and Russia attack Israel? And is America in prophecy?
It makes a great gift.
Now, we have a special run of hardcover. And if you would like the book, the prophecy book, in hardcover, if you make a tax-deductible contribution of at least $40, I will send you a hardcover copy. And you can donate either online at alexmcfarland.com, or if you choose, you can make a check payable to AMM, as in Alex McFarland Ministries. You can mail that if you would to P.O. Box 485 Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313.
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Well, we're talking about revival, and we don't want to miss the opportunity. There is a window of opportunity right now, and I want to give several things that it would take for an awakening to happen in America within the next 12 months. Imagine within a year from now, there could be a pervasive spiritual awakening. Number one, Yeah. Here are the pathways.
It's not easy, but it's real. It will work. It's worked before it can bear fruit. Again, number one, radical personal and corporate repentance.
Now repentance, the Greek word metanoia, To turn around, to change direction. Part of it is to agree with God, God's assessment. And we say, Lord, we admit we're sinners. Lord, woe is us. Have mercy.
We have sinned. Second Chronicles 7:14, very famously. I'm well aware this was written to ancient Israel, but the principles will work for any individual or people group. If my people says God, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. God says, I'll do this, I will hear from heaven.
Will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Isn't that exciting?
Now we need this radical repentance. You know, 1 John 1:8, if we said that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But that very same chapter.
However, if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now you think about this. Within the next twelve months, Imagine the The calendar, the clock is Ticking. Yeah. began to turn from sin. And others around us, God will work.
You see, repentance sets the stage for God to move. And without it, a spiritual awakening, evangelism. Families restored, young people having direction. Without repentance, revival may be a wish, but it's not a reality. Secondly, there's got to be a passionate, unified movement of prayer.
That's why go to our website, alexmcfarland.com, and Google United in Prayer. We've started a prayer movement. We've given away thousands of our little guide to praying for America. And there must be. Extraordinary prayer Focused, united prayer, and revivals just don't begin with preaching.
They begin with people on their knees crying out to God. And I will say one of the keys, I guarantee it, I've seen it. It always gets the blessing of God. It's when Christians pray. Pray in unity.
together. And I'm talking different denominations, different groups, different flavors of Christians. It's like Tim Keller, the late Tim Keller, talked about, quote, a union of extraordinary prayer. is a trigger for revival, and it really is.
Now this is essential within the next twelve months because so much is going on at such a pace, we've got to pray and call out to God. And let's remember, specific prayers get specific answers. That's James 4, verse 2. You have not because you ask not.
So let's ask for God to move. In what ways do you want God to move? Maybe it's. for that prodigal child to come back. to Christ and to the family.
Maybe it's for a marriage to be restored. Maybe it's for a financial turnaround. You can have that. God desires to bless in every area of your life. Could be your health.
Could be your church. What do you need? Take your needs to Jesus. Thirdly, That paves the way for revival is a clear uncompromised proclamation of the gospel, And revival and spiritual awakening is not about Christianity that's easier or more comfortable. It is about the gospel, which the good news, the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for the sins of the world.
And then that salvation and that forgiveness is appropriated to each of us as we put our faith in Christ. And so we've had in America, as much as I love America, we've had a watered-down, touchy-feely. Fuzzy Jesus Bunny Gospel. That's what a teen said to me years ago. It said, Jesus is real, Jesus is Lord, not like a fuzzy bunny.
That's right. Galatians 1, verse 9. You know, talking about the easy, watered down, no repentance needed gospel. Galatians said, If anyone is preaching a different gospel contrary to what you have received, let him be accursed. And so within the next twelve months, we need a church that prays, a church that is unified, a church that repents, but a church that proclaims the gospel.
Now, number four, and this will bring revival, it really will, we need lay people. Activated, empowered, mobilized, dispatched. for mission and witness. And that's been one area where we I've felt like God has used us to help people feel confident sharing their faith in any situation. but finally a corporate awakening of holiness, Truth That's key, love and unity.
Now I close by saying this. When I was in Pennsylvania just yesterday, I had the great privilege with being with Pastor Roy Burkett at Living Hope Christian Fellowship in Somerset. We saw a great weekend. God moved. But I was close enough, it was a very, very short drive.
I drove up to the field in Pennsylvania where Flight 93 went down. You remember that 9-11, there'd been plenty. planes hitting the World Trade Towers. One plane went into the Pentagon. And uh there was a plane that took off out of Newark, New Jersey.
It was bound for California. It turned around. The terrorist overtook the plane. And the the the flight was just about twenty two minutes away from hitting the US capital. and in a Pennsylvania field, where no civilian casualties outside of the people on the plane happened.
people courageously. Courageously overtook the cockpit, overtook the terrorist. There was. The the black box recorder Tells the story of the brutality, the scuffle that went on, and really. like throwing their body on a hand grenade to save others, the people in Flight 93 Crash the plane They lost their lives.
They gave their lives. but it saved the US Capitol and or the White House. Can you imagine how demoralizing if the US capital had gone down. But they gave their lives for something bigger than themselves, the saving of America. And I went out to that memorial.
I was at Ground Zero for two weeks ministering. Really, the day after 9-11, I was up there.
So 9-11 is significant to me. And people thought that would ignite a spiritual awakening. And there was. a couple of months and then it dissipated. And I pray it won't be that way now.
We are at a moment, folks, and it is do or die. We cannot go. Another two decades, we can't really go another two years. The track we're on We need revival. Jesus is as close by as a prayer.
You can play a role. And like Mordecai said to Esther in Esther 4:14, I say this to every Christian alive right now. you were born for such a time as this. Let's call out to God. and let's call our nation 2.
God. Alex McFarlane Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmacfarland.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1.
That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
