We Need a Spiritual Revival Not an Armed Revolution

Yes, weekends are wonderful. Get time off from work. Get family time. Go to worship God with your family. It's awesome.

But there's one thing missing on the weekend. That's the Line of Fire. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I was expecting to hear a thundering voice in my ears. Hey, friends. Welcome to today's broadcast.

This is Michael Brown. And do we have that clip ready, that thundering voice? Can we play it? Let's go back to an event earlier this year. And when you hear these words, you'll understand what we're talking about on the air today.

Let's play it. We as the church of the living God are standing up saying we're not just mad at hell, but we're mad as hell. And so today I stand with the black robe regiment and I am one preacher declaring to patriots, it is time for war.

Let us stop the steal. Yeah, that was from the Jericho march early this year, immediately before the storming of the Capitol and within days of the storming of the Capitol. And there was talk at the Jericho march among some of the speakers about the need for militias and taking up arms.

And that's what we're going to talk about today. I categorically reject the call for Christians to be taking up arms against the government now, to be saying, well, it's just like in the revolutionary war, we're in that same time. I say, categorically, no, what we need is repentance in the church. What we need is to get our house in order. What we need is to turn away from our sins and turn to God. And if we do that, that will impact the entire nation. And it is ridiculously premature, even to use the word premature, to be talking about Christians taking up arms against the American government now.

Now, if you differ with me, that's why we have live calling radio, 866-34-truth, 866-348-7884 is the number to call, 866-34-truth. If you think you can make a legitimate case that we should be taking up arms against the government, I'm not talking about should we have our second amendment rights. No one's arguing that here. I'm not talking about whether you should have guns or not of your own and for self-defense or for hunting, whatever. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the call to take up arms against the government, which I categorically absolutely reject in this time that we are in right now.

I see no possible basis for it and no comparison from now to before the revolutionary war against England. And I want to point in a positive direction, which is the direction of revival, the direction of renewal, the direction of repentance in our own midst. Again, if you differ or if you want to add in your own two cents in that, 866-34-truth. Let me read something for you. Francis Schaeffer, one of the most important Christian philosophical apologetic voices of the last generation, wrote a book called The Christian Manifesto.

It came out in the early 80s. And in it, he has a chapter about the use of force and when there is a time for Christians to take up arms. And I remember when the book came out, being part of a discussion in my home church and different leaders were discussing, is it right? Is it wrong?

Is there merit for it? When do you draw the line? And when is that line drawn? And Schaeffer is really, really careful in his book and puts out all types of concerns and cautions and raises issues. But let me read to you what Schaeffer says. He says, there does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate.

The Christian is not to take the law into his own hands and become a law unto himself. But when all I haven't used to flight and protest have closed, force in the defensive posture is appropriate. This was a situation of the American Revolution. The colonists used force in defending themselves. Great Britain, because of its policy toward the colonies, was seen as a foreign power invading America. The colonists defended their homeland. As such, the American Revolution was a conservative counter-revolution. The colonists the colonists saw the British as the revolutionaries trying to overthrow legitimate colonial governments.

Again, Francis Schaeffer, a Christian manifesto. Some would say, well, we're at that point. The government has turned against us. The government is becoming increasingly socialistic. The government is even more digging in its heels with regard to abortion. It's taking away our freedoms and the time to fight is down.

Let me say, categorically, no. You say, what if they come to take away our government? We're not there, okay? We're not there. So I'm not discussing that because we're not there. Here's where we are today.

And the biggest problem in America today, in my view, is not the government. Oh, I'm dead set against much of the direction of the Biden administration. I have grave concerns about where it could be going. And if President Biden is unable to finish his term and Kamala Harris comes in, I'd be even more concerned, gravely. That's why I couldn't vote for them.

That's why I voted against them. That's why I've raised my voice in concern about the leftist agenda for years. I'm gravely concerned about where the government is going. I'm gravely concerned about some court decisions. I'm gravely concerned about what our universities are teaching and what's being taught our children in school. I'm gravely concerned about big tech censorship and all this. I'm gravely concerned about every single one of these issues. But the biggest concern I have is the state of the church in America. The biggest concern I have is that we're not shining our light.

The biggest concern I have is that the problem starts with us. I've said it over and again, but I'm not so much concerned with the presence of darkness as much as I'm concerned with the absence of light. When I see darkness in the room, my question is, what happened to the light? If suddenly if you're watching this, not just listening on radio, but you're watching this and you can't see me, well, the darkness took over.

No, the light went out. That's the problem when Jesus says to us, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. And that means then in a society where we have influence, we're not talking about a society where there's like three believers out of 50 million people and those three believers meet somewhere in a cave. We're talking about a society in which we have mass influence, in which we have 24-7 radio and TV and massive broadcasts on internet and billions of followers and people listening to our voices and influence and government and education. If we shine the light, America will be changed. America would be shaken, let alone if we just got out and vote it, make a big difference.

Some of you don't even vote, but here. I was just doing an interview right before this show for an apologetics group, Defense of the Faith group in South Africa. And I was asked the question, we were talking about homosexual practice and homosexual activism and things like that. I was asked the question, do gay activists have a right to say, well, what about sexual sin in your midst?

What about problems in your midst in the church? Why are you pointing a finger at us? Aren't you being hypocritical? My answer is, yes, many are being hypocritical.

Are you ready for this? Hear me out. I believe that no fault divorce in the church did more to undermine marriage than all gay activists put together. Oh, I know things have gone even further redefinition of marriage in the Supreme Court. We never would have gotten to the redefinition of marriage in the Supreme Court. We never would have gotten to that discussion if the church had upheld the sanctity of marriage.

I believe that with all my heart. Oh, I'm not saying that there are no legitimate reasons for divorce. I believe scripture does give certain legitimate reasons for divorce and even remarriage. But with no fault divorce invading the church and with us losing the full responsibility, thank God for the many godly families and godly men and women and those contending for their children's well-being.

Thank God for all of you doing that. But there's been so much compromise, so much loss of fathers being fathers and mothers being mothers. And then pornography rampant in the church and then sexual scandals with so many of our leaders. I don't throw stones in saying this.

I examine my own life as I speak and say God help all of us to walk in holiness and purity. But if the church had held up marriage and family as God intended, we wouldn't be looking at all the other twistings and changes and even perversions of what God intended. That's a fact.

The salt has lost its saltiness. We are better known for compromise. We are better known for scandals. We are better known for our political affiliations than we're known for being Jesus people and having godly families.

Again, thank God for each of you. I know so many. So, so, so many. Everyone I work with has solid marriages and has had for decades, all our team members, all of our colleagues married for decades and decades. So many with godly kids, godly grandkids. I know so many of you have sacrificed for years to put your kids first and to put their well-being first. And you've said no to so many things that could have given you improvement in society and a raise here because you had your Christian convictions.

God bless you and I honor you and respect you. But there's so much compromise and so many scandals and we've let the cat out of the bag in terms of destructive trends in the society. You practically put pornography out of business if Christians run into porn. And don't say this to condemn those who are struggling. You know something's wrong. By God's grace, get help and overcome this plague. Their abortion is even rampant and surveys were done years back on Christian college campuses compared to secular and found similar abortion rates among the young women. This is not to condemn them and say there is no hope and there can be no repentance but to say the problems start with us. Why on earth would I be talking about taking up arms against the government when we're the ones that created the problem and opened the door?

Am I being plain enough? Now I want to encourage you now. I'm going to play some clips a little later in the show from James Edwin Orr who died around 1987. He was the foremost scholar of revival, evangelical scholar of revival and I remember hearing some of his lectures.

What was it late 70s early 80s and he just matter of fact speak as a scholar but I was stirred about revival. It really put a vision in me for revival but somewhere in the mid 90s early in the mid 90s I was working with some real strong pro-life leaders and they were so burdened and grieved about the sin of abortion in our nation that they began to talk about we need to take up arms against the government. That talk began and as I heard them talk I became very very concerned and it was at that time I wrote this down. It was at that time I wrote this down. I said this it's not time to pick up arms and guns. It's time to put on the armor of God.

Yeah and then when I was I was ministering in Finland it was October of 1995 and I wrote this down. The whole problem with the Christian call to take up arms is that if we were to be honest we'd have to admit that we've seen the enemy and it is us. America's aborting babies and exporting smut around the world because the light that is within us is darkness.

To be consistent the call to violent activism would have to sound like this kill the compromised clergy, slaughter the sleeping saints, shoot the sinning shepherds, nuke the non-committed, blow up the bankrupt believers, wipe out the worldly watchmen. Would you like to lead the attack? Who among us can throw the first stone or shoot the first bullet? Problem starts with us. The problem starts with us. Good news the solution starts with us.

Do you differ with me? It's the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Let me say this again. I am not talking about an alleged time where the government comes forcefully to take your weapons. I'm not talking about that issue.

What do you do if that happens? That is not the subject of discussion so don't change your thinking to go there because we're not going there. We're talking about here today. The idea that the government has gone so far that Christians need to take apart. No Christians need to live like Christians.

Christians need to live out their faith. If the tens of millions, the multiplied tens of millions of born-again believers in America lived within a mile of New Testament disciples we wouldn't recognize ourselves. The nation wouldn't recognize us and here there'd be persecution opposition maybe martyrdom but I'm telling you America would be shaken.

America would be transformed. America has been transformed in the past through great awakenings and revivals and outpourings. That's what we should be contending for now and that means repentance of sin in our own lives. That means Christian leaders recognizing that they've grown cold and lost their first love. It means us getting on our faces and seeking God. It means spiritual hunger and desperation.

It means laying our lives down to reach our neighbors in our neighborhoods. As we do that God will move. God will move. I truly believe that the greatest awakening in our history could still be ahead.

Why? Because God is God and because America is in a big mess now and and just think of recent like last year in the church the major scandals we've had with major leaders. All the failed Trump prophecies. The intense political division in the church and then inability to meet and do different things.

Maybe God's using this time to get us on our faces repenting seeking him so we can pour out a spirit. 866-342-866-348-7884. I'll take your calls.

You can agree with me or differ but I will get to some calls. I want to play a clip first from James Edwin Orr. If you just search James Edwin Orr or J Edwin Orr you'll see many books that he wrote on revival. He was in my view the greatest scholar of revival in the last generation and his lectures just factual.

Every time I've seen one of the lectures he's in his red suit jacket and he just matter-of-factly give the here's what happened here's what happened and you know he talks about some of the revivals like Welsh Revival 1904-1905. He heard some of the stories and thought that they were tall tales like nah this couldn't have happened. Like there were slowdowns in the mines in Wales because so many coal miners got saved. The horses didn't understand them anymore. You know the horses would be pulling things you know doing the heavy labor and these coal miners were such profane men drinking and gambling and full of profanity and you know just not living godly lives.

Now they got saved and instead of telling the horse do blankety do blanket some whatever they'd say go and the horse like hmm because they didn't know what go meant. When he heard these things he thought no tall tales couldn't be and then research found out it really happened. It really happened.

I was a leader in the Browns boro revival from 96 to 2000. It was from 95 to 2000 but god called me in at 11 months into it and and god took our breath away constantly. We were stunned. We were amazed. Hear the testimony.

You say how long they last. Well from 95 till today we can go back 25 26 years and tell you the ongoing fruit in people's lives that were converted that were transformed there. So James Edwin Orr let's listen to him talk about past outpouring prayer awakenings in America. Now until today there's been general agreement that the 1857 58 revival began in the United States in early 1858 although it was preceded by a movement of prayer of the humblest origins. What is not commonly known is that long before that bank panic there was a concert of prayer. The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians and others participating. Fulton Street was only one of thousands of gatherings praying for not pouring the Holy Spirit upon the churches of the United States and Canada. Denominations were officially committed to prayer for revival and already engaged in it.

Take an example. The Presbyterian General Assembly quoted one presbytery after another. We would upon our bended knees offer the prayer of Habakkuk oh lord revive thy work. And then they summed it up by saying next to a state of actual revival is the sense of its need and the struggle to obtain it at any sacrifice of treasure toil or time. We trust that it's not distant when this state of general revival shall be ours.

Now throughout the fall of 1857 intercessors multiplied throughout the country. Some conventions were far-reaching. The ministers and elders of four Presbyterian synods met in Pittsburgh December 1st to pray for revival. Baptist churches in New York launched united prayer meetings so did other denominations.

Not only so but Baptist methods congregations Presbyterian Lutherans and Episcopalians reported local revivals in state after state some as far away as Texas and Iowa. The revival movement especially in its prayer concerts had started before the bank panic and continued all the way through until it ran its course and then it produced one of the greatest awakenings of all time. The denominations were one in brotherly love. Everyone committed upon the extraordinary fraternally fraternal good feeling at that time. It was one of the most cooperative periods of Christian history when the denominations worked together as one man. What lessons can we learn from it? Although things have changed and many other features of Christian work have arisen I think we could say this was the most wholesome revival in American history and we ought to pray that the same sort of thing may happen again.

God grant it. The 1857-1858 prayer revival began with a retired businessman in New York City Jeremiah Lamphere in his 40s. Burden began handing out tracks in a street corner calling for a prayer meeting at noon. Gathered about 10 people or something and did it the next day and next day and next thing hundreds were praying next thing thousands were praying next thing businesses were shutting down at noon and and having corporate prayer and thousands and thousands and thousands across New York City and then it spread from there and it spread across the country. One of my favorite accounts that I heard from or maybe in the state of Minnesota one of the northern states was they were having noonday prayer and and the place was packed out. Now remember this is this just a place of business packed out at noon people stopping normal work to be there to pray a minister's getting them to lead it and even though you had men like Charles Finney preaching powerfully in New York at that time basically this was a a revival that was not known for leaders like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield in the first great awakening or no it was not known for leaders it just happened and people praying across the country 1857-58 and then people took it over to Ireland and in 59 and you know and Wales and amazing things happened there they were touched they took it but here's a prayer meeting at noon and the minister gets up that's leading the meeting and says before we pray there's a request a woman says please pray for my husband he's just a brute he opposes the gospel he doesn't want me to follow he doesn't want me to follow Jesus and we need to pray for him before they can pray a man jumps up he says that's me pray for me I need to get right with God what's he doing there it's noon just he's there before he sits down another man jumps up no no you're mistaken sir it's me I'm the man before the meeting ends nine different men nine different men stood up and said I'm the man I'm the man that's what happens in revival that's what happens an outpouring the holy spirit moves conviction of sin comes people get radically saved why don't we put our focus there rather than talking about taking up guns against the why don't we put our focus on something biblical and tried and true which is repentance and praying for revival let's go over to Ian in Provo Utah welcome to the line of fire thanks for joining us today are you there does not sound like it unless Ian has been abducted and those were the sounds of an alien spaceship flying away we'll see if we can get him back on the line let's go over to Texas Anthony welcome to the line of fire thanks for joining us today thank you Dr Brown you're welcome I'd like to come I'd like to comment on what you were talking about with armed revolution this topic yeah I've thought about that but I personally don't think that we're in the position to that there's enough courage within the conservative movement to do anything like that but I do think it might be time for the church to consider a problem what to do maybe to be an underground church like under a communist country because I think we're at the beginning stages of becoming that honestly yes so so I think that for sure we need to ask ourselves are we really willing to follow Jesus and ask those questions I don't believe that things will have to go underground in America because we have so many liberties and rights and there are so many of us however liberties are being taken away however believers are being de-platformed or kicked out of programs or losing jobs or have even gone to jail standing up for biblical truth and biblical rights so by all means let's learn the example of the suffering church the underground church in terms of courage here if I'm afraid to right now here I'm speaking very freely today yes I'm speaking very openly and spoken very plainly about how I differ with where the Biden administration is currently going in so many ways I'm not getting arrested for it I'm our program still you still listen on the radio you're still watching online maybe you're watching on America's Voice on Pluto or Dish here we are no one's shutting us down so if I can't speak now while I have all this liberty and all my books they're still out they haven't been taken down if I can't speak openly with all this liberty pastor if you can't speak openly with all this liberty what are we going to do when real pressure comes what are we going to do when someone puts a gun to our head or if we preach this you go to jail let's use the liberty we have let's learn from the example of persecuted suffering church and use the liberties that we have amen all right we'll be right back it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown your voice of moral cultural and spiritual revolution here again is dr michael brown what is god's solution to the crisis of america today we are a nation in crisis we are a nation that is broken and from a spiritual perspective I believe we are a nation under god's judgment and he's displeased with so much in our midst what's the solution it's a time for christians to rally around and form militias and take up guns against the government no no no it's time for repentance in our midst it's time for us to really turn to god it's time for us to do what he's called us to do and if we do who knows what does joel say turn to god with repentance and fasting in morning who knows he might turn and pour out a blessing it could well be that in the midst of shaking god will do something radical and dramatic in america this is michael brown welcome to the line of fire you know our ministry has a three-fold emphasis three r's the first our revival meaning revival in the church no not a series of meetings upbeat meetings where everybody gets all psyched and you raise all kinds of special money in the guest evangelist no i'm talking about visitation from god i'm talking about things that have happened in past history things that i've witnessed with my own eyes and lived in for years and can tell you as an eyewitness the transforming power of revival and and seeing the fruit of it unfold over a period of decades and then it read revival history for years and have been to other parts of the world that have had great outpouring and seen the fruit years and years later divine visitation a season of unusual visitation that's the key and it starts with us it starts with visitation in the church and then becomes awakening in the society one because we have repented and we are living differently and our light is now shining and people are seeing jesus and us and they're encountering god through us and our lives are consistent and not hypocritical instead of just bashing people over the head with the bible we're living out our faith and they're being impacted by it that brings change to the society and then the holy spirit's moving not just in church services but in the world around us as well one of our students from from wales back in the the late 90s said that as he began to study the most famous revival in west history there have been many but the most famous 1904 1905 he would read the accounts about men going to the pub to get drunk their wives were touched by god and their their wives were changed and and their wives were praying for them and they were alcoholics and they they'd go to the bar and they're going to get drunk and they they couldn't get the mug of whatever they were drinking they couldn't get it to their lips because they were overcome with conviction they'd run out of the bar and never have another drink meet with the lord winky pratt and he referred to it as a divine radiation zone where god comes in a region and there's there's conviction of sin i mean i i know one account explicitly because the woman became a member of of the church of brownsville assembly of god in in the mid to late 1990s so this account we heard firsthand in the church but she was driving by the church building one day without any thought of god and i'm on she lived in the community there in pensacola florida was driving by the building without any thought of god and suddenly she felt the presence of god in her car you say what do you mean she became very conscious of god's holiness and of her sin that's that's often where revival starts right there she became very conscious of god's holiness and of her own sin and right there in the car driving by the building she began to weep and cried out to the lord to save her and then subsequently came to the church was baptized and became a member that's how we heard her story that's the concept of a divine radiation zone kids at school would get touched by the power of god literally the holy spirit would fall and they were they were touched in services earlier in the week now over the weekend now they're back in school and the holy spirit would fall on them in the school and teachers what's happening what's going on this literally happened i tell you people are eyewitnesses to it and and the you know schools have said what's this is disruptive and then they found these kids are being changed these kids are going from being in gangs and sleeping around and on drugs to being exemplary students what happened jesus touched them there's revival there was outpouring that's where we need to put our focus let me say this again we're not asking the question what happens if the government comes to take away your guns we're not discussing that today and that's not happening right now so we're not discussing that we're discussing when christians say we need to form militias we need to start being our it's it's we need to fight against the government you know others have said hey bottom line you're not gonna the military's gonna crush you it doesn't matter what weapons the military's gonna crush you that's the reality but no this is not the time for us to be talking about that and there were christians in dc days before the the stormy the capital of the so-called jericho march some were there with good intent but others man talking about militias and arms and war what's that mean to a lot of people so i want to stir you for revival that's that's my calling so are the threefold r's of our ministry the first revival in the church the second revolution in society meaning a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution that's why i'm introduced as your voice of moral cultural and spiritual revolution so out of revival in the church moral and cultural revolution in society and then our ultimate goal is to see redemption in israel so revival revolution redemption those are our three r's you want to stand with us you want to be one of our partners you want to be part of our team and we pour back into you with all kinds of special benefits and free material and classes you can take for no pay go to askdrbrown.org and click on donate and click on monthly support find out how you can become a torch bearer one of our monthly supporters helping us with a dollar or more per day if you watch regularly listen regularly you know we hardly talk about money but we do what we do through your help okay i want to go back to the phones eight six six three four truth but first another clip from james edwin or the great revival scholar talking about past outpourings in american history dr at pearson once said there has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer i'd like to talk to you today about what god has done through concerted united sustained prayer some people tell me we're in the midst of a great awaken today i certainly believe that the tide has turned i certainly believe that we're on the move again but i don't think we've reached anywhere like what god has done in the past let me give you two examples first of all takes student world one of the leaders of the revival of 1905 was a young man called ks latorets who became the famous professor kenneth scott latoret he said when he was at yale in 1905 out of the student body 25 were enrolled in prayer meetings and bible studies now i live next door to ucla there's a population there of 36 000 i don't believe there are nine thousand enrolled in campus crusade inter varsity power and light company and the other evangelical groups or in all the church groups put together we haven't reached that yet as far as the churches are concerned the ministers of atlantic city reported of a population of 50 000 in atlantic city there are only 50 adults left unconverted take portland oregon 240 department stores closed from 11 to 2 each day for prayer signed an agreement among themselves so no one would cheat and stay open take first baptist church paducah kentucky the pastor was an old man dr jj cheek and he said as he was committed to the revival he was going to win souls to christ he took in a thousand new members in two months and died of overwork and the southern baptist said a glorious ending to a devoted ministry that's what was happening in united states in 1905 so what's the lesson we can learn it's a very simple one it's that familiar text if my people called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land what's involved in this god expects us to pray but we must not forget what johnathan edwards said when he said to promote explicit agreement and visible union of all god's people in extraordinary prayer what do you mean by extraordinary prayer when you find people getting up at six o'clock in the morning to pray or having a half night of prayer till midnight that's extraordinary prayer when they give up their lunch time and go and pray at a noonday prayer meeting that's extraordinary prayer but it must be united and concerted it doesn't mean that a baptist becomes any less of a baptist or the an episcopalian is less loyal to the 39 articles or the presbyterian turns his back on the west mr confession not at all but they recognize each other as brothers and sisters in christ and they're prepared to pray together in concerted prayer that god may hear and answer it's a very simple thing you must pray then god will work may god help us so to pray amen you're not going to accuse james edwin or of working people up or emotionalism right as simple and factual as could be but you hear those things i remember hearing them decades ago it's like wow that actually happened in the department stores closing down and lunch time to pray and pastors taking so many new members and hardly any unconverted in the city and god can do that why not again now why don't we put our emphasis there when we have so many promises about what will happen if we pray if we pray together if we cry out luke 18 day and night and don't faint if we humble ourselves and repent this is in our midst quoted seven second chronicle 714 again and get our lives right with god and seek him earnestly i mean here let's do that for a few years and see what happens let's instead of just getting everyone so riled up a political spirit and just fight here and just okay we vote and we we raise our voices we do all that but if we put the emphasis where it belonged and really sought god earnestly and and pray together in extraordinary ways late night prayer and early morning prayer and daily prayer and groups gathering together i remember being in richmond virginia when would this have been it would have been in the mid 80s i would say and a leading interest esther had come in and met with pastors in the city and he said what's the greatest stronghold you're dealing with he said well right now we've become per capita the number one murder city in america we're having a murder a day and we're not that big in terms of population so every morning they gathered for weeks six in the morning pastors throughout the city and cried out to god and prayed and the murder stopped they stopped for almost a month from murder a day stuff for almost a month when i had gotten there it was right after there a few murders had happened and and but the numbers were still dramatically down and the mayor had gotten upset i don't know what you're doing or who's doing what but whatever you're doing keep it up but then after a while things kind of went back to normal people got busy and prayer ceased and murder rate went back up but what is what a sign from god as to what would happen if we humble ourselves and pray together it's not too late it's an urgent time in america but friends it's not too late all right i'm going to come back with your calls eight six six three four truth so it's the line of fire with your host activist author international speaker and theologian dr michael brown your voice of moral cultural and spiritual revolution get into the line of fire now by calling eight six six three four truth here again is dr michael brown here let's put it like this we don't need to be woke we need to be awakened america's gone crazy with this woke thing and hypersensitivity let's be awakened you say but mike if revival is so amazing and so wonderful why do we see it so infrequently and why is it so controversial oh i'll tell you in a moment eight six six three four truth eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four lennard raven was asked the question many years ago the author of why revival tarries and several other classic revival books we became close friends the last five years of his life from the ages of 82 to 87 and i never knew anyone that prayed the way he prayed but his answer as to why we don't see revival is we're willing to live without it that's been the classic answer lennard ravenhill winky pratt and he said the same thing we don't see revival because we're willing to live without it we're not at that place of desperation where we can't live without it when you get to that place where you realize you can't live without fresh visitation and it may be too late for america or your nation without fresh visitation it drives you with a greater hunger or just when you can't you have to have god you have to have more of god in your life you can't live without more of god in your life working and demonstrating his power and jesus being resurrected from the dead and seeing the authority of the word come alive and there must be more lord reading the word i'm reading history there must be more well that's your heart it drives you to holy desperation god fills the hungry how hungry are we jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness they'll be filled he said if anyone's thirsty let him come to me and drink how hungry are we how thirsty are we to that degree god will fill so one reason we don't see revival is we're willing to live without it our programs are good enough things are good enough and we're happy enough and what it's not cutting it that's not cutting it now never did cut it but it's not cutting it certainly now you said well why is it so controversial because revival by nature is intense why is childbirth so loud well it's because it's painful and it's challenging and it's difficult that's why god gave it to women because he knows us men probably couldn't handle it i don't know all seriousness though that's that's a that's a messy bloody loud enterprise because it's new life cemetery is very quiet i'll take the noise and the mess of the maternity ward and where children are being born to the to the quiet of the cemetery any day of the week people are repenting you know you know what happens in your own life when god begins to show you your own sin and you think oh i'm doing just great oh i'm i'm a man of god i'm a woman of god i'm so holy and the holy spirit begins to uncover sin in your own life and corruption and pride and compromise you've been pasturing 30 years you get up to preach and you can't talk because you're weeping say i'm not who you think i'm i don't mean you've been living in adultery or but that's how you feel you feel as if you just unclean and and then out of it the joy and the cleansing and the freedom that comes what happens to the lame man in acts the third chapter he walks into the temple lame his whole life is like 40 years old walks into the temple healed leaping jumping praising god you don't do that in the temple you don't go leaping jumping praising god like that in the town just be reserved be reverent here what happens in mark five and the parallels and the gospels what what happens there when when jesus comes in and there's a demoniac and jesus drives the demons into into the herd of a couple thousand pigs and the pigs run off and and drown in the in the lake and and the people come and they see the man clothed in his right mind what do they say jesus please leave please leave i've seen that i've seen it in churches where god comes and he begins to visit and repents his poor it's just too much too intense no no no no we don't want that it's like my sarcastic prayer for a revival that i wrote years ago oh god send your glory send your power but please oh lord keep it to an hour or oh god come and quench the slugging of our soul but please oh god leave us in control we want to turn it on we want to turn it off not too intense not to don't make us uncomfortable sorry that's not how god's going to do it he comes on his terms not our terms here last illustration then i i go to the phones let's say you get a membership at the local gym right and they say they've got training sessions you know once a month you get a free session with a personal trainer you have access to all the classes access to all the equipment 24 7 right and you don't go there maybe you go once a month for like five or ten minutes and of course you're not getting any better shape as a result do you start a protest march in front of the the the fitness center do you publicly go and hold up your contract and burn it worthless trash you get on social media and start to bed no because you didn't take advantage of the program you if you were there and then the equipment worked and the classes were never being taught and the personal trainer wasn't available then you say something that's how it is with us we're gonna take up arms it's time to fight the gov no it's not time to fight the government with arms it's time for the church to be the church it's time for the church to be the church let's do what we can do let's do what god's called us to do let's let's do what he's beckoning us to do because he has not said no he has not refused our prayer it's just we've hardly prayed thank god for prayer movements that have been going around the clock for years and years and thank god for every one of you that cries late at night early in the morning and pastors with with prayer meetings with your people seeking god it's still few and far between but if we'll give ourselves to that if we'll pray for the spiritual rain the rain will come zechariah 10 one ask the lord for rain at the time of latter rain it's it's time it's time for mercy if we'll cry out and that can then bring with it a moral and cultural reformation all right to the phones eight six six three four truth let's go to james in colorado springs colorado thanks for calling the line of fire hello dr brown thanks for taking my call you bet um so i've missed i missed about the first 20 minutes of it so if you already addressed this i apologize but um i read the title and i thought hey this is a good question for that i've had a lot of conversation uh just over the last year about exactly what you're talking about um one of the things that i keep coming back to it's pretty much based off of how i've been taught um in school uh in church and just people i'm around it's about the revolutionary war and how just how it seems like i'm told how godly of a thing it was how god was in it the whole way and my question is like was there biblical grounds for for americans taking up arms against great britain and um and doing what they did or would you kind of be saying the same thing to them back then okay if first uh i'm not there and you're not there obviously and then we always say hindsight is 20 20 but living in the midst of something it's often going to feel different than looking back at it but let me say a few things one i'm not an expert on the revolutionary war so i can't speak to this the way i could speak to say a bible question or a language question with the same authority but i want to read something uh i read earlier in the show from francis shaffer in his christian manifesto he says there does come a time when force even physical force is appropriate the christian is not to take the law into his own hands and become a law unto himself but when all avenues to flight and protest have closed the force in the defensive posture is appropriate this was the situation of the american revolution the colonists used force in defending themselves great britain because of its policy towards the colonies was seen as a foreign power invading america the colonists defended their homeland as such the american revolution was a conservative counter revolution the colonists saw the british as the revolutionaries trying to overthrow the legitimate colonial governments so that that would be the vantage point in other words that that we've been here we are governing our people we have taxation without representation now violence is being done to us we have to defend ourselves and break free from this illegitimate reign they did have a slogan rebellion against tyrants is obedience to god and you did have the so-called black robe regiment you know and the pastor is preaching aggressively against these things and going straight from there you could say to the battlefield but even though you know the boston tea party and those things you know had their their initial explosion ultimately the argument would be there was violence being done to the people there was violence being done and there was time to defend themselves we're nowhere near that in terms of our culture today that that's not what's happening and and therefore we we don't when people say well it's just like before the american revolution no i don't see that at all i don't see that at all at all at all and as i said through the broadcast to me the big problem is the state of the church if we get our act together and we are the salt of the earth and we're the light of the world america will be shaken and and that's that's the key getting our house in order in other words not cursing the darkness opposing the darkness by all means opposing what we see as godless agendas and things that are wrong righteously opposing them but our emphasis is on getting the light shining brightly so i would say from my understanding that the parallel would be that if there were now physical attacks on us simply for being christians in america and there was now the government aggressively coming you know armed government aggressively coming to attack and and we're unable to flee we're unable to protest there's there's nothing left now it's a matter of self-defense it becomes a whole different issue when it's a matter of self-defense against a hostile government you know at what point is it legitimate to defend yourself etc at you know what jesus said in matthew 10 when they persecute you in one city flee to another so that was the counselor as opposed to take up arms against ones persecuting you but it's it's one thing when you've got a hostile neighbor you know cursing you for the gospel it's a different thing if a thief tries to break into your house and or you know attack your family or your children it's yet another thing when there's government-sponsored persecution but what's what's interesting to see though james if you will look at the persecuted church in other countries their first line of defense was being christians the first line of defense was living out their faith fearlessly so let's start there and by god's grace we'll never have to get to these other questions that are being raised the onus is on us seeking god and living out our faith if we do there's still time for america