Best of Broadcast: Essential Ingredients for True Revival

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. If you are concerned about the state of the nation, the direction of the nation, if you have you I'll read the Bible and I look to the God of the Bible, I'm absolutely convinced that there must be more.

There must be more. That church as we know it and as we genuinely experience it or our spiritual life as we genuinely or generally experience it falls short, far short of what God speaks about in the Word, of what's described. Yes, there are battles, difficulties, obstacles. Yes, there's opposition, there's suffering, pain in this world. Yes, we have our ups and downs.

I understand all of that. But when I read the Bible, which is not there as a tease, which is not there just to set us up for disappointment, which is not there just to pull a carrot in front of us that we never can get that. No, there are promises there and there are patterns. And we see through the Old Testament dealings of God, national revival movements based on repentance and turning to God and his Spirit being poured out. We see it in the New Testament. We see the promises. We see it in church history.

Some of us have seen it in our own lives. Revival personally turning us, changing us. And it is our one and only hope as a nation.

I have a book coming out due out in October, Revival or We Die. The Great Awakening is our only hope. And I truly believe around the country that more and more believers are saying, God, there's got to be more. That more and more believers are sick and tired of the status quo. That more and more believers have had it with church as usual. And even if they're blessed themselves, they see the society collapsing around us. Many have seen their own family members walk away from God and not believe anymore. So there's got to be more.

There's got to be a deeper encounter for them. So I'm going to go through some history with you today. I'm going to go through some biblical principles. I'm even going to show you some video clips. If you have a question about Revival, if you have a question about the reality of Revival or what it is or pitfalls or obstacles or things you may have heard about past moves of God and you have genuine questions, give me a call.

866-348-7884. I had the privilege of serving as a leader in the Brownsboro Revival, 1996 to 2000. It began Father's Day of 95.

So you're talking about something over 25 years ago, the privilege of being in the midst of that. And just while speaking in Fort Worth, Texas, this past Sunday, a woman came up to me and she started to speak to me with tears. She said, I went to the Revival when I was 17.

She said, several groups of our churches, we got together, youth groups and things, and we went to Pensacola, Florida. But she was resistant. She was in a youth group, but she was not a believer. She had not surrendered to God. You know, plenty of kids like that.

They hang out with their friends and all that, but they don't surrender their lives to God. She said, I was determined. She said this to me yesterday. I was determined that I was not going to respond to the altar call because she knew what was coming. She said, I was determined I was not going to give my life to the Lord.

I was not going to get saved. She was in church and determined as a 17-year-old she was not going to surrender her life to the Lord. And she said to me with tears, so this is something, friends, that took place well over 20 years ago because the Revival basically began to wane and you were probably around 2000, and so you had, you know, four and a half years of of Revival and outpouring it.

So you're talking about something over 20 years ago. And she said, that's when I got saved. She said, I was determined not to, but when the altar call came, I went and got right with God. And I said to her, what happened to the other kids in the youth group? She said, almost all of them were changed. Almost all of them were changed.

This is what I'm talking about. God moving so powerfully that lives are changed for decades. And you say, well, how does that affect the country as a whole?

Well, two ways. One, the light is shining. The church has come alive. The salt of the earth is functioning as salt. The light of the world is functioning as light.

So we are living differently. That has an impact on the world around us. And then, as we're sharing the Gospel with more fervor and faith, and as the Holy Spirit is convicting people more deeply of sin, then what happens? Now sinners are drawn in and they're made into real disciples, and that begins to affect the world around us. And then righteous standards begin to rise.

That's why true revival will lead to awakening. Okay, Isaiah chapter 57 verse 15 says this, for thus says the high and exalted one. This is a common picture of the Lord in the book of Isaiah. Obviously, after his vision of the Lord high and lifted up in Isaiah 6, this was indelibly written in his consciousness the rest of his life. For thus says the high and exalted one, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

I mean, this is a staggering description. He himself is high and lifted up. He inhabits eternity. He always was and always will be.

Your future is known to God better than your past. He inhabits eternity. His name is holy. So his very essence and being is holy.

What does he say? I dwell in a high and holy place. So you're thinking, that's hopeless for us.

It's over for us. There's no way we can ever attain to that. I dwell in a high and holy place, yet also with a contrite and humble spirit or with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite. So the high and exalted holy one of Israel, who dwells in a high and holy place, high and holy place, also dwells with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite.

Okay, let's think about that. If we want to talk about essential ingredients, if we are really going to see revival, let me tell you two up front. We must have honesty and we must have humility.

Let me say it again. If we are really to see revival and visitation, we must have honesty and we must have humility. We are often self-deceived. Truth be told, we are deceived by the way we want things to be. We are deceived by outward appearance. We are deceived by having short memories, forgetting the past and past realities. And we see it in the book of Revelation as Jesus is speaking to the churches in Asia Minor, seven congregations or churches of different cities starting in Ephesus and ending with Laodicea.

What does he say? Ephesus, you've persevered. You've endured hardship. You haven't denied my name. You tested those who claimed to be apostles and they weren't.

I mean, Ephesus seems like a fine church, yes? But then Jesus says, I have this against you. You've left your first love.

Remember the height from which you've fallen and do what you did at first. Otherwise, I'll remove your candlestick from you. You'll no longer be a congregation. You no longer exist.

You've left your first love. But they seem to be a solid group of believers and they could say, look, we've done this and we've done that. And Jesus commends them for all it and yet what mattered most is where they were the weakest.

What does Jesus say to Sardis in Revelation 3? You have an appearance of being alive and yet you're dead. Ooh, outward appearances can be deceiving. Somebody can be walking down the street looking perfectly fine and die of a heart attack one minute later.

The outward appearance is very deceiving. You might see someone weeping and weeping and you don't know. Are they weeping in hopelessness? Are they weeping in repentance? Are they weeping in pain?

The outward emotions could mean different things. What does Jesus say to Laodicea? You know the verse as well. You say I'm rich, increased in wealth and have need of nothing.

Now think of this. This is their self-perception. There must have been good stuff happening. Things must have looked good outwardly. They must have had numbers or they must have had prosperity or they must have had favor with man. They, their self-assessment. You say I'm rich, increased in wealth and have need of nothing.

That was their self-perception. Jesus who sees reality, who sees past our big ministries, who sees past our big buildings, who sees past our fancy wardrobes, who sees past our slick music, who sees past our Lord's followings, who sees past our outward smiles. Jesus says you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked.

Their self-assessment, we're rich, increased in wealth, have need of nothing. The assessment of the Lord, you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore, buy from me gold, refine the fire.

Therefore, buy from me ISAV for your eyes so you can see. If we're going to have revival, starting in our own lives, there must be honesty. God, show me where I'm really at. In years past, decades past, where I had left my first love and scholarship had become an idol in my life, always a committed, serious believer in way, one way after the other. In fact, I would challenge in many ways the way Nancy and I and our family lived against the way many on-fire believers live in terms of quality decisions we made and caring for poor and needy and doing many good works.

And I was devoted to the Word and teaching and all of that, and yet I had left my first love. And when anyone tried to speak to me about that or tell me something was missing, I wouldn't hear it. I wouldn't hear it. They were wrong. Why? Because I was proud.

I was proud. There must be honesty and honest assessment and then humility to recognize something. You'll never see revival if you don't recognize something's wrong, and you'll never recognize your need for revival without honesty. Lord, give us your assessment, not our assessment. Lord, give us your assessment. How are we doing in your sight?

Ooh, that's what matters. Honesty, humility. We will be right back. Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. The darkness is dark. In many ways, the societal darkness is getting darker. My focus, though, is on getting the light to shine brighter.

That's how we'll fix the darkness. 866-34-TRUTH, Michael Brown, welcome to the broadcast. I believe you're not only going to be inspired and challenged, but informed as well. I posted this just a little before the show on Twitter, so we just have our first few hundred responses.

But I asked this question on Twitter. In your view, what is the single most important thing that must change if America is to have a healthy future? Feel free to write in your own view if it's not represented here.

So I gave four choices. The most important thing that must change if America is to have a healthy future? Revival in the church, ousting bad politicians, more righteous judges, racial reconciliation. Overwhelmingly, 86.4% said revival in the church, 5.8% ousting bad politicians, more righteous judges, that was 2.2%, racial reconciliation, 5.6%. The understanding of so many who responded is that if you want to see change come, if there's to be real racial reconciliation where we have problems and issues in America, if we're to see a change in the political realm, if we're to see more righteous justices appointed, things like that, that the key is a revived church because that is what is now going to spread to the rest of society. This is what's happened historically. This is what is absolutely critical. The lack of light or the defectiveness in the light must be addressed. So let me give you some information.

Let me paint some pictures for you. This has been a life burden and a major reason I'm on the radio and on TV and on intradet is to help stir your hearts in this way. And interestingly, our ministry has three R's, right? Three R's.

Right. Three R's. R with right.

Three R's. First, revival in the church. Second, gospel-based revolution in society, so moral and cultural gospel-based revolution. And third, redemption in Israel, so seeing the Jewish people saved. We began to survey those who follow our ministry and ask which of the R's was your main reason for connecting with us? And I knew for many it'd be kind of equally all, but my thought was, because we deal so much with the moral and cultural issues and many people look to our commentary on that, that that would be number one or Jewish because of our specialization in Jewish apologetics and reaching Jewish people with the good news and teaching the church about Jewish background and things like that. Interestingly, consistently, it's been the first R, revival. So 40-something percent saying, yeah, they connect with us first and foremost for that R word revival and then the others about equally divided, you know, right around 30 percentage close to that for gospel-based revolution in society and redemption in Israel.

I found that interesting. All that to say that so many recognize the need for a fresh visitation, for a fresh outpouring, and not just localized in one church, but all over America. So let me take you through, as I've done this before, but we're going to get into more depth today. And those that are watching, you can watch on our Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel or our Facebook page, Ask Dr. Brown, so A-S-K-D or Brown. You can watch us live, if you didn't know that, on YouTube or Facebook, and I'll actually be putting up slides for you to watch.

So everyone listening, you'll hear me loud and clear, but if you're watching, you'll get to see these as well. Okay, so my definition of revival that I've used, my working definition for many years now, revival is a season of unusual divine visitation resulting in deep repentance, supernatural renewal, and sweeping reformation in the church. So first and foremost, it's a season of unusual divine visitation, God coming in extraordinary and unique ways.

What does that result in? Deep repentance. That encounter with God leads us to repent. Why are we repenting?

Well, if something wasn't wrong, we wouldn't need revival. So God's presence comes and we realize how far we've drifted from him or how much sin there is or how much sin there is in our lives or compromise or fear of man or whatever, beaten down with the world, by the world. Deep repentance, supernatural renewal, we come alive and zealous and full of passion, and sweeping reformation in the church that major changes come that need to change, along with the radical conversion of sinners in the world. If it's true revival, then it's going to bleed out, it's going to flow out, it's going to flood out into the world with radical conversion of sinners. Family members see what happens to you, people you're sharing the gospel with at work see what happens.

God just begins to visit people in their homes and workplaces and so on. Radical conversion of sinners in the world, often producing. So as a result of the church coming to life and radical conversion of sinners, this often produces moral, social, and even economic change in the local or national communities. Here's what Charles Finney said, a revival presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state. So you can't have revival without backsliding first. And a revival consists in the return of the church from her backslidings and the conversion of sinners. Finney explains revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church.

I'm going to skip down a little bit. He says backslidden Christians will be brought to repentance. A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. He says the third point he makes, Christians will have their faith renewed. While they're in a backslidden state, they're blind to the state of sinners. Their hearts are as hard as marble. The truths of the Bible appear as a dream.

They admit it all to be true. Their conscience and their judgment is centric, but their faith does not see it standing out in bold relief in all the burning realities of eternity. But when they enter into revival, they no longer see man as trees walking, but they see things in the strong light which will renew the love of God in their hearts. A fourth point Finney made, he said a revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians. A fifth point he says, when the churches are thus awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow. The worst of human beings are softened and reclaimed and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holiness. So, some descriptions of revival.

The Welsh revival 1904-1905, listen to this description from G. Campbell Morgan. He says this, if you and I could stand above Wales looking at it, looking at it, you would see fire breaking out here and there and yonder and somewhere else without any collusion or pre-arrangement. It is a divine visitation in which God, let me say this reverently, in which God is saying to us, see what I can do without the things that you are depending on. See what I can do in answer to a praying people.

See what I can do through the simplest who are ready to fall in line and depend wholly and absolutely upon me. Here's an example from the ministry of Finney, 1825. Charles Finney was ministering in the town of New York Mills. His brother-in-law invited him to visit the local cotton factory of which he was in charge. When Finney, who was known for his preaching in the area, entered the factory, his glance fell upon a girl who had made a jestful comment to her friend. The evangelist describes what happened next. He says, when I came within eight or ten feet of her, I looked solemnly at her.

She observed it and was quite overcome and sank down and burst into tears. The impression caught almost like powder, I mean like gunpowder, and in a few moments all in the room were in tears. The feeling spread through the factory. The owner said to the superintendent, stop the mill and let the people attend to religion, for it is more important that our souls should be saved than this factory should run. The revival went through the mill with astonishing power and in a few days nearly all were converted. This is why we talk about revival and the desperate need for it today. Great Awakening, 1741. One of the famous accounts, Enfield, New England.

It was here that one of the most remarkable revivals took place. God had begun to stir the New England area out of its worldliness, apathy, and unbelief in the mid-1730s, but the town of Enfield remained untouched. Jonathan Edwards, the brilliant philosopher, theologian, and shortly before his death, president of Princeton University, was scheduled to preach there one Sunday. We'd hardly call it preaching today.

He read his text monotone and without gestures, and because his eyesight was so poor he held the pages pressed up to his face. The congregation was a casual godless bunch, but the neighboring town had been in deep travail the previous night for God to extend his mercy on that group. On that Sunday, July 8th of 1741, as Edwards read his famous message, sinners in the hands of an angry God, something extraordinary began to occur. The fear of God fell. The congregants began to see themselves as hopelessly lost dangling by a thread over the jumping fires of hell. It was a vivid sermon. Soon there was so much screaming, crying out, and fainting that Edwards had to order them to be quiet so this message could be heard. People began unconsciously to cling to their pews and grasp hold of the pillars of the church so as not to slip into hell. These were the days of the first great awakening in our land. Friends, I preached at a congregation not far from there, oh many years ago, probably in late 80s, early 1990s, and the pastor had done his research for his seminary degree on the fruit of the great awakening and studied what happened in that town.

And it was recorded after the day because it was summertime, it was in July I think, it was summertime, windows were open in people's homes that he said for days it was recorded that you could hear people weeping and groaning and wailing and repenting in their homes after the message was preached. That's what happens when conviction comes, friends. That's what happens when the fire falls. America must have it. The church of America must have it. The message may not be exactly the same in every way, but they were called to repent.

It must be there. 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. I have seen mighty outpourings of the Spirit with my own eyes. I have been a witness over a period of years to God moving in tremendous power with deep repentance, deep conviction of sin, radical conversions. People changed not just for a moment, not because of a temporary emotional high, but changed for years and years and years. People who were so to say branded by the fire, branded by holy fire, branded by an encounter with God 25 years ago and they've been serving on the mission field for over 20 years and living sacrificially to share the gospel with others. That's what you call lasting change.

People dramatically converted and set free from sin and following Jesus ever since. That's what you call radical change. Hey friends, welcome to the line of fire.

This is Michael Brown. Look, I am not on the radio primarily to be another conservative talking head. We talk politics, we talk culture all the time, but always from a gospel-based, kingdom-based viewpoint. I'm not on the radio simply to be another Bible teacher.

There are so many fine voices, pastors, leaders teaching on the radio. I'm not here primarily for those purposes. I'm here for the purposes that God's given me for you, right? If, you know, if you go into a Chinese restaurant, you expect Chinese, you go to an Italian restaurant, you expect Italian, you're, you know, there's specific reasons.

You listen to one music station for certain music and another for other music. I'm here to help stir your hearts for revival. I'm here to help cultivate gospel-based moral and cultural revolution.

I'm here to help point you to the salvation, praying for the salvation of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And in recent days, focusing more and more on the topic of revival is as I'm personally pressing in more to God for something fresh in my own life, and something fresh in the church, and I'm seeing it around the country. Little signs. Oh, not a massive revival. No, it hasn't happened yet. If it was happening, we'd know about it.

But little signs. Outpouring here, outpouring here, repentance breaking here, a sustained move of the Spirit there. Things are happening.

In a moment, I want to take you back into some services from years ago and play some video clips for you. But first, let me go back in time. The Second Great Awakening, the early 1800s. After the Revolutionary War, there was real time of spiritual backsliding in America. James Edwin Orr has articulated how bad things got, that there were college campuses in America. All of them found it as Christian campuses in the decades before. And you'd go to these campuses and not find a single professing Christian. You'd talk to the 200-something students, and they were members of the Foul Language Club or something like that, but there were no professing Christians.

I mean, just a bad spiritual state, and God began to move. And the West, you know, it was the Wild West. So, here's a description from Cane Ridge. This is what Cane Ridge, Kentucky, one of the famous outpourings that took place 1801.

Cane Ridge on the Western frontier. An astounding 20,000 people from the sparsely populated frontier regions had gathered together for a special six-day outdoor camp meeting. The crowds were addressed by many different preachers from varying denominations using fallen logs and the like for their pulpits.

Here are some eyewitness reports. Quote, I stepped up on a log where I could have a better view of the surging sea of humanity. The scene that presented itself to my mind was indescribable. At once, I saw at least 500 swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens. You might say, Mike, that sounds pretty intense. Yeah, it was intense. These moments are intense when God begins to move with it. It's not going to fit in our just nice little church basket.

It's a lovely service. When God moves, things are going to shake. It's just the reality. There will be emotion. It's not emotionalism, which is just based on a carnal or a soulish reaction to outward stimuli. No, you're talking about God changing the heart, and out of that heart change, there's an emotional cry.

Here's another account. On Sabbath for them, meaning Sunday night, I saw above 100 candles burning at once, and I suppose I saw 100 persons of all ages from 8 to 60 years at once on the ground, crying for mercy. The sensible, the weak, learned and unlearned, the rich and the poor and the poor are subjects of it. Friends, this is why we read about these things in history. This is why we talk about them. This is why we say, revive us again, O Lord.

From the Hebrides, 1949 to 1952, off the coast of Scotland. I've known men, Duncan Campbell reported, out in the fields, others at their weaving looms, so overcome by the sense of God that they were found prostrate on the ground. Hear the words of one who felt the hand of God upon him. The grass beneath my feet and the rocks around me seemed to cry, flee to Christ for refuge. Campbell said this, this supernatural illumination of the Holy Spirit led many in the Hebrides revival to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ before they came near to any meeting connected with the movement. He said, I have no hesitation in saying that this awareness of God is the cry need of the church today. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but this cannot be worked up by any human effort.

It must come down. Let me just stop for a moment and reflect on that. The awareness of God, the consciousness of God, there is nothing more important for the church right now and for our society. Some years back, Rabbi Shmueli asked me to debate him on the subject, is homosexuality America's greatest moral crisis?

And I said, I'm happy to debate you on that, but my answer is going to be no. I will absolutely say that gay activism is the greatest threat to freedom of religion, speech, and conscience. Yes, but no, I will not say that homosexuality is the greatest moral crisis in America.

What I said when Nancy and I were talking about it, we had the exact same answer. Lack of consciousness of God. Lack of consciousness of God.

That is the greatest moral crisis and obviously the greatest spiritual crisis in America, and that's what Campbell said. The awareness of God is the crying need in the church today. Okay, just going back to history from some previous accounts of revival. Cold, formalistic preaching.

Never raise the dead. Only a demonstration of divine power will do that such as took place in the days of Whitfield when it was a common sight for sinners to cry out as in the agony of death. Yeah, revival is going to bring emotion with it because people are going to get radically touched by God. During the great Scottish revival in 1850, when James Turner, the fiery Methodist preacher, went down to Pontroky to preach, so great was the conviction of sin that many businesses had to close down in order that the people might get right with God. Large numbers of drunkards were charged by the power of God's meetings lasted from 14 to 18 hours. Sinners, here in their lost condition, swooned away but came round, praising God for acceptance.

How about this? Prayer revival, 1857-1858. Ships, as they drew near the American ports, came within a definite zone of heavenly influence. Ship after ship arrived with the same tale of sudden conviction and conversion. You know, they got near to where revival was happening and the presence of God was there. And one ship, a captain, and the entire crew of thirty men found Christ out at sea because the Spirit was being poured out all over, and entered the harbor rejoicing. Revival broke out on the battleship North Carolina through four Christian men who had been meeting in the bowels of the ship for prayer. They're praying down there. No one on the ship knows it.

God knows it. He begins to pour out his Spirit. I mean, these are remarkable accounts.

Oh, let's just see here. One evening, they were filled with the Spirit and burst into song. Ungodly shipmates who came down to mock were gripped by the power of God, and the laugh of the scornful was soon changed into the cry of the penitent.

Many were smitten down and a gracious work broke out that continued night after night till they had to send to shore for ministers to help, and the battleship became a Bethel, a house of God. This is related by Arthur Wallace. Isn't that remarkable? Ah, let's see here.

Let me let me give you my own personal account. From a service during the Brownsboro Revival January 31st, 1997. I was so moved and stirred when I got home from the meeting, maybe 2-2.30 in the morning, I said, I've got to write this out.

I've got to capture what I'm feeling right now. I've just come from the beautiful presence of the Lord, from a night of glorious baptismal testimonies and incredible stories of wonderfully changed lives, a night of sovereign visitation, a night of deep, sweeping repentance, of radical encounters with the living God, of public acts of repentance, from young people throwing their drugs and needles into the garbage to old people distorting their cigarettes, a night of weeping under conviction and rejoicing in newfound freedom, a night when the Spirit fell upon the children in a side room until their intercession and wailing permeated the sanctuary, a night when Jesus was exalted in the midst of his church. Yes, I've come from the holy presence of the Lord in the Brownsboro Revival on January 31st, 1997. The Spirit moved, the tears flowed, the Lord touched, the demons fled. This is what happens when revival is in the land. At the end of the night, amidst shouts of joy and victory, amidst the sound of the newly redeemed enjoying their first moments free from captivity, I turned to my dear friend, evangelist Steve Hill and said, we don't have to quote from the history books about revival, it's here.

We're seeing it before our eyes. Who can describe a night like this? Who can describe what it's like to be so caught up with God that heaven is virtually here and you can almost sense the sound of the judge knocking at the door? What can you say when young men come to the platform and begin to throw away their earrings and another wants counsel because he doesn't know how to remove his eyebrow ring and another tosses out his condoms while another throws his knife into the trash? What can you say? What can you say when a thousand people respond to the altar call and stay there for two hours getting right with God? What can you say when the prayers you prayed for your nation, prayers for the real thing, for genuine visitation, for bona fide outpouring, not hype, not sensationalism, not a superficial show, but in an awakening of historic proportions when those prayers are being answered before your eyes and you know that you know your country will be shaken?

What can you say? What can you say when all you want is Jesus? When pleasing him is your total delight? When you just have to tell everyone about God's great salvation?

When sin's sweetest temptation is utterly repulsive to you? When you just can't find the words to express to the Lord how utterly wonderful he is, how how he really is your all-in-all? What can you say at a sacred time like this?

It is too precious to fully describe, too intimate to wholly communicate with mere human speech. And no wonder we get letters like this, Reverend Alex Buchanan from England after visiting the revival, I have prayed for revival for 51 years, five months, and 15 days. I have led and raised up revival prayer movements through most of these years. At last I have seen it at Brownsville.

I felt like Simeon who saw God's salvation after many years and then asked if he could depart in peace. You can now see how encouraged I was while with you. We come back.

I want to play a clip, two clips, from that very service I just described. I want you to see some of what I saw that night. We'll be right back. So that service that I referenced January 31st of 1997, one of the most sacred meetings I was in in my entire life, we had powerful worship as we went on Friday night, followed by water baptisms, and incredible powerful testimonies, gut-wrenching transformations, and then back to worship and an altar call to people to get right with God. And the service just broke out of even the normal order that we were used to.

I mean the services went five, six hours, so a lot would happen. But the repentance just broke out with calls to get right with God and turn from sin, and people began to flood the altar, and then they just stayed there, and then more came, and more came. And so if you were one of the first waves that came, one of the first few hundred, you were there on your knees for a couple hours, and many just heads down praying, crying out the whole time. And after powerful repentance and then time of rejoicing, then it went back when we got word of some of the kids, church workers, their kids maybe between six and twelve, and they were involved in different aspects of ministry each night, so the kids would come to the service with them, and they'd be in a back room, and they might be playing, they might be doing schoolwork, or they might be watching the service. And as the Spirit just broke out so dramatically, and it had happened when I taught that morning, there had been a tremendous breakout of repentance after I taught on holiness to pastors that morning.

And then I found out the day before in a children's ministry meeting that the Spirit had just fallen. So when God began to break out the way he did in the service, the children's pastor just went back with those kids and said, hey, we're just going to watch the service. And then the Spirit fell on them, and they began to weep and wail and cry out.

And then when that was reported to us, then we were just looped in. One of the ushers went back just with a mic to where the kids were, and they were just oblivious to what was going on around them. They were on their faces weeping and wailing and praying for the lost. And we heard that through the sanctuary. I was going to play some for you, but it's just, it's sacred.

And to just hear the kids screaming and wailing and crying without being there in the midst of it, I don't want to cheapen it at all. But then after that, after more praying and crying and weeping before the Lord and more repentance, Steve Hill then went and did something he never did before. Let's listen to what happened that night. Everyone in this place, you've got junk on you, cigarettes, condoms, or in your car, magazines, pornography, whatever it is, friend, you want victory, you obey God. Now we've never done this. So if you're saying now they bring out the trash cans. No, friend, we've never done this. These cans are right here, friend, and we're going to open up the next 15 minutes of this service. You come and bring any garbage that you have.

If you're wearing a bracelet that belonged to a boyfriend and he bought that bracelet for you and you're wearing it now, but you're a married woman and you look at that bracelet and you remember the affair you had with that boy, but you're a married woman now with children. It's time to get rid of it, friend. Cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, condoms, magazines, anything you have. Night before last, tapes, CDs, anything that's drawing you away from God, now's the time, friend. Weapons, anything, chains, if you've been involved in gangs, anything that's drawing you away from God, it's time right now. Come drop it right in here. All right, so he opens it up and same in the overflow in the chapel and people start coming up.

They're throwing out drugs, they're throwing out, you know, just all kinds of things and things from past affairs and this stuff that's on them and they're in the church service and they're going to the car and getting it and throwing it away. And that's when the guy came up to me. He had this eyebrow ring. He said, I want to get rid of this.

I don't know what it is. It was apparently something that's part of his own rebellion. And I met a guy subsequently said, yeah, I was in the mall.

I met that guy. He was getting the eyebrow ring taken out. It was days later. And it was just, it was remarkable to see. So this is after the weeping, after the repentance. And then we started to sing and we started to rejoice.

So just, just a little feel of the joy that can break out as people are still coming up. And I remember one lady, she just had pockets full. She kept opening another pocket, more junk and liquor here.

And finally she just took her whole coat and just threw it away. But here, just one more little glimpse, one more little feel of what happened that night. Come on, come on.

All right. You may hear the songs and some of them may sound a little hokey, but people are getting set free. And some are just saying enough is enough and, and, and making a break with sin in the past.

This is after hours of repenting and weeping and crying out, interceding, and then joy breaking out. You say, yeah, well, what happened to those people? You meet many of them 20 some years later, now almost 25 years later talking about lasting transformation.

To this day, as I travel around the world, I meet people. I'd say, I was there and here's what God did. Friends, just think of God moving powerfully all over America. He's looking for people who'll be honest, who'll humble themselves, who'll say, God, something's missing. There must be more. He's looking for people who'll be desperate enough to welcome Him when He comes in power, when He comes with conviction, when He comes with His Spirit.

Will we welcome Him or will we beg Jesus to leave the way the people of the Gadarenes did? I have been so focused on what I've been sharing with you. I didn't even look over at our phone lines, but let's get a call in from Deborah in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. I know we're kind of short on time here, but I thank you so much for these programs and I just want to quickly say that once again this morning, the conviction that the Lord brought to me as just an individual, but as the church, we have carved up His inheritance by judging one another, by shaming one another, by shaming the lost, by making people feel guilty and ashamed of their sins, misrepresenting the Lord to people. And I just want to apologize to people out there who have maybe been turned off from the Lord because of the way we have been haughty and prideful and condemning and quick to judge.

And I want to tell you that Jesus is beautiful. He will never shame you. When you bring your sin to Him, He will love you.

He will help you. And I'm just sorry. I have apologized to the Lord. I've been repenting on behalf of the church and just to realize that these people that we've been judging and tearing apart are Jesus's inheritance. He loves them, He wants them, and it's no different than, you know, I've made these many calls to you about carving up the land of Israel, but He has just convicted me again this morning.

I carve up His inheritance. Yeah, and you know, Deborah, sin is sin, and when the Holy Spirit convicts the loss of sin, it's intense, and we realize how unclean we are and how naked and ashamed we are, which then causes us to run to Him, not from Him. But you're right. When we are so self-righteous and haughty, when we don't start by confessing our sin, it'd be one thing if we were perfectly righteous. It'd be one thing if our house was perfectly in order.

It'd be one thing if we didn't have scandals with our leaders. It'd be one thing if we didn't have rampant no-fault divorce, pornography in the church. It'd be one thing if all of our kids were on fire for God.

It'd be one thing if we were walking all in unity. It'd be one thing if the church was modeling racial reconciliation and so on, but the fact is we're not. The sins of the world are so common in the church, and rather than us changing the world, the world has changed us. So when we then, in a heartless way, condemn others without saying, hey, it starts with us, starts with the light not shining brightly, and we get low and humble ourselves and then confront sin and then call out sin and then call out unrighteousness and then urge people to repent.

Yes, we feel naked and ashamed when conviction comes, but that's not God pushing us away. That's God saying, come near me. I want to forgive you, cleanse you, wash you. Hey, Deborah, thank you for the call.

Thank you for the call. I've said it so many times, but many a pastor came to the Brownsboro Revival. Many a pastor came bringing his church, his congregation with him, lots of people.

They'd come down on several buses with a carpool or they'd fly, you know, wherever they were coming from, but large numbers. And the pastor's thinking, yeah, I need to bring them because they need to repent and they need to get right with God. My people need God. You know, I'm the pastor. I'm the good guy.

I'm in shape. They need God. Many a pastor, they would tell me, all right, see it with my eyes. They were the first to repent. You think of that, you get your whole congregation there and you're so convicted that you're the first to go running to get right with God. You're the first to saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

And I've heard it from so many. They said, I felt like I got saved all over again. And that's why I started the broadcast by saying we must have honesty and humility. If we are really to see revival, if we're really to see God move, there must be honesty. Ask God by his word, by his spirit to speak to you honestly so that you can have an accurate view of where you are. And then asking for the grace to humble yourself, get low, receive that correction and change will come. Lasting change. Who knows? Revival might spark in you.