Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #186 Positioned for Revival (2 - Positioned With Intentional Desperation)

Transcript

#186 Positioned for Revival (2 - Positioned With Intentional Desperation) · The OneCry Podcast

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  Music.
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  Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord
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  your God and cry out to the Lord.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. We're so excited.
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  I'm Bill, and this is Kyle, and we have been talking the last week,
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  and now for the next two weeks,
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  two or three weeks, we're going to be talking about how do we position ourselves for revival.
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  God is moving, Kyle, around the country. It's not, Lord, would you do it?
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  It's he's doing it, and how aggressive are we going to cooperate with him?
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  And will we quench his movement?
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  Will we stop his movement personally and in our churches and in regions by not cooperating?
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  So we've been talking about how do we get ready?
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  How do we position ourselves so that everything that God wants to do in this
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  season, in and through us and in our churches, he can do.
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  And I know a little prophet book speaks to this really strongly.
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  And really speaks about the desperation that's needed.
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  Yeah, I've heard you preach this text several times, Bill.
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  I've heard others preach this text many times, but just in my one-year Bible
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  reading, I came back through it again.
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  And I think the Lord, for me personally, was wanting me to embrace 2025 with
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  a different level of desperation.
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  Wow. So I just sat in it, and I think that the level of seriousness and how
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  we're going to rightly position ourself,
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  it's one thing, and I love—we've talked about this—it's one thing that we're
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  seeing more awareness around prayer and fasting and the first of the year.
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  And that's been growing by God's grace, and I think that's the work of the Spirit
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  even positioning us for revival. But beyond the practical decision-making and
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  all that, how about the spirit behind it?
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  Like what kind of state is our soul?
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  And I think that there's decisions that you make to embracing desperation.
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  You know, I think there's two thoughts around desperation, Bill,
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  and I'd love for us to banter.
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  We've got two verses, and I'd really rather just talk about this today.
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  You know, there's one thing.
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  And I got a message brewing in this. It just ain't ready yet. Yeah, I should say.
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  So you basically want us to kind of cook your message on this.
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  But I can't. It's one of those things like, I mean, you've done this.
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  This is coming out of me one way or another. We might as well talk about it.
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  So it's one thing to embrace desperation. Like we're in a desperate state.
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  If you look in the Old Testament, the enemy armies are coming.
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  Second, you know, Chronicles 20 kind of moment. like, let's embrace this moment of desperation.
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  There's another thing to choose desperation.
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  And what I find is, and this is Western, you know, we got a lot of comforts,
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  you know, and maybe you're even in a church, you're in a good season,
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  you know, and like there's good things happening.
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  I was having a conversation with a guy, a pastor recently, that sort of found
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  himself going through the motions. Like, everything's good. Numbers are up.
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  But in his honesty, he was like, but man, my heart's dry.
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  And I don't really know if all these things that are going good are because of God. Wow.
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  And it elicited this thought, well, why not choose desperation?
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  Even though you don't have these drivers in your life, per se,
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  that are easy to identify, we know that there's still a need for desperation.
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  So why not choose it?
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  Well, that's a really important distinction, I think, isn't it? And, you know, we can...
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  We can have things happening around us that we're just desperate in the sense of hopeless.
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  Yeah, right. And so we just live in this desperation, this hopelessness.
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  Yeah. That's not helpful for a believer.
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  Right. Or we can say, yes, there's all kinds of desperate things happening around us.
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  We recognize it, but we're choosing intensity.
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  Yeah. In our life, we're choosing to live with this tension of what is happening,
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  and we give glory to God for that.
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  But there's more, and we're desperate for more, you know, and we're cooperating with God for more.
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  And that really positions us for a move of God, doesn't it? Well,
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  here's what I would say in a short version.
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  God sees that. God sees how serious. God's not playing a game.
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  Like God's looking down. Lacrosse is never about us being perfectly positioned,
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  but it is about us to the greatest measure possible. Let's position ourselves.
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  And so what I think you see, Joel 1, is a conscious decision.
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  In light of their need of repentance and real move of God, verse 13.
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  They choose desperation. They put on sackcloth.
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  They let an outward sign show an inner reality. that like, hey,
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  listen, we're in shame in our sin.
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  Like, we realize that we have broken God's law, we've broken God's heart, the state of our nation.
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  And it says, and lament.
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  And I tell you what really got me, Bill, O priest, well, O ministers.
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  I remember hearing R.T. Kendall say one time, and it just struck in my spirit.
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  He said, when you don't know what else to try, I should try tears.
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  Wow. And I thought, man, to get to a place and stay there long enough that you
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  choose desperation and that it floods your heart and even fills your cry with like, God, I need you.
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  I need you. And I think that happens when you look in chaos or turmoil or wayward
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  child, and that's right to do that.
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  But choosing to, in light of we know that the state of mankind,
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  is that we need God. We need the pouring out of God.
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  We need the things that only God can tangibly do in our church.
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  We need more than we can provide.
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  And to get to a place where you not only say it, but you feel it.
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  Yeah, it was a difference with our kids.
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  We see this all the time. They'll...
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  Kid will, between one level and another level, and we often say, that's a fake cry.
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  Yeah. You know, you're just fake crying. Man, that's good.
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  You know, and he's kind of just fake crying. He's not really desperate.
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  Yeah. But there are those moments when a child is just desperate,
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  and they're in whatever the situation.
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  And, boy, that's the moment when you see your wife turn and sprint across the
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  room. Right, right. Because she knows that cry.
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  Yeah. And what's cool is she responds to a desperate cry.
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  That's good, dude. And she can blow off a fake cry, you know,
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  oh, don't worry. He's just kind of, she'll look over, you know, he's just fake crying.
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  But when there's a desperate cry, mom and daddy really respond.
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  And I think the same thing is true here.
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  It's not. I think a lot of times we get in a prayer meeting and we pray and we have nice prayers.
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  Yeah. But they're not desperate prayers. Yeah. And there's something about the intensity of that.
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  And Kyle, talk to us in this passage a minute in the next verse,
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  maybe about what does that lead us to do?
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  Go in. What would this kind of intensity lead us to do if we were really desperate?
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  Yeah. I love, of course, ESV says, it says, go in.
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  Pass the knot and sackcloth, O ministers of my God.
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  I mean, like there's this, go into his presence. Maybe go into God's house. Like enter in.
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  Wow. And then it says stay.
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  I mean, like pass the knot and sackcloth.
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  Like this is not momentary. I think to choose desperation over a long period of time.
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  Like to choose desperation, like let that become a normative state,
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  you know, and that doesn't mean we're woe is me and that we put on a show Pharisees.
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  It's not we pay people to wail and weep, but that we can simultaneously, man,
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  have a tear in our eye for the coming of God in our lives, in our church,
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  you know, in our nation, and a smile on our face because we're His.
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  You know, and just to choose to stay in that posture and position,
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  and this might be all personal. Well, I don't think so, because it's in the
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  scripture and that he's calling them. Let's go in, guys.
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  Let's go in. Let's stay the night in the presence of God in a right display
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  of repentance, man. Let's get in that position that God might see us.
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  And then because grain, this is interesting, by the way, grain offering and
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  drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. like there's,
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  He's saying there's some things that's just not rightly aligned.
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  There's some things that's just off. And here's a statement, Bill.
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  I'm telling you, I can't believe this more. Me and you talked through this years
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  ago, and you helped me a lot with it.
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  I am more bold in my preaching ministry around giving and generosity than ever
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  before because it is absolutely non-negotiable to revival. Oh, absolutely.
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  Absolutely. Absolutely. And every time I'm telling you specifically,
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  look at these Old Testament expressions of it, that right giving practices are restored in revival.
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  Yeah, they are. I just think, you know, with this classic passage in Malachi,
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  I was just reading last week,
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  where, you know, Malachi, you know, the people say, well, how are we,
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  how are we, you know, how are we disobeying you? Well, you're robbing me.
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  You're robbing me. You're taking, I have made this non-negotiable truth that
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  the first fruits come to me.
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  And that was in Genesis. And by the way, it goes all the way to Revelation.
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  Some guy says, well, I don't believe in tithing. Well, okay, whatever.
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  Do you believe in the first verse?
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  That's right. And it means that, by the way, that means 10%, the word that you use.
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  Let's bring the first fruits to the house of God.
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  And we are just flat out robbing. You know, you can rob a lot of people and
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  get away with some stuff. I wouldn't rob God.
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  Just not a good move, right? Not a good move.
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  I heard Steve Gaines say, Bill, years ago, and this is so good.
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  I know y'all are buddies. He said, you can't be intimate with someone you're robbing.
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  Wow you can't be intimate and i thought that's he
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  said it's got and god yeah you don't want to be around them do
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  you because no you feel that guilt for what
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  you're doing and yeah and and the thing is it's not just it's not like god needs
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  the money it's just god needs your heart yeah that realizes that he is the owner
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  and creator of everything and we give to him out of adoration and that's the
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  first sign of a revived heart.
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  And so he's saying here, you know, you ought to be weeping and wailing because people are robbing me.
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  They're not cooperating with me.
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  And you ought to be desperate about that.
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  This is a big deal with God.
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  And then he calls us further in this passage, doesn't he, in verse 14,
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  it says something to us about fasting, solemn assembly, gathering elders.
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  Talk to us about that, Kyle.
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  Yeah, consecrate a fast and call a solemn assembly.
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  And Bill, I know you've helped churches even learn how to do this.
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  And I think consecrate a fast is like, hey, we're declaring that a time of fasting has come.
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  And that we—and let me tell you what fasting does for me.
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  Of course, the time that this podcast lands is somewhere around the first of the year.
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  And you've probably heard more, I hope you have, about fasting and prayer.
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  But fasting and prayer is not just a seasonal thing.
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  It's the thing that Jesus says when you fast.
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  And that there was this in the heart of God, in the mind of God,
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  that as a follower of Christ, that you would you would
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  take times that you lay aside a meal to meet with god you know i think what
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  you find here in this moment though this is corporate that that this is oh people
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  of god let's come into the presence of god let let's make a conscious decision,
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  to lay this down so that we could lay hold of the Lord.
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  And let me tell you what fasting does. Man, I get messed up about just talking about it.
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  Fasting helps me feel my desperation for God. It helps me. It just helps. It helps.
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  God, I don't know what it is about it. I don't understand it all.
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  But God has decided that there's something about fasting that helps me come
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  to realize how truly desperate, how Psalm 42, oh, how my soul longs for you,
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  longs for you. I'd be like the deer pants for water.
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  While you would think laying down a meal would make you think,
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  and obviously we all struggle with it when you're laying down a meal or a day
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  of meals or days of meals, is that over time, it moves from focus on that.
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  It helps me as I pray to realize there's a deeper panting in my heart.
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  And so what they're doing, concentrating, is like we're making a physical declaration
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  that we are spiritually desperate.
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  Yeah. Which is just, and God responds, doesn't he, Bill?
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  And you know, that word that you just used,
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  so fasting, you feel that desperation because you're depriving yourselves and
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  you focus that desperation.
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  Yeah. That the only answer is the Lord.
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  I mean, there's something about, Kyle, you and I have been talking a lot lately
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  about the presence of God and how to live a presence-filled life,
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  a presence-centered life.
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  And what I've discovered is the reason that we don't live in the presence of
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  God, that we don't abide there, is we get distracted.
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  Just every day, we just get distracted. We just get pulled away.
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  We are drawn away by so many things, as Jesus told Martha.
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  And there's something about fasting.
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  That that you lay aside the distraction of food, you lay aside the distraction of media,
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  you lay aside the distraction of other things and you laser focus your heart upon the Lord.
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  And it is just so healthy.
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  And that's why this word consecrate, you know, our buddy Nathan Lino really
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  explains this word well. But there's something in that word.
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  Every time God called his people as a people, he would say, consecrate yourself.
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  And there's something that means you set this apart.
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  You come in a deliberate way and come as a nation, come as a people, come as a church,
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  come as a family, and set yourself apart to do this and to humble yourself and
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  come back to me through fasting and then crying out to the Lord,
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  you know, in deliberate prayer.
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  Yeah, which is part of call a solemn assembly.
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  Don't simply don't eat.
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  Come together, assemble together to what? Get to God.
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  Focus. Let everything. And the solemn part, you can speak to this, Bill.
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  The solemn part is the spirit of the assembly, the attention of the assembly.
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  It's all about God.
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  It's all. We want you. We are slowing down, breathing, focusing.
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  Like our minds are going like, Lord, we have set aside food.
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  We've set aside this assembly because we want you more than anything.
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  You know, Kyle, you've talked about this before.
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  There's some things that happen
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  in the assembly, in the gathering that can't happen any other place.
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  Exactly right. And, you know, people, we have an Americanized view that is really
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  damaging the kingdom right now.
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  The average Christian comes to church about once a month.
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  Maybe I think the stat is like 1.5 times, you know, that's insane.
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  I mean, to think that we can live in the world and our kids can live in the
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  world and go to school and do all that kind of stuff.
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  And we only have one moment of maybe an hour and a half a week where we are
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  intentionally consecrating ourselves and coming into the presence of the Lord or seeking to.
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  And it doesn't work, does it? It just doesn't.
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  We're not consecrating enough of our life to focus on the Lord and draw near
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  the Lord. And I think this is the thrust of this passage is,
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  don't you know what's happening?
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  Don't you know how far you are? Come with desperation.
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  But I want you to come and fast and gather.
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  And then he said, and cry out to the Lord.
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  Cry out to God. There's something about that that really there's a sense in
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  which every Sunday ought to be a moment like this. Yeah.
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  I'm going to give you a stat, a reality that was shocking.
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  Nancy Piercy wrote a book about toxic masculinity recently, and it was just a fantastic read.
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  But she said, because there's so much attention around bad men and all those kind of things.
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  Well, they did comprehensive studies. This is secular, all those things.
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  So you ready? The healthiest families in America in every way,
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  which is not surprising for follow across, if you know the Bible.
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  The healthiest families in America are those in which the dad is the spiritual leader.
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  And that that that they gather at
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  least three sundays this is
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  the they boil down all this research they help
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  like healthiest marriages healthiest intimacy in a
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  marriage healthiest parenting uh healthiest financially
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  like their their solid understanding of
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  how you know to live in their means comes
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  down to this one factor is that they they're
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  self-proclaimed followers of jesus christ that gather
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  with the church at least three times a month okay
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  healthiest you know and you know what the most unhealthy
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  group is the most unhealthy group are those that proclaim their followers of
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  christ proclaim their followers but gather all up to once a month or less that's
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  the They are more unhealthy than atheists or agnostics.
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  Wow. The hypocrisy. Because it's hypocrisy.
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  Yeah. Because they proclaim one thing, yet don't live in that fellowship and that relationship.
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  So, I mean, I say that, say, there's proof in the fact that we as the people
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  want to be in the presence of God together.
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  I mean, think about this. What is heaven?
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  Heaven is us being with him. Right, right.
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  And so to choose, consecrate a fast, to come as an assembled people into his
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  presence. And then we'll sort of wrap it up here.
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  And then I love that, and I would encourage, because we have leaders that are listening.
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  Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord
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  your God and cry out to the Lord. Wow.
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  In light of one cry. Let me tell you what I would say.
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  It's interesting that the Lord in this passage, obviously we're in the old covenant
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  here, but it was important that the priest and the ministers and the elders got there first.
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  It was very important. So I just say this to my brothers that are pastors and
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  leaders. You need to get there first.
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  Wow. You just need to get there. You need to get to God's presence first.
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  You need to get desperate first. You need to be a living example.
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  I need to be a living example for my family, for my church, of a guy that chooses
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  to be desperate for God. That chooses to.
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  And I think that the greatest leadership move you could make this year.
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  Your greatest leadership move you can make is that you choose to be the guy
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  that fasts and prays, that seeks God's face, that wants to be a part of a move of God.
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  I was telling Bill earlier about a pastor in America, one of the most influential
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  churches, recapping the year and helping them reflect.
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  And he got to the end of it, and he said, listen, last seven minutes of a 20-something-minute
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  podcast, he goes, none of this matters, though. I mean, a very strategic leader.
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  He says, but none of this matters if you falter in your prayer life.
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  And if you're not praying first, that's what he said.
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  He said, none of this matters if we're not in desperate, desirous pursuit of
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  God's presence. And I thought, you know what?
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  You can do church a myriad of ways in any nation of the world,
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  but you boil it down to there are some things that are non-negotiable.
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  And here we are again in a moment where I would just encourage us,
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  what does this positional desperation look like for you?
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  Right. Well, this is it. And then, I mean, we're talking about how do we position
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  ourselves for revival this year and in a new way, perhaps.
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  Well, we position ourselves by practical holiness. We talked about that last
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  time. and being in the position where we're listening to the Spirit,
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  we're responding to the Spirit on a daily basis.
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  But also, we position ourselves through intentional desperation.
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  We choose to be desperate. And we do the things that desperation leads us to do.
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  We fast, we pray, and we call others. And we gather.
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  We gather. We get together. There's a power in united prayer.
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  There's a power in united desperation that is literally irresistible to God.
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  That's very good. And we have to go there if we're going to be a part of what God is doing.
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  Kyle, could you just lead us in a final call to desperation and just lead us in prayer?
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  And we invite everybody to join us in that.
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  Yeah. Yeah, so let's walk in and just take a moment, because the Lord's speaking
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  to me in this passage. I already started something.
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  Would you just ask the Lord right there, say, Lord, what are you trying to show me?
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  What are you trying to say to me?
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  Help me to hear it.
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  I'm willing to do it.
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  Father, I thank you for every listener, every local church represented,
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  every nation that you have drawn, even to this podcast, people that are leading
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  in different places all over the world.
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  And we just say, Lord, I thank you that your way works, that the way that you
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  send a move of God, the positioning has always been the same.
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  And so, Lord, I do. I pray that you would find a people that get serious and
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  that, Lord, we would all choose to get desperate and that in our own ways,
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  we would repent deeply, fully.
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  Lord, that we would declare moments of fasting and prayer because we sent you
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  calling us to that we would assemble with others to be serious about meeting with God.
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  And I pray that leaders would lead.
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  I pray that leaders would lead spiritually, God, not out of shame or fear,
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  but in faith that God's calling me to this and others will join me.
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  So, Lord, I pray there'd be a marked positioning. I pray in 2025 specifically
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  that your eyes would look across our nation and the nations and you'd find people
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  that are positioned just like this and that you would breathe upon it.
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  I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  Well, thanks so much for joining us today. And we pray that as you step out
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  into your day, you will choose desperation and all that that brings.
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  And in this coming year, you will be positioned for revival in a way like you'd never have.
• 27:45
  And I promise you this, if you get ready for God, you'll experience him.
• 27:50
  Because he wants to manifest himself to you in more than you want that.
• 27:56
  So let's get ready, okay?
• 27:58
  And I hope you'll join us next time as we're going to talk one more week or
• 28:04
  two about how do we position ourselves.
• 28:07
  And so join us and invite somebody to join you as we cry out to God together.
• 28:13
  Music.