Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #194 Highlights from the 2025 Revival Roundtable - With special guest David Thomas

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#194 Highlights from the 2025 Revival Roundtable - With special guest David Thomas · The OneCry Podcast

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I mean, I think this is the hot cry of Gen Z. It's either real or I'm out. I need all of God.
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And so these old camps, these former delineations, we're just wanting to live
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in the reality of Word and Spirit.
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Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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Music.
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The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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Well, hello, and thank you for joining us on this One Cry podcast.
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I am so excited about the series that we're currently in dealing with how to
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respond to the activity of God right now in revival.
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These last couple of years have just been amazing, and I think you would agree
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that many are talking about how this may just be really the birthing room,
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the beginning of another widespread revival and spiritual awakening.
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So my question is, what in the world should we do post-Asbury in the midst of
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this heightened interest and seeking of God?
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And so what we decided as a number of leaders to collectively,
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let's get together and let's have a cross-generational gathering,
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and we are and did three occasions now,
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and it is bookends the Collegiate Day of Prayer on the last Thursday of February.
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So first we held it in Dallas, then we held it at Waco in the context of the
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simulcaste originating from Waco for the Collegiate Day of Prayer, and then at Texas A&M.
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And in each of those, we had just a minimum number of people on purpose so we
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could have a serious prayerful discussion about what it is that God wants to do.
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But we're going to let you in on that as podcast family and let you listen to,
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and I pray you'll digest, especially this particular podcast. I am.
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I'm going to let you hear a presentation by David Thomas. David Thomas,
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Dr. David Thomas, is connected to Asbury.
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He leads a ministry called The New Room. He shepherded the Asbury movement in revival.
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And I would just say of anybody that I've met in my generation right now that
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I feel like has a pulse and an understanding of the nature and the character
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and the ways of God in revival, David Thomas is that man.
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And in fact, last year and again this year, he is hosting a gathering of maybe
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40 individuals who are really at the forefront and also behind the scenes crying
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out to God and having what he calls,
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he's the convener of a family of like-hearted people realizing that revival
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moves at the pace of friendships.
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So he's building friendships and having discussions, and they're so rich. and they're so deep.
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And so I want you to just pause long enough to be able to really absorb what
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it is, this one individual that I look to for insight when it comes to movements of God and revival,
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David Thomas, and what he shared at our recent revival roundtable.
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Listen carefully, listen prayerfully, ask God to increase your faith.
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I want to thank you all so much for the opportunity to share with you today.
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I'm so sorry I'm not able to be there. I missed that this year,
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but enjoyed it so much last year.
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And thinking of you all, I'm so grateful for Byron and Bob and all of you who
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convened the Revival Roundtable. I know it's a very rich fellowship,
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an important conversation.
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And so I'm happy to just share. I know we're all just sort of a piece of the
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puzzle. We can only share from the limited view we have from our vantage point,
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but I can just tell you what I've been experiencing over the years since we were together.
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I believe we are experiencing an increase of the presence of Jesus,
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an increase of prayer. The water table of prayer is rising.
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There is, I think, an increased kind of expression of encounter,
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which, of course, we know is the spring.
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This is the origination of all awakening, is encounter with Jesus.
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I believe we're seeing that on the rise.
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There is an increased boldness among the young, more initiative,
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more apostolic, kind of catalytic movement of just the courage to just start
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things, to just move out and be creative.
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We're seeing that scattering all across the West. You know, what's so interesting
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is that there seems to be such a continuity among the young across the West,
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Europe, UK, Australia, South Africa, we've heard testimonies.
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I don't know if it's the smartphone has been this common platform of experience.
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COVID was basically experienced the same by the young all across.
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There's just a continuity of experience that has led to kind of a common hunger and desperation.
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And so there's so much interaction and interplay among the young across the West.
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Those who are really pursuing Jesus have a lot that they share in common.
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And we've seen lots of important friendships in their courage, their clarity.
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It seems to me that increasingly in the West, our desperation is finally beginning
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to pierce the veil of our affluence and self-sufficiency.
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We're finally beginning to see reality and feel it.
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And this is leading to a kind of heart cry of prayer that we haven't seen in the West in the same way.
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I think Christendom, cultural Christianity has buffered us for so long.
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And finally, that's being penetrated.
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And there is a difference that is leading to, I don't know about you all,
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I'm observing kind of a collapsing of some of the old categories.
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Evangelical, charismatic, just, you know, desperation burns that away.
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We're just being driven together into more just of a full kind of Trinitarian
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life where we need all of God in all of life. I mean, I think this is the heart cry of Gen Z.
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It's either real or I'm out. I need all of God. And so these old camps,
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these former delineations, we're just wanting to live in the reality of word and speech.
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The Spirit giving life to the Word of God in us, the Word of God giving direction
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of how to interpret our experience of the Spirit.
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And so that to me is so encouraging.
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I've heard people use the phrase, little fires everywhere.
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It seems that there are spot fires of the presence of Jesus cropping up in so
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many places and in settings that were maybe at some point sort of quasi-cessationist,
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are just experiencing the Spirit.
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Just He is making Himself known. And so we're having to grow our theology to
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kind of account for that as people are lingering in His presence, knowing His presence.
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We're beginning to feel the rise of travail in us.
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We find ourselves wanting to be on the floor before Him in heart crying and desperate prayer.
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We're moving into a more emotionally honest expression of prayer.
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And the Spirit is just giving Himself. There's no particular authenticating
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gift or manifestation of this.
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It's just the increase of love and fervor, both of which are key marks of awakening.
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You know, Jonathan Edwards said that the essential sensibility of awakening is fervor, zeal, fire.
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And the object of all of our hopes is the increase of the love of God in us.
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So where love and fervor are rising, that's a sure sign that something authentic
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is happening. I think we're seeing that all around.
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I don't know about you, but I'm observing deeper unity, even in this revival roundtable setting.
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There's no grandstanding, there's no platforming, no one's trying to govern or control the agenda.
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There's a beautiful kind of deferential, mutual, plural quality to the relationships
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that are moving around this.
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We may not yet be in global awakening, but I think we are in a relational revival.
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And the quality of those relationships is beautiful. And of course, it's mission critical.
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We've come to know that awakening moves at the pace of friendship.
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It's not a plug and play program.
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This is something that is built out of community and Jesus cares very much about
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the caliber of our relationships.
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And I'm seeing that really moving in the right directions.
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I'm grateful for that. So, so important. That includes relationships that are
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forming across the line of race, Not ceremonial relationships,
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not just public, but deep friendships that are forming at deep listening levels of racial unity.
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Jesus, I believe, comes toward that, and I think we're observing some of that.
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Last summer, Bob and others of you were,
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Byron and others were with us in Wilmore for a convening of ministry leaders
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across the West who have eyes on and heart for emerging adults in different directions.
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And it gave us a chance to sort of survey what are we observing all across the
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West, Collegiate Air Prayer and many other ministries.
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And it was interesting because in that 36 hour waterfall
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of testimony we just listened we weren't there to strategize or
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network we're there to learn discern pray and and try to understand what Jesus
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is doing we began to whiteboard the observations and after about four to six
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hours into it began to sort of notice themes began to like okay I'm hearing
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that again and again and again in different places started noting that then
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we stood back and said okay of all of that,
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Identify the thing that seems most pressing in your setting.
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What is the most needed thing?
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Interestingly, the thing that popped to the top, and this is a broad survey
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of awakening-hearted people, the number one thing was spiritual conflict and
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deliverance, which was really striking to me.
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But I think what it indicated was, first of all, we've come to understand we
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really are up against more than we thought.
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And secondly, our standard ministry kit, What we have trained on and been doing
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is just not enough anymore.
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We're up against more and we need more.
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And I think that that is a discovery for us to take seriously right now.
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How that ministries of deliverance and authority, spiritual authority,
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are becoming sort of normalized, mainstream, standard kit of ministry for us now.
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I think that is a part of our awakening reality that we're starting to understand
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and paying attention to that.
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It's really all about how to respond. We've learned that we've been taught that
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American church has operated on sort of a business model of cast vision,
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get buy-in, set metrics, raise money, and charge ahead. And that has failed us.
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And I think now we're beginning to kind of return to the kingdom model of let's
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seek God, let's inquire of the Lord, and let's observe what he does in response,
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and then let's respond to it.
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It's just a simple model of observe and respond.
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And so God is helping us with that. So from my perspective, this again is just
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limited, my little piece.
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But from my perspective, this is a time to be spent.
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This is a time to swing for the fences. This is a seek the Lord while he may be found season.
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Now, we're going to do that in a sustainable way.
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Relationships like the ones in the room you're in right now are a part of that sustaining.
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We need relationships that will... I think we're looking for vocational running
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mates, men and women that share the same heart and we trust each other and we're
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for each other. Anything I have is yours.
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Whatever I need to learn from you and in that we can sustain for the expenditure
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to be coins in God's pocket, spend me as you wish. I think that's kind of where we are.
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This is a time for deeper consecration.
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Deeper circumspection, deeper accountability and integrity, for the spotlight
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of the Holy Spirit to be prevailing in the hidden places of our lives and be
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open in relationships where we can share that.
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It is a time for collaborative discernment.
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No single person, there is no single person that is equipped to lead awakening.
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It's just too complicated, too demanding.
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I believe that the only way is in these circles of conversation like what we're having.
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Whatever spiritual gifts I have are for you, yours are for me.
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We need all the EQ and knowledge and network and education, experience,
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everything in the room in order to know the way forward in this.
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And so this conversation you're a part of right here is absolutely so crucial.
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So thank you for being a part of it. Thank you so much for allowing me to share
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in it this way. And I look forward to learning from all that you're discussing.
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I'll download with Byron sometime soon and be eager to hear about that.
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So God bless and keep you. Much love to all of you.
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So I don't know how you responded to what you just heard, but I know my own
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heart. I was so convicted.
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I love the way David Thomas takes it back to our individual hearts.
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So we got to be consecrated. We've got to be surrendered.
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We've got to realize if this is going to be a sustainable work of God's spirit,
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we have to be spiritually ready.
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Somebody said revival ready is what we need to be focusing on during this season of what he is up to.
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So I thank you for listening. But before you go, would you just pause long enough with me?
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And I want to just very quickly, but walk through carefully some of the takeaways
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of David Thomas and what we just heard of him.
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Number one was he talked about the observations on revival and awakening.
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And I think his primary point there was there's an increased presence of Jesus
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right now and a rise in prayer.
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An increased presence of Jesus and a rise in prayer. I see it.
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I think probably you do too.
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Secondly, there are spiritual shifts taking place.
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I loved it when he said the old denominational divisions, evangelical,
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charismatic, et cetera, they are dissolving.
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And I love the fact that we aren't asking people to give up their distinctives theologically.
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We are asking them to just lay down those secondary distinctives for a greater purpose of revival.
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And David notes that, and he sees it happening.
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And he says, I see signs of awakening. Did you get that? where he saw increased
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love and fervor in faith commitments. Now, that is a sign, right?
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I think it was Duncan Campbell who said, revival is just falling in love with
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Jesus all over again. So an increase in love and faith commitments.
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And then he talked about the challenges and the needs at the moment,
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the rising spiritual conflict, the need, therefore, for us attacking the enemy
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instead of him just having heyday and attacking us, the spiritual warfare.
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And then finally, he also, like last week with Aubrey, he gave a call to action.
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And that call to action was that we would have a deeper consecration.
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That we would have running mates in this partnering together in ministry and
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so that we would not be disqualified.
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And then finally, he said, awakening requires collaborative leadership,
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collaborative leadership, that we can't do it alone.
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No one can do it alone. He said it's too complex to do alone.
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So I just want us to stop for a moment and say, Lord, would you help us in each of these areas?
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Now, even before I pray, I want to share with you, and you can find in the show
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notes, what I just read as takeaways,
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but also a link to what I'm getting ready to share with you.
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Prior to the roundtable, I just got a couple of our leaders together,
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and I said, I don't want to just have another event.
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I don't want to stop with the final amen.
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What is it that God is doing that we can then take with us?
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And we decide to put together a very brief, but I think powerful tool,
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and it's called really a Declaration of Prayer for Revival.
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And the title of it is, Our One Cry for More.
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For More. It's more. O great reviver, while our hearts are rejoicing in all
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that you are doing, among students around the world, we ask for more.
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Accelerate your work among us, O Lord.
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Unite us across generations in a tidal wave of unceasing prayer for your presence.
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Revive our hearts as we confess all known sin.
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Lay aside every doubtful habit. Obey the Spirit promptly and confess Christ to others boldly.
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Ignite a passion, Lord, for worldwide awakening on every campus among students,
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faculty, ministries, and churches.
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And grant a sweeping harvest among every tongue, tribe,
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nation, and people, and finish the task as you cover the earth with your glory
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like the waters cover the sea.
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And so, Lord, that's our prayer. What I just read, Lord, we cry out for more, more, Lord.
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We want more, more of your glory, more of your presence, more of your spirit, more of your word.
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We just want more, not because we want to be so self-satisfied or self-sufficient,
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but we want more for the glory of the name of Jesus' sake.
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And that's what revival does. So, God, what you've begun, would you multiply? Would you accelerate?
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Would you give us more? And I pray this in the powerful name of the Reviver, Jesus Christ.
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Amen and amen. Don't forget, you can go to the show notes right now.
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You can also click that link and go to the OneCry website.
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And I would encourage you, that declaration of prayer, it's a tool.
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You could use it pastors in your church to give to everybody.
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Send it to them in your email weekly. You can put it up on the screen and in
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unison, pray it together in a church service, but in small groups,
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let that become the premise of the prayers going forward.
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This is the kind of prayer that we believe we need right now as we're asking
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God for more. God bless you.
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Thank you for joining us on the One Cry podcast. Can't wait to our next.
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Music.