Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #182 Special Report - Looking Back and Looking Forward

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#182 Special Report - Looking Back and Looking Forward · The OneCry Podcast

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  So, my encouragement to be to our listeners, as you look back in your account
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  and look forward, just get in the greatest position possible for the move of.
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  Music.
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  God that's coming for you and your church and in our land these days.
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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, hello, One Cry family, and this is Byron Paulus, and I'm on podcasts from time to time.
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  But today, I am so blessed to be able to be on a podcast with the co-host of
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  the regular One Cry podcast, all the way from Mississippi, Kyle Reno.
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  Kyle, this is a privilege for me, man.
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  I don't get to hang out with you on podcasts like this, like Bill Elif gets
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  to. So, man, thank you for joining us.
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  Yeah, man, live from Brandon, Mississippi. Honored to be a part of it,
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  and it's good to see you, too.
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  Well, it's great to be together. And I just thought, as we come to the year end here in 2024,
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  to be able to reflect about the podcast this past year, because it's really
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  been an amazing year of impact among pastors and leaders particularly.
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  And I think, Kyle, we're somewhere around, hovering around 175 podcasts.
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  Most of which you have been a part of, which translates to about,
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  what, three and a half years.
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  From Mississippi, you can do good math. That's a lot of content.
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  Yeah, it is. That's way out of my pay grade, man. Don't ask me to do the math on how long it is.
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  It's been a lot. But the beauty of it, it's all things that come out of Bill's
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  heart and my heart and things that I know that One Cry is passionate about and
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  a heart for personal revival and see it spread across the nation.
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  And we're in real-time moments where we've got testimony of things God's doing.
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  So it's been a fun three-plus years, and I believe that there's more to come.
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  And I think at the outset, we just kind of had a byline accelerating the movements of revival.
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  And now it's not a matter of any form of having to initiate them.
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  I mean, they are happening and they're happening in so many different places
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  and so many different arenas.
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  And I think obviously on campuses and Gen Z, it's amazing what we're watching God do.
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  And then as we also look beyond that and the sports world, I mean,
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  I don't want to mention any football teams from South Bend, Indiana,
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  but the quarterback goes to my church and the coaches are meeting for Bible study.
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  And that's happening in campuses. I mean, on sports programs everywhere,
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  it seems like, and even in media and Christian films.
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  And it just seems like that there is a movement and you and Bill and the whole
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  podcast that the OneCry family has been able to accelerate those movements. What a blessing.
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  And that's what I want to talk with you about today. Kyle, looking back on all
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  the podcasts in 2024, I would think some of them kind of stand out where you would say,
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  man, I just sense God's hand was on this, or I just sense it resonated with
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  the pastors and particularly in leaders that are watching and listening to this.
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  And I just wondered if just off your heart, Kyle, as you look back,
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  what are some of those themes, and maybe a little cliff note,
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  one takeaway maybe from that theme that just keeps lingering in your own heart.
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  Yeah, I mean, I think the series that really Bill led through around the present-centered
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  life, and man, if you've been around the One Cry podcast, you've heard this
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  a lot, that everything flows from the presence of the Lord.
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  I mean, like the desire to so position ourselves as personally,
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  but as a people, as a church, as a nation to experience the presence of the Lord.
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  And Bill had several teachings that led us to pray and to believe for God's presence personally.
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  And the centrality of that, you see in Exodus, a lot of moments that he shared
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  about where the desire to be distinct
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  because of the manifest glory and transcendence and presence of God.
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  So that was a teaching that I sat under and thought, man, yeah, that is so true.
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  I think personally for me in 2024 and recounting just some of the podcast and
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  really a word that God gave me for our church was looking at the moment where
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  Jesus clears the temple and things that the Lord showed me about his why behind that.
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  And that the desire was for the temple to be a place where people could experience the presence of God.
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  And that the religious leaders had made it harder for far-from-God people to
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  experience the presence of the Lord by setting up in the court of the Gentiles
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  all the different merchandise things.
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  It wasn't wrong for them necessarily to provide these things for people to bring for sacrifice,
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  But where they did it had made it harder for far-from-God people to get as close
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  to God's presence as possible,
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  and that that was the one place that the Gentiles could come and pray and worship
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  and make their offerings to the one true God.
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  And it struck me that Jesus was irate at the idea that religion would make it
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  harder for people to be in his father's house.
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  And the correlating passage in Matthew 11, it shows us that moment again that
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  Jesus has run people out of the temple.
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  And once he's run everybody out, and I've referenced this in the podcast—.
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  That when they're all run out, Gentiles, people that were sick and those that
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  needed healing, came to Jesus in the temple.
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  So defiled people that would not normally be able to come into the temple came
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  into the presence of Jesus and he healed them there. Wow.
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  And it's like when he got religion out of the way and real people that are desperately
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  panting for God could come, they come. and then Jesus does what he does.
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  He helps people in a profound way. And it just, for me, it made me as a pastor
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  say, I want to remove all the obstacles.
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  I want to make sure that there's no religious barriers.
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  Instead, we're building bridges so that people far from God could come into
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  the presence of God, into the presence of Jesus.
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  And when that happens, Jesus changes lives. So that was probably a takeaway
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  moment that I'm still, I'm leading in light of that truth still today.
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  And you know, that reminds me, Kyle, of Duncan Campbell, I think it was,
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  when asked, how do you define revival? He says, it's a going of God among His people.
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  And I've often wondered, when you walk into churches today, most churches,
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  most times, that it's the going of programs.
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  It's a going of plans. It's a going of the charisma or the popularity of a particular individual.
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  And how many times do I step in the church and I just say, God is here?
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  And when it does happen, it's like we just fall on our faces and surrender.
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  So I so appreciated that whole series on the presence of God.
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  And I think you and Bill sometimes talk about a friend of Bill's called Richard
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  Owen Roberts which is his name, and a real historian on revival.
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  And he gave us a definition one time as revival being an extraordinary movement
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  of God that produces extraordinary results.
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  But then years later, he said, I changed my definition.
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  And I remember thinking to myself, how can you do that to me?
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  I've been quoting you all these years, you know?
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  And he says, I'm shortening it. It's just God.
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  It's the presence of God. And I so appreciated that whole series on that emphasis.
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  And I think it's probably redirected the thinking of pastors as they prepare
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  and plan and pray with their leadership for what even the Sunday worship service should be like.
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  And they may be asking the questions, are we doing what the Bible says we need
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  to do to evoke, to bring about the presence of God? So thank you for doing that series.
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  It was so rich and so grateful for that.
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  Any other particular series? I know you did a series on fasting and just numerous others.
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  And I know there were special reports, even that I did a number of this last year,
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  on stirrings and movements of God, especially with, we interviewed campus leaders
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  like Drew Humphrey from Baylor and Jay Anderson, I think, from the POS movement.
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  And my favorite was David Thomas
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  from Asbury, who I think laid out more quality, I guess you would say,
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  principles of revival, perhaps of any single one-hour message I've heard.
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  So, so grateful for all those podcasts this last year.
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  Yeah. Yeah, and I would just echo that with, I think, the building.
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  I've, and this is mine. so everybody don't have to agree with me on this.
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  I believe that revival has begun.
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  And I'm not speaking from a hope so. I'm speaking from is here statement.
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  And now, do I think it's at the magnitude yet? No.
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  But I'm watching too much of what God is doing.
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  If we're looking into the future, looking in 25, ending 24, I would just say
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  to our listeners, Man, there is no overestimating.
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  I guess you could underestimate what God has been cumulatively doing here for a couple years.
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  And my faith for 25, and God doesn't work on calendar years.
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  I believe our God's a God of seasons, and He's strategically putting things together.
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  But practically for me and for my local church, the state of Mississippi,
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  what we're seeing, I have great faith that the tide is swelling and that there's more to come.
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  So my encouragement to be our listeners, as you look back and recount and look
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  forward, just get in the greatest position possible for the move of God that's
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  coming for you and your church and in our land in these days.
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  And I remember, Kyle, when we launched these podcasts, we said,
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  you know, this may not be the season where they'll be in the greatest demand,
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  but when God begins to move,
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  they're going to be looking for resources from those who have walked the pathway
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  and sensed and have gotten to
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  know the nature and the character of God and the ways of God in revival.
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  And so I do believe this is a divine moment.
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  It is a season, as you said, and what a season it is.
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  And I would just add, and I think, Kyle, I'm sure you and Bill and others are
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  picking up on this, just online on social media, the stories of revival that are happening.
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  And I just picked up one this morning where at the North Carolina University
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  of North Carolina, North Carolina State,
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  I guess, they actually took chalk and wrote the whole Gospel of John on the
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  sidewalks there at North Carolina State University.
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  I mean, no one told them to do that.
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  God's spirit had to come to the hearts of those students and say,
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  hey, here's something that will attract other students. And it's the gospel
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  of John written literally in chalk on that campus.
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  So those are stories, right?
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  Stories of where God is at work.
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  And I'm with you. 2025, I believe,
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  could be the explosion year of where God takes all these little pockets of revival
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  and just above and beyond anything we could ever think or imagine.
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  And I'm excited about that.
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  So, Kyle, talk to me a little bit about a vision maybe that you've had.
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  Why did you ever get involved in the One Cry podcast?
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  What has been your hopes and desires? How would you like to see God use it?
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  And I just love hearing your heart on that.
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  Yeah, I mean, a statement I've used often in the podcast is,
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  revival ruins you, and in the best ways possible.
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  So for me, I didn't grow up in the faith, around the things of God.
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  I walked into church, Garden of First Baptist in 1999, as a far from God 18, 19-year-old.
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  And experienced the presence of God. And seven days later, was born again and
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  immediately discipled by men that were white hot for God in the midst of a little
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  r revival in a local church.
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  And so I tell people all the time, I was ruined. I never knew,
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  I didn't grow up in church around the things of God, so I didn't know church at all.
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  But when I came to Christ, all I knew was a church fully alive.
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  And it wasn't until later when surrendering to ministry and getting out a little
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  bit more that I realized that wasn't normative, that that was abnormal.
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  And so it ruined me. And by God's grace,
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  I've been very blessed to be at churches that believe in the power of the Spirit
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  and to be a Word and Spirit church and believe that the presence of God can
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  change any person's life and heart and city and beyond.
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  And so I guess my hope around the One Cry podcast is to take things that was
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  invested into me through men like Steve Gaines and David Jett and Bill Eliff
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  and in my generation to help hand those off to future leaders to rightly position
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  the church for the future.
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  I guess one of the greatest fears I have for the local church in the future
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  is I'm I'm about to be 44 years old.
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  There's a lot of guys like me that are starting to lead in different local churches,
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  every expression, size, scope.
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  But a lot have never experienced the manifest glory of God in a local church.
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  They know church, but have never had the opportunity maybe to know a move of God.
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  And I think the past generation's leaders, I take Steve's.
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  And, you know, I go across the spectrum of they were shaped and their leadership
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  was shaped by the Jesus movement.
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  And the way they led in local expressions of the church.
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  And I think that the church, Big C, in our nation have been led by men that
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  were really marked by that era.
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  Well, if we don't have a similar experience in our nation, will there be leaders
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  that know how to lead and believe for more than merely doing church, a move of God?
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  So I think our heart around this, I know, and my involvement was just to be
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  able to maybe have a moment to share some things that I've caught with others.
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  Wow, Kyle, I so appreciate that and what you said about not being satisfied
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  with less than the manifest presence of God.
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  I think the fear that I would have, and I'm sure you would join me in this, is that we would relax,
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  that we'd say, hey, this is really cool what God's doing, and we would just
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  sit back and watch instead of saying there's so much more,
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  that the outpouring of God's Spirit, echoes of Pentecost, if you will,
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  could change the world forever, and that we would believe Him and trust Him for that.
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  And then finally, Kyle, as we wrap up here, if we can, here in a moment,
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  but I just want to, I just want to say, and I think I sent you an email of, um.
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  Conversation I had with a pastor in Uganda who said that he has listened to
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  70 podcasts of the One Cry podcast,
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  and he is leading 500 churches, I think it is, there in Uganda and bringing
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  other denominations and streams into this One Cry movement, Uganda.
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  And now One Cry leaders are going over there to just come alongside of him and
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  to see it spread in other nations, apparently an influential leader there in
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  a different stream than Kyle.
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  You're in maybe, and I'm in typically, but a stream of just godly pastors seeking him.
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  So we can never lose sight of the impact of how God uses digital world podcasts
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  to impact entire nations.
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  Kyle, I just thank you. Thank you for being an anchor on the podcast.
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  Thank you for what your heart is and that you are speaking and pouring out your
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  heart through a life message of something that you experienced.
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  And therefore, the fire is coming forth. And I'm so grateful for that.
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  So would you close in prayer and just close this time?
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  Let's just cry out to God for revival and ask him to use not only one cry,
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  obviously, but all the stirrings and movements that are taking place right now. Yeah, let's do it.
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  Well, let's lean in together, as we always say to our listener,
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  not to merely hear a prayer, but to participate, be a part of it. That's right.
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  So join us in this as we pray. Lord, thank you.
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  Thank you that there's no revival without a real God.
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  And I thank you that you're real and that you're moving and doing in our day, that you're not done.
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  You're not done in our nation and in the nations. So I ask for every listener
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  and for every follower of Christ in the United States of America,
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  God, would you give us faith?
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  To believe, Lord, for the wind of your Spirit to blow,
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  for the fire to fall, Lord, to see Jesus rightly glorified and exalted,
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  and that, Lord, our nation and future generations changed, Lord.
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  So, Father, I pray for the message of hope, Lord.
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  I think that the enemy loves that doomsday message, Lord, But I pray for the
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  hope that we have, that you're a rebuilder, a restorer,
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  Lord, that you renew things, God, that the story in redemptive history is the
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  fallenness and brokenness and how we just break things.
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  But you can bring things to life.
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  You can restore and renew and breathe.
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  So, Lord, breathe on us as we look back over 24. Thank you for all you've taught us this year.
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  And as we look forward into 25, help us to believe as big as our God.
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  So, Lord, we look to you and ask that you would send a mighty movement of your
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  spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.
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  Well, amen and amen. And thank you, Kyle. And you listeners out there and viewers,
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  I just want to say thank you for being faithful this past year.
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  So many of you, week after week after week, just like that pastor in Uganda,
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  are tuning in. You're listening.
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  You're downloading. and many of you are just pushing the share button and sending
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  it to others so they can listen.
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  And if there's a moment in history that this is the time to get anything about
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  revival out there to accelerate the movement.
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  We just encourage you to do that and pray with us as we're trusting God for
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  a major miracle to keep the One Cry podcast going forward and to multiply it during this moment.
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  I remember just the Asbury revival, the one in the 70s, Dennis Kinlaw just wrote
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  a little book, One Divine Moment, and this may be that one divine moment.
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  So thank you, and God bless you, and thank you, Lord, for joining us.
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  Music.