Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #252 - Remembering When God's Presence Fell: Decades of Revival with Byron Paulus

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#252 - Remembering When God's Presence Fell: Decades of Revival with Byron Paulus · The OneCry Podcast

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I'll never forget, it was like God just fell on that town.
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I mean, people who had never attended church were just on the streets asking, how can I
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come to know God?
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Welcome to the OneCry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and
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reports.
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Well, welcome to the OneCry Podcast.
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I'm Bill Eliff, and I am really thrilled tonight to have one of my dearest friends,
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Byron Paulus, joining us.
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Byron, these last few weeks, we've been talking about to individuals and just how revival,
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how they encountered God in revival, what it did to them, and how it left a mark on
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them.
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In fact, what Kyle Reno says, he says, I was ruined by revival.
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Right.
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I can't say it quite that way, like Kyle.
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Yeah, but you haven't been ruined, you haven't been changed by revival.
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So, Byron, just to introduce him to our audience, and of course, you've spoken on this podcast
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many times, but Byron actually was the founder of OneCry, and God put it on your heart, 15
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years ago this year.
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Yeah.
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And in a very particular way, you had served for 47 years, I think, with Life Action Ministries,
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and then felt the leading of God to begin OneCry to do a particular thing, and by the
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grace of God, we're doing it.
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It's happening.
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And what an amazing journey, Bill, all these years together.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And with God just giving us glimpses of His glory along the way.
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Oh, yeah.
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What an incredible time.
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Well, Byron, I'll ask our guests, when they first encountered, you know, somewhere along
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the way, you began to see revival, you began to experience it, you began to learn what
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that is and what it does, and of course, for you and for me, it's been our lifelong passion
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and calling and assignment from the Lord, really.
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But tell us a little bit, this is just about you, tell us, when did you first encounter
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God in revival?
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I think, honestly, on a personal level, what a joy to sit here with you and with the OneCry
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audience to just talk about what it's like during and after you encounter really the
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manifest presence of God.
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And for me, on a personal level, I came to Christ after walking out at age nine, really
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about 16 years later, when I joined the revival ministry that I became a part of for all those
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years, and knowing I was lost in my heart, but had to play the game after walking in
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the aisle, signing a card, getting baptized, going to a Christian college, being involved
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in a church, and while in the business world, and I ran into Life Action Ministries on our
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honeymoon, and it's crazy, I wanted these, we wanted these people to be in our wedding,
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they couldn't because they were in a church, and with a team called Life Action.
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So we went to see them on our honeymoon, and stepped in, and all I can say, in all my experience
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in Christian college, and very active in church, and chairman of committees in churches as
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a young business guy, and my wife, church secretary, we've seen it all, we thought.
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But something that night of the presence of God, we had never, ever sensed before.
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And it was that moment, we couldn't explain it, we couldn't define it, I didn't know that
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to call it the presence of God in revival, but we became groupies.
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Any time that team was anywhere within 50 miles, we wanted a taste of that sense of
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the presence of God one more time.
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But it's a reality that if you really experience God's presence, then you just
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dissatisfy the rest of your life with anything less than that.
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That's right, and you'll go after it no matter what the cost.
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So long story short here is that they called me, one of the business managers, my wife
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keeps seeing me on the worship team, so they asked if we'd join, and my goal in life was
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to make a bunch of money and retire by the time I'm 40, making all that money.
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And so when they called, my intuitive response was, how much will I make?
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And they said, nothing, you'll raise your support as a missionary.
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Well, I said, I'm not going to reach my goal very rapidly that way.
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But there was that tug in my heart and our hearts to be a little more closer to that
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presence of God.
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So we finally decided we would do this little trek for one year, and we came.
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And here's what I think is critical, even in the mission of revival today.
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God knew what had me, and he knew money had me.
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And I had this savings account, so I wouldn't have to raise support.
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I could just live on this savings account.
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And God just said, I want you to give it all away.
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Nobody said anything about money, but God did, because he knew what had me.
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And then I heard a definition of repentance, Bill, I had never heard before.
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And it went like this, a heart attitude, that everything I know to be sin and
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everything you show me in the future to be sin, Lord, I'm willing to give it up for you.
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Well, that was never my heart attitude at age nine or one day since, when honestly,
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everybody in this pretty significant size church thought we were the godly, young,
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Christian couple in the church.
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But in my heart, and frankly, in the business world, I was this close to making
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some major decisions in response to all these temptations.
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And so we came for that one year, and God said, I want your money.
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And I heard that definition of repentance.
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And finally, really just in a few days, I said, okay, God, I am so miserable.
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With his presence of conviction I know now, I am so miserable.
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You can have all my money.
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And he said, I didn't want your money, I wanted you.
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Wow.
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And at that point, I repented.
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I had a heart attitude that says, Lord, I no longer just want you in sin,
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I just want you.
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And I'm willing to let go of this sin.
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And I repented, gave my heart to Christ.
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And that commitment of one year turned into 47.
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47 years.
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Yeah, 47 years.
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It was a long year, but a glorious year.
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So that was kind of my first sense of actually conversion time,
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that I said there's something about this presence of God that really,
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really draws and moves somebody to himself.
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But I started reading this book, and really almost every year since,
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called, it's a real thin book, Easy Read, America's Great Revivals.
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Wow.
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And somebody has asked me in the past, Byron,
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how do you keep such a burden-free Bible?
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I read the stories of revival.
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Yeah.
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I look at the history.
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I begin to imagine if that happened today in our nation or our world,
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what it would look like.
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So that put a real hunger and thirst for a big R, I call it, into my heart.
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Big R and big R revival.
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Not just Bible, just personal or even community.
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But really.
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Nationwide.
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Yeah.
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And, yeah.
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And I then, in 1975, traveling with this revival team,
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in a community of 45,000 people, were two churches that split.
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The whole town was aware of it, reconciled.
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And in that moment, when they put this full-page ad in the newspaper
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about how those churches reconciled with the picture of it,
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and the whole city became aware of it, I'm just saying, Bill,
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I'll never forget.
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It was like God just fell on that town.
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Yeah.
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I mean, people that never attended church were just on the streets
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asking how can I come to know God.
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Was this the movement in the particular town where a son came back,
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a prodigal son?
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Yes, but also it's the town where the president of the bank attended
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no Bible-believing churches, attended no services, came out to the streets,
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said, Who can lead me to God?
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Somebody led him to Christ, his whole family to Christ.
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He ended up in full-time ministry.
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And I just got a text, frankly, from him yesterday,
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and he has a record of 1,000 people he has led to Christ by name
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within the first, like, 15 years of that experience.
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A businessman, attended no services, under conviction, came to Christ,
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a salesman coming from Dayton, Ohio, over to the city limit sign in Indiana
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during those days of God's presence, and fell under conviction,
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drove off the side of the road, got on his knee,
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repented for about 20 minutes, and drove into the town,
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stopped at a local gas station and said, Is there something going on in this town?
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And the gas station attendant said, Don't you know God is here?
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And so it was when I experienced those few days in that city
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where the fire fell, the smoke has been on my clothes ever since.
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And I honestly, Bill, I just said, I'll spend the rest of my life
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to see this one more time.
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It was so beautiful, so magnificent, so supernatural, so extraordinary.
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I just said, I want to see it one more time.
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It marked you.
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Forever.
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Yeah.
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And intentions of that one year changed my values, changed my goals,
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changed my career.
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It changed everything.
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Yeah.
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And I just set my face to say, God, please, I just want to see it again
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and again and again.
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Please let me see it.
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Years later, the founder of the ministry who was traveling with you,
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he would preach every night, died.
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And you became the leader of my faction at that time
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and did that for 30-something years, I guess.
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And in those days, just give us a snippet or two
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of what you saw God do in those days.
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Well, we were in protracted, extended times basically in local churches.
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You would always back then schedule no less than two weeks.
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No less than two weeks.
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And then we'd say even I did a number, many hundreds probably,
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of going in six or eight weeks in advance, casting vision,
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mobilizing them to pray, to seek God for an outpouring of his spirit,
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meet with their staff.
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And by the time I left that weekend, most of them were saying,
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can they only stay two weeks?
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Yeah.
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Can they please?
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Because we want to see that kind of outpouring in our church
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and in our community.
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And there are times, multiple times, where it would go three weeks
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or four weeks on one occasion, six weeks, seven Sundays.
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And I remember a well-known prayer leader in a whole large denomination
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walked into the back of a church.
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And one of those times, really, there was that outpouring manifest
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in the presence of God that he walked into the back
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and he just fell on his face.
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And he said, the first 10 seconds, the presence of God was so thick.
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I was on my face and God was just meeting with him in a special way.
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So in places like that, I just, the fruit, the long-term fruit
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of being in the presence of God is an amazing thing.
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Well, and I know in 1986, I had heard about Life Action.
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We invited him to our church for two weeks.
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And that was one of those meetings that went into a third and a fourth week.
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Fifty people came to Christ and were baptized during those weeks.
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And Dell never preached an evangelistic message.
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People were just getting saved.
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They'd be riding in their car and they'd get saved.
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They'd be at home in their shower and they'd get saved.
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And it was the presence of God.
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And really, that's the heart of it.
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We're so distracted and we're so clouded with the things of this world.
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The presence of God is distant to us.
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But when you give him time, and I think that's the key.
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It is a key.
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It is.
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And I believe a concentrated time to where you're not just one day a week
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or two days a week, but to really set aside extended time and say,
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Lord, I'm just going to put everything else aside.
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I'm going to spend focused time seeking your face.
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And then the truth, one truth builds upon another truth.
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And as we each obey, God just begins to move through his word with power
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in ways that you just don't see, I believe, otherwise.
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And I truly do believe, Bill, what you said,
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that the best form of evangelism is a byproduct of your Bible.
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That it is when God moves in the hearts of his children,
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that when they obey and respond, the Holy Spirit is free to come
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and to pour out his spirit.
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And that's what happened in the Upper Room.
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I mean, let's just face it.
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We don't have another Pentecost today, but we have echoes of Pentecost.
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And we have pictures of Pentecost.
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I believe when people stop, pause in their own Upper Room, seek him,
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and then as he moves, the world's changed forever.
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You know, years later, 15 years ago,
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what prompted you to begin this thing we call One Cry?
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How did that happen?
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You know, we were really getting away because Life Action Ministries
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was getting ready to celebrate their 40th anniversary.
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And being the leader of the organization,
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it had grown quite large for a revival ministry, 200 staff and team members,
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maybe, and multiple brands and outreaches, women's ministry, et cetera.
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And I thought, all these things we have done,
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yet the nation is worse off than it was 40 years earlier.
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And I thought, I'm sure, we don't know what it would have been like
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if there weren't those voices out there proclaiming that message to the church,
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et cetera, but I just knew there was more.
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I read the stories and accounts of what can happen in a nation,
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and even a world, through mighty movements of His Spirit.
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So the Lord just prompted me to get away for a week and to seek His face
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and say, Lord, what is it that we're missing?
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What is it that maybe you could lead us to in this next decade of ministry
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that might make a difference beyond all that?
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And you know what I learned?
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I was exhausted.
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Wow.
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I learned that, honestly, I probably was burned out.
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And so I didn't hear a thing from God.
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But then I got invited by a dear friend of ours, Michael Katt,
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to go to a Refresh Conference.
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He said, Byron, look, come, come free, sit in the back,
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I just won't recognize you, just sit there and let God refresh you.
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And during that time, God showed me two things that I had to confess to Him.
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And one of those was honestly a dependency upon incredible staff
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that were so skilled.
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And I would go to them and I would say, hey, if I need a strategic plan,
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would you help me with a strategic plan?
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And trust that that's what God wanted.
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But through a message there, God convicted me and says,
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Byron, I called you to lead this ministry, not them.
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Wow.
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So why don't you get before me and find out what my strategic plan is,
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this ministry.
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You know, I'm just telling you, after I made that confession, one other one,
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it was like with that heart that is now fertile for God's Spirit to speak.
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He downloaded in literally 10 minutes everything that was needed for a
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one-cry movement.
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And I had been teaching Halifax Chapter 2, these principles.
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I had pastors from large churches that came to me and said,
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Byron, can I take that outline on those principles of the movement of God
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and preach it?
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And they did.
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And so I thought, man, that's really cool.
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And God said, no, it has nothing to do necessarily with those principles.
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It has everything to do with who I use.
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And that's when God just impressed upon my heart.
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He uses people.
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And he used three kinds of people, types of people in Acts 2.
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Those intercessors, prayers who will pray for God to move in revival.
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He'll use voices that says that went and told the mighty acts of God.
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They just witnessed.
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Man, we know how much revival spreads on the wings of testimonies,
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the mighty acts of God in revival.
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They spread on the wings of testimonies.
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And then, thirdly, leaders like Peter who stood up and brought community
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and clarity and context really to what God was doing.
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So God just put in my heart, what if?
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These aren't big numbers to a lot of the world, but I don't care about numbers.
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But it was like if there were 50,000 intercessors that were truly active,
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identifiable, and connected, united because of the power of unity in prayer
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for God's spirit to move and pour himself out.
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What if there were 5,000 voices, pastors, and leaders who would begin to say,
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hey, revival is not just a nice idea.
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We're desperate and begin to proclaim the hope of revival from their pulpits
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or platforms.
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And then if there were 500 leaders, organization leaders, major pastors,
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leaders of institutions or whatever, that would say, hey,
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we're going to move this up to part of our mission statement.
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That we know if God sends revival, there will be evangelism.
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There will be missions.
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There will be everything else that we're working so hard at, like you said earlier,
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will just happen because God is there with his presence.
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So that was the birthing room.
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You gathered a group of us.
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I was privileged to be a part of that first group that met
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and prayed for a long time about, okay,
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how does this thing come out of the ground and the Lord birthed that?
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And what's cool, Byron, is the Lord has done it.
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I mean, he's been doing this.
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And 50,000 globally now.
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It's probably 500,000 as a result of that vision casting that God's given.
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And, you know, you and I and all of us with kindred hearts
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and many on this podcast are beginning to see the rumblings of real revival.
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I think One Cry played a little part in that.
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There's a whole bunch of things that God has done,
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but I'm grateful that we were able to play a part and want to continue to do that.
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And so as you think about this, and we're in the, I like to say right now,
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we're in the foothills of the next great awakening, I think.
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What do you pray would happen in the next five years in America and beyond?
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You know, probably not exactly the answer you're looking for, perhaps,
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but it was Bill McCloud, who was the pastor of the church in Canada,
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where God broke loose in the 70s, that he said to the Lord one time,
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Duncan Campbell came through and he was conversed.
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Anyway, God just said, Bill, if you'll get up in the middle of the night,
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every night that I prompt you, and pray for revival.
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And I said, Bill, how do you pray for revival in the middle of the night?
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And he said, I pray scripture.
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And I said, well, how many times has he woken you up?
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He said, every night at two o'clock in the morning for 30 years.
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Wow.
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I said, you have gotten up and you've prayed for revival every night for 30 years.
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He said, yes.
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And I said, what do you pray for?
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He said, I pray for you.
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I was so broken and humble.
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And I did make that commitment.
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I said, Lord, if you'll wake me up in the middle of the night, I'll pray scripture.
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And God just let me know Isaiah 64.
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And so not every night for the last probably 25 years, many nights,
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most nights I'll wake up and I'll pray literally through Isaiah 64.
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Those 12 verses for God to demonstrate his supernatural power and presence in verse 1,
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that those mountains would come down, pray for purity among God's people
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as the burning fire boils the water, and pray for it to be all about Jesus,
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pray for increased faith.
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I have not seen it.
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I go through all 12 of those verses.
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And I say, Lord, instead of praying for specific,
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because you know the mountains that need to come down, the obstacles.
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You know where the pride and the greed and all those things stand
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between the church and you and your glory.
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And the same thing on purity.
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You know where purity meets up.
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That's what I pray will happen.
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And I just do believe also that in Isaiah it says his highway is a highway of holiness,
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that he comes down.
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So I pray for holiness.
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I pray more about the condition that would be right for God to send,
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the John the Baptist paving the way for God to send a revival.
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But I'll tell you, reading those accounts of the history of revival
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has really stretched my vision for what it could be like.
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Yeah, built your faith.
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I mean, every time I hear the story and read another account, a biblical account,
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a historical account, my faith rises.
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And then you can pray bigger prayers.
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And God has a better tool to use in prayer and intercession.
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So the first great awakening, when I read as much as one-sixth of the population
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came to Christ in the colonies in that first great awakening,
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and I extrapolate that to today, one-sixth of 300 million people or whatever,
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that's 50 million people would come to Christ in a very brief period of time.
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So I say, Lord, send us 50 million new converts.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Wouldn't that be something?
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I think it can happen.
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I think it will happen.
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I think you're right.
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It's at the foothills.
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The wind is blowing.
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Yeah.
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And the breeze is there.
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Yeah.
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The rumbling in the mulberry trees is happening.
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God's on the verge of showing up.
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You keep preaching.
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I have a fit here, but that's good.
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Well, Byron, we love you.
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We thank God that you follow the Lord's impressions and the Lord's leadership.
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So good.
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And you get to be a part as a result of that.
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You and your wonderful wife, Sue, and your family have gotten to be a part of great things.
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And I think greater to come.
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And we always like to close this one cry,
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and that's very specifically named one cry,
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one united cry across the nation for a spiritual awakening in our day
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with doing exactly that.
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So why don't you take a minute?
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And we're going to ask the listeners not to just listen to prayer,
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but to join with us as we pray.
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So, Byron, why don't you lead us in that?
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Happy to do that.
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Lord Jesus, thank you for all of our friends out there that carry the same vision,
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the same burden, that really have hearts that are wholly discontent with status quo.
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And thank you for those that have been in the battle, in the fire,
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crying out to you for revival even longer than Bill and I have.
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And, God, I thank you that there is an army of people who are lifting up their hearts
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and their voices, and they are literally oftentimes filled with tears,
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as they see your face.
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And they are just so longing for you to display your glory,
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to bring the kind of transformation that really only comes when you manifest your presence.
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Oh, God, we long, we long for the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
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to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
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If we would just begin to imagine what that would be like,
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begin to imagine, to get a taste of what it would be like if it was on earth as it is in heaven.
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God, as we begin to get a glimpse, even as we think about how soon you may return,
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God, we just begin to get a glimpse of what heaven is like.
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And, God, we pray, because you told us to pray, be like that in measure here on earth.
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And, oh, God, I just remember so vividly this person in my office flat on his face and saying,
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I want revival more than I want to breathe.
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God, would you put that kind of desperation in our hearts?
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And, God, I do believe, as a friend of mine said one time,
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I believe America is going to have revival, but it's either going to come through desperation or devastation.
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God, would you, with your mercy, withhold the devastation?
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And, God, would you please, through desperation, deliver us?
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So, God, we thank you that we have stories in history, stories in scripture, stories today especially,
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where you are moving on campuses and elsewhere that you are giving us a taste,
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just a small glimpse of something so much larger that you're longing to do,
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and I believe want to do, will to do, and soon will do.
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God, we thank you in advance for that.
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And, God, we need you.
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God, don't let any of us think that you'll send a revival through any instrument that's not broken and contrite and humble.
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So, all of us, those who are listening, for Bill, for myself, God,
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would you bring us to a place where you could use us to help ignite that flame and spread it throughout the world?
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But, God, please, would you allow us to decrease so you could increase?
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Yes.
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And it be all about Jesus.
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That's our prayer.
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That's my prayer, God.
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Thank you in advance for what you're going to do.
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It's going to be a glorious moment when your divine presence settles in on our land and our world
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in ways that historians would once again put in their books that God visited America in another great awakening.
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Yes.
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Please do it, we pray in the name of Jesus.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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Well, Byron, I love you, man.
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I love you, Bill.
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We've been on a journey that's been so glorious.
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And we've seen some fires out there together.
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That's right.
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And we've made dumb mistakes, and we've done it all.
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Mostly dumb mistakes.
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But, yeah, Bill, thank you.
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Thank you so much.
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Thanks for being a part of the team.
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What a joy this has been.
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It's a privilege.
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And we're so appreciative of all of you who joined us today.
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And listen, this series we're doing, How Revival Changes Lives, I think most people would be really interested to hear these stories.
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So I want to encourage our listeners to call a friend, send them a link, say, hey, go to OneCry.com or OneCry.org
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and sign up to get the podcast on a regular basis or just click on these particular days to hear it.
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And you might be instrumental in doing that and really helping someone else see a movement of God in their own life, their family, their city, their church.
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So thanks for joining us, and we will see you next time.
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OneCry.org