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#254 Harvest Time: Rediscovering Revival and Bold Evangelism · The OneCry Podcast

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The boldness just came in a new dimension during that time.
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I just found myself everywhere I went just being bold, and again, the Lord heightens
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the sincerity of the heart.
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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
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reports.
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Well, we're so glad to have you join us for this episode of the One Cry Podcast.
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I'm Bill Eliff, and I have a real treat today, because on this podcast is one of my two brothers,
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and this is Jim Eliff, and Jim is, there are three of us brothers, we're all pastors and
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preachers and writers and whatever, and then we have an older sister who married a pastor,
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so Jim, our dad used to say, we're either going to help the world or ruin it, the jury's
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still out on that.
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The jury's out on that, that's for sure.
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Jim lives in Kansas City and has for many years, and is the president and founder of
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Christian Communicators Worldwide, and I'll just tell a couple of things, Jim, before
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I let you say anything, because I know after that we're in trouble, but Jim has two things
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that have been really fascinating.
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Number one, God has just used Jim literally all around the world in his writing and speaking
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and in very significant ways, but one of the other things that happened is Jim was really
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impacted by the life of George Mueller and studied and has written a great deal on that,
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and has lived Mueller's lifestyle related to his finances and never accepted any money.
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How many years has that been going on, Jim?
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This year is 40 years for the ministry we started on that basis, and we had experiences
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before that that God led us up to this point 40 years ago in 86, so it's amazing, and yeah,
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we've watched God often last minute, unfortunately, no, for our own faith, but we've watched
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the Lord provide for us for every day for 40 years.
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One time I missed one bill by one day, personal bill, but for our team, for everything we
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do, all the travel, everything.
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That's amazing.
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The Lord has provided, actually millions of dollars he's provided for us over those years
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without asking anybody, without asking anybody, not to our credit, not to our credit, of course.
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Well, I want to come back one day and just do a whole podcast on that because we need
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to hear that.
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It's fascinating, but today, Jim, you know, I ask you to join us because we're doing a
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series of podcasts on revival and how it has shaped people's lives.
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In other words, when God shows up in extraordinary ways, like he does in times of revival or
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spiritual awakening, it leaves a mark on your soul, and Jim, you and I were in the Jesus
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movement together.
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That's exactly right.
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I don't know if I want to describe the wide red, white, blue bell bottoms that I wore.
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Oh, absolutely.
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Yeah.
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Embroidered shirts and all that kind of stuff.
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The Icthys was three pounds, I think, the one that I had.
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Yeah, that's right.
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Yeah, that's right.
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But it was powerful.
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Right.
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Yeah.
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But we traveled together.
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We worked together.
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We worked together for a while, and we didn't know it, but we were in really an extraordinary
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movement in our nation there for several years.
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So Jim, kind of talk to us about when you first encountered just the theological truth
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of revival and spiritual awakening, and then personally, how did that happen to you?
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Yeah.
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Well, I'll try to recount.
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You know, it's getting further back, so you miss some of the details sometimes, but yeah,
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there was a period when I went to college, actually, at Ouachita Baptist University,
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I began to experience personal just awakening that began to also was happening in some other
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people, or we just found it spreading as we would talk about things.
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And the simple matter there was that we began to see that the Holy Spirit is in us, and
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He can do things.
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So that just was like a different, that was totally new to me.
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I mean, it was just, it was a new thing in a way, and I was so very excited about that.
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I think I probably made some mistakes here or there theologically, but you know, my understanding
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was developing.
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But the one simple dynamic was, you know, the Lord is in us, and we're vessels, and
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He can use us, and He can impact people, and the result of that at Ouachita, before things
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even picked up a lot more in seminary, but the result of that at Ouachita was just people
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being just impacted in terms of just repentance, and just their commitment to Christ, and so
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forth.
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We saw this.
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I mean, I remember one fellow came up to me, and he said, he just, he was a suite mate,
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and he, I didn't really know him well, and he just said, there is something going on
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in your life, and I would like to know that.
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I'd like to know what that is.
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Could you tell me what that is?
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I mean, he seriously didn't know the lingo or anything, but that, to the credit of God,
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I mean, was just the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
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So we began to pray, sometimes overnight even.
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We had a few times where that just ended up going overnight, and we felt the contagion
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of it, you know, that it was something people craved.
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I think just normal Christianity should be craved by believers, right?
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But it was just, you know, so that was a beautiful experience, beautiful time in L.A.
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It was an incredible season, and I was in high school, you were in college, and I was
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in my sophomore year in high school when this was happening to you, and God, I had
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been kind of running from the Lord, just not, I didn't know that Christ lived in me.
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I had no idea about that.
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And when I came to full surrender of my life, April 4th, 1969, I remember the night that
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happened, and I just, Jim, I went home, you'll remember this, and I fell on my knees in the
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foyer of our house and grabbed my dad's, our dad's knees, and wept and confessed my sins
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of all that I'd been, you know, I'd just been hurting them so bad.
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And so, and then I began to learn about the Holy Spirit, and Jim, I've often said the
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guy that discipled me in that season was you, because you would get something, you'd read
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a book, or you'd see something in the Scripture, and you'd come home from college, and you'd
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tell me, and we'd get all excited about it, and then, yeah, it was amazing.
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Yeah, yeah, and yeah, that went on, in my experience and yours, through the, through
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my college periods, the college period up to 70.
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And then, it's 70.
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And then what happened at 73?
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Yeah, I went to, a piece of the puzzle came together there, I think, that's really critical.
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I went to actually work in the interim, in the summer, at a church in Garland, Texas,
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and it was a large church, and had a big youth program, and I was the youth director.
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And so, some of these principles, I was very excited to see what God would do, and, you
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know, He did do so many things, and one, the kids started to pray.
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We would pray, we would have our meetings, and they'd be prayer readings for an hour.
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That's unheard of with young people, if you know what I'm saying.
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I mean, at the day, at least, I had never even experienced just young people wanting
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to pray.
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And again, it's just the work of God, a special season, but they were so eager to be guided,
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and it was powerful, and the church was very evangelistic.
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And this really helped me, because I think maybe God has given me some gifting in this
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area of evangelism.
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I've debated through my life, should I be a mass evangelist?
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I thought about doing, you know, publicly being an evangelist preacher at different
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times and seasons in my life, but personal evangelism was very big in that church.
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And we began to see the young people just leading people to Christ, and again, the power
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of God.
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It was like a stream of, you know, living waters, and of course, it just kept us warmhearted
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with the Lord all the time, and not without sin that needed to be constantly repented
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of.
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But you know, it was just still just real power during that time.
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And you know, we look back on that, and I remember thinking, well, this is just normal
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Christianity.
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This is just what it should be.
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But I mean, it would have been huge with greater results, greater gospel receptivity
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by people.
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Receptivity.
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Right.
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It was very big.
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It was just amazing.
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Yeah.
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People were sincere.
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I mean, I just felt sincerity was in the believers, and the receptivity was there provided by
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the Holy Spirit, all by the Holy Spirit.
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Yeah, it was remarkable.
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One of the things that I did, I worked in the summer and then over to the first of the
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year at that church, it was in Dallas.
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I went to Fort Worth Seminary, and there was a little prayer room that was detached from
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the church building.
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It had been built by somebody who'd lost their son, and just a little two or three rows of
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pews and a little, just a little beautiful little chapel.
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And I would get up in the dark, of course, to go to the seminary.
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I realized that any timidity I had, temerity that I had, you know, about sharing Jesus
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Christ, it was impacted by the love that I had for people, that if I loved people, I
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would do anything for them.
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And so my consistent prayer, I'd get up in the morning, I'd go pray on the way to seminary
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early in the morning in the dark, and I'd go pray for love, just that God would give
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me love for people.
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But I knew that to be the fruit of the Spirit, and this made sense with all that I'd been
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learning before.
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And you know, that's what happened, and I found myself.
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So the boldness just came in a new dimension during that time.
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And I just found myself everywhere I went, just being bold.
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And again, the Lord heightens the sincerity of the heart, and, you know, He's at work,
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and people would just listen, and some people were saved, and different things.
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I mean, it could be, I remember being on my knees at a gas station.
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I used to tell guys, don't fill up with gas, so you can go to the next gas station, you
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know, and just, you know, who knows what God will do.
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You're thinking that strategically, not about living life, but about living for the sake
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of the gospel.
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The kingdom.
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That's a whole different ballgame.
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Yeah, for my sake, and the gospel, Jesus said, you know, in Mark 8.
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So yeah, I was just conscious of that, and everywhere I went.
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Tell us about a couple of, yeah, well, tell us about, you remember that story of you and
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our brother, Tom, going to, I think it was Buena Vista, Colorado.
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Oh, yes, yes, yes, Tom.
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Yeah, there had been a girl who had been impacted by the hippie movement, and she had been converted
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either through people, somebody that Tom knew.
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And at any rate, Tom received a contact.
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These people had come to Christ, and they call it Buena Vista.
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Buena Vista, Colorado had, they wanted to have some kind of meeting and introduce other
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people to Jesus Christ, and would he come, and Tom invited me to come along, and so we
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went together.
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I was, again, in seminary.
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We went together to Buena Vista and just preached the gospel, and we were in a gymnasium.
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It was filled up with people.
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These hippies had just long-haired people, so sincere, such sincere people.
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Some of them, you could tell their minds were sort of burnt out from the drugs that
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they'd had before, but they were just so enthusiastic about the Lord, and yeah, we prayed and worked
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with them, preached the gospel, sang, and all of that kind of stuff.
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That was during the time where you had the one-way hand, do you remember that?
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Right, right.
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Yeah, and they were just, they'd go in their high school, and they'd go down the halls
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of their high school just doing this, and scores of people converted.
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We don't know what numbers mean at all, do we, but I would say at least people showing
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some kind of desire, thinking they were converted at least, about 150 or so in those few days
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that we were there, and we were just training them.
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We were meeting with people afterwards.
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It was just going on constantly, like something just, only the Spirit could organize.
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There was not a church involved at the beginning of this meeting.
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None of the pastors or churches got involved.
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This was just the work of these people going through the community, inviting people.
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By the end of that time, all the churches were involved, and yeah, it was just an amazing
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movement.
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And by the way, I went back there just about three or four years ago to Buena Vista.
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I hadn't been back to that town in many years, and the whole time.
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And I tried to find anybody that knew, because it was years and years.
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That's 50 years ago, or I don't know how many years ago it is.
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Fifty years ago, and I found a lady in the historical, the museum.
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She said, I was like, you know, in eighth grade or something when that happened.
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I remember totally that happened.
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People were being saved, and I remember that distinctly.
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She said, how we need that today.
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I said, is the high school still?
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No, they've torn that down.
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They built a new high school.
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The whole town's been really remade.
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But she was very aware of a season that took place in that town that affected a group of
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people that just impacted the whole town in a big way.
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And you know, Jim, I think it was the next summer, maybe 1971, when you and I went to
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Seattle, and we were enlisted by the, back then, the Home Mission Board of the Baptist
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Convention, and we did eight weeks of meeting.
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We didn't have a day off, if you remember.
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We just, one day after another.
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Made you a little bit batty every once in a while, I remember that.
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But everywhere we went, the Lord, I mean, there are places of greater fruit than others,
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but I remember specifically being in Puyallup, Washington, and it just like every conversation
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we would have, people would get saved.
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One night, you stood up, I don't know if you remember this, and read the crucifixion
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story with no comment, if I remember correctly.
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And I think it was 15 people, 15 adults came and gave their life to Christ.
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And it was just like this.
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It was just this.
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Yeah, you could not explain it humanly.
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We couldn't explain it humanly.
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Yeah.
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Let me ask this question.
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How did that, and there might be another story you want to tell in there, but also, how did
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all of that affect you?
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How did it mark you?
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What did those days dramatically set the specter of my life in so many ways?
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What about you?
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What did Days of Revival and Awakening do in you?
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Yeah.
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Well, I think that one stream that began, that one idea became very prominent, and to
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this day is prominent in my life.
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So if somebody's around me, they're probably going to hear me say, well, you just don't
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know what God will do.
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And anything we do, in other words, the idea that there's a dynamic going on, a dimension
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that we're walking in, and a power that can change people's lives.
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And whether it's delayed to later, whether in the providence of God, you know, but we're
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saying, you know, how he works, that's his business, but that he can do something is
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incredible.
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I'll tell you what I saw in that period, and that nailed this down for me even more, because
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it wasn't just that experience going together.
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That was a real tremendous highlight, or Buena Vista, those are definitely important moments.
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But the Lord gave me in seminary, I would go out and go to churches, retreats, or meetings
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in churches about 40 times a year while I was in seminary.
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I mean, that's just unreal.
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I mean, I was just every weekend, I would be driving over to Love Field, getting on
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an airplane, going someplace in all of that time, pretty much all of that time I was in
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the States, and just going to these places, and God was doing similar things.
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So, you know, I didn't have but about eight messages or something like that, but I would
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go and preach seven of them, you know, over a week.
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And five or six of them were fairly good.
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Yeah, there were occasional, yeah, it wouldn't pass homiletic class, I'm absolutely sure.
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I'm absolutely sure it wouldn't have, but again, just the work of the Holy Spirit.
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So that was grounding this thing, and it just was evangelistic.
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So all during that period of time, and this is just a funny thing, because they gave me
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the evangelism award, and I didn't show up because I was evangelizing.
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I just didn't, I wasn't really aware of what was going on exactly, but anyway, I got a
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big, bad rebuke from the president.
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He wrote me a letter, it was a burning letter, but anyway, but it was just the one interest,
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you know, just this interest of, and some professors were in on this too, and praying
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with Dr. Fish and Dr. Hunt every week, you know, and those kinds of things.
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It was all really big, all really big in my life.
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So the imprint was huge.
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So then I took a church, I came back, we worked together, and you know, God worked at that
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church in Heldhill.
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I mean, these are a lot of medical students and so forth from down the way, it was a mission
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church sort of, but it just filled up that building, and it was very real, wasn't it?
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I mean, very humble, yeah, but just real stuff going on.
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And then I took another church across the way where I, we experienced in that church
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many people, I mean, ratio-wise, it was incredible to see the last years there's, I think, something
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like 70 people converted.
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We didn't have an evangelism.
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It was mainly adults, and we didn't have an evangelism program.
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We didn't do it, we didn't have any program.
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And times of brokenness and confession in the church, which were very meaningful, it
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was just a live situation, you know.
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And so I think the big thing to me is just the idea which lasts to this day, and God
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can do different ways at different times.
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But for that 10-year period, which corresponds to the Jesus movement, I think, during that
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period, God was showing His grace to us, I think.
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And it just nailed down this idea that God can do something.
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God can actually, and it's so miraculous for somebody to be saved.
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Even to this day, though, it's made more, to this day, it's not unusual for me to go
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through the week and have several experiences talking to people about Christ.
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And it's just, where does that come from?
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Where does the bullet, why do they listen, why are they, you know, why do they, how come
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we can have continuing conversations about the Lord?
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I just think it's just what the Lord does.
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He does.
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Yeah.
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You know, Jim, you told me recently, you and your wife Pam, you live in Kansas City, and
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you were speaking in California, and instead of just flying out there, you decided to take,
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I think, a 30-day trip and kind of a leisurely drive.
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We wanted to see some people and, you know, just stop some places and have a few appointments
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along the way, but mainly in California, a couple in Oregon.
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But you had a little bit of a, you asked the Lord to do something on that trip.
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You told me later, it felt like God is bringing an awakening in our nation, like He did in
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the 70s.
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I definitely felt that.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I definitely, I, what the impression I got by the time we were through with this is that,
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and in the middle of this, was that this feels like that time when my evangelism, my personal
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evangelism was birthed, you know, in the Jesus movie.
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It feels like that time, that kind of receptivity to the things that I was saying.
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I don't know how many people we talked to, maybe 50 people.
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I mean, every place we would stop, we just were sensitive, just looking, whether just
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sowing the seed or having a long discussion.
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And we just, people, we didn't have, in that experience, any real rejection to talking
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to them.
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That, I think, is very unusual because we've been in tune with personal evangelism for
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years.
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And it just was different.
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And we went all through Wyoming, coming back home, just consistently, maybe 50 times,
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who knows, that we talked to people about Christ and just consistently that same kind
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of openness.
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You know, I think when we think about, I mean, I've been praying for, working for, teaching
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about revival as the great need of our nation, the great need of our day and our lives for
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a long, long time.
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And I've been praying for a movement in our nation, like we saw, because we know historically
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that's come every 30 to 60 years in American history and brought a reset in God's kingdom
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work and mission work.
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But all of a sudden, we're seeing something happen in terms of people getting saved.
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And I was teaching this last night.
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It's now time, I think, for those of us who know the Lord and who are pursuing the Lord
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for a little turn in our approach to this season, because a spiritual awakening is different
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than a revival, I think.
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And it's harvest time.
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It's just harvest time.
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And you deal differently.
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You respond differently.
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You focus differently during harvest time.
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Talk about that.
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Yeah.
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No, I do agree that it does seem like that.
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And I've been encouraging people as well, saying this is, we better take advantage of
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this moment in our history, because it's important when God does something like this.
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This is not just minor.
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This is a very big thing.
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And it doesn't have to change.
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This is important, I think, for me.
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It doesn't have to change the politics for it to be great.
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It doesn't have to change.
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The Caesar doesn't have to quit being the Caesar.
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But for a wave of great things to be going on that revolutionize people's lives forever.
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Sometimes God works in just different ways.
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But we know that it's a real thing.
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It has a history.
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It has biblical backing.
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We should think seriously and rightly about this period of time and take advantage of
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it.
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I believe that thoroughly.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Thoroughly.
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Oh, beautiful.
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One of the things that, it's so interesting, I don't know if it'll impact you at all, but
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to me, I think of two things.
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That I want to be distinctive, recognizably distinctive.
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That's my job as a Christian, and I want to be illuminating.
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That's that passage about salt and light, which often is just used a little differently.
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I think that Jesus meant it.
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To me, it seems that this is what he's saying to do.
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So I'm, I purposefully go, I mean, I go places just to be that.
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You know what I mean?
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I take time at coffee shops or just wherever I can.
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I just, I am just thinking about ways to get in the best position I can be in around people.
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Yeah, just so that I can have, if possible, daily potential, you know, to reach into people's
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lives.
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And I just, I'm trying to be those two things.
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What is there that can be distinctive about my life that, to the one God is calling, might
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be attractive?
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Right?
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Maybe my sincerity, my love, I'm trying to, I'm trying to do things for people.
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You know, just, just little things that just, I mean, I told a girl yesterday, she's had
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a drug background.
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So she was concerned about something.
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And I said, I'm going to pray for that.
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I'll pray for that.
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Just do something for them.
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Even if it's that.
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She's so appreciated.
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She's been, talked to me two or three times like that.
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She needs the Lord, but she's, she's seeing something and then, and then illuminating.
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So just commenting, talking about these things, asking questions of people and, and seeing
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what God does, what God opens up, that's directed me a little bit, you know.
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Yeah.
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It's beautiful.
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And I know one of the things you said to me when you were telling about that trip to California,
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that is a really liberating to me statement and philosophy for us as Christians and our
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witness to lost people.
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You said, I would just begin conversations with a sincere statement, just a sincere statement.
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Maybe, you know, the Lord has, has dramatically changed my life.
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As it said, I don't have to see you.
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That's exactly what I would say.
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Just, and this is to this day, what I do, you know, I just look them in the eye.
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I think there's, there's something biblical about looking, gazing in the eye.
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If you, you know, they looked at him intently, Jesus looked at, why does Luke keep saying
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he looked at him and said, so that's the window to the soul.
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And just look at people in the eye and say, my, my life was so dramatically shaped by
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Jesus Christ.
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I mean, and I just, some simple statement like that, do you, you know, do you think
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about Christ?
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Do you?
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And it just, that's, that has just opened up, you know, it's not a, it's not a fancy
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little program.
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It's not a trick.
30:57
It's not a trick.
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It's not a trick at all.
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It's not a trick at all.
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It's just, you're being real.
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And I think of the, the new movie that's come out on the great awakening and, and that nearly
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destroyed me.
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It was just gospel, but George Whitfield at one point quoted a statement that Wesley had
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quoted to them.
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Apparently it was a little phrase they use that the God who I serve sees you.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I remember one scene in that movie where he looked at an African American man in early
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America and he said, the God who I serve sees you, what a powerful statement.
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What a statement.
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Yeah.
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And that's true.
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We've never done anything without being seen.
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Maybe by angels and demons too, but yeah, we just, they might as well have just a glass
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wall there looking at us through the other side of the glass.
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You know what I mean?
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The other day that her, her, her six year old, I think it was granddaughter wrote in
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chalk on her driveway, these two sentences, Jesus loves me, this I know.
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And then under it, she wrote, Jesus knows me, this I love.
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Oh, don't you like that?
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That's beautiful.
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So God looking at us is a very comforting and powerful thing.
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I mean, he's what, there's a heavenly dimension as the heavenlies, that's the heavenlies where
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all the spiritual blessings are in this.
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If we had spirit, spirit optics, you know, we could see a lot going on, a lot going on.
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That's beautiful.
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It's fun talking about all this and, and, uh, this, this encouragement that we would
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be, uh, uh, distinctive and illuminating and full of the love of God, we don't actually
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have that without the spirit praying for the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of just love
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house, how, what is overcome by the love of God and what drives more.
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I think the reason we don't share with lost people, we just don't love them.
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That's exactly.
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Yeah.
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So, uh, well, may that, may that impel us during this time of the season and, and, you
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know, on a, a, a harvest that lasts forever, it's a, it's a season.
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And I think we're in a season and, uh, and, uh, you've put your finger on, on what we
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need to be putting our hands to during this, the laws of the harvest still apply.
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You have to see, yeah, right.
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We always, uh, this was the one cry podcast and we always close our time by inviting people
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to pray with us, not to listen to a prayer, but, uh, to join in as we pray.
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I wonder, Jim, if you would, uh, lead us and just, uh, praying for these very things right
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now.
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So, okay.
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And we'll invite the people to join with us.
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Okay.
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Uh, dear father, um, above all principalities and powers and every name that is named all
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the evil forces above them all in the, in the world, uh, you have called us Lord and
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we're so grateful you, you've made us believers.
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You've given us your, your light and life.
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We have truth.
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We have, uh, your love in our lives, the enjoyment of our fellowship with you with
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other believers.
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Lord, we want that.
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We just, we want that for more people.
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We want to be instruments of yours.
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And so Lord, would you, would you just bring, uh, more awareness of this, more consciousness
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of who you are and what this is about.
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Being on this earth is about, uh, Lord, you, you, you said we should deny ourselves and
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take up our cross and follow you.
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And if we're not to be ashamed of you and your gospel and your words, so, uh, Lord,
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we know that you have the power that is needed to do anything.
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You can take our broken language, our inability in so many ways, our personalities, which
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are not perfect.
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You're always able to condescend to use us as instruments, uh, to impact people.
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So help us, Lord, please help us to take advantage of these moments that we have these, we don't
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know how long this special time would last, but we ask you, Lord, to help us to take advantage
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of that, to be conscious of other people, to love of other people so that we would overcome
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our timidness and, and, uh, do for them what they need.
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Uh, and, and, and Lord allow us to live before them distinctively in our love to them and
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the things that we do for them, the care that we have, the way that we even look at
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them, just allow them to see, uh, the, the difference that is there and, and then help
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us to have words and actions that illuminate, uh, and, and make clear the gospel of the
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kingdom, Lord, bring many people in for your glory, Lord, and do marvelous things for your
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namesake and be honored through our lives and cause us to stimulate one another, give
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us in our churches, a liveness, even just planting a person or a family or a couple
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in a church, Lord, allow that couple that might be praying here right now with us to
37:15
be infectious and just contagious Christians in the, in the circle that they're in, a church
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maybe that really needs reviving, uh, allow them to have that, uh, that, that joy and
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that distinctiveness that is so attractive for a Christian filled with your spirit.
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Thank you, Lord.
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Thank you for this time.
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In Jesus name.
37:41
Amen.
37:42
Amen.
37:43
Amen.
37:44
Well, Jimbo, thanks for, uh, we'll have to, we'll have to do a podcast and, uh, and,
37:54
and I could kind of share, maybe you would not be on it.
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Maybe just me, just share all the terrible things you did to me growing up.
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Yeah.
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And it could be maybe a podcast on forgiveness.
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Hoping that I would listen to it and be, yeah, right.
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I love you.
38:15
And I appreciate, I appreciate, uh, you joining us and thanks everybody for joining us on
38:22
the One Cry Podcast.
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If God has spoken to you and I, and I know he has today, uh, encourage other people to
38:30
listen to the podcast, send the link to somebody and, uh, and let's get after it.
38:36
It's harvest time.
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So thanks again.
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We'll see you next time.