Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #253 - Continuing the Legacy of Prayer for the Harvest: with Kim Butts

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#253 - Continuing the Legacy of Prayer for the Harvest: with Kim Butts · The OneCry Podcast

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  You know, if you're a leader and you haven't stepped into the presence of God in prayer
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  and learned how to lead your people in prayer, they're not going to follow you there, and
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  they just go to the default.
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  Yeah.
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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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  We're so thrilled that you're with us.
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  And if you've been following the last few weeks, we have been in just an incredible
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  series of just interviewing some people who have experienced God in revival and spiritual
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  awakening and intercessory prayer in special ways.
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  And that's why I am so thrilled to have my friend, Kim Butts, to join us.
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  And Kim, thanks for coming.
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  Thanks for inviting me.
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  We're so glad to have you.
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  And we're at actually a meeting of the OneCry leadership team.
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  And so you might hear some noise in the background of people moving around.
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  We pulled a few folks aside so we could capture these interviews.
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  And Kim, I first got to know you, Kim, through your husband and Dave Butts, and just one
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  of the dearest men of God I've ever known.
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  What an honor to know him and then get to know you.
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  And Dave was a pastor for many years and then felt a call, and you and Dave felt the
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  call to try to get the church engaged in prayer in a deeper way.
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  Tell me about that.
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  And that started Harvest Prayer Ministries that lasted for 30 years.
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  It was an interesting journey the Lord led us on.
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  We were in a local church.
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  In fact, we had just gotten married not too long before that.
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  And Dave's heart had always been for helping people learn how to pray for missions.
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  And that's where that started.
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  Well, I also had a heart for missions and for prayer, and not necessarily focused on
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  revival for me, but Dave was a revival historian and had two degrees in history and had done
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  his thesis on church history areas and so knew all that.
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  So I learned so much just from our conversations and our prayer times together.
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  But when we decided to walk away from the local church, it was to serve the local church
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  just in a different capacity.
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  So we began talking about what does that look like?
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  How do we teach people to pray for missions?
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  We were very excited about that until we realized the church doesn't know how to pray, number one.
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  Little problem there.
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  Yes.
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  So we ran into that little roadblock, but God graciously walked us through that, which
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  we'll probably touch on later.
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  But Harvest Prayer Ministries, when we were trying to name it, we were thinking, the harvest is ripe.
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  When we see those fields ripe for the harvest, we're to pray for the harvest, to pray for
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  labors and to pray for that harvest end.
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  So harvest seemed like a really great name.
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  And of course, prayer.
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  So harvest prayer.
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  And then ministries, we named it plural, not really realizing that God was going to
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  make it that.
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  I mean, He brought several other ministries along into our path in the meantime.
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  But basically, our purpose was to help the local church to become a house of prayer for
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  all nations.
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  So Isaiah 56, 7, and then our other passage that we really focused on was Mark 11, 17.
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  When Jesus brought it into the New Testament, my father's house will be called a house of
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  prayer for all nations.
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  And you know, for the purpose, and this is where revival started to come in, for the
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  purpose of seeing revival by seeking His face in prayer.
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  And then a revived church will finish the task of world evangelism.
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  So that was the progression that we were hoping to bring the church in.
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  And the goal of that was to see the Great Commission finished.
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  Exactly.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, I've said many times lately, somewhere along the way, the American church just decided
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  that they could do this thing without praying.
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  And I don't know what, I mean, it's a natural humanistic shift to just say, well, we can
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  figure this out.
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  We can reach these people, we can build a church, we can do God's will without praying.
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  And God just doesn't agree with that.
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  I think the bulk of the American church anyway, there's a default mode of prayer, which is
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  normally health needs and, you know, me and my stuff and, you know, those kinds of things.
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  And I really think a lot of it we found out was leaders didn't learn about prayer in Bible
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  college or seminary.
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  Or see a model of it.
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  Yeah.
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  Or see a model.
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  Exactly.
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  So they learned all the other things.
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  And then, you know, if you're a leader and you haven't stepped into the presence of God
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  in prayer and learned how to lead your people in prayer, they're not going to follow you
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  there.
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  And they just go to the default.
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  Or sometimes what happens, and we found in prayer ministry in church, well, there wasn't
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  a lot of prayer ministry when we started, but we found that, I don't know quite how
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  to describe this, we found that the leaders weren't training the lay people, equipping
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  them in prayer, and therefore just whatever came out did.
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  Now there's like 5% of your congregation, it's always like we call gifted intercessors,
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  people you can throw in a room for six hours and they'll just pray.
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  But the rest of the people need help.
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  And those were, you know, we're trying to help the church and mobilize prayer, yeah.
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  I know, I remember hearing Dave say many times that he didn't feel like he was a great intercessor
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  himself, in terms of gifting, but he was gifted as an equipper, as a pastor, really, to people.
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  And you know, heaven alone will record how many people were equipped to pray through,
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  Dave wrote a lot of books, they're still accessible, we'll say a word about that at
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  the end, and then spoke all over the country, and then had the privilege, you all were on
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  the National Prayer Committee, and Dave became the head of that, the chairman of that, right?
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  And the connection to the National Day of Prayer, that's in there too?
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  Yeah, the chairman of the National Prayer Committee is the board chair for the National Day of Prayer.
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  Okay, so those are two connections.
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  So the National Prayer Committee gave oversight to the National Day of Prayer, yeah.
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  So I kind of got to know you and Dave in a conference that we held every other year called
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  the HeartCry for Revival conference.
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  And was this when you first started understanding the thoughts of what revival is, these manifest
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  movements of God?
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  Yeah, I think Dave always really understood that, but for me, and I understood it at a
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  head level, but not to a heart level until that, actually that conference, and I started
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  hearing the stories of revival, you know, like the Hebrides, and wealth revival, and
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  what went on in Canada, and I never heard stories like that, you know, that the actual
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  people that had experienced them, I'd read about it, you know, that, but until you hear
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  the experiences of other people, that's what really touched my heart, and got me on fire
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  more, I think, yeah.
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  And, you know, for years, Dave was the head of this National Prayer Committee, which is
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  all the major prayer entities in the United States, organizations and ministries.
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  And I remember him saying, and I've quoted it many times in the last few years, before
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  his death, that they felt they could say with confidence, that in this season right
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  now, that more people were praying in the United States than had ever prayed in human
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  history.
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  Yeah, I think, yeah, I really do.
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  I think over time, we were seeing what he would call it, like he said, the greatest
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  prayer movement that he's seen in his lifetime, happening.
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  And now we're seeing it even into the next generations, and all that.
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  I just so, you know, I mean, I know he knows, you know, you don't know when all in heaven
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  goes on.
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  But, you know, I'm sure he's rejoicing with all that's going on.
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  But I'd love to be able to have conversations with him about it.
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  I know, me too.
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  And three and a half years ago, the Lord took him to be with him, and I don't know what
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  he's doing in heaven, but I guarantee it's contributing to the mission and the cause
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  because he was, he was driven like that.
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  And he had such a winsome way and just so grateful for his life and your life.
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  And because you just, you guys serve side by side, and we travel together and talk together
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  and work together.
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  So how does it make you feel now, Harvest Prayer Ministry has become merged really with
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  OneCry.
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  Yeah.
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  And as a part of that, and that's strengthened the prayer resources and tools.
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  And tell us about that just a little bit, because they, our listeners can access that,
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  right?
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  Right.
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  Well, what basically what happened is, in the fall of, or the spring rather of 2022,
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  before we knew Dave was sick with the cancer that would take his life, we had invited OneCry
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  under the umbrella of Harvest Prayer Ministries.
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  Thank God.
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  And I mean, he knows the things we don't know.
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  And so when Dave passed away, I didn't want to administrate an organization.
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  And so we talked together and said, well, what if we flipped it around and Harvest Prayer
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  Ministries, you know, we thought through that, that could become OneCry Prayer, the prayer
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  arm of OneCry, which, I mean, the whole DNA of OneCry is prayer.
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  That's OneCry the name.
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  So it was pretty natural.
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  So then we moved all the Harvest Prayer resources.
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  So the legacy remains, which I'm grateful for, because when you let one ministry, it's
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  not going to carry on into something, but yet here it is carrying on as OneCry.
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  Well, and not only is that exciting to you, but it's exciting to us because it just strengthened
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  the resources of everything that OneCry does and made it all accessible.
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  And we'll go on to our OneCry.org site, but isn't it OneCry.com.com, but if you go to
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  OneCry.com slash prayer, you'll find a whole plethora of resources about that.
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  And I want to ask you one more question.
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  Okay.
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  And that is, we are seeing in our day, the rumblings of real revival and spiritual awakening,
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  which awakening is just when God starts saving people in miraculous, supernatural numbers
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  and ways.
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  And that's the Harvest, right?
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  That's the Harvest Prayer Ministry, what you pray for.
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  God always said revival is God showing up for church.
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  Yeah.
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  So how, how does that make you feel that these years of, you know, 34 years of praying and
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  working and I'm sure you can think back to you and Dave driving down the road.
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  I remember him coming into meetings with a briefcase full of books and setting them out
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  on the table and all of that work and labor.
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  Now we're seeing a movement of God in our day.
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  I know that throws your heart, right?
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  It does.
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  Yeah.
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  It's, it's been amazing.
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  And I mean, there's a huge prayer movement all across the earth.
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  And to know that, you know, you just have one little minuscule piece and part in it
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  is, you know, it's a wonderful feeling, but I, I mean, all of us, our goal is to glorify
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  God and what we're doing and, you know, if we accomplish that, yeah, nothing else matters.
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  That's a great way to say it.
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  Well, Kim, thanks for coming on today.
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  And, and we're just so grateful for you and for Dave so much.
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  I miss that old guy.
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  Me too.
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  I bet you do.
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  And, and our world misses him, but I know he's left a legacy that is carrying on and
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  in great ways.
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  And we like to end our One Cry podcast with crying out, with really crying out to the
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  Lord and really praying.
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  So I wonder if you would lead us in our, we're going to ask our people who are listening
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  today to join us in prayer.
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  Don't just listen, but join us in this cry and Kim, just pray that the work of Revival
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  and Awakening and real genuine prayer would continue.
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  Would you do that?
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  Sure.
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  All right.
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  Just lead us.
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  Father, we honor you.
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  We glorify you.
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  I give you thanks Father for the, the opportunity that you give your people to seek you, to
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  touch your heart, to have conversation with you, to draw near, to, to live and lean into
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  your presence.
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  Father, we're seeing that just spread across, not just our nation, but across the world.
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  We're watching it spread through the generations.
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  We're watching young and old, male, female, just join hands, lock hearts together with
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  you.
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  For your sake and your purposes, God, we just rejoice in those opportunities.
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  We give you all the praise for letting us have even a small glimpse into your kingdom
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  come.
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  God, we, we want your will to be done on this earth as it is in heaven.
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  And we know Father that you want to pour out upon your people, all of your spirit.
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  And so Lord, we, we seek after your heart.
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  We just ask Lord that as your people cry out, you would be pleased to pour out a revival
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  on your people.
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  Some of us want to see you moved in such power, God, and some of us have never seen
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  it in person.
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  We've heard stories of it, but we want to see it.
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  And so God, we ask you pour it out in our day, in our time, so that we might glorify
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  you and so that your kingdom purposes would be advanced on this earth, so that all people
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  will come to you, that your church will be a house of prayer for all nations.
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  God, we're grateful, grateful for this time together.
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  Grateful for those who are listening.
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  Grateful God that you give us opportunity to step into your plans.
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  So Lord, I thank you for this time, in Christ's name, amen, amen.
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  Kim, that was wonderful.
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  Kim tried to get out of doing this.
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  She said, I don't, I don't, I work on the other side of the camera.
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  And we kept saying, no, we want to hear a bit of your story.
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  And that was fantastic.
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  We really appreciate you doing that.
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  Great.
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  And thank you listeners for joining us.
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  And I'm so excited about the series we're doing.
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  I was just telling the stories of how revival has impacted lives and changed lives for the
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  glory of God.
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  And we hope you'll join us every week.
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  And we hope to see you next time.
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  Thanks for joining.