In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of practicing progression and being prepared for the violent world we live in. He mentions the possibility of rockets landing in our cities and the idea that we are close to the end of the age. The preacher shares a personal experience of encountering a man in need and giving him a gospel track. He also mentions incidents of people being attacked by crocodiles and wolves, highlighting the unpredictability of life. The sermon concludes with the message that as Christian believers, we should be looking for opportunities to share Christ with others.

Like Paul said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. So we're here to talk about Him, of course. Revival never comes because of good preaching. Revival never comes because of good advertising. Revival doesn't come because a lot of churches got together and planned to have revival meetings. To illustrate this, in South Korea many years ago, they had a tremendous revival. Some hundreds of thousands of people were converted. So a year later, they decided to invite Dr. Reuben Archer Torrey, a great evangelist, to come in, expecting that when he came in, they'd have a repeat of what happened a year or so before. They were terribly disappointed. Some souls were saved, of course, but it was certainly not a revival in any sense of the word. You know, the disciples, the twelve apostles, after the resurrection, not too many Christians probably understand this, but Christ spent 40 days with the twelve, preaching, teaching. And after 40 days of teaching and preaching by Jesus, no revival came. Notice that? And that was followed by 10 days of prayer. And after 10 days of prayer, we had Pentecost. God is trying to show us clearly that there's just one way for revival to come. That is through prayer. This is often, of course, forgotten. We notice in Acts chapter 4, kind of an extension of Pentecost, when the church prayed. It says, when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God with boldness, and it goes on to say, but the apostles with great power, the apostles gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. So, it was kind of a second Pentecost, and it happened while they were praying. Now, in seeking for revival, there's a need for perseverance. You know, in Ephesians chapter 6, he talks about the Christian armor, and ends up, verse 18, praying always, with all prayer and supplication and spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, for all things, and Paul adds, and for me. So, there's this matter of persevering in prayer, not giving up quickly. This often happens. You know, George Mueller, the famous man of faith and prayer, he prayed for two men for their salvation. He prayed daily for 40 years. One was saved about a year before Mueller died. The other guy was saved about a year after he died. But he prayed daily for 40 years for these men to be saved. We often give up after six months. Reading recently, as I was, some of Edward Moore's books on revival, and he's done a marvelous job for the Church of God, and all the research he's done. If a revival occurred anywhere in the world at any time, he would find out about it, get all the facts on it, and then incorporate it in one of his books somewhere. And I read an amazing account of one church, probably 130 years ago in the States. They decided they needed revival. So they started to pray. Do you know what they did? They had three meetings, three prayer meetings every day. One at seven in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. For two years, they never quit. And when revival came, it was a mighty, powerful work of God. So when you think of that, and think of the way that churches today prepare for revival, I go to church sometimes, and I ask the pastor what they did by way of prayer preparation. He may say something like, Well, you know, Bill, they had two extra prayer meetings. And I just groan. And they expect me to bring revival in a suitcase. And I can't do that. Prayer. Sometimes two or three people got together and prayed a burden from God, and revival would come. Sometimes a single church. Sometimes several churches. Sometimes many churches. The great revival in the United States in 1858. There were thousands of prayer meetings all over the country. The Christians everywhere were praying for revival. And when it came, there were 50,000 converts a week for a long period of time. Every 10 weeks, half a million converts. It was a wonderful thing that it started again in prayer. You know, when the first missionaries went to the South Sea Islands many years ago, now in those days the South Sea people were cannibals, and missionaries often saw people roasted over the fire. This kind of was awful. And in 14 years, they never saw a convert. Not even one. But they didn't give up. The ascending society in Scotland finally decided, you know, nothing's happening. We'll have to recall these missionaries and send them to some field that is more open. So they wrote the letter. Of course, it came on a ship. But as that ship went to where they were, another ship came from where they were with a note on it for the ascending society, revival has come. And thousands and thousands of people were converted during that awakening. It swept all through those islands the spirit of God. But these men, they prayed and waited and called on God for 14 years. And so sometimes, well, that's taking too long. Is it really taking too long, or is it just that we're lazy? I think it's that we're just lazy. Very strange thing happened in Africa. I don't remember the country now. The story's in a book I have in my library. And they've done a lot of evangelism, and hundreds of people have professed to be converted. So they took 20 or so of Christian workers that they had. That they could trust in, they thought. And give each one of them a responsibility list of converts to follow up on and try and disciple. And after three or four years of this, the whole outfit were back slim. All the disciples were back slim too. Then they didn't know what to do. What in the world? This is not Christianity. So here's what they did. They started one extra prayer meeting a month. They were having one a week, you see. But they added one a month, and nothing happened. So then they added two a month, and nothing happened. And then they added three a month. Finally got to a place where they were praying three days a week, and nothing happened. Finally got to a place. I mean, they were desperate. And they had a prayer meeting every day of the month and year. And this went on, I think, for eight or nine months in one night while they were praying in the church. They heard a great wind coming, so they rushed to close the windows. They thought it was a storm, and it was not. It was the Holy Spirit. And the whole place was shaken. Then there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of converts who walked with God. This is a backslider we've hardly ever known. But again, it happened, you see, through prayer. And they paid a price for that, and we have to do the same. You know, Jacob, a chaplain in Genesis 32, when the angel said, Let me go, because the day is breaking. And he said, I will not let you go until you bless me. And that's the attitude we have to have. Whether we're praying for the conversion of some close friend or relative or whatever, or whether we're praying for a revival. We cannot give up. Jacob could have said, well, the angel is asking me to give up. I guess I better give up. But he didn't. Of course, he had some circumstances that were crushing him down because he knew if he didn't get an answer from God, and his brother Esau showed up in a day or two with 400 armed service, he'd be dead, and he knew that. And sometimes, you know, God puts us into a situation where there's no way out but up. My brother Keith was in the Air Force, and he and his wife were married. When they were old, they shook hands and promised each other they would never, ever become Christians. Well, time went by, and then trouble developed between the two of them in their house, and one day she phoned and said, your brother's in trouble, you better come and talk to him. So I drove over. He was sitting on the floor. And I said, what's the problem? And he said, I'm so far down, there's no way out but up. He wanted to be saved, and I led him to Christ. I'll open to details here, but she made it very rough for him for two years, and they almost gave up on him, but he didn't give up. He just kept praying. He didn't dare pray or read the Bible when she was in the house, because if she caught him praying, she'd be kicking him, or maybe kick the Bible out of his hands or whatever. This went on for two years, and then she got converted. And so despite the handshake after the wedding, God called him as an evangelist. He's with the Lord in glory now. But you see, the problem was this. That handshake didn't mean a thing, because many of us were praying daily for a priest to be converted. I should add this probably, because it was true. The night before I saw him, that night, he had planned to take his rifle, and he put the rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger, and it didn't go off. So he put a different shell in, and it still didn't go off. In the morning, he woke up in bed. He told me, I don't know how I got into the bed. Well, I don't know how God was in charge, because when people are praying and believing God, one thing God will never do is say it. I'd appreciate it. And amen. Okay. Paul said, we would have come into meeting tonight, Paul, once again, but Satan hindered us. So Satan can hinder the work of God. He can hinder you. He can hinder me. But he can't stop us. He can hinder, but he can't stop. Keep that clearly in mind. Remember in the book of Daniel, it talks about a certain evil prince, and I think it was one of the demons that was being referred to. And for 21 days, he hindered the progress of the work of God. And so we wrestle. It's a wrestling match. We're wrestling against wicked spirits who are called in Ephesians chapter 6, the rulers of the darkness of this world. And you think that's true? That's an apathy. Really. But there are people, demons, who are dedicated to keeping the world in darkness. They'll oppose every honest effort to win the soul of Christ. Any honest evangelistic effort or missionary program, they'll oppose that because they're the rulers of the darkness of this world. And you need to know that. Know who your enemy is and why they're opposing us and how. That's why you have trouble giving us tracts. That's why you have trouble witnessing for Christ. These demons are trying to shut us up. Christ said, the things that they've heard in the ear of the classics, preach on the housetops. Listen, there's not much housetop preaching anymore. You know, when Christians get talking about, we've had a great time lately, my wife and I, get invited out for meals in a restaurant or whatever, and get talking about the Lord, and then watch the people around. Everybody quits talking, and they listen. And sometimes they turn. One time, a guy here was sitting right opposite us, and I think it was his mother here, and they were talking, and all of a sudden they quit, they turned, and they faced us, and they took everything we said, you know. So when we got up to go, my eyes caught his eyes, and he smiled, and I smiled, and I offered him a gospel bread. Thank you so much, he said. He got his glasses, stuck them up, started to read, you know. But usually when Christians are talking about the Lord, when a sinner walks by, they begin to whisper, you know. They hope he won't hear what they're saying, you know. Isn't that how it goes? I mean, that's how it often goes. Why are we so ashamed, you know? Ashamed that Jesus can't be a normal man ashamed of me? I was sitting today in the Garden City, waiting for my wife. You know how it happens, guys, you ask your wife, you say, I'll be away for five minutes, and 30 minutes later she doesn't show up yet. Anyway, I'm sitting there, and a colleague came and sat beside me, and he said, what's the time? And I told him, he had a watch, but he said, far afterwards he was almost blind, he couldn't see. So he said to me, you know how old I am, guess. I said, well, he looked at me like he'd be past 80, he didn't want to hurt his feelings, you know. Well, they said there's an eight in it, but it's 98. 98. 98 years old. And so he kept talking, you know, he didn't know who I was, he never wanted to use, you know, any bad language or anything, he just kept talking. He appreciated his mother, because his mother had taught him that things just didn't happen. There's a creator beyond creation. Now, he wasn't a Christian, but his superman, the rabbi, had a chance to share with him, he didn't accept Christ, he had to go finally, but he told me he couldn't see the hands in front of his face, and he couldn't see my face, and then all of us put us together. And you know, if you think of him, pray for him, I didn't get his name. He told me he was Ukrainian, oh yes, he said, I'm Scotch-Ukrainian. I don't know why he got the Scotch in there, but he was married, maybe his wife was Scotch, I don't know. But listen, God gives us opportunities. I was sitting in a coffee shop a while ago, and the guy right next to me, he was sitting here, looking this way, I'm sitting here, my wife is here, and he never moved. I checked the guy out, never moved for 15 minutes. I said, Lord, what's up? And he said, well, the man is in need, you know. So I tapped him on the shoulder, and very slowly turned. I offered him the gospel tract, and went back in the same posture again, staring straight ahead, you know. I know, dear people, as a Christian believer, we should be expecting that God will give us opportunities to share Christ with someone else. I've been in a shop one time, and there's a cop there, and he smiled, and I smiled back. So we'll talk to him then, you know. There's many ways we can do this, but we can't do it all if we're afraid. And if we're not really believing that God will use us. He wants to use us. Any of us can be used by God if we're willing to let Him use us. But Satan hindered us. In Revelation 12, 17 it says, The dragon went out to make war with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Is that you? He makes war against you then. Make up your mind. Don't worry about it. When the seven returned, Christ sent them out to preach the kingdom of God. And He said, Heal the sick. He didn't tell them to cast out demons, He just told them to heal the sick. When they came back, they came back with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us through your name. And Christ said, I beheld Satan as a lightning fall from heaven, which is a quotation from Isaiah 14. And then He said, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, which in the Bible are often symbolical demon powers, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall my enemies hurt you, notwithstanding in this do not rejoice, that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because their names are written in heaven. Written in heaven of glorious thought. This consolation to me Christ has brought. I give unto you power over all the powers, two different words in the Greek. Exousia is the first word, authority. Over all the dunamis of the enemy. We've got power over all the power of the devil. He doesn't want you to know that. And some Christians never hear it or don't believe it. People, it's true. All power. But we're not to rejoice in that, but rather rejoice because our names are written in heaven. So the devil can bring people against you, he can build a big wall and all that, but David said, by my God I've run through a troop, and by my God I've leaped over a wall. No matter how high the wall is, if God is with you you can jump over the wall. So don't give up because people are against you. Maybe in your own house, sometimes relatives you know make it very hard for a Christian believer, and sometimes you might be the only believer in a home and they're giving you a hard time. Don't worry about that. Trust in God. Do the right thing. God will be with you. And you'll have the joy of seeing others find Christ as well. In Luke 11, you know, Jesus was asked by the disciples to teach them to pray. So he gave his father the words of prayer and then he said, he taught a parable which of you shall have a friend and shall walk in at midnight and shall say to him, friend lend me three loaves and he from within shall answer and say tell him you know, the door is now shut my children want me in bed I cannot rise and give him he went on to say I've said to him, he will not rise and give him because he is his friend just because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs, and I say to you that is actually the asking the seeking, the knocking and he ends up by saying in verse 13 if you then be evil among them and give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask you they were asking for help in prayer and he was talking about the Holy Spirit because the Bible says we're to pray in the Spirit we're told that twice as the Spirit leads, for whom the Spirit leads us, when the Spirit leads us, praying in the Holy Ghost that's extremely important so the word importunity has been defined as shameless asking or asking that will not be enough you're the person who has somebody that has a spiritual need, you don't have anything to give him, you don't understand that we don't have anything to give them in our own, but we have a friend who can he's got everything we need we go to him at midnight we ask for help and we don't get it he has something most buddies we talk about here his perseverance stay with it wait on God wait on the Lord, give him courage and he shall strengthen your heart that's very important and Luke 18, he said almost the same thing he spoke a parable, Jesus did to this end that men are always to pray and not to faint, one translation says not to give up not to turn coward men are always to pray in other words, and never give up God isn't dead, he may not be speaking at the moment give God time he went on to say in that parable, Luke 18 he said that the elect of God may cry day and night but he said this God will avenge them answer them speedily 14 years, that's speedily? he really means as speedily as possible there's things God has to change maybe, for some of your friends to be converted, some of your family members even give God time, don't try and rough God let God do it in his own way and time, but keep praying don't give up don't turn coward don't stop praying, keep praying if you're praying for a revival that's so important Matthew 14 start finishing on when she cried to Jesus because she had a demon possessed daughter and he said it's not right to take the children's bread but cast them to dogs whoa man Christ said that? he called her a dog because she was a gentile? who? how can this be? how did she handle it? somehow she sensed who Jesus was and she said that's true Lord I'm a dog, ok, I'm a dog yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table and Christ said oh woman, praise your faith be that you mean what you said and her daughter was healed at that very moment so if the first answer is no, that may not be the last answer I'm not saying we should keep asking for something that God doesn't want to give but we have to understand this and I should deal with this for a moment or two we're not asking for revival and that for souls to be saved so that there has to be more money in the church and so things at home are more pleasant without being a stronger witness for God without getting something to see that they're miraculous never we're told in 1st Corinthians 6 the word of God says this you are not your own you're part of the place therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's then in Ephesians 3 21 unto him, unto God be glory in the church through Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen so for the glory of God we're praying for revival for the glory of God Bertrand Russell in England once said I could welcome Jesus Christ into my house if he would leave his leprous bride outside my house that's how he saw the church as being a leprous bride and what he saw of the church in his circles probably was exactly that the world needs to see real Christianity and they often don't see it in church people at all and unfortunately they sometimes don't see it in evangelical believers either but whatever we do we're to do it for the glory of God so when we're praying about something is it for the glory of God is it for your own welfare your own good well make sure it's for the glory of God Amen then God will answer in of course his own time some of you know this but I came from a broken home actually it's been an advantage to me because in the states every second young person you talk to comes from a broken home and so you can tell them I know what you're talking about but now that my parents were Christians I think they both loved us poor boys because they didn't love each other they couldn't talk about scrapping I mean they didn't hate each other but there were bad words and stuff so finally my mother took off there was a court case I remember that a kid of maybe 7 or 8 I was then being in court and all that then she was gone then dad was the cook and I'm telling you something oh I got so tired of eating cabbage soup man after a long while mother came back she was in a car accident could have been killed and this made her serious about eternal matters and she sunk a load and was sick so one day dad said your mother is coming back but you don't have to listen to her religious talk oh we didn't know what that meant we didn't care about that because we knew she was a good cook so mother came home but something happened here that I must share when she came home she told us many years later the first thing she did was commend us 4 boys and dad to Christ for Salvation believing that God will save us all and nothing happened for 14 years my older brother Don was 23 years of age and then the devil got on her back one day and said listen that's not working there's not one of your kids are Christians and she said it was the worst day she ever put in but before the sun went down that night she threw the devil off her back and she just said I'm trusting my God I don't care what I don't care how long it takes but you know they say if you're not converting your teens your possibility of becoming a Christian is almost nil I don't believe that for a minute I'll tell you why my brother Don was 24 when he was converted I was 22 when I was converted my brother Bob was converted when he was 21 or 22 and my brother Keith he wasn't converted until he was 35 my dad wasn't converted until he was 74 but she got us all I thank God so much for my mom she knew how to pray I remember once she said you know she never called me real she always called me rude and she says you know I think I'm getting cold she said I haven't let us hold to Christ in 6 months you know that's a criterion by which we judge ourselves how cold are you anyway none of us say that just because she believed God God meant nothing she called on God day after day after day I thank God for this okay you know I hear testimonies sometimes that bother me people will say revival changed me really wasn't it Christ that changed you be very careful how you share that because I've heard it again and again oh revival is so much in my life no it didn't Christ did so much in your life it's not revival we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should welcome them give the glory to Christ we used to sing about revival we'll give the glory to Jesus and blow His mouth His wonderful love we'll give the glory to Jesus and tell of His wonderful love you can't tell till you drop was the idea of the song anyway give God the glory give Christ the glory it wasn't revival that did it it was God that did it in a time of revival perhaps we can have that done there's a verse in Ephesians that says it's a shame even to speak of those things that are done by some people in secret Madame O'Hara was a famous atheist and lectured lots of lectures with preachers and you know post-Christianity and the Bible and all this kind of stuff and she had a son who became believe it or not a Christian she was furious who's been monkeying around with my kids she said you know he became a Christian then he wrote a book about his conversion I read the book and I was really terribly disappointed I don't doubt he became a Christian I don't remember how many pages 200 pages or whatever the first 200 the first 185 pages or 190 pages dealt with his former life all the times he'd been drunk and the women he'd slept with and the drunks he'd taken all the miserable wicked things he did the Bible says it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done in secret you don't share those kind of things that's garbage that's self-glorification in a sense I even heard of some Christians who backslid so they would have a better testimony when they had been drunk a few times and did some other wicked things then they could talk about it they had a good testimony a friend of mine made that mistake there were three of them men, none had been married, they'd never been married they were potato farmers outside of Transcona one of them became a Christian he tried to influence his two brothers and he couldn't then he heard about a guy who'd been a bank robber and a cook in the States for many years, who'd been converted was coming to Winnipeg, he was going to be in Mount Memorial Baptist and so he got his brothers to go and listen so this cook tells this story he always had a pistol in his right hand and sometimes he had to use it sometimes he'd been drunk and all this kind of stuff so on the way home the boys were very silent so we said to the brothers, what do you think about that? and here's what they said that wicked sinner needed to be saved we're not like him, we don't need to be saved what they needed to hear was somebody that had a good moral background to be saved that's what my dad needed he kept, you know if we ever talked about the Lord he'd get so mad sometimes I've made my peace with God, you see really? and dad moved away from Winnipeg to Carmel by the Sea in California and he built a house there and then he got talked to my dad was a very trusting soul he wasn't a Christian at that time he was a very trusting soul and some guys talked him into investing all his money in some harebrained scheme for gathering moths in the desert or something and he lost all his money then he had to go and get a job in order to support himself people, it was all in the hands of God I'll tell you, it's scary when God gets into a picture so he got a job working in a mill and the two guys he worked with were both born again believers and one of the first questions they asked was, Bob, are you born again? I'm sure my dad almost fainted the other way, because he got away from us in Winnipeg, going to California to get away from this born again stuff and he was working with two guys, two Christians and they dragged him off to church and my dad got sick he came to see us not long after that and one day he said to me how come you never asked me to ask a blessing? I said, would you like to ask a blessing? indeed, he said, why wouldn't a Christian like to ask a blessing? and it was his presbyterian way of letting us know he was a Christian so the Lord got him though his ways are known to us so for the glory of God in your Father we all understand all things whatsoever we shall ask in prayer believing you shall receive follow what things you desire when you pray believe, the Greeks said believing you have received them and you shall have them that's how far our faith has to go you have to believe it's done you keep on praying but you're believing God's going to do it you never doubt that so all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing you shall receive is that a kind of revival? of course it does some people think it doesn't and some good men think it doesn't in the early 1800's in the United States there were a series of powerful revivals in churches when these revivals began they began just out of the blue something God did no human element but this didn't last for long and after a short period of time that kind of revival phased out and then the Christians discovered that by praying and believing God and fasting and praying they could, to use the word promote, they could promote spiritual awakenings so they began doing that and here's one of the things he said we were never satisfied with what he called insulated we would use the word isolated conversions 1's and 2's and 3's that's fine, but that's not revival so he said he fasted and prayed and believed not until, listen carefully until a holy ghost came on the scene and took the word out of our hands and made the whole community aware of God then hundreds were converted and then he added this Captain Colton, the pastor wrote the book he said this kind of revival never failed to come to a church that believed it would come and it never came to a church that did not believe it would come now that's powerful do you have any trouble with that? I do ok, that's fine no, I agree, I say amen but what happens if you only have 5 people in your church that believe if you have a church of 150 and you only have 5 that believe it's a possibility well let me tell you something else that happened then an evangelist I know he was invited to go to a church for revival meetings he had a revival message well he went to see the church and the guy had 60 or 70 members he only had about 15 attending the prayer meeting and so he told no, you're not ready for revival but the pastor said we are believing God for revival he said yeah, yeah, that's fine but you know, you've only got a handful attending the prayer meeting you really expect it all and so he begged off but the guy kept saying no, wait a minute, we're believing God for revival and finally he agreed to come and revival broke so powerful, they wound up in the biggest auditorium in the city went on for a month or more so many people were converted that the city gave them the building to use for meetings as long as they needed rent free so faith has certainly in my opinion got a lot to do with revival it's not the only thing but it certainly is I think a very important element well we'll call that revival again that thy people may walk rejoicing thee you don't meet many rejoicing Christians today sometimes we handle bad happenings worse than the world does I remember hearing a couple one time they said we don't care if somebody breaks into our house and we're on holidays we're just not married to the house well some of us as Christians are married to certain things and those things get touched then we got a problem we shouldn't I've sometimes said to people could you sing a doxology standing in the street watching your house burn and nobody makes any volunteers then but I say listen you should practice because you may have to do it someday you know we're living in a violent world and we think it isn't going to happen in Canada you can't be too sure about that the way things are going we may have rockets landing in our cities as well we're very close to the end of the age and Revelation 11 tells us this the picture there is of an angry world and an angry God on a collision course it says the nations were angry and thy wrath has come and the time of the dead that they should be judged that they should get reward for their service of prophets and should destroy those who corrupt the earth we're very close to that why is the world angry? they're angry because their people as I mentioned here once before that we've entered into a judgment mode God has entered into a judgment mode with the nations of the world not just with Israel and that's not good because you know in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah and other places in the Old Testament God often judged other nations He judged them all I see Assyrians, Assyrians and others many of them Paul listened I think about 22 nations in one chapter that God judged for their sin and God has four sore judgments he said in Ezekiel 14.21 what are they? the first of this sort, that's war that's a judgment from God and then famine and then pestilence, that's disease and the fourth one is wild beasts of the earth just a week or two ago in Florida six people were killed not together but separately by crocodiles in Saskatchewan this last winter a fellow went for a walk didn't come back they went looking for him and found his remains he'd been attacked by a bunch of wolves killed and eaten they have a program they're showing us a picture of a guy who was attacked by a single wolf and he was naked from the waist up when they showed the picture of course spikes all over his body you wouldn't believe it and he managed to suffocate the wolf by getting his arm around his neck and just hanging on for dear life had there been two wolves he would have died and they're saying this what's going on here this hasn't happened in a hundred years they've never been able to authenticate a case where wolves attack a human being last year here in Manitoba remember near Shelford people attacked by bears unprovoked they didn't have cubs with them they didn't provoke them in any way but the bears attacked God said that the fourth short judgment is the wild beasts of the earth in Leviticus 17 God told Israel if you disobey me I'll send wild beasts among you and we're seeing this happen I mean these hurricanes father nature I heard a guy say in a forum he said you can't get mad at mother nature you can't get mad at father God though you see in Mayim chapter 3 it says the Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds and the dust in his feet Jeremiah says he brings the wind out of his treasuries David said storming wind fulfilling his word tornadoes last year if you remember when the tornado season was over the United States had several weeks of some of the most violent tornadoes they ever had when the season for that was over there's no doubt that dear people God is rackling our cage we've had two years of too much wet now we have a year of too much dry God speaks in many ways dear people we need to be listening and seeking the face of God calling on God for revival and believing God for revival the promises of God 2 Corinthians 7 having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God now the sins of the flesh we understand are spelled out clearly in Galatians 5 and other places what are the sins of the spirit we're to get rid of what really that has to do with the context chapter 6 has to do with us not compromising with the word today we have a thing that's called inclusive evangelism where everybody, any kind of a church can cooperate with evangelicals and spread the word of God and people think this is the way to do it, so you get bigger crowds that way well you may get bigger crowds but you lose the blessing of the Holy Ghost in Finney's day in Finney's day 70% of the converts stood firm he was in one place where 3,000 converts he was back 3 years later the pastor said they did not know of a single convert that had backed him I don't agree with some of Finney's theology that he certainly wasn't minding the use of God and winning the loss in Moody's day this was down about 35% converts going on with God, in Billy's Sunday's day down about 25% and today dear people it's down to 3% I had a friend in Halifax that had a great big citywide crusade there and it was an inclusive evangelism thing and thousands of people professed to be saved and my friend's church got 175 decision cards, decisions for salvation he had a group of men already trained to follow up on these converts out of the 175 they just got two and one of them was for salvation, one for baptism people that's what's happened, 3% now in that case even less than 3% because we're not doing God's work and God's grace so sacraments churches would have no fellowship with unbelievers you can love them you can work for them you can have them work for you but you're never to entertain any kind into marriage or into business partnership with people that are not born again I've talked to some Christians about 3-4 years ago they were going into business relationship with some people not Christians I don't know about it they just scoffed at it so what happened they lost their children I mean God saw that anyway that's the sins of the flesh or the spirit or cooperating with people under the service of Satan who have never received Christ you see what's happening in the evangelical world is this, in some areas in England now it's taken for granted if you've been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ you're a born again believer and nobody should ever question a person if they say they've been baptized that's it, they're okay that's not biblical that's why there's been people writing on the subject, what is the gospel what is the church I don't have time to go into that anyway I have a recipe for revival in James chapter 4 it says submit yourself to God resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to God and he'll draw near to you cleanse your hands your sins and purify your hearts you double minded be afflicted and mourn the weak let your laughter return to mourning and your joy to heaviness humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he'll lift you up and the next statement is don't speak evil of one another brethren that all belongs together and I call it God's recipe for personal revival draw near to God he'll draw near to you that would have to be talked about our sins cleanse your hands your sins and purify your hearts you double minded be afflicted and mourn the weak let your laughter return to mourning and your joy to heaviness humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and Peter said the same thing in 1 Peter chapter 5 you humble yourself unto God's mighty hand he will exalt you in due time I just finished reading that story of Nicholson this famous Irish evangelist it was a tremendous story you know especially the part when he got going through God he was a wicked man and got tired of that and decided this time he made a change and so he became a Christian but for 8 months or more after he became a Christian he was struggling with sin he had no victory in his life at all then he heard about some deeper life services so he went to these deeper life services and they made it very clear you have to be right with God you have to live a holy life so he went forward was consoled prayed about it and told the Lord I'll do anything you want me to do that's fine a little while later the Lord said I want you to go and stand with the Salvation Army on the street this Saturday night what? I want you to go and stand with the Salvation Army the Salvation Army in his village consisted of two teenage girls and they obviously he was so daft he couldn't have a headache because he never had enough brains and he had a thing on his back that said deliver it from the world and this was all and he had to stand with these people and he said well it's Saturday night well he knew Saturday night was when all the people from the country, he had relatives and friends all over the place, he was well known and he's going to stand with the Salvation Army the Lord said you promised so he stood with them they sang a little bit and one of the girls said nobody's listening, let's pray so I got on my knees and said how am I going to do this so he got on his knees and started praying he could hear some of his friends catcalling and jeering one of the girls said to him, Mr. Nicholson please take the standard and march on down to the barracks and he said march with two teenage girls and a daft guy in behind he said I did it and as I was crawling down the street all the problems of Satan were gone everything and he was free thousands of people found Christ in his labors he was a very unusual person and he would do anything to get across and I won't go into that because it would take too long and I'm almost through anyway Revival comes through prayer whether you're praying for individuals or a church or a community or whatever it comes through prayer and the thing is, don't give up don't give up keep praying, keep believing there's very strange things happening in Christian families today I remember some while back several Christian workers told me that all their kids were walking for the devil is that the way it should be? it's sort of God's plan believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that shall be saved and thy house I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the glory of God I will pour my spirit on your seed and your children and my blessing on your offspring and people say yeah that's fine, he's done that but they haven't responded and what's the next verse say? Isaiah 44 and they shall spring up as among the grass as well as by the water course they will respond if they walk in the name of God people let's get into it get praying for revival for Canada you know we've been so blessed 75 countries are there with annual income that's 5% of what it is in Canada you don't know that maybe but that's, we've been so blessed of God and we don't respond God or the church doesn't respond they're going to lose us you people I'm not trying to frighten anybody if there's anything here but our first concern seek first the kingdom of God and his blessings and all these other things shall be added unto you you don't have to worry about money if God knows of me who else needs to know I mean God's looking after us truly always has been I've been young and I've always said David I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor have I seen David bribed God will catch us but always keep us involved in the work of God so pray for the glory of God and the good of man let's pray