This sermon emphasizes the importance of encountering God in revival, focusing on the need for brokenness, surrendered rights, a spirit of expectation, and prepared soil to cultivate the presence of God. It highlights the transformative impact of meeting God, leading to a holy hush of awe, a holy blush of conviction, a holy crush of repentance, and a holy rush of readiness to serve God.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, The prayer for revival is ultimately a prayer based upon a concern for the manifestation of the glory of God. The prayer for revival is ultimately a prayer based upon a concern for a manifestation of the glory of God. I believe that we're long overdue for a manifestation of the glory of God. Duncan Campbell said these words, Our need is for a demonstration of the supernatural, lifting men from the plane of the ordinary to the realm of the extraordinary, to the higher heights of God-realization. To the higher heights of God-realization. I want to talk to you tonight from Isaiah chapter 6 about the ingredients of a revival experience or when a man meets God. Isaiah chapter 6 in your Bible tonight if you turn there, beginning there in verse 1. The book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6 in verse 1. Isaiah chapter 6 in verse 1. In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings, and with two He covered His face, and with train He covered His feet, and with train He did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. Now Isaiah had this mighty vision of God. He saw God sitting on His throne, and above the throne of God were the seraphim, multi-winged creatures. These seraphim literally, the word seraphim literally means burners, or flaming ones. These seraphim in the immediate presence of God are so holy. They're like a holy incendiary. They're just burning up in their own holiness. But holy though they may be, they cannot stand before God, because with two wings they have to cover their feet. Holy though they may be, they cannot look on God, because with two wings they have to cover their face. And it's with two wings that they fly. I find it very interesting tonight, only two wings used for service. Only two wings used for service, while the other four wings are used to shield themselves from the brilliance of a holy God. It's interesting what these seraphim cried out. They said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. They did not say God is peace, peace, peace. They did not say God is nice, nice, nice. They did not say God is love, love, love. But they did say God is holy, holy, holy. Holiness is the only attribute of God emphasized to the third degree. It's the only attribute of God that is mentioned three times in succession in the entire Bible. Third degree holiness. And I want to talk to you tonight about four things that happens when a human being meets God. What happens when a human being meets God? Number one, there's a holy hush. Number two, there's a holy blush. Number three, there's a holy crush. And then finally, there's a holy rush. But note tonight, number one, if you would, a holy hush. Isaiah was a prophet of prophets. He was a leader of leaders and a preacher of preachers. But when he had this staggering vision of God, he said, I am undone. Literally, he was brought to silence. This vision of God stunned, staggered, and silenced the prophet. Isaiah saw God. Isaiah saw himself. And he said, I am undone. Literally, I am struck with silence. I cannot speak. It was his consciousness of his own personal depravity that muted his voice. He could not utter a word. Isaiah was reduced to silence. And this man with unclean lips was forced to hold his tongue. There was a holy hush. The scripture says in Habakkuk chapter 2, The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Duncan Campbell said that revival is an awareness of the presence of God. A conscious awareness of the presence of God. A holy hush. Charles Spurgeon said, I can testify that since my conversion as a young man, I have never been without a sense of the presence of God. I want to tell you the first thing that happens when a man meets God is there's always a holy hush. My family and I showed up in Champaign, Illinois about a couple of years ago. Here we were in a church where a pastor was desperate for revival. I mean, he was desperate for revival. He told God before we ever showed up, he said, God, if you're not going to do it here, then send me to where you are going to do it. Because I don't want to spend my life piddling around, amounting to nothing. I want to see something happen for the glory of God. I tell you, it's good to be in a church like that. We showed up on Saturday night. He said, Harold, would you lead us in a real revival prayer meeting? And nobody needed a real revival prayer meeting more than me. I said, I'd be glad to. So we got in there and we broke up in our groups like many of you will do tonight. And we had those three rounds of prayer. Confession of sin and thanksgiving and then intercession or petition. What I want to tell you, it was a no holds barred prayer meeting. There was absolute transparency. I'm telling you, there was judgment day honesty. We prayed for two and a half hours that first night. It seemed like five minutes. It's good to get in a prayer meeting when it seems shorter than what it really is, amen? And that's the way it was in that particular prayer meeting. Well, we got in the services and I began to notice strange things were going on. I'd be looking out during the preaching and I began to say, well, where's the pastor? And where's so and so? And the pastor was out in his office reconciling, feuding families within the church membership. They're getting right with one another. He's playing the referee. And they would come filtering back into the meeting at some point. Well, on Tuesday night, the message was given. And the pastor's wife, who is a very quiet, meek, unassuming, never say anything out of the way kind of person. She was on the altar weeping her eyes out. Her husband got up and tried to close the service. And she went back up on the altar, which is totally out of character for this woman. And she is sobbing uncontrollably and weeping. And then she got up in front of the congregation and she began to prophesy. Now, let me qualify what I mean by a woman prophesying. She went to Maranatha Baptist College, so it's safe, all right? She began to prophesy. She began to pour her heart out. And she stood up in front of that congregation and she said, you know, there's something wrong in our church. And she said, I'll tell you what it is. She said, we don't have any love in our hearts. And she was exercised. She said, people come here and get saved and then they go to other churches. And she said, I'll tell you why. We don't have any love in our hearts. You could have heard a pin drop. She said, I was raised in fundamentalism. And she said, there's something wrong in fundamentalism. She says, we don't have any love in our hearts. Brother, I'm telling you, you talk about a holy hush. I sat there and watched this woman, which I knew this was not normal for her. She never does anything like this. And I said, this has a supernatural origin. I'm not sure who's behind it, but this is out of the ordinary. And it's either God or the devil, I don't know. But I want to tell you, brother, God was in that thing. And that was the genesis of a move of God in that particular meeting, a holy hush. The 14-year-old boy running the sound booth is supposed to be back there paying attention. He's not back there playing video games, brother. He's back there on his face in the sound booth seeking the face of God. God began to move in the service. We had to extend the meeting four times. We called a pastor in Iowa. And I had the preacher call him. And he said, well, brother, if God's doing something there, don't come here. Stay there and ride it out. We had to extend it. We had to cancel two other meetings. I'll tell you, it was absolutely something. There was a fellow there in the service. His wife had prayed for him for 30 years. They slapped all kinds of psychological labels on him. They said he was bipolar. They said that he was manic depressive. They said that he was antisocial. He had more psychological designations than you can find in the alphabet slapped on him by the experts. Now, he had some problems. If you could look at him, you could tell that there was some trouble there. She had prayed for 30 years. He came to meeting, which was like a miracle within itself. The third night, I think it was, the old boy got born again. He came two more nights, and he gave a testimony, which is paramount to the demoniac being clothed and sitting at the feet of Jesus in his right mind. You know what my explanation for all that was? Jesus was passing by, and thank God, he just happened to be in town. And I said to myself, you know, I wish I could package this up, because there's multitudes of people. If they could get in a sanctified atmosphere, that rarefied atmosphere when God comes down among His people, all the issues that have troubled them for so long could be dissipated in just a moment, in just an instant. I'm telling you, things begin to happen. One night, one night I got up at 3 o'clock with a burden on my heart, and when I get a burden on my heart to pray at 3 o'clock, you know something supernatural is going on, and I went out in the parking lot, and there I met an old boy, he had been running a heat and air conditioning company, and he had been there from ever since church had let out, he had been praying the whole night through. I said, brother, you go on home, I'll take the third shift, go home and try to get a little rest. But I'm telling you, you talk about a drawing, you talk about a baptism of love, I'm telling you, brother, things begin to happen, a burden of prayer. The pastor's phone was ringing off the hook, one businessman called him up and said he was all excited, he said, preacher, I just gave my business to God. I'm telling you, these people were excited, and they were expecting something from God. There was one fellow in the service that had to forgive the young man that had violated his daughter, but somehow he is able to work through that. I'm telling you, anybody that ever showed up for the 6 o'clock prayer meeting at night, they were finished. We took no survivors. I'm telling you, if you ever got in that prayer meeting, brother, it was a no-holds-barred prayer meeting. You talk about weeping, getting right with God. We had a fellow, I think it was like the second week we began to have people saved, and this fellow came in, he had more jewelry on his face than you've got in your box at home, you know. I mean, he could never get through a metal detector at an airport or anything like that. This old boy got born again. He got in the prayer meeting. You should have heard him pray. You should have heard him pray. When he got around other sinners, and he was free to admit he was a sinner too, and we all got clean, and we were all happy, and his girlfriend got up, she was like one living human tattoo, I mean, from the bottom to the top of her head, brother, and she got up there weeping, and she said, I'm happier now than I've ever been in my entire life. You talk about a holy hush. You know, when the glory of God filled the tabernacle, Moses could not even enter. When the glory of God came into the temple, they all fell on their faces. They said that in the Canadian revival, that sometimes the presence of God was so thick that nobody could speak a word. Not even the people moderating the meeting, nobody could speak because God had come. A holy hush. And I want to tell you, when the Spirit of God comes and when a man meets God, there's always a holy hush. But notice number two, there's always a holy blush. A holy blush. Old Isaiah said, woe is me. Woe is me. Now Isaiah was clean in his own eyes until he had this vision of God. He had no idea how bad he or the Israelites were until he had this vision of God. Alexander McLaren said there's no deep sense of sin because there's no clear vision of God. There's no deep sense of sin because there's no clear vision of God. You know, God is referred to as the Holy One 40 times in the Old Testament alone. 22 times we read about His holy name. 29 times Isaiah referred to God as the Holy One of Israel. 100 times in the New Testament we read about the Holy Spirit. You know the word holy means separate, set apart, distinct. Dear ladies, tonight we live in an unholy world filled with unholy people. A holy blush. It says in Jeremiah chapter 6, Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not ashamed at all. Neither could they blush. Could even blush. You know, we're living in a day now when things can be said to mixed audiences and nobody says a thing. I was getting my hair cut and this guy was up there in the chair and he was running his mouth and there were women in the audience saying things that were absolutely filthy, absolutely inappropriate and nobody even winked or said a thing. We had a restaurant the other night down at Myrtle Beach. The guy came out and used a four-letter word and I said, Hold everything. Hold everything. My family was sitting there. No ability to even blush in the presence of God. Oswald Chambers said, Conviction is the rarest thing that ever strikes a man. Conviction is the rarest thing that ever strikes a man. In chapters 1 through 5 of Isaiah, he's pronouncing a woe of judgment on everybody else. But in chapter 6 when he had this vision of God, he said, Woe is me. You know, I know I'm broken when my sins look big and everybody else's sins look small. You know, when I'm full of arrogance, I'm pouring contempt on everybody else. When I humble myself, I pour contempt on all my pride. I know I'm humble and broken when my sins look big and other people's sins look small. I want to tell you that Isaiah saw this holy seraphim, this holy seraphim who had never sinned. Think about it. Never had an evil thought. Never told a lie. Never had malice or vengeance in their hearts. He saw these holy seraphim covering their faces and covering their feet in the presence of Almighty God. What could a mere mortal do with a dirty mouth in the presence of such holiness? He said, Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I believe tonight that we have become desensitized. You know, what we see and witness on a daily basis would have sent people into shock 40 years ago. Somebody said that sin is the result of a low view of God while repentance is the result of a high view of God. I want to tell you, we're living in a day when the God of popular Christianity is barely a quarter inch taller than we are. He's pretty much just a supersized version of us. You know, you go to a fast food restaurant, order a combo, and they say, Do you want to supersize it? What they ought to say is, Do you want me to supersize you? That's what they ought to say, but they say, Do you want to supersize it? By the way, I'm taking hydrotherapy. I have a hip problem, so that my doctor said I need to go hydrotherapy. You know who goes to hydrotherapy? You know, water aerobics? Old, large women, brother. That's who goes to... I mean, when I go, brother, I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, I'm just telling you. It's like 40 acres of cellulite in me. I mean, now there we are. And if we were all laying on the side of the pool and PETA came along, they'd push us back in the water. I mean, I mean... But anyhow, I don't know why I said that, but anyhow. You go to McDonald's, and they say, Oh, you want to supersize it? Which means, Do you want more of the stuff you ought not to be having any of in the first place? Supersize it. Now, I believe tonight that the God of popular Christianity is pretty much just a supersized version of us. You know, this attribute of holiness has pretty well been stripped out. I heard of a church where they were having an outreach on Saturday night so the youth pastor's wife dresses up like Marilyn Monroe, imitating a prostitute in the name of evangelism. No difference between the sacred and the profane. Profaning the holiness of God, just a supersized version of us. That's pretty much all He is. Just an antidote to the problems of life. And you know why? Because sin seems so normal until we see it in the light of the holiness of God. The Scripture says, In thy light we shall see light. Things look different when God shows up. I'm here to tell you that the presence of God sheds a new light on things. And by the way, everybody is normal until you get to know them. You know, you read all these books and you see all these people and you think, man, they really got their act together. And then you get to know them and you find out, man, they're just as bad a shape as you are. You know what I'm saying? But you know, the truth of the matter is that things look different in the light of God's presence. In Luke chapter 5, we find the disciples and Jesus comes along and tells them to let their nets down for a drought. Old Peter said, We've toiled all night and taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I'll let down the nets. So he let down the net and you know, they had so many fish and they just about sunk the boats. The nets were breaking. And when Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees and he said, Depart from me for I am a sinful man. He knew he was in the presence of the divine. He knew he was in the presence of the holy, a holy blotch. I was in Ireland. I met a man who got saved in the Scottish Highlands in revival. I sat in his living room and this very sophisticated man said that the thing that gripped him, the thing that gripped him, was the awful sense of the presence of God. In those days, the whole community was under this kind of a rarefied atmosphere. This awful presence of God. He'd been arrested by God's presence. And you know, if you've ever been in the fire, you smell like the smoke. This old boy still had the fragrance of Christ on him. And as he told the story, I sat there and wept, longing that in our day we might have a visitation, an invasion from God. And I don't know whether our country will ever come back. I doubt whether it ever will. But I'm telling you, individuals can come back to God and local churches can come back to God and we can see God's glory in our lifetime. Don't tell me God's out of business. I was in Northern Virginia meeting one time where they had these unusual prayer meetings on Wednesday night. We had testimony time. This woman came forward with a little baby in one arm and she had a woman tagged on the other arm. She stood there in front of the church and she said, I want to ask forgiveness today from the woman whose husband I stole three years ago. And she said, tonight I'm asking you to forgive me for living in sin these last three years. A holy blush. I was in Signal Mountain, Tennessee years and years ago. It's good to be in town when God is. It's good to be in town when God is. God came to this little church. I'm telling you, we had things happen, unbelievable things happen. We had one guy, he was an appliance repairman. Obviously he was not a Maytag repairman with nothing to do. He had so much to do he couldn't get around to it. He promised some woman in the church he'd come fix her television set. Five years had elapsed. So service may not be as bad where you live as you think. Well this little boy had a head-on collision with God. He drove four hours and found his children and asked them to forgive him at the Air Force Base where they were for not being the father he should have been when they were growing up. He went in Kmart and they gave him too much money. This is back before the machines would tell you how much you're supposed to get, you know. And he got too much. And he had to go back in and get the manager out and had an act of Congress, you know, to try to put that thing right. And then he went over to see this woman. Now she had quit coming to church and guess one of the excuses she used to quit coming to church? Well, they deacon a lot about fixing the television set. Well, he didn't know that. But he went over there and asked for forgiveness, told the story about what God had done in his heart when she came to church. She showed up for the after meeting. We didn't get going back in those days until about 11 or 12 o'clock at night. And she showed up, I'll never forget, in the doorway there. And if you could have seen the look on her countenance, a look of shame and embarrassment. And she said, I've had such bitterness in my heart towards some of you people, but I'm here to get right with God. And she got right with God. Her lost husband showed up the next night to see what God was doing because God was doing something in His own life, a holy, a holy blush. I was preaching in Indiana one time and a woman ran to the prayer room, ran to the prayer room with a handkerchief on her face looking toward the wall. And she was, she was under such intense conviction over the fact that she had this dirty mouth. That's what Isaiah. I want to tell you there are very few sins that a person can commit, but at some point the tongue always gets involved. It always gets involved. And one of the first things that happen in revival is people become very convicted about their speech. One of the very first things. You know, sometimes it's appropriate to say something like this, you know, I wasn't wrong in what I said a minute ago. I wasn't wrong in what I said a minute ago, but I sure was wrong in the way I said it. And we can just start right here. A holy hush, a holy blush, but notice number three, a holy crush. A holy crush. Isaiah was alarmed. He was shocked. He was riveted with guilt. He said, I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king. I want to tell you that the prophet Isaiah was shattered. He was decimated. He was coming apart at the seams. He was unraveling. Spiritually, he was annihilated. Why? Because holiness demands cleansing. Holiness demands cleansing. Isaiah had a dirty mouth and it needed cleansing. And that seraph came along and took that tong to get that live coal from off the altar. I want to tell you the coal was so hot that even that holy seraphim couldn't pick it up. He had to use a tong to get that coal off the altar. And he touched the prophet's lips. He cauterized his mouth. He touched him at his point of need. And I want to tell you that Isaiah was forgiven to the core. He was forgiven to the core. You see, this was constructive conviction because this experience did not render him helpless. It rendered him holy. And I want to tell you that the presence of God it always reduces an individual into insignificance. This man, this man who had unclean lips was convicted. He was crushed under this convicting power of God. And I want to tell you a person who has never seen themselves as unfit or not fit for anything. There's so much in me that's so much unlike him that when God comes, what was me, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. A holy crutch. You know, in churches we used to talk about people coming under conviction of sin. You know, conviction is so rare we ought to put it on the endangered species list. You know, instead of having evangelistic preaching, we put on entertainment things to avoid evangelism and use that as an excuse for evangelism. I mean, how many people here ever got saved at some sort of a place? I mean, I'm sure some people have, but brother, conviction of sin is pretty much out. In the Hebrides revival, you know, Duncan Gamble said that one night a fellow came and got up under the pulpit, these elevated pulpits, and he said that he was mumbling under his breath and he said, Oh God, hell is too good for me. Oh God, hell is too good for me. He said he went to visit him. His wife met him at the door and said, Brother Gamble, I'm glad you've come. My husband is in such a terrible frame of mind. He's in his bedroom praying. He said he cracked the door and there that old boy was on his knees mumbling under his breath, Oh God, hell is too good for me. You know what you call that? That's what you call Holy Ghost conviction. Holy Ghost conviction. I want to tell you that holiness demands cleansing. In Acts chapter 2, when Peter preached the gospel on Pentecost, they were cut to the heart. A holy crush. I was in New York one time. We had Greek people. We had people from Argentina. We had people from all over the earth and we were having late night prayer meetings around 2 o'clock in the morning and one night this woman by the name of Deborah, she stood up and she said, You know, I've never realized that I was a sinner. She said, I've never really realized that I was a sinner. And you could tell, brother, the hand of God fell on her until right now. And brother, she began to weep profusely and got born again right now. A holy crush. You know what revival is? Revival is God pointing His finger right at you. And in my case, God's finger pointing right at me. We mentioned in the prayer time tonight at 6 o'clock about a meeting I got in one time years and years ago. Told the people after the preaching, I said, well, we're going to have a revival prayer meeting tonight. But I said, don't come tonight if you're not willing to confess and forsake every sin. Don't come if you're not willing to put away every doubtful thing. And I discouraged everybody from coming. And we still had about 15 guys show up and 15 ladies show up. Well, they came back at 10 o'clock. We got started at 10 o'clock. I took the boys in the basement. My wife had the ladies upstairs. We got in the basement. We're on this concrete floor. We had this foam rubber like you put under carpets. So we spread all that out. And I said, tonight, boys, we're going to pray different. I said, tonight, we're going to pray we're going to confess our sins to God, round one. I said, round two, we're going to praise and thank God. Round three, we're going to bring our request. So I launched out of my initial confession of sins, which was quite lengthy without repetition. And then the boys fell in right behind. And we began to confess our sins to God. And you know, we're all about the same. It's all common to man. What bothers you bothers other people and vice versa. It's just the way it is. And there was an openness there. There was a freedom there for people just to get honest. I had people tell me after the meeting, they said, well, you know, we never knew that preachers had any sense to confess. Really? And they said, well, we found out what a bad shape you were in. We just went ahead and got honest too. That's the way it was. That's the way it was. I would say we were there for two and a half hours. And after about two and a half hours, the conviction was so intense. I remember, I remember laying on the pew at that point and I put my hands up and I said, God, please, no more. Because I felt like if God showed one more thing, it would absolutely strip what life was left out of us. It's like God peeled back the curtain of our hearts. And layer after layer like an onion, God began to peel back the sin layers on our souls. Boy, it was intense. Well, we finally got into round two which was praising and thanking God. I was in West Virginia and you know, the Appalachian crowd can get emotional and I'm right there with them and brother, we really went after it. I'm telling you in that praise round. To whom much is forgiven, they love much. We found out the next day that at two o'clock in the morning, we were in the basement and they heard us three houses up. I mean, it was pretty intense. And then we got to the petition part and the burden of God came and we began to beg God for people to be saved. And the next day, we went to service that night and the pastor got up and said, would anybody like to give a testimony? Everybody in the prayer meeting gave a testimony, every one of them. And they got up there and it was an hour and 45 minutes. And then he said, now Harold, would you like to come and preach? I said, well, okay. We've already been here an hour and 45 minutes. I read a text and I said, well, if God's spoken to anybody, the altar's open so here they come like a herd of buffalo. I mean, they came down, brother, all over the altar. I'm sure they had to call in the Stanley Steamer to clean the carpet after they finished. I'm just telling you, it was all over the place. And you talk about, you talk about weeping and sobbing. The pastor, after 15 minutes into it, he said, Harold, what do you think we ought to do? I said, well, brother, I think we just ought to pray. We couldn't even talk to anybody left in the pew and there wasn't about three or four anyhow. And then 15 minutes later, he said, Harold, what do you think we ought to do? I said, well, I guess we ought to pray. Then he came back 45 minutes into it and he said, what do you think we ought to do? I said, brother, I don't think there's anything we can do but pray. And I'm sitting there watching this whole spectacle. We'd been in church for three hours. Nobody was diving for the door. And here they are all on the altar weeping their hearts out and it dawned on me, I've been praying for revival, this is it. So thick, I didn't even notice it, but there it is. And you know, I've had people tell me 20 years after the fact, they said, Harold, do you know what God did in my heart that night in prayer? I'm still living on it right now. I think four of them went into the ministry. God did something. Why? A holy crush. It was something. But let me say this, holiness not only demands cleansing, but holiness disturbs the natural order. And I'm all for a holy disruption. It says there that the post of the door moved, in verse 4, at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. It says, when the post of the door moved, that means the way wavered, staggered to and fro. In other words, the foundations of the threshold were shaken to the core. The post of the door shook. The foundation of the building was shaking. The only thing quaking more than the building must have been the body of Isaiah. I want to tell you that when God comes on the scene, there's often crushing conviction of sin. Crushing conviction of sin. And Isaiah was smitten with conviction. It upsets the natural order. When Ezekiel was prophesying, he saw revival in a graveyard. And he was preaching. The bones begin to shake and begin to fly together. And things begin to happen. The presence of God shakes up things. A holy shake up. Let me say that holiness disturbs the natural order. It says in Acts, chapter 4, verse 31, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. The place was shaken. I remember in 1995, back in the old days of the prayer advance, we had about 500 men show up one year. 1995, I think it was, over in Eagle Eyrie in Lynchburg, Virginia. I remember the singing atmosphere was so overwhelming that if you were to come into the back door and try to get into the building, it's almost like it would push you out. Kind of like when those soldiers came to arrest Jesus and they all fell back. The atmosphere was so supercharged with the presence of God, I'm telling you, it upset the natural order. And you know, we're living in days when the spiritual life level is so low that nobody even recognizes it and we won't recognize it until we see it in the light of the holiness of God. W.P. Nicholson was a Irish evangelist. He was a fireball. Somebody said that they didn't know God could use sanctified vulgarity until they met W.P. Nicholson. He was quite a character. He said he went in a church one time that was so cold, he said if you came in the back door with a quart of milk, it would turn to ice cream before you reach the pulpit. So cold. Up in Canada in the old days, you know, they say that the morticians would rent the basements of churches to store the corpses of the bodies until the spring fall because the ground was frozen. I'm pretty sure I've preached in several of those churches. But you know, you know something, we're living in a time when we have the worst of sins and the best of churches. The qualifications for church membership were higher 60 years ago than they are for pastors today. This is our day. This is our day. But I want to tell you that in revival, in revival, people do things they would never do under ordinary circumstances. When Paul went to Ephesus, that city of, that fertility goddess, the great Diana, I want to tell you that the city was totally given over to idolatry. And when he began to preach the gospel, people began to repent. They burned their curious arts, their occult items. The idol makers got upset. The economy was upset. The whole town was in an uproar. Holiness disturbs the natural order. I was in the graveyard of evangelism, according to Billy Sunday in Wisconsin. We got on church one time and God began to work in that church in a very powerful way. There was a policeman in the church. His lifelong goal was to get his wife to Hawaii. He was a policeman and through his job he had opportunity to take her and himself free of charge on the dream vacation of a lifetime. But God was so working in the church he didn't want to miss out on what God was doing so he forgot about the Hawaiian vacation and he stuck around to see what God was going to do in the local church. You know, tonight, ladies, the question is will it be business as usual or the unusual business of revival? When Jesus delivered that man possessed with a legion of evil spirits they went into the pigs and the pigs ran off the cliff and they all drowned and the people began to beg Jesus to leave town. Why? Because holiness upsets the natural order. And I want to tell you if we're just interested in maintaining the status quo, listen, if we keep on doing what we've been doing we're going to keep on getting what we've already got. And since we've already got too much of that I recommend we try a new way. And I recommend tonight we cry out to God for a mighty influx of His Holy Spirit, a holy hush, a holy blush, a holy crush. But notice number four, when a man meets God there's always a holy rush. A holy rush. Look at what he said in verse 8. He said, Here am I. Send me. You know, revival is not the goal. It's a gateway. Revival is not the goal. It's a gateway. Isaiah saw God. Isaiah felt the fire of God. Now Isaiah hears the voice of God. And where the glory of God resides, the voice of God is always heard. Look at verse 8 when he says, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then Isaiah said, Here am I. Send me. He didn't say, Here I am. But he said, Here am I. Isaiah was not announcing his location. He was announcing his availability. Now he had been shattered. Now he was ready to be sent. I want to tell you that Isaiah was in a hurry to get to work for God. Hallelujah for that testimony tonight. Maria, here's a man who wants to get to work for God. Brian Edwards said, Revival is a people saturated with God. Saturated with God. An atmosphere so supercharged with the presence of God that they do things they would never do under ordinary circumstances. I was in a little paper mill town up in Maine. You know, back in those days I was bold. This preacher said, Would you come up and hold a meeting? I said, Well, if you want me to come, here's what I want you to do. Prayer meetings every day, 30 days before the meetings. Men's prayer meetings, women's prayer meetings, young people prayer meetings, 30 days every day. And I gave him all this list of things to do. He said, We'll do it. I said, I'll come. Fell on the plane, went on up there. God got in it. I want to tell you, we were having these afternoon prayer meetings in a little town. We had 60 people coming to these prayer meetings. We had new converts who felt burdened of God who would leave the service and go pray through the entire service. Just unusual. Nobody told them to do it. Nobody even recommended it. Things just begin to happen. I remember this one guy one afternoon, he's over in the corner and he cried out and he said, Oh God. He said, God, I'm willing to do anything to get right with you Lord, even if I have to go to jail. You know, that's a whole lot different than bless the gift and the giver and those that have and those that don't. He was oblivious to the fact that there were human beings. He was only in the presence of God. He was pouring out his heart to God. I'm telling you, there was a holy rush. You know, later that week, that church sent a delegation to a church that had split out of them two years prior to that. Sent a delegation from their church to ask forgiveness for the bad attitude of the church that they had split out of. In Indiana, God came to, in revival and there were two churches that had had an ugly split and they took out a newspaper advertisement, a whole page, to ask the community to forgive them for their un-Christlike spirit. A holy rush. I remember doing one of the men's prayer advances back in the mid-90s somewhere. We had a guy that wasn't scheduled to speak and he spoke on the home. He was not a pulpit pounder. He was not flamboyant. He was not a Bible beater. He was not a hellfire and brimstone. He was just sharing his heart and these verses that God had put on his heart. I never heard anybody even quote the verses much less minister on. You know, when he finished, about 300 there that year, I'd say 90% of the men fell on their faces. No piano playing. No invitation given. Nobody said anything and began to weep and sob uncontrollably. It went into the next session. You know, it wrecked the schedule, praise God, and God hijacked the meeting and nobody could care less and you know, revival has come when they crucify the clock. Nobody cares. Time doesn't exist. I'm telling you, in this kind of atmosphere, things happen and God can do more in five minutes of his working from heaven than we could accomplish in a lifetime. A holy lunch. I was in Florida. A guy came up one night. You know, houses in southern Florida used to be very expensive. Probably get a good deal now, but used to be very expensive. He had burned his house down to collect the insurance policy. He had already tried to make it right one time with the agent and the agent told him, just don't worry about it. I said, no, you need to find somebody with authority. Tell him what you've done. Tell him you want to put it right and what have you got to do to put that thing right? You put it right. I'm going to tell you something sisters. If we don't put it right now, you better believe at the judgment seat there's going to be putting some things right. I know some people don't agree with that right there, but it's a BEMA judgment seat. It's not an awards banquet. Of course, there's going to be rewards. Hallelujah. But it's also some tears that's going to get wiped away. Let's put it right now. Some men's sins go before and some men's sins follow after. I want to get all of mine up there right now. You know, in evangelism, we call on men to accept Christ, but in revival, men call on Christ to accept them. Big difference. Big difference. Tom Palmer was up in northeast Pennsylvania a couple of, well, less than two years ago. And God got in this thing, went on for, I don't know, three or four weeks. He told me that a couple from a contemporary church, they knew nobody in this church, they've never been there, they've not been invited, they were drawn in from off the street and walked in off the street and asked if there was anybody that could tell them how to be saved. A holy rush. You know, in Champaign, Illinois, I remember on Monday night, we didn't have service, they had visitation, they had 45 people come out to go out and tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody, we didn't guilt them into it, we didn't bribe them into it, but they wanted to go. A holy, a holy rush. Well, I was in a church one time where they had 21 days of prayer and fasting. 21 days of prayer and fasting. How many of you think that maybe fasting might not be a bad idea to bring back into Baptist circles? That's not a cultic doctrine, that's a Bible doctrine, Jesus did it, John the Baptist did it, Paul did it, maybe we ought to do it. A lot of enthusiasm on that point, but they had 21 days of prayer and fasting. See me about the hydrotherapy class after meeting tonight. Oh, brother. Sorry. They had 21 days of prayer and fasting. George Mason University student came, got in that atmosphere, got born again. Next night, three pews of university students, and I want to tell you, they weren't mocking, they were the most respectful, attentive young people I've ever seen. We had a drug addict saved, we had at least two young men called to preach, one guy burned all his filthy magazines, cut off his television programs, wrecked the satellite, he did all that. Had one girl hopped on a plane and flew to Texas just to clear her conscience with her father against whom she had rebelled. A holy rush. A holy rush. You know, in Champaign, there was a pastor's son, as a teenager he had gotten away from God, and he had ripped off his employers, the service station owners. He took a whole day off work just to go and find them. Fess up. Ask for forgiveness. Came back to church, relieved of that burden that had been on his heart for decades. I want to tell you that things happen in a revival atmosphere that would never happen under ordinary circumstances. You know, in this kind of an environment, obedience is not a burden, it's a blessing. And the preachers don't joke about stepping on your toes. Anybody that jokes about stepping on toes has not met God. They've never met God. I just want to say that. They haven't met God in a long time. Because when revival comes, it's not your toes that have to pay for them. To call home, to clear their consciences with their wives. Some of you probably got a phone call. I bet some of you people here got a phone call that night. I remember a couple of years ago, we had so many people, we had people crawling over bodies in the aisles to come and get saved, seeking God. A holy rush. You know, in revival, prayer moves from duty to delight. It's not a have-to, it's a get-to. It's not a have-to, it's a want-to. And Isaiah was eager to respond to God's call. He said, here am I, send me. Let me give you four things tonight in closing. Keys to revival blessing. Four keys to revival blessing. Number one, broken vessels. Broken vessels. I want to tell you that the instruments in revival are not perfect, but they have to be honest. They have to be honest. I told you we went to Champaign, and I don't think I could have personally been in any worse shape spiritually speaking. I mean, I guess so, but I don't know how. I could have been any worse off. You ever get like that? Just bad off? Spirit's not right? Heart's not right? Attitude's not right? Reaction's not right? Patience? Irritable? Well, yeah, well, anyhow. The point being, the point being, God uses imperfect people, but there's never been a revival apart from honesty. Roy Heshin said revival is when the best people in the church start acting like sinners and confessing their own sins. And I want to tell you, when you get honest about your own needs, you give people hope. When you're preaching a standard you're not living up to, you're killing people, because the letter killeth. It's the spirit that gives life. It takes a crucified woman to live the crucified life. J.D. Drysdale said we accomplish more through our radiations than we do through our exhortations. In other words, when our hearts are right, and the presence of God is there, more happens then than all of our fleshly efforts combined. I want to tell you, it takes a spirit-filled woman to speak life-giving words. The key to revival blessing, number one, is brokenness, broken vessels. Number two, surrendered rights. Surrendered rights. George Mueller had 50,000 answers to prayer in one of his diaries, I understand. He wrote in his biography, there was a day when I died. Died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, taste and will. Died to the world, its approval or censure. Died to the approval or blame of my brethren and friends, and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God. He died to himself. You know, we need to stop worrying about what people think about us and get concerned about what God knows about us. And I want to tell you, you wouldn't worry about what people thought about you if you knew how little they thought about you. They're not sitting around all day meditating on you. It's just not that way. Sisters, if you want to see revival, stop clinging to your rights. Surrendered rights. Duncan Campbell said, the cross that called Jesus to a sacrificial death calls us to a sacrificial life. Surrendered rights. I'm wondering tonight, what is God calling you to do? What is God saying to you? Don't forget that women have played a key role in the economy of God all along the line. Anna, that godly woman in the temple serving God with fastings day and night, brother, she was one that got a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ before she went out of this life. Oh, I want to tell you, God is calling us to do things. You know, obedience is doing all God tells me to do with the right heart attitude. Obedience is instantly doing all God tells me to do with the right heart attitude. I had it on my heart to witness and contact a fellow down where I grew up, the wickedest man, one of the most vile mouth men I have ever met in my entire life. You know what I did? I didn't pray about it for five years this time. I did it. I did what I felt like God was calling me to do. And I'm telling you, if God's put something on your heart tonight, act on it. Obedience is not always convenient, but it's always profitable. And I want to tell you that revival is just the beginning of a fresh obedience to God. That's where it always starts, surrendered rights. But then, number three, you want to see revival, another key, is a spirit of expectation. Spirit of expectation. Faith is believing what's not so, in order that it might be so. Stop looking at what is, and start looking to what can be. We were in Knox Ridge, Maine. You can ask my wife. This is the first revival I ever got in. I'm talking about when God came. There was such a spirit of faith on that crowd. I don't think anything God might have sent us would have taken us off guard. I'm telling you, if somebody got raised from the dead, I don't think anybody would have raised an eyebrow. It was such a spirit of expectation. Never mind what has happened. Start dreaming about what can happen. You know, God's not out of business just because the American church is, you know. Just because our economy's out of business, it doesn't mean God's out of business. Jesus didn't do many mighty wonderful works in his hometown because the atmosphere of unbelief was so pervasive, it even hindered the Son of God from doing something. You know what we need tonight? We need some God-inspired, Holy Spirit-fired women who will dare to believe God for the impossible. Stop limiting God through your unbelief. Stop listening to the fatalist. Quit reading those notes in your Bible that tell you that you're living in the Laodicean church age. Don't read them again. They're not inspired. They might be demon-inspired, but they're not God-inspired. I can assure you of that. God did not foreordain us to be living in a day of deadpanism with the lights out. And God didn't cause them to be that way to prefigure us. It didn't happen. I mean, like one evangelist said, well, there'll be no revival, but the best you can hope for is to see a few people saying, well, that guy ought to quit and go to work for Obama or something. I mean, that guy, he's got nothing to say. He's got nothing to say. No, don't go to work. Get out of work and get a check. But anyhow, there it is. Don't listen to the fatalist. Don't listen to the fatalist. You know, I'm believing God to come back and I'm looking for local church fires to light up all across the landscape. I believe that God's coming. He's going to come back to church. He's going to come near in mercy. He's going to visit us again. Henry Ford says, whether you think you can or whether you think you can, either way, you're right. And sister, tonight, according to your faith, so be it unto you a spirit of expectation. Let's believe God. We'd always be better off to believe God, wouldn't we? Always. You know, like a pastor called me the other day and said he had a woman in his church that was terminally ill and one pastor said, well, pray like she's going to be healed but act like she's going to die. Prepare for the worst. And he said, I just don't think that's right. I said, I don't think that's right either. I said, why don't we just go ahead and believe God. I know God doesn't heal everybody but He does heal some bodies. I think God would heal more bodies if somebody could pray in faith. And I know this is not a guarantee. I know it doesn't work out every time but God does do miracles sometimes. Wouldn't we be better off to believe God? Wouldn't we be better off to go too far? You can't go too far believing God but wouldn't we be better off on the faith side than on the limiting God through our unbelief side? Amen. Spirit of expectation. Oh, let's believe God for something. Then, let me give you this final thing. A key to revival and that's prepared soil. Prepared soil. You know, you can cultivate the presence of God. You can cultivate the presence of God. Draw an eye to God and He will draw an eye to you. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. The way up is down. We can cultivate God's presence. We draw near to God, He reciprocates. He draws near to us. Don't be weary in well-doing. Do season your reap if you faint not. Amen. We can cultivate the soil. You know, before revival in Romania, the pastor got up at, I think it was Second Baptist or Emanuel Baptist at Radia. He challenged his church people to quit stealing from the government. Under socialism, you don't steal to get rich, you steal to have enough to feed your family. And then he challenged them to quit drinking alcohol. Leading wine-producing district in the whole nation, no Budweiser Baptist in his congregation, quit drinking alcohol, which would be a good idea. Go like this, right? Quit stealing. You know what they did? You know what the church members did? They repented and they quit stealing. Again, not to get rich, but to have enough to feed the family. They quit drinking alcohol. You know what happened? The presence of God came. We had the man here who told us the story. He said the persecution was overwhelming. He had a nervous breakdown. They threatened him and his family. They took him out of the country and threatened to kill his daughters and all kinds of things going on, but God working in an unbelievable undercurrent in that congregation. You know, he told us that they had 3,000 people show up on Wednesday night and every one of them pray in prayer meeting with one sentence prayers. In one hour, you can have 3,000 people pray a one sentence prayer. I guess God's been hovering around that place for years. You know what he said? That revival came to the church and he told the story how the revival overthrew communism and Ceausescu and overthrew the governmental system. I want to tell you something. We can get mad on the religious right and I want to tell you I'm opposed to all of the left wing causes, but I want to tell you being mad at sinners is not going to win America back to God. And the republicans ain't going to save us. Is there anything in the house on that point right there? If there ever was a bunch of useless neutered wimps it's that crowd. I'm telling you, friend, that is not our salvation. That is not our salvation. And it irritates me tonight that Dr. Dobson will find fault with AT&T and with the government and with Kmart for ordaining same sex couples, but will not say one word about the apostate denominations that sanctified that stuff decades ago and never say anything about the religious left but all the time talking about how the government and the secular corporations ought to live up. What about the church of God living up to the standards in the word of God first? Judgment must begin where? At the house of God. All these boys yelling at everybody else trying to get the world to act like Christians. Why don't we try to get the church people to act like Christians? Let's start here. All this other stuff hadn't brought revival. There is no moral majority. It's an immoral majority. It's a moral minority. And what we need is a spiritual minority that's got the fire of God on it. That's what we need. And I want to tell you when God touches your heart no sacrifice is too great to make. You know tonight sisters if nobody else walks with God you can. If nobody else has revival you can. And I want to tell you when a man meets God there's a holy hush I am undone. There's a holy blush woe is me. There's a holy crush I'm a man of unclean lips. And there's a holy rush here am I send me. I have a problem with my mouth you probably just detected that. And I'd like to offer an apology for any offenses I just made. I'm a man of unclean lips. I say things I ought not to say. I get irritated. And I begin to blast people. Do you do that? A holy crush a holy rush. Keys to revival brokenness surrender expectation and cultivating the presence of God. Let's quietly stand let's bow before the Lord tonight.