In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of obeying God's commands and doing so in the power of the Holy Spirit. He warns against allowing sin to creep into one's life and diminish the fervor of one's faith. The speaker shares the story of George Whitefield, a preacher who waited for the hand of God to come upon him before speaking, resulting in powerful sermons that moved thousands. He encourages listeners to approach God with humility, praying and judging themselves, and shares personal experiences of God's presence and revival.

There's a precious quietness in God's glory here tonight. Tonight there's to be a prayer meeting, and everything I was going to preach died on me. The preaching brought revival, we'd had it twenty years ago. In every chapter of the book of Acts they prayed except for two, and in those two chapters they were in trouble. Paul said in Philippians, in everything by prayer. D. M. Patton said, prayer is God the Spirit talking to God the Father in the name of God the Son, and the believer's heart is his prayer closet. Prayer is the most highly, holiest, trembling activity a man or woman or child could ever engage themselves in. We hear much of a George Whitfield that God used mightily in this nation in the 1700s, and yet we don't hear much of his prayer life. But he had a tremendous prayer life. I believe he took 2 Chronicles 7, 14 seriously. As does our heart cry tonight here, where God said, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, we're not here to seek revival. We're here to seek his face, and turn from his wicked ways. Then, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. So work it backwards. Our land needs healing. In the Old Testament they had denied their Lord. They defied his law. They had defiled the land. And God withdrew his glory, and they tried to bring it back a way that wasn't God's ordained way, to bring back the Ark of the Covenant back to the place of God's residence. And Uzzah stretched forth his hand to stabilize it. God struck him dead instantly. Why? It wasn't the pattern that God had laid out to bring the glory back to the place of his people. And our God is a holy and a jealous God. And those that try to bring the glory of God back any other way, except through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, are absolutely doomed to failure. God said, if my people, historically it's Israel, practically it's me. It's you. It's each one of us. It's not the person sitting behind us, or in front of us, or someone who wasn't here tonight. It's not somebody who's backslidden and barely... No, no, no, no. If my people, those who have laid hold of my name, that he is Yahweh, he is Jehovah, and we've embraced that name, and he's embraced us, if we may apprehend that for which we have been apprehended. And God has laid hold of many of us in salvation. Me at seven years old, when God got a hold of my heart and life and showed me I was a religious sinner in need of a savior, that my daddy being a preacher wouldn't get me to heaven, that my praying mama wouldn't get me to heaven, that my praying grandparents would not get me to heaven, I had to come through that door myself. And it began with a relationship with Jesus Christ. In Oxnard, California, God broke me and smattered me and smashed me, and even at seven years old, I knew I was a sinner headed straight for hell without Jesus. I trembled that night and broke in the pew of that church way back in the back, and I stepped out, and right there in the pew, I said, yes, Jesus, I'm a sinner, God, forgive me. God, cleanse me. Jesus, Jesus, you died on the cross for my sins. You rose from the dead for my sins. You're not dead, you're living, Jesus. I come to you in faith, oh God, forgive me, cleanse me. Come into my life, be my Lord, be my God and Savior. And on the spot, he saved me. And my life changed. He saved me from the penalty of sin he bore for me. He saved me from the power of sin. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live with the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And to say with Paul, to live, Christ, and to die is gain. Beloved, the Christian life is not a difficult life, it's an impossible life. No one ever could live it but Jesus. No one can live it but Jesus. Only he will live it as we walk by faith in the indwelling Christ to live in us the life that he is. It is simply to the believer, his deity clothed with our humanity. That is Christianity. You and I can no more live the Christian life. You and I can no more do anything apart from the grace of God. But I love what Alan Redpath used to say, and my mentor and father in the faith Stephen Oldford used to say, and men of God of years gone by, I'm sure the A.T. Persons and all the great men and women of God have said this. That every demand that God makes on your life, every command God gives you, he gives you with it the dynamic to do what he says to do. Stretch forth your hand! But I've never been able to! Stretch forth your hand! It happened! Fill the water pots with water. Every command Jesus gives, he gives us the dynamic to do it in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. So when God says, as far as the pathway of revival, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves. I pity the man, woman, person who ceases hearing the voice of God. I feel for the one who once walked with God, and the glory was on their life, but they let sin creep into their life somewhere. And all of a sudden, prayer is not real anymore. Jesus is not real anymore. Christianity is not real anymore. Worship is not real anymore. And they've lost the glow of their faith in Jesus Christ. I don't know why. It could just be a valley that God's taking them through. It could be like the golden eagle. God's taking them through a molting stage. Someday I'll tell you about that. Where they lose their feathers. They go to a high place in the mountains. They once soared high with God. And it may be you've not sinned. It's not something necessarily wrong. But God's taking you through a process where those golden eagles only eat live animals. Golden eagles only eat dead animals. And God takes you to a place where once you soared with him. But all of a sudden, you can't hunt like you once hunted. You can't work like you once worked. All of a sudden, the glow is gone anymore. And you go, God, what is it? I don't know what it is. But God takes you through that process of the golden eagle. Where they pluck out their own feathers. Like you and I pulling our fingernails out. But over a season of time, what happens? The older eagles who have already gone through it. They fly. And they come down. And they dive bomb. And they drop fresh meat at the feet of the eagles. Going through a molting stage. And the cry of a man I know about who watched this process happen. He said, the cry is this. Eat. Turn eagle. Eat. You've got to eat that bread. Eat that food. Eat that food. Eat it. Because if you don't eat, you will die. And some here, maybe tonight or this week, are going to be here. Maybe their very usefulness is hinged upon the fact that they take some morsel of what somebody says. Or some song somewhere. And they say, oh God, that's for me. I need that. And it transforms a life. And they go back home. Transformed by the person of Jesus Himself. Give my people the pathway they will humble themselves. That means I bend the knee. That's what it literally means. You ever been so hungry for God to do something? You said, God, I don't care anymore about what I've ever thought in the past. Lord, I don't care. It's like you lose your appetite for anything and everything except the glory of Almighty God. That's all you want. Is the glory. You read about it in God using Whitefield. He would stand as I was in Exeter, New Hampshire last fall. In Exeter, he stood out there by the dirt roadside at the time. And the field across and four thousand people there. And they put two barrels together. And they put a board across the barrels. And these men would take George Whitefield. And he was so feeble and sick with asthma. And as they began to lift him up onto the plank, one man said to Whitefield, you look more ready for death than life. He said, yes, but I'd rather wear out than rust out. And they held him up onto that plank. And he stood there on September 29th at about 2 or 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Could you just imagine the breeze blowing? Probably a gentle breeze blowing through. Could you imagine the wind rustling through the tree leaves? And people are gathered around. And there's such a holy solemnity. The people just stay and they sit and they stand in silence waiting for the man of God to speak. And Whitefield got up on that plank. And he stood there and held his Bible. And the man of God stood there and didn't say a word. He just stood there and stood there waiting and waiting and waiting. I'll tell you what he was doing. He said later, he said, what I do is I stand before the people and I wait for the hand of God to come upon me before I ever open my mouth and preach. And he preached to 4,000 people. And tears would stream down their faces as Whitefield would preach. Why? God's sovereign, yes, but Whitefield was a man who knew how to humble himself and get on his knees and say, O God, I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm weak. I'm about to die. I'm not going to make it. I can barely breathe. But O God, if you will give me your divine assistance, I'll stand once again and preach until the day I die. And God looked upon that broken, beat up, battered, war-torn saint of God. And the hand of God came down upon George Whitefield and a strength would come into him. And his voice was a little weak for a while there in Exeter. But all of a sudden, his strength began to grow and grow and grow and grow. And God filled the man of God as he preached the word of the living God. That's what America needs again. And the world. We want to go to our little internet on Saturday night and find some sermon somewhere. God's looking for somebody at church. Somebody who will say, O God, I take your word. I open this blessed book. I get on my knees like Matthew Henry. And I read your word on my knees. Whitefield, I read your word on my knees. Praying place in Portland, at the side of his bed, there were two grooves in the floor about six inches long where he would pray and rock back and forth on that floor and pray and pray and pray and pray. And the glory of God came down. Don't sit or stand or listen and say, David, this is 2009. That doesn't happen today. Oh, yes, it does. In my own life, God broke me. He smashed me, Pastor Brown. God tore me up. And he took me to the back side of the desert. You don't preach. You don't sing. You don't do anything. You get alone with me. And God would call me out to the deserts of Arizona at night time. And I'd turn the light on in my car. And I'd have a Bible in one hand and Arthur Wallace's book in the other hand. And God would break my heart in prayer. Oh, God, you promised it here. You did it here. Do it again. Oh, God, you promised it here. You did it here. Do it again. Oh, God. There was a space of about two years where I hardly ever got to bed before four or five o'clock in the morning because God had called to the place of prayer because God wanted to come in great revival at a place in Arizona. God broke my heart in life. And there was a fresh encounter with the living Christ during that season. And all of a sudden it happened in one church, another church, another church. We'd begin meetings and they'd go four months in one church. Four months. We'd come to that place. We'd come and people would come and get in the altar before the service ever began. And God would just show up. I can't tell you how many times we started the service before seven o'clock because God had already come. And, beloved, when God comes like that and you go for hour after hour after hour it seems like only 10 or 20 minutes and you look at the clock and it's 10 o'clock it's 11 o'clock or it's midnight and you had no idea so much time had passed by because God had come. Leaving there to another place. One night in one place over 300 people the audience was only a little over 500 over 300 people in a message that was only 10 or 15 minutes long when God's on the scene it don't take 45 minutes over 300 responded to give their hearts to Jesus. Jesus' people weeping broke Him in repentance when God comes. So how do we approach Him? I bend my knees we bend our knees and we pray that literally means to judge oneself it's self judging it means that I call sin what Jesus calls sin in my life it's not morbid introspection let me ask somebody here a question are you tired of not seeing God show up in His glory maybe in your church or somewhere that you know about beloved that's exactly where God will bring you and I to that place that we're sick and tired of living without the glory of God and God says what will you do about it He said I promised you if you humble yourself and pray and seek my face God's seeking and turn from your wicked ways of self repenting He said that's the pathway but I'm not so sure let me say this clearly and if you'll hear the words I hope this is clear now I don't believe this is so much a prescription for revival as much as it is a description of revival earlier in the chapter they had prayed the glory of God fell on the place God gave the word of my people who are called by my name will humble themselves how many have come to the point maybe time and time again when you say oh God maybe I really don't know how to seek your face I have the God I hear about prayer and I read about David Brainerd we were David Brainerd's gravesite last fall as well looking at that gravesite where that man of God would pray about 96 or so pounds he would witness to the Susquehanna Indians up there in the north eastern part of the US and it was said that he would go out sometimes in the morning and he would kneel down in the snow and by the evening the snow had melted all around where he was kneeling in the snow because the heat of his body from fervent praying and prayer had melted the snow all around him we hear about Charles Grandison Finney and that's well but have we ever heard of a man named Daniel Nash Daniel Nash another man we used to travel ahead of Charles Finney they'd find a room somewhere in a house or somewhere just to pray because Finney was going to come and please don't anyone sit don't anyone sit back and throw a rock at me because I use the name Finney I don't care what you do or don't believe about Finney just forget that Daniel Nash was a man of prayer God can use a donkey listen, listen, listen let me say this if we would get over our critical spirits in the church and quit dissecting everyone around us you don't cut your pie like I do and all of a sudden you're out there all by yourself and what you start saying is this well at least we're pure maybe you're not maybe you're just a Pharisee if my Bible tells me it does that the fields are wide already in the harvest Jesus said to dub their eyes the fields are wide already in the harvest He said the harvest is plentiful but the labors are few that it's not an issue that we're more holy than anybody else it's an issue we're not going out there to get them either he did or didn't say it either it's a lie or it's the truth we know it's the truth I asked a pastor a friend of mine in Arizona we were leaving the Christian bookstore he talked about how horrible it is in churches nowadays and how things are just playing off or declining and not going as they should I said brother let me ask you a question he said well certainly I said of all the pastor friends you know don't get me wrong I love pastors I was one and one I'm one whatever it is I used to pastor a church I love pastors I didn't used to like them when I was a kid I didn't like them at all they'd come in with their hair sprayed hair you know and look like they thought they were just I just didn't like them I wanted to go up to them and go like this mess their hair but there were some godly ones but I asked him just one question I said brother can I ask you a question about all your pastor friends I said not critical I'm just curious sure go ahead I said of all the pastors you know how many of them are soul winners he stopped I said I guess I can only think of one I said then whose fault is it gods or ours I said the great commission is still in the book Jesus said oh it's getting quiet in here now maybe what God wants us to do God allows the declension in churches all over the place in order to bring us each one of us all of us to a deeper sense of desperation and hunger for God to show up and show out and do something you say David I've tried I've handed out tracts I've done this I've done that some of you are doing everything God's called you to do but that's not the majority probably someone said to me recently they knew someone who was praying for persecution to come to America because the church in China is so pure and other countries and people are dying for the faith so they're praying fervently for persecution to come to America to purify the church I don't know about you I never once prayed for my daddy to give me a spanking if I had it coming to me I got it I never went and asked him for it I believe revival can come through either desperation or devastation or persecution I'd rather it be through desperation wouldn't you God said but if you'll humble yourself and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways and promise I'll hear from heaven I'll forgive your sin I'll heal your land Jesus taught the disciples to walk with him before he said go work and then he said tarry in this city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high and I believe one of the means and reasons we come together for a week like this is to by faith believing in prayer wait upon God and to seek the face of God for a fresh empowerment of his Holy Spirit Amen I close and we'll go to prayer with a story I read years ago the evangelist was preaching in Detroit or somewhere up north man came to him before the service he said will you talk to me after the service tonight he said well I'll be glad to and the man left the men of the church came to him and said what did that man want he said he wanted to talk to me when the service was over they said don't go with him he's a dangerous man he said no I told him I'm gonna go I'm gonna go and sure enough the man met him after the service was over and they walked down the street it was in the city they walked down an alley and the man took his keys out and unlocked the door in the alley of some business opened the door and walked in and turned around locked the door behind him turned back around and pulled the gun out he said I have to ask you a question he said well what was it he said did you mean what you said last night in your sermon he said I don't remember exactly what did I say he said you said the blood of Jesus Christ God's son cleanses from all sin and sin he said yes sir it does he said see this gun he said yeah he said I've killed many with this gun can God forgive a man for sin like that he said sir the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin he said sir across this wall I have a gambler's saloon I have gambling over on the other wall over here it's hidden the police don't know they come for raids and we clear out real quick and turn things around he said I've had men come in here they've left my business here they've come in they're alcoholics and I get what I don't what money I don't get from them over here on the drinking and beer I have every table rigged I get all the money over there he said wives have come in my store my place here with their children begging me not to sell beer to their husband anymore and I've ran them off he said I've been a miserable mean man can God forgive a man for sin like that he said sir the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin and shame he said sir one last thing and I'll let you go he said about 15 years ago I went to New York City met a beautiful woman told her I was a businessman back here in Detroit persuaded her to marry me and brought her home and we got married and she didn't know it was this kind of business and I've given her nothing but misery all the years we've been married he said two weeks ago I went home and my wife and I got in a fight and my daughter Maggie tried to get in the way to stop us from fighting and I slapped my daughter out of the way I came home drunk again and I live in the house he said catty corner from this corner on the other corner is where I live that house over there he said my daughter I knocked her down and she fell on the floor furnace in the hallway remember the old floor furnaces she fell down on that and she scarred herself from her wrist to her shoulder she'll be scarred for life he said I'm horrible God forgive a man for sin like that he said sir you have a grim story to tell but the blood of Jesus Christ God's son cleanses from all sin he said thank you sir that's all I wanted to know I unlocked the door and let him out about seven o'clock the next morning the man his shirt tail was all out he was sweaty disheveled tear stained eyes he began to walk across to his home but go back to that saloon and those gambling tables he had broken every bottle in the place the cards laid smoldering in the fireplace he had torn over and pushed over and destroyed every table in that whole place how it had ruined and shattered his life he thought it was the promise of peace and it wasn't he walked in his house across the street his wife was making breakfast he began to go up the stairs his wife said Maggie honey go up and tell daddy breakfast is ready to come on back down he's ready she ran upstairs and daddy had already gone to the bedroom and daddy had sit in his big sofa chair he looked up and saw Maggie at the door and he said Maggie Maggie darling she'd never heard words like that from daddy she ran back downstairs mama mama mama daddy called me darling I'm a father at this time and Maggie ran on her head and Maggie got to the door and daddy said Maggie I'm not going to hurt you sweetheart come on over to daddy for a minute she walked over and he took her set her on his leg and just put his arms around his girl and hugged her and hugged her his wife hit the door and looked at her and said sweetheart I'm not going to hurt you come on over and she came on over and he hugged his wife and his daughter he said you have a new daddy home to stay the blood of Jesus Christ how do we approach the throne it was at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there that by faith we received our sight and now I am joyful all the day let's just come to the altars if you want to kneel here on the steps if you just want to sit on a pew you can let's come for a season of prayer to commit this week to the Lord Jesus let's do what that verse says let's bend our knees and there's sometimes you can't bend a knee for physical reasons then do this oh God right now I bend my soul to you I bend my soul to you God I bend and humble my soul before you let's come let's kneel or sit and let's have a season of prayer let's take that verse in our hearts and prayers and say oh God I'm your child and if you're not his child cry out to God the Savior cry out to God have mercy on me for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in Jesus shall never perish but have everlasting life God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved the Bible says whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved run to Christ flee from the wrath to come run to Jesus those watching by the telecast tonight over the online right where you are oh get on your knees right there give your heart to Jesus, cry out to God in your hearts wherever you are oh Jesus I'm sorry for my sins I'm a sinner God have mercy on my soul Jesus save me Jesus you rose from the dead you paid the debt I could not pay I owed a debt I could not pay you did not owe Jesus thank you for shedding your blood for my sins and you rose again from the dead you are the son of the living God and oh God I'm convicted of my sin and I flee and run to you oh God in faith Jesus said whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved and the rest of us here tonight just oh God I come to you as your child search me oh God Lord I pray search me search me this week oh God ransack my soul oh God Father we come to you tonight to humble ourselves to bend our knees to acknowledge that you are God and we are not you are supreme and sufficient and sovereign and we are not but your loving kindness has drawn us unto yourself tonight and oh God we can't think of anything more deserving to you than the power and the humble ourselves before the God of creation the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Yeshua Lord Jesus the Savior the Prince of Peace and seek your face the face of God is the pleasure we have it in grace but grace moves us to seek his face the grace of God is the approval of almighty God the face of God is the manifest presence of God oh the wonderful promise therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that you may obtain grace and find mercy to help in time of need Father tonight we acknowledge our need the water pots are empty oh God the water pots are empty let's tell God our need tonight to have my wicked ways my twisted ways my twisted ways oh there's a lot of us here tonight we have come to realize in our lives that we've had things that have been twisted we didn't realize it twenty years ago or ten years ago or ten months ago and God has brought us to the end of ourselves we come to the fountain of cleansing and when we come to the fountain of cleansing we find we come to the fountain of life beloved where the blood of Jesus cleanses the spirit of God anoints maybe somebody who would like to just lead us in prayer there's a microphone here for anybody who would like to verbally just pray you can pray right where you are maybe two or three or several would like to just just lead us in a public corporate prayer feel free to come up here you hung naked for me Lord and Lord even when I was Lord may you be magnified in the hearts of the people Jesus I love you Jesus from the moment you walked into my heart I love you Jesus you're my very life you're my very life Jesus I'm walking I'm not ashamed of that at all I could not live my life without you I could not get up tomorrow morning without you Jesus I could not lie in my bed tonight without you Jesus I could not love my wife without you Jesus I could not take my children in my arms and love them without you Jesus you took a heart of steel and you gave me a heart of flesh when I was almost at the bottom of the bottom of this pit and you took me out of it Lord oh thank you with all the strength that was left in me I cried out to you Jesus I could do nothing else and you came out of that pit my king in the desert place you came to me you created rivers in the desert Lord Jesus where there was no joy and all around me was darkness Lord Jesus you brought your marvelous light oh Lord of those people out there in darkness may they cry out to you oh God in faith oh God I could only laugh because you put joy in my heart and soul glory to your precious name yes Lord even in your name Lord there is power in your name Lord be glorified Lord be glorified we glorify you tonight understand our state Lord we know that we are totally dependent upon you I thank you for your presence right now that hovers over this place praise father that you would show us you father and save us from ourselves amen I lift up my life that I lift up this you God with your aroma no pain no suffering no persecution no anything father God I pray that you would give the glory father I pray that you would strengthen for God open that door God you're not passive take us to you Jesus the blood we have on our hands the perversion in our land God bless America once more even me father please God praise you give you all the glory and power I can I love you so much I thank you for loving me God I praise you Jesus in the mighty name of Jesus mighty name the name above all others the name that can reach out there God in your name Jesus Christ God the father holy spirit have your way amen thank you heavenly father thank you for worship thank you for your people thank you for the prayers of your children thank you for the prayers of a young girl such sweet music Lord thank you for the sounds of love rising up to you father you were saying a while ago come by here come to your people how will the world find you we really need you we your church really need you to come by here and maybe we think sometimes we might think we need you to show us what to do but father we just need you to come and fill us if you come here and fill us it doesn't matter really where we go or what we do everywhere we go you'll be going everything we touch you'll be touching so we just need you to come William Macdonald he spoke about we want you to so come to us father we need you to so come to us that we learn dependence on you we learn to walk in dependence on you he talked about the crisis of dependence coming to a point where every moment of our day is a crisis of dependence on you Lord that's what it means to walk with you it means like our brother prayed a few minutes ago that we can't do the things we're doing in our life unless you're with us and doing them through us we cannot do them Lord yeah I ask you to teach us to walk in the crisis of dependence I ask you to keep teaching me how if there's anything in my life that I can do without Christ it's not worth doing please grow that spirit of dependence because you told us Lord unless we become as little children we would not see the kingdom we would not enter the kingdom children are so good at being dependent please make us like children Lord we ask these things we're so dependent on you to be like what we heard tonight to be people that are consumed with your glory that walk that way to your church once again around the nations that cast ourselves and other dependents we have no backup plan we have nothing else Father and in desperation we choose to cry out to you we have nothing else to do and we say give us a cross take us wherever you want to take us Father if only you can glorify your name once again as you have in days gone by Father while we intercede for this town and we intercede for this church my God and that this is great Father it is not enough for just a little stirring in a church somewhere God it's time for you to hit a nation with your presence God that you would pour out your glory once again in this land on this sleeping church my God oh please God for your glory's sake won't you come once again God we will not let you go we cannot let you go till you come we have nothing else we have no other plan we've seen the futility of flesh the folly of organization trying to accomplish the work of the Holy Spirit we've witnessed it from our youth and we're tired of it and we're sick of it and we want something real once again my God oh please God for your glory's sake not even for our sake God though we want to see you move though we want to have the joy of your presence for the sake of your dear son Jesus is it right that his name is such a curse word in this land God is it right is it right that there's steeples all over the city while crime goes unpunished and babies are slaughtered is that right it is not right God it is not right that this nation has the name of a Christian nation yet is defiling the world with its entertainment and smocks oh God bring holiness and righteousness once again my God start with the people that are called by you do what we cannot do like our brother says we can pound ball pits we can do so many things God but you must come in a mighty outpouring of your presence God if you would do that I know sinners would cry out for mercy I know it Lord like you've done in days gone by like we've read in your holy scriptures in history we will not let you go we cannot we have nothing else there's nothing else will work God will bring us through nothing we have no other plans so it's all we can do years ago he said if God doesn't come in 10 years we're done and it shows God give us a revelation yes Lord and take away those things that hinder God cause us to be fit to be alive wash us God make us real God for Jesus formally dismissed those who want to stay couldn't stay but were formally dismissed so God bless you just like to