In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the need for believers to lift their eyes up to the heavens and open their ears to what is happening in the spiritual realm. He encourages the audience not to bury their heads in the sand like an ostrich, but to instead have faith in God and trust that He is still on the throne. The speaker references the story of Moses and the Israelites, highlighting how God delivered them from the Egyptians and led them with a pillar of fire and cloud. He concludes by expressing a longing for God's glory to be manifested and for believers to experience His presence.

Thank you, my brother, thank you for that introduction. And to all of you who are online at the moment listening, we just pray that you will be blessed this evening. My name is Gareth Evans. You can tell from my accent that I come from the land of Wales. My land is very blessed of God in revivals in the past and is currently undergoing a wonderful move of God even now as I speak. Back in 1904, of course, was the great move of the Holy Spirit that Rick Joyner said was equal to the Day of Pentecost. That's quite a story, quite a testimony. I came to the Lord when I was 17 in Wales, and of course was soon sharing the stories of the amazing things that God did in my land over 100 years ago. And so I had a seed planted in me of a hunger for God to do the same thing now. Then I met a gal who was from Lougha, the very village where the Welsh revival started and where Evan Roberts was brought up as a young boy. Her mother was a child in the Welsh revival. Her grandparents came to the Lord in the Welsh revival. And so again, I had this extra seed planted in me for revival. A few years back, I was in Wales in ministry. I was invited to speak at a number of the local chapters of the provincial bank there, the Christians who work in the bank. And a friend of mine from Canada, a lady, was going to Britain for the marriage of her daughter. I invited Karen to join me on a little trip down to Wales so that I could introduce her and show her to some of the sites that are famous by the Welsh revival. I went to visit my brother-in-law, Vivian, and his wife, Betty. And while we were sitting there eating Norwegian waffles and drinking coffee around a small table, I asked Viv if he would tell Karen some of the stories that he had heard from his grandfather, who was also in the Welsh revival. And as he did, I watched a passion grow in him. Vivian is now with the Lord. He was a very quiet man, yet as he spoke of those days that his grandfather knew well and his father knew, and that Vivian had heard stories about, I could see his eyes filled with tears and the passion grow. In Wales, we call it the huil. And Karen stood opposite him with tears streaming down her face. I then said to Viv, I said, Viv, what was so special about the Welsh revival? Was it the singing? Was it the preaching? Was it the healings? Was it the testimonies? What was so special about it? And Vivian and Betty, his wife, together said in unison, Oh, Gareth, it was the awesome presence of God. The awesome presence of God. I long for the awesome presence of God. And if I were to define a revival, it would be that, basically. It would be the manifest presence of God, God making his presence known among his people. There are many definitions of revival that different people have. And there have been different kinds of revival down through the years, a revival of Bible teaching, a revival of compassion in the church, a revival of seeking holiness. The revival that I'm longing for is that God makes his presence manifest. I know that there are churches where we can call revival, we can, you know, brother and sister, we cannot produce revival. It is not in us to do so. It is in the sovereign God who can produce revival when he comes among his people. Moses is one of my favorite Bible characters. Moses met God at the burning bush when he was 80 years of age. What an awesome experience that must have been. He heard God speak to him and instruct him to go to Pharaoh, as we know the story well. He went to Pharaoh. He saw the plagues. He saw the miracles that God did. He saw the deliverance of the children of Israel from the bondage in Egypt. He saw the parting of the Red Sea. He came across the Red Sea with all his foes behind him. They were fearful of the pursuing Egyptians, but God delivered them, as Pharaoh said, stand still and see the salvation of God which is shown to you today. And he showed them that salvation, delivering them from the Egyptians' bonds and taskmasters. God then followed them or led them by a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day. Moses was very conscious of the presence of God. When he went back to Mount Sinai, he met with God at the top of the mountain. He communed with him. He talked with him. He heard God instruct him concerning the laws and the tabernacle and the feasts of Israel. He had just one longing in his heart. To paraphrase, he said, God, I've seen your miracles. I've heard your voice. I've seen what you can do. But, oh God, please show me your glory. And my heart yearned for God's glory to be manifest, for God to show us his glory. I have experienced some of that. I have been to my own burning bush. I've met God in a very special way. Like Caleb and Joshua, I've entered the promised land of God and I've tasted the honey and the grapes. And like them, you know, sometimes I feel as they must have felt for 40 years back in the wilderness with the rest of the children of Israel. Can you imagine how Caleb and Joshua must have felt having seen the riches of the promised land? Coming back with the story and the confidence that God would deliver this land into their hands, only to hear 10 of their colleagues say, no, we can't go up. The giants are there. They're too big for us. We can't go. I know that Moses declared to the majority vote that they stay in the wilderness for another 40 years. I wonder how often Caleb and Joshua got together to reminisce about that month they spent in the promised land, seeing God's hand at work, seeing the riches of that land. They must have felt so frustrated. I'm sure they spent many evenings just talking together, reminiscing. I'm sure Moses would have joined them many times and asked them and said, tell me more. Tell me about it. But I sometimes feel like that. I feel that the church in North America, Canada, is living a wilderness experience. We're satisfied with manna and quails and God's bountiful provision of these, but God has something better for us. The writer of Hebrews says that the rest still remains for the people of God. Let us strive to enter that rest, the rest that God brings down the walls of Jericho, where God does work, where God is sovereign, where God is manifest, where the church is revived. That is my longing. That is my hunger. When Moses said to God, show me your glory, God didn't imply anything. He said, Moses, I want you to come back up in the morning. Go down and prepare yourself, for I have a place by me where you will stand upon a rock. And come in the morning when you have prepared yourself, and I will meet with you. You cannot see my face, for if you see my face you will surely die, but I will allow you to see me as I pass by, and you shall behold my glory. Moses came up in the morning, hadn't prepared himself, and you know the story how God put him in a cave, and then as God removed his hand, Moses saw the hind parts of God passing by. In a very real sense, I think, in 1904 in Wales, in 1971 in Saskatoon in Canada, and in many other places, we are having the privilege of seeing God passing by, seeing his glory as he passes by, and as he declares to us his name, the name of God, the character of God among his people. And I long for that. I long for that with a deep passion, an ache within me. It is the most heavy burden upon my heart, longing to see God move here in Victoria, and in Canada, and of course with you dear brothers and sisters south of the border in the United States, and in my home country again of Wales. I long for God to come and revive us and manifest his presence for four real reasons. My first reason is this. I have tasted already, and I'm hungry and thirsty. I've been to the burning bush, and I long to experience on an ongoing basis. My number one reason for longing for revival is because I personally need revival. And I would suggest that every one of us listening this evening, we personally need revival. We need to be keeping our hearts in such a tune with God that our hearts are constantly in the presence of God, abiding in him, knowing what it is to walk in revival. I had the privilege once of speaking in a church in Wales, and there were about 25 people present. It was a big church. It had been built during the revival of 1904. At the end of the service, the congregation of 25 was scattered through this building. A woman came up to me to apologize for her husband. She thought he had fallen asleep, not realizing that he was right behind her. She says, okay, Mary. He said, I can apologize for myself. Mr. Evans, he said, forgive me if I appear to be asleep. I was not asleep. I was actually making my peace with God. I do not know what it was about the start of the service, but as you began this evening, I was taken back to my boyhood when as a child of 16, I gave my life to Jesus Christ. But I've not lived for him like I ought. And so I've been spending the morning making my peace with God. And then he said, I don't know what it was that took me back to how you remind me of old Elder Lewis, who led me to Christ that day so long ago. Then he stopped and he said, yes, I do. It's obvious to me that you, like he, are a child of the revival. My heart sang as I drove home that night to be considered a child of the revival. And I want to live my daily life in that attitude where my heart is constantly revived. That's why I spend time in the morning in my private devotions and worship, because I want to remain in the revival. The second reason I long for revival is because my church desperately needs revival. We've become so used to the programs and the impotence of the church that we think it's normal. And the church of Jesus Christ desperately needs revival so that the world will see. The world takes no notice of the church. The world doesn't care about the church. We have no power that the world sees. And my church desperately needs revival for God to move in upon the church. I'm sick of church programs. I'm sick of all our attempts to manipulate God. And I want God to move in. The third reason is because my country, my beautiful country of Canada and your country of the United States, also desperately needs revival. The governments of our lands are torturing from crisis to crisis, being led by blind men who do not understand, do not see. We cannot point a finger at them and complain about the governments of our lands, for it is the church. It depends upon the church for the health of the land. And we, the church, have not been what we should be. And we desperately need revival so that our countries will see the filter of revival among the people of God and will turn to Him and come to know Him. And the fourth reason I long to see revival is because my Savior deserves it. My Savior died for the people of Victoria. He died for the people of Canada. He died for the people of the United States. He died for the people in your neighborhood. And yet they're not worshiping Him. They're not praising Him. And so many in the church who attend church are not worshiping and praising Him and living for Him. And He deserves better of us. And I long for revival so that the land might receive the reward of His suffering and might be pleased in seeing His people be revived. I wonder how many of you have read the book The Harbinger. I read the book just recently. It was given to me, a loan to me. And I didn't particularly find it a well-written book, but I certainly found a lot of very interesting facts presented in it. I haven't got time to go through it, but if you haven't read it, then ask other people about it. After 9-11, a very quick synopsis. After 9-11, the leader of the American government stood up on 9-12, and in a speech of great defiance against terrorism, he believed, he quoted from the book of Isaiah in chapter 9. He said, We will rise up, we will build, we will be defiant, we will be strong again, we will be stronger than ever. He went on like this. Then he said, and the Bible says these words, The bricks are falling down, but we will build with healing stones. The sycamore was cut down, but we are changing it to cedars. And everybody celebrated. And three years later, the presidential, vice-president-elect made exactly the same statement on the three-year anniversary and quoted exactly the same scripture. I am amazed, I am utterly amazed that the script writers for them didn't even look at the Bible to find out what that scripture actually refers to in Isaiah. And the writer, Rabbi Jonathan Kahn, who wrote that book, The Harbinger, points out that the context is God's judgment against Israel, and the Syrians have made a breach in the security of the land. Then Isaiah the prophet is instructed this way, The Lord sent a word unto Jacob, it is enlightened upon Israel, and all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in their pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are falling down, but we will build with healing stones. The sycamore are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Exactly the quotes that the leaders of the American people quoted. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of resin against him and join his enemies together, the Syrians before and the Philistines behind. It is the word of great judgment against Israel. And Jonathan Kahn will present this and say that this has become a sentence of judgment against the people of the United States and the nation of the United States. And maybe the recession and the house situation, and the people losing pensions, and all their future securities, maybe he would suggest so, it's because of God's judgment upon the great nation of the United States. I don't know if that is true. I'm not a prophet, but it certainly is very, very coincidental. You may know that they decided to plant, where there was a sycamore tree destroyed by the collapsing towers at mile zero, they decided to plant another tree, a third tree, a cedar. And that tree has withered since they planted it. Nothing comes of it. They hear of a 20-ton rock of granite from the other end of that mountain to be the cornerstone for a new building that was going to go a mile or two. That has been removed because it's not suitable. And it looks as though the plans of man have been brought to naught by God. Now why do I tell you this? Why do I say this? Because, am I trying to frighten you? No. No, I'm not trying to frighten you at all. The people of God need to get a right perspective on things. You know, I went through cancer about four years ago. And my wife Anne is just going through cancer now. She's just at the end of her treatment for breast cancer. It's been a horrendous year for her with chemo. And she's come through wonderfully, bravely, and very well. I'm actually amazed at her joy in the Lord. I'm not amazed. I know my wife. But we've had great, great peace. I was just reading a book recently by Pastor John Piper of Minneapolis, who also had cancer, pancreatic cancer. But he, like we, are in remission. But he wrote a little booklet called Do Not Waste Your Cancer. I would suggest tonight that if this crisis in America is, as Jonathan Cahn said, and as many fear, many who are fearing for their pensions and their security and their future, and many in Canada are fearing the same way, the future we do not know what it will bring, I would say to you that we need to waste not our crises. Waste not our crises. You see, we need to respond to crises. When God moves in the land, he expects his people to react in a particular way. We're not to be the proverbial ostrich that goes and buries its head in the sand and hopes and hopes and hopes and none of these calamities will come to me. But somehow I'm going to survive. Somehow I'm going to have a pension. Somehow, somehow, somehow. And our hope is in our security as it's failing. Our hope is in our government as they're failing instead of our hope in God. Our second option we have, other than being like the ostrich, I would suggest that we should lift up our eyes. As Jesus said, Jesus said words like this, when you see these things come to pass, lift up your eyes, for your redemption draws nigh. What a wonderful promise. I'm reminded of a prophet, Elisha, in the Old Testament days. Do you remember the story? The king of Syria was meant to bring an attack against the children of Israel. But every time he made plans, he found that his plans were thwarted because Israelite had discovered what he was going to do. And finally he called all his cabinet together and he's very angry with them and he demands to know who the traitor is among them. And they tell him one of them is a traitor, but there is a prophet in Israel who tells their king everything that the Syrian king is planning to do. The Syrian king obviously is angry and decides that he wants to destroy this prophet, so he sends his entire army to the little town of Dothan where he said the prophet is residing. An army to take one man. They come to the town and they surround this small town. In the morning, the prophet's servant wakes up, Gehazi, and he goes to the window and he opens the window and he says, oh, what a beautiful day. And he looks down into the valley and there around the town he sees all the armies of the Syrians and his heart sinks. Oh, master, master, the Syrians are here. Master, the Syrians are here. And I love it. The old prophet, I love the picture of the town. He almost smiles. He lifts his eyes towards heaven and says, Father, God, open his eyes. And my cry, my prayer is that the people of God will begin to look up and open their eyes. Open their eyes. You know, I don't know if you've heard of Hudson Taylor, the great missionary. Well, Hudson Taylor founded China in a mission. He was a great missionary all of his life and he came back to Britain in his older years and he goes around to churches and he's preaching in churches and he's trying to recruit young men, young women to go to a missionary. He's not having much response. And he's getting very angry. And so he starts thumping the pulpit apparently and he says words like this. If none of you are prepared to go, I will go back to the field. I will give my life and none of you. And he started going on in this way. The next day he gets a letter from an Anglican zikr who says to him, dear Hudson, have you gazed upon the face of the savior recently? Have you looked into his eyes? You will find no sorrows of, his brow is not furrowed with care and no anxious thoughts cross his mind and he's far more concerned about China than you can ever be. And Hudson told that story in his own journal. Brothers and sisters, we need to lift our eyes up into the heavens. We need to open our ears to hear what's happening when crises come. Do not waste your crises. When things happen in America, when things happen in Canada that we do not understand, we do not put our heads in the sand like the Austrians, but we lift up our eyes and we begin to see. Let me tell you what I've heard. I hear the sound of chariots being prepared for the battle. I hear the sound of the angel hosts as they gird themselves with heavenly armor for the fight. They do not prepare in fear for they know that their commander in chief is none other than the king of kings. And he cannot fail for he is God. Hallelujah. I hear the sound of rustling in the mulberry bushes as Israel is coming to realize that the greatest ally on earth is the evangelical church. And then let me tell you what I see. I see the king of kings sitting on the throne. He still has his crown on his head. He has not been deposed like Morsi in Egypt. No mad clouds would force him to abdicate his responsibility to his people. He is waiting till his world becomes his footstool. I see the hosts of heaven still fall before him crying out, holy, holy, holy. Thou art worthy, O Lord. I see the church triumphant in heaven rejoicing before him, worshiping him for he has redeemed them. He is the altogether lovely one. He is beautiful beyond description. He is the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon, the brightened morning star. He bears my name on his hands and upon his heart in marks of indelible grace. Nothing can remove my name from those places. He laughs the nation to scorn as they dare to rise their fists against him. He will be valiant on behalf of his redeemed. He loves us with an unchanging, immeasurable love. He is for us, and if he be for us, who can stand against us? We need to arise, lift up. For the third thing, I give you three options. You either bury your head in the sand like an ostrich. You can lift up your eyes and begin to rejoice in the secure knowledge that your savior is still on the throne. Or you can bend the knee. Well, Andy should bend the knee. Maybe I should say not at all. Or Andy should bend the knee before and for our nations, for our people, for our governments. I recently attended a Monday to Friday, nine o'clock in the morning every day for about five weeks, a prayer meeting with a few of my pastor friends here in Victoria. And I began to get a little concerned at the quietness they were asking. There wasn't a prayer. I didn't understand. And so one day I asked them, I said, what is the reason that you men come here? And they said to me, well, we come here to seek strategies from God. And they were wanting God to tell them what they should do in order to win the last of Victoria. And they've had many little plans come out in the past year and a half, and they do this. They've got mountains to pray, and it's wonderful. I'm not against any of that. But I found that I was not in the right place because I am not concerned about strategies. I'm concerned about God. You see, when we are seeking strategies, we are saying, it's unspoken, but we are saying that the church is healthy. All we need is God to give us strategies. I believe the church is not healthy, and we need God to bring revival. Indeed, God has given us a strategy, and we all know it. Forgive me for quoting a verse you all know. Let me quote it for you. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I've heard thy prayer, and I've chosen this place to sanctify myself. If I shut up heaven so that there be no rain, but if I command the locals to devour the land, but if I send pestilence among my people, let me add, and if I send a recession into the banks, and if I bring foreclosure and mortgages, and I cause people to lose their pensions and lose their security, if I allow the enemy to make a breach in the security of the nation, then if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from the wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin. I will heal their land. Oh, this is a big word. But all of God's promises are conditional. If my people... You see, the problems in our land will not be resolved by the church or by the government. It's my people are the secret for a healthy, great nation. The health of my nation or the lack of it depends on His people. Don't expect the world or the government or the bankers to extricate us from the mess we are in by blind men stumbling from crisis to crisis. If my people are called by my name, this simply doesn't mean that we're called Christians. It means we bear the character of God, the name of God. That which you revealed to Moses, that I will show you my name, for I know your name. When we bear the name, when we are called by His name, it means that we bear the character of God. It means that people who are holy, who honor holiness and integrity, will humble themselves. Will humble themselves. What does it mean to be humble? Surely what it means to be humble to me, it means that I recognize who I am. Not more and not less. I'm a child of God, a sinner saved by grace, who has the power to come before the infinite God with my request for my nation and pray again. Why is it we're so afraid of praying? Why is the church so afraid of praying? Why is it that praying against us is so poorly attended? And seek my face. We don't seek His hands to do miracles and works. We seek His face for intimacy with Him. When lovers are apart, what do they long to see? They long to see one another's face. Thank God that we've been granted the gift of prayer whereby we can learn to develop intimacy with our God. Then He's promised you will hear. So brothers and sisters, we come together tonight in corporate prayer that we might come before our God, our sovereign God, He who is still the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who hears our prayer. And as His people, we come to humble ourselves, to seek His face, and to beg for Him to minister in revival in our great nations. Let me add a couple of words for corporate prayer, please, if you will allow me to. May I suggest to you when you come to corporate prayer, it is important that you recognize that we're here together. We're not individuals praying, but we're praying corporately. We need to be focused in our praying. May I suggest that we need to believe that God is willing to answer our prayers. Believe that what He has done in the past, He can do again. May I suggest that our prayers should be short so that others can follow on or follow on with the prayer and continue the theme that somebody has. And lastly, may I ask, please, that every one of us would have prayers that are audible so the rest of us can say amen and join in. I've been in corporate prayer times before where I had great difficulty hearing people talk, and I had difficulty even being able to say amen to many of the prayers because I did not understand the context of what the prayer was. But may I invite you, and I invite Edgar to come back on, please, may I invite you to come to corporate prayer that we would earnestly seek God for our great nations at this time. Thank you and the Lord bless you.