In this sermon, the speaker expresses his frustration with Christians who lack initiative and vision in spreading the word of God. He shares his personal experience of being a backslider before finding salvation and emphasizes the importance of personal revival. The speaker encourages the audience to make a commitment to move towards evangelism and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He acknowledges that as spirit-filled believers, they are still human and vulnerable to failure, but reassures them that failures are opportunities for growth and rebounding.

Father, we thank you for that challenge in song. We thank you for this report from India, Middle East. We thank you for what you've done in so many lives. We see a lot of problems in the world. We see a lot of suffering. It's always there. We see a lot of great things that you're doing, and we thank you and we praise you. Lord, show us where we go from here, that we may do your will in a more wholehearted way in the months to come, the years to come. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to share with you, I've changed the title from this tape sheet, though the tape message here is very general, the challenge today. The challenge today is personal revival. I want to speak to you about the privilege of personal revival. And my text is Ephesians, and it's Ephesians chapter 2. One verse. One verse. And you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. You hath made alive. You know, as young people, you can make many mistakes in life, and let me not try to discourage you, but life can be very cruel, and mistakes can cost. I'd love to speak to you on the pursuit of excellency, the need to aim high in your life, the need for discipline in the practical areas, in your driving, in your accounting for money, in your keeping records for people's addresses, in your remembering basic things about safety. I'd love to talk to you about safety. People are surprised, they didn't know him. We have courses on driver safety. From the earliest years we had that, and we emphasize the amalgamation of the practical with the spiritual. We don't believe in separating. We don't believe in that kind of dichotomy that puts management, organization, administration over here, and preaching and prayer and that over here. That has led to the destruction of many churches and many institutions, because we believe that this must be amalgamated right on the grassroots level. And you as a leader need to get into practical things. That's why I've offered to send you, as a gift, the leadership manual, where we talk about driver safety, where we talk about things on one page, the real goals and aims of OM. Because by God's grace, we know where we're going, we know why we're going there, and by God's grace, we're going to get there. We've seen that in India, we've seen it in a number of other countries, in the midst often of many setbacks and much failure. On the other hand, you'll turn the pages in that manual, and you'll read how to give out literature, how to organize a team, how to bounce back when you fail, how to get along with different kinds of people, how to organize a weekend of evangelism. And I hope more of you will write me for that manual. I stayed up late last night just praying through your feedback. Maybe a hundred or more of you made a very clear commitment yesterday, last night, to start moving to the ends of the earth. Or in other cases, it was to come back to Jesus and to be filled with His Spirit. And I tell you, my heart went out for you as I read your feedback, and I wish I could visit every one of your homes and share with you, because I know the road ahead won't be easy when you've made the kind of commitment you've made. Others I know are holding their feedback. If you want to do feedback section two, that's all right. I count it a privilege to be able to read and pray for you. At least once, and then you'll get the things that you requested. You know, my Bible says it's more blessed to give than receive. You know, the major criticism we get in OM, all the time, I get it now more than ever, why don't we take offerings? Why don't we take offerings? Oh, we've proven at this conference, we do take offerings for other people. But God showed us in the early days of this work, Philippians 2, esteem others better than yourself. We've never attacked those who take sane, good offerings. And of course, the local church that's responsible for this part of God's work, to a large degree. But we felt because we were young in the missionary community, that we should go low profile, not have a lot of publicity, not be pushing the offering basket under people's noses for our cause. And that if God wanted OM to become anything, this is in those early days, that we would put water on the fire, as Elijah did, and the fire would still come. And we thank God the fire has come and it's never left. You can't out give God. And I don't give books away because we have lots of money. That's another criticism we get because we have two ships. People think we're loaded for money. They obviously haven't seen these, these ships, because they are two of the oldest ships in the whole world. And the miracle, I tell you, not those bits of steel, the miracle of the ship project, people, engineers, hard working, committed, born again believers, willing to work without salary, trusting the Lord for their own expenses. That's the miracle of the ship project. I'd love to talk to you a long time about that. I hope you'll get that ship filmed and show it in your church, made by Dutch television. You know, we got so many audio visuals available on OM and a lot of them sit on the shelf because so often we have so little initiative. Do you know, before I was saved, I was showing films for a missionary organization and raising money on their behalf. That's before I got saved. And I just can't understand how people can be saved and have so little vision, so little initiative, so little spiritual oomph, so little spiritual get up and go. It must be a disease, a spiritual cancer, a spiritual anemia, and it just must break the heart of God if that's possible. My heart, as you can guess, is full. I was sharing how before I was a natural backslider, and maybe this is why I'm preaching to you and sharing with you on the subject of personal revival. Here we read, you hath he made alive, made alive. According to God's word, if you are a believer, if you have been born again, you are alive in Jesus Christ. Now I've studied revival. It's very interesting. I've listened to lectures by Edwin Orr, the great revival leader. I've heard Mr. Val Grieve, a lawyer from Manchester, the chairman of a board of EBE, the British company that owns the ship Lagos, speak on revival. I'll never forget his message on revival. I've trudged the villages of Wales to some of those old churches where the 1904 revival broke out, and I believe God can do that again. I've visited the Hebrides where they had a revival through the human instrumentation of a dear brother, Duncan Campbell, some years ago. And I think many of us, when we read these books and we hear what God has done in the past, we get into a mentality of thinking this is something we sort of hope for and long for, but there's really not much we can do about it. Now this kind of revival, the 1904 revival, the revival that came through men like Whitfield, as so many things in the church, it's a controversial subject. Finney believed there was a lot you could do about it. Others disagreed with Finney. I'm still longing to see revival in Britain. Maybe Mission England will lead to that. Evangelism is not necessarily revival. Church growth is not necessarily revival. Revival begins among God's people with deep conviction of sin and people getting right with the Lord, and then it spreads. It spreads different ways in different times. I remember when there was a revival at Asbury College and Seminary. Dr. David Seamans, the author of that book, that brilliant book, Healing for Damaged Emotions, one of the most significant books of our decade. His life and the life of his wife was completely turned around in the Asbury revival. And I want you to pray. I want you to pray not only for pastors, because they had such a difficult past, and you need to be loyal and to love your pastor and pastors and try to understand the job they have. But you know, we need to pray more for the pastors' wives, because I think it's one of the toughest jobs in the world to be the wife of a Christian leader or especially of a pastor. People expect so much from Christian leaders. They've read so many books. Reading too many books without getting out and putting it into practice yourself develops a sort of Disneyland form of Christianity. It's not real. It's interesting, it's exciting, you can enjoy it, and there's a lot to watch, but it's not real. And that's why when you read a book, then you need to go out and put it into practice. And you read another book, then you go out and put that into practice. The revival I want to talk to you about is less controversial. And it's a revival that you can have today. Today. And never, never lose. Now, if that isn't exciting, then I don't know what is exciting. Personal revival is the privilege of every believer by inheritance. You don't have to stay up in a night of prayer to get this. In some people's case, that might be necessary. You don't have to wait. You don't have to read 16 books on sanctification. By the way, some people with their particular mentality, the more books they read on sanctification, the more weird and confused they get. And I thank God that he just helped me as I was going into extremes on sanctification theories. And he used women. He used Eugenia Price, her little book, No Easy Answers. And he used Tim LaHaye's book on temperaments and some other books. And he used my wife. He used my family. He used some of my friends. And I just think it's so important to realize that your inheritance in Jesus Christ is personal revival. And let's try to keep it a little simple. Hudson Taylor had that great motto of keeping things simple. And in many ways, the Christian life is simple. I shared with you last night about the growth in the Nepali church. I'd love to talk to you about Nepal, if any of you are interested in that country. Write to me personally, because I have two jobs in OEM. One is the area coordinator for the subcontinent. That's five, six nations with a billion souls. My other job is working together with Peter Maiden as the international leader of OEM. I have a more important job than that. It's to be a father and husband. But, you know, many of those Nepali believers can't even read. And they come to those churches late at night, coming down through the mountains with those little torches and burning rags. And sometimes after the meeting, the trails are so bad, the mountains are so steep, they can't go home. They just huddle on the floor of the church, which is usually just a home. Simple people. There are very few books in Nepali, though we've just published another one. Actually, True Discipleship just published in Nepali. But many of them can't read. But they know Jesus, and they're growing, and they're becoming mature. Of course, there's a need for teaching. There are many needs in the Nepali church. Revival, personal revival, is your privilege through inheritance. You know, many people are trying to get in a second blessing, that which they already had in the first. That's right. Now, I'm not against a second blessing. In OEM, we work with people who believe different things about the great controversial doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we've discovered, and praise God for that powerful little piece of dynamite, that book Love Covers, that so deals with this subject. We believe that people who emphasize a second blessing, and those who maybe emphasize more of a sanctification process, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, we believe these people can work together. I've just given a message on that subject down in our Leaders Conference. I'd be happy to send a copy to you. Actually, I think it was in Dubai I gave this message. As I add, half the people there were one side, Pentecostal people, and half were Brethren and Baptists and other types. And God just gave this word about how we can love one another. There will be different churches. God's unity comes in the midst of diversity. We're not all going to join one church. Different people are happier in different types of worship. But we can love one another. We can work together to a degree. We can pray for one another. We can respect one another. I believe that's so important. In dealing with this whole difficult subject of the Holy Spirit, I'm often reminded of those words of Billy Graham. He says, I don't care how you get it, just get it. Get what? One experience that dries up a month later? No. Lifestyle. Reality. Ongoing growth. Ongoing fullness of the Holy Spirit. One of my favorite messages, I preach it often. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's a command. I believe we can unite on that command. Let's realize this, that it is possible to be filled with the Spirit at the date, at the moment of your conversion. Now, it's a mystery. Some people seem, at their conversion, just to be so filled, obviously, with God's Spirit. It's an overwhelming, radical experience, and they are Spirit-filled from that moment on. That doesn't mean they're always the same. That doesn't mean they don't need to grow. Of course they do. There's a sense, because of the greatness of God, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, that no matter how filled we are, we can be more filled. No matter how Christ-like we are, we're always a thousand miles from Christ, and we can be more Christ-like. Don't try to put these things in little compartments. You'll only get a theological headache. But other people, often because of their background, because of damaged emotions, because of psychological blockage and other difficulties, at their conversion, there is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, because we have not the Spirit of Christ, we don't have Christ, but somehow there is not much of the fullness, because there's just too much yet in the way, in terms of sin, in terms of difficulty, damaged emotions, a lot of other things. Call it what you want. And so later on, the Lord touches them, and they have a second experience of grace. And for some people, that seems to be greater than almost when they were converted. Don't be frightened by that. God works in different ways in different people. I've had people tell me that their experience of the O.N. Summer Campaign, which is a training program, and almost all of you, I'm sure, are eligible, if you want to have on-the-field training in cross-cultural evangelism, the life of prayer, developing your ability to relate to different people, and the discipline life. Believe me, there's lots of openings yet for this summer. But I've had people write to me and say that their experience of evangelism and team life on O.M. changed their life more than their conversion. Now, that sounds really bizarre, doesn't it? But you know all that was happening? It's simple. What God put in at conversion came out when they got out on the front lines of spiritual battle. It's not that O.M. had more. It's not that we had some special blessing package. It's that the situation, the circumstance, being thrown out in a situation where you had to trust God, it enabled that which was already in to come out. And one of the great mistakes, I was about to tell you this in the beginning, and I got sidetracked, but one of the great mistakes people make when they come on O.M. is to think that coming on O.M. they will become spiritual. I want to tell you, Christ is the source of spiritual life, not O.M. Others come on O.M., they get disappointed with their leader. They thought they were going to have a leader who was going to somehow be a combination of Hudson Taylor, C.T. Studd, Amy Carmichael, and E.T. And they found their leader was human, he was a failure, and they were disappointed. They were so looking forward to really being discipled by the spiritual heavyweight. I want to tell you, the source of discipleship is Jesus Christ. The source of spiritual life is Jesus Christ. And you can be as backslidden and as defeated on O.M. as a bunny going downhill on a pair of greasy skis. Now that was ridiculous, wasn't it? I think sometimes I've said so many ridiculous things in trying to make new comparisons because the last thing I want in my messages is for people to be bored because I live with three children who are always telling me they're bored. So I get into extremes. But the source of spiritual life is the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you study the Word of God, Christ is center. And if we're going to live out this spiritual revolution, then there has to be a fresh revelation of Jesus. The answer is not on O.M. Don't come on O.M. if you think we're the some kind of great answer. We're a fellowship of needy people learning how to obey God in discipleship. And it's your privilege from the date of your conversion, whether anybody ever disciples you or not, whether you ever get into some sophisticated training program or not, whether you ever read all these great books or not, your privilege, your inheritance in Jesus Christ is life! Life! Abundant life, John. Chapter 10, verse 10 says, in those words where Jesus speaks and says, I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. And the enemy is trying to rob you of your inheritance. He's trying to get you to think it's some future event. He's trying to get you discouraged with yourself so that you're always praying for some special blessing or for some revival or for some new experience or for some total cure-all discipleship program or for the perfect church or for the New Testament principles. And we get, as it says in Ephesians, blown about by every wind of doctrine, every new speaker who comes into town with spiritual pet pills and a new chorus. We're blown this way and we read another book and we're blown that way. And we fail to realize the simple truth of all that we have in Jesus Christ. You say, well, man, what you're speaking with, that's a fair degree of authority. I mean, don't you feel, I mean, this is a bit much. I mean, we're just all weak people. I have more people tell me now when they get excited, I'm not George Frerich. I say, oh, thank God, one is enough. If you're trying to listen to your own cassette tapes, playing backward at half speed, you might be able to handle it. We're all original. We're all original. But let me share my testimony because I believe if I can live this way, then you can live this way because I don't have any more than you. If you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit. You have Jesus Christ living in you. Now, you can relax. He's not going to turn you into me. It's always pathetic to see some little, quiet, shy British girl trying to be some noisy, loud-mouthed extrovert American male. Or trying to be a combination, again, of, you know, Deal Moody, Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, and whoever else. Women, just accept that femininity. It's beautiful. God made you equal. He made you special. He loves you as much as He loves any man. And if you want real women's liberation, then let Jesus Christ set you free because when you're free in Christ, you're free indeed. And there's a need for women today in God's work. And the teams that have impressed me the most in the past three years in OM are the women's teams out in Pakistan. We have in Jesus Christ, male or female, at the moment of our new birth, life. You know where I learned some of this from? Though it was happening in my life, I couldn't put a verbal handlebar on it until I came across this old southern preacher, Vance Havner. You ever heard him preach? The most blessed experience. You know, one thing we need to learn in the church is not to tear and compare preachers. There may be someone here that actually gets a bit turned off by my approach and the way I speak. Don't worry about it. We're all different. Some other preacher, if you stay in tune with the church and with God, He'll get through to your heart. We have a wide range of speakers in OM. We have at least 50 men now who feel their number one main ministry is the proclamation of the Word of God in evangelism and to believers. They're all different and their approach is different. I hope you invite some of them to your churches. When Jerry Davey first stepped in as leader of STL, we didn't think his main ministry was preaching. I'm sure he still doesn't think that. But when I was on the subcontinent recently and I heard a report of a dynamic preacher in Bombay, I thought, well, you know, is this Ray Eicher? Is this Alfie Franks? Who's been down hitting them in Bombay? And somebody said, it was Jerry Davey. Now they want him to fly to the Middle East? Not to give expert advice on literature, though we can do that. They want him to preach. See, so, you know, sometimes God surprises you. I'd love Jerry to give his testimony because God saved him out of a very introvert life as an engineer, master's degree in aeronautics engineering. He joined OM for a year to handle a greasy little dirty bookshop in a converted pub in Bolton and ended up marrying one of the first American women ever to come into the work. One of those international marriages. They're in OM like babies. We get a baby every four days, twins, and we're waiting for quads and whatever else. It's a fruitful movement. It's also a controversial subject. Vance Habner said, we wouldn't have to talk so much about revival if we knew, here's a new word, write it down, we like to give you new words at OM, revival. Let me see if I can say that with a southern accent. Revival. If you had revival, you would need re-vival. And you know, that simple message went through my heart like a bullet. And I saw it and I said, God, that's it. That's it. I'm alive in you. I don't have to keep waiting, keep hoping. Sure, the Lord will still give you special experiences. The Lord will still give you moments of ecstasy in praise and worship. But that's water above the glass. The glass will be filled by Jesus himself. We are alive in Jesus Christ. We have revival. Lord Jones emphasized this. I believe the greatest Christian book in the English language, and I'm not offering it free, is Spiritual Depression, Its Cause and Cure. You go down to your bookshop and get that book. It is the greatest Christian book in the English language in the past 100 years. I've been saying that for many years. And I just can't express how much that book means to me. And in a sense, this message tonight, in different vocabulary, is similar to what he puts in that book. You see, the Word of God says we have the mind of Christ. Have you read that verse? We have the mind of Christ. Now, there are many roads in life. And a lot of the battle of a Christian life is the battle of the mind. It's the battle of the mind. Freud says we don't really have much choice. We're programmed to a large degree. You loved your mother, you hated your father, all that business. A lot of that has been even disproven by psychologists who will later be disproven by other psychologists. And someday they'll start reading the Bible. Because the psychology of Jesus, it's a beautiful book, The Psychology of Jesus and Mental Health, I think will show you that the Sermon on the Mount has more basic, biblical, beautiful psychology than almost anything you could ever read. Read the Sermon on the Mount. Lloyd-Jones emphasized the need to discipline our bodies, to discipline our mind. I put it this way, it helps me. There are many roads. I'm tempted. Do you get many temptations? I'm a person of tremendous temptation. How many of you have temptations more or less every, say every day, some kind of temptation? Raise your hand. Oh my Lord. This is a heavy majority group here. Now there's various temptations. I've had the greatest victories over lust in the last two and a half months I've had in a long time. I mean, Pakistan is fantastic for guys like me. Really. They got this system there, they put their women in these black covers, little holes in the front. And I will tell you, if you can get into any difficulty in the area of lust, seeing one of those walk down the street after you, you do need a psychiatrist. And I was afraid. It's two and a half months out in that part of the world, very conservative in this area, Nepal a little bit different. Coming back here, where the pornography is often just left on the seat, on the train, you go to wash your hands, and there it is left in the loo on the train. And you hardly have a second to think. Your body, if you're a strong male, something happens. And you're hit. Now if you go in certain places, you know what's going to happen. I decided years ago, there's certain streets in London, I'm just not going to go down. I know what's down those streets. I've been down. I'm just not going to go down that street. Now that spiritual principle, you'll transfer that to the spiritual, and you'll get a very important principle that could save you from spiritual catastrophe. What are some of the other roads you're tempted to go down? Discouragement Alley. Have you ever been down there? You start down there, and there's something that discourages you. As you think about it, you get more discouraged. You go further down, and there's something that really discourages you. And you look at that, and you go down and down, and in the end, depression ditch. Have you ever been down that street? You have, haven't you? And you know what's down there. So why don't you determine now, by God's grace, you're not going down that street anymore. When you feel it coming, you know it's coming, that temptation to be negative, to be discouraged, stop! Right there, by God's grace. Standing on God's promises. Lloyd-Jones even used to speak to himself. He would speak to himself. As he felt his body, you know, his emotions, pulling in one direction, he would speak to himself, out loud, from the word of God, and stop himself. Some call it discipline. We read about it in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. We read about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Buffeting our body. Fighting not as one that beateth the air. You can live this way! Paul wrote to the Philippians, and he said, I can do all things through Jesus Christ, who strengthens me. In that same book, we're challenged and exhorted to think on that which is pure, that which is lovely. Some of you, if you're honest, the biggest problem in your life is you're a negative person. I don't think people realize how deadly being negative is. I know that in my life, though I'm basically, even before I was saved, was optimistic person with a negative streak, but basically optimistic. I know that if I hadn't learned to deal with negativism, which involves criticism, judgmentalism, reactionism. If I hadn't learned to deal with that, I would be disqualified from God's Word today. And I read some tremendous books on being positive. I read John Haggai's book on how to win over worry. What a book. I read Dr. MacMillan's book on none of these diseases. Mount Everest of medical writing. And I knew that I had to stop walking down negative street. Now, I wonder how many of you have been down negative street this week, this month. Maybe about your parents. So easy to be negative about your parents. Do you think God gave you the wrong parents? We expect so much from our parents. I thank God for the day that I accepted my parents as they were. Partly the result of that, both of them came to know Jesus Christ. And I will tell you, we are living in a day in which parents are under tremendous pressure. Many of them are running to psychiatrists, psychologists. And I believe today, your parents need you and your love and your acceptance of them more than you'll ever know. More than you'll ever know. But how easy it is to go down negative street about our family, about the problems in the home, about the times you were hurt. And as we walk down negative street, there are the little fire hydrants of hurtness. And then when we turn them, turn the water on and let it squirt out, but instead of water, it's acid. And I would beg of you in the name of Jesus, if you've been down that street, you see how depressing, you see how wrong it is, don't go down anymore. Don't go down it anymore. Determined by the mind of Jesus Christ, by the control of the Holy Spirit in your life, because there is such a thing as a spirit-controlled life, you're not going down negative street anymore. You're not going down cynics alley anymore. You're not going down judgmental square anymore. By God's grace, you're going to stay on the highway of holiness. By God's grace, you're going to stay on that avenue of spiritual revolution, 1 Corinthians 13, where there's blessing, where there's daily revival, where there's forgiveness, where there's grace and mercy abounding to the chief of sinners. That's what the Christian faith is all about. And you make the decision, not me, not your church, not your leader, you make the decision what you do with your mind and how you live your life because Christ is in you, according to the word of God, the hope of glory. There's no training program that can match that. There's no experience that can match that. There's no worship session that can match that. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it's yours to the degree. And you simply stand upon it, claim it, and live in the light of it. What about old temper street? Every year, when you get down temper street, you know, people that don't have trouble with temper, your problem is something else. I don't know if you can realize the horribleness of temper. I know, because I'm a man that's fought temper all my life. Anger, explosiveness. I almost completely overthrew the Christian faith because I couldn't get victory over temper. And long after I wasn't getting upset so much with people, I get upset with myself. Especially if I lost something. Do you like to lose things? Do you like to lose your wallet? Your money? That's a nice experience. You lose all your money. And then you claim, in the name of Jesus, it's going to return. You heard the testimony of that guy who prayed, he'd lost it, and he found it. And you prayed, you even had the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus. That was 20 years ago, I still haven't found it. Temper is a terrible thing. I never forget reading Billy Graham's book, Seven Deadly Sins. One of the most powerful books I've ever read. At least in the top 50. I'm just re-reading it again the other day. Seven Deadly Sins. And he speaks about the sin of anger. I'm not only indebted to Billy Graham for my conversion. Billy Graham was the major teacher in my life. He's not just an evangelist. Have you read his books? He's a teacher. He's a, you know, how do you explain Billy Graham? He teaches line on line in his own unique way. And his message is on dealing with anger. When I read it, I repented and I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ. And God has given more and more and more victory. Many, many months pass often without any burst of temper on my part. Irritability is still a struggle. But you see, I know temper street. I know what's down it. I know the people I can hurt down that street. I know I can hurt my own children. I can hurt my own life. And by God's grace, I'm not going down that street anymore. And maybe you think I'm a little extreme. But if you don't get extreme in hatred of sin and in hatred of the things you do that hurt people and destroy people, then I don't think you'll know the holiness of God in a long-term life. It was because at 19 and 18, I hated immorality and I hated evil and I hated injustice that my whole life was changed by God's power. And the Bible says that in the Book of Romans. Hate that which is evil and cling to that which is good. You don't have to do it as emotionally as me. You can be phlegmatic. You can be cool and calm. You can even mix in there a little bit of sanguine. I don't care how you do it. Just do it. I love the quiet types. I worship at the altar of the quiet types. That's why one of my main goals in OM is to get as many quiet, disciplined, long-term church planting among the Muslim phlegmatics as I possibly can. And I'll give myself to recruiting and blowing my trumpet and sticking and stirring people until they decide they're going to do something. Even if it's just to get me off their back. That's very poor motivation, by the way, for world missions. You know what the streets are in your life that lead you to sin, lead you to depression, lead you to discouragement, lead you to unbelief. To just walk into a bookshop and pick up a book by a leading agnostic, a leading humanist, and read it before you know the Word of God, before you know Christian apologetics, you're asking for trouble. To go into university and study psychology under some warped, semi-demented atheist, without knowing the Word of God, without knowing the reasons for your Christian faith, is a very foolish thing to do, because there is a real devil, and there's no purpose in walking right into his oven and pouring, pulling the door closed on you. I don't know if you've ever had the oven experience, but the devil knows how to do it. The Bible says, Satan has a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour. Do you believe that? It says that we should hold high the shield of faith, wherewith we can stop the fiery darts of the devil. Young person, if you and I go down that road, another dangerous road, of just playing church, of just listening to messages and never putting them into action into our lives, of just listening to the words of Jesus, who said, If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up the cross and follow me. If we just continue to listen and we don't act, we will dig a ditch deeper than we can ever measure. Young person, revival is your privilege. And I share this carefully, perhaps it's to bring other things into balance. As far as I can remember, every day since my conversion, I have known this revival. Now that needs a lot of explaining, and I'm running short on time, and I'm trying to lure you into some of these cassettes. Because I believe that cassette Bible ministry can be a great opportunity, especially for some of you that may not be able to get what I had as a privilege two years in Bible college. Many of you will get that, I'm sure, as well. But I believe, I need to say it even though it's risky, because it's true. Every day since my conversion, I've known revival. Not sinlessness. Oh, my. I've sinned. My tongue, my eyes, my thoughts. But you see, revival is not lived in the absence of sin. Revival is lived in dealing with sin and repenting with sin. It's 1 John 2, verse 1, first part of the verse, sin not. Second part of the verse, if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If you don't write anything down, write 1 John 2, verse 1. Because it's the anchor of continuous revival. And the book I was going to offer you is called Personal Revival. We have it in magazine form. It won't cost us much. If you feel bad about that, you can send the postage. But read that little book, Personal Revival, by Stanley Vogt. Read Roy Hessian's powerful little spiritual dynamite, Calvary Road, now in 35 languages. I've watched this man's life ever since I came to Britain and met him. And I believe Roy Hessian is another example that you can live in continuous revival. You're not always at the same level. The joy isn't always the same. The worship capacity is not always the same. Your feelings go up and down. I've had days in which I've been down. But even when I've been down, I've been worshiping, I've been thanking Jesus. I've been battling through unbelief. I've been pulling myself back from the tangents of evil. And I've gone to bed knowing I'm forgiven. He's in my heart. He's alive, even though I may feel dead. Revival doesn't liquidate the human factor in your life. This is a great mistake. We think if we become spiritual, we get a different voice. We'll never feel discouraged again. We'll never really be tempted in the same way. We won't do some of those terrible things around the house. But you see, as spirit-filled believers, we're still human. We still easily fail. We're vulnerable. And sometimes the soldiers in the battle, now under pressure, winning men for Christ, we're more vulnerable. Some of you who have recommitted your life in these days, you will go from here more vulnerable. And so if you have a big failure in the next couple of weeks, that's not the end of the road. That's probably a green light that you're on the right road and the devil's after you. Rebound. One sport that never came to England much, though it's come more lately, is basketball. Have any of you ever seen a basketball game at all? Raise your hand. This was my favorite sport. This is encouraging. But the key in basketball is you shoot for the basket. If you miss, you try to get the rebound. And you ever see these tall fellas? I always wanted to be tall. I actually got thrown off the team for fooling around. It was before I was safe. You know, I don't fool around now that I'm safe. And anyway, you shoot the basket. If it misses, one of these tall fellows leaps in the air and taps it. Have you ever seen that? And it goes in. That's called a rebound. And in our Christian life, we've got to learn how to rebound. You try something in your Christian life, you fail. Try again. Don't give up. You're in God's training program. It's a long-term program. And I sense that some of you have given up in some area of struggle in your life. Don't do it. It's deadly. Claim His grace right now as we bring this to a close. Ask Him for fresh mercy. Believe with the depth of your being you are cleansed. You are as white, as beautiful, as snow that's touched the tops of the Himalayas because of Christ. Personal revival, daily joy, daily reality, in witness, in prayer, in relationship, in the midst of struggle and failure. And the human factor is the privilege of every believer. Some of us need a little Holy Ghost stubbornness to stand on this verse and a hundred similar verses and say, Lord, by Your grace, every day from now on, here I stand. Come what may, pain or pleasure, wind or the calm, here I stand. 1 Corinthians 15, 58, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor is never in vain in the Lord. That's God's Word. Let us pray. I wonder how many of you in these past weeks, again and again, you've been going down the side roads, roads of lust, the streets of anger, depression, jealousy, and you're discouraged, you're defeated. You're not living in the promised land, milk and honey, fruit of the Holy Spirit, and God somehow this afternoon has touched your heart and there's a cry, there's a sob in your heart, and you want to say, Oh God, by Your grace, from this day on, I will live on the basis of my inheritance. Will you do that? Will you take that stand that by His grace from now on, it's going to be promised land living, it's going to be personal revival as your privilege, through His indwelling Holy Spirit. If you want to make a recommitment to Jesus and to live daily on the basis of this personal revival that's yours in Christ, if you mean it with all your heart and you want to come back to the cross and be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit this afternoon, to be His soldier, to be His disciple, to go where He wants you to go, to do what He wants you to do, then I want you quietly in this great church, just quietly to stand to your feet and say, Lord, touch me, revive me. And as you pray that, you'll make your commitment that you'll live in the light of that by His mercy and grace every day of your life. I believe some of you need to get on this road of personal revival by simply believing God's Word and taking a stand that this is where you will live. God's highway. No more side roads. No more streets that you've already been down, you know what's there. By the mind of Jesus, an act of the will, you will turn and put your focus upon Christ and you'll never turn back. Title of that little book. If you'll make that decision, some of you made a similar decision last night, but many were not there. Others have been thinking about it. Then I want you right now, we're not gonna take long, to just stand where you are and ask God to make this real, more real than ever before. Realizing a large part of the work is on your part. God bless you. Praise the Lord. Any of us. This is only a step. The message is made clear. And we're not giving out an experience that's gonna make it easy. But you're taking a step of faith, an act of the will, to move in personal revival. Really, standing up is an acknowledgement that there's faith in your heart. There's a ring of reality in what you've heard and you say, Lord, yes, it's me you're speaking to. Not just this great crowd. It's me. You want me to live in the promised land. You want me to live in victory, in power, and spiritual growth. Praise God. God bless you. Any others. Young couples. Do you have revival in the home? That's God's will. Revival in the home. It's not perfection, but it's reality. The joy in many of the meetings I've had lately. I had 110 meetings in the last two and a half months. What a joy. What a privilege to see young couples standing, getting their marriages right by putting the marriage on the solid rock. Inheritance in Jesus Christ. Forgiveness. Forgiving your partner of anything she's ever done against you. Just as Christ has forgiven you. Totally. That's what we need. We're gonna have revival in the home. And of course, much more. God bless you. I'm gonna pray a prayer of commitment. But if there's anyone else, standing up will help you remember this day. It'll be an affirmation of faith. It's saying yes to what the Spirit of God is convicting you about. Anyone else? Yes, God bless you. Praise the Lord. Many people are praying for this conference. This is not a, sort of an instant thing we're doing right now. Many, many are praying. You've thought about this. And a bell has rung in your heart. And you're saying yes. Yes. From this, the Lord may lead you to the mission field or He may lead you to stay right here in England. His will be done. First things first. Not geography. Reality. Reality. Reality. I'd rather know reality and be in my home country than be a misfit missionary in the ends of the earth and not have the reality and the revival bells ringing in my heart. Just one last moment. Anybody else who may be wrestling with this. Just stand to your feet. Right now. God bless you. In the back. On the side. Yes. Young couple. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Yes. Father, you see each one of us standing before you. We're all different. And you're not trying to run us through some kind of stereotyped program. You love us. We know that spiritual reality and reality is found in you. Not in man. Not in movements. In you. You will use men. You will use the church. You will use books. You will use movements. But Lord, we acknowledge you as the source of all life and the source of revival. And more than that, of vivo. And by faith, Lord, we take this scripture and we believe we're alive. We're alive. We're alive in you. And we will now live that way. We will now live in the light of that. And we'll not be sidetracked. Into the dead-end street of lust. Into the alley of depression. Into the back lane of anger or fear. But by your grace, we will stay on this highway of holiness. This royal road of spiritual revolution. Reality and love grant it, God. And by your grace, every day, we will do our part. For we pray in the powerful name of Him who lives in our hearts. Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us all stand and just sing that chorus. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. He is the source of that power. Claim it. He wants to bless you. He wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit. So as we sing turn your eyes upon Jesus and bring the meeting to a close with that. Let's believe it with all of our hearts. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Praise His name. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. Worship Him. Let Him fill you with His power. His name is wonderful. Let us stand on these mountains of love. Let's be seated for a moment of silent prayer. Those of you who stood and made this step of faith, I would like you to give me a little piece of paper for my own use and my little team, people that work with me, to pray for you at least once, to send you literature you want. But if you stood, since I'm getting a lot of different feedback, just say, I'm believing God. Personal revival. Use that word, personal revival, and I'll know you stood at this meeting, and I'll send you automatically that book by Stanley Volk on personal revival. He doesn't express it the same way I do. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. I haven't come to give you vocabulary. Don't copy my vocabulary. Just let Jesus live out through you. In a sense, it means being yourself, accepting yourself, the human factor, and just obeying, growing, repenting, growing, repenting, and you'll discover over a period of years, God has done the things in your life you never dreamed, never dreamed possible. God bless you. Now on to him who is able to make these truths a reality in our hearts on a seven-day-a-week basis. To our great God and our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.