In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the changes that have occurred in society over the years, particularly in the last 10 years. They acknowledge both the negative events and the positive things that God has done. The speaker emphasizes the need for a new understanding of church and a radical change in the religious system. They call for a Jesus Revolution, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to bring about transformation in the world. The sermon concludes with an encouragement to seek God's guidance and to be open to His message.

I was supposed to deliver this message last week. We switched it to this week. And some of you know that we have a school of ministry that's about a year and a half old in New York City. And I spend at least every Monday in New York City, teaching all day and then with night classes Monday night. And the nice thing is now living in Charlotte, not only being in close physical proximity to New York, but also having an airport that's not a regional airport like we had in Pensacola. We learned in Pensacola, one of the things that we learned there was that if you were Christian and you died in Pensacola, you went to heaven by way of Atlanta. So it doesn't matter which way you're going. If I was if I was heading elsewhere to Florida, south in Florida, I first had to fly north to Atlanta to get there. If we were going west to California, we first had to go east to Atlanta to get there. But now we can just hop on a plane and hour and a half later be in New York, which means that I'm able a number of Sundays to be with everyone on Sunday nights. Of course, we're always here on Thursdays and through the week and then also to be back for our school, for our Tuesday chapel service. So anyway, that's a delight. We were hardly able to do that together in Pensacola. But I'm glad to be with all of you and those that might have been coming for a few weeks, but we don't know each other. Glad that you're here. Welcome. And be wonderful to see what the Lord wants to do in the coming days and months. Amen. Called to walk closely with the Lord and be depressed and discouraged all the time. You may have a suffering dying world. You may struggle sometimes because you see the inadequacies of your own life. But if you're walking in harmony with God and the presence of God is fullness of joy and our God is a God full of hope and vision and vitality. So I want to encourage you tonight to open your ears and to really ask God to speak to you. I don't bring messages like the one I'm going to bring tonight lightly. I don't bring this in any kind of cavalier way and hit or miss. And let's just see what happens. God's really impressed these things on my heart. And this is our first opportunity to share them with the community here. And I do want to reiterate what my good old friend Tom Barry mentioned with our visiting friends that are here, the Simonetis and the Ashers, some of whom we haven't seen for something like how long? Eighteen years, a few years for the others. And so it's wonderful to see you guys. We do have a lot of history together and it's amazing to be here together tonight. Well, let's pray. Father, we love you and we honor you. We pray for the ears and eyes and understanding of our spirit to be enlightened. We pray for truth to rise in our hearts. We pray that which is your voice, that which you are saying would be deposited deep within us. Change us, speak to us, move on us so that we can make an impact in this world for your honor and glory, that your kingdom to be advanced, that your great commission can move towards fulfillment. Use us, O God. Make us fully usable, we pray through your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. Turn with me to Numbers, the 20th chapter. Numbers, chapter 20. Those of you who know me know that I normally teach and speak, preach without notes. Often I'll go through a whole semester or trimester in our school without notes. And generally when I speak, I don't know until the moment before I speak which way God wants me to go. That's not good or bad, that's just the way he's worked with me through the years. And every so often he lays something on my heart in such a dramatic and clear way that I need to write it down. And I've got a few pages of notes as I speak to you tonight about the next wave, the coming wave of revival. A few weeks ago I was headed out to California. Twice a year I meet together with Cheyenne and Lou Engel and other brothers and sisters that are part of the apostolic leadership team of HIM, Harvest International Ministries. Nancy and I are part of that, representing FIRE and other ministry that we do. And right before I was going, I got word that Che wanted me to speak Sunday night for his congregation in Pasadena. And God started to stir my heart. And I felt I really needed to seek his face and find out what he wanted me to bring that night. Even though this was days in advance, I felt I needed to hear from heaven and there was something specific he wanted to say. And he began to deal with me about the next wave, the characteristics of the next wave, and how we as God's people need to prepare our hearts. I didn't want to be presumptuous about this though. Some years back, about ten years ago, as God was stirring my heart and the hearts of many, in the early days of a refreshing, a renewal, and speaking to us that a wave of revival was coming, I began to write out some things, some of the current needs, some of the problems in the refreshing that was taking place nine, ten years ago, and what it would take to move from refreshing to revival, and what was coming next, and put it out in book form. And then some years later, when we were in the midst of the revival in Pensacola, people read those things and thought I had written them. And then once I had come to Pensacola, I said, no, these were written before. These were things we were preaching before. And God had prepared our hearts. And I felt the same thing again now, but I didn't want to be presumptuous. I didn't just want to assume, because God spoke certain things to me before that I was hearing again. And like everybody else, we don't hear the voice of God in some supernatural, dramatic way every day. Plenty of times you think, is this God? Is this not God? We learn as we go on. But there are other things He really nails you with, He really speaks to you with. And they stay with you for years and years, and you can't shake them. And I really felt He was moving on me, and wanted me to speak on this. Then I got a call from Che. Just one of the touch base before I came out. Che On and Lou Engel putting together these call events that many of you know about around the country and around the world, that have drawn hundreds of thousands for prayer and fasting. And Che said, Mike, did you get my memo with the topic we want you to speak on Sunday night? And I've preached for Che a number of times, and he's never given me a topic. We have guest speakers coming all the time, we don't give them a topic. I preach constantly around the world, and nobody gives me a topic. He said, did you get the topic that we want you to address Sunday night? I said, no. He said, we want you to speak on the next wave of revival. The coming wave of revival. Well, we started to laugh. I said, man, God laid this on my heart several days ago. And that was all the confirmation I needed. Just that call from Che asking me to speak on the same thing. And we compared notes, and I said, God doesn't give me messages days in advance, and so we never assign topics. It was just one of those God things. Where are we right now? What in the world is going on? We're going to read Scripture in a moment. But I want to say this plainly. We as God's people have no time for prophetic speculation and end times fantasy. The reason that God speaks things in His Word is not just to titillate our interest, so we want to get all excited about what's going to be happening in Jerusalem nine million years from now. God's Word is practical. If God speaks something to a generation, it's so that generation will respond properly and be ready for the things that He is going to do. I remember when I was saved in 1971, as the years went on, I heard a lot of teaching about end time prophecy and the return of Jesus, and a lot of speculation. And I remember joking about it. I said, somebody's going to write a book in the 70s, and the book is going to be about why we know Jesus is coming in the 70s. And after a few more years, they're going to come out with a second revised and improved edition on how we know Jesus is coming in the 80s. I used to joke about that. And then, sure enough, a dear brother, Little Rock, Arkansas, puts out a book in 1988 on 88 reasons why Jesus is coming in 88. And people, listen to me, people quit their jobs over this. They racked up all kinds of debt because, quote, they were going to leave it for the Antichrist. There were even churches that had rapture practice. I kid you not. They may have done it in a lighthearted way, but that was the mentality. We're out of here. Now, there may have been a lot of sincerity in it, and these people may have truly believed these things. Nonetheless, it was folly and a reproach that even the day of his return was predicted. The thing that was all the more tragic was not that the book went out in hundreds of thousands of copies, and I'm sure a few people genuinely met the Lord through it. But what was not tragic was not just the gullibility of the body. One dear Dutch friend of ours living in Israel said that the greatest sin of the American church is gullibility. It wasn't just the gullibility of the thing and the sensationalism of it, but tragically, the next year, he came out with a revised and improved edition, 89 reasons why Jesus is coming in 89. Thankfully, there was no third edition. Why am I saying that? I'm saying that because the things that I want to address tonight are not just, ooh, ah, isn't that interesting, wow, wild. It's so that we will understand, and I encourage you to prayerfully test all of these things and to watch in the coming months and years and see what God actually does and how it lines up with what we're saying. It all needs to be prayerfully tested and weighed before the Lord. But this is spoken to both encourage us and to challenge us. It's spoken so that our hearts would be prepared. It's spoken so that when God does move, we will not stand against it and reject it and resist it and misunderstand it. We will not be like some of my forefathers who waited for the coming of the Messiah and then when he came, rejected him because he didn't come the way they were expecting him to come. Numbers chapter 20. In the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zin. And they stayed at Kadesh. There, Miriam died and was buried. This is the 40th year of the wilderness wanderings. And all those 20 years old and more, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, were going to die in the wilderness. Those who were 20 years old and more when Israel came out of Egypt, they were all going to die in the wilderness, and a new generation, some of them just little children, some of them in their late 50s, a new generation would go in and take the Promised Land. And Miriam was part of the leadership of the first generation. So to mark a major season of transition, there are significant deaths. The first one being Miriam who dies in the first month of that 40th year. Then if you go down to verse 22, the whole Israelite community set out from Kadesh and came to Malchor. At Malchor near the border of Eden, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land I give the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Get Aaron and his son Elazar and take them up Malchor, remove Aaron's garments and put them on his son Elazar, for Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will die there. Moses did as the Lord commanded. They went up Malchor in the sight of the whole community. Moses removed Aaron's garments and put them on his son Elazar. Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Elazar came down from the mountain. When the whole community learned that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him 30 days. This takes place in the fifth month. And look at the clear transition. Aaron's priestly garments are taken off of him and put on his son. Moses, Aaron and Aaron's son Elazar all go up the mountain together. And then the two of them come down without Aaron, and now the son is wearing the priestly garments. It is a very clear sign of a generational transition. And then, of course, the last one who has to go is Moses. And according to Deuteronomy 34, Joshua had a spirit of wisdom on him, because Moses had laid his hands on him. I remember being in England in 1994 with a man who has become a dear friend of ours, known to many here, Derek Brown. And Derek was ministering. He was just preaching, teaching. And in the midst of his message he just made a simple point that many times a sign of major transition is people dying. Well, people die all the time. People are born all the time. People die all the time. But he was talking about significant deaths, deaths that get your attention, marking a transition. And a dong on me. Wait a second. We had some major deaths right around that time. This is around May of 1994. And in April of 1994, Richard Nixon had died. And then a month later in the same hospital in New York City, Jackie Kennedy Onassis died, JFK's widow. That got my attention. And then in June there was a death in the Jewish community that many wouldn't have known about, but he was probably the most influential leader among the Jewish people worldwide. The grand rabbi of the Lubavitchers. These are ultra-Orthodox Jews based in Brooklyn who have their missionaries out all over the world. Massive Jewish educational movement all over the world. They believed that he was the Messiah. They were waiting for him to reveal himself as Messiah at the age of 92 after having had a stroke that paralyzed him for two years. They wore their beepers around the world just so that they would get beeped the moment he revealed himself. They had the Messiah hotline. I'm talking about real stuff. And instead he dies in June. And that got my attention. I realized major transition. We are in a season that is going to move us from renewal to bona fide revival. I don't mean the whole of the country. I don't mean the whole of the world. But there was something God was doing that was going to deepen and intensify. And then in September of that year, Leonard Ravenhill, who was a great champion of revival in our generation, the author of Why Revival Carries, prayer warrior, man that became a very dear friend the last five years of his life. He had a stroke in September of 94. And I knew he's done. He's finished his labors. He's prayed with tears for revival probably for 60 years. He's done. He's ready to move on to his reward. He'll be gone before the year is out. Of course, we prayed often for him. But sure enough, around Thanksgiving of 94, he went to be with the Lord. And then 95, something that's touched many of the people here, revival broke out at one church in Pensacola. And fire from there literally spread around the world. It was a time of transition. I just want to say one other thing though personally. And I don't often speak like this. And I don't get caught up on dates and times and ooh, ah, look at this. But certain things you just can't help but notice. So I want to give you a context for everything I'm about to say. I want to stand here as a witness. I would say 11 years, it was actually the 11th month of that year, that some of the folks that are here today just visiting, we were all in an outpouring of the spirit together. That was in 1982. And from that point on, there was a promise that burned in me that God was going to pour out a spirit that we'd be part of a revival that would touch the world. I couldn't shake this thing. Even when you question yourself and you say you're crazy, and you lay it down, you say it can't be God, he keeps bringing the thing back. It was seven years from that point, 82 to 89, before God released me to start writing on revival. And then 89, connecting me with Leonard Ravenhill. That was also the connection with Steve Hill. That's how we knew each other, through St. Leo Len. Seven years, 82 to 89. And then it was seven years from first getting released to write on revival, and the connection with Leonard Ravenhill, that God called me to be in the midst of the revival in Pensacola to serve in the leadership there. And then it was seven years from that point until he called us to leave, and we came here from 1996 to 2003. And certain things, it was a little bit too much in terms of overkill, how can you miss the message. Our last graduation of our school of ministry in Pensacola was seven years to the week of my first visit there. There was a sense of completion. It was also our tenth graduation, five at our first campus and five at our second campus. Not only that, our last week there, in terms of altogether as a body having a public service, there's a church plant there, Pensacola Fire, going after God that's been planted. But our last week for the community that was there together, we finished up at a building that was owned by a group called New Dimensions, and that was their first Sunday in the building that used to be our school campus that was purchased by them, which was also the first Sunday that Brownsville Assembly got back into their old building that had been hit with lightning. It's almost like you ever play the shell game and you can't quite figure out where someone puts money under a shell and they start switching, you can't find it. I mean, everything just switching, and then kind of back to the way it was with a few major changes, and it was like God was saying, you're done, move on, time for something new. A season's completed, time for something new. And it struck me, just as we were driving here with a moving truck, our house in Alabama is still for sale, but we moved into an apartment here in Charlotte. As we were moving, it just struck me, isn't this interesting? In the years in Pensacola, there was spiritual warfare and attack in intensity, and we looked at it more as a battle than anything in the midst of all the wonderful things God did, just very intense front lines. But Nancy and I were talking, I said, it's kind of an amazing thing. We went down there, just the two of us, and seven years later, here we are in Charlotte with this extraordinarily devoted, godly leadership team, with a tremendous staff, faculty for our school of ministry, with a community of several hundred believers that have moved here just in the last few months, with a school, with young people, older people on fire going after God, with missionaries that came out of the work we were involved with, and about 25 different nations preaching the gospel full time, with the early stages of a stirring Jesus revolution. It's kind of wild to see. In other words, not just speaking into the air. Look, we are all here. Here we are in the greater Charlotte area. Have you noticed that? With fresh marching orders and a fresh hunger that God is ready to do something. There are things that burned in me for years I couldn't shake. I've shared some of this with some of you, but just for all of you, there was a promise of revival, being part of an outpouring that would touch the whole world. We got the first deposit of that in Brownsville. And then there was this thing that was unshakeable. We'd be part of a school, raise up a school that would send out thousands of radicals preaching the gospel all around the world. And then boom, suddenly out of the blue, something's birthed. And it's ongoing now, with laborers preaching Jesus all over the place, with bearing fruit. Those of you that greeted Joe Woolen were glad to see him. I was glad to see him too. The last report I got, he was looking out for landmines in Afghanistan. Pastor was taking him out on a ride across some field there, talking about one of the last groups they had out that hit a landmine. And Joe just casually asked, was the guy hurt? And he said he was killed. Get in the car. If you notice, when Joe sits down, he's a little shaky, a little nervous. There's a reason for it. I noticed him walking outside. He just kind of moved like this every so often. What I'm saying is that our guys are out there on the front lines, you understand, doers of the word. These things burned in me for years and years and years, and then boom, we begin to see them happen. And then from the late 90s, I've been unable to shake this thing of a coming Jesus revolution, of a radical movement, especially among young people, but something that will literally have a generational impact, something that will literally take back moral ground that was stolen out from under our feet in recent decades, actually have an impact on a generation. And the amazing thing is you hear people preaching the same thing. They haven't read what I wrote. They heard from the same God I heard from, carrying the same burden, running the same race. Something is going on. And then I'd be in New York, and for those of you who don't understand it, New York is a challenging place for the extension of the gospel. You understand you've got millions and millions of people there, but it's a war zone spiritually. A lot of people go there briefly with a great vision, great excitement, and they run after just a few months because the pressure is too intense. Every time I'd go to the city, I'd walk the streets late at night and pray. God would start visiting my heart, visiting my heart, about a wave of revival that was going to come and touch New York. I can't shake it to this moment. The same way he moved on me about things before Pensacola, before our schools. When Derrick Brown spoke at our graduation in Pensacola, the end of May, he then stayed around and spoke on a Sunday night, which was basically our concluding fire service there with our group. And I called Scott from New York City. And I said, hey, bro, how did the service go with Derrick? And he said, you got to listen. He was out in the parking lot. How many of you were there for that night? Many of you. Awesome. And he felt just to open the door. There's an open door set before us and to walk out. Right. And you guys walked out and many were touched by the spirit. The spirit fell on many in the parking lot. All I know is Scott's got the phone there and I hear people weeping and crying out in the background. And I got stirred by God that night. I was in this little apartment that Jews for Jesus was to be used in New York City. And I was alone in that apartment and I got stirred with this reality. And the reason I said everything up to now is just to say I'm not speaking empty words. I got stirred with the reality of Alporn that was going to come to this region here. I mean, it was so real to me. And I know so many others have heard it and so many others have prayed. I'm not saying because we've come, it's happening. I'm saying because we're here, we get to be part of it. Praise God. I was so stirred by it. It was one of the most sacred times I've had. Late night seeking the face of God and I saw being in the thick of a move of God here and going into the city and taking the fire from here and bringing it there. I mean, it was overwhelming. And then a number of things happened in recent months that got my attention. So let me step back, look in the past for a moment, and then talk about now. You know, in 1 Chronicles 12.32, it's a passage I've preached out of often in the last couple of years. It talks about the sons of Issachar. They were part of the mighty men of David's army. But it doesn't mention that they were skilled with shields or swords or weaponry or that they were well trained in armament. It simply says that they understood the times and knew what Israel should do. The reason that it's important to understand what's happening. I don't mean every last detail of prophetic stuff. I don't mean every news event and what's happening. I remember people telling me years ago that Gorbachev was the Antichrist because, look, he's got that birthmark, he's got the mark of the beast. I remember talking to one woman years ago. She said, have you figured out this is when Reagan was present? Have you figured it out? Ronald, Wilson, Reagan. Count the letters. Six, six, six. She said, you're telling me that Ronald Reagan is the Antichrist. I'm not talking about trying to speculate. I'm talking about when God's doing something in a generation, when he's giving loud and clear signs, when it's clear that something's happening in society, when it's clear that the devil is doing something, we as God's people should understand it. As parents, you would want to understand it. If something major was going on with your kids, they were under severe spiritual attack, they were getting pulled by their peers, something was going on, you'd want to know it. As pastors, leaders, you'd want to know it with a flock of believers if something is going on. But we as God's people in this earth, as his prophetic people, all of us, his body, should understand what's happening so that we know what to do, so that we know how to live, so we know how to respond, so we know how to pray, so we know how to prepare. That's one reason God gave prophecies about the coming of the Messiah to the Jewish people. It was not only so they would recognize him when he came, but so their hearts would be ready and they would be praying and preparing. Let me just go back to the past for a moment. We talked about Miriam, Aaron, Moses dying and a sign of major transition for Israel. And then the new generation, called the Joshua generation by many, raised up to take the land, which was a mixture of older and younger together. I look back in the 60s when there was a counterculture movement, a counterculture revolution that swept through America and changed our society, aside from advances in civil rights and a few other things, basically changed our society for the worse and brought us into a situation where we are today. There were certain significant deaths towards the end of that period of the 60s. 1968, two major assassinations. Five years after the assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in 1968. Riots erupting in cities all over America. And then shortly after that, Robert F. Kennedy assassinated. It was a sign of the chaos of the era. I have books in my library just focused on the year 1968, which was such a major transitional year, but it's marked by these significant, major deaths in our country. And then by 1969, what do you have? Woodstock. By 1969, you have the beginning of the gay liberation movement, New York City, and so on and so forth. Well, something also happens. This was the day of all of the dreams of the young people, the whole hippie movement. There are probably some former hippies here. Sometimes I'll ask, just out of curiosity, I'll ask, hey, any guys here, you were the first one to grow your hair out when you were in high school? You were the first one to grow your hair long. And some totally straight guy in a suit and tie who's bald, he'll stand up, and I always point him out to the young people and say, that's what's coming. Stick around long enough. But there was this dream, you know, we're going to make the world a better place, and, you know, Woodstock, peace, man. You know, no more war and strife, and make love, not war. But that dream was so filled with sin. That dream was so filled with flesh. There were some significant deaths for that whole culture in 1970 and 71. The two kings and the queen of rock and roll, again, two men and a woman, all die at the same age. I mean, these things get your attention. First, Jimi Hendrix in September of 71, of 70 rather, at the age of 27. Then Janis Joplin, about a month later, at the age of 27. And then August the next year. So all within 12 months, Jim Morrison at the age of 27. It was almost an exposing of the death of that whole culture, of the fact that sin, you just give yourself over to sin and immorality and drugs and alcohol, that's going to bring a premature death. But what happened to that very culture, to that very group of people? The Jesus people movement gets full blown around 1971. Right on the heels of these deaths, God is raising something up. We have a dear friend, missionary friend, Clark Sloan, who will be in town this week visiting us. And he's written a book about the journeys of their missions team in Italy and around the world. Christ is the answer. They live in tents and trailers, some of the most amazing wild stuff you could ever imagine. I hope we can help get the book published at some point. The book is called The Circus of God. And he sent me a CD with a lot of pictures of the teams that they had in the 70s that were going preaching around the world. And it looks basically like a hippie gathering. I mean, you're talking about people all came out of the hippie movement but all radically saved and now missionaries and some have been on the field over 30 years. God did something very deep and real and extraordinary. And it was marked by those major deaths. Well, many of you were suddenly awakened to a major transition we are in right now. Some of you were recently awakened to it because it was broadcast so loudly by the Lord, it seems. You know, there are some major deaths in the entertainment industry. I mean, people die every year. But we're talking about prominent, something major that gets your attention. Bob Hope turned 100 and died. Got everyone's attention because he was 100 and then died but didn't really think much about it. Katherine Hepburn, one of the greatest female actresses that Hollywood ever saw. She died, I think, in her 90s. You don't really put these things together because there are always people dying and things happen. And then on the Christian ministry side, a few months back, Larry Burkett, who was just probably the best-known teacher in the body on finance and dealing with debt and so on, he goes to be with the Lord. And then Bill Bright goes to be with the Lord, a man that was involved in planning of hundreds of thousands of churches around the world and sharing the gospel message with several billion people around the world. He goes to be with the Lord at the age of 81, but none of this really caught my attention. And then Johnny Cash died, another significant entertainment death. But what got my attention on that was the same day, there was a lesser-known actor, TV actor, he died the same day, and it got my attention, I thought, that's interesting. Another major entertainment death. What I didn't realize, because I do not follow Australian country music, well, let me phrase it like this, to the extent that I do not follow American country music, just my own preference and background, much, much, much, much less do I follow Australian country music. But do you know that the Johnny Cash of Australia, a man widely hailed in his country, I'm talking about known as the Johnny Cash of Australia, he died seven days after Johnny Cash. How interesting. When Kenneth Hagan went to be with the Lord at the age of 86, and I thought Kenneth Hagan, Bill Bright, the lights started to go on. Then these other ones, I realized something is going on. First I have this thing in my heart for months, another wave's coming, another wave's coming, a fresh wave. Something greater than what we've seen. Something larger scale than what we've seen. Something not contained to one group here or there or there. Something more intense. And now these deaths begin to happen. We had had dinner with Rick Joyner a few weeks back, and he was talking about September 24th, that he was reading in Haggai, God speaking on the 24th day of the ninth month, and it got his attention. It was just a word for Israel, but it got his attention. He began to think September 24th, something's going to happen. Something's going to happen. I was sitting with Nancy September 23rd. We were having dinner, and we were talking about these deaths, these passing, and I said, there's more to come. There are more that are going to go be with the Lord. Who's next? Just sitting over dinner, who's next? And the next day comes September 24th, and I was about to go to a leadership meeting, and I saw an email that came in, and it just said subject, Derrick Prince. I didn't have to read the email. I knew and understood. Derrick Prince is going to be with the Lord. At the age of 88. And then just so interesting, the next morning, get an email, did you hear that Steve Hill's mom, Evangeline Steve Hill, his mom went to be with the Lord yesterday, September 24th. And then later that day, get an email from India, have you heard Dr. Titus just went to be with the Lord, September 24th. He was one of the great pioneers in India, one of the best known Indian leaders around the world. Dear man, we got to know. Suddenly my insides started to shake, and it was leading right into the Jewish holidays, the biblical calendar, the feast of trumpets, the wake up time, the days of awe leading to the day of atonement. And my insides were shaking with the reality, God's trying to get our attention. Major transition is coming. Major transition is coming. I went out to speak in California. By the way, the Johnny Cash of Australia was known as Slim Dusty, just for your records. I get out to California. Before I get there, it's a Friday. How interesting. Rock singer Robert Palmer and sports writer, other things, George Clinton, both dead the same day. Just, just again, boom, two together. I get out to California on a Saturday. I get in the car, renting a car. I'm stuck in L.A. traffic. Put the radio on, see if there's news or something. The first item that comes on, actor, I think Donald O'Connor, dead in Los Angeles at the age of 72. I thought, isn't that interesting? Here I am in Los Angeles, and the first news item is the death of another media person. And then I was struck, the people that had gone to be with the Lord, spiritually, and even in the secular side, they were pioneers. And I was writing this in my note, pioneers, pioneers. And I get online at the hotel before going out to speak, and check the news. And there it says, Althea Gibson, tennis pioneer, dead at 76. And then I get in from the meeting that night, and I check the news again, and there's more news. Directing pioneer, Alia Kazan, dead at 94. And when I went to open the door at the hotel that morning, there was a USA Today there, and the front page covering all these deaths, because they don't have news coverage Saturday, Sunday. They make up for it on Monday. So it's covering all of those front pages, this pioneer, this pioneer. And then another interesting headline, ailing pope appoints new cardinals. The scary thing is, as much as God has been getting our attention, and there may even be another significant passing or two before the year is out, the scary thing is, as much as God is getting our attention, He's reminding us that He's God, and He knows what's happening, and we don't. Some of you were here a few weeks ago that heard a wonderfully insightful comment from Howie Morgan on a Thursday night service. If you don't come to our Thursday services, we welcome you. By all means, come. Seven o'clock every Thursday. Howie was reading from the words of Jesus in John 15, I am the true vine, and was majoring on the I am part, and said something very profound. When Jesus says, I am, it means you are not. The emphasis is on His being everything. He's our source of wisdom. He's our source of understanding. It's not a matter of, OK, all these people are going to die, transition. OK, now let's just go do something. No, now let's hear from heaven. Now let's ask God, are we positioned? Are we ready? Are we where you want us to be? Nancy and I are 48, close to 49. One grandchild and two more on the way in the next few weeks, God willing. And we're conscious of being older than we used to be. I'm conscious when I make an attempt to play ball. I was never fast to start. I once severely sprained and mildly fractured my ankle playing basketball, and one of the guys with me told me I must have been at least three inches off the ground. I find if I completely switch my diet to a way that I would have rapidly lost weight in the past, eating one meal a day and total low fat, that all it does is maintain the current fat level. And on a serious side, spiritually, I'm always trying to walk worthy of the calling and walk worthy of the position in which God has me and recognize I'm not a kid, I'm not a baby. I should walk with a certain maturity and integrity and each year try to take more of that on in the Lord. But when I started reading about all these pioneers, Bill Bright at 81 and Kenneth Hagan at 86 and Derrick Prince at 88 having finished their course, I looked at their ages, I looked at their lives, I started to feel like a kid again. When I feel about 18 on the inside, Nancy and I always talk about that, we feel like kids in terms of our outlook and zeal and passion. But there's a sense of, wow, now it's really going to get intense. Now it's really time to put your spiritual armor on and walk close to Jesus because this is some of what we've been waiting for and praying for and sowing into. Thank God for everything He's done up to now. Thank God for the wonderful things many of us have experienced and you've experienced in your own lives. Thank God for it. But all that is is a foretaste of what's coming. That's there to get us hungry for something more, for the glory of God, not for our own carnal satisfaction or for the latest exciting trend, but for the glory of God, for the deep fulfilling of the longing of our souls and to touch a dying world. There are seven things I'm going to quickly cover that God's laid on my heart. I say again, test them and watch and see what happens. When I asked God for title to the message, He laid something on my heart and I thought, ah, it's just, no, it's the only thing that stayed there. The next wave, a revival revolution. You ever tried to pick up something that's heavy and it's round and you can't get your arms around it and you can't? Well, I said, all right, a revival revolution, what does that mean? Because these are two nouns. It's like a river ocean, a hurricane, earthquake. I mean, what does it mean? And then I knew on the inside what it meant, the combining of these two things. Number one, there will be a combining of the two spheres, revival and revolution. The power of the revival joined with the militancy of the Jesus revolution. When we speak of the Jesus revolution, we're not talking about a call to arms. If those words and terms are not familiar to you, we're not talking about human anger or rebellion or God forbid, bombing abortion clinics or bashing homosexuals. We're talking about radically impacting the world through the power and sacrificial message of the gospel. We're talking about radical, dramatic, sweeping change. There will be a combining of the two spheres, the power of the revival with the militancy of the revolution. The passion of God joined with the zeal of man, a raising up of the church to touch the world. Those of us who have been part of revival and moving of the spirit in the past have a certain hunger because we've seen what God can do and we're not content with anything less than visitation. Oh, yes, we will go about our daily business and we will be disciples and we will be faithful in the little things. But having been touched by something greater, we say, God, do it again. But in the midst of that now, there are a lot of people with a radically revolutionary spirit that say, whatever the cost or consequence, we're going after God and we're going to make a difference. We're willing to lay our lives down if it's for the kingdom. There will be a combining of the power of the spirit and the passion and zeal of man, a revival revolution. Number two, this wave will build on advances of the last wave. This wave will build on the advances of the last wave. You know, you step back and think ten years ago, things were very different in a lot of ways than they are now. Oh, there's been steady moral decline in America, a lot of other junk. It's an amazing thing to me. In our school of ministry here, our incoming class, all young, our first year class, we don't have a single parent in our entire first year class. It's amazing. That's how many young people we have for those that are part of the school of ministry here at FIRE. And what's frightening to me is when I ask 18, 19, 20 year olds, how many of you have seen a major moral decline in your lifetimes? Then all their hands jump up. They're shocked at how things have fallen. They're shocked at what's on TV and in front of the media now compared to when they were younger. We've got a dear brother here who's in his 80s. You wouldn't know it, full of life and vigor. But in his 80s, he could tell us a whole lot more of what's changed. But I'm talking about even in the last ten years, there's been a lot of negative stuff that's happened. But there's been a lot that God's done that's very positive. There has been an understanding that there must be new wineskins. There has been, according to the title of one book, a rethinking of the wineskins. Many people ask, well, what is church? When I wrote the book Revolution in the Church, Challenging the Religious System with a Call for Radical Change, the thing that I found the most interesting was all the people saying, it's not radical enough. We've been thinking about these very same things for some years. I knew it's out there. I knew it's in people's hearts, questioning of leadership structure, questioning of how things are supposed to be done, redefining of what community means, so many of these things that are necessary. Not only that, there is a revived youth who will be ready for battle. I had the privilege of preaching in lots of churches over these years, and it was a steady thing. I can't say I ran into this 100% of the time, and I'm sure there were exceptions, but I've compared notes with many others who were in youth ministry and traveling ministry, and we all had basically the same experience. We'd go out. I'd be preaching in the late 70s, early 90s, and maybe there's a turned-on congregation, maybe 500, 800, 1,000 people, 300 people, whatever, going after a lot of people hungry and thirsty and serious. And I'd think, where are the young people? How come it's all adults? Little children, where are the young people? And then they'd tell us, oh, you know, our youth group's going to be in the service tomorrow night, and there'd be like 20 kids, maybe a church of 1,000, 20 kids, all kind of huddled over to the side, making it clear they did not want to be there. And youth pastors telling me it's so frightening, they'll be here and crying and raising their hands one night and then going out and partying and sleeping together and watching unclean movies the next. And I began to grieve. I said, God, we've lost a whole generation. I got saved at 16 and a half. My heart's always been especially knit to young people, seeing them getting saved and right with God at those same ages, college age in particular. I started to grieve. I said, Lord, we've lost a whole generation. They were always the smallest in number. They were the least interested. They were the least focused. They were the ones that just wanted to be entertained and seemed to be lacking in depth. Now, it's my experience almost everywhere I go, here and in other parts of the world, that the most on fire, the most radical, the most committed, the most determined, the most willing to go for it at any cost or consequence are the young people. Do you understand something major has happened in the last 10 years? And again, I say this is not just my experience, but it's been confirmed by experience of leaders all around the world who'll say it the same way. There's been a major youth revival, a major moving of God. No, not everywhere. No, not in every group. And now, contrary to 10 years ago when these people were just being reached in the early stages, now these guys are ready to be on the front lines. Something struck me. I talked about those significant deaths in 1994, Richard Nixon and Jackie Kennedy on NASA and others, that got my attention in terms of major transition. Well, this is a first, perhaps another way of getting our attention. I was there the night the lights went out. All right, everybody stay steady. It is no big deal. This is not terrorists, okay? And amazingly, the mic is still on. Listen, I hope that you live long enough to have stories that go beyond, I was there the night the lights went out. Now remember, if you're a Baptist, then that was simply a mechanical malfunction. If you're a Pentecostal, that's the devil trying to oppose the message. If it was one of our own services, perhaps we forgot to pay the light bill, but since we're here at Evangel, and they're responsible good stewards, oh, someone, it was none of the above. If we asked the wives, they'd say, probably someone just shut it. Practical wisdom. That's what it was, someone working in the back just shut the lights. God bless them. But the fact that it happens in the middle of a message like this perhaps has some meaning. So there were these major deaths in 94, but there was one that in a certain way was more significant than any, and I didn't catch it. Then I'm looking back about this major transition. There was somebody who epitomized the youth culture. There was someone who represented that generation. And in case we didn't get it, just like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27, he died by shotgun, self-imposed shotgun blast, also at the age of 27. Kurt Cobain, again a sibling of the death of that culture and the emptiness and the bankruptcy of what was happening among the young people. But look at what God has done in these years. I mean, who would have thought of gatherings like the Call DC? Some of you were part of that. Some of the other call events, two, three hundred thousand or more gathering, mainly young people. Think of it. Some of you got to be part of the largest gathering of Christian young people in America's history. For entertainment? Hype? No. For a day of prayer and fasting and crying out to God. These events have continued to draw tens of thousands around America, around the world. Something's going on. So many of our missionaries, so many of our fire laborers all around the world doing exploits for God. They're young people. Yes, we need, we must have the joining of the generations, the fathers and the sons together, the mothers and the daughters together. Otherwise we are doomed to fail. But with a true Joshua generation, who knows what could happen? This wave will build on the advances of the last wave. Changes in church structure will enable the release of the body for the work of ministry. Revived youth will be ready for battle. And those who survived the last wave are, or at least should be, the wiser for it. And all the more broken and dependent on God. Number three, the heightened moral crisis in society, actually led in particular by the homosexual agenda. No, this does not mean that all gays have an agenda. It means that there is a militant, strong agenda among many who are aggressive and at the forefront. The heightened moral crisis in society coupled with the quagmire in Iraq will produce a holy backlash. In other words, a lot of people are going to say, this is crazy. A lot of people are going to start asking questions about the meaning of life. A lot of people are going to have a stirring. And even the devil characteristically overplays his hand. He normally goes too far because he is who he is. And when he goes too far, that's when many people who wouldn't have awakened, wouldn't have been stirred, do awaken and do get stirred. We were sitting in a mentoring group in my office in Pensacola before the war in Iraq. And the students in the mentoring group were asking me, they said, Dr. Brown, do you think that the coming war in Iraq is going to draw the kind of protest the Vietnam War did and be a major controversial thing in America, around the world? And I said, I really don't see it coming like that. How amazing. Funny thing is, I talked to a bunch of others. They didn't quite see it coming like that either. And again, it reminds us how little we know unless God gives us insight. Here we are still stuck in the midst of a very difficult situation. I've written down on my notes here, I feel like 9-11 will be in the air again. Perhaps the recent Osama Bin Laden tape, if it's really him, released just a few days ago with broadcasts of more terror, just reminds us. I don't live in fear. I fly constantly. I don't think about it. I'm not afraid of it. But there's a reminder of the fact that things are not the way they used to be. There's a reminder of the fact that war is among us everywhere. In the midst of this, God's going to use it. And Israel too will be in the center to the consternation and stumbling of many. Israel increasingly will be on the cutting edge of dividing people. Number four, this wave will be violent, as in spiritually. Again, I do not mean physical violence. Jesus will never lead us the way of physical violence. Jesus is not an excuse for outbursts of our anger. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The Jesus way is put down your sword, take up your cross. We overcome evil by good. But as much as we need the gentle streams of refreshing, as much as we constantly need the joy of the Lord, this next wave will not primarily be a quiet streams wave, but one with an intensity, as in Acts 2, with the intensity of the spirit moving there at Shavuot, at Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks. Again, it just struck me, I always think scripture, someone tells me when they're getting married, you know, this date, it's just, you know, the month is a chapter and the day is a verse. I mean, I always think scripture. I wake up, I look at the clock and whatever it is, you know, I think scripture. Scripture references Judge Roy Moore in the thick of the Ten Commandments controversy. I'm good friends with people very close to him that attest to his godliness and purity and humility. But the first date set for his trial being held in contempt is November 12, 1112. And the moment I see 1112, of course, I think Matthew 1112. In the words of Jesus that the kingdom of God suffers violence, the violent, take it by force. We are in a spiritually violent conflict. But hear me, this next wave will be turbulent like a mighty thundering wave and it will bring the church into holy conflict with the world. Let me say it again. This next wave will bring the church into holy conflict with the world. Some of us could die on the battlefield. No, we do not take life, but our lives could easily be taken standing up for Jesus. It happens around the world. There's a quote I had cited some years back and I was reminded of it again a few weeks ago when preparing for this message, James B. Taylor in the 1800s. He said, the world may frown, Satan may rage, but go on, live for God. May I die in the field of battle. Or missionary C.T. Studd, great sportsman, aristocrat, left everything in England and Cambridge to go be a missionary first in China, then to pour out his life in Africa. Shortly before he died, someone sent him these verses. Let the victors, when they come, when the forts of folly fall, find thy body near the wall. You want to be there right up front where the action is happening for Jesus. We've had enough time sitting back on the sidelines and making excuses and waiting for next time. Well, many times have passed us by. We have no more excuses. It's time we throw ourselves in and say, Father, here I am. Make my life fully usable. However, I can bring you the most glory. However, I can touch the most people. However, I can be the most effective witness. However, I can demonstrate your compassion and mercy. However, Jesus can be exalted through me. Here I am, whether by life or by death. I want to glorify you. That should be the normal heartbeat of every single child of God. That's not radical. That's normal. Titus Bransmow is a Dutch Catholic priest martyred by the Nazis in 1942. He said those who want to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it. Those who want to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it. The days of trying to save our lives rather than standing up for Jesus must be over. Do we use wisdom? Yes. Do we embrace long life as a gift from God? Absolutely. Meditate on Psalm 91 until it comes pouring out of your brain if you don't believe that. But that's part of our victory. You can't take my life. I belong to him. All you can do is promote me. Brother Andrew, we've quoted him often. Open doors, ministry, fearless, servant of God. He said our Lord said go. He said nothing about coming back. This must be the spirit and the attitude of those caught up in this next wave. He said there are no closed doors to the gospel provided that once you go through the door, you don't care whether or not you come back out. When I was writing a series of books on answering Jewish objections to Jesus, I had one lengthy question dealing with the Holocaust. Many Jews say how could I ever believe in God, let alone think about Jesus after the Holocaust? Something I wanted to treat with sensitivity. I didn't want to touch it. I agonized over it until God really gave me a fruitful approach. But in that answer, I quoted from Basilia Schlenk, who just went to be with the Lord a couple of years back. Godly German leader, Lutheran, fan of the evangelical sisterhood of Mary. And look at what she wrote to her fellow Germans two years after the Holocaust. She said, we are personally to blame. We all have to admit that if we, the entire Christian community, had stood up as one man, and if after the burning of the synagogues on Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust, we had gone out in the streets and voiced our disapproval, rung the church bells and somehow boycotted the actions of the SS, the devil's vassals would probably not have been at such liberty to pursue their evil schemes. But we lacked the ardor of love, love that is never passive, love that cannot bear it when its fellow men are in misery, particularly when they are subjected to such appalling treatment and torture to death. Indeed, if we had loved God, we would not have endured seeing those houses of God set ablaze and holy divine wrath would have filled our souls. The church will come into conflict with the world. Number five, this will be a revival of the fear of the Lord. The days of awe are upon us. There is a tremendous lack in society as a whole of the fear of God. Even a recognition of authority and reverence for that, tremendous lack in our society, tremendous lack in the body, the fear of God. I'm convinced in my own life there's a lack of it. Something I talk to the Lord about and meditate on Scripture because this next revival, because of the awesome things that God does and how he will reveal himself, will be a revival of the fear of the Lord. Number six, new wineskins have been prepared for the new wine and new wine there will be. New wineskins have been prepared for the new wine and new wine there will be. Still the nature of the harvest, hear me carefully, the nature of the harvest, that is the types of people who will get saved, will surprise us due to the extreme ravages of sin. The conversions will be equally extreme. So prepare for a radical ingathering. No matter how ready we think we are, we do not fully understand what sin has done to a generation. We do not fully understand how deeply raped and abused this generation has been. And people are going to get saved in ways that will surprise us and come to us in ways that will surprise us. And if we think we are ready, we are not ready. Just like the churches when I got saved in the early seventies, most of them are not ready for the Jesus people movement, for this ingathering of hippies and radicals and rebels and only a small percentage of those who could have been discipled and nurtured and raised up and sent out were actually treated like that. I'll say it again, prepare for radical ingathering. Number seven, this next wave will be, must be, can only be about Jesus. We cannot deflect it to lesser causes. In the greatness of his glory, lesser causes will fade. We cannot deflect it with attention on people. It must be, God is jealous for this. This is something he will guard. It must be about Jesus in a deeper way than anything we've known. Let me read you something. I'm going to close. T.L. Osborne might have been used in healing the sick around the world for decades now. I've been in some cities, one in Africa, one in Scandinavia, where to this day you can point to what God did in the churches around the world. In Holland, one city, brothers were telling me about when he came, the impact that his ministry had. And he said, that's when my dad got the call to go into ministry. That's when these churches were planted. That's when this happened, that happened. In 1947, he said, during our time of pastoring in the church at McMinnville, Brian Parkman got this quote from me, God dealt with me in many wonderful ways. It was during this time that a lady in our church happened to inform me of the death of Dr. Charles S. Price, a man greatly used in healing in that day. 1947, I'd never met the man, but I had read scores of his wonderful sermons, and through doing so, I had learned to love the man dearly. When I heard of his death, I went to the church and began to weep aloud. It seemed as though I could not contain my grief. The faith heroes of the previous few years began to pass through my mind like a panorama. I thought of Wigglesworth. Smith Wigglesworth died in 1947. Of McPherson, Sister Amy, he mentions different ones. And of others, not one of whom I had ever met or heard preach, but they were gone forever from this world scene of action. I should never meet them here. The world would never again feel the impact and marvelous influence of their ministry. We would only talk of them and hear of their exploits of faith. Oh, it broke me at heart. It all seemed very strange to me as to why it should affect me like it did when I didn't even know these people. I began to ponder it all. I said, Lord, those great heroes are gone now and millions are still dying. Multitudes are still sick and suffering. To whom will they go now for help? Who now will stir our large cities and fill our large auditoriums with the magnetic power of God, healing the sick and casting out devils? What will this world do now? God heard and answered my questions in a marvelous way, though not immediately. The Spirit spoke thus, My son, as I was with Christ, McPherson, Wigglesworth, and others, so I will be with thee. They are dead, but now it is time for you to rise, to go and do likewise. You cast out devils. You heal the sick. You raise the dead. You cleanse the lepers. Behold, I give unto you power over all, the power of the enemy. Be not afraid. Be strong. Be of good courage. I am with thee as I was with them. No evil power shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as ye get the people to believe my word. I used those men in their day, but this is your day. Now I desire to use thee. I believe the very same thing is being said by the Spirit of God to us. Pioneers, mightily used, have passed on before us, and God is saying, it's your time, it's your hour, your generation. Take hold of it. Seize the moment. The great commission is a call to go and change the world. We're part of the Jesus movement, called to bring holy revolution to a godless world, sent by the Father to bring liberation to the captives. That's why we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We must move forward with the Jesus revolution, but now in the life and power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can stand against it. As Evan Roberts said, a whole church on its knees is irresistible. Here's how we're going to end. It's a little different than what you might be used to. Not in the service, but in this part, and then our other leadership team and our worship team will be here to continue, and I've got to catch a flight.