In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the power of desire and how it can energize and motivate individuals. He gives examples of a tired man who suddenly becomes energized when invited to go fishing, and a young boy who finds the energy to mow the lawn when promised a swimming trip afterwards. The preacher then introduces the concept of humility and its connection to receiving grace from God. He references James 4:6 and Micah's teachings to highlight the importance of humility in experiencing the power of God and living according to His ways.

Now this morning I want to get into something that is one of the most profound truths in all of the Word of God. It's something that you cannot miss. And I hope our pastor, are you recording this back there? This is very important, I hope other people will be able to hear this truth, because it's the beginning of revival. God says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land. But the first condition to revival is humility, brokenness. And there's a paradox in the Word of God. We see, to live you must die. If you're going to make it in the kingdom of God, you must humble yourself. God says, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. But he that exalted himself shall be abased. You see, wickedness, and sin, and all these other things, and damnation, and hell came to the world because of pride. Lucifer, the son of the morning, he exalted himself, and he said, I will ascend above the stars of heaven. I will be like the most high God. And we find the first sin in the universe was pride. It's man's natural inclination to be prideful. To be stubborn, to resist the authority of God. Not to bend, and to break under the Lord. But we see that because destruction, and sin, and all of these other things that we see today, in America, and in the world, came because of man's pride. The pride of life is one of the three basic sins that Satan tempts man with. The lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh are the other two. Now, on the other side of the coin, we see that Jesus clothed himself with humility. That blessing and salvation came to the world through the humiliation of Jesus Christ. And that's why Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, 5-3, he says, let this mentality be in you. Let this frame of mind be in you. Let this way of thinking be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, a willing bond slave, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So we see that here the great creator, the great God of the universe, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Counselor, the Mighty God, He became a man, and He took upon Himself the form of a willing bond slave. Jesus Christ came down from the realms of glory into this world of woe, but He came through humility. And you know, that's one of the reasons why I believe that the religious leaders of His hour rejected Him as the true Messiah, because He was clothed in humility. He was not born in the courts of the king. He was not born among the Pharisees or the Sadducees. He was not born in a lofty home, but He was born of a poor lowly maid of Nazareth. And He worked for a living up until His full-time ministry. And sometimes I look back in my imagination, and you can almost see Jesus with wood shavings in His hair, because He was a carpenter, and He labored with His hands. He worked. He was a strong man. But He was the God-man, and He was clothed in humility. And as I've mentioned, this is one of the most profound truths in the Word of God, because you'll find this truth brought out again and again from Genesis to Revelation. You'll find it in illustration. You'll find it in Scripture after Scripture after Scripture. In fact, when this theme becomes a reality in your heart, everywhere you go in the Bible, you'll see that God is working humility within the hearts of His saints. God cannot use a vessel until that vessel is broken and humbled before the Lord. It took 20 years for God to really change Jacob, and to change His name from Jacob to Israel. And that night He became a prince with God, because Jacob was broken. We find that God takes His saints through this classroom of brokenness, through this process of working humiliation within their hearts, this complete and total dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the starting point. Without it, you cannot begin or can you progress in the Christian life. And every successful ministry and fruitful ministry is started here, and is maintained in a spirit of brokenness. You remember Moses. God wanted to work humiliation within His heart. Moses was a man that was highly esteemed within the minds of the world. You've got to let your sanctified imagination run loose sometimes. Moses was in the courts of Pharaoh. Moses was raised by the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And Moses was clothed in all the garments of the Egyptians. He was schooled in the way of the Egyptians. And probably many people thought that he would be on the throne one day over all of Egypt, this great world empire. And so everywhere you went, probably in the known world, you heard the name Moses in the house. It was a home word. And one day God began to put into his heart that He wanted to use this man. And I believe that Moses tried to do the work of God in the energy of the flesh when he killed that Egyptian. But God had some schooling from Moses. God had to teach Moses humility. And so what did they do? Moses was led to the desert. And Moses tended sheep for 40 years. Now can you imagine this? You see this man that's on a lofty pedestal. And then he flees from Pharaoh. And now we see him in the next scene, tending sheep, watching sheep. For 40 years he's watching sheep. And he's going to deal with the people that are just like those sheep. Just as stubborn, just as ignorant, just as rebellious. But God wants to teach him some deep principles on humiliation. And God is working the philosophies of humanism out of his heart when he's there in the desert and watching the sheep. And you can almost see Moses strong and bright and full of words. And you can just see him sitting on a stump somewhere. And all of a sudden one of those little lambs just run off. And he leaves the 90 at night. And he goes and captures that lamb and brings him back. Now for 40 years, some of you have worked for 10, 15, 20 years at a certain job. But can you imagine for 40 years, God is working in this man's life. And then one day when Moses was ready, when he was a vessel that was fit for the master's use, God drew him to the back side of the desert. And there God appeared unto him in a burning bush. And he commissioned him again. And he endued him with power. And God enabled Moses to lead the children of Israel out of the house of bondage with a high and with a mighty hand. You know, this is a tremendous truth because we look into the New Testament and we can see it in the life of Paul. God showed Paul such an abundance of revelations that we find that Paul had a tendency to be prideful because God had to allow a messenger of Satan to buffet him. Do you know that God permitted a demon spirit to buffet Paul? He says this in his personal biographies, in his autobiographies, in those little biographical sketches we find in the New Testament of Paul. He says, when I am weak, the power of Jesus Christ will rest upon me. He says, there is given to me a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure because of the abundance of revelations that I have received. You see, God taught things to Paul that no man had ever heard. He taught and revealed the secrets of Jesus Christ dwelling within us, the hope of glory. He revealed mysteries about the church. And we find, and I believe it happened at Lister when Paul was stoned, that even this mortal man was lifted, was whacked it up into the heavenlies, and he walked the streets of gold. And he saw God in all of his power, in all of his glory, in all of his majesty. And he saw revelations, abundance of revelations. And Paul said that because of all of these things that I have seen, being a mortal man, there has been given to me a messenger of Satan to keep me humble, to keep me dependent upon God, to keep me broken, to keep me seeking God. And I really believe that pride was a besetting sin in the life of Paul. I believe that he got the victory over it. Why would God allow a messenger of Satan to buffet him if God did not foresee real danger in the life of Paul? God would never allow tribulation in your life unless you really need it, unless it's going to be used of God to break you and to bend you and to make you thoroughly dependent upon the Lord. And I really truly believe that Paul had some real physical problems. Although he could lay hands on the sick, and he saw miraculous healings, yet it's very evident from the word of God that he had physical problems. And it could have been in his eyes. But we don't know just the extent of this harassment. D.L. Moody was an evangelist that just moved the world through his preaching. He was mightily used of God. He was tremendously anointed of the Spirit. And D.L. Moody brought America and Britain together by the means of the cross of Jesus Christ. The land was just set on fire with a holy flame. Great revivals broke out. But do you know that D.L. Moody only had a 6th grade education? That he slaughtered the English language? That all the homiletical professors would come up and they would listen to them and they would almost have to shut their ears because he didn't preach homiletical sermons? But he knew the power of God. And D.L. Moody was broken before the Lord. And R.A. Torrey, who was a successor to D.L. Moody, one day had a memorial service and he preached a sermon on why God used D.L. Moody. And one of the outstanding reasons was this, because D.L. Moody was a broken and he was a humble man. He was always willing to put someone above him. He really didn't think that he could really preach good. And he was convinced of that, that everyone else could preach better than him. And he always wanted people to take his place when he had these conventions and when he had these meetings where many of the great preachers around the world would gather together. And he always wanted them to preach first because he knew his limitations. And that's why God says, Paul says, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. For God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. And God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and base things, and things which are nothing to confound the things that are. Why? That no flesh may glory in his presence. That's the reason why. That's why God will use people like you and me. That's why God says to David, you remember David, he exalted himself and God says, Don't you remember that I took you from the sheepfold? And I lifted you on high? And he turned away from the Lord for a while. And we need to sometimes meditate and see what kind of a slime pit that all of us came from. That we were dead in trespasses and sins. And all of us were rebels against God. And we need to look back and we need to see sometimes that God took us from such a horrible pit and he lifted us upon a rock. And he established our goings forth. And when we get haughty, when we think we're something, when we think we're really doing something for God, God will immediately extract his power and you will function in the energy of the flesh and you'll be discouraged. And you'll be oppressed. And this is where many of God's people fail. God will use them to lead some souls to Christ or maybe they can do good things in the area of music or maybe in speaking or whatever it may be. A number of things. Maybe you have a craft that you can perform above other people. Maybe you have many skills. And God says that if we allow these things to get to our head, He says, let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. He says, let this mentality linger within your mind. He says, fix your mind on humility. That's why the Bible says that we're to be clothed with humility. When someone says, how do you know that you've got humility? Because once you think you've got it, you lose it. If you find the answer to that, please tell me after the service because I haven't found it. All I know is this, that God says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up. That's what the Word of God says constantly, repeatedly. Again and again and again we find in the Word of God that God teaches us this tremendous truth. Would you turn with me to James? James chapter 4. We're going to see something that is going to amaze you. And if you have a pen and paper, I want you to write this down because I'm convinced that you can have no kind of Christian experience, that you cannot know the power of God, you cannot continue in the ways of God unless you learn this principle of humiliation until it becomes a living reality within your lives. And in just a moment you're going to see why. First of all, we see in the Word of God as we read here that grace is received through humility. Grace is received through humility. Now we have different kinds of grace. You have sustaining grace, you have supplying grace. You have the grace of God that's able to make... God's in financial situations, He said God is able to make all grace abound toward you. Grace for living, power to live. But listen here in James chapter 4 and verse 6. But He giveth more grace. Now underscore the word grace. Wherefore He saith... Now He's quoting an Old Testament scripture back in Proverbs 3.34. He says, God giveth more grace. God resisteth the proud. Now look at that. God resisteth the proud. But He what? He giveth grace unto the humble. We need to see that today. He giveth grace unto the humble. Now when we ever see that word but, that's contrast. He saith that He giveth more grace. He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. What does that mean? Now, right from the very beginning, as I've already mentioned, He's talking to God's people. He's not talking to the lost. Although this could be true of them too. But He said God's stiff arms, the haughty heart. He says, I want to bless you, but I can't do it. I cannot get near to you. God sets Himself in array against the haughty heart. You see, when we are humble and our mind is lifted up and prideful, it reminds God of the mentality of Satan, Lucifer. It reminds God of the first sin in all of the universe. That's why the Bible says that pride, a prideful look is an abomination to the Lord in Proverbs 6. One of the seven abominations. He said, a lofty look, a proud look, is an abomination in the sight of the Lord. But look there in verse 7. He says, submit yourselves therefore. There we see that word therefore again. On the basis of what I've just said, James says, submit. Submit yourself to the authority of God. Submit yourself to delegated authority. That could be in the home, wives to husbands, and God's people in the church. Obeying them that have the rule over you. A right kind of submission. Therefore, because God will resist you because of your pride, submission is so important. You must submit to delegated authority. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now you see that word resist in verse 7. And then you see the word resisteth in verse 6. God says that we are to resist the devil. To immediately oppose him. That's what it means. Now if you have pride in your heart, God says he will immediately oppose you like we are supposed to immediately oppose the devil. We're not to linger on the temptations of Satan. We're not to meditate on them. But once you know that that is a temptation from the devil, you are to immediately reject that from your thought life as Jesus. He did not argue with Satan. He did not rationalize. He said it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so God says it's submission, humbling yourself. Now let's turn over there to 1 Peter. We'll see a parallel passage. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5. You can't miss this, my friend. You'll see this over and over again in the word of God. It's brought out repeatedly. Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility like a garment that is wrapped around you. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble. You see that parallel passage? Humble yourselves therefore on the basis of what's just been said because God resisteth the proud but he giveth grace unto the humble. Therefore humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all of your care upon him for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary is the devil. As a roaring lion, why does he always talk about satanic oppression and satanic affliction when he talks about humility and submission? Because submission to God's authority and delegated authority puts a protective hedge around your life and around your family and around this church. When we resist God and his authority and delegated authority, we open a hole in God's protective umbrella over our lives giving place to the realm and power of Satan because rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. To reject the authority of God and to reject delegated authority is like fooling around with the tarot cards. It's like dabbling into the occult. That's why we see today when men and women oppose God's delegated authority in the church that their lives are given over to satanic harassment. That's why when they oppose, that's why we see in the Old Testament we find that when men revolted against Moses and Aaron that God's greatest judgments fell on the children of Israel. You look at it. You find that when Korah raised up against Moses and Aaron that God was so angry that He clathed the earth. And all of those Israelites and those princes and those men of renown fell into hell screaming and wailing. God opened up the pit and they fell literally into hell because they revolted against God's delegated authority. Samuel said, for God desires obedience. Obedience better than sacrifice. Because rebellion and self-will and stubbornness is the sin of the hour. Today men are revolting against authority in the classroom, in the schools. No one wants to be under authority today. No one wants to be under authority in the church. But we need to realize that this is God's way of protecting our homes and our families and our lives. Because God says, even for preachers and leaders in the church, be subject unto them. He says, obey them that have the rule over you because they must give charge of your soul in the day of judgment. And God goes on to say that they may do it with joy. Do you know that we as ministers of Christ must give account before you in the day of judgment? That's an awesome responsibility. That we must speak of the things that we've seen with our eyes and heard. God says, we will give account in that day of judgment. And that's why we see again and again. Oh, there are so many principles here that we could get into here. But let me read something to you. I want to read an amplification of what the word grace means. A definition of grace. Now, I want to give you two definitions of grace. One definition, I'm sure that you've heard. Grace is unmerited favor. Something that you don't deserve. For by grace are you saved through faith. When Jesus came to you, you didn't deserve His love. You didn't deserve His mercy. I didn't deserve it. We were yet sinners. Christ died for us. We were yet sinners. But God in His mercy who loved us, He called us with a holy calling unto Himself. Now, that's one definition of grace. Unmerited favor. Something you did not work for. Something you did not earn. Jesus paid it all. But I'm going to give you another definition of grace that will change your way of thinking. That will add a completely new dimension to your Christian experience. Grace is the desire and the power to do the will of God. Grace is God enabling you in your will. Giving you the power and the desire to obey Him. You can't obey God without His grace. You can't keep the commandments. You can't pray. You can't have that quiet time. And grace comes through humility. Grace comes through brokenness. God said, He resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace unto the humble. There's an infusion of God's grace through brokenness. Now, let me read from a Scripture in Philippians 2.13. You need not turn there. I'll read it to you. It says, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now, let me read some other renderings of that Scripture. For it is God Himself whose power creates within you both the desire and the power to execute His gracious will. It is God who energizes within you both the desiring and the energizing. Who makes you willing and gives you the energy to do what He wants you to do. Listen to another one. It is God who in His good will is at work in your hearts, in your innermost being, inspiring your will and your actions. Isn't that powerful? You know, sometimes we pray, Oh God, give me the power to overcome this sin. You know what you need to pray? Oh Lord, give me the desire to get rid of it. Because there is what is. We sin because we want to sin. We are bitter because we want to be bitter. We want to harbor bitterness. We are ornery, we are angry because we want to be angry. But we need to pray, Oh God, give me the desire to depart from this sin. One day I was driving down the road and I said, Oh Lord God, there was something that was plaguing my mind. And I said, Lord, God, give me the power over this sin. That is unscriptural. The power is available. And the Spirit of God spoke to me. Not in an audible voice, but He made a deep impression in my heart. And He said, Don't say that, John. Just impressed in my heart a prompting of the Spirit. Pray, give me the desire. Oh Lord, give me the desire to depart from that sin. Give me the grace. Jesus said, Without me, you can do nothing. And when He said nothing, He meant nothing. He said, Without my power flowing through you, you can do nothing because this Christian life is a supernatural experience. It is an exchange life. And you must have my power, my grace flowing through you. Oh, get that definition down if you can. The desire and the power to do the will of God. Write that down in the fly leaf of your Bible. Write it down anywhere. It will change your life as you meditate on it. And you realize that when you have struggles, Oh Lord, You work within my heart. You give me the grace. I humble myself before You. I realize this is sin before You. Some people can't get over bitterness because they're unwilling to forgive what someone has done to them. They've been hurt. They've been harmed. And their rights have been violated. You've got to give up those rights to God. You have no rights but to obey the Lord. We must realize that as Christians. And we need to realize that if we harbor these things, then we're the losers. Oh, this is tremendous. Let me give you some illustrations just to kind of vividly bring this to our attention. Here you've got a man that's been working, we'll say, on the ranch all day. And I know that it's a lot of work. I've never been there but I've worked in factories and I know how fatigued some of those men get. And they're on the ranch all day long and they've been maybe there for 18 hours and they get home and they get in that recliner and they grab that handle on that recliner and they get almost to the last click. And all of a sudden that wife comes in and says, Wait, just a minute, honey. Just take it easy for a moment here. Could you take out the garbage before you get too rested? And he begins to say, Oh, I just, I can't. I can't get up. I'm so tired. I'm so fatigued. Let's just take for example it's earlier in the afternoon or just after the night, maybe not 18 hours. But all of a sudden the phone rings. There's a phone call. It's Charlie down the road. And where I live there are a lot of lakes. He says, How would you like to go fishing? This poor man is so worn. All of a sudden there's an energy that flows through his body. And he's looking for his reel and rod. There is an energy and power and desire. Here you've got a young man that's been at school all day long. It's been hot. He's gone through a lot of tests. He comes home. And he sits down. His mother says, Now Billy, I would like you to go mow the grass. And the excuses start flying. But mom, it was so hard. And I'm so tired. And then she said, Well Billy, we were going to take you swimming after you mow the grass. All of a sudden Billy is flying out into the garage. And the grass is whirling through the air. What changes him? What gives him that dynamo? What gives him that energy? It's desire. Have you ever had that experience in your life? Where you're totally fatigued. You're totally worn out. And then something exciting happens. Something that was just a joy to you. And there was an energy. It quickened you. It empowered you. Because desire has power. God says He works in our desires. You know why so many of us we don't want to read the word of God or we don't want to witness or we want to do a number of things in the Christian life? It's because we don't have the grace of God, beloved. You can't make people witness. You can't bring them under a guilt complex. You can't do all these things. We've got things backwards. We've got the cart before the horse today. People need to be led into revival first and then they will obey the Lord. That's why I believe that personal revival precedes effective evangelism or service. First of all, you've got to have grace from God and people will just naturally move out and obey the Lord because they have that desire within their hearts. Oh, I'll tell you. Desire will put a man on a golf course even when it's raining. Now, you don't have many golf courses around here but where I live there are all kinds of golf courses. One day to my utter amazement I was driving down the road and it was pouring out and just by chance I looked to my left and I couldn't believe my eyes. There are men there on the golf course with little red and white umbrellas and they have their golf clubs in one hand and the umbrella in the other hand. And they were in there in the rain. Now, what would take those men to that golf course? It's a consuming desire. You know, revival is a blessing because God gives you a desire to do the things of Christ. When people begin to get a desire for prayer and desire for the spiritual things and they begin to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory and they say yes, it's a labor, but it's glorious. It's wonderful. It's a joy to serve the Lord. And today we are not serving the Lord because we don't want to serve God. We're not giving ourselves completely to the work of Christ because we simply don't want to and we need the grace of God to flow in and through our lives. Humility is necessary to the service of God in Micah 6.8. You need not turn there. Even in the Old Testament teachings we see this again and again. He showed it under the prophet Micah. He has showed thee, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of thee? Three things. But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. We need a window open here. It's just a little warm. Don't put it on one of those ladies. They'll freeze to death and get mad at me. Three things, he said to the prophet. He says, you must do justly, that is obeying the Word. You must love mercy. You must have a forgiving spirit. You must love God. Side 2 Great revival text that preachers throughout the centuries have been preaching on. Revival. All my friends, if you want a real definition of what revival will do to you, study this verse. Get it into your mind. Memorize it. Meditate on the Scripture because it's powerful. It talks about the effects of revival. And then in chapter 57, verse 15, it starts out like this. For thus saith the High and the Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in the High and the Holy Place. Now just lift up your eyes for a moment. Here this verse talks about it starts with the majesty of God, the power of God. Here we see this High and Lofty One that is on His throne in the heavenlies. He's seated in the heavenlies above all principality, above all power, in the sides of the north. This great King. This great King of Zion. This One that rules over the affairs of men. This One that rules over the universe. His name is El Elyon, the God, the Master of the universe. El Elyon, the One that proceeds over all things, the Master of the universe. This One is seated on high, the cherubim, the angels of heaven are praising and they're at His command at every moment. And this One is the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. Now that's something that boggles our mind, that God is from everlasting to everlasting. We see in the Book of Kings that the presence of God goes beyond space and time. That the presence of the Lord goes beyond even His creation. It goes on forever and ever and ever. You know they say there are planets that are so large that they could not pass between our earth and sun. Can you imagine that? There are planets that are so vast that here our sun is so many light years away and then the earth. There are planets that are so vast they could not fit between the two. And God inhabits eternity. Oh that puts goose pimples on my duck bumps almost. I'll tell you something, that's an awesome thought to know that this God has never had a beginning. And He inhabits eternity. He inhabits from everlasting to everlasting. Not only has He been from everlasting but He inhabits from everlasting to everlasting. You know when I was a young boy I tried to go back to the early days and I tried to go back to the garden and then before the creation of man and then to the angels of heaven and to God. But He went on and on and on and on. Our mind can't take it. We just can't conceive it. It's not in our hearts. We can't understand it. But this everlasting creator, this God of the universe, and then He dwells in the high and the holy place, the only holy place, in holiness. Now there's only one class of people that this great eternal God that inhabits eternity will dwell with. I dwell in the high and holy place with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Now right away we see something. God says I'll revive your spirit and I'll revive your heart. Why does He make a distinction? Why doesn't He just say I'll revive your being? Why doesn't He just say I'll revive you? Why doesn't He say I'll revive your spirit and your heart? Now the spirit of man is God consciousness. Jesus said those that worship Me must worship Me in spirit and in truth. That spirit of man is that part of our being that communicates with God. The Holy Spirit of God communicates with our spirit. God says I'll revive that part of your being. I'll give you a fresh infusion of grace into that part of your being. You will have a new sensitivity and a new awareness of God. A new sensitivity to sin. A new sensitivity to my promptings and to my speaking to your heart. A new sensitivity to the things of God, to the things that pertain to God's Word. A new awareness of spiritual preceptivity. An awareness of God. He says I'll revive your spirit. That's why many people when they get revived they say all of a sudden the Bible opens up to me. I understand things about God that I've never understood before. One man you heard his testimony this last week he says I've been a Christian since I've been 11 years old and he's over 30 now and he says never in my life has the Word of God opened to me. In one single day more Scripture has opened to him than in years. Revival. And then he says I'll revive your heart. What's that? The heart is the mind and the will and the emotions. God says I'll revive your emotions. Those tattered emotions. He says I'll revive your will. Here we see James. He gives you the desire and power to do the will of God. He will revive your will. And then he says you'll revive your mind. You know I've seen people that have gone all the way with God revivals that have been physically fatigued and worn out and I've seen them revived and God will give them a new strength and power physically that will emanate through their body because the Bible says those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall moan up with wings like eagles and they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. And waiting upon God means to be intertwined with the Lord. To be in communion with God. And God's revival power flows from you. I remember men that worked late at night and got up early in the morning. And I remember please no playing around back there. We're just going to close in just a minute here. A few moments. Young people. I'm going to ask for your attention. But I've seen men that had to rise early in the morning. And they said I don't know how I'm going to make it through these revival meetings. How are we ever going to take it? And yet we were staying up later and later and later. And I said I'll guarantee you this. That if you get revived God will give you physical strength. And I almost walked out on a kind of a plank when I said that. But God bore witness with my heart. And do you know that many of those men experienced revival in their hearts? And a number of them came up to me and said do you know that I'm getting less sleep and I have more physical strength than what I've had in years? Do you know why? Because sin drains your emotions. Sin saps the power that's within you. I gave you that illustration. You think of a negative thought and that arm can be pushed down. You think of a positive thought and you can hold that arm and they can't push it down. Because thoughts drain you. They physically drain you. God says don't keep imperfect pieces. Mine is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. And there's an infusion of divine power. We need to realize, beloved in Christ, that sin wears out the body. And when revival comes and when all sin is put under the blood of Jesus Christ, there's the grace of God. See all these things work together. So many things could be said. There's some tremendous truths here. I've seen people physically healed by getting revived. By just getting their hearts right with God. They didn't even have to be prayed over. They just begin to saturate their minds with the word of God and continue in prayer and watch with the same with thanksgiving and I've seen them healed. One day a woman came up to the altar one time and she said, I need prayer. Now sometimes you've got two extremes for revival meetings. You've got some people that are self-righteous that don't need revival. And then you've got some people that beat themselves with sticks and say we're no good. We're worthless. We're just terrible. We might as well give it up. My friends, that's not biblical and this isn't biblical. In our old nature there's always no good thing. But in the new nature we have Christ. We have the Holy Spirit. We have the word of God. We're the sons of God. We're joint heirs with Jesus. That's good. We're made up to the likeness of God. That's good within us. So you cannot scripturally say that I'm no good and worthless. That's an unscriptural statement. That's of the devil. There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. God does not condemn His people. He convicts His people. But this woman, she was over here, she says I'm no good. She beat herself with sticks. She says I'm a terrible mother. My husband left me. I'm rotten. I'm terrible. I'm no good. And I said you know something, you've got to get the victory over this. And I magnified in her mind the power of the blood. I said you need to take all of those sins and all those things that you committed and put them under the blood of Jesus. See that's our fore curse against Satan is confessing all known sin and continuing in prayer and watching with the same with thanksgiving and saturating our minds with God's word. I said you need to make much of the blood and take all of those things, all of those sins that you condemned yourself and one by one put them on the list and get them under the blood of Jesus. Then know that God can no longer remember any of those things. Whatever mistakes you made in the past, God has separated your iniquities as far as the east is from the west. He has cast them into the deepest sea. And she began to get a little light from the Lord. And then I said to her, you need to realize the doctrine of justification by faith alone. That we are justified and we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And we are something in Christ. We are someone in Jesus. It's unscriptural. You see here we have, you see these extremes. You need humility. But you can't say, I'm filthy scum. Paul said he was the chief of sinners because he was so near to God. But then he said, I am what I am by the grace of God also. He says, I'm an apostle. He told those people. He says that he does not fall behind in the least of the workings of the apostles. And so you need to realize that in that old nature there's nothing good. It's wretched. But in the new man, that's renewed in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, you are beloved in the sight of God. And so this woman, she got the victory. And then she went home. And then a week later she told me, she wrote me probably a three or four page letter. I was amazed. I didn't know it. She had a disease and a sickness called, I think it was narcolepsy. Every day she would fall into a swoon. She would just, it wasn't a seizure, but it was similar to a seizure. Every day she would just fall asleep and she may be knocked unconscious anywhere. And she'd just go into this swoon. And she told me, she said, I didn't tell you that I was sick and that I had this disease. She said, I've gone to many doctors. I've spent hundreds of dollars. And for years I've had this thing in my body. And she said, the moment that I dealt with this sin of self-condemnation, it left me. Brother, I want to tell you something, the sisters and the Lord, that's powerful. We didn't even pray for healing. I didn't even know about it. I've heard of other similar situations. People dealt with bitterness. They've had headaches and stomach ulcers and sickness. And the very moment that they forgave, those diseases would just leave their body just that quick. And if I wrote a book, I could give you of illustration after story after story, but I cannot remember them all. Of how people have been set free. Jesus said, you shall know the truth, the truth shall set you free and you shall be free indeed. That's what He said. I'll take you out of the bondage. I'll take you out of the shackles of the thought patterns that's in your mind, the strongholds that are in your mind. He said, if you continue in My Word, you shall become My disciples. He said, I'll set you free. If you continue in My Word, you continue to obey it and meditate on it and graft it into your heart and allow it to become a living reality. He says, the chains and shackles will fall off. He says, you'll come out of bondage and you'll come into freedom. But we see many things here in this truth. God gives grace to the humble. He brings personal revival. It's the first condition of revival. God will lift them up. Jesus said, He that exalteth himself. That's why you'll see many men and women and missionaries who have started in the ministry, they went through a long process of brokenness, trials, tribulations, great sufferings. I could share some personal stories but I don't have the time. Of how in my own life God took me through the blazing fire to make me a vessel fit for His use. I've gone through more sufferings than what most of you could imagine. Than what most people will never go through, physically. And yet God brought progressive healing in my body and I'm experiencing His healing touch today. And it's through the Word of God. It's through learning what God wanted me to learn and then go on. But you see that many men and women will go through the fires. God wants to consume the dross. God is a consuming fire. And bring us to brokenness and humility. So the way up in the Christian life is down. If you want to know the power of God, you've got to get on ground level. And if God wants you to make restitution to someone, some people won't make restitution. It's because of pride. They say, well they're 50% wrong or they're 70% wrong or they're 80% wrong or even they're 99% wrong. That's not the key of the whole matter. It's that you're 1% wrong and you need to clear your conscience so you can be right with God and with men. And you don't talk about their sin when you go to them. And you say, I know I'm 50% wrong and you're wrong. Would you forgive me? Can you imagine that? No, I've sinned. I've done wrong. You're not condoning sin. Would you forgive me? You're clear. You're free. Humbling yourself. I want to tell you something. There's a lot of parents today that won't humble themselves to their children. They've offended their children at one time in their life and their children are bitter toward them and they won't say, I'm sorry, I did wrong. I chastised you in anger. I did something or I didn't meet. I didn't fulfill a promise to you. Families are brought together by restitution and humbling yourself one to another in the fear of the Lord. People in the church need to go to the pastors in the church. They need to go to the pastor's wife. They need to go to the leaders in the church. Men and women that have been displaying wrong spirits to one another, they need to go to one another. Now, if you've only sinned against God in your mind, then you don't have to make that open. But if you've displayed a wrong spirit or you haven't treated a person individually, you've neglected responsibilities, you need to make things right because of the law of the conscience. You cannot overcome conscience. And Jesus said, if you humble yourself, I'll lift you up. Humble yourself in your daily occupations, in your mind, at the home, at the ranch, at the office, whatever it may be. Humbling ourself, practical humility. But I want to share with you an illustration of how God responds to humility. In the Old Testament, we have a wicked king. Ahab and his wife Jezebel. They did more abominations in the sight of the Lord than any other king before him. And the Word of God says he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all of the kings that were before him. And he even set up temples to Baal and this wicked wife of his was doing everything she could in her power to destroy the prophets of God. Remember Obadiah? He protected 100 prophets, 50 in each cave. And she was going out and she was massacring the prophets of God, killing them and slaying them with a sword. And she was doing everything in her power to destroy worship of God out of Israel. And Israel was turning pagan. Israel was going after other gods, Baal and Asherah. And seemingly everything was at the point of destruction. And you remember Elijah came on the scene. We remember that great movement of God on Mount Carmel. And you remember how Ahab had these encounters with Elijah. But one day you remember with Naboth, Ahab, Jezebel set up Naboth to be killed. And you remember the story of what happened, of how he possessed his vineyard and how one day Ahab was there and he looked at the vineyard. And you could almost see him. He's going to take all these vines out. He's going to take all these grape vines into these Jews they love to preach. He says, I'm going to have my leeks and garlics and I'm going to have spices here. And you could almost see Ahab as he's looking around. Over here he says, I'll put some leeks. Over here I'll put some garlic. Over here I'll put... And he looks over there and he sees a running looking prophet coming on the scene. Elijah. And he swallows his heart. And Elijah comes to him. And he speaks to him. And he brings a fiery pronouncement of judgment upon him. He says, God is going to consume you with a sword. You're going to lose the throne. Your children are going to be consumed with a sword. And you remember what happened. Something amazing. Something that's hard for us to understand. But it shows us in how God responds to humiliation. When you're willing to break and bend and not be stubborn and resist the spirit of God. Ahab went away softly, the Bible says in 1st King. And he put upon himself sackcloth and ashes and he humbled himself in the sight of the Lord. And God spoke to the prophet and said to Elijah, do you see what Ahab is doing? How he humbleth himself before me? Because he's humbling himself before me that things that I have spoken will not happen in his lifetime. Look at the abominations that Ahab committed against God. And yet God, just as he did with Nineveh, the most wicked city, probably in that day and hour. What did God do? He spared Nineveh because they humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes. In that verse where we see Jesus humble himself. Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus who be in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, the worst death that a man can die. But let's not stop there. Let's see the paradox. Let's see the way up is down. After he humbled himself and went to the cross, the most despicable death that any man could die. The next verse says, wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above all names, that is the name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. When you humble yourself, God will exalt you. When you go to the cross and you die and I'm crucified with Christ, God will give you resurrection power. You'll be lifted up. You'll be alive unto God. He'll give you ascension authority. God says, you've got to go to the cross and you've got to die like Paul. I'm crucified with Christ and I die daily to this flesh and to my stubbornness and to my orneriness and to all these things. I am crucified with Christ. I go to the cross. And when you're crucified, this principle of humility, all of it just dovetails together through Genesis to Revelation. Father, we come to you. Father, we thank you for your working this morning. Truly, you're here among us and you're revealing your truths to our hearts. Oh, Father, we pray that you would just use us for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.