The video is a testimony of a revival that took place in a small Baptist Church in northwestern Nebraska. The preacher emphasizes the need for revival and warns that without it, the church is on the path to ruin. The speaker shares how God answered their prayers for revival and how it transformed their church and community. The video also mentions the preacher's desire for personal and corporate revival, and the impact it can have on individuals and society.

We're glad you joined us today on Eagle's Wings. You know, the psalmist said, Will thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Have you ever experienced revival? As a matter of fact, I have a book here put out by Wynke Prattney, I think that's how he says his name, and he had some questions he asked folks about revival and I was thinking I might go over these this list that he has some time with you. We're We're actually at a 10-year celebration point. Many of you may not realize how this program got started, how we got into this area, but it was 10 years ago on September 1st. Actually, we've gone past the exact day, but September 1st of 1988, we had had experienced revival in our church in 1985, and three years later, the evangelist was back, the revivalist John Musser from Muskegon, Michigan was back into our church again, and he was down in my office with me and another pastor that worked with me there, and he looked at me, and he said, you know, Don, I think you need to just back off of everything that you're doing, and it's like the Holy Spirit spoke directly into my heart. That's exactly what I want you to do, and as a result of that, we ended up down here in this area in March of 1989, and one year later, exactly one year later, on September 1st, I'd get up that morning, and I'd ask the Lord, Lord, it was one year ago, September 1st, 1988, that you asked me to resign my church. I'm gonna ask you to do something significant today, and then I forgot about the prayer, but later that evening, a businessman, we were out to lunch, out to supper with his family, a businessman asked me how I'd like to have a radio ministry, and I said I'd pray about it, and actually I've been praying about it for about six months, but as a result of that, we went on to the air, I think it was the 12th or the 13th of September, I don't have my book here exactly to get that date, but next week will be our ninth year of being on the air, but I thought you might like to hear a little bit of old history, and the reason I'm sharing this old history with you this morning is because history teaches us lessons, and the reason I want to share this with you is because my heart cry and my burden is for revival, revival both for personal revival and for corporate in our churches, for our land, and because I've experienced and seen what God can do in a small measure through revival, I want you to share it. I want you to have it. I believe God wants us to have it. Matter of fact, I believe revival is the normal atmosphere of the believer, the normal atmosphere of the church, and I thought maybe I might get out an old booklet that I wrote back in 1985 after we experienced God's blessing in a small sense, we'll say small, in that it wasn't an awakening, but it was a local revival that was shared in by many different churches, and it extended over a period of at least seven years and has really continued in that the revivalists, as a result of that, it was a springboard for him to go internationally, and he's ministered into well over 60 countries through his ministry, and he's just gone on as a result of God doing this little small thing out in western Nebraska where I was pastoring a small church. The title of the booklet that I wrote at the request of the evangelist was Revival or Ruin, and it's a true story of revival coming to a small Baptist church in northwestern Nebraska, and I wrote this, actually I sat down and wrote it in one afternoon, but I want to share it with you to tell you that God will answer believing prayer, and I'm just going to read this to you. I think I'll read it to you. I might just skip ahead and just tell you some of the stuff. Hope it wouldn't get boring to you. Then next week, I'm going to come back and share a little bit with you, and then give a message that we gave recently in a church in this area, and I might say, I don't say this very often, but I'll say it because we have had response from folks in the Stella area. We're going to be preaching down there the last night of a revival meeting September 13th, so some of you that are radio listeners, if you want to come over and meet us, that would be, I think, at 7 o'clock in the evening. I'm not sure, but that's at Stella, September 13th. We usually don't let you know where we're going. We're just around here and there, but this Revival or Ruin booklet that I wrote, I'm going to share it with you this morning in hopes that it'll encourage you. I know we're going back into some history. We're going back to 1985, but I'm trusting it will encourage you. So many are discouraged in their churches. So many are really wanting to see God in a fresh way, and maybe this will encourage you to experience God. You see, this story really began about the last part of 1984, when a pastor friend of mine in a small town in Nebraska, about 35 miles away, 36 miles, he went to a revival crusade down in Arizona. I think it was in Phoenix. The Souterra twins were ministering. They'd been going seven weeks there in that church, and while he was there, God deeply touched him and his wife, and they came back, and they began to meet with my wife and I, and we began to pray for revival, and they shared how God had just touched them in such a deep way, and it really changed their lives. And so we began to pray for God to bring revival into our area. I began to pray for it personally. I was getting to the point where I was just sort of tired of an up-and-down experience. Sometimes I was up, sometimes I was down, sort of an emotional roller coaster type thing. So we began to pray for revival, and things began to fall into place for a revivalist to come out to our area, and so John Musser arrived on April 5th, and he went into my buddy's church up there in White Clay, Nebraska, and he preached there eight days, and from the very first day, there was an unusual anointing of the Spirit on the meetings. I mean, one of the deacons got saved in the church, and missionaries were coming down off of the Indian Reservation just a mile from the church, and so the missionaries were coming down. God was ministering to them, and it was just powerful from the very beginning. And then after eight days of unusual blessing, they moved the meetings down to the church that I was pastoring, and that went for 18 days in our church. And what happened during those 18 days could probably be described in just one word, and that was revival. And over the next, maybe, we might focus a little bit on revival this month. I was thinking I might share with you some things about revival, because we don't understand many times even the terms about revival. But God did a work in many hearts in those 18 days there, and that continued on around the state, and even got into some other states in the next seven months. Matter of fact, many states were touched, because I began to travel for the evangelists, go into other places, share my testimony, and help prepare for God to bless in other states. But this is a record of some of the things that happened, and the title, as I said, Revival or Ruin, was chosen because of the evangelist's frequent use of that term when he was preaching, that we must have revival. And if we're not really living in a revival atmosphere, then we're on the way to ruin, I believe. And so that's why we had the title Revival or Ruin. And my prayer really personally was, Lord, you have to send revival. We have to have it. It's revival or we, I didn't have anything else. I was just believing God to do it. We were tired of the up-and-down experience. We wanted a fresh touch from God. In the little booklet, I wrote something down that Vance Hapner had said. He said, we hear much about revival these days, but the heart of revival is the Lordship of Christ. A mere emotional upheaval, a spurt of religious excitement, is not revival. And I say amen to that. When Christians become convicted of rebellion against the rule of Christ in their lives, confess their sins, renounce self, take the cross, and let Jesus have the first and last word in everything, that is revival, by whatever name you call it, by Vance Hapner. And this pretty well describes what happened in the lives of many people during the 18 days of revival at the small Baptist Church in Nebraska. Now, Evangelist John Musser, he began his first message on April 17th in 1985, and he spoke on the Holy Spirit and revival. The Spirit of the Lord was working during the first evening, but there were many decisions, including three for salvation. But as we learned, and you will too if you want revival, there'll be opposition to the Holy Spirit's work. And Paul said in 1st Corinthians 16 9, For a great door and effectual is opening to me, and there are many adversaries. Now, I remember just before the evening message, when John started in our church, he received a phone call. And I think he even thought about maybe heading home, because of his brother being severely beaten in the face by someone with a baseball bat. But we decided to go on ahead, and Satan uses things like this to try to shake us up and weaken our faith. As a matter of fact, before and during the revival meetings that we had in in our churches, the other pastor, Pastor Wes Lavery, a good friend of mine, we had many abnormal things happen to him and to our family. And we learned, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. So we learned, we learned not to make much of what the enemy was doing at all. He, he, the enemy would gloat over all the attention that he could get on himself. So we just learned that we had to ignore him and just keep praising God and moving ahead, because he's an opposer. And we're believing God for this area. Actually, as we moved down here ten years ago, we've been, been believing God to do a work. And he's going to start somewhere. He's going to start a fire somewhere. It could be your church. It could be mine. But we are believing that God is going to do something. Are you believing God to work? You say, well, no, not really. Well, then do you expect him just to show up someday and work without faith? Faith without works is dead. And works without faith are dead also. Anyway, we had all these opposing things that are happening to us around there. But we moved on ahead. And on Sunday, April 21st, our meetings really officially began, even though we'd had some meetings ahead of that. And the Holy Spirit had already been working since the Wednesday before that Sunday. Some people had responded to the promptings of God's Spirit to do what God was telling them. Many decisions were made from the very start. For salvation, all through the meetings, we saw people getting saved. One of the unusual things was that usually after revival comes to a church, evangelism follows. But we saw people getting saved from the very beginning. Matter of fact, if I remember correctly, from the very first night in our church, we had people saved. Even one lady came to be saved. When John gave the meeting, the invitation, she just jumped up right there. And he said, who wants to get saved? She just jumped up out of her seat. She wanted to get saved. And I told John all he needed to do that even was just give an invitation. There was just joy. When those accepted Christ, they came up from the prayer room and they confessed Christ as their Savior. One young man in our church was shocked when his friend confessed that he had just received Christ. He said, I thought he was already a Christian. And I wonder how many more of my friends are like him. He said, now, I believe this is a powerful message to us. Since that night, he has brought many to the church. I wrote in this booklet. He brought many to the church. And after the meetings, he was bringing in teens to the youth meetings. And like Andrew, we must bring them to Jesus. This young man was touched by God. Now by Tuesday, April 22nd, the Spirit of God was really moving and many were dealing with bitterness and other sins that laid in some dark corner of their heart. And they were responding immediately to the invitation and going to the prayer rooms. Some were making restitution to others for personal sins committed. There was confession of faults one to another and praying one for another. As the song says, nothing between my soul and the Savior. Many were expressing the fullness of the Spirit in their lives as they had never known before. As confessions were made, cleansing came. Like the Bible says, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. You know, the early church was an uncovering of sins program. But I believe our church today, we've got into a cover-up program. Now, the joy was just evident in their lives and the faces as those people got right with relatives, got right with friends and cleansed their lives up. And there's real power in their testimonies. Matter of fact, this was probably the most powerful thing in the revival movement that lasted for several weeks in this area. You see, after our church, it went to another church down the road 90 miles away for two weeks, then came back and went south of our town for three weeks and then came back into our town and went to another town. It's just spontaneous. Matter of fact, the revivalist had to move his family out after the first month. It was too hard for him to be apart that long. Now, as the joy was flowing and the blessing was coming, it might be good to stop here and say this, that not everyone got in on this. Some only came to a couple meetings. Some never knew anything happened because they didn't come at all. Some came to several meetings, but still never fully yielded their all to Christ. So revival ends up being a very personal thing. It's just like salvation. Someone said, revival is God's finger pointing at me. As the old spiritual song says, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer, as I shared a little earlier. It's me, but the flesh likes to say, I know I'm not perfect, but look at so-and-so. If they would change their act, then things wouldn't be so bad in the church. And I believe this is pride. It's a sin when we refuse to deal with our own bad attitude. We develop bitterness. We grieve and quench the spirit. We dishonor Christ. We weaken the church. And if we fail to repent, we're the cause of the ruin of the church. And that's why I say it's revival or ruin. Revival is the normal atmosphere of the church. You just don't crank up a revival so we're gonna have revival meetings. You just don't do that. We didn't do that. We didn't say we were having revival meetings. We invited a man to come in who had the anointing of the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit because we had met several of the conditions of being broken, being repentant, and being expectant. We were not perfect or anything like that. But as God moved in, He began to cleanse those of us that were looking for it. There were, as things happened, there were lots of things that need to be done. There is all kinds of details, but in all of the details that are happening, in all the business, there is a sweet closeness of the Spirit. The Spirit of God was so sensitive to the slightest sin that was produced in the flesh. If someone would get up in the service and try to sing a special number and they had not been touched, it was just evident. It was just so evident that God was not working through there. It was almost like you could feel a darkness or a cloud come over until the Spirit of God was back in control. Now I want to share a little bit about what God did in my heart because I sat through 12 messages. I believe the hardest crop in America is the preachers. When I came down here, my goal was to share and work with preachers. That's what I've been doing. After revival meetings, I was going around different parts of the country sharing with pastors. That was my goal and I would minister to them and help them get set up for meetings and pray. But here's where I was on April 25th when John Musser spoke on victory in the Christian life. This is the message that God used to break me down. And for days, God had been dealing with me about hidden areas in my heart. At first, I thought the evangelist, I thought John was just speaking on the things we had talked over together. Actually, I thought he was just, you know, how you might think, well, that preacher's picking on me. But it was later on, I figured out it was conviction by the Spirit of God. But that night, as the speaking began, it seemed like every word that he said was meant just for me. And when he gave the invitation, what I did is I just immediately dropped to my knees on the front row and I let God answer the prayer of my heart that I had been praying for months. Lord, send a revival into my life and be thorough with me, be very thorough with me. And I can't tell you what it was like except this. It was a cleansing by the Spirit of God that was brought into my heart as I confessed bitter feelings. And that was my primary thing that God dealt with me then, was bitterness and wrong attitudes. You know, it's very hard to confess a sin when you feel like maybe you're only five or ten percent wrong. But you've got to take care of what the Spirit of God shows you. And I believe when we focus on other's faults, it's only really an evidence that we're trying to cover up and justify our own. And it was a week after revival services ended that God revealed to me that all those things that were in the message that John had been using for illustrations about me were really just conviction in my own heart by the Holy Spirit. Isn't it strange that when we think the preacher's talking about us, how we're so slow to see that it's not that at all, but it's the voice of God saying, repent you, sir, just repent. I don't know why it is, do you? Why we hate to face our sin. But I believe if we won't do it, if we won't experience the cleansing, we won't have that freshness, we won't have the fellowship of the Spirit. And why we're content to go on year after year after year without a living, vital relationship with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, I don't know. Why we're content to play games and go through all the little programs and everything that we have, I don't know. But I'll tell you, the unsaved people are not interested in your programs. They're interested in Jesus. They want Jesus. But when they come to your church and they don't find Jesus, then they go off. And some even experience pseudo conversions, and they try to play all the games, but it doesn't work out in their life. And then they burn out. What you really need is the real thing. We need a fresh anointing by the Holy Spirit. You know, when we had those meetings, many drove long distances. The missionaries kept on coming down to our church. Many came from miles around. It was a farming, ranching area. And as God worked, I think one of the main things was humility that was cast upon the whole thing. And if we will humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, then He'll hear from heaven. He'll forgive our sins and He'll heal our land. As the Scripture says. But humility is a key ingredient in revival. And without it, we don't truly repent. And without it, we don't turn from our proud ways. As John Muster said many times, that if the preachers will be broken, then revival will follow. And whenever I see God working in the heart of a preacher, and he's really beginning getting to the point to where he's sensitive to what God is saying and he's broke, I begin to get excited because I say there is a potential and a possibility for revival to break out in that church. God opened up many special times of ministry among the pastors and the missionaries in that area because of testimonies. Again, I'll say it, the testimony. People would get up and share their testimony, what God had done. And the testimonies were just powerful. Just very powerful. We had, after a couple weeks, I think it was, we began to move into the community. We went into the high school and had a couple meetings in the auditorium there and put a pizza feed for the kids. And we saw many get saved. Matter of fact, we stayed up late, late one morning talking to some of the hot dogs in the high school, some of the young men that come to talk to us. And one of them got killed a little bit later after that. But God was working with such conviction in some of their lives. It was just really interesting. Well, I better hold off right here. We're going to start closing down the program. Next week, I'm going to bring you a message, a short message that we just preached recently in one of the local churches on what holds back revival. Until next time, we're believing the Lord to work in your life. And I'm praying that the Lord will bless you, and that he'll keep you, and that he'll make his face shine upon you, and that he'll be gracious unto you, and that the Lord will lift up his countenance upon you, and that the Lord will bless you.