(Compilation) Revival： Desperation for God's Move

For this cause were you born, for this time were you conceived, for this season. My God. It's almost like I can sense the hand of God branding people. On this one he's branding missionary and on that one he's branding intercessor. You have a divine destiny. You weren't made to play video games and cruise the malls. There's purpose in your life and he's calling you into direct alignment with his will. One encounter with his manifest presence can turn a murderous soul into a martyr named Paul. He found his true identity. Just come on and turn to the worship of the Lord. Desperation is more than normal hunger. It's hunger at the point of death. The hunger of survival in the midst of famine and drought. Can you really say God I'm desperate? Can you really say oh God I can't live. John Hyde the great intercessor prayed with such intensity. That when he came down sick in his 40s and was taken to a doctor in Bombay. He was an American missionary in India. They found that literally his heart had moved to the center of his chest cavity. So much broken hearted anguish in his soul going up to God. It actually affected him on the inside. I ask you again how much capacity is there for God in your life? How much room is there for God to visit? How much room is there for God to use you my friend? Are you desperate? We just want to sit back and skip a day of food. And maybe pray for an hour and read our Bibles a little bit here and there. And turn off the TV maybe once or twice a week to meet with God more. And we think the glory is going to come down. Friends let me ask you a question. How much room is there for God in your life? How much capacity is there for God in your life? We're not talking about safe room for dessert friends. We're talking about holy starvation. Listen to what David Brainerd said. When I really enjoy God. I feel my desires of him the more insatiable. And my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable. Oh this pleasing pain. It makes my soul press after God. Thank God for prayer meetings where people come together. But I tell you beyond all that. See we may think if we can join hands with enough people. And hold hands with enough people the glory will come down. But it doesn't work like that. It could be one person shut up alone with God. That won't come out of their room until the glory comes down. And that could change a nation. Find me there. Find me on my knees with my soul lay bare. Even though you're gone and I'm cracked and dry. Struck me a couple of years ago that the bird in that drill drove Jesus to the cross. It was Jesus himself who said. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they'll be filled. Jesus himself who said. If anyone thirsts let him come after me. Let him come to me and drink. I wrote this down. I'm humble and almost humiliated by the lives of those who have gone before me. Why can't I live like Wigglesworth? I mean Smith Wigglesworth. Great apostle of faith. Or Finney. Charles Finney. Or Lake. Do I really want to be totally dominated by God? I'm convinced that the church of America is asleep and deceived. We are like the church of Sardis. As one scholar called it. The perfect model of an inoffensive Christianity. With a reputation for being alive and yet dead. You must really remake me in Jesus' image. I cannot tolerate anything less. I am not hungry. I am starving. Hear my heart and catch me up and visit me for your glory and for your glory alone. Friends, I believe that should be the normal expression of every one of our hearts. God, I'm not hungry, I'm starving. I remember Leonard Ravenhill saying to me one time on the phone. Mike, a man only needs to be anointed one hour in his life and he can change history. God just came down and got hold. But I tell you we're stopping short. I tell you we're trying to satisfy ourselves before the breakthrough comes. Sometimes it just hurts too much to carry the burden. Sometimes it's just too overwhelming to think of people going to hell. Sometimes it's just too discouraging to look at a sick person that's not healed. But I say look at it, feel the pain, feel the burden and then go after God till he uses you to set the captives free. Till he uses me to change history. Uses us to change a generation. This is the air I breathe. Your holy presence living in me. There are better things to be had in spiritual life but they must be sought out with faith and prayer. Some of us think now's the time to kick back, now's the time to enjoy life. No, friends, now's the time to press in. Now's the time where it either breaks for the glory of God or we lose all hope of revival. Now's the point where we either seize the moment or look back with everlasting shame that we missed. Something's got to change. God will answer the heart that cries. Lost without you. I'm telling you the Holy Spirit speak. Come on, friends, we've seen awesome things from God but we haven't seen what we're supposed to see yet. If this book is true, if our God is true, we haven't yet touched what we're supposed to see. We've got a glimpse but that's it. Let's not insult God by saying this is that. Yeah, we're right on the edge. This is the air I breathe. This is the air I breathe. Your holy presence living. This is my day to break. This is my day to break. Oh God, show me your glory. I've got to have you and know you and experience you in a way beyond what I have yet. Friends, that's what it's going to take, that heart cry rising up to the throne of God. I'm desperate for you. Love you. Love you. Now is the time to come if you're hungry, if you're thirsty, if you just have to see a breakthrough, if you can't live any longer the way you've been living, if you must see God come and change you and change your surroundings and come in power and visit, I want you to get to this altar right now from all over this building. I can't let you go. This is between you and God. No one else can do it for you. I tell you, the Bible is clear. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears. Lift your voice. Cry out however you know how. Oh God, tonight. Tonight. Tonight. God, come down in our midst. God, change us. God, touch us. Touch me, Lord. Oh God, I can't live like this. I can't live like this. I got to get hold of you. People of God, pray. Cry out to God, friends. Press in. Oh God, hear us. Us. Us. Stretch out your hand in power. Oh, we die. Jesus. Somebody here tonight has a date with destiny. It's hanging heavy over this place. But your destiny is going to be branded as you enter into his presence. He's going to call you. He's going to make your calling, your election sure tonight. You'll never doubt who you are after one encounter with him. I searched for a man that would make up the hedge and stand in the gap. But God said, after a diligent search, I found no man. And I tell you what, brother, if God can find a man or a woman that'll do it, the Holy Spirit will still respond. But he has got to have people that recognize the power and the importance of prayer. The effectual prayer of a righteous man, not a worldly man, but a righteous man availeth much. It means it moves God. It means there's power with God. A righteous man, when he prays, is effectual. It's effective. It's registering. It's pulling down strongholds. It's casting away the power of the enemy. That man's got power. He's effectual. He's fervent. It's not him praying out of his head. It's the Spirit of God and the anointing and the unction of God praying through him. And the Bible said that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man moves God. It avails much. There are times that the Lord will hide from us. He does it because he wants to see if we really love him. He hides to see if we really love him enough to seek after him or if we will simply go on our way without him. I believe when you read through the Psalms that he was often at the point of death in utter desperation in his search to stay in an intimate relationship with the Lord. But there are other times in my life that I get sick and tired of myself. And I go, God, without you, I'm nothing. And I don't feel like it right now, but I make up my mind right now. I am determined. I will seek your face. He's been ripping veils and dripping blood for 2,000 years just to get close to you and me. Again, I've told the students, you know, what's so wild about grace is that father is going to reward us for the stuff he pulled off. He gave his son for us. Jesus walked the covenant perfectly on our behalf so that every time you come to father in the name of Jesus, he says, yeah, here comes Steve again. I tell you, this generation needs a revelation of father's heart. He wants us to make it more than we want to make it. And he's done everything to make sure that you'll make it. Grace is not just unmerited favor. It's the power to do the will of God. True grace teaches us to deny ungodliness. But when my heart is captivated by this incredible Savior, I want to. When you experience the treasure, for the joy in that, you sell all. And don't misunderstand, but in a very real sense, it's not a sacrifice. Because wherever you end up, in Timbuktu, on the other side of the world, he's there with you. And you'll still be able to enjoy him and experience him. I thank God that he opened my eyes to see that holiness was not negative. God isn't up there with this big smile on his face, laying all these commands on us, and just loving to watch us squirm. And the more I give my heart and choose to obey, the more I have a heart to obey, the more he'll supply the grace and the power through the new covenant to enable me to overcome. I can't give enough to my kids. I'm always there for them. Because they're a part of my family. They're a part of me. And this is what the message of the gospel is all about. The loving heart of Father. He wants you for himself. I love you.