Revival Conference 2007 - Ralph Sutera Interview

Our guest now is Raj Suter, who with his twin brother, who was used as guard mightily in the Saskatchewan-Saskatoon Canadian Revival of 1971. He's a part of the Canadian Revival Fellowship, and we're delighted that he's here with us in Ohio for this conference of revival in the year 2007. Ralph, I have four questions I'd like to ask you. First of all, what is, in your opinion, what is revival? Well, if you wanted a one statement answer, I would say that revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that he shows up himself. What does that mean? It means that all at once a whole new love for Christ permeates the church, and this whole idea of our living for ourselves is gone when we've made a total commitment to the Lord, and there's a whole new love for Christ that transforms our lives and transforms our beings. And that's when the world says, oh, we've never seen a God like this around here before. Second question, why do we not see revival? The biggest sin of the church and of all of our lives is where God starts in revival. If my people, which are called by my name, will what? Humble themselves and then pray. You see, we often hear, we need a day of prayer in the nation, we need a day of prayer, we need a day of prayer. But we don't hear too much about we need a day of humbling ourselves, of dealing with our pride, which is the contrary thing to the spirit of God, and it's the thing that God resists. In other words, it's that spirit of pride that is like a blinder that keeps God from having access to our hearts. So he says if we deal with the spirit of pride and then pray and seek his face, then we can turn from our wicked ways. Why? Because now God can put his finger on specific sins in our life and there's a willingness to turn because we've dealt with the spirit of pride. I think that's the biggest hindrance to revival. What is our role as God's people in revival? Well, our role is to obey. If we come into a spirit of obedience to what it is God's saying and loving him with all of our hearts, and then the second greatest commandment to love the Lord, love your neighbor as yourself. You see, that will never happen until we make sure the first one is correct, that there's a genuine love for the Lord. And when that happens, watch what happens. Then God will begin to put within us whole new initiatives, how to reach out to others who genuinely need the Lord. And so it's just to obey. If you love me, keep my commandments. And his commandments are not grievous. They're wonderful for us to keep, especially when he has captured our hearts. Ralph, if you only had a few days to live and you were given a moment, maybe on the television of this country, you had a platform, an opportunity to address the church in North America, what would you say? I would say, repent. See, the truth is that we have been so self-centered and we have made so many excuses for our sins. We misnamed them, we condoned them. We call ourselves, maybe there's a little inconsistency in our lives, or a little Christian mistake. And I find that nowhere does God forgive mistakes or inconsistencies, but he forgives sin. And the biggest need of America is to go to our knees and call on him, and genuinely repent of all that we know is not in tune with his will and with his heart. And when we get to that place, watch now. He has access to our spirits, and the spirit of God can flow, and watch how revival will begin in the church and touch the world. Thank you, Brother Sicari. It's been a blessing to us to be with you and listen to the reports of God's mighty works that he used you and others in Canada back in 1971. It's been a great inspiration to us and a blessing. Thank you so much. And be assured that what happened in the past is nothing to what God wants to do in the present. We just need to believe that we're not going to live in a glorious future behind us, but believe that the future is right now and ahead of us as we obey God. Amen.