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What's the greatest need in the church today

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as you would see it from what you've

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observed and I'm sure if we digested some

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of your books That we may have insight

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into but what would you perceive brother Ravenhill

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to be the greatest need in the church

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in America?

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Specifically today, I won't give you my opinion.

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I'll give you a Bible opinion from Jeremiah

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chapter 1 to Verse 13 my people have

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committed two evils They've forsaken me the fountain

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of living waters and hewn them out systems

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broken systems that can hold no water It's

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amazing to me when every pastor that comes.

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Oh, I'm in a mega church, you know

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We get 4,000 something I've got nothing

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to do with your church Every church in

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America nearly is filled Sunday morning.

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How many people you have in your prayer

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meeting?

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The prayer meeting has almost died Not just

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in Presbyterian churches, but in Pentecostal churches in

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Baptist churches.

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I have a prayer meeting Thursday morning for

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For pastors about 20 come some Come 200

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miles some come 300 miles round trip and

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the last five or six weeks We've all

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ended up on the floor in tears praying

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for one thing revival.

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Nobody's praying for his church I believe the

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spiritual condition of America at this moment is

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lower than it was in the revival of

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the 1700s with Jonathan Edwards We forsaken God

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particularly we forsaken the prayer meeting What would

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happen if you had a choir like say

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you have at First Baptist or somewhere I

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first baptized in Dallas or Good brothers first

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Baptist Church in Atlanta.

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I stayed there a month once you without

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200 people in the choir What if only

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10% turned up for choir rehearsal on

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Friday night?

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Do you think you might get the resignation

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of the choir master?

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But supposing a guy with 26,000 members

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had 10% come to the prayer meeting.

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He'd die of shock you see We have

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had people last just a year ago.

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Now.

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We finished our 500th prayer meeting every Friday

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night and It was a prayer meeting in

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most churches now the preacher preaches Sunday morning

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Sunday night and Wednesday night forget it One

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of the young pastor that comes to us

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He got moved by the power of God.

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He went to his church and said look

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I'm gonna preach Sunday morning Sunday night, but

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not Wednesday night.

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We're gonna pray.

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He's in a country church He went from

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60 Wednesday night to six.

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They don't want to pray We had a

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prayer meeting where people drove four five and

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six hours and there were people that came

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and they belong to famous churches in California

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and they came over and said look we

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know why God's brought us in this area

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We need to learn to pray.

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We went to a very popular church It's

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attended by dozens hundreds of film stars and

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others, but there's no prayer life there But

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you know what happened when they come three

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or four times they quit Do you know

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why?

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Because we have men that used to mumble

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in their prayers and it pleased God to

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educate them in the spirit And I would

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go on Wednesday night.

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I go Friday night There was one in

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a full-blooded American Indian.

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He was dying in the gutter snow falling

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on him He was a victim of drugs

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and drink and God awakened him He got

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wonderfully saved and he got an anointing in

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prayer to hear that man pray for the

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American Indians they're the most neglected people in

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America today and And the Indians somehow don't

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go after them.

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You can't go on the reservations.

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They kill you all they say listen You

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stole our land.

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You stole our oil.

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You stole our mineral rights.

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You stole our fishing rights get out of

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here And I've told him stay with it

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stay to your people with your people.

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Don't let somebody else wear your crown you

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see some of us we were walking around

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eternity and God was going to put a

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crown on my head and I didn't do

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the job So he passes it to Dale.

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He's gonna wear it for a billion years

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every time I see him I thought that

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should have been my crown, but that's my

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fault.

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It's not the devil's fault No, man, take

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thy crown.

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That's that's a warning against deacons, but anyhow

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Don't let a man take your crown.

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God has given you a job.

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Do it.

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Did you die?

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That's what it takes brother Leonard.

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What is the nature?

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And the content and the direction of those

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prayer meetings for the average lay person who

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has not been able to attend Where do

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you begin?

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What do you pray for?

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What do you target?

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What happens in those prayer meetings that are

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so unusual and what are the kinds of

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prayer meetings that we need to start having

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in our churches Well, we have different target.

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I call it target praying for instance when

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we pray for all the Husbands of the

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wives or Fathers of the children who are

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there whose daddies were not saved.

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Maybe not even church Maybe we concentrate on

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unsaved fathers unsaved husbands and at a time

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we concentrate on teenagers You see there's something

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about covenanting in prayer I Went to dr.

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Toto's church.

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Thank you, and I stayed there for two

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weeks and I had the privilege of praying

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with him.

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It's a wonderful man he wasn't the greatest

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preacher ever heard they had an intimacy with

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God like nobody else and I Remember one

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day.

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He said Len don't let anybody Diminish your

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appetite or zeal for prayer He said I'll

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tell you what happened in World War one

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the finest young men in our in our

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church went to war they were drafted 30

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of them and we covenanted with their parents

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and wives We covenanted in prayer that not

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one of those men would get killed or

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seriously injured and every man came back The

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only one that was lame was his own

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son But he said if we can covenant

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in prayer like that Why don't you count

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your covenant in prayer in your churches?

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Not one of our girls in our churches

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is going to get pregnant not one of

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our boys is going to go into drink

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We're not just going to raise nice healthy

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children.

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We're going to do more than that We

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want to produce spiritual offspring and the reason

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those superstars that came to our prayer meetings

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Didn't continue well, they had men that were

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praying with anointing Again, they heard this fellow

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crying with tears for the different tribes in

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America It's astounding that a lot to an

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accord to American Indians.

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Where's David Brainerd today?

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There isn't a brain of there.

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How do we have how do we have

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a right?

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to pray for revival when in the 20th

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century There are so many people who believe

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Theologically that things are just going to get

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worse and worse and worse And God certainly

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is not going to send a revival.

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So why are you wasting your time praying

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that God will send one?

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Well, you get a nucleus of people you

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get together and talk with the deacons and

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others But it says here they're forsaken me.

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So what?

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How many deacons come to prayer meetings one

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night I was standing on the platform with

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Charles Stanley there were maybe Over a thousand

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people there.

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I think he asked 50 deacons and I

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said Charles, where do you 50 deacons tonight?

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He said Ryan count 15.

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I said well fire the rest What did

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they do in the upper room when the

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Holy Ghost came they games gave themselves continually

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to fundraising did they?

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What did they do?

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Give ourselves continually to prayer.

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I Like the figure I'm going to speak

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maybe one day.

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I think Hannah is the best type of

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an intercessor I know that all the qualifications

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she had grief.

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She suffered she mocked and Yet year by

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year.

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It wasn't once they scorned her But when

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she got pregnant she didn't care a hill

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of beans about anybody Well, let me say

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this too.

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I think there's a danger of seeking revival

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To justify my ministry to prove we're the

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best people in town We mentioned it with

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Paul this morning.

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What does it say?

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The Lord whom you seek we're not seeking

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him we're seeking revival we're seeking healing we're

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seeking miracles It's not that we need if

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we get God who gets all that's needed

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and revival is when God comes down Picked

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up the book for me, please.

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Here's a little book.

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I hope you'll all get it's come down

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Lord It's a good book.

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Of course.

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It's from England, but apart from that Get

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a copy if you can it's published by

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It's published by banner of truth, but I'm

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out this page 23 Now this is revival.

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I think revival is the most prostituted word

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That we have in our vocabulary today either

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revival or faith We don't know much about

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either Revival stops the traffic as dear Tosia

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used to say Leonard when revival comes It

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it changes the moral climate of a community

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Taverns closed down nightclubs closed down.

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It's I mean, there's a war going on

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now dear