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.