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Friends, this is one of the most powerful presentations I've ever watched. It includes excerpts from some of the great preachers on revival including Leonard Ravenhill and A.W. Tozer. There is also an eyewitness account by Duncan Campbell of the Lewis Revival in Scotland. There is so much to think about as you listen to the words of these men who had a tremendous sense of the holiness and greatness of God and were able to articulate it in ways I have not heard for a long time. I am praying for revival in this land. Where does revival begin? J. Edwin Orr was asked by a student at Columbia Bible College what he could do to bring about revival in addition to praying for it. Without hesitation, Dr. Orr said to that student, "You can let it begin with you." May the Lord revive our hearts day by day and may those rivers of living water flow in and through us to touch a lost, hurting world. (Runtime: 35 minutes)

This weekend I spoke at Rancho Capistrano Retreat Center on the subject of A Heart For Revival. The messages were The Picture Of Revival, The Presence In Revival, The Power Of Revival, and The Product Of Revival. The main verses were John 7:37-39 and we looked at what it means to come to Jesus and drink and then experience those rivers of living water flowing from our innermost being. Writing these messages had a profound impact on me. However, preaching them at this retreat impacted me even more, deep in my own heart. There is something that happens inside of me when I give a message from the Word of God. It seems that He cements the truths in my heart and mind. The Presence In Revival was special for me because the Lord taught me so many powerful truths about the tabernacle and how we are now temples where God lives. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says “Do you not know that you are a temple (sanctuary) of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” I think the most profound message for me as I gave it was the last one - The Product Of Revival. I shared what happens when the Holy Spirit is at work and the “rivers of living water” flow. I shared how He surprises us, lives are changed, and His work spills over in and through us to the world. As I shared story after story about how Jonathan Edwards was used in the Great Awakening, Evan Roberts in the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905, and the conversion of C.I. Scofield, I was profoundly moved. We MUST allow the rivers of living water flow through us in the power of the Holy Spirit. I loved the quote I found by an elevator operator: “I’m just a nobody telling everybody about Somebody who can save anybody.”

The Lord led me to close the last message by playing 10 minutes of a DVD compilation of some audio files of revival preachers including Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer, and Duncan Campbell. It was actually a last minute decision and totally orchestrated by the Lord. I was listening to the audio version on my Ipod on the way to the retreat. As I listened to it, I was just overwhelmed with the truths they were preaching and began to weep. I thought, “Oh, I wish I had my DVD version so that it could be both audio and video and I could share it with the women during our retreat.” And then I remembered seeing some CDs and DVDs in my briefcase. I thought, “I wonder if I do have it with me.” And guess what - I did!! The last few minutes contain an eyewitness account by Duncan Campbell of the Lewis Revival in Scotland. As I played it, again I was so overcome with the awesomeness when God moves in a town or a community. Tears were rolling down my face as I listened to it again. The Lord worked in us all as we listened. Rivers of living water were flowing from within. Women were coming to the front and kneeling before the Lord. What a powerful time as the Lord worked among us.

May the Lord take what we learned over the weekend and multiply it for His glory. And may we live to see a widespread, largescale move of the Lord through His Holy Spirit where rivers of living water flow in such a way that we may call it “revival.”

Update: Messages given at A Heart For Revival retreat now available at our online store.
A Heart For Revival at Quiet Time Ministries Online Store

This morning as I sat with the Lord in my quiet time, I began with the reading from Daily Light. This is one of my favorite devotionals in the morning as it is all Scripture. The chosen verses and passages for each day never fail to meet me exactly where I am. Of course, it is God’s Word and God meets us in His Word. Today it was all about holiness. These verses meant a lot to me: “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean” (2 Corinthians 6:17). “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). I have been thinking a lot about holiness lately. I just completed a study of the tabernacle. The Lord showed me something very powerful in that study. It’s something that I know. But you can know something and then you can KNOW it. And I’m sure that in ten years, Lord willing, I will KNOW it even more. And that is, Christ lives in me. We are temples of the Lord, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. According to 2 Corinthians 6:16-17 , Paul says, “For you are the temple of the living God.” No wonder we are urged to not touch what is unclean, come out and be separate, and abstain from fleshly lusts. The truth is that we are sojourners and pilgrims. Our home is heaven and we are on our way to home - we are on a “pilgrimage of the heart” as I like to call it. Fleshly lusts do indeed war against the soul, as Peter tells us. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables us to say “no” to the flesh and “yes” to the Lord. The Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible speaks of holiness in this way: “Holy implies sacredness, being consecrated to God, or being worthy of God. In order to qualify for this label, a person or thing has to be free from impurity. There can be no hint of moral pollution or spiritual defilement. To be holy is to be free from anything that would offend a perfect God.” According to the writer of Hebrews, we ARE sanctified and we ARE BEING sanctified. “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10-14). I think this is important to understand. Positionally we are sanctified in Christ, but experientially we are being santified, becoming more and more like Christ as we walk with Him. Holiness is not about rules and regulations or becoming “religious.” Holiness is about being a man or woman of conviction, out of love for Jesus Christ. “I will do this” or “I won’t do that” because I am His, I belong to Him, and I love Him. “I am a follower of Jesus” is what my life is to say as I journey through life. And so may our lives speak clearly, confidently, and compassionately of the Lord Jesus today.

I love these flowers sent to us by my mother a couple of months ago. They are now in full bloom. But we had to wait and little by little, they grew and finally produced these most incredible flowers. I think that is the way it is with us oftentimes. The Lord is always at work in us. And He is making us a thing of beauty, something in His own mind that will be pleasing to Him. He takes all the difficulties, trials, times in His Word, prayer and weaves them together, transforming our heart by the work of the Holy Spirit. Isn’t it interesting that one of our Lord’s provisions for us is comfort. Comfort is biblical. He has given us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He has given us the Scriptures that are designed to comfort us and ultimately bring us hope. Paul says, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The NKJV translates it to say “the comfort of the Scriptures.” And it goes on to say in verse 5, “Now may the God of patience and comfort….” He is the God of comfort. In fact, Paul calls Him “the Father of mercies and God of ALL comfort” in 2 Corinthians 1:3. That word for “comfort” is “paraklatis” and means encouragement, consolation, and comfort. It is the standing beside a person to encourage him when he is undergoing severe testing (Linguistic Key to Grk NT). It is a consolation for any of us to know we are never alone no matter what we face. He is right here with constant encouragement. How does He encourage? With words from His Word, the Bible, and through the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter. The result is “hope,” which is the ability to “hold on with patient expectation.” I think hope in the life of a believer is like the flower, the bloom on this plant. There is such a beauty in the life of one who “holds on” to the Lord and all they know is true in the Word of God especially in the face of great trials and adversity. Oh, may we find comfort in the Lord today.

The last two days have been an incredible challenge. I don’t know if you’ve ever read the children’s book (that is really also an adult book) entitled Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day but that is descriptive of my last two days. If it could go wrong it did. Equipment breaking down, a failed hard drive, jobs that need to be fixed and my assistant is out of town for two weeks. I sat down with the Lord this morning knowing that there are so many things I need to take care of today. You know how it is - things only you can do and it seems overwhelming to think about what needs to be accomplished. Take a deep breath Cath and draw near to the Lord. This morning’s reading in Daily Light took me to Hebrews 12:3 NKJV - “Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” That one phrase in particular stood out to me: lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. And what is the answer to keep that from happening? Consider Him. Consider Jesus. That word in the Greek is analogizomai and carries with it the idea of meditation (in Linguistic Key To The Greek NT). That means very simply that the best thing I can do if I do not want to become weary and discouraged in my soul is to think long and hard on Jesus - who He is and what He does. And one thing I know: He is able (Ephesians 3:20). And “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). And so, throughout this day, I am going to “consider Jesus” and march on as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and live for Him, moment by moment. I had to include my picture of me in Sedona today because it helps me to think of this very favorite quiet place of mine when I have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. In that book, Alexander’s answer is to say “I think I’ll move to Australia.” Mine is “I think I’ll go to Sedona.” But then, what my friends from Australia know, and what Alexander’s mother says is that “Some days are like that. Even in Australia.” SMILE. “And we know that God causes ALL THINGS (large letters mine) to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose…in ALL THESE THINGS (large letters mine) we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:28, 37). Thank You Lord.

By the way, you can experience a free online quiet time retreat of my message “Now To Him Who Is Able” at www.QuietTimeRetreats.com. Be sure to download and print out the pdf handouts so that you can take notes and also have a free quiet time to go along with it.

I loved this from Spurgeon in Faith’s Checkbook today - it so spoke to me. I’m going to put it in the flyleaf of my Bible. It’s entitled “Preserved To Work’s End.” The verse is Acts 23:11 “The Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.”

Be encouraged by these words from Spurgeon: “Are you a witness for the Lord, and are you just now in danger? Then remember that you are immortal till your work is done. If the Lord has more witness for you to bear, you will live to bear it. Who is he that can break the vessel which the Lord intends again to use?

If there is no more work for you to do for your Master, it cannot distress you that He is about to take you home, and put you where you will be beyond the reach of adversaries. Your witness-bearing for Jesus is your chief concern, and you cannot be stopped in it till it is finished: therefore be at peace. Cruel slander, wicked misrepresentation, desertion of friends, betrayal by the most trusted one, and whatever else may come, cannot hinder the Lord’s purpose concerning you. The Lord stands by you in the night of your sorrow, and He says, ‘Thou must yet bear witness for me.’ Be calm, be filled with joy in the Lord.

If you do not need this promise just now, you may very soon. Treasure it up. Remember also to pray for missionaries, and all persecuted ones, that the Lord would preserve them even to the completion of their life work.”

Those words meant a lot to me today. I love the thought and more than that-the truth-that nothing can thwart God’s plan. Thank You Lord for being greater than any of the things that are challenges to me today.

Yesterday was an unusual day in the desert. The day before it was dry and warm, almost 90 degrees outside. Yesterday when I got in my car to go to work I saw that it was dark and cloudy, cold, and raining. When I came to the stop sign, I looked toward the mountains and saw this beautiful rainbow. Instinctively, I pulled out my little camera and snapped a picture (through the windshield as you can see the raindrops on the glass). I love rainbows because they always remind me of the sure promises of God. The rainbow was the sign of God’s promise to Noah (Genesis 9:12-17). The promises of God in His Word are a strong assurance for us to always hope in Him. To live for Him. To follow hard after Him. To love Him. I love how Peter puts it: As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature. So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will gow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-8 NLT). These are good words for today. May they make their way deep into our hearts and shine in our lives.

I’ve been reading through The Daily Walk Bible this year and have just come to the end of the life of David, the man after God’s own heart. However, he is such a vibrant character and there is so much of his life to share, that I know I will experience him again in other places in the Old Testament including parts of his journal found in many of the psalms. This last week I had the opportunity to read his “last words” in 2 Samuel 23:1-7. Very interesting indeed. He saw himself as “David, the son of Jesse…the man to whom God gave such wonderful success…the man anointed by the God of Jacob…the sweet psalmist of Israel. In the end he saw that God had done great things and he saw himself as the “sweet psalmist.” That phrase speaks volumes about his relationship with the Lord. We may aspire to many things, but what a great final result: the sweet psalmist of Israel. He could have said “I was the king of Israel.” But no—he said that he was the sweet psalmist of Israel.

In God’s economy those things we deem to be the “small” things may be the greatest things of all. To be a king is great here on earth, but perhaps the obscure and seemingly unimportant is what is great in heaven. Perhaps the Lord has called us to what we think is a small place or an unnoticed corner of the world. Perhaps we labor hard in what He has given us to do and no one applauds our work. Perhaps the song in our heart that continues day after day is heard by no earthly person. Those things we hoped to do, the aspirations of what we considered to be “great things for God” never have materialized, and we are doing what we consider to be the “small thing.”

Dear friend, keep running your race in the “Audience of One.” Sing your song to the Lord always, not sometimes. Alan Redpath, in his book The Making Of A Man Of God, says that sometimes God chooses to put his servants to work in the basement rather than the bay window of the church. David, the man after God’s own heart, had to live with a frustrated desire where God said “no” when he wanted to build a temple for the Lord. David did not leave the work of the Lord when God said “no,” but instead did his best at what God had given him to do. At the end of the day it was David who, out of his enjoyment of the fellowship and communion of God, became the “sweet psalmist,” and wrote the music of the psalms which other lovers of God have enjoyed for centuries.

At the end of the day, what will we be able to say we have known of our Lord? Can we say that we communed with Him, loved His Word, and engaged in His work? May we, as we think on the life of David, set our priorities in such a way that we focus on those things that matter most at the end of the day.