Revival Conference 2007 - Ralph Sutera - Part 3 — Ralph Sutera

Revival Begins in Saskatoon

And it was going to start in this very church. And he locked that secret in his heart in the city of Saskatoon only to go to the city of Winnipeg where he spoke to this pastor's brother and he told him what God revealed to him.

And he said, you lock that in your heart and when it happens then make it known. And I can tell you that if you were to read the autobiography of Duncan Campbell before he passed away, it happened. And the mention of what I've just told you is there as a record that God made it clear to Duncan Campbell that a revival was going to start in that city.

Rediscovering the Gospel Beyond Personal Benefit

Well, in the midst of that, Lou and I got so tired of just going to churches as evangelists and finding that many people would be prayed with for salvation and then go back a year or two later and wonder where are all those people?

What happened to them? Where are they? We thought a church knew how to carry on leading people on in the things of God. What happened? Is there something wrong with the message? Well, could be. Is there something wrong with the church?

Could be. Is there something wrong with the pastoral staff? Could be. All of those things could be involved. And in our spirit, God began to sharpen the focus in our hearts as to what the message was all about.

You see, in evangelism, for too long, many of us made the mistake of presenting a kind of gospel message, and as what Don Kern was talking about, of understanding what the gospel is all about in that earlier hour this morning.

We made the mistake of presenting a message of come get all you can from God, and can all you get, and sit on the lid. Come get all you can from Him. Get your sins forgiven. Get free from going to hell.

Get a clear conscience. Some of the habits that have harassed you for so long, God wants to set you free from those. Come on, get all that. Just think how much better it's going to be for you. Well, who wants to burn in hell?

So I want to be saved. Now, are you suggesting those things are not real? Of course they're real. But if that is the essence of Christian experience, we have missed it completely. You see, it's not what we get from God, but it's giving ourselves back to a God who's already given Himself to us.

The Lordship of Christ and Total Surrender

And the Lordship of Christ, the truth of the Lordship of Christ, came into sharper focus in our hearts, in our minds, as to calling people not just come to find Christ the Savior, but are you ready to surrender all that you are and all that you have and all that you ever hoped to be to His Lordship, to His control, to be able to walk in the fullness of His Spirit?

Crucifixion With Christ and Death to Sin

Well, when we got to this city, Prince George's pastor, Dietrich, said, Fellas, that's wonderful how the Lord is leading. But he said, I believe there's something else. And that is, Christ cannot be Lord until we understand that death principle that it's going to be no more I, but Christ.

I am crucified with Christ. Romans 6, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ. And God sharpened the focus further, and all at once the truth came in such a way that God used it to break the hearts of many people in western Canada for His honor and glory.

Prayer Preparation for Revival

And so, from that background, we find ourselves in the city of Saskatoon with 190 people on the first night. The second night, God Almighty got ahold of a lady in that congregation. By the way, I need to get back to the prayer preparation.

That pastor not only was heeding himself a prayer, but as one reporter wrote, let me just share it with you. The pastor persuaded his church to clear the calendar of all activities on Wednesday night.

Sunday, he told his people, if you have to miss a service, miss the Sunday morning or evening service, but don't miss Wednesday night. He stressed this until he saw the adult prayer meeting attendance rise from 40 to 120.

There were also two children's prayer meetings, a total of 40 in attendance. Thus, a total of 160 out of 300 people were coming to a midweek prayer meeting. He then invited his people to stay after church on Sunday nights for a half-hour prayer.

Next, he started cottage prayer meetings around the city. The attendance was not large, but prayer was growing. He set up a prayer wheel and asked people to sign up 15 minutes around the clock people were praying.

The deacons met on Saturday night for an open-ended prayer meeting that began at 9 o 'clock and lasted until they felt it was finished. Prayer. Preparation. So, we walked into that situation. 190 people, first night.

Repentance Before National Revival

Second night, God gets a hold of a lady who was praying for a revival in Canada. So concerned about the economic situation, the political situation, the religious situation. And God said to her, Emma, why are you praying for the country when you can't even stand your own pastor's wife?

How phony can you be? By the way, that's about as phony as it can be for some of us praying for a revival here when we're not willing to be honest and deal with our sin. We can say it as loud as we want to say it in prayer.

How phony can we be? And God broke her heart and she had to make things right with the pastor's wife and other women in the church. Well, you know what that did? That helped her husband to recognize he had a problem.

Reconciliation Through Personal Brokenness

Of course he did. Thirteen years, he and his blood brother had been at odds with each other. And for the last two years, they had not even spoken to each other. They used to sing together and now they're in separate churches because they couldn't stand being in the same church.

And guess what happened? We saw God Almighty work in that man's life. And he had a reconciliation with his brother. And before the seven and a half weeks of the crusade was over, they were on the platform singing together for the glory of God.

Following God Beyond the Schedule

Well, things began to happen. All at once, we found ourselves with people meeting God in every direction. A ten-day crusade. We knew that we could not stop after ten days. We knew that God was just beginning to work.

But what do you do with your schedule? After all, you're busy. You've got a full schedule. And God Almighty began to talk to us about that. Who owns your schedule? Whose schedule is it? When are you going to begin to live by faith and trust God instead of saying, Oh, oh, look, I'm so busy.

I'm booked for five years. I'm so important. And we sat down and wrote a letter to all the pastors that we were engaged to be with for the next two years and canceled all the meetings. And I can tell you, it was interesting because one pastor in Ohio, we had been scheduled to be with him for almost two years for a 100-year celebration of their church.

And they were doing a whole month, and we were going to have one week of evangelist meetings in the middle of it. And we write him and tell him that, I'm sorry, we've got to cancel. God's about to do something here, and we can't walk away from it.

And we get an airmail special delivery letter back. And I say to my brother, I said, Lou, you open this letter. I thought surely we were going to get it now. And instead, we open it, and he says, thank you, thank you, so glad.

We'll be glad to release you as long as you give us some other dates. But it's about time you begin to walk by faith as you tell the rest of us to live. Oh, no. He didn't say it quite that bad. But that's what it said to us, and God was on the scene.

The Expansion of the Revival Meetings

We had to move to a larger building. From a building that seats 300, we moved to one that would seat 700, and the first night it was filled. The second night it was packed again. While we were there on the second night, we get a phone call from a pastor from a church that would seat 1 ,000.

He said, our church board has just voted to open the church. If you want to come over tomorrow night and start in, we open our doors. And so we moved to that church. And we were there that week, and that was full.

And we rented a building that seats 1 ,700 people. And we started in there, and we just continued night after night. Sundays we'd have two services with 1 ,700 people at each service. And we continued for seven and a half weeks.

Revival Producing Reconciliation

Well, what was happening? All kinds of things were happening. Reconciliation between people.