How Revival Is Hindered – Don't Make This Mistake — Michael L. Brown

How Revival Is Hindered – Don't Make This Mistake

It's a delight to be with you. And as I started reading some of Pastor Shane's articles some years ago, I thought, man, there's a man of like heart, preaching holiness, but with grace. Hard to see moral and cultural change.

When he'd send me some clips, if he was on Fox and debating issues, I thought, praise God, there's someone doing it with grace, but holding to the truth and being clear. Because a lot of times, you watch TV, and whoever the Christian representative is, you kind of wince.

So praise God, appreciate your heart, and the congregation's heart for revival. Amen. So just a couple of things before we get into the word. I normally preach for three or four hours, but in the first service, I had to condense it to 45 minutes.

So you said I'm good for three or four hours. No, just messing with you. Don't worry about that. In fact, I have it down to an exact science. The moment I start the message, I look at my watch. And the moment I'm finished, I stop.

So there you go. But just a couple quick things. We are leading a tour to Israel again in May, and we're probably down to maybe about our last 12 seats available. And we just take two buses. It's really an intimate, amazing time.

But because I love to pour into people and be with folks, it's not just the amazing tour in the day, but at night, we do special meetings, Q &A, teach, pray together, do live radio shows. So if you wanna find out about going, we're down, like I said, to about our last 12 seats.

Grab one of these cards on our table on the way out. And we've got a couple of books that are here for you. The one that we have the most of, and we got amazing results, Jezebel's War with America. It's one of my ministry mottos to avoid controversy at all costs.

I'm just kidding, that was, do they know New York sarcasm here in California? No, okay, sorry, you're just very nice, and like, oh, praise the Lord. But no, so that was sarcasm. That meant the opposite of what I was saying.

If you meet New Yorkers, if they like you, they insult you. That's just a sign of affections, just so you know some of the culture. Yeah, New York needs to be saved as well as California. In any case, Jezebel's War with America is obviously intensely controversial, but a light went on for me, and I began to see the same demonic forces that operated through Queen Jezebel in the Bible that are listed, that you see clearly.

And then Jesus references a woman called Jezebel in the New Testament. These same demonic forces, which are very powerful and very dangerous, operating in a concerted way in America today. And you connect the dots from idolatry to morality to the radical shout-your-abortion movement to radical feminism to the rise of witchcraft to the emasculating of men to the silencing of the church's prophetic voice.

You connect the dots. And as God started to move on me to write this book, I wrote 70 of the core of this book in six days, just gripped day and night. When the book came out a few months back, the first printing sold out the first week.

And we hear from many readers, I've never done this, but the first day I got the book, I read it cover to cover. I couldn't put it down. So grab one of those on the way out. I believe it will stir you and bless you.

And because I was at Messianic congregation over the weekend, we had some materials left, so we brought them over. So those of you that wanna find out about reaching Jewish people, what are the Jewish objections to Jesus?

How do you answer? What are more insights we can get from the Hebrew about Messianic prophecies? I've got a 22-hour course just on a flash drive and this 300-page study guide, Countering the Counter-Missionaries.

So that's at the back table as well. And by God's grace, we want to blanket the nation with the Line of Fire broadcast. We do live streams on Facebook and YouTube every day. We're on a number of stations.

On the weekends, we're all over the country, but we really have a burden to get the broadcast out all over America, where we serve as your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. So, you know, so many times you're frustrated by what's happening in the society around you, and you're frustrated the way it's getting reported on the news, and you just wish someone would say what you feel.

Well, that's what we do every day. That's why we say we serve as your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. And we realize if we get a certain number of people just helping us with a dollar a day, we can get on the stations where we have open door and expand our outreach.

We have some cards on the way out. My assistant Dylan's happy to explain that, where you can become a Torchburner, a monthly supporter, and then we pour back into you. You get hundreds of hours of exclusive resources, classes you can take, all kinds of benefits, discounts.

So we pour back into you as our supporters, but stand with us if you can. And if you do join us, you can take the Jezebel book for free as well. So pray about that. We believe, honestly, deeply, when I say we, I mean all those close to me.

I believe it's in your heart, too. It's not too late for America. As dire as things are, we can actually see the greatest outpouring in our nation's history. It could happen. And we know, being a voice, that we have a role, a part in that to stir hearts.

So stand with us. Together we can make a great difference, amen? All right, let's pray. Abba, Father, we love you. We ask you to speak to us afresh, to see the hunger, the thirst in your people's hearts.

Take us deeper. Give us ears to hear. Give us a heart to respond. Cause your word to come forth with power. Search our hearts and change us, so by your grace and power, we can go and change this world.

Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's turn to Mark, chapter five. Mark, chapter five. I want to ask you a simple question. I know your immediate answer will be yes, but I want you to think about it as I preach.

Do you really want God? Do you really want revival? Do you really want visitation? Mark five, a well-known account. Jesus and his disciples, they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.

And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.

For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him and crying out with a loud voice, he said, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.

For he, Jesus, was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, what is your name? He replied, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs in the herd, numbering about 2 ,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and the country and the people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and they saw the demon possessed man, the one who had had the Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind.

And they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon possessed man and to the pigs and they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. What a shock. You would think the reaction would be, Jesus, there's a demonized man in my town.

Jesus, my father is sick. Can you stay here until I get him? We read some of the accounts in the gospels elsewhere in the very next chapter of Mark when Jesus enters a village, people come running. They're carrying the sick on their shoulder.

We just got to get there before he leaves because they know if Jesus would touch them, the blind eyes would be open and the sick would be healed and the demonized would be set free. And in some cases, even the dead would be raised.

Revival Disrupts Comfort and Religious Control

But in this case, they beg Jesus to leave. And friends, in my 48 years serving the Lord and having been in the midst of true revival and outpouring, one case lasting for months, another case lasting for years, I can tell you that often when God comes, he's not welcome.

That often the visitation of God is more than we asked for and more intense than we were bargaining for and too life changing. We just like a lovely blessing that adds to us and makes us happy and doesn't take from us.

We just want a lovely little blessing, outpouring, anointing revival. We can just flip it on and flip it off. We don't want something that's gonna come with shaking and something that's gonna come with disruption and something that's gonna come with upheaval.

You know, when Jesus as a baby was dedicated at the temple, was brought there and Simeon prophesied over him in Luke, the second chapter, he said, this child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel.

Why not just the blessing of many in Israel? Why not just the encouragement of many in Israel? Why the falling and rising? Because that's what happens when God comes. He shakes things up. That's what happens when God comes.

He reveals the secrets of the hearts. That's what happens when the Holy Spirit visits and it says that he will be a sign spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. I told Pastor Shane, you have no idea when the Holy Spirit comes, some of the most unlikely people, some of the most conservative and reticent and laid back, when the Holy Spirit comes, they completely embrace what he's doing.

And then the others that seem to be so hungry, so open, when the Holy Spirit comes, they reject because they like to be in control or because the pride of heart gets revealed. I remember preaching in California, in San Diego, or Poway, actually, and there was one brother, whenever I'd preach, and he'd be in the service, he was one of the elders.

Boy, did he have a prophetic word that seemed right on. I mean, I'm gonna preach on that theme, and boy, he has a prophecy during the message and right on, he'd kinda look at me with a wink, like, man, you nailed it.

And I remember he was one of the ones that would always say, let go, let God, let God have his way. And there was one particular service, there were two Sunday morning services, and the first service, I preached a very intense message on hell.

Not what you're expecting on a Sunday morning. And it wasn't damning the people there, it was saying this is a reality for the lost, how should we feel, how should we be burdened? And somehow, the second service comes, and of course, you're supposed to preach the same theme the second time, but this time, the whole theme changes, and I preach on the joy of the Lord.

So after the mourning and the crying, now we preach on the joy of the Lord. And when the service ended, I said, come on, we're just gonna celebrate. And I'd been talking about David dancing before the Lord and his wife Michal despising him and so on, and I said, we're just gonna celebrate.

I said, come on, let's just get up and dance before the Lord. And this was a Pentecostal charismatic church, and they were used to this kind of thing. And I was just having fun, I said, hey, I'm gonna sit down, play the drums, because I got saved as a rock drummer when I was 16.

I said, I'm gonna join the worship team. I said, and if you won't dance, we're gonna grab you in the aisle and make you dance. I was just having fun and smiling, and the place burst out in celebration.

That elder walked out, never came back, and lit a split in the church. He got offended. The mister let go, let God, he got offended. And I remember the pastor said, Mike, we had no idea, but there was junk in his heart.

And when that little thing happened, it exposed what was really going on. Isn't it amazing that when Jesus sets this man free and it happens in such a disruptive way, come on, was that the only way to do it, Jesus?

If we were there, we would have advised him, don't do the pig thing. What's the purpose of that? I mean, just think of all the implications. That's people's livelihood. And even though they're unclean animals, you're still not supposed to hurt them.

So Jesus, when you come into town, it results in a demonized guy getting set free and 2 ,000 pigs commit suicide. That's what happens, Jesus? That's the way you operate? Surely we'd have a better way to do it.

Surely we'd counsel him. You don't want the disruption. Look, why have the controversy? Because Jesus shakes things up. Because Jesus reveals our religious hypocrisy. Because he does not leave us in our lovely little comfort zone.

That's why we're praying for revival. If everything was great, if everything was wonderful, we wouldn't be crying out for revival. If we were fully awoke or fully woke these days, we wouldn't need awakening.

Yeah, that's a good article, Awakening for Woke America. We'll see who writes it first this afternoon. If you see him texting, just nudge him, okay? What was it that disturbed these people? Why did they beg Jesus to leave?

Well, one thing, obviously, all the disruption is a bit much. Normal life, it's just normal life. Just leave things as is. We don't need the disruption. We don't need the shaking. I mean, Jesus shows up at a synagogue, Mark 1, and they pray their prayers, they read from the scriptures, they worship the God of Israel.

There's a certain order, there's a certain liturgy. He comes in there, and they're just like, ah, the guy's screaming, falls to the ground. It's like, we don't like that. But the man was demonized. He was in your midst for years, probably, demonized, and that was okay.

You didn't have a problem with that. But now when he gets set free, because it's a little too loud, a little disruptive, you get upset. I'd rather the captive got set free. Let him scream out, drive the demon out, and then you got a whole person.

Why, that's a little loud. Well, tell that to the mother giving birth. Tell it to the baby coming out of the birth. It's a little loud. I prefer the quiet of the cemetery. Go ahead. Trust me, there's no disruption in the cemetery.

Nothing out of order in the cemetery. But it's all dead there. Where there's life, there's gonna be noise. That's a little loud, the way the people are weeping. They're getting set free from sin. You know, during the Brownsville revival, we'd have baptisms every Friday night, and the power of God was just very intense during the water baptisms.

I can't tell you how many people, I mean, people I knew that were self-controlled and not emotional, they'd get in the water, and they'd just begin to weep, and sometimes the power of God would, they'd be sharing, and next thing, they're just out.

I mean, they'd collapse in the water. The guys have to literally fish them out, carry them out. I remember the first time I was there, I said to my friend Steve Hill, I said, they're coming out of the water dead.

I mean, dead to sin, that's the whole thing. Died of sin, alive in God. And when word got out what was happening, New York Times actually covered the revival, ended up front page of the New York Times with a very positive report.

So we got a flood of media after that. And then they began to hear, Friday night's the best night to come because they do the water baptisms. And they'd be right there, I remember, CNN cameras, they'd be right there standing.

So here the men come down to be baptized on this side, the women come down to be baptized on this side, and it's right back like that so you can see everything that's happening, right? So they'd be right over there, their position right there, and they're shooting.

Sometimes the water would splash, come right on the camera, there they are. I remember Steve and I would always think, well, surely it's 60 Minutes or it's CNN. God's gonna tone things down tonight, make it more acceptable for the world.

Surely we can say, the Lord really changed my life. When I was a drug addict, alcoholic, beating my wife for 30 years, and I came here six months ago and Jesus changed me. Praise the Lord. That's just good enough, right?

We don't need all the emotion and the tears and the shaking and the collapsing in the water or any of that. And sure enough, it was like clockwork. Whenever the camera would be there, it was like something happened in the water, like everything got more intense and the emotion's more intense and the testimony's more dramatic and the power of God coming down more intensely.

I remember one woman, she got in the water, be baptized. She said, I was on crack cocaine, 30 years. I came to this revival six months ago. Jesus set me free. Ah! And then she's out. You're just overwhelmed with emotion.

She's out and carried her out of the water. So how does that get on CNN? What was the clip on CNN? Ah! And I would say, no, Jesus set me free from 30 years. They didn't hear the whole part, just the scream.

We would have toned it down, done it differently. But listen, Acts, the third chapter, what happens to the lame man, right? He's been crippled all his life and he gets healed. And what does it say? He goes into the temple walking and leaping and praising God.

You don't do that in the temple. Reverence. Why are you jumping, sir? You should be. Reverence. I've been crippled my whole life. I'm healed, I'm healed. Just do this. Thank you, Lord, for healing me, for being crippled my whole life.

That's the way we wanna do it. It's not the way it happens when God moves. And listen, it's not, please understand me. You don't focus on the shouting or the falling or the shaking. You focus on the changed lives.

But with changed lives, there's gonna be a lot of upheaval. There's something else in Mark 5. Another reason that the people begged Jesus to leave. This guy on the fringes, the really bad sinner. I mean, the really wicked guy.

Conviction Exposes Hidden Compromise

He was out there really bad. And if his sin was like triple X rated, my R rated sin is not so bad. As wicked as he is, it makes me look pretty good. But now that this wicked, crazy, demonized guy is clothed and in his right mind, suddenly my sin doesn't look so good anymore.

I remember there was a season a few years ago. My wife Nancy had volunteered at our school of ministry for many years and served there. For free and then after time, just gave the responsibilities over to others.

Our daughters, of course, long since out of the house, just had grandkids then. And she just had a season where she didn't have normal responsibilities and just got deeply passionate about a breakthrough and seeking God.

I was never around anyone that sought God that earnestly, that long. It was basically all day and all night in the word and prayer. And there'd be a garbage basket next to her just filled with tissues.

She'd just be weeping and weeping for hours and hours. And she'd read the gospels. And the moment she'd read about Jesus, just overwhelmed with who he was and weeping and weeping. And in those days, I was doing radio at night.

So I'd come home from doing radio maybe mid-evening and we'd just sit down and I'd come in. We'd just talk about the word, talk about the word. The latest insights she had and we'd just interact. And maybe later in the night, I'm just gonna chill a little bit, just unwind a little.

And you know what, I'm just gonna get my laptop out, just do some writing, but put a basketball game on in the background. So I got the basketball game and it's like, why are you asking basketball while your wife is meeting with God?

It's like, okay, sorry, turn the thing off. She wasn't saying a word, but her seeking of God made me uncomfortable. Other people have that and they don't like it. You're just becoming a religious fanatic.

You're going too extreme, you're going too far. And we had many testimonies during the revival of people dramatically saved because of what happened to their kids. I remember one father saying that when he heard his daughter up, and she'd be a teenager, get up last minute right before school and kind of grouchy in the morning and now she's like two hours up earlier and she's seeking the face of God.

And dad knows the girl, she was a party girl in all this. Now he hears, he's just weeping, Jesus saved my school and saved my dad, he doesn't know you. And they get saved through the prayers of their kids.

But there are other times where the parents were believers and their kids weren't saved. And maybe they live locally so they'd be at the services pretty often in the Browns Revival, which was from 95 to 2000.

And we had in the front of the building, there was a fishbowl, kind of big fishbowl thing, or one of those containers, whatever. And people would just throw in this glass container, they'd throw pictures of loved ones that weren't saved.

And before every service, people would gather and pray over that. Lord, save the people represented there, Lord, have mercy. And we'd have many dramatic testimonies of God moving and acting wonderfully.

Sometimes people would get baptized and say I was in that fishbowl there, my picture was there. And the most interesting thing would happen. There'd be a parent or a couple, mom and dad, church-going people, believers, and their kid, maybe one of the girls, 16 years old, maybe she's getting high and sleeping around, maybe the guy, 17, getting drunk in a gang.

And they'd put their pictures in there for prayer and then the kids would get saved. I mean, dramatically, radically saved. They'd encounter the Lord, they'd give up all the sinful ways, they'd be in love with Jesus, they'd be in the Word and prayer, they'd be sharing the gospel in their schools.

And now they don't want to miss a single service, they're getting in there, they're coming night after night after night. Maybe they come home late at night and mom and dad are watching TV. And the kid walks in and there's some sex scene or something like that, or all kinds of profanity and violence.

Because like, mom, dad, I thought you were Christians. Why are you watching this? And they're like, we wanted you to get saved, not become a religious fanatic. We don't want you to go this far. And suddenly the parents are coming under conviction now because the kids that they wanted to see saved are more saved than they are.

Oh, what happens when the holy presence of God comes into your home and areas of compromise get exposed? What happens when conviction begins to come about the way you treat others or about the unforgiveness in your heart or the way you talk to your spouse and to your kids or a little dishonesty here and there in the job or, well, it wasn't that bad, you know, I'm not addicted to porn, just a little here and there.

And suddenly you begin to see things differently. It says in Malachi, the third chapter, that the Lord would come to his temple. It says, the Lord whom you seek, the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.

So these are people praying, God, visit us. God, come and visit your people. They're praying for visitation. But then it says, but who can stand when he comes? Who can endure his appearance? Because he will be like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap.

You know, refiner's fire is this super heated fire and you throw gold in there and you throw silver in there. It looks pretty good. Hey, look, gold looks good, silver looks good. You throw it in there and suddenly all the impurities, all the junk begin coming up to the surface.

You didn't see it before. Look, I would rather God looks at me and says, Mike, you are a true saint. You're a real man of God. You have a pure heart. Your motives are excellent. Your thought life is wonderful.

Control your tongue exemplary. You are just a fine servant of God. But I tell you, as much as I really seek to live God and I can tell you I'm not living a hypocritical double life by God's grace, when the fire comes, it brings all kinds of impurities to the surface.

I remember in 88, on a 21 day water fast, I was preaching in the midst of this fast and I was making a point and I started to raise my voice for emphasis. And as I'm preaching, the Holy Spirit says to me, why are you raising your voice?

You're trying to sound anointed? Like, I just, I mean, I'm preaching this message and I'm having this dialogue with God. I thought I was just flowing with your experience. Like, are you trying to sound like an anointed?

And then another service, I feel to pray for the sick. But this time, we're only gonna pray for those who are chronically ill or incurably ill. So either what you have is supposed to be fatal or it can't be cured and it's an ongoing condition.

So this is really serious stuff now. So we call the people up, I'm about to lay hands on them and I hear that voice, do you wanna look anointed like some big man of God? I was like, I just wanna pray.

Oh, is that it? Are you trying to look like somebody? Suddenly motives begin to come to, that makes me uncomfortable. Many people would rather just enjoy their sin, have kind of a nominal walk with the Lord and a nice little church life than have an encounter with God where all the impurities come up to the surface.

Some of you have read my book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, written with my wife, Nancy. And if you read it, yes, her part of the book is the best part. So I was a lifelong unhealthy eater, not so much a glutton, but an unhealthy eater.

I was a lifelong chocoholic. When I was a boy, I used to have Oreos for breakfast. When I taught at a Bible school on Long Island from 1983 to 1987, we estimated, because there was a phenomenal New York pizzeria right nearby, we estimated that I had 3 ,000 slices of pizza in four years.

Every so often I'd give something up for a little while but then fall back. So God really dealt with me. Nancy was really pouring out her heart, praying to God. I didn't know how earnestly she was praying.

I knew I had high blood pressure and other issues and 275 pounds and with the way I push and crazy schedule, she just said, you're playing with fire. Then on my end, I just felt I shouldn't be overweight like this, it's not right.

I shouldn't have these food addictions. So I was crying out. And it was August, August 23rd of 2014, I said to her, my plan is not working. I was kind of code from years back of discussion we had. My plan is not working.

In other words, cutting a little of this out a little, it's not working. I'm gonna have to make a radical change. The problem was I was a food wimp. I had often said I would rather face a hostile, potentially dangerous crowd than eat new foods.

And I did that, trust me. Overseas did things that were literally life-threatening. I mean, to the point of Hindu radicals taking over stage with knives and razor blades in their hands. I would rather do that than taste a new food.

That's where I lived for years. Plus I travel all the time, all the excuses. So how am I just gonna eat all the stuff I've eaten all my life? I can't eat all the stuff I don't like to eat. I'm gonna eat.

I mean, I prayed many times that God would give me a love for broccoli the way I had for chocolate, but it never happened. One other reason it never happened is because I never ate the broccoli. I just ate the chocolate.

But I knew I had to make a change. So she said, all right, you just eat what I give you. Nothing passes through your lips without my permission. Okay. So that led to three miserable days of withdrawal.

I mean, miserable. I had a minor cold at the same time. I remember doing radio with this minor cold and withdrawals like this is miserable. And when God saved me in 1971, I was known as Drug Bear Iron Man.

I was 16 years old. I started getting high at 14, shooting heroin at 15, and became the heaviest drug user in my school. Somehow I had a, my body was wired a certain way that I could take massive doses of drugs and survive.

And that made me proud. I thought that was some great thing. Look at this. So when God set me free, December 17th of 71, I was shooting heroin and other drugs and I was instantly delivered. I got instantly delivered.

Months of God convicting me and dealing with me, but I got instantly set free. It was much harder to give up chocolate. Much harder to give up chocolate than to give up shooting heroin and using LSD and speed and other drugs.

Three days of misery. I remember on the third night crying out to God. Said, surely the power of your spirit greater than the power of donuts and peanut M &Ms. And the same Jesus that set me free from drugs, you can set me free from food addictions.

But see, I hadn't read a lot about nutrition. Nancy had studied and knew all this, but I'd read a little bit about fasting and I realized that what was happening was all the toxins were, all the poisons, all the junk was leaving my body.

So I felt miserable because the bad stuff was coming out. But the reality was the bad stuff was always there. So the good thing was the bad stuff coming out and making me feel bad. It was actually a good thing.

It's the same with the conviction of the spirit. Yes, it'll make you uncomfortable. Yes, you may end up standing up in public and confessing sin. I've been living a double life. But you get free. The poisons come out.

The toxins come out. I've been in many meetings over the years around the world, many meetings, where the Holy Spirit would just fall and there'd be a deep encounter with God and an outpouring of repentance.

And next thing, I just had this sense there are people that are so burdened, they need to get up and make public confession. And I've heard all kinds of crazy things. They need to get up and make public confession.

And next thing, there's a line of people, they're crying and shaking and just, they're overwhelmed. And I said, look, don't say anything publicly that shouldn't be shared publicly. But many would just feel like I've been living a double life where you think I'm a certain person, I'm not.

And I've seen them get up and take the mic and just share with tears and sobbing. What makes that happen? The Holy Spirit's there. Bringing the impurities, the junk, the uncleanness up to the surface to skim it away so we can be whole, so we can be healed, so we can be free.

And I've seen them just get so beautifully, wonderfully free and everybody just hugging each other and loving each other. Restoration and healing come. We'd have times in the Brownsville Revival because over a period of four and a half years, several million people cumulatively came through the doors and more than 300 ,000 people, different people, responded to the altar calls.

And we'd have it where here's a guy on this side repenting, weeping, getting right with God. And here's a woman on this side, repenting, weeping, getting right with God. And they stand up and see each other and they're shocked.

And then we find out sometime later, they were both there, they were in the midst of a divorce. And they were just trying to get hold of God, their own lives, because their own lives were falling apart.

They had no idea their spouse had come. And enough people there, you're not even gonna see each other. They spot each other at the altar, they get right with God, they get right with another and God blesses their marriage.

Praise God. You know, here's the other part of the story. The unclean, the toxins, the poisons came out of my body. And by God's grace, just five and a half plus years now, just eating healthily only, all the time without exception.

And trust me, if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone, because I was the poster boy for unhealthy eating my whole life. But listen, I used to have like three, four headaches a week. I've not had a single headache in five and a half years.

And I give you a whole list of things like that. Here's the point. It may be uncomfortable. You may go through all kinds of withdrawal, spiritually speaking. It may really be a difficult season. But when the repentance is done, you're free.

You're clean. You can look people in the eye. You don't have to hide things. You don't have skeletons in the closet. You don't have to worry, oh, if this comes out, if that comes out. What's written in Proverbs 28 .3?

He who confesses his sins will find mercy. But he who covers them, he who covers them will not. The one who covers his sins will not succeed, but the one who confesses and forsakes them will find mercy.

Hunger for God's Presence

I wonder how hungry you are for God in his presence. We were driving yesterday, the endless drive to get here. The constant refrain from Shane was, over those mountains is Palmdale. It's like, haven't we gone over those mountains several times already?

Over those mountains. Only word he didn't use was yonder. That's what I was waiting to hear. Yonder, over those mountains. Thought we'd been to yonder already. We've gotten there already. But he was asking me, the services in Brownsville during the revival, how long were they?