Special Episode: Turn Conference with Richard Owen Roberts

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Hi, I'm Teddy James, content producer for Media Gratia.

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Usually I'm the guy that's behind the camera recording video and audio content for the podcast and other

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Media Gratia content. But today we had an opportunity to speak with Mr. Richard Owen Roberts about a conference that's coming up soon for him.

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John happens to be away preaching in Canada right now and we didn't want to miss the opportunity.

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So I'm going to have a conversation with Mr. Richard Owen Roberts about the conference and just what's going on and how you could potentially participate in it.

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Now the conversation is taking place over zoom. So be gracious with us as you probably are well aware when it comes to zoom calls, the audio and video quality is not, it's not wonderful.

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But I hope that it is understandable. We'll clean it up as much as we can and post, but we hope that you enjoy that it is a blessing to you and that you check out the conference from Mr.

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Richard Owen Roberts. Well, Mr. Roberts, again, I want to thank you for taking a few minutes to sit down and talk with us here at the whole council and with Media Gratia.

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For those who are not familiar with your ministry and what you guys have going on there, would you introduce us both to yourself and then also to your ministry?

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Well, I've been a very long time in the process of calling the church to repentance and returning to the

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Lord. I think that the subject of revival is a very dangerous subject in that all kinds of viewpoints exist as to what true revival is.

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For a lot of people, it's no more than noise and excitement. And if they attend a meeting where there's plenty of noise and plenty of excitement, they think that it's a revival.

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I believe that the evidence is very much to the contrary that true revival is the presence of God or the manifest presence as we generally speak of it.

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Now, unfortunately, there exists a great deal of confusion concerning the presence of God.

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But one way of straightening this out in our own thinking is to consider that we might use three terms to expressly describe the presence of God.

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We might use the term essential presence and the term manifest presence and the term cultivated presence.

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Now, the essential presence of God is not revival.

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God exists everywhere. There is absolutely nowhere where one could go to escape the presence of God.

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The psalmist spoke of this when he spoke about going into the depth of the deepest sea and behold, thou art there or the height of the highest mountain.

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And of course, God is there. Or in modern language, we could speak of loading a young person on a rocket ship and sending them out into space if it were possible to journey 5 ,000 years outward in space.

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They would never pass a place where God is not because God fills the heaven and the earth.

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He's as much in the deepest, darkest tavern as he is in the nicest church.

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So when we speak about the presence of God, we're speaking about the sheer fact that God does exist and he is everywhere present.

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But when we're talking about revival, we're talking about much more than the essential presence.

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And so we use the term manifest presence. And we say that God makes himself manifest or clear or known in the heart of the individual.

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And there simply is no denial. So that what may look like perfectly acceptable conduct now is not at all acceptable conduct in the light of God's manifest presence.

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But in the season of revival, that's what truly happens. God draws near and manifests himself.

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And so people look at themselves, let their sin in a totally different light.

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Then, as I've indicated, there is a third term that must be carefully used right now.

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We are subject to the essential presence of God, as I've said, that can't be escaped.

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And we certainly know nothing of his manifest presence in the very realistic way.

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In fact, it might be said that the church in America is under divine judgment.

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The church does not teach what the Bible teaches. The church basically teaches a lot of nonsense that has nothing to do with scripture.

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The church is under divine judgment. It goes its own way. It does its own thing.

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It thinks that it's helping God out. But about the worst thing that can happen to a person is to become attached to a church and to get the notion that the nonsense of their religion is the teaching of the

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Bible, anything but true. So here the church has been turned over to the judgment of God.

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It is as if God has said, you're not willing to go my way. All right, go ahead and go your way.

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And go any way you please. And I'll let you go for a length of time in your direction.

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And that is basically where the churches are at. So we speak of the cultivated presence of God.

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There are individuals within the church. There are pastors within a group of pastors who are constantly cultivating

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God's presence. They're obedient to everything that the scriptures teach.

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They desire to follow the Lord with all of their heart. They not only desire to do right, but they long for God to manifest himself in the midst of his people.

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So they are busy cultivating God's presence, even though the nation at large, the churches at large, have grieved

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God and are under his judgment. Well, if one thinks of those three aspects of the presence of God, it helps them to realize that true revival is

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God drawing near to his people, revealing himself, showing what he wants.

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In a felt way, so that they not only know, but they know deeply.

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That's why the scriptures often speak of the experiential relationship with God.

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That's why the apostles would pray that people may not only know in their heads, but that they may know by experience what

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God himself is saying and doing among his people. Well, at any rate,

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I have been about 75 years trying to proclaim this basic truth and call the nation of churches back to the

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Lord. And that obviously was something I began as a young person, and I'm anything but young today, but still

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I do what I can. Amen. Now, some of our listeners are going to be very familiar with you and with your ministry.

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You were on the Beholder God Study. You know, we've had you doing some different things with Mediagratie that we're extremely grateful for.

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So would you mind giving us an update on your ministry? I know you've recently moved to Tennessee.

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What prompted that and what are you guys up to now? Well, we lived in Wheaton, Illinois, for a very long period, about 45 years.

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But we had a son who lives here in Tennessee. And in recent years, we've been saying, well, we need help.

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We need someone who will help to look after us. We're old people. We can't see as well as we used to.

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We can't hear as we once did. We can't even drive. Neither my wife nor I have driver's licenses because we just simply are not pit drivers anymore.

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So we needed to be near family. And so it made good sense to move here.

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So for a period of time, our son was looking for a place that was accommodating to the entire family.

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And eventually, we have moved here to Powell, Tennessee, where we have a fair amount of acreage and where we have a couple of very large buildings, one of which is being renovated currently and made useful as far as our library is concerned.

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And so in time, we hope to incorporate the entire family group in this area.

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But at the same time, the south of the United States of America is in desperate need of the presence and power of God.

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There's a lot of religion here, but an awful lot of nonsense and superstition.

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And so we are busy doing what we can to interest the churches in a genuine relationship with God, as is clearly taught in scripture.

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Oh, that's amazing. Now, one of the reasons that we're talking with you today is to discuss the conference that you have coming up.

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So tell us the name of the conference and the theme. We have a conference scheduled for the end of November, November 27 to November 30.

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That's a Sunday night start. And then an all day Monday and all day

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Tuesday and all day Wednesday meeting. Now, that is to be in the

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Knoxville area. A church by the name of Norwood Baptist Church has offered itself to be available.

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It's not a large building by any means, but we hope to gather people together and to focus upon the issue of revival.

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The text of the conference is, I think, one of those extraordinary texts of the

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New Testament. Many of you will remember that for a season of time, our

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Lord had commanded the disciples to gather in Jerusalem and to wait for power from on high.

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And then there happened and it's recorded in the second chapter of Acts, the presence and the power of the

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Holy Spirit coming. We refer to it as the day of Pentecost. Well, the following chapter, that is chapter three, has a magnificent summary of the situation and it is very applicable to us today.

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And so our focus at this conference, which is called a turn conference, but the focus is upon the 19th verse of the third chapter of Acts.

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And I'll cite it to you. Repent, therefore, and return that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

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Lord. We have divided that into four parts, a part for each day.

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So the first day, the Sunday night. The emphasis will be upon repent and return, and there are two great objects of concern.

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What is really meant by repentance and what is it that we are to return?

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And then the second day on the Monday, it is our hope to deal specifically with the subject and your sins will be blotted out.

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Now, there are millions of people that call themselves Christians and suppose that they're on the way to heaven, but clearly they have neither repented nor returned to the

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Lord. And what they're supposing is a blotting out of their sins is much more imagination than it is the word of God itself.

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So on the Monday that we're dealing with, what is true salvation?

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What does it really mean to have your sins blotted out? And then on the

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Tuesday, the emphasis is again upon that portion of Acts 319, that times of refreshing may come and there is an obvious need of times of refreshing.

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So it will be a very clear day defining what constitutes true revival and what is involved in a time of refreshing or a season of refreshing.

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And on the Wednesday, we're looking at the final part of Acts 319 from the presence of the lie.

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So that the time of refreshing is not from superstition, not from nonsense, not from the opinion of people, but from the very presence of God.

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So the conference is called Turn, and the emphasis is on turning, turning to God instead of turning to religion, turning to what

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God has made manifest as his will and purpose. And most of you will remember that in the book of Genesis, it is clear that God created

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Adam and then created the help meat for her. And her name was

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Eve, and they were given a very clear cut statement of what they were to do, but they didn't heed the statement that God gave.

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So we might say that returning involves coming back to that point where we do what we're told, instead of doing what we want.

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And while the bulk of Christianity today is doing what it pleases, the call of God is to return and to do what we're told.

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And so that is in conference that is intended for late in November.

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Now, included will be in the evening, a dear friend who believes as I do,

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Al Whittinghill, who's head of the Ambassadors for Christ in America.

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And then in the daytime, the first one, the first day of Monday will be upon the meaning of salvation.

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Mike Sanders will be speaking of that. And we're going to have a second day, the focus on holiness and what it really means to walk with God.

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And then the third day on the necessity of corporate prayer.

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Now, just stop and think of this amazing thing. Here are churches that claim to be

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Christian, that have canceled their prayer meeting. When I was a boy, we were told by our pastor, the way you discover a church when you have to move is by the nature of its prayer meeting.

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Well, now there are multitudes of towns that you could move to where there isn't a single church that has a prayer meeting.

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And those that still have the prayer meeting, really, truly, the prayer meeting is more apt to make you spiritually sick than spiritually healthy.

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And so there is a great emphasis on the need of the restoration of prayer.

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But if you're an unbeliever or if you think you can do it yourself, then what is there to pray about?

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So then the average church that still has a prayer meeting is focused upon things that don't matter.

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And most of us have learned that aches and pains are part of life.

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And to spend our time in prayer meeting asking God that we'll feel better or that so -and -so will feel better is nonsense when the real concern is a church that is wandering away from God and needs to return to Him.

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And millions of people who are lost and dying and on the way to hell and need to come to Christ.

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And so the conference is to help. Now, the average person who speaks to me and tells me about their relationship with the church says, well, basically,

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I find going to church a waste of time. Unfortunately, that tends to be true.

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So this conference is intended to help the churches of America get things right.

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And we'll make sure that we've got a link somewhere. It'll be in the description of the episode.

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It'll be in the email that people will get that point people to the how they can attend the conference.

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But would you mind telling us real quick, so how can people learn more about the conference? How could they sign up to attend?

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Well, we're in the process of preparing a little pamphlet to advising as to the nature of the conference.

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So it would be a wonderful help if people would simply send in their address and a copy of this pamphlet would be sent to you.

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And it will include details in terms of possible housing and meals.

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It's that sort of thing. So if you will address your request to International Awakening Ministries, Howell, Tennessee.

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But the post office box is 363. Now, I should have the zip code and I don't seem to have that.

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Well, what we'll do, we'll make sure that I'm going to give that right now.

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Three, seven, eight, four, nine is the zip code that you need to keep in mind.

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Sorry for the interruption. Go ahead, please. Oh, I was just going to say, we'll make sure we have that listed out in the email that sent to everybody as well.

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Now, some of the churches that have shown an interest are trying to find people who will have guests in the home.

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But honestly, we hope we'll have a lot of people that we can accommodate that way.

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And you may have to find a motel room. And we don't intend to provide meals, but we do intend to provide time for you to get the necessities of life.

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But do your part, do what you can in terms of spreading word concerning this.

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And I honestly believe that it will be worth your time to come. And I don't hesitate to appeal to you to do so.

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So as the last question, Mr. Roberts, for people actually to one, will there be digital access?

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So if someone can't come physically, will they be able to watch it or listen to it online? Well, you can tell by looking at the picture of me that I'm an old timer.

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And we didn't used to have such a thing as digital and computer. But we have some young people working with us.

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And they're right now trying to work out the methodology so that all of this will be available on what do they call it?

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Screening or something like that. Livestream. Livestream and there will be a recording of the messages so that I believe that it will be possible to get any and all of that digitally.

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That is certainly the intention, at least. Fantastic. That's wonderful to hear.

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So lastly, for those who will be there in attendance or for those who will be streaming in, how can we prepare our hearts for this conference?

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I would like to recommend that you carefully read the first three or four chapters of Acts and concentrate upon 3 .19.

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And then the context as found in Chapter 3. And be very serious and asking yourself, what is really being said here?

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What does that really mean to repent? For instance, is repentance sorrow for them?

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Or is it change? And perhaps as a means of helping yourself, study carefully 2

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Corinthians Chapter 7. You remember that in that passage, the apostle was saying,

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I made you sorry for a season, but my purpose was not in making you sorry.

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My purpose was far greater than that. There is a sorrow that leads to death.

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There is a sorrow that leads to life. Now, multitudes of people who think they have truly repented have done no more than what the apostle

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Paul is speaking about when he speaks of the sorrow that leads to death.

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But in verse 11, it very clearly states what that repentance is like that leads to life eternal.

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And it gives us seven marks of true repentance in verse 11.

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So my recommendation to each of you is to carefully consider what is truly meant by repentance.

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And as I said already, what is meant by return to what are we to return.

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And then following through on the rest of the verse, what is it really speaking of when it says your sins are blotted out?

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Is there room for presumption? Are you asked to decide for God what that means?

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Or would it be far more sensible to find out what God means and to comply with him rather than foolishly expecting him to reply to you?

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And again, what is a season of true refreshment? And just as sort of a reminder,

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I was in the doctor's office not long ago and felt I ought to bear some kind of witness.

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So I said to the doctor, are you equated with a time when the mules and the ponies and the donkeys way down in the depths of the earth in cold night went on strike?

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He said, you mean that the animals organized into a union?

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No, I don't mean that. But I mean that those animals that worked in the deep earth mine no longer would do the work that they were supposed to do.

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And the reason they didn't do the work was they didn't know how to behave with the miners behaving as they were.

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You see, in former days, these men had come down into deep earth mines and had driven their animals with kicks and curses.

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But they experienced a time of refreshing from the presence of the

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Lord. And they went down into the deep earth mines and in many instances put their arm around the neck of their animal who do the orc art and said,

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Muley dear, we're here to serve the Lord Christ today.

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Now, let us begin with a song and with a prayer, and the poor animals now to respond.

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And the doctor said, well, that's the nature of true revival that affects even the animals deep down in the earth.

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But that effect comes because of the transformation that occurred.

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Or another illustration of what I'm talking about the person who was a principal of a

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Christian school called me and said, would you accompany me to an area in Florida was experiencing great revival.

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Well I said if I told you there was a bubonic plague in Chicago and asked you to accompany me on a tour of the area cursed by the plague, would you come?

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Oh no, of course not. Well then I said, I say no, of course not as far as your invitation to this revival is concerned.

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Then are you saying you won't go? Yes, I said, I will not go. Well, do you have any advice for me?

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Oh, I said to this person, I'll give you some advice. Cultivate the friendship of the chief of police.

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And it was a phone conversation but I could almost see her reacting to what

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I had suggested to her. I said, ingratiate yourself with the chief of police and when you know that he's going to speak to you plainly and directly, ask him about the revival in that city.

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Well, she did exactly what I urged her to do. And after she had cultivated the presence of the chief of police, she said, now please tell me about the revival.

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And his answer, there's no revival in the city. On what basis do you say that?

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He said the crime rate is soaring. If there were two revival, the crime rate would shrink to the point where maybe even the sheriff and the deputies and the police, etc, were all idle, they had nothing to do.

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Because crime has ceased as a result of a time of reflection from the presence of the

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Lord. So you understand that what I'm not talking about is not the nonsense that is so typical of our day, but the real thing.

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Amen, brother. Well, Mr. Roberts, again, I want to thank you for taking time to talk with us.

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Thank you for putting on the conference. I know I'm looking forward to it, and I hope that our listeners and followers will definitely tune in.