Revival Conference 2007 - Part 10 — Denny Kenaston

The Unchanging Way of Revival

But it's the unchanging way of revival. There is no other way. There is no other way. You can pray and pray and pray and pray, go to the prayer meetings and, you know, you can sing and sing and sing, but if in the heart there are things there and you don't want to deal with them or you don't want to bring them out.

John Song's Ministry of Sin and Prayer

I was reading the other day the account of John Song. You ever hear of him? Leonard Ravenhill. I was watching a video of Leonard Ravenhill. He was almost gone. It was two years before he passed away. A couple of brothers were asking a lot of questions and he was answering questions and one of the things he said was, the biography of John Song, most powerful book I ever read besides the Bible.

Boy, I wrote that down so fast. John Song, Chinaman, evangelist in China. He was a mighty evangelist. You know how come God blessed his meetings everywhere he went? He preached on sin. That's why. Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, he preached on sin.

He held the people finally toward the end of the week. I mean, he did this. I read the biography. He did it hundreds of times. He just went from one place to the next to the next. Spent hours in prayer.

Spent hours in the Word every day. Got up there and preached his heart out to the people. Preached about sin. Named them. Sometimes he moved in the prophetic and he'd look right out over the crowd and say,.

You, you're holding up. And he was right.

He knew it. He preached. He preached on sin. People started breaking their hearts toward the end of the week and confessing and opening up. And they started having testimony meetings and confessions were being made.

Revival Through Evangelism and Conversion

And as this was happening, I mean, the dove just settled down in that meeting. And the people started singing and rejoicing. Then he started preaching on evangelism toward the end of the week and put these little groups in bands of three and sent them out like foxes with their tails on fire all over the community where they lived.

And you know what happened? The crowd started coming. And people got converted everywhere. The unchanging way of revival, brothers and sisters, is through repentance. It's through honesty. It's through humility.

Desiring the Reality of God

It's through brokenness. It's when we're undone. It's when we're all done. And you say, okay, I don't really care anymore. I want God. I want God in my life. I want the reality of God in my life. I don't care what I have to do.

I don't care what I have to go through. I don't care what humiliation may come my way. I want the reality of God in my life. And brothers and sisters, that's the way every one of our hearts should be crying.

I want the reality of God in my life. That's Christianity. That's what it is. But if the reality of God is not in my life, it's a grief to God and it hurts His testimony. I think I'm done. We're going to read just a few verses in Psalm 81.

An Invitation to Seek the Lord

I think we're going to give an invitation tonight. I'm going to give you an opportunity just to do business with God. This is a nice altar up here. There's lots of room, you know, if you want to come up here and pray.

But I want to read a few more verses for you and then pray. It's time to seek the Lord, brothers and sisters. Listen to the heart of God in Psalm 81, speaking about Israel. But it comes pretty close to home when we read it.

God's Call to Hear and Obey

God says, I removed his shoulder from the burden. I removed his hands. They were delivered from the pots. Thou called us in trouble and I delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder.

I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. God, pleading with His people, reminding them of the glorious deliverance that He so graciously gave to them. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, God says, oh, if you would just hear me.

My heart is open toward you. My heart is enlarged your way, says God. If you would just hear me, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it, says God.