When God Gets Real with Mom and Dad Kids Will Come to Jesus — E.A. Johnston

Seeking God Through Persistent Prayer

Listen, friends, I believe God gets serious with those who get serious with Him. God's Word in Malachi declares, Return to me, and I will return to you. I want to share a story with you of an event that took place three decades ago, though it's fresh in my memory still.

Me and two other men were seeking God for revival. We were getting pretty serious with God, in that we were hungering and longing to see God move in revival. So we made a pact with God. I believe God pays attention when we get serious and make a vow or pact with Him.

We committed ourselves to dedicate an hour and a half in prayer every Tuesday and Thursday morning of the week for a time period of six months. So we made that pact with God and with ourselves to meet in the sanctuary of our church on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 6 a .m. to 7 .30 for a time of seeking God's face in prayer to come in revival.

Spiritual Obstacles to Revival

We were asking God to show us revival at our church. Now, I also believe that there can be some existing obstacles in a church that can hinder revival. It turned out that God didn't show up at our church, but in answer to our prayer, He led us by His Spirit to another church in a neighboring town that was having revival.

Looking back on that time, I believe God didn't come in revival to our church because there was a great evil taking place there. It was later found out that the staff minister of prayer was raping his teenage son, and this act of debauchery and crime had been going on for a while.

The Spirit of God will not coexist with evil. If there's an aching in the camp, the whole camp suffers. I believe this was the reason why God bypassed our church and visited a neighboring church. Well, the main thrust of my message today, friends, is in the following account of the revival that was taking place at this other church.

The Manifest Presence of God in a Country Church

We had gotten word that God was moving in revival at a certain Baptist church, a country church in Mississippi. So me and these two other men wanted to go check it out. One of the men couldn't go, but me and my friend drove down there, and we learned from calling the church secretary that the church was having worship services every night of the week, including Saturday evening.

So me and this other man showed up at church that particular Saturday evening around 7 p .m., and we soon learned that a lot had been going on. When we arrived, we saw a thousand-seat sanctuary that was jam-packed with people.

An usher told us there was only two seats left in the house, and they were way up in the balcony. My friend and I found those two seats and sat down. As I looked around, it was odd to me that nothing was taking place.

No one was preaching. No one was singing. In fact, the preaching platform was empty of the pastor, but a certain stillness pervaded the atmosphere. Soon, I felt like weeping. I couldn't stop the tears that were coming up in my eyes.

I glanced over at my friend. He was a big man, 6 '4", and I noticed tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was weeping, too. I felt an awful presence of the Almighty. It was as if God Himself had stepped into that sanctuary, and His manifest presence could be felt as if there were a thick, heavy curtain hanging over us.

I looked down at the choir, and the choir members were passing a box of Kleenex back and forth between themselves. They were all weeping, and they were torn up as well. This silence and this weeping went on for over three hours.

Finally, the service was dismissed by an elder, and by the time my friend and I made it to the parking lot, it was 1030 at night. As we walked to our car, I noticed the pastor was trying to get to his car, so I ran over to him, and I grabbed him by the sleeve, and told him we were members of such-and-such Baptist church from out of town, and we had heard he was having revivals, so we came down there to see for ourselves, and I asked him, What's going on?

He replied, I had a sermon to preach tonight, but the Holy Spirit took over, so I sat down. Then I asked him one more question. I said, Please tell me, what's going on with your people? All he said was three words.

He said, We are dead. I said, What do you mean? He said, All I can tell you is that we are dead, dead to ourselves. And he turned and walked away, and got in his car and drove off. My friend and I stood speechless under a moonlit sky on a parking lot of a church that Heaven had come down to.

Men’s Repentance and Personal Revival

The next morning was a Sunday, so I had to wait until Monday to contact the church secretary, and when I finally got her on the phone, she was gracious enough to share with me the following events of what had been transpiring in her church.

It seems about a couple months back, the pastor led a group of men from the church to a church retreat out in the woods to a cabin by a lake, and they had invited as a speaker to that men's retreat a certain African missionary that had recently experienced a personal family tragedy, and he was home from Africa on furlough.

His wife had been killed by a gang of marauders as they were ambushed one night on a dirt road in the African bush. This missionary was badly beaten, and he had to watch his wife die right before him.

He was left with three young boys to raise on his own. And evidently, because of this recent tragedy, God was all over this man. Well, this was the speaker of that men's retreat. Well, it turns out, friends, that over the course of that three-day retreat, those men got real serious with God, and God got real serious with those men, and it transformed them in a personal way, in a personal revival.

When the men returned to their families, they acted and behaved differently than they had before. They were more tender with their wives. They were more patient with their family, and they each assumed a leadership role in the spiritual affairs of their home.

They established the old family altar and led their family in prayer. They held hands with their wives as they prayed with their wives and led them in Bible study. And it wasn't long that this had a terrific effect on the women of the church, who saw what it was like to have their husbands be godly men and act differently around the house as Christians.

Well, they soon became effective themselves. They became more loving and more affectionate to their husbands and lived to Him as the spiritual leader in the home. The wives of these men each experienced a personal revival, and they too began to live for the Lord.

Parents’ Spiritual Leadership and Children Coming to Christ

Now, getting back to that Saturday evening at the church, where my friend and I were compelled to weepen at the thick presence of the Almighty, it seems before we arrived at that church that particular Saturday night, a lot had transpired.

The church service had barely begun when suddenly and unexpectedly the teenagers at the church got up from their seats and came forward without any public invitation. They knelt at the altar of that church and gave their hearts to God.

That's why that entire church was broken before God and weeping over these saved lives of the young people in that church who'd come to Christ that night as they were led by an invisible presence too strong for them to resist.

You see, friends, when the teenagers of those families saw what it was like to have two godly parents completely sold out to God and they witnessed the reality of God in their daily lives, it was too much for them.

They were one to the Lord. When God gets real to Mom and Dad, it's not too long before the kids will come to Jesus. Yes, sir, I believe that God gets serious with those who get serious with Him. America needs revival.

National Repentance and Prayer for Revival

Our nation needs revival. In 2 Chronicles 7 14 we read, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let me ask you, friend, does our land need healing? We can't keep going on with the status quo and business as usual. We must return to God if there's any hope for this once great republic of ours. But until our churches turn back to the God of the Bible in repentance, humility, and desperate prayer, there'll be no hope for this sin-soaked land of ours.

We all should be on our knees and in our Bibles praying against the sins of the land and crying out to God for mercy, right now, right now, to send us revival before it's too late. Oh, by the way, do you know what eventually happened to that country church that experienced revival?

Revival’s Community Witness Against Abortion

They pooled their money and bought out the worst abortion clinic in their community and turned it into a Bible bookstore where once death reigned, life now reigned. Christians should make a difference in their communities.

They should stand out for God and the sake of the gospel. Only revived people will stand out in a sin-soaked society. Get serious with God, friend, and he will get serious with you. Let us pray.