Pioneers of Revival - Part 1 — David Smithers

Defining Revival and the Character of Its Pioneers

Planned on was some things about the seasons of the spirit to recognize, to determine them, and how the pioneer needs to do that, but I believe what we're going to look at is just basically the character of a pioneer of revival, the character of a pioneer of revival.

So the name of my message is the pioneers of revival. But I want to take the time to define some terms. There's a lot of confusion when you come to the whole subject of revival, what it actually means, what you're talking about, and what you're not talking about.

It's one of those general terms in the church that means everything from an extended meeting at a particular local congregation to some kind of particular manifestation, depending on which camp you're involved in.

We want to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what we mean by the word revival so we're not confused, and we're not imposing upon what the details, the principles we're going to talk about, any extra baggage that doesn't need to be there.

You know what I'm saying? So let me just start with this. I believe if anyone's really recognizing what's going on in the church today and looking what's going on, there seems to be a renewed interest in the whole subject of spiritual renewal and revival.

Obviously recognizing the need to be revived in the church for our society, our nation to be changed, for the world to be changed. And also there seems to be running alongside, though in a different, whole different stream, kind of independent from this renewed interest in revival and awakening, an interest in mission.

I don't think it's any mistake. It's not just a fluke. God is up to something. Though some of these key players in different camps have not, you know, they didn't converge to formulate this thing, administrate this thing, God is doing it by His Spirit.

And depending upon our gifts and where our heart has to formulate this thing, administrate this thing, God is doing it by His Spirit. And depending upon our gifts and where our heart has to happen to be situated, we're hearing a different portion of what God is saying to the church today.

And for some people that makes it very easy for them to be able to hear about missions and God's renewed interest. Obviously, I mean, it's always been His interest, but getting a hold of His church to mobilize them to the ends of the earth as we approach the the dawn of a new millennium.

But God is doing some unique things in that church, bringing them to the place to re-evaluate how we do church, how church is structured, that we need God's Spirit, some of our traditions that we've weaned on, you know, will not do it.

Second-hand religion won't get us through where we need to go. And so, what I recognize is these two streams are converging. And they're converging primarily among a lot of people that seem to have a heart to hear about this the most are actually young people, college-age students, even high school students, young married couples.

They're trying to find their place in the church. There seems to be a real enthusiasm about what God's doing in the earth and wanting to participate in whatever that is, not to miss it. John kind of mentioned last night kind of a little alienation that, quote, the Revival Camp has had from the Missions Camp.

You know, the missionary approach is the whole subject, because everybody needs to go. We all need to be out there now. Because souls are dying and going to hell like that every second. Okay, we have no time to work on this church thing.

We need to get out in the field. Okay, we already got the gospel. The Revivalist Camp, they approach this thing, go, what are you talking about? What kind of gospel are you going to share in the ends of the earth?

You know, we've got a powerless gospel here. We can't even fix our problems here. And you're going to go try to fix the ends of the earth problem where they have real problems? Give me a break. You know, this is kind of the dichotomy, the difference where these two camps have traditionally kind of been opposed to one another.

But God is changing that. What's happening among at least some folks in the Missions Camp is they're starting to recognize, I mean, you talk to mobilizers like John Zumwalt. He'll tell you there's a classic problem.

He can't get, he can get out there, he gets speaking opportunities, but because of the quality, the basic spiritual quality in most of our churches, he cannot get people to mobilize. My goodness, you can't get them off the Lazy Boy.

How are you going to get them to the ends of the earth? You know what I'm saying? So you guys that are focusing more on missions mobilization, you've got a real problem unless the quality of spiritual life does not rise a little bit.

You know what I'm saying? But at the same time, the Revival Camp has need to recognize that we're not. What do we revive for? You know what I'm saying? What are we empowered for so we can shine our, you know, spiritual brownie badges and say, hey, look at me.

You know, look what I can do. Wow. No, it's so that we can be empowered to go to the ends of the earth and finish what God's doing. You know, as hard as it's been to do, and that is to have a people from every tongue, tribe, and nation.

So we obviously, these two camps have got to get together, and God is doing that. Some are a little slower to recognize this than others, but I mean, even the conference that we're doing this weekend is a real effort on our part, at least me and John, that are just a really small and obscure representation of these two camps to work and to cooperate together.

These two streams have to merge, and they're two halves. You know, it's kind of like, you know, you got a coin. Unless it's got that, that, well, that imprint, the correct one on each side, you got a counterfeit, and it's not good as legal tender to purchase anything.

We will not get the job done with a coin that is just, you know, imprinted on one side. You turn the thing over, say, is this really the genuine article? Is this legal tender? Can I really buy something with this?

Can I make something happen with this? It's got to have the two sides, the two streams, revival and missions. Okay, so that's a little intro there, why we're doing some of this. But I want to, let's talk a little bit about terms.

Revival as Reformation of the Church

What do we mean when we're talking about revival? For some people, this is real. Today, there's as many people afraid of revival as there are that are interested in revival, and part of this is, in my own opinion, it has to do with some misrepresentation.

Revival threatens to reform. Revival threatens to change the church radically, and so people are, some people are a lot very suspicious. Let me just say that the revival that God wants to bring in the church today will not leave the church as it is in the same place.

There is not one structure, traditional, denominational, or non-denominational structure on the spiritual map that can contain what God wants to do. Every one of them is going to have to be radically revamped, and you want to know something that scares religious leaders to death.

Some people, when they approach the revival, the subject revival, what they mean by revival is they want their present system empowered, supercharged, they want their church to be more popular and more people to attend what they're doing.

In other words, leave the system alone, leave it intact, just make it more popular and generally well accepted. That is not revival. Revival always touches the structure and brings reformation. If it doesn't bring reformation to how we operate and doesn't restore true apostolic Christianity to some extent, it's not the genuine thing.

Okay, now some people when they're talking about revival, they're just talking, they're kind of make evangelism and revival synonymous. They're not the same thing. Awakening as a result of evangelism is what happens to the lost.

Revival is what happens to the church. When we come to the subject revival, it's a church thing, okay? Because I mean, how, what does it mean to be revived? But something that's threatening to become a corpse suddenly has new life breathed in it.

Well, you know what? The lost are already dead in their trespasses and sins. They can't be, you know, revived. They need to have new life for the first time. So the term revival doesn't really apply to them.

They need to be awakened to their need for Jesus and to, you know, righteousness through faith in the cross. Amen? So when we're talking about revival, we're talking about a church thing and we've been used so loosely the term revival that you know, it's primarily in a lot of more traditional circles.

It's, it's, it's defined as just an extended evangelistic crusade in a particular area. That's not revival. That's evangelism. That's good, but that's not what we're looking for. More evangelism out to the lost is not going to fix the problems in the church.

And I'll tell you, you know, I have a, it's so easy for the church at present to be critical of what's going on, say, in our society. You know, we're talking about, we love to talk, don't we, about our political leaders.

We love to talk about the sin and corruption in the world and the evil influences of the society at large. Let me just tell you something. Did you realize that for the first time that the, you know, that abortion and premarital sex and the divorce rates, those statistics in the church are every bit as high as they are in the, among the lost, among secular society today.

How are we going to confront them about their stuff and lead them and invite them to saving faith in Christ? What do we have to give? You know what I'm saying? That's why it's very important when we're trying to be evangelists or missionaries or whatever the case is.

What are you going to go tell them? An old, old story? You know, I mean, that's great. You're going to go to heaven one day. I love that part of the gospel, but you know what? That's not where people are living.

Right now, the guy needs the power of the Holy Ghost to bring healing to his family that with his wife is about to leave. The children are involved in drug abuse and all kinds of immorality. You know, there's, he can't handle his finances.

He needs salvation today in his own home. And unless we are empowered, the church is empowered in a new way to offer real answers to where people are living and dying today. We don't have much to offer.

Oh, yeah. Don't worry about that. I know your wife's about to leave you. You know, your kid's on crack and you just lost your job, but you'll go to heaven one day. You know what I'm saying? Give me a break.

I need salvation now where I'm at right now. You see what I'm saying? And unless we're partakers as the church of Jesus Christ, of power, of the spirit filled life, which Paul commanded us all to proscribe to.

OK, unless we are, you know, filled with God's spirit and influence and have a life that is empowered to live above the norm where society lives, what do we have to offer? See, this is why we need revival.

We need more than just secondhand religion. Well, somebody told me we don't need just somebody to parrot information. We need a revelation. I love 1 John 1. The apostles were the original witnesses. Right.

Experiential Faith and the Apostolic Witness

What did they share? They shared those things that they had seen with their own eyes, touched with their hands. They had experienced Christ. You know what? The original apostles, apart from their own personal testimony with the saving life of Christ, did not have a witness.

They didn't go around. Well, let me show you a neat scripture. OK, that was not the primary apostolic mode. They said, let me tell you what he's done in my life. You know what I'm saying? I'm not knocking the scriptures.

They're inspired. They're divine. They're awesome. We cannot do with this. This is our only rule and guide for life. This is how we test all things. But I'm telling you what, you have got to have more than some academic information to quote from this book.

You need an experience with Jesus Christ that has empowered you before you will have an effective witness. That's all. Think about it. That's all the apostles had. Think about Paul every time he got in front of the magistrate.

What did he tell him? Well, let me show you this King Agrippa. Let's turn over here. That's not what he said. He started telling them about his experience on the Damascus Road. He said, there is reality to this thing.

I have met the son of God. You know what I'm saying? It's interesting, isn't it? Our personal testimony is very vital when it comes to us being an effective witness and mobilizing anybody to do anything.

OK, I'm getting off on another trail here, but let me just let's get back to our definition of revival. We need this revival basically reignites our experience. It restores the joy of our salvation. You know why a lot of people don't share their faith with Christ?

Because it's something Jesus did so long ago. It's not pertinent. It's not today. If we are not experiencing Jesus Christ as a intimate person that is interacting with us and delivering us and helping us overcome.

The flesh on a day to day basis, we will not be excited and have joy in the spirit to share our testimony. You ever notice when God's really done something in your life, it's easy to tell other people.

Let me tell you what he did this week is awesome. He answered this prayer that he has delivered me from this. You know, I mean, that's how witnessing happens. And once we lose that edge, it's suddenly.

Well, I can tell you about back in 1981. You know, you know what I'm saying? That's not too impressive, guys. We need to be plugged in now, day to day. Today is the day of salvation. That needs to be the reality of our life.

OK, revival is it's it's not just something to make our church work better. It's not an evangelistic crusade. And it's not just some spiritual feeling or manifestation. You know, some people suppose that revival is kind of a thing and it, you know, you come in contact with it, you catch it.

And it overpowers you and throws you on the floor. Not to say that when the spirit of God does move on you, that that can't you can't throw you on the floor. But what I'm saying is it's not a thing. It's not an inanimate object.

Revival is the manifestation of the presence of Jesus Christ. It's all about Jesus. And if you mess up on this definition, all your your revival theology has a problem with it, because this is why a couple of things happen.

And this is why some people can be so critical of what God's doing in the church sometimes, because they consider revival as an it, something they can't hold and objectively, you know, examine, put down, take it or leave it.

When you recognize that revival, God breaking out among his people is a person, the person of Jesus. You got to walk with a little more fear of God than that. You're careful about that. At the same time, because you recognize that Jesus's revival is of the person of Christ, you're not flipping with him.

You're not casual. You're not loose. You're not careless. You know what I'm saying? You honor his presence. But it's it's his manifest presence. What is it? Psalms 80, 85, 6. It says, Revive us, O Lord, again, that we may be able to rejoice in you.

You know, Isaiah 64, Oh, that you, 64, 1, Oh, that you would come down and make the mountains melt and shake the earth. Let's look at that passage. I want you to show that it's the revival is the manifested presence of Christ.

Now, we're not talking about the omnipresence of Christ. Christ is, you know, God is everywhere at all times. But not all men are aware of him, are they? I mean, God is everywhere we go. We cannot escape his presence.

But out in society, the sinners, the lost a lot of times are totally unconscious of that he's there. And we're not talking about, you know, some guys really have a problem with this. What do you mean?

Oh, God come down. He's right here inside me by his spirit. He dwells inside me in my in my heart. That when we're talking about revival, we're not talking about the indwelling presence of Christ. We can be in a room like this and every one of these born again people can have the presence of the indwelling Christ.

But you know what? That doesn't mean that we're especially aware or conscious of that presence. We all know the difference when we're in a corporate meeting and we join in unity together to worship or pray or something.

And suddenly we're all aware simultaneously that God is there. See, he's manifesting himself. There's a difference between when he manifests himself and when he's just omnipresent or when he's dwelling inside our hearts.

When God is manifested, you're conscious, you're aware, you're attentive of him and you can't do the same things that you could do at other times. So we need God to manifest himself, to come back and visit his house, for us to be a habitation.

At corporately, we're looking when we're talking about revival, primarily, you know, a lot of people experience personal revival. But what we're looking for that changes our society, that ushers in thousands of the lost in seasons of awakening, is we need God's manifest corporate presence.

OK. Let's get to the scripture. Finally, I told you to look at. Isaiah 64 1. Get over there. Oh, that you would rend the heaven. We're not talking about it. We're not talking about a thing. We're not talking about a series of meetings.

We're talking. When does the earth change? When do things really happen? When he comes down. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, your presence.

It's his recognized presence that he is there. OK. As the fire burns the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence.

Guess what, folks? You guys that are really plugged in and excited about missions, the world isn't really going to be aware of God and the nations are not going to tremble. There's not going to be a radical shift in the whole way things are viewed till God comes down in a significant way.

You cannot separate the true missionary expansion in a serious way from true revival. They go hand in hand. Revival empowers the church to even care enough to finish the task. Did you get that? Revival empowers the church even to care.

What are we talking about when we're talking about the lost not being reached? We're talking about the church being loveless and not even given a rip. Right? They don't even care. Also, they're consumed with themselves.

Something needs to awaken their consciousness, conscious, so they'll care and love people, somebody outside their own circle. When God comes down, that's what happens. We get refreshed, renewed. Okay, so when we're talking about revival, we're talking about him.

Revival is not a publicity project. It's not even a well-planned evangelistic crusade. Nor is revival merely a means of emotional experience to be enjoyed. True revival is the manifest presence of the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth.

Revival in the last analysis is a visitation of Jesus in our midst. Therefore, we must remember that when speaking of revival, we're not referring to an inanimate event or force. We're speaking about him, his appearance, his presence, his workings, and his holy dealings in the lives of men.

Folks, when we approach this whole subject of revival, we do not need to walk in the fear of the Lord. God does things that sometimes are outside our understanding throughout the history of revival. And we're not talking about an it.

And if we're not careful, we can find ourselves criticizing what Jesus is doing in somebody else's life. You're not just criticizing a thing, you know, a manifestation or a meeting. Sometimes you can be guilty of criticizing the very person of Christ, what he's doing.

And I don't know about you, but I don't want to walk there. I want to be careful, OK? Because we're talking about Jesus, OK? And we're supposed to be his disciples, aren't we? Give me an example. The Welsh revival of 1904.

One little boy was overheard talking to another one. He says, do you know what's happened at Rose? It's a city in Wales. No, except that Sunday comes every day now. OK, now this is something about people's understanding of revival.

Oh, we have lots of meetings. No. Listen to how the little boy responded to him, to the other kid. No, why, Jesus has come to live in our town now. See, some people revival is just having lots of church meetings.

But people that really understand what God's doing, who have the inside track, they see. No, this is he's here. I think it was the dean from Asbury College in the revival that they had back in 71. He defined a revival as a whole community turning out to honor the manifest presence of Jesus Christ.

You know, Charles Finney talked about this. He'd come into areas where he would be evangelizing and be sharing the gospel. Whole communities were came just like enveloped with a blanket of God's presence.

You could come into these areas and sense that God was there. And it wasn't confined to the church house or to some Bible college. It was in the general public everywhere. An awareness of God. Duncan Campbell from the Hebrides Revival of 1948 to 52 talks about the same thing.

Be driving down the road, find some guy in the ditch, you know, right there in the field on his knees, crying out to God. He's miles from a church. You see what I'm talking about? This happened over and over again.

We're talking about a whole community awakened to that God is there and that he's accessible and available. Owen Murphy talking about the Hebrides Revival, he quotes, defines Royal this way. When men in the streets, in the streets, not the church, when men in the streets are afraid to open their mouths and utter godless words, let the judgment of God fall.

When sinners overawed by the presence of Jesus tremble in the streets and cry for mercy. When without special meetings and advertising, the Holy Ghost sweeps across cities and towns and supernatural power and holds men in the grip of terrifying conviction.

When every shop becomes a pulpit, every heart an altar, every home a sanctuary and people walk softly before God. This is revival. See, we're talking about something different than what we're commonly aware of right now.

God is trying to waken the church to a need for this. But as of yet, we have not really seen it. We have not seen it. And you know, it is my heart is that God would ruin you for revival. OK. I'll just share a little bit of my testimony.

Personal Conversion and a Call to Purpose

When I came to Jesus in 1981, God, it was a thing I was not looking for. He kind of overwhelmed me and started speaking to my heart. Apart from all I can accredit to is my mother's prayers, because no one was telling me about the gospel.

I had probably enough gospel in me to save China twice. OK. But I mean, I'd been plenty churched. All right. But all of a sudden, I had overwhelmed me a sense of the eternity of God. The Syrian is the Lord was dealing with my heart and telling me it was time to make some changes.

I was given all kinds of drug abuse and immorality and all kinds of wild stuff. And God started really getting my attention. And for about six weeks, he had me start counting the cost. And what I was dealing with this year, totally surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And then I finally got through that mental checklist of all my favorite sins and said, Lord, I surrender. I can't do this. He swept in and radically saved me and delivered me in a moment from all my addictions.

I mean, night and day, I was a different guy. And everybody around me. When I went to the church, I came to the church. I got already been doing some things. I got my commission and my calling to the ministry the same day I got saved.

In fact, part of the way that God started appealing to my heart is saying, David, you have a purpose, a destiny. There is something in your life that needs to count and needs to matter. And all I'd been living for was the next party.

The only reason why I went to work was to have enough money to buy my drugs for the next party. That was the only thing that remotely gave any kind of shape or form of discipline to my life. All right.

But I'll tell you what. He'd already speaking to me some things that he was wanting to do. He redefined by his spirit what the church was and what it meant to be a Christian. And I went to the church and I was bitterly disillusioned.

And when I started recognizing God saying, I want you to be in the ministry, I immediately identified with the pastor at that church. I said, God, I do not want to be that. I have no interest. That does not look appealing to me.

There is nothing about that that looks like I want to be. I was totally disillusioned. I feel there's a lot of young people that are exactly the same place. They know it's right to follow Jesus. They felt he's pulling on their heart.

And we've been the church is so busy trying to entertain young people, make them feel comfortable so they'll stay around. We've forgotten to challenge them that there's something more that they want. They want something to bring purpose to their life, not something just to live for and entertain, but something, you know, entertain them, but something to die for.

Vision, Restraint, and a Larger Calling

I need a definition. The scripture says where there is no vision, the people throw off restraint. And see, my life was out of control. I had nothing to give me enough focus. So I, you know, brought restraint into my life by God's spirit.

So part of what we're doing this weekend is offer vision. And I'm telling you, there is more to the church of Jesus Christ than what is presently or commonly acknowledged as acceptable Christianity today in America.

There's a whole lot more. And this is the generation that God wants to use to stir to lay hold of it and get a hold of it. We cannot be content with what the church is now. And you guys that have a heart for the world, that is God's heart.

But it will not get done till the church becomes something more than what she is right now. I'm telling you what, God's heart is broken for his house. You know, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

When Jesus, he wept over Jerusalem, he weeps over his people. And you guys, if you'll dare to take the time to ask him, he will give you his heart for the church. Not to be. And I'll tell you what, when you start accepting these ideas, you start entertaining these ideas.

There's also a threat. There's also a risk that you become bitter, independent, rebellious, critical. You know what I'm saying? We don't want that. That does nothing. But that's the enemy's way to derail your anointing and your gifting.

We've got to keep our spirit sweet. And you want to know where we keep it sweet? By all of our concern being birthed out of love and brokenness. Amen. We want to feel what Jesus felt about the church.

And that is, he was broken for. And I'll tell you what, Jesus is passionate about his bride. He longs for his bride to be in the right place. Just like John talked about yesterday, he wants her to do this thing with him.

He's out to get every tongue, tribe and nation of the world to snatch him from the jaws of hell. And he isn't content to do it alone. He won't do it alone. He has no body except us. And the only hope there is for the church really to finish the task is for them to do something new, a new dynamic, a new power, a new sense of revival to sweep in through the church for her to be purified and empowered.

In a new way. Amen. We can't do it the way we've been doing. It's never going to get done. You know, it's funny. We start talking about this AD2000 thing and beyond now, and they'll keep on saying beyond until they figure out they got to have revival coupled with the thing to get the job finished.

You know, they refer to the last millennium when the student volunteer movement got kicked off. You know what I'm saying? And at that time and at the turn of the century, God, you know, just pushed out thousands upon thousands of young college students and young people into the ends of the earth to bring in such a harvest that it was unprecedented in the history of the church.

But you know what the missiologists and the mobilizers forget to tell you? And we'll look at this next session. Is that that awesome harvest coincided and was preceded by one of the most awesome revivals that the world has ever seen?

In fact, all those those foot soldiers that John was talking about last night that did that work, they were influenced by men that had directly been in those revivals. They were the product of it. And in fact, they wouldn't even care to do the job unless something new would have happened in the church.

Do you see the connection, guys? We need to put down our prejudices. You know, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you a big prejudice we have when it comes to the subject of revival. Some of us, we need to turn that Christian television off.

OK, some of you guys get really messed up with that. All right. I'll tell you. And you know, your heart start going bananas, you know, when you say, what are they doing? You know, and you could just turn that thing off.

You can't handle it. All right. You get your heart goes bad places when you watch that thing. All right. So just accept that. And granted, there's some stuff that is being called Christianity that is.

It's embarrassing to Jesus. I'm just going to put it that way. And, you know, Lord have mercy on what's going on in so many circles. We're a mess. We're a mess. You know, we're either part of the problem or part of the solution.

And I'm afraid most of us still, to one extent or another, are part of what's making the church a mess. Amen. So we have to, revival has to start here, don't we? Doesn't it? But what I'm saying is that, you know, you need to not let that jade what God wants to do.

Now, that's not what God is saying. You know, some of many associate something we saw, some bad representation of, quote unquote, spirit filled Christianity. And so we're afraid of it. Did you know that's one of the biggest schemes of the enemy?

And if you're playing that game because you've seen some weird thing happen someplace that was associated with the term revival and you're running a hundred miles away from the thing, that's exactly what Satan wants you to do.

That's his scheme. That is his plot. One of the ways that the enemy keeps us out of large portions of truth of the word of God that we desperately need to finish the task is by actually tempting other portions of the body to be excessive or abusive or just flat out weird.

OK, with what it means to be a Christian. And another part of the body rebel, you know, is repelled by that and doesn't want anything to do with that. I've done this many times, but I'll tell you, I'll give you the illustration that God uses me.

A lot of you guys have maybe heard me use this, but, you know, I was a carpenter for six, seven years. And I mean, that's what I used every day to build houses and do work on houses and stuff. OK, so now you tell me how much sense this would make.

I'm, you know, I coming out my house one day and there's some guy to greet me with a 16 ounce S wing claw hammer, OK, and beats me over the head with it real good. Drops me on the front porch. Oh, my goodness.

Got a bunch of knots and I got to go to the hospital. You know, it's a bad deal. Somebody beat me up with that claw hammer. But then I got to go to work after I get healed up. And sure enough, look what's sitting in my toolbox.

Wow. What is that? You know, get that away from me. You know what I'm saying? That's the thing that hurt me the other day. No, that'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it? That's the tool of my trade. I got to pick that up because I got to build the house.

Get the job done. And so what some of us, the logic that we're using is because somebody, some folks in the church have misused legitimate tools of the spirit, but they've misused them in bad, ugly ways.

Some of us have become alienated away from legitimate tools in the church to build God's house. What are you going to do? Somebody beats you up with a tire iron. What are you going to do next time you have a flat tire?

Oh, I'm sorry, man. I'm out of here. You're going to have to call the tow truck. I cannot get this vehicle home because I will not touch that thing. You know what I'm saying? That's our attitude in the church sometimes.

That thing hurt me. You know what I'm saying? I had a bad experience one time eating. Somebody brought me some food from a German restaurant for about, I'm not kidding you, for a year and a half. I, when I drove down that street, I would turn my head the other direction.

I would not look at that restaurant because it brought back such bad memories. OK, well, this is how we're kind of designed. And the enemy knows this. He knows that if he can get us to associate a good thing, a God thing with a negative experience, we will withdraw from it.

And the enemy has special delight and goes out of his way really hard to make us keep us from the very things that we need the most. OK, so all this in connection with the term revival, you know, that draws off all kinds of image.

Let's redefine it. That's what we're doing. OK, well, we haven't got very far yet. Well, let's talk about these two streams. You know, what the Lord really wants us to do is he wants to raise up a generation that will be willing to go new places.

The Pioneer Spirit and New Spiritual Roads

I had an interesting experience about two months ago. I was I've been kind of working on this message. I'm also writing an article on the subject for the newsletter. And I was driving to town one day.