Revival Conference 2007 - Gareth Evans - Part 5 — Gareth Evans

Christ's Commandment to Love One Another

Did Jesus have a new commandment, I give you, that you love one another? He didn't give us an option. He didn't say, love those who are of the same church as you, love those who have the same style of worship as you, love those who agree with you doctrinally.

He said, love one another. I do not give you an option. And brothers and sisters, we need to prepare ourselves by beginning to love one another in the best way that we can, allowing His Spirit to enable us.

And we've got differences, divisions. When I see Christians writing in secular newspapers complaining about other Christians, my heart is grieved. He didn't give you an option. He didn't say to you, what do you think of His new commandment?

The King of kings demands of His people, love one another. Why is it that when people go and pastors apply for jobs in churches, I've been involved in two churches recently, we're looking for pastors.

Love as the First Qualification for Church Leadership

They've asked me to fill in interim pastor. And I've asked the search committee, have you got a job description for your new pastor? Oh, yes. We want a man who can preach, a man who relates to young people very well, a man who's young in spirit, but a man who relates.

You know, we've got this list of things. And I ask him this question, does it say anywhere in there, he shall love his people? That's the number one commandment, the number one condition. I was talking to a brother, a satiricist earlier.

He tells me the blessing of the church he now attends because the people there love one another. Is that right, Ralph? That is the characteristic of your church, of all of us, that they love one another.

He told me that the symbol of their church is a cross with a heart. And he says they live that way. Present yourself. How can I present myself? With clean hands, with a pure heart. And some of you have heard the story of the Hebrides revival, and the catalyst that broke it was when a young deacon in a barn, praying with some others, cried out to God and said, Are my hands clean?

Is my heart pure? Oh God, I'm praying for revival, but I realize that I come before you and present myself. My hands aren't clean. My heart is not pure. Moses, you want to see my glory? I prepared a place by me on the rock.

Preparing to Encounter God's Glory

Present yourself. Prepare yourself. Come to the rock. You want to see my glory? Brothers and sisters, if I want to know the glory of God in my life, if I want to know the deeper, deeper experience of God, if I want to see the glory of God in my church, in my community, I've got to get myself prepared.

I've got to present myself humbly, broken, but with pure hands and a clean heart, washed. And Moses comes up, and God says to him as he comes up on the rock, I'm going to put you in the cleft. I'd like to believe, brothers and sisters, we've come from many parts of the world, and this is the cleft of the rock.

I'd like to believe that. And God has drawn us aside, and he's hiding us, he's taken us from our worldly pursuits and things we normally do, and he's brought us here. And my hunger is that as we leave here, God will take his hand away, and we begin to see his glory passing by.

Revival History and the Fire of God's Presence

What happened in Wales in 1904? What happened in the Hebrides in the 50s? What happened in Saskatoon? And in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, I believe, was God passing by. I want to see God passing by.

I want to see God visit this heart of mine to keep on shining a flame that is already birthed within me. I'm not, I don't know how much longer I've got to live, but I hope the flame burns brightly for the moment I enter into his presence.

My prayer these days, I have a lot to do with young people, I have a lot of work on the university, I have a lot of faith with university students. My prayer for those university students is that the fire in me will become contagious.

I want to see a fire burn upon this land. And I just pray that as we leave here, that God will remove in your life, and in your circumstance, in your church, just remove his hands that you and I will begin to see his glory.

Amen? When I came, I guess this is five years ago, I was in Victoria. A young man from university asked me to go to his home to pray with him. And he said, Pastor Gareth, will you come and speak to us a little bit about intercession?

Passionate Intercession and the Birth of a Revival Community

I went to his home, and prior to going I looked into Strong's Concordance, intercession, Old Testament, Hebrew word quava, which literally means to come forcefully against. But only speaking for five minutes, I went to the house, there were four university students, and a friend and three I did not know.

I said those words, I said, I just looked at quava, and a young man by me started to weep. I wondered what was wrong. And then after I finished, we came into prayer. When I went home at 11 o 'clock at night, I walked into my house, I said to my wife Anne, I said, I have been so blessed.

I have been taken into heaven today by four young men who know how to reach into the heavens and pray. These men were passionate, passionate in praying for our city of Victoria. I discovered that they were passionate because they had been turned on to God in a very deep way by a web page called Sermon Index.

Discovering Sermon Index and Revival Preaching

The next day I get on my computer, I look up Sermon Index. Lewis, revival in heaven, oh yes! Listen to Duncan come, my heart burning within me. Evan Robertson, well she's alive, oh yeah! I spent the day fasting, basking, loving revival.

I downloaded sermon after sermon by Paris Reader and A .W. Tozer. I loaded my MP3 player. There were 4 ,000 sermons I could download. I could live the rest of my life on these men. I started telling people about this web page.

Oh, get involved, get on it, on my emails. Try this web page, and every one of them. But over the next four years, this web page grew and grew and grew until there were 15 ,000 almost, 14 ,000 sermons.

Plus another few thousand video ones, plus a few text ones you could download. Then there was magazine, you could read. I got lost, I got lost. The little copse of water became a forest and I was lost.

So I wrote to the web page. Now you know a web page can originate in Australia, South Africa, who knows. I said, I'm loving your web page so much, I'm recommending it to so many people, but I find I'm getting lost now.

I love turning on to some of these sermons and I'm listening to a good, godly man, but that's not interesting to me because my heart burns for revival. Can it be possible for you to index some of these speakers so I know that when I get on to Ralph Zipper, I know what I'm going to get?

I'm a retired pastor. I live in Victoria, Canada. I said I've been touched by revival. I yearn for revival. A day later I got an email back that said, Oh, I live in Kelowna, which is 10 hours away from where I live.

Mentoring a Young Man of God

I'm moving to Victoria this week. Will you mentor me? There is nothing, nothing, nothing delights the heart of a pastor, shepherd, more than mentoring a young man of God. The following week there was a knock on my front door and I went and there was a 6 '7 giant.

He said, hello. He said, I'm Greg Gordon. For the last seven months I have been so blessed that God has given me the opportunity to spend hours each week. I think he comes to my house for two reasons.

I think he does like being in my presence, but my wife makes the most delicious Welsh cakes. Whenever Greg comes, she gives him a big box of Welsh cakes. I want to tell you right now, I've come to know and love this brother deeply.

He is a young man who is very humble. This ministry started by him being given a book by Leonard Ravenhill called Wild Revival Tarrys. He was so moved by this book and he contrasted with his Presbyterian church.

He's only been a Christian now 10 years. Only 10 years of being a Christian. He was so contrasted that he tried to contact Leonard Ravenhill. He got in contact with Leonard Ravenhill, I believe it's his grandson's wife.

I may not have got that correct, but I think he was. In talking with her, she was so enthused with this young man on the phone that she said, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to send you some of the tapes and books of my grandfather, Greg.

I guess Greg was expecting a little box. He gets this big box. He calls her back and he's just overwhelmed with this material from Leonard Ravenhill. He calls, he said, can I duplicate these? Can I give them to other people?

She said, you can do what you want with them. Just send me the originals back. He was working in Toronto University at that time. He had people working under him. He was working in the computer department.

He had a whole floor. It was his responsibility. She put these on the webpage. I'm telling you, brother, I believe, I tell you with authority here, that God put his anointing upon that webpage. We're here today.

Many of you are here today because you saw this conference on that webpage.