We Can Take the City — Michael L. Brown

God, I pray again that You would give us ears to hear what Your Spirit is saying. I thank You for the anointing and life of Your Spirit. I thank You for this Word that You've laid on my heart. May it come with power and with force.

May it open our hearts and minds as well. May a spirit of faith rise within us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Turn with me to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Most of you here have known me for some years. Some of you don't know me that well.

The Gospel Reaches Cities Through Ordinary Believers

But I want to make it clear that I am not into empty talk. I am not into American hype. I have gone overseas many a time to minister and apologized for what Americans have done before we got there. And for sometimes big talk, big announcements, and the reality not lining up with it.

I have no desire to just speak into the air and get us excited about nothing. If God had not really been challenging me about these things and speaking to me about these things and giving me a word, I wouldn't be bringing them.

So I don't want you to just hear this in terms of me trying to get you encouraged and excited. I certainly don't want you to hear it as just some visionary with empty vision, speaking empty words. To the extent this bears witness with your heart and to the extent you see this as scriptural, I urge you to embrace this.

But I want to say to you today when I speak of city, I'm speaking of the greater Charlotte region, as we're slightly north here. I want to say quite plainly to fire and to other believers in churches and communities in this region, we can take the city.

We can take the city. There can be a dynamic, radical effect of God on this city and region to the point it gets the attention of the nation. Acts chapter 8, after great persecution to the believers in Jerusalem, they scatter.

Verse 4, those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.

With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city. God came down through the preaching of the gospel in a demonstrable way.

Lives were radically changed and affected. The Samaritans who were kind of outcast and looked at as half-breed Jews by the other Jews, they received the word, and there was great joy in the city. And when you get down to verse 14, it says, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

There was this concept that people representing a city, a region, had received the gospel, and that's how it's described here. Samaria had received the gospel, and therefore the apostles went. There was great joy in that city.

God's Perspective Is Greater Than Human Unbelief

I want to lay a foundation for you scripturally, and I want to give you a vision from the Lord in terms of what he's saying to us. First thing is this, God's plans are bigger than ours. God's plans are bigger than ours.

I want you to consider his perspective when we talk about, we can take this city, we can make an impact, we, together with other believers in this region, can see this place turn upside down for the glory of God.

I want you to consider God's perspective. That's not a troubling statement to him. That's not one of those statements where he says, oh, come on, you've got to be kidding, it could never happen. You just have to remember when we're talking about God and the one we serve, we're talking about the one whom before the creation of the universe, he had existed forever.

And the universe that we keep discovering more and more and more and more of his creation, in universes, within universes, and it's endless. If we had eternity to search it out, we wouldn't find the end of it.

He made it. He knows the end from the beginning. He could snap his fingers and make it all again. From his perspective, this is not some big thing. God's plans are bigger than ours. And throughout the word, he's constantly rebuking his people and challenging his people because of their unbelief.

Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? I mean, even in crazy situations where it looks like a boat's going to capsize and experienced sailors think they're going to be drowned, when Jesus rebukes the storm, he says, why did you doubt?

You know, walking on the water in the midst of a storm, why did you doubt? Could there be any question about it? Jesus is saying, with me being who I am, how could you possibly doubt? When you really think of it, as much as we know about God and as much as we know the truth of his word, unbelief is really perverse.

Unbelief really doesn't make any sense at all. It's a complete denial of everything we base our entire lives on. God's plans are bigger than ours. When Jeremiah prays, the city of Jerusalem is about to come down in Jeremiah 32, and he prays this prayer and he confesses to God and says, God, there's nothing too hard for you.

It's amazing. Later on, God comes back to Jeremiah and says, is there anything too hard for me? It's easy for you to say, do you really believe that? Do we really believe all things are possible to him who believes?

Listen, to me, this is a very minor thing to speak of, in terms of the stuff that we pray for, in terms of praying for the glory of God to fill the earth as the waters cover the seas, in terms of praying for the fullness of the Gentiles to come in, in terms of praying for all Israel to be saved.

This is a very minor thing. Still, I want us to look at it head on and realistically. We can take the city. In the Scriptures, Isaiah 55, where God says that His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts, that's not just a statement, that's a call for repentance in context.

In other words, change your thoughts, change your ways, and adjust to my thoughts and my ways. We would do more if we took on God's perspective. We would be more effective if we recognized what He's given us as His children, and that He's committed the work to us, and that He has great, massive plans.

God's plans are bigger than ours. Number two, God has plans for cities and regions. God has plans for cities and regions. You ever hear of the city of Jerusalem? You ever hear the exhortation in Psalm 122 and Isaiah 62, to pray unceasingly for Jerusalem, to be established as a praise in all the earth?

You ever read the promises in Isaiah 2, that from Jerusalem, the Word of the Lord will go out to the entire world? Jesus' words in Matthew 23, that He doesn't return until Jerusalem welcomes Him back.

God has plans and purposes for cities and regions. And I just want to show you this quickly, going through the book of Acts. You can just jot these references down. Acts 6 -7. So the Word of God spread.

The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly. And a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Acts 6 -7. If it's alive, it grows. Something is alive, it's growing, either in numbers, or in strength, or in wisdom, or in maturity.

But if it's alive, it grows. By Acts 21, they can talk about millions of believers, thousands, tens of thousands of Jewish believers in the city. We read Acts 8. Take a look at Acts 9. Acts 9 -32. As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda.

There he found a man named Anais, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. Anais, Peter, said to him, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat. Immediately Anais got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

A miracle happens, and there's a mass turning in a region. And then it goes on with Joppa and the raising of Tabitha from the dead. And look at what it says in verse 42. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

Acts 18. Paul gets to Corinth. What does God say to him? Acts 18, verse 9. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you.

Because I have many people in this city. Many people. Many people who belong to me. Many people I'm working on that I'm going to bring to myself. I have many people in this city. Don't back down. So Paul stayed for a year and a half, which was a long time for him, teaching them the Word of God.

Acts Shows the Gospel Shaking Cities and Regions

Acts 19. Seven Jewish men try to drive out a demon from someone in the name of Yeshua, but they don't know him. They get beaten up severely. People start to revere the Word of the Lord. Before that, Acts 19 .11.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured, and the evil spirits left them. Obviously, people hearing about this, they want to try to do the same things in Jesus' name.

And when they can't, and the demons say, we know Jesus, and we know about Paul, but who are you? The name of Jesus is held in high honor. Verse 17. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear.

The name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly.

When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50 ,000 drachmas. For those of you who don't know drachmas, a drachma, according to the note in my Bible, says, was a silver coin worth about a day's wages.

You say, well, brother, you're the biblical scholar. Why don't you just tell us what it means? Because I never paid attention to coins and those things, so I use the note here in the Bible. In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

God moving in a city, in a region, something happening, getting attention, turning hearts, and there's a massive effect. Take a look at a few other references. Go back to Acts 16. As God's working in Philippi, and people are getting saved, and now a demon is driven out of a girl, and it has a key effect.

Look what's written in Acts 16, 20. The owners of this slave girl used to be a fortune teller. A demon's driven out of her. She can't tell fortunes. They can't make money. They get upset. They bring Paul and Silas before the magistrates.

Verse 20, they said, These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar. By advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. Look in chapter 19, verse 29. As a result of idol worshippers getting saved, it hurts the idol business.

Remember, good business for the kingdom of God means bad business for the kingdom of hell. If God's really moving in an area, if God's really moving in a nation, and the church is rising, it should have an effect on the business of the kingdom of hell.

Acts 19, 29. Soon the whole city was in an uproar. It's often been said that when the apostles came into a city, they had either revival or riot or both. And look at Acts 21. Acts 21. As Paul comes into the city, there's an uproar.

City of Jerusalem, verse 30. The whole city was aroused. Whole city was aroused. End of verse 31. The whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. I'm talking about King Jesus getting attention and the devil getting stirred.

And the devil stirring opposition. And people being touched and lives being changed. God moving in a city and doing something. God moving in a region. Happened throughout the world. It's happened throughout history.

Charles Finney and the Transformation of Rochester

One of my favorite examples is from the ministry of Charles Finney in Rochester. Rochester, New York. 1830. I just want to read a few paragraphs from his account. Maybe some of you have never heard this.

We talk about this in fire school in the revival history class. But I want to read a little bit more. 1830. Leaving New York, I spent a few weeks in Whitestown. And as was common, being pressed to go in many directions.

Finney was born in 1792, died in 1875. So he's in the height of his early revival ministry here. But among others, an urgent invitation was received from the third Presbyterian church in Rochester, of which Mr. Parker had been pastor, to go there and supply them for a season.

I inquired into the circumstances and found that, on several accounts, it was a very unpromising field of labor. There were but three Presbyterian churches in Rochester. The third church that extended the invitation had no minister, and religion was in a low state.

The second church, or, quote, the brick church, as it was called, had a pastor, an excellent man, but in regard to his preaching, there was considerable division in the church, and he was restive and about to leave.

There was a controversy existing between an elder of the third church and the pastor of the first church that was about to be tried before the Presbytery. This and other matters had aroused unchristian feeling, to some extent, in both churches.

And altogether, it seemed a forbidding field of labor at that time. The friends of Rochester were exceedingly anxious to have me go there. I mean, the members of the third church. Being left without a pastor, they felt as if there was great danger that they would be scattered and perhaps annihilated as a church, unless something could be done to revive religion among them.

Not a promising situation. With these pressing invitations before me, I felt, as I often have done, greatly perplexed. I remained at my father-in-law's and considered the subject until I felt that I must take hold and work somewhere.

So they'd get together with praying friends, they'd discuss the issue, and they all agreed. Everyone agreed. They were unanimous in the opinion that Rochester was too uninviting a field of labor to be put at all in competition with New York or Philadelphia and some other fields to which I was then invited.

They were firm in the conviction that I should go east from Utica and not west, etc. So he agrees. That's the direction he's going. He's not heading to Rochester. But after I retired to my lodging, the question was presented to my mind under a different aspect.

Something seemed to question me. What are the reasons that deter you from going to Rochester? I could readily enumerate them, but then the question returned, ah, but are these good reasons? Certainly you are needed at Rochester all the more because of these difficulties.

Do you shun the field because there are so many things that need to be corrected, because there is so much that is wrong? But if all was right, you would not be needed. Just to interject something, there was a leader in the Assemblies of God some years ago when God started to deal with him about revival.

And he was preaching at one particular church and it was very hard and very difficult. And he left there and he said, God, they need someone to raise them from the dead. And God said to him, what were you doing there?

What do you think I sent you there for? I remember ministering in Finland one time and man, it just seemed to hit a wall. And it was so much traditional religion. And they were joking with me. They said, you know, the ice is so thick here.

If we like the message on Sunday, we say amen on Wednesday. And just, you know, it seemed like, how do you break through? I remember just after the first day or two, this excitement started to rise in my heart.

This is what I'm made for. This is where we're supposed to be. The drier it is, the easier it is for fire to spread and burn. Let it be. And by the way, I don't look at Charlotte as an area like that at all.

So how much more can we believe God to do something here? I soon came to the conclusion, Finney says, that we were all wrong and that the reasons that had determined us against my going to Rochester were the most cogent reasons for my going.

I felt ashamed to shrink from undertaking the work because of its difficulties. And it was strongly impressed upon me that the Lord would be with me. And that was my feel. My mind became entirely decided before I retired to rest that Rochester was the place to which the Lord would have me go.

So they get on their way to go. Everybody's surprised by it. They begin preaching. Look at what he says. There were very soon some very marked conversions. The wife of a prominent lawyer in that city was one of the first converts.

She was a woman of high standing, a lady of culture and extensive influence. Her conversion was a very marked one. And he realized in his preaching he had a challenge even more. He said, I had found also that something was needed to make the impression on them that they were expected at once to give up their hearts.

Something that would call them to act. And act as publicly before the world as they had in their sins. Something that would commit them publicly to the service of Christ. When I called them simply to stand up in the public congregations, I found this had a very good effect.

And so far as it went, it answered the purpose for which it was intended. But after all, I had felt for some time that something more was necessary to bring them out from among the mass of the ungodly to a public renunciation of their sinful ways and a public committal of themselves to God.

And after he's calling for repentance, he says, a much larger number came forward than I expected. And among them was another prominent lady and several others of her acquaintance and belonging to the same circle of society came forward.

This increased the interest among that class of people. You start getting significant conversions among a certain class of people or strata in society or whatever the situation is, and it stirs the attention and the interest of that group.

Negative, positive, it stirs things. It was soon seen that the Lord was aiming at the conversion of the highest classes of society. My meetings soon became thronged with that class. The lawyers, physicians, merchants, and indeed all the most intelligent people became more and more interested and more and more easily influenced.

Very soon, the work took effect extensively among the lawyers in that city. There has always been a large number of the leading lawyers of the state resident at Rochester. The work soon got hold of numbers of these.

I'm just going to read a little bit more of the account. There was at that time a high school in Rochester presided over by a Mr. B, the son of A .B., then pastor of the church at Brighton near Rochester.

It just leaves out some of the names. Mr. B was a skeptic but was at the head of a very large and flourishing school. As the school was made up of both sexes, a Miss A was his assistant and associate at the school at that time.

Miss A was a Christian woman. The students attended the religious services, and many of them soon became deeply anxious about their souls. One morning, Mr. B found that his classes could not recite. They couldn't do their lessons.

They couldn't repeat things because they're under conviction. When he came to have them before him, they were so anxious about their souls that they wept. And he saw that they were in such a state that it very much confounded him.

He called his associate, Miss A, and told her that the young people were so exercised about their souls that they could not recite, and asked if they could not better send for Mr. Finney to give them instruction.

She afterwards informed me of this and said that she was very glad to have him make the inquiry and most courageously advised him to send for me. He did so, and the revival took tremendous hold of that school.

Mr. B himself was soon hopefully converted, and nearly every person in the school. When he says hopefully converted, it means for everything you can tell, the person was saved. So this schoolmaster has been an unbeliever.

A few years since, Miss A informed me that more than 40 persons that were then converted in that school had become ministers. That was a fact that I had not known before. She named many of them to me at the time.

A large number of them became foreign missionaries. Finney says this revival made a great change in the moral state and subsequent history of Rochester. The great majority of the leading men and women in the city were converted.

Do you hear that line? The great majority of the leading men and women in the city were converted. He talks about the spirit of prayer that prevailed. Then he gives this account. I have said that the moral aspect of things was greatly changed by this revival.

It was a young city, full of thrift and enterprise, and full of sin. The inhabitants were intelligent and enterprising in the highest degree. But as the revival swept through the town and converted the great mass of the most influential people, both men and women, the change in the order, sobriety, and morality of the city was wonderful.

At a subsequent period, I was conversing with a lawyer who was converted at this revival, who I have been speaking, and who soon after had been made district attorney of the city. His business was to superintend the prosecution of criminals.

From his position, he was made thoroughly acquainted with the history of crime in that city. And speaking of the revival in which he was converted, he said to me many years afterward, I have been examining the records of the criminal courts, and I find this striking fact that whereas our city has increased since that revival threefold, so it's three times as big.

He's writing many years later. Our city has increased since that revival threefold. There are not one-third as many prosecutions for crime as there had been up to that time. The city is three times bigger, and prosecutions for crime are less than one-third of what they were when it was smaller.

And this is a district attorney giving the figures. This is, he said, the wonderful influence that revival had upon the community. Indeed, by the power of that revival, public sentiment has been molded, Finney says.

The public affairs of the city have been, in a great measure, in the hands of Christian men, and the controlling influences in the community have been on the side of Christ. About 11, 12 years ago, Nancy's dad, who's now deceased, decided to just get our family a subscription to Reader's Digest.

So we started getting Reader's Digest. And Nancy read an article in there and told me, you really need to read this article. And I thought of doing it, and planned on doing it, and had a notion to do it, but forgot about it.

Some months later, I was preaching in California, and a pastor said, have you seen this article? And I read this incredible article in Reader's Digest. I mean, it was an amazing article. And, of course, I immediately wanted to tell Nancy about this incredible article that I had read, which was that very article that she had told me to read.

Probably the only time that's ever happened in our 29 years of marriage, but that's why I remember it so well. But listen to this. And I did have that sneaking thought, as Toby sits there smiling in the front row.

I did have that sneaking thought as I went to tell her about this amazing article that perhaps is the one that she had mentioned to me earlier. So look, this is Reader's Digest, okay? This is not Christianity Today or Charisma magazine.

This is not some evangelist newsletter. This is Reader's Digest. 1994, July 1994. And, by the way, I'm not saying, we know it's true because Reader's Digest said so. That's not my point, okay? What I mean is that this is just the perspective of someone writing for a secular publication, okay?

The article is called Our Kindest City. 1994. Finney is there in Manchester in 1830, okay? Tompkins wondered, John S. Tompkins wrote the article. Tompkins wondered why it was that the city of Rochester, New York was rated the kindest, most altruistic city in the nation in two separate polls.

One taken in 1940. Come on, 1940. It's 110 years after Finney. Give me a break. And the other from 1990 to 1992. That's over 160 years later. We could add up the age of most of the people in our student body and it doesn't equal 160.

Slight exaggeration. This is Reader's Digest. This is his answer. In 1830, this is, and I'm quoting, Finney spent six months in Rochester. Charles Finney spent six months in Rochester. This is the subject of the article.

And converted hundreds of residents, lawyers, doctors, judges, tradesmen, bankers, boatmen, workers, master craftsmen, to born-again Christianity. He scorched their consciences and urged them not to follow the selfish ways of the world.

Finney angrily denounced the evils of selfishness and deliberately aimed his message at the wealthy and powerful because he saw that's how God was moving there and that's what he was going after. Having converted the affluent, Finney's final step was to get them to direct their energy and wealth into beneficial philanthropies, to start giving in constructive ways to help other human beings.

He was amazingly successful. Rochester embarked on a church-building boom. Rochesterians went on to establish a university, organize charities and self-help agencies, build a public school system, fight against slavery.

The city was a station on the Underground Railroad which smuggled slaves into Canada because Finney was an activist and an abolitionist against slavery. Formed unions and reformed prison system. Rochester became a city where love for one's fellow man was more than an empty phrase.

Because of a revival that took place a century and a half earlier, people are still writing about it. Because God got a hold of people and there was a mindset and a strategy. There's another account that records that before his ministry there were 100 pubs and taverns serving alcoholic beverages and he also preached strongly against drinking.

After the revival there was one out of 100 left open. The bad news is that Charles Finney is not alive and here today. The better news is we are. There's a whole army of people all over this region in different places, in different pockets, in different churches, in different communities with an anointing from God and a calling from God and a vision from God to bring about change.

Not just to have religious activity. Not just to have good services. Not just to build a building. Not just to have nice words and meetings. But to bring about change. That's what we live for. That's why Jesus put us here.

Charlotte's God-Ordained Purpose and Regional Revival

I want to say a few things very specifically to us here. And please remember again the person bringing this to you. In my own heart and mind when God was calling us out of Pensacola if I picked any place to be we would have been in New York.

God had to overcome some resistance in me in terms of just staying in the south and then the question is well why Charlotte? I mean why? There's so many other places we could be. And that may be the same question that others were asking as God sent them here a year ago, two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, however long it is.

I want to say clearly that God brought us here, fire, for a specific purpose. And he's raised up and planted many other churches and ministries here in this region for a specific purpose. We are here because of a God-ordained purpose.

Do you understand that? It's not just that well when you figure it out, there is an international airport that's better than Pensacola. It's true. I learned in Pensacola that if you're a Christian and you die in Pensacola you go to heaven by way of Atlanta.

Not an easy place to get in. Well, there's an international airport. Hey, there are plenty of other places in America with international airports. Some of them with several. Well, you know, there are plenty of places with more universities.

We had all these reasons. I mean we knew God was speaking to us to come. He spoke it to some on the team and then confirmed it to me and to others. But we got here, we started driving around. I remember Nancy and I just driving around thinking, all right, why here?

And it was clear, it's because God has a purpose. Because there's something God wants to do. Oh, there are other things we've prayed through in terms of logistics and where and this and that and other things.

He's still speaking to us about details and where we'll ultimately get planted with our own facility. Certain things we know, certain things we don't know. But I'm just telling you when we got here and we're driving around, we concluded the only reason we're here is because God wants to pour out His Spirit in this area.

He's brought a lot of people here and others have been laboring here for years before we got here to share together in something He wants to do. And I'll say it again. I believe He wants to do it in such a way it gets the attention of the nation and becomes an example of what He can do in a region.

I believe that. And I don't think God's saying, you believe that? Oh, no, what are we going to? I don't think God is flabbergasted by that. God is thrown by that. God's put a world-changing DNA and the DNA of citywide revival into fire, and we can live with nothing less.

We had a friend visiting with us, a woman that's been in ministry for a good number of years. She was in the service Thursday night. We were just talking about the spiritual atmosphere, and she said, I felt so strongly I was in the midst of so many people who were hungry to be world changers, not for our praise or glory because we're anything, but because it's the heart of Jesus.

Smith Wigglesworth, the apostle of faith, used to say that the key to being a soul winner is to remember that the Savior of the world lives inside of you. Listen, it burns in our hearts as we send out workers around the world and other parts of the country that have that same mentality.

We want to see a nation touch. We want to see things shake, even if it seems crazy. Look, it was crazy a few years ago. I believe it was October 12th, about three years back, that our fire team in Holland, two and a half years back, our fire team in Holland, which is a good-sized group now, but at that point just had four full-time people, at the front page of one of the leading newspapers in the country, front page story about the fire base in Holland.

Their story was right above the picture of Jimmy Carter receiving the Nobel Prize. Come on, what in the world are we doing on the front page? It's because God said, I'm going to use you to shake nations, have an influence, have a voice.

Listen, it has nothing to do with our ability or our wisdom or strength. It has to do with His ability and wisdom and strength. It has to do with the largeness of His vision and the largeness of His calling.

Why minimize it? Look, I'm a Jew, and my heart beats for my people, but I see God's vision for our people, for my Jewish people, is massive. Why shouldn't I share that vision and that burden? Anyone with a heart for missions, why shouldn't they share the largeness of the heart of God who wants to see a multitude that no one can number, from every people and background?

What else should light think when it goes into dark places except it's going to shine and bring about change? And if it dies in the process, so be it, but it's going to die for the glory of God. And while it has breath in life, if it's 80 or 90 years or 20, it's going to live for the glory of God.

Revival's Social Impact and the Call to Regional Action

Some of us were in the midst of revival in Pensacola and saw how God could just light up a place and bring people from around the world. And there are places even lesser than Pensacola and more obscure and more isolated where God moved and people came flocking from all over, and it was His way of saying, it's my glory and my honor.

And although there was not a unified effort with churches coming together with a strategy to touch the city, and perhaps the flood of revival and people coming from around the world took away some of that vision, but a lot did happen.

I was sharing with our students the other day a note that I had from September of 1996 from the youth pastor at Brownsville then, who's now pastoring in Michigan, actually in Rochester, Michigan, now that I think of it.

And I was just looking at some of the things that were happening. For example, in the 32 campuses in the county, junior high, high school campuses, before revival, there were only three Bible clubs on the campuses.

And then within a year and a half of revival, there were 32 Bible clubs on the campuses. And the previous year, just at the very beginning of revival, when they had See You at the Pole event where kids come in the morning and pray at the flagpoles.

September of 1995, there were 300 kids at the flagpoles. September of 1996, there were 2 ,000 that gathered for prayer at the flagpoles, including some who preached the gospel and gave an altar call. I personally met with the superintendent of schools as I was about to debate a critic of the revival in late 1997.

I met with him personally to ask him what was the effect of the revival, what's positive, what's negative. He said, nothing negative to say, but let me tell you some of the fruit in the schools. And he went on to do, he said, in fact, the school where I was the principal, let me tell you exactly what happened there.

That just gives us a glimpse. We think, man, if God pours out His Spirit and we can focus in the midst of that, on the region, on the area, and people can come together with a voice and a mind and a plan from God to do something, who knows what can happen?

It's just in us. God put it in us. It's not a matter of being bigger or better than someone else. It's just part of who we are. And he put this in many other hearts and minds. And to just go on with life and ministry and services and congratulate ourselves because things are going well, without bringing about change, man, that doesn't appeal to us at all.