(Compilation) Revival Or We Die — Michael L. Brown

Holy Desperation as Spiritual Hunger

Holy desperation is a driving, insatiable, dominating hunger. Holy desperation is the only way to receive real treasures from God. Holy desperation is the only thing that will make us fit and able to receive from God.

Hunger Like the Deer in Psalm 42

Desperation is more than normal hunger. It's hunger at the point of death, the hunger of survival in the midst of famine and drought. Many of us know the words of Psalm 42 as the deer longs for streams of water, so my heart longs after you.

Audible Hunger for God

We talk about being hungry for God, but we know very little about hunger, friends. We know very little about real hunger, starving hunger that drives people to do desperate things. Friends, the Hebrew word used there in Psalm 42 for the deer that's panting for streams of water is actually an audible hunger.

It's a craving that's so loud that it would actually give utterance to a sound. Panting, thirsting after streams of water. Friend, are you panting? Are you thirsting after God like an animal would be in the desert that's going to die if it doesn't get to water?

Hunger for Souls, Revival, and God's Glory

You're hungering for souls and for the glory of God, the way someone would be hungering for food and famine. Or would you really like to see the Lord do more? Would you really like to see the Lord send revival?

Would you really like to see your nation touched, and would you really like to see the blessing of the Lord in your life? Friend, you know the difference. You know the difference. Desperate starvation will drive people to do desperate things.

Making Room for God

When it's turned toward God, friend, desperate hunger and starving hunger for the glory of God can shake whole nations. Friends, let me ask you a question. How much room is there for God in your life?

How much capacity is there for God in your life? We're not talking about saved room for dessert, friends. We're talking about holy starvation. To the degree of hunger, to that degree God can fill. God's purposes come to pass when your heart and mind get the real God cry, and the real God prayer comes into our spirit, and the real God yearning gets hold of our nature.

The Supreme Cry of the Soul

Something is going to happen then. No matter what your soul may be coveting, if it becomes the supreme cry of your life, not the secondary matter, or the third, or fourth, the fifth, or tenth, but the supreme desire of your soul, the paramount issue, all the powers and energies of your spirit, soul, and body are reaching out to God and crying to God for the answer.

It is going to come. The hunger of a man's soul must be satisfied. It must be satisfied. It is a law of God in the depths of the spirit. God will answer the heart that cries. God will answer the soul that asks.

John Hyde, Winfield, and John Knox: Souls or Death

Can you really say, God, I'm desperate? Can you really say, oh God, I can't live without the blessing? Not for some selfish thing, but so that God can touch us so we can touch others. Why did John Hyde, the great intercessor, win the loss the way he did?

Because he prayed, give me souls or I die, and he meant it. He would pray through the night many times and fast for a month just for souls. John Hyde prayed with such intensity that when he came down sick in his 40s and was taken to a doctor in Bombay, he was an American missionary in India, they found that literally his heart had moved to the center of his chest cavity.

So much broken hearted anguish in his soul going up to God, it actually affected him on the inside. Why did Winfield shake a generation, but what did he pray? Give me souls or take my soul. John Knox prayed for Scotland.

Revival and the Willingness to Live Without It

Give me Scotland or I die. What's the answer to the standard question about revival? Why is it we have no revival? The standard answer is this, because we're willing to live without it. I ask you again, how much capacity is there for God in your life?

How much room is there for God to visit? How much room is there for God to use you, my friend? Are you desperate?

Praying for Revival Above Life Itself

More than five years ago, I began to offer a strange prayer to the Lord. I said, Lord, bring revival or take me to heaven. I don't want to live it anymore unless I will see another revival. And I will rebuke my soul and say, I cannot pray like this.

My wife, I have my wife, my children, the church is doing great. But the next day I'll pray the same. Lord, give me revival or take me. John Knox used to say, Lord, give me Scotland or I'll die. And I pray that the importation from the Holy Spirit will come to the truth right now.

That you will desire revival more than your own life. That you will desire to see this nation, entire nation, shaken under the power of God. More than to be alive, you will desire that.

Jesus' Desperate Prayer and a Cry for Broken Hearts

Jesus himself prayed with loud crying and tears. It's written in Hebrews 5 -7. When we learn to pray the way Jesus prayed in times of desperation and crisis, we'll see the resurrection power of God. Break our hearts.

Break our hearts with the things that break your heart. Smash the heart and their complacency, our indifference, our habitual Christianity. Smash it at these altars here, Lord. Friends, press in. Press in.