What a heart's ease is the virtue of humility - the great joy of having nothing to lose! Having no opinion of himself, Paul feared no fall. He might have swaggered in the richly embroidered robes of the chancellor of a Hebrew school. But in the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, he shines with more luster.

                   Leonard Ravenhill

Let every day be a day of humility; condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their kindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowliest offices of the lowliest of mankind.
                     William Law

I was ministering to one of those youth groups in southern East Germany when God touched my life. Fred Bishop and I were teaching principles of discipleship to 30-40 young people. It was against the law for the youth to meet with a foreigner, so we met in secret in an abandoned castle.

At the end of the meeting, one of the young people approached me. "I became a Christian some time ago, but I no longer have joy. There are things in my life I know are wrong, but I don't know what to do about them"

I told her I John 1:9, "But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I asked if she was willing to confess and forsake her sin.

She said she was. And we knelt and prayed together. At the end, she said, "Lord, please take control of my life." Then she added, "Egal was es kostet," which means, "No matter what it costs."

We finished praying, and I looked up to see every young person in that room kneeling and praying. Fred and I prayed with each individually, and every one used the same phrase at the end.

One prayed, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart and make me a Christian, egal was es kostet."

Another said, "Father, please set me free from this habit, egal was es kostet."

I had worked with youth throughout America and Western Europe, but I'd never heard Western young people pray, "No matter what it costs."

There is a cost to revival. It costs everything! Too many cry for the power of Pentecost but neglect the cost. We want resurrection power, but we refuse the cross. The corss means death. It means losing our lives in order that we might gain His life. Jesus said, "And he who doesn't take his cross and follow after Me isn't worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it" (Matthew 10:38-39, NASB).

After we finished that meeting with the youth, we went to Czechoslovakia. Some of the young people there had been members of the Communist party at their universities prior to their conversions. Afterwards, they stood in communist meetings and gave testimonies of their conversions to Christ. They were now in prison. They had evidently prayed, "No matter what it costs."

Back in East Germany, I asked one of the girls, "How are you doing now that Christ lives in your heart?"

Tears rolled down her face. "I was the top student in my school. I can't continue my education, because I became a Christian and identified with our church."

I wanted to cry. I didn't know what to say to her.

Then a big smile came over her face as she said, "But it's worth it! It's worth it!" She understood what it meant to lose her life in order to gain His life. The glory and grace of God grows well in the soil of such a heart.

The primary characteristic must be humility. James 4:6 says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." The young people in East Germany experienced revival and God's glory because of their humility. They had become nothing so Jesus could become everything.