RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Prayer & Revival
Sammy Tippit: This has been such a rich time of talking about prayer, learning how to pray, talking about what the essence of it is, some of the hindrances, how Jesus taught us to pray… It has just been a wonderful time. I want us to conclude this final time, Dave, by talking about the role of prayer in revival, because as we pray… I think that sometimes people think, “Well, praying… What does it do? I mean, I’m just this one little guy.”
Dave Butts: Right.
Sammy: But one little guy with a great big God can see extraordinary things happen.
Dave: Absolutely.
Sammy: When I say revival, I mean a season when God comes and visits his people, renews his people. His glory is manifested in a person’s heart, in a community, in a church, or in a nation. So what is the role? There have been a lot of historic national revivals and community revivals that have taken place. What is the role of prayer, and how does prayer relate to revival? Let’s talk about that in this session.
Dave: Okay. Certainly. It’s so important. I’ve always defined revival as when God shows up for church.
Sammy: Yeah.
Dave: It’s when we really experience his presence in ways we have believed before but now have become real to us. The interesting thing is… I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone or read of anyone who disputed this. There has never been a revival without there first of all being a movement of prayer.
Sammy: Right.
Dave: That goes all the way back to the Old Testament. There are seven major revivals with Israel in the Old Testament. Every one of them was preceded by prayer, and down through the last 2,000 years of church history, there has never been a revival without God first of all stirring up his people to prayer. When you look at this… I think there are a number of reasons. I don’t think it simply goes to one. Look at the fact that prayer is this act of humility. It is coming before the Lord and saying, “Lord, we have tried to do this on our own, and we have failed.”
Sammy: “We can’t do it.” Yeah.  Dave: I look right now at what’s going on in the world around us, and I’m saying, “God, the best of us have failed. We need you. We need you to step in. We need you to do what only you can do.” So prayer puts us in a place of receiving from God. It’s a place of humility. It also then (this goes right along with that) is that place of repentance.
Sammy: We talked about confession earlier. That’s right.
Dave: We did. Confession and repentance… The passage we so often use (I know it’s an Old Testament one that applied first to Old Testament Israel, but the principles apply to any people of God) says, “…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways…” There’s a bunch of stuff there, and it all relates to prayer.
Sammy: Right.
Dave: “If you will do this (those are all prayer things), then I will step in and do what only I can do, but you must do what you can do, and then I’ll do what I can do.” I believe that principle has literally been in effect for thousands of years and still is today. If we’re to see another great awakening… Sammy, I believe (like you do) there is yet to be at least one more great awakening.
Sammy: Yeah.
Dave: This ingathering of souls, awakening of the people of God, empowerment by the Spirit of God, and fresh vision of who Christ is that is to come will come because we’ve been a people who have placed prayer in its proper place, confessing, repenting, crying out, humbling ourselves before him, seeking him, and asking him then to come and do what only he can do.
Sammy: Yeah. I don’t want this to sound wrong, but what we’re doing right now could be a part of that. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people inside the nation of Iran watching this. People in Romania are watching this. God is speaking to your heart right now, saying, “I want you to be a person of prayer.” People in places we never imagined are beginning to pray.
Dave: That’s right.
Sammy: What we’re calling people to do here could be a very part of that great revival that’s taking place. What I’ve found is that God begins to stir the hearts of people to pray. People begin to say, “Hey, we need to get together and pray. We need to have a time alone to pray.” That is what we’ve been doing in these sessions here. They’re saying, “We need to begin to seek God.” When God begins to move, he stirs in the hearts of his people this longing to meet with him, to seek his place, to turn from our wicked ways.
Dave: That’s right. Yeah.
Sammy: So I think that in some way, this could even be a part. Those people who are listening to this by the app… I know God is doing something right now in the privacy of your room, your house, the place where you are while you’re watching this video right now. God is stirring your heart to pray.
Dave: You know, what’s important for all of those who are watching, who are listening, is to understand it isn’t up to you, yet God won’t do it without you.
Sammy: Yeah. That is a wonderful thought.
Dave: It’s an amazing thing here. God is going to wait on our prayers, and I find myself almost speechless considering that truth. Yet we look at ourselves and say, “Well, I’m just one person,” or, “It’s just my little family,” or, “We’re off in this village,” or, “We’re off doing this, and how in the world could we change things?” Once again, you’re not. You’re not really the one who’s changing things.
What you’re doing is what God has gifted you to do, and that’s simply to come before him in humility and say, “Lord, we need you. I need you. I need revival. My family needs revival. Our church needs revival. Our nation needs revival. Our world needs revival. Lord, we can’t schedule that. We can’t put it on our calendars. We can’t raise funds to go do it. Lord, all we can do is what we’re doing right now. It’s just me praying.”
Sammy: Yeah. You know, one of the things that’s exciting about this is that God is no respecter of persons.
Dave: That’s right.
Sammy: The Scripture says, “Who has despised the day of small things?” A lot of the revivals have begun in the little places: small villages, small communities.
Dave: Oh yes.
Sammy: Sometimes it happens in obscure places. They’ve started and spread around nations. So you are important to God, and you (with God)… Just think about Mary. She was one little girl or young woman in a little town in Israel, a nobody. And God said, “I want to use you.” I believe that in prayer, revival, and birthing a revival, God comes to the lowly, the humble of heart.
Dave: Isn’t it interesting that you use this example of Mary…? Here’s this young woman up in Galilee, and while that’s going on, there’s this old couple, Anna and Simeon. They’re elderly, in their 80s, and they’re just crying out to God in the temple day and night. God uses a young woman and uses this old couple, and together their prayers usher in the Messiah. Think what God can use with the prayers of literally every person who is watching this and listening. Something significant can happen because we pray.
Sammy: Yeah. So I want to encourage you. I tell you I have seen with my eyes the glory of God in a nation when a pastor in Romania (Pastor Ola Liveu) has taught his people to pray. They prayed in a way no one imagined would ever happen. They prayed that one day they would preach the gospel in the stadiums, that one day they would preach the gospel on radio and television. People said, “It’s impossible because we’re persecuted.”
God brought it to pass. A group of people bean to pray, and an explosion of revival took place. Now it didn’t take place the next day. It didn’t happen the next year. It didn’t happen the next decade. It took a long time of praying, but it happened. God’s glory came. Don’t lose hope. Keep praying that the presence, the majesty, and the power of Jesus Christ would fill our nation, would fill your heart, your home, and your nation.