Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Sean: We can't just tell stories of how God moved in the past as if by handling those stories, we somehow contributed to what happened. No, we cannot live off secondhand smoke. We've got to have firsthand fire. I don't want to just talk about revivals. I want to be about revival.
[00:00:24] Thomas: Hello, and welcome to the well, an Elim Fellowship leadership podcast. My name is Thomas, and I'm excited that you are joining us today as we hear a powerful word from a new friend of Elim Fellowship, Sean Smith.
Today we are excited to bring you part one of two of Shawn's message from day two of the 2025 OASIS conference as he calls upon the church to take action in pursuing revival.
There is power in what our brother has to say today and you won't.
[00:00:52] Want to miss it.
[00:00:53] So join us as we seek to open prophetic wells in our lives and in our churches and in the world today. Enjoy.
[00:01:01] Josh: It's my privilege to open up a new relationship to Elim Fellowship with Sean Smith.
And for those of you who have heard of Eagle's Wings, let me just see Robert Stearns.
I'll just tell you, if you leave the country with Robert Stearns to go to Israel, you have no idea what might happen to you in the best way possible. Some wild things take place.
And Sean and I met on a trip to Israel. And I'll just say, when you go experience Israel for the first time with someone else who is experiencing it for the first time with a host like Robert Stearns, you have no idea what is going to take place. And we bonded in really strong ways. Sean was with us. There was about 30 pastors from the US traveling throughout the Holy Land. And I just observed someone who, who was a leader among leaders.
You know, you're in good company, but then there are people that just, even within that company that just stand out to you. And Sean is a word in spirit guy. He's so much more than just a powerful conference speaker with over 35 years of ministry experience.
He's been on college campuses, he ministers to marketplace leaders.
He and his wife Krista, they lead a movement in the San Francisco Bay area. So he's coming from the west coast all the way to us, and he and his wife truly are prophetic voices and continually investing in the next generation. There is so much of their heartbeat that aligns with our culture and with our history that I just knew that there would be a DNA match.
He doesn't roll with a security detail because I know he's into mixed martial arts. And I know you're in a black belt, at least one discipline, maybe more.
He's written four books. In fact, a friend of mine not long ago gave me a book on prophetic evangelism, and I said, hey, that's my friend who wrote that. And so did you bring some resources with you? You're going to talk about no resources. You need to go online. Prophetic evangelism, excellent book. But he and Krista also have some online resources. Elim Fellowship. Elim family, would you stand to your feet as we open our heart for the word of God and the moving of his spirit? Would you help me welcome my friend, Sean Smith.
[00:03:17] Sean: Thank you so much for that, Elim family. Love you guys.
Joshua, thank you, my dear friend, for that phenomenal introduction. You know, when you get introductions from friends, it really.
It touches your heart, man. And he is so right in saying, when you go to Israel together, you know, it's like if you're little kids and you went to Disney World, Disneyland together for the first time, you're bonded for life. And so I so felt that you guys are so blessed to have the leadership that you guys have, man. I mean, brother Phil McNeil, man, just an incredible, mighty man of God and just so appreciative. Did I say that right? Okay. Oh, yeah, right. Okay. And so, just incredible. And, man, man, I just got a ride from Doug and so many different people. I want to dive in this. I.
I really strongly feel, and I feel very strongly about this from the Lord that you and I are about to see the greatest move of God that any generation that has ever hit the planet has seen.
That the tendency is to look at how difficult it's been, how tough it's been, look at the various crisis, even pandemics and other things that we've gone through. But you have to understand something in the history and the arc of revivals, revivals never happen during easy times. Revivals come because there was a moral upswing or uptick in terms of what is going on in a nation. Revivals are most likely when they're least likely. Revivals happen actually in the vacuum, because in the vacuum is where desperation comes. And desperation is revival in the womb of God's people.
Years ago, I gave my life, as Pastor Joshua said, I gave my life to Jesus Christ on a college campus. And I was at this university. I grew up inner city Oakland, California. And as I grew up inner city Oakland, California, there was a unlawful, wrongful death, homicide of my dad. My dad was murdered by policemen. It's proven in court that he was racially motivated. And as a result of that, in San Jose, San Jose, California, police department awarded myself and two half sisters monies. Wasn't a lot. It was $20,000 each. But in that this inner city kid that was raised, my dad never lived with us. I was born out of wedlock.
My. That money's allowed me to go to this college and major in computer engineering. And that's actually one of my degrees. So I go to this college because at that time, there weren't as many computer engineering disciplines. They had computer science or electrical engineering. But here was a school nearby, University of Pacific that had it. I could come home and my grandmother, she could cook awesome food. And so I could go home and get my clothes washed, get good food. Grandma's from Dumas, Arkansas. And if you ever taste or get an opportunity to eat black grandmother's food from Dumas, Arkansas, take them up on it. You will thank me later, okay?
And so I'm at this school, I.
[00:06:20] Don'T know the Lord.
[00:06:20] My grandmother had gotten saved my junior year. She goes to a small pentecostal holy inner storefront church by lake Merritt, Oakland, California. She had been four decades alcoholic. She has been invited at the supermarket by some ladies. We didn't have a car at that time. I grew up in, you know, I say that we were economically challenged.
[00:06:40] Another way of saying we was po.
[00:06:42] Right. And so my grandmother hops on the bus, she gets off, she goes to this service, she hears the gospel, she walks forward, gives her life to Christ. She's immediately delivered. She is baptized, filled with the holy ghost. Grandma comes back to our tenement. Amen. She comes back to our tenement apartment, walks up to the second floor.
It was a Wednesday night service. I am being bused across town. I had late basketball practice and goofed around. So we're getting home. About the same time. I walk up on my grandmother, she is breaking all of her alcohol bottles in the sink. Now, I'm a junior in high school, and when you're a junior high school, you think you know everything you like, right? And so I'm thinking, grandma, no, no, no. That's not how you end or kick a habit. You've got to go to a Betty Ford, you know, chill out center and gradually reduce the the substance and exchange your addiction for another addiction. This is what I'm thinking. I would never say that to my grandmother because even at 17, my grandma would give me a behind beating, okay?
But that miracle sparked something in me because I, if I could be Honest, there were a lot of people that I grew up around. I wasn't sure their Jesus was real, but I was certain my grandmother's Jesus was real. This is my junior in high school. So a year later, I find myself at this university.
And as I'm there the freshman year, I wild out. And I'm only going to give you a thumbnail of my testimony. I'm wilding out very badly, right? I partied so hard, I scary party. I don't know if anyone's ever done that.
All the while, my grandmother's back home praying for me. I just want you to know, right, I tell people if your mama or your grandmother and dads and grandpa, if they're praying for you, you don't have a chance. You just. There's a bullseye, a blessing on your back. You're gonna get saved. You can fight it all you want to. God's gonna catch up with you.
So I'm partying. And so it's the weirdest thing, because my mom and my dad met at a nightclub. I was born after a night at the club. Well, one night now I'll never Forget. It was January 19th, as I was in college years some decades ago, I go out and I party. I go to a club and I party like I never partied before. Scary party. I'm going to come back and I'm going to kill myself. At this point in time, I'm a year removed from my grandmother dying.
When my grandmother died, it was the final domino to fall. And I don't think I fit the profile of someone that would kill themselves.
[00:09:10] I look back now, and I was.
[00:09:11] Having this existential crisis in the midst of it, my grandmother's prayers. How many of you know, although my grandmother went to sleep, so to speak, to be with the Lord, her prayers.
[00:09:21] Weren'T put on pause.
[00:09:23] How many of you understand that those prayers, they were. They were circling over me with a tractor beam off Star Trek or Star wars, pulling a brother into the kingdom. And so I partied, which I love to tell people. I was born after a night at the club. I was born again after a night at the club, right? Nothing to do with the club. Everything to do with Jesus. I come back the next day, I'm going to kill myself. But I promised my grandmother I would.
[00:09:47] Call on her Jesus.
[00:09:48] And I said, God, if you're real, I want to experience you. This is probably about 3am in the 2am in the morning. I said, God, if you're real, I want to experience you. If you Let me experience you.
[00:09:57] I'll give you everything. And this is kind of where I'm going to begin.
An encounter changes everything.
All revivals can be traced back to an encounter.
Somewhere along the line, something grips an Evan Roberts.
[00:10:16] Something grips a William J. Seymour. Something grips an IQ Spencer.
[00:10:22] And there's something about an encounter that begins to set the trajectory of what.
[00:10:27] You'Re aiming for, what you're believing for. So you can't settle for the mundane.
[00:10:31] When you've been marked for the miraculous. And this is what's beginning to happen in my life. So I say, God, if you really want to experience everything, I pass out.
[00:10:40] Now, for the record, I'm not on.
[00:10:42] Any hallucinogenic drugs, because what I'm going.
[00:10:44] To tell you, right, you know, this is in dramatic literature.
[00:10:48] This is called foreshadowing.
[00:10:49] Right now, right?
[00:10:51] I'm awakened about one hour later, 3 o' clock in the morning. I see Jesus in my room.
[00:10:56] Timeout.
[00:10:56] I only got about 3 whiles.
[00:10:58] I need to built up to that and preach better.
[00:11:01] People say, sean, how did you come to know Jesus? And I tell people, or, who led you to Jesus? I go, jesus led me to Jesus.
[00:11:08] Jesus shows up in my room.
[00:11:09] Now, nothing wrong with this. I don't mean that I felt peace, something left off me. I felt my sins are forgiven. Hope fills my heart. That's awesome. That is multiplied many times. And it's awesome the way God uses it. I see this fiery being floating in my, like, university townhouse.
[00:11:29] I mean, I didn't have the theology.
[00:11:31] I didn't understand. If you'd asked me then, I would.
[00:11:34] Have said it looked like the Human Torch off Fantastic Four. That's what I probably would have told you. I didn't.
[00:11:38] But now I read Revelation. His eyes are like lightning. His face is like the sun shining. He was the burning one. And he speaks to me and he says, sean, I'll be a father to the fatherless.
[00:11:52] Oh, if you're hearing what I'm trying to tell you, there is nothing that God could have said that could have gotten my attention quicker than I'll be a father to the fathers. For the record, I believe an orphan spirit spawns more immorality, more murder, more drug abuse, more fallen relationships than anything on the planet. That's the reason why Malachi, God says through the prophet, he'll send the spirit of Elijah to unite that. And I get up the next morning.
First of all, it was Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music. The skies are blue, the hills are alive. You know, it Was like a whole new world, you know, I mean, it was. I started witnessing everything that move. I'm not kidding. I stood up on our university picnic table in the middle of the student union. I started preaching Christ. And all of a sudden I ran into a guy that had a campus ministry. He was a campus pastor there. And he started talking to me about the Lord. I started joining this group and then God just did this thing to where all of a sudden this desire to go out. Because my desire was I was going to be marketable, I was gonna make money. My quiet goal was PO no mo. Okay? PO no mo.
Intel in Silicon Valley offered me something that would literally be like more money than I would make for 10 years be after that, right.
But in that moment is they offered me this position. I began to break for college students. My heart began to break. I'd walk out and I'd see students and I would start to cry. I don't understand why I was already witnessing to them, but I wanted to do more on my campus. I felt like God didn't just have me there for no reason at all, that in fact I believe that your placement is purposeful.
And if you don't understand.
And I felt like the Lord spoke to me one time in the shower. He says to me, sean, my people are ignorant of their placement.
And if you don't understand that God has put your feet on a geography that is in fact designed and destined by God, that if you don't understand the purposefulness of your placement, you'll be overwhelmed by your predicament. Let me say that again. If you're ignorant of your placement, right, you'll be overwhelmed by your predicament. If I know that where I'm at God has placed me, then come hell or high water, I know that I've got the advantage. I know that I've got the upper hand.
So I'm on this campus and then all of a sudden I'm doing this like internship for campus ministry. And then eventually you kind of become an assistant in terms of this movement. I was a part of Pentecostal spirit filled campus ministry. You become assistant and associate on, on a, on a staff, on a campus. They maybe go and plan or someone is transitioning out. This is typically how you go. Maybe in three, five years, maybe you become a, you know, a director.
This is not what happened. I'm at the mother of this movement in terms of the campus I was at. And one of the pastors who, it was kind of the Aaron of the movement in terms of our local California base. It was a national and it's got decades old ministry.
He did well. He transitioned into itinerant. His spiritual son fell into immorality.
And so I am interning. And so as I'm three months in my internship, the guy who is the Moses of our movement points to me and says, sean, I need you to direct this campus mission. I'm like, no, I'm still not sure. I'm good at public speaking. I'm good one on one, but don't get me in front of a lot of people.
[00:15:27] I start like stuttering.
[00:15:29] I'm giving God all these excuses and everything.
[00:15:32] But the thing was, is that God.
[00:15:33] Broke my heart for students.
[00:15:35] So perfect love broke that fear that was going on in my life.
[00:15:39] And now let me wind it up.
[00:15:41] I am three months into interning and.
[00:15:44] Now I gotta direct the campus ministry and be leaders to people that have been saved way.
[00:15:48] I'm a year and a half old. The Lord.
No HR director in the Spirit would ever put me in a position where I would be directed to campus ministry.
[00:15:58] But the Lord knew. And this is often what God does.
[00:16:00] He'll throw you in over your head to show you you also have a resource that's over your head. The outpouring of the Holy Ghost.
And so I'm starting this meeting and our ministry went from 280 to 25 because of the moral failure and the transition.
[00:16:17] And so I'm up, there's 25, and I'm thinking, oh, man, as good as 25.
[00:16:20] Because I'm feeling nervous now.
[00:16:22] So I would pray four hours before.
[00:16:24] Our meeting, three and a half hours.
[00:16:25] To get fear off me and the.
[00:16:27] Last half an hour to get some.
[00:16:28] Semblance of God on me.
[00:16:29] This is my thought, but I didn't realize the encounter. And the prayer began to release something inside him I didn't know.
[00:16:38] So I give this message and I.
[00:16:41] Kind of started speaking and it kind of went.
I like lost consciousness a little bit. Not that I passed out, but my next moment it was over.
[00:16:49] And I'm giving an altar call and.
[00:16:51] I just felt like, you know, the old Pentecostals wouldn't say they were spirit filled. They say they were spirit possessed.
Holy Spirit possesses.
[00:16:58] How many of you know, you got quiet now.
[00:17:00] Holy Spirit can possess you.
And so I call people to get saved. I'm laying hands on people. Well, I get to this girl named Becky. Well, to make the connection, Becky came.
[00:17:09] Out to our meeting.
[00:17:10] She couldn't talk.
She came and she was part of a Special program there. She could hear, but she couldn't speak. So she would write on a piece of paper.
[00:17:20] And I knew I.
[00:17:23] Someone invited her. So I didn't know she couldn't speak or didn't remember she couldn't speak. And so I'm walking to people, and I got these old lapel mics.
[00:17:29] I don't know if y' all remember lapel mics, right? Right.
[00:17:32] And so I'm saying, what's your name? What do you want Jesus to do for. For you? Because that's what my mentor did. And I get to Becky, and I put my hand on her back and I said on her shoulder, I said, hey, what's your name? What do you want Jesus to do for you? She goes, my name is Becky.
[00:17:46] Now I got the mic on.
[00:17:48] People are hearing this.
I'm not understanding. All of a sudden, our entire group, right? 25, 28 people, they're all gasping. And I'm thinking, why are you gasping? And then it dawned on me. Oh, my goodness. This girl, she couldn't speak.
All of a sudden, like, within three days. Word travels so fast. We're whisked on a Christian television network. She's sharing her testimony. The word gets out. And when you couldn't talk, and all of a sudden you can't talk, all you got to do is say your name and your testimony goes forth. All these people, we literally. So this would be maybe about November, right? By the time January Jan. Term started, we grew to 120. By the end of the year, 180, and all of a sudden begin to see what happened. So here's where I want to land. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a part of it, but I believe the Holy Ghost movement was. Holds the key to massive awakening. In this hour, I'm convinced that a group that believes in signs and wonders, that a group that believes that God can show up and show off any given moment, is the greatest promise our nation has right now.
More than who's in the White House, it's who's in the prayer house, right?
[00:19:08] This statement I want to make, and I learned early on, and I hope I shared a little bit behind my story as well as this miracle of Becky. What God immediately taught me was this. The Holy Spirit is not optional equipment.
We have got to have the power of the Holy Ghost. I know you believe that. I don't have to preach long on that, but I've seen too many people begin to lean towards programs and lean away from presence.
I've seen so many People come under such a production where literally they've got the little egg timer. I get it, you got multiple services, maybe you got to get people in and out. But the egg timer, the invisible egg timer on the pulpit, where we give people 23 minute sermons that create 23. That's the problem with 23 minute sermons that create 23 minute Christians. That's the real problem.
[00:19:55] And I think of the little hourglass, and I think that thing right there, the invisible hourglass on our pulpits, that thing has unplugged more revivals than any.
[00:20:05] Demon can ever take credit for.
Because the Holy Spirit's love language is when people begin to yearn and begin to wait on him. Come on, tell somebody, say wait on him. Wait on him.
Because we can listen to a thousand sermons. We could be in multiple services. But when you have an awesome encounter with the divine nature of God, a fire begins to burn in your belly. And from that point on, God begins to cause an unhinged movement to flow through those vessels.
I want to talk to you about your theme. I want to talk to you about Wells. Genesis 26. Of course, many of you are familiar with this Genesis 26.
Abraham had dug a well, but in between the Philistines came and Philip filled up the well. And so we join right now a situation where his son Isaac has to re dig the wells. But let's begin. We're going to jump. We'll first read a couple verses in the beginning, but then we'll jump to verse 12. It says in verse one, essentially now there was a famine in the land besides the previous one.
Any interesting famine? On famine. You ever begin to feel like the life that we've inherited and we see in our nation, and for that matter the nations of the world, is its famine. On famine, it's crisis on crisis, it's shortage on shortage, it's attack upon attack. Anybody have recognized that recently? Amen.
And in that the Bible says, and I'll just summarize this. No, actually, let me read it. It says verse two. Then the Lord appeared to him, that's Isaac, and said, do not go down to Egypt and live in a land of which I shall tell you.
[00:21:48] Excuse me.
[00:21:48] Do not go to Egypt, comma, live in the land which I tell you, dwell in this land, and I will be with you. Bless you. And it goes on to say, I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham, your father. Now Isaac, in the midst of his famine or drought, is about to go to Egypt as he's about to go to Egypt. God stops him because Isaac is about to peace out. I'm going to Egypt because it's a famine. It's difficult. I'm going to go back to maybe something where I believe it could provide for me all these things. But what does God say in the midst of it? He says, stay. Somebody say stay?
He's basically saying, isaac, you don't need another address. You need another level of trust that if I've called you to this place, it's because I've got something on my schedule that no matter how hard the land is, no matter how unforgiving the atmosphere and the elements are, I've got something in the midst of it that will bless you. But you just got to hold on. And I'll just say, this obedience will put you in places where. Where blessings have already been scheduled to arrive.
I wish I could really preach, like Joshua or something. Come on, somebody. Oh, I'm getting excited, right? And, and. And this is just a word for leaders. This is a word for us, to challenge us. You don't lead based on the famine in front of you. You lead based on the covenant within you.
Isn't that what he said? He, God said to Isaac, dwell in the land. He says, I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham, your father. And here's what I love to tell people. Famine doesn't cancel favor.
When God has favored you and put you in a position to contend for harvest and contend for revival, no matter what the spiritual environment is in the place you're at. My wife and I, we're in San Francisco area. The Bay Area has been boasted on as being notoriously difficult and challenging. In the immediate area where I'm at, typically when a church grows to about 1,000, we've seen it.
[00:24:02] I've been there a number of years.
[00:24:04] There's a split, there's a fallout, there's a moral failure. There are some in the San Jose area, but in San Francisco, Oakland area, it is more difficult. But let me tell you something. Famine doesn't cancel favor.
Drought. Drought can't dry out.
[00:24:20] Destiny.
[00:24:21] You have to understand that when God has placed you someplace, he's already scheduled something, and that's what the Bible says. It says Isaac reaped a hundredfold in the famine. And that just goes to show me God's flow isn't seasonal. It's supernatural.
Now let me start reading verse 12. And I'm not going to narrate and comment on every part. We'll never get through tonight. Here we go.
[00:24:45] Verse 12.
[00:24:45] Then Isaac sowed in the land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him. The man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous. For he had held possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him. Isn't that funny how when you begin to get blessed, the enemy spiritual haters begin to come out, as the kids would say, Right?
It's like the enemy watched and the drought didn't discourage you. The drought didn't distract you. The drought didn't cause you to take a detour. You stayed in place. God began to prosper you. And it's in that place that the enemy begins to launch his attack.
And it says now, the Philistines had.
[00:25:30] Stopped up the well, somebody say, stopped up all the wells which his father's.
[00:25:37] Servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, and they filled them with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac, go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. Then Isaac departed from there, pitched his tent in the valley of Jerah and dwelt there.
[00:25:53] And Isaac dug again.
[00:25:55] Say that phrase with me.
[00:25:55] Dug again the wells of water which.
[00:25:58] They had dug in the days of Abraham his father.
[00:26:01] For the Philistines had stopped them up.
[00:26:04] After the death of Abraham, and he.
[00:26:06] Called them by the names which his.
[00:26:08] Father had called him. And Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a well of running water there.
I don't know if you've ever stood.
[00:26:18] On ground and felt like something underneath whispers to you. I don't know if you've ever gone in an area. My wife and I, we travel. Although we see a movement, we're part of a church, part of a leadership of our church. We're not senior pastors there.
We've got some great senior pastors. We travel and itinerate, and we have a kind of a monthly as well as ongoing meetings where 20 different churches will gather together in the Bay area. We'll see 500 folks consistently monthly come out. And that may not mean a lot to some of you, but if you're familiar with the spiritual temperature of the Bay Area, that's phenomenal to see 500 people. But every time I get off a plane, I should have said that every time, many times when I get off the plane, I can step into an area and it's almost as if the ground begins to whisper to me. It's like I feel something calling underneath me. And I believe it is Wells that have not been recently unearthed. But one point in time, they flowed. Something stopped them up. You guys are aware that Rochester, New York, Charles Finney saw one of the greatest revivals that he had ever seen. In fact, it was his pinnacle revival in Rochester, New York. One biographer commented, I don't know, it might have been hyperbole. He said there was no male unbeliever known in Rochester after Finney had his revival.
And I think of the ground even underneath us right now, whispering to us.
It's not a sound, it's a sense. It's a sense. It's a feeling like, God, there is something rich that is literally beneath our feet in the spirit that, Lord, if we would dig and we would get shovels in our hands and begin to contend God, those. Those wells, although they're covered with dirt and the top of the ground is dry, there's a subterranean spiritual flow that's waiting for someone to tap into it.
[00:28:18] It's like saying there's a stirring in the soil. It's like saying this incredible. Now in Rochester, New York. Something came out of Rochester, New York, where there ended up being 100,000 salvations in the New York area alone that it began. Rochester bar shut down. Crime rate dropped. It was one of his greatest revivals. And I love to say this. I believe the ground still remembers it.
I believe the ground still remembers it. I was talking to Doug, and Doug was telling me how the Baker Sisters, that literally had come from Azusa street and as well, had gotten together with IQ Spencer and IQ Spencer, at kind of the inception of your movement, that he began to see over this area. Revival. He kept seeing it over and over. Revival, revival. I submit to you that maybe that was the ground that was beginning, obviously the Holy Spirit, but it was the ground beginning to speak that there's something in the ground. And I feel a trembling even as I'm speaking.
And I kind of came in this area. I feel like, lord, you're about to do it again. It's a similar feeling. When I was in Locker, Wales, and I went to Moriah Chapel and I went behind this little chapel where Evan Roberts and them saw an incredible nine months, 100,000 people were saved, Bars shut down, crime stopped.
[00:29:36] Very similar.
[00:29:38] And I went out back and there was where he was buried. And it wasn't kept as well as I thought that we should be honoring this incredible vessel. And I just knelt down there. Nothing weird or anything, but I feel like I'm with a Holy Ghost group. And so I could just tell you I just knelt by the grave and I said, God, it's not Evan Roberts, but Lord, the spirit that you put on him, Lord, put that on us, put that on our nation. I pray for a second outpouring of that level of the Holy Ghost in Wales. But, Lord, do it in my nation as well. And I felt the ground still remembers because the grounds don't forget where the glory flowed, even if generations do.
And what does revival begin with? Revival begins with rediscovery. Say rediscovery.
Now. We often tell stories of revival. We'll tell stories, man. This happened during this year. And I love that. I've written a book on revival. And I love that I studied. I was telling, man, I studied like 100 different books on revival. I wanted to give a generation what I was given when I read these early books by Leonard Ravenhill, by Winky Pratney on revival, others on revival classics. And I wanted another generation because when I read that, I. I was ruined for ordinary Christianity. I was wrecked. There was something inside of me that I couldn't settle for business as usual.
I knew there was more. And you can't settle for less when you know the more is available.
It's easy to become a professional Christian, the more the decades begin to add up. But there's got to be something in you that stirs. And all the while, I believe God allows the ground underneath to kind of in some way begin to resonate that there is.
Now. We can't just tell stories of how God moved in the past as if by handling those stories, we somehow have contributed to what happened. No, we cannot live off secondhand smoke. We've got to have firsthand fire.
I don't want to just talk about revivals. I want to be about revivals. I want to see something I'm fighting, and I know you are, too. I want to fight for a reference point that the emerging generation behind us have some Elijah's bones to fall back on.
I saw this whole.
[00:31:55] Can we just talk for a second?
[00:31:57] I saw this whole deconstruction thing, and I think it's kind of passed a little bit.
[00:32:01] But some of them.
[00:32:03] And I want you to hear what I'm saying. Some of them deconstructed from churches that used to be in the power of.
[00:32:09] The Holy Ghost, but went wrong way. Floyd. Seeker sensitive.
[00:32:13] And maybe some of their deconstruction was.
[00:32:15] More of an indictment of what come.
[00:32:16] From the pulpit and there wasn't enough.
[00:32:18] Holy Ghost in the place to time.
[00:32:20] Mark them and allow the roots to grow deep. So it isn't on them. It's on leaders that refuse to let.
[00:32:26] The Bible preach what the Bible wants to say. Refuse to allow the Holy Spirit now.
[00:32:31] The freedom that the Holy Spirit comes.
Oh, say this phrase. May say water.
[00:32:39] Water is life.
[00:32:42] And why is this important is that back in the day, when I grew up in inner city Oakland, hydration was free.
I recognize that every time I fly through a terminal airport and I got to pay $7 for a bottle of water, to think, when I was a kid, you had to pay your water bill, right? Or else they might cut it off, but you have to pay for your water. How many of you are old enough to remember hydration was free? The thought that you would pay for a bottle of water, you would have looked at someone like they're crazy, because hydration was free. It was dangerous, but it was free.
We go on the side of the apartment, we turn it on, and, man.
[00:33:19] Put that hose and.
[00:33:20] And the water would come out like lava, you know what I'm saying? Kind of. Kind of had a little toxic kind of tape, metal flavor. But we was playing street tackle football, and we would Pookie and man Ray Ray, and all of us, we would all. And after a while, we learned. You let the water run for a while because that discoloration, you know, you guys are. I could tell people pulling out Purell, all the germaphobes are coming out right now.
We drunk from this hose.
You ever drink out a hose too early, you recognize there is a danger involved, and we didn't care. We would pass around that hose like we were passing around communion, man. I mean, we would, you next, you next, you next. And we would do it. Can you imagine kids today?
You imagine young people today talking about drinking out of hose. They're thinking, is it filtered? Is it alkaline? Is it PH balance?
And it's like, no, you just drink it to get some character. Okay? That's. I don't know what else to tell you, but you just do that, right?
And I think we pay. And you know what? They've got all these different types of waters out. One of them is Evian. And if you turn it over, Evian is naive spelled backwards.
$7 a bottle, right? You naive, right? But why do we pay for water?
Because water is life. When the early patriarchs were given a promise, let's say God says, this is your area, like some of the early types and people that would study it would go. The great patriarchs would first build an altar, and then they would begin to dig wells because you had to have an altar so you could meet with God. And you had to have wells because water is life. Without water, you would dehydrate, Your animals would dehydrate. You couldn't have what you needed in the area because they were agro, they were agrarian. There we go. That's the word that. They grew their crops, they needed water. So water was everything. And so they would do this because they needed God in their midst and water in their mouths. Now, the thing that I understand about wells is even today, the deeper the well, the more it will cost you.
The deeper the well, the greater the abundance.
The deeper the well, the purer the flow, right?
That's why nobody drinks from puddles. Your dog Poochie, he may drink from a puddle, but you're not drinking from a puddle on the ground. Because the deeper the water, the purer the flow.
You guys are still with me.
Deep things don't come from shallow places.
The depth of what, oh my goodness, God is about to pour out requires that we go to a deep within him. Now, let me make a statement about what I'm observing as a itinerant minister, going from church to church, region to region, speaking to the generations. And what I'm saying is the obvious. For most of us, people are tired of the shallow.
We can't give them puddles, right?
We need pools, we need outpourings, right? We need a downpour of the Holy Spirit. Folks are losing taste for the shallow and the superficial. What used to impress folks in terms of how we did church now just exposes how dry we've become.
And there's a revival happening right now. I could begin to name you run off the top of my head. 20 different universities that have water baptized are seeing massive number of students hit their university fountain and begin to have spontaneous water baptisms, begin to have Holy Spirit services. The Ohio State football team put on their own outreach, and all these people got saved their university. It wasn't just one school, you know, one Asbury College, for instance. It is throughout the region. And years ago, there was a guy who was a president of Asbury University. David McKenna, wrote an incredible book called the Coming Great Awakening. He essentially prophesied that America's next revival was going to begin on a university. He says when you see it stirring on a university, it is a bellwether alarm that the hurricane of the Holy Ghost is about to hit. How many of you know it's hitting?
I can't vouch for everybody, right? Because there's a lot of. But I can't tell you how many people in Hollywood are coming out with stories of conversions right now, right? I mean, people you didn't even think would be getting saved are getting saved and talking about getting water baptized right now, right? I mean, Joe Rogan's gonna fool around and get saved. Watch, watch what's gonna happen.
There is and I was talking to some leaders as I did this thing, and leaders in Ireland, and they were saying in the UK record numbers of young people are coming back to the house of God, that they're beginning to see these old churches and old sanctuaries or cathedrals begin to be filled. They're having to do younger services because of the hunger. And I'm telling you, the harvest is on and awakening has begun.
[00:38:28] Thomas: Thank you for listening to today's episode of the well, an Elim Fellowship Leadership Podcast. I pray that you are blessed and encouraged by this time. If you would like to hear the rest of the today's message, be sure to tune in next time. You will be blessed.
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So until next time, my name is Thomas and from all of us here at Elim, God bless.
