Welcome to Keep It 100 podcast with Sean and Christa Smith. Join us in this space where we take on real issues with real insight and real inspiration. This podcast is for those not looking for temporary relief to change circumstance but revelation to forever change lives. Welcome welcome everybody to another episode of Keep It 100 with us. Hey, it's us. It's your girl Christa. It's your boy Sean. This is so fired up to come at you for another episode.
I'm particularly excited about this conversation because it's something that I love to look at in history and the word of God and that is moves of God outpouring and stirring of the Holy Spirit. This conversation we're going to have today is so vital to my makeup, to my calling and something that I've been in passion about for a while and I got re-impassioned you guys. We'll talk about this a little bit more that we went and saw the Jesus revolution film if you've not seen it go see it.
It's so good. It will stir you. So we got a lot that we have going and speaking of things that we have going, we've got an announcement. We do. You know, as many of you know, we had momentum conference in January and friends, we shared this in a previous podcast and many of you were actually there in person. We'd really witnessed move of God, getting birth in the Bay Area and we felt like it was a portion that God wanted to release in January, but it wasn't to stop in January.
It was to continue on and after we saw what God did in January, Sean and I and our team, we've just been seeking the Lord and we're like, God, what next? Like what do you, what do you want to do? We kept feeling like the Lord said, have momentum nights, just nights where the hungry come, the wild ones come and we just go after the things of God. The only agenda is Jesus. And so we're doing our very first one in Oakland, California, which is so prophetic.
There's such crazy God revival wells of, you know, in Oakland, California, which is so cool. And so we're really want to invite everyone. This is a free event. It's March 17th, Friday, 7pm. It's a Sequoia community church. It's on social media. It's on our website. Check it out. And we just really want to encourage everyone to come and be a part of it because we really are calling the hungry. We're calling the remnant.
We're saying, come on, those that are really continuing for a move of God come. Yes. It's going to be so powerful. And those of you who need to know the address, it is 42 92 Keller Avenue, Oakland, California. Sequoia, it's going to be seven o'clock that night. St. Patrick's Day, which is the irony.
We're having it in a building that came out of a movement years ago with Smith Wigglesworth on a night that a saint that we remember is a saint that literally transformed a nation from druid worship to fear God. That would be St. Patrick who actually is from England, but that transformation took place in Ireland. So you do not want to miss is going to be super awesome. So we're going to jump right in this and I think of the Jesus revolution movie.
I think it has particular significance to us and you just had a thought on that Chris. I want you to share that. Well, you know, I think it's so significant because the Jesus revolution, obviously the movie, but let's talk, I'm going to call it the Jesus people movement because that's actually kind of how I grew up hearing about it. And it started in San Francisco. It has incredible roots.
And so it being it starting in the Bay Area, although the movie itself is focused on the Southern California impact of it. It actually originated and started in San Francisco in the Bay. And I feel like it's a reminder for us in the Bay Area for us in California, that California is a place where moves of God have often began that it impacted the entire nation.
And I feel like we're once again in a moment in history where God is saying, I haven't forgotten California and I really feel God's call over there are state and I really feel it's time. The remnant is arising, which it's absolutely happening. I know there's presently a move of God already even happening in Pasadena with some of our friends that are really hosting that even right now. We're continuing for the Bay Area. There's moves of God happening in Orange County.
We're seeing God move all of you, right? And so we're in this really unique time where I feel like historically we're digging up old wells. You know, it's funny. We had Patricia King on our last podcast, Boo, and she had reports at least 25 different stirrings, outpourings, extended worship, prayer services, places of repentance that are being ignited literally all across just the United States. She wasn't even referring to every place from like the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to the East Coast.
It's just amazing that you have these kinds of movements. And to your point, Lonnie Frisbee, who's one of the guys featured in the movie is one of the catalyst Jesus people movement. It kind of took off because he was coming down from San Francisco. But the story many people don't know is that Lonnie had an encounter with Jesus out in the canyon.
He was doing drugs as well, but he came up to San Francisco and he was found by some people that brought him in Ted and Liz Wise, who were the original corner quote, Jesus Freaks, hate and ash puree that you were referring to. They mentored and discipled him and he all of a sudden began to grow in his understanding of the word, how to share his testimony, how to be prophetic. And it was there that he carried what impacted him in San Francisco, the Jesus people movement down to LA.
And so I feel like in a very similar way, and we talk about movement, I just want to take a minute, Christa, define movement. There really aren't any simple formulas or definitions of movements because if you read scripture, you're not going to get a one sentence definition of movement from the lips of Jesus or the apostles in the book of Acts or anything. But here is kind of a definition, working definition for us from movement.
A movement is basically a modern term that describes large numbers of people catching on to an idea, activity, or in this instance, the spirit of God. And that's really what the Jesus people movement was. You know, I love that. I think, you know, I always feel like you're the historian of revivals. Like you've read so many, literally when you, how many books did you read when you're writing? I am your sign. Probably probably about a hundred different books on revival.
Yeah, I just feel like you're kind of this walking historian. So I think it'd be cool for people because I've asked you a ton of questions and I think it'd be cool to let people be privy to the conversations you and I've had. But really, where was America at that time and how does that connect with today's society? You know, and you see the Jesus revolution, it was a counterculture Christian youth movement, it emerged in the United States during the late sixties and early seventies.
And part of it, there was an upheaval amongst generations that the younger generations, that they, many of them, the extreme, they call them hippies, many of them who we would kind of know today were boomers, kind of rebelled against the straight lace conservatism of the builders at that time. So it was a time of protest. It was a time of uncertainty, Vietnam war, rebellion against society norms, assassination of JFK, the assassination of MLK.
And during this era as a result of this disillusionment, all these young people start experimenting, many, not all, with psychedelic drugs because they were trying to expand their consciousness and they were experimenting with Eastern mysticism, occultic religions. And basically what they were doing, really to put it in a nutshell, is that we're rebelling against the ideological norms of a society around them because they felt like society, something didn't connect with them.
And even institutionalized religion. And so they sought various methods of protest. Some of it was holding up a sign, but some of it was what they were doing to their body. But also many of these were searching for truth. And as they were searching for truth, God honored that even some of these people, they were on drugs.
And so although it was a time marked by sex, drugs, rock and roll, Eastern religion and rebellion, during the summer of love, San Francisco, 1967, many would say typically was that year, the year after that this experimentation with drugs, and this comes out in the Jesus revolution movie, experimentation with drug sex, Eastern miss all of it. It kind of came home to roots. Like what initially was fun, hanging out, getting high, laughing with your friends, you started seeing a rise in suicide.
You started seeing people that were like straight up addicts. You started seeing a crime rise. So they had like a hundred thousand people convene in just the summer from out of the out of state, out of the area to the summer of love. And so all these people came, but when they, they left, it was like a bad party the next morning after. And I think it was kind of a wake up moment for a lot of people.
And so in the midst of that, I think that backdrop of dissatisfaction, disconnection, and that aspect of a hunger for truth, God honored that and met these hippies. And when they got saved, oh my goodness.
And you could tell even from the movie, and one of the things that I love is that as it went down to Los Angeles, you would see them being baptized by the hundreds, even thousands in the Pacific Ocean, that particular Cove there that they focused in on that you saw Chuck Smith, that you saw, you know, Lonnie Frisbee there, but they were being impacted. So it was a really a revolutionary time. But the interesting thing, boo, is I feel like it really connects to the time that we're in right now.
I agree. And you said a really key statement. You and I were talking about this, even just having this conversation leading to this podcast, you know, just really acknowledging just everyone's desire for truth. At the end of the day, everyone wants truth. And I feel like this current generation is exactly the same. And we're finding a generation that's like, don't give me the fluff. I don't need a shiny package. Jesus actually just want authentic raw Jesus.
I actually just want an authentic encounter with the Lord. And I think when we have raised a generation, specifically a generation with only almost a Disneyland version of church is like all the lights and all the stuff. And you know, is that wrong? No, but when that replaces the anointing, yeah, it is wrong, right?
When actually the shiny, the fog machines, all the stuff, the lights, all the glam and the glitz actually outshine the anointing and the power and the presence of Jesus, we've done a massive disservice to a generation that's actually just wanting to encounter Jesus.
And so I think what's actually really profound about when you kind of compare on a parallel level, the sixties generation to now, I think really the essence and the pilgrimage that so many Gen Zers are in right now is very similar to what the boomers were in in their in their twenties and teens. And that is, I just want real truth. So if it's Jesus cool, it's like, but we just actually want truth.
So I feel like it really challenges the church to strip back and actually just present the gospel and Jesus and that's enough. I love that. I love that. I believe Asbury was a prophetic invitation and I believe the Jesus revolution, obviously the movie, I believe that was a prophetic declaration. And I believe that there are moments when specific prophetic events need to be unleashed to catalyze a new movement.
And I feel like right now God is highlighting the Jesus people movement as a testimony of what he wants to release. And I love, there's something that Dr. Michael Brown said, and I believe it is something I just want to stop and just hit upon. He said, we cannot afford to miss this sacred moment given the state of the nation and the desperate need for a massive spiritual awakening amongst America's young people. And I couldn't agree more. We can't afford to miss this sacred moment.
It's so important that we jump in on it. And I love what you said that we bring this raw Jesus to a generation and they have been around the glitz. They've been around the hype of stuff, of people overselling stuff. And this generation's turned off by that. And you know, even from the movie, I think that there are some things that I began to realize I think is so important. And it's like the Jesus people movement began in a most unlikely place.
You wouldn't have thought that this movement that would affect two million people that would make the cover of a magazine and have literally close to 100,000 plus folks fill a stadium and explode 1972. And it began in hate and Ashbury in the counterculture. It's interesting. And again, I'm part of a local church. I love the local church. Jesus died for a church, but it's interesting. The movement didn't begin in a church. Right. It began outside a church.
Yeah. And I think, I think that's really key because, you know, I'm, my intention is not to be controversial, but it's like, I do think I have to address this because I think, you know, we're keeping at 100. You know, Asbury, you know, is this powerful example of kids that just came together for a scheduled chapel and then God moved, right? And they just stayed in the presence. It was unplanned. It was inconvenient. They didn't even know it was going to happen.
And all of a sudden, thousands of people find their selves coming to, is it Wilmore, Kentucky? To just get a taste, to get in the present. And I looked at the videos of people that were posting on social media or whatnot, and I'm watching so many of the boomers come and, and, and I'm watching this just going, oh my gosh, this is like literally almost a flashback for them.
I'm sure because it probably felt like that same thing that I heard about a move and, and I've got to show up in many of them, you know, we've seen the Jesus revolution movie. And this is historically accurate that people start coming from all over the nation to be baptized in the beaches of Southern California specifically.
And I almost felt like Asbury was a bit of that, but like a modern day version of people just begin to show up because they wanted to be a part of it because they felt the authentic wooing of the Lord. Now here's the controversial part. You know, Asbury made the decision as a university to, to not have public meetings anymore, but rather made the decision to have it go to other buildings, you know, and that, and, and I've really wrestled with that internally.
And here's where I've kind of landed. I've thought, you know what, Christa, you don't know their conversation with the Lord. You don't know if that's exactly what the Lord told them to do. Now on the outside looking in, I'm like, man, I mean, just, is there an, or what, isn't there a way to die bread this, you know, and just like some way somehow continue to host this?
Because I feel like it's, it, it, Asbury is a picture of an invitation that we've been crying out for a move of God and then he comes and then we're like, Oh, but it's not quite working for us. And I just feel like if you're actually going to have the guts to ask for a move of God, then you better be willing to be inconvenienced because if God's going to show up, don't grieve him by shutting it down. Now I'm not saying Asbury shut it down because here, honestly, here's the truth.
I genuinely don't know what God told the leaders and I know they're people of prayer. I know they saw God. So they literally might be absolutely following the direction of the Lord. I genuinely don't know, but I do know that I, I've just been crying out, which I think so many of people listening to keep it 100 tribe are just saying, Jesus do it in my city. Right. And so I guess my question to everyone is, you know, what's your part? We're like, what's your part?
Because you can, you can hear about Jesus people movement. You can watch the Jesus revolution movie. You can, you can hear about revival history, but friends, we're in a moment where God's like, but what's your response? And then, and then if you do show up, are you actually willing to steward this thing? Are you actually willing to get out of the way and host this thing? Are you willing to like pay the price and be inconvenienced and shut other stuff down to host his presence?
And I feel like the invitation is there for our nation again to have a new Jesus people movement, but it's going to look really different. And I feel like, you know, the boomers still have a part in this and those, you know, those are my parents. My parents are in their later seventies. They got married in 67, the summer of love when all this went down. And I look at my parents and they're still on fire for God.
They're still praying for, for a revival and their friends are still on fire for God and praying for revival. And I just want to tell the boomers for those boomers that listen to the keep it 100 podcast or maybe your parents are in the boomer generation. I just want to prophesy over them that you have a part in this next move of God. You have a role to play and where the Jesus people movement was actually a movement of orphans and it lacked mothers and fathers.
I believe the boomer generation can mother and father where they weren't mother and fathered. They're actually going to mother and father this next move of God because there's an invitation for a multi-generational move of God that's happening in the nation right now. That is so profound. I just want to go back to something you said a lot earlier, just about we need to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit.
You know, many people can point with frowning fingers and understandably that a lot of the hippies there, they were expressing this desire to touch and open and encounter the spirit around through drugs.
But really the drugs for them was a counterfeit Holy Spirit that wants many of them experienced because they said Jesus people movement, although it affected all different branches of Christianity, many of the historians are right of it, really talk about the charismatic nature of it, words of knowledge, prophecy, healing. They were open to the work of the Holy Spirit.
And I feel like just as those hippies had turned to drugs, Eastern religions instead of the church is because they didn't see the power and the freedom of the Holy Spirit, some of them at that time in the church. And I think it's going to be so important for us to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit. There was a point in the movie and different people will hit it from different angles.
And I'm just going to state my case because we're talking about the movie, but there was a point where Lonnie Frisbee began to move in the power of the Holy Spirit, words of knowledge. And at that time it was in the movie referred to as the atrix and I feel like honestly, this generation, they're hungry for that level of encounter that it's not human fleshly the atrix, it's Holy Ghost manifestation. It's interesting. They say Gen Z is the loneliest generation.
They say that they are statistically, they say the most depressed, despondent. They say even after the lockdowns, of course, of 2020, they say incidents of self-harm amongst 13 to 18 year olds rose 99.8% overdoses rose 119%. They said generalized anxiety rose, rose 94% and major depressive disorders rose 84%. So what am I saying and all that? I'm saying Gen Z needs an encounter and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to fall upon a generation.
And as it happens, because one of the things that made me cry was some of the old religious responses when the hippies began to come in, they didn't have shoes, they didn't have all the stuff you thought you should have had, but some people were so locked into the way they had did it in the past. They weren't open to the new thing that the spirit of God was doing. But I love that one scene.
I don't know that it actually happened or not, but I think it made a statement with the one older gentleman that you thought was going to get up and leave out of the church angry like the earlier man and his wife did. But instead he goes on the other side, puts his arm around the hippies and it just was kind of one of them turning points. I think that's so important to understand that we got to be open and not box God or his Holy Spirit in. I love that. And you're right.
That was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole movie because it just did. It made me cry because I feel like that's Jesus. Jesus goes and sits with the people that look and sound different and he shows the love of God and Jesus's love, it's what transforms. It's what makes people go, I'm home. Love brings you home. Love transforms you. Love sets you free. Love will keep you for a little bit, but love will actually transform you.
And it's like, there is a beauty that the Jesus people carried that really came from the hippie movement and that is it was a culture of love, but they encountered the love of Jesus and that's what's transformed them. Because they were always experiencing a counterfeit version. And I just want to go back to what you were saying because as you were saying, it was like my spirit was like jumping. I'm like, yes, that's it.
It's like you just gave the stats of Gen Z and they're just so desperate to feel something. They're feeling anxiety, they're feeling fear, they're feeling depression, they're feeling all this stuff, but they're not feeling God, right? They're not feeling the love of Jesus. They're not feeling the joy of the Lord, the transforming power of God. We have a responsibility to let them actually feel what they were created to feel and that is the love of Jesus.
That is the inheritance of the promise of the cross. And I think we have a generation that is a feeling generation and that makes some people uncomfortable because they're religious people like, but you need to get them in the word. Of course. If we're getting them rooted and anchored in word and truth, absolutely.
Like I'm not negating or pulling away from the importance of discipleship through the word of God, but we got to first and foremost get them to experience God in a generation that so wants to experience that really, I just want to encourage if there's churches that are even happened to be listening to this podcast or leaders that have been hesitant to let the gifts of the Holy Spirit flow.
If you want the heart of a generation, you have to allow them to experience the power and the personality of the Holy Spirit. I think this is what's so important is them experiencing when they've experienced so many other things to actually allow them to experience the emotions and the heart, the joy and the feelings of the Lord. And I think that when you try to remove the gifts from the feast that's laid before a generation, you're actually robbing them from actually what's going to keep them.
The word is powerful, but when you experience the word, game changer. No question. And that's what you're saying right now too, the latest Barna study, George Barna does a lot of sociological polls and studies. The latest Barna study is calling Gen Z the open generation because his studies have revealed a majority of Gen Z see Jesus in a powerful light and what they want to see is the authentic expression of that in people's lives.
And speaking of that, I think that's so important because right now we want to segue to our interview and on our, our, this podcast, we have Greg Gervais, he is director of rig USA. He and his wife are church planners. They've seen revivals among youth. They have impacted a lot of the Southwestern space of the United States of America. He's radical. So jump with me right now into this amazing interview. Hey, everybody, keep it 100 try. Get ready, get ready. We have an amazing man of God.
He is the president and a director of rig nation USA works with a friend of ours that we've had on the podcast before. Uh, tell me, Ariyomi, his wife, that would be Greg's wife, Sharon. They are an apostolic power couple, church planners, itinerant speakers and, uh, just heart for revival. Greg, great to have you on the podcast, bro. What's going on? Awesome. Thanks for having me.
Sean, it's just been, uh, really amazing to see what God's doing through you guys as well as what he seems to be doing all over the world. Absolutely. Now, hey, normally I'd be talking to you. You'd be in Houston. You're on the East coast, man. Tell us about that. What, what's brought you to the East coast? Yeah, I just, uh, you know, I was in Canada doing a, uh, meeting there and the Lord specifically told me New York is ready. And so I just was with obedience saying, okay, New York's ready.
And ever since then, God's been speaking to me and giving me such a heart for New York city, which is completely out of my paradigm. I've never been in New York. So I flew here a few times since then to pray to really get some things on. And this is the last week before our revival services next week. I was just here, uh, solidifying some details, but yeah, yeah. So we're, we're throwing off some revival services. I love that man.
And you did a series of posts that in my head is the word of the Lord. I mean, enough for me to stop everything, hold the phone. Let me get my buddy Greg on the Keep Your 100 and talk about this. So let's back up a minute. Give us your origin story. We love to ask people their origin story. How did God first make himself real to you, Greg? Yeah, I was just, uh, you know, I grew up in my family.
They went to church, non-religious, but just would go to church and I pretty much, uh, messed around with my life until I was about 20, even though I didn't, I'd go to church. I wouldn't know Jesus. And then, uh, you know, I was trying to, this is going to be shameful, but I was trying to hook up with a girl who was Catholic and she was, she was going, she was getting on fire and I said, well, I'll do this too.
And so she was going to this Benny Hinn meeting down in Boise, Idaho, and it was a 16 hour drive. So I'm like, oh, this is going to be great. I can get me a relationship and some Jesus, you know? And so she backed out last minute, but nonetheless, I went down to this Benny Hinn meeting and the Lord just began to really awaken my sense to say, you know, I've got you here for a reason. I want to change your life.
And so I told my parents, I'm going to come back a different person and I don't talk like that. Nonetheless, fast forward. He ends up calling me up on stage, blasts me with the power of the Holy spirit a few times and I'm stuck there laying on the ground. Things are flashing through my eyes like it says in Joel two, where just dreams and visions are scaring me in a powerful way. I get up and completely changed.
I start worshiping the Lord three hours, four hours a day, reading the Bible, same amount of time preaching the gospel, healing the sick, casting out devils, trying to find possessed people like stomping the grounds in Canada. And so just from there really developed a heart after Jesus went to Bible college on accident and then met my wife, moved down to the U S and we planted a church and just broke out with some healings and miracles and stuff. And then here we are.
We found Apostle O'Reime and we're, we moved to Houston. That is awesome. Now that moment, like you were brought up and so you were acquainted with Christian principles, Christian ideas, concepts and what have you. But what was it about that moment you're on that platform? I just want to back up to submit it. What was it about that moment on the platform or all of a sudden? Cause you, you turned around, bro. You went gangbusters. It was like nitro met glycerin and you exploded and a Canadian.
I've been to Canada a lot of times and Canadians can be a little more subdued. Bro, you, you went like Jesus people move in 1972. Right. And so what happened in that moment that unlocked, unleashed or broke through to that kind of primeval pure stream of anointing in your heart? The only thing I could say that it was a tipping place because although I was still trying to get relationship, I was at a place of desperation and I remember going down to this thing.
There's 20,000 people and I was, because God had spoken to me, something was going to happen. I thought he was going to call me on stage by pointing me out by a prophecy or something. I'd gone to spirit filled churches or whatever. And so the whole time he was just preaching and ministering to people and I was getting not missed out, but I was like, you know, Oh God, why, why can't you see me? And the whole three days nothing was happening. And I was screaming desperate.
And so I remember I was 20, almost 21 and he, he gave an altar call and he said, if you're a young person up to the age of 19, I want you to come to the front. And I was, I said, you know what, I don't care. I'm breaking the rules. I'm getting my Jesus. And there is honestly this place of desperation I've never had in my life that kind of had me run down there. And even though I ran down there, there are still 500 young people in front of me in front of there.
And even still, I believe that's what channeled the vacuum or the vacancy in my heart for the Holy Spirit to really wreck me like he did overnight. Like my parents are like, what happened this man? Like six months later, I was like, man, Jesus really changed my life. And my dad's like, yeah, I know. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, we hear you every night. What? Anyways, but that's really what happened.
And I can, I can almost put back to every moment in my life where things have changed. It's deserty or a heart of desperation for change came into my soul. And that's what brought me to my tipping point. I love that. Let me ask you right now, what's your take? Obviously we're seeing the asbury thing that is broken out.
And obviously they've moved that into different venues, but I was just talking to our last guest on, we have Patricia King and a lot of people contact her and she was saying, they're probably about 25 different ongoing per meetings as per our last conversation across the United States from the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to the East coast of Jis and Pasadena right now. Some good friends of ours, the Greens, Jesse in particular, she's down there. They're having ongoing. What, what do you think?
Because man, we've gone a minute without having someplace that we could identifyably point to and say something's going on there and it's spreading. Like we have a little hot spots we've gone to, but it's spreading. It's been a minute since we've seen that. What's your take on what, what God is doing and what are you seeing right now?
I believe, I believe that, you know, the COVID thing, how everyone to place it, I believe it's shuffled things, it's shook things that couldn't be, that could have been shaken. So that, which couldn't have been shaken, like it says in Hebrews 12, could remain, but I actually believe that shaking has caused a desperation and there's sinners we're finding that are getting baptized, confessing stuff, like coming out of the woodwork.
I'm talking stuff no one's ever told me and they're feeling completely okay to say this. And I believe that awakening has actually or revival. A lot of people have different definitions, you know, awakening exists and revival exists, but however you want to say it, the out point of the spirit has engaged, I believe in this hour and it's to the whosoever I believe right now. Bro, I love what you're saying. I am chomping at the bit. I 100% agree with you.
I feel like, you know, it's interesting, you know, Asbury, the, Asbury had an outbreak of the Holy Ghost. I believe it was around 19, it was a couple of years before Zuster around 1904. And obviously Asbury University was named after Francis Asbury, early circuit writer. Two years after that, you had a Zuzus street. There could have been other moves, but another most notable move at Asbury College was about 1950, I believe or so.
And of course you had the latter rain, you had the healing revival, all Roberts, all those guys, they were feeling tense. The latter rain movement, obviously, Canada, they were impacted, happened at the Bible College there. Then you had a 1971, 72 around there. They had another one, of course, is Jesus People Movement. There was another, as the outbreak around 93 or somewhere around that.
Some of these numbers could be off a little bit, but then you had Pensacola, Father's Day, you had Toronto, you had all these kinds of things. And then low and behold, 2023. It's almost as if the Lord is breathing again upon this.
Again, it's bigger than what we know, but I think Francis Asbury was a phenomenal revivalist that spread, a circuit writer meant for those of you who are listening, these dudes got on horses, they weren't getting on Facebook and Twitter, TikTok, although there's nothing wrong with that if you're spreading the gospel. But they went and preached. In addition to that, the dude was an abolitionist, outspoken.
In fact, he carried some papers with them that if he led you to the Lord, you had to sign these papers that basically said, you're going to let all your slaves go or else you can walk with the Lord. And so there was this sense of kingdom justice mixed with a revivalist. And it's almost like the Lord uses this as an awakening. And I feel like there's this Asbury thing.
And so I feel like it's bigger than just some college students, Gen Z got excited and thought, okay, we'll repent of some sins, which by the way, who does that apart from God and all these things, man? In light of that, Greg, because dude, you're on such a roll, we believe that there is a breakthrough happening. What in your estimation are keys to breakthrough? I believe the key, the major thrust with key is a heart of desperation. But that doesn't mean just something light.
I think when people hear me say a heart of desperation, that means get excited for a service. But I believe what that means is it's time for me to push everything else aside in my life because this is worthy of all of my attention. And so even us, we've been going, we just finished doing five days straight Fridays before that, just seeking the heart of Jesus and Houston.
My wife and I, everything's moving out of the way so that we can host Jesus because there's something in me that I'm not missing God, no matter what happens, I'm going to find Jesus. So I believe one of the biggest keys with desperation though is having a mindset that even if it doesn't come, it was worth my investment. And so what I find with people, it's almost like they have to be promised the investment before they invest.
And I think that's one of the biggest keys that are actually missing, that if we would be desperate, regardless the outcome, now I'm not saying God's not coming, but if we're desperate, regardless of what happens, I think it shows really a loyalty to the heart of Jesus, just like the three Hebrew children, you know, and they're like, we're not going to bow and God's going to save us. But even if he doesn't save us, we're not going to bow. You know, so that's what I believe.
Man, I think that's so profound that you go, we have to have the promise of the investment before we do the investment. And I just love that because first of all, there are zillion promises in the Bible that if you're drawn near to God, he'll draw near to you. But I love what you said, hey, I'm better for it regardless.
And I think some of the problem with modern Christianity, and maybe we'll open this up a little bit more, is that I think we have a door dash mentality that, hey, outbreaks of the Holy Ghost are going on and as bread all around. Hey, I just hold tight. It's going to come knock on my door, ring my door, drop off the move of God. I'm just going to sit down and open it up and eat it. But you give some great biblical examples that that's not the case.
Can you just expound upon the fact that desperation and the desperation to linger, because I believe that there is an anointing in the linger in this season. God is going to reward the lingerer. And talk to us a little bit about the door dash mentality and why that isn't scriptural. To just think God's just going to drop it off at your door and you're automatically, in a sense, you can be passive and still participate in the move of God. Speak to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I really believe that that's one of the biggest hindrances to this generation because of the, it's like a me-based movement of I'm entitled, where people come to church for me instead of actually going for Christ. But one of the biggest things is people, I hear all the time, well, God wants revival, they'll come to my door, they'll come to my house, they'll come to my church or whatnot. But you don't see that.
Like you see one person or maybe a couple people like the at the funeral Jesus stopped by or the guy at the pool Bethesda. But typically speaking in the Bible, people who got their miracles were willing to get out of the camp, willing to press pass, willing to be embarrassed and not and lose all sense of entitlement whatsoever. It's obviously, you know, the lady with the issue of blood and then the Luke 18, the blind man where he cried out and everyone told him to be quiet.
And I truly believe in this hour that revival could come to you just like Jesus could maybe come to your door just like he didn't for the most part statistically in the New Testament, but he healed those who came to him primarily. I believe that right now Jesus is walking by and I believe it's up to us. And again, I just felt to say one thing that I think one of the things that happens is that pride always marries pain.
It means where there's been some kind of rejection, we cover it with an source of entitlement. It's actually a spirit of poverty where we've been without. So we marry it with, well, I, you know, if it was real, it would come to me. If it was God, it would happen to me. But the truth is, if it's God, you have to lose all and go after it. Oh my goodness, man, I'm about to run around the room and light my hair on fire. Bro, you said that pride and pain, how did you say that?
They go hand in hand, they marry each other, they come in. Yeah, they're power twins. Power twins. Power twins. And so I always see that every time there's a deficiency when we're young, we always exalt ourselves to cover it when we're old so that by the time something good comes that we need to actually humble ourselves, we're too entitled to actually cross that threshold of pain because of the pride to actually obtain it. Oh my goodness, man. That is, that's crazy.
So you're thinking of blind Bartimaeus, I'm thinking the one with the issue of blood, you know, you're talking about desperation. And what I love about that is a couple of quick thoughts is one, who doesn't have in terms of someone who's really walking with the Lord, who doesn't have a desire for more of Jesus in their life. Who doesn't have a desire to see the manifestation of the glory of God? Who doesn't desire revival?
But what I've seen in Moves Pass is I've studied a little bit, Greg, is that desire must pass the test of desperation. When you desire something, that's like you like it, you know what I'm saying? But desperation gets to the point where you won't do without it. And if your desire doesn't pass the desperation test, Zacchaeus would have missed his moment had he stayed on the ground and hid behind the crowd.
But that dude put desperation on display, got up on a tree, Jesus said, hey today, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house. And so kind of continue along this line of what you're describing is that hunger can't be passive. Like we had, I think a part of what the pandemic did is it brought it to our house. We're watching online, we're watching on the live stream, we're doing stuff from our home.
They say statistics may have shifted a little bit, but they're saying 30% of the body of Christ never made it back off their couch and put down their latte to step into a church. You're overseeing a church in Houston that is amazing. You guys hit the streets and do evangelism. Talk to us a little bit about the type of hunger that it takes in this hour, cannot be trapped or wrapped in the cellophane of passivity.
Just talk to us about the fact that it's got to be out of the box, unwrapped desperation. Yeah, yeah, I believe that. It's, you know, I'm Canadian originally. So Canadians are passive. And what that means is they'd rather be polite than powerful. And so what have we seen in people's lives?
They'll literally let God moments pass them by so they can remain in a former or what looks to be a form of politeness or it looks to be, you know, maybe political correctness or, you know, it looks to be some kind of a societal consensus that this is what we do. And I believe that passivity is taught and it's ingrained in our society to actually stop moments and movements that we're seeing right now. And I think that passivity isn't, I could be wrong, isn't a fruit of the spirit.
It's actually a trait of the enemy's control within society. And I think if you look all throughout history, those who would see revivals always broke the cord of passivity, always broke the mold of people who would, who would seem, I'm going to say, and get out there a little bit and say, unbalanced and not have their life completely balanced because they were so desperate. They were so persuaded that what they desired was worth everything else in their life worth suffering.
And so I believe that that's really what is needed. We're seeing a lot of people come out of the woodworks, like I said, even in Houston, people have never preached the gospel. And in my life, I've never seen a group of people so hungry to preach the gospel, Sean. Like never in my life, I've had to pull teeth out and they're lining up to preach the gospel. They're, they're freaking out. No better terminology. They're coming back to like, this guy was healed. I had a word of knowledge for this.
And it's flooding into their heart and like revolution is beginning to happen in their souls. And I believe that's the recipe. It's actually one of these things the Lord's been speaking to me like a riot mindset. Those who would do riots are wrong. I get it. But the characteristics are far outdoing what the church is even willing to do for the presence of Jesus. And I feel that that's what desperation looks like. It's a devotion to change regardless of the casualties of war almost.
And I'm not talking about death. I'm not talking about burning and flipping cars. I'm talking about burning and flipping things in our lives that hold us back from Jesus. Man, you know, man, seriously, what you're saying is just blowing me away. Every one time, Greg, I was going into a meeting to speak to some Christian college students who had a Christian university. I was a director of spiritual life.
It's Christian college and I'm going in to speak in the chapel and it was going to be, I've been there a while when I first came, the power of God broke out. So the president offered me a position. He said, would you come? I know you're itinerant. You travel. What would you come a couple of days a week and be our spiritual life director? And they made up a term. I said, sure, sure. So I'm going into the meeting and I saw, I know different people call it different things. We call it soda.
I know some people just generically call carbonated drink Coke or whatever. But I had the old fashioned bottle and I saw that there is this like almost inert substance inside of this. It could cola bottle, but I knew it's not meant to be inert. And it dawned on me that it had a cap on it, of course. And so I had to get the cap off to get this soda to pour. And I was thinking, how do I get this cap off? And the Lord showed me the cap.
It was almost like the acronym CAP became complacency apathy passivity. And the Lord showed me, I grabbed it and it's like I saw a hand superimpose over my hand. I knew it was the hand of God shook it. And as he shook it, it blew the cap off. And all of a sudden, obviously all this carbonated drink is what happened. If you know, old high school trick, you shake your buddies soda pop and you hand it to them and they blow up.
And I feel like God purposely in our lives allows a shaking so we'll blow off the cap. And there's been a complacency apathy passivity again, the acronym for cap. And I love what you said earlier. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that which is unshakable will remain. I believe God is shook. The Western world church in particular, actually the church all over the globe, but the Western world, I think we had a little layover to see in dust on us.
And I'd say the other thing is the Bible asks the question, is there anyone who stirs themselves up the layhold of God? And so what I'm hearing from you is that, hey, you got to stir yourself up. What do you think? Obviously desperation. What individually could a person do right now that's saying, hey, you know what? I hear what you're saying, Greg, man, I know there's the more I want the more. I feel like I'm a bit stagnant. I feel like I'm a bit stuck.
I feel like I've become routine in my approach to God. How do I see personal breakthrough? What are some specifics that you would counsel or you would talk or you've seen that would help person in an area of achieving a personal breakthrough into a greater flow of God in their life? Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think first of all, I would say, obviously I want to say desperation and I'll say that in a minute because I think that's all part of this.
But I think one of the biggest things is allowing personal honesty to come in to observe where we're at. What I see most in so many different places, the lack of proper discernment of ourselves and I'm going to say something that hopefully will mean something. But you have this example of Josiah in the Old Testament. He's the son of Amon who's a wicked, evil person.
And statistically, it's easier to stay wicked because the wickedness blinds your eyes to that wickedness itself because if it's a normality, it's not really wicked anymore. It's just a personality. And so a lot of times, yeah, a lot of times I see what happens is we have people who have had patterns, whether it's families, whether it's cultures or countries, patterns of ingrained character or practices that we don't even see as wrong.
We're always seeing someone else's stuff that is wrong, right? To us that we don't practice. Well, I always see that we fail to actually recognize like he did. He read the word for himself, the Bible said, and he was like, he's like, we're in trouble. We're in bad trouble. And so he threw down and fasted and prayed and brought the spirit of the Lord to the land.
And so what I see is that everyone wants the blessing of repentance without the ability to actually inspect ourselves to see if there's anything that needs to be altered or de-altered that's been raised up in our past, our present, our families. And I believe there's a huge necessity for that right now.
That's one of the biggest keys for me is almost every time I start to see a breakthrough, God will bring a place of loving conviction to say, Hey, Greg, there's this area in your life that you've been doing this or, Hey, this is running. I've had this, this is running in your family and you've married it and you're blind to it. And unless you die to it, it's going to kill you or at least stop what I'm trying to do through you. So I believe that's one of them.
And then the other thing is just personal running back to the place of personal worship. And I know the Lord's been working on me on that, you know, you know, ministry, you're doing lives, doing all these different things, helping everyone else fix their solutions. And we don't even have a tap on God sometimes. And so I believe that personal, a revolution of elongated times with Jesus, just in the real secret place where as we're worshiping or praying, we're, we're surrendering inwardly.
And I just see that, you know, those two things have obviously been completely aware and asking the Lord if there's anything we need to pay attention to from our past or present or things around us that are blinding us. And then, and secondly, is just that real secret place of intimacy. And then, you know, what goes on there is desperate. See is like God, now what do I do extra? Those two things are just to catch up. And the last thing is just desperate.
See, it's like God, what else do I need to do to kind of really pursue you to see you make a change, not just in me, but maybe my family, my nation or, you know, my region. Man, I love what you're saying. Number one, the thing that stuck out is that whole aspect of part of the enemy's ploy is to cause wickedness to become our normality, then it no longer looks like it. And all of it, all it is, is this way to insulate us from the conviction because repentance, you're right.
It is what brings breakthrough. And I think we want, you know, I'll just tell on us, North American Christians, I know there are people from all over the globe that listen to Kibo 100, but I know Western world or North American Christians, we don't want to repent. We want a shortcut. And the truth be told, like, where do you find that? You know, you'll see people on their Instagram, hashtag, work all night, hashtag, team grind, hashtag, you know, all this stuff, like put in work, hashtag.
And then they come to church and it's hashtag, couch potato, hashtag, passivity, hashtag.
I don't want to have to push beyond a certain point, but I'm convinced that this next breakthrough, you know, I talk about in my book, I am your sign about when new trends and patterns come, there are pioneers, early adopters, late adopters, and then you go all the way down to the stragglers and different people have given them different terminology, but we're really trying to call forth the pioneers of revival now.
And we're saying you've got to lead the whole Asbury thing was these kids got them started repenting and truth be told, that was true in the seventies, asbury revival thing. Actually all of Asbury's revivals have begun with students standing up and repenting, which I think is very interesting. And then you said something huge, bro. You said the secret place, man. I don't know if people, again, like, if you're not, you know, you're not going to be able to get alone with God.
How do you think that God is going to be able to get himself fully in you and through you in the air of revival? Right? Totally. What do you think are as you two last questions, man, because it's so good. What do you think in light of all of the challenges that modern believers have? What do you think are the challenges that we face that mitigate a war against us getting breakthroughs? Yeah, I really, I actually, we just, we kind of went over this.
We, in one of our services, we just had, but I feel like the Lord was really focusing on that whole fear of man, Proverbs 29, 25. And it's just this amazing kind of a revelation that's hitting us. This is going to probably get deep here, maybe, and maybe too much, but, you know, it says in Matthew 10, 33, it says, if you deny before a man, I'll deny before the other. And I think sometimes we cutify the fear of man, but really what it is, it's displaced loyalty.
So I find we're wanting God to bring our, or Jesus, we're going to say, because he's our mediator, bring our case before the father, but we're unwilling to bring his case before our lives and our friends. And I find that, that small little thing called the fear of man is actually displaced loyalty. And then we're still, it's kind of like we're wanting the blessing of Abel and giving the sacrifice of Cain. We're wanting to keep our friends and keep people in our lives and keep mom happy.
I already say it like this, because I love my mom, but keep everyone happy, you know, everything really balanced. I want to make everything even kill and then still have revival. And I believe it's actually the words going to be impossible to have God show up on our behalf, but yet remain loyal to all of our peoples.
And so I feel like one of the biggest things that have to die, one of the biggest devils, you could say, is the fear of man, where the loyalties of our heart need to be crushed and sacrificed to Jesus again. You know, does that make sense? So that's what I feel like people are doing in this hour. That thing, Greg, of displaced loyalty, fear of man being displaced, I've never heard that before. And man, it is so on point right on.
Oh my goodness, man, you and your wife have embodied desperation means you take risk. That's what I'm hearing you say. And you and your wife, you guys have taken some risks, man. I mean, you've left a very powerful, thriving church. You guys planted a work that had multiple campuses and you were, you know, kind of fathering and overlooking that.
And obviously you still have a voice into them and they looked at you, but you came to Houston, uprooted your entire family, started from scratch again and really kind of threw caution to the wind of the spirit and gambled. And some people would say Houston's got some pretty big churches already and they've got enough going on in that area. But for you guys to come down, what do you feel risk, what part will risk play in this revival?
I think honestly, what you just said, I think risk is everything. I think that risk is just another word for faith. And I believe that the only thing, it's kind of all this is coming together in a perfect circle. Sean, I believe that risk is literally, it's the absolute definition of desperation. You know, that lady with the issue of blood, she risked not getting it. She risked being rejected more than she'd already been rejected. She risked everything, right?
Just to get a touch of Jesus saying with, you mentioned was Zacchaeus, right? Blind Bartimaeus, all these people risk everything. And I always find that your next level of breakthrough is your next level of risk. Not in the flesh, but for some odd reason, every time I go to another level, it's after I take a risk. And so maybe the next time I should be a little happier when risk comes, instead of being a little bit more timid, even moving to Houston was a little bit of a shot for us.
But I believe that risk is definitely the currency of heaven. Oh my God, risk is the currency of heaven. Greg, bro, I'm just going to start calling you for it, Knox. You dropped in gold nuggets everywhere, my friend. Every seriously. Greg, this is so profound, man. What are your social media? Any way our listeners can get in contact, support you, get behind you, track with you, follow you.
Yeah, you can follow us at Greg Diaz Daniel Gervais, G-E-R-V-A-I-S on any social handle or at Rignation USA on any social handle. We have a book called Every Believer and that's really Every Believer is the Army of God. And that's what we are driving toward is awakening the army. There is an awakening, but we just need people to come to that realization. And we're believing God to really pour out. Greg, bro, I love you. You are profound. You are the funnest guys to be around.
You know, it's funny because even Apostle Tomi said the same thing. He said, you guys laughed so much. Made me jealous to come hang out with you guys on certain trips more. Bro, seriously, thanks for taking the time. Rignation USA is so blessed to have you and give our love to your wife and your three beautiful kids, man. Christa, I sure love you and share. You guys are a true gift. Us too, man, thank you so much, Sean, for the privilege of being on this show with you guys. Thank you.
Wow, that was incredible, wasn't it? Oh my gosh, I love Greg. I love his heart. That was profound. Such good revelation and really just, I think, really just captures concisely what God's doing and saying right now. So true. I just want to leave you guys with this final thing as we're talking about this whole thing about being in position for Jesus' revolution. And number one, theologian Gordon Feeze, a spirit-filled theologian. He has written, God has the right to be God.
And I think if there's something that we kind of need to understand again is that God is not going to be held in sway or under control by us. He is God and He is at work in the world. We must never forget it. And I think of this final thing I want to leave you with. What I believe that the Jesus' revolution prophesied to us in this moment is that when hell overplays its hand, heaven overlays its hand.
Did you know that April 8th, 1966, Time Magazine carried a cover that for the first time featured texts only without a graphic and it was starkly captioned, is God dead? And so they were just saying, man, people are leaving church. God's dead. Man, I don't see the expression of that. This generation is irreligious. There are moral, sex, drugs, all that stuff. So that's April 8th, 1966. On June 12th, 1971, the same magazine.
I want to repeat the same magazine, Time Magazine featured a hippie-like looking Jesus with the heading, the Jesus Revolution, just five years later. And so here time was trying to say is God dead? And I believe God answered what a resounding no by unleashing the Jesus Revolution. Thanks so much for tuning into the Keep It 100 podcast. Make sure to rate, review and refer us to your friends and be sure to click that subscribe button so that you're alerted as soon as new episodes drop.
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