#186 Positioned for Revival (2 - Positioned With Intentional Desperation)

Music. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord.

Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening. The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports. Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. We're so excited. I'm Bill, and this is Kyle, and we have been talking the last week, and now for the next two weeks, two or three weeks, we're going to be talking about how do we position ourselves for revival. God is moving, Kyle, around the country. It's not, Lord, would you do it?

It's he's doing it, and how aggressive are we going to cooperate with him? And will we quench his movement? Will we stop his movement personally and in our churches and in regions by not cooperating? So we've been talking about how do we get ready? How do we position ourselves so that everything that God wants to do in this season, in and through us and in our churches, he can do.

And I know a little prophet book speaks to this really strongly. And really speaks about the desperation that's needed. Yeah, I've heard you preach this text several times, Bill. I've heard others preach this text many times, but just in my one-year Bible reading, I came back through it again. And I think the Lord, for me personally, was wanting me to embrace 2025 with a different level of desperation.

Wow. So I just sat in it, and I think that the level of seriousness and how we're going to rightly position ourself, it's one thing, and I love—we've talked about this—it's one thing that we're seeing more awareness around prayer and fasting and the first of the year. And that's been growing by God's grace, and I think that's the work of the Spirit even positioning us for revival. But beyond the practical decision-making and all that, how about the spirit behind it?

Like what kind of state is our soul? And I think that there's decisions that you make to embracing desperation. You know, I think there's two thoughts around desperation, Bill, and I'd love for us to banter. We've got two verses, and I'd really rather just talk about this today. You know, there's one thing. And I got a message brewing in this. It just ain't ready yet. Yeah, I should say. So you basically want us to kind of cook your message on this.

But I can't. It's one of those things like, I mean, you've done this. This is coming out of me one way or another. We might as well talk about it. So it's one thing to embrace desperation. Like we're in a desperate state. If you look in the Old Testament, the enemy armies are coming. Second, you know, Chronicles 20 kind of moment. like, let's embrace this moment of desperation. There's another thing to choose desperation.

And what I find is, and this is Western, you know, we got a lot of comforts, you know, and maybe you're even in a church, you're in a good season, you know, and like there's good things happening. I was having a conversation with a guy, a pastor recently, that sort of found himself going through the motions. Like, everything's good. Numbers are up. But in his honesty, he was like, but man, my heart's dry. And I don't really know if all these things that are going good are because of God. Wow.

And it elicited this thought, well, why not choose desperation? Even though you don't have these drivers in your life, per se, that are easy to identify, we know that there's still a need for desperation. So why not choose it? Well, that's a really important distinction, I think, isn't it? And, you know, we can... We can have things happening around us that we're just desperate in the sense of hopeless. Yeah, right. And so we just live in this desperation, this hopelessness.

Yeah. That's not helpful for a believer. Right. Or we can say, yes, there's all kinds of desperate things happening around us. We recognize it, but we're choosing intensity. Yeah. In our life, we're choosing to live with this tension of what is happening, and we give glory to God for that. But there's more, and we're desperate for more, you know, and we're cooperating with God for more. And that really positions us for a move of God, doesn't it? Well, here's what I would say in a short version.

God sees that. God sees how serious. God's not playing a game. Like God's looking down. Lacrosse is never about us being perfectly positioned, but it is about us to the greatest measure possible. Let's position ourselves. And so what I think you see, Joel 1, is a conscious decision. In light of their need of repentance and real move of God, verse 13. They choose desperation. They put on sackcloth. They let an outward sign show an inner reality. that like, hey, listen, we're in shame in our sin.

Like, we realize that we have broken God's law, we've broken God's heart, the state of our nation. And it says, and lament. And I tell you what really got me, Bill, O priest, well, O ministers. I remember hearing R.T. Kendall say one time, and it just struck in my spirit. He said, when you don't know what else to try, I should try tears.

Wow. And I thought, man, to get to a place and stay there long enough that you choose desperation and that it floods your heart and even fills your cry with like, God, I need you. I need you. And I think that happens when you look in chaos or turmoil or wayward child, and that's right to do that. But choosing to, in light of we know that the state of mankind, is that we need God. We need the pouring out of God. We need the things that only God can tangibly do in our church.

We need more than we can provide. And to get to a place where you not only say it, but you feel it. Yeah, it was a difference with our kids. We see this all the time. They'll... Kid will, between one level and another level, and we often say, that's a fake cry. Yeah. You know, you're just fake crying. Man, that's good. You know, and he's kind of just fake crying. He's not really desperate. Yeah. But there are those moments when a child is just desperate, and they're in whatever the situation.

And, boy, that's the moment when you see your wife turn and sprint across the room. Right, right. Because she knows that cry. Yeah. And what's cool is she responds to a desperate cry. That's good, dude. And she can blow off a fake cry, you know, oh, don't worry. He's just kind of, she'll look over, you know, he's just fake crying. But when there's a desperate cry, mom and daddy really respond. And I think the same thing is true here.

It's not. I think a lot of times we get in a prayer meeting and we pray and we have nice prayers. Yeah. But they're not desperate prayers. Yeah. And there's something about the intensity of that.

And Kyle, talk to us in this passage a minute in the next verse, maybe about what does that lead us to do? Go in. What would this kind of intensity lead us to do if we were really desperate? Yeah. I love, of course, ESV says, it says, go in. Pass the knot and sackcloth, O ministers of my God. I mean, like there's this, go into his presence. Maybe go into God's house. Like enter in. Wow. And then it says stay. I mean, like pass the knot and sackcloth.

Like this is not momentary. I think to choose desperation over a long period of time. Like to choose desperation, like let that become a normative state, you know, and that doesn't mean we're woe is me and that we put on a show Pharisees. It's not we pay people to wail and weep, but that we can simultaneously, man, have a tear in our eye for the coming of God in our lives, in our church, you know, in our nation, and a smile on our face because we're His.

You know, and just to choose to stay in that posture and position, and this might be all personal. Well, I don't think so, because it's in the scripture and that he's calling them. Let's go in, guys. Let's go in. Let's stay the night in the presence of God in a right display of repentance, man. Let's get in that position that God might see us. And then because grain, this is interesting, by the way, grain offering and

drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. like there's, He's saying there's some things that's just not rightly aligned. There's some things that's just off. And here's a statement, Bill. I'm telling you, I can't believe this more. Me and you talked through this years ago, and you helped me a lot with it. I am more bold in my preaching ministry around giving and generosity than ever before because it is absolutely non-negotiable to revival. Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And every time I'm telling you specifically, look at these Old Testament expressions of it, that right giving practices are restored in revival. Yeah, they are. I just think, you know, with this classic passage in Malachi, I was just reading last week, where, you know, Malachi, you know, the people say, well, how are we, how are we, you know, how are we disobeying you? Well, you're robbing me.

You're robbing me. You're taking, I have made this non-negotiable truth that the first fruits come to me. And that was in Genesis. And by the way, it goes all the way to Revelation. Some guy says, well, I don't believe in tithing. Well, okay, whatever. Do you believe in the first verse? That's right. And it means that, by the way, that means 10%, the word that you use. Let's bring the first fruits to the house of God. And we are just flat out robbing. You know, you can rob a lot of people and

get away with some stuff. I wouldn't rob God. Just not a good move, right? Not a good move. I heard Steve Gaines say, Bill, years ago, and this is so good. I know y'all are buddies. He said, you can't be intimate with someone you're robbing.

Wow you can't be intimate and i thought that's he said it's got and god yeah you don't want to be around them do you because no you feel that guilt for what you're doing and yeah and and the thing is it's not just it's not like god needs the money it's just god needs your heart yeah that realizes that he is the owner and creator of everything and we give to him out of adoration and that's the first sign of a revived heart.

And so he's saying here, you know, you ought to be weeping and wailing because people are robbing me. They're not cooperating with me. And you ought to be desperate about that. This is a big deal with God. And then he calls us further in this passage, doesn't he, in verse 14, it says something to us about fasting, solemn assembly, gathering elders. Talk to us about that, Kyle.

Yeah, consecrate a fast and call a solemn assembly. And Bill, I know you've helped churches even learn how to do this. And I think consecrate a fast is like, hey, we're declaring that a time of fasting has come. And that we—and let me tell you what fasting does for me. Of course, the time that this podcast lands is somewhere around the first of the year. And you've probably heard more, I hope you have, about fasting and prayer. But fasting and prayer is not just a seasonal thing.

It's the thing that Jesus says when you fast. And that there was this in the heart of God, in the mind of God, that as a follower of Christ, that you would you would take times that you lay aside a meal to meet with god you know i think what you find here in this moment though this is corporate that that this is oh people of god let's come into the presence of god let let's make a conscious decision, to lay this down so that we could lay hold of the Lord.

And let me tell you what fasting does. Man, I get messed up about just talking about it. Fasting helps me feel my desperation for God. It helps me. It just helps. It helps. God, I don't know what it is about it. I don't understand it all. But God has decided that there's something about fasting that helps me come to realize how truly desperate, how Psalm 42, oh, how my soul longs for you, longs for you. I'd be like the deer pants for water.

While you would think laying down a meal would make you think, and obviously we all struggle with it when you're laying down a meal or a day of meals or days of meals, is that over time, it moves from focus on that. It helps me as I pray to realize there's a deeper panting in my heart. And so what they're doing, concentrating, is like we're making a physical declaration that we are spiritually desperate. Yeah. Which is just, and God responds, doesn't he, Bill?

And you know, that word that you just used, so fasting, you feel that desperation because you're depriving yourselves and you focus that desperation. Yeah. That the only answer is the Lord. I mean, there's something about, Kyle, you and I have been talking a lot lately about the presence of God and how to live a presence-filled life, a presence-centered life. And what I've discovered is the reason that we don't live in the presence of God, that we don't abide there, is we get distracted.

Just every day, we just get distracted. We just get pulled away. We are drawn away by so many things, as Jesus told Martha. And there's something about fasting. That that you lay aside the distraction of food, you lay aside the distraction of media, you lay aside the distraction of other things and you laser focus your heart upon the Lord. And it is just so healthy. And that's why this word consecrate, you know, our buddy Nathan Lino really

explains this word well. But there's something in that word. Every time God called his people as a people, he would say, consecrate yourself. And there's something that means you set this apart. You come in a deliberate way and come as a nation, come as a people, come as a church, come as a family, and set yourself apart to do this and to humble yourself and come back to me through fasting and then crying out to the Lord, you know, in deliberate prayer.

Yeah, which is part of call a solemn assembly. Don't simply don't eat. Come together, assemble together to what? Get to God. Focus. Let everything. And the solemn part, you can speak to this, Bill. The solemn part is the spirit of the assembly, the attention of the assembly. It's all about God. It's all. We want you. We are slowing down, breathing, focusing. Like our minds are going like, Lord, we have set aside food. We've set aside this assembly because we want you more than anything.

You know, Kyle, you've talked about this before. There's some things that happen in the assembly, in the gathering that can't happen any other place. Exactly right. And, you know, people, we have an Americanized view that is really damaging the kingdom right now. The average Christian comes to church about once a month. Maybe I think the stat is like 1.5 times, you know, that's insane.

I mean, to think that we can live in the world and our kids can live in the world and go to school and do all that kind of stuff. And we only have one moment of maybe an hour and a half a week where we are intentionally consecrating ourselves and coming into the presence of the Lord or seeking to. And it doesn't work, does it? It just doesn't. We're not consecrating enough of our life to focus on the Lord and draw near

the Lord. And I think this is the thrust of this passage is, don't you know what's happening? Don't you know how far you are? Come with desperation. But I want you to come and fast and gather. And then he said, and cry out to the Lord. Cry out to God. There's something about that that really there's a sense in which every Sunday ought to be a moment like this. Yeah. I'm going to give you a stat, a reality that was shocking.

Nancy Piercy wrote a book about toxic masculinity recently, and it was just a fantastic read. But she said, because there's so much attention around bad men and all those kind of things. Well, they did comprehensive studies. This is secular, all those things. So you ready? The healthiest families in America in every way, which is not surprising for follow across, if you know the Bible. The healthiest families in America are those in which the dad is the spiritual leader.

And that that that they gather at least three sundays this is the they boil down all this research they help like healthiest marriages healthiest intimacy in a marriage healthiest parenting uh healthiest financially like their their solid understanding of how you know to live in their means comes down to this one factor is that they they're self-proclaimed followers of jesus christ that gather with the church at least three times a month okay

healthiest you know and you know what the most unhealthy group is the most unhealthy group are those that proclaim their followers of christ proclaim their followers but gather all up to once a month or less that's the They are more unhealthy than atheists or agnostics. Wow. The hypocrisy. Because it's hypocrisy. Yeah. Because they proclaim one thing, yet don't live in that fellowship and that relationship.

So, I mean, I say that, say, there's proof in the fact that we as the people want to be in the presence of God together. I mean, think about this. What is heaven? Heaven is us being with him. Right, right. And so to choose, consecrate a fast, to come as an assembled people into his presence. And then we'll sort of wrap it up here. And then I love that, and I would encourage, because we have leaders that are listening. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord

your God and cry out to the Lord. Wow. In light of one cry. Let me tell you what I would say. It's interesting that the Lord in this passage, obviously we're in the old covenant here, but it was important that the priest and the ministers and the elders got there first.

It was very important. So I just say this to my brothers that are pastors and leaders. You need to get there first. Wow. You just need to get there. You need to get to God's presence first. You need to get desperate first. You need to be a living example. I need to be a living example for my family, for my church, of a guy that chooses to be desperate for God. That chooses to. And I think that the greatest leadership move you could make this year.

Your greatest leadership move you can make is that you choose to be the guy that fasts and prays, that seeks God's face, that wants to be a part of a move of God. I was telling Bill earlier about a pastor in America, one of the most influential churches, recapping the year and helping them reflect. And he got to the end of it, and he said, listen, last seven minutes of a 20-something-minute podcast, he goes, none of this matters, though. I mean, a very strategic leader.

He says, but none of this matters if you falter in your prayer life. And if you're not praying first, that's what he said. He said, none of this matters if we're not in desperate, desirous pursuit of God's presence. And I thought, you know what? You can do church a myriad of ways in any nation of the world, but you boil it down to there are some things that are non-negotiable.

And here we are again in a moment where I would just encourage us, what does this positional desperation look like for you? Right. Well, this is it. And then, I mean, we're talking about how do we position ourselves for revival this year and in a new way, perhaps. Well, we position ourselves by practical holiness. We talked about that last time. and being in the position where we're listening to the Spirit, we're responding to the Spirit on a daily basis.

But also, we position ourselves through intentional desperation.

We choose to be desperate. And we do the things that desperation leads us to do. We fast, we pray, and we call others. And we gather. We gather. We get together. There's a power in united prayer. There's a power in united desperation that is literally irresistible to God. That's very good. And we have to go there if we're going to be a part of what God is doing. Kyle, could you just lead us in a final call to desperation and just lead us in prayer? And we invite everybody to join us in that.

Yeah. Yeah, so let's walk in and just take a moment, because the Lord's speaking to me in this passage. I already started something. Would you just ask the Lord right there, say, Lord, what are you trying to show me? What are you trying to say to me? Help me to hear it. I'm willing to do it. Father, I thank you for every listener, every local church represented, every nation that you have drawn, even to this podcast, people that are leading in different places all over the world.

And we just say, Lord, I thank you that your way works, that the way that you send a move of God, the positioning has always been the same. And so, Lord, I do. I pray that you would find a people that get serious and that, Lord, we would all choose to get desperate and that in our own ways, we would repent deeply, fully. Lord, that we would declare moments of fasting and prayer because we sent you calling us to that we would assemble with others to be serious about meeting with God.

And I pray that leaders would lead. I pray that leaders would lead spiritually, God, not out of shame or fear, but in faith that God's calling me to this and others will join me. So, Lord, I pray there'd be a marked positioning. I pray in 2025 specifically that your eyes would look across our nation and the nations and you'd find people that are positioned just like this and that you would breathe upon it. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, thanks so much for joining us today. And we pray that as you step out into your day, you will choose desperation and all that that brings. And in this coming year, you will be positioned for revival in a way like you'd never have. And I promise you this, if you get ready for God, you'll experience him. Because he wants to manifest himself to you in more than you want that. So let's get ready, okay?

And I hope you'll join us next time as we're going to talk one more week or two about how do we position ourselves. And so join us and invite somebody to join you as we cry out to God together. Music.