Hearing God | Robby Gallaty | 1 Kings 19

If you're at our Hendersonville campus, if you're joining us from Gallatin online, a living room, or even incarcerated, we're all in this together. If you need more information, I'd like to find out more information, and you're watching online because you're a part of us, you can text the word vision, vision to 981-73, and you can get pictures, and outlines, and updates as well. Today, we are gonna do something a little different. We're going to relive what God did at our church, five and a half years ago, when he sent what we believe, those of us who are here, a God sent, spirit filled revival. How many people, just for context, how many people have come to Long Hollow after 2021? Anybody here after 2020? Wow, look around, that's pretty crazy, yeah. So for those who were here before, very soon, if you're before 2020, and you're still here, thank God. No, we are excited to just share. We're gonna relive, we're gonna have a panel the moment, 'cause you heard the outward story, and I'll tell you a little bit, but I wanna give you the backstory of what God's doing, and I wanna show you what God says in his word. Now, you're gonna think, I mean, Candy and I created this Old Testament plan five years ago. Our church decided we're gonna go through it a year ago,

and then we decided this would be the campaign plan, like two months ago, and it's crazy. Last week's sermon started the campaign. That was the reading for the week. How many people remember that? It's like, wow, God, you're in it. You're never gonna believe this. Guess what the reading was this week? It's on hearing from God. You'd almost think God was in this thing, right? Do you have a Bible term within the first king's 19? I mean, this is like the passage that changed my life, and really helped me start to bend my ear to hear the accent of the Holy Spirit. And that's what I wanna talk about today. How can we hear from God? And this is not reserved for pastors, or preachers, or teachers, or staff members. I believe every born-again Christian has access to hear from God. Do you believe that? Let me say that again. I believe every Christian can hear from God. Do you believe that? Amen, okay, I don't wanna show you what's happening in this text. We like to say word at Long Hollow when you're there, first king's 19-9, say word. Amen. The word of the Lord.

Suddenly, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, and God said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? Circle that, underline that phrase. He replied, well, I've been very zealous for the Lord God of armies, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left. I'm the only guy left. And they are looking to take even my life. And then God said to him, go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord's presence. At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was a voice. Here it is, a soft whisper. Whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And suddenly, a voice came to him again and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? Now, I wanna pose that question to you today in the same way.

Now, you have to understand something about the Lord. When God asks a question, it's never because of lack of information. It's for our personal transformation, write that down. When God poses a question to us, here he knows the answer. God wants us to know. And I wanna ask you today, where are you today? I'm not asking, you're like, well, I'm at Long Hollow, here I'm watching online, I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about locationally, I'm talking about spiritually. I'm talking about emotionally. I'm talking about relationally, biblically. Now, this is interesting because Elijah, if you remember from our reading, just is coming off the heels of seeing God do something miraculous on a mountain. Remember, he calls down fire against 450 to one. And one of the cool things about one is, if God's in your corner, you always have a majority. Amen. It doesn't matter who's against you. 450 evil prophets against one. God sends down fire, laps up the offering, decimates the false prophets. And then all of a sudden, this crazy lady, Jezebel, I think it's funny, just a sidebar here. Elijah has no problem fighting 450 evil prophets, but one deranged woman.

(congregation laughing) One woman's got this man, like he's ready to die. Verse four, it says, I'm ready to die. Verse 10, he's like, there's nobody left but me, and I'm the only one left. Verse 14, I'm the only one left. And here's another principle I want you to get. We always think that we're attacked when we're at our lowest point. Sometimes the enemy tries to take us out on a mountaintop experience. Elijah's coming off arguably the greatest move of God in his life, and he's being attacked. What I've learned from this season of revival at Long Hollow is, you can be a bull's eye and a blessing at the same time. That's what revival is, right? Sometimes. God tells him, listen, I'm gonna give you the answer for your problem, it's not, go see a counselor, it's not, try harder, do better, study more, that's all important. God gives him the answer in the midst of his anxiety, his depression, his suicidal thoughts. God says, what you need, I want you to get this. This is what you need to fix this problem. You need a word from me. That's what God does, he says, go stand in the rock and I'm gonna pass by, I'm gonna show you who I am. And Elijah, like a lot of us,

he's expecting spiritual fireworks in the sky. I mean, this is the God of heaven, remember? This isn't no ordinary guy, this is the God above all God. You would think God would show up and show off, but he doesn't. You would expect hail force winds, hurricane force winds to come through, but he's not in that either. You would expect that God would come with loud sounds of thunder and lightning, but he's not in that either. In fact, the King James said he came in the still, small, you remember this, voice. Now the CSP I think gets the Hebrew right here at this stage and here's what the CSP says. God comes in a what? Soft whisper. What do you have to do to hear a whisper? What do you have to do? You have to lean in, but you first have to what? Be silent. And I think the enemy knows that. So the enemy knows that God speaks at a certain tone, a certain tempo, a certain volume, whispers. And the enemy knows, that's why he keeps us incessantly scrolling, doom scrolling on our phone endlessly, right? Listening to everyone else, talking incessantly and watching forever online or on TV. Think about this, we can't sit at an airport without looking at our phone the whole time. You know how I know?

I just did it and of course it's folk confession. I mean, that's us, right? You can't even get to a red light without checking your text message. Can I get an amen? Or watching why you're driving, right? Like some of it, no, I'm playing. That's what we do. You can't stand in your home or sit on the couch without college football from the moment you wake up on all the way tonight or Fox News or MS or whatever you watch. That's the world we live in. And all the while, God is trying to speak to us. And many are like, God doesn't speak to me. God's like, no, listen, I'm trying to get brother, brother, I have a word for you. Sister, I have a word for you, but you're not making time to listen. Friends of God only speaks in a whisper. Then we have to learn how to listen. And that's what happened to me. I went into COVID, some of you heard me tell this story before, but I went into COVID, unprepared for what was coming. I was burning out, didn't know it, and a friend in the church said, "Hey, you have to practice silence and solitude. You have to learn how to slow down." And I don't know if you know this, but I'm not a silence and solitude kind of guy. I don't know if you're kind of hard for me to do.

Diagnose ADHD, type A, driven, but I was desperate. And if you think about silence, think of it this way. Silence is like going to a river if this was a clear glass, scooping up river water and then putting it on a countertop, if this was a shelf and letting it sit. Now right away, you wouldn't be able to see through the glass because of the dirt and sand and debris, but over time, don't miss this. The sediment settles and you're able to see through it clearly. Think of your soul that way. There's so many voices and conversations and influences, not to mention the subcommittee in your head. It's always criticizing. And so we don't hear the voice of God 'cause we have all these other voices. So I started to sit with the Lord in silence. I started with five, 10 minutes. It went to 15 minutes and then it was 30 and out. out of my porch to bend my ear to hear the voice of God. Soundless and solitude is like a muscle, it's like working out, you don't go out and bench press 315, you start with the bar and you build up. But it became this insatiable desire to hear the Lord, not just to hear the Lord, just to be in the presence of God. And about six months in and as I was sitting with the Lord, I started to lament to the Lord. Every party like this, like God, because things were not going well at Long Hollow to say the least, not even just at Long Hollow in the country. Anybody back then that had any platform, do you remember COVID? If you had a platform, not just a platform like this, like if you had a Twitter account, if you had a Facebook account, if you posted on Instagram, everything we said made half

our followers mad, do you remember those days? Mask no mask. Robbie's working for the Chinese government. What? I mean, I got that email, you know, I mean, really, you know, shot, no shots, person online. I mean, it was crazy what was happening here in our country and I went to the Lord one night and I'm like, God, you've got to fix the problems in our church because we have a mess. And by the way, when you're at, while you're at it, fix the problems with my staff because they're siloed. Fix the problems with the deacon body because that could be better. And while you're at it, if you have extra time, fix the country, you ever hear that kind of talk with the Lord? I was like, I fixed the problems and after I was finished, the Lord just lovingly spoke to my heart, not audibly, but I just felt like the Lord impressing upon me, Robbie, and this is what changed my life. The problem with revival coming to long hollow is not with your church. It's not with your staff. It's not with the deacon body. It's not with the country. The problem is you. You're the problem. If you've ever been that honest with the Lord, it's pretty hard because right away, I'm pushing back. I'm like, what do you mean I'm the problem? I'm not a drug addict. By God's grace. I'm not an alcoholic anymore. I don't look at porn by God's grace. What do you talk?

You have to be careful telling God that, by the way, because God has this unbelievable ability to put his finger on the pulse of the problem if you ask him. And he began to show me, man, you're way too prideful. You're the master of fishing and the pond of approval of other people. You're not going to ask a comment to get a favorable response. The other one he said to me was, Robbie, you know how to blur the lines between the platform of Robbie and the cause of Christ. You act like that post on line is about me. It's actually about you. You act like the numbers you're posting about me, but it's actually about you. This the one that got me the most, he began to show me how jealous that was. I was like, what am I jealous of? I have a great church. I have a great family. I have a great ministry. You began to show me, Robbie, you wouldn't say this publicly, but you would think it internally. If the pastor down the street had more baptisms than long hollow, you're jealous. If a person wrote a blog and it got more traction than you, you were jealous. If a person posted a picture and it got more likes than you were jealous, then God began to show me, if you can't pray, this was the line, if you can't pray for the church down the street to be blessed in spite of long hollow, I'm never going to bless long hollow. Let me remind you, this is not your church or your kingdom, it's mine. And God began to show me, watch this, that I was the blood clot to revival coming to our church. And I want to ask you today, if revival was to come to our church and there was one hindrance in this room or online, would you, brother, sister, be the blood clot preventing it? I can ask you that honestly, because God asked me that, and in just a moment, we're going to have a time of invitation, I'm going to ask you to come and just pray with me that God would remove any blood clots in our spiritual life, and we're going to ask God, we're going

to beg God to sin revival again. Here's what I've learned about revival, it's not a past tense term, it's a present tense action of God. How many people believe God could sin revival today? How many people believe, let me try that again, how many people believe God can bring revival today? Amen. And we're going to pray God starts with us, I've invited our staff members to come to be a part of this panel, I've invited Will Moore, who is our education, wheels over all discipleship and men's and women's, I've invited Andy Williams, who has shared the platform with me throughout the entire move of God, invited Julie Woodruff and then my wife, Candy, Andy's over worship and production and Angie, I mean, I mean, Julie, Julie's over all things education, discipleship and then my wife, Candy, after sitting on the porch 10 months, I heard two words, spontaneous baptism, I never heard that, I didn't know that, I wasn't raising the church, didn't have a dad, I was a pastor, and then we offered it on that Sunday and in the history of our church. I mean, in the first, we only had two services. I think at the nine o'clock, we only had like 400 people in the whole room. It was the lowest intended services. And the Lord put on my heart two days before, He's only done this three times. This was the first, the number 100. Which is a crazy number. Think about that. When was the last time you saw a hundred people baptize in a service much less spontaneously? It would be like me saying, "Brother, right here, would you come "and be baptized today?

"Brother, right now, would you sister?" That's a big ask. Not to mention, we were leading the country as a state in COVID cases, not the list you wanna be on. We had told the church the week before, if you're six day home, if you're healthy, we're a mask, everybody got mad at that. And we came to the church and I offered the opportunity to be baptized to follow the Lord in obedience. And I walked over to my right, there was one tank at the time and nobody moved. And I'm like, did I miss the Lord? Wow, I don't know. And then all of a sudden, two and then three moved. And then all of a sudden, after that, we went home at the end of the day. 99 people came forward that day for believers baptism. And I went home like you would have. I was blown away. I never seen anything like it. Not to mention we were in COVID. I mean, the revival is amazing. And the fact that we saw a thousand people over the next 15 weeks be baptized in the water and almost 1600 over the next eight plus months, that's miraculous enough. But to see it in COVID, where people wouldn't get face-to-face with a mask, much less in a bacterial field tank after another person. Think about that, miraculous.

And people willingly came and flew and drove in from all over the country, 17 states. I asked every person two questions. Number one is this, where are you from? And they would say Maine, the state? So they said Maine, Sacramento, Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Nevada, Tampa, Florida. A lady said, we drove up through the night to come be baptized. And the second question I asked them was this, why did you come? Where are you from? Why did you come? And they said this one response, which was woven through every one of the testimonies. And that was the Holy Spirit of God. Compel me to come. I had to come. So you've heard that story. We've experienced that, a lot of us in here today, but you haven't heard a lot of the backstory. And we don't have a ton of time to do this, but I thought it'd be cool to have our team with us to talk about that. Julie, you've been on our long-haul staff 20 years now. So you've seen a lot. Tell us a little bit about the backstory of what God was doing behind the scenes at the church. - Well, COVID, obviously, as he has explained was so strange for all of us, but what we started with Zoom calls early on in COVID.

And I can remember saying we don't wanna miss what God is gonna do. What we didn't know was pastor was sitting on the porch every night, listening for a word from God. And December the 18th, or the 18th, I guess, we got a text message that says we're gonna have a Zoom call tonight and I want you to be on there. And so this is the Zoom call. - I'm praying, I know this is bold, but I want you to join me. I'm praying for a hundred people to be baptized on Sunday. I know that's a big prayer, but I really feel the Lord's leading us to do this and wouldn't it be cool to put a period on this year with a revival service at Long Hollow? So I'm asking you to believe with me to pray in faith and really anticipate what the Lord's gonna do. - And that was back in the days of that Rooster haircut, do y'all like that? - Listen, where did you join? That's spontaneous, I was being led by the Lord. I didn't even fix my hair, I just started recording. - So that was five years ago. - But 11 years ago today was the day that y'all came and if you have a call it's a Long Hollow, right? - Yeah, 11 years ago, yeah. - And today begins a brand new decade for Pastor. He is, he was 40 back then, he's today, new decade. So happy birthday.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ Anybody? ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ - Hey, our church can sing. - It was yesterday. ♪ Happy birthday dear Ravi ♪ - Godee. ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ - Hey, that was pretty good, that was amazing. That was amazing. - Thank you. - You know, and the Psalmist said it's important to remember and not to forget. And that's really what we're doing today because Pastor has written a book called "Wait Here," which is all about the revival. And he will, you'll hear more about it in a few minutes, but he allowed a few of us to listen in on that book as he read it out loud to us several months ago. And I get choked up thinking about it because it was like reliving what God did during those days. And we had the service on the Sunday where the '98 were baptized, And so we were out of the office, we were away from here, and the first time that we got together as a staff was on January the 19th. And we came in here, we sat right here in this middle section, and I was sitting about two rows back, Pastor was sitting here on the steps, and I just remember it was heavy in here, and you called on people to share what God was doing, and I don't call there wasn't a whole lot of people sharing what God was doing. And I was sitting there, and my heart was pounding because God was telling me to get up

and say something, and I was arguing with him saying, "I can't do that Lord," because this was what he was saying to me. He was saying to me, "Revival has to begin in your heart, and so you need to repent and ask God to forgive you of whatever might be hindering what he wants to do." And then I felt it so clearly that he says, and corporately, as a staff and as a church, we need to repent for anything that we have done or have not done as a church. And you know what? We believe that revival is right here and now, but it's important for all of us, I think, to consider what do we need to repent of in order for God to come and do all that he wants to do in our hearts and lives. It was so clear to me that day, and so I got up and said it, and it was one of those things where you were just like, "Oh my gosh, Lord, I can't believe you're calling me to do that." I couldn't even talk because I was so moved by the Spirit at that moment. The other thing God wanted me to say to the staff that day was this, "You're in a moment. Don't miss it. I have been here a long time, and I've seen God do a lot of things, and I've been in ministry even longer than I've been here in seeing God do a lot of things, but this moment was special, and I knew it." And I thought there are a lot of youngsters on our staff that we are in, we're in store. But anyway, there are a lot of young people that I don't want them to miss what God's going to do, because this time may not come again. It hadn't happened in my ministry but once, and so that was a special moment for me. And God used that, I think, you know, we always say that the tie that raises the ship, you're the tie that raises all the ships at port. So if you're a father, it's in your home. If you're a business owner, it's in your job. If you're the pastor or the staff, it's in the church. And so we can't expect you to see God impressing for more of God if we weren't doing it. So Julie, God used you, and you were obedient to that. And I think something broke in the staff that day was very emotional.

People were getting up. Our staff were in here. They were getting up, walking across, apologizing to other staff. And so God really used that. You mentioned the book, the book comes out in two days, I'm really excited about this book. And let me just say, this is a book for it. This is our book, by the way, this is the book. This is not a church we're talking about down the street. They're sitting in a revival that happened in California. This is the story of the revival and the season of revival at Long Hollow. And it's six years in the making, five and a half years. And it's all of the things I learned by going back into the dark ages, monasteries, most people don't read. And I told you this before, I ate a lot of fish and spit out a lot of bones to come up with some practices that are portable and accessible. And so I have seven practices in the book, and we're going to challenge our church to go through it to really hear from God in the days ahead, but I dedicated it to Long Hollow. And in the dedication, if you read it, it says to the people of Long Hollow, thank you for being patient with me. After the revival, you received the new pastor and I received the new church and nobody had to leave. And I think that's what happened at Long Hollow. God changed my heart more than he changed anybody else's heart. And so Andy, you were on the stage with me most of that season in prayer nights and worship services. What was your experience? Yeah. The way I would chapter that season of time, I've thought about a lot is that it was the most exciting time and it was also the most exhausting time.

Just because I felt like we were, I mean, we were trying to move at Godspeed. I mean, God was just doing so much in our midst and we were just trying to keep up. We were, I remember on Tuesday nights, you know, we would come out and be side stage and listening to. saying, "But if you do, you'll miss it." And I think that was really what you said a while ago. I mean, I think there was a fear of missing out on what God was going to do. And I think for me, I was getting like a lesson, like a 101 of the Holy Spirit. We tease about like growing up, Will and I growing up, we learned about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible. The Holy Spirit was not talked about too much. And so we didn't really know. I mean, honestly, I feel like we are all being students of, you know, who is the Holy Spirit and what was the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we're just a front seat, to be honest, as a student and a spectator and a participant. And a memory that I have that I'll probably take with me forever was we were deep in it. I mean, we were deep in the revival and just seeing people being baptized and, I mean, spending time after the service being here watching people be baptized. And I remember walking out to the gathering area and there was three individuals, three older individuals that stopped me. And they said, "Hey, we traveled all the way from California to be here." And they said, "We travel all the way from California to be here because we heard that the Lord was here." Well, I mean, in my Baptist mind, I'm like, "Well, the Lord is everywhere." I'm like, "Okay." But they said, but I needed to tell you this that we came and we were in this room and the Lord is here. And man, that just punched me in the chest. And honestly, it just made me realize how special of a moment that we were experiencing that God's hand, I mean, was just on this campus, 30, 31 long hollow. I mean, the Lord was here and people step on this campus if something was shift. And I mean, may mess with a little bit of your theology a little bit, but I mean, I really do believe that God, that God was doing something miraculous and supernatural in this room and it was life-changing. I mean, it's unbelievable. When you're sitting, when you're sitting up here, but also whenever you hear story after story after story, I mean, you can't come into a room the way we did and walk out, not changed. I mean, I would say that the picture that I would have in my mind is that at any given moment, someone could lie to match and put it in the room and the room would just explode because we came in with such intensity. We came in with such just leaning in and just waiting and wanting the Lord to move. And for me, it's like revival. You know, we talk about revival being the revival

and Robbie said this earlier and I believe it's revival is accessible right now. It's not something that we have to talk about like it's a thing of the past. Revival is accessible right now. All we have to do is walk in with an awareness and wanting it. And so it was that special, you know, for me. Yeah, you know, and that's the thing the Lord's convicted me about recently is, like Andy said, we felt like this floor was lined every Sunday with spiritual gasoline and we were praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to drop the match. I mean, people remember that. I mean, the lights would go out, the sound would glitch. And we'd always say, all right, though, you know, something's going to happen. Every time the lights flicker, I'm like, okay, here we go. Here we go. It would happen all the time. I mean, and then, but here's what the Lord convicted me of. How many times have I come since then and just went through the motion, business, I mean, not without praying and seeking the Lord, but there was an anticipation. How many people came today anticipating to meet and encounter the living God? Because if you didn't, we should. All of us talking about me here as well. And that's what made it so exciting. Like we came ready. God was the center stage. We had a front row seat and we were expecting God, what are you going to do? Not Robbie, not Andy, not Will, not Candy. Not Julie. God, what are you going to do today? We had prayer nights. We started on Tuesday and those prayer nights were unbelievable. People would come in from different states, but pastors would bring their staff. Steve Gaines, pastor Steve, when he was alive at Bellevue, brought 20 of his staff in a bus just to be a part and experience to see what God was doing. And they stayed over one night for a prayer night, which those times were awesome. Yeah, they're pretty incredible. You know, I remember getting phone calls during this time and I was doing student ministry during this, during the season. And I remember getting phone calls from guys and going, hey, what are y'all doing over there? And I'm like, what are you, like, what are you getting now? They're like, no, no, no. What are you, what's your plan? What's your strategy? And I would just be like, we're praying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what are you doing? And it began to really reveal to me how special but how simple it was that we were living in, just seeking the presence of God and how many churches are missing it because they're too busy programming and asking God to to bless their plans as opposed to joining them. but I used to tell our students all the time because you had like the camp high, they'll come back and they'll go, I just wish we could experience this

every week at camp. And I remember just saying this over and over again, the only difference in a camp experience or a revival experience in every single Sunday or every single day of your life is the attitude and the posture of worship in which you bring. It's the only difference. It's not a moment that we create, it's a moment that we lean into. And so in that, on the prayer moment, it was amazing how many churches were coming and bringing their staff 'cause they just wanted to taste it and I just wanted to scream out and I'm like, you can do the same thing, it's seeking the Lord. And so I remember standing right over here one Tuesday night and you were up here and just pouring your heart out and you had showed us, I think one of the greatest things for me personally is benefiting from your leadership and your vulnerability to say, I don't want you to do as I say, not as I do, but you modeled and exemplified what it meant to truly seek the Lord and to hear from the Holy Spirit and always say great leadership trickles down and I can confidently say who you are on the stage is who you are off stage and I got to benefit from that. And so I'm trying to listen to the Holy Spirit much like Julie and I had this moment where God's like saying, go say something, go say something, I'm not doing that at all. And I'm just the student pastor over here chilling

but the Lord just kept convicting me. And what was going through my mind is this, I see a man on this stage and he's pouring out his heart and he's trying so hard to give God the honor and the glory and not put the spotlight on yourself. And I tell people all the time I have experienced three different pastors along Hollow. I've been here 13 and a half years and I had the privilege of starting in the beginning with David Landruth before he passed away. I was here 21 months with him and then you came and there's the first five years of Robby and then there was the last six years of Robby that we were experiencing and I've benefited from that. But I also knew the pressure that you had because nobody wanted the new pastor. Nobody wanted a pastor to leave, nobody wanted the pastor to pass away and you felt the pressure, this is my interpretation, you felt the pressure of not overstepping in minimizing the legacy of David but never fully stepping into what David had actually prayed on this stage for this church, that this is not his church, it's not your church, it's Jesus's church and that he's waking up a man in the middle of the night to come and to feel the issues and you were that man and God had done something in you that I knew God wanted to speak to our church that wouldn't just impact us but it would impact the world.

But I knew you were holding back. And so for whatever reason, God's like go tell him. I'm like, I don't know but I'm gonna try it. And I walked up on stage and I think I gave you a hug, I think that's what I did. When I get nervous, a hug, you know, some people, Andy says you get nervous hug and then take the microphone, which I did. But I just wanted to encourage you in that moment but I can say this, it was because you taught me to sit and to listen and to tune my ear to the Lord and what I thought was just this fight of pride and like you just want to go say something was, no, no, no, God's speaking and I need to listen. And so I thank you for that and I think we don't fully understand why this is so special. I think there's pastors that can get up on stage and promote a book. That's not what this is. And even in this moment when I was talking about what I wanted to say to you, I know you struggle with this because you wrote a book. But I'm here to tell you that God is using you and God to gift to you and God to giving you an ability to write and people listen. And so this is not a book. This is something that God has given a gift to our church. And we know that there are not a lot of us where a lot of you were in here for it but we get to experience it through this

and through your writing and we can't wait to hear what God's gonna do in the lives of our people as they begin to tune their ear to the Holy Spirit as well. So thank you for this. - Yeah, thank you. You know, we hear outwardly of all the great things of the revival and it was awesome. But I invite a candy up here to share just the reality of the revival at our home. To say the revival was tough on our family personally is an understatement. I felt, I put this pressure on myself. I don't know why I look back but I felt like the whole revival was on my shoulders and as I would press into the Lord, I felt like I had to press in more and I didn't wanna mess it up. And again, I look back, I don't even know how I did this and I probably can never do this again today. I may lose my marriage if I did again but. [laughs] with the Lord eight hours a day in silence. And I'm gonna tell you that to impress you, but just to impress upon you what that did to my family. You're probably saying, "How do you even do that?" I would wake up every morning on the dot, sometimes earlier, but the Lord had me up at 5 a.m., and I would come to the office, get on my face, in a prayer room I have, and I would just pray

for like two and a half, three hours before the day started. And then I would go home about 2.30 or three, I'd go back to the porch, and I'd sit with the Lord, took about 5.36, I'd come inside, I'd eat dinner, watch a movie with Candy, and put the boys to bed, I'd go back to the porch, 8.30, 11, midnight, and I did that rinse and repeat for three months. And I felt like I didn't want to mess the revival up. Well, you can imagine the toll, I mean, Candy became like a single mom. And so, I don't know all she's gonna say, by the way, since it's a little dangerous, but. (audience laughing) No, just share for our church, just to hear kind of your perspective of everything. Yeah, so, I wanna talk about the good parts, and then I'll talk about the hard parts for me. But the beautiful part of the revival was just getting to see the Lord work in a way that I did not expect. Because I think what I thought of revival was what I had seen kind of out in the world, or maybe some abuses of it, or misuse of it. And so, I didn't expect for revival to be what it actually was, and we were experiencing it. And I think Will just said something a while ago that there was just like, it was simple, there was a simplicity to it, and then there was a very real sweetness to it. And that's the way I described it.

It was sweet, it was peaceful, it was calming, it was just like, you didn't wanna leave, you felt just like, you just felt like God's presence. And sometimes we would linger for hours after the service, no one wanted to leave, we would all still be in here, watching baptisms, or talking to people about what the Lord was doing. And all of that was incredible, and getting to meet people that were coming from all over. And I mean, it was just, it was a lot, but it was beautiful. And so I wouldn't change any of that. On a personal level, the revival was extremely hard on me. And I know it was hard on Robbie, too, because there was a pressure there that he didn't wanna like mess something up, you know? So he was trying to be faithful, and prayed up, and all those things, and that was so intense that it was very wearing on me. And I mean, at the end of the day, I'm a quality time person, and Robbie knew that when he married me. And you know, there's no surprises there. So, you know, finally, in Bless Your Heart, you said three months, honey, but it was like six. - Okay, maybe it was six. And so finally, you know, we had to have a talk. - I don't know if you know, when I get into something, I... - We know. - We know.

- I'm all in it, yeah, but I'm all in it, yeah. - But the level of spiritual warfare that was happening, and some of you were experiencing that as well. I know the staff was, I know our family was, and you have to realize, and so I tell you this today as a challenge, and also as a warning as we press into the Lord. But when the spirit of the Lord is moving in that way, Satan will go after the jugular. Listen to me. When the rug is pulled out from under you, and you're thinking, what just happened? Because of the warfare, you're personally experiencing, you're family's experiencing, you're marriage, you're kids. Listen to me, he goes after what means the most to you. Okay, and what I wanna tell you is, when it happens, you need to immediately recognize it for what it is, and tell yourself, I will not fear, I will trust in the Lord. And then when it happens again, the next day, the next moment, the next month, you're going to say, I am not gonna fear, I am not gonna be afraid because God did not give me a spirit of fear. I am going to put my trust and confidence in him. And you have to preach that to yourself daily. That's what I had to do, and then I'm still learning, I'm still doing this because I'm one that has struggled with fear my whole entire life. And so that's a very real thing for me, and I have to consciously be aware of it in the moment before I go down the cycle of fear that I'll get stuck in and I have to say, Lord, I am choosing to trust you

in my life and in the lives of my kids, in my spouse. And so that's what I had to do, and I'm still doing that today. And I do believe that the Lord is going to bring some sort of revival again. There is something he started He started during the revival that has not come to completion yet. And I am waiting and I am anticipating him to do that. And so I believe he's going to bring revival in some form or fashion. And I believe I am going to see what it is that I am praying for. And I want to encourage you, if that's you, I want you to be, when you're faced with it and that warfare comes because it will, I want you to know in your mind, don't give up, continue to press into the Lord because he is wanting to do something. It should be like a warning light. When it happens, it is like be, be, be, it's going off and you're like, wait, revival's coming. I'm not gonna fear, I'm gonna put my trust in confidence in the Lord. So that's what I would tell you to do. And I would also say, try to capitalize on bits of revival that's taking place daily. Like don't, we're not just waiting for a corporate move of God. This is an individual thing that can happen in your life all of the time.

So when you see me or if you see me out and about walking somewhere and you see my hands raised or you see me like kind of doing a little jig or something, it's because I'm either listening to worship music or I'm listening to something or I'm reading some scripture and I'm having like a mini moment of revival in my own heart 'cause I'm like, oh Lord, that's good. And like I just keep going, you know? And 'cause I'm not gonna just wait for something to happen. Like I want to be experiencing the spirit of the Lord all the time, right? In my life every day. And so that's my encouragement to you to start doing that now and pressing in and praying and anticipating what God's gonna do. And if the rug gets pulled out from under you, oh, I know, revival's coming. And then you just put all your faith and trust in the Lord. - Amen. - Sister Candy, everybody. (audience applauding) - You know, she's not telling everything, obviously, out of protection for family and friends. But if we had time, we talked to the staff, we talked to our staff about this and we were planning like a 30-minute time. It went an hour and a half and a finish with everybody crying in tears, all of us, because it was tough. And I think in the book, I write a whole chapter on spiritual warfare, but I talk, I alluded to this,

you didn't say this, but we kept the notes file of the spiritual warfare. It got comical. And we're like, here we go again, you know, this and that, and it was comical. Like everything that could go wrong went wrong. And I'm gonna teach you this principle I learned from Manly Beasley, which changed everything. A girl in line came up to us and said, thank you for saying that, Candy. And she said, we're under attack and we saw a little bit of revival in her attack. And here's what, it just would help me big time. I used to think, why is this happening, God? Why are you doing this to me? Why am I stranded on the side of the road? Why did I have a flat tire? Why did somebody steal my credit card? Why is this happening? We're seeing revival. That's what I used to think. And Manly Beasley taught me, you have the wrong perspective. The enemy is not omniscient or omnipresent, don't miss this. So here's what he does. He doesn't know the future, but he knows our past well enough. And he is God's, I love Manly Beasley's line, delivery boy for bad things in our life. That's right, he's just a delivery boy. Just Joseph does, delivers God. But what he doesn't realize is the very thing

he thinks is hurting you is actually he's tipping you off to a greater anointing and blessing that's coming. Here's what I would say, if you're not being attacked, you may be doing something wrong, okay? Somebody needs to hear this. Because the enemy doesn't go after people that don't make an impact for the kingdom. Why would he have to? But people that actually want to hear the voice of God, which by the way, sorry, that's my prayer with this book and our church and this challenge, is that God, let's think about this. Not listen to me. What if we got a generation of Christians that actually started listening to God? - Yeah, come on. - To God. Do you think this city would change? If we had 9,000 people call on how to home and the ex online, if we start hearing from God, what could God do in this city, in this country, in this world? So we're praying that God does that. But when the enemy attacks, don't think, oh man, hear God's against me. Think Satan, you sly son of a God. Thank you. - We're gonna stomp you out. We're gonna stomp you out. Yeah, what do you do with a snake?

You know, domesticated or interrogated. You eliminate it, amen? So you stomp him out and you say, something's coming. So somebody who's struggling right now, you need to hear that. We're going to do a challenge as a church based on the book. And by the way, I don't make any money off this book. So don't say the email. I used to get them for you, yeah. And by the way, you know, like Will said, thank you for saying that. When you write a book, you put your life, your heart, your soul, and you believe in it. Yeah, I wouldn't write it if I didn't believe in it. But this is not an ordinary book. This is our book. This is about what happened here. And I just feel like a lot of people have asked me through the years, like, how did you hear from the Lord? And so I've come up with seven disciplines So it's going to be a seven-week challenge. We'll talk about it a little more and you can sign up for it. I'm going to coach you through it. I've recorded some videos. I'm going to help you do it. But Will, tell us a little bit about this and we can try to transition into this now, but tell them a little bit about the book challenge and, and by the way, y'all get the book doesn't come out till Tuesday, but we have some copies today. You get it for 10 bucks. It's cost.

Yeah, what I love about this is, is we are, as a church, are going to walk through this because you heard some stories of what God did in and through us as staff and how God was speaking, but we want to know what God's going to do in and through you. I love the line you asked earlier. Here's why are you here? And that's the question that we want to, you know, you to ask yourself, says, why does God have you here? And what does God want to do in and through you as a result of that? And so it's going to be seven weeks. You can text the word wait to 9, 8, 1, 7, 3, and it's going to be a seven week challenge, seven week journey. And I think it would be unbelievable if our entire church walked through this for the next seven weeks and began to journal and to hear from the Lord and to write that down and share those stories with us and to see what God's going to do in and through you because we believe that a move of God in a church isn't about a staff. It's about empowering the works or the saints of the ministry to do the work of the ministry. And that is you. That's not us. And so even on Wednesday nights, every man, every woman, we're going to walk through these seven principles. And so we can't wait to see what God's going to do. Amen. Yeah. All of my discipleship groups are going through this. I just feel like if I could help them, if I can help you hear from the voice of God, that's a dangerous thing to say. And by the way, and we have an unfair advantage as Christians because we have access to the commander chief and commander chief anytime we want. Sadly, we don't take that opportunity or sadly, most don't know what to do. And so somebody like, I don't even know what to do.

Another thing you may say is, I don't think that's me. You're the pastor. I'm not. Remember, I'm a Christian first. I wasn't a pastor. I was a Christian. And I think that's the enemy's plan. And so here's the line. Here's the challenge. Get a copy. Get a group of copies. Give them to your family and friends. And let's see God do a revival. I'll tell you before I want to give you an opportunity to come. And here's what I'm asking you to do. I believe this with all of my heart. Every great movement of God, you study through revival history. Every great movement of God begins by not moving. Study it. It's all traced back to a man or a woman or a group of people that say, God, I'm not going to move until you move. And so I just think it's fitting as we heard revival stories and saw what God has done and we anticipate what He will do. I'm going to invite you to come right now and join me up here. And here's what I'm inviting you to do. You're going to come this morning and we're going to start this season off of even greater at Long Hollow on our faces in humility before the Lord praying for God to send revival and blow a fresh wind of a spirit one more time over our church, but not over our church around the world. But the second invitation if you say, well, that's not me.

But the second one is if you're here today and you're like, I need a word from God. I need a word for my marriage. I need a word for my business. I need a word for my finances. I need a word for my way with sun. I need a word for my addiction. I need a word about my pride or my anger or whatever it is. I need a word for my future. I need a word for my college, my school, whatever it is. I'm going to actually come. Just join me here. And so some are going to come right now. You just come and I want to invite you to come and just kneel with me. And some of you are like, man, you're asking me to come in front of all these people. Listen, if you can't buy the knee today to the Lord in this place. You definitely are going to do it out there. And some of you are like, I've never bowed before in my life. Today is the day, brother. Today is the day. Would you join me? We're going to get in our face. We're going to cry out to the Lord for revival. And we're going to start in silence, which was the hallmark of my journey with the Lord. It's going to be very uncomfortable. If you've never done this, I'll just get ready for it. Very uncomfortable. But that's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's going to show us just the amount of voices and background noise and narrative in our mind. And so we're just going to bow down on our face before the Lord.

And we're just going to seek the Lord. If we can't get up here, we're going to get in the house and we're going to get in the side and we're just going to bow down. Maybe you didn't come forward. You want to bow down at your seat? Get before the Lord. Be still and know I am God. Be still and know I am. Be still and know. Be still. Be. [BLANK_AUDIO]