On the Scent of Revival

I have been on a relentless pursuit of revival since my days back at Howard Payne University. I was introduced to some authors who whetted my appetite for seasons where God visits His people in power. The more I read the more I yearned to see that happen in my lifetime. I prayed for over a decade and never saw anything like that until after a youth retreat we took at the Burke Baptist Church I served as pastor.

The students shared in the evening service after their retreat and the power of God came down. Not one time in my ministry have I ever had anyone ask me what a group of three adults asked me that night as the service ended. They asked if we would meet again the following Monday night. We kept meeting for two weeks. Services lasted for two and two and a half hours with most of that time being directed in worship and response to the message.

A few years later I preached a revival on the campus of Angelina Junior College in Lufkin, TX. Those students prayed and hungered for God. They prayed and prayed asking God to visit their campus in power. When I gave the invitation that first night God clearly instructed me to get out of the way. I prostrated myself on the floor with my head positioned under a chair. The sound of weeping and sobbing echoed through the room as people repented of sin and got right with God. We met three hours that first night and close to two hours of that was people responding to God. The revival lasted for three weeks. Many were saved and the work of God burned hotly in our hearts.

Neither of those revivals can compare to what we experienced in Seminole August of 2010. For twenty-three straight nights the glory came down. Over twenty people were saved including several senior adults. People repented of sin. Again the worship services lasted two to three hours. Those were days I will never forget. Day after day God gave me a fresh word to preach for that day. It felt like we were caught in the current of a river and flowed as the Holy Spirit moved in us.

Like a hound dog who has picked up the trail I am onto the scent of revival for Paradise, TX. I believe God wills it and I want it. I am onto the scent of revival and off in hot pursuit to track it down. We are praying for God to Shake the City here as He has done in other places in the past. I hunger for more revival. Not meetings but genuine encounters with God. There is a price to pay for revival but God has put it in my heart to stay on the scent and to relentlessly pursue revival regardless of the price. Please join me in prayer.

We plan to hold our first service on July 15th. Since Faith Community Church does not have our own facilities we are also planning on an old fashioned tent revival even during the dog days of summer. My long time friend, Chris Nash,  who led worship during the Burke revival and the revival at Angelina College will be joining us for the Paradise "Shake the City Revival."

 Lord, I ask you to do it again. I ask you to do what you did in Burke, Lufkin, and Seminole again. Please do it again in Paradise. Help me stay on the scent of revival.