 Tonight we have a guest with us, and actually I'm gonna call him a friend, he's a friend of his family, Corey Russell is, in my estimation, a prophetic voice to the body of Christ in our generation. To call us to radical holiness and devotion and prayer, he is a man who's given much of his adult life to not only learning but teaching people to prayer and calling people to radical obedience to Jesus. He's becoming a dear friend. We're already scheming and strategizing about the future, and when we planned on kicking Seek off this fall, we thought we need to have Corey Russell come back and be a part of it. So all the way from Dallas, Texas, everybody stand up on your feet and welcome Corey Russell as he comes. Amen. Amen. You guys grab a seat. My goodness. It's so good to be with you guys. I think it was maybe a week later I was with you last year. Might have been on September 19th, and so here we are on September 11th. All these dates, September 19th, is spent 18 years in Kansas City, and so we we're about to celebrate our 20-year anniversary there of day and night prayer, and so I remember where I was. We had just finished a, where I was on September 11th, that we had just finished a 6 to 8 a.m. prayer meeting, and the same kind of thing began to take place, and I don't know what it is about that, about you and about people in general, but when moments like that happen, there's this natural, supernatural there's like this knowledge to go low and saying, God, we need you, and those kind of moments are just so just stuck in my head. Well, it's good to be with you that the night, and I want to kind of speak tonight about the dream that I had a year ago, because last year it must have been September 18th. The night before I came to you, I was with you on September 19th. The night before I came, I had a dream, and if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Hosea 10, and I'm going to, I don't dream that much. I only dream about three times a year, so anybody else like that? I don't remember anything hardly, so one guy raised his hand in the back. I guess the rest of you have like 10 dreams a night, so but usually when I, when I get a dream, it's the Lord saying come aside, and I want you to give yourself to this reality. It's really simple. It's not that deep. It's, I'm gonna read the verse. I was simply in a gathering, and I was preaching Hosea 10 verse 12. That's what the dream was. I was preaching Hosea 10 verse 12 to a group of people, and it's the, I had this dream the night before I was with you a year ago, and it's taken me a year. I wasn't ready to preach it when I got it last year. I had to sit on it for the last year, feel it, marinate in it, let it cut me, and I feel like it's just getting to a place to where I'm able to even start talking about it. This is a holy, a holy, holy verse. It's a revival verse, and I just want to read it. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for a church that is saying, God, we're gonna take 10 days and seek your face. We're gonna set aside some things. We're gonna fast and pray, and we're gonna lean in to you in a specific way. And Father, here we are in all of our weakness and all of our busyness, our schedules, lives, kids, all the stuff, and we just, and just open up your hands right now. I want to ask for grace for the next 10 days to seek Him. It takes God to seek God. And Father, right now in all of our weakness and not even connecting that much to this, Father, we ask you for grace. Father, I ask you for grace to touch every heart in this room. I ask you to touch us with grace and that there would be a sacredness about the next 10 days. I pray for a sacredness about the next 10 days to be intentional. I pray for a grace to wake up earlier. I pray for a grace to skip some meals. I pray for a grace to turn off the television. Grace to push away some certain things and to focus on you. I pray for an intentionality and for a focus to come upon us in the name of Jesus. Release this upon radiant. We pray, amen. Well, I want to read this verse and then I want to, and then I want to just share some things that are on my heart. The prophet, Hosea, gives us this verse in the middle of a pretty intense generation. Israel was in the midst of a really bad sowing and reaping cycle. Have you ever been in some of them sowing and reaping cycles in your life to where you're reaping things that get sown? You can't get out of these deadly cycles. And in the middle of a generation that was under the judgment of God, Hosea said, guys, there is a way to break the false sowing and reaping cycles and to begin to sow and reap new things in your life. Let's read this verse 12. He says, sow for yourselves righteousness. And then he says, reap in mercy. And then he adds this phrase, break up your fellow ground for it is time. Everybody say it's time. I love that. It is time to seek the Lord till He comes and reigns righteousness on you. I want to read it again. Sow for yourselves. Note that God isn't going to do it for you. Note that God is giving us a command and there's a response we play in the grace and in the economy of God. And God says, I will not do your part and you cannot do my part. He says, sow for yourselves righteousness. And then he says, reap in mercy. Break up your fellow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till He comes and reigns righteousness on you. I don't say this all the time. I believe it's very significant that you guys are taking these 10 days at this time of the year to seek the Lord. I don't understand all the dynamics, but I found over my walk with the Lord specific over the last 11 to 12 years, September and October are my most prophetic months of the year. It has something to do with the Hebrew calendar, the Jewish feast, the Jewish calendar is set up. I don't understand all the dynamics of it, but I know God's really into this season. I just want to say that to you. I believe it's a season to where we push aside and we lean in and we do fresh inventory on the state of our souls before the Lord. And we open up our hearts to God and we say, Father, you are so kind and you're so good. Father, I ask you that you would put your finger on anything in my life that would be hindering the flow of God in you, in my life. And I believe that September and October is a divine window. It's a divine time to turn aside, lean in, and I believe it's a window that can catapult you into a new season in the grace of God. So I say that to you. And I've always felt it over the years. It started with me in 08. The Lord began to grip me with the spirit of Elijah in 2008. And every year he stirs up and what he's been doing for the last two years has been this verse. Because I really believe this. I believe God is, I got born again in Northwest Arkansas. And I got born again in a move of God. And when you touch the presence of God in a tangible, manifest way, and you begin to get a taste for revival, it cuts you deeply. And anybody had ever been wrecked over the presence of God? I'm talking about it wrecks you. And from my early days, my first six months of salvation were five meetings a week till three in the morning. I led my little brother to the Lord who went crazy in the high school and we saw half the high school come to Jesus. We saw effortless testimonies that would release power and conviction. And I remember just getting undone by the presence of God for my first six months as I got a holy addiction that there is nothing greater in the whole wide world than the presence of God. There is no movie. There's no relationship. There's no thing that has ever been or ever will be that is greater than the manifest presence of God. And I began to acquire such a strange hunger and taste for God to overtake regions. I began to get a strange faith on the inside of me. God, you can overcome cities. You can overcome geographical locations with the manifest presence of God. And where in that zone of glory, no drug ring can exist. No pedophile ring can exist. No human trafficking ring can exist. No hidden sin can exist. But the fear and the conviction of God would rest and where it's about simple words that break down the hardest of hearts. And I began in that early season to get a vision for revival. Everybody say revival. That's an awesome word. It's a holy word. And I feel like in many ways we've lost the glory of what it really means. We hear somebody say, hey, I've got a seven day revival coming up. That's awesome. But that's not revival. I hear people say, man, it was an awesome meeting. We're having revival. I imagine it was awesome. And I love every meeting and I love what God does because He does something every time the saints gather. I love all that He does, but it's a vast difference between a good meeting, a good message, good worship, and a good ministry time and revival. It's a vast difference. And I believe there's a lot of confusion in these days between what is the open heaven. I hear a lot of people, you know, and a lot of people, God's releasing the revelation of our individual open heaven in this hour. Who in here's giving your life to Jesus? Two of you. Come on. Do you know that the day you got born again, the heavens were opened up over you? That the father declared, you're my beloved son, my beloved daughter, you got free access, you got born into the house, born into the family. One second old baby, old Christian can yell, devil come out and devils come out of people. Sick body be healed by the power of Jesus. You received your open heaven, but I'm seeing a lot of confusion on a generation that's saying, well, I've got my open heaven. Why do I need to pray? I don't want to contend or I don't want to seek or I don't want to strive or pray because I don't want to get religious. I don't want to get religious. I want you to know that it's one thing to have my individual open heaven. I rest in that. I exhale in where I've been brought. I didn't pray for my new creation identity. I was born into it. What I'm contending for is for my neighbor's open heaven. What I'm contending for is for my city's open heaven. It's for God to shift the atmosphere over a region. I'm contending for some of us in this room. We're contending for our the room down the hallway, our son's open heaven. And that's a different reality between what you rest in and what you contend for because we're called to both in the kingdom. We're called to rest and to contend. Guys, I want to tell you I got to be and I believe with all my heart that we are scheduled for another great awakening in this nation. Why do I believe it? Because the times are demanding it. I want you to know God's seen a lot worse generations, a lot worse hours. And God shows up in the middle of hours. But I'm telling you that it always begins with if my people, if my people God's agent of birthing his kingdom into the earth is through my people, people that are intimate with him, people that are close to him, people who know him. And God says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and turn and seek my face, then I will turn and I will heal their land. That's what this whole seek is about. You seek my face. There comes when God is looking to do something in the earth. It always begins with us. It begins with God saying I want you to turn aside and I want you to begin to do personal inventory. I want you to break old sewing and reaping cycles and I want you to break up the fallow ground of your heart. That fallow ground is that hard, stony, weedy soil of your heart that was useful in a previous season. And many of us are writing on the laurels of what we were walking in five years ago. Many of us were walking in intimacy in a place with God five years ago and we buy into the memory of what we used to be. And whenever the Lord wants to do something new, he'll always require a fresh breaking up of the soil of our hearts so we can prepare ourselves for the next move of God. Are you with me? Come on. I like being talked to. You can throw books at me anything. I like it all. Throw something at me. Those little cards are sharp though. They might get in your neck. I don't want to get stabbed. Used to have them CDs. We used to throw them out one time. You know, I used to have we remember the CDs. I don't know if this generation knows about those things, but used to do these CDs. We'd hand them out. And I remember throwing it across the room, just smacking this guy's side of the head, knocked him out. Took in the emergency room. I'm just playing about the emergency room, but it did hit him. Breaking up your fallow ground. Well, this is before breaking up your fallow ground is that hard thing. I just want to give you first before we get into this. I want to give you a vision for revival. Because Jesus got his open heaven, didn't he? When he came out of the baptismal waters. What did he hear from the Father? You are my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And then he went into the wilderness for 40 days. And what did he do for 40 days? He fasted and he prayed. And do you know what it says about Jesus when he came out of the wilderness? It says that he returned in the power of the Holy Spirit and the fame of him went throughout all of Galilee, which means he went in filled and he returned in the power. He received his open heaven and then he contended saying, God, I don't want just my open heaven. I want you to open up a region over Galilee. And when Jesus came out of that wilderness, he came out as a man on fire. He went walking under an open heaven, devil coming out, demons flying out, bodies getting healed, lost, getting saved, the demons, everything. It was a storm that broke out on Galilee and Jesus for three and a half years was untouchable. Make no mistake about it. He wasn't some meat little guy. Oh no, he was an untouchable storm. He was an untouchable revival that was blowing up the region and that's what revival looks like. And the book and the gospels and the book of Acts is how God takes over cities. It's how God breaks in on cities what he did in Jerusalem. He loves to take weak, broken, jacked up people who are denying him 50 days earlier and then 50 days later get anointed with the Holy Ghost and begin to speak Bible verses and people get cut to the heart. Acts 4, Fresh Baptism, 5000 added. Acts 10, the gospel opens up to Cornelius and the Gentile world. Acts 13, Antioch, the word of God goes to the earth. Acts 19, Ephesus, Ephesus went from 12 to 25,000 new converts over two years. It says that the word of the Lord went to all of Asia and I love this phrase in Acts 19. It says that the word of the Lord prevailed. It's one of my favorite phrases about revival. What would it look like if in Kalamazoo, in Richland, and all the cities around here, what would it look like if the word of God began to prevail? It began to prevail over every ideology, every anti-Christ, humanistic thought patterns, the word of God began to prevail. Simple verses began to be like a battering ram. Bang! Everything is laid low under the power of the word of God, where coffees turn into revival centers. This is my definition of revival. Can we put that up there? Because I gave it to them. Revival are those seasons when God openly manifest the rule and the reign of Jesus through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and conviction of apostolic preaching. And this is apostolic preaching. Here's apostolic preaching. You telling them who God is. You telling them who Jesus is. You telling them what he's done and that he didn't stay in the grave, but he came out three days later and he ascended to the right hand of the Father where he forever lives to make intercession and he's coming again to rule and reign on the earth. And those phrases are like a battering ram. It's not, see, this is the difference between revival and good church. Good church is how good-looking I am, how polished I am, how articulate I am, how great the worship team is, how perfect everything is. All of that's awesome, but there's a vast difference between us looking perfect and God taking the field. It's a big difference. Good church is about man and their formulas and their abilities to make it right. God pushes in revival, pushes man to the back and says, let me have this dance. And it's when God begins to seep where there's nothing hidden from God, where God begins to break in over regions to where there's a manifest presence of God everywhere, where he's breaking out in the bars as much as he is in the churches, where he's breaking out in the schools and the businesses and in the bedrooms and there's nothing hidden from God, where God goes out into a region. Where the simple phrases turn into battering rams. I'm trying. Come on. But it didn't stop in the book of Acts. It didn't stop in the book of Acts. Guys, our nation, the nations of the earth are marked by those divine seasons. Peter in Acts 319. Can you put 319 up here? I'm feeling it. We're going to give there's a there's why why do I feel graced on this because I feel like this is called to be a revival hub for this region. There's a revival hub. I love it. This is Peter's message. Repent. Turn again and I'm I do New King James. He goes repent. Turn again that your sins may be blotted out. I love this. Next first and then he says don't don't worry about New King James. No, no, no. You got to go. New King James. Go back to 319. Got a little warfare on that ESV. Here it is. Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Keep going with that verse. No, no. We're missing something in 319 and that he may send you times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Here it is. It's there it is. So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. So it's this. Repent. Be converted. Revival and what does revival end up doing? Next verse. And so that he may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before. Do you know what revival is? Revival are the snapshot seasons when God gives us a picture of what it's going to look like when Jesus is back on the planet. And when Jesus is ruling over everything and in revival, everything, all the works of the devil are trampled. Every foul thing is destroyed. Every foul thing is destroyed. And that's when God sweeps the field and says you guys get ready. I'm going to deliver you from the American dream. I'm going to awaken a heavenly dream. Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. And those seasons and when you touch it just and I haven't touched I touched a little bit and I read revival history. I'd encourage you take these 10 days and get a hold of some revival history books begin to expand your faith over what God can do with simple people who believe him. There have been great awakenings in this nation. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of new converts swept into the kingdom in a matter of weeks. No, no. Hundreds of thousands of brain... I'm not talking about church growth transfer. I'm not talking about well it's going on down there. I think we're going to start moving down there. No, no. New converts. New converts. Revival is marked by the fear of the Lord. I love refreshing. I love times where I feel lots of things but revival is marked by the fear of the Lord. God is real. God is alive. It's marked by the spirit of conviction. John 16.8 Jesus said the Holy Spirit will convict you of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Great awakenings. Do you know that there was great awakenings? There was in the 1700s there were awakenings that hit Kentucky that even to this day there are dry counties in Kentucky because of awakening that hit that place 300 years ago. Just removing the scourge of alcoholism. 500,000 in a matter of eight weeks in upstate New York came up in the 1800s through Charles Finney's ministry. 500,000 new converts in a matter of eight weeks. I began to feed on this stuff in my early days. I read about a young man named Evan Roberts in 1904 in Wells. He saw a vision in a meeting of the whole map of Wells being set on fire and the Lord says I'm going to give you 100,000 souls. He began to pace up and down in his room for about 13 months and he was a madman who would spend 15 hours a day just praying the woman underneath him thought he was going insane. And from 1am to 5am almost every night for those 13 months Jesus would come and visit with him and would say I'm coming Evan. I'm coming to Wells. I'm going to set this nation on fire and in 1904 the fire of God fell on Wells and it was so impactful they shut down the equivalent of our Super Bowl the soccer championships of that year. 100,000 souls. Men would come into town going back to their brothels looking to hook up with their prostitutes and it's turned into singing. The girls got saved and now they sing gospel songs and they sing to Jesus in there. The revival jumped from Wells to Los Angeles, California. Intercessor Frank Bartelman and I love it that God used as the main catalyst in Azusa a black blind in one eye Baptist pastor who was preaching on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and he moved to Los Angeles from Houston. He's seeking God five hours a day for the baptism and he says God what do you want me to do? He says pick it up to seven hours. He put his head in an apple crate box and he would seek God. See seeking isn't it's not casual. It's not if I get around to it. We have awakenings. We have seasons of revival. Hebrides the Scottish islands to where God broke in on the whole nation and the man Duncan Campbell tells the story at 3 a.m. The police chief shows up at his door and Duncan sharing in his diary. I'm walking to the police station with him. All the lights are on in the house. Everybody's outside the house screaming and crying out for mercy. I get to the police station. The police station is packed. I begin to interview a guy and go why are you here? And the guy goes I don't know. All I know is that everything I've ever done wrong was made known to me and I knew I had to turn myself into the cops. No no that's not a that's not a story. That's what what would happen if every sin starting in here in this room but then begin to permeate into everything around a region and men and women start turning themselves into the cops because we always love Acts 2 but Acts 2 starts happening and Acts 5 starts happening. I want him and Hosea says there's something you can do to prepare for a fresh move of God. I want you to break up your fellow ground which means this break up religiosity. Break up the the going through the motions. Break up what you've always done. It's a fresh season to break it up. I believe that the Lord's releasing three gifts in the aiding of the breaking up of our fellow ground. I believe God's releasing the gift of tears. I believe God's releasing the gift of tongues and I believe God's releasing the gift of travail. Tears, tongues, and travail. These are hallmarks of revival praying because revival praying is when you get past your words. Do you know there's prayer on the other side of prayer? Do you know there's language on the other side of language or it's not even about the articulation of what you say but it's the depths of your soul crying out God I want you closer. I want you to calm. I want you to thin the veil. God I need a breakthrough in my my own family and my own my own my own family my children my marriage my finances my neighborhood God we need a breakthrough of you. We don't talk about I love all kinds of prayer but I think it's time that we start talking about revival praying and I'm not talking about tongues as being I got tongues. I don't care about you gotten tongues. What I care about is tongues got you. No no I'm talking because this is what it does. Tears tenderize the soil. Tongues till the soil. Travelle tears the soil. Something I've been laboring on for the last year is the gift of tears. Gift of tears is what you start looking like when you run out of options because I found in my own personal life God will take me through personal crises to bring me connected to his desire to break in with the spirit of revival and God will use personal issues in our life crises and dynamics and relationships children finances body a labor to get us past nice christianese praying and to begin to get us into a deeper heart seeking of God and most of us are just waiting when am I going to get out of this when I'm going to get out of this and God's saying just come on let it cut you deeper let it cut you deeper let it cut you deeper because I'm going to break in and I'm going to release a breakthrough I believe with all my heart that we're in a John 11 season John 11 it's the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead or can I can I preach can I preach come on can you put John 11 up here I want to look at this now a certain man was sick Lazarus of Bethany the town of Mary and her sister Martha verse 2 everybody say it was that Mary I love it what John is about to do is tell us a future story and connect a future story to this story and the story that he's going to tell us has that we haven't read yet is the story of that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair do you want to know where you get the oil to wipe Jesus's feet and partner with him in the next season you get it through the oil of crushing through the pain of the divine delay when God hasn't broken in on the timetable you thought he was going to break in and instead of living on fakery and nice christianese or disengaging your heart you live in the tension you live in the tension and saying god I don't understand but I ain't going anywhere and to the heart that won't go anywhere it's called oil gets produced oil gets produced oil gets produced and if you don't survive the Lazarus season you're not going to make it into the future season of getting an everlasting memorial and partnering with Jesus let's keep going I want you to see this I want you to see this because many of you are in this season right now whose brother Lazarus was sick verse three therefore the sister sent to him saying Lord behold he whom you love is sick when Jesus heard that he said I love Jesus from the very beginning he makes a clear definitive statement this sickness is not unto death but it's for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus keep it there go ahead he loved them everybody say he loved them so the natural next verse would be that he translates to Bethany lays his hand on Lazarus and they have a dance party Jesus loved them now we know Jesus loves everybody but do you know he really loved these three so when he heard that he was sick he stayed two more days in the place where he was keep that there look at that what do you do and the thing that blows me away the story I'm about to read to you didn't happen to a Pharisee it didn't happen to an enemy it didn't happen to some stranger God does this with his friends they know he got the letter they know that he's discovered how his friend is doing and when Jesus knew how he was doing Jesus didn't immediately rectify the situation he stayed where he was at two more days knowing that him staying would mean Lazarus dies what do you do in the seasons where you're crying out to God for the breakthrough whether it may be in a relational dynamic financial dynamic body a thing in our lives we're crying out to God and he doesn't seem to move at the timetable we think he needs to move what do you do there I believe it's this furnace that will cause two kinds of people to come forth and this will either be the end of you or it will be your breakthrough into the next season I've been doing this long enough and this will either be the place where you hit that wall of offense and anger and why didn't you do it and you begin to keep all the fake smiles all the outcome to church but I'll never trust you again and you begin to disengage your heart and live at a distance but you'll never lean in again and what you see in this storyline is what happens in the delay because I believe this is where revival intercessors are born so when he heard that he was sick he stayed two more days just go ahead and fast forward all the way to about verse 20 Jesus sits there and it's kind of funny if you if we ever had time because Jesus is saying our friend is asleep but we're going to go to him they go what if he's asleep just go ahead and let him keep sleeping Jesus guys he's dead I just I you know I wish you could tidy up you guys you guys are slow look at this look at John 11 verse 17 go to 17 now when Jesus came so now here it is you're about to find that he shows up four days later Jesus shows up to the tomb four days later and keep going go to verse 20 now Bethany verse 20 now Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming she went and met him but here's Mary again sitting in the house I believe it was this and I don't have time to go into it tonight but Martha had never learned to sit at the feet of Jesus and wait before him she was so busy and caught up in the swirl of busyness around Jesus she never learned how to priest and to wait before him she was always driven by the swirl she was always driven by the tyranny of demands the tyranny of the urgency and she never learned how to priest before the Lord and wait before him and that same swirl caught her as soon as she heard Jesus was coming she went out go to verse 21 now Martha said to Jesus I want you to get hold of this Lord if you'd have been here my brother would not have died keep it there Lord if you'd have been here my marriage wouldn't have died if you'd have been here my child wouldn't have ran off in stupidville for all of his teenage years Lord if you'd have been here those finances wouldn't have dried up if you'd have been here and broken in time I would have never been walking through this situation you didn't get here in time but what you're going to see with Martha is she's going to say it and then she's going to clean it all up with her nice christianese praying look at the next verse but even now I know everybody say I know whenever anybody says I know they don't know but even now I know that whatever you ask of God God will give you that sounds like a good faith-filled preacher I know that right now God whatever you ask God God will give you Jesus just stone cold looks her right in the face look what he says Jesus said your brother will rise again look at the next verse Martha said to him I know I know hallelujah God's gonna break in I got the I got the little piece of paper on my mirror I know praise God he's gonna do it I know what you're gonna do I know it I know look at this this is one of the greatest statements in the bible I know he will rise again at the resurrection at the last day she has a revelation of resurrection Jesus said stop with you living on fringes of just living in some future day honey I'm looking for you to pull a future day into today I want you to pull that which is coming into now because he looks at her look at this next verse Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he may die he shall live he goes it's not just coming he's here that's revival it's when the resurrection is in your midst it's when resurrection power is in your midst he says I am though he may die he shall live verse 26 whoever lives and believes in me shall never die I love this don't you do you believe this keep going yes lord I believe you're the Christ the son of the living god you are the son of god who's coming to the world and look at verse 28 when she had said these things she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister saying the teacher has come and he's calling for you which means I can't get us out of this mess I know lots of bible verses hear me hear me it's kind of funny when you look at it like this but I want you to know I see a lot of Christians that refuse to let the divine delays cut them they refuse to let it cut them over what they really believe in the tension of god you said god you said god you said and it's such a difficult place to live in the tension of god I know who you are I know what you want to do but I don't understand and that's what he's looking for that's where revival praying comes god we need you to come and it's in those places that he cuts us and he brings us down not with all of our I knows but with god I don't get it but I ain't letting go of you in this place I ain't letting go of you in this place God that's the tension most of us don't even know how to reconcile most of us will not have all of the nice bible verses but we'll check out to ESPN we'll check out to the golf course we'll check out to work we'll check out to another relationship and we'll begin to disengage our hearts and the Lord said I wanted to cut you this is the thing that blows me away Jesus tells us from the very beginning this is going to end in glory why didn't Jesus just translate to the end of the story Jesus what are you doing it's going to end in glory what is it about the process and what are you looking for in the process to come out of us to come to the forefront that you can partner with to bring forth the resurrection what's God saying is this I'm looking to produce something in you and I don't want you to disengage your heart I don't want you to pull back from me I don't need your christianese I want ugly prayers I want crying prayers I want honest prayers let's keep going as soon as she heard that she arose and I love it which means I can't get us out of this he wants you Mary go to verse 31 then the jews verse next verse I'll just tell you what she said everybody look at me don't worry about it I'll just say it to you she's going to say the exact same phrase as Martha but she's going to pray it from here and she's going to pray it with tears in her eyes and she's not going to say Lord if you'd have been here my brother wouldn't have died she's going to say Lord if you'd have been here my brother wouldn't have died that's the only recorded words of Mary of Bethany in the bible if you'd have been here this wouldn't have happened see I believe that Mary sat at Jesus' feet Luke 10 and she let his words go to her deep that in the hour of her crisis her deep called out to his deep and she pulled a resurrection out of him I want you to see this if you'd have been here my brother would not have died next it says that when Jesus saw her weeping and the jews who came with her weeping look at what he did he groaned keep this up here in the spirit everybody say he groaned what kind of prayers do you think awakens a groan in God he groaned in the spirit and he was troubled see this is what revival praying is it's a place of desperation of humility see I'm I'm when I grew up we played the the game of limbo in our roller coaster in our roller rink every night I believe God's been telling me Cory you're too proud to cry out to me he goes you got to get lower she cut him she she let it cut him and it groaned it says that he groaned in the spirit and he was troubled and look at what he said he says where have you laid him I don't know about you but I want I want to stir up the bowels of God do you believe that you can stir up the bowels of God no that's my question to you do you believe that little oh you can affect the king of all the nations and stir his compassion to intervene in your family in your city in your nation in your world I do too he groaned in the spirit and now Jesus has gone from where's he at where's he at where's he at and they said come and see and then we're going to see the longest verse in the bible don't laugh because for years I thought it was about 10 seconds but after meditating on this for some time it very well could have been 30 minutes of the god of all the universe Yahweh in the flesh heaving heaving weeping a storm comes out of his soul through his eyes and he weeps surrounded by skeptics and critics enemies disciples ongoers friends everybody and do you know that the resurrection of Lazarus will be the plotting of Jesus' death this is where it will begin and in front of everyone the Son of God weeps the vulnerability of God put on full display I believe these are tears of great love tears of great compassion tears of great sorrow tears of anger tears of hatred you ever been so angry you cry I believe Jesus hates death so much and he's weeping over the curse of death and what it's done to his friend and he's about to abolish it in front of everybody he is about to abolish death in front of everybody tears are coming out of him and everybody we have to watch him we have to watch him Jesus has this moment however long this verse is it's more than a second and it's more than a sniffle he heaved and he wept and we've got to watch God weep because right here is the foundation of what he's going to do next you can't just run to the resurrection of Lazarus you got to get in the valley of weeping with him and you got to be with him in the valley of tears because that's the place from which resurrection emerges from and we got a generation that wants to translate right to the resurrection and God's saying huh you're going to find me in the weeping room there's a place of brokenness there's a place of humility there's a place of vulnerability there's a place of honesty there's a place of where all of your views of God are put to the test and you you wrestle with how you really feel that's what faith looks like faith doesn't look like all the right buzzwords and all the right false confidence i'm all about declaration of his word speaking to mountains and being removed but faith sometimes look i don't get it but i ain't getting out of this tension i'm gonna let it cut me and i'm on weep and i'm gonna get ugly with you god because i want reality jesus comes out of that storm drying his eyes verse 36 i love it well first 36 everybody gives their commentary verse 37 38 jesus again groaning in himself there he is doing it again he came to the tomb and it was a cave and a stone lay against it look at this jesus said take away the stone i believe with all my heart i believe with all my heart i want to say this to you i believe with all my heart that we're in the season to where jesus is moving out of the weeping room and the warrior resurrection god is stirring up his zeal saying take away the stones take away the stones i'm about to release miracles in your life i'm about to release breakthroughs that you've been crying out to me for decades some of you have been crying out for your marriage some of you are here tonight alone and you've cried out for your marriage for 20 years and i believe we're in the season of the lord saying take away the stone i'm about to speak to somebody in there i'm about to speak to somebody in there take away the stone and now you get to see you know why i was so rough on martha because here's real martha's colors right here i love martha jesus love martha but martha didn't get it look at what martha said lord by this time there's a stench he's been dead four days now she's the i know girl i thought you knew i thought you had all the right phrases about jesus and how he's the resurrection and resurrection is coming and he's the christ the son of the god but then when jesus says take away the stone she goes now let's chill jesus let let's be let's be level here look at what jesus said did i not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of god and then verse 41 then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying jesus lifted up his eyes and he says father i thank you that you hear me and then he says you always hear me but because of this people who are standing by i said this next verse that they may believe verse 43 then when he had said these things he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth Lazarus come forth the great warrior god releases his roar the warrior god lifts up his voice the warrior god storms in and he who had been dead for four days comes out of that grave clothed in the linen they loosed him and the revelation of the resurrection of god is manifested for everyone to see i love that part i feel like god's still in the waiting room saying where are my marries at where are my marries i want to invite you into a new place of prayer i believe god's releasing the gift of tears it's not emotionalism it's not trying to create some sad thoughts it's a revelation of your inability to change anything in and of yourself tears come when you run out of options and do you know tears are language do you know tears have voice Psalm 39 do not be silent at my tears can you put Psalm 126 verse 5 and then i'm gonna pray for you we'll have the team come up those who sow in tears shall reap in joy next verse he who continually goes forth weeping bearing seed for sowing shall doubtless again coming with rejoicing carrying his sheaves with him i believe i believe there's been great warfare against the saints but i see an army that's arising out of personal crisis personal loss personal trial personal warfare i see an army of people who aren't as confident in their own strength wisdom and ability as they were 10 years ago but there's a level of brokenness and humility and dependence that god has worked in their souls and i believe he's calling forth an army of intercessors in this hour that are going to move into the next season and we're going to see mighty harvest we're going to see great joy we're going to see sheaves the harvest field released i shared this dream last year the short of it is this it's a long one we ran into a prophetic father in may of 2011 bob jones and in the essence of our encounter with him he said i see witchcrafts come against you he says this is what witchcraft does it makes you look on your past seasons as if you've never done anything for god and then it makes you look on future seasons as if you'll never do anything for god he goes but you want to know what gets witchcraft out of your eyes weeping weeping cleanses your eyes so you can see the father connect with his heart and prophesy your destiny begin to call forth the destiny of god i believe he wants to release the gift of tears upon us i believe he wants to release a new found praying and tongues i don't care if you i love the experience and the release of my prayer language but i want to give you a vision to take your car rides to work take those 20 minutes take 20 minute windows and just cultivate the soil of your interior life take this 10 day season of seek find yourself in this upper room and just go god here i am god i don't even know what to say or what to do here i am god and i'm just going to wait in silence before you do you know what i feel like he wants to get us back to is tenderness tenderness tenderness is coming back to the church we're going to feel again hallelujah let's go ahead and stand and just stay right here in this floor i don't want anybody to talk i just want you to open up your hands before you open up your hands who in here has been contending for some Lazaruses you know what it is when i talk about it who knows who's been more like martha get honest with me it's a hard place to live here just open up your hands all across this room i'm just going to ask for the father to pour his spirit because there is a regional revival apostolic call on this house to host to steward and to disciple in revival there's an anointing of revival i'm talking about oh that you would run the heavens and come down i say a 64 oh that you would run the heavens and come down the mountains might shake at your presence this fire causes water to boil that you would make your name known to your adversaries make your name known to your adversaries jesus just sweep across this room right now father i asked you to release the gift of tears i asked you to release that spirit of revival praying to come upon us just wait before you increase your presence holy spirit increase your presence holy spirit release the gift of tears god i pray tenderize the soil of our hearts god i want to feel again i want to see again i want to believe again god i want to pull my what god's so kind he'll pull us back in and say we're going to do this again buddy we're going to go again yeah shataya shataya rabah shataya speaking to lift your voice and begin to pray in the spirit just break that soil up break that ground up release the killer of the holy spirit until i cry the past of the last day says god a minute all over the room i want to hear your voices now come on let me hear your voices some of you haven't seen the promises in a long time i'll tell you eyesight's coming to you now faith is coming to you now come on come on another minute i don't want you leaning on the music give me 30 more seconds i want the room to lead this touch my son jesus save my marriage jesus break oppression jesus abruptly in this night i i know the song that you guys have and i feel like before the before the lord we just need to some of us who feel like we've been in that place or we're at the crossroads where we could go one way or the other of either becoming i'll just use the language bitter and disengaged from the lord or that we find ourselves in that season where we're in that tension or we don't feel the tears and we don't feel the travail yet sometimes you feel it in the moment and other times you have to prophesy yourself into it does that make sense you have to bless the lord oh my soul i'm telling my soul what to do i want us to bring this song for it and i want this song to be our prophetic statement that lord in this season this is what i positioned my heart to be i just so guys just do you want to make sure that we're able to honor this moment and and i want i want to say something kori i know i know the storms that you have walked through to carry that message that is i think one of the one of the most significant messages that's ever been preached in this church especially especially for the hour and the season that this church is in we just honor that message we honor that word and church it i want us to grab that hold it and take it with us right now i want you to just put your hand over your heart lord we consecrate ourselves today as we go into this fast as we go into a season of prayer that extends way beyond 10 days as we're stepping into new realms new calling new responsibility a new weight lord we want to partner with you in seeing a move of god lord we want to partner with you in tears travail we want to partner with you in seeing an open heavens over our city over our region over the lives of our kids over the lives of our families over the lives of our neighbors over our generation lord use us use us hear us or put the plow into the soil of our heart break up the fallow ground rain righteousness down on us in this city in this church and this generation we pray this tonight in faith hunger thirst in jesus name amen