Revival in America: Interview with Steve Gray

welcome back to another episode of Christian Natural Health today I'm very pleased to have Steve Gray With Us Steve

is a three-time Emmy award-winning writer songwriter and recording artist whose creativity and purpose have

touched countless lives known for his Dynamic leadership and Ministry he led the historic Smithton outpouring or the

cornfield Revival in and the Kansas City Revival which was broadcast live worldwide every Friday night for three

and a half years his influence sparked Revival outpourings in hundreds of churches across the globe transformed

ing lives and communities with degrees in instrumental and vocal music a doctorate in Theology and Missouri

lifetime teaching certificate Steve combines Artistry scholarship and a passion for Faith as the founding pastor

of revived Church in S in Kansas City he continues to inspire through his ministry married to Cathy for 50 years

Steve is also a proud father and grandfather leaving a legacy of creativity faith and Revival for generations to come welcome Steve that's

quite an Eclectic res I've got to do just about everything ever wanted to do and I'm still doing it I'm still in

songwriting and preaching and traveling and got to make one movie and you know and had got to do lots of TV and lots of

awards so but uh yeah but my main focus is people really just helping people and

um I I love to see people transformed and changed I have a idea that there the

problem we have is we have great churches and good churches but but the idea was that's the place you go to

really connect with God and not so much just about friends or home groups or volleyball teams th those

are fine but right now um I I I feel like we need and you mentioned Revival and the cornfield Revival and I that's

such a story it's it's the story is being written about now this many years later more than it was when it well

there were short articles articles then but now people are digging in what happened tell us again because the town

was and and of course it's Revival and we need we need to know what Revival is and we need to know why

do I need it what will it do for me and that's the transforming power of of God

and it's it's an encounter with God that is beyond us yeah and I uh found myself

and I'll just start telling stories to you I found myself after many number of

years in the ministry going the wrong direction the church was doing great I wasn't doing so great and the reason

being is uh it was a small town we ended up starting this church in a town of 532

people now we had a fairly decent traveling Ministry before and recording

then and when I began to feel that God was going to start stirring and doing things in certain places around the

world I knew I would probably miss it because I'm on a bus traveling somewhere and so we started thinking about settling down pastoring doing that kind

of stuff and um so since we were traveling to gnome we got offered a great Church in Chicago

uh to join their staff and to be raised up to be the senior pastor someday and they had 8 or 900 people already and it

was beautiful and they're building shopping mall by it and there's a new so they so when they found out we were

available they gave us the job and uh so we took it in Chicago and we got a house

we never got to move into it that's part of the story but we picked out a house and they gave us the car allowance and

all that and it was more money than we'd ever had and uh so we accepted but

anyway we lived in this little town of 532 people because uh our home which was

12 miles away from this little town uh got hit by a tornado an F4 tornado and I

was in it I I can tell you a story about how being lifted up off the floor but our house did not get blown away like uh

this is if you took the old southern style mansions and they were big box houses big three stories huge just

completely gone in in seconds but I I was in a brick one so it shifted off its

foundation so we couldn't live there anymore got condemned and uh so 500

houses gone everybody's looking for a place to live and so we knew some people

who said there's a house in this little town and it it just finished being built

and they'd love to have young couples move out there and so so that's how we ended up in a town of 532 it was a nice

place to park a bus and not be bothered you know all over and flowing all over

and so so now the years passed and we do that and now Chicago offers us this job

and I take it and in this town was a this country church at the end of the

end of town I I didn't even know it was there I'd lived there like number of years and didn't even know it was there

and that smaller town oh wow and it was a it's a historical site 1859 it was

built and they it has the same floor boards that they had during the Civil War they came and parked their horses

outside and went in and prayed and wow and they laid on that floor and I left the floor there of course it was new

carpeting yeah I hope the same same planks and uh so they were concerned it

was going to be torn down they didn't care it was a church it had been locked up for four years there's no people no

money nobody to take care of it couldn't even cut the grass had one trustee that couldn't cut the grass anymore and so

it's going to be torn down so they appealed to me said we don't want to lose our historical site we don't care about church would you take get and be

our pastor and I said well you don't have any people so that's not going to work yeah so I said no and then they came a second time I said no we're going

to Chicago then they came a third time and said listen we're desperate nobody wants this church nobody wants it I

can't get anybody to do anything with it this little group and in in in Chicago they had like 21 other lineups that

would couples that would love to have that job we just had it first and and so but here's they said nobody wants it

it's going to be torn down I'm going to Chicago by and as I went out the door I said okay okay okay I'll at least pray

about it you know try to do the respectable thing so I only lived in town so small I only lived about a

minute and a half away from him so I drove that minute and a half I felt like I should pray and I went into the house and um you know Kathy's packing she's

off boxes and stuff so I didn't even bother her because I thought this is such an obvious thing oh I started

praying I laid out so the Church of Chicago has all this money and the people and there's a future and we could do in the city and it's a big and all

they said and then there's this little church here has been closed for four years it has no people no money and

we're out of money too because we spent all our money kind of finding our way seeking God you know and uh we're out of

money the church has no money the church has no people it's locked up four years it's got dead birds and animals inside

that got in and you know they're laying there like that and um so I said so okay

Jesus what would you do and I thought it answer would be obvious because it was obvious to the Natural mine and it's one

of those rare I'd say rare being in the ministry as many years as I have that you hear a real distinct thing from

Heaven as opposed to I think God told me I'll kind of I'll kind of Walk It Out you know but this was like and I'm there

in the living room and so I said so Jesus what would you do and I heard from Heaven this is what I heard I'll tell

you what I would do I would raise the dead oh wow

yeah that's and and I was oh wowing too and it just I felt like did all the

blood just leave my but leave my head and I'm going to pass out cuz I I I I

don't know how to answer that because you would wouldn't you right you would and now would I and so I said yes I I

will do what you want me to I I want to it's not even like I'm being ordered it's like I felt like I can go to

Chicago and he'll still love me and I'll do okay yeah yeah there's another there's another path that's waiting it's

almost like in the kitchen with Martha or at the feet of Jesus I'll love Bo I love both of you but which are you going

to choose and so I thought well all my life and spiritual life at least uh I

felt like I would try to do what Jesus would do you know and so anyway almost passed out I think like

what it was such a word like it's a life-changing moment and uh so I went in

and told Kathy and she's a great woman of Faith she said Okay if that I I get it so we had to call Chicago and it was

an awkward call because they kept saying well is it money is it did they did somebody offer you more money we could

we could we could we got deal here and I said No it's it's not money I didn't tell them there was no money but I so

back in there so that's how we ended up saying okay well let's open it up and go

and immediately um my first sermon well actually started on a Thursday night

making it as hard for God as I could to nobody comes to church anyway right

but but I started preaching Revival coming to certain places around the world early and it had no people you

know 13 people the first service I think and and uh uh and but but but I started

preaching that and I would stand on the in this church and say I want you to imagine people lined up around the block

around the church just to get in this building because the glory of God not not the music we need that not the

preaching we need that but God is really in attendance to a level that would cause people to line up or come from

around the world and they would applaud and they because it was so wacky an idea to them I think they thought yeah that's

we can applaud that because that's probably never going to happen never happen right that size of town well The

Story Goes then um years passed and that's where I I began to go downhill

because small towns operate different than I was used to and they'd already I'll just use the term everybody uses

they already R ran off one preacher two no two preachers one two of them over

the before I got there no one before I got there and then another one after I got there just politics kind of thing

yeah because what what they did is um and they they didn't like me from the beginning because uh they came in and

built the some nice apartments that were affordable and the people who owned houses in the town said Well everybody's

going to live in those now how am I going to rent my house out so they kind of didn't like me from the beginning because I supported and helped bring

that housing in I and you know what they didn't lose the thing it was fine but anyway sort of started on the wrong foot

and and so you know they just little towns they just start saying stuff and doing stuff and that none of it was true

you know and my daughter going to high school was in the school there and you know she'd hear all this stuff and I I

mean it was ridiculous like don't go to that church because he locks the door once you get in you can't get out until

he's done my goodness yeah and then they said he makes he signs their tithe checks they bring their checks forward

and he signs them and you know just stuff like that my goodness and uh and I think yeah and you know what people will

believe dumb stuff sure but anyway it got worse and worse to where they started insinuating other things about

my daughter's life which she was great and our life which it was great but just insinuating that there were secrets and

you don't know these people like I do like so anyway it was at that point I thought I've been here I took this

little church because we're going to do something God and here all I hear is this junk and fortunately like I said

the church was fine they were great to us and everything how many years had gone by by this point well I 12 I gave

12 years to that little town with the idea that God's gonna do something and that's a long time and I'm going

down and so Kathy's like she's getting like I'm slowing I'm slowing down I'm not myself anymore you know so to speak

yeah uh and I'm trying to preach but it just wasn't quite there and she said finally Cathy said Steve you've got to

do something you gotta want something it's got to give here right yeah and so that's when I began to realize I got to

do something so March of that year it was 1996 March of that year I got up on

that Sunday one Sunday and I said you you know said everything and said listen

I'm like the woman with the issue of blood she had an issue of blood for 12 years I said I've been here like her

I've been Pastor here for 12 years I've given all that I have and still I'm no

better and I walked out I left wow that was bold

yes I like to be bold oh yeah I can do that so I walked out and Kathy didn't

know exactly what I I didn't know at the time that she was wondering are we gonna stay married even that didn't even cross

my mind but it did hers well she stayed and kept the church going because they thought I went on sabatical you know

he's gone to seek God he's there's he heard something's going on in in Florida he's gonna go down check out that move

of God and so it was very rumors yeah and so the the the church thought this

is very positive you know but to me it was I have to go I I I'm going to walk through the valley of the shadow of

death I know I am and I did and I quit eating I quit talking uh I went to

Florida and I spent two weeks down there and I prayed and screamed into a pillow and like there's a crazy man I wouldn't

let housekeeping in because I just couldn't see anybody and so uh about a week later after all that praying and

going and prayer and going to a great church there in Florida um I I started getting a little hope back and uh I

started thinking a little bit like a pastor again so after another week of going through that uh I felt like the

Lord began to impress upon me and I started hearing this I thought it was crazy but I heard again after those 12

years it was that same type of voice that I T you know when we heard about raising the dead and I heard this I want

you to have a Revival and I'm sitting in this church in the balcony you know just away from everybody I didn't want to sit

by anybody and I heard I want you to have a Revival and I thought it was a psychological game you know all hope is

lost I have no no direction in my life and I'm hearing things that's what I thought uh and so but I went the next

night and I sat in church because they were having nightly services and I heard it again and I still put it out I

thought you're crazy then the third night I went I heard it again I still sat in the balcony by myself away from

everyone and I heard a correction that said I didn't say you had to be a

Revival oh that's so good I'm saying would you have one and I saw this was

now this part was me my application of it was I like like a a waiter going through this big party saying ades would

you care for a drink you know something like Oh I thought well maybe maybe I could do that I don't know what that

means so I called Kathy I said I'm coming home and U but I said if nothing happens nothing changes please I'm not

going to pull myself up by the bootstraps and start over Okay and she didn't I don't know what she thought was

but anyway went home and I drove in parked the car in the same parking space I'd done for 12 years felt absolutely

nothing nothing was going on I walked in the door the M it was a Sunday evening service and I heard the music it's going

and worship is going and I'm stood know getting ready to go through that door nothing so I didn't know what to do so I

just walked in everybody turns and looks at me you know what are you who oh you're back and the only person I really

spotted was Kathy about 10 feet away whatever and I thought what do I do uh

give your wife a hug you've been gone for two weeks show what a great husband you are that's what went through my head

so so I walked towards her I took about eight steps or whatever and I reached out just like I said I was going to do

and not never got to give her that hug I reached out and it was like h

I mean this this is a world historical moment that people write about it was like a lightning bolt from Heaven came

through the roof and hit me it it was like lightning and a little bit of Thunder but mostly it was like being electrocuted by God and the closest I

can compare like a couple of times when I was a kid fool around I stuck my finger in a light socket and it's a it's

a pain that is like no other pain and it's a feeling like feeling it's not like you got cut or smacked or hit what

and so that's all it just electrified me and I after not speaking and so beaten

down I started leaping I like they said they said I twirled I I'm in denial but

I'm not a twirler but I'm in denial but anyway I I I became a different person

wow right on the spot I mean my I have my relatives just happened my sisters and brother-in-laws and my brother and

his they just happened to be there that night too and they know me and my wife and my kids and I became another person

and I was stunned I was so stunned by it I was almost like a man that had been um

had a stroke because I got up and tried to tried to say something and I go and all of a sudden I dri I I couldn't I I

just lost my speech for a little bit and that went on for about two weeks in and out you know it got bad it got less as

time went on but I kind of that I didn't know what to do I didn't know what it was and uh but I did go over the piano

since I'm a musician too but I had quit singing and playing the piano because I wasn't just wasn't with it and I sang

for the first time picked out a song just sang a worship song or whatever and I didn't know what it was I noticed I

went over and I this couple that was there from the very beginning they they just came up for prayer like they were

feeling God or something and I didn't even get you know I didn't touch them or anything and all they just fell to the ground and it wasn't like Timber fall it

was like their knees got cut off and they just went down in a in a kind of a kneeling position but they just went

down and I and I didn't touch him or anything and I thought what is this so I don't want to make this story too long

but I I I didn't know what it was and that's exactly what I said I said I don't know what this is but I'm going to

come back tomorrow night and find out that's all I said I didn't invite I didn't say we're having church and when

I showed up the place was full of people about 150 people showed up or maybe more

and um we kind of went through that awkwardness again and prayed for a couple of people who I knew well and

they were getting stirred just stirred and they're all they all the people that wanted to

do now was come to church and figure out what this is so we started going number of days Sunday through Wednesday or

Thursday and then I said let's take the weekend off and see if we come back Sunday and this is still here then

whatever this is then we're going to have to deal with it we came back and it was there so we did that for seven weeks

just kind of as a local church and around that time some people started

visiting and uh I grew up in I actually I was on staff at a Methodist Church for a year I kind of left that out in the

story before I went into the full-time Ministry yeah and uh um so I knew

methodists pretty well and this row of methodists came in and sat down and they they were they were pretty much

methodists you know but that was all right but at the end one of them said you know I think I'd like prayer but

they wouldn't come down to the front but they'd stay in their Pew and the thought in my mind after seven weeks of there if

God can do something with these methodists I'll know for sure we're into something here maybe that wasn't right to do but I thought that they had a

marvelous and we had it was a great prayer time you know and they ended up you know they flop down in their in the

Pew so at that point we switched and uh my daughter got married in that room while we switched and moved to the

gymnasium and I switched the services from Wednesday to Sunday thinking will

my own congregation come on the weekends because I didn't want a church of visitors every week I wanted our church

to be the host wanted to be our church and then we're hosting other so that's what happened they did they all kids

came our kids came people gave up Sports and soccer and stuff to come and we had

five Services a week for three and a half years and we would the Our People Too would they show up at 6 because

there was preparation and uh and we'd show up and then maybe some of them went

earlier but I usually I had to stay till midnight at least sometimes one o'clock and uh and uh so then um people start

coming and it grew and grew and grew and news then Newsweek came Time Magazine

came uh Wall Street Journal came St Louis Chronicle came no St Louis Post

Dispatch came uh San Francisco Chronicle came and so just like that there began to be reporters there because uh there

would be a thousand over there' be a thousand people on our property and only 500 in the town every day for 5 days and

we had to to host it no gas station no grocery store uh we had a little Bank

oldfashioned Farmers Bank I think that was it I was going to say and what else uh a little there was some kind of

little store thing where they worked on cars or something that was it you couldn't buy gas people would run out of

gas after on the highway so we had a gasoline Ministry a guy with a truck went out afterwards and found people who

had run out of gas and or water we passed out water but sure enough anyway there was a documentary made then called

inside the Smith and outpouring and on it you can see sure enough there they are they're lined up I mean lined up in

the middle of the day it's just standing there just to get because they wanted to get in and that was uh so that went on

for three and a half years and then uh and and Kathy and I then of course we

got invitations to travel all over the world so when Newsweek funny story when Newsweek came out I was walking through

the airport in Paris I was in Paris with Kathy and we're walking through the is it Charles deal airport and I'm walking

and there's people all over the airport with Newsweek magazine open in French and I can see I can see our church

pictures but I didn't have the I just didn't have the nerve to say how do you say that let's see simoa

simoa it's me I I didn't have the nerve to do it I just but that's what our lives did and all of a sudden when

you're in those everything changed so I went from Over the 12 years I went from fairly decent Ministry to complete

obscurity and really didn't have any friends or anything thing because just you get into some small churches

unfortunately as important as they are and they seem insignificant sometimes to our country or to the people uh that go

there and so people just lost interest in things and nobody wanted to hear me really are in our own church and and

then instantly over just over months just from obscurity to National to

International and we traveled about every other week flew somewhere and then got back we came back quick enough and

do Services all day there and come back so that went on so uh in the year 2000

then we couldn't the town couldn't handle us anymore there was some people that were they didn't they were tired I

mean they didn't go to our church they were just tired of the crowds door slamming and uh they called the police on us a lot you know because there were

so many people and people they didn't like where everybody people just came to town and parked their car you know and

busloads of people from around the world would come from Korea and Singapore and Japan and I didn't know they were coming

uh I had no idea and um so they wrote that uh then so Charisma magazine did a lot of Articles

and others and one article they wrote was uh Revival in the middle of nowhere

yeah they did the other that they called it the cornfield Revival was the Smith and outpouring cornfield Revival and Revival in the middle of no where titles

that people G so I I flew to Japan and I'd been there before and and now they

kind of knew me they had open they had a big 2,000 seat Arena or something downtown and so they put posters up all

over and the Japanese they like like their posters to be really Lively and lots of color you know and they had all this flashing stuff on there and then I

looked at it and there was my picture real big on it and uh but there was a um

uh they didn't know what and they put on it they didn't know what to say the translation so it said uh come here The

Man from Nowhere and so but they did come and so we moved to

Kansas City then in 2000 and started this journey uh and the Revival

continued even in Kansas City City uh through trying to get buildings and

stuff but we eventually bought some property and because people were still coming we put up a thousand seat tent on

the property because we didn't have a building on it and we're going to build and uh then 911 happened and when that

happened everybody quit traveling and so it was just time to yeah yeah and now

it's time to I thought now we're going to be a local church and we built buildings three big buildings and did

things and then as you mentioned in the by that in 2008 we I had another surp

there was no warning there either uh I just was trying to get us going a little more in deeper in worship because we

knew what it was way back and we weren't trying to copy that again but it just wasn't on the level I thought and I kept

trying to coach musicians and stuff and finally I just Lord was just impress me just get up with the microphone yourself

and Coach everybody just do it in church not after church and I did and uh that

night I it was a Friday or Saturday night I don't Friday night I guess we had cuz we had some Friday night services for people who worked on Sunday

you know and it worked well and it just something started again and I didn't

know what and after about two weeks our people were saying there's something here and uh so they asked if we could

add Saturday back to the so we could go we could go Friday Saturday Sunday so people again from out of town could come

so we ended up doing four Services a week but then I had a a book that I never intended many Christians to read

it's called My absurd religion by which I make my living it's also it's kind of small like this well it's bigger no it's

three times the size of that but it's a a little bit smaller okay and uh but I never it was Kathy and I had a

television show that was syndicated that was like um cor sort of like a Christian late night thing it was syndicated late

night at 10:00 on Sunday nights all over the country different cities and um so I

kind of wrote it to for th that crowd who probably didn't go to church but probably used to go to church or might

go to church and why don't you go to church so I wrote my absurd religion explaining I get you that's what the

book like I get you man and and uh but it did accidentally get published and

put in bookstores and so accidentally yes and I got a phone call then from the

publisher said we don't know what to do he said that they're they're angry in the bookstores these people and these

pastors I said what they said they say you're you're preaching against everything they do and so he said what

do we do what do I do what do I do I said I said I don't care just box him up and send them back I never wanted him to

be there in the first place you know so anyway because of that book I got invited I'd been before but uh to the

dayar network and I was a guest and we were talking about this book and then we were done and they they ran some kind of

AD or something and uh while we're sitting there they whispered to Marcus lamb who was living then saying we got a

few we got a few extra minutes what do you want to do and a visit one and he thought oh he heard that one of their

staff who had been in Kansas City had taken a video of the prayer time and it was like 3 minutes long and they showed

it to their prayer Center there uh just Inspire them you know and they'd shown it that morning and so they said hey why

don't we show that video I heard it it's really good and uh I'm not even sure I'd seen it at the time but I'm not sure but

anyway so they did they grabbed it and they just played it three minutes long and at the end of it margus said he just

looked and said I want to capture that I'm going to send a truck to your church satellite dish you know the huge big

ones they still have I guess a on a on a big truck I'm going to send that there

and we'd like you to do 90 minutes live every Friday Night Live TV and which was

like live and I'm praying for people what's going to happen what that but I said okay so we started and we just were

going to go maybe a couple months or something is what I think they were thinking through the holidays to and it

started and that lasted so we end up doing uh we prayed on Wednesday

corporate prayer and then we'd have service Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday and now all of a sudden uh so we did it

and uh now we're in live in 200 countries for uh whatever time period I

didn't know and so we just did it and it La we did that for over three years yeah

F four Services a week for for over three years and uh it and so then Kathy

and I traveled to the impact of all these countries and uh it it had a

bigger impact I think in other parts of the world because a lot of them didn't have uh Toronto or they never heard of

this revival never heard of that and um so we were doing that and um so that's

my that's a lot of services and I preached them all I preached every one of them because I found out that I if I

gave it to somebody else they sometimes their religion and ideas and that and and uh I'm a pretty free person I don't

worry in the service much uh about what if somebody says something they shouldn't say or do something you know

we it's okay because uh moves of God need to be pastored and that's uh the

biggest thing I would say about the mistakes that I saw uh in history and during those periods of time other times

in history you can read about moves of God and see they started good and every but then the leadership either let down

or other people got in and and people ruined it it's not really that God stopped but um and so I learned I said

so I'm going to pastor this and so from the beginning to the end of the service I was I watched over and cared I didn't

do everything I didn't pray for everybody all the time I did pray for a lot of thousands people leadership right

and and it was like um visitors would come from all over the world and you get some weird ones and strange people but

it's like they looked and thought there's no opening here these people know what they're doing they've been doing this and some of the same people

in Kansas city are the same ones that were in smithon but then we also had a whole new crowd too uh and so these

people know what they're doing and you you just get on the property and

um there's so like I said there's you have to be careful I have to be careful because I don't want to downplay the

good things that are happening now and the trying and attempting the only thing I might say is to be slightly careful

with labeling it too fast because I know I didn't want to label ours too fast because it gives the people the idea

okay been there done that it's it's almost like um you know you go and you witness to somebody outside of a bar or

whatever and you know they're drunk or whatever and they pray and you get them to pray the prayer salvation and all

that and then they still walk off to their car to drive home drunk and you go like but did we now this person might

have been there done that and now they they're think I'm in heaven I'll if I die I'll go to heaven nothing left because that's what you told me I'm

would I go to heaven if I die so yeah so they're not going to they're not going to follow through with what the purpose

of it was the purp was to get you into the kingdom of God and active to glorify God and to give your life over to that

but and so uh and so I want to be careful of that I think what we're experiencing more in this day and age is

leaning a lot more to what I would call a Great Awakening because I got a note from somebody said we're having great Services people are getting saved and

baptized thought okay that's Awakening A Revival is for the people of God it's

it's um we labeled it it's light bringing life back to the half dead

they're not dead but half of them is no longer and and now what they thought

their life would be is not they're disappointed uh it didn't work out they

still go to church but it's like I'm going through the motions and there's millions of people like that but we

don't yeah and we don't add yes absolutely and we don't address it much anymore we some you know Hardline old

Pentecostal churches they really try really hard but in the more of the that we create a kind of a commercialized

Jesus that is more concerned with my feelings than with my spirit and so feelings is everything the worst in our

culture right now the worst thing you can do is hurt somebody's feelings yeah I know that's true they hurt my feelings

oh you poor thing you poor thing let me make you feel better so we go to church to feel better about who we are and what

we are rather than to be transformed I know I was I became and my family knows

I became a different person sorry I did and now I know it's possible

and I know cuz that's what happened to Paul Saul Paul he was a persecutor he was on his way to maybe even have people

murdered maybe but in jail for sure and he walks away and he's going to be the preacher now that's a transformation

that I had never experienced that level and uh so um my message then as that is

we we must get back to if we're spiritually sick we're never going to get well uh and and so we need that's

why I ask you before that that you're a doctor you know how important it is to get a proper diagnosis or in my book um

Mighty like gidan I think it's a true assessment was the title of it that we've got a wrong diagnosis and we think

what we think the Cure is I need more of me the Cure is I need more love at me

the Cure is I need to surround myself with more comforts because that that's I'm going to build this around me

because that's the problem the problem is I don't think highly enough of myself I have low self-esteem and uh so we're

going we're getting it's like we've gone to the doctor and went got a wrong diagnosis and now we're being treated

trying to make us well but it's not making us well as you know and then it spills over as as you know into every

area of our life relationships um I was talking to you right before too like I had to tell so I

had to fall out of love with food you know but it's just like why would I why

why was I eating then you know because I there something else I'm replacing food with something else what I need some

somewhere else so so right now in our country I want to see that next part I

think so many of the other colleagues and pastors that are doing good things

um I'm trying to convince them that we we don't we need to move away from that the Comm what I call the commercial

Jesus or actually I think we've invented we've invented you know we we don't feel like we have Idols you know like other

places but we I think we do because we create a God in our own image because if

you'll notice General Society can tell you what God likes and they can tell you what Jesus would do and they would tell

you well he would never Jesus would never allow that law to be passed what

um because we've created him that a God that likes everything I like and is

comfortable with me and now I'm comfortable with me because God's comfortable with me and now I expect you

to get comfortable with me you know and now we have conflict because I'm not maybe I'm not going to be comfortable

with some of the things you're doing as an adult or a child or whatever and and so we need that's that's basically what

I'm saying if we could get a proper diagnosis from the pulpits and churches and worship and all that to realize that

what the symptoms we're showing are a sickness but we're smart people we're

prosperous country we we can cover it up and do other things and buy stuff but

the actual feelings that we have inside need to be cured and that's why church

folks need Revival because they're living it and they're believing in God

but they've they're half dead right one can I keep should I keep going I'm still

talking I was going to just mention just want the the the story a lot of people know the Good Samaritan we we FOC on the

Good Samaritan because he was what he did but what we don't focus in is how what happened to the who did he

help he helped a Jewish man that was totally beat up right and left half dead

yeah absolutely and that's that's it yeah but but he got help and help came and it didn't come from the priest and

it didn't come from the levite it came from a place and a person he would have never expected there absolutely now you

could I'll take a breath sorry no that's great so it sounds there's a couple of things that struck me as you were

telling your story about the fact that you were faithful to what God told you

and for 12 years nothing happened and then you came to the end of yourself and then at that point where there was this

complete surrender of I can't manufacture this this is not something that I can do you walked back in

obedience with the recognition of he has to show up he has to make it happen and

then everything kind of shifted but now it sounds like what you're describing like I keep coming back to the the this

the Church of leoda in in Revelation where it sounds so much and I've been thinking for years that so much of the

Christian church is Le oysa they're half dead as you're describing and this idea of I want you to be either hot or cold

pick one but it needs to be something that is completely genuine and it needs to be from him invite him in and allow

him to come in and create Revival the way that he wants to not the way that we think it should be so that's that's yeah

strong great thoughts because uh you're absolutely right I took what I thought God wanted me to do with the idea of

what I thought Revival was and I had to study it and figure it out you know in my head I didn't know exactly because I

hadn't experienced what right Generations had before but here's the

deal that's probably going to be the the thing that's going to be the most challenging because for instance um

for leaders and I would you know you're a leader you wouldn't be doing this if you weren't a leader you're leading so

it's not just a preacher and a Pulpit leader but leaders who who want to know God and want to move forward and can

influence other people um I had to come to a conclu I came to a conclusion that

I'm talking Revival move of God and I and we I would even read Revival history

of when God swept through and the people just collapsed and it was like overwhelming and it was like what and

all these things were happening and I would read those accounts and it would stir people and it would stir me what I

didn't know is if I'm going to really be a leader or be effective at what God really wants to do I really I'm not

ready I think most leaders look and say my church would never go for this I've had thousands of past well this is nice

for you but I don't think my church would go for this you know or maybe they wouldn't go for it and I'm realizing

that is not the problem I think church is with the problem is I wasn't ready for what I was saying I wanted to happen

and do I had to go on a journey and when I and so right be the the season before

it happened you know we uh basically nobody heard me preach except my own

church like that and then what happened that even just weeks later but months

later you know they're giving 10 10,000 sermons are going out uh a week I think

well it started a month and then a week and uh when we were on dayar they they got um five and 6,000 calls in one night

uh to their call center which started out with 200 and they thought that was most TV shows would think if 200 people

called that would be a hit and I didn't even know then they their engineer they sent an engineer up to us every week

said it shut down the call center down there because that well what happened

did the people all of a sudden wake up and said I got a revelation I need Revival I'm going to get no so something

happened to me and when it happened to me I was able to say what I needed to say and be what I needed to be so then

they could say I want that I don't want to hear about this just in my head I'll

imagine in my head what it's like I see you I see these people and they come all

this time and I I probably had another thousand pastors come and say after

being in these services I don't even know if I'm saved I bet there was a thousand told me that because they saw

the children worshiping with such intensity no coloring books nothing like that you know they're not

no playing on the phones and teenagers come every single service and they run up to the front and then I did uh you

can watch videos but like our place you know be 1,200 people in the building and

I'd say if you want what I just was preaching about if you want it come now and I am not kidding it was a stampede

there' be two or 300 at least run they they climb over pews they climb over

wheelchairs they'd run and they would dive they're crying they're weeping they're shouting

they don't know what to do with themselves and they would dive and it was and it was it certainly wasn't line

people up and pray for them there's no way it just exploded right and most of the healings that took place physical

healings that took place actually took place not laying hands on people it just

started flowing through and it sometimes it' be during worship and I said I would tell the worship I think God's going to

get ready and I would just call it out people would run down I I couldn't pray for all of them fast enough it was like

it was like instead of thinking of like a a single shot because I no people really like it if you stand in front of

them and pray and the person that's maybe three inches away right receives

nothing they just wait their turn because we're good Greek people Greek minded people you got to wait your turn

right but in the Hebrew mind God called the whole nation together and they're all standing there and they all

experience they all got it at the same time and so that is foreign to us it's tough corporate is tough we want

individualism and we want to have I want God to come to my room at 12:30 tonight and tell me what I'm supposed to do I

don't want to have to go to church and but anyway so we're very corporate minded people family the church the

Bible was written to be read to a group not an individual so I encourage people to find that church and place where

people are really hungry for God doesn't matter if they there but do they if they have in the book I mention that are you

thirsty because Gideon took him down to the river first and it was at the river that decided who they were going to be

at the river and it wasn't if get this it wasn't if you drank 10,000 men drank

it was how it was how yes it was how you drank and so God watches how we drink

and 300 got picked by the way they drank and that's kind of another story on

interesting things on that but nevertheless um I began and would teach

that and I think look at yourself you think well it's just church again that but you're the one that can turn this

even if you don't even I'm no Pastor it didn't matter you're the one that can turn this but you you need to get this

you if you're going to if you want to fulfill you whatever you say Your Destiny or your future or whatever the

reason you were born if you get it other people will get it too because they'll say I I want that

I need to see it so really we we don't really need as many good sermons as we

need good examples I think so yeah that's absolutely good churches but we need good examples right of somebody

that said it this is so worth it you know like you mentioned we've been married 50 years and um uh there is a

level in my life now that's better than it's ever been in my life you know and I'm old enough I could retire if I

wanted to and but it's just so good that I didn't know it

could be this good I thought I thought as a younger generation you know if you get old everything's lost uh but it's

there's a goodness to life that this is really wonderful at this time in my life and I love I love Jesus and the things

he does more than ever in my whole life and I have a deeper relationship with him ever in my whole life I'm not tired

I'm not I'm not burned out uh and I've done a lot and I'm not I I always I just

want to go I just want to be with him that's it though I just want to be with him I don't have to preach I don't have

to sing I don't have to be a somebody if I can have you now if I can have you and be influenced other people and do that

that I'll do that but I don't want to go I don't want to do it without him so I spend a lot of time just uh yeah a lot

of prayer time most of my prayer time is not asking for anything except him yeah

and then if I have a need or somebody has a need that tag it on the end but I've spent more time with him now could

I just mention this to you you know right but we like our prayer is business first and then now I got to go do

something else you know because I I need this breakthrough and you know I need finances whatever so we do it then we're off and I flip it around the uh Hebrew

culture and Eastern cultures uh do it differently they they have this extended relationship time and then at the end uh

you make the could I ask a favor you know and sure yeah that's how I do it anyway right and it's very Matthew I

think it's six where he talks about you know if you seek first the kingdom of God all of these things will be added to and there's that absolutely start out

with that idea of faith and trust then you you can just tack it on sometimes you don't even have to you know he's

going to take care of it so absolutely I it's one of my favorite scriptures by the way that I've lived by if I put it

first and I tell you can get things want you can get things God will give you things if you do that or you can work

for it and and you'll still have the things but there's two ways you can get them amen where can people go to learn

more about you and to get your books okay just really easy Steve Gray ministries.com

and this was free it was was a free download but I think you got to buy it now I'm not sure but anyway you it's

short enough you can read it an hour or so and it will talk about America and all that uh and Revival and all that and

then uh mighty like Gideon where there we go um that one you can get and then

if you get it through us I should say by the way I wrote this with my son-in-law know that's great he's a prolific writer

he's got lots of books U and I just CH pick and choose but we were actually asked to write this book together and uh

we did and so he made a great study guide a workbook I should say there it is mighty like Gideon and I think it's

like if you get the book through us you get you can get this like for a dollar and it's really good workbook and so uh

so you can get anywhere you want in the bookstore or whatever but you can also go to Steve gr ministries.com and get it

awesome well I will link to that in the show notes and thank you Steve this has been very inspiring I really appreci oh

good I hope so yes absolutely thank you yeah yeah

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