Revival Beyond Expectations

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Today we hear a lot about revival. People are saying we need revival in our churches, in our nation. Well, how do we get it? What are the roots of revival and how does it get started? Well, I became the leader of a revival that touched the nations. I’m going to tell you how I got there on the next More Faith, More Life podcast.

0:00:20 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray, and this is the More Faith, More Life podcast.

0:00:27 – (Kathy Gray): This is.

0:00:27 – (Steve Gray): This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, nonprofit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse. When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more. More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do.

0:00:53 – (Steve Gray): My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

0:01:19 – (Steve Gray): So if you’re ready to do more, subscribe to More Faith, More Life and hear an unfiltered biblical truth every week. It’s time to be and experience more.

0:01:31 – (Steve Gray): Hello everyone, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast. I’m Steve Gray, here with my wife Kathy. We’re so glad that we have this opportunity to share biblical principles with you, how people can have more faith, how people can get more life by having more faith. And then we’re breaking down now something a project that Kathy started and it’s called Legacy. And today you hear a lot about Legacy. I hear it on TV. You start your legacy and leave a legacy.

0:02:00 – (Steve Gray): I think 10 years ago you never heard it, but now it’s a popular phrase. And somehow along the way, you came up with the idea that you wanted to work on a legacy based on things that I’ve learned and done. Remind the people that it’s a quite a journey. Actually, Kathy, it’s almost the American dream journey. You know, poor boy wins lottery or nobody becomes a somebody, or poor boy makes good, you know, succeeds.

0:02:33 – (Steve Gray): And so I was a pastor in a small town and God did some great, great things. Well, actually, we should back up. I did not grow up like this. I went to church Briefly in the Nazarene Church, which we talked about the other podcast and was touched by God. But by the eighth grade, I dropped out of religion totally until I was age 23. So I had to start with ground zero, when God touched my life. And I said, I’ve been called to preach. I had zero.

0:03:02 – (Steve Gray): Zero help. I had no father, I knew no pastors. I didn’t go to church, I had no theological training. And somehow from there, God in time, which is the legacy you’re putting together, it launched me into a national and international ministry.

0:03:19 – (Kathy Gray): Correct.

0:03:19 – (Steve Gray): That went to. In 200 nations. We were seen and heard, and we traveled the world and touched thousands of. More than thousands of churches. And here we are today.

0:03:30 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:03:31 – (Steve Gray): So you would like to back up now to a certain point where we traveled for almost seven years across the United States from church to church to church to church. We traveled in a Greyhound bus, we sang, we ministered, we got love offerings, and we told some of those stories. And now we’re up to a certain place. So where are we now in our legacy story?

0:03:54 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, well, we’re in about 1983, the second half of 1983, and I think we already shared how you were given the Winkey Pratney tapes and book on revival and describing it, which so inspired you and began to change you. And then towards the very end of 83, God spoke to you and said, wait a minute, the revival is coming to the local church and not to the big convention centers anymore. And then you said to me, but I’m not a.

0:04:26 – (Kathy Gray): We don’t have a church. Yeah, it’s coming to the churches, but we don’t have a church. Basically, we were rejected by all the pastors in the churches in the nearby town of Sedalia because they were threatened by little o us, young and full of zeal. So there we are, the end of 83, and you can take it from there.

0:04:47 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, I might explain that a little bit. We at that time seemed successful towards the end of it, when we started with nothing. But by that time, we’d been on the 700 Club. I had songs that have been played on the radio. So in the town we lived in, we were considered successful. And so they were a little threatened by this successful couple coming into their church and making it the home church. And they got nervous about it because, are we going to take over? Are we going to attract people? Are we going to steal people?

0:05:20 – (Steve Gray): Are we going to be more popular than. I know it’s crazy, but that’s what happened.

0:05:24 – (Kathy Gray): We feel that way about ourselves.

0:05:26 – (Steve Gray): No, of course not.

0:05:27 – (Kathy Gray): Trust me.

0:05:28 – (Steve Gray): And so I heard. I started feeling in my spirit, in my heart and mind, that revivals and revival was going to start breaking out in America in the local churches. Now, that’s not going to happen for a number of years, but you got to start somewhere. And so I came to Kathy. I said, Kathy, if revival breaks out in local churches, we’re going to miss it. And I’ve been listening to these revival teachings, you know, so I’m in it now. Boy, I’m learning.

0:05:55 – (Steve Gray): And we’re going to miss it because we don’t have a local church to have it land in, because we’re going from church to church to church. And then when we are home, we visit a church, but it can’t be really a home church. Cause then we go on the road again. Okay.

0:06:08 – (Kathy Gray): And they were uncomfortable about us.

0:06:09 – (Steve Gray): Why do you keep bringing that up? It’s okay.

0:06:12 – (Kathy Gray): Well, I mean, if for somebody we’re trying. Your legacy needs to impact other people who maybe have gone through the same kind of things and slowing them down.

0:06:22 – (Steve Gray): Yes, that’s true. Because ministries and ministers can feel very threatened. Yeah. And did you know this is a statistic that people in the ministry are the most insecure of all professional people and professional, like bankers or doctors or whatever. Okay. So I said, Kathy, you know what we’re going to have to do? We’re going to have to Cancel the year 1983, the rest of 1983, and maybe part of 94.

0:06:47 – (Steve Gray): And we’re going to go home. Go. We had a home. We’re going to park the bus and we’re going to start seeking God for revival. And what does this mean? So that’s what we did. Now at that time, now we have no income. Everything stopped. And I don’t know what I was thinking as far as a husband and father and husband and all that kind of stuff. I don’t know what I was thinking, because how are we going to make it? But.

0:07:10 – (Kathy Gray): Well, I was excited. I was having an exciting life of faith right along with you. And I knew God wanted us to shift gears a little.

0:07:19 – (Steve Gray): And we didn’t know what to do at the first, particularly the beginning, we were seeking for something. We didn’t know where we’re going. And you reminded me a little bit ago, a dear pastor. I’ll just say his name because he should be honored. He’s no longer with us, but J.D. Sherman had a church there that he started in Sedalia. And when he found out we weren’t traveling, he did the opposite of what the other churches did.

0:07:43 – (Kathy Gray): Exactly.

0:07:44 – (Steve Gray): And he said, please, if you’re in town, if you’re out of town, you’re out of town. Because we still had a few little things. People were still kind of asking us to come and do a few things until we cut it off. Then he said, hey, if you’re going to be in town, would you come to my church and just help play the piano and sing, take the off, do the offering, preach sometimes, help with the help, meet people, anything we could do.

0:08:10 – (Steve Gray): And he said, I’ll pay you what you were making. And we were only making. It sounds crazy, though. I said we were kind of successful, but we put money back into the ministry and we took a salary of $200 a week. And so he. So he. I think, wait, we took 200 a piece, though. So it was $ 400 a week at that point he came and said, I’ll give you $200 a week if just Sunday morning. I think we went Wednesday night too, if you’ll come to my church now that you’re here and just help me sing, preach, do whatever. And we said, okay.

0:08:44 – (Steve Gray): So he paid us and we just went to church, drove to his church and attended church. And he got us through those days of seeking when we had no income. It wasn’t a lot, but we got by it.

0:08:56 – (Kathy Gray): God really used him at that awkward time in our lives.

0:09:00 – (Steve Gray): So while that’s happening, we had a church. There was a church in Chicago, a nice church, very well established church in a very well established neighborhood. They were. Shopping malls were going up, houses were being built. It was beautiful part of Chicago. And they offered us a staff position. It’s kind of second in command. And they had a school. You could teach and I could preach. And they offered you a salary. Me, a salary, a car, health insurance, all that, everything.

0:09:33 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, not a car. But you, you know, they pay. Yeah, I can’t say it. They, like. They would lease a car for us. That’s what I meant to say. And health insurance and that you get car allowance and all that stuff. That’s what it was. And it was a good package. Much, much larger than we had. And like we would be in a big church, probably considered successful. So guess what we did? We said yes. And in the small town that we lived in and 532 people where. We only moved there because our house got hit by a tornado and there wasn’t any place to live, and we bought a house in the town outside where there was housing. So we lived in this little town that’s the only reason.

0:10:08 – (Steve Gray): And they offered us a job, and we took it. And so we started. We went up there, we picked out a house. I can still see the house. I don’t know if you can, but I can still see it. It had central air conditioning, which our house didn’t. We had air conditioning, but it wasn’t. It was an old window. And I thought, look at that. We’re going to have it. And it was a new neighborhood and everything. So we said yes.

0:10:28 – (Steve Gray): And they loved us. We’d been there a number of times, so they knew us. It wasn’t that they didn’t know us. And they had, like. I think, if I Remember right, like 21 applicants or something that wanted that job. And we didn’t even apply and got it because they knew us and liked us. So there you go. That’s the story. Except all of a sudden, in this town of 532 people, I found out I didn’t even know. I never walked around. I never knew. I didn’t know anybody in the town.

0:10:53 – (Steve Gray): And they came to me and said, do you know there’s a church over here on the far side of town, which was like, what, eight blocks? Minute and a half drive in this little town? There’s a church built in 1859, and it was there during the Civil War, World War I, the Depression, two Korean Wars and up to then. And they said, it’s going to be torn down. It’s labeled a historical site. It was a state historical site.

0:11:20 – (Steve Gray): It’s going to be torn down. We can’t keep it. It’s been locked up for four years. It has no people, no money. It needs to be painted. That’s kind of sagging. It smells bad. There’s dead rats and birds inside. Would you like to be our pastor? And I said, our pastor? What do you mean? He says, well, we have six members, but don’t worry, none of them will come. And so they wanted me to be. It was. It wasn’t disciple. It was church.

0:11:45 – (Steve Gray): Christian church is what they called it, just Christian church. And I said, no, I’m going to Chicago, obviously. So time passed. Not very much time passed. They came to me again, and we are desperate. You know, it’s going to be torn down. Would you reconsider? And I said, no, I won’t reconsider. We’re going to Chicago. By this time, we’re starting to kind of pack and get things moving and get ready to go.

0:12:05 – (Steve Gray): And it was an exciting chance for us. And so they came to me a Third time. This. This time it was different, though. They were different because they said, listen, it’s going to be torn down. We don’t want to lose it. What if we just gave it to you? Or actually they sold it to us for a dollar, but basically gave it to us and we had a non-profit. So they actually sold it to the non-profit ministry for a dollar. Okay.

0:12:31 – (Steve Gray): I said, we’ll let you have it. It’s got a little tiny kitchen and it’s got a piano. I hadn’t even seen it. And so, you know, they. They wanted us to go see it. And I, you know, but I hadn’t even seen it. I didn’t even know it existed. And they said, so you can have the whole thing on the corner lot. It’s old, but you can have it. It’s been closed for four years. I said, no, no, thank you. We’re going to Chicago. And they look so pitiful because they said, you’re our last.

0:12:58 – (Steve Gray): They said, we’ve asked everybody, basically say, we’ve asked everybody we like. But they knew, you know, I’m a hand raiser. I speak in tongues, you know, and I’m charismatic. They didn’t want that, but they wanted to save the building. So they bit their tongue, I think, held their breath and said, would you just. And so going out the door, I said, that ultimate statement that changed our lives. I said, all right, all right, all right, I’ll pray about it.

0:13:24 – (Steve Gray): Did I mean it? Not at the time. You just say that. It was like me saying, do lunch. And I don’t mean. And we’re never going to do lunch. Okay, so that’s what. I’ll pray about it. We only lived another less than a minute away. I could drive, but during that minute, I’d been listening to Kenneth Copeland’s teachings on integrity of keeping your word, like God keeps his word. So I’m getting there, I pull in the driveway, and I thought, okay, I better pray.

0:13:50 – (Steve Gray): So I come in the house, and I don’t even tell you about. I don’t even tell you that I’m going to pray about it. You’re busy. You know, I come in, though, and I get in the living room. I get down, you know, kind of praying and stuff, and I lay it out before the lor. Have Lord. Here’s a church in Chicago. It’s got. It already had 800 members. It already had. And they wanted to go over. They said, if you come, we’ll go way over a thousand. That’s what their hope was.

0:14:11 – (Steve Gray): And so it was a good deal. Housing, car, salary. We’ve already mentioned all those great benefits. And then now God. And here’s a church in this town of 532 people. It’s been closed for four years. It has no people, no money. We have no money either left over. Now we’ve spent all our savings. So seeking God to what we should do. And. Oh, you know what? I should back up though. There is one thing you did while I was seeking God.

0:14:38 – (Steve Gray): You said to me, Steve, maybe you should consider being a pastor. Now, that was right after we stopped traveling. And I remember my response was, oh, no, not that I don’t want to be a pastor. Well, anyway, that got in me. So I’m going to go join this church. And now here’s a church, no people, no money, locked up, smelly dead birds, dead animals, just a dead, dead thing. But I said I’d pray about it. I laid out, here’s the big church, here’s the church with nothing going on in this little town that has nothing.

0:15:11 – (Steve Gray): Didn’t have a gas station. No, no, it did.

0:15:15 – (Kathy Gray): Well, it was there. It was.

0:15:16 – (Steve Gray): But then it closed. Yeah, it had no grocery store and then the gas station closed. It was there for a little bit.

0:15:22 – (Kathy Gray): Had a little tiny post office.

0:15:24 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. And a bank. That was it.

0:15:26 – (Kathy Gray): It had a little tiny beauty salon.

0:15:28 – (Steve Gray): Oh, that’s true.

0:15:29 – (Kathy Gray): I went there.

0:15:30 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, that was it. And I said, God, I said, Jesus, look, this is completely ridiculous question, but what would you do? And I heard from heaven an astounding sound. And he said, I’ll tell you what I would do. I would raise the dead. And the life just left me. I think I turned completely pale because I thought, ah, that is what you would do. In my heart. I was like. Said that I would do what? You know, I want to follow you and do your will. I’m here. Oh, God, whatever you say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now all of a sudden, he’s offering me to raise.

0:16:07 – (Steve Gray): Together, we would raise something dead that has no salary, no people, no nothing. And we’re out of money. And I didn’t know what to say other than, okay, okay, we’ll do it. And then he backed up. I need to get in order. He backed up a little on me and gave me a second offer. And he then began to speak to me that same day and said, listen, I’m going to give you a choice. I don’t want to tell you to do this. I want to give you a choice.

0:16:38 – (Steve Gray): And he said, here’s your choice and I will love you, no matter what you choose, you can either be in the kitchen with Martha, or you can be at the feet of Jesus with Mary. With me. With Mary. I knew what that meant. I said, okay. So I could still go to Chicago if I wanted to, but that would be going into the kitchen. Standard staff member. Everything’s paid. Just do the dishes, serve everybody, keep every. You know.

0:17:06 – (Steve Gray): Or you can sit at the feet of Jesus, and you’re not doing any work. You don’t know. All you’re doing is discipling your life and learning and learning and learning. So I chose that, too. I said, I’ll take it. And I knew that was the right answer. I just didn’t know what it meant. So I said, I’ll take it. I’ll go to the feet of Jesus now. We’re going to open this church on a Thursday night. You know why I did it on a Thursday night?

0:17:32 – (Kathy Gray): Oh, yeah.

0:17:33 – (Steve Gray): I wanted to make it as hard for God as I could. I said, if anybody comes to church on a Thursday night in this town, it’ll be a miracle. Well, actually, about one family and some relatives showed up.

0:17:43 – (Kathy Gray): Well, I think I had. I kept count. I even had that calendar of the people who attended the title of the sermon and the amount of the offering for those first couple of years. I’ve got the calendar still. And that first Thursday, 13 people attended and six of them were children. And the offering was something like $28.

0:18:05 – (Steve Gray): Yep. I thought it was on the next week. It must have been 40, because I was thinking 40, but you kept track of it.

0:18:10 – (Kathy Gray): So, you know, I wrote it down. I’ve seen proof.

0:18:13 – (Steve Gray): So we did that for a couple of weeks, and then people, this little group of maybe 15 people or whatever, start saying, or maybe 20, why don’t we start having Sunday church? Why are we having this Thursday? Because that’s all we had was Thursday night to make it really hard. So we made the switch over, and I began the journey and I preached revival. I told them, revival’s coming to America, to the local churches, which it did, but we’re not there yet.

0:18:41 – (Steve Gray): And I began to stand on that little platform of this little church where not very many people to start with. And I began to say, imagine people lined up to get in this building because the spirit of revival of God, the glory of God, not because of the music or me or my personality or yours, but because God’s in the house for real. And I talked it and talked it and talked it. Now, being at that church, after we’d been on the 700 Club and had things on the radio.

0:19:09 – (Steve Gray): People kind of shunned me. Now, not just the local churches, who thought, what has happened to him? Because now my church is smaller than their church. Before, I was the superstar. We were the superstars.

0:19:21 – (Kathy Gray): We were successful.

0:19:22 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, we were successful.

0:19:24 – (Kathy Gray): They used to say we were climbing up the. This gospel ladder.

0:19:27 – (Steve Gray): We were. And we were. Now. Now they’re more successful than I am. And now they don’t want to have anything to do with me. Because they wonder, what did you do wrong that God sent you to this place? You must be stupid. You turned down what to be here. And there’s nothing here. But there was something there. There was the feet of Jesus. So I didn’t have any friends, didn’t have any support. Nobody gave us any money.

0:19:52 – (Steve Gray): Nobody helped get us started. And we did several things, though. I thought, okay, why do I start? I’m really starting a church. Old building, but no church. Everybody. There was nothing. Why am I starting this church? And we called it Smithton Community Church. A community one. Why would I start this church? And I felt like God said, well, I don’t need another church. Unless you do something different than other churches, then there’s a reason to go for it.

0:20:20 – (Steve Gray): So you and I made a decision. We, first of all, would like to have a church that God attends. I know everybody thinks that God attends every church, but read the Bible, and he’s not that happy sometimes with his own people and what they do. So. No. But the devil attends every church. Cause there’s always some mean people there somewhere, you know? But I said, let’s get a church that God attends. How are we going to do that?

0:20:45 – (Steve Gray): So we talked it over and we said, well, let’s. First of all, let’s look at heaven. Let’s look where God is. What’s it like there? It’s worshiping. It’s holy. And everybody worships in heaven, okay? So our goal would be to get a church where people come and everybody worships, everybody sings, even the kids. Everybody’s just engaged. Not mumble singing, but we’re worshipers. We’re singers. And I wanted a church like that. We traveled and knew all the churches and the ones that really were good churches where the people were really involved, engaged.

0:21:19 – (Steve Gray): So I want a church of people. I don’t want people looking at their watches. I don’t want people saying, how soon does this get over? The second they walk in? Okay, so then you, you. You suggest, well, what about this? What if we could have a church where everybody was Saved and born again. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have new people come and get born again. But we don’t have people that. Not born again that just sort of hang out at church.

0:21:40 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:21:41 – (Steve Gray): And you don’t have the mixed people. Everybody’s born again. Everybody’s singing, everybody’s praising. And we also thought, what about everybody’s a giver. People give. I mean, generous. Everybody’s generous. Let’s just say that. And all of a sudden we’re realizing this is this. This would be different if it could happen. So we set that our goal. And then lastly, what if everybody was filled with the Holy Spirit just like they were in the Bible, and we began to set that as our goal.

0:22:10 – (Steve Gray): And instead of having a church where they had the, you know, the lukewarm over here and the. And they have a few that kind of when music started, have a few kind of dancers that sort of. They’re all excited and they sing real loud, but they always sit in the same place and kind of dance around. Then you got the teenagers who sort of just sit on the back row and talk and punch each other and flirt. And I thought, no, no, that is not a church God’s going to attend.

0:22:32 – (Steve Gray): We can do better. So we invented a word, a phrase. You helped me invent it or you might have invented it. That said, what about if we could start a church where we had the power of all?

0:22:42 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:22:43 – (Steve Gray): Just like at the. When he said, the wall of Jericho will come down if everybody blows their trumpets and everybody shouts and everybody marks everybody. And we’re not going to have one or two or a little group over here says, well, I’ll blow my trumpet when God tells me, but until God tells me, I’m going to do it. We didn’t blow trumpets in the church I grew up with. So I’m not. We don’t march in our church.

0:23:06 – (Steve Gray): But they all marched around and the wall came down. We dreamed that. And then we dreamed where it said they were all together in one place and they were on the day of Pentecost, Book of Acts, chapter two. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And again, there wasn’t one that said, well, you know, I just don’t believe speaking in tongues is for today. I think that ended with Elijah. And did you know there was a movement that, you know, you hear today that the power of God ended with the apostles? Yeah, there was a movement in Jesus Day that the power of God ended with Elijah.

0:23:44 – (Steve Gray): So when the power of God, when he Started operating the power of God, they said, must be Elijah, because it only happens with Elijah. Imagine that. So anyway. But none of them said that. This can’t. What? Speaking in tongues. This can’t be God. Elijah’s not here. Oh, wait. When Elijah comes in, maybe I’ll speak, you know? Nope. They all, all, all. And we began to dream of a church like that. We began to dream of a church where all the children.

0:24:08 – (Steve Gray): Well, worship was a family thing. Kids didn’t color. Kids didn’t bring G.I. Joe and Barbie to church. They’re never going to get saved anyway, so why do that and have an airplane going or a car on the back? We did have that at first. You know, some kid had a car and he rolling it back and forth on the back of the pew. You know, wait a minute. They wouldn’t do that if they were in the presence of a real king.

0:24:31 – (Steve Gray): A real king. In fact, in Israel, you’d be killed for doing it. They’d just take you out and kill you for being rebellious and stupid. Or at least they’d beat you with sticks. Okay, that’s what we wanted. Now, I preached revivals coming, and I started telling our church, and we grew. Now, we were considered successful tiny town pastors. We’re tiny town pastors. But I did get asked to speak at a conference because we had 100% tithers. Every member of the church was a tither.

0:25:02 – (Steve Gray): And they invited me come speak because we want to know. And they thought, what’s the secret to getting everybody in the church to be a tither? And they wanted to know the tithing secret. Do you have a. You’ve got a real hot sermon or whatever, so tell me your sermon so I can preach that sermon. I said, no, no, no, no, no. You’re missing the point. We don’t have 100% only tithers. We got 100%, everybody. I said I want all.

0:25:28 – (Steve Gray): I want everybody saved, worshiping, filled with the spirit, giving their money, loving each other, committed, coming to every service. We had three services a week. We had Wednesday night and two on Sunday from where we came. And we grew over the years to about 125, then 150, then 180, and every once in a while we might hit a 200. Maybe we had a guest or something was going on. That was huge for a town, 532 people on a Sunday morning to have 150, 180 people in the church.

0:26:01 – (Steve Gray): Because most churches in America are below 200 anyway, and some are below 100 and so that went on. Now I’ve been talking revival and I’ve been saying it and all the time I got up and talked about it and said, imagine people lined up to get in this country church. And it was, it was just too over the top to even believe probably. But people tried to believe. Now guess what happened though. I didn’t realize that I was going to be like John the Baptist out in the wilderness.

0:26:30 – (Steve Gray): 12 years goes by, 12 years of my life. If it had been a couple years, you know, we turned down Chicago. And now a couple years, wow, it breaks out. People are lined up to get in our church. We were going, this is it, this is God. We talked about raising the dead. But after 12 years, it was a good church, but it was not a God church to the level that I had read about revivals and where God just swept in and swept away and it’s just overwhelming power of God.

0:26:59 – (Steve Gray): You need to read about real revivals, not some that write today, write historical revivals. And 12 years passed and I still had no friends. I had local friends, but our church, but that was it. And now 12 years passes and instead of raising the dead, trouble came. Things got worse before they got better. The reason, and I’ll leave off with this today, the reason. And by the way, revival does come. And that’s going to be on our next podcast, how it happened that people from all over the world are going to come to that little town.

0:27:38 – (Steve Gray): I’m going to tell you how it happened. And I went from nothing to international fame in about nine months or a year. But before it could happen, trouble came. Do you know why trouble came? Even God uses trouble to mold us. Sometimes we don’t like it. I didn’t like it. It was not fun. But now looking back, I spoke revival, I preached revival, I did revival sermons. And the church was really doing well, doing great.

0:28:04 – (Steve Gray): But I started doing bad. Cause the small town now after 12 years was eating me up. The gossip, the small town politics. People come, people go, they go to your church, they say, love you, then they disappear. I’m going, like what? I gave up Chicago church For this, an 800 member church for this. In and out little town politics. And some bad things happen. Not too well, some bad things happen in town.

0:28:31 – (Steve Gray): And it just broke me. And I said, is this it? I gave 12 years of my life for this. So the church is doing great and I start going downhill. That’s about all I’m going to say. Because what really was the problem is God wanted to bring revival to that small church. And he did it in other places around the world, too. To our church in that tiny town. We’re going to be the smallest town in the world that ever had an international outbreak.

0:28:56 – (Steve Gray): In history. Smallest town in history that ever brought the nations to its door. I’ll tell about it next week. But the reason is God wanted to bring revival to our church and maybe your church. The problem was I wasn’t ready. I preached it. I knew it in my head. But as a person, my character was not ready to become the person that God needed me to be. So I had to be broken. And I had to. Like Paul said, I’ve been crucified with Christ.

0:29:24 – (Steve Gray): Something in me had to die and be reborn again. And I had to become like Paul. On the road to Damascus. I had to become a different person. So God was ready for revival. Like he’s ready for revival today. But are we ready to become the people that carries revival to the nation and to the world? That’ll be next week of maybe the valley of the shadow of death that I went through until finally revival comes and the nations and people do line up to get into that building for three and a half years.

0:29:56 – (Steve Gray): A quarter of a million people are going to come. I’ll tell you more about it next week as Kathy puts together. The legacy of Steve Gray. Nope. The legacy of the Holy Spirit and how he moves on ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Till next time. Bye Bye.