Broken Before the Throne

One of them was ministering in California, just south of me, and he came to visit me. We began to reminisce on those days of the 1970s in Bridgend in South Wales, and he made a statement to me that I hadn't even thought of before that time. He said these words: Gareth, we were in revival, and we didn't even know it. It was so natural to see every week new people come into Christ. It was so normal to see lives transformed.

I remember Steve. He was the only mainline heroin addict in our town, and one night Steve, with his bushy hair in all the colors of the rainbow, came into our youth hall and gave his life to Christ. The next day on the street he was stopped by the police, who started checking him for his needles and syringes. They took him to the station, and he laughed at them. He said, for many years you've tried to get me off drugs — Jesus has done it in one night. Today he's a counselor for drug addicts. That was normal.

And we were just in a place of day by day, week after week, expecting the miraculous, and we didn't realize what we were experiencing — God in our midst. I can go on and tell you many stories like this, but I've got so much to tell you tonight, I don't want to spend all my time telling little stories.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones made this statement: revival is nothing more than a lot of God's people receiving the fullness of the Spirit at the same time. Revival depends upon the people of God knowing God and experiencing God. It begins in the house of God, revival, when God wants to visit us in power, and the very least we should seek while we are here is for God to touch us. We need to go from here to different people, because God has done something remarkable in our midst. Revival is a sovereign act of God. You and I cannot produce revival. We will not produce revival simply by being here. We will not even produce revival by our prayers.

The Prerequisites for Revival

It is a sovereign act of God. But I ask myself, are there any prerequisites? And of course there are. We're all very familiar with the verse in Chronicles. I will read it to you — you will know it, I'm sure — but I will read the verse before the one you know.

If I shut up heaven so that there be no rain, or if I, God, command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence upon the land, then if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Is it possible that much of the trouble and turmoil we see in the United States and in Canada today is because God has allowed the locusts upon the land? I believe so. Because I read in the first chapter of the book of Romans words like this: that the wrath of God has been revealed upon all mankind because of the things that are happening. God has given them up to do the things that are unseemly, the things that are ungodly, and he's given them up. This is how the anger of God is revealed — he's allowed man to develop his own way. And so in North America today we have the religion of secular humanism, where man is on the throne instead of God. And so God says, fine, I'll take my hands off. That's the wrath of God, and the locusts have come upon the land, and the pestilence.

I believe the United States and Canada today are under the judgment of God because of his wrath being revealed by his hand being taken off. But he says, then — if my people — there are conditions for a healing of your land. Do you want to see America healed? I want to see Canada healed. I want to see God break in upon my land. I want to see the awesome presence of God once again being evident in the churches and in the people of God, so that the people outside in the world will begin to see what God is doing. If there's a condition, let me give you some more conditions.

Besides prayer and repentance and humility, as we read in those verses — before the day of Pentecost, Jesus said to his disciples, I want you to go to Jerusalem and stay there. Remember, Jerusalem was a fearsome place to them. They had just left Jerusalem because they'd seen their Master crucified. They knew the priests and the chief priests and the scribes would be after them next, and they were fearful. And Jesus said, I want you to stay right there in the midst of that trouble. I want you to tarry until you receive the power from on high, that you will receive the promise of my Father. Tarry and wait upon God.

And so we read in the first chapters of Acts how the people tarried — they waited in one accord in prayer before the Spirit of God came. Let me refer to the prayer of Jesus the last night before he died. I can only imagine, if I knew I was going to die next week, the things I would do would be priorities. I love sport — I wouldn't bother to watch my sport. I would deal with priorities. If I knew I was going to die — Jesus in the upper room is dealing with priorities, and this is what he says to his disciples. He talks to them about loving one another, refreshing one another by washing their feet, obeying his word. And then he prays. He says, Father, I want them to be one. I thank you that I've lost none of them except the son of perdition.

I pray for them, not that you'll take them from the world, but Father, that you will keep them — I'm so glad he keeps me. And Father, I pray that they may be one, so that the world will know that you love them. I pray that they may be one so that the world will know you sent me, so that Hagerstown will know. I pray that they might walk in unity — for God to make himself known to the people of Hagerstown, to the people of America, the people of God need to be in unity. That's the prayer of Jesus. Are we in unity in our churches? We have so much disunity in our church — I'm not talking about uniformity. Churches are leaning towards uniformity. Nowadays you go into a Baptist church, it looks like a Pentecostal church; you go into a Pentecostal church, it looks like a Baptist church. We're all the same in uniformity, but we have no unity.

And one of the prerequisites of God revealing himself to this nation is unity of the people of God. When are we going to look at the heresy of practice? We talk about heresy of doctrine — we criticize people for their heresy of doctrine, for what they preach in their pulpits — when are we going to start challenging men and women on the heresy of practice, when they're not walking in unity? It's a condition. Paul said to the Ephesians, in chapter one: I've heard of your faith, I've heard of your love. Therefore I pray that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will grant you wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of himself.

Do you want wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God? A prerequisite is your faith and your love. Paul said, I cannot pray this prayer unless I see that evident in you. Preconditions. And so we as people of God, if we become aware that there are preconditions to God manifesting his presence, then I challenge us to get ready to begin to exercise those preconditions.

I hunger for God. I long for revival. Not a day goes by when I do not cry to God: God, will you not rend the heavens and come down? I live in a very, very beautiful part of the world — the west coast of Canada and America is very beautiful, as Dan can attest to. I'm very glad to be living in Canada. But there's not a day goes by when I do not cry unto God, because my land and your land needs him to make his presence known. In the Scriptures we see many men who hungered after God, like David, who cried out, as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you.

I was with a group of pastors once in Victoria, and the topic of discussion was revival. Because I come from Wales, and I have a passion for revival, I led this meeting — they invited me to do so. There was an itinerant evangelist there, and he stood up and told a story about a young farm lad who talked with his father, and said he longed for revival too. His father was standing by the horse trough, which was full of water. He took the young lad and plunged his head beneath the water, and held it there while the boy struggled and kicked. He took him out finally, then plunged him in again.

The boy didn't understand what his father was doing, and finally, as he dragged him out the third time, the father said to him: when you hunger for air, when you hunger for God as much as you hunger for air, then God will give you revival. The people hunger for God — David was such a man. But I want you to know this: God longs to make his presence known. The problem is not him. God longs to manifest his presence among his people.

I want to talk this evening about Moses — Moses, who longed and hungered for God. And I want to walk you through some Scriptures in the book of Exodus. If you'll turn with me, please, to that book — turn to chapter 32 of Exodus. I'm going to walk you through these next couple of chapters to see about this man who hungered for God, and some of the conditions that God placed upon him. I'm going to read to you from Exodus 32, from verse 15. I'd like you to follow in your Bibles with me, please.

Moses and the Golden Calf

And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the Testament were in his hand. These are the ten commandments. The tables were written on both their sides, on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. He said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, nor is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the voice of them that sing, do I hear. And it came to pass as soon as they came nigh into the camp that he saw the calf, the golden calf that they had made, and the dancing. And Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hand and broke them beneath the mount. He took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

And Moses said unto Aaron, what did the people do unto you that you have brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax so hot. You know the people, that they are set on mischief. They said to me, make us gods, which shall go before us — for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what's happened to him, he's been up there on the mountain for such a long time. And I said to them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

When Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto the shame among their enemies, then Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves to him. And he said unto them some terrible words: thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, every man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.

And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you have sinned a great sin — and now I'll go up unto the Lord, perhaps I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, these people have sinned a great sin, have made them gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin — and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which you have written. And the Lord said to Moses, whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place which I have spoken to thee about. Behold, my angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Strong words — terrible judgment against the people. But Moses longs to know God. He's experienced the burning bush. He has walked with God into Egypt. He's seen the effects of the plagues. He saw the blood upon the doorposts. He saw the avenging angel coming across every Egyptian household and delivering only the firstborn of those where there was blood. He has seen the parting of the Red Sea. He has met God face to face on the mountaintop — so much so that his face shines when he comes down to his people.

Wouldn't it be great if your pastor's face shone because he'd met with God during the week? Are you praying for that? I would long to see men get in the pulpit with their faces shining because they spend time with God rather than coffee mornings and telephone calls. And Moses comes down to the people, and he finds his golden calf. Thus saith the Lord: take every man his sword by his side, and slay everyone. What an awful judgment.

I think if we're going to know God's glory, we'd better learn something very quickly: that we must deal with sin radically. If we do not deal with sin radically, believe me, it will one day defeat you. Evan Roberts — I believe I have here some of the things he wrote — said to his people, if you want to know God's power, then there are certain things you must do. First of all, you must receive a complete pardon for sins. You must make every sin you know of and confess it before God. Be radical with your sins.

And here we see the awfulness of sin. We today in North America have such a weak view of sin that we look upon God and think he's a silver-haired old man sitting upon his throne, and when we sin we come to him and say, yes, yes, I understand, I understand you've slipped, you've fallen. We talk much about the grace of God. Believe me, in these last few years, when I have praised God, I worship him even more for his mercy than I do for his grace — and I shall praise him for his grace too. His grace poured upon me when I did not deserve his love, his grace reaching out to me from the throne room where he pours out his love daily upon his child.

But oh, I've had to lean upon him for his mercy, when he does not treat me as I do deserve. We need to understand the awfulness of sin in God's presence. Throughout the Old Testament we see so many times, in the book of Ezekiel, angels sent upon the city to destroy everyone in it — God dealing radically with the enemies of God by wiping them out. And here he instructs the wiping out of these people for their sin. We need to come radically to deal with sin, or else God will do so. As he said, when I come on the day that I will visit, I will remember their sins. There's going to come a day when we'll have to answer for our sins.

Broken Before the Throne

Yes, they're under the blood — but we the people of God, if any man says he does not sin, he is a liar, says John. And I need to look at my life and ask myself: what is it in my life I need to radically deal with? The second thing I get from this is that Moses, who hungers after God, is so concerned for the people. He cries out: God, if you will not forgive their sin, blot me also out of your book.

It is so very easy in North America today to look at our countries, Canada and the USA, and talk about the sin that's in the nation, in our governments, in our politics — in all aspects of our nation that the people are accepting so easily. We're quick to point the finger out there without identifying ourselves with it, because, brothers and sisters, the problem with the USA and Canada today is not what's happening out there — it's what's happening in the church.

There would be no problems out there of this nature if the church were truly the church, and we need to identify ourselves with the sin before we can expect God to deal with our nation. One of the reasons for this conference, I believe, as Dan has spoken to me, is that we are the people who need to be broken before the throne. We have to be dealt with by the Spirit of God — he has to deal with us radically before he can deal with our nation. Do you understand that? Do you agree with that? The people of God is where it has to start, and God has to begin with me and with you.

Chapter 33: the Lord said to Moses, depart and go up from here, you and the people which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob — say unto your seed will I give it. And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I get so sick of your stiff-necked pride that I consume you.

Two chapters earlier we find that God had promised he would send an angel before them, with this word: for he has my name upon him — and Moses was very content with that. We are going up to the promised land, and God has sent an angel before us, and he's very content. But now suddenly he realizes what would happen if an angel goes before them and not God himself. Is it possible that we've got so used in our churches to good men — angels — leading us, that we no longer need the Holy Spirit to lead us? Good, godly men, good men who love the Lord, but very little evidence of God's anointing upon them. And Moses says: look, God, I'm not going.

I don't want an angel leading me. I want the pillar of fire. I want the cloud. I want the glory of God. If that does not come with me, I'm not going. But we've got so used, in North America, to being led by good men and good programs and good angels, that we have lost sight of the one who should be leading — God himself, the Holy Spirit.

You've heard the story of the Chinese Christian who came to America and went back home, and was asked by his friends: so what do you think of the churches in North America? He said, wonderful, absolutely wonderful — but I'm amazed how much they can do without the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit left your church, would it make any difference? I would suggest to you the vast majority of churches in North America today — if the Holy Spirit left, he probably already has — the church would continue on exactly the same way as they now are.

And God has said to Moses: I'm going to send my angel before you — isn't that good enough for you? I don't want to come with you, because I might get so infuriated with your pride that I might consume you, but I'll send my angel. You're a stiff-necked people, and we need to be broken of our stiff-neckedness.

Evan Roberts, who was wonderfully used in the Welsh Revival of 1904 — a young man, a coal miner's son, 26 years of age — had his burning-bush experience in a little chapel in Blaenannerch, where an evangelist was holding a series of meetings. He attended that chapel because he was at a little one-room school in Newcastle Emlyn, where he was training for his education so that he could qualify to go to Bible school or seminary. After that meeting in Blaenannerch, he went back to the pastor who led the school and said he felt God was calling him back to his home village to preach. He asked, Reverend sir, is that God or is that the enemy telling me to do that? And the wise old man said, the enemy never gives instructions like that.

And Evan Roberts went back to Loughor, the village where he was, with a cry upon his heart: oh God, bend me, bend me, bend me. We're a stiff-necked people. We are so proud of our churches, our buildings, our programs. And God says, I'm not going to go with you, lest I consume you.

Let me read on, from verse four.

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man put on his ornaments. For the Lord said unto Moses, say unto the children of Israel, you are a stiff-necked people, a proud people — I'll come upon thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore now put off the ornaments from you, that I may know what to do with you. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, far off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that everyone that sought the Lord went out into the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out into that tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, that the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man in his tent door.

There seems to be a repentance — the people mourned. So Moses took the tent. This is not the tabernacle that was later to be constructed; this was a tent where God's presence was known. He took it outside the camp. Now, one could imagine that when the people mourned, most of us would have been very glad at that, and said, good, they've come to their senses, they've repented — so everything's all right now, everything's hunky-dory, everything's fine, let's go on as we are.

But you see, repentance has to lead to something, and in this case it led to Moses taking the tent of God's presence outside the camp. What does that say to me? It says that repentance has to lead to separation. We need to be a people where, if we are sorry for our sins, there comes a place where we need to be separate from our sins and our sinfulness. I want to tell you a little story, a true story, that illustrates repentance in the best way I know.

You've heard the word repentance, I'm sure, so many times, and people have defined it as a turning around and going the other direction in many different ways. I was in Haiti a few years back. I had the privilege of speaking in Kiskeia Chapel in Port-au-Prince, the capital city, and I was returning from there on a Sunday afternoon with my host. We stopped on route to join three or four missionaries who met for Christian fellowship on a Sunday afternoon.

One of these missionaries was an American, and his ministry was to bring into Haiti every weekend three doctors. He'd meet them at the airport on a Sunday afternoon and take them up into the mountains of Haiti, into villages where there was no electricity, no running water, very poor people, and they'd minister to medical needs in that village. Then in the evenings they would preach and speak, and show the Jesus film to the people of Haiti. This missionary had a circuit of thirteen villages that he used to go to.

So this week he'd take the three men to that village, and they'd write up their report, and he'd put it on his computer, so that thirteen weeks later he'd bring another group of men to the same village with a medical report on what the need of that village was. He'd take them back to the airport on a Sunday afternoon and pick up three more missionary doctors coming in for the next week. That was his ministry. And the day we visited him, he told us a story.

He said, last evening the three doctors and I were in our little house in the village, way up in the hills, and they were typing up their reports on their computers by the power of a generator. Suddenly somebody noticed, out through the window, a fire up the hill they'd just come from. As they jumped in their four-wheel vehicle and raced back up to the fire, they found it was the witch doctor's house.

The witch doctor — often thought of as the voodoo doctor — they're really like the mayor of every community: the wise man, the counselor. So they may be into voodoo, they may not, but they're simply called the witch doctor. As you drive through Haiti their homes are very prominent, because usually they're the highest up on the hill, and they usually have bunting and flags and decorations outside — very colorful, and sometimes they have an animal skull or something like that to show it's the witch doctor's house.

As they raced back up the hill in their four-wheel vehicle, they found the witch doctor's house was being burnt, and the doctor himself was standing by the smoldering ruins of his house. They began to commiserate with him. He said, no, no, no, no — I gave my life to Christ last night. He said, I came back here and collected all my paraphernalia, put it inside my house, and burnt it down. That's repentance. All the paraphernalia taken down and burnt and destroyed. So these people mourned in repentance.

But repentance has to lead to separation — separation meaning different people than we were. Move outside the camp. The camp is where we've lodged for too long; this is the place where the golden calf is built, this is where the people are into idolatry. It's a moving away from that to a separate place. We don't preach much on separation these days. When I became a Christian, back in the fifties in Wales, the first five scribal laws I was taught — you know the scribal laws, ones that man made; during Jesus' days a lot of scribes made laws — the first scribal law I was taught was, thou must not smoke.

In King James English: thou must not drink, thou must not dance, you must not go with people who do those things, and you must not play football. Because I was a very keen soccer player — I wanted to become a professional, I never had the ability, but that's what I wanted to do — and the man whose wife led me to the Lord used to play soccer for the local town. He said when he was converted the Lord convicted him, and he disobeyed. So one day in a football game he fell and broke his little finger, and therefore got sugar diabetes. And I thought, what a strange God you serve.

But those were the five scribal laws I was taught, in order to be separate from the world. And I could go to church and hear the lies that were said from the pulpit; I could see the people in the church who didn't speak to one another, and I began to think, something's wrong here. But we swung right over the pendulum the opposite way, so that nowadays you cannot tell a difference between Christians and non-Christians. When I go back to Wales now, I find my Christian friends boasting about who makes the best beer, and asking what I think of the recent film they went to see. Something does not smell right to me. Now, I'm not a legalist — I'm not a legalist — but I say there is something wrong here.

There needs to be a different scene between the people of God and the people of the world, and there is not — the differences should be seen. If I find that my going to the cinema, for example, is a barrier to a young Christian — and I deal a lot with young Christians, I have the privilege of mentoring a lot of young Christians — if I go to see a film that is suggestive, or has violence or sex or whatever in it, and if I find that is making a barrier to some young Christian who does not have the strength in the Lord yet, then I need to withdraw from it.

In fact, again, Evan Roberts — I didn't realize I might be using this tonight — had four principles, this young man in Wales. The first was: deal with sin radically. The second was this: is there anything doubtful in your life? Doubtful — he didn't say sinful, doubtful. If so, it must be removed and done away with. Is there a habit of doubtful character in your life? If there is, away with it. If there is, there can be no joy in your heart until you remove the doubtful pleasures and practices.

Self-denial is one of the basic tenets of the religion of Christ. These are four things that he preached, and they became well known — as people, when God put his anointing upon this young man, began to say, he lives by those principles, and maybe these are principles, prerequisites, for revival.

But here in Moses' story we find that when the people repented, Moses immediately draws himself away. Do you know what separation is? Is it stopping drinking? Is it smoking, is it not smoking? What is separation? Separation, I believe, is when we come outside the camp, away from the places of this world — and I'm reminded that my Savior was crucified outside the camp. Separation to me is not coming away from someone, it's coming to him.

Intimacy with God

It's coming into his presence, because when Moses comes to this tent we find that the glory of God comes there. It is a place of intimacy with God, a place of prayer. I was once invited to conduct a conference in a United Church. Now, in Canada, the United Church is a combination of the Methodist, the Presbyterian, and the Congregational, and sadly, over the years it's become a very liberal church.

So when you hear the word United Church you generally think, that doesn't give a good vibration. This United Church called me from five hours north of where I live, on Vancouver Island, and the lady said, we'd like you to come and do a seminar for us on prayer. I wasn't particularly interested in traveling all that way, but she wanted me to go up for an interview first, because she had to meet me and let the synod of the church know if I was appropriate to come. So my wife and I decided on the lovely drive with friends, and we went up on a Saturday, and I met with two women and a man in this United Church, which, to all expectations, wasn't evangelical.

I asked them what they wanted, and they said, we don't know, we've never done one before. So I said, well, what is the purpose of prayer for you? And there was silence. I said, well — to me, prayer is a gift from God to enable us to develop intimacy with God. And the man on my right broke down and started weeping. He had been at the conference you were at recently. He said, that's what I want, I want intimacy with God, I want intimacy with God.

So we called the seminar Intimacy with God Through Prayer, and I traveled up three weekends and had the most glorious time with fifty to sixty people in that church, developing intimacy with God. See, with Moses here, when the people have repented, Moses draws himself away, and they look at him as an example of what should be happening in their life. He draws himself away into a separate place to meet with God, and God meets him, and he develops an intimacy with God. He's already got an intimacy with God on the mountaintop, but circumstances have changed, and sin has come into the camp.

And Moses has identified himself with that sin, and as the people repent he feels a need to draw aside, to come to God. I'm so privileged in my life — and I understand that the journey that Christians have, we all have different journeys — but from an early day of my Christian walk I knew intimacy of some measure with God. I remember the day, shortly after my conversion, a seventeen-year-old boy.

I had a dear friend, his name was Roland; he had been a Christian for some years, and he and I became very close friends. So every Saturday night I would cycle ten miles or so to his village for his youth work in his church, and after everybody else had left, Roland and I would stay around for another half hour before I'd cycle back home. One Saturday, as we were there, we were walking through the village and there's a notice outside the church that said, Evangelistic Crusade held here next week. Roland said, let's go back to Beulah, the little chapel where we had been, and pray for these meetings.

We went back to Beulah. As I say, I'm a brand-new Christian, just a couple of months maybe in the Lord. We went into the kitchen at the back of the church and lay down on the floor facing one another. As I'm there praying, as Roland's praying, I sensed somebody walk into the room and stand between us. If I put up my hands I was sure I would touch his feet, and I did not want to do so, because I was afraid he would go — but I thought he might be Jesus.

Now you have to understand, I'm a physicist, I'm a pragmatist — I do not get easily moved by such phenomena as that, and to me it was one of those things that if I told Roland he would think I was very foolish. That was in 1957. In 1975 I emigrated to Canada, leaving in Wales a youth work that I'd been leading, at which every Sunday evening we went to the local YMCA, and all the youth of the churches gathered together under my umbrella. In 1978 we went back to Wales, and on the Sunday evening we went to the YMCA. This evening there were about 120 young people there, and they were gathered in prayer.

And so I decided I wanted to tell them that story of my early days, because that time of experiencing God, believing God was there, has caused my prayer life to be always talking to a Lord who is there. I've never had to shout in my prayers, because I never have to imagine somebody sitting up somewhere — my Lord is right there. When I kneel at my chair in the morning, I put my head up on his lap; he's right there. So I said, I want to tell you a story. I said, Roland won't remember this, but when I was a brand-new Christian I was with Roland.

He's an elder in the church now, and he's in the Sunday evening meeting, and I'm about to tell the story when Roland jumps in. He said, I know what you're going to say. I said, what am I going to say? He said, the Lord came into the room, didn't he? I said, you knew? He said, yes. I said, I didn't know you knew. We had kept it secret from one another for twenty-one years, but both of us knew the Lord had come into the room.

That has been a core of my life — that was my first weeks as a Christian, and so I walked in that presence, that the Lord is here. Do you believe he's here? Oh, really now, do you really believe he's here? I had the privilege of leading a man to the Lord; his name was Les, in his forties. His wife was a Christian, had been for some years, and Les said to me, Gareth, I know nothing about the Bible — will you come to my home? I have so many questions to ask you.

So I said, sure. The following Saturday I went to Les's home, and his wife had invited others, and there were fourteen of us in the living room. I'm sitting on the lazy-boy chair — do you know what a lazy-boy chair is, the lazy boy in America? — with my feet up, I'm the guru, and I'm answering Les's questions, and Les is just across the way from me.

And then he says to me, Gareth, teach me how to pray. I said, well, Les, prayer is one of those difficult subjects, because everybody's got a different attitude to prayer, a different form of prayer, but really, simply, I said, prayer is dialogue with God — listening to him and talking to him. Now you have to understand, I'm a teacher, a physics teacher, so I want to set things out in a simple-to-understand method. I said to these fourteen people, do you believe the Lord is here today? Yes, they said. I said, well, I can't see him. They said, well, he's spirit.

Oh, I said, you mean like a ghost? The old schoolteacher — well, no, they said. I said, well, it's the same problem God had two thousand years ago when he wanted to make himself known to man — so he became incarnate, which means he took upon himself the form of a man, so that Jesus, the man, could say to people, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I said, I don't think it would be wrong for us tonight to imagine an invisible man — please understand, this isn't theology, this is simply a physics teacher talking, okay? It wouldn't be wrong to imagine an invisible man. And I leaned back and took a dining-room chair and pulled it forward, not realizing at the moment that I'd actually closed the circle, which I think speaks of unity.

And then I laughed, I said, did you see what I just did? Because as I pulled this chair, without a thought going through my mind, I kicked down the lazy-boy chair — even my body language changed when I began to think of the Lord being present. And I said, tell me, what would you do if the queen walked in? We have a queen in Canada, as you know, she lives in England, we have a queen. And they said, well, we'd stand. I said, sure you would, and you wouldn't say a word, you'd bow in reverence to her until she spoke to you, yes? Well, I said, I'm far greater than the queen — this chair. Let us pray, this talking to the Lord.

So I looked at the chair and said, Lord Jesus, I want to thank you so much for dying on the cross for my sins, and thank you for being my Savior, and I want to tell you I love you so much. I said, let us talk to the Lord. So there's my brand-new Christian, and he looked at the chair and said, Lord Jesus, a week ago I didn't know you as my Savior, but now you've come into my heart and into my house — oh no, this isn't my house anymore, this is your house. I never taught him that. Thank you, Lord.

Then his wife, and then my wife, and they went a third, a quarter, then halfway around the room, and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising, because something was being birthed in that room. We got halfway around, and I watched them, and every single person was crying, and nobody was wiping the tears away — they were forming on their chins and dropping. It came to the last one, Gordon, and he whispered to the chair, and I looked at them and said, you know what's happened? Yes, they said, the Lord is here. Oh no, no, no, I said, the Lord's been here all the time, but what has happened is he's made his presence known.

Let me ask you, is the Lord here by his Spirit this evening? I'm a physics teacher, I expect answers when I ask questions. Yes — has he not promised, where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst? He doesn't need two or three; when you and I walked in here tonight, if you know the Savior, he promised to be with you. He wants to make his presence known — but it comes to the time when we're in a separate place of intimacy with himself.

Moses' Petition: Show Me Your Glory

And then in verse 12, Moses begins his petition — this is the prayer that he cries.

And Moses said unto the Lord, Lord, you say to me, bring up this people, but you do not let me know who you will send with me — yet you have said, I know you by name, you have found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, show me now thy way, that I might know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider this nation as thy people. And he said, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with me, do not carry us forward — for wherein shall it be known that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.

God, you call me to lead this people, but I need you to keep me company, to show me the way before me. I am not interested in an angel going before me. I'm not interested in a godly man leading me. I'm not interested in following programs, however wonderful they might be. I'm only interested in God, and following you. I want the fire, I want the cloudy pillar — I will not go unless you go. Before I came here I prayed: God, I'm so thrilled to be coming, and I appreciate it so much, but Lord, I do not want to go unless you go with me. I will not dare to stand in your pulpit this evening unless I know that the Lord could be with me.

I've heard too many men speak from a pulpit without any evidence of God's anointing upon them, and I do not want to be counted in that number — it is too dangerous a position to be in. Can you wonder why the world has such little respect for our God, when there is so little evidence of his leading? When the world looks at the church, does it see a people empowered by God, or does it see men who are in it for what the world looks at — for their money, for their fame, for their name? See, Moses is jealous here — jealous for the glory of God. He's aware that they can go forward and the people will see them as a mighty army, but unless they see God and realize his glory, Moses says, I'm not interested.

He is jealous for the glory of God, jealous for God's people. He says, how, if we go forward, are the people going to know we are his people, unless we see his presence manifest in us? I'm jealous for the church. I want the church to become, again, a place where God's glory is manifested, and the world will see it. I was praying a few months ago for my grandchildren — I have nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

I was praying for them, and the Lord laid upon my heart a question: why do I want to see my grandchildren saved? Why do I want to see them going on with the Lord? I thought, well, I want to see them saved. And I realized that the reason I wanted to see them saved was so that I would be happy — and I realized that's not the real reason. The reason I want to see my children saved is that I want to see them worshiping the One who's worthy. Then I began to ask the same question about why I have a passion for revival.

Is it because I've heard the stories of the glorious things God did, and I want to experience that? In other words, is it because of something I want? That's no different from secular humanism, where I am the one in need, and so I cry out in Christian humanism, God bless me that I might experience revival — and I suddenly realize it's not about me at all. The reason I long for revival: first, because I need it daily, the power of the Spirit of God operating in me. Second, my church needs it, desperately needs it. Third, this world desperately needs revival. But above all others, it is because he's worthy. He is worthy.

The people outside church this evening do not yet know the Lord, but he is worthy of their worship, their praises, for he died upon the cross for them, and I want to see this city come into revival so that they will begin to worship the Lamb who is worthy. All of heaven cries out, worthy, worthy, worthy. My heart this evening, while I'm preaching, cries out, worthy, worthy, worthy — but the people out there do not know him. That's why I long for revival.

So that America and Canada will be a people once again who look to the cross of Jesus with worship in their hearts, because of what he's done for them and purchased in them. But how will they know, if God does not go with us? And then Moses cries out those wonderful words: oh God, oh God, show me your glory. I've seen the burning bush, I've seen the plagues, I've met you face to face, I've heard your voice — and now, God, I want to see your glory.

Do I have the right to ask the same? Do we have the right, here tonight, to ask God to show us his glory? I've never experienced the burning bush, I've never met God face to face, I do not know intimacy with God — can I still ask him for his glory? Yes. Remember one of the prayers Jesus taught his disciples, when he taught them how to pray — he told them of a widow who went to a judge and demanded of him, and he would not answer her, so she kept on going back over and over again, until he said, this woman keeps getting on my nerves, I will grant her what she asks.

Jesus told that parable about prayer, and I couldn't understand what he was trying to say — was he saying I need to keep on going, is there a certain number of prayers I need to pray before God will answer me? Then it dawned on me: she was not coming to him asking for her wants, her needs — she was coming to him asking for her rights. And I began to ask, what are my rights? What are my rights as a Christian? Can I come to God asking for my rights? I began to realize that he has made wonderful promises to me. I began to realize that he calls me his son.

He's invited me to come as a son to a father, to receive an inheritance that is Christ's inheritance, to partake in that inheritance, to have the foretaste of that inheritance. He has given me that right to come, and part of that is to know his presence and his glory, that I can come to him.

Prepared to See His Glory

But then God says something very interesting to Moses: Moses, I cannot show you my face, for you will surely die — but I'm going to tell you my name, because I know your name. That's very significant. The name of the person speaks of his character, and God knows my character deep inside. He knows me far better than you do — he knows me far better than I do — and he knows how much of himself he can reveal to me.

In the wonderful book Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan tells the story of a pilgrim coming to the castle where he is to be succored for the night, where he is to be refreshed for the journey — the castle, beautiful. As he comes close to the castle he hears screaming, and suddenly two other would-be pilgrims called Timorous and Mistrust come rushing past him. He wonders what's up with them. Then he hears the roar of the lions, and his heart is full of fear, until he sees that those lions have been chained to the castle. But the names of the two who had run away were Timorous and Mistrust — they would never know what it is to enter into the presence of God, to experience the refreshment that God wants to give. The pilgrim went forward, when he realized the lions could not harm him.

What is your name? Names in the Bible are very significant. One man's name was Jacob, meaning deceiver and twister, because that's what he was — he deceived his brother, deceived his family, deceived his in-laws, until he met with God and wrestled with God, and his name was changed to Israel, Prince of God. You find many names in the Bible speaking of character. God knows my character. He knows how much of himself he can reveal to me, and it depends upon my name.

I know your name, therefore I'm going to show you my name. You want to see my glory? I'm Jehovah Jireh, your provider. I'm Jehovah Shalom, your peace. I'm Jehovah Rofi, your healer. I'm Jehovah Sekenu. I'm going to reveal my character to you, and it's measured by your name. Moses cries unto him. See, revival is a declaration of the name of God — when God declares among his people who he is, a sovereign God, a holy God, he begins to reveal it among his people.

And then I come to instructions, and this is going to lead us into our prayer time this evening. Chapter 33, verse 21. You want to see my glory? The people in this room tonight want to see the glory of God — do you want to experience revival? There has been a pathway to this that Moses has followed: he's been birthed out of the hunger in his heart for God, and now God gives him instructions.

Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon a rock. The first thing about my glory: I'm going to reveal it to you when you're standing upon the rock. It's very interesting — the Hebrew word for rock here is sur, we would write it t-s-u-r. I did a study some years ago about this rock, and one day the Lord revealed to me something very, very significant, and my heart leapt with joy concerning Moses and his journey through the wilderness.

When he came out of Egypt, the people grumbled and complained, they had no water to drink. In Exodus 17, God said to Moses, you see that rock, sur, same rock? I'm going to stand upon it, before that rock, right in front of it, and I want you to take your rod — the rod of the Lord, the rod of the lawgiver, representing the law — and I want you to smite that rock. What a picture of Calvary, where the rock was smitten by the rod of the law, and water poured out for you and me. The word sur is a rock, and if you look it up in Strong's and Cawd's, you will find it's a sharp, jagged piece of flint, used for cutting the carcasses for the sacrifices in the covenant. What a picture of Calvary.

Thirty-nine years later, when all those people have died and their sons and daughters are wandering through the land, they begin to complain against Moses again — we have no water. And Moses goes before God, and God says, Moses, you see that rock? I want you to take the rod from before the altar — that's the rod of Aaron, the one that's with the mercy seat. It's not the rod of the law anymore, it's the rod of the priest. I want you to take that rod, and stand before the rock, and speak to it. You know the story — Moses came out and smote the rock, and no water came out, and in embarrassment he hit it again, and water came out, and the people drank.

And I have heard pastors preach on this, because God then says to Moses, because you've dishonored me, you shall not enter into your rest. What a petty God, I would say — a God who has walked with Moses for all these years; he's now a hundred and twenty years old, he's had but one ambition for the last forty years, and that's to enter into the promised land, and now, suddenly, at the door of the promised land, he is forbidden by God. Why? Pastors have told me it's because he lost his temper — but it's got nothing to do with him losing his temper.

It's because he did not paint the picture that God wanted, of speaking to the rock with the authority of priesthood. And that word for rock is selah — it is not sur — and selah, if you look at Strong's Concordance, is a high, fortified cliff. Oh, I'm so glad today that my Savior has borne the smiting of a rod at Calvary, the place of covenant, and I'm now seated at the right hand of the Father, and he tells me to come to him with the authority of priesthood, and cry unto him, and he pours out from heaven living water upon his people.

The Moses smote the rock. God says to Moses, if you want to see my glory, the first thing you've got to do is come and stand upon the sur, the rock, which represents Christ and the cross. The first place you come to is the cross. We have to be broken before the cross, before we can be broken before the throne. To know God, if you want to know his glory, he says the first place you have to come to is a place of death yourself — you have to come to the cross.

The cross is where you sign your own death certificate — a willingness to say to God, I died to serve, but I want to see your glory, because there is no glory going to be shown to a people who are not prepared to die to themselves. For the only glory you will see is your own reflected glory, and that is no glory.

God says to Moses, do you want to see my glory? I'm going to show you my glory, because I know your name — the first thing you do is come to the sur, the rock, where Christ was smitten. And then he says these words, chapter 34, verse 2: be ready in the morning, and come up into the mountain, and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come with you, neither let the flocks or herds come near the mountain — but come yourself. I long to see revival. I long to see God pour out his Spirit upon our lands again.

I've come to realize it depends upon each one of us individually coming to the cross, coming upon the cross — it comes with each one of us having prepared ourselves. Prepare yourself, Moses, and then present yourself to me, and I'll put you in a cleft in the rock, and I will hide you with my hand, and I will pass by, and I will take away my hand, and you shall see my passing glory. In 1904, God passed by in my land of Wales, and many people saw it.

I believe it is very possible that we are in this Baptist church, and this is the cleft of the rock, and God is hiding us here. And if you are standing upon the cross tonight, upon the cross of Jesus, the sur, the rock — if you're standing upon him, if you're trusting him, if he knows your name — he is willing to make himself known to you. I pray, God, that before this week is out, you will take his hand away, and you will see his glory passing by. Amen. That's what he longs for.

But how do I prepare myself? How could I come into this holy hill, where the psalmist says, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart, hath not lifted up his soul to vanity? That's the man, the woman, who can come into his holy place and come to the rock to meet him. In the 1950s there was a wonderful move of God in the Scottish islands of the Hebrides. The story is told of, I think, four men meeting in a barn to pray, and one of the men said these words: oh, God, it seems so much hypocrisy to come unto you, when maybe our hands are unclean, and our heart is impure.

Oh God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure, and alloyed with things of this world? That's what a pure heart is — a heart that's focused upon him. And the man fell in the straw in that barn, weeping, and the other men went down with him. Are our hands clean? Is our heart pure? And that night God opened heaven and poured out his Spirit upon the little town of Barvas.

You can read about it, and hear Duncan Campbell speak about it, and feel what God did — a mighty, mighty outpouring. Is there someone here this evening who needs to cry unto God, oh God, cleanse my hands? I've been doing things I should not be doing, I've been handling things I should not handle. Oh God, is my heart pure, or is it alloyed with affections for this world and the trinkets of this world? Oh God, grant to me this evening the ability to wash my hands in the blood, to cleanse me, make my heart pure.

For, Father, you have said, the pure in heart shall see God, and I long to see you, I long to see you. Oh Father, our hearts are lifted up within us as we cry to you this evening. Lord, we have tasted something of your glory, but we long to know more. Will you not rend the heavens and come down? Will you not come and speak to us and minister to us, so that we might be a changed people this week? And oh God, will you not deign to come and move sovereignly upon our land, upon this state, upon the places we come from, upon our churches? But first of all, begin the work in me.

I do not want to go forward unless you go with me. I want to hear your sweet voice. I want to stand upon the rock that is Christ my Savior. And, oh Lord, I cry unto you, reveal to me your glory. We're going to come to a time of prayer, and I think it would be appropriate, at the first session of this week, if I ask each one of you to prepare yourselves for this week.

I'm going to ask first that we just have a quiet time, each one of you individually. Moses was told to come up when he was instructed that nobody was to come with him — it starts off with individual people. Nobody's to come with you, I don't want anybody to come near my mountain, make sure the animals do not touch the mountain. You come alone, prepared to present yourself. I'm going to ask each one of you, in quietness, for the next ten minutes or so. Sometimes we're afraid of quietness, aren't we? I'm going to ask you to ask God to talk to you, to reveal in you those things that need to be put right.

I know when I come into my prayer time, so often God puts his finger on something in my life that I've said or done this week that I needed to repent of. Unless we start by looking inwards and dealing with things in our life, it is pointless looking outwards and starting to pray for things. So will you spend the next ten minutes or so just quietly, just you and the Lord. And I'm going to be asking you a little later, if God speaks to you and says something you want to share with us — fine. But let's do that right now. I invite you to be quiet before the Lord.

Father, I certainly want to declare before you, as a pastor, on behalf of my colleagues in ministry — we acknowledge before you, Father, we have not been the servants you called us to be. We've got so wrapped up, Lord, in the busyness of programs, the busyness of our church, handling the politics of church, that we have failed to be the light of Christ in this world. Father, as I look at my land of Canada, a land I love so dearly, I acknowledge, Lord, that the church has been impotent. The church, of which you said, Lord Jesus, that you would build your church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it — yet, Lord, I look at Canada, and I recognize the gates of hell have prevailed, have stood strong against the church. And I acknowledge that before you, Lord.

I identify myself with the church. Father, I ask your forgiveness. Not only that, but Father, I ask for your empowering, that we might truly become the people of God — that as the world looks at us, they might know that you are our God, and that you are in the midst of your people. Thank you, Father. Oh Heavenly Father, we call upon your name, knowing the sickness of sin, Lord, that has rampaged across our land.

You have blessed us mercifully, Lord — you have blessed us beyond degree, prosperity, advancements in technology and education — and yet, God, we have taken all these things, and we have forgotten you. Years and decades, Lord, we have abandoned the cause of Christ, and we have turned to our own selves, for our ease, for our selfish pleasures, for our own desires, and corrupted, Lord, that which you had intended for the good. Oh God, our sin and our iniquity is great before you, and we have much to answer for.

For where much is given, much is required. God, if you have bestowed upon us ten talents, far above most others — oh Lord, then what shall we have done with it? Have we caused the cause of missions to go forward to the other nations? In our abundance, oh Lord, have we helped those who were in need, those in famine, those who had nothing? Has the church risen up, Father, to the cause of Christ, to get the gospel message to the four corners of the earth? Oh God, great is our sin against you — our iniquities, oh Lord, abound over and over again, and it seems as if there is no end.

Like a flood, Lord, it has washed us to the place that we are in — a place where we just desire of you, oh Lord, that you would pour yourself out, not in wrath, Lord, but in your mercy. We deserve your wrath, we deserve your judgment, and it is the blood of Christ that we cling to tonight. Cleanse us, oh God, from this iniquity that has allowed the church, Lord, to desecrate your holy name — that your people, Lord, have been silent in prayer. Our faith is not increased, Lord, but our faith has decreased.

Your promises, Lord, that you who cannot lie have spoken to us, we have shamefully neglected, and rested not in the arm of God and the power of God, but in the arm of the flesh. Oh God, have mercy upon us, and all that we've done to desecrate, Lord, your holy word and your holy presence. Return unto us, oh God — cause us to return unto you, to seek you, to call upon your name. You who are merciful, Lord, show yourself merciful, and may we rejoice in you once again. In the name of Christ, I ask.

Father, we're living in great days of opportunity, Lord. We're guilty of being so focused on the darkness that we forget the opportunity the hope of the gospel affords, Lord. We haven't taken up our cross, we haven't followed you the way that we should, Lord, and millions languish, lost, Lord, because we haven't been obedient. God, these are days of opportunity — as Dan said, we have so many tools at our disposal, we are a privileged people in every way.

Lord, we are guilty of chasing after luxury and comfort, and dreaming of days of retirement and days of relaxation, when our neighbors are going to hell. God, I pray that you would free us from the chains of materialism — free me from the chains of materialism, Lord. God, I pray that we wouldn't sit back and play golf and enjoy movies and enjoy all the wonderful things we've worked so hard for, while ministries go unfunded. Oh God, we've been very frivolous with your resources, we have not been good stewards. Lord, we feel that in America we have some type of privilege or right to these things — and Lord, we see now that you're shaking those foundations.

God, I pray that you would open our eyes and give us ears to hear. Lord, let us see that our strength is in you. God, I pray that you would shake the pulpits of this church and this country. Lord, I pray that the truth would be proclaimed boldly. Lord, I pray that you would present the truth to the people of this nation in a way that it would be undeniable. Lord, we want to see your presence. God, we want to see America turn to you. Lord, I confess I don't even know what that would look like, but I believe you are able, and you are willing, if we would humble ourselves.

So God, I pray you would give us humility and brokenness. I pray you would start with me, in Jesus' name. Especially in our nation — but it isn't just our nation, it is the world around. We've all fallen away from you, Lord, and we all get lured by the things of the world and the things we think are important, and you have to send us something to make us realize that what we thought was great is nothing. And Lord, I pray, send your Holy Spirit, bring a revival.

Show us a revival like in times past, and I pray to you, Lord, that you will hear this prayer, in Jesus' name. Lord Jesus, we're looking at you right now, and we're not looking at ourselves — there's nothing that we can do that could bring about a great change in our own life, but it's only the cross of Christ that can make any change possible.

Lord, if people can't feel your presence right now, just shut my voice and send me back. Lord, I didn't even want to raise my hand, but you put my hand up, so I'm here right now. Lord, I'd like to identify, first of all, with anyone that isn't a moral person, or anyone that is a self-righteous person. Lord, I'd like to identify with any sinner, anyone that really has come right and clean before you. I'd like to identify with them.

But I want to be part of that body, Lord Jesus. I want to be one of those intercessors. Lord, as Christ, you were the intercessor of all intercessors — you were the example, and you ask us to take up that mantle, if you will.