The Christian Café
Serving up fresh bread of the word of God. It shows us the path that we should travel in order to be with God. We will study the word of God to help us learn more about Him and all His goodness
The Christian Café
Send The Rain, Lord!
Music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music. Hello, this is your host, glenn Kivett, and welcome to today's episode of the Christian Cafe, where the bread is made fresh and delivered right from the Word of God. To keep up to date with what's coming up, be sure to follow me on Facebook at the Christian Cafe. Also on Twitter, feel free to email me with your prayer request at thechristiancafe2022 at gmailcom. I would love to hear from you. So grab your seat, place your order and we will deliver it fresh and hot, just for you. Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Christian Cafe. Glad you could join us, glad that you're here, and I hope that you're having a wonderful day.
Speaker 1:I've missed everybody. I know it's been a while. I trust that you had a great holiday. You had a very Merry Christmas. God was good to you. You got time to spend with your family and got to eat some good food. I know I did. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed that time. I got to see some family I don't get to see on a regular basis. I got to visit with my dad, my brothers and my sisters, and that's always good. I wish we could see each other a lot more than what we do, but God knows and he understands, and we're just glad that we're able to do it when we can.
Speaker 1:We've come into a new year. It is January 2025. My, how time has flew. I'll tell you what it's been. A wonderful, wonderful life. I turned 61 back in December. Man, I cannot believe it. No, excuse me, I'm trying to make myself older. I turned 60 in December. Man, I cannot believe it. No, excuse me, I'm trying to make myself older. I turned 60 in December last year. So God has blessed me and I'm just thankful to be here sharing God's Word with you. Thank you for joining us today, thank you for taking time out of your day just to visit with us, and I know God will bless you for it. I hope something is said today that blesses you and you enjoy the goodness of God.
Speaker 1:I just want to be a blessing to everyone that is out there that's been listening. I want to thank everyone that has downloaded my podcast over the last couple of years and thank you for just spending that time. As I said in the beginning, if you have a prayer request or there's anything you need, feel free to contact us through our email, drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. I know it's good to hear from people that you don't get to see through the broadcast and through the podcast, but I'd love to hear from my followers and from those that enjoying what's going on. I'd love to hear your ideas and your thoughts about what we might can improve on our podcast. I just want it to be a good quality.
Speaker 1:I worked hard and I don't know I haven't kept up like I wanted to. I think the last episode I put out was possibly in June, was the last one I done. There's a lot of things been going on, been real busy and traveling, as the last podcast was getting ready to go to Belize and go out for that and we had a great time in Belize. It was a wonderful time, had a marvelous turnout with our new church that we're building over there, my local church that I'm a part of. God has blessed the other. We saw so many people, our outreach we had over that day. I think there was over 300 people that we fed and gave clothing to and ministered to. We saw a little boy healed from a car accident.
Speaker 1:Just wonderful things that God is doing. It just amazes me and I don't know why. It amazes me because we know God is real, we know God can do above and beyond anything we can ask or think, and yet when things do happen, we just say, wow, that's amazing. It's like, you know, do we not expect him to do it, and we're all guilty of that. But no doubt God is good and God will do exactly what his word says he will do. He's never forsaken me, he's never failed me, and I don't expect him to start now. Just because we've come into a new year, it doesn't mean God's plan for our lives has changed. Everything is the same as he promised. All we need to do is serve him, and that's what my desire is.
Speaker 1:People talk about having resolutions every year. I don't make resolutions. I quit doing that years ago because I found out that, hey, I don't always keep them up. I think they say that most resolutions only last about two or three weeks into the year. So most all the resolutions that people started, they've already given up on. How about you? So I don't make resolutions, but I do have a desire this year. I have a desire to be closer to God. I want to fulfill more of his plan he has for my life. I want to be in his word more. I want to study and know the word of God more than what I know now.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter how long you've been serving God. We can always know more. We can always do things to put ourselves in positions to do more. But are we willing to? And first it starts with a desire. If we desire to do these things, then we're going to put priority on it, and today we're going to go back into our book that we've been reading, the God Chasers. And, as I said before, if you want a copy of this book, just send me an email. Drop me an email and I'll be glad to send you a copy of this free of charge, won't cost you anything. I just need your mailing address and I will take care of that.
Speaker 1:This is a great book. I have read this twice. This is my third time. No, this is my fourth time through this book that I've read, and each time there's something different that I see in this book, and it may have been written years ago, but what Pastor Tommy Tenney is saying in his book applies to us today. It can still have the seed back then to be Harvardist today, if we'll just take note of what he's saying and we're going to get on into chapter 7 today and we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:He's done it before and he can do it again. We want him to send the rain. Yes, send the rain, lord, because we need a move of God, we need something in this world to change what is going on. The enemy has devoured, he's taken control of areas that he has no authority over. Why? I think it's because us, as a child of God, we have refused to stand up for the word. We've refused to stand up for what god wants us to, and we're going to see where, when we do that, god can do great and above anything we can ask or think, as I said earlier, he can perform miracles. He's he's not stopped performing miracles. I still believe in miracles. I've not seen any here lately. I've been praying for a miracle. Has it happened? But does that mean it's not going to? No, it does not. It just means in God's time, when God sees fit to do it, he'll do it. So we're going to take us a little break and we'll get back to it and we'll start back in chapter seven.
Speaker 1:Be right back. Sing it with me. Say, lord, you are good. Say, lord, you are good and your mercy endures forever. Lord, you are good and your mercy endures forever. Say, lord, you are good. Lord, you are good and your mercy endures forever. Lord, you are good and your mercy endures forever. We are people, people from every nation, from generation to generation. We worship you, hallelujah, hallelujah. We worship you For who you are. Yes, we do Jesus. We worship you for who you are. Yes, we do Jesus. We worship you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We worship you for who you are and you are good. All right, welcome back. Let's get started back.
Speaker 1:God Chasers by Tommy Tenney, and we're going to start with chapter 7. He's done it before and he can do it again. Send the rain, Lord. We want God to change the world, but he cannot change the world until he can change us world, but he cannot change the world until he can change us. In our present state we are in no position to affect anything. But if we will submit to the master potter, he will make us, all of us into what he needs us to be. He may remake the vessel of our flesh many times, but if we will submit to the potter's touch, he can turn us into vessels of honor, power and life. After all, wasn't he the one who turned unlearned fishermen into world changers and hated tax collectors into fearless revivalists? If he did it once, he can do it again.
Speaker 1:I want to break the standard writing rules for Christian books and ask you to pray a prayer with me right now as you read the first page of this chapter. Read the first page of this chapter. This book was written to help usher God's presence into your life and church family. It may sound silly, but I want you to put your hand on your heart and pray this prayer of the clay with me right now. Father, we thank you for your presence, lord. The air is just pregnant with possibility and we sense your nearness, but we must say that you are not near enough. Come, holy Spirit. If not now, when? If not us, who? And if not here, where? If not us, who? And if not here, where? Just tell us, lord, and we'll go. We will pursue your presence because we want you, lord. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:Something is happening in the body of Christ. More and more of us are willing to play the old religious games. Something like a warrior spirit is rising up within us, an urge to conquer territory in the name of the Eternal One. I know that in my life I've received a mandate from the Lord to pour my life into key cities where I sense God intends to pour out his spirit. In the days ahead, I'm shopping for places where God is breaking out. I've already described how God broke out in the city of Houston and I mention it simply because I was privileged to be present when God came on the scene. I have felt led to participate in continual meetings before than a year, for more than a year in some places, and incredible things are happening. We still have a long way to go, but in each city we did something that has deep spiritual significance for this move of God.
Speaker 1:I want to see a contagious outbreak of God, like was seen with Finney, edwards, roberts and company, where whole regions are swept into the kingdom. I am after cities, entire cities. I'm not interested in just preaching in churches to Christian people. I'm after entire cities occupied by people who don't know Jesus. Once, while preaching at a conference with Frank DiMaggio in Portland Oregon, I heard him mention something that instantly captured my attention. He said that a number of pastors in the Portland area had united together to drive some stakes in the ground, at strategic places around the perimeter of the region and the city and at every major intersection. The process took them hours because they also prayed over those stakes and as they were physical physically, excuse me as they were physical symbols marking a spiritual declaration and demarcation line, I felt the stirring of the Holy Spirit. So I said, frank, if you'll provide the stakes, then I will go to cities I feel called to and help the pastor stake out that territory for God. Then I begin to ask God in prayer Lord, give me some precedent so I can understand what you are doing here, then I'll know why you have pressed this into my heart. Ironically, this stirring of the Lord came upon me later in California, and I was reminded that California was a site of the great gold rush.
Speaker 1:Whenever would-be gold prospectors found a spot of ground where they thought there might be some gold, they would stake a claim. Some plots of property are just more valuable than others because of what is in the ground. If you wanted to claim a plot of ground in those days, then you would stake it by driving a stake into the earth. That stake would bear your name and a rough description of the area you were claiming. Later the land would be formally surveyed, but until then a claim stake was as good as a land. Deed in the court of law back in those days disputed your claim. You could go to that undisputed plot of ground and dig up your stake, bearing your name and the rough dimensions on the claim, and say see, I've claimed it. According to law, I am in the process of possessing and occupying, but this claim stake is proof that the land is already mine by law.
Speaker 1:Pastors and congregations who have put down roots in a city or region have a legal right under God to claim their cities for the king by staking out the territory. In the past, too many of us have been content to keep our faith contained within the four walls of our meeting halls and church buildings. Now God is calling us to extend our faith beyond the borders, beyond the boundaries of our cities and nation. In effect, we are literally expanding the walls of our spiritual churches. When we stake out our cities, it forces us to see ourselves as the church in the city one people under God, comprised of many congregations according to the first century pattern of the city church.
Speaker 1:We actually made wooden stakes with four sides bearing the words renewal, revival, reconciliation, along with supporting scriptures. A hole was drilled down the middle of the stake and a rolled up written proclamation was inserted in it. Altogether there are about 20 Bible verses in the stakes and proclamation, but one of them is Isaiah 62, which says Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world Say ye to the daughter of Zion. Behold thou salvation cometh. Behold, his word is with him and his work before him, and they shall call him. Call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and thou shalt be called.
Speaker 1:Sought out a city not forsaken. Oh man, that is powerful, that is so powerful. I just start, stop and think about back in the day where he talked about, you know, the gold rush and how. You know people come from all over the world, all over the United States, and go to California to state their claim on a land that thought was full of gold If the body of Christ would do as they did back then state their claim on their regions. These pastors went out and they state their claim in their cities and their regions around, proclaiming that Jesus was Lord and that the enemy was not going to have the people in their cities and their regions. They stake a claim, they prayed over them. Imagine what we could see today, in 2025, if we was to do this, if we was to get on board and start proclaiming our cities, proclaiming our families, our communities, start proclaiming them for Jesus. Oh my goodness, we could see a revival break out. Let's take a short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:Let's enjoy some more of our praise team from our church. Let's sing Lord, you are Lord, you are good at your mercy, enduring forever. Lord, you are good at you're mercy, endurance forever. We are people, people from every nation and tongue. We're from generation to generation. We worship you, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We worship you, you for who you are, and we worship, we worship you. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We worship you for who you are, for you are, for you are God, yes, you are Jesus. So good, so good. Say yes, you are, yes, you are, yes, you are. Wow. Do you enjoy my praise team? They do a wonderful job every Sunday. I love to hear them. Let's get back to our book. This is so good.
Speaker 1:The written proclamation contained in every state driven into the ground of these cities contained the declaration made by God's lawful representatives of that city. On the basis of Scripture. I stand for leaders of this city. I stand as a representative for other city pastors who desire to do three things repent, request and resist. We repent we ask the Lord to forgive us for the sins that have taken place in this state and this region, specifically this city. We ask for forgiveness of the sins of political corruption, racial prejudice, moral perversion, witchcraft, occult and idolatry. We pray the blood of Jesus to cleanse our hands from the shedding of innocent blood.
Speaker 1:We ask forgiveness for divisions in the church, forgiveness for pride, forgiveness for the sins of the tongue, anything that has hurt the cause of Christ. We repent and humble ourselves to ask for mercy to be poured out on our land, our community and our churches. We request, we ask for God's kingdom to come, and his will be done in the city. Ask for God's kingdom to come and his will be done in the city. We ask, in the name of Jesus, for an outpouring of grace and mercy and fire, for true spiritual revival to come and cover the community, causing a turning back to God, a cleansing and a brokenness and a humility. We ask for the destiny of this city not to be aborted. We ask that you visit this city and our churches and our homes Do not pass this city by. We ask for a restoration of the foundation of righteousness to this city.
Speaker 1:We also resist on the basis of by submission to God, by faith, I resist the devil and his works, all forces and all powers of evil that have taken hold of the city. We resist the spirit of wickedness that established strongholds in the city, the dark places, the hidden works of darkness, the mystery places where the enemy has set up encampments. We call on the name of the Lord to destroy all spiritual strongholds. We proclaim this day that this city, especially this region, is now under the power and ownership of the Holy Spirit. All other spirits are hereby given notice and evicted from this property by the power of the name of Jesus. Today, we stand in the gap and build a hedge of protection around this city.
Speaker 1:As I was reading this, I thought, man, how I could personalize this for my family, how I could personalize it for me. I just love the words that he says that we resist on the basis of our submission to God. In other words, we resist anything that the devil tries to throw at us because we are submitted to work for God. We are submitted to do what he wants us to do and we're not going to let the powers of evil take hold of anything we try to do. We're going to resist it. We're going to resist the strongholds, we're going to resist the dark places, the hidden works of darkness. Oh, my goodness, guys, this is powerful when we can take and just proclaim the word of God for our cities. Take hold, drive that, stake in the ground. Say devil, you're not getting this city, you're not getting my family, you're not getting my church. You have no hold, you have no power here, because we are on the property under the power of the name of Jesus. We are standing in the gap. We are building a hedge around our city. We're building a hedge around our families, our communities, our schools, our churches, wherever the enemy is trying to attack. That's where we need to stake a claim. We need to stake a claim. This year, 2025, can be a year of God, restoring the church, restoring the blessings to his people, restoring those things that the enemy has taken from us. 2025 can be that way. Amen, let's go on.
Speaker 1:Before you ever purchase property in the natural, you need to have it surveyed or staked and you need to determine if you are willing to pay the price to possess the land. Let me say that again Before you ever purchase property in the natural, you need to have it surveyed or staked and you need to determine if you're willing to pay the price to possess the land. I don't know if any of you have ever been a farmer, but I grew up on a farm with my grandfather and every morning we was up at daybreak, we was working the land, we was doing everything we could. We paid a price. We got up, got up before sunrise, on cold, cold mornings, hot mornings, it didn't make no difference. We had chores we had to do to get the land ready. If we wanted to eat during the winter season, we had to plant. If we wanted to have meat, we had to slaughter the pigs, and we had to get up early to do it, and we had to do it in the cold. There's things you had to do.
Speaker 1:Are we willing to pay the price to possess what God has for us? Do you remember the children of Israel how they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, when it was just a three-day journey? They wondered why? Because, maybe, because they weren't willing to pay the price. They complained about everything. They complained about being brought out of bondage, walking all this way, going through everything they went to, were they willing to pay the price to possess the land that God had given them? Are you willing to pay the price today? Are you willing to say, god, I'm going to do whatever I have to do to stake my claim to make sure that my city, my family, my community is one to Christ? Are we willing?
Speaker 1:Today, when we stake our cities as God's people, we are in effect declaring open war on Satan's kingdom. Our acts are bold, acts of outright aggression, without apology or hesitation, of outright aggression, without apology or hesitation. We're telling the devil we have declared this before God and now we are telling you we will take the city. Can you just say that we have declared this before God and now we are telling you, devil, we will take our city. Devil, we will take our families, we will take our communities. We declare war, we've declared war on you. No more, devil, no more. We're going to do it with outright aggression. We're not going to apologize for it and we're not going to be hesitant. We're going to do what God called us to do, if he can take fishermen and tax collectors and turn them into world-changing disciples that went out and changed the world, that brought the gospel to those that were saved, baptized them and all this stuff. Then you and I, we can do the very same thing. We can do whatever they did, and greater, greater. The Bible says greater works than these that I do because I go to my Father. Oh, my goodness, I could preach right there, but we'll digress. We'll go on in this book here, because if I don't be careful I'll be here for another 30, 40 minutes just on this part, right here. But we're going to go on. A word of the Lord has come to me about old wells. That applies directly to cities as well as to old mainline denominations and churches. God is going to re-dig or uncap the old wells first, before the newer, artesian wells break open. Artesian wells break open.
Speaker 1:Genesis chapter 26 tells us that Isaac and his men redigged the wells that his father, abraham, had originally dug many years before in the valley of Gerar. Although his father's enemies had filled in the wells after Abraham's death, isaac still called them by their original names. He found so much water there that he constantly battled with the Philistines raiders and finally moved to Beersheba, or the well of the oath. It was there, here, that Jacob encountered the living God and discovered his true birthright in God's plan. In this day, god is uncapping some of the ancient wells of revival. There are places where his glory is like a standing pool of water. People have to come to the well to get satisfied, and that is by God's design. Before God brings forth the new wells, he will redig the old wells.
Speaker 1:In the year before I began working on this book, the Lord spoke to my spirit and said I am going to revisit the places of historical revival to give my people another chance. I will call them to dig out the debris From the old wells so that the starting of the new revival Will be upon the foundations Of the old revival. In simple terms, before the real revival breaks out In the malls, it will have to take have to break out in our church altars, then the back pews. Then is when the glory of the Lord can flow underneath the threshold of the door and go out into the streets, in fulfillment of the prophecy in Ezekiel 47. In fulfillment of the prophecy In Ezekiel 47.
Speaker 1:Afterward he brought me again Unto the door of the house and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house Eastward, for the forefront of the house Stood toward the east and the waters came down From under, from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then brought he let me go back here, my eyes are not working right Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward and led me about the way without unto the utter gate, by the way that looketh eastward and behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits and he brought me through the waters. The waters were to the ankles, again he measured a thousand and brought me through the waters. The waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand and brought me through. The waters were to the loins.
Speaker 1:Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over, for the waters were risen waters to swim in a river that could not be passed over. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which smootheth, whether so ever the river shall come, shall live and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither, for they shall be healed and everything shall live, whether the river cometh. And by the river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for beet, whose leaves shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit, according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine. Ezekiel 47, 1 through 5, 9 and 12. Isn't it ironic that the river of God's presence flowing from his sanctuary actually grew deeper the further the prophet walked. That is interesting.
Speaker 1:Finally, ezekiel ended up in water that was over his head and he couldn't touch bottom. He was out of control. I am after an out of control revival. Its shallowest points should be at the church building. My, my, my. Are you ready? Are you ready for the next revival? Are you ready for those waters? Are you tired of just, you know, being in an ankle deep? My dad preached a message in this passage one time before about where we're walking with God.
Speaker 1:Some of us, we're just satisfied standing on the bank, just looking out at the ocean, looking out at what we see and all the beauty, but we're not wanting to get in. We're not wanting to experience what it's about. I love the ocean. I love going down there just sitting on the bank and just listening to the waves at the shore. But there are times that I want to get into water and there's times I'll just walk out there just to get my feet wet and I'll come back and then I'll go back out there and I'll take a little chance and get a little deeper. And I'll go back out there and I'll take a little chance and get a little deeper and I'll get up to my waist, and then you know my knees and to my waist. And then all of a sudden I said, well, I'm this far, I might as well jump in.
Speaker 1:So many people were so satisfied of just standing on the bank or just ankle deep water. We don't want to experience anything else. And then we're sitting there and we're asking for God to give us more. But God's not going to give us more unless we're willing to go for it. Unless we're willing to do something to get there. He's just not going to force it on us. He wants to see us, wants to do something. See, there's always something that we've got to do before God can do something. Have you noticed that in the scriptures? You know he says first, you do this. If you seek me first, okay, there's always something that we've got to do before God will honor his promises.
Speaker 1:You know, if we're just satisfied with standing in ankle-deep water, we'll never get the full blessings of God. We'll never experience the glory of God that we really need until we launch out the disciples Peter and John. They couldn't catch fish on the bank. Jesus told them launch out in the deep, and when they did that, you know they had multitudes of fishes. You know, if we would do that in our spiritual life we don't want to complicate this. We're talking about our spiritual thing, not our fleshly, but spiritually if we'll launch out deeper into God's word, if we'll get more and more involved in what God is doing and what God wants to do for us oh, my goodness, think about the outpouring that we see.
Speaker 1:You know, as Tom Tenney says, the revival has to start with us. You know, start at the altar. You know he talked about the church altar. Well, I want to say let's start at the altar for ourselves, because before we can help someone else, we've got to be right. There's things in our life that we're hiding from everyone else, but we're not hiding it from God. God knows what it is, god sees it, he knows all about it. We think we're hiding it and then we want more of God, but we're not willing to go on out there.
Speaker 1:You know this also can symbolize the baptism. Uh, being baptized, you know you're not fully cleansed unless you go completely under. Ankle deep does not get it done. Ankle deep does not, uh, fulfill the commandment to be baptized. It doesn't work that way. We're either all in or not in at all. Does that make sense? I think so. Guys, it's been a pleasure today. I hope you've enjoyed the book so far. This chapter is a great book.
Speaker 1:Our next episode we're going to start talking about the next wave of glory, and that's what I'm excited to get into, because I'm wanting to see more God this year. I want to see more miracles and more things done in 2025 than has been done in the past. It can be done. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening to the episode of my podcast. Share it with your family and friends and remember, if you would like to write us, my email is thechristiancafe2022 at gmailcom. Drop me a line and again, if you want a copy of this book, let me know. I'll be glad to send it to you. Until God, until next time, may God shine upon you, bless you and you have a wonderful day. Join us next time right here on the Christian Cafe and see what God is serving up fresh for you.
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