David: My wife has taken a friend to get a COVID shot, and she said, “If I’m not back in time, just go ahead without me.” That’s not common. I’m used to having her here, and it’s kind of a good thing. But I think I’m ready to go. We’re both writing books. Hers is about the importance of listening to others, really listening. Listening so the person feels heard and more than that understood. My book is called, Prayer Vigilantes. Subtitle: A self-appointed but critically important rule. I believe what I’m writing wouldn’t have been about 10 or 11 chapters, and I’m presently halfway through chapter number six. I’ll share a little with you momentarily.

Intro: Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife, noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David Mains.

David: Prayer Vigilantes, the opening chapter, explains the use of that rather unusual word. And by the way, thank you for letting me just read. It helps me in my writing. Sometimes as a writer, you feel, “Why go to all this work? No one’s going to read it anyway.” I think people will, but it’s hard sometimes just to discipline yourself to stay at it.

It will take a great number of people praying to see revival in these states, not as many, to see a community experience revival, less for a workplace or a church or a home. And individually, it would only take one or two, depending maybe whether you’re living with someone or not to see the presence of the Lord in a special way. Well, I’m trying to get people to relate to the smallest numbers and then build up to the bigger numbers where they can be a part of that. Let me just pick up in the middle of this chapter, which is chapter five that I finished recently.

Rather than beginning by contemplating how many prayer vigilantes it will take to once again see revival throughout North America, an earlier question to think about would be, “How many prayer vigilantes would it take for a given individual to start to experience personal revival?” The answer to that question is that it could be as few as one or two. It’s unfortunate that an individual experiencing personal revival can’t be identified by an unmistakable shining halo. What a quick and easy way that would be for everyone to know who’s spiritual and who’s not.

Being endowed with a halo isn’t all that different from what happened to Moses in Exodus 34. After having been in God’s presence, Moses’ face was so radiant that people were afraid to come near him. Poor Moses had to wear a mask.

Instead, personal revival is marked by an obvious sense of the presence of the Lord in your life. Just as a church experiences Jesus’ presence during revival, so do individuals. The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of believers is to produce Christ-like qualities in them.

Dr. V. Raymond Edmund explains this in his book, They Found the Secret. He tells the story about Walter Wilson, a physician who later entered the ministry and became president of the Kansas City Bible College. Dr. Wilson was greatly influenced by a sermon he heard on Romans 12.1. This is the King James Version. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.”

Dr. Edmund relates the testimony of Wilson who was utterly heartbroken over his fruitless life, yet filled with a great hope because of the message he had heard from a teacher he trusted fully. There, in the quiet of that late hour, I said to the Holy Spirit, “My Lord, I have mistreated you all my Christian life. I have treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. When I was about to engage in some work, I beckoned you to come and help me perform my task. I have kept you in the place of a servant. I have sought to use you as a willing servant to help me and myself appointed in chosen work. I shall do so no more. Just now I gave you this body of mine from my head to my feet. I give it to you. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain, all that I am within and without, I hand over to you for you to live in it the life that you please. You may send this body to Africa or lay it on a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes or send me with your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos or send it to a hospital with pneumonia. It’s your body from this moment on. Help yourself to it. Thank you, my Lord. I believe you have accepted it for in Romans 12:1, you said, acceptable unto God. Thank you again, my Lord, for taking me. We now belong to each other.”

And what were the results of that surrender of body and appropriation of the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Dr. Edmund writes, “The very next morning two young ladies came to the office to sell advertising as they had done previously. Up to that time the doctor had never spoken to them about the Lord Jesus because his lips had been his own and he had used them for business purposes. Now that his lips had been given away, the Holy Spirit was to use them. And he did so at once. Out of a brief conversation and testimony to his visitors, Dr. Wilson led both of them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. They were the first fruits of a great harvest of souls that Dr. Wilson has won for the Savior.”

The bottom line question remains, do I still think of the Holy Spirit as a servant to help me accomplish what I have in mind, or do I present myself to him so that Jesus Christ’s presence can shine through me as I seek to please him in every way? Paul writes, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That’s Galatians 2:20. This is the essence of personal revival. The idea of wearing shiny halos pales in comparison to Jesus is shining through us.

Christ living in you also means saying no whenever Satan makes an appearance. One of the most disgusting things that can happen while traveling in a car is hitting a skunk. Most drivers automatically swerve if they see a dead one in the road because they want to steer clear of that terrible smell. Satan is like a big spiritual skunk who is constantly trying to stink up people’s relationships with the Lord. He didn’t want there to be Christians in the first place, but when people believe he doesn’t give up on them, instead he goes into plan B trying to drag those believers back into sin. He pretends friendship, hoping to convince Christians he can still be their buddy. Unfortunately, when he wears a sign reading, “I promise not to spray anybody,” naive Christians sometimes believe him.

Do you recall how good it felt when you first met the Lord? In the 1684 classic Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes the joys of conversion as experienced by his main character named Christian. “Now I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall and that wall was salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burden Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross and a little below in the bottom of sepulcher. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosened from off his shoulders and fell from off his back and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, ‘he hath given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death.’ Then he stood still a while to look and wonder, for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked therefore and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.”

Personal revival is similar to what you experienced in those early days of knowing Jesus Christ. Remember how his love flooded your life and sinning was the furthest thing from your mind? You knew God heard your prayers and telling others about the Lord was the most natural thing in the world. Unfortunately, like Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress you soon discovered the great deceiver wanted to change all that. In Genesis 3, the enemy of our faith took the form of a serpent, an even more frightening creature than a skunk. Satan questioned the relationship Adam and Eve had with their Lord. He didn’t say it was all bad, he just worked at undermining it.

He was quite clever and he still is. “Shut the door, keep out the devil,” sings Randy Stonehill with a Calypso beat. It’s good advice. Shut the door, keep the devil in the night, light the candle, everything’s all right. Make your relationship with the Lord your highest priority so the enemy will have little opportunity to trip you up. New Christians would do well to copy Jesus’ response when he was tempted. In Matthew 4, our Lord quickly dismissed the devil’s suggestions and instead brought to mind what God had said. Jesus’ relationship with his Father in heaven needed to be protected at all costs. Actually, that particular conflict between Jesus and Satan ended rather quickly, which is a secret we all need to know. The longer we listen to this crafty manipulator, the more likely his chances of convincing us of his friendship.

So shut the door, keep the devil in the night. What would you think of someone who befriends a skunk? How would you feel if he said the smell didn’t really bother him all that much? “Kind of used to it,” he muses. “In fact, I’ve come to like it.” Your reaction would be, you’re crazy. And that’s God’s response whenever his children become chummy with notorious black and white spiritual pole cat who has stunk up more situations than any of us cares to admit.

What about experiencing revival in the setting of your home? How many fellow vigilantes would it take to pray that matter through? Probably not all that many. Mobile homes, split levels, retirement villages, houseboats, high-rise apartments, dorm rooms, army barracks, jail. People make their homes in all kinds of settings. To picture what revival looks like in a home, imagine Jesus living with you as a guest. Church people are accustomed to having visitors stay with them. When the choir from the denominational colleges are in town, they graciously open their homes to the members. What if the Sunday bulletin were to read instead, “Jesus of Nazareth needs a place to stay for an undetermined, lengthy time. Call the church secretary if you can help.” I think the phone would be ringing off the hook when she walked into her office on Monday morning.

Two residents in the Judean village of Emmaus were walking home when they were joined by an interesting stranger. Not wanting their stimulating conversation to come to an end, they invited him in for a meal and lodging. It was when he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them, that they suddenly knew their home was being graced by the Son of God himself. Often in the cities and towns of this land and across the world, Christians are a little slow to realize who has come to stay with them.

How would having Jesus as a guest affect the way people live? It would certainly put everyone on their best behavior. You can imagine two siblings arguing vociferously and a concerned parent putting a finger to her mouth and forcefully whispering while pointing anxiously upstairs to remind them that Jesus is there. Would family members work at being as polite as possible to one another? Would put-downs be kept to a minimum and affirming words spoken more consistently? Certainly, family crises would be handled differently with Jesus present. He would offer a much greater sense of peace and security.

Jesus preached that a house built on the rock could survive any storms that beat against it. That great rock represents who he was and what he said. Seeing the scars in his hands and remembering how he suffered on their behalf would prompt those near him to ask daily, “Is there anything I can do for you, my Lord?” And it would be more than a polite gesture. People would really mean it. Anyone fortunate enough to be honored by such a wonderful guest would want friends and associates to meet this unique person. Times would be scheduled for social occasions when others could learn what it’s like to be close to the most important person who ever lived.

It’s conceivable that eventually some adjustments would be needed. With penetrating honesty, Jesus might occasionally challenge someone’s use of time or money, and if that would happen too frequently and on an easy feeling about the arrangement might develop. A man or woman might regretfully confide to a friend even important guests can overstay their welcome. Sooner or later people might even find themselves saying, “For the sake of everyone involved Jesus we think maybe you would be happier living somewhere else.” But in reality people usually aren’t that upfront in the way they talk to the Lord. They’re more likely just to start ignoring him, acting as though he’s not there anymore, and rationalizing their desire to send him packing.

“He deserved better. Something more suitable for a king than a dormitory, a safer environment than our neighborhood.” How wonderful. When people learn to live in the reality that Jesus is the unseen guest in Christian homes. His presence is more precious than expensive furniture in the living room or a pool in the backyard, and this privilege is not just wishful thinking, it’s a truth that is central to what revival living is all about.

Well, I think I’ll stop there. It gives you a feel of what I’m writing, and I thank you sincerely, and so would Karen if she were here for you who write and say you’re praying for us as we’re working. It means a great deal and thank you for joining with me one more time and before we go.

Outgo: You’ve been listening to the Before We Go podcast, and if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address: hosts@beforewego.show. That’s all lower case letters: hosts@beforewego.show. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please remember to rate, review, and share on whatever platform you listen. This podcast is copyright 2021 by Mainstay Ministries, Post Office Box 30, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.