Date: May 4, 2023
Host: Jim Schneider
​Guest: Ben Everson
MP3 | Order

America is in a mess.  There’s seemingly no regard for the rule of law and we’re in trouble morally, financially and spiritually.  This shouldn’t surprise us.  After all, take a look at what founder John Adams said: 

“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” 

Actually, it goes beyond being moral and religious.  In calling for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer in March of 1863, President Lincoln, said the following:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power.  But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

This description is more relevant today than ever before as America is in desperate need of prayer and revival.    

Joining Jim to look at the topic of revival was Ben Everson.  Ben is an evangelist and musician who is known for his a cappella recordings.  Ben has ministered in evangelistic crusades, Bible colleges, Christian schools, Bible and missionary conferences, camp meetings and other settings.  He, along with Frank Garlock, have co-authored, We Need Revival: Biblical & Practical Observations.

Is there even hope anymore for America?  Ben believes there’s enough hope for God to work in our nation as long as the sun still rises.  Another way he expressed this was to quote someone who said that God sends revival but it’s up to us to set our sails to catch that wind.

So what then is the role of the church (true, born-again believers) at a time like this?  Ben explained that our job is to go before the Lord and follow the pattern presented by the Bible (both testaments) where we become concerned about our spiritual state.  In other words, how are we reflecting Christ to a lost world?  This requires that God does a deep “heart work” within His people.

How should we define revival?  Ben noted that you can’t revive what hasn’t been “vived” in the first place. It’s not something that has to do with political reform and it’s not something we put on the calendar.  It’s something that has to be prayed down and not worked up.  So when God’s people get revived and get right with Him, that spills out to the lost and sometimes that’s referred to as an awakening.  

As this program progressed, Jim had Ben comment on the following:

• What’s the connection between prayer and revival?
• Is revival designed for society or the church?
• The basics for establishing revival include realizing that God (and not some special speaker or music) is responsible for it, as well as the need for humility, holiness and heaven-mindedness.
• A word of encouragement for discouraged Christians and pastors.

More Information
Go to beneverson.com, sign up, and he’ll send you a digital copy of his book, We Need Revival: Biblical & Practical Observations.