Gregory Dickow - Expect Revival Through You
Well, I want to believe with you and agree with you for breakthrough in your life; for revival in your life. One of the things that God showed me over the last couple of years especially was that revival and breakthroughs are always on the other side of darkness. There is a breakthrough and the light of revival always on the other side of darkness. When God first created the earth the Bible says that it was full of darkness. And there was great darkness over this world. And God said, "Let there be light". And the Spirit of God that was moving over the darkness went into action and brought light when God saw darkness. Darkness is nothing to be afraid of, the dark times were in, the dark seasons you experience, the dark culture that sometimes we realize that is surrounding us.
We have to realize that wherever there is darkness, on the other side of that darkness... When the word of God is added to darkness, light comes, revival comes, breakthroughs come. No matter what is going on in your life, you can have a breakthrough. You can experience revival. There's been much talk about revival, an encounter with God's presence in a special way. Well, I believe we can live in this. We can live in revival. We can live in breakthroughs. We can live in the joy of the Lord, because we have access to His presence all the time. Sometimes I think we limit God to only being able to do things in a certain way that we have grown accustomed to. But God can do things in ways we've never experienced. God has a million ways to heal you, a million ways to bless you, a million ways to give you a breakthrough. Like, there're no limits with our God. And we need to put no limits on what He can do in our lives, and what He can do through our lives.
I believe that God wants to bring life and breath through you. You know, when God showed Ezekiel that valley of the dry bones; the valley of the dead, dry bones, God said, "Can these bones live"? And Ezekiel, his first answer was, "God only you know whether these bones can live". And yet God said, "No, you prophesy life to these dead bones. You prophesy life to these dry bones and tell these bones the Lord says, 'Come back to life.'" And Ezekiel did exactly that. He prophesied and spoke life over death. He spoke life where there was death. He spoke life where there were dry bones, and revival came. It came because Ezekiel was willing to say what God said about the situation. When we say what God says about any situation, we are breathing God's breath into that situation.
You see, when you say it, when you say what God says, you're breathing God's breath. God's words, God's voice, God's breath is His words. Every word of Scripture, we know the Bible says, is breathed by God, It's God-breathed. And so, when we breathe out of our mouth what God breathes out of His, revival, life comes, breakthrough comes to that situation that we're speaking over. So, I want you to expect revival through you. I want you to expect breakthrough through you. And the first way that we experience breakthrough in our lives, and revival in our lives, and the first way that we experience anything good in our lives, is through humility. You know, I love what Isaiah 57, verse 15 says. I dwell in the high and holy places, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.
God says I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit... and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. To revive the heart, when we're humble, that's what contrite means. When we're humble, when we know that our life depends upon God, when we live and think as if our life depends upon Him, the Bible says He revives us. He revives our hearts. He revives our bodies. He revives our lungs. He revives our families. He revives our finances. He revives our health. All revival is, a simple definition is, a recovery of breath. We've been talking about this for months, if not years. A recovery of breath; refreshing; a blowing of fresh air. One definition of revival is causing someone to recover a state of joy; to recover that state of joy and encouragement, after having been through a time of anxiety and a time of trouble.
Haven't you had enough anxiety and trouble? Aren't you ready to come on the other side of anxiety and trouble, which is joy and encouragement? I prophesy joy and encouragement over your life. I prophesy joy and encouragement over your family. I prophesied joy and encouragement over your soul. I prophesied joy and encouragement over your day, over your week, over your month, over your year, over the next decade of your life. I prophesy joy and encouragement. Now, quickly, let me go through some other things that will bring breakthrough and revival in our lives. And one of the things that I want you to see is God will use you greatly if you ask Him to use you greatly. You know, it all starts with prayer; talking to God, communicating with God. I love what James chapter five says in verse 16 at the second part of this verse. He says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". And a righteous man we know we're righteous. We are righteous as a gift from God. He became sin.
Jesus became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. Righteousness is a gift. Through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign as kings in this life. We reign as kings. And let no one, Jesus said, "Let no one take your crown". Your crowned as a king in Christ. You're crowned as one who rules over his world and life circumstances, rather than is ruled by his world and life circumstances. And it says so, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much". And then he uses the example of Elijah. And it says in verse 17, for "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours". He was human, just like you and me. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three-and-a-half years. And then it says in verse 18, I love this verse. And then "he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit".
Notice that God used Elijah because Elijah prayed. God used Elijah because Elijah prophesied. God used Elijah because Elijah used his authority. And God will use you when you pray like this. God will use you when you use your authority. God will use you when you prophesy and speak life, or speak rain over a dry part of your life. Speak blessing over what you feel has been cursed. You see, this is how Elijah prayed in First Kings, chapter 17, verse one. Elijah the Tishbite was of the settlers of Gilead. And he said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither rain nor dew these years, except by my word". You see, Elijah, when it says he prayed, the way he prayed in First Kings, chapter 17, verse one, is he declared it. He prophesied it. If you want to know how to pray, pray like Elijah prayed, Some of you heard me say this. Pray like Elijah prayed. How did Elijah pray? He declared. He said, "As the Lord lives, it's not going to rain until I say so. It's not going to even have dew on the earth until I say so".
Not only was he unwilling to let it rain, he was unwilling to let it even be wet on the ground. I mean, this guy was walking in his God-given authority. And you have been given that authority, and greater authority, to rule over demons, to rule over sickness, to rule over fear, to rule over anxiety. We just have to take it. We just have to grab ahold of it. We have to stop putting it back on God, and He's trying to give it to us. He said, "I give you authority," Jesus said in Luke, chapter 10:19. I give you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means injure you, hurt you, or harm you. So, let's walk in our authority. You know God will use you if you ask Him. So, ask God to use you. Say that after me. Say, "I'm going to ask God to use me". Ask God to use you. If you're sitting with somebody, if you're watching somebody, turn to them and say, "Ask God to use you". Ask God to use you. "God use us. God use me today".
You see breakthroughs and revival come through people that are humble enough to let God use them, and to not put God in a box, that He can only do it this way. Because God gives us many ways. And we can pray many promises. And we can speak many promises of God's Word over our lives. Let God use you by asking Him to use you. Why not ask Him to use you to heal your loved ones, to save your family members, to experience breakthroughs in your home and in your finances? Ask God to use you. Revival comes; breakthroughs come when we're not self-centered, but we're asking God to use us. There're so many ways God can use you. He can use you in the church by being a part of the prayer team. He can use you in the church by being a part of a missions team. He can use you in the church by being a part of an evangelism team. He can use you by being a part of the cleaning or maintenance team.
Like, there're so many areas of God's kingdom that He can use you. He can use you with your job and business to bless you so that you can be a blessing. He'll use you and your finances. He'll use you in your serving. He'll use you in your praying. He'll use you if you ask Him to. So, number one, ask Him to use you. Ask God to use you. And you know, we're not meant to do life alone. I believe revival comes when we bring others with us into the purpose that God has. I really want to encourage you to take others with you. You know, when one man was healed and delivered and set free, Jesus told them to... The man wanted to follow Jesus everywhere he went. And Jesus told him, "Go home to your family. Go home to your relatives and to your friends, and tell them about the great things that God has done for you".
You see, our first assignment is not necessarily to go to the mission field way over, you know, thousands of miles away. Our first assignment is to go to the mission field with the people that are in our lives already; the friends and the family. And bring them with us. God has such good things in store for you in this new season of life. Bring others with you. Don't do it alone. Be connected to the house of God. Be connected to the people of God. Be connected to your church family, and bring others with you to your church family. Bring others with you to serve. Bring others with you to enjoy the presence of God. Bring others with you to enjoy worshiping together. You know, bring others with you in your generosity. Encourage others to stir up their generosity, and be ambassadors of generosity. Be warriors of generosity, generosity warriors. We're all called to give.
Look, Elijah did not do this alone. There's going to come this great breakthrough in Elijah's life I'm going to bring you to in a few moments. But I want you to see what leads up to this great breakthrough, this great revival, this great miracle that he sees happen through his life. Is that it starts out by him being humble enough to ask God to use him; to speak God's word, to prophesy. Won't you ask God to use you? Secondly, we're called to take others with us. We're called to ask God to use us, then take others with us. You know, it says in First Kings 17, verse eight, "Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, (I have commanded a widow to provide there) or "I have commanded a widow there to provide (food) for you".
I've commanded a widow there to provide for you. Then Elijah says to her in verse 13, Do not fear; go and do as you've said". Because she said, "I just have a little barrel of meal and a jar of oil". Go do what you said, but "make me a little bread" first and a little cake from it first. "Bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son". So, she had a son with her. Elijah was starving. He asked her for some food. She said, "All I have is a little barrel of meal and a jar of oil. Me and my son are going to eat it and then we're going to die". And he said, "No, give it to me first". And God used that little barrel of meal in that jar of oil. But I want you to see that God was causing Elijah to bring somebody else with him, to involve other people in the miracle, to involve other people. We're not meant to do it alone. We're meant to bring others with us in this journey. We're meant to take others with us to God. Take others with us.
You know, some of the great miracles in the Bible took place when friends brought a friend, when relatives brought a sick loved one, when friends brought and carried their friend on a mat, on a cot, on a couch, and brought him to Jesus. When the people brought the blind man to Jesus, and Jesus opened his eyes. We can go through Scripture and see so many times somebody brought someone to the Lord, and a healing, a miracle, a breakthrough came. So, first, I want to encourage you to ask God to use you. Second, I want encourage you to take others with you. We need to be ambassadors and understand who we are in Christ. We're ambassadors. We're representatives of Him to bring others to Him, to bring others to His kingdom, bring others into His family.
You see, revival comes and breakthroughs come when we ask God to use us. Breakthroughs come when we take others with us. And then breakthroughs come when we expect God to provide for us. I think the third thing that we see here is God provided for Elijah supernaturally. Because he asked God to use him, he took this widow and her son with him into this journey with God, and God provided for him. I think in our lives sometimes we wonder is God going to provide? Is God going to supply? And we have to come to believe that He is. We have to come to a place where we expect His provision in our lives. I love what Philippians 4 says in verse 19, when Paul says, that "my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory". My God shall provide for all your need according to His riches in glory. And when he says He will supply all your need, he's talking about all your spiritual needs, all your family needs, all your financial needs, all your physical needs, all your emotional needs. God provides for all our needs. He will supply all. We need to start expecting God to provide for us.
Look, we don't know what's going to happen next in this world. We don't know what's next. Will there be another world crisis like a pandemic? Will there be another war? Will there be more earthquakes? What will happen in this world? We can't predict all that will happen. Some things we know are going to happen because Jesus said they would. But we don't know when, and we don't know how, we don't know how it will affect us. But we do know this, that if our trust is in government, or people, or riches, or money, it's going to fail us, and we will be disappointed. But if our trust is in God, and if we expect God to provide for us, He can use money. He can use the government. He could use a raven in the sky dropping food and bread down from heaven. He can use a little boy with five loaves and two fish. He can use anything if we expect God to provide for us.
I want to encourage you to follow these simple steps to experience breakthrough and revival in your life. Number one, ask God to use you. Number two, take others with you. Number three, expect God to provide for you. And number four, I love what happens here next, is all this miracle happens, right, for this woman and her son? And it says in verse 14, "For thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.' So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and (he and) her whole household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was never exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah".
The very thing that Elijah spoke came to pass. Ask God to use you. Take others with you. Expect God to provide for you. And then what happens next is we have to be ready to step out into a place of life that we've never stepped out into before. We have to do things. We have to believe that we can do things we've never done before, that we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us, that the situation is going to call for you and me to do things that we've never done before. I want you to really step out beyond you. Step out beyond your physical ability. Step out beyond your natural reasoning. Step out beyond your past history. Step out beyond your limited experiences. And expect God to use you in a great way. Notice what happens after the word of the Lord was fulfilled. These people, God met all their needs.
In First Kings 17, verse 17, just merely three verses later, it says, "It came about that after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe, there was no breath left in him". A.K.A. he died. He was dead. So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death"! That's what you came to do? You gave us a miracle, only to give us death. And he said to her, "Give me your son". Boy, there are some things in each of our lives right now that might be dead. And God's word to you is, "Give it to Me". Whatever is dead. Is your... Are you in a relationship that's dead, but you need it to come back to life? Give it to God. Are your finances dead and you just don't know where you're going to pay, how you're going to pay your bills? Give it to God. If all you have is five loaves and two fish, give it to God. All you have is a little barrel of meal and a jar of oil? Give it to God.
This son to this woman, it was everything. And now she's grieving that her son is now dead. And Elijah says, "Give me your son". Boy, there's just something powerful about that sentence, "Give me your son". I just can't get out of my mind, when God asked Abraham to give his son Isaac. And then when God asked of Himself to give His own Son to us because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. You know what needs to break through in your life? Give it to God. What needs to be revived? Give it to God. Let's give to God our family. Let's give to God our thoughts. Let's give to God and say, "God use me. God, I trust you. Here's my heart. Here's my mind. I want to think Your thoughts. I want to give. I want to bless. I want to be a blessing. I want to give my life to You; my finances to You".
See, He has given us everything. When we give back to Him, it is the evidence that we truly realize that everything good in our lives came from Him. So, when Elijah says to this woman, "Give me your son," he's already dead, and Elijah says, "Give me your son". Then he took him from her bosom it says. And he carried him up to the upper room. Boy, the upper room. The upper room represents heavenly realms. We're seated with Christ in heavenly places. The upper room represents where the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They were all together in that room. The upper room represents where Jesus took His disciples and they had their last supper before He went to the cross. Like, the upper room has so much meaning in Scripture.
And here he takes the dead boy into the upper room and he lays them on his own bed. And we need to use what God's given us. Elijah puts him in his own bed; lays him down there. And then he calls on the Lord and said, "Oh Lord my God, Have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I'm staying by causing her son to die"? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times. And there's a word for us. There's a word for you right now. He stretched himself. We need to stretch ourselves. We need to stretch and do something we've never done before. Stretch and pray something we've never prayed before. Stretch and give something we've never given before. Stretch and show love that we've never shown before. Stretch and reach beyond where we've ever been before. Stretch and move one step forward that you've never moved forward before.
You see, when we stretch out, God stretches out. When we stretch out to do something that we've never done before, God stretches out to make sure He backs us up, and backs us up with revival, backs us up with breakthrough, backs us up with the miracle that we're believing for. There's something about every time somebody stretched out. When the when the man was with leprosy said, "Lord, You can heal me". And he said, "Stretch out your hand". And he stretched out his hand he was healed. So many times in Scripture we see when somebody's stretched forth... When Moses stretched forth his rod, the Red Sea was parted in two. When we stretch forth our faith and say, "Jesus, come into my life. You've risen from the dead".
All of a sudden, salvation manifests in our lives because we stretched out by saying something we've never said before. We gave, we planted a seed we'd never planted before. "Oh, Lord God," he said after he stretched himself upon the child three times. "Oh, Lord God I pray you, let this child's life return to him". Verse 22, then "The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him, and he (was) revived". He was what? He was revived. He was what? He was revived. Breath was given back to him. Joy, and encouragement was given back to him. Another chance to live was given back to him. His future was given back to him. That's revival. Elijah took the child then and brought him down from the upper room and gave him back to his mother. Because, you know, whatever you give to God, He always gives back in better condition.
The mother gave her son to Elijah as a dead boy. And Elijah gave him back to her as a living boy, revived. And then the woman said, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth". Boy, I wish we could just grab ahold of what brought this this revival to pass. You see, if you ask God to use you, if you take others with you, if you expect God to provide for you, and if you step out beyond you... Step out beyond yourself. Step out beyond. Stretch out beyond where you've been before. Then God will bring life through you. He will bring breakthroughs through you. He will bring revival through you. Who's ready to ask God to use them? Let's ask God to use us. Let me just lead you in this. Just pray this:
Lord, use me. I offer my words to speak Your promises. I offer my voice to lift Your praise. I offer my hands to serve Your people. I offer my finances to advance Your kingdom. Lord, use me. Lord, use me, Amen.
Now let's take others with us. Ask God to use us. Take others with us. Think of one or two people that you could bring to God's kingdom or bring to God's house.
Lord, send people across our path that we can bring them with us. Lord, give us the wisdom to bring our family with us. Give us the wisdom to lead others to you, Lord. Come on, pray that. Give us... Give me the wisdom, Lord, to bring others with me. And then let's pray this one. Lord, we expect Your provision for us. We expect Your provision for us. Pray that out loud too. Lord. I expect Your provision for me. You said You would supply all my needs. I believe all my needs will be provided and supplied by You, in Jesus' Name. And, Lord, I'm ready to step out beyond myself. I'm ready to step out and do things I've never done before, to pray prayers I've never prayed before, to dream dreams I've never dreamed before, to imagine a future I've never imagined before, to reach people I've never reached before, to be kind in a way that I've never been kind to that degree before, to be generous at another level that I've never reached before. I'm willing to stretch. Lord, I'm going to stretch my faith. Now stretch Your hand for Your miracle to show up in my life. And Lord, use me to bring revival to others. Use me to bring salvation, healing, miracles, and breakthroughs. Come on, we're praying. We're having a prayer meeting now. Lord, use me to bring revival, to bring breakthrough, to bring miracles to others. In Jesus Name, Amen.
You are going to face a situation where somebody needs you to ask God to use you. Somebody is going to need you to take them with you. Somebody is going to need you to trust God to provide for you. And somebody is going to need you to step out beyond you; beyond yourself, into a realm that you haven't walked in before. We're going to new levels. When we go down, God brings us up. That means when we humble ourselves, when we're in a place of humility, a place of knowing our trust is completely 100% in God. God will use us mightily. And He will revive our hearts. He will revive our families. He will revive our churches. He will revive our communities. He will revive our cities and our nations. God is ready to move if we will invite Him to. God is ready to use you if you will invite Him to. Ask Him to use you. Take others with you. Trust God to provide for you. Stretch out beyond you. And let God bring revival through you, in Jesus' Name is my prayer. If you've never received Jesus as your Savior, pray:
Jesus come into my life. I believe You're the Son of God. I believe You rose from the dead. And I accept You into my life as my Savior and my Lord, in Jesus' Name, Amen.