“Expect Great things of God.  Attempt Great things for God.” – William Carrey

2 Chronicles 16:9 CSB – For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him.

What Desperation Looks Like?

Mark 9:17-24 CSB – Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”

He replied to them, “You unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? Bring him to me.” 20 So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 21 “How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father.

“From childhood,” he said. 22 “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23 Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”

24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

Mark 9:28-29 CSB – After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 29 And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

Mark 9:29 CSB – And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

Desperation Means Repentance

Desperation for God Means Desperation for His Holiness

Mark 9:29 CSB – And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”

‘Revival means judgment day.’ That’s what happened in Shantung.

Judgment on missionaries, pastors, people, and then fear fell on the world and God’s name was glorified. People have such a wrong idea of what revival means… They think of revival as something triumphant and, shall we say, an overflow of great blessing.

It’s judgment day for the church. But after the judgment, and after things are settled, it’s blessing abounding.”  – William Castle

2 Chronicles 16:9 CSB – For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him.

Psalm 34:15 CSB – The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their cry for help.

Desperation begins with repentance of a consumer attitude toward God

Matthew 10:39 CSB – Jesus said,  Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.

“Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. …But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away ‘blindly’ so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality; but you must not go to Him for the sake of that.

As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self…will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.  Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making….

Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Desperation Means Trusting God’s Power Alone

Matthew 16:18 CSB – I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Zechariah 4:6 CSB – ….not by might. Not by power. But, by my spirit says the Lord!

Can you remember a time when you believed nothing was impossible with God?