Mike shares from personal experience how God will allow us to go through extended trials for the purpose of building up our spiritual muscles, strengthening our character and faith, and forging endurance, as we’re shown in the Bible. Endurance, as Jesus warned us in Matthew 24, will be critical for the days ahead.

“Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

Mike and Rebekah look at Revival, American Style, with the modern church’s reliance on conferences with speakers to “spark revival,” versus the Biblical version that focuses solely on crying out to God for mercy in prayer and confession and repentance of sin. At the beginning of the Hebrides Revival in 1950, Peggy Smith challenged a pastor there with the following: “I’m sure, Mr. McCie, that you’re longing to see God working. What about calling your office bearers together, and suggest to them that you spend two nights a week waiting upon God in prayer. You’ve tried mission, you’ve tried special evangelists. Mr. McCie, have you tried God?” Peggy then challenged him to 2 nights of prayer a week from 10pm to 4am. Their focus on prayer would spark one of the most powerful spiritual awakenings of the last 125 years. Peggy’s words are prophetic for what we need today.

A recent study came out showing that smartphones are warping our personalities and character at an alarming rate. In recent years, persons aged 16-39 have seen Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extroversion rates plummet while Neuroticism has shot up, along with anxiety and depression. Many are using their phones as a drug to check out and go numb with. Mike and Rebekah look at the affects of this recent study – and what smartphones are doing to our spiritual life. It’s difficult to pray for an extended period of time if one’s attention span is fragmented. On average, Americans spend 5 hours a day on their phone. The affects of being hardwired 24/7 are having a profound affect on us chemically, emotionally, and spiritually.