I read something recently, from someone I respect, that they don’t cry out in desperation because the fullness of who God is resides on the inside of us. I agree that the fullness of God resides on the inside of us, and I agree that God has already finished His work. I also know that we have not seen all of that finished work manifested, because we are here in a place that operates in time. However, if the cry of desperation was never released, revival would never happen. The cry of desperation is out of a desperation to see the work of God manifested in us, around us, and through us. To see the sons and daughters manifest the Kingdom and watch the world be turned right side up. We see throughout history that the one thing that broke open the wells of revival was a travail, an outcry, a groaning of intercessors to see the manifest presence of God move in people, cities, towns and nations. To say that we don’t have a cry of desperation in us is just like saying the woman who is in labor should be silent throughout all of childbirth because she knows the result of birthing will be the child. 

When they thought Lazarus was dead, they cried aloud. When Ezekiel was taken to the Valley of Dry Bones, he was commanded to prophesy, to speak life. When the centurion’s daughter was reportedly dead, Jesus spoke. There is a sound to desperation, and often times it is not an attractive sound. It may sound like weeping, groaning, yelling. Travail as a noun means: painful or laborious effort; as a verb it means: to engage in painful or laborious effort. There is a sound to desperation.

After Ezekiel spoke to the dry bones there was a rattling, a sound of the dry bones coming together, coming back to life. He cried out in desperation and there was movement; there was a sound in that Valley.

There is another sound of desperation though; one that, when we realize what an awakening in our lives, our families, our nation could cost us, we enter into another type of travailing. It’s a cry out of repentance for not being willing to count the cost, for holding onto things that hold us back instead of releasing us into the call of God, for still lusting after the things of the world and not wanting to let go. A cry of repentance for not being cognizant or caring about what is going on in our nation, and voting based on generational tradition and not for righteousness…or not voting at all because you believe God’s not involved in politics. That travail turns into a cry of desperation, because we realize the state of our hearts. And now there is a realization that time is short, and our families need Him, our friends need Him, our community needs Him, and more than ever, our nation needs Him. 

It is time to repent, then cry out in desperation; not only for us and our families, neighbors and communities, but for our nation. It is time to be like Ezekiel, to speak the word of the Lord, hear the rattling, and see the assembling of a vast army ready to see the United States of America come back to life. And it starts today; it starts right here, in Riverview, Florida.