Michael Brown > Quotes

“THE TWO CROSSES Many years ago, A. W. Tozer said that whereas the old cross killed the sinner, the new cross redirects the sinner. Consider his timely words: The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, “Come and assert yourself for Christ.” To the egotist it says, “Come and do your boasting in the Lord.” To the thrill seeker it says, “Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.” The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public. It would seem that in twenty-first century Christianity, there are two crosses—the authentic and the counterfeit. The authentic cross calls us to surrender all while the counterfeit pats us on the back and assures us that we can take the world along for the journey. This is why true, sustained revival continues to evade us. We are becoming like the system we have been commissioned to transform. In compromising with the world by embracing another cross, we offer a great disservice to the very people who are desperately in need of God.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“We are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads but of consumed hearts. —VANCE HAVNER”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“If believers in America quit watching pornography and sexually explicit movies on TV and the Internet, the industry would take a massive hit overnight. Revival sanctifies our pleasure. When we look to the world for pleasure, we are living out of deception, and one main reason we do not live holy lives is because we have not tasted something better than what the world offers.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Christians decide that revival should not be limited to a special church service, meeting, or certain flavor of spirituality. Revival as an event will not suffice anymore. Events come and go, but a people who keep the fire of God burning on the altar of their hearts actually carry this fire within them…wherever they go. At this point, the fire becomes transferrable.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“The Spirit doesn’t require our perfect performance to work with; He simply needs willingness to yield to whatever the Father wants to do.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“The chief danger of the Church today is that it is trying to get on the same side as the world, instead of turning the world upside down. Our Master expects us to accomplish results, even if they bring opposition and conflict. Anything is better than compromise, apathy, and paralysis. God give to us an intense cry for the old-time power of the Gospel and the Holy Ghost! —A. B. SIMPSON”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Self-help with some Jesus language mixed in is not the Gospel. The cross is not about improving your self; it is about crucifying the old man and living from your new identity—in Christ.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“A day is coming when four songs, a sermon, and an offering simply will not work anymore. Perhaps this model has been functional for a season, but in an hour of deep darkness, we need to be a people who carry the light of the Kingdom. This will only happen as Christians live revival lifestyles.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Only when we honestly confront our present condition can we truly cry out for holy visitation and divine transformation. This cry is awakened as we simply discover that where we currently are is not what God has made available to us.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“we want to give you a practical plan for how you can live on fire for God when your world, your surroundings, your environment, your job, your school, your community, your family, and maybe even your church are not encouraging your walk with Him. Truth be told, regardless of where everyone else is in their pursuit of God, your relationship with Him is your responsibility. I have heard it said that you are as close to God as you want to be. Likewise, you are as revived as you want to be.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“The big issue for us was not whether people cried, shook, fell, or experienced some kind of physical manifestation. These are quite neutral in the scheme of revival. We place too much emphasis on them to the positive and negative.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Today, we have a Christianity made easy as an accommodation to an age that is unwilling to face the implication of Calvary, and the gospel of “simply believism” has produced a harvest of professions which have done untold harm to the cause of Christ. —DUNCAN CAMPBELL Do you have a hunger for God? If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. —JOHN PIPER The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it. —LEONARD RAVENHILL”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Jesus says, “Follow me”—and that means all that we have, all that we are, and all that we ever could be belongs to Him. We now live to do His will, with our eyes set on Him, and our life goal is to know Him and make Him known, regardless of cost or consequence. That is normal, according to the New Testament.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Many talk of renewal, revival, and outpouring. The question is where is this nation-shaking move of God going to come from? Are we waiting for something new to come down out from Heaven, or are we pressing in for a great awakening of global proportion?”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“It is deception for us to believe that in order to bring people to Christ, we need to water down the message and make it palatable.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Revival is a divine confrontation. Heaven extends us an option—continue as normal or recapture God’s definition of normal.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“But looking at God, I am full of faith and confidence because awakenings have come in our history during times when everything looked bleak and impossible.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

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― Michael Brown

“We are called to go make disciples, but how do disciples live? How do we function in the world—in our marriages, families, schools and places of business? How do we live as salt and light in the society?”
― Michael Brown

“This is not an affront on contemporary music or a rejection of relevant tools to help connect a new generation with the Gospel. These are important methods if we are going to properly steward our message in the context we have been placed in. The means can and must change to suit the culture, generation, and context, but the message cannot.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Recognize the importance of prayer in this hour. We can talk about revival all we want, but historically, landscape-changing revival has been preceded by tenacious men and women of prayer.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Unfortunately, as expressed by Watchman Nee, “By the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal, everybody thinks he has a fever.” I say it’s time we burn. In fact, the Word commands us to be fervent (which means red-hot) in spirit in Romans 12:11, so that others can catch fire as well.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“To teach God’s glory as a theological idea, not as active and available experience, is to shortchange the very truth of His presence. To fully know a person, closeness is essential. There is only so much you can receive through secondhand information. The same is true for God. Sadly, many are teaching secondhand information about a person we are called to know and experience. For example, a lot of people preach a theology of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but unless you’ve experienced the Spirit’s baptism for yourself, you cannot fully preach it. You have to taste and see that the Lord is good! (See Psalm 34:8.) I”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“It’s high time we quit trying to drag the Word of God down to our level of experience and commitment, trying to conform Scripture to our ways rather than conforming our ways to Scripture.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“the grace that God gives you is grace that comes with responsibility.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“THE TWO CROSSES Many years ago, A. W. Tozer said that whereas the old cross killed the sinner, the new cross redirects the sinner. Consider his timely words: The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, “Come and assert yourself for Christ.” To the egotist it says, “Come and do your boasting in the Lord.” To the thrill seeker it says, “Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.” The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“today, even when we preach on the love of God, if we neglect preaching about sin, the wrath of God, and humankind’s need for a Savior, we are promoting imbalance. When we preach God’s mercy without the reality of sin, one must ask the question: Why must God be merciful? Why do I need mercy from Him at all? If we preach a Savior without giving context for what we need saving from, our grasp of salvation is limited. It all comes together when we present the complete, full Gospel—nothing missing, nothing lacking.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Sadly, we have adopted a theology of cultural relevance. We think the only way we can win the world is by becoming like the world, rather than recognizing the only way we can win the world is by becoming like Jesus.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival

“Rest assured, if you feel directionless in your personal walk with God or your congregation when it comes to prayer, ask the Holy Spirit for divine strategy. He wants to make it practical and accessible. This is exactly what He did for our community as we sought to make prayer our great quest.”
― Michael Brown, The Fire that Never Sleeps: Keys to Sustaining Personal Revival