Greg Laurie Talks Revival, Prayer and Forgiveness: ‘Only God Can Heal Our Land’
By Movieguide® Contributor
In a new episode of Kirk Cameron’s TAKEAWAYS, Greg Laurie discussed revival, the power of prayer and the importance of forgiveness.
“We talk about preparing for something,” Laurie said, explaining how he approaches revival. “So, I use the phrase ‘pre-prayer.’ In other words, let’s get things ready.”
Laurie cited 2 Chronicles 7:14:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
“So, for me to prepare the ground is: ‘Let’s do our part as we’re praying for God to do his part,’” Laurie said. “Only God can send the spiritual awakening. Only God can heal our land, but what are we supposed to do? We’re supposed to pray.”
Laurie emphasized that God wants his followers to reach out to Him in prayer.
“He wants to provide abundantly, above and beyond,” he explained. “Sometimes we think God wants to give us less than we pray for. Did it ever occur to you that maybe He wants to give you more than you prayed for?”
Laurie also talked about forgiveness, adding that when we forgive others, we “set a prisoner free: yourself.”
“It’s very important to forgive people who have hurt us and ask for personal forgiveness ourselves,” Laurie said. “Because sometimes we have grudges against other people and we can’t bury the hatchet and we live with this anger and I think it’s something we need to let go of.”
Laurie concluded, “Accept the forgiveness of God, which you need because you sin against God every day, and then extend that same forgiveness that you so graciously received towards others.”
Movieguide® previously reported on another conversation between Laurie and Cameron:
Greg Laurie and Kirk Cameron recently had a conversation about revivals, spiritual awakenings, and how the younger generation is searching for answers.
When defining what a revival is, Laurie turned to a friend’s own definition: “When God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented, He shows up Himself.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do to make a revival happen,” he went on. “But I think we can prepare the ground.”
Laurie said America and the church need a “spiritual awakening…we need to return to what it means to be a real Christian.”
While many think a revival has to be a huge change, Laurie was quick to remind us that revivals can be personal.
“Revival can be individual,” he explained. “You can have a revival in a church, you can have a revival in a community, [and] you can have a personal revival where a Christian returns to their…relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Laurie and Cameron also spoke about a past revival — the Jesus Revolution, which is the title and subject of Laurie’s upcoming movie.
“Older audiences love it because they connect to it,” Laurie said of preliminary screenings of the movie. “Younger audiences, I found, were connecting to it as though ‘This is right now.’ I had so many young people say ‘We need one of these for our own generation.’”
He continued, “We’re hoping that this revival story that happened will inspire people to say ‘Lord, we want to see that again.’”
Watch Laurie and Cameron’s full conversation here.
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