What Happens When You Let God Take Control? | Expect the Extraordinary

Revival comes into view as God’s work of restoring his people to the life, power, and purpose he always intended. Revival is not a church trying to recreate old stories or copy the exact style of a past move of God. Revival is a heart posture that learns from Scripture and church history, then looks again for God to renew his people by his Spirit.

The revival of the Spirit is framed as a reawakening to the extraordinary power and presence of God. God is the extraordinary one, the Alpha and Omega, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord of all. The desire for extraordinary moments in life points deeper than good movies, good meals, or good experiences. That hunger is rooted in the soul’s desire for the living God, because being near him means encountering what flesh and routine cannot manufacture.

Acts 1 shows Jesus telling the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Father. The disciples had already seen miracles, walked with Jesus, and heard his words, but Jesus still told them to wait for power from the Holy Spirit. Their waiting was not passive. Their hearts were positioned to expect something beyond a normal day.

The Azusa Street revival gives a modern picture of that same expectancy. William Seymour, the son of former slaves, carried a hunger for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit even when segregation pushed him into hallways and rejection locked him out of church spaces. Prayer in a small home eventually moved to an old barn on Azusa Street, where people gathered three times a day, every day, for three years. The center was not hype. The center was prayer, Scripture, and hunger for God.

The Spirit’s movement showed itself in transformed lives, empowered mission, and supernatural gifts that strengthened the church. These gifts were not fancy add ons to faith. Jesus told the disciples to wait because they needed the Spirit’s power, and the church still needs that power to resist self worship, proclaim the gospel, and live with the peace and joy of Christ.

Extraordinary prayer, extraordinary unity, and extraordinary surrender become the posture of expectancy. Prayer must become more than a leftover activity squeezed between distractions. Unity must become stronger than background, preference, race, church style, or the need to control what a move of God looks like. Surrender must release reputation, skepticism, fear, and the demand to understand everything before obeying. Perfection is not the prerequisite for a move of God, but heart posture is.

##

Key Takeaways

• 1. Revival starts with holy expectancy. God’s people cannot treat the presence of God like a weekly box to check and still expect spiritual awakening. Expectancy does not demand that God perform on command, but it refuses to reduce him to routine. The Spirit calls the church to believe that any moment before God can become a moment of radical life change. [13:45]
• 2. Prayer becomes a real fixture. Extraordinary prayer is not measured first by length, volume, or a perfect schedule. Prayer becomes extraordinary when it moves from the margins of life into the center of desire, attention, and dependence. A distracted culture trains the mind to wander, so prayer becomes a holy resistance that keeps bringing the heart back to God. [27:23]
• 3. Unity releases guarded hearts. The Spirit’s work is hindered when division, prejudice, suspicion, and control remain protected behind spiritual language. Azusa Street stood as a shocking sign because sons of slaves and sons of slave owners sat together seeking God. Unity does not erase real history or pain, but it declares that the move of God is more important than protecting old barriers. [33:23]
• 4. Surrender lets God define the move. The disciples had to wait without a full schedule, obey without a full explanation, and receive the Spirit without protecting their reputation. Surrender means releasing the need to control whether God moves loudly, quietly, quickly, slowly, familiarly, or strangely. The safest place is not control, but the presence of God. [37:21]
• 5. Heart posture outruns visible perfection. Azusa Street was not perfect, and no move of God in broken human hands ever is. The danger is not imperfection itself, but a critical spirit that uses imperfection as an excuse to stay closed off. God looks for humble, hungry, yielded hearts more than polished environments.
  
  ## [41:05]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [05:30] - Week Two of Revive
• [06:29] - What Revival Means
• [08:03] - A Revival of the Spirit
• [11:07] - Craving the Extraordinary
• [13:45] - Expecting God to Move
• [15:42] - The Azusa Street Revival
• [16:48] - William Seymour’s Hunger for God
• [20:20] - Signs of the Spirit Moving
• [25:19] - Three Postures for Revival
• [25:37] - Extraordinary Prayer
• [31:12] - Extraordinary Unity
• [37:21] - Extraordinary Surrender
• [41:21] - Raising Expectancy Today
• [46:05] - Closing Prayer

1. In Acts 1:4-5, what exactly did Jesus tell the disciples to do, and what were they told to wait for? [14:21]
2. According to Acts 1:14, what was the disciples’ shared activity while they were waiting, and how is their prayer described?
3. What three signs were highlighted as evidence of the Holy Spirit moving: what was happening in people, in the church, and through spiritual gifts? [20:20]
4. In the Azusa Street revival, what details show that prayer and expectancy were central rather than hype or performance? [19:23]

1. The disciples had already walked with Jesus and seen his miracles, yet they were still told to wait for the Holy Spirit. What does that suggest about the difference between knowing about Jesus and depending on the Spirit’s power? [24:03]
2. Acts 1:14 connects waiting with constant prayer. What does that show about the kind of posture that prepares God’s people for renewal?
3. James 5 ties prayer to confession, healing, and faith. What does that passage suggest about why prayer must be more than a rushed or occasional habit? [30:39]
4. Unity at Azusa Street crossed deep racial and cultural barriers. What does that reveal about how division, prejudice, and the need for control can interfere with a move of God? [33:23]

1. Where has the presence of God started to feel routine in personal life—something expected to fit into a schedule rather than a moment where real change could happen? What would it look like to raise expectancy again? [41:30]
2. Prayer often gets pushed to the edges of life. What is one specific change that could help prayer become a real fixture this week instead of a leftover activity? [27:23]
3. Distraction fights against prayer for many people. What tends to pull attention away most quickly when trying to pray, and what helps bring the heart back to God? [28:47]
4. Unity requires laying down barriers. Is there any resentment, suspicion, pride, prejudice, or guardedness making it harder to be at peace with another believer right now? What would a first step toward unity look like? [34:33]
5. Surrender means letting God define how he works. Where is the strongest pull to stay in control right now—reputation, preferred style, fear of emotion, skepticism, or needing full understanding before obeying? [39:33]
6. Perfection is not the prerequisite for a move of God, but heart posture is. Is there a critical spirit toward other Christians, churches, or spiritual expressions that may be closing the heart off from what God wants to do? [41:05]
7. “What if?” is a question of expectancy. What if God wanted to begin something fresh in this group, this church, or this season of life? How would daily choices change if that were truly believed? [46:05]