God’s Ways vs. Man’s Ways
God’s Ways vs. Man’s Ways
David Diga Hernandez interviews Larry Sparks on the next move of God. God is preparing His church for another great awakening. Will you be a part of it? As you hear a church historian’s perspective on the move of the Holy Spirit, be stirred to believe for a fresh outpouring.
For more content, watch my video, “How You can Start Being Used by Holy Spirit – EASY Steps,” by clicking here
I’m here with Larry Sparks, who is the publisher at Destiny Image Publishing.
I’m so excited that you hear my friend. Thank you for joining David.
It is an honor. And, brother, you are a true friend of the Holy Spirit.
So I’m so excited about this conversation.
Because I talk about revival theorists, people who have written about revival history of revival and revival practitioners, you are a practitioner.
So this will be fun.
Well, this is be an exciting interview because you have a very unique perspective, especially since you fulfill several different roles.
You minister the gospel. You’re prophetic. You’ve studied revival history, church history. You published many books on revival.
And so in terms of what you’ve seen on the timeline of the church and looking at all of the patterns of history past, where are we right now in terms of those seasons and that ebb and flow.
Yep. Yep. Well, acts chapter 2 tells us that in the last days, god declares.
I’ll pour out my spirit on all flesh.
And I love that because that’s where god gives us a direct prophecy for the last days.
And I always tell people, listen, God could have said anything about what we should expect for the last days.
He could have spoken about the Antichrist. He could have spoken about a 1 world currency.
Could have told us about a one world government, but it says in the last days, god declares what.
And even as I say that, I just sense the presence of god because, brother, you’re seeing this.
I am seeing this. God said the last days will be characterized by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
And that’s what we’re seeing right now. That’s where we are on god’s prophetic timeline.
I believe for 2000 years since the day of Pentecos might be a little bit of an unpopular perspective, but I think it’s theologically correct.
On the day of panic cost, Holy Spirit was released in the earth.
I’m not waiting for the Spirit to come out of the sky and be poured into the earth again.
One man will split the sky and return to the earth and that’s Jesus, but the question is not is the Holy Spirit coming back?
Holy Spirit’s here. The question is, how are we stewarding his presence in our lives and our myths?
You wrote a book called Carriers of the Glory.
How are we carrying his glory into every sphere of influence recalled?
So I believe right now, god is urgently reminding us the church that Holy Spirit’s been given to us?
What are we doing with him? How are we stewarding his presence?
And that’s really, I’ll I’ll I’ll end it with this That’s what makes a revivalist.
Somebody who changes times and seasons. Somebody whose name goes in our church history books is, yes, god is sovereign.
But what makes a revivalist as a man or a woman who actually is so marked by the word of god, often marked by church history, and they say god, what you’ve done in times past.
When I see in the book of acts, what I see in church history, I will pay the price for.
I’m willing to pay the price.
I’m willing to guilt to to give and yield my life god that you would use little old me.
You would use me as a vessel at a vehicle of your presence.
And I believe when somebody rises up like that in the earth, that is truly what makes a revivalist an awakening somebody who really changes times and seasons without pouring.
And I’m so glad that you mentioned the sovereignty of God. Yeah.
Because I think that we get stuck in certain mindsets And in one sense or another, we can put god into a box.
Yes.
And so, yes, god is sovereign. Yes. God decides how he wants to move.
But god in his sovereignty has chosen Yes. To work to the faith of men and women.
So you talk about a revivalist And, you know, some might ask, well, where is that term in the scripture, or what are you talking about?
Sure. All you’re really talking about in a very practical sense is the surrendered life.
Yeah.
The one who will say, god, whatever it is that you want to do in and through me, whatever it is that you want to do in this generation, I make myself available as a yielded vessel, and god responds to that faith.
God uses people. Yeah. He doesn’t need us but that’s how he chooses to work in the earthly realm.
Yeah.
So in terms of being that revivalist, in terms of being that type of person who would say god, I just want every last drop of what you’re pouring out upon the earth.
What does god look for in such an individual?
I think he looks 1st and foremost for hunger.
Uh, somebody who says, god, I’m so grateful for what I’ve seen you do, but I know there’s more.
You know, in 2021, I got this prophetic word.
I went to this church in Peoria, Arizona called Fresh Start Church.
And I always say they go from 0 to a hundred miles per hour in, like, a few seconds.
I mean, they’ve been going in sustained revival for about 8 years as of us doing this recording.
Just going after the presence of god prayer discipleship.
I mean, really, David, the reality is we have not graduated from the cornerstones of scripture.
In other words, prayer disciples, reading the scriptures, not turning it into some religious stale or stagnant thing, not turning it into a formula, but god meets us in those places.
And I actually wanna encourage somebody who’s watching right now, you know, if you feel like it’s gotten stale in your prayer life, one of the things that the whole spirit convicted me about.
He’s like, Larry, you study revival.
You went to school to get your masters of divinity and church history and renewal. You have all this information.
Larry, do you actually pray for revival?
Do you pray for an outpouring of your of my spirit in your life, in your family, in your city?
And I really came to the conclusion I wasn’t really doing it.
And as soon as I just started praying, acts chapter 2, and I wanna release that over you right now, if you feel like it’s got a little bit stale in your prayer life, A good place to start is just praying in agreement with that last day’s prophecy from god.
In the last days, god says, I’ll pour out my spirit on all flesh.
Your sons and your daughters, David, right now.
I can’t tell you how many people wherever we go, so many have children who are far away from god.
Suns and daughters who are not serving the lord, and they have cried out to god. They have prayed.
They’ve done everything they know how to do, and the Holy Spirit has been talking to me saying, Larry, encourage them to pray one more time, encourage them to pray, but maybe shift the way they pray and actually pray, acts 2, Joel 2, over their sons and daughters, And what does that say?
Your son and daughter doesn’t say your son and daughter is gonna sit in a pew. Mhmm.
Doesn’t mean your son and daughter is just gonna come back and come to church and do all the religious stuff.
There’s such a battle over the next generation right now because the sons and daughters who are in bondage and in sin and far away from god they’re the target of the enemy because those are going to be the reformers who change our nation.
And I believe, you know, moms and dads, you’re praying for a son or daughter right now, If you feel absolutely weary and exhausted, praying for them, here’s a new way to pray.
God, you said you’d pour out your spirit on all flesh, and my son You can declare that my daughter will prophecy, and I believe those sons and daughters who are far from god right now, they’re gonna be sign posts of awakening, sign posts of revival.
They’re gonna be notable miracles in the same way you see in your, you you see in your meetings, miracles that happen that, listen, people can’t deny them.
They might deny the lord, but they can’t deny the miracle. The miracle is a sign.
I really sense that it could be sons and daughters who were so deep and so far into darkness and sin, they’re gonna come back to god through supernatural, miraculous turnaround, people will not be able to deny it, particularly those who watch that kid, that son or daughter, go into darkness.
The only logical explanation is god tore open the heavens and grab them.
And that’s the beauty of the move of the Holy Spirit.
That’s it.
It’s so powerful. It’s so effective so supernatural that no one can claim the credit, but god. No one.
We do the possible. God will do the impossible. We pray god will meet the need. We worship.
He’ll manifest his presence. We preach the gospel. He’ll save the soul. Matthew, 77, ask, seek, knock.
There’s that pressing, and it’s not pressing from a place of lack.
It’s not that pressing from a place of even disconnect.
It pressing from the place of authority, pressing from that place of faith, not working toward a connection, but praying from that connection and saying, lord, you promised it.
I believe it. This is how you choose to work.
Jesus told us when we pray that we are to pray that god’s will would be done in earth it is in heaven, I always thought that was interesting.
I thought, lord, why don’t you just establish your will?
Yeah.
Why don’t you just do what you want to do?
It’s because, again, the way he chooses to move in the earth is through the people he created.
Yeah.
There’s something about that partnership. God doesn’t need it from us.
But he made it so that that’s how it works today in this realm.
Well, in response to that, one one thing I tell people concerning intercession, immediately, when people think of prayer intercession, it’s like, okay, I’m begging god.
When I’m trying to, you know, they picture almost god as a father who has a fist that is clenched around revival and outpouring and the louder or the longer I beg, cry, pray, I’m I’m pry I’m trying to pry that fist open.
No. I I always say an intercessor is not begging god to do anything.
An intercessor is actually birthing something with god.
In other words, an intercessor somebody in the place of prayer, which by the way, all of us are intercessors.
All of us pray but it’s a whole new dimension of seeing it because I’m not trying to convince god to do something.
Right. Through my intimacy and my friendship with the Holy Spirit, I discover what god has made available and what god has made possible.
And I recognize in his sovereignty, he has chosen you, chosen me to be a vessel through which his purposes are literally released into the earth.
He’s just looking for yield at vessels.
He’s not looking for people who are trying to work it up, manufacture, and hype it, but a a a company of people who are so intimate and so close with the holy spirit, not that we’re trying to make him do something but we are literally working together to do exactly what you’re so you’re talking about, bring that which is established in heaven into reality into the earth.
No one is so persuasive that they can get god to do something that he doesn’t want to do. Correct.
So persistent prayer doesn’t persuade god. I like to say that the will of god is like an immovable river.
It’s got a fixed direction of fixed flow. Persistent prayer doesn’t change the direction of the river.
Persistent prayer puts you in the river.
Yeah. Yeah.
Persistent prayer is the means by which we pull together those broken pieces of creation Yes.
Into alignment with the will of god.
And so when we are praying like the disciples, Jesus says, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
This is you pray to the lord of the harvest.
Yes.
So these disciples pray to the lord of the harvest and verse 1 of the very next chapter, he sends them.
Prior causes you to become and flow with and bring forth the will of god in the earth.
So I love you said that because a lot of people get confused with that.
But you know what? That’s so challenging because so many people almost inappropriately exaggerate the sovereignty of god He is sovereign, but think about this day because in my book, I talk about the collision of the sovereignty of god and the stewardship of man.
And where do we see that? We see that in the day of pentecost.
Because all of us good pentecostals, we love acts 2 verse 2.
And suddenly, but before the suddenly, before the manifestation of the wind and the fire and the tanks before the suddenly, there’s a company of people in acts chapter 1.
Who were given a promise. Right. There’s a company of people that Jesus said, you stay in the city. Terry.
I love the old old school, King James. Terry wait in the city until you receive power from on high.
And you know what? The upper room was a company of people who were being good stewards of a promise from Jesus.
Jesus promised if you stay here, you wait, you tear it, you pray, then a promise is coming.
It is that collision between stewardship of man.
In other words, we get a hold of a promise of god, and we grab hold of it We’re gonna pray it.
We’re going to come into agreement. We’re gonna come into alignment. They were so gripped, uh, you know, a 120.
Obviously, there were at least a 500 who gave witness to the resurrected lord, but we see that there were a 120 who were there in the upper room So there were a 120 who said we are going to actually stand in agreement with the promise from the master, and we are gonna contend.
We’re gonna cry out and believe that this promise, whatever it looks like, we we are going to receive it.
And I find that amazing because so often we think, oh, god just sovereignly sent the Holy Spirit He did, but it was a collision between us stewarding a promise that Jesus gave, and then, of course, the suddenly, you know, the suddenly is the manifestation of god’s sovereignty.
We do the prayer. We store the promises, and then he does come with that suddenly.
I love that. And so you’re not, as you say, just, uh-uh, uh, what would you what did you say?
There’s the practitioner and the other one
was that? A practitioner and a theorist.
A theorist.
Yeah.
Just a theorist because you’re seeing this, not just in your services where you minister, but also you have, again, this unique perspective where you’re able to travel and see moves of god in various different regions.
What are you seeing right now the lord doing in response to people who are doing this?
Yeah. I’m I’m seeing the hunger and the body of Christ Is it an all time high?
And this is, I mean, literally what you’re getting right now is kind of fresh off the, you know, the revelation of it.
So to speak, in that I actually believe there are a lot of churches that are in revival.
We’ve gotta actually clarify our terms appropriately because if we don’t have an understanding of the appropriate terminology, We’re just gonna throw everything into this, like, stew pot.
That’s that’s revival. Where that’s revival?
Revival usually happens at an individual or personal level when somebody reignites their fire and zeal for the lord.
Or at a church level, we’ve seen so many wonderful revivals, I think of Toronto, I think of Brownsville, I think of what we saw in the 19 nineties, Those are revivals usually when they are, uh, limited to a certain church.
People would say, well, Toronto and Brownsville impacted the world.
They did, but noticed so many people came to those churches.
I believe what we’re shifting into or what we’re getting ready to move into David is going from revival to awakening.
What does that look like? Right now, I’m seeing not only in America, I go to Northern Ireland to Wales, Australia, so many churches are filled with burning hungry, spiritually active people who are praying for the sick, seeing them heal, they’re seeing demons cast out.
They’re moving in the gifts of the spirit. They are exhibiting all the signs of revived believers.
Normal believers, as our friend, Sid Roth would say, normal has defined by the Bible. We’re seeing
Naturally, supernatural.
Naturally, supernatural. Come on. We’ve spent enough time with sin, but the reality is it’s true.
So many are functioning like new testament believers I almost and and, again, you’re literally catching this raw because I’ve been invited to a lot of these churches in, like, New England, the UK, places that are hard and dry.
That’s what people like to say. It’s hard, brother. It’s dry. Don’t you know, those are difficult places?
It’s only difficult for the for it’s only difficult going into the UK.
California, New England, if you go in with gimmicks.
But if you go in with the gospel and if you go in with the glory, you’ll always see breakthrough But what I feel like the word of the lord is is there are so many revived pockets of believers, revived churches.
Now it’s time to get territorial. In other words, let’s go after geographies. Let’s go after territories.
Let’s add let let’s partner together.
That’s one of the walls the lord is breaking down right now is ministers that are not working with each other.
Churches and competition, that’s not going to work if we want awakening because you and I know back in the days where our our in America Our land was punctuated, shifted, changed by what we call great awakenings, but it’s funny when you think of Whitfield, uh, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, you don’t think of a pet a particular church.
Like we think of the Brownsville revival happened at Brownsville, suddenly God, Toronto happened at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, back then, you don’t think of a certain church, you think of geography.
You think of a nation, you think of a whole area in our nation that was radically impacted, David, I believe we’re moving into that.
That’s what I’m seeing right now. Bottom line, I see so many revived believers, revived churches.
The next step, and it’s gonna require humility on our end. It’s gonna require working together.
It’s gonna require true biblical unity is awakening where we actually see entire territories and regions shift.
Talk to me about true biblical unity.
Yeah. There’s uniformity and unity.
And right now, there are people who are trying to push for uniformity where where we lay down historic tenets of the orthodox Christian faith.
In other words, we we compromise on things that the Bible said, you know, the Bible says this is sin or the Bible says, you know, this is truth there are people who are wanting to say, well, you know what?
You can lay those things that we’re we’re culturally relevant.
We’re moving in the direct we’re we’re we’re we’re more progressive and open minded we’ve gotta lay down what the Bible says about these things, and we just need to get along.
That’s not unity. But to me, you know what unity looks like a charismatic and maybe somebody who’s Southern Baptist reform, Presbyterian coming together and saying, you know what?
We have different perspectives on the continuation of the gifts of the spirit, or women in ministry, or things like that.
Things that I have very strong convictions about, but we’re gonna put those things aside, and we’re gonna work together for the sake of the gospel going forward.
I believe I believe we’re gonna see more and more of that.
And what’s gonna happen is this in the book of Proverbs, we read that familiar scripture, Iron Sharpen’s iron I actually believe us charismatic, and I, listen, I love the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
I love when he comes into a room like a whirlwind I love when people are trembling and shaking and weeping under the presence and the power of god, but I also love, perhaps even more than that, solid good theology.
Mhmm. I think we need both. We need the word and the spirit.
Yes.
And I believe it was even Wigglesworth who spoke of the last great move of god being a synergy of the word and the spirit, and I believe that is what we need.
I think that will be the great blessing of unity The blessing of unity for us, charismatic, will be us working more and more with theologically grounded, biblically literate believers and other camps, presbyterians, baptists, reformed folks.
I actually also think the blessing of unity will be presbyterians, Baptist, the reformed community being impacted and influenced by charismatic and panicostals.
Because you know what? You read the works of the puritans.
You actually look into revival history And before there was Azusa Street, things like the Caine Ridge revival, things like what we’re talking about, the great awakening in America, Jonathan Edwards, these were reformed theologically solid guys who experienced outpourings of the Holy Spirit.
And when you read about the phenomenon, or the manifestations that took place, either great awakening, Cambridge, these great revivals in America, the same phenomena that we see in Brownsville, Toronto, or Azusa straight took place in the great evangelical awakenings and moves of god.
So I believe we’re gonna benefit each other significantly, and could it be The one thing right now that the devil so opposes, you and I see this being in social media and where we see believers throwing mud at each other.
Everybody’s a heretic to someone.
It’s, I mean, just nonstop heretic hunting and all that.
And, listen, we wanna call truth, truth, and we wanna call heresy, heresy.
There are damnable heresies circulating out there, but I’ll but I’ll tell you this.
A fire tunnel is not a damnable heresy. Fire tunnel. Uh, being slain in the spirit.
Something you somebody might be uncomfortable with or not understand. That’s not a heresy.
H heresy is when we take the scripture and we try to rewrite it or change it.
I call it making the Bible bend its knee to the direction of culture.
That is when we get into heresy.
Get into heresy when we say, oh, you know, there’s other ways to god outside of Jesus.
We get into heresy when we say, well, everybody gets to heaven.
There’s nothing that they need to do in order to respond to the gospel, Larry.
Don’t you know it’s called ultimate reconciliation.
Used to be called universalism, but they’ve added new theological sounding language to it. That’s all damnable heresy.
In other words, those are things that we need to avoid, but the things that often cause us the greatest division and argument are things that I think we could actually benefit one from another in
and they have varying different perspectives on these different doctrines.
And I think that as long as we’re united on the fundamentals Yes. Things like the identity of Jesus Christ.
He is god. Yes. The resurrection, the physical bodily resurrection of the lord Jesus. Yes.
Things like this, we can’t bend on. Things like sin issues. We’re not going to bend on.
We’re not going to repackage something and make it more palatable for culture by saying, well, that was a sin maybe because they were a little bit more old fashioned in their considerations, but we need to stick to the word on those fundamentals But in some of the peripheral doctrines, and this by no means is to imply that those doctrines aren’t important, I think they are.
I think there can be unity in those areas.
So, for example, I have friends who don’t believe that the gift of speaking in tongues is for today. Sure.
They’re still good friends of mine. I think they’re wrong.
But I’m still good friends with them, and we still work together, um, in various different ways.
Uh, they they don’t, well, you know, when people are explaining the spirit in my services.
Now I don’t teach that as doctrine. Like, you have to experience this in order to experience the Holy Spirit.
No. It’s just something that happens in the meetings. Correct. And it’s a phenomenon. Yep.
Um, you know, I believe that’s the holy spirit’s power.
And, you know, I have friends who don’t believe that, but we still work together.
Yep.
Uh, we can go on and on even for instance, some of my views on deliverance.
Yeah. Sure.
I I have some varying views on that that differ from some other fellow ministers, and we still work together, and there’s that unity.
And I think that right there is what we’re talking about, not embracing the heresies. Obviously, we call out falsehoods.
We call out heresies.
You’re talking about unity on the fundamentals. Absolutely. And, you know, isn’t it interesting?
I think it’s in John 17 where Jesus is basically giving us some of his final words And he actually talks about the glory.
His glory being manifested or displayed in the context of unity, right, us functioning as brothers as operating as 1.
And I’m like, I I think to myself as somebody who wants to see greater manifestations of the presence, the power, the glory of god, I wonder if it’s withheld.
I wonder if there’s restraint there, not because god and his sovereignty is holding anything back.
I wonder if there’s more glory.
I wonder if there’s more presence and power that is available to the degree that we operate as 1.
I’m just throwing that out there, just even based on the picture that Jesus paints as he’s literally getting ready to leave the planet, you can almost feel his heart, say, I I oh, you can almost sense that Jesus saw the day we’re living in right now.
You almost could get this sense that he saw a day where we’d be divided and arguing over petty little things, and you could feel his heart crying out if they would only be one as we, as he to father, the spirit are one, um, that there would be a manifestation of his glory and and I believe that.
And and the good news, David, I’m seeing Kingdom connections, people coming together unlike I’ve ever seen before, So even though sometimes the heresy hunters are loud and they can be a little obnoxious and such, I’m watching supernatural kingdom connections where relationships like you describe, hey, we don’t agree on everything, but we’re coming together to learn from each other.
We’re coming together to work together.
We’re coming together to advance the gospel And as a result, there’s such an unusual favor and blessing of god on those alliances, on those relationships.
It’s beautiful.
Well, it’s the lord’s doing. I believe that with all my heart, Yeah.
And I think we need to get on board with what god is doing. Amen.
Would you take a moment and speak to that one right now watching who hungers for a move of the spirit in their own life.
Yeah. Would you minister to them?
Absolutely. Well, here’s the good news. You can’t take credit for your own hunger.
Cause I actually believe there’s people who are watching right now, and I even I I just sensed there’s somebody who watched your were, like, 20 years ago, you got a touch from the Holy Spirit at a camp.
I don’t know why I feel that so strongly.
And maybe you prayed in tongues, maybe you had an encounter at the altar, but now you feel a bit dry My friend, Jesse Green, says this.
She says, you know what? It’s a lie to believe that you’re dry.
And you might be thinking, Larry, I feel so dry and disconnected from god.
Right now, I just wanna declare over you what Jesus said.
Jesus in John chapter 7 spoke of what you have inside of you. Jesus spoke concerning the Holy Spirit.
He said, out of your inmost being, I feel it right now.
Some of you actually might start to feel Some of you might start to tremble.
It’s not about what the manifestation is, but right now, do we listen. We’re not hyping it up.
We’re not manufacturing anything. I just really believe that the spirit of god who lives inside of you, yes, you, believe her.
If you have Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, Jesus himself said inside of you in your inmost being are what rivers of living water.
And right now, I just believe that the spirit of god who’s in you is resting upon you.
And you know what? It’s the result of the hunger that god put inside of So father right now, I thank you for that one who’s watching.
I thank you lord that you respond to hunger.
I thank you lord that you put the gift of hunger inside of us Lord, I pray for encounters with your presence right now.
Listen, however the lord is touching you, and I feel it’s a holy moment, lean into it, lean into it.
Maybe you’ve seen people, uh, maybe joy is coming up out of your spirit.
I encourage you to lean into it, laugh. Maybe the tears are streaming. Just just lean into that. It’s okay.
God is touching you. I really believe that with all my art, and the good news is after this, I believe you will never tolerate or agree with the lie that you are dry anymore.
Yeah. The enemy might trying to tell you that.
You might have thoughts trying to tell you that, but you are filled with rivers of living water.
And, you know, you just might need to say, holy spirit, would you refresh me. Would you touch me?
Would you remind me even through your word that you live inside of me like a river?
And I ask you, god, even right now, to rest upon me with your presence.
However you want in Jesus’ name in Jesus’ name.
And lord, I lift that one to you now. Who desires touch of your holy spirit’s power.
Fresh’s holy spirit, I pray that your power would begin to flow.
That them sense you in the room with them. Yeah. An abiding presence.
I thank you for the weight of that glory now coming upon them.
Touch their life in a fresh way I pray.
In Jesus, by the name, I want you to say it because you believe it, say, Amen.
Well, Larry, thank you so much for being here.
You wrote a book called Pentecostal Fire, your supernatural inheritance.
Can you tell us a little bit about the book and where people can find it.
Yeah. Well, people can find it on Amazon wherever books are sold.
I was a little concerned calling it that because that kind of title goes right for the jugular, but I felt like I I wanna make sure to the prophetic word the lord gave me in 2021 where he said, tell my church.
I’m reintroducing her to pentecostal fire. It’s that demonstrations that power that we see in acts chapter 2.
When I define revival, My definition is simply this, revival is a return to the standard of pentecost.
I love it.
Everything that we see god poured out in acts chapter 2 I believe is available right now.
We’ll make sure you get your copy.
Again, Pentecostal Fire, your supernatural inheritance by Larry Sparks Thank you so much for being here, my friend.
I appreciate you. Well, I love you. I appreciate you, and I pray for you.
Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with god.
