Prepare A Place for Revival
About this episode
Pastor John Miller of Church on the Rock in Texarkana joins Philip Cameron to unpack what genuine, lasting revival looks like — and how every local church can begin preparing for it right now. Drawing on the Asbury University awakening, the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, and the historic Prayer Revival of 1857, Miller paints a vivid picture of how God moves when His people make room for Him. "The Holy Ghost will only come to where He's welcome," Miller explains. "He is a gentleman — He will not move unless you ask Him to move." Miller traces the 1857 Businessman's Revival, sparked by a simple noon prayer meeting at a Dutch Reformed church in Manhattan under the influence of Charles Finney's convert Joseph Lamphier, which grew from a handful of attendees to a movement that brought a million people to Christ across America. He connects that historical pattern to today's stirrings at Asbury and secular campuses like Texas A&M University, arguing that revival must move beyond church walls to transform culture, politics, families, and communities. Practical takeaways include starting pre-service prayer with leaders, choosing songs directed *to* God rather than merely *about* God, shortening the sermon to extend worship, and opening altar calls. Miller's church saw 25 salvations in a single weekend using these simple adjustments. Visit www.churchontherock.org or download the Church on the Rock Texarkana app to connect with his congregation.
Part of our Preparation collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“God will go to where we prepare a place for him.”
“You think about our cultural upheaval today — we've got inflation, we've got an escalating war in Ukraine and Russia, we've got this whole transgender thing happening, and all this going on and it seems dark and bleak, but God sends revival. It spread to many major cities across America and a million people came to Christ, and it changed the fabric of the culture.”
“My dad used to say to me, 'Prepare the place for revival, prepare the place, prepare the place, and the Holy Ghost will only come to where he's welcome. He is a gentleman, he will not move unless you ask him to move.'”
What's Discussed
Pastor John Miller of Church on the Rock in Texarkana, Texas, discusses the current revival stirrings across America — from Asbury University to Texas A&M — and how churches can intentionally prepare for a lasting move of God. Miller references the 1857 Prayer Revival (the Businessman's Revival), sparked by Charles Finney-influenced layman Joseph Lamphier in Manhattan, which ultimately brought one million people to Christ. He argues revival must penetrate culture, politics, and family life to be truly transformative. Practical steps include pre-service leadership prayer, worship songs directed to God, extended altar times, and creating open space for the Holy Spirit. Miller's own church recorded 25 salvations in one weekend after implementing these changes.
- Asbury Revival and Current Awakening Signs
- Brownsville vs. Asbury: Reaching All Traditions
- The 1857 Businessman's Prayer Revival
- Revival Transforming Culture and Society
- Two Purposes of Revival: Power and Witness
- Making Place for the Holy Spirit in Your Church
- Practical Steps Pastors Can Take This Sunday
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hello, my name is Philip Cameron, and this is Daily Faith. And I am so glad you are watching with us today, wherever you are around this world. We are so thankful for you, and we appreciate what God is doing. We are seeing — there's an old song that I love, "Showers of Blessing." Showers of blessing, we plead. Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead. And I believe that we are about to see the showers. We haven't seen anything yet. I believe that God wants to change the world through a mighty revival, and what you're seeing in Asbury and these other places all over the world is breaking out — in Pakistan, in the Philippines, all over the world this thing is breaking out.
Philip:And so we're going to be talking today with John Miller. He is a pastor of Church on the Rock in Texarkana, and we were talking — this is a great church, a great man of God — and he was talking to us about how he has been preparing his church for revival. If you love your pastor, call them right now, because I believe if you're going to see a harvest you're going to till the soil, you're going to work the soil before the harvest comes. And a lot of folks think that this is going to hit us out of the blue, you know, like a bolt out of the blue. God will go to where we prepare a place for him, and we're going to be talking about revival today — historically and how it's happening in the church today — and we are excited about that. So hold on, you're going to be blessed by our guest today and our dear friend John Miller.
Philip:As you know, our ministry has had — for 33 years we've been working in Eastern Europe, in Romania. I adopted a young boy, a baby three years of age, in an orphanage starving to death, and I picked him out of a crib and I said, I don't know what it takes but I'm coming back for you. It took me a year to get him. And in that year we replaced the toilets and fixed the roof and made new beds for all that, painted, and that year hooked me on caring for kids and missions. And so for the last 33 years we now have a whole village — a place called Vatra, Vatra Village in Moldova — that takes young folk from orphanages and other dire circumstances and we take them into that beautiful village you're looking at right now.
Philip:We put them back in school. We tell them if you're born, God has a plan. And the crazy thing is this — those kids are turning from orphans into sons and daughters, sons and daughters in the ministries, and they are the ones for this last year having worked non-stop in Ukraine and working with refugees. And these amazing young people have fed thousands and thousands of people. We have given away — that's them at the board — and literally hours after the war broke out just a year ago, those two girls are today on the way to the earthquake zone in Turkey. And they were there at that border, a windswept, barren place, snow, just horrendous, and they slept in a cupboard on the floor, on a concrete floor, because they refused to leave the border, caring for people. So our missionaries, once orphans — is that amazing?
Philip:And I'm so — this last year has been a blur of activity for the Orphan's Hands. As I said, our main issue is to care for these kids, but as these kids have become missionaries it's made us branch out into areas of harvest. And this whole year we've been working in Ukraine, and just recently a team went to Ukraine and had a miracle happen right in a rainy, miserable day. Watch this video and I know you'll be blessed by it.
A year ago their world was a happy place. They had jobs, their kids were in school, the corner shop sold bread and cheese and everything else. Their world was just like yours, until through the mist and snow monsters came. The tracks rattled on the ice-packed fields. The guns pointed towards the world they lived in. It takes less than a second to obliterate everything that they had spent their lives building. There are no accurate numbers of how many have died. The end is nowhere in sight.
We have been in Ukraine for years. From the first explosion we were involved. We took this assault personally. The word "friends" — hands could not stand on the sidelines and do nothing. Our amazing group of young men and women did the unimaginable. Once again they drove into a war zone. Once orphans themselves, they have felt personally the hand of grace and redemption. To go to this devastated world seems to them as normal as having a meal or going to church. They drove for hours, unable to stop and stretch their legs, as inches on each side of the vehicles were live mines. Every few miles they were stopped at checkpoints by nervous soldiers. They were running along the line between the Russians and Ukrainians.
Our team finally reached Kherson, a recently liberated city still held in the grip of desperation. They had brought food, wood-burning stoves that will save lives in the bitter, deadly cold that is to come. They brought blankets that to many is the only barrier between survival and death. On a dreary day, within the sound of guns and bombs, the most astonishing thing took place. The rescued became the rescuers. Hundreds waited in the rain, shuffling along in a line that ended up in love — smiles, bread, fish, and words of care from the heart of the redeemed.
As they traveled they came across bombed-out villages, scarred by the strife of bullets, destroyed by the landslides of death. Their water, electricity, and everything else was gone, but the wood and stoves had become the guardian against the deadly cold. We know it is impossible for most to even imagine this world. But by giving and praying together for this unfolding tragedy, we can join our hearts and hands to bring the hope that was sent to earth by the living God. If it were us, we would wait in line hoping that someone somewhere was thinking of us. We must go back. Will you send us? Every gift you give allows us to be his hands.
Philip:Every time I see that video my heart stirs, because I know the cost that these young folk go all the way down there into the teeth of war to care for someone else. The old hymn ought to be his hand extended, reaching out to the oppressed. Let me tell you, whoever you've seen — those oppressed people in that line, over a thousand people that waited in the rain — we've been back to the same place again and again, and we're going back again and again, because we are the only link that they have. Many people — the only thing they have to sanity in a totally insane world.
Philip:I read this morning a news report that today Russia came under attack by drones, even Moscow. So that tells me that this war is heating up, and once they start going into Russia and start bombing and using drones in Russia, that may extract a completely different response from Putin. We need to pray for these young people. At the same time, we got a phone call from a friend in Istanbul — his wife is Moldovan, she knows what we've been doing in Moldova and Ukraine — and she asked if we could help in Turkey. At the same time, the embassy in Chișinău, the Turkish Embassy, asked us for help. So we took some van loads of stuff and gave it to the embassy.
Philip:But what we discovered is that the Christian churches are a minority in Turkey, and a lot of this stuff that's meant to go there isn't reaching them. So my son Andrew, who has just returned from Moldova, is right now in eastern Istanbul, and the blue van you just saw in that video has driven from Chișinău down to Istanbul. On the way there they got a bad tank of diesel fuel and it ruined the whole fuel system of the van. So it's in a dealership at the moment as I'm talking to you right this minute, and what happened is they had to totally replace the injectors, the fuel pump, the lines, everything in the vehicle, and that's added a $3,500 bill onto our challenge.
Philip:But right now, as soon as we get that van repaired — which is going to be sometime today — we've already bought 40 tents. This pastor asked us if we could help him with a hundred families. You imagine a hundred families. 600,000 buildings have been damaged by the earthquake, 600,000 gone. A million and a half people have nowhere to stay, and we are going down there. Let's see if we can help as many of our brothers and sisters as possible. So between what we're doing in Moldova for the orphan kids, and in Ukraine in the war, and now this added challenge that we have in Turkey, whatever you can do right now — you are going to give a gift that will get right to the point where these people live. This is not going to be eaten up and gobbled up by a big bureaucracy. I'm going to send the money you send me over there and they can buy food tomorrow in Istanbul and get it in that blue van and drive it down and start giving out food.
Philip:And then there are cities closer to the earthquake zone, which is in the southeast of the country, and they'll go there and go back and forth and buy food — as much as we get, we are going to give. So let the Lord speak to your heart today. If you could help us by giving, write a check to the Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. I'll give that again — the Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. The quickest way is to go to dailyfaith.tv. There's a giving button there — hit that button, designated for Turkey or Ukraine or general support, whatever you feel to do. That's where the money will be going. And you can also call us — there's a live, real, honest-to-goodness live person right now — 833 Daily Faith. 833, just dial "Daily Faith" on your keypad and someone will answer. Thank you for calling Orphan's Hands or Daily Faith. So do that right now. Be God's hand extended in these days.
Philip:We're asking God to send revival to America and we're going to talk about that right now. But as we ask God to bless us, the key to being blessed is being a blessing to others, and I thank you for it. I'm so delighted to have John Miller with us. He's pastor of Church on the Rock in Texarkana. This great church has already supported our ministry in Ukraine, and this is a man who's in tune with the world and in tune with heaven. And as these revival stirrings are taking place in the country, I believe God has shown him ways by which we can look historically back to learn how to get this revival and the roots deep enough that it's going to be a lasting move of God in this nation. John, I am so delighted and honored to have you on Daily Faith. Thank you so much for being with us.
John Miller:Listen, it is an honor to be with you today, and I am so moved as I watched what you're doing in Ukraine and in Turkey — a hidden part of the world — and I commend you for that.
Philip:Oh, thank you so much. We are watching revival break out in this country. There are pockets of it, but that's not going to — that's not going to change America, is it?
Asbury Revival and Current Awakening Signs
John Miller:You know, I think probably every Christian is aware that something is happening across America. Now it started at Asbury University in the Wesleyan tradition, and it was not planned. It was just a chapel service and people stayed longer after worship, and before they knew it it's open 24/7. A hundred thousand people went to visit there. But to me, what's the most important thing is this is different. I don't know if you remember the Brownsville Revival — I think it was primarily among those, you know, who believe in the Holy Spirit and his activity.
Philip:And that's — yeah, sure. I drove down there three times.
John Miller:But it was like you went and you touched something in one place, whereas today you can see it's all over the internet. Universities — not only Christian but secular. Texas A&M University, hundreds and hundreds of students are gathering, seeking God. So this, like the Jesus movement of the seventies, seems to be breaking out across America, not just localized to one place, to help people that are aware of our need for and a wait for a revival in the church and a spiritual awakening in the community and our culture.
Philip:And that's the exciting thing, because as you said the Pensacola Revival was a charismatic renewal revival. This thing started — and I was so grateful when I saw it moving in Asbury, because that is of the Wesleyan tradition. It kind of gives everyone the opening and the pathway to it, rather than say, well, that's crazy charismatics. They can say this about this revival. But as I'm saying, unless we find a way to channel this through into the society that America is, it can't just stay in the church, can it?
Brownsville vs. Asbury: Reaching All Traditions
John Miller:No, of course not. And if I could go back in history just a moment, because unfortunately we're historically illiterate as Americans, and even American Christians. There have been troubled times throughout our history, and there have been awakenings and revivals that have happened throughout our history. Let me just give you a brief overview. One was called the Prayer Revival of 1857, and it was called the Businessman's Revival. It wasn't church-led. A million people got saved across the country in this. But culturally, what was going on? The Supreme Court had just decided the Dred Scott case — that African Americans and their descendants couldn't be citizens. So this was just before the Civil War. It was a time of social upheaval, it was a time of financial upheaval, but God sent revival.
The 1857 Businessman's Prayer Revival
John Miller:We've all heard of a man named Charles Finney. Well, under the preaching of Charles Finney — and this happened in Manhattan, New York — now think about this, New York, in some respects the sin city of America. But the Dutch Reformed Church in Manhattan, attendance was going down in membership. They hired a man that got saved under Finney — Joseph Lamphier — and what he did, rather than a church service, he started a 12-to-1 prayer meeting. It started out — first of all he said nobody came for 30 minutes, but then he said a half dozen people eventually showed up. And before you knew it, it grew to every week 30, a hundred people. They outgrew the building, and then what began to happen is it began to spread across America.
John Miller:This same time, banks in New York were closing because of a lack of funds. So you think about our cultural upheaval today — we've got inflation, we've got an escalating war in Ukraine and Russia, we've got this whole transgender thing happening, you know, and all this going on and it seems dark and bleak, but God sends revival. It spread to many major cities across America and a million people came to Christ, and it changed the fabric of the culture. And that's what we're hoping this revival will do. It's not just for a local church to grow or to have exciting programs or to get people hyped up, but that it goes into the culture where people that are away from God — I mean, would it be tremendous if revival broke out in Hollywood and they stopped producing much of the filth that we see? If revival broke out in our political capitals of our states and our counties and even Washington DC, it could change the cultural fabric of the nation.
Revival Transforming Culture and Society
John Miller:Because when people's hearts are changed by God, they make different decisions. It affects their family, it affects their marriage. If you're a politician it affects your stand on whatever it is — abortion, or your care for the poor, whatever the case may be. So when the Lord gets in the heart of cultural leaders and ordinary people, things change. When Jesus was in the temple and he read the scripture — "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me" — there is an anointing to this. Unless this revival has a purpose — what is the purpose? I'll go back to Jerusalem. Jesus told the disciples, "Tarry, wait, and you shall receive power to become witnesses." So a revival isn't just getting a buzz in your belly and thinking, well, this is fabulous. Revival has a purpose.
Philip:What is the reason for doing? We had a move of God in Scotland in our Bible College, 30-odd years ago, and a young man was there and I literally was shepherding him because I thought he's going to fall down and hurt himself. And he began to prophesy and began to speak about, "You're going to touch young people, you're going to change lives." And I'm sitting listening to this young man prophesy thinking, go for it, brother, you're prophesying to yourself, the Lord's talking to you. I had no idea that the outworking of that was all that we're doing in Moldova and Ukraine. That was how the revival outworked in me. So how do we make this more than just a passing move, a passing blessing, to make it change our culture?
John Miller:Well, obviously in the Christian life there are things that we do from discipline and then there are things that we do with desire. Discipline is necessary. For example, you remember the three to four hundred years of silence between Malachi and then when John the Baptist comes on the scene. There are times — Egypt, Israel was in Egypt for several hundred years and then Moses came on the scene. So in the economy of God there are times and seasons where people are just abiding, they're hoping, they're praying. I've been praying for revival most of my life. I came to Christ in the Jesus movement of the seventies, and ever since I've been pastoring we have been praying and believing God for revival. Well, now it seems to be happening.
Making Place for the Holy Spirit in Your Church
John Miller:And what I would suggest to pastors and churches — you don't just have to go somewhere. There's nothing wrong with that. A hundred thousand people, I think, went to the Asbury revival from non-students. But make place in your church. This is important. To give you an example — last week, last Tuesday, our worship leader — because this revival, remember, it started among young people — our young worship leader came and said, normally we practice on Tuesday nights, but he said, I'm feeling this week to invite our entire worship team and just have a night of worship and open it up to anybody that wants to come. And we just put it on social media two days — I think we announced it Sunday and then in the church — and today 350 people showed up. And basically what we did for an hour and a half, we just worshiped God.
John Miller:I mean, there was a little prayer, a little exhortation, but we worshiped God. So we're making place. We did it again, we're doing it again tonight, really. So we'll see if God builds on that. But like in the weekend service, we wanted to make a little extra place from the traditional service that we normally do — hopefully good as that is, listen. But I cut my sermon back 10 minutes. I got my sermon back in it, and then we went into intimate worship, which for many people they don't know what that means. But worship is an invitation to the presence of the Lord. The Bible says enter his gates with thanksgiving, come into his courts with praise. So we just had worship for 10 minutes. I did an altar call in each of our services, and in the course of the weekend 25 people made steps to Christ.
John Miller:Sunday morning in our second — we have three services Sunday — in the second service, after the service was officially closed, they just kept worshiping and they worshiped 40 minutes after the church service was over.
Philip:Oh my.
John Miller:It was because the worship team just made a place to worship a little more. If people want to engage, you can't force people. You can't say we're going to do this two hours or two days or two weeks. But what we're doing right now is going kind of day by day, a week at a time, seeing what we feel like the Holy Spirit wants to do, and we're just making place for God. That's all it takes to get right with God — he will come where there is a place prepared for him.
Philip:My dad used to say to me — and our family has experienced two sovereign revivals in our lives — and dad would say, "Prepare the place for revival, prepare the place, prepare the place, and the Holy Ghost will only come to where he's welcome. He is a gentleman, he will not move unless you ask him to move." And by rearranging things, just a wee bit, what you've done is you've said to the Holy Spirit, "You are welcome in this place." And I feel today, John, that a lot of pastors are looking for what to do and how to handle this. And we've only got a couple of minutes left — tell them, starting this Sunday, how can they begin to prepare the place for the Holy Ghost to come? You just told us what you've just done, brilliant.
Practical Steps Pastors Can Take This Sunday
John Miller:Okay, here's what I would do if I was starting this weekend. If you don't have prayer with your leaders and staff, I would have a prayer time before church started with my leaders. I would invite them to come. And then let's say the service starts at 10 o'clock — at 9:55 or 9:57, whatever — I would have someone have the congregation stand and lead the congregation in prayer, to get drawn in. I would encourage the worship leader to be careful on the songs that he or she picks, so that they're not just songs about God but they're songs to God. "How Great Thou Art" — one of the greatest of the ages. There are many popular songs today. I would let the worship welcome that.
John Miller:And again, like I said, what we did — I just preached 10 minutes less and had a couple more worship songs at the end and just encouraged people to draw near to God. Many came out on their knees. Invite people to the altar. But you're just looking for places where people can break out of the religious norm and make a step to the Lord. I was last weekend down in Saraland, First Assemblies of God — great friend of my dad's — and they're having a move of God right now, and it's all young folk. All the young folk got together on one side of the church and it's like a power pack, and all these kids — the elders with their hands up — and the young folk are inspiring the church to praise and worship.
Philip:And so I just want to thank you for being with us today, John. I want to have you back. I love talking to you. I just feel there's such a reservoir of blessing in your life. And I pray that if you're anywhere near Church on the Rock in Texarkana, the website is churchontherock.org — go and see my friend and get your toe dipped in the river of the Holy Ghost. It will transform your life forevermore. I promise you there's more that can be received from God in an instant with his presence than a thousand books will ever give you. So thank you again, John, for being with us. We love you.
John Miller:Listen, I love you too. And let me encourage you — download the app, Church on the Rock Texarkana, and you can watch the service anytime.
Philip:Fabulous. Thank you, John. Thank you for being part of Daily Faith today. We pray blessings upon you. Pray for our kids in Turkey right now. We'll see you later. Bye.
For over 25 years the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They championed the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. He equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries.
Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. Want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people? Please contact us today by calling 833 Daily Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What is John Miller doing at his church to make room for revival right now?
Miller has been hosting extra worship nights — announced with just two days' notice — that drew 350 people, and he cut his Sunday sermon by 10 minutes to add extended worship at the end of each service. He says he's taking it week by week, following what he senses the Holy Spirit wants, rather than scheduling a set number of nights in advance.
How is the current revival different from the Brownsville/Pensacola Revival of the 1990s?
Miller points out that Brownsville was largely localized — people traveled to one specific place to experience it. Today's revival is spreading across the internet and breaking out at multiple universities, including secular ones like Texas A&M, making it feel more like the nationwide Jesus Movement of the 1970s rather than a single-site event.
What historical revival does John Miller think is most similar to what's happening today, and why?
Miller draws a strong parallel to the Prayer Revival of 1857, also called the Businessman's Revival, in which a simple weekly prayer meeting started by one man in Manhattan eventually spread to major cities and led to a million people coming to Christ. He notes that revival came then during a time of financial instability and social upheaval — conditions he sees mirrored in America today.
What practical steps does John Miller suggest a pastor take this Sunday to prepare for revival?
He recommends starting with a prayer time among leaders and staff before the service begins, then opening the congregation in corporate prayer right before worship starts. He also urges worship leaders to choose songs directed to God rather than just about God, preach a slightly shorter sermon, add a couple of worship songs at the close, and give an altar call — creating small openings for people to step toward the Lord.
According to John Miller, what is the actual purpose of revival — why isn't it just about the experience itself?
Miller says revival has to move beyond an emotional experience and into the culture. He points to Jesus' words in Acts — 'you shall receive power to become witnesses' — and argues that when God changes people's hearts, it affects their families, marriages, and even the decisions of political and cultural leaders. His hope is that revival would reach places like Hollywood and state capitals, changing the moral fabric of the nation.
Topics
john millerchurch on the rockasbury revivalspiritual awakeningprayer revivalholy spiritworship