Live from Altars: Donna MacNeil

Hey folks, John Tyson here. As you know earlier this year, we gathered here in New York City

for our annual Alters Conference. And what we've heard over the last few days, the stories of

what God's done has been incredible. We had leaders preach, word shaping, hunger inducing,

scripture infused sermons. And we want to be able to make these sermons as widely available

to as many people as possible so that they'll be a blessing to you and your church. Alongside that,

we recorded some deeper conversations with the people who taught and some other key voices

around the themes of prayer and revival going deeper into their stories. And these conversations

are going to be available through the Awakened Network and you can find out more at AwakenNetwork.com.

And we're excited to announce tickets for Alters 2027 are available now. We're back here in New York.

Last year they sold out quickly. So if you want to be with us, get your tickets today. I hope

these talks and gathering together will be a blessing to you and your church. See you at Alters.

Hey, you're listening to the Awakened Network podcast. And this is Zach Mirkrieve's one of

the friends of John and Sam. In this episode, we are live at Alters Conference in New York City.

You're going to hear some noise, some laughter. That's because we're just kind of backstage

with our family. And that's our heart for Awakened Network is just continue to create spaces

for family, pursuing awakening, multiplying vessels and Alters. Today, you're going to hear from

someone who has spoken at conference and we're just going to kind of double click on their topic.

So I hope you enjoy and we hope to see you soon. Hey, all Zach here. And I'm here at Alters

Live in a sketchy side room. And I'm here with Donna. Donna, will you introduce yourself

and tell the listeners who you are, where you're from and we'll jump in? Absolutely. Welcome

listeners. It's a joy to be here. My name's Donna McNeil. And I am from the Iter Hebrides. And I

passed a church with my husband. Well, he's the senior pastor. I'm just ministry support worker.

And we're in a traditional church of Scotland, where God has been doing very

untraditional things over the last few years. Here at Alters, 2026, just a joy and an honor to be here

with God's people, just pursuing more of his presence. Amazing. And we just heard you talk. And

something that really, really hit me and my wife, Kristen, was the fire for sobriety and honor

around God's name and who he is and the fear of the Lord and reverence. What, like, where has

that come from? What was planted in you that makes that key to your journey with him?

Okay, so my culture and upbringing would have a lot to do with that. In the Hebrides, the culture,

there's always been like a godly fear and a god awareness amongst people. Not fear,

as in terrified of God, but just our right reverence for who he is. So back in like even 40s,

50s, 60s, people were predominantly church goersh and it was people's routine and rhythm to go

to church in a Sunday. You wouldn't have thought of anything else because Sunday was the day you

worship God. Families also did what was called family worship. And that was a really big thing in

the Highlands and Islands and in Scotland, really where people would gather in the morning before

going to work, get around God's word and pray. And last thing at night, the head of the home again

would read the word, gather the family and pray. And astoundingly, that was people who weren't even

professing Christians. And so we were brought up through, I mean, my grandparents were Christians

and I actually saw this model where they would read the word, gather the family and pray.

And also in our schools, we said the Lord's Prayer every single morning before we started our day.

So there's a god awareness. And that's so that's really where that came from.

That's amazing. I love that the word you just got awareness.

Yeah.

And in your talk and even just before jumping on prison record, it's like it's a burden.

It feels like fiery from your spiritual guts. You know, like,

no, I'm not going to put up with that. Like, could you pastress? Could you speak through

the person who's listening to this on a treadmill or in the car?

Like, why? Why does it matter? And what's the burden on your heart about that?

So Zach, I am a mother in the faith. I would say I'm a mother in the natural.

I've got two kids, she'd say that and I've got two grandchildren,

son-in-law, daughter-in-law. And so my mother in the natural and I'm a mother in the faith.

And I've been around the block for years watching what's going on and how movements are watching

from my distance, different movements and how people are developing and growing in their quest

for God. And it's a part in me, this little hobby of mine. If it offends anyone,

I don't mean any offense, but it for me, I've just watched God become so taken down to people's

level. And it's not just my culture. I have to tell you, it's my own understanding and

relationship with God where I am so in love with Jesus. And I understand that and I love that

relationship I have with him. But I also really recognize the sovereignty of God and the all of God.

And as we read our Bibles, we recognize, hey, look at all the words for God,

Jehovah and the Lord God Almighty, King of Heaven and Earth, Yahweh, Alpha and Omega,

big words. But through the church over the years, I see that people have taken God down to our

level. And I think this whole sort of like we've we've tried to win the generations happen to be

by going, Oh, God loves you and God is so. Yeah, Jesus is my home boy. Yes. And that's a truth

that God loves you. But the other truth we need to package with that is he's the Son of God. He's

the bridegroom that's coming back for his bride. Stop flipping him off. When I hear young people,

like in my message today, I find myself saying that about taking God down to our level, like,

say that. Yeah, God's okay with me doing that. I know in his word it says not to, but me and God

were cool. It's okay if I do that sin and that sin is not okay. An angel, dude, an angel, bro,

he is the Lord God of heaven and earth who hates sin. And we come to him through the blood of Jesus.

So, you know, this over familiarity with God, you've familiarity with God is based on a love

relationship. But guys, we must always be so careful. He is God. And we are just his children.

And so like we respect our parents and to have that reverence and respect for older generation,

how much more should we have respect for the Lord God of heaven and earth? And I just see,

I teach my own, taught my own Kurds, teach the young people their own church, this,

this thing as well about we need to have a known a reverence. And I, and I see it, you know,

better call it than taught, but we need both. Yeah, you said a line that I won't say perfectly,

but it just, it took my breath away because so much of what I do now is on like university campuses,

ever since I was married. And you said, we, so many Christians pray like here, kitty, kitty,

when it's the line of Judah. Yes. And I was like, whoa. And I think that's what revival is,

like when a place is under an output of God's spirit and the reverence rises. Yeah.

That's what we're longing for. We have this podcast and this community around awakening. And

when a, a community comes into full like convincing of his, of his kingship, that's what I said about

as very, when I sent a voicemail to my wife the day it started and said, Jesus has enthroned

himself in this room. Yeah. Sure. And home for you, the Hebrides has a history of that. Yeah.

Of geographies sitting under the lordship of Jesus coming into full commenting. Can you tell a

little bit of those who are new to the conversations around revival and awakening like tidbit history.

And how do you steward the inheritance while honoring what God's done longing for more? Because

listeners that are probably near as is a street and new near Pensacola near places where God has

moved. How do you guys honor the inheritance honor the ground? Yeah. Okay. So we'll probably pagan

that and I'll come back to that. I just want to pick up a strand from what we were seeing about

the all and the reverence. And I think another thing about all and reverence is really important to

Christians in this day and age is that we obey God's word. Yes. The scriptures tell us

to obey is better than sacrifice. Wow. And we're to obey but we struggle to obey God's word. And

that's another part of the reverence of just obeying what he tells us. And so I think we're seen

all over the earth what happens when you don't obey and you try and hard hide sin. God will take

it into the light. So we need to get that stuff dealt with in his mercy and his grace. And I'll

skip back to questions back. Thank you. I'm grateful because I think what we're longing for too is

yeah, the renewal of a longing to read his words. Yeah. I just got to be walking out all of this

stuff. Yeah. And we got a letter's word loose. It's such a power. And so many Christians actually

don't read his word. I'm like seriously like I was brought up when I was I was saved as a teenager.

And so many people don't read the word. Oh, you don't need to read it daily or you don't need it.

Yes, you do. You need to get God's word. And you learn it, stand on it and be obedient to it.

But I do want to speak about revival. I've carried revival in my heart just all my life for a long

time. I need to see God move. Being brought up in Hebrides with a heritage of revival. I also

was so hungry. I would just read all the books about Azusa and you know, here it was happening

Toronto and Pensacola and just just familiarize myself. And then of course happening in Asbury.

And so we're sitting on wells of revival. Well, so revival. That have dried up. I would say that

you know, that they're not moving just now. It's like the pool of Bethesda when you're praying

for the angel to come and move. And I just think that for me, it's just so simple. Like if it

wasn't even in the head of this echo, well, God, you did that in Asbury. You can do it here. God,

you did that and look at these masses of people coming to know you at these big revival campaigns in

Africa. You can do it in our city. God, look what you're doing in Brazil or Argentina and we stand on

that and we that's coming up with prayer as well. And we say, God, would you do it here?

And I honor the ground. I honor what God did in Lewis and the Hibirides, Lewis and Hardis and

the Islands. And it's then I've also been around. So the first church we were in, we were there

for four and a half years. We were actually in Barvis. My husband was the minister there.

So we were so blessed to have the last like remnant of some of these older generation who were

in the revival around and they're of a different ilk. And so getting their stories and their

testimonies and you just see the difference that that closeness of the presence of God made

as well as all the salvations and you're like, God, we'll need you to move again.

Yes. So we honor what he did in the past, but we don't rest on that. We look to what we believe

God can do now and in the future as we ever prepare ourselves. We have to be loving and preparation.

Yeah. We have to be looking to enlarge our tent pegs and our communities in different ways

that we can serve our communities and our young people in our different age groups.

With a view to God, will you move? Will you come in your power? And he can do everything that we

kind of even think or imagine. Come on. I'm grateful for for you. Like as I heard you this morning

and sitting here, like faith is rising, I think, yeah, it can get people can get weary, you know,

and I think something that as I've talked about wearing us with John, he has pointed to this concept

that you just mentioned, the covenantal prayer of, yeah, can you unpack that and even like

instruct a leader who might be weary, who might really deep down if they're honest, love the idea,

but not know, will it happen? Can it happen? Could you pastor us and coach us on that concept?

I think it's it's such a huge topic to give a sound bite or two, but I think as well we're back to

the power of the word of God. It's the word of God. And so much as we talk about the revival stories

and histories of other places, it's like God moving in his word and being obedient to, you know,

calling me and I will answer you. Yeah. You know, it's like standing on his scripture. God,

you said that if we called on you, the Jew would answer us. So it's really just pray,

praying the promises of God back to him. Yeah. And humility. Yeah. And an awareness of his power,

but also that I think God loves to answer the prayers that we've yet to pray. Yes. So we need to

lift that mantle of praying the word of God. And so that's why we've got to know the word of God

and we've got the live obedient to the word of God so that we can stand in his authority and

pray they should take ground by praying these. Yeah, planning your feet on that. Yeah, praying these

prayers. And then that's where I would move into the revival thing and say, God, you did that.

Lord, I spoke to the people where you broke out in the church or you broke out in the community,

Lord, you drew people. You did supernatural. There was a lot of supernatural things in the

Hebrews revival. And it's just lifting these things to God before him, standing on these promises.

It's so good. And I think one thing that we've talked about a little bit is how

you know, there's just season that's about to come out in the podcast that talks about the

tension between like the Christian leadership subculture and then the revival prayer subculture.

Sometimes there's a vacancy that we can get, you know, obsessed with leadership,

reading the next book and we forget the presence of God, move of God. We just tried it. We want

to lead it. We want to plan it. We need to whiteboard it. And then there's the prayer and revival

did it where sometimes leadership is there's there's a misunderstanding around leadership.

I think something that I keep on hearing from you is also going back to God's word.

And sometimes when we're passionate about revival, passionate about the presence of God,

even Gen Z, something that I've been concerned about post-Ausbury and beyond, is God forbid we

just get a bunch of people fired up about prayer and worship nights. They're not reading the

Bible and living holy lives or living on mission. That's something that we need to talk about.

But I just want to highlight for the folks that are longing for a move of God that there's a couple

there's a couple of things that you don't get to leave out as you read the Hebrides story or the

Asbury story. It's a story of God in his word. And so I so appreciate what you carry in that and

you know, we're trying to keep these short but potent. And I wonder if if there is an

exhortation like a challenge, it could be something you've already said, it could be something that

you wish you said on stage at conference or in this room, that for the listener, before we close

a challenge or exhortation or an encouragement, the spiritual mama hug, whatever you need,

whatever's on your heart. Okay, so the spiritual mama is like I just want to cheer you all on,

keep going, keep pursuing, keep him front and center always. Don't fall for the mirage of the Christian

leadership thing. Don't rush the process, God will get you where he wants you in his time. Don't

you know, let him work on you and prepare you, character overgift in every time.

So I cheer you all on. I think that I was seeing get a bigger vision. I get a vision for your life

that's bigger than you, but also start with you to meet yet. So I was the first saved in my family

and I started praying for my dad. He was really anti God, really anti God. And my dad got saved.

It was incredible. I was praying, a praying, a praying and there was no one more shocked

than me that God answered the prayer because it was such a change in his life. And then over a

couple of years my mum got saved and my two sisters got saved. Pray for your family, guys.

Pray for your family and even if they don't go to church and they're not interested in God,

just pray for them, start praying for them, pray for your community, pray for your school,

pray for your university campus. Yes. Start praying for God to move even in those around you.

You don't just have to pray for the big prayers of revival to come,

pray for salvation to come of your family and your friends and celebrate that and rejoice in

that. And then you've got God, you saved them. You can do it again and take more people in your

prayer list to the Lord. So yeah, that's a word for me too. I was actually hearing that

last night. This is just to take on prayer for my family. I'm only Christian, my family.

So thank you for that. That resonates with me. Well, me, that's me. You start on my

testimony, his act. I'll take it. I will take it to the bank of heaven. Come on.

I would love to close all these podcasts, live altars with like a short prayer for you.

And everyone who's listening, take this time to go to war for you and your family and your church.

Well, that's 15 people listening or 1500, whatever. So we're just going to take this time.

I'm going to pray out loud and wherever you're at, listen to this podcast. Would you pray to yourself

or out loud for their sweet family, for their city, for their inheritance, for their church,

for these kiddos, for the grandkids. So I'm going to pray and then we'll close. So Jesus,

thank you so much for my new friend, the sister, spiritual mother. I pray that you would

pour out your spirit on her. I pray that the most intimate times with you, Jesus, would be as she

reads your word in private. I pray that the most impressive, vibrant, potent times of ministry is

ministry to you and you to her in the secret place. Jesus, I pray a protection. I plead the blood

over her and her family, this church, all the generations behind her. We pray Psalm 9, 111,

that you would command your angels concerning her. They will lift her up in her hands,

who will put an hour strike a stone. So I pray that you would assign you angels to her,

as she's here at conference and she heads back home whenever she's done. And Jesus, I pray that you

continue knit the hearts together of everyone who's listening and this sweet family that we would

become a like a net to receive all that you have for us, a vessel weaved across the world

to catch what you want to deposit. So bless your Lord and we all said this in your name, Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Thank you for having me and God bless your listeners to just keep pursuing, keep being hungry

and keep going after more of God. Amen. Hey guys, thanks for listening. I hope it was encouraging

and equipping. If it is encouraging, jump on AwakenedNetwork.com. If you want to be in this community,

we have a membership for you. We have these Awakened Leadership one days where we'll talk about

topics like this one, leave a review, share all that podcast stuff. But God bless you guys.

Inglation 6.9 says, do not grow weary in doing good for in due time you'll re-put you so

if you don't lose heart.