Where’s the Promised Revival?

There has always been a lot of talk about “revival” in churches, but despite doing all we’ve been told to do to bring revival about, it still eludes us. We believe it is fair to ask, “Why?” After doing all we’d been told to do see revival break out (live holy lives, pray and fast, etc.) we didn’t see what we’d been assured would happen. In fact, we felt even farther away from our goal.

We were doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. At some point, we had to ask ourselves, are we going in the wrong direction? Why isn’t this working? Is there a better way?

We at Grace and Faith Ministries have discovered the real “key” to revival is NOT in what WE do. The truth is that revival comes through God’s people understanding the good news of what JESUS did through His life, death, and resurrection. When we understand who we are and what we have been given IN HIM, we begin to enjoy the revival HE already brought. This understanding brings about the maturity, liberty, joy, and peace that God sent His Son to give us.

Who We Are

Grace and Faith Ministries is an outreach to believers in Jesus Christ. We are an approved teaching ministry with the Northern California Nevada District of the Assemblies of God.

Our Calling

We have been called to “preach the gospel to the saved”; that is, to share with believers the good news of God’s abiding love for them.

What We Believe and Teach

Click here.

Resources and Ministry

Our website, graceandfaithministries.org, is available to anyone free of charge. On it, we offer in-depth video teachings about many New Testament books of the Bible and some topical studies. There are notes for most of these video teachings which are even more in-depth. Some videos do not have notes, and some notes do not have videos.

We also have a weekly inspirational Zoom meeting, SGF Life, which includes worship, teaching, communion, prayers, testimonies, and fellowship before and after the meeting. You can link to that meeting Sundays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (New York) by clicking HERE and using the Passcode: SGF. An optional fellowship is added to this meeting 30 minutes before and after the service time

Speaking Ministry

We are available to speak to congregations or at conferences located in the USA. If you are a pastor or conference coordinator who is interested in having David and/or Cathy Hildebrand to speak at your church or conference, please contact us by emailing us HERE. We are only available in the USA. Please do not contact us to solicit funds. All such emails will be deleted.

Our Grace and Faith Awakening

We met at age 19 while attending a church in Chico, California in early 1974. We became good friends and married in late 1975. Both of us were called into ministry and began to prepare. David graduated from Capitol Bible Institute and Cathy took coursework through Berean School of the Bible. We served as Sunday School teachers, college pastors, managers of a Christian coffee house outreach, and youth pastors, and then home missions pastors. In 1987, when we could not find employment in ministry, we began to develop secular careers, David as a financial adviser, and Cathy as a school teacher. During those years, we raised three children who are now married and have given us eleven adorable grandchildren.

In 1987-88, something unexpected happened to us. Cathy had been asking God about the distance she felt between herself and God and how she did not feel He loved her. While admitting it had to be her fault, she was still faced with this reality that God seemed far away, even though she knew better theologically. She simply asked God to help her find her way back to that first love of knowing His love for her and being aware of His presence. When switching to a secular career, she found herself unable to do her normal spiritual disciplines, and to her surprise, this is when her joy with God was restored. She no longer could base her relationship with God on her efforts and had to totally rely on His grace and her faith in Him. It was a wonderful yet troubling discovery for she was forced to realize she had taken some wrong turns in her Christian beliefs.

About a year later, David experienced a similar awakening. Feeling himself to be a failure for not having been successful in ministry, he wanted to give up, and yet, not on Jesus, but just on “being a Christian”. Through the ministry of a Christian radio program, he began to hear once again the message of the good news of God’s love for him, apart from works and the joy of his salvation returned.

At this time, we both let our ordinations lapse with the Assemblies of God because we could not find employment as ministers.

Life went on. We continued to raise our children while developing our careers and relearning just about everything we thought we knew about our relationship with God. It was as if God was delicately doing surgery and removing false teaching from our lives. Every time a false belief was removed, joy was restored in that area.

In 2007 our pastor asked us to start a Bible school in the church, which we did. To our surprise, as we began to teach the truths God had shared with us over the years, many of the students had a similar awakening, a return to understanding how deeply they were loved and a renewed enthusiasm toward serving Him.

In 2009 the Lord spoke to Cathy asking her, “Are you willing to preach the gospel to the saved?” She instantly understood what He meant and said, “Yes.” David was in agreement with this calling on our lives. We resigned our positions with our church and sought the Lord as to what to do next.

For the last fifteen years, we have been teaching believers about God’s amazing grace in a series called “Studies in Grace and Faith”. Those who participate have come to realize God’s love for them and are returning to the joy of their salvation.