Pat Schatzline: 2018 Is the ‘Year of the Prodigal Awakening’

Pat and Karen Schatzline spoke about the importance of returning to the altar as a place of Christian experience and lifestyle. During the teaching at the Charisma Conference 2018, Pat said 2018 was the year of prodigal awakening. He said the story of the prodigal son was his favorite altar call in all of Scripture.

“See, the Lord spoke to us that this would be the year of the prodigal awakening,” Pat said. “Already we’ve [seen] tens of thousands come back to Christ.”

But he said it only takes a few generations to lose that rekindled love for God, pointing to the book of Joshua. Despite saying he saw the next generation as being unafraid of speaking in tongues, Pat said, “I’m frustated because I believe we’re one generation away from the extinction of Pentecost.”

Karen said the key to real spiritual change is restoring the place of encounter: the altar.

“You will never rebuild the altar, you will never get to the altar of repentance until you’re willing to lay your own life upon the altar,” Karen said. “Until you’re willing to sacrifice your flesh, your dreams, everything about yourself in order to see Him rise again.”

The Schatzlines said their goal is to put 10,000 physical altars in homes throughout America. Pat said 400 altars had been planted so far, and one would be put in President Trump’s house soon.

“You need to understand that all through God’s Word, when you build an altar, it stops famine,” Pat said. “It begins to rain. The pattern of Elijah. The pattern of Nehemiah when he built an altar.”

Karen added that Elijah must serve as a model for what Christians need to do as a people.

“What is the Elijah anointing?,” she said. “That he rebuilt the altar. That he destroyed Jezebel who came against the anointing. And what did he do? He anointed the next generation.”

Pat set up an altar at the front of the stage and invited conference attendees to come to the altar. He challenged the church to let the Holy Spirit back in.

“Could it be that the dwelling place of the glory of God has been hijacked by a message of relevance?” Pat said. “Could it be that we’ve turned the preacher into an actor, the audience determines the message, while the Holy Spirit is locked out in the streets? … Could it be that God is saying I’m looking for a church that’ll invite me back in.”

Watch part of the final altar call in the video above.