Taking our Cities for God:  How to break spiritual strongholds

by John Dawson. Word, 1989.    Reviewed by Stephen Milstead.

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship– PDF

Share good news  –  Share this page freely
Copy and share this link on your media, eg Facebook, Instagram, Emails:
An article in Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/discipleship/

Taking Our Cities for God explores history, geography, demographics, and spiritual warfare as part of an overall strategy in wining a city for Christ.  John Dawson gives sound biblical foundations illustrated with examples of his own experience in dealing with spiritual powers and principalities.  Floyd McClung notes, “Occasionally a book comes along that is more than a good book, it is indeed a word from God. This is such a book” (p. 11).

People face a multitude of problems and opposition by spiritual forces on a daily basis.  John Dawson identifies certain keys and spiritual insights into how we may overcome these obstacles, which may be instrumental in a overall strategy to winning any city in the world for Christ.  He covers topics such as studying the spirituality of a city’s history; discerning the spiritual strongholds which work against a city; the power of intercession for a city; planing and gaining God’s strategy in breaking strongholds and restoring a city for God; and gaining understanding of the weaknesses of the spirit realm over a city.  The book has a thirteen lesson study guide which includes an application for daily living.

Taking Our Cities for God has five sections.

Section One:  Battle Stories

Besides the biblical and personal examples of spiritual warfare in missions and evangelism, Dawson devotes part of this section to teaching Scriptural principles.  He describes the work of the Holy Spirit in the gift of discernment of spirits, and reveals the importance of acting from obedient will and faith.  He brings clarity to a very touchy subject for many Christians.  His dependence on God, and insistence of working with the Holy Spirit is evident, and brings this crucial situation to the door step of the reader, in any city.

Dawson combines his theory with experience. An interesting example occurred in Argentina when a group of Youth With a Mission workers came against the city’s spiritual stronghold (Pride) and humbled themselves by kneeling down with their foreheads on the ground praying.  All over downtown Cordoba, Youth with a Mission workers preached to attentive audiences and a harvest of souls began (pages 19‑20).

Section Two:  Deliver The Dark City

Over half the world population lives in urban centres (p.34).  In developed nations like the U.S. the percentage is much higher, e.g. 91% of California’s population live in cities. He examines the historical issues of today’s modern cities, taking into consideration some of the changes that have taken place.  For example, Los Angeles has four and a half million Hispanics, is the second largest Chinese city outside Asia and second largest  Japanese city outside of Japan (p35).  Since the fall of communism in Russia the remark that Marxist cities are closed to the gospel is no longer applicable.

Dawson compels the reader to ask “Why is this town here?” (p43) and gives examples of God’s purpose in the location of a city.  For example Omaha was once the place where pioneering wagon trains were provisioned for the arduous trail into the western wilderness.  “We believe that we are still to equip the pioneers,” one pastor told me.  “This  time it is to support world‑wide missionary work.”  Now that’s a vision worth living for (p44).

Dawson realised the benefit of examining how a city will grow and change over the next twenty years.  He develops  an argument from an historical view of how relationships have changed with the modern city’s growth.

Section Three:  Discerning The Gates Of Your City

Dawson’s main thrust in this section is to know the city’s history and what has brought about change.  “When you look into the history of your city, you will find clues as to what is oppressing the people today” (p77).

He calls upon the prophets, intercessors and spiritual fathers to be the “watchmen” over the city, with the emphasis on repentance, reconciliation and prayer, alert to current and future trends.  Uncovering these trends will help the church to advance.

Dawson studies the concept covenant over a city.  He cites good examples such as  the Azuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, and Wilber Chapman and Aimee Semple McPherson in Denver.  He encourages the reader to seek God and find out what point of entry evil had to gain entrance to a city or nation. He lists twenty questions ranging through religious divisions, wars, poor leadership, economic corruption and racial practices.

Section 4: Learning To Fight

Dawson concludes that we must fight because through Jesus we have regained our stewardship of the earth (p.158).  He provides the reader with the foundational traits of spiritual warfare by taking spiritual discernment a step further.  He has demonstrates the realities of the two kingdoms – God’s and Satan’s rebel province ‑ and includes a biblical background on angels and their origin and functions.  He reveals the tactics of spiritual warfare by first focusing on Jesus, the giver of the spiritual gifts.  We are provided with the power of the cross and with the truth of Scripture .

Section 5. Into Battle: 5 Steps To Victory

Dawson divides this section into worship‑ the place of beginnings, waiting on the Lord for insight, identifying with the sins of the city, overcoming evil with good, and travailing till birth.  Part of his strategy involves the importance of waiting on God, and allowing God to reveal the situation in the spirit.  We need to come to him with repentance and humility.  Dawson gives practical advice about overcoming evil with good by resisting temptation and taking positive action through prayer and fasting.  Again the emphasis is on ministry in the opposite spirit, such as overcoming pride with humility or violence with turning the other cheek.

Dawson combines his theology with practical experience in the front line of spiritual warfare.  His examination of the historical and geographical nature of a city provides an excellent understanding of how the demographics of a city will effect an outreach.  His examples of the size and nature of various ethnic groups within Los Angeles demonstrates the problems a local church may face in the mission field.  His consideration of trends was also an interesting revelation, as most churches do operate with a catch up mentality.

Dawson gives examples of occasions when he got it wrong, and also when he got it right.  He maintains a balance, observing that although he has given the reader very good keys to the taking of our cities for God, it is necessary to seek God for ourselves.

(c) 2011, 2nd edition.  Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues & links to articles

Amazon – books & journals

Book Deposistory – free shipping worldwise (so cheapest)

Back to Renewal Journals

The “Diana Prophecy”

by Robert MQuillan

Dr Robert McQuillan wrote as editor of The Australian Evangel, the national monthly magazine of the Assemblies of God.

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship– PDF

Share good news  –  Share this page freely
Copy and share this link on your media, eg Facebook, Instagram, Emails:
The “Diana Prophecy”, by Robert McQuillan:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/the-diana-prophecy-byrobert-mcquillan/
An article in Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/discipleship/

__________________________________

a powerful fresh move of God

sweeping through many churches

_______________________________________________

 “When Princess Diana died, and particularly the weekend of her funeral (September 6, 1997), this nation found its soul,” Wynne Lewis, general superintendent Elim Pentecostal Churches (UK), told me when I was in England recently.  “There came a realization of the stark reality that a heroine had gone – tragically – and life and materialism are very uncertain.  It has become easier to preach salvation and the need to trust God.”

Indeed there has been a powerful fresh move of God sweeping through many churches, including mainline and the various pentecostal streams as well as the historic AOG and Elim movements.

A Significant Sign

Many Christians and leaders spoke of the so-termed ‘Diana prophecy’ received in two parts by a Sheffield lady as being highly significant to the nation.  In case you missed it, the following is an extract:

(16/5/97) “I am at work in the heart and the spirit of the people of this nation.  I am doing a work which, at the moment, is unseen.  Things are happening much more quickly than you think.  And as a sign, there will be a day very soon when the whole nation will mourn and put flowers in the cities.”

(31/8/97) “When that day happens the sign is this: the speed at which the heart and the spirit of the people of this nation can be affected, that is the speed at which I will work among this nation.  Do not think that what you see and hear of are small, insignificant happenings.  Do not despise the day of small things.  For I tell you, when you see this sign, I am on the move in the cities of this nation and where flowers are laid, my Spirit will be moving faster than those flowers are removed.

“For I am bringing the power of my Spirit to bear on the cities.  As fast as that mourning went through the nation, joy will go through this nation.  And I tell you that you will know the miraculous entering your lives.  You will see changes in areas where you never expected to see changes.  You will see relatives you never expected to see coming into the kingdom of God.  You will know areas in your life where you’ve battled and battled and never overcome – you will overcome in a day, says the Lord.  For I am at work in this nation and I will bring (it) to its knees before me and they will know the joy of their salvation in the mighty risen Lord Jesus.

“Therefore, rejoice.  And do not let that spirit of mourning pervade your own spirit.  Do not let that spirit of mourning grasp at your heart.  For you have joy inexpressible in your hearts.  Therefore, let the rivers of living water flow from within you and know that you will have many opportunities from this point to speak of my grace, to speak of my love, to see in action my Spirit at work.  Know that I will be with you in that and you will see the miraculous, says the Lord.”

God is Moving

There are several major spiritual initiatives and thrusts occurring in the UK.  In particular concentrated prayer, as in other European nations and the States, has become a top priority with many leaders and churches and is bringing amazing results.  London especially has become a main target for prayer.  Powerful prayer meetings and conferences are calling for the nation and Christians to repent before a holy God.  Church services see people repenting at the altar and even where they’re sitting.

Ken and Lois Gott’s Revival Now Ministries’ great October prophetic conference was no exception when God’s Spirit ‘blew in’ a wind of repentance and forgiveness regarding snobbish attitudes between people ‘representing’ the north and the south of England. Then individuals from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jamaica, Germany and South Africa also came to the altar to similarly apologise for their countries’ wrong attitudes towards the British.  Tears flowed openly and prayer for the nation as a whole was powerful. Humbly recognising afresh that Jesus is the answer to all humankind’s needs, other nations were also prayed for.

Pioneer People’s Gerald Coates unadvertised Sowing the Seeds of Revival meetings in the rotunda  Emmanuel Centre, Mawson Street (close to Westminster Abbey) five nights a week attracted over 40,000 people in a matter of months.  Around 150 full of faith Chinese Christians purchased the former Christian Science building for only £2.6 million instead of the asking price £6m.  Allowing the Pioneer Team to use the church has resulted in hundreds saved, many on their knees and in tears, and lives changed.  Personalities from Parliament and Buckingham Palace have visited and been touched by God.  Dustbin loads of surrendered pornography, illegal drugs and weapons, masonic jewellery and clothing and personal effects have had to be dumped.

London’s Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) and Queens Road Baptist continue to hold significant revival meetings with hundreds of attenders hungry for God.  Many AOG and Elim churches are moving in revival and planting more churches.  There is a greater openness to networking to gain more meaningful results, and many noteworthy conferences are held across the nation.  More and more churches are taking HTB’s Alpha program on board and seeing converts and stronger disciples of Christ.  Over half a million people have embraced the course.

Reaching Out

The AOG of Great Britain and Ireland has increased by 250 churches in the past four years.  General Superintendent Paul Weaver sees the need for strong churches effectively communicating the gospel locally.  With 650 fully accredited churches and several probationary, the AOG in the UK is determined to play its role in impacting the nation, and reaching thousands for Christ.  Their general conference this year – Impact 21, affecting change in the power of the Spirit – should prove historic in inspiring and releasing leaders.

Christian Channel Europe, headed up by Rory and Wendy Alec, was finding good response from the UK and Europe when based in Crown House.  Miraculously God arranged for the Alecs to be given top class TV studios nearby.  Despite a presently limited time slot, 3am to 7am, CCE has been reaching as far away as the Baltics.  Now, with the greater facilities, the channel will ‘hit Europe and the UK in a bigger and more effective way.’

Kensington Temple, England’s largest pentecostal church, has tapped into the incredible potential of satellite TV for its churches and teaching  courses.  These programs reach Europe as well as the UK.  Praying and open-air preaching by KT youth at Leicester Square has seen thousands saved.  Over 2000 people now attend KT’s Sunday night services in the new ex-BBC warehouse auditorium in North Acton.   A whole month of  ‘unprogrammed’ meetings Wednesday through Saturday saw hundreds of lives dramatically changed, healings and signs and wonders.  On the Saturday nights the church took to the streets and saw hundreds saved.

Sense of God’s Time

Many believe strongly that God is at work in the nation and exerting his influence as Sovereign Lord over churches and Christians.  Leaders are becoming more challenged and sensitive to allowing the Holy Spirit to have his way.

Ken Gott virtually echoed Wynne Lewis’ words when he stated, ‘Britain found its soul when people prayed along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, “Our Father, your kingdom come.”  Princess Diana’s death deeply touched the nation spiritually.  There is a searching going on!’

He then told of a man in a London pub who went over to two other men who were sitting quietly having a meal.  He was searching, desperate for answers, and ‘somehow knew’ they were Christians.

‘Sir,’ he said to one, ‘I perceive you are a man of integrity.  Do you have something to say to me?’

‘Yes, Jesus loves you.’

‘Do you have anything else to say?’

‘Yes, you’re dying.’

It was a sure word of knowledge.  The man was dying – from AIDS.  He had been walking all day around London praying to the God he did not know personally and saying, ‘If you’re real, God, reveal yourself.’  God did and the man got saved!

There is a definite awareness of God’s time for the UK.  Prophet Paul Cain has declared that God has targeted Great Britain for harvest.  I sensed it deeply in my own spirit and encouraged many to believe for God to raise their nation on a powerful ‘next wave’ that will exalt the Lordship of Jesus, see thousands come into the kingdom, the nation turned around and, as in years gone by, again touching other nations especially the Continent.

A deepening hunger to know God more intimately and to redeem the time is also prevalent.  As Fulton Sheen put it: ‘Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second.  Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever as you made it.’

Hope and Expectation

The flowers have been laid and lifted and God is moving!  Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that Britain would be a compassionate nation, a giving one and one on the cutting edge.  I personally believe that will also happen spiritually and we’ll be receiving wonderful exciting reports of the power, grace and favour of God at work in Great Britain, with an emphasis on the ‘Great.’

Hope and expectation would aptly describe the present state of many Spirit-filled believers there.  Australia may not have been as deeply affected by Princess Di’s death as the UK and even Eire, but great expectation and strong hope in Christ, accompanied by serious prayer, laying aside personal priorities and even church programs, and getting right with God, lead to amazing accomplishments in taking Jesus to any nation.

May it be so in Australia as the Holy Spirit seeks to, and is allowed to, dig new wells in places not yet familiar with the sounds of the river of God’s refreshing and his saving grace.

Reproduced with permission from The Australian Evangel, February 1998, pages 47-48.

(c) 2011, 2nd edition.  Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.

Renewal Journal – contents of all issues & links to articles

Amazon – books & journals

Book Deposistory – free shipping worldwise (so cheapest)

Back to Renewal Journals

A Touch of Glory

by Lindell Cooley

Lindell Cooley wrote as the worship leader at Brownsville Assemblies of God in Pensacola, America, a church in revival since 18 June 1995.   This article is from his book A Touch of Glory (Revival Press, 1997).

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship– PDF

Share good news  –  Share this page freely
Copy and share this link on your media, eg Facebook, Instagram, Emails:
A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/a-touch-of-glory-bylindell-cooley
An article in Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/discipleship/

 ___________________________

True revival comes

when God descends

in His glory

____________________________

One of the most important things I can tell you is that true revival comes when God descends upon man in His glory.   That’s it.   There is no formula or religious dogma to memorize and implement at your church.   There is no “12‑Step Revival Plan in a Can” that you can purchase at some expensive church growth seminar.   Extraordinary things happen when the Extraordinary God shows up among ordinary people who long for more of Him.   That is a summary of what happened at Brownsville Assembly of God on Father’s Day in June of 1995.

When I moved my mountain of boxes to Pensacola, Florida, and began to lead worship there, I quickly realized that I had come to an ordinary Assemblies of God church.   Pastor John Kilpatrick was a wonderful pastor and a skilled teacher of the Word, but he struggled with the same problems every other pastor has to deal with.   He worried about motivating and training workers, finding time to handle his counselling load, and balancing his roles as administrator, family man, and spiritual leader of the flock.   He worried about the welfare of the sheep in his care, and he was fervently praying for revival.   It was a church that wanted more because it didn’t have it yet.

I inherited a great worship team and a talented group of musicians, but like anyone else I struggled with rehearsal schedules, motivation problems, and the constant need to learn new songs and resuscitate the old ones.   The congregation was a normal mix of young, old, and in‑betweens, representing almost every musical taste you could think of.   In the midst of the normal challenges, we desperately wanted to see revival spark in our services and we were frustrated.  Brownsville Assembly of God was like most of the medium‑sized Pentecostal and Charismatic churches scattered across America.  We wanted something that we didn’t have, and we were pressing in by faith to see it come to pass.

I was scheduled to return to the Ukraine for a short missions trip in June, but before I left I began to teach the worship team, the choir, and the music team some Vineyard worship choruses.  I had done away with most of the hard‑driving, lively praise songs I favoured before.  I didn’t want to do anything that smacked of hype or emotional manipulation.  I just wanted to go directly into worship and bypass praise altogether.  The congregation seemed to enjoy some of the choruses and was indifferent to others.  Something was still missing.

Revival!

I went to the Ukraine in June of 1995 to help conduct a short choir tour and planned to return the week after Father’s Day.  I was getting ready to leave the Ukraine when revival came “suddenly” to the Brownsville congregation on Sunday, June 18th.  At the end of the Father’s Day service, the visiting evangelist named Stephen Hill gave an altar call.  He had just delivered a normal sermon during a normal Sunday service, but everything changed when the Spirit of God suddenly descended on the congregation.

Many people who were present, including Pastor Kilpatrick, literally felt a wind sweep through the sanctuary during the visitation.  A thousand people rushed to the altar that day to confess their sins, repent, and commit themselves to the Lord without hesitation or compromise.  At this writing, the revival has continued week after week for two years and 125,000 souls have been added to the Kingdom by conservative count.  The Lord continues to visit us with ever‑increasing power and glory month after month.

I flew into John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Tuesday the 20th after reluctantly bidding my beloved Ukranian friends good‑bye.  I found a phone and immediately called Pastor Kilpatrick.

“Hey, John what’s going on?”

“Lindell, It has happened!”

“What has happened?”

“Revival is here.”

I had waited to her those words for a long time.

My heart leapt in my chest because I knew it had to be real or the man on the other end of the line wouldn’t say it like that.  I wanted to get back to Pensacola just that much quicker, but I knew I couldn’t make it until Wednesday.  During the flight from New York to Florida, my mind kept taking me back to those “gentle laid‑back moments in God’s presence” that I had embraced since April.

When I arrived, John and Brenda Kilpatrick picked me up at the airport, and he began to share with me what God was doing.  It sounded wonderful, but I was very tired, and felt disconnected.  I didn’t realize it then, but that disconnected feeling would stay with me for about two weeks.  There was no doubt that God was in the house, but I was having trouble entering in.  I ran headlong into a major disappointment because I was expecting “Toronto”.

Breaking Old Dislikes

First there was this Stephen Hill character.  I had never met him before the Wednesday night service after Father’s Day, but this evangelist seemed to be just a little “too hyped” for me.  Pastor Kilpatrick assured me that he was okay and said that he had known Steve for years.  My daydreams of a ‘gentle’ move of the Holy Spirit that morning were jolted back to reality by Stephen Hill, a dynamo with an unquenchable passion for souls.  He was far from gentle.  I thought he came across like a speeding freight train that first night.

He had us sing one chorus for 30 minutes straight at a clip of 90 miles an hour, and I felt like I had stepped back into my old Pentecostal roots again.  All the wonderful things that the Lord had done for me suddenly seemed to disappear and my own heathenistic self came out again.  I thought, I am not going to do this!  Sorry, but I’ve been there, done that.  I don’t want to do this!  I want that gentle sweetness that I had.

After the service I was pretty hard on Steve Hill once we were alone.  I said, “Steve, I am not going to get up there and do all that hype stuff.  If you want it, then get someone else to do it, because I’m not doing it.”  Frankly, I had a rotten attitude.  Do you know what Steve did?  He totally disarmed me with his answer.  He said, “Well, brother, that’s all right.  Whatever you want to do.”  I had to repent to him shortly after that because I was so mean to him.  He could have been angry with me but he wasn’t.  The battles in my heart would continue for a while, but we were on the way to becoming close friends with one heart.

I knew that my reaction to Steve was rooted in my dislike for the old pattern of wanting to be worked up by powerful music.  After my breaking in April, I was so moved by the revelation of just loving the Lord that I could be moved to worship at any time by the slightest breath of the Spirit.  All I have to do is say from my heart, “Lord God, all You want is my worship.  All You want is my attention.  You are like a Father to me.”  I don’t need a lengthy time of praise to crank my flesh up to speed.  At the mere mention of His name I am ready to fall to my knees and worship.  He has touched me so deeply that I must respond.

I didn’t realize it, but God was also out to break my deep‑seated desire to be somebody important.  (Everyone I’ve ever known has had this desire too.)  I was just floating along on a cloud of simply loving Jesus and hungering after the Lord, but there was some hidden poison still lurking in my heart and God wanted it out.

It was the glory of God that finally destroyed the yoke around my neck.  Before God touched me, I always thought that God had called me to a greater grace and a higher calling than to just be somebody’s “flunky musician.”  I thank God for His mercy and grace in forgiving my arrogance.

Just when I was convinced that God wasn’t doing anything in me, He brought all my wrong motives to the surface.  In the first few weeks of the revival, any time Stephen or Pastor Kilpatrick would interrupt one of my songs or stop the worship service to say something, I would be totally offended.  I wouldn’t say anything or change my actions, but in my spirit I was offended.  My face might have been smiling but my heart and head were shouting, “Doggone you, get away from the microphone.  I don’t interrupt your sermons, do I?  Now stay out of my hair ‑ I’m trying to lead worship here.”  (I am not interested in being “politically correct” in this book; my goal is to speak the truth in love so that you and others can avoid the mistakes I made and move directly into God’s best.)

It was wrong, but I felt like these godly men were invading my territory.  Musicians seem to have an old link to lucifer the first rebellious worship leader ‑ they have a pride that is never satisfied.  They jealously guard what is “theirs” and then wonder why they don’t have what the pastor or evangelist has too.

God would be using me mightily in worship, and then this “old ugly” would come out.  Right then and there, in the middle of an anointed Brownsville Revival service, I would feel my hidden spiritual pride, piety, and ego rise to the surface.  I’d catch myself thinking, I’ve been in this thing a long time, and here is some old drug addict [Stephen Hill] preaching a sermon.  Dear God, he just said he got saved in 1975!  I was rolling on the floor and speaking tongues in 1975.  Why, I’ve been in church all my life and never veered from the path!  (Sounds like the older brother of the Prodigal son, doesn’t it?)

God never let me get away with it.  He would just zap me and say, “Stop it.  If you want Me, humble yourself.”  Yes, you thought you had that jealousy under control, but I brought that out to show you that you don’t.  Repent of it, and let it go.”

One of the greatest joys of working with Pastor John Kilpatrick and Stephen Hill is the fact that they are transparent.  They prefer direct communication.  I told Pastor John one night after service, “You know, God has brought out some really ugly stuff in me, and I’ve had to repent.”  I don’t think he was surprised, but I do know he was pleased.

When the Spirit’s work was complete in the area of my calling and self‑worth in Christ (He has so much more to do in me), I had a totally different attitude.  Now any time those brothers need to say something or interrupt for any reason, I think, ‘That’s fine, brother.  I trust your judgement.  Go ahead and do anything you want to do.  If you want to prophesy, if you want to stop me in the middle of my favourite song, that’s fine.’  Yes, the musician in me will still occasionally grumble a little bit when I’m interrupted, but now I have a tolerance for it.  I just tell myself, Oh well, what is the big deal?  The guy is trying to follow the Lord here.  Relax.

Pastor Kilpatrick, Stephen Hill, and I have great confidence in one another today.  We trust each other.  We’ve cried and wept in each other’s arms, and we are soldiers.  We’ve been in the fox hole together, we’ve watched out for each other’s back, so all of the small differences and irritations just don’t bother us now.

New Things ‑ Even in Revival

Once my eyes were opened to the incredible work God was doing in me those first two weeks of revival, I became content.  I realized, for the first time in my life, that I wasn’t “somebody’s” piano player ‑ I was God’s piano player.  (My mother had been saying it for decades, but I guess I just wasn’t listening close enough.)  If that was what God wanted me to do for the rest of my life, than praise His name; I would be content.  I had to pass that hurdle before the other gifts within me could be released to grow.  If I had failed to pass that test, my selfish ambitions would have tainted all the other gifts and callings in my life.

Very early in the revival we began to notice some supernatural occurrences in the worship service that let us know God was personally involved in this revival ‑ even in areas not related to the hundreds of souls won each night and the filled altars.  I looked in my personal journal and found an entry dated August 17, 1995 (about two months after the revival began.)  This is what I wrote down after I got home that night:

August 17, 1995

The service tonight seemed to be pretty average until the very end.  As I was about to leave, I talked with Richard Crisco, the youth pastor, and he questioned me about a particular worship chorus we had sung toward the end of the service.  It was an ad lib thing that just came out of the air.  He wanted to know how I was able to cue the sound track tape to come in as precisely as it did.  I told him there was no tape, it was just me and the keyboard ‑ there weren’t even any singers, but he didn’t believe me.  He said that he had heard at least three voices and several instruments.

As  Richard spoke, I remembered that I too had heard a third voice singing a beautiful counter melody, but was so caught up in the presence of the Lord that I didn’t see who was singing, or who it might be.  I knew I was singing, and I assumed it was Jeff Oettle [one of the worship singers at the time] or someone who had felt inspired and grabbed the mike to join in.

As Richard talked, I remembered two things: First, the third voice was exceptionally clear, and the counter melody sounded rehearsed.  Second, when we had finished singing, I went to sit by Pastor John who was a little lost in the Spirit (in other words, he was out like he always is), and he told me in slurred speech, “That new chorus you just did was wonderful.  Could you do it again tomorrow night?”

Later on, Benny Johnson (the sound guy) and Van Lane (the children’s pastor) told me that they had heard it too.  They were at the sound board, and were trying to find out what channel the third voice was on.  [It wasn’t going through the sound board at all!]

My conclusion, that the third voice was definitely not of this world, wow.

Later that week I asked Jeff Oettle, “Were you singing with me?”

“No, but I was standing on stage.”

Then I asked him, “Did anybody else sing with me?”

I already knew the answer ‑ no.

All this happened during a Thursday night service, and I remember that the entire worship team was exhausted because early in the revival we used to sing for hours at the end.  Somewhere close to midnight the band started to really sound bad and the singers were nearly out of it, so I dismissed them so they could get some rest.  I punched in a piano program with a breathy sound on my electronic keyboard, and I just started playing a chord with a monastic Gregorian chant style.

I clearly remember hearing a backup voice and a third voice come in that was singing a perfect counter melody to my song, except that it wasn’t repeating what I was saying ‑ that would have been impossible anyway.  I was making it up as I went.  Yet this voice was singing at the same time I was singing in perfect counter melody with an incredibly clear voice.

I was making up the melody and words as I went and the other voices were singing right along with me while putting in these little moves in their melodies.  I was kind of thinking, “That’s cool, whoever that is.”

Two girls from Puerto Rico who had backgrounds in witchcraft came to the revival that night.  When I started singing this song, hundreds of people were still being prayed for at the altars, and it is normally pretty loud.  When I started to sing, “Ha‑ha‑hallelujah…” accompanied only by the keyboard, everything became totally quiet.  The song (with the heavenly voices) was so impressive that everyone stopped to listen.  This went on for probably two or three minutes.  (Everybody I questioned that night heard it.)

When I stopped singing, one of the Puerto Rican girls sitting to my far right released a blood‑curdling scream and I thought, How rude of you to interrupt.  But it was almost as though a demon had left.  The girl told one of the intercessors who was working with her that she had tried to get deliverance from the witchcraft that she had practiced for years, and she’d never been really free of it.  Once the angels started singing, that demon left her, and that was that.

It Comes Full Circle

Once I allowed my insecurities and religious pride to be broken, God began to speak into my life again through prophecy.  A prophet named Michael Ratcliff prophesied in the revival in 1995 that the Lord was giving me an anointing of “imperialism”.  At the beginning of the prophecy he said that I had laid down the anointing to speak the Word because I felt it was inappropriate, but that God was commanding me to open my mouth, and that I would be used as a spearhead to pierce the darkness.

He said that when I or my music went to Taiwan or mainland China, God would give me eight different currencies to work with, and that He would begin to bless me financially.  I was to give and be free with it, and the people would be touched, as well as the officials.

He also said God would give me a song that would be sung around the world, and that the Lord was giving me a ministry to heal marriages.  The song would be about the Lord and His love for the union of marriage.  Some of the marriages healed through the song would be the marriages of heads of state in many countries and I would sing and speak the Word of the Lord to them.

Ruth Heflin prophesied early in 1966 that because I had embraced the harvest, the Lord would make my path flat.  I should take no thought, and I should not worry about the things that others do, because God would provide all that I needed ‑ houses, food, and clothing.  She also said that the Lord would move me from harvest to harvest.  Anywhere in the world that there is a harvest, I would have a portion of it.  The Lord said that there was a generation that would follow me, though they’re incomplete, but the Lord would raise them up, and they would follow.

These prophecies closed a prophetic circle in my life by fully confirming the prophecies spoken over me long ago.  Some of them have come to pass already and others are in process.  Since they were in full agreement with what God had already put on my heart, I embraced them with joy.  From time to time I remind the Lord about His promises to me and stand on His faithfulness.  As a young man not yet in his 40’s, I am hardly old enough to publish an autobiography of my life, but I am obligated of the Lord to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the path of obedience.

For reasons known only to God, I have catapulted to a place of national and international exposure, and I am well aware that thousands of leaders and would‑be leaders are watching me.  I am writing this book from the things that I know and have experienced, and I will leave other subjects to those better qualified than I. …

The glory of God has fallen on Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, and it has also fallen in significant measure in Toronto, Ontario and at Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London, England.  At this writing literally thousands of reports are flooding the offices of Brownsville Assembly testifying that God’s glory is falling all across the globe. …

If you have abandoned the old landmarks that God established in your life years ago, then it is time for you to hurry back to those landmarks.  Clear away the brush and debris that hide them and once again cherish the word of the Lord over your life.  Protect those things that are holy and cleanse those things that are unclean.

Used with permission from A Touch of Glory by Lindell Cooley (Revival Press, Destiny Image, 1997), Chapter 8, pages 119‑132.

(c) 2011, 2nd edition.  Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.

Renewal Journal – contents of all issues & links to articles

Amazon – books & journals

Book Deposistory – free shipping worldwise (so cheapest)

Back to Renewal Journals