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This issue of the Renewal Journal focuses on a little of the enormous harvest currently being reaped around the world. Much of this harvest is being reaped at great cost in personal sacrifice and even martyrdom. Often, the most faith-filled and faithful church is the church suffering persecution, precisely because of the persecution.
We live in a time of harvest. The fields are white, ready for harvest. One aspect of this growing harvest is the increase of revival around the world. Revival has many expressions and varies from culture to culture. The constant elements of revival, however, remain the same everywhere, as summarised in 2 Chronicles 7:14 – God’s people getting humble, praying, seeking God, repenting, and God moving in grace, forgiveness and power, bringing multitudes into his kingdom and healing brokenness in people’s lives and in the community. God can do in a moment what we can never do with all our effort.
As we look on the harvest we can all participate in vital ways:
We can ask God for a great harvest as we pray. Often. Alone. Together.
We can believe God. He is able to do far more than anything we can ask or even think about.
We can commit our way to God who is the Lord of the harvest.
This issue of the Renewal Journal is full of stories of the current harvest.
Two teenage girls in China saw astounding results in two years which they recount in their testimony “The Spirit told us what to do.”
The Argentine Revival continues to reap untold thousands right now.
Local churches continue to experience visitations of God in increasing numbers, especially where they humble themselves and pray and seek God together and with others. Toronto in Canada, Brompton in London, Sunderland in England, and Pensacola in Florida became well known sparks for global revivals. Thousands have been converted there, and tens or hundreds of thousands filled with the Spirit in new ways, igniting new ministries. Places such as Baltimore, Smithton and Mobile reported similar revivals with lasting impacts of the Spirit of God.
Australian reports include stirrings of revival in the Kimberleys, and in the national expressions of reconciliation with Aborigines and the British. Accounts of individual churches experiencing a fresh move of God continue, as with Christian Life Centre at Mt Annan.
Global reports continue to tell of the mighty works of God. As he promised, he is pouring out his Spirit on all people. Much of that is very different from our traditional forms of western Christianity! It challenges us to rethink what we do. Essentials are the biblical patterns. Non-essentials include our structures, denominations, buildings, musical preferences, orders of service, and culture Christianity. The church in many countries now looks and sounds rather like the New Testament church, persecution and all, empowered by the Spirit, with regular conversions, healing and signs and wonders.
We need to do what Jesus commanded us to do – to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his great harvest. You can pray. We never know how God may answer that prayer – including answering it in and through us!
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
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.
I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids; until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob. … Let us go into his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O LORD, to thy resting place; thou and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy godly ones sing for joy.
Psalm 32:4,5,7,8,9.
Though we are one body, as seen in Ephesians 4:4-6, we in the church have come together with many individual agendas. This generation of people has often been called the “bless me” generation. We need healing, comfort, wisdom, spiritual and emotional nurture, material provision, protection, ability to overcome problems in our lives, power to defeat the enemy, answers to our questions, direction, a place to belong, an opportunity to serve in a way that would somehow make a difference, and much more.
We also come to worship and praise the Lord. But how diversified our expectations and priorities can be! How disappointed, critical, and angry we can become when our personal agenda is not fulfilled.
The Lord is returning for His Bride, the Church. That’s us. A husband should be able to rest in His wife’s heart. He laid down His life for us – and we wear His robe of righteousness. But He also called us to lay down our lives for one another. Only as we let Him purify our hearts can we come into unity and the kind of harmony in which the Lord Himself can rest in us, individually and corporately.
Many in the Body of Christ are beginning to change their focus, repenting of self-centred seeking, and consciously choosing to seek God’s presence and to bless the Lord for His sake. The Lord is doing something that even goes beyond those personal choices, and blessing a new kind of “fellowship” in Him.
From June 27 through June 30, 1996, I attended The Gathering of the Nations, at the Memorial Arena in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. More than 2,000 people from many nations, races, cultures, and denominations came together to worship and seek the face and glory of the Lord, to tune into His heart, to listen to His voice, and to respond to His leading.
A meeting without an agenda
Personal agendas were set aside. No musicians were appointed beforehand to lead worship, no speakers invited, no topics chosen, and no projects planned. A group of “fathers in Christ” and other leaders met daily to pray for session-by-session direction. They also reviewed and discerned which words should be shared from the larger body.
Musicians were chosen who were young and old, native and white, representing varieties of cultures. Speakers were appointed on very short notice, and the order and content of their messages were built well, one upon another, always with exhortation to focus on the Lord: “We are here to bless the Lord and to follow His direction.” By divine direction, the Holy Spirit indicated at a 6 p.m. leaders meting that He wanted communion served to the entire gathering; it was done in reverence and order less than two hours later.
A chief of the local indigenous people gave a gracious welcome to the assembly. He was not a Christian, but he spoke appreciatively of the spirit he felt in the worship, unlike what he had experienced before in Christian meetings. Prayers of blessing were said for the Indian children, and people who chose to give for the education of Indian children – including the restoration of native language – came to tables at the front of the auditorium to leave gifts totalling nearly $27,000.
A crowd of teenagers sat on the concrete floor in front of the stage, attentive and prayerful during 2- and 3-hour sessions. When the Indian member of the Canadian parliament greeted the gathering, the young people came up on the stage to pray blessing for him, and he prayed blessing for them. The teens then prayed for the babies in the congregation.
The days progressed with repeated encouragement to drop agendas, focus on the Lord Jesus, and to seek the face of God in preparation for the return of the Lord. There was strong emphasis on humility, trust, honour, and the glory of the Lord. Anointing was increasingly powerful, and I think that some half-expected a cloud or pillar of fire to appear, or a heavenly bomb to drop, leaving nothing but ashes. In a sense that did happen on the final day.
During the final evening session, two pastors spoke on fathering. I also spoke, but on the topic of mothering, with emphasis on nurturing, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, freeing young people to become all they can be, and what it is to honour parents. Two powerfully anointed teen-age boys stood to repent on behalf of the teens for rebellion, and to express forgiveness toward parents. Fathers and mothers all rose to repent publicly for sins against their children. Then the Lord broke people open wide, and repentance was spoken for all manner of sins. Gut-level weeping and wailing was heard all over the auditorium. Some were on their faces on the floor, while many were praying for one another. Then parents prayed blessing for their children, and children for parents. This continued until after midnight.
After prayers of forgiveness and healing, the musicians began to play celebration music, and when I left with others to go to bed there were still 500 to 600 people dancing in the ashes of repentance for joy in the Lord. The agenda of the Lord’s seemed to be fulfilled, without our help at all! May He continue to do that in all of our lives, and wherever His Body gathers together.
Gems from the last day of The Gathering of the Nations
Maturity comes from discerning the Spirit of God and walking in a healthy fear of God.
The Lord is taking us into a revelation of who He is.
Our emotions must be brought into the purpose and will of God.
We need a teachable heart, ever growing, and listening, and welcoming correction.
Counsellors must lead to the centrality of Jesus.
You can’t function in authority if you carry a spirit of rebellion. Repent for your generation.
The enemy hits you in the area of your anointing.
Whatever your abuse or wounding, the Lord will transform it into your power.
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
The glory and fear of the Lord will be known all over the world.
The world will not take note of who you are, but when the Spirit moves they’ll know God
Used by permission from Elijah House News.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
Dr CharlesV. Taylor wrote as a well known Australian linguist, Bible teacher, author, and Christian magazine contributor. His doctoral studies researched the Nkore-Kiga language of Uganda in Africa where he served as a missionary.
Can the leopard change his spots? This, and the question about the Ethiopian’s skin, is found, surprisingly enough, in Jeremiah 13:23. I used to think it was in Proverbs. The text is appropriate to the subject of discipleship, because the second half of the verse says literally: ‘Can you also do good, you who are discipled to do evil?’ It seems we can be under false discipleship as well as the healthy version.
The English word ‘disciple’ comes from Latin and means a learner. The corresponding Greek New Testament word mathetes comes from manthano, ‘to learn’, so it’s the same idea. In fact, even ‘mathematics’ originally meant something learned, a science.
The Hebrew word for ‘disciple’ is found only six times in the Bible. This word, limmud, is translated in the old King James Bible as ‘taught’, ‘learned’ (twice), ‘accustomed’, fused’, and ‘disciple’. Originally it meant ‘goaded’.
Do you remember how Gideon promised to ‘teach’ the men of Succoth in Judges 8:16? He taught them with thorns and briers. They were goaded into knowledge. In some such way, may not God sometimes goad us into the knowledge of the truth?
Whether you accept that or not, the idea of being a learner is associated with ‘coming into line’, or as we also say, ‘being disciplined’. That’s why the biblical reference translates limmud as ‘accustomed’ or ‘becoming used to’. In Jeremiah 13:23 the leopard can’t change his coat. He’s grown quite used to it. True, he didn’t have to be taught, but he’s marked for life.
A Christian should be marked for life. A Christian should, without being forced, stand out in the world as somebody different. Whether some sort of badge is worn or not, the world should be able to recognize the Christian, and the Christian should attract others, not to him/herself, but to Christ.
When someone is converted to Christ, the first thing should be to say so, as Romans 10:9-10 explains. All churches worthy of the name should also offer baptism of some kind or other, and the Christian can also be distinguished by ‘going to church’, which in this mobile age is unfortunately not so universal as it used to be. The home churches are wonderful, but without cover and discipleship they can give the impression that Christians are all ‘separated by a common faith’, just as many of my linguist friends used to say that Britain and the United States are ‘separated by a common language’, referring to misunderstandings that can occur from the two sorts of English.
The outsider wants to see at least some resemblance to a united front, to submission to the Gospel, to some sort of discipline and discipleship. Isaiah 54:13 says we should all be children taught (discipled) by the Lord. Jesus said that to be converted we had to become like little children.
A process of uniting Christians
So I see discipleship as a process of uniting Christians, while not making them all identical. All leopards don’t have the same spot patterns. When I lived in Ethiopia for two years I found that all Ethiopians were not the same sort of black. And if you (rightly) tell me that ancient Ethiopia is today’s Sudan, well, the same thing holds there too. God isn’t stamping us all with an identical mould. But he does want us to be basically recognizable, and truth is one and indivisible.In Isaiah 50:4 the prophet says God gave the Servant of the Lord the tongue of the learned, that is, of the discipled. With this tongue we can sustain the weary. In Isaiah 8:16 the law must be sealed up among his disciples, which seems to mean that they alone will really know the Lord’s mind.
If this is so, may it not be that it reflects the fact that the true disciple or learner from God is able to understand spiritual things which those outside just can’t understand? Isn’t it true that when a Christian speaks of things that move him/her most, outsiders are just puzzled? That’s a sure sign that a person has been born again through the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is not that the Christian lives in a sealed case, but that, living openly in the world, the Christian is sealed ‘with that Holy Spirit of promise’ (Ephesians 1:13) and so is often a mystery to friends who are not themselves learning from Jesus.
The basic idea of a disciple is one who learns along with others. It was unusual in the ancient world to find single disciples of one leader. What is more, the disciple is not the slave of his leader. He is only a learner, following an example or following some counsel. John 15:8 indicates that discipleship with Jesus is manifested by bearing fruit, by a life modelled on the disciple’s teacher, or at least on his teaching. We bear fruit by staying in the vine.
Now if a teacher has a number of disciples, it is more likely that needs will be met. One of the benefits of preaching is that in a mixed multitude, the listener cannot usually say the speaker is directing the message at him/herself alone. For this reason, a listener, and in the same way a disciple, is more likely to take to heart what is said and imitate what is done.
You might sum up discipleship as loyalty, first to Christ and then to Christian leaders that we learn from. But, as with everything else in life, loyalty must not become inflexible, or it becomes merely a new slavery. To guard against this we should look at Galatians 4:2, where Paul is telling us about tutelage.
We shouldn’t always be learning and never coming to the truth (2 Timothy 3:7). Some people lean on others beyond the stage where they should become distinctive and free in themselves. We can get into bondage to people as well as to rules. So yes, be loyal to those who are over you in the faith, but let your first loyalty be to the unseen Jesus, manifested in the word of God.
As Paul even challenged Peter, who was before him in the faith, let’s all pull together and stand firm in the freedom in which Christ has made us free.
And of course, like-Paul, let’s do everything in love.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
Mentoring is the empowering of one person by another through personal life, prayer, conversation and example. It is the making of disciples to go into the entire world who will in turn reproduce others to do the same.
Mentoring is the latest buzzword whether it is in business or church. The dictionary defines mentor as ‘a wise or trusted advisor or guide’. The word first appeared in Greek mythology when Ulysses asked a wise man named Mentor to take care of his son Telemachus while Ulysses was fighting in the Trojan Wars. Mentor was in charge of his household and was advisor to the young boy, ‘not only in book learning but in the wiles of the world.’
Mentoring has been common in society. On the farm, boys and girls were mentored by their parents or by extended family members. Fathers taught their sons the skills of farming. Mothers taught their daughters how to keep the home and the finer points of being a wife and mother. Apprentices were mentored at the side of craftsmen for a number of years while they learned the skills of the trade. In early universities students learned in the home of the scholar.
Mentoring also occurred in the church. Early Monastic practice had a spiritual director whose task it was to help discern the will of God for the trainee monk’s life. The focus of the relationship was not so much on teaching as on prayer.
Eighteenth century New England pastor Jonathan Edwards, and his wife Sarah, usually had one or more ‘disciples’ living in their home. This gave ample time for the learner to observe the quality of a marriage, personal spiritual dynamics, and the vigorous pursuit of pastoral activity.
The present interest in mentoring highlights the impersonal attitudes and individualism that can be seen in society. Much of today’s spiritual and theological training is done in classes. Many apprenticeships have become more class-orientated rather than one‑on‑one traineeship. Classes require less personal and relational contact. They make fewer demands on the lecturer than does mentoring. Mentoring is an endeavour to bring back a personal touch in an impersonal, individualistic and spectator society.
Is mentoring biblical?
The Bible demonstrates a number of mentoring situations. Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Naomi and Ruth, Elizabeth and Mary, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy, Pricilla, Aquila and Apollos, and of course, Jesus and His disciples. The word mentoring does not occur in the Bible but the concept of mentoring does. This concept is best described by the term discipleship.
The Greek term for discipleship, mathetes (found in the Bible 262 times) is most frequently used to designate one of Jesus followers. Discipleship is a central theme of both the Gospels and Acts. The term disciple is scarce in the Old Testament and the word mathetes does not occur in the Epistles and Revelation. However, there is abundant theological expression of the concept of discipleship everywhere in Scripture.
The roots of biblical discipleship are found in the concept of God’s calling, as in the recurrent promise ‘I will be your God and you shall be my people’.
The ideal form of discipleship for Israel was the nation in covenantal relationship with God. The nation was called to a relationship in which God was with His people. This Old Testament theme finds its explicit fulfillment in Jesus with His people. Jesus was Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.
The dynamics of Christ’s discipleship
Although discipleship was a voluntary initiative, as with other types of master/disciple relationships in the first century, with Jesus discipleship lay with his call, and his choice of those who would be his disciples. This call demanded a response, an obedience to his call, and the counting of the cost of following him. Disciples of Jesus were to follow, but unlike other disciples of their day Christ’s disciples were to remain followers of Him all their life.
To be a mentor, or discipler, one must first be a disciple. This was and is the heart of the great commission in which Jesus told His disciples to go into the world and make disciples. The goal of Christ’s discipleship was fourfold:
To become like Christ.
Love and servanthood towards others.
Good stewardship of God’s kingdom and his gifts.
Make disciples of all nations.
Jesus’ primary focus in teaching his disciples was not to help them master the skills often associated with the making of leaders and leadership such as setting goals, formulating strategies, and evaluating the results.Jesus gave them an example of how they were to relate to God, and the type of people they had to be. He showed His disciples how to follow, how to obey, how to respond to authority and to the call of God. He set them ministry tasks allowing them to fail, and correcting them where necessary. Jesus’ ministry and mentoring demonstrated that the disciples must first learn to be faithful followers before they could be leaders.
He taught them attitudes of humility, self‑sacrifice, and servanthood. He knew what the destructive attitudes of pride and ambition could do among the community of disciples. He taught them to love one another and serve one another rather than be over one another in authority. He encouraged them to continually abide in the vine in order to gain fruit, and that when he left another Comforter would come and be a mentor of the same kind. Jesus ordained his disciples to be with him. His mentoring was with prayer, example, word, deed and touch. The Book of Acts is a great testimony to the effectiveness of his mentoring.
Confusion over discipleship in the church.In evangelical circles today discipleship is often confused with the development of younger Christians, as in discipleship classes or courses. This is not a clear biblical position. The word disciple is a common word for every believer in Acts. A disciple can be a mature believer or a younger Christian. A believer is always a follower of the Lord. He remains a disciple even though he might hold an office as an apostle or pastor.
Mentoring and discipling should be considered synonymous terms.
There is no better example in the Bible of this than Christ. He did not have classes with exams at the end to test the students like many teachers today. He spent time with His disciples, lived and traveled with them. He prayed with them. He loved them and warned them of impending dangers. He taught them, imparting his own life to them. He was the way, the truth and the life, to his followers.
He was the good shepherd who was training his disciples to follow him and do likewise. He showed them what a true shepherd was so that they would be able to shepherd others. It involved both relationship and discipline. The heart of Jesus’ discipleship was relationship yet He disciplined His disciples. Mentoring will become weak without discipline or relationship. Both are needed.
Drawing distinctions between discipleship and mentoring creates confusion and unbiblical mentoring. For mentoring to be successful it must be kept to its biblical foundation of discipleship. Discipleship should be predominately Christ-likeness, love, servanthood, stewardship, the development of the individual, and the fulfilling of the great commission.
Mentoring DynamicsThe key to mentoring is the relational process. Christ called His disciples to relationship with himself. As mentors we must not only draw people into relationship with Christ but also into relationship with each other. Trust and love must be central to this mutual relationship not the authority of one over another. No better example of the problems that can ruin mentoring can be given than the ‘discipleship movement’.
In the 1980’s a discipleship movement formed in the charismatic church. Its heart was to mentor people in their spiritual growth. After much hurt and great controversy the movement was disbanded in the late 1980’s with public apologies being made by many of the leaders. This movement demonstrated the excesses and dangers that can potentially happen in mentoring by sincere leaders. The discipleship movement had a strong emphasis on spiritual authority. Much of its biblical basis was taken from Watchmen Nee’s book of the same name.
It was this excess of authority that caused much of the hurt in what was a sincere movement. Had they based their emphasis on building better relationships with love and trust, rather than spiritual authority, and obedience to those in authority the movement would still be in existence. They would have avoided much of the hurt they caused. Relationship is to be at the core of mentoring, not control. These distinctions will help avoid the excesses of the discipleship movement of the 1980’s.
Stanley and Clinton also believe that mentoring is a relational experience between two people with varying degrees of involvement and intensity. They believe mentoring is able to be organized into three categories and placed on a continuum ranging from being more deliberate (with more depth and awareness of effort), to less deliberate involvement.
The three categories are:
Intensive: Discipler, spiritual guide and coach,
Occasional: Counselor, teacher and sponsor,
Passive: Contemporary models and historical heroes.
Since mentoring is a relational and empowering experience not all people will qualify for intensive mentoring. Factors such as time, proximity, needs, shared values, and goals will affect the relationship.
However everybody can be passively mentored through the biographies and autobiographies of contemporary and historical people (e.g. David Yonggi Cho, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, John Wesley, William Carey, Jonathon Goforth and others).
In passive mentoring the mentoree has control in the mentoring process. They choose the mentor and can learn from their life at will. The draw back is that there is no real relational process. They can learn and be inspired but they miss out on the personal process, the prayer, love, care and specific encouragement and direction. The more active the mentoring process the greater the relational dynamic.
Stanley and Clinton further suggest that there are three vital dynamics to building a mentoring relationship:
Attraction: This is a necessary starting point in relationship. The mentoree is drawn to the mentor for various reasons: perspective, certain skills, experience, values and commitments modelled, perceived wisdom, position, character, knowledge, and influence. The mentor is attracted to the mentoree’s attitude, potential, and opportunity for influence.
Responsiveness: The mentoree must be ready and willing to learn from the mentor. Attitude is crucial for the mentoree. A responsive, receptive spirit on the part of the mentoree, and attractiveness on the part of the mentor, directly speed up and enhance the empowerment.
Accountability: Mutual responsibility for one another in the mentoring process ensures progress and closure.
Intensive mentoring builds upon these three dynamics. Attractiveness is the spark that ignites the relational process. It provides the desire, which initiates and fuels that relationship. Not every mentor needs to be a super-star to attract mentorees. A genuine concern for others, sincerely valuing the mentoree, and a desire to develop the other’s potential, are qualities that many crave for in today’s world. However no matter how attractive and great the mentor is, it will be of no avail unless the mentoree responds.Response is the glue that provides the cohesion for the relationship to continue. Even though mentoring relationships continue there is still no guarantee of successful outcomes. It is only when goals are mutually set and both parties are held accountable to their individual goals there can be any achievement of a hopeful outcome. These goals will need to be continually evaluated and adjusted to ensure maximum progress and closure.
Mentoring and leadership developmentMentoring is an important tool in developing leaders. Although leadership is a popular topic today, effective leadership is acknowledged to be sadly lacking. There is an explosion of leadership books and programs. The most important question to be asked about any training program is, ‘Are they producing leaders?’
J. A. Conger addressed this topic in his book Learning to Lead, outlining four common approaches in leadership programs today:
Personal Growth: this focuses on the development of the leader’s character.
Conceptual Understanding: these programs highlight the difference between management and leadership and include skill-building procedures.
Feedback: this approach assumes that those who want to be leaders already possess certain skills. The program helps participants to identify strengths to build on and weakness that need attention.
Skill building: this emphasis believes that leadership can be broken into a set of behaviours that can be learned.
Congor’s conclusion is that an effective leadership training approach must incorporate core elements of all these four approaches. He contends that each of these elements builds upon the others creating a synergistic outcome. He also sees the primary value of these programs as awareness building, and affirming that ultimately developing leadership depends upon the gifts and desire of the individual and the receptivity of the leader’s organisation. Congor also advocates realism. Even if a leader changes for the better, that transformation may threaten superiors and followers who want stability.
These organizational principles apply to churches. However, many churches and organisations are simply not prepared for leadership. Often conformity is more important to them than changing their vision and risk‑taking.
All of these approaches identified by Congor apply also to mentoring.
The first is Personal Development. It is in this area that mentoring is unequalled. Mentoring by its nature is very personal. The mentor can address very specific and personal issues in the mentoree’s life. These issues can encompass every area of their life (marriage, family, vocation, social, spiritual and ministry life). The mentor should be concerned with developing Christlike attitudes and habits in the mentoree. Character is foundational and no one can escape it. The higher one rises in leadership the more stress one receives. Mentoring is therefore needed at all levels of leadership.The second approach is Conceptual Understanding. Everybody wants to be led but few want to be managed. This creates tension as most people tend to be either task oriented or people oriented. By natural preference they gravitate to task or people and so they tend to be better at management or leadership but both areas must be developed. One can not be an effective leader without acquiring the skills of each. Mentors must understand these principles themselves or they will not be able to develop the person adequately.
The third approach to leadership is Feedback. Since feedback assumes that everybody already possesses certain skills and gifts. Mentors must spend time with the mentorees in order to evaluate, recognise and develop their skills. Feedback also helps the mentoree gain a proper perspective on issues. The mentor can encourage his protege to be a risk taker and so avoid falling into the rut of conformity, or they can help the mentoree understand and manage threatened superiors and followers. All these are issues that often require an outside perspective.
The last approach is Skill Building. Skills are personal and can be developed quicker in a mentoring situation than in a class. The mentor must take on the role of a coach who provides motivation, skill building, and who teaches the application of these skills in order to meet a task or a challenge. No other training system can provide better skill building than mentoring.
The Mentoring ProcessMentoring is an empowering process that is not without difficulties. Not everyone will be a good mentor, or mentoree, but realistic goals will help to avoid many disappointments. Commitment is important to the process and builds a climate of trust. This commitment is not only to each other, but also to the lifting of the mentoree to a higher level. If both parties work at Godly relationships and avoid hidden agendas then growth is inevitable. The stronger the relationship the greater the empowerment.
Listening is a must as it is in any relationship. When relationships are truly established then mentorees are open to sharing all of their heart, the good and the bad. This is a powerful climate for growth. Some mentoring situations will be more effective than others, but all can gain if these suggestions are implemented.
Conclusion
Mentoring needs to be biblically based. It is to be founded upon God’s call to be his people, true disciples. Mentoring is the empowering of one person by another through their personal life, prayer, conversation and example.
It is the making of disciples to go into the entire world who will in turn reproduce others to do the same. Mentoring can take deliberate to less deliberate forms. Relationship is at its heart. Attraction, responsiveness, and accountability are important to the working of that relationship. Effective mentoring must take the person out of the classroom and provide that person with growth in Christ-likeness, real‑life situational training, understanding, skill building, and feedback.
From ancient days to present times mentoring has proved invaluable and essential in the training of people. Let us continue to foster a climate for its renewal and development.
Bibliography
Bennett, D.W. Metaphors of Ministry. Carlisle: Paternoster, 1993.
Clinton, R.J. & Stanley, P. D. Connecting. Colorado Springs: Navpress. 1993.Congor, J. A. Learning to Lead. Cited in Barna G. (ed.) Leaders on Leadership. Ventura: Regal. 1997Engstrom, Ted W. The Fine Art of Mentoring. Tennessee: Wolgermuth & Hyatt. 1989.
Ford, L. Helping Leaders Grow. Cited in Barna G. (ed.). Leaders on Leadership. Ventura: Regal. 1997
Wilkins, M. J. ‘Disciple, Discipleship’ cited in Walter E. Elwell (ed).
Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker. 1996.
A Mentor’s Letter from Prison
I write this to you, Timothy, the son I love so much. All the best from our God and Christ be yours!
Every time I say your name in prayer – which is practically all the time – I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful goodbye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.
That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith – and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed – keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Saviour, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.
This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground – the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.
So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ, exactly as I set it out for you. It’s as sound as the day you first heard it from me. Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us.
I’m sure you know by now that everyone in the province of Asia deserted me, even Phygelus and Hermogenes. But God bless Onesiphorus and his family! Many’s the time I’ve been refreshed inthat house. And he wasn’t embarrassed a bit that I was in jail. The first thing he did when he got to Rome was look me up. May God on the Last Day treat him as well as he treated me. And then there was all the help he provided in Ephesus – but you know that better than I.
So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me – the whole congregation saying Amen! – to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets tough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals in the market place. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.
Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It’s what you’ve heard from me all along. It’s what I’m sitting in jail for right now – but God’s Word isn’t in jail! That’s why I stick it out here – so that everyone God calls will get in on the salvation of Christ in all its glory. This is a sure thing:
If we die with him, we’ll live with him;
If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him;
If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us;
If we give up on him, he does not give up –
for there’s no way he can be false to himself.
Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. …
You’ve been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings – suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there’s no getting around it. Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They’re as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.
But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers -– why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Eugene Peterson, The Message. Navpress, 1994, pages 527-530, from 2 Timothy. Used with permission.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
“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.
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).
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.
Dr Rodney and Adonica Howard-Brown are pastors and revival evangelists.
Critics focus on the rip-roaring style of his revivalist “camp meetings”, but this US-based South African evangelist says all he’s interested in is God touching people’s lives.
The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people.
I don’t spend much time wondering about God’s ability
to do what he said he could do. I just trust him.
______________________________________________
On previous visits to Australia, Rodney Howard-Browne has attracted both crowds and controversy. But vigorous debate about his methods and the “phenomena” seen at his meetings has not kept thousands away. … The US-based South African evangelist spoke with Rob Buckingham about spiritual power, the simplicity of faith, and how it feels to be surprised by God.
Buckingham: Things took off for you number of years ago. Can you tell us what took place at that time?
Howard-Browne: We’d moved to America in December ‘87 and travelled wherever the doors opened. One pastor in upstate New York asked us to have two meetings a day and invited the whole congregation. So in April 1989 we went to [a town called] Clifton Park to a church with about 250 members.
I was amazed to see people so hungry for the things of God. On the Monday morning 60 people came to the morning service. This was amazing, especially in America at that time – there had been some major set backs with different major ministries crumbling, and people were disillusioned. Next day we had 100 people at the service – nearly a third of the church coming out on a Tuesday morning!
While I was teaching, just like I normally do, the praises of God just filled the room, and people started falling out of their seats. It looked like someone was sitting in the balcony and shooting people with an invisible gun. Some were crying, some were laughing, others were rolling on the floor. It took a little getting used to.
The presence of God literally filled that place. We saw an outbreak of a revival that now, this April, is nine years old. It’s gone around the world, touched the lives of millions of people, an it hasn’t subsided or stopped. It’s been a great adventure.
Buckingham: What are your reflections now on what took place back then?
Howard-Browne: I see it as an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s not like we weren’t expecting it. We were crying out to God to come and move; we just didn’t know how or when it was going to happen. So when it happened the way it did it totally took us by surprise.
Buckingham: Is there any change in what took place then compared to what’s happening now?
Howard-Browne: It’s just multiplied many times over. In the beginning it was 100 people and now it’s thousands. Whether we’ve been in China or Japan, Holland, Germany, Russia or the islands of the sea, it’s the same. People are the same and they have the same needs. The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people. There are many religions in the world, but religions will leave you empty because it’s man’s vain attempt to reach God. But Christianity is God reaching man through the person of Jesus Christ.
Buckingham: There are reports of physical healings at your meetings. Do these happen in every country?
Howard-Browne: It happens everywhere. We look at it this way. When people come to a meeting where the Holy Spirit is moving, whatever their needs are God will touch them at that point. Healing is just one of these. People come with cancer, arthritis, different diseases, and the presence of god touches them. Some are healed in their seat without even having hands laid on them, and it’s only later they find out that they’ve been healed.
Dolly, a little Alaskan native lady, came to our meetings in a wheelchair. She’d had arthritis for 18 years, the last five confined to a wheelchair and the final two years bedridden. She came as a last resort, asking God to please touch her. We laid hands on her, but we didn’t really pray that she’s be able to get out of the wheelchair, just that she’d get some joy and that God would touch her. I said, “Lady, what do you want to do?” She responded, “I want to get out of this chair.” So I said, “Well then, go ahead.” Then she climbed out of the chair and walked around the building and was totally healed of crippling arthritis. This happened back in 1991 and we’ve seen her subsequently. She’s still totally healed with no trace of arthritis in her body.
Buckingham: That’s physical healing. What about emotional healing? People can carry a lot of baggage around inside.
Howard-Browne: There are many examples. One is about a woman in North Dakota who was raped by a so-called friend. She contracted two venereal diseases, the worst the doctor said he’d seen. He told her that she’d never be able to have children.
This woman came to the meeting pretty traumatized – this had only happened weeks before. The power of God touched her, she fell on the floor and as she was lying there she felt like there was a fireman standing over her with a big fire hose washing her clean. For about two-and-a-half hours she felt this water washing her clean. When she got up she could remember the rape but it was like it happened to somebody else. God had totally removed the hurt from her. When she went back to the doctor there was no trace of the diseases. That was over five years ago. Today she’s married to one of the pastors of the church. They’ve had children with nothing wrong.
Buckingham: What about other stories?
Howard-Browne: An executive-type lady came to a meeting with a lot of deep hurt in her heart. About 20 years ago she’d had an abortion, and every time she was around things of God she felt guilty and condemned with thoughts like “God’s never going to bless you because of what you did.”
We prayed for her and she was overcome, lying there filled with joy. Laughing hysterically. Later she told us it was as if she was taken up to heaven to see a little girl dancing around, with Jesus standing to the side. The little girl said, “Look Jesus, Mummy’s laughing”. When that happened, she said it felt like a hand reached down inside her and pulled out all the hurt. When she got up from the floor she didn’t feel guilty any more. She knew that God had forgiven her and everything was all right.
Buckingham: Are these incidents isolated events?
Howard-Browne: No. People are healed from depression, a lot from fear, even from wanting to commit suicide. There’s so much pressure on people today. People feel like they can’t make it. So they come to the meetings. God touches them and sets them free. It’s wonderful to see.
Buckingham: Australians are quite different from Americans, and you minister in America a lot. How do you respond to that difference in your meetings when you come to Australia?
Howard-Browne: Because I’m a South African, I think it’s probably easier for me to respond than it would be for an American. I find the Aussies very direct, which I like. There’s no airs or graces, nobody’s pretending. I think maybe that’s why we’ve had such a great response in Australia.
Buckingham: You travel extensively around the world. That must be draining on you. How do you handle the pace?
Howard-Browne: Actually, I find the travel exhilarating, so that by the time I get to a new place I’m refreshed. We travel 46 weeks of the year, and it’s awesome to see people’s lives touched and changed. That’s the thing that’s refreshing. When we get tired, we try to take a break for two or three days.
Buckingham: Rodney, how do you describe your own relationship with God?
Howard-Browne: I would describe my relationship as very, very simple. I don’t understand some people when they always want to complicate God. I just see him as God – nothing is impossible to him. I have a very childlike faith that God honours his word. I don’t spend much time arguing about it or wondering about his ability to do what he said he could do. I just trust him.
Buckingham: How does your relationship with God impact your life personally?
Howard-Browne: Well, because nothing is impossible for him, I always want to believe him for big things. When you think that he made the heavens and the earth, then everything we come up with after that is really so small. I just think sometimes people make everything so difficult when there’s nothing too hard for God.
Buckingham: What about your relationship with others? How does your faith impact that?
Howard-Browne: I want God to do for them what he’s done for me. I’m not anything special or different. I’m just an ordinary person. But I know that if he can do great things for me, he can do great things for them.
Buckingham: How does your faith impact your care for the world around you?
Howard-Browne: When I see a need, my wife has to calm me down; she says, “You can’t do everything.” God leads you into areas where you can minister effectively to touch the needs of people. We all want to reach out and feed the poor or help those less fortunate than we are, yet because I’m busy doing what I’m doing, I can’t do it. So I try to find other ministries and get behind them. I don’t have to do what they’re doing: I just finance and support them.
Buckingham: What can people expect at your meetings this year?
Howard-Browne: Pretty much like two years ago, we’re going to focus on he person of Jesus – people being touched by the Lord and coming back to their “first love”.
Buckingham: What do you mean by “first love”?
Howard-Browne: “First love” is the love you have when you first give your life to Christ – the joy that you’ve just met him, that he’s set you free from sin, that all the guilt and condemnation is gone. It’s like a young guy and a girl; when they first fall in love, they’re just beside themselves.
It’s so easy as a child of God to get caught up in the daily grind, trying to please God, caught up in rituals and traditions. You end up losing that joy and peace. Revival is about people falling in love with Jesus all over again.
Anything can happen when people come back to their first love.
This is an edited version of an interview conducted by Rob Buckingham for use in On Being ALIVE and his weekly radio program “Rob Buckingham and Friends”. It was originally broadcast on 3MP on 29 March, 1998.
Reprinted with permission from On Being ALIVE Magazine, No. 4, May 1998, pages 30-34.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
You can’t help being affected by the climate of revival.
It may take a paradigm shift or two, but if you are open to God,
you’ll definitely get soaked by the revival rain.
It’s hard not to get wet in Argentina. In Australia it is relatively easy to stay dry. I’m not talking about the weather, but about the effects of Holy Spirit revival.
In October and November of 1996 I was one of twenty-five Australians who attended the International Institute conducted for the last seven years by Harvest Evangelism. Ed Silvoso, the Founder and President of Harvest Evangelism has visited Australia a number of times during the past five years and has introduced a strategy for reaching cities, regions and the nation called, “Prayer Evangelism.”
Argentina has been experiencing a revival for the last eleven years that has increased in impact each year. The struggling evangelical churches in Argentina prior to the revival would rejoice if one or two new converts were added to their churches in any single calendar year. These churches were always small and very segregated. They were generally hated by the Catholic Church and were often persecuted by the pro‑Catholic governments. This was the established status quo.
These evangelical/pentecostal churches had their share of dedicated and gifted leaders with every brand and emphasis in the protestant spectrum. They had good examples of everything: the right message, examples of fine theology and healthy spiritual ethos. Mission organizations from many nations had sown faithfully and persistently. But there was little power to impact the ruggedly proud and fiercely independent Argentine hearts. The cities and provinces remained seemingly impervious to their efforts.
Now things have changed. In more than sixteen city regions of the nation, the church overall is seeing consistent growth after the proportions of the parable that Jesus taught about seed and ground. Each year they are seeing “a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:23). It is now customary for the whole church in a city to see an increase in people being added to the church of 100% per year.
We spent fifteen days in Argentina for three major reasons:
a) to attend the International Institute, a gathering of Christian leaders from every part of Argentina and most nations of South America,
b) to receive a commitment from wonderful South American Christian pastors and leaders to pray for a million hours for revival in Australia
c) to visit with leaders in some of the cities and gain some understanding of the practicalities of reaching whole regions for Christ.
Factors leading to revival
Our expectations were exceeded on every count. What I wanted to know was, “How did a fragmented unattached bunch of small churches ever begin to see revival?” There are probably many reasons: sovereign ones and human ones. I can’t do much about the sovereign matters, except be fully committed to them. I wanted to see what identifiable human factors may have led to the church in a nation seeing revival. Here are three that were observed.
1. Unity through relational networks has given the ministry of the church greater authority.
It’s hard to know who’s who in Argentina. Just looking at people in a crowded room would not give a clue as to who were the most anointed leaders, nor which “tag” they wore. I’m not implying that it was an insipid example of people striving to find their “lowest common denominator.” It was fiery and focused. It’s just that you couldn’t pick the Baptists from the Pentecostals. It seems that they have made a strong commitment to proclaim absolutes, not interpretations, when they come together.
As Ted Haggard says, “Inside the walls of our churches, let’s teach and practice the full menu of what we believe. …. outside the church we must focus on the absolutes. … The result is that the non‑Christian community hears the same basic absolutes from … a variety of churches.” What is similarly encouraging is that because the major leaders have not bought the western cultural value of status and importance, they have less to protect and therefore more to give away. We had the great joy and benefit of receiving and receiving. “Recibe! recibe! recibe” was often heard.
The other result is that the key leaders around the nation love each other enough to form a very strong relationship bond. They can give leadership to the church and help to acknowledge what God is saying and doing because they can speak with a voice that comes from being one in heart and soul.
In the cities, the pastors talk collectively about the church in the city. They actually think of themselves as one church even though they form different congregations with sometimes very different flavours. They give leadership to the church in the city from the perspective of a very jealously guarded unity. The pastors of the larger churches don’t dominate and operate independently and the pastors of the smaller churches don’t feel threatened. We saw it, heard it and felt it. It was the kingdom of God right enough.
This unity is not just for enjoyment value. It has given the church in a given locality greater authority. It is not to be measured in political or social terms, but spiritual. The powers of darkness have little power to blind the minds of unbelievers when the church operates in unity.
2. Uncompromised commitment to evangelism has created a sharper focus
Whatever the strategies to be used, the underlying strength comes from a heart to reach the people who are lost from God. There are meetings in the churches just about every night. There is very little emphasis on home groups and home group structures. Mostly people come to the meetings: teaching, prayer, evangelistic. The message is preached like any regular evangelical pastor would preach it in Australia. It would be more demonstrative of course as reflecting the culture, but there is no “secret” message associated with the revival.
People in Argentina are coming to Christ in one of two main ways:
They come in thousands to the altar rail of Carlos Annacondia crusades. This little dynamic Argentine exudes a measure of faith that has nothing to do with presentation, and everything to do with heart – from spending a lot of time in the presence of God no doubt.
People are also coming to Christ through the prayer supported lifestyle of the average members of the churches. So much of it is one to one. If anything this seems to be the growing edge.
As the pastors and intercessors knock out the enemy missile launching sites, the regular soldiers are able to take captives with much greater frequency; I wouldn’t say ‘automatically’, but I would say ‘more readily’. They can do this not because they have a level of faith much in excess of that of the average believer in Australia, but because they are focused on evangelism. It is their chosen lifestyle focus.
This focus allows all the activities of the church to be measured more objectively. We tend to measure programs on how they will affect the members. They tend to measure programs on how they will affect the non‑members. The ministry of evangelism gets the first second and third bite of the cherry in Argentine churches. People will sacrifice anything. The pastoral staff of a church all sold their cars at one time in order to make possible a particular evangelistic ministry. They mean business. That’s the bottom line.
3. A commitment to the harvest has uncovered important principles of prayer and spiritual warfare
South America in general and Argentina in particular have become synonymous with prayer and spiritual warfare. Sometimes this has been a bit controversial in its expression. I discovered something in Argentina that helped me to put this in a clearer context. Basically the principles of things like “spiritual mapping” have come from the experience of evangelism, not from a study of spiritual warfare.
No finer example of this process could be found than the experience of Baptist leaders Victor Lorenzo and his father Eduardo. They had begun to evangelize and found that they have had little impact in some places.
A typically ‘Australian’ conclusion would be to say that it was a ‘hard place’. These men would be more likely to say that ‘no harvest’ was not an option. When they looked for the reason for no harvest they began to find that the hardness was due to the exercise of some form of demonic power or influence. They would give themselves to dealing with the powers as the Bible describes those encounters. As a result, hundreds and even thousands of people were saved and added to the church.
There were places where successive attempts to plant churches had totally failed. When they began to deal with the spiritual forces of darkness that held these areas in bondage, the same attempts were successful. This evidence was compelling, but the process was even more enlightening. The spiritual warfare comes out of a bold commitment to preach the gospel, not out of a textbook on spiritual warfare.
This is the emphasis of the New Testament of course. Spiritual warfare is not a department of the church where people hive off and play with demons. Evangelism and spiritual warfare are the same thing. It’s just that they have discovered that evangelism is more than communication, it is warfare. The evangelists must be committed to the intercessors and the intercessors must be committed to the evangelists. The apostles and prophets must work together with the pastors and teachers and they must all work together with the evangelists. God is raising up these ministries within regions. Not only in South America, but on every continent.
Conclusion: Not exactly new, but very, very different !
There were some compelling conclusions for me. The first was the realization that there is really nothing there that’s mysterious or new. It is different but not new. The difference will be found in the measure.
While we tend to fill our shelves with books and tapes on prayer, they tend to fill heaven with bowls of incense (Rev. 5:8; 8:3,4).
While we tend to spend our time reading “fishing” magazines, they tend to spend their time boldly proclaiming the kingdom of God.
While we tend to skirt around the edge of our community picking up the few “strays” and adding them to the church, they tend to focus on “binding the strongman” (Mark 3:27) and robbing the whole house.
While we tend to languish in our cultural and ecclesiastical baggage, they tend to take seriously the matter of finding every way they can to become one, so that the world will know.
That’s exactly what is happening. The difference in Argentina is that they are so much further down the same road. They have put in the effort, and paid the price. They have very little excess baggage. They set aside non‑essentials. They have more energy for the main event on the program. The result is that the kingdom of God is coming not only to Argentina, but to the rest of the world. As they continue and as they pray for the nations of the world, their “faith is being reported all over the world” (Romans 1:8).
It’s hard not to get wet in Argentina. You can’t help being affected by the climate of revival. It may take a paradigm shift or two, but if you are open to God, you’ll definitely get soaked by the revival rain. In Australia we are still looking to the sky for rain. Our main danger is that when the rain comes we are just as likely to take out two umbrellas, a full length driz‑a‑bone and some gumboots just in case we might get wet. Wet theology and wet and crinkled church traditions are so messy. I wonder what the weather man will say on TV tonight? Praise the Lord !
Reprinted by permission from New Day, February 1997, pages 18-20.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
Dr Geoff Waugh reports on recent and current revival movements in the South Pacific nations of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, as examples of radical and effective discipleship.
Transforming Revivals includes a chapter by George Otis Jr , Snapshots of Glory
Revivals in the South Pacific
Transforming revival continues to spread exponentially. The Sentinel Group (www.glowtorch.org) DVDs report on community transformation around the world, especially in Transformations I and II, and Fiji reports in Let the Seas Resound. This brief update describes recent revivals in the South Pacific islands, representative of revivals multiplying in the twenty-first century.
Vanuatu, South Pacific
Law School students at their Christian Fellowship (CF) in University of the South Pacific developed a powerfully discipling community through their CF, which led to effective evangelism, mission to many nations, and involvement in revival movements. Peer discipling with committed leaders encouraged personal growth and enabled powerful ministry.
The Lord moved in a surprising way at the Christian Fellowship (CF) in the School of Law in Port Vila, Vanuatu on Saturday night, April 6, the weekend after Easter 2002.
The university’s CF held an outreach meeting on the lawn and steps of the grassy university square near the main lecture buildings, school administration and library. God moved strongly there that night.
Unusual lightning hovered around in the sky that night, and as soon as the prayer teams had finished praying with those who rushed forward at the altar call, the tropical rain pelted down on that open field area.
God poured out his Spirit on many lives that night, including Jerry Waqainabete and Simon Kofe. Both of them played rugby in the popular university teams and enjoyed drinking and the night club scene. Both changed dramatically. Many of their friends said it would not last. It did.
A team of eleven from their CF visited Australia for a month in November-December 2002 involved in outreach and revival meetings in many denominations and as well as in visiting home prayer groups. They drove 6,000 kilometres in a 12-seater van, including a trip from Brisbane to Sydney and back to visit Hillsong.
South Pacific team on mision in Australia
The team prayed for hundreds of people in various churches and home groups – as in the cover photograph of this book. They led worship at the daily 6 am prayer group at Kenmore Baptist Church, with Calvin Ziru on guitar. That followed their own 5 am daily prayer meeting in the house provided miraculously for them.
Miracle House bought with “no money” (and sold later for $80,000 profit!)
Mission team at their Brisbane house
Philip and Dhamika George from Sri Lanka bought that rental house with no money and made it freely available. They had recently befriended a back packer stranger who advised them to buy a rental property because Brisbane house prices then began to increase rapidly in value. They had no spare money but their new friend loaned them a deposit of $10,000, interest free, to get a bank loan and buy the house. They sold the house two years later for $80,000 profit, returned the deposit loan, and used the profits for Kingdom purposes especially in mission.
The law students from the CF grew strong in faith. Jerry, one of the students from Fiji, returned home for Christmas vacation after the visit to Australia, and prayed for over 70 sick people in his village, seeing many miraculous healings. His transformed life challenged the village because he had been converted at CF after a wild time as a youth in the village. The following December vacation, 2004, Jerry led revival in his village. He prayed early every morning in the Methodist Church. Eventually some children and then some of the youth joined him early each morning. By 2005 he had 50 young people involved, evangelising, praying for the sick, casting out spirits, and encouraging revival. By 2009 Jerry was a lawyer and pastor of a church in Suva and had planted a new church in his village as well.
Simon, returned to his island of Tuvalu, also transformed at university through CF. He witnessed to his relatives and friends all through the vacation in December-January, bringing many of them to the Lord. He led a team of youth involved in Youth Alive meetings, and prayed with the leaders each morning from 4 a.m. Simon became President of the Christian Fellowship at the Law School from October 2003 for a year.
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
In May 2003 a team from the CF flew to Pentecost Island in Vanuatu for a weekend of outreach meetings on South Pentecost. The national Vanuatu Churches of Christ Bible College, at Banmatmat, stands near the site of the first Christian martyrdom there.
Worship in the chapel at the Bible College on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
Tomas Tumtum had been an indentured worker on cane farms in Queensland, Australia. He was converted there and returned around 1901 to his village on South Pentecost with a new young disciple from a neighbouring island. They arrived when the village was tabu (taboo) because a baby had died a few days earlier, so no one was allowed near the village. Ancient tradition dictated that anyone breaking tabu must be killed, so they were going to kill Tomas, but his disciple Lulkon asked Tomas to tell them to kill him instead so that Tomas could evangelise his own people. Just before he was clubbed to death at a sacred mele palm tree, he read John 3:16, then closed his eyes and prayed for them.
Tomas became the pioneer of the church in South Pentecost, establishing Churches of Christ there.
Mathias, a young man who repented deeply with over 15 minutes of tearful sobbing, is now the main worship leader in revival meetings. When he was leading and speaking at a revival meeting at the national Bible College, a huge supernatural fire blazed in the hills directly opposite the Bible College chapel in 2005, but no bush was burned.
Pentecost Bible College
Bible College Chapel on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu
By 2004, the Churches of Christ national Bible College at Banmatmat on Pentecost Island became a centre for revival. Pastor Lewis Wari and his wife Marilyn hosted these gatherings at the Bible College, and later on Lewis spoke at many island churches as the President of the Churches of Christ. Lewis had been a leader in strong revival movements on South Pentecost as a young pastor from 1988.
Every weekend the team from the college led revival meetings in village churches. Many of these went late as the Spirit moved on the people with deep repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness, and prayer for healing and empowering.
Pentecost on Pentecost
Grant Shaw accompanied Geoff Waugh to Pentecost Island in Vanuatu in September-October 2006. Grant grew up with missionary parents, saw many persecutions and miracles, and had his dad recounting amazing, miraculous answers to prayer as a daily routine. They often needed to pray for miracles, and miracles happened. From 14 years old Grant participated in mission teams travelling internationally in Asia. Then he attended a youth camp at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship which has had revival since 1994. He then worked there as an associate youth pastor for 18 months before studying at Bible College in Brisbane. So he is used to revival – all his life! In Vanuatu he was getting clear words of knowledge, and seeing people healed daily in meetings and in the villages. That inspired and challenged everyone.
Raised from the dead
At sharing time in the Upper Room service in Port Vila the capital, Leah Waqa, a nurse, told how she had been on duty that week when parents brought in their young daughter who had been badly hit in a car accident, and showed no signs of life – the monitor registered zero – no pulse. Leah felt unusual boldness, so commanded the girl to live, and prayed for her for an hour – mostly in tongues – and after an hour the monitor started beeping and the girl recovered.
Grant Shaw with Leah Waqa
The mission trip continued on South Pentecost once more, based in the village of Panlimsi where Mathias was then the young pastor. The Spirit moved strongly in all the meetings. Repentance. Reconciliations. Confessions. Anointing. Healings every day. The healings included Pastor Rolanson’s young son able to hear clearly after partially deaf from birth. Rolanson leads evangelism teams, and helped lead this mission.
South Pentecost attracts tourists with its land diving – men jumping from high towers with vines attached to their ankles. Grant prayed for a jumper who had hurt his neck, and the neck crackled back into place. An elderly man no longer needed a walking stick to come up the hill to the meetings. Grant prayed for a son of the paramount chief of South Pentecost from Bunlap, a heathen village. He was healed from a painful groin and he invited the team to come to his village to pray for the sick. No white people had been invited there to minister previously.
The team, including the two Australians, trekked for a week into mountain villages. They literally obeyed Luke 10 – most going with no extra shirt, no sandals, and no money. The trek began with a 5 hour walk across the island to Ranwas on the eastern side. Mathias led worship, with strong moves of the Spirit touching everyone. At one point the preacher spat on the dirt floor, making mud to show what Jesus did once. Marilyn Wari, wife of the President of the Churches of Christ in Vanuatu, then jumped up asking for prayer for her eyes. Later she testified that the Lord told her to do that, and then she found she could read her small Bible without glasses.
Glory in a remote village
The team trekked through the ‘custom’ heathen village (where the paramount chief’s sons lived), and prayed for more sick people. Some had pain leave immediately, and people there became more open to the gospel. Then the team trekked for 7 hours to Ponra, a remote village further north on the east coast.
Revival meetings erupted there! The Spirit just took over. Visions. Revelations. Reconciliations. Healings. People drunk in the Spirit. Many resting on the floor getting blessed in various ways. When they heard about healing through ‘mud in the eye’ at Ranwas some came straight out asking for mud packs also!
One of the girls in the team had a vision of the village children there paddling in a pure sea, crystal clear. They were like that – so pure. Not polluted at all by TV, videos, movies, magazines, worldliness. Their lives were so clean and holy. Just pure love for the Lord, especially among the young.
Angels singing filled the air about 3 am. It sounded as though the village church was packed. The harmonies in high descant declared “For You are great and You do wondrous things. You are God alone” and then harmonies, without words until words again for “I will praise You O Lord my God with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name for evermore” with long, long harmonies on “forever more.” Just worship.
The Upper Room church continues to move in the Spirit and has seen strong touches of God in the islands, especially Tanna Island. They planted churches there in ‘custom’ villages, invited by the chiefs because the chiefs have seen their people healed and transformed.
During missions there in 2006, many young boys asked to be ‘ordained’ as evangelists in the power of the Spirit. They returned to their villages and many of those young boys established churches as they spoke, told Bible stories, and sang original songs inspired by the Spirit.
Solomon Islands
Powerful revival in the Solomon Islands back in 1970 spread throughout the South Pacific. Everywhere pastors and leaders when they sparked more revival, repentance, conversions and many healings and miracles.
The Lord also poured out his Spirit in fresh and surprising ways in New Georgia in the Western District of the Solomon Islands in 2003, and touched many churches in the capital Honiara with strong moves of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit moved powerfully especially on youth and children. This included many conversions, many filled with the Spirit, many having visions and revelations.
An anointed pastor from PNG spoke at an Easter Camp in 2003 attended by many youth leaders from the Western Solomons. Those leaders returned on fire. The weekend following Easter, from the end of April, 2003, youth and children in the huge, scenic Marovo Lagoon area were filled with the Spirit, with many lives transformed. Revival began with the Spirit moving on youth and children in village churches. They had extended worship in revival songs, many visions and revelations and lives being changed with strong love for the Lord. Children and youth began meeting daily from 5 pm for hours of praise, worship and testimonies. A police officer reported reduced crimes and that former rebels attending daily worship and prayer meetings.
Revival continues to spread throughout the region. Revival movements brought moral change and built stronger communities in villages in the Solomon Islands, including these lasting developments:
1. Higher moral standards. People involved in the revival have quit crime and drunkeness, and now promote good behaviour and co-operation.
2. Christians who once kept their Christianity inside churches and meetings now talk more freely about their lifestyle in the community and among friends.
3. Revival groups, especially youth, enjoy working together in unity and community, including a stronger emphasis on helping others in the community.
4. Families are strengthened in the revival. Parents spend more time with their youth and children to encourage and help them, often leading them in Bible readings and family prayers now.
5. Many new gifts and ministries are being used by more people than before, including revelations and healing. Even children receive revelations or words of knowledge about hidden magic artifacts or ginger plants related to spirit power and remove them.
6. Churches are growing. Many church buildings in the Marovo Lagoon have been pulled down to be replaced by much bigger buildings to fit in the crowds. Offerings and community support have increased.
7. Unity. Increasingly Christians unite in reconciliation for revival meetings, prayer and service to the community.
Western Solomon Islands
A team of law students from the University of the South Pacific CF in Port Vila, Vanuatu, visited Honiara and the Western Solomon Islands in mid-2003. Sir Peter and Lady Margaret Kenilorea hosted the team in Honiara. Sir Peter was the first Prime Minister of the independent Solomon Islands, and then the Speaker in the Parliament.
South Pacific team at the Kenilorea home
Dr Ronald Ziru, then the administrator of the United Church Hospital in Munda in the western islands hosted the team there, which included his son Calvin. The team had to follow Jesus’ instructions about taking nothing extra on mission because the airline left all their checked luggage behind in Port Vila! They found it at Honiara after their return from the western islands.
At Seghe and in the Marovo Lagoon the revival spread since Easter. Some adults became involved, also repenting and seeking more of the Holy Spirit. Many outpourings and gifts of the Spirit have emerged, including the following:
Transformed lives – Many youths that the police used to check on because of alcohol and drug abuse became sober and on fire for God attending daily worship and prayer meetings. A man who rarely went to church led the youth singing group at Seghe. Adults publicly reconciled after years of old rifts or strife.
Long worship – This included prophetic words or actions and visions. About 200 youth and children led worship at both Sunday services with 1,000 attending in Patutiva village where the revival began. They sang revival songs and choruses accompanied by their youth band.
Visions – Children saw visions of Jesus (smiling at worship, weeping at hard hearts), angels, hell (with relatives sitting close to a lake of fire, so the children warned them). Some saw Jesus with a foot in heaven and a foot on earth, like Mt 28:18 – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” One boy preached (prophesied) for 1½ hours, Spirit-led.
Revelations – especially ‘words of knowledge’ about hidden things, including magic artefacts and good luck charms. Children show parents where they hid these things! If other adults did that there would be anger and feuds, but they accept it from their children. One boy told police that a man accused of stealing a chain saw (and sacked) was innocent as he claimed, and gave them the name of the culprit, by word of knowledge. The accused man returned to work.
Spiritual Gifts – teaching sessions discussed traditional and revival worship, deliverance, discernment of spirits, gifts of the Spirit, understanding and interpreting visions, tongues, healing, Spirit-led worship and preaching, and leadership in revival. Many young people became leaders moving strongly in many spiritual gifts.
These effects continued to spread throughout the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands Mission
In the Solomon Islands the revival team of 15 from Vanuatu and 6 from Brisbane visited villages in the Guadalcanal Mountains, three hours drive and seven hours trekking from Honiara, and held revival meetings in November 2006 especially to encourage revival leaders. They walked up mountain tracks to where revival is spreading, especially among youth. Now those young people have teams going to the villages to sing, testify, and pray for people. Many gifts of the Spirit are new to them. The team prayed for the sick and for anointing and filling with the Spirit. They prayed both in the meetings and in the villages.
Revival in Guadalcanal Mountains
Revival in the Guadalcanal Mountains started at the Bubunuhu Christian Community High School on July 10, 2006, on their first night back from holidays. They took teams of students to the villages to sing, testify, and pray for people, especially youth. Many gifts of the Spirit were new to them – prophecies, revelations (e.g., about where magic stuff is hidden) healings, and tongues.
Choiseul Island
Gideon, Grant and Geoff participated for five days in the National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC) in the north-west at Choiseul Island – 2 hours flight from Honiara. Around 1500 youth gathered from across the nation, many arriving by outboard motor canoes.
The group coming from Simbo Island in two canoes ran into trouble when their outboard motors failed. Two of their young men swam from noon for nine hours in rough seas to reach land and get help for their stranded friends. The following day they arrived with a repaired outboard motor minus their food which they had to throw overboard in the rough seas.
The Friday night convention meeting saw a huge response as Grant challenged them to be fully committed to God. Most of the youth came out immediately so there were hundreds to pray for.
The anointed worship team led the crowd in “He touched me” for nearly half an hour as prayer continued for them, including many wanting healing.
Here is Grant’s description of that youth crusade night:
We were invited to speak for their huge night rally. Geoff began and God moved on the young people in a special way. Then he handed it over to me at about halfway and I gave some words of knowledge for healing. They came forward and we prayed for them most of them fell under the Spirit’s power and all of them testified that all the pain left their body. After that, I continued to speak for a bit and then gave an altar call for any youth who choose to give their lives fully to Jesus, no turning back!
Most of a thousand youth came forward, some ran to the altar, some crying! There was an amazing outpouring of the Spirit and because there were so many people Geoff and I split up and started laying hands on as many people as we could. People were falling under the power everywhere (some testified later to having visions). There were bodies all over the field (some people landing on top of each other).
Then I did a general healing prayer and asked them to put their hand on the place where they had pain. After we prayed people began to come forward sharing testimonies of how the pain had left their bodies and they were completely healed! The meeting stretched on late into the night with more healing and many more people getting deep touches.
It was one of the most amazing nights. I was deeply touched and feel like I have left a part of my self in Choiseul. God did an amazing thing that night with the young people and I really believe that he is raising some of them up to be mighty leaders in Revival.
A young man healed that night returned to his nearby village and prayed for his sick mother and brother. Both were healed immediately. He told about that the next morning at the convention, adding that he had never done that before.
The delegation from Karika, in the Shortland Islands further west, returned the following Monday. The next night they led a meeting where the Spirit of God moved in revival. Many were filled with the Spirit, had visions, were healed, and discovered many spiritual gifts including discerning spirits and tongues. That revival has continued, and spread.
Transforming Revival
An unusual pattern of discipleship has emerged in whole villages in the South Pacific during the 12st Century. Applying the principles of 2 Chronicles 7:14, complete village communities have experienced not only revival but ecological and social transformation. Mentors and leaders from among their own people have led them into radical repentance, reconciliation, and communal commitment to Jesus as Lord in all of life.
The following stories of community transformation from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu come from pages 58-70 of A Manual for Healing the Land by Vuniani Nakanyaca and Walo Ani, 3rd edition, 2009, published by Toowoomba City Church, Australia, reproduced by permission. Reports by Harry Tura from Vanuatu are added here.
Fiji
The twenty-first century has already seen many village communities transformed. Rev Ratu Vunaiani Nakauyaca describes community transformation in Fiji. The most powerful events in this ongoing revival are the direct results of repentance, reconciliation and unity,
One of the first instances of this occurred in 2002, when Chief Mataitoga of Sabeto village (between Nadi and Lautoka) had a dream from the Lord. The village had a lot of social problems as well as enmity and divisions. As a result of the dream, he called his people together to pray and fast to seek God for answers and healing. Over a period of two weeks, many of the clans spent time with the Chief to sort out their differences. They had meetings every night and God brought about reconciliation and unity in the church and village, many relationships being healed.
There had only been one church in the area until the Pentecostal revival of the 1960s which spread across the cities and towns and into the rural areas during that period. Because of the rejection of the Pentecostal experience by some people, many villages had two churches, one Methodist and one Pentecostal. This caused division between friends and family, with many people not communicating and carrying bitterness and resentment for decades.
When Ratu Mataitoga directed his people to come together as one, there was a move of the Holy Spirit with real repentance and forgiveness, and unity in the village was restored. The long term results of this action were only revealed with the passing of time. Productivity of the soil increased and long absent fish varieties returned to the reef. Mangroves that had died and disappeared have begun to grow again. The mangroves are very important for the ecology, providing shelter and breeding grounds for all kinds of fish, crabs, etc. all of which were part of the staple diet of these villages.
Healing the Land
The Healing the Land (HTL) Process, as it is now officially recognized, was really started on the initiative of Pastor Vuniani Nakauyaca. For him it was a personal journey that resulted from an accumulation of various events.
The Pacific Prayer movement had a desire to see that prayer, repentance and reconciliation were carried out where necessary on location – where missionaries had been killed or where tribal conflict had taken place. These were all based on a bottom-up or grassroots approach to bring healing and reconciliation.
Vuniani had visited Argentina and seen the beneficial results of reconciliation with the British over the Faulklands war. He also visited Guatemala to see the Almolonga transformation (see Transformation Series DVD/Video). This was a singularly dramatic community change. Jails and public bars closed, land fertility increased and crop production levels had to be seen to be believed.
What he saw brought a deeper desire in his heart to see this happen in Fiji, to give room for God to bring about community and national transformation in similar ways to what he had seen overseas. He saw the need to appropriately respond to the circumstances and use the spiritual tools available to see the nation transformed.
Nuku Village
After returning to Fiji, he called some people together to seek God for solutions. They felt they should begin at Nuku, and this took place 1-10 April, 2003. Nuku is about 65 kilometres north of Suva, on the main island of Viti Levu.
The inhabitants of Nuku had been suffering feuds, infertility, mental illness and social problems for decades. The water of the stream that flowed through the village had been polluted since a day 42 years previously, the water and banks being filled with slime. At that time, children were swimming in the stream when the water suddenly turned white and they all ran for their lives. Fish died and grass died. Vuniani, as a child, was swimming in the river when this happened, so he knew the background story. It was believed that the polluted water caused blindness, infertility, madness and even death.
Vuniani and the team went up to Nuku to activate the Process. The key Scripture they went with was 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land”.
They had two weeks of prayer meetings, the Methodist, Assemblies of God and Seventh Day Adventist churches being represented. They spent time studying Bible references on defilement and Healing the Land. This lead them to repent and confess their sins and the sins of their forefathers, in the same way as Nehemiah did. These included killing and cannibalism, idolatry, witchcraft, bloodshed, immorality
They went to the high places in the area to cleanse them of the sinful acts that had taken place there. The elders confessed sins of their forefathers. Reconciliation first took place within families, then clans and finally within the tribe. The chief of the area led a corporate prayer of repentance with the whole tribe.
On the third day of the Process, some women came running and shouting into the village, announcing that the water in the stream had become pure again. It is still pure today.
Nuku village had been heavily populated, but because of feuds and disputes, people were chased out or just left and went to live in other villages. Deputations were sent out to these to apologise for the past offenses. A matanigasau (traditional apology) was sent to two villages, inviting the people to return if they wished.
The whole community now count themselves as very blessed. The productivity of the land has increased. The stream water is pure and since that time shrimps and fish have returned to the waters. The fertility of the banks and agriculture has radically improved. Some people have even reported that the water has demonstrated healing properties.
Nabitu Village, East of Nausori, Viti Levu
What occurred in this village was very much a follow on from what was happening around the country at the time. There was a split in the tribe and there were a lot of unresolved issues. During a business meeting in the local church, which was situated right in the middle of the village, a fist fight broke out. There was always a heaviness in the village, like a hovering dark cloud. This affected people negatively and there were not a lot of jobs available.
On the advice of chiefs, the people came together on their own initiative for a time of corporate repentance. A lay preacher in the Methodist Church facilitated the Process. There was instantly a change in the atmosphere. The heaviness that had been there had lifted and everyone could feel it. The division in the church was healed.
The lesson learned from there is that satan’s hold over people and places is tenuous to say the least. It only takes one man to lead many into forgiveness and healing. Satan has to leave, along with the oppression and curses.
Vunibau (Serua Island) in the mouth of Navua River
The HTL Process in this place was scheduled over a 14 day period. During the Process the mixture of elements was poured out onto the sand on the beach. Later that day, an elderly lady and her son went fishing on the beach. They cast the net out but when they tried to haul it back in, it seemed to be stuck. They thought that perhaps it had been caught on a stump or rock, but they found that the net was actually so full of fish that they could not pull it in.
They started walking back to the village to tell everyone, and the lady was following her son walking along the beach. Wherever his footprints were in the sand a red liquid appeared. As she walked in his footsteps she was healed of migraine, knee ailments and severe back pain, all of which she had suffered for many years. This healing has been permanent. As soon as they returned to the village she told the whole community what had happened.
All the people rushed down to the beach to see this phenomenon, including the HTL team that was still there at the time. To their amazement, right on the spot where the elements had been poured onto the sand, there was blood coming out of the sand and flowing into the sea. A backslidden Catholic man gave his life to the Lord on the spot. Photos were taken. Vuniani was called from Suva (about an hour away) and he also witnessed the blood coming out of the sand. This actually happened twice.
It was understood to be a confirming sign from the Lord that He was at work in the reconciliation and healing Process. 1 John 5:6-7, “There are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood.”
This was similar to the miracle of the healing of the waters in Nuku, which was also recognized as a sign of God’s cleansing and healing that was taking place amongst the people. God is authenticating what He is doing.
At Vunibau many other signs quickly followed. Large fish returned to their fishing grounds. On one occasion, considerable quantities of prawns came ashore so that people could just pick them up. Crabs and lobsters have also returned, and they have been able to sell the large lobsters for up to $25-$30 each.
After this sign of the blood, Pastor Vuniani recalled the scripture in Acts 2:19 where the Lord had spoken through the prophet Joel that “I will grant wonders (signs) in the sky above, and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire and vapour (pillars) of smoke” (NASB). He wondered what would come next after the sign of the blood and felt that the next sign would be fire.
Nataliera, Nailevu North
In Nataliera village there were four churches. There was no communication between their members, affecting even closely related families within the village. Traditional witchcraft was still being practised and there were about eight sorcerers there. In addition, there had been many more deaths than would be normal.
After forgiveness and reconciliation, the members of these four churches would meet every Wednesday for prayer and fasting. On the first Sunday of every month, the four congregations would combine for one large gathering. An Eco Lodge, previously closed, is now prospering after the HTL Process.
For many years the fishing on the reef had become lean. Large fish were very scarce and for many years the catch had only ever comprised “bait fish” – the very small ones. Much of the coral reef was dead and what was left seemed to be dying.
After reconciliation, on two separate occasions fire was seen to fall from the sky onto the reef. After this, large fish returned in abundance. The coral is now regenerating and new growth can be seen in abundance.
When stormy weather strikes and the boats can’t go out, the women pray and large fish swim in close to the shore and become trapped in a small pond so that the women are able to just wade in and catch them. When women from neighbouring villages heard of this, they tried praying for the same provision, but without the same result.
Draubuta, Navosa highlands, north of Sigatoka
Vuniani’s son, Savanaca, was working with two teams in the highlands. While they were there, pillars of smoke descended on the villages. This was seen by many neighbouring villagers who described it as thick bloodstained smoke. This sign was seen at almost exactly the same time as fire was seen to fall on the reef at Nataliera.
In this area there were many marijuana plantations. The Nadroga council had been trying to prevent the plantings. During the HTL Process, a deputation of marijuana growers approached the team and asked what the Government would do for them if they destroyed their crops. They had a list of demands which they presented to the team.
The marijuana crop was large, and estimated to be worth about $11 million. There were 9 growers involved. The team leaders told the farmers that it was their choice, that they should obey God and trust Him for their livelihood, without any promises from anyone to do anything for them. If they could not, then they should not participate in the Healing Process.
By the time the Process had finished, the people had destroyed the crop as part of the reconciliation Process. After the HTL ministry, a total of 13,864 plants were uprooted and burnt by the growers themselves. There were 6,000 seedlings as well.
These are a few of the many miraculous events that have occurred in Fiji since 2001. Every week, more such events are happening as the forgiveness, reconciliation and HTL processes are being experienced.
Burning idols
Papua New Guinea
Rev Walo Ani and his wife Namana describe community transformation through Healing the Land in Papua New Guinea.
Karawa Village
It was a very exciting week in August 2006 where we saw the Lord move mightily in the lives of the village elders, chiefs, church leaders and the people. A group of dedicated young people’s prayer ministry team started praying and fasting from 1st of July for the HTL Process. We witnessed repentance, forgiveness and reconciliations between family and clan members, and between individuals.
The Lord went ahead and prepared the hearts of people in every home as we visited. They were ready to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness from each other and reconcile. In some homes, members of families gave their hearts to the Lord. Visitation of homes took two days. On the third morning, after the dedication of the elements of salt, oil and water, the village elders and chiefs publicly repented as they identified with sins of their forebears; and each of them publicly gave their clans to the Lord.
Three dinghies and a big canoe with people all went in different directions up several rivers and along the nearby coast to anoint specific places for cleansing that were defiled through deaths and killings in the past.
That night there was a time of public confession and renouncement of things that were a hindrance in the lives of the people around a huge bonfire. It was a solemn night; the presence of the Lord was so powerful that people were coming forward and burning their witchcraft and charms publicly. No one could hold back, even the deacons and church elders, village elders, women and young people were all coming forward. Young people started confessing their sins and renouncing and burning drugs, cigarettes and things that were hindering their lives from following Christ.
A young man, who had murdered another young man about 11 years ago, came forward and publicly confessed his sin and asked for forgiveness from the family of the murdered man. That was a big thing; there was a pause and we waited and prayed for someone from the other side to respond. Only the Lord could do this. The younger brother of the man who was killed came out finally, and offered forgiveness. We could hear crying among the people; it was a moving moment where God just took control. Mothers, brothers and members of both extended families became reconciled in front of the whole village. We could sense the release upon both families and village. It was an awesome time; the meeting went on into the early hours of the next morning. At the end of all this at about 2am the pastor stood up and said the prayer to invite Jesus into the community.
The village is not the same; you can sense the release and freedom of Christ in the lives of the people. The Holy Spirit is still moving in people’s lives and they are coming to their pastor for prayer. Recently, a young man surrendered two guns to the pastor. News of what God has done and is still doing has spread to neighbouring villages. God birthed a new thing in our area and I believe that many more villages will see the transforming power of God because they are hungry and desperate to see change in their communities.
There is abundance of fruit and garden food and two harvests of fruit on the orange trees have been observed so far.
A hunger for prayer has risen among the young people. Straight after HTL Process young people from one of the clans started a prayer group which is still going on. Two other clans started prayer groups after a lot of struggle to get going over the years. The HTL team was the main support behind “Kids Games” which were held December 2006 in the neighbouring village of Keapara.
The studies were on Joseph and when they came to the section on forgiveness the Lord moved in a powerful way and revival started among the children. They stood and asked for forgiveness from their parents. There was crying and reconciliation between children and parents.
The Lord is arresting the hearts of the young, the old and the children and there is no holding back.
Makirupu Village
Makirupu is about 2 hours drive east of Port Moresby, with a population of about 600. The United Church was the established church there and CRC and AOG have also planted churches there in recent years which caused a lot of offences between families.
The Lord moved in a mighty way convicting people of land disputes, immorality and fornication, fear of witchcraft and sorcery (fear was at its peak when the HTL Process began), lies, gambling, stealing, marriage problems, witchcraft, sorcery and charms and many other issues. Miracles of healing started from day one; people who were deaf began to hear, their ears were healed.
The presence of the Lord was very heavy in the church. I asked if there was anyone to repent on behalf of the young people and the young girl who had committed fornication and adultery with the last pastor came forward, trembling and crying, confessing, repenting and asking for forgiveness from God and the whole village. The people were amazed at what God was doing. Only He could do that. The girl who had denied outright what she had done 18 months ago was arrested by God’s presence and could not hide any more. A Sunday School representative came forward and repented and asked for forgiveness. A former deacon could not hold back. He came forward and confessed that he had been the messenger boy for the pastor and the girl and he said sorry to the Lord for denying Him.
Because of this incident 18 months ago, all the young people had left the church but when the air was cleared, the next day all the young people came and the church building was full to capacity. The fear of the Lord entered the hearts of the people. That same night the anointing elements were mixed and the mission land was anointed, cleansed and rededicated to God. It was an awesome time. The AOG pastor also asked for forgiveness from the United Church for leaving the church and causing division. He and his wife and all his church members were part of the prayer warrior team right from day one of the Process. A couple of days later the CRC members started joining us and by the end of the Process all three churches were united to see change in the community. The prayer warrior team grew from 7 to 40. Praise God!
The next day news of what had happened had reached everyone in the village and the nearby villages and more people came for the meetings. They were hungry to hear the Word of the Lord. The next few days people were seeing signs and wonders, something they had never experienced before. Revival had started and the fear of God came upon the people. Also on the third day the village chief invited Jesus into the community.
On the last day the whole village gathered at the spot where the village was started some five or six generations ago. Anointing oil was mixed and all the chiefs and village elders were anointed and reinstated. After that, groups of people and prayer team took oil to certain places defiled because of bloodshed in the past on garden land. They anointed these places while deacons took oil to the boundaries of the village and the beach and dedicated the land back to God.
After lunch everyone came back to the village and started a bonfire. Church deacons and leaders were the first ones to come forward with confessions of adultery, immorality and witchcraft. Families with land disputes came out and reconciled with people they had taken to court. Young people came out with charms and magic and burnt them in the fire. A mother came out with her ten-year-old daughter and confessed she had handed down her sorcery and magic to her and said she was sorry, asking for forgiveness from God. Both were prayed for. Husbands and wives reconciled, artifacts of magic and idolatry were burnt. God was doing His cleaning up in the lives of the people.
The next day we had a time of celebration and you could see the release and freedom in people’s lives, singing was coming from their hearts and joy was bubbling over. The Lord had again touched people’s hearts and His presence was so evident that the people did not want to stop celebrating, although it was getting dark and there was no light.
The land and the people are being healed. The day after the Process a couple of men went crabbing and caught bigger and more crabs than usual. A week later a lady went to her garden to find that the bad weed which had been a problem to most gardens had started to wither and die. She went back to the village and told everyone. The fear that had gripped the hearts of the people had also been broken in prayer and now women are going to their gardens on their own – something they could not do before. A few days after the HTL Process, men began to go fishing and to their surprise they were catching more and bigger fish than before.
There has been a case of instant healing of a patient with a stroke after the AOG pastor and his wife shared with her family about Roots and Foundations and how curses come into lives. The whole family confessed, repented and reconciled with each other. The pastor’s wife had some of the oil that was mixed in the village the week before and began anointing the lady while they prayed. To their surprise, she was healed instantly. She began to speak and eat on her own. The pastor said he had never experienced anything like this before. The presence of the Lord was so great they all started worshipping Him and time was not an issue anymore. Praise God for this miracle!
During the Process, the pastors of the AOG, the United Church and an Elder of the CRC church, standing on behalf of the pastor, all repented of all the offences and misunderstandings between them in the past. So now the three churches have decided to have a combined service once a month in the middle of the village.
The young people from all three churches are already having combined prayer meetings and they are in the process of building a big shelter in the middle of the village for the combined church services.
The villagers reported there has not been any stealing since the men were employed. There has also been increase in their garden produce, fruit and nut trees. The people are able to see their own produce come to maturity and sell it, whereas in the past it would have been stolen.
Makirupu and one of the nearby villages are known for getting floods during heavy rains. One month before we got there, it had been raining heavily but the Lord has kept the floods away. This is an answer to the people’s prayers. However, the other village got the floods and we got to see some of the houses still surrounded by floodwaters when we were there. It surely is amazing!
Kalo Village
Kalo is the village where about 126 years ago in 1881, four Cook Island missionaries and their families were killed. The killings were led by the chief of one of the clans.
The outcome of the talks is that the leaders of this clan called all their families together, from far and near to come and start the repentance and reconciliation Process. This was supported by the pastor and all the Church and clan leaders of Kalo. It was a moving occasion and the leaders agreed to proceed with the HTL Process and a bigger reconciliation event with the relatives of the Cook Island missionaries present in the near future.
Healing The Land in Vanuatu
Pastors Walo Ani and Harry Tura report on transforming revival in Vanuatu.
Hog Harbour, Espirito Santo
The island was named Espiritu Santo because that is the island where over 400 years ago in May 1606 Ferdinand de Quiros named the lands from there to the South Pole the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit.
In April 2006 the Fraternal, under the leadership of Pastor Raynold Bori, conducted protocol discussions with the Hog Harbour community leaders and explained to them what the Process involves. In May 2006 six pastors from Luganville did the HTL Process and God’s presence came on the people that week.
Here are some of the stories of Healing the Land in a village of 800 people:
Married couples were reconciled.
Schools of big fish came to the shores during the reconciliation.
A three year old conflict, bloodshed and tribal fighting that could not be stopped by the Police, ended and reconciliation was made.
The presence of the Lord came down on the village.
In June of 2006, 12 pastors from the Luganville Fraternal were invited by the Litzlitz village on Malekula Island to do the HTL Process there. These Pastors spent three weeks teaching and doing the Process during which many instances of reconciliation and corporate repentance were witnessed. Village Chiefs and the people committed their community to God.
One year later the President of Vanuatu re-covenanted the Nation to God on the island of Espiritu Santo.
Litzlitz Village, Malekula Island
The presence of the Lord was so real and manifested and many miracles were seen such a people healed, dried brooks turned to running streams of water, fish and other sea creatures came back to the sea shores in great number and even the garden crops came alive again and produced great harvests.
Miracles happened three days after the HTL Process:
The poison fish that usually killed or made people sick became edible and tasty again.
The snails that were destroying gardens all died suddenly and didn’t return.
As a sign of God’s transforming work a coconut tree in the village which naturally bore orange coconuts started bearing bunches of green coconuts side by side with the red ones.
A spring gushed out from a dried river bed and the river started flowing again after the anointing oil was poured on it when people prayed and repented of all the sins of defilement over the area.
A kindergarten was established in the village one week after the HTL Process took place.
Crops are now blessed and growing well in their gardens.
Vilakalak Village, West Ambae Island
A lot of things had been transformed such as people’s lives had been changed as they accepted Christ and were filled with the Holy Spirit for effective ministries of the Gospel of Christ. The Shekinah glory came down to the very spot where we did the process of healing the land during the night of July 1. That great light (Shekinah glory) came down. People described it as a living person with tremendous and powerful light shining over the whole of the village community, confirming the Lord’s presence at that specific village community area. On the following day people started to testify that a lot of fish and shell fish were beginning to occupy the reefs and they felt a different touch of a changed atmosphere in the village community.
The lands and garden crops then started to produce for great harvests and coconut crabs and island crabs came back in great abundance for people’s daily meals these days. The people were very surprised at the look of the big sizes of coconut crabs harvested in that area. I went there a month later to see it. You can’t believe it that the two big claws or arms were like my wrist when I compared them with my left wrist. That proved that the God we serve is so real and He is the owner of all the creatures.
Lovanualikoutu, West Ambae
They saw many miracles of people restored to the Lord and witchcraft destroyed. The Chief said the sinner’s prayer on behalf of the community one night and they all surrendered their lives to the Lord as he invited Jesus into the village.
A team of people swam out to sea with the anointing oil to worship there and dedicate the sea and reef back to God. The day after the team’s departure from the village a pastor who went out spear fishing saw a large migration of fish. He in fact reportedly speared two fish together at one stage. When he reported this to the Chief there was dancing and rejoicing under the cocoa trees where the Chief and some young people had been working.
During the reconciliation when the Chief began to speak, a light shower fell from the sky. There were no clouds but only a sky full of millions of stars. Surely God was in this Process! The prayer team continues to see visions and witness miracles of more reconciliation and repentance. Harvests from sea and land have begun to be more abundant than ever before witnessed.
Dedicating the sea to God
The reports of transforming revival confirm that God’s purposes for us include far more than personal, family, or church renewal and revival. They also include community transformation, including social and ecological renewal and revival.
These accounts of transforming revival continue to multiply in the twenty-first century, calling us all to deeper repentance, reconciliation, renewal and revival.
Celebrating with a feast
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence 
