Author: Geoff

Geoff Waugh is the founding editor of the Renewal Journal and an author of books on renewal and revival and Christian living.
aborigines, evangelism, revival

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

by Geoff 13 August 2011 1 Comment

Australian Reports

Pilbra region of Western Australia,

Faith Comes Alive in the Pilbara

by Craig Siggins

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

 

The closure of a pub through lack of customers is big news in Australia.  This is what drew the media to a small town called Nullagine in the far north of Western Australia.  But the media didn’t know quite how to report the religious revival that is keeping people out of the pubs‑as well as the jails and hospitals.  Aboriginal church worker Craig Siggins wrote this account of the spiritual awakening that is changing Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.

“Kuurti yarrarni kuwarri ngangka mungkangka” (“Holy Spirit, we welcome you in this place tonight”) is the first line of a song being sung at many Aboriginal communities around the Pilbara.  It was composed by Len “Nyaparu” Brooks, also known as Kurutakurru, one of the many leaders God has raised up among the Martu Wangka, Nyangumarta and other peoples of the Pilbara.

A spiritual awakening took place in many communities last year, in 1997.  Things started at Warralong, where many became Christians and were baptised after being influenced by three Christian Aboriginal leaders.  Then just before Christmas, Kurutakurru joined two other leaders at Nullagine, and many from Nullagine and other communities became Christians and came across to the dam at Newman to be baptised.

Many communities started having meetings almost every night and prayer meetings every day.  Leaders travelled to different communities for the meetings and to encourage people, sometimes holding meetings at night after a funeral service when hundreds of people were gathered.  Some meetings went on for eight hours or more as people shared in song, testimony, prayer, Bible reading and preaching.

When Franklin Graham visited Perth in early February, over 200 Martu people travelled the 1150 km for his meetings.  It was like one long church service all the way there and back.  Everyone was bursting to sing and witness to the people in Perth.

When we got back there were more meetings and baptisms, even from communities that had previously rejected Christianity.  Old people, Aboriginal elders, were turning to Christ and being baptised.  Four hundred people gathered at the Coongan River near Marble Bar for three days of meetings, with many more being baptised.

Police, hospitals and others have noticed a decrease in alcohol-related incidents.  The media has begun to take notice.  Nullagine, which had the record of being the arrest capital of Australia, became news when the pub went broke, apparently because so many had given up the grog.  ‘A Current Affair’ came up and did a television spot at Nullagine.

Amazingly, a simultaneous and apparently quite separate revival began at about the same time among the Pintubi people and others across the border in the Northern Territory.  A team from Kiwirrkura, just on the WA side of the border, travelled across the desert and joined up with the Pilbara meetings, arriving early for our Easter Convention held in a wide dry river bed near Newman.  More than 1000 people from different communities and Christian traditions came together to celebrate.

Why the revival?  It is nothing more or less more than a work of the Holy Spirit.  It has similarities to the revival that spread to many Aboriginal communities in the early ’80s, which reached the Pilbara but never really took hold.  Like that revival, people have had dreams and visions.  Recently Mitchell, a leader from Punmu, got up and read from Acts 2 about Joel’s prophecy and said it was being fulfilled.  Not long ago, people told me they had seen a cross in the sky one morning.  And like the ‘80s revival, it is the Aboriginal people taking the Wangka Kunyjunyu (Good News) to their own people in their own way and their own language.

Aboriginal leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit are leading the revival.  These leaders would like to see the revival reaching the wider Kartiya (non‑Aboriginal) society.  But for these shy desert people to reach out to Kartiya in these days of Mabo, Wik and the struggle for reconciliation will only be by the hand of God.

Reprinted with permission from On Being ALIVE Magazine, PO Box 434, Hawthorn Victoria,  3122,  Ph:  61 3 9819 4755, No. 5, June 1998, pages 8‑10.

Spiritual Awakening in the North-West

 Craig Siggins

Aborigines baptised with Dan Armstrong

Craig Siggins gives a more detailed account of the Pilbara revival in this article.

Beginnings at Elcho Island

Revival!  In some Christian circles it is like the Holy Grail – something to be sought after at all cost.  But perhaps few realise that a revival did come to Australia – or that there is again a revival happening right now.  Perhaps few realise this because both revivals began in remote areas among Aboriginal people.

In 1979 a revival began on Elcho Island off the Northern Territory.  In 1981 it came to the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia, and then spread to many Aboriginal communities around Australia.  I was privileged to have been a witness to that revival.

In 1981/82 at the height of the revival in Western Australia I was teaching at the Christian Aboriginal Parent-directed School at Coolgardie.  All of the students became Christians and there were prayer, praise and testimony meetings most nights.  My present work as a pastor/missionary is a direct result of that revival.  The revival has been well documented in Ian Lindsay’s Fire in the Spinifex and John Blacker’s Fire in the Outback.  The effect of that revival nearly 20 years on is still strong in many communities – Aboriginal Christian leaders, committed Aboriginal Christians and Gospel seeds sown in many places and many lives, including the Pilbara.

Resistant people respond

My wife, Lyn, and I came to the Pilbara in 1993, settling in the town of Newman.  Our vision was to see a strong, indigenous Aboriginal church raised up amongst the Martu Aboriginal people of this area.  But we had not expected to see it so soon.  We had expected a long, slow struggle before anything of significance developed.

Some communities were strongly anti-Christian.  At one community we were told by some white Christians not to be too overt in our Christian witness.  Two years later Aboriginal leaders from our Parnpajinya Church at Newman baptised many from that community.  At another community a clause against teaching Christianity was written into the school constitution.  Two years later we were having Christian meetings on the school verandah.  Aboriginal people told me how some of the old men had threatened Christians with spears.  Some of these same old men have now accepted Christ.

Against all expectations we found the Martu people to be really open to the Gospel.  The seeds were sown by the 1981 revival, by the witness of the Apostolic Church and by the work of the late Jim Marsh, a gifted linguist with a pastoral heart, much respected by the people.

Winter rains refreshing

We began our own language efforts modestly, by walking up to Aboriginal people and speaking a few words we had picked up in the Goldfields and then, with practice, gradually expanding our vocabulary.  Church also began slowly, but some believed and then were baptised.  We thought things were happening too quickly, even then, so we didn’t rush to baptise anyone.

Teams of Aboriginal Christian men from the Plibara Aboriginal Church of Roebourne (Apostolic) came over from time to time and helped.  Leaders developed.  More were baptised.  I became committed to taking teams from Parnpajinya (Newman) to various communities.  Gifts were developed.  More and more became Christians and were baptised, but the revival hadn’t really come as yet.  It was like the winter rains refreshing us before the main summer rains came.  Communities – too many to cope with – were crying out for visits.

One of our leaders – Kerry Kelly (KK) – had gone to Warralong and teamed up with a couple of other strong Christians.  Warralong has a community that had been opposed to Christianity.  But the Spirit moved there and many were baptised.  We had Christian meetings (the first ever).  At one meeting nearly the whole community came forward to dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ.  KK, less than two years old as a Christian, became one of the main leaders at Warralong and for the revival.  In 1996 I had taken KK over to a Men’s Training Camp in the Northern Territory.  This interaction helped solidify KK in his Christian walk.  KK often leads at the Lord’s Supper, and when many communities come together this has been a unifying factor.

At Parnpajinya (Newman), just before and after Christmas 1997, many people were coming to the Lord and we were having multiple baptisms at the Ophthalmia Dam.  This was about the time the revival really took off.  People from Jigalong and other communities were also coming to be baptised, including some of the old men.  Many nights we were having meetings that went to early in the morning.  Some communities were having meetings every night and prayer meetings every day!  Some still are.

The ‘arrest capital’ of Australia

Nullagine, which had the dubious distinction of being called “the arrest capital” of Australia, asked us to come there, which we did.  Len (Nyaparu*) Brooks, known as Kurutakururru, Walter Crusoe (Wari) and Billy (Nyaparu*) Landy took up the leadership at Nullagine.  Many people there who had become Christians were asking to be baptised.

So one weekend I drove the old church bus to Nullagine, picked up as many people as could be squashed into the bus and, two flat tyres later, drove back to Newman.  Many were baptised.  Our practice is to have two doing the baptising together – usually one who knows the words to say and another who might be a learner.  For cultural reasons, we have men baptising men and women baptising women.  So we picked out two men and two women from each community.  When the baptisms finished, we found out the lady leader from Nullagine doing the baptisms hadn’t been baptised herself, so we turned around and baptised her!

After that we travelled again to Nullagine and baptised a number of people there, including people from remote communities and some more of the old men.   Parnpajinya, Nullagine, Punmu and Warralong, with some from Jigalong and Parnngurr, were spearheading the revival.  I travelled around with leaders such as Alistair (Jaliku) Sammy, Chrissie Sailor, Clarrie Robinson and Lizzie Jones to different communities encouraging the believers and holding meetings that at times went for hours.  Sometimes hundreds would stay on after a funeral and all join together for a Christian meeting.  In October 1997 1 had taken Clarrie Robinson and Willie Bennett to a Men’s Training Camp in the Northern Territory.  The topic was ‘Preaching’.  Clarrie came back and began preaching for the first time.  Willie went back to Kiwirrkurra near the Western Australia / Northern Territory border.  Incredibly, a revival had sprung up at Kiwirrkurra and other Pintubi communities in the Northern Territory at about the same time as the Western Australia revival, but quite unconnected.  Willie Bennett became a leader of that revival.

A week-long revival

Someone heard that Franklin Graham was coming to Perth for a Festival, and the Aboriginal Christian leaders decided it would be good to go to hear him.  The only thing was, Perth was 1150 kilometres away!  But people chucked in money and somehow over 200 people crammed into 4 coaster buses, 2 mini-buses and a motley fleet of assorted 4WDs and other vehicles and got to Perth (and back!).

We were there for a week, but it was like one long revival meeting.  We sang and prayed all the way down and had meetings every morning and night where we were camped (when we weren’t listening to Franklin!) Kurutakurru, a gifted singer and songwriter himself, had the idea of singing outside to the crowds waiting to get in the Burswood Dome where Franklin was speaking.  So we arrived early each night, gathered in a group and sang away in English and Martu Wangka to the kartiyakaja (white people).  They seemed to appreciate it.  The style was a bit different to the precision programming that happened inside the Dome, though!

When we got back, some communities had the idea of holding a mini-convention before our main Easter Convention.  After some hesitation (over finding a place with enough water for baptisms!) a gorge near Warralong was chosen.  Over 50 people were baptised including some old men who had been opposed to Christianity previously.  Two old men and an old lady, too crippled to enter the water, knelt down while water was poured over them with a cup (this was after some discussion as to whether such a baptism was okay).  It was a stirring witness! Meetings went on morning and night.  Even a rain storm and lightning strike one night didn’t dampen the enthusiasm.

A pub with few patrons

Our Easter Convention (1998) was a wonderful time of celebrating Jesus.  Over 1000 people came, including many new Christians from communities that had never come before.  The meetings went nearly non-stop over the Easter period.  Singing is a prominent feature of the revival.  There is a real sense of joy that comes out in song.  Many new songs have been written and many old songs translated into Martu Wangka, Nyangurnartu and other languages.  Everywhere you go you bear kids singing and tapes playing songs of the revival.

So many people were becoming Christians and giving up the grog that the pub in Nuilagine lost a lot of its business and went into receivership.  The story made news around Australia.  Nyaparu Landy and I were interviewed on Perth radio!  A Current Affair went to Nuilagine.

But the revival has not stopped.  The Martu people themselves are reaching out to other Martu people.  Neilie Bidu from Yandeyarra came back, fired up from

hearing Franklin Graham, to reach out to his own community.  He began a small prayer meeting and then invited Kurutakurru and other leaders from Warralong and Punmu to help him.  So they went to Warralong and many there became Christians.  Yandeyarra people in turn have reached out to Banjima people near Tom Price.  Other communities have also been reached, including some that were closed to Christianity.  Some of these communities had turned away Crusade teams from the 1981 revival.  Now they have turned to the Lord.

Why revival, and why now?

Only the power of the Holy Spirit can explain this revival.  It is a miracle, an incredible revival happening.  Mitchell Biljabu, a leader from Punmu, has likened it to the prophecy of Joel in Acts 2.

I asked Milton Chapman, another leader from Punmu what, apart from the Holy Spirit, is bringing about the revival.  He replied that it was Aboriginal leaders bringing the message of Good News to their own people.  Many have responded to the powerful witness of changed lives.  Alistair and Chrissie wrote their testimony for Today magazine and said: “For a long time we were drinking and gambling…  We started to think about Mama (Father) God… we gave our hearts to the Lord.  We have kept following Mama God right up to now.”  

The example has had a strong impact on their extended families, nearly all of whom have become Christians.  Prayer has been another major factor in the revival.  The Martu pray simple and sincere prayers for all sorts of things.  The prayer meeting at Nullagine every morning helped keep the believers strong.

Some excesses and difficulties

But there have also been some excesses and difficulties in the revival.  Some still struggle with alcoholism and some have gone back to the drink.  Many are new Christians with little knowledge of Christianity.  Even the leaders are in the main untrained.  Some are illiterate.  And other groups have come in with different ideas and practices that have caused division even within families and have led to much debate and argument, some of it bitter.  One is a legalistic group that stresses the keeping of the 10 commandments, especially the fourth (keeping the Sabbath).  Another is a fairly extreme charismatic group.

Then there are issues of a more cultural nature.  Some couples who have become Christians are married the wrong way in a tribal (though not biblical) sense, including some leaders.  What to do?  What to do about some of the tribal laws and ceremonies?  Reject them all?  Keep some?  These are big issues to be worked through.

We are encouraging the leaders to read the Bible for themselves and to come to solid biblical conclusions as they struggle through these issues with the help of the Holy Spirit, but it will take time.  Pray for the people and the revival!

Used with permission from Vision, the magazine of the Australian Baptist Missionary Society, July 1998, pages 12-15.

Grog replaced by Gospel

 Reports by Mairi Barton

 Mairi Barton is a reporter with The West Australian newspaper in Perth.  These reports were written in April 1998.

A religious revival among Aboriginal people in the remote North‑West town of Nullagine ‑ once labelled the arrest capital of Australia ‑ has drastically reduced the number of arrests and jailings.

Police in Nullagine, 184 km north of Newman (in WA), claim drunken domestic fights which once dogged the community have virtually disappeared and the residents seem happier and healthier.

The only sufferer is the local pub, the Conglomerate Hotel, which once kept six staff busy.  Last month the lessee went into receivership after the town’s 100 to 150 Aboriginal people turned to Christianity in November.

Since then, the Aboriginal community has reduced the number of arrests to just a handful and there have been no jailings.  They gave up alcohol and labelled the hotel “the devil’s place”.

Instead of going to the bar each night to drink, they sit happily in circles under the stars, pray and sing gospel songs at the Yirrangkaji community on the outskirts of the town.

When The West Australian visited last week, they were eager to share their new‑found love of God and talk about the positive changes they have made to their lives.

Gary Marshall, who leased the hotel and adjoining shop for 2 years, said the arrival of religion spelt disaster for his business, but he did not hold it against the Aboriginal people.

“I couldn’t sit here and say it was a bad thing,” he said.  “If they are better off, then it’s a wonderful thing.”  …

The two men believed responsible for their religious conversion ‑ local Aboriginal men who left town a couple of years ago and returned late last year as changed men, keen to share the Christian message ‑ were out of town.

Senior Constable Mal Kay, the officer in charge at Nullagine, said the drop in crime could be explained in part by the fact that the population dropped every time big groups from the community left town to attend religious meetings around the Pilbara and in Northam.

Most arrests in town in the past have been assaults and woundings stemming from alcohol.

Mother sees her life in a new light

Mother‑of‑two Lisa Dalbin used to be a weekly visitor to the Nullagine police lockup for assault, anti‑social behaviour or just to sober up.  The 26‑year‑old would spend her pension on alcohol, get jealous over her man and find herself in punch‑ups with women who were her friends when she was sober.  That was before she found Christianity and gave up drinking last November.

“We pray and sing every morning and every night,” she said.  “We have church meetings every Wednesday and Saturday.”

Miss Dalbiii has worked off her fines through community work, picking up rubbish and working in the children’s kitchen ‑ where the children have breakfast, shower and change into their uniforms before school.

Her favourite drink used to he port and she freely admits that it made her act mad.  She does not miss it.  She is happier, has money in her pocket to go shopping and takes better care of her sons, aged five and eight, now she is sober.  She is even studying to get her driver’s license, a privilege which seemed out of reach to her a few months ago.  The only time she sees the police now is when they stop to say hello in the street.

Her cousin Phillip Bennell, 39, who spent much of his youth behind bars because of alcohol‑related strife, has also been sober for about four months since “he saw the light”.

God is his master now, not grog, he says.  “To follow the Lord is good, you know.  It keeps you away from trouble.  Alcohol is a killer for anybody, but especially the Aboriginal people.  I was one of the worst blokes, locked up all the time away from my kids.  I spent 21 years of my life in and out of prison.”

Mr Bennell said it would be easy for him to turn back to drink, but he did not want to because he had realised the damage it could do.  “I had two feet in the grave and what I was doing was adding a final nail in the coffin,” he said.  “But when I found the Lord I gave it all away.  I didn’t want to die a young bloke.”

He said he no longer wanted to drink because he had a 12‑year‑old daughter and her life was more important to him than alcohol.

Mr Bennell said the footpath outside the Conglomerate Hotel had been the site of many arguments and brawls, but now the community held prayer meetings across the road.  If they ventured into the pub, it was only to get a cool drink.

“There used to be a lot of tough drinkers at the reserve,” he said.  “They gave it away because they found a bit of peace and a better way of life.  A lot of people here want their health, and their children brought up in a good environment.

The West Australian.  Used with permission.

(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

See also Pentecost in Arnhem Land, by Djiniyini Gondarra

See also Fire of God Among Aboriginies by John Blacket

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon – all issues

Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon and Kindle – all issues

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

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An article in Renewal Journal 12: Harvest
Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

 

evangelism, revivals ,

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

by Geoff 13 August 2011 2 Comments

Mobile Revival

By Joel Kilpatrick

  Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Mobile, Alabama.

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

After five years of prayer and some dry stretches,

God came mightily

Cecil Turner was a shy man with a stutter – a pipe-fitter with no Bible college education – when God called him to lead Calvary Assembly of God in Mobile, Alabama, in 1963.  Even family members questioned whether or not Turner could pastor the young congregation.

Now, 34 years later, the church literally overflows with people coming to see what’s been happening since Sunday, 29 September, 1996, when God’s presence came in power during the church’s annual “campmeeting.”

“I’ve thought we’d close out a number of times,” Turner says. “But the Holy Spirit says we’re going on.”

The church has been in continuous revival from week to week, meeting Tuesdays for intercessory prayer, and Wednesdays through Fridays for services that draw 250 to 300 people.  Sunday mornings draw 400, the maximum number they can pack into the sanctuary.

Some services are exuberant and intense; others so heavy all they can do is “lay on the ground.”  Sometimes the Spirit is so strong during praise and worship that they throw open the altars.

“We come in each night and never know what’s going to happen,” Cecil says, pausing for a moment. “I like it.”

The church started praying for revival in 1992, says Cecil’s son Kevin, who has been on staff for 11 years.

“At times we wondered if revival would happen,” Kevin says. “But we saw the intensity and the hunger growing.”

After five years of prayer and some dry stretches, God came mightily when a travelling evangelist, Wayne Headrick, came to preach. God spoke to Headrick that if they got out of the way, God would make something happen.

That “something” keeps on happening.

“It seems like it’s accelerating,” Headrick told the Mobile Register in May 1997. “Each service there’s more . . . anointing and more of the power of God.”

The Lost

Unchurched people are coming in droves to this church that sits at a 3-way stop on the western city limit of Mobile. “They may not understand it,” says music pastor Kevin Turner, Cecil’s son, “but they want more of it.”

Many come from other denominations:  Nazarene, Catholic, Methodist, to name a few.

“We agreed from the beginning that this wasn’t an Assembly of God revival – it was for the whole church,” Cecil says.

People are saved in every service – and some 150 were saved in the last two months alone, Kevin says.  Some say afterwards that they felt a need to come, and several testify that they were drawn in as if to a beacon.  One man pulled into the parking lot, not fully understanding why he was there.  The congregation prays regularly that people will be drawn by the Lord’s presence.

Stacy Tanton, 26, says that the revival has “totally transformed” her life.  Her husband no longer drinks alcohol, and now serves as an usher during weeknight services.  Others have been delivered from alcohol, healed, and delivered from demons.

Changing “Church”

The Mobile revival is redefining Calvary’s concept of pastoral leadership, steering them away from man-generated structure and teaching them to encounter God together.

“It’s like God said, ‘I’ve been trying to move. Now get out of the way,'” says Kevin. “It’s liberating for both pastors and the people.”

Kevin, who grew up a pastor’s kid, testifies that the move of God now enveloping their church has brought him to a new level of faith.

“I’ve always loved the Lord, but this has changed my life,” Kevin says. “I want to be intimate with him.”

Revival has also redefined his ministry. Kevin and his 10-piece music team keep a greulling schedule, sometimes singing for 3 hours straight. Before revival began,  Kevin would lose his voice after a week of services, he says. But he asked God to sustain him, and has gone 10 months with few problems.

Revival has also forced him to be more in tune with the Holy Spirit before leading worship.

“I make a song list, but often it gets tossed out,” he says. “Some nights it’s like being held over a cliff. I know God wants to do something, and I’m asking, ‘What is it?’  I’ve had to become comfortable with silence. Sometimes he just says to wait.”

The revival is not personality-driven. Headrick is often gone for weeks at a time, and the river continues to flow. The pastors say the move of God keeps changing colours as God takes the church to different places in him.

“There have been two or three times when the revival has shifted gears,” Kevin says. “It’s hard to describe, but the intensity goes up a level.”

Churches unite

Glenn McCall, pastor of Crawford United Methodist church, frequently takes members of his congregation to Calvary for revival services. “[People] are looking for something, and only God can meet that need in their spirit,” he says. “I feel like it’s a nationwide thing. I’ve heard a lot of testimonies from around the country and the world. There’s some phenomenal things happening in the church world.”

McCall believes the fact that Calvary is drawing from other denominations signifies that America is ready for awakening. “I think people are wanting a revival regardless of what the name is on the [church] doorpost. They’re willing to crawl through barriers to get a touch from God,” he says.

Reported in the Mobile Register, May 10, 1997

Beth Cumbie, 26, prayed for her daddy all her life.  “He was hard-hearted,” she says.  “A good man, be he never wanted to surrender.”

Beth’s mother, a Christian, had endured decades of disbelief, but never put her husband down.

“We thought some tragedy would have to push him to God,” Beth says.  “Finally we said, ‘God, do it your way.’”

In April 1997, while closing his produce store for the night, Beth’s 62-year-old father turned to his wife with tears in his eyes and asked for prayer.  When they got home he fell on his face and cried out to God to save his soul.  After he had received Christ, Beth’s mother came to the revival service where Beth was on the music team, ran down the aisle with the news, and together they wept.

“I didn’t care what anybody thought,” Beth says.  “That was a long-time prayer answered.”

Now the family is at church nightly, and Beth’s father is able to cry, hug his children, and express his love.

“In some ways it’s strange, but in others, so natural,” Beth says.  “Dad wants to go to the altar every night.”

Reproduced from the Pentecostal Evangelist.

(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon – all issues

Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon and Kindle – all issues

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

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Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

by Geoff 13 August 2011 4 Comments

Smithton Revival

by Joel Kilpatrick

 

 

Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Smithton, a small Missouri town.

 Thousands of lives have been changed

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

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How Revival Came

Like thousands of pastors across America, Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed.  He was even considering leaving the ministry.  For twelve years he had pastored the Smithton Community Church in the sleepy little town of Smithton, Missouri, nestled among the wheat.  Steve Gray was discouraged and disappointed.  He was even considering leaving the ministry.

For more than a decade, Gray felt his ministry was like riding a stationary bicycle.  He was pedaling real hard, but he wasn’t going anywhere.  He says that all he was thinking about was “out, out, out.”  Pastor Gray had even lost hope.  He knew he could not continue doing what he was doing and unfortunately he gave God no other options.  Steve Gray was ready to quit.

Knowing he had to get away from the church for some “R and R,” he chose revival over relaxation.  In March 1996, he drove from Missouri to Florida to visit the Brownsville Outpouring that was then in its 37th week.  Gray attended the services each night and spent the days in his motel room, praying and seeking God’s face.

During the Tuesday night prayer meeting, while hundreds gathered around the “Pastor’s Banner” to pray for the nation’s shepherds, Gray was praying especially for one pastor, himself.  He knew if he continued in the ministry, he had to be restored.  After about three days, he felt some recovery and his focus began to change.  God was restoring his hope and he found this to be the first signal of his personal revival.

Before this change in focus, Gray didn’t even know what to ask from God.  Gray says he came to Brownsville not to “get something” but to “see something,” as Moses went to “see” the burning bush.  After several more days, Gray was “seeing” again.  One night, in what Gray described as a “perfect atmosphere,” God spoke to him and said, “I want you to have a revival.” The very thought was too much to accept.  Smithton, Missouri, is not Pensacola, Florida, and Gray could not imagine himself in the role of revivalist.  Then God spoke again, “I didn’t say I want you to be a revival, I said I want you to have a revival.”

On Sunday morning, 17 March 1996, Pastor Kilpatrick shared part of his personal testimony of how revival came to Brownsville.  Gray reached the place of faith and could believe “there is a place for me in revival.”  He observed Kilpatick as he was “watching, guiding, and pastoring a truly sovereign move of God that was changing the world.”  Kilpatrick’s words and example showed Gray that “revival needs to be pastored and can be pastored.”

After Sunday worship, Gray called his wife, Kathy, and said, “I have just been in the best Sunday morning service I have ever been in.  Tell our church.” Near the end of his second week in Brownsville, Gray headed for home, repentant and on the road to revival and restoration.

While God was working on Gray, he was also working on the members of Smithton Community Church.  For two and one-half years the church had held a Tuesday night prayer meeting, but as God prepared the church for revival, the prayers became more intense.  Associate Elder Randy Lohman says there was “lots of brokenness” in the months immediately preceding the outpouring.

As the pastor sought God in Florida, the congregation sought him at home.  On Sunday night, March 17, Kathy Gray relayed the pastor’s message about the great Sunday morning service in Brownsville.  David Cordes, one of the elders, was deeply convicted.  Weeping, he asked the congregation, “Why should our pastor have to travel a thousand miles to be in the best service he has ever been in?”  He fell on the floor in repentance.  Soon he was followed by several other men in the church, repenting for their lack of support and crying out to God to do the same thing at Smithton that he was doing for the pastor in Florida.  God continued his work on Wednesday night as a five year old girl prophesied and said, “It’s coming!  It’s coming!”  The Lord had seen their brokenness.

When the pastor arrived on Sunday night, the glory fell.  To be exact, at 6:12 p.m. on 24 March 1996 God the Holy Ghost arrived in his awesome power at Smithton Community Church.  They will never be the same.  Immediately they added services to their church schedule.  Now, the outpouring has continued for two years with five services every week.  Visitors have come from all fifty states and many foreign countries, often in numbers that vastly exceed the population of the town.

Thousands of lives have been changed.  Sick bodies have been healed.  Visiting pastors have taken the fire back to their congregation.  Steve, Kathy, and teams from the church are taking the revival all around the world.  As for the future of the revival, Lohman said, “God started it and we are going to let him do what he is doing.”

Steve and Kathy Gray

When a two-year revival breaks out in any church, the lives of the pastors are forever changed.  This is especially true for Steve and Kathy Gray, pastors of Smithton Community Church in Smithton, Missouri.  The Grays pioneered this small country church twelve years ago, after seven years travelling the country in a singing, preaching, and teaching ministry.

Not only does Gray have the responsibilities of pastoring the church and preaching in revival services that are held five nights each week, but the revival has opened many doors for his ministry.  Although he seldom is gone from the Smithton pulpit on Sunday morning, he and Kathy often minister across the country and around the world on his “days off.”  They have also appeared on many national and local religious television programs.  In the past six months, Steve has travelled to Israel three times.  Gray says his travels have had a good effect on the church, “keeping them nationally and world minded.”  To be sure the church shares in the expanded ministry; he often takes teams of four to twenty with him as he travels.

According to Gray, “The longer we are in this (revival), the more I realize how badly it is needed.  I didn’t realize how sick the church in America is.”  The biggest challenge he has had, according to Gray, “Is to keep out the wolves that come to ruin the purity and unity.”  The revival has had persecution and critics, but Gray feels that is to be expected.

He was surprised, however, that he has had to “mobilize staff” to beware of “others who come to infiltrate and cause division.”  Gray realizes that God is doing a great work in many places today and is glad God has raised the level of humility in the church “so we can bless those who are being blessed even if we don’t do it the same way they do.” Despite all the changes and challenges, Gray says the last two years have been “the best years of our lives.”

Reproduced from http://members.aol.com/azusa/index.html from The Remnant International, via Asuza.

Revival in the Land

Samuel Autman wrote this article in the Everyday Magazine, a Sunday paper in Missouri, on 7 June 1998.

Tiny Smithton in Missouri has no sidewalk, no coke machines, no gas > stations, > no traffic lights, no motel rooms, no restaurants.  But 100,000 people > believe > it’s where you go to find the Holy Spirit.>

And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on > all > mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will > dream > dreams, your young men will see visions.  And even on the male and female > servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.  >    Joel 2:28

Under sweltering skies on a late spring Friday evening, more than 500 > worshipers are packed into the Smithton Community Church for powerful > encounters with the Holy Spirit.  For two years now, seekers have driven or > flown in from all 50 states and every corner of the globe to this > white-frame > country church.  Easily 100,000 have traveled from as far away as Africa, > Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Australia, Korea, Israel, England and > Malaysia.

This night, not unlike many others, the church will cram in more souls > than > live in this mid-Missouri town, population 532, seven miles east of > Sedalia > on > Highway 50.  >    The audience is in high gear for another Pentecostal revival meeting.

Outside, men in vests, walkie-talkies in hand, circulate through the > gravel > parking lot, directing traffic.  Inside the gymnasium-turned-sanctuary, > fathers > and mothers clutch their small children.  People embrace newfound friends.  > It’s > a yackfest before the holy explosive celebration begins.

By 7:30 p.m., a joyful musical roar goes up.  Hundreds of bodies bounce > up > and down in unison, vibrating as if at a rock concert.  They clap their > hands.  > They speak in tongues.  They dance and they shriek.  The volume is > deafening.  >    Elderly women and small children alike lift their hands.

“Praise the Lord!”

“Hallellujah!”

“Thank you, Jesus!”

The four-hour Pentecostal service has only begun.

Eyes look toward heaven to see the slides projected overhead.  That’s > where > the song lyrics are displayed.  >    In one voice they yell: “Revival is in the land! Come and see what the Lord has done!  Revival!  Revival!  Revival!”

Eric Nuzum, 28, a former forklift driver turned associate pastor, leads > a > full band with drums, guitars and synthesizers on the stage.  The music > blares.  > The room reverberates.

An hour and a dozen songs later, quiet blankets the room after the > high-octane worship.  The shouts have ceased.  Nuzum leads a one-word chorus > slowly of “Hallelujah” on his acoustic guitar.  All over the building, they > are > singing and swaying in unison.

After a few announcements, the offering is taken.  The music picks back > up.   >    The bespectacled pastor, Steve Gray, 46, jumps to the lectern and sings > “One More Time” and “Return to the Lord,” two songs he wrote himself.

He opens his Bible to Mark, chapter 1, verse 1.

“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Gray, is an unassuming man in a 5-foot-8 frame, with ocean-blue eyes > and > fiery blond hair.  He is intent on not becoming a celebrity or drawing > attention to himself.  He berates what he called the American humanistic > gospel, which has taken the focus off Jesus Christ.  His oration goes for > an > hour.

“It’s not about us! It’s the gospel about Jesus Christ,” he thunders.

“Amen!” the crowd responds.

“We are missing the point,” Gray says, raising his voice.  “Jesus didn’t > say > ‘I have come to follow you.’ He said ‘Get behind me.  Follow me.  Do what I > do.   > Go where I go.  Feel what I feel.  Pray what I prayed.  Live how I lived and, > if > necessary, die how I died.’”

It’s an old-fashioned message that was spelled out in the book of Acts.  > Gray sprinkles in comments about hellfire.

The ‘Smithton outpouring’

Like many Christian groups, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians > believe > that the Bible is the inspired word of God; that salvation comes through > Jesus > Christ, the Son of God; that baptism is accomplished through total > immersion.  > They believe that all people will be raised from the dead to face a final > judgment, and then eternal salvation or damnation.

What distinguishes the charismatics/Pentecostals is not simply > believing > in > the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, but allowing the Holy > Spirit > to manifest himself through physical behavior such as speaking in tongues, > casting out demons and singing in words inspired by the power of the > Spirit.

Jesus is the center of their religious attention; worship of Him is greatly enhanced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  >    Throughout the preaching, and in subsequent conversations, Gray stresses that when anyone puts aside self-interest and assumes the interests of > God, > things happen.

He’s not interested in numbers, he says, only spiritual > intensity.  He believes that God has selected the little church in Smithton > to > prove that revival can occur anywhere.

“These are men and women, that when they pray, fire from heaven falls.   When they pray, blind eyes are open.  When they pray, lives are changed.  When > they > pray, miracles happen.  When they pray, the whole world is stirred up and > whole > cities are changed,” Gray said.

The “Cornfield Revival” or “Smithton Outpouring” has stirred up this Pettis County community, so tiny it barely shows up on a map.  There are no soda > machines, traffic lights, gas stations or sidewalks in sight.  At least > seven > times a day, trains zip across the track, blocking entrance to the town.

The international attention, the high-octane music and the snarled > traffic > anger Smithton residents.  However, travellers needing food and shelter are > welcomed by the motel and restaurant owners in nearby Sedalia.

‘Slain in the Spirit’

Once Gray’s preaching concludes, he turns the service over to trained > prayer leaders.  The prayer sessions seem violent.  >    Many worshipers pray, weep, tremble and are knocked to the floor by > what > they consider to be the hand of God.  By evening’s end, this room will > resemble > a battlefield littered with human bodies, many supine on the gray carpet, > “slain in the Spirit.”

They say they are so overcome by the Holy Spirit, they shake, quake, > roll, > jerk or even faint.  >    Within minutes, a jubilant energy fills the room, almost like > electricity.  > The faithful believe the Spirit has come with power to heal broken hearts, > to > transform lives and get them on the road to glory.

Tears roll down many cheeks.  >    Cheeks are mostly white, although there are a few black and yellow > faces > in > the mix.  Upper and lower income.  Young and old.  Urban and rural dwellers, all under one roof.

The Rev. Robert Clement drove 1,700 miles from San Diego.  His own > church > has been struggling.  He has wrestled with fear, rejection and failure.  >    “Each time I go up and get prayer, it’s like layers peeling off,” he > said.  > “Layers of fear, failure and rejection.”

Missouri ties to movement

Smithton is the third place in North America in the last four years to > be > engulfed in one of the longest Pentecostal revivals of this century.  All > three > sites have Missouri ties.

In January 1994, Randy Clark, pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of St. Louis, Missouri, was ministering at the Airport Vineyard Church in Toronto, Ontario, when the so-called “Toronto Blessing” hit.  People in the > congregation > burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter.  Others fell into people’s arms > and > shook.  That revival is ongoing.

On Father’s Day 1995, an appearance by visiting evangelist Steve Hill > at > the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, marked the similar > emotional manifestations.  More than 1.5 million seekers have made > pilgrimages > to Brownsville, where the revival is ongoing.  Springfield, Missouri, is the > worldwide headquarters of the Assemblies of God.

As the century and the second millennium of the Christian era draw to a close, Pentecostal revivalists say more is to come.  Newsweek magazine said there were 20 million Pentecostals/charismatics in the United States and 400 million worldwide (600 million by 2010).

Revivalism seems to be characterized by an expectation of Jesus Christ’s returning to Earth.  At the end of the 19th century, there were similar expectations of some cataclysmic event, and there was revival fever.

“There will be a great revival before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ,” said Clark.  “This could be the beginning of it, but I am not saying it is.”

With revival comes stinging backlash.  The California-based Vineyard Fellowship ousted the Toronto organization for going “over the edge.”

The lightning of the Spirit

Steve Gray grew up in Sedalia, a town of 20,000 well known as the site of the Missouri State Fair.  He and his wife, Kathy, to whom he’s been married 23 years, spent seven years in a travelling music ministry.  Then in 1984, the Grays stopped their itinerant ministry and opened a church in a building that had been closed for four years.

The building, now called Smithton Community Church, had been built as the Christian Church in Farmer’s City in 1859.  As people deserted Farmer’s City and moved to the nearby “Smith City” because of the railroad, the church moved.  In 1873, the building was disassembled into into four parts and pulled by ox cart to what is Smithton today.

The Christian Church changed hands a number of times by the time it closed its doors in 1980.    By 1996, the Grays’ ministry and marriage had reached crisis point.  They had considered splitting.  Gray had wondered whether pastoring in a rural community had been the right choice.

“I was ready to quit,” Gray said.

Gray drove 1,000 miles to the revival in Pensacola, hoping to figure out a way to dissolve his ministry and maybe to sell insurance or become a teacher.

For 10 days, he waited in his hotel room for an experience with God.  At night, he went to meetings at the Brownsville church.  Ultimately, Gray felt that God wanted him to return to his community and have a revival.  He was slightly hopeful.

When he arrived back in Smithton, he walked into his church after an > evening service had concluded.    He took eight steps toward Kathy and the lightning of the Spirit hit him, he said.  His hands shot up in the air.  The people in the congregation rushed forward and began weeping and rejoicing.

As the story goes, the entire congregation of the church at Clay and Chestnut streets in Smithton was transformed by the Spirit.  They started to gather day after day to pray.  By the third week, the curious showed up.  The multitudes followed from outside of Smithton in Missouri and way beyond.

Jennifer Dieckmann remembers.  Before the revival, Dieckmann, 23, described her life as miserable.  Her family had been kicked out of a church in Sedalia in a theological dispute, and she was resentful.

“I was happy holding on to anger and bitterness and hate,” Dieckmann said.   “When the revival hit, it hit me personally.”

Now she talks about forgiveness and loving her enemies.     “In an instant, it was like the weight was gone,” she said.  “I have forgiven those people who kicked us out of our church.”

Linda Byrd, 28, is co-pastor of Jubilee Worship Center in Junction City, Kansas.  She and her husband drive down many weekends for spiritual refreshment.

“Most Americans know religion is their effort to find God,” she said.  “What is happening here is not just talk about Christ but demonstrations of Christ.   He demonstrated that He was the Son of God.  He did not say ‘Take my word.’   He proved it through miracles.  That’s what this is, demonstrations.”

‘I realized God loves me’

Rhonda Wagner, 44, of Springdale, Arkansas, was back.  She had come once before in March.  Wagner had attended the Toronto meetings some time ago.

“We kept going to the Lord with our problems, but we never actually gave them to him.  I can’t tell you all of the dynamics of what happened to me in Toronto, except it was up there I realized God really loves me.”

In the process of receiving prayer there, she shook for 12 hours.      What made her shake?

“The spirit of the Lord is way more powerful than an electric shock.   When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, our physical bodies will react by shaking, shouting or falling.”

Her friend Kathy Johnson, 48, of Amarillo, Texas, has now been to all three revival hot spots.   She said a hunger and thirst for spiritual things cause her to travel to revival meetings.

“I have realized that I have only just begun to know him who draws me to Pensacola, to Smithton and Toronto.  He’s so much bigger than I thought.”

Reproduced from the Awakening e-mail, 9 June 1998.

(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

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1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
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11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
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Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

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Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

by Geoff 13 August 2011 2 Comments

Baltimore Revival

by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Elizabeth Moll Stalcup is a writer based in Fairfax, Virginia. She interviewed Bart Pierce and Tommy Tenney in Baltimore in April 1998

Reproduced from  Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

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If the church will begin to walk in humility and

repentance then the world will see God’s glory.

“Lord, we are desperate for you.”

When Baltimore pastor Bart Pierce cried out for more of God in January 1997, he had no idea the Holy Spirit would change his life-and his congregation-forever.

Bart Pierce will never forget the day the Holy Spirit fell at his church in the rolling suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. It wasn’t gradual, nor was it subtle. God showed up during the Sunday morning service on January 19, 1997.

Pierce, pastor of Rock Church in Baltimore, and his wife, Coralee, had just returned from a pastors’ retreat in St. Augustine, Florida. Pierce says he went to the retreat with “a desperate, deep hunger for more of God.”

While there, he heard Tommy Tenney recount an event that occurred in a Houston church a few months earlier. Without warning, during the early morning service on 20 October, 1996, God had sovereignly split a Plexiglas pulpit in two before the amazed congregation (see Charisma, June 1997; Renewal Journal #10, page 14; Flashpoints of Revival, page 144). Afterward, an unusual movement of repentance broke out at the Houston church.

Tenney, a third-generation travelling evangelist, told the gathered pastors that the drama of the split pulpit was totally eclipsed by the awesome presence of God that filled the sanctuary immediately after the supernatural event. “The revival,” Tenney told them, “was characterized by a deep sense of humility, brokenness and repentance.”

While Tenney spoke, many of the pastors, including Pierce, fell on their faces weeping. Pierce spent much of his time at the retreat prostrated and weeping before the Lord. When it ended, he asked Tenney to come back to Baltimore with him for the weekend.

On the 18-hour drive home, Pierce, his wife and Tenney had “an encounter of God as we talked about what God was doing and what we believed,” Pierce says.

“We would sit in the car and weep,” recalls Tenney. They reached Baltimore on Saturday night, filled with a hunger for more of the Lord.

Turned Upside Down

The next morning Pierce knew something was up as soon as he got to the church building. “Two of my elders were standing inside the door weeping,” he says. “We started worshiping, then people began standing up all over the building crying out loud.” Some came forward to the altar; others would “start for the altar and crumple in the aisle.”

Even those outside the sanctuary were affected. “Back in the hallways, people were going down under the power of God. We never really got to preach,” Pierce says. Tenney and Pierce were supposed to be leading the service, but both were too overcome by the intense presence of God to do anything but cry.

“There was a deep sense of repentance that grew increasingly more intense,” Pierce recounts. At 4 p.m. there were still bodies lying all over the church floor. Pierce and Tenney tried several times to speak, but each time they were overwhelmed by tears.

“Finally,” says Pierce, “we told our leadership team, ‘We’re going home to change clothes.’ We were a mess from lying on the floor and weeping.”

The two men went home and changed. When they got back to the church at 6 p.m., people were still there, and more were coming. That first “service” continued until 2 in the morning.

Monday night, people returned, and the same thing happened. It happened again Tuesday night.

“Many people simply crawled under the pews to hide and weep and cry,” remembers Pierce. “At times the crying was so loud, it was eerie.”

Pierce noticed new faces in the congregation. “We didn’t have a clue as to how they knew about the service, because we don’t advertise at all,” he says. When he asked, some of the visitors told amazing stories.

One man said he was driving down the road when God told him, “Go to Rock Church.” Another woman said she was sitting at her kitchen table when she got the same message. She didn’t know what a “Rock Church” was, but she found a listing in the phone book. After the service she tearfully confided that she had been planning to leave her husband the next morning.

“God had totally turned her heart,” says Pierce. “She and her husband have been totally restored.”

For the first few weeks, Pierce says, “every ministry at the church was turned upside down.” The church has always been known for its mercy ministries – its homeless shelter for men, its home for women in crisis, its food distribution program, which moves 7 million pounds of food a year, and its ministry to revive Baltimore’s inner city.

But when the revival started, everything took a back seat to what God was doing. Pierce would find his staff lying on the floor in the hallways or hear a thump against the wall and find someone lying on the floor in the next room, crying uncontrollably.

People reported supernatural events in their homes, too. One woman’s unsaved husband had a dream in which everyone spoke Chinese. He came downstairs and found his wife lying on the floor speaking Chinese. His son, who was supposed to be getting ready for school, was lying on the floor in the living room, weeping and crying. That day, the man got saved.

One night a boy from a local gang came forward weeping while Tenney was still preaching. “He came to the front, looked up at me and said, ‘You’ve got to help me, because I just can’t take it anymore,'” Tenney recalls.

“This type of brokenness is what draws God’s presence,” he says. “God will never turn away from a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”

Pierce agrees. He believes the congregation has “opened the heavens somehow by our crying for him. He has become our pleasure.” Both he and Tenney say they have “turned to seek his face, from seeking his hands,” meaning they are seeking to know God intimately rather than seeking him for his benefits.

The Power of his presence

“We don’t have any agenda,” says Pierce. “We come in and begin to worship, and his manifest presence comes in. It is overwhelming. Sometimes there is nothing any of us can do. We have turned from trying to control the meeting to letting him be the object of why we have come.”

Tenney calls it “presence evangelism.” He explains, “We understand ‘program evangelism,’ where you pass out tracts or put on an evangelistic play or host Alpha classes. John Wimber helped us understand ‘power evangelism,’ where people encounter the power of God as you pray for the needs in their lives.

“But what happened in Houston and what is happening in Baltimore we call ‘presence evangelism.’ The presence of God becomes incredibly strong to where people are literally overwhelmed. They are drawn to his presence. They aren’t drawn by the preaching; they aren’t drawn by the music; they are drawn by the presence of God. It is hard to talk about without weeping.”

The church doesn’t keep figures on the numbers of people who have come to faith in Jesus since the revival started because they encourage people to go back to their home churches. Many pastors bring their people to the services in Baltimore because they know that Rock Church won’t steal their flock.

In contrast to the Toronto Blessing services that have drawn people by the thousands from all over the world to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Canada, most of the people who have come to the Baltimore revival services have been from the local area, including pastors from other churches. “On any given night we have 12 to 20 pastors from the Baltimore area,” Pierce says.

Still, some do come long distances. One night they looked out and saw 47 Koreans who had chartered a plane to come. Another time a group from Iceland was there. They have had visitors from Britain, Germany, the Ukraine and all across America.

Before Easter, the church put on a play about heaven and hell called Eternity. Crowds filled the 3,000-seat sanctuary. Some nights several hundred people had to be turned away because there was no more room.

And during one two-day period, more than 700 came forward to give their lives to Christ. The church originally planned to host the play for two weeks, but they continued an extra week because of the tremendous response.

A dual pull on the Spirit

Tenney believes there is “a connection between what the Rock Church has traditionally done” – meaning the church’s strong ministries to hurting people outside the church – and the way the heavens have opened in Baltimore.

“It came to me one day that when Jesus was in Bethany he was always at Mary and Martha’s house,” he says. “Mary cared for the divinity of Jesus, while Martha cared for His humanity. Martha made sure the bed was clean and the food was there.”

Mary chose the better part – sitting at his feet – but that didn’t mean Martha’s part didn’t have to be done, he says.

A church that does both – sits at Jesus’ feet and ministers to the needs of the hungry and hurting – exerts “a dual pull on the spirit realm,” Tenney says. “There is a special visitation of God that accompanies it. When Mary and Martha called Jesus, he came and raised their brother from the dead.”

Today, services in Baltimore are quieter and gentler than they were during the first few months of revival. But the worship music is powerful, and the singing draws the congregation to Jesus. Most of the songs were written by people in the church after the revival began.

After an hour or so of worship, Tommy Tenney takes the microphone and begins to preach. He asks the audience to worship Jesus in a way they never have before – to worship Him the way Mary did when she broke the alabaster jar, poured the ointment on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair.

“We have turned our churches into a ‘bless me’ club where people come to get something,” he tells the crowd. “They are always wanting to receive. They fall with their blessing-of-the-month, then get up and continue on as though nothing has ever changed.”

As Tenney continues to speak, people begin to cry, most quietly, but some more openly. He invites people to come forward. Almost everyone does, either kneeling or lying with his face on the floor before the altar.

“Just for one night in your life, worship Him,” Tenney encourages them. “He wants to manifest himself to his people. For once in your life set aside what you want from God, and give him the glory.”

Those looking for dramatic supernatural displays won’t find them here. But they will feel the intense presence of God.

The impact of the revival is seen in the lives that have been changed for eternity. There have been physical healings, healed marriages, burned-out people empowered to follow God, prodigals returned and hundreds of people who have found Jesus for the first time.

“Extreme celebration can come only after extreme repentance,” Tenney cautions. “The world is tired of us calling them to repentance when we are standing in hypocrisy. We need to repent.

“It is not for us to point the way to a lost world. It is for us to lead the way. If the church will begin to walk in humility and repentance, then the world will see his glory.”

Reprinted with permission by Charisma, July 1998. Strang Communications Co., USA.

Resting in his presence

Church member David Jehl, an engineer, sent these e-mails reports in July and September 1998.

Baltimore: For the last decade the Rock Church in Baltimore has sought to care for the ones nobody wants; the homeless, the hungry, the unwed mother, the prisoner, the sick. In this search to provide hospitality for the unwanted, God has been teaching us how to entertain his presence. Learning to minister to humanity and divinity, like Martha and Mary, will cause Lazarus to come forth.

There’s something about the format of Monday and Tuesday meetings in Baltimore that transforms the sanctuary into an entertainment center for the Lord’s presence. The worship team seeks to entertain him rather than a crowd. In the meetings there is no hype but an opportunity for an encounter, no pressure but wooing from God’s Spirit to yours.

First time visitors’ expectations are sometimes shocked by the format of the meetings. There are no introductions of speakers or important visitors. The Lord is the one we have come to meet. There is no agenda for the meetings, no announcements, no distractions to stop you from going deeper and deeper into his presence.

Tommy Tenney has not preached a traditional sermon in Baltimore, but encourages and facilitates people to a place where they can have an encounter with the manifest presence of God. After a long period of worship, Tommy will quietly take the microphone and begin to explain how to get closer to God. The worship team will sometimes sing the same song for a very long time. This helps the congregation move from corporate praise and worship to a place where each person finds an individual expression of worship and conversation with God in a personal encounter.

The meetings have been characterized by deep repentance, changed lives and a strong overwhelming presence of God. Many people report that as they approach their seat, they are hit by waves of His glory and presence. As they stand and begin to sing they become breathless, humbled in His presence. No longer able to sing, they sit down, unloading all the concerns of the day, all the appointments of tomorrow, and now they are swept to a place beyond the church building. Now at the feet of Jesus, the chair melts away and it only seems right to lay prostrate on the ground before a Holy God.

This place of an intimate individual encounter with the manifest presence of God is where Tommy Tenney loves to lead people. It’s a true breakthrough, suddenly people find themselves in the garden of the Lord, in the throne room of God, in the third heaven, or at the feet of Jesus. They don’t get a word of wisdom from Tommy, nor a bless me prayer from the prayer team. They get a meeting with God, an opportunity to worship him and talk to him. This contagious hunger and strong presence of God is not limited to time in the sanctuary, but can be found by those who seek him in prayer time at home, at work, or in the car. Visitors take it with them around the world. It takes repentant worship and sacrifice to sustain it.

Here’s a quote from Charles Finney, Hindrances to Revivals, that will be helpful: “A revival will decline and cease, unless Christians are frequently re-converted. By this I mean, that Christians, in order to keep in the spirit of revival, commonly need to be frequently convicted, and humbled and broken down before God, and “re-converted”. This is something which many do not understand, when we talk about a Christian being re-converted. But the fact is, that in a revival, the Christian’s heart is liable to get crusted over, and lose its exquisite relish for Divine things; his unction and prevalence in prayer abate, and then he must be converted over again. It is impossible to keep him in such a state as not to do injury to the work, unless he passes through such a process every few days. I have never labored in revivals in company with any one who would keep in the work and be fit to mange a revival continually, who did not pass through this process of breaking down as often as once in two or three weeks.

“Revivals decline, commonly, because it is found impossible to make Christians realize their guilt and dependence, so as to break down before God. It is important the ministers should understand this, and learn how to break down the Church, and break down themselves when they need it, or else Christians will soon become mechanical in their work, and lose their fervour and their power of prevailing with God.”

During the 14 July, 1998, meeting, in the midst of glorious worship, Tommy Tenney gave an altar call for “extravagant worship”. Wherever a person stood, there became an altar, each pushing past any visitation they ever had. The dancers danced more, the criers weeped more, each one expressing their love in the most extravagant way. The tangible sense of his presence was stronger than anytime in the past 18 months of visitation. In past e-mails I have talked about heavenly visitors (angels) to our meetings. This time through powerful corporate worship, we became visitors in heaven. Pastor Bart Pierce, sensing a powerful impartation of intercession asked for all to pray. A powerful birthing process began as each prayed for revival in their city, or for their families. I, being a typical engineer type, don’t understand intercession at all, but I felt the call to prayer in my bones.

In Baltimore we spend a lot of time worshipping God, and entertaining his presence, but then we get up from the carpet and go to the worst places in the city to help those in need. We want the revival to go to the streets.

Pursuing his presence

Baltimore – Psalm 27:4-5: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me upon a rock.”

In Baltimore, we spend a lot of time doing one thing, worshipping. To get a hold of the one thing, we are learning to get rid of the other things. Prayer time is spent in repentance, cleansing the hands and heart of the corruption of the day. The next things to cast off are the concerns of the day and the appointments of tomorrow. Turn off the beeper, shut down the cell phone, remove your watch, take off your glasses, change your focus from this world to the next, pass from time to eternity.

On Monday and Tuesdays we have a special reservation with the Lord. We spread a table for the Lord and ask him to come. In danger of oversimplification, I would say we spend three hours worshipping, and in the middle somewhere Revivalist Tommy Tenney or Pastor Bart Pierce will spend time encouraging us to be better worshippers. There are no introductions of speakers, no recognition given to famous visitors from, no fancy preaching, no solo singers, no announcements of any kind, no display of a people or their talents. During worship people bring their offering and cast it upon the altar of sacrifice. The worshippers give when they are ready for a breakthrough into radical, intense, repentant worship.

During the 29 September 1998 meeting, Tommy Tenney said, “God is taking away choices till all we have left is one thing. He wants to purify our pursuit till we are after only him. Tonight’s service is about pursuing his presence.” In Baltimore, God is overwhelming us with His Presence. Like Mary, we spend a lot of time pouring our love upon the Lord.

The Martha’s might ask, “Do you spend time helping the needy in Baltimore?” The answer is yes. ‘A Can Can Make a Difference’ moves over six million pounds of free food per year to the hungry, assisting 60 food pantries in Maryland. ‘Nehemiah House’ is the only men’s shelter in Baltimore County and assists 300 homeless men per year. ‘The Hiding Place’ is our seven bed home for adolescent girls in crisis or facing pregnancy; 260 babies have been born through the program. Through ‘Adopt-a-Block’, Baltimore pastors, congregations from different denominations, and businesses, gather to reach hurting communities.

Worshipping and serving together, pastors joined in unity are learning to pastor the city, not just their own local congregations, forming city wide the church of Baltimore.

Internet: http://www.baltimorerockchurch.com

(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

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Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

 

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon and Kindle – all issues

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

by Geoff 13 August 2011 5 Comments

Argentine Revival

by Guido Kuwas

Guido Kuwas, wrote as editor of Global Revival News, and compiled this report in November 1998.

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Thousands are getting saved and

God’s miracle power touches people

Argentina has been basking in Revival for almost 15 years. And I don’t mean the type of Revival where 3 people or even 30 people get saved in one meeting. I am talking about a Revival where thousands are getting saved and where God’s miracle power touches people.

Charisma Magazine has reported that during the last decade, the population of Latin American Protestants grew from 18.6 million to 59.4 million. That represents a 220 percent increase, nine times the growth rate of the general population. Secular researchers calculate that 400 Latin Americans convert to evangelical Christianity every hour.

The revival is transforming the religious landscape. In Peru, a Protestant church is planted every eight hours. In Rio de Janeiro, one new congregation is born every day. Brazil’s largest denomination, the Assemblies of God, has grown tenfold since 1980, to 15 million members and 90,000 local congregations.

The fastest growth has been among Pentecostal and charismatic churches. Less than 2 percent of the Protestant population at the end of World War II were in Pentecostal churches. Today, about 66% of Latin American Protestants attend a Pentecostal church.

Claudio Freidzon

1. Change of Plans

Claudio Freidzon recounts: In 1985 I had a vision of God in my room. It must have been two or three in the morning. I was asleep. Suddenly, God woke me up and showed me a vision on the wall, right before my eyes. I saw the picture of a public square in the district of Belgrano (within the same city of Buenos Aires). In the vision, the square was filled with people who were celebrating in an evangelistic campaign similar to the ones that Carlos Annacondia held. And the Lord said to me: “This is your new field of work.”

God showed me that he wanted me to reveal his glory in that place, and that he wanted to move us away from the place where we had worked for so many years. When I mentioned this to my wife, she did not understand it immediately. Now that things were beginning to go well in Parque Chas, ought we to move to another district? Nevertheless, I was sure of what God had showed me. It was a difficult situation, and a highly challenging one. While my heart was pondering over these things, hundreds of men and women whom I had never seen before (but whom I would meet later in that square) walked around lost, hopeless and without God in this world. Daniel Perotti and Sergio Marquet (called “the Frenchman”) were among them. At present, thanks to the tremendous change that God operated in their lives, they are two of my associate pastors.

I went and had a look at the public square I had been shown. A sign said “Plaza Noruega”. There was a crowd of drug addicts sitting around on the floor. I began to take measurements of the place, and to find out where I would get electricity for my evangelistic campaign. Someone in the neighbourhood watched my movements, came up to me and said: “Look here, I don’t know what you are going to do, but I hope you will clean up the square, because here we have the worst of them. This is the meeting place of the worst kind of drop-outs in Belgrano. Last week they killed a man…” I prayed to the Lord silently: “Father, are you sure this is the square you showed me?” The man went on: “This is the territory of “El Francés” (the Frenchman), a dangerous man.”

A violent battle raged within me while he spoke. On the one hand I had the comfort of my little flock which was beginning to multiply, and on the other the great challenge of the unknown. There were also difficulties in finding an evangelist willing to preach in that public square.

All the preachers I invited were unable to accept for various reasons. God wanted me to do the job of an evangelist! That evangelistic campaign in February 1986 was historical. Great signs and wonders followed the preaching of the Gospel. That is how the “King of Kings” church was born in the Belgrano district. I have never repented of having obeyed that vision!

2. A New Time

1992 marked a new era for Claudio Freidzon’s ministry. In that same year he received a visit from Pastor Werner Kniesel, who was well respected by him. Actually Kniesel is a Pastor in the city of Zurich (Switzerland) in the church called “Christliches Zentrum Buchegg” (Christian Center Buchegg) having one of the largest congregations in Europe. He knew Claudio from their student days at the Seminar. When Claudio told him of his many ministerial activities, this man asked him: “How much time do you dedicate to listening to the Holy Spirit?” That question would change his life. He suspected that God had something else in mind, for him and he needed to know God more intimately, a new relationship with the Holy Spirit. Pastor Ibarra, a great man of God with a great sensitivity to things related to the Holy Sprit, was always a great blessing for Claudio, even though they didn’t see each other very often. In those days he shared the great blessing that the book Good morning, Holy Spirit by Pastor Benny Hinn of the Christian Center in Orlando had been for him.

Claudio Freidzon reports: God greatly blessed me through that book, so I decided to visit the United States in order to share a time of prayer with brother Benny Hinn. Pastor Benny Hinn’s testimony, and his relationship with the Holy Spirit, were a great inspiration for my own life. Betty and I went to the Christian Center in Orlando with great expectations. The atmosphere of that worship service was charged with glory, and worship went up to God in a deep and magnificent manner. I did not want to miss the smallest detail of that moment. All I longed for was to be with the Lord, to meet him and to get to know him. When Pastor Benny invited me to pray with him on the platform, I was amazed. He did not know me personally, but the Holy Spirit guided him to pray for me in a marvellous way. It was all part of a plan from above. God had planned new times for my life and ministry. As the years went by, Pastor Benny and I have cultivated a beautiful friendship. I love him and respect him. Whenever we meet together we feel the affinity of being united by this same passion: “to know the Holy Spirit more and more, and to be guided by Him.”

While seeking after him, the Holy Spirit came upon Claudio in an extraordinary way. A glorious atmosphere surround the services, and the presence of God began to manifest itself in the church as never before. Without inviting anyone nor promoting what was occurring, it began to be known that something was happening at 2547 Olazabal Street, in the “King of Kings” Church. Pastors came on their own to receive the fresh anointing that transformed their lives and taking them back to their first love. The Holy Spirit came with such power that many laid on the floor under the presence of God for hours, others rejoiced in the Spirit, others cried when the Holy Ghost touched them and others left “drunk” in the presence of God. God led Claudio Freidzon to recognize his powerful and sovereign hand, producing fruit in many lives and renewing a devoted life in Christians. The work of evangelism and edification was spread over the radio and on television. In the course of days, hundreds of pastors visited the “King of Kings” Church in large numbers to receive the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. Many came with their whole congregations. For weeks at a time, on occasions, there were lines hundreds of meters long of people waiting to get into the church. Many traveled from far away places by hired buses to receive more from God.

3. Large Crusades and International Ministry

This situation prompted the church to rent the indoor stadium “Obras Sanitarias” (seating 6,000 people) in order to provide a solution for the lack of space. In addition to the weekly meetings in the Obras Sanitarias Stadium, a crusade was called in the largest indoor stadium in the city: the “Luna Park” stadium.

Attendance went beyond the capacity of the stadium. Two meetings were held on the same day; 15,000 attended each, while over 25,000 unable to get into the facility, filled the streets. The police had to cut off traffic on the avenues and streets around the stadium because of the crowds of brothers waiting to get inside. The biggest crusade in Argentina was held on 9 April, 1993. Over 65,000 people packed the “Velez Sarsfield” soccer stadium. Brothers and sisters from all denominations, from many faraway places in our country came to seek the face of God on a historic Good Friday.

The ministry of Claudio Freidzon began to spread outside the borders of Argentina. Ministers and Christian leaders -even as teams- started to travel from all over the world to Argentina to receive God’s touch.

Claudio Freidzon has written a book called Holy Spirit I Hunger for You, which to date has been translated into six languages: English, French, Japanese, German, Czech and American English. Many Christians around the world have been inspired by this book to develop a deeper and more personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.

More than a million and a half people to date have been reached by his ministry in a personal way, through crusades, conferences, special events and meetings in churches.

Source: Claudio Freidzon’s website.

Reflections on the Argentinian revival

By J. Conrad Lampan (missionary pastor from Freidzon’s church to the USA):

As I see it there have been three major steps so far in the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in Argentina. The three steps have to do more with the way God wanted to manifest himself to us rather than what we did in order to have revival. We cannot schedule revivals. We just pray and let him be God!

The first step or manifestation was through the ministry of Carlos Annacondia. He was raised by the Lord to a ministry of power with great manifestations of the Holy Spirit in healing and in casting out demons. A highly powered ministry aimed toward reaching the lost. Brother Annacondia says that he is not a good preacher, but the Lord gave him a heart for the lost and also gave him the power to reach them and fill their needs.

Now, this first stage of manifestations of God could be seen in Brother Annacondia’s ministry but the church as a whole seemed to be unaffected. I mean he preached to multitudes and yet it was not enough. We love to have power. We need his power. But we want to have his power and keep our own ways. He is saying now: “I will give you power, I will use you, I will bless you … but you must be holy.”

The great secret behind this scene is that we should stop looking for power, stop looking for manifestations or miracles. We should stop trying to be holy on our own efforts and stop trying to sanctify people; that is the work of the Holy Ghost.

If we start to search for the person, the blessed Holy Ghost, if we come close to him and he becomes our friend and our master, our companion and our Lord, we will have all that he is.

Preparation for revival includes prayer and action. This has been true in all revivals. Churches in Argentina prayed for revival and prayed for the unsaved people. God cannot stay inactive when a lost soul is being prayed for!

Preparation included other people like Alberto Scattaglini taking some unusual “risks” among evangelical circles inviting a not known preacher. Or people like Ralph Hiatt planting the seed from which many of the most outstanding pastors in Buenos Aires came forth. Or that first “hit” in Argentina back in 1954 with another unknown preacher Tommy Hicks.

Can God heal a barren land?

About four years ago a group from our church in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Iglesia Rey de Reyes, Pastored by Rev Claudio Freidzon) started a mission work in a Northern province in Argentina among some of the Indian tribes still living in that area. They worked among those people helping them spiritually and materially.

Our missionaries preached the Word of God to them and also gave them medical assistance, clothing, food, and seeds. The native people stared at them strangely: Soon they discovered they were intending to have the Indian people cultivate a barren land. Now what would those people do with seeds in a barren earth? Nothing would grow in that earth, only some weeds dare to show up there.

Our missionaries then decided that the best thing to do was to pray to the God that promised to heal the land.

They took some handfuls of earth in a bag to Buenos Aires and brought it to the church that had sent them on that missionary work. The church prayed for that earth laying hands on the bag. We prayed that God would heal that land and restore it to produce food for those people. Later on they took back the earth to the missions place and spread it all over the area in the name of Jesus.

The next thing the missionaries brought to the church was a basket full of ‘first fruits’, all kinds of crops, from the barren land that was healed by the power of God.

Source: Global Revival News, Argentine Revival

See also, Renewal Journal #11, “Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival” by Brian Medway.

(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon – all issues

Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon and Kindle – all issues

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

by Geoff 13 August 2011 9 Comments

The Spirit told us what to do

by Carl Lawrence

Carl Lawrence & David Wang

Two young women set off to plant churches without plans or training because “Jesus said to ‘go.'”
After we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do.
We would keep praying and he would tell us what to do, and we would do it.
Then we prayed and then he would tell us what to do.
We would do it and keep praying.

*********************************

Reproduced from  Great Revival Stories

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and Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

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The Spirit told us what to do

Several high-ranking church leaders from Europe visited a pastor in Hong Kong. The pastor took them to visit some of the Three-Self churches. They found them inspiring, and uniquely Chinese, but they wondered aloud if perhaps they weren’t seeing the real church.

On the final day of their visit, the pastor hoped to show them what they wanted to see. He knew they would not really be satisfied unless they met a real church planter. As it turned out, they saw something incredibly beyond what they ever expected to find in China.

At their last stop, the pastor discovered that two young women had just returned from their mission station for a short visit, so he asked them to come to the hotel late, to meet the visiting church leaders.

These young ladies had both become Christians as teenagers while listening to radio broadcasts, and they each had immediately felt the call to be a missionary. The pastor had met with them and attempted to teach them how to witness right where they were.

“No,” they insisted, “the Bible you gave us says Jesus said to go to into all the world. We want to ‘go.'”

“But,” the pastor argued, “you have only been Christians for six months, and you are so young.”

They replied, “Pastor, we have read everything Jesus said and nowhere does he ask people how old they are. We want to go.”

Smiling, the pastor asked them, “But can you give me an exegesis of the five classical appearances of the Great Commission in the New Testament?” Their disappointed faces made him feel ashamed. “Very well. We need some workers on Hainan Island.”

“Hainan Island, we have never heard of it.”

The pastor said, “It is an island off the mainland. The people there are fishermen. It is very rough. There are no Christians there. For young ladies it might be very dangerous.”

Excitedly they responded, “How soon can we go?”

“Well, I have to go back to Hong Kong and make arrangements. There will be . . . “

They interrupted him, “Oh no, no, we must not wait. Our Lord said ‘go,’ not sit around and plan. We will go to this place – what did you call it?”

“Hainan. Hainan Island.”

They looked at each other, “Hainan, yes Hainan. That is where the Lord wants us to go.”

They had been there for two years and were now back for a short period of time to try to get Bibles and other literature for their new churches. The pastor had not seen them since the day they insisted that they ‘go now’!

After the arrangements were made, he went to the lobby at the appointed time and waited for the ladies to arrive. He watched the bellboys in their crisp, tailored uniforms, and the tourists who attempted to be casual in their designer clothes. Then he spotted the two young women. Oh no, he thought as they walked in.

Their black pyjamas and broad-brimmed fishermen hats stood in stark contrast to the appearance of the sophisticated hotel receptionist making her way towards them.

The pastor moved quickly to intercede. “It’s all right, they are here to see me.” Several people stood staring as he greeted them as politely as possible without drawing too much attention. “Come, we will go to my room to meet some people from Europe.”

Once in the room, the two European church officials graciously greeted them. He proceeded to ask the young ladies questions, interpreting for his guests as he went along.

“Pastor, ask them how many churches they have established on Hainan.”

The women put their heads down and answered, “Oh Pastor, we have only been there two years . . . yes, two years. Not many. Not very many.” Their voices were apologetic.

“How many?”

“Oh, not many, not many. We have only been there a short time. The people were not very friendly. . . Sometimes they became very vicious. Yes, sometimes they told us they were going to drown us in the ocean . . . several men threatened us . . . . Oh my, and because we were so young, even some of the other ladies did not like us. Yes some even called us terrible names . . . so not many churches . . . no, not many. . . .”

The pastor interrupted and slowly repeated the words, “How many? How many?”

There was a moment of silence, then one of the women looked up with embarrassment and anguish, as though confessing to a crime, “Only . . . thirteen. “

The pastor looked astonished and interpreted for the guests, “Thirteen.”

One of the guests repeated the number, “Only thirteen, only – my goodness. I haven’t planted that many churches in my lifetime.”

One of the pastor’s assistants interrupted, “No, Pastor, she did not say thirteen. She said thirty.”

The pastor looked at the two young women and asked, “Thirty?”

“Oh, yes, not many, we have done very poorly. Only thirty . . . .”

The two guests could only mutter, “Thirty churches in two years . . . my word. . . .”

Again the women began to apologize when the pastor interrupted to ask another question, “How many people are in the churches?”

“How many? . . . Oh, not many. . . . ” Again both heads went down, apologizing for their failure. “Not many. “

The process repeated itself until, again, the pastor looked like he was ready to shake them and practically yelled, “How many?”

“Only two hundred and twenty people. Not many, no . . . not many. “

Quickly multiplying in his head, the pastor said, “Two hundred and twenty in thirty churches?”

“Oh, no, in only one, but that one is a very small church, very small. There are bigger ones. . . .”

As the pastor interrupted he heard the numbers repeated by his guests: “Two hundred and twenty is small? Dear Lord, I wish I had some that large.”

“Ask them how many are in the big churches.”

The process began, but with a more reverent inquiry: “And how many in the big churches? You know, the biggest one?”

“Oh, not many . . . .”

“I know, ‘not many.’ But, please, ladies, how many?”

“Oh, less than five thousand. Only four thousand nine hundred . . . . Yes, less than five thousand. We have just started.”

From behind the pastor came the sound of weeping: “Dear Lord, forgive us.”

“What did they do? How did they do it? Ask them what they did?”

When asked, they looked astonished. “What did we do? Why nothing. Yes, we did nothing, nothing.”

“You did nothing? You have thirty churches – the smallest with two hundred and twenty people, the largest with almost five thousand new Christians! And you did nothing?”

“No, nothing. We just prayed.”

“I know you prayed, but what else did you do?”

“After we prayed, the Holy Spirit would tell us exactly what to do. We would keep praying and he would tell us what to do, and we would do it. Then we prayed and then he would tell us what to do.  We would do it and keep praying.”

“Dear Lord, they just prayed . . . and the Holy Spirit told them exactly what to do and they prayed. . . . “

The pastor laid his hands on the shoulders of the two sisters. Behind him his two guests, on their knees weeping, joined as they ‘just prayed’.

Dawn Report, August 1998. Source: Church Planting Canada, the Church Planting arm of Vision Canada. Originally published by Carl Lawrence, The Coming Influence of China. Gresham: Vision House Publishing Inc, 1996, pages 186-192. 1

China reports in Mission Index

Asia’s Maturing Church (David Wang)
The Spirit told us what to do (Carl Lawrence)
Revival in China (Dennis Balcombe)
China’s House Churches (Barbara Nield)
China – New Wave of Revival
Chinese turning to Christianity
Revival breaks out in China’s government approved churches
China: how a mother started a house church movement
China – Life-changing Miracle
China’s next generation: New China, New Church, New World
China: The cross on our shoulders and in our hearts
George Chen – In the Garden: 18 years in prison

This article is a chapter in Great Revival Stories

A Great Revival Stories All1Blog – Great Revival Stories

 

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A 2 Reign of JesusA 7 LionThis article is also an Appendix in

The Lion of Judah (2) The Reign of Jesus

and in (7) The Lion of Judah in one volume.

*

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1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
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11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

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An article in Renewal Journal 12: Harvest
Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Carl Lawrence & David Wang

church growth, revival ,

Harvest

by Geoff 13 August 2011 2 Comments

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Also in Renewal Journals Vol 3: Issues 11-15
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See also: Reinhard Bonnke – 1940-2019

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All Renewal Journal Topics:

1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,
3 Community,   4 Healing,   
5 Signs & Wonders,   6  Worship,   
7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,  
9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   
13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   
15  Wineskins,   16  Vision,   
17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,  
19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: 12 Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

Book Review: 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, by Eddie Hyatt

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Editorial

White for Harvest

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.

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Reviews (11) Discipleship

by Geoff 9 August 2011 1 Comment

Taking our Cities for God:  How to break spiritual strongholds

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

 

 

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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.

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1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship

Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival, by Brian Medway

Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown

A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley

The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan

Mentoring, by Peter Earle

Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor

The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

Book Review: Taking our Cities for God, by John Dawson

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

READ SAMPLE

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS(BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH(CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

by Geoff 9 August 2011 1 Comment

 

 

Paula Sandford wrote as a founding leader of the Elijah House ministry and co-author with husband John of books on emotional and inner healing.

The glory and fear of the Lord
will be known all over the world

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/discipleship/

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.

Renewal Journal– contents of all issues& links to articles

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Book Deposistory – free shipping worldwise (so cheapest)

Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
11  Discipleship,   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life

Contents: Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship

Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival, by Brian Medway

Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown

A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley

The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan

Mentoring, by Peter Earle

Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor

The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

Book Review: Taking our Cities for God, by John Dawson

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

READ SAMPLE

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS(BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH(CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor

by Geoff 9 August 2011 1 Comment

Can the Leopard Change his Spots?

by Charles V Taylor

 

 

Dr Charles V. 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.

 

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An article in Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship:
https://renewaljournal.com/2011/08/09/discipleship/

______________________________

 Can the Ethopian change his skin

or the leopard his spots?

______________________________

 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.

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Contents: Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship

Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival, by Brian Medway

Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown

A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley

The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan

Mentoring, by Peter Earle

Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor

The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

Book Review: Taking our Cities for God, by John Dawson

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

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