For those of us involved in what became to be known as the Charismatic Movement, it’s particular emphasis seemed to be a move of the Holy Spirit to bring renewal to mainline churches. The infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts which resulted were nothing new to those in Pentecostal churches, but they were a bit askance to see God pour this same blessing out upon people they had always considered spiritually dead. We in those mainline churches were then amazed to see the same outpouring on the Holy Spirit taking place among people some of us did not even consider saved, the Roman Catholics.
Radical change of thinking
It was a radical change of thinking, and left many of us incredulous, floundering to rethink our theology, in the light of what we could see happening. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, a renewed love for God, and a desire to serve Him with a passion and total commitment were just some of the fruit which began to emerge.
But, in my memory, perhaps the most outstanding distinctive of the Charismatic Movement, which began in the 1970s was the love they had for each other. Denominational barriers melted away, and people who had experienced the touch of the Holy Spirit in their lives, began to enjoy coming together to praise and worship God.
There was a great emphasis on praise, and a change in the way that praise was expressed. It became more vocal, loud, earthy, and joyous. The traditional hymns, accompanied by the organ were replaced with simple songs of love, sung to guitar music. The words of Scripture became a prime source for these songs, many of them sung TO God, rather than simply about Him. There was also the freedom given to use the gift of tongues, and to sing in the Spirit, during the times of worship.
Naturally, not all within the mainline churches felt comfortable with this. So charismatic groups often met together outside of their regular church times. For some this was enough, and they happily returned to their own denomination on a Sunday while still meeting in interdenominational groups through the week. For others this was not possible, and it was a time of church splits, and new denominations being formed.
During this time there seemed to be an influx of teaching tapes available. The cassette recorder had just appeared on the scene, and this made it possible for those of us in outlying areas to hear the words of some of the great preachers then coming on the scene. David Pawson, David Watson, Bob Mumford, Ern Baxter and Derek Prince were just some of those who fed the hunger we all felt for learning about God.
Also, the availability of paperback books, opened up a new area of learning, and biographical books began to flood the market. Christian book shops opened up in many places, or for those already in existence, the ‘heretic section’ began to be filled with books on the stories of what God was doing all over the world in peoples’ lives. These books were very inspirational and some have since become Christian classics. “The Cross and the Switchblade”, “The Hiding Place”, and “Prison to Praise” were among these.
With the passage of time, some of the groups which had met for charismatic worship grew large enough to become self supporting. The need then to worship with others from different denominations was no longer there. They had reached a point where they did not need to come aside to meet with Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Uniting or whatever. They were now strong enough to set up their own renewal services within their own denomination, alongside the traditional service. My personal opinion is that something wonderful – the emphasis on reconciliation and unity despite our different viewpoints, was lost.
The renewal movement however, kept going under such influences as the Wimber decade. Renewal spread rapidly through the evangelical church. This present blessing, unfortunately labelled ‘Toronto Blessing’, erupted just as suddenly as the charismatic movement, and has caused the same consternation, and Bible searching for a theological base.
Soaking
From my perception, its distinctive emphasis seems to be more on receiving from God, in the form of an awareness of His love – rather than on doing for God. More of a ‘Mary’ response to God, rather than the ‘Martha’ one in which so many of us have been caught.
Within this blessing there is a desire to just spend time, soaking in the presence of God, and within that soaking, allowing Him to do any repair work on us that is necessary. In other words, ‘His agenda, not mine’.
For me this is quite new, as in the past we have always come to God with our list of requests. Now, we are more aware of allowing Him to show us exactly what is in need of His touch. This has produced some amazing examples of inner healing and restoration. Testimonies abound of people being set free from lifetime struggles, as they “soak in His anointing”. The bottom line seems to be an awareness for each individual of just how precious they are to God.
There is also an evangelical element to this blessing. We have seen unsaved people come to a service where this blessing is flowing. They have been touched by the anointing. They have experienced God’s love and grace as they ‘soaked’ in His presence. Then they have been open to receive teaching on repentance and the need to make a personal commitment to Jesus.
The physical manifestations of this present blessing at first appear very odd, to say the least. Personally, this caused consternation and alarm, and caused me to again search the Scriptures, and to reread of the revival times in church history to see if there were any similarities. There were.
But, just as the beginning of the charismatic movement had shaken our comfortableness and preconceived ideas and set patterns of acceptable Christian behaviour, so this move has caused many of us to seek God. We were caught between not wanting to get carried away with deception and yet not wanting to miss out on anything God was doing.
For me a very strong proof of the pudding has been the change I have witnessed in my own life, and in the lives of those involved. Renewed love for God, commitment to him and an effectiveness in Christian living have manifested.
I have spent many years in Christian counselling and God has blessed that ministry, but it has been time consuming and slow. Now I am seeing similar results, but at a much faster rate, and to many people at the same time, as they simply ‘soak in his anointing’ (with varying degrees of outward physical manifestation).
Even though we are seeing some being saved I believe this is not revival. It is a time of refreshing. It is preparation for something more which is to come. In some ways this is a gentle rebuke to the Christians in the western world who have become so analytical in their Christianity. Our whole world view is so wrapped up in thoughts, concepts and ideas. It is as if God is now saying: ‘It is time for you to experience my love’. To many, this is threatening – concepts seem safer.
This could be a dangerous and foolhardy thing God is doing as there is great potential for misuse and abuse. But I seem to remember thinking the same thing 25 years ago when God began to pour out His Spirit on Roman Catholics.
Distinctly different
However I am disturbed by the critical articles which link this move to the ministry of Rodney Howard-Browne, Benny Hinn and others and call the lot the Toronto Blessing. (The Airport Christian Fellowship at Toronto do not like the name and are not seeking the notoriety it brings). What is coming out of Toronto is distinctly different from the ‘super star’ oriented ministry we are seeing from other parts of the world.
The blessing which began in, and has flowed from the Vineyard Airport Church in Toronto, is a church based movement, involving teams of people drawn from many churches in the city of Toronto. The hundreds of people who make up these prayer teams are all involved in personal one-to-one prayer for those who are seeking. There is no emphasis on one particular person as the one who has all the answers, power, or anointing.
One obvious difference between this present move of God and the Charismatic move is the physical manifestations. They can appear very odd! It is often difficult to assess the manifestation by just watching what is going on. Our assumptions of what is decent and in order are often proved to be premature. Later discussion with the one involved in the manifestation will often reveal that they were experiencing a unique and specific touch from God.
In others the manifestation was of demonic origin, or from their own desire to be a part of what was going on. Wisdom is called for. Also we need to not jump in and judge too quickly. It is important to watch for the fruit.
I have also noticed there seems to be a progression in the physical manifestations. Some people seem to go through stages of pain, weeping, shaking, roaring, to joy, peace, laughter. It seems that healing is taking place at a deep level and it is of benefit not to give up too soon by rejecting what is taking place.
In answering this request to write my thoughts I am not seeking for a debate. While many people may disagree with my perceptions, as is their right, we must be careful we do not become like the philosophers on Mars Hill, endlessly discussing concepts and ideas rather than experiencing what God is doing. Let us encourage one another to remain open to whatever He has for us, both to receive and to do.
infusing the heart with joy, wonder, love and praise,
and a greater desire to witness
___________________________________________
A group of five members of our church, St Luke’s Sydenham, attended the Catch the Fire Down Under Conference in Sydney in June 1995. John Arnott from Toronto, Canada, led it.
For me it all started on the first night. We were in an overflow hall watching by video when the Holy Spirit fell on me as John preached on Divine Love. I wept in wonder and joy for the rest of his teaching. Afterwards we moved into a time of ‘soaking prayer’ when we were encouraged to focus on Jesus and worship him as people prayed for us. Some two hours later I was experiencing enormous waves of power coursing through my body, like bolts of electricity. Accompanied by tears and joyful laughter as I soaked in what seemed like a bath of God’s love.
Afterwards I was carried out of the meeting overwhelmed by God’s love, still trembling with his power on me that lasted most of the night.
John Arnott’s theme was that he wanted us to be marinated in the Holy Spirit over the seven meetings. There was opportunity to soak in the Spirit for two to three hours each time. I took every opportunity including another time when John prayed for me after I had attempted to give testimony when experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. That was a very funny experience.
The fruit
You might ask ‘What was the fruit of all this?’
Firstly, all of us experienced a new and deeper relationship with God which has changed the way we worship, the way we live and the way we minister.
When we shared our testimonies with the congregation on our return, people were touched by God even as they listened, and many more were blessed through prayer ministry. In our evening service the preacher was prayed for before preaching and ended up on the floor for the next two hours, while we moved to plan B – witnessing and praying.
The manifestations vary: shaking, falling, laughing, crying, or just quietly resting in the Spirit. But the inner experience is a deeper awareness and experience of God’s love infusing the heart with joy, wonder, love and praise, and a greater desire to witness.
As people focus on seeking more of God they later find they have received inner healing of life’s hurts, physical healings (from sciatica, back pain, intestinal problems), deliverance from demonic bondages, and freedom from depression.
Some people who have been ministered to for years are now quite changed with healing, new life, and joy.
A new boldness to witness has entered some and we are seeing adults experience the process of becoming disciples of Christ as they turn to him. Two people who were unbelievers were dramatically touched by the power of the Spirit in our services. Two children also asked how they could invite Jesus into their lives. Many children have received ministry and have rested in the Spirit with the same blessing, and in some cases have had changed attitudes.
A steady stream of visitors from other churches are coming. Many arrive feeling very dry and are going home with a new and deeper experience of God’s love, often returning next week with their friends. It certainly is a wonderful time of refreshing by God.
Now what?
Where do we go from here?
Throughout the world thousands of people have made new commitments or re-commitments to Christ when churches experience the ‘Father’s Blessing’ as John Arnott calls it. I believe we are in a time when God is refreshing his church, recharging our spiritual batteries, and renewing our first love (Revelation 2:4). His love in us will spill over and we will see the prodigals returning in large numbers.
For now, what we need to do is to drink of the Spirit often and deeply, more and more, until we fall passionately in love with Jesus and love those that he loves. Then the world will see and know that Jesus is alive and the harvest will follow.
Reproduced from the August 1995 issue of ‘Spirit Life’, the bi-monthly newsletter of Anglican Renewal Ministries Australia in Victoria and Tasmania, PO Box 1134, Glen Waverley, Victoria 3150.
The Rev Ron French, a Uniting Church minister, wrote when editor of Living Water, the Journal of the Uniting Church Queensland Synod Committee for Renewal Ministries.
It was a warm night in March, 1995, as around 2,000 people crowded into the worship centre and overflowing areas of Northside Christian Family in Brisbane. The organisers had been expecting 400-500 but 800 had registered for the day event and many more had gathered for the Wednesday night meeting once it was known it was open for general attendance.
The reason? To find out what this ‘Toronto blessing’ was all about. To find out if God indeed was blessing people with an outpouring of his Spirit, and, if that was so, to get some for themselves, for the people who had gathered were hungry.
Pastor John Lewis introduced us to Baptist pastor Guy (pronounced Gee) Chevrau, and some of what Gee shared with us over the next three days is summarised here.
What cannot be fully expressed is what happened after the message.
I’ve seen people slain in the Spirit before as the man out the front shouts for the power of God to come down and with hand on forehead down they go. But this was different. There was no hand on forehead, nor was there shouts from those in charge. Instead a gentle voice invited to you to close your eyes and fix your vision on Jesus, and, in many cases, legs out from underneath you and gentle down you went.
This was also followed by laughing or sobbing or twitching or moving or jerking or some or all of the above. Some explanation of the phenomena follows in this article.
Guy shared with us that it ought not surprise us that God should want to initiate a blessing upon his people at particular times and in particular places. He said in the UK you can now travel 30 miles in any direction and find an outpouring of God in this way. His comment:
This new move of God is taking us out to where we cannot return.
God is calling us to a radical theological humility.
There’s a world of difference between a commitment to the Lord and a relationship with the Lord.
God desires not just the former but also the latter.
Is this from God?
Guy cautioned us on judging the phenomena. He called on us to wait six months and then look at the kind of fruit we have.
Do we have a renewed desire for worship?
Have the dividing walls come down?
Are we feeding the poor?
Are we praying for the sick?
Is there a renewed love for God’s word?
Is it a privilege to pray?
Has fear and insecurity been lifted off?.
Where did this come from?
Randy Clark is the founding pastor of the Vineyard Fellowship in St. Louis. After years of seeing little fruit and power in his ministry he became desperately hungry for God. Hearing of unusual manifestations of God’s presence through the ministry of South African evangelist, Rodney Howard-Brown, Randy attended one of Rodney’s meetings at Tulsa, OK. Randy was powerfully touched and, in going home, began to see a similar outbreak of the Spirit among his people.
In January 1994 John Arnott, pastor of the Toronto Airport Vineyard invited Randy to come to Toronto to speak and minister. Two days of meetings in Toronto turned into what, to date, have been 90 days of almost continuous in numerous locations in Ontario and in the United States.
The meetings have been dubbed renewal rather than a revival by psychiatrist and author John White and by John Wimber, international leader of the Association of Vineyard Churches.
Randy and those who have been associated with him say that this move of God is more associated with refreshing the church and calling home the prodigals than salvation for the lost. People are coming to Christ but not in the numbers one typically sees in times of revival.
The Toronto Airport Vineyard now has meetings of refreshment every night of the week except Monday and people from all over the world have attended and gone home blessed.
The ministers and leaders of Northside Christian Family and Garden City Christian Church have been across and the ‘Catch the Fire’ meetings at Everton Park occurred in response to these people meeting with this new wave of God’s presence.
Now various Uniting Churches are experiencing this blessing.
The small group which meets at Rosewood Uniting Church on a Sunday night began experiencing some of these manifestations of the Spirit after the April John Wimber conference last year.
This particularly related to the shaking and laughing but in late January /early February this year the falling and resting in the Spirit was added to the agenda. We didn’t understand what was happening at first, except we realised God was doing something. Attending the meetings at Everton Park clarified a number of issues for us. Since then the manifestations have only increased.
Those who have been hungry and desperate for an outpouring of God in their lives and in ministry have come forward for a blessing and have rested in the Spirit as he has gently blessed them. The other manifestations have occurred as well.
To explain this further, the following comments are adapted from Guy Chevrau’s teaching.
What does the Bible and the church say?
There are basic doctrinal approaches in the Bible. These include:
a. Christian theology (what Christians are to be believe),
b. Christian ethics (how Christians ought to behave),
c. Christian experience or practice (what Christians do).
When dealing with supernatural phenomena, we are dealing with the area of Christian practice. While there is primary text dealing with prophetic revelation, there are no primary texts that clearly state that Christians are to fall down, shake or look drunk during seasons of divine visitation.
There are, however, a number of secondary (remember, secondary does not mean invalid or unimportant) texts that illustrate that these were some of the responses people had during the moments of divine visitation.
There are also numerous examples of similar phenomena in church history, especially in seasons of revival. The purpose in putting this information together is to develop a biblical apologetic for what we see happening among us. Much of what we are seeing is strange to the natural mind. The following are some of the phenomena that we have seen in our meetings: falling, shaking, drunkenness, crying, laughter, and prophetic revelation.
Are these manifestations biblical?
First it needs to be said that it is perfectly normal and even necessary to inquire into the biblical nature of Christian experience. It is also OK to admit that much of this looks ‘weird’ as long as we don’t prematurely judge it. When Paul first went to the Greek city of Berea, the book of Acts says that the Bereans were more noble than the other Jews Paul had encountered in Greece because they ‘searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true.’ (17 v 11)
When we ask. ‘Is it biblical?’ we are probably asking for what is commonly called proof text. A proof text is a portion of Scripture that, when taken in context, validates a particular position we are taking. In order to ascertain whether these phenomena are biblical, we need to lay down some ground rules for solid interpretation.
Falling
The most common phenomena we have seen in our meetings is people falling down. Often they remain conscious but engaged with the Lord. They feel weak and find it difficult to do anything but rest with God. We have seen that as they lay with the Lord they have had significant changes in their lives.
Genesis 15:12 – This literally reads ‘A deep sleep fell on Abram’. This is the same word that is used when God put Adam to sleep when he made Eve (Genesis 2:21).
1 Samuel 19 – This text shows that for something close to a 24 hour period Saul lay in a prone position with God speaking through him.
Ezekiel 3: 23; Daniel 8:17; 10:9 – being overwhelmed
Matthew 17: 6,7; John 18: 6 – As Judas and the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, they had an interesting encounter. ‘When Jesus said. ‘I am he,’ they turned back and fell to the ground.’ Here we see an immediate falling back in response to the presence of Jesus. They were apparently able to get up shortly thereafter because they went on to arrest Jesus.
Acts 9:3 – When Paul was apprehended on the road to Damascus by a light from heaven, he says, ‘I fell to the ground and heard a voice.’ Again we see that falling was a normal response to a divine visitation.
Revelation 1:17 – Here we see an experience similar to Adam’s and Abram’s where the person not only falls but is also unconscious for an extended period of time.
Jonathan Edwards, the main instrument and theologian of the Great Awakening in America (1725 – 1760), says in his Account of the Revival of Religion in Northampton 1740 – 1742:
Many have had their religious affections raised far beyond what they had ever been before, and there were some instances of persons laying in a sort of trance. Remaining perhaps for a whole twenty-four hours motionless, and with their senses locked up, but in the mean time under strong imaginations, as though they went to heaven and had there a vision of glorious and delightful objects.
It was a very frequent thing to see outcries, faintings, convulsions and such like, both with distress, and also admiration and joy.
It was no the manner here to hold meetings all night, nor was it common to continue them till very late in the night; but it was pretty often so, that there were some so affected, and their bodies so overcome, that they could not go home, but were obligated to stay all night where they were.
Charles Finney (1792-1875) was one of the most powerful revivalists since the reformation:
At a country place named Sodom, in the state of New York, Finney gave one address in which he described the condition of Sodom before God destroyed it. ‘I had not spoken in this strain more than a quarter of an hour.’ says he ‘when an awful solemnity seemed to settle upon them, the congregation began to fall from their seats in every direction, and cried for mercy. If I had had a sword in each hand, I could not have cut them down as fast as they fell. Nearly the whole congregation were either on their knees or prostrate. I should think in less than two minutes from the shock that fell upon them. Everyone prayed who was able to speak at all.’ Similar scenes were witnessed in many other places.
A remarkable power seemed to accompany the preaching of George Fox where ever he went, whether in Britain or America, Germany, Holland or the West Indies. He usually went about the country on foot, dressed in his famous suit of leather clothes, said to have been made by himself, and often sleeping out of doors or in some haystack. He was ridiculed and persecuted, beaten and stoned, arrested and imprisoned, more frequently perhaps than any other man, and yet the Lord seemed to greatly bless and own his labours.
Describing his meetings at Ticknell, England, he says ‘The priest scoffed at us and called us “Quakers”. But the Lord’s power was so over them, and the word of life was declared in such authority and dread to them, that the priest began trembling himself, and one of the people said “Look how the priest trembles and shakes, he is turned Quaker also”.’
Conclusion: There is a biblical precedent for shaking in God’s presence. In the verses where the cause of shaking is mentioned, it has to do with holy fear. The shaking we are experiencing seems to be related more to prophetic ministry and impartation of spiritual fights of which parallels can be seen in Fox’s ministry.
Drunkenness
Jeremiah 23:9 – as drunk
Acts 2:13 ff – ‘Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’
Compare Acts 10:44-46 where apparently the same kinds of phenomena occurred with the Gentiles. That the 120 newly filled believers were acting in a ‘drunken’ manner is what is known as an argument from silence. The text never says that they were but it is obviously inferred. They would not be accused of being drunk because they were speaking in different languages. They would have been accused of such because they were acting like drunks. ie.laughing, falling, slurred speech by some, boldness through lack of restraint, etc.. The analogy of the gift of the Spirit being ‘new wine’ would lend itself to the connection.
Eph 5:8ff: In a passage dealing with the Ephesians putting off their old carousing lifestyle, Paul exhorts them ‘Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery, instead be filled (Greek present tense ‘keep on being filled’) with the Holy Spirit’. Paul is contrasting carnal drunkenness with spiritual filling. Given the tense of the Greek verb, he appears to also be making an analogy as well as a contrast. Being filled with God’s Spirit is similar to being drunk on wine. The difference is that the former is holy while the other is sinful.
Shaking
Shaking is also common in our meetings and is one of the hardest phenomena to understand. The kinds of shaking vary greatly. Sometimes the shaking is accompanied by all sorts of bodily contortions, sometimes mild, sometimes almost violent. What, if any, biblical precedent is there?
Daniel 10:7; Psalm 99:1; 114:7; Jeremiah 5: 22 – trembling
Jeremiah 23:9 – This is a significant verse because Jeremiah is relating that what happened to him on at least one occasion involved a trembling/shaking of his bones. His wording seems to imply that he shook from the inside out. It would take a powerful force to cause his bones to quiver inside his body. The analogy to being overcome could also be a reference to being entranced by the coming of the prophetic word. This text is an answer to God’s plea in Jeremiah 5: 22.
Hab. 3:16; Acts 4:31; James 2:19:
George Fox (1624 – 1691) founder of the Quakers:
After a life changing experience with the Holy Spirit. Fox had some remarkable experiences.
After passing through the experience described above, Fox was mightily used of God, and great conviction of sin fell upon the people to whom he preached. ‘The Lord’s power began to shake them’ says he,, ‘and great meetings we began to have, and a mighty power and work of God there was amongst people, to the astonishment of both people and priests.’ Later, he says, ‘After this I went to Mansfield, where there was a great meeting of professors and people; here I was moved to pray, and the Lord’s power was so great, that the house seemed to be shaken.’
Crying
Neh 8:9; 2 Chron 34:27; Lk 19: 41; Heb. 5:7.
Acts 2:37 – This text doesn’t say they wept but it’s hard to imaging ‘being cut to the heart’ as not evoking that emotional response.
John Wesley (1703-1791):
On April 17, 1739,, there was another remarkable case of conviction of sin, in Bristol, Wesley had just expounded Acts 4 on the power of the Holy Spirit, ‘We then called upon God to confirm his Word’ says he. ‘Immediately one that stood by (to our no small surprised) cried out aloud, with the utmost vehemence, even as the agonies of death. But we continued in prayer till ‘a new song was put in her mouth, a thanksgiving unto our God’ Soon after, two other persons (well known in this place, as labouring to live in all good conscience towards all men) were seized with strong pain, and constrained to roar the disquietness of their heart. These also found peace ‘Many other wonderful cases of conviction of sin attended Wesley’s preaching. It was a frequent occurrence for people to cry aloud or fall down as if dead in the meetings, so great was their anguish of heart caused, no doubt, by the holy Spirit convicting them of sin.’
Laughter
Job 8:21; Psalm 126:2; Ecc 3:4.
John 17:13; If there is any prayer in the Bible that will be answered, it is the high priestly prayer in John 17. Certainly the full measure of joy with the Trinity includes laughter
Johnathan Edwards wrote:
It was very wonderful to see how person’s affections were sometimes moved when God did as it were suddenly open their eyes, and let into their minds a sense of greatness of his grace, the fullness of Christ and his readiness to save. Their joyful surprises has caused their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tears often as the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping. Sometimes they have not been able to forebear crying out with a loud voice, expressing their great admiration. The manner of God’s work on the soul, sometimes especially, is very mysterious.
Conclusion: Again, laughter lifts within the general flow of Scripture. Christians can be so filled with the joy of the Lord that they are given over to fits of laughter.
Prophetic revelation
One of the things we are seeing is that people are having visions, dreams and prophetic words while under the power of the Spirit. All throughout the Bible, prophetic revelation occurs during periods of divine visitation.
There is no way we can cover this subject in this context so a few key passages will have to suffice.
Num12:29; This is a very significant passage. It shows that prophecy can be a response to the Spirits coming. The phrase, ‘when the spirit rested on them’ (v25) is also reminiscent of the Spirit alighting on Jesus like a dove at this baptism.
Num 11:6; 1 Sam 10:10; Acts 2:17-18; 1 Cor14.
George Fox: And a report went abroad of me, that I was a young man that had a discerning spirit; whereupon many came to me from far and near, professors, priest, and people; and the Lord’s power brake forth; and I had great openings and prophecies, and spake unto them of the things of God and they heard with attention and silence, and went away and spread the fame thereof.’
What are the phenomena for?
Signs of the Lord’s presence.
In Exodus 33 v 14 in response to Moses, it says, ‘The Lord replied. ‘My Presence will go with you.’ The promise of God’s Presence is the distinguishing mark of God’s people. Moses says to God ‘What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth.’ (v16)
The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit is in each Christian and since Acts 2 has been continually active in the Church. Jesus speaking of the Spirit, says to the disciples, He is with you and will be in you.’ (John 14 v 17) There are times, however, when God allows us to see his presence to build our faith and show us where he is working. 2 Kings 6:17.
Is God shaking us to wake us up?
Eph 5:14 This command precedes the exhortation to be filled continually with the Holy Spirit. We are to wake up and seek to be continually filled with the wine of God’s Spirit.
If we haven’t heeded God’s previous wake up calls, perhaps He is now shaking us to arouse us and get our attention.
To humble us
When Randy Clark asked God why he was bringing all the phenomena to Toronto, God replied that he was looking for people who were willing to look publicly foolish for the honour of his name.
Paul Cain said ‘God offends the mind to reveal the heart.’
The bottom line issue is one of control. God wants to know who among his people will be willing to play the fool for his glory.
To anoint us
The filling of the Holy Spirit is a repeatable experience and one we are commanded to continually experience. (Eph 5:18)
God will sovereignly move on us to impart supernatural ability to do certain things. 2 Tim 1:6.
Charles Finney:
The Holy Ghost descended on me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings.
No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. The waves came over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recoiled I cried out ‘ I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.’ I said ‘Lord I cannot bear any more’ yet I had no fear of death.
Finney continued for some time under this remarkable manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power. Wave after wave of spiritual power rolled over him and through him thrilling every fibre of his being.
Increased fruit
Galatians 5:22: ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ Simply put, if the long term fruit is Gal. 5:22, it’s of God. The character of Jesus is the destiny of the Church (Romans 8:29).
Concerning the fruit of this, we can ask:
1. Are the people being prayed for asking for God? They will get God.
2. Are the people praying asking for God and exalting Jesus? The Holy Spirit will come in answer to their prayers.
3. Are those praying asking for the gift of discernment? It is given.
4. Are the leaders humble and exalting Jesus? Is the atmosphere peaceful, even though perhaps noisy? If yes, then these are signs of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
5. Is the fruit good? Then it’s God.
What about the emotion?
Our presupposition: If it were God, there would be very little or no emotion in it. Again, the Bible says something else
There is a full range of emotions seen in the scriptures.
a. David danced, wept, fought
b. Jesus wept, was joyful, angry
c. Peter wept, rejoiced, felt convicted
d. God has emotion, as we do. We have been created in his image.
Historically, emotions have been seen in the movements of God.
Jonathan Edwards saw no distinction between the head and the heart. ‘Nothing of religious significance ever took place in the human heart if it wasn’t deeply effected by such Godly emotions.’
John White says ‘The lack of emotion is just as sick as being controlled by emotion.’
Emotion comes from seeing reality (truth) clearly. When the Spirit of truth comes, we see things as they really are which opens up our emotional being.
What is happening?
We ask the question, ‘What in the world is happening to us?’ It is clear from what we are seeing and hearing from all over the United States, Canada, England and other places that we are in a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. Peter told early onlookers to the Spirit’s activity to repent that times of refreshment would come from the Lord’s presence (Acts 3 v 19) What should be our response to such a season of diving visitation? The clearest passage in the New Testament on the subject of a local church’s response to the coming of the Holy Spirit is 1 Cor 12-14.
1. Paul’s purpose in writing 1 Corinthians was to answer a set of questions delivered to him in the form of a letter from the church (see 7 v 1; 16 vv 17). He had also received some information from ‘Chloe’s people’ (1 v 11). When Paul proceeds to answer their questions about spiritual gifts, he does so in a sermon where he is dealing with questions related to when they gather together for church (11:27).
2. In Chapter 12, Paul encourages the activity of spiritual gifts when they gather together also, he also said that the church was Christ’s body which was to be built up as spiritual gifts are exercised.
3. His admonition in chapter 13 is that they exercise disagreement in love. Herein lies the most important point of all as we press into the season that is upon us: without love it profits us nothing.
In chapter 3 Paul had already established that whoever co-labours to build on Paul’s apostolic foundation will have his/her works weighted on the day of the Lord. One works will be labelled ‘gold, silver and precious stones.’ Others will be labelled ‘wood, hay and stubble.’ It is the quality of each person’s work that will make the difference. How do we know that our work is the kind of quality that will pass the fire test on that day? I believe the answer is in the motive. In Chapter 13 Paul says that the motive must be love.
In Matthew 7:15-23, in a passage dealing with false prophets who would be known for their fruit, Jesus said ‘Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly. “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.”‘ This passage allows for a category of person in the church that amazingly are able to move in spiritual gifts but at judgement day will be counted among those that do not know Jesus. The difference is that they are not doing the will of the Father. Their motive is not one of love for God or people, but is self serving. Jesus is clear; self serving activity, no matter how powerful, doesn’t count.
4. Paul finishes his response to the Corinthian question of spiritual gifts in Chapter 14 where he says that the sign of a loving exercise of gifts is the building up of Christ’s body. If the exercising of gifts does not, in the end, build up the church, it has been counter productive. Whether because of ill motive or because the leaders have not been facilitating the operation of the gifts in the meeting ‘decently and in order’ (14 v 40) the fact of the matter is that the gifts have not been allowed to work to build up the church for the common good.
5. The final word then, about the season that is upon us, belongs to the apostle Paul. He calls us to embrace the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our midst. He exhorts us to exercise the gifts with a loving heart posture in such a manner that the church is edified. The leaders need to see that this is done in an orderly way. What counts in the end is not whether someone fell or shook or even was healed. No, what counts ultimately is whether they are loved and built up. What happens as a result of the Spirit’s sovereign intervention is us to God. This is his work, not ours. Our job is to love and pray for the kingdom to come, watching as we do, for what the Father is doing so we can bless it.
Conclusions
So what has Father been doing during this season that has been upon us? As we conclude, we need to ask whether we are seeing any long term fruit. This is the ultimate test in determining if it is God. In Acts 3:19 Peter called his onlookers to repentance so their sins could be wiped out. The result in their lives was that times of refreshing would come to them from the presence of the Lord.
Refreshing
One of those seasons of refreshment is upon us now. John Arnott, the pastor of the Airport Vineyard in Toronto, reports that the overriding theme has been joy. This is thoroughly consonant with the New Testament which sees joy as a sign of the presence of the Spirit in the believer’s life (there are over 60 references to joy in the NT). God’s people are simply having fun in him. In the early days of the apostles, as they were searching for a word that would communicate to the Gentiles the ecstasy of having their sins forgiven and being in right relationship with God through the atoning blood of Christ Jesus, they choose the word euangelion which we now translate ‘gospel’ or ‘good news’. It was a completely secular word that was used in reference to the emperor’s birthday. It was a holiday, a day of good news. The apostles travelled throughout the ancient world preaching the day of God’s party had come.
Joy
We are learning to party in God again because the Spirit of the Lord has come among us to teach us grace, mediate forgiveness and reveal the Father’s love in Christ. The second characteristic of this renewal, then, is a return to our first love, Jesus. Reports are coming from every corner about people falling in love with Jesus in a whole new way, about a new love for the Bible, about being taken up into heaven in the form of visions and dreams. In the arms of Jesus is fullness of joy.
Healing
The third characteristic of the renewal is healing. Reports too numerous to count tell of physical healings, deliverance from demonic influences and deep emotional wounds being touches. It seems that as people spend ‘floor time’ with God, he meets them where they are, the point of need. He is removing barriers that have kept us from moving forward with God.
Empowering
Much of the shaking has to do with empowerment for service. Spiritual gifts are being imparted through the laying on of hands. We have impartations for intercession, evangelism, healing, prophecy and pastoral care.
Re-commitments
There has been a significant return of prodigals to the church. God is healing old wounds and drawing lost ones back into fellowship with himself and with the church.
Salvation
Numerous people have been saved but not enough to characterize this as a genuine revival. Revivals are characterized by masses coming to Christ. Those that have been on the vanguard of the move of the Spirit believe that its purpose is to refresh the church and to prepare it for the mighty and genuine revival that is on the horizon.
May God give us wisdom, faith and obedience in this time of his visitation.
Many Christians are talking about a significant work of God that is sweeping the church today which has become known as the Toronto Blessing.
Hundreds of churches around Australia have already been touched, blessed and changed. Christians are testifying to significant life change, wonderful fruit and a new zeal for God. People are laughing, crying, falling down, experiencing strange body movements. Many who have exhibited these phenomena have never had such experiences before nor, by their own testimony, did they expect to. Services are lasting for hours longer than usual. Many pastors are rejoicing as they observe the spiritual fruit.
At Randwick Baptist Church (hereafter R.B.C.), some of these phenomena have been present in lesser degrees for about nine years. They occurred spontaneously and without prompting or discussion.
At the same time the critics have been quick to respond. Several have published claims that what they believe is the Toronto Blessing is in fact demonic. Another church has arrived at the conclusion that this is a work of hypnotism. Yet others claim it is just a passing fad for the deluded.
The secular media have been intrigued. Newspaper, radio and T.V. have all visited church services to see for themselves. The response of the secular media has been mainly positive. We need to be aware however that the media often seeks sensationalism rather than an accurate portrayal of what is happening.
What are we to make of this extraordinary outpouring? What place should the phenomena have in ourchurch? How can we test it to ensure that it is a true work of God? How should meetings be administered where such phenomena occur? Furthermore, what is the fruit of all these things? It is important that we follow the biblical injunction to test all things, and seek to establish biblical foundations for what we see happening.
The current refreshing is not some kind of new ‘latest and greatest’ programme which has been introduced to revitalize church services. The ‘refreshing’ is not something that pastors introduce to see if new life can be breathed into their church. We believe what we are witnessing is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. It was with considerable amazement that we stood back and watched God pour out His Spirit in November 1994 at R.B.C. We found it difficult to come to terms with the sheer power and intensity of God’s work.
For over a year we have pastored this movement, prayed for discernment, discussed, theologized, debated with our critics, searched the Scriptures, and carefully watched and examined the fruit. We are convinced this is a true work of God. However, we acknowledge that any work of God which involves a human element, will encounter sinful tendencies, perhaps demonic attack, and therefore must be carefully dealt with.
There are a number of ‘streams’ of refreshment and renewal that God is using around the world. For example, God is using the Toronto Airport Vineyard to refresh his church. We have been greatly blessed by them although we ask that people assess R.B.C. based on what we teach and practice, not on what another church does. Each stream of the movement needs to be assessed on its own merits. The conclusions and positions we have reached, both in theology and practice, may well be rejected by other churches. We do not believe that ours is the only orthodox position.
The aim of this article is to explain and define what we see God doing in our own experience and to provide a framework to assess other movements worldwide.
Some of the material has been drawn from, expanded and redrafted from an earlier work by Bill Jackson (‘What in the World is Happening to us?’ A biblical perspective by Bill Jackson).
The outpouring at R.B.C.
Late 1993 and the first seven or eight months of 1994 had been a considerable time of change for R.B.C. involving difficult decisions, change of staff, relational tensions, loss of some members, and a rethink of the church’s vision. The ‘ship’ of the church had slowed and was making a careful, yet sure change, in direction.
Throughout the year there was much soul searching and grappling with tough questions. Old foundations were reaffirmed while new foundations were carefully put in place. In what was often a painful process the church sought to come to grips with developing its relational life. An adjoining property was sold, a fresh vision statement adopted and contracts were signed for the completion of building extensions. It involved considerable flux. Churches need to go through times when they carefully evaluate what they are doing.
The outcome of this process was a greater sense of unity in the church, a growing commitment to corporate prayer, and a desire to get on with the work of the Kingdom.
In hindsight, we realise that some of the things we went through were necessary for God to be able to come and move freely among us. Change is never easy and refining is often painful at the time. We are filled with gratitude as we reflect upon how God was working during this time.
By November an examination of our leadership structure had begun and many questions still needed to be answered. Considerable discussion took place on what we would do with our evening service. How could we best reach our community? Yet we were experiencing considerable faith that God was establishing his plans and purposes in our midst. The Leadership were confident that we were tracking in the right direction.
Factors leading up to the outpouring at R.B.C. include :
* A gradual renewal of the church’s prayer life with new prayer meetings and a number of people joining the ‘prayer watch’.
* A four month teaching series on the Holy Spirit was undertaken on Sunday evenings.
* A stronger sense of ‘grace’ in the church.
* A sense of expectation. We had been feeling spiritually dry for sometime. We believed in the work of the Spirit but were not seeing much power. A sense of a new day dawning.
* A couple in the church visited Toronto and were dramatically touched by the Holy Spirit. Upon arriving home on 1st November they prayed for some of us. We were powerfully ministered to. They also brought back from Toronto some resources, in particular three videos. Watching one of these I was touched with joy by the Holy Spirit.
* Sunday, 6th November, was a remarkable day for a number of reasons. In the early morning prayer meeting there was a sense of expectation. At the worship service an American Pastor, Roy Kendall and his family, (who pastor a church in Jerusalem) led a wonderful time of praise. Roy spoke on the subject of praise including a word about spiritual dryness, and thirst for God. He gave me a dry Jericho Lily which while totally dry (and it can stay that way for decades), when touched by a shower of rain releases its seed that germinates in desert conditions in as little as an hour. For some reason he felt this was an important symbol for R.B.C. A number of people received ministry after that service but it wasn’t until the evening service that we saw power being poured out. Chris Acland preached on Isaiah 55, Steve and Cathy testified on their experience in Toronto, and afterwards we saw some of the signs that have since increased in intensity and breadth.
* We recognise and wish to emphasise that the outpouring was not so much a result of anything we did but was a sovereign movement of God. The outpouring seems to have transferred from the Toronto Airport Vineyard, and is being transferred to churches around the world. We have been thrilled to learn of other churches in Sydney also being touched.
* While we had prayed for the outpouring of the Spirit, it still caught us by surprise! The sheer intensity and broad sweep of the Spirit’s work has been staggering.
* Once the outpouring had begun we were reminded of several prophetic words given to us. Brent Rue had prophesied in October 1990 that a large wave of the Holy Spirit would crash over us. This wave would be following by waves of converts.
* Glen Sheppard prophesied on 6th October, 1985 at R.B.C. He believed God spoke to him: ‘You are sitting in the midst of a people who can shake a nation.’ Glenn prayed: ‘I thank you Lord that these young folk are standing on the brink of moving into something that is beyond anything they can conceive of. I see the breath of holy revival for a nation.’ Glenn saw a fountainhead in the church that would flow out and touch the nations.
* Karen Richardson from the Vineyard-Birmingham, Alabama, wrote to us in February 1993:
“IT’S HARVEST TIME! I see big combines, many big combines out in the field, gathering in. The Lord says, ‘It is harvest time. Go out and gather that which has been prepared. The crop is ready. The fruit is ripe and ready for picking.’ I see a huge barrel of water, fresh, clean, pure water being poured over that field, the Holy Spirit, cleansing, purifying and perfecting. In the past you’ve laboured, and you’ve thought, ‘We have laboured in vain.’ The Lord says, ‘No, your labour was not in vain. And soon, yes very soon, you shall see the reward being manifested. It shall come forth. For truly I, your Lord, am the Lord of the harvest. And this harvest will be different for you, different from the past. For this harvest is in season. And there shall be joy – great joy in the Lord. And songs to the Lord will break forth in this church in a new way. My Spirit is moving upon this people, this place. And you are going to be surprised, pleasantly surprised at the new giftings, the new talents, that I am bringing to this place. A fresh anointing. A sweet anointing. You’ll even see some dear faces returning back to you. They will be there to help with the new harvest!@
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Testimonies by others
Leaders around the world now report on fresh touched from God.
Ellie Mumford (South West London Vineyard)
I have a greater love for Jesus than I have ever known; a greater excitement about the Kingdom than I had ever thought possible; a greater sense that these are glorious, glorious days to be alive. I’m thrilled about the Scriptures ….. I haven’t had this appetite for ministry for years. Jesus is restoring his joy, and his laughter is medicine to the soul.@
John Mosier (Pastor of Christ the King Church in Brighton, UK)
We know that there is always flesh and spirit in these things and for some suggestible people there will be an experience but little change. We are hearing many testimonies however of a sense of an encounter with God, an increase in prayer and Bible reading, a boldness in witnessing. We’ve seen our Sunday evening congregation double@ (Alpha, May, 1995).
Phil Rees (South Street Baptist Church, Greenwich, UK)
The Lord takes over – you can hardly believe it. There have been tears of repentance and a release of tension. There’s a growth of holiness and dwelling close to God. The last seven weeks have been the best in my Christian life.@
Dave Holden (Pastor of Sidcup Community Church)
When we pray for them they laugh or weep. In the following days they talk of a sense of God’s presence, their marriages being different, ethical changes in their lives. We have discovered a new lease of life. Our prayer meetings have quadrupled.@
Peter Grearley (Covenant Ministries, UK)
People have been falling over, laughing uncontrollably, rolling around drunk, and crying deeply. We have been unable to end some meetings because the people don’t want to stop praising God or leave his presence. As we worshipped last Sunday, Agnes Morris was instantly healed of a twenty-year back problem. She had been unable to bend properly and is now a living testimony to God’s healing power.@
Glimpses of revival
It is important to remember what God has done in the past. We don’t want to live in the past, or be so consumed by the past that we are no use in the present. We do, however, want to draw inspiration from what God has done time and time again in different ways, in the past. The current outpouring is not revival although some of the manifestations and testimonies are typical of what occurs in revivals.
Jonathan Edwards – 1737
‘As I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner has for commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that was for me extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The Person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thoughts and conceptions, which continued as near as I can judge, about one hour; such as to keep me a greater part of the time in a flood tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve Him and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a Divine and Heavenly purity.’
‘I can see him in my mind’s eye in his pulpit, reading his sermon shortsightedly as he peered at the manuscript by candle light. He must have been charged with passion. But his reedy, high-pitched voice would hardly qualify him as a dynamic preacher. It was the power of God, not erudition or eloquence, that gripped church members that night. The building rang with echoing cries of terrified listeners, men and women clutching the pillars of the building with all their strength, terrified that the floors would split and their feet go slipping and sliding into hell.’
John Wesley – 1st January, 1739
‘Mr. Hall, Hinching, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutching and my brother Charles were present at our love feast in Fetter Lane with about 60 of our brethren. About 3 in the morning as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, in so much that many cried out for exulting joy and felt to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from the awe and amazement of the presence his Majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise Thee O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.’
George Whitefield, 5th November, 1740
‘Mr. Gilbert Tennant preached first and I then began to pray and to give an exhortation. In about sixminutes one person cried out, ‘He’s come! He’s come!’ and could scarcely sustain the manifestation of Jesus to his soul. But having heard the crying of others for the like favour I was obliged to stop and I prayed over them as I saw the agonies and the distress increase. At length we sang a hymn and then retired to the house, where the man that received Christ continued praising and speaking of Him until near midnight. My own soul was so full that I retired and wept before the Lord, and had a deep sense of my own vileness; and the sovereignty and greatness of God’s everlasting love. Most of the people spent the remainder of the night in prayer and praising God. It was a night much to be remembered.’
Daniel Rowland – Wales, March 1743
The preaching of Daniel Rowland in Wales in 1743 is described by Howel Harris; ‘They fall almost as dead by the power of the Word and continue weeping for joy, having found the Messiah; some mourning under a sense of their vileness, and some in the pangs of new birth!…….The power at the conclusion of his sermon was such that multitudes continued weeping and crying out for the Saviour and could not possibly forebear.’
Christmas Evans – Wales, early 19th Century
In every place he preached, multitudes would weep as he proclaimed the power of the cross of Jesus, and would be converted to Christ. Under Evan’s preaching the cross of the Lord Jesus took on incredible power and importance, which is its rightful place.
Ulster, Ireland – 1859
One of the chief characteristics of this revival was the ‘slaying’ of people. People would fall to the ground on the streets or in the fields and would lie there motionless for hours. When they recovered, they sensed that God had visited them, and they would worship him and praise him with great fervour and excitement. Crowds were attracted to observe this incredible phenomenon. Many people were won to Christ as they believed that this was the work of God. God doesn’t always work in the ways we expect, and very often works contrary to accepted scientific practice!
Charleston – 1858
In 1858, John Girardeau was leading his normal evening church service in Charleston, North Carolina, when, ‘He received the sensation as if a bolt of electricity had struck his head and diffused itself through his whole body. For a little while he stood speechless under the strange physical feeling. Then he said, ‘The Holy Spirit has come; we will begin preaching tomorrow evening.’ He closed the service with a hymn, dismissed the congregation, and came down from the pulpit; but no one left the house. The whole congregation had quietly resumed their seats. The Holy Spirit did not only come to him, he had also taken possession of the hearts of the people. Immediately he began exhorting them to accept the Gospel. They began to sob softly, like the falling of rain, then, with deeper emotion, to weep bitterly, or to rejoice loudly, accordingly to their circumstances. It was midnight before he could dismiss his congregation. The meeting went on night and day for eight weeks.
Charles Finney – mid 19th Century
Finney described his overwhelming experience of God as ‘waves of liquid love’. In once service in Northampton Massachusetts, such was the anointing on Finney’s message that the whole congregation of about 500 people rose up and cried out ‘Oh God we are not worthy to stand in your presence. Save us or destroy us’ Many Christians feared to enter a church with unconfessed sin in their hearts unless, in front of the congregation their sin would be revealed.
D. L. Moody – late 19th Century
‘I began to cry as never before for a greater blessing from God. The hunger increased. I really thought that I did not want to live any longer. I kept on crying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit. Well, one day in the city of New York – Oh! what a day, I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had experience of which he never spoke for 14 years. I can only say God revealed himself to me and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand.’
Evan Roberts – Leader of the Welsh Revival, 1904-5
In 1904 Roberts wrote, ‘After many had prayed, I felt some living energy or force entering my bosom, restraining my breath, my legs trembling terribly; this living energy increased and increased as one after another prayed. Feeling strongly and deeply warmed, I burst forth in prayer.
David Davies – Wales, 1904
David Davies, a minister in the town of Swansea, South Wales was a very poor speaker. When revival hit Swansea, David Davies became a transformed preacher. Gone was the hesitancy and stuttering, instead he spoke with the most amazing authority and power. Following his messages, hundreds of men and women were converted to Christ. Davies exercised an incredible ministry in the power and demonstration of the Spirit. When the revival simmered down the following year, the strange thing was that David Davies reverted to his previous hesitant style of preaching.
The Welsh Revival – 1904-5
When the fire of God fell on the people one of the first evidences that God was at work was a new desire for people to pray. Prayer meetings lasted from ten in the morning until midnight. There was preaching, singing, testimony, prayer and reading the Bible aloud. Coal miners, thousands of feet below the earth, would gather together during their food breaks, not to eat, but to pray and read the Scriptures aloud. Some would even gather at the pinhead an hour before work in order to sing and pray. Often the revived Christians had fallen in love afresh with their Saviour. They delighted to talk with him, to spend time with the Lord, to listen to His voice and to speak of His glory.
Edinburgh – 1905
In 1905, the pastor of the Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh visited Wales and told the story of God’s great work in Wales to his own congregation. An incredible movement of the Spirit erupted. ‘It was at a late prayer meeting, held in the evening at 9.30, that the fire of God fell. There was nothing, humanly speaking, to account for what happened. Suddenly, upon one and another came an overwhelming sense of the reality and awfulness of his presence and of eternal things. Life, death, and eternity suddenly seemed laid bare. Prayer and weeping began, and gained in intensity every moment. As on the day of the laying the foundation of the second temple, ‘The people could not discern the noise of the shouts of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people’ (Ezra 3:13). One was overwhelmed before the sudden bursting of the bounds. Could it be real? We looked up and asked for clear direction, and all we knew of God was, ‘Do nothing’. Friends who were gathered sang on their knees. Each seemed to sing, each seemed to pray, oblivious of one another. Then the prayer broke out again, waves and waves of prayer; and the mid-night hour was reached. The hours had passed like minutes. It is useless being a spectator looking on, or praying for it, in order to catch its spirit and breath. It is necessary to be in it, praying in it, part of it, caught by the same power, swept by the same wind. One who was present says; ‘I cannot tell you what Christ was to me last night. My heart was full to overflowing. If ever my Lord was near to me, it was last night.’
Malawi – 1910
We find a similar description of a church meeting in Malawi in 1910. ‘An elder began to pray confessing before all the sin of having cherished the spirit of revenge for an evil done him. Then another began to pray, and another and another, till two or three were praying together in a quiet voice, weeping and confessing, each one unconscious of the other. Suddenly there came a sound of ‘a rushing wind’. It was the thrilling sound of 2500 people praying audibly, no one apparently conscious of the other. I could think of no better image to describe the noise than the rushing of wind through the trees. We were listening to the same sound as filled that upper room at Pentecost. Not noisy or discordant, it filled us with a great awe.’
Scotland – 1949
The famous Duncan Campbell described a meeting on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland during 1949. ‘The lad rose to his feet and in his prayer made reference to the fourth chapter of Revelation, which he had been reading that morning; ‘O God, I seem to be gazing through the open door. I see the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, with the keys of death and of hell at his girdle.’ He began to sob, then lifting his eyes toward heaven, cried: ‘Oh God, there is power there, let it loose!’ With the force of a hurricane the Spirit of God swept into the building and the flood gates of heaven opened. The church resembled a battle field. On one side many were prostrated over the seats weeping and sighing; on the other side some were affected by throwing their arms in the air in a rigid posture. God had come.’
Phenomena accompanying revival
While the current outpouring is not revival, we are seeing things that often accompany revival. Consider what God has done in the past.
1. Dislike of enthusiasm is to quench the Spirit. Those familiar with the history of the church, and in particular the history of revivals, will know this charge of enthusiasm is one always brought against people most active in a period of revival@ (Martin Lloyd Jones).
2. Lady Huntington wrote to Whitefield regarding the cases of crying out and falling down at the meetings,and advised him not to remove them, as had been done, for it seemed to bring a damper on the meeting. She wrote, >You are making a mistake. Don’t be wiser than God. Let them cry out; it will do a great deal more good than your preaching@ (Wallis 1956:75).
This is not to say that we do not insist on the regular exposition of Scripture but make the point that the evidences of God’s power among us are also instructive.
3. Wesley’s Journal, July 1739, commenting on developments in Whitefield’s meetings: Afor no sooner had he begun … to invite all sinners to believe in Christ, than four persons sunk down close to him, almost in the same moment. One of them lay without either sense or motion. A second trembled exceedingly. The third had strong convulsions all over his body, but made no noise, unless by groans. The fourth, equally convulsed, called upon God, with strong cries and tears. From this time, I trust, we shall allallow God to carry on His own work in the way that pleaseth Him@ (Wallis 1956:75).
4. Barton Stone in 1801 on the Kentucky revival: AThere on the edge of the prairie … multitudes came together … The scene was new and passing strange. It baffled description. Many, very many, fell down as men slain in battle, and continued for hours together in an apparently breathless and motionless state, sometimes for a few moments receiving and exhibiting symptoms of life by a deep groan or piercing shriek, or a prayer for mercy fervently uttered@ (Pratney 1994:103).
5. Sober professors who had been communicants for many years now were lying prostrate on the ground crying out in such language as this: >Oh how I would have despised any person a few days ago who would have acted as I am doing now’@ (James McGready).
6. “At one time I saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens@ – James Finley, a convert who became a Methodist minister, on the Cane Ridge Revival, Kentucky in 1800 (Pratney 1994:104).
7. As though hit by a bolt of lightning, the entire company was knocked from their chairs to the floor. Seven began to speak in diverse kinds of tongues and to magnify God. The shouts were so fervent and so loud that a crowd gathered outside wondering ‘what meaneth this?’ Soon it was noised over the city that God was pouring out His Spirit” – Carl Brumback, on the 1905 Azusa Street revival (Riss 1988:53).
8. There is a dimension of openness to the Holy Spirit which allows Him the sovereign right to intervene and override the rational guidance system, to go beyond the written revelation (by prophecy) if He chooses, which must be preserved or else we will fail to do justice both to Scripture and to our common experience (Lovelace p 269).
May God keep us open to the surprising impact of the Holy Spirit in our time in history.
In the first week of May 1993, the Holy Spirit erupted at the Christian Outreach Centre in Brisbane. Some people rocked with laughter, others fell to the floor, others reeled around as if intoxicated. Within days similar phenomena broke out in COC congregations across Australia.
‘I’ve seen the Holy Spirit move like this here and there over the years, but this was different, said Nance Miers, wife of COC International President Neil Miers. ‘In the past it seemed to have affected a few individuals, but this time it was a corporate thing.’
Miers himself commented, ‘It started in New Zealand and then broke out in New Guinea, and now it’s here. If I know the Holy Ghost, it will break out across the world – wherever people are truly seeking revival.’
If the evidence of the last 18 months is anything to go by, Miers does indeed know the Holy Ghost. Excited reports are painting a picture of a global wave of extraordinary phenomena, accompanied by a powerful upsurge of repentance, hunger for God, deep intercession, maturity, boldness, reconciliation in relationships, healing and release from demonic oppression.
In Australia, the ‘Toronto Blessing’, as it has become internationally known, seems to be spreading faster than you can hear about it. From Randwick Baptist in Sydney to Shiloh Faith Centre in Perth, people are falling down, laughing uproariously and reporting a great growth of love for Jesus.
‘From what we have seen and experienced we have no doubt that at the heart of what is happening there is a genuine movement of the Spirit of God’, says John Davies, rector of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Northbridge, Sydney, and NSW chairman of Anglican Renewal ministries of Australia. ‘Although some of the outward manifestations are unusual, and sometimes bizarre, the fruit that is being produced bears all the marks of true godliness.’
‘Toronto Blessing’ is the name coined by the British media to describe the spiritual renewal as it swept through British churches during 1994. It arose when Christian leaders began visiting the Airport Vineyard church in Toronto, Canada – part of the Vineyard network of churches founded by John Wimber – where these things were happening on an astonishing scale.
But the ‘Toronto Blessing’ did not, in fact, begin in Toronto. Most accounts trace it back to the ministry of a South African evangelist named Rodney Howard-Browne. Resident in the US since 1987, Howard-Browne’s meetings are characterised by what he calls ‘holy joy’ and other unusual phenomena.
When Randy Clark, a Missouri Vineyard pastor who had been profoundly touched by God at a Howard-Browne meting, went to Toronto in January 1994 to conduct four nights of meetings, so extraordinary was the outbreak of the Spirit that the meetings were extended again and again for forty days. Since then the church has been meeting six nights a week until the early hours of the morning as thousands of people from around the world pilgrimage to Toronto to ‘catch the blessing’.
Travelling to Toronto – or to some other place where the same phenomena have appeared – is perhaps the main way in which the ‘Blessing’ is spreading. While hundreds of churches are being affected, some seem to be playing a role as ‘dispersal centres’. London’s Holy Trinity Brompton is one. Another is Christ Church Anglican in Dingley, one of Melbourne’s southern suburbs, which started holding meetings on Monday and Tuesday nights from October 1994 after its senior and associate ministers both visited Toronto.
Sometimes the ‘Blessing’ breaks out when people who have been touched by God visit a church and pass it on. This was the experience of the Hope Valley Uniting Church in South Australia when a ten-strong ministry team from the North Phoenix Vineyard visited in August 1994.
There have also been instances where Toronto-style phenomena have simply started. For example, in September 1993 in Veszprem, Hungary, more than 3,000 people experienced ‘holy laughter’ at a regional conference of Faith Church.
Features of the Renewal
It is more than a year since the ‘Blessing’ started in Toronto, and it is now possible to get a picture of its distinctive qualities.
Unusual physical phenomena. The most common is falling over, usually when prayed for (increasingly referred to as ‘resting in the Spirit’). Laughter, from quiet chuckles to paroxysmal guffaws, is also widespread. Trembling and shaking, ‘drunkenness’ and bouncing up and down like a pogo-stick are among the manifestations. Waves of warmth flow through bodies; people feel wind that isn’t there; they weep in repentance or bellow in triumph.
Some phenomena are stranger than others, including dog barks and rooster crows.
Those involved generally understand these phenomena to be people’s emotional and physical responses to what the Holy Spirit is doing within them. Laughter, for example, is a manifestation in a body that can no longer contain the joy a person is experiencing.
A concern for biblically authentic fruit. Noticeable in scores of reports is the determination of advocates that this movement be judged by its results. Phil Martin, pastor of Waverley Community Church (AOG) in Melbourne, who visited Toronto, commented. ‘Phenomena are always second to fruit. We’re more interested in what God is doing in you than what he is doing on you’.
And what is God doing in people? Airport Vineyard pastor John Arnott put it this way: ‘When I ask them, “What has it done for you?” they always answer, ‘I’m so in love with Jesus”.’
A sense of greater closeness to God is common. Frequently people can’t wait to begin praising him and are reluctant to stop. A sense of being humbled is often described, as is conviction of sin, greater desire to read the bible, more power in prayer, lukewarm commitments turning to zeal, healing of long-standing emotional hurts, restored relationships, increased concern for those who don’t know God . . .
Overall, joy seems to be paramount. West Australian Bible teacher David Boan says, ‘God is doing many kinds of healing and change, but often people come up from prayer reporting an experience of God’s joy. He’s teaching people in their spirits and experience that they’re loved by the Father and secure in him.’
Unity. The cross-denominational character of this renewal is also distinctive. God is showering it on Pentecostals, Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, charismatics and everyone else besides. Observers estimate that at least 7,000 churches in Britain alone, from across the spectrum, were involved in 1995.
Many church leaders have testified to the fact that God has broken their pride and denominational elitism.
The lack of focus on individuals. If aspects of Rodney Howard-Browne’s theology and practice have come in for some sharp critical attention from evangelical theologians – and they have – his personal self-effacement doesn’t square with the normal stereotype of the Pentecostal revivalist. In late 1994 he dropped his name from the name of his organisation, having earlier told Charisma magazine that he didn’t want his face associated with the new outpouring and that anyone who wanted to could ‘press in and touch the hem of [God’s] garment.’
One mark of this renewal is that it is largely growing independent of major personalities. Low-key and diverse, it has by its very nature been a movement of thousands of excited people taking their experience to others.
An acknowledgment of dangers. The frank acknowledgment that alongside the genuine experiences there are always likely to be the spurious defuses some of the charges that it’s all just fleshly emotionalism or demonic counterfeit.
‘We try to be careful about the physical phenomena,’ explains Marc Dupont of the Airport Vineyard. ‘The roots can be the Holy Spirit, the flesh or the devil. Things are always mixed, you know.’
The emerging consensus is that Christian leaders have a responsibility to give proper and mature biblical shape to what is happening so that people can test their experiences according to truth. To this end, a growing number of churches, including the Vineyard, Holy Trinity Brompton and the UK’s Pioneer network of charismatic churches, are putting out resources to help people be discerning.
What does the ‘Blessing’ mean?
Notwithstanding criticisms, there is a swelling tide of opinion that the ‘Toronto Blessing’ is definitely God’s work. It has received affirmation from evangelical leaders like Michael Harper.
So that leaves us with the question: What is God doing?
The traditional distinction between renewal, revival and awakening has been pressed into service as Christians have tried to get a handle on these events. In this understanding, renewal is an action of God in stirring up the ‘first love’ of Christians; it becomes revival when it flows over to non-Christians on a substantial scale; and it moves to awakening when its effects are so significant that the surrounding society is widely impacted.
Few are saying this is revival. The Vineyard churches have labelled it instead a ‘refreshing’ – a time when God is drawing his saints near to himself to experience the joy of their salvation. Their description has rung true with thousands around the world.
But is that all there is to it? Few seem happy to think of God giving people a rollicking good time without having some wider purpose. There is a widespread belief that the ‘refreshing’ is the forerunner of something bigger.
‘There is no doubt that we are seeing the early stages of a transnational move of God, linked to the whole unfolding process of world revival’, writes Patrick Dixon in his new book, Signs of Revival. ‘This is no “flash in the pan”; no unexpected visitation.’
According to John Davies, these events fit with a number of prophetic words, some going back to 1984, that 1993/4 would see a great outpouring of blessing. Now some of the prophets are saying that this is the first of a three-stage work of God, the second part of which will be a time of exposure of sin in the church and of repentance, and the third a time of evangelistic harvest. In this scenario, the current refreshing is understood as God preparing his people for discipline by making sure they are secure in his love.
And being secure in his love is what it seems to be about. Mary Pytches, wife of retired Anglican bishop David Pytches, tells how she initially went to Toronto dry and thirsty. She felt she needed more anointing from God, so she stood in a service calling out to him. Then people started singing the song ‘Holy and Anointed One’.
‘Suddenly I thought, “How stupid I am! Why don’t I just ask for more of Jesus? That is the answer. If you have more of Jesus you have more of everything. You have more anointing, more gifting, more fruit, more righteousness and holiness – the lot.” And so I changed my prayer and I kept praying, “Lord, I want more of Jesus” – and that’s what I got.’
More of Jesus; more of his love; more love for him – all brought with a fresh intensity by his Spirit. That seems to be the experience of growing thousands of Christians. As one child commented when the experience first fell on the Christian Outreach Centre churches in 1993, ‘God is making me bigger inside so I can love him more.’
And if that’s the case there’s really only one thing to say: “More of you, Lord – more of you.”
Reprinted with permission from On Being, April 1995, pp. 32-38.
Blacker, John. 1995.Healing in the Now. Melbourne: Australian Renewal Ministries.
John Blacker has authored this book bringing together his observations and experience from 25 years of ministering in renewal and healing across the body of Christ in Australia. John has served the church as a Methodist and Uniting Church minister and with his wife Val and son Paul has been active in the work of the Australian Renewal Ministries.
The privately published book gives a solid biblical and practical basis for the healing ministry in the church, and is the kind of manual many church groups find useful for training their people in prayer and counselling ministries.
In addition to John’s valuable insights, the Appendix offers useful articles by others. Paul Blacker writes on ‘Healing Pain and Grief’. Dan Armstrong writes on ‘Healing and Evangelism’. Owen Salter’s positive reflections on ‘The Toronto Blessing’ style of ministries is reproduced from On Being. The articles on worship and healing by Robert Tann and Robert Colman, reproduced in this issue of the Renewal Journal are from that Appendix.
This is a significant Australian book on the practical application of the healing ministry in the life of the church. It is available from Australian Renewal ministries, 1 Maxwell Court, Blackburn South, Victoria 3130. Ph. (03) 9877 0103; Fax: (03) 9877 0106 (G.W.)
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Kaldor, Peter, et.al. eds. 1994. Winds of Change: the experience of church in a changing Australia. Sydney: Lancer.
Reporting on the National Church Life Survey of Protestant churches in Australia, this book provides a wealth of valuable insights on the significant trends changing the church in our lifetime.
They survey was completed by over 300,000 church attenders in around 8,000 congregations in August 1991.
Some of its quotable quotes:
‘Around 20% of all attenders at church have spoken in tongues, including 30% of 20 to 30 year olds. Nearly half of those speaking in tongues attend nonPentecostal churches. …
‘One in every eight attenders has switched denominations in the past five years. Around 23% of all switching has been from nonPentecostal to Pentecostal denominations, with 9% switching in the opposite direction. …
‘Australia is a nation of small congregations. More than half have fewer than 50 people. At the same time, most growth is occurring in larger congregations. These are particularly attractive to the post World War II generations’ (pp. viiix).
Chapter 6 ‘A Wind Shift Rocking the Churches: The charismatic movement in Australia’ has special interest for those involved in renewal. Some quotes from that chapter:
‘The charismatic movement knows no bounds. It has had an impact in all denominations, all socioeconomic and ethnic groups, and all age groups especially the young.
‘The charismatic movement has been the impetus for some of the most significant and profound changes in church life in recent times. It has gained increasing importance in a range of churches across Australia.
‘One of its key characteristics is that it is in flux: small meetings grow to mega churches, others flourish for a period and then disappear. Change is rapid, even unpredictable; the movement shows no respect for institutional boundaries. Denominations of all shapes and sizes, and waving a wide variety of theological banners, are having to respond in some way. … ‘NonPentecostal tongues speakers are not just concentrated in a few charismatic congregations but spread widely. …
‘There is a relationship between attitudes to speaking in tongues and involvement in congregational life. Those who speak in tongues are more involved, tend to feel a greater sense of belonging or have roles in the congregation. They are also much more likely to feel they are growing in their faith. … ‘Likewise those who speak in tongues are more likely to be involved in evangelistic activities, feel they exert a Christian influence, be happy to talk about their faith or invite others to church. In contrast, they are less likely to be involved in community groups. …
‘It is important to recognise the scale of its impact beyond the Pentecostal churches. Even allowing for Pentecostal groups not involved in the survey, nonPentecostal tongues speakers account for a third of all attenders. Nearly all denominations contain a significant procharismatic sector’ (pp. 7489).
The book, of course, ranges much wider than these issues. It is highly recommended for leaders in churches to become aware of the sweeping changes we are now living through and contributing to. [G.W.]
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Kaldor, Peter, et. al. eds. 1995. Views from the Pews. Adelaide: Openbook.
Some general comments covered in this further book by the National Church Life Survey team:
Most church attenders are satisfied with the leadership in their churches, but about a quarter of them think their leaders are out of touch with people in the pew. Pentecostals generally see their minister as the one who provides the vision for the church, but this is not so in some denominational churches.
Pentecostals generally reject liturgical frameworks in worship, such as vestments, prayer books and set liturgies, and a majority of worshippers in mainline churches do not find them helpful.
Generally tongues speakers in all churches have a more literal interpretation of the Bible and hold to more traditional moral values and beliefs. Charismatics in denominational churches and Pentecostals rate highest in having an experience of God which involves healing, believing in evil spirits, and in Bible reading. Answers to prayer seem to be evenly distributed across all groups!
Again, this is a useful book for church leaders to increase awareness of the attitudes and trends in the congregations of all Protestant churches. [G.W.]
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Norling, Alan. 1994. Jesus the Baptiser with the Holy Spirit. Sydney: Alken Press.
‘At last a book on the Holy Spirit that is Christ centred!’ comments Brian Willersdorf. ‘Allan Norling has made a most valuable contribution to the subject of “Being baptised in, of, by or with the Holy Spirit” … Allan talks of a “new approach” to the subject, but all he is doing is cutting through the accumulation of church cultures and attitudes to present a well written approach to what the Bible has to say about being filled with the Holy Spirit.’
Described by one writer as a multiwave approach to the subject, this book describes being baptised in or with the Spirit as on going encounters of Jesus with and in the believer.
Allan Norton, summarising his approach, says ‘The “baptism with the Holy Spirit” is shown to be a repeated experience in the life of a Christian believer. Jesus will be seen to be more personally, actively and intimately involved with us in every detailed piece of authentic ministry. We will become aware of Jesus working with us, baptising us afresh with the Holy Spirit, each time He uses us in ministry.’
The book provides an evangelical approach to the mystery and majesty of Jesus’ impact in our lives through his Spirit.
Available from the author, PO Box 219, Beecroft, NSW 2119, Australia (G.W.).
Worship in revival is awe-inspiring. The Holy Spirit moves powerfully upon us. The worship is Spirit-led. Spontaneous. Unpredictable.
Its local forms vary. The essence of revival worship, however, is the same everywhere. It involves a growing awareness of and response to the glory and sovereignty of God. The Lord moves upon his people, touching lives deeply.
Revival worship always brings repentance. Often in tears. Sometimes with joy. We grow more sensitive and responsive to the Lord’s leading. We stay longer in his presence. Prayer abounds in song, word and silence. Musicians may play inspired music as David did, and darkness flees. Songs blend and flow in creative harmonies, no longer tied to books or overheads. Sung melodies lead into solos, singing in the Spirit, prophetic songs and words, Scriptures sung and said.
Sometimes stillness reigns in holy awe and silence. Sometimes worship swells in a crescendo of exultation. Sometimes tears blend with wondering joy and repentance. Sometimes a wave of spontaneous clapping expresses worship in wordless adoration, acknowledging the great glory of our God.
Some people may be standing, some sitting, some kneeling, some lying prostrate on the floor, some dancing. Many raise their arms in adoration. Many open their hands in submission. Many have their eyes closed as they focus on the Lord in love, adoration, gratitude, surrender.
How can we enter this dimension of worship more fully?
We don’t need to wait until we are perfect. We’ll be in heaven then!
We come in our weakness. As we become more aware of God’s glory and presence we also become more aware of our sin and utter dependence on God for cleansing and forgiveness. So did Isaiah in his worship in the Temple (Isaiah 6).
We repent. There’s no end to that one! Mostly we repent before God as his Spirit convicts us. We repent of so much. Hard hearts. Unbelief. Pride. Envy. Jealousy and competition. Status seeking. Unloving thoughts, words and deeds. Self-interest. Blindness to others’ needs. Materialism. Individualism. Disobedience. Fear, especially fear of people’s opinions.
We pray. And pray. And pray. Especially personally, and also together. We seek the Lord. We wait on God. We listen for his word, his leading. We open our hearts to intimacy with our loving, holy Lord. We meditate on Scripture, communing with its author as we do so. The quality of our worship is related to the quality of our time alone with God, waiting on him, seeking his face, loving him. That may include hours communing with the Lord in the stillness of the night..
We begin to respond to the Spirit more fully, more freely. We find that prepared ‘orders of service’ rarely fit revival worship (unless charismatically given by the Spirit). We need to be flexible and responsive to the leading of the Spirit. Those called and anointed by God for leading in worship need to be especially sensitive to his gentle direction. They, in turn, release and encourage others to respond to the Spirit in worship.
We usually begin learning this kind of worship in small home groups. The same principles apply in large gatherings. There, the worship leaders’ anointing and gifting facilitate worship among all the others.
We sing and pray less about God and more to God. Worship is intimate. People may spontaneously change words of well-known songs to make them personal and prayerful – You are Lord; you are risen from the dead and you are Lord … You are exalted, our King you’re exalted on high … Your name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord …
We need musicians who harmonize with the worship. That often involves playing harmonies to accompany free singing or singing in the Spirit. It does not require only those who can play by ear, although that can help. Those who read the music need to know where to find it – quickly. Songs used frequently can be arranged alphabetically, for example. Anointed musicians will often play prophetically – just music, as the Spirit leads. Musicians may ‘hear’ it in the Spirit and express it (though somewhat reduced!) on their instruments.
We respond to God in many ways as we worship. The variety of response is endless! It varies from meeting to meeting. When did God decree a 20-minute sermon after half an hour of singing? His word may come in the first 10 or 15 minutes of worship and the rest of the meeting may be a response to that word. When did God decree that prayer for repentance would come at the end of the meeting? It may come early in the worship as the Spirit leads, followed by cleansed, powerful worship.
We find the Spirit leads us in harmony, but many people may be doing many different things at the same time – eyes open, and closed; standing, sitting, kneeling, dancing, and lying prostrate; weeping, and joyful; some may have visions while others intercede and others minister in love and others adore the Lord and others bring prophetic insights.
We preach differently – more like Jesus. Speaking often mingles with testimonies and shares stories of God’s mighty acts – last week or last month. Prepared outlines are often blown away in the strong wind of the Spirit. We learn to ride the wind more often.
We worship more in quantity and quality than before. An hour grows to two; two to three; three to four or more. It’s like praying. Our time with God grows in quantity and quality.
Immediately we think of obstacles. There are many.
If your congregation is not yet ready for this, begin with those who want to. Be led by the Lord. That may be in a home group. It may be a weeknight meeting. It may be Sunday night. Our Renewal Fellowship was all of those. It began as a home group. It grew into an open meeting on Friday nights. It then included Sunday nights.
As the worship time deepened and extended we began saying, ‘If you need to go, slip away anytime.’ Few did. Most wanted to stay, and the meetings gradually became half nights of prayer and worship. Many stayed after supper, or during supper, for prayer, for waiting on God, and for ministry to one another.
We began to realise the Lord was leading us to worship more fully, wait on him more fully, respond to him more fully. Our charismatic or renewal traditions are being transformed into something like revival worship.
The outward forms vary. They express the growing inner worship which involves loving God more fully, yielding more fully, repenting more fully, believing more fully, obeying more fully.
The contrast between our usual charismatic worship and revival worship is a little like the difference between the old-time church prayer meetings and renewal home prayer groups. The church prayer meetings I attended as a teenager had some hymns, a Bible study talk, and then individuals stood to pray in King James English. Not wrong. Just limited. In home groups we learned to worship more spontaneously, share ‘words’ from the Lord, discuss and respond to the Bible study, pray specifically for one another, including asking and believing to be filled with the Spirit and learning to use the gifts of the Spirit.
Now, as the same Spirit moves ever more powerfully in the earth, as revival fires are blown from scattered flickers to conflagrations, and as we learn to respond more fully to the Lord in the power of his Spirit, revival worship spreads across the land.
It is not new. It has all happened before. Often.
Revival Worship in the Great Awakening
Awesome worship is common in revivals. As God’s Spirit moves on growing numbers of people their worship grows stronger, and longer. Many people have continued for hours, late into the night, or throughout the day, worshipping and responding to God.
Some revivals, at their height, saw people come and go continually as worship, conviction, repentance, confession, and testimony blended with singing, praying, weeping, exalting, and honouring God in lives transformed by his grace and glory.
Sometimes people are overwhelmed by the presence and glory of God. Many fall to the ground.
Here are examples from the first Great Awakening.
Moravians. Among the Moravian refugee colony on the estates of Count Nicholas Zinzendorf in Germany during 1727, the community of about 300 adults put aside their theological differences and prayed together in repentance, humility and unity. Revival flamed in August.
At about noon on Sunday August 10th, 1727, the preacher at the morning service felt himself overwhelmed by a wonderful and irresistible power of the Lord. He sank down in the dust before God, and the whole congregation joined him ‘in an ecstasy of feeling’. They continued until midnight engaged in prayer, singing, weeping and supplication.
On Wednesday, August 13th, the church came together for a specially called communion service. They were all dissatisfied with themselves. ‘They had quit judging each other because they had become convinced, each one, of his lack of worth in the sight of God and each felt himself at this communion to be in view of the Saviour.’
They left that communion at noon, hardly knowing whether they belonged to earth or had already gone to heaven. It was a day of outpouring of the Holy Spirit. ‘We saw the hand of God and were all baptized with his Holy Spirit … The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took place in our midst. Scarcely a day passed from then on when they did not witness God’s almighty workings among them. A great hunger for God’s word took hold of them. They started meeting three times daily at 5 am, 7.30 am, and 9 pm. Selflove and selfwill and all disobedience disappeared, as everyone sought to let the Holy Spirit have full control.
Two weeks later, they entered into the twenty-four-hour prayer covenant which was to become such a feature of their life for over 100 years… ‘The spirit of prayer and supplication at that time poured out upon the children was so powerful and efficacious that it is impossible to give an adequate description of it.’
Supernatural knowledge and power was given to them. Previously timid people became flaming evangelists (Mills 1990:2045).
That revival produced 100 German missionaries within 25 years, some of whom had a strong impact on John and Charles Wesley, resulting in their conversion.
Methodists. 1739 saw astonishing expansion of revival in England. On 1st January the Wesleys and Whitefield along with 60 others including Moravians, met at Fetter Lane in London for prayer and a love feast. The Spirit of God moved powerfully on them all. Many fell to the ground, overwhelmed. The meeting went all night.
‘About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer,’ John Wesley recorded in his Journal, ‘the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.’ This Pentecost on New Year’s Day confirmed that the Awakening had come and launched the campaign of extensive evangelization which sprang from it (Wood 1990:449).
American Colonies. Jonathan Edwards described the characteristics of the Great Awakening in the American colonies as, first, an extraordinary sense of the awful majesty, greatness and holiness of God, and second, a great longing for humility before God and adoration of God. He published books still being studied today to help us understand revival.
All these revivals stirred up excesses as well. Wise and firm leadership helped to keep the focus biblical and responsive to the Spirit.
Revival Worship this century
The twentieth century has seen countless local revivals with similar phenomena. They now increase worldwide.
Welsh Revival. The century began with worldwide revivals. Best known is the Welsh Revival of 1904-5. Oswald Smith described it this way:
It was 1904. All Wales was aflame. The nation had drifted far from God. The spiritual conditions were low indeed. Church attendance was poor and sin abounded on every side.
Suddenly, like an unexpected tornado, the Spirit of God swept over the land. The churches were crowded so that multitudes were unable to get in. Meetings lasted from ten in the morning until twelve at night. Three definite services were held each day. Evan Roberts was the human instrument, but there was very little preaching. Singing, testimony and prayer were the chief features. There were no hymn books, they had learned the hymns in childhood; no choir, for everybody sang; no collection, and no advertising.
Nothing had ever come over Wales with such farreaching results. Infidels were converted; drunkards, thieves and gamblers saved; and thousands reclaimed to respectability. Confessions of awful sins were heard on every side. Old debts were paid. The theatre had to leave for want of patronage. Mules in coal mines refused to work, being unused to kindness! In five weeks, twenty thousand people joined the churches (Olford 1968:67).
Azusa Street Revival. William Seymour began The Apostolic Faith Mission located at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles on Easter Saturday, 14 April 1906 with about 100 attending. Blacks and whites, poor and rich met together in this radical company which grew out of a cottage prayer meeting.
At Azusa, services were long, and on the whole they were spontaneous. In its early days music was a cappella, although one or two instruments were included at times. There were songs, testimonies given by visitors or read from those who wrote in, prayer, altar calls for salvation or sanctification or for baptism in the Holy Spirit. And there was preaching. Sermons were generally not prepared in advance but were typically spontaneous.
W. J. Seymour was clearly in charge, but much freedom was given to visiting preachers. There was also prayer for the sick. Many shouted. Others were ‘slain in the Spirit’ or fell under the power. There were periods of extended silence and of singing in tongues. No offerings were collected, but there was a receptacle near the door for gifts …
Growth was quick and substantial. Most sources indicate the presence of about 300350 worshippers inside the forty-by-sixty-foot whitewashed wood-frame structure, with others mingling outside… At times it may have been double that… The significance of Azusa was centrifugal as those who were touched by it took their experiences elsewhere and touched the lives of others. Coupled with the theological threads of personal salvation, holiness, divine healing, baptism in the Spirit with power for ministry, and an anticipation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, ample motivation was provided to assure the revival a longterm impact (Burgess & McGee 1988:3136).
Hebrides Revival. Duncan Campbell, ministered in revival in the Hebrides Islands of the northwest coast of Scotland in 1949. At the close of his first meeting in the Presbyterian church in Barvas the travel weary preacher was invited to join an all-night prayer meeting! Thirty people gathered for prayer in a nearby cottage. Duncan Campbell described it:
God was beginning to move, the heavens were opening, we were there on our faces before God. Three o’clock in the morning came, and GOD SWEPT IN. About a dozen men and women lay prostrate on the floor, speechless. Something had happened; we knew that the forces of darkness were going to be driven back, and men were going to be delivered. We left the cottage at 3 a.m. to discover men and women seeking God. I walked along a country road, and found three men on their faces, crying to God for mercy. There was a light in every home, no one seemed to think of sleep (Whittaker 1984:159).
When Duncan and his friends arrived at the church that morning it was already crowded. People had gathered from all over the island, some coming in buses and vans. No one discovered who told them to come. God led them. Large numbers were converted as God’s Spirit convicted multitudes of sin, many lying prostrate, many weeping. After that amazing day in the church, Duncan pronounced the benediction, but then a young man began to pray aloud. He prayed for 45 minutes. Again the church filled with people repenting and the service continued till 4 a.m. the next morning before Duncan could pronounce the benediction again.
Even then he was unable to go home to bed. As he was leaving the church a messenger told him, ‘Mr. Campbell, people are gathered at the police station, from the other end of the parish; they are in great spiritual distress. Can anyone here come along and pray with them?’ Campbell went and what a sight met him. Under the still starlit sky he found men and women on the road, others by the side of a cottage, and some behind a peat stack all crying to God for mercy. The revival had come.
That went on for five weeks with services from early morning until late at night or into the early hours of the morning. Then it spread to the neighbouring parishes. What had happened in Barvas was repeated over and over again. Duncan Campbell said that a feature of the revival was the overwhelming sense of the presence of God. His sacred presence was everywhere (Whittaker 1984:160).
The seventies. We saw touches of renewal and revival in the early seventies when the charismatic renewal had spread into many churches including Catholic prayer groups and communities. A wave of independent charismatic fellowships emerged then also. Revival spread in Canada. The ‘Jesus people’ in America captured media attention. Repentance and touches of revival spread through many colleges, especially Asbury College, and students went out in powerful mission.
The nineties. Now new thrusts of the Spirit disturb us again. For over two years many people worldwide have seen increasingly powerful moves of the Spirit. These include massive crowds with Reinhard Bonnke and others in Africa, huge crusades with healing and miracles in Latin America, miraculous visitations across China, refreshing associated with many ministries which the secular media has lumped together and called the ‘Toronto Blessing’. Reports tell of over 7,000 churches in Great Britain touched by this outpouring of the Spirit. Once again, colleges and schools have experienced sweeping times of public repentance, restitution and reconciliation through 1995, especially in America. Some of it began at Howard Payne University in Brownwood in Texas and spread nationally, including all night prayer and testimony meetings such as at Wheaton College. Students and staff have witnessed publicly in churches, camps and conferences.
Blessing and Refreshing. During the last few years, reports continue to grow of God’s blessing and the refreshing of thousands of churches in North America, England, Europe, and around the world. Some ministers are seeing more conversions than in all their previous ministry.
The worship often has touches of revival. Spontaneous moves of God’s Spirit result in extended times of singing, praying, testifying, repenting, and being anointed for service and ministry. Many are overwhelmed, resting on the floor. Some experience unusual phenomena, including spontaneous laughter and joy. Some tremble. Healings increase.
Australians continue to tell of fresh moves of the Spirit now.
Jeff Beacham (1995:32) reported on a touch of revival worship at the annual conference of the Assemblies of God in Australia attended by crowds of many thousands this year:
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced meetings so powerful as the ones that we enjoyed at our national conference. … The manifest presence of the Spirit of God in the meetings was so strong that many people could hardly stand.
In one of the morning meetings Rodney Howard-Browne exhorted the church to soar to greater heights of inspiration and to pursue the purposes of God in these end times. So strong was this exhortation that it lead into a 45 minute period of glorious praise and worship such as I’d never been in before.
Barry Chant (1995:5), described worship at the annual conference of the full Gospel Churches of Australia this year:
The gatherings were full of joy. There were positive testimonies of salvation and blessing; people often danced for joy; the fellowship was sweet. One thing that particularly impressed us was the frequent use of prophecy, tongues and interpretation. To be honest, one rarely hears these gifts being used these days in local churches. It was refreshing to see them given the attention they deserve.
Prophecies were often in song, with several people picking up the theme and continuing it, so that one prophetic message might include input from four or five people. Often the whole gathering would join in at the end with singing in the Spirit.
All around Australia – and around the world – there are signs of revival. Many good things are happening. It is exciting to be part of the Kingdom of God at such a time as this.
Sue Armstrong describes the touch of God at Nowra, N.S.W., in August 1995:
Every meeting saw people touched and changed by the power of God. However, the final night was different! From the outset there was electrical excitement in the place; the praise and worship took off and by the time it came to the message it was impossible to bring it as the church was so filled with joy we knew the Holy Spirit was doing the work and we gave up!
Dan and Sue Armstrong then visited North America. There they attended a combined churches meeting in Toronto, Canada. Sue reports,
We were blessed to be there for a special event. On the Sunday evening there was a rally called ‘Waves of Power’ in the Metro in downtown Toronto. This was a first. Around 200 churches in the Toronto area came together for this event (around 6,000 people). The praise and worship went for over an hour and it was awesome! Phil Driscoll, an anointed trumpeter, ministered powerfully, and the speaker, Pastor Bud Williams, brought a challenge to take the city of Toronto for God. Over 2,000 people responded to this challenge.
Increasingly churches are willing to come together in repentance and unity to pray, worship and minister. Often this is accompanied by powerful moves of God’s Spirit. Some ‘hot spots’ where these outpourings of the Spirit are most intense include the Airport Vineyard at Toronto in Canada, Pasadena in California, Melbourne in Florida, and Sunderland in England. All these places have churches co-operating together to worship and minister in unity.
All this drives us back to God’s Word to see what he has to say – just as the charismatic renewal drove us to rediscover similar events in the Acts and teaching in the epistles on the body of Christ and spiritual gifts as in Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12-14.
Now we are rediscovering the passages about the awe-inspiring majesty of God, the overwhelming authority of Jesus the risen Lord, and the invincible impact of God’s Spirit in the earth. This drives us to our knees, or we fall prostrate before our God. Unity in the Spirit is longer a nice theological discussion point, but a humbling, sacrificial reality increasingly required and blessed by God.
We need to take God’s word on revival very seriously in this day of his visitation. ‘If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land’ (2 Chronicles 7:14).
References
Beacham, J (1995) ‘And the Heat Turns Up’, in the Australian Evangel, August.
Burgess, S M & McGee, G B eds. (1988) Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Chant, B (1995) ‘Personally Speaking’, in New Day, November.
Mills, B (1990) Preparing for Revival. Eastbourne: Kingsway.
Olford, S F (1968) Heartcry for Revival. Westwood: Revell
Pratney, W (1984, 1994) Revival. Springdale: Whitaker House.
Whittaker, C (1984) Great Revivals. Basingstoke: Marshalls.
Wood, A S (1990) in The History of Christianity. London: Lion.
Dr Lucinda Coleman is a dance educator and choreographer, formerly a dance-maker for the independent artists’ collective, ‘Remnant Dance’, based in Perth, Australia. This article, adapted from her post-graduate research on ‘Dance in the Church’, briefly traces the history of dance in worship from the Judeo-Christian tradition to the Reformation. Renewal in the church in recent decades has rediscovered dance, including liturgical, choreographed and spontaneous dance. As with all other forms of worship, it finds its excellence in giving glory to God.
To worship God in dance is biblical. The Bible commends it: “Let them praise His name in the dance”; “Praise Him with the timbrel and dance” (Psalm 149:3; 150:4). Scripture gives many references to the use of dance as a form of joyous celebration and of reverent worship.
In the Hebrew tradition, dance functioned as a medium of prayer and praise, as an expression of joy and reverence, and as a mediator between God and humanity (Taylor 1976:81). This understanding of dance permeated the faith of the early Christian church. During the Middle Ages despite increasing proscriptions against the use of dance, it continued to be utilized as a medium of prayer and praise. However, by the time of the Reformation the church, both Catholic and Protestant, had eliminated dance from worship.
The Hebrew Tradition
Dance was an integral part of the celebrations of the ancient Israelites. It was used both in worship in ordinary life and on occasions of triumphant victory and festivity.
The sacred dance mediated between God and humanity, thus bringing the Israelites into a closer relationship with their God, Jehovah.
In many Old Testament biblical allusions to, and descriptions of, dance there is no disapproval, only affirmation of this medium of worship. The people are exhorted to praise God with ‘dancing, making melody to him with timbrel and lyre’ (Psalm 149:3), and to ‘praise him with timbrel and dance’ (Psalm 150:4). Dancing is so common that in passages alluding to rejoicing without specific mention of dancing, it can be assumed dance is implied (Gagne 1984:24).
The most frequently used root for the word ‘dance’ in the Old Testament is hul which refers to the whirl of the dance and implies highly active movement. Of the 44 words in the Hebrew language for dancing, only in one is there a possible reference to secular movement as distinct from religious dancing (Clarke and Crisp 1981:35).
The types of dance used in Israelite society included the circular or ring dance, as well as the processional dance. These were often used to celebrate specific events as when David and the people of Israel danced before the Ark of the Lord, which represented the presence of God (2 Samuel 6:14).
A third type of dance included hopping and whirling movements which were exuberant with joy. At the defeat of Pharaoh’s armies following the crossing of the Red Sea, ‘Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances’ (Exodus 15:20). When David slew Goliath, the women sang ‘to one another in dance’ (1 Samuel 29:5).
Each of these forms of dance found an expression in daily life and at festival times. At the Feast of Tabernacles, for instance, ‘pious men danced with torches in their hands and sang songs of joy and praise, while the Levites played all sorts of instruments. The dance drew crowds of spectators … It did not end until the morning at a given sign’ (Gagne 1984:30). The revered tradition of community celebration found its expression through movement.
However, dance is not mentioned formally in the Mosaic code, nor was the movement free of certain prohibitions. A distinction came to be made between the early, holy dances of a sacred nature, and those which resembled pagan ceremonies. This distinction, made by the Israelites, was to be made even more sharply by the Christians in the following centuries.
The Early Christian Church (A.D. 100-500)
In the first five centuries of the Christian church ‘dance was still acceptable because it was planted deep in the soil of the Judeo-Christian tradition’ (Gagne 1984:43). Christians were accustomed to celebrating, in dance, at worship and festivals because of the Hebrew tradition of dance.
Christianity was also subjected to the prevailing social and political influences of the Roman Empire. Changing circumstances in the 4th century thus led to changes in the importance and meaning of dance as well as in the dance material used in Christian liturgy. In the course of the history of theatre and dance, Christianity shaped and proscribed new developments. Although seemingly restrictive in these early centuries, ‘the church actually created a context for new flowerings of social, theatrical and religious dance’ (Fallon and Wolbers 1982:9).
The New Testament gives few direct references to dance. ‘But even this points to a possible parallel of the Jewish tradition of presuming the presence of dance without the need to mention it explicitly’ (Gagne 1984:35). Evidence of the use of dance as an accepted expression of joy is reflected in Jesus’ comment, ‘We piped to you but you did not dance’ (Matthew 11:17). Similarly, in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, there was dancing and rejoicing on the son’s return to his home (Luke 15:25).
Paul reminds Christians that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that they should glorify God with their bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). He further indicates physical movement is an approved part of prayer-like expression when he exhorts Timothy to pray lifting up holy hands (1 Timothy 2:8). The biblical stance for most prayers included raising arms and hands above the head (1 Timothy 2:8). In prayers of confession, kneeling or prostration was common, and in thanksgiving prayers or intercession standing with arms raised was common (Adams 1975:4).
Additionally, recent studies suggest there are more references to dance in the New Testament than originally thought (Daniels 1981:11). In the Aramaic language which Jews spoke, the word for ‘rejoice’ and ‘dance’ are the same. Hence, in including ‘dance’ with ‘rejoice’ there are references to dancing and leaping for joy (Luke 6:23) as well as ‘dancing in the Spirit’ (Luke 10:21).
In the two earliest Christian liturgies recorded in detail, dance is used in the order of service. Both Justin Martyr in A.D. 150 and Hippolytus in A.D. 200 describe joyful circle dances (Daniels 1981:13). In the early church, dance was perceived as one of the ‘heavenly joys and part of the adoration of the divinity by the angels and by the saved’ (Gagne 1984:36).
This attitude to dance contrasts sharply with Roman society in which Christianity first appeared. As Shawn comments, ‘Here in Imperial Rome we find the dance first completely theatricalized – then commercialized; and as the religious life of Rome became orgiastic, so the religious dances became occasions for unbridled licentiousness and sensuality’ (Kraus and Chapman 1981:42).
In reaction to what the Christians perceived as moral decadence, the church sought to purify the dance by expunging all traces of paganism from the intention and expression of the movement. Dance, however, continued within the church itself, provided the form and intent were holy and not profane. The purpose of liturgical movement was to bring glory and honour to God, and take the focus off the self.
By the third century there is detailed evidence of dance integrated into the ritual and worship of the church in the writings of Hippolytus (A.D. 215) and Gregory the Wonder-Worker (A.D. 213-270). At the same time, there is an increasing emphasis on spiritual thanksgiving in Christian worship. Christian intellectuals sought to overcome the passion of the flesh by reason of mind, the greatest evidence of this being demonstrated through martyrdom.
During the fourth century, significant changes in and outside the church influenced attitudes towards the type of dance used in Christian worship. The major cause of change stemmed from the reign of Constantine (AD 306-337). Constantine converted to Christianity in A.D. 312 and was instrumental in accepting and supporting the church. The Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity in A.D. 378, thus ushering in a new relationship between church and state.
Many references to dance as part of worship in the fourth and fifth centuries are tempered by warnings about forms of dance which were considered sinful, dissolute and which smacked of Roman degeneracy. As membership in the Christian Church became popular, licentiousness began to characterize the sacred festivals.
In the writings of the Church Fathers of these early centuries, there is evident concern with the changing focus of Christian dances. Epiphanius (AD 315-403) sought to emphasize the spiritual element in the dance. In a sermon on Palm Sunday A.D. 367, he describes the festival’s celebration in the following way:
Rejoice in the highest, Daughter of Zion! Rejoice, be glad and leap boisterously thou all-embracing Church. For behold, once again the King approaches … once again perform the choral dances … leap wildly, ye Heavens; sing Hymns, ye Angels; ye who dwell in Zion, dance ring dances (Kraus and Chapman 1981:49).
This text describes both the literal dance and the spiritual emphasis of the ceremony, while favouring the latter as the focus of the celebration.
This was the tendency of other church leaders, who ‘attempted to turn their eyes away from the actual physical movement intrinsic to dance and regard dance from a singularly spiritualized perspective, as symbolic of spiritual motions of the soul’ (Gagne 1984:47).
In the late fourth century, Ambrose (AD 340-397), Bishop of Milan, tried to clarify the values and dangers of sacred dance by emphasizing the spiritual. ‘The Lord bids us dance, not merely with the circling movements of the body, but with the pious faith in him’ (Adams 1990:18). He saw dance as spiritual applause and did not rule it out of the church. Similarly, Gregory of Nyssa (AD 335-394) described Jesus as the one and only choreographer and leader of dancers on earth and in the church.
However, other leaders in the church began to voice their opposition to the use of dance. John Chrysostom (AD 345-407), in speaking of Herodias’ daughter, commented that ‘where dancing is, there is the evil one’ (Gagne 1984:50). Augustine (AD 354-430), Bishop of Hippo, warned against ‘frivolous or unseemly’ dances (Adams 1990:20) and insisted on prayer, not dance. Caesarius of Arles (AD 470-542) condemned dance at the vigils of saints, calling them a ‘most sordid and disgraceful act’ (Gagne 1984:51).
This conflict reflects the difficulties the Church Fathers were experiencing as the church grew in popularity. The increasing number of converts made attempts to retain the dances of their own pagan cults, so that by the beginning of the sixth century, dance came under severe condemnation in the church.
The fall of Rome in A.D. 476 left Europe without a centralized power. The Church stepped in as the arbitrator of morality, law, education and social structure. The conflicts between the tradition of ecclesiastical dancing and the moral reprobation of the church itself led to conflict over the use and value of dance, which continued throughout the Middle Ages.
The Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1100)
The first four centuries following the fall of Rome were characterized by warfare, invasions of Christian lands by Barbarians, or vice versa, and intense missionary activities. The church was becoming more authoritarian in its activities and the concept of the church as a judicial institution began to outweigh the concept of church as community.
As the conscious use of authority widened and deepened within the church and state systems, there were increasing numbers of edicts and considerable legislation which reformed church liturgy. The use of dance was restricted, and continually monitored as the emphasis on the mysterious ritual of the worship service superseded the emphasis on spontaneous celebration and praise to God (Fallon and Wolbers 1982:42).
Gradually a distinction between the clergy and laity was developing as a consequence of the church authorities’ regulations on the Mass. Latin was no longer the language of the people, therefore knowledge of the Mass was restricted to the educated and clergy. Choirs took over all sung parts of the Mass, thus leaving the laity to engage in private devotions during the service. Liturgically, participation in the Mass was more restricted for the lay person and spectatorship became the hallmark of this period (Taylor 1976:83).
Inevitably as the liturgy became the reserve of the clergy, two different sacred dance traditions emerged.
The first tradition centred around dance performed by the clergy as part of the Mass. This movement became ritualized and symbolic of the theology of the church (Adams 1990:30). The Mass itself was a disciplined and prescribed sacred movement with definite postures proscribed by church authorities for the moving of ritual articles such as candles, books, and censors (Taylor 1976:10). On special occasions such as Saints’ days, Christmas and Easter, the clergy performed sacred dances for the congregation who were spectators of these ritual acts. The usual forms for dance were the processional or round dances.
The second dance tradition that developed, with the approval and guidance of the church, was known as popular sacred dances. These developed in connection with church ceremonies and festivals. It was customary to celebrate these with a processional dance although round or ring dances were popular. They were performed in the church, churchyard, or surrounding countryside during religious festivals, saints’ days, weddings or funerals.
It was difficult for the church to regulate these popular dances because the very nature of the dance and its occasion often entailed spontaneous movement. The rhythmic stomping and hopping steps sometimes caused uncontrollable ecstasy. When accompanied by feasting and drinking, these excesses were frowned on by the church.
The dances were usually performed to hymns or carols. ‘To carol’ means ‘to dance’ (Adams 1975:6). ‘Carol’ is derived from the Latin corolla for ‘ring’, and ‘caroller’ is derived from the Latin choraula meaning ‘flute-player for chorus-dancing’ (Oxford Dictionary). Most carols were divided into the stanza, meaning to ‘stand’ or ‘halt’, and the chorus, which means ‘dance’. Thus, during the chorus, the people danced and unless a solo dancer performed for the stanza, there was little movement as the stanza was sung.
The most common step performed during the chorus was the tripudium, which means ‘three step’. This was danced by taking three steps forward and one backwards; then it was repeated. The timing was usually 4/4 or 2/4 and the step was popular for processional dances. Often five or ten people would link arms and then join with others to process through the streets, and around the church, symbolizing the unity and equality of the church community.
As the centuries passed during the Middle Ages, however, the ‘rising hierarchy eschewed dancing with the people – for dancing symbolizes and effected a sense of equality’ (Adams 1975:5). Generally the bishops abstained from dancing, although some joined the people dancing, a practice which threatened the developing hierarchy and so it ‘hastened church legislation against all dancing’ (Adams 1975:5).
Later Middle Ages (A.D. 1100-1400)
As the church consolidated its authority in the medieval period, the censorship of dance continued. Dance was still an accepted liturgical form and various references attest to the rise of dance in the ring and processional form (Adams 1970:22). However, gradually the sacred dance form began to shift and instead of devotional dance, the movement became more theatrical and dramatic.
As public interest in the Mass waned, the Christian authorities made a definite effort to arouse the congregations by including more choral songs, picturesque processions and even ceremonial dances performed in the choir area. John Beleth, a 12th-century rector at the University of Paris mentioned four kinds of choral dances, with tripudiam, which were customarily used at church festivals (Adams 1990:22).
The worship dance did persist as the exclusive realm of the clergy. Bonaventure (c. 1260) wrote that in the joys of paradise there will be endless circling, ‘rhythmic revolutions with the spheres’ (Adams 1990:21). Even as late as the 16th century a manuscript describes an Easter carol or ring dance which took place on Easter eve at the church in Sens. In this dance, the Archbishop is assisted by the clergy who first moved round two by two, followed in the same manner by prominent citizens, all singing songs of the resurrection. The carol moved from the cloister into the church, around the choir and into the nave, all the while singing Salvation Mundi (Taylor 1976:22).
However, evidence of worship-centred dances such as these declined in favour of dramatic dance to be used in the church as an allegorical explanation of the Mass. Short plays were introduced into the liturgy to improve its appeal to the laity. By 1100, playlets made their way into eucharistic liturgy and became the precursor to mystery plays.
Aside from the dramatic dances, the attitude of the church authorities to the sacred dance, as well as the popular dances, was restrictive. In struggling to unify and control Christian dance, the church hierarchy issued a number of edicts against the use of dance.
The most widely known of all religious dances in the 14th and 15th centuries was the Dance of Death or danse macabre. The obsession with this dance reveals the medieval people’s preoccupation with death. Although initially a spontaneous movement, eventually a set pattern evolved in a processional format. The church sought to prohibit such dances stating, ‘Whoever buries the dead should do so with fear and trembling and decency. No one shall be permitted to sing devil songs and perform games and dances which are inspired by the devil and have been invented by the heathen’ (Kraus and Chapman 1981:59).
However there was an upsurge in the popularity of the Dance of Death with its grotesque parodies of funerals and frenzied dance outbursts during the period of the Black Plague (1347-1373). The plague was a combination of the bubonic plague and pneumonia and it raged throughout Europe killing half the population of Europe by 1450 (Brooke 1971:14).
Simultaneously, there were outbreaks of dance epidemics known as Danseomania – dance mania. John Martin comments that people were so affected by a succession of calamities that they sought an outlet for emotional stress through the dancing. Other sources have maintained these epidemics were traceable to a poisoning caused by the consumption of diseased grain in rural communities. ‘Whole communities of people … were stricken with a kind of madness that sent them dancing and gyrating through the streets and from village to village for days at a time until they died in agonized exhaustion’ (Kraus and Chapman 1981:55).
The dance epidemics reached an intensity that rendered ecclesiastical councils helpless in opposition to them. Despite the church’s command to cease the dance manias, the people either wouldn’t or couldn’t. Consequently, the dancers were often accused of being possessed by the devil.
In the light of these dance manias, the sacred dance liturgies of the church receded into oblivion. Several edicts sought to restrict dance and control its excesses, both outside the church, and within. Yet the numerous proscriptions against church dance only served to push it outside to the streets. While sacred dance by the clergy was beginning to cease, the popular church dances persisted. For a time, the church remained unsuccessful in suppressing these popular dances.
With the rise of papal control of all aspects of Christian life, along with excesses of the Dance of Death and dance manias, the liturgical dance forms began to suffer. What remained of the Christian dance forms were shadows of the former worship-centred celebrations of the earlier centuries. As the focus in church dance shifted to the liturgy, the movement within the church became proscriptive and functional. As the focus in popular dance shifted to the movement of the body, rather than on the divine, it too lost the essence of the original meaning of Christian dance.
The Renaissance (1400-1700)
The Renaissance heralded the beginning of substantial changes for Christian dance. Historically, it was a period of great upheaval. In 1455 books began being printed and this encouraged an emphasis on intellect, so that the mind was perceived of greater importance than the body in religious growth. The Protestant Reformation (15171529) and the Roman Catholic Counter Reformation as evidenced by the Council of Trent (15451563) wrought enormous changes to the perceived use and value of dance in the Christian context (Adams 1990:23).
What flourished in the dance realm were processional celebrations, theatrical moral ballets and some interpretations of hymns and psalms in worship. Theatre and spectacles were on the rise, and with the emergence of the dancing master, the church’s liturgical dance faded in significance.
Prior to the Renaissance, religious dance had become severely ritualized within the church, and only in popular sacred dances did it retain the element of spontaneity. Yet within the ensuing changes brought by circumstances of the Renaissance, the church and civil authorities sought to sedate, proscribe and ritualize these dances also.
Ultimately, however, it was the Reformation, which tended, in its extreme forms to do away with Christian dance. All dances and processions, except funeral processions, were abolished (Adams 1990:25).
The Reformation (1517-1529)
The leaders of the Protestant Reformation were highly critical of traditional church customs. They sought to suppress the use of icons, the worship of saints, and pilgrimages and processions. They preached the renunciation of the world and intensified the struggle between soul and body by placing greater emphasis on the mind. The connection between the body, dance and eroticism was openly acknowledged, and Christians were taught not to glorify the body.
These ideas spread rapidly as the church utilized the printing press, spreading tracts which were highly critical of dance. The following excerpt is from a booklet printed at Utrecht:
The heathen are the inventors of dance. Those who cultivate it are generally idolaters, epicureans, good for nothings, despicable or dishonourable comedians or actors, as well as souteneurs, gigolos, and other dissolute, worthless, wanton persons. Its defenders and followers are Lucian, Caligula, Herod, and similar epicureans and atheists. With it belong gluttony, drunkenness, plays, feast days, and heathen saints’ days (Fallon & Wolbers 1982:15).
Yet the early leaders of the Protestant Reformation were not anti-dance. Martin Luther (c. 1525) wrote a carol for children entitled From Heaven High in which two stanzas support the role of song and dance in worship.
Additionally, the English Church leader, William Tyndale, in a prologue to the New Testament wrote of the roles of joyous song and dance, and was happy to use the words, daunce and leepe when he considered the joyous good news of Christianity (Adams 1990:26). It was as the teachings of the leaders were interpreted by the people that bans on sacred dance increased dramatically.
Similarly, in the Catholic Church during the meetings of the Council of Trent, the intention was less on the abolition of sacred dance, than on seeking unity in liturgical and theological matters. The Council’s decrees, however, stifled creativity and growth within the church drama scene. In 1566, statutes of the Synod of Lyons for example, threatened priests and other persons with excommunication if they led dances in churches or cemeteries.
In general, the church insisted on liturgical unity without the use of dance in worship. As increasing pressure to cease all religious dance mounted, there seemed no avenue for a possible creative revival in dance.
Consequently, religious dance disappeared or survived in only a few isolated places. Some religious denominations cultivated specific liturgical movements which harked back to the early church dance. Other Christian dance movements were changed into folk expressions, to be seen at weddings or funerals, or else remained buried in the structured movement of the Catholic Mass.
The events of the period eventually led to the eradication of liturgical dance, processions, and most visual arts, leaving only the arts of painting, preaching and music unscathed.
In the post Reformation period both the Protestant and Catholic Church ‘firmly attempted to close the door on creative expression of dance in the liturgy’ (Gagne 1984:59). The Catholics’ increasing proscriptions against dance, coupled with an increasing sense of mistrust of dance on the part of Protestants, forced dance back into the secular realm. ‘Dance was given back totally to society, with few exceptions remaining of church-related Christian dance’ (Gagne 1984: 59).
Conclusion
Dance within the Christian context, having sprung from the Jewish tradition, was embraced by the early church as an integral part of celebrations and of worship. During the Middle Ages various influences affected the development of Christian dance and despite increasing proscriptions concerning its value and use, it survived as a sacred dance form. However, with the commencement of the Reformation, the dance was forced out of its place in the liturgical celebrations of the Christian church, and with few exceptions flourished instead in the secular realm.
Gradually, with the renewal of the church in the twentieth century, including liturgical renewal, dance has begun to find increasing acceptance in the worship life of the church once again. It has a rich and biblical tradition. Dance offers an enormous range of forms and expressions in worship from the carefully choreographed dramatic presentation to the spontaneous worship and celebration of individuals and congregations of all ages.
References
Adams D. (1975) Involving the People in Dancing Worship: Historic and Contemporary Patterns. Austin: Sharing.
Adams, D. (1980) Congregational Dancing in Christian Worship. Austin: Sharing.
Adams, D. ed. (1978) Dancing Christmas Carols. Saratoga: Resource.
Adams D. & Apostolos-Cappadona, D. eds. (1990) Dance as Religious Studies. New York: Crossroad.
Brooke, C. (1971) Medieval Church and Society. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
Clark, M. & Crisp, C. (1981) The History of Dance. New York: Crown.
Daniels, M. (1981) The Dance in Christianity: A History of Religious Dance through the Ages. New York: Paulist.
Davies, J. G. (1984) Liturgical Dance. London: SCM.
Fallon, D. J. & Wolbers, M. J. eds. (1982) Focus on Dance X: Religion and Dance. Virginia: A.A.H.P.E.R.D.
Gagne, R., Kane, T. & Ver Eecke, R. (1984) Dance in Christian Worship. Washington: Pastoral
Kraus, R. & Chapman, S. (1981) History of the Dance in Art and Education. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Taylor, M. F. (1976) A Time to Dance. Austin: Sharing.
My childhood years were influenced by an orderly and conservative Anglican tradition. Signs and wonders were not for today and any who spoke in tongues were considered extremists belonging to a strange cult. You could imagine the furore when the assistant rector spoke in tongues!
I was converted in 1966 and commenced attending the Salvation Army in 1972. At that time I gave little or no thought to the charismatic question, except that I noticed in my occupation as a funeral director that services conducted in Pentecostal churches were joyful.
Ecumenical
My first serious encounter with the charismatic issue occurred during our first appointment in 1980. The Salvation Army was invited to share in an interdenominational campaign, with the key evangelist and speaker an Anglican priest. He was the rector of a rapidly growing church, contrary to the declining trends of other Anglican churches.
A team accompanied him and, as an ecumenical community, we welcomed them at a special tea. I spoke with several team members. One spoke to me concerning my own conversion and then asked me the question, ‘Have you been baptised in the Holy Spirit?’
I had no idea what she was talking about and felt most indignant. My enthusiasm for the campaign dwindled because of the charismatic tone of this group.
As the week went on, I noticed a freshness and vitality about their Christian faith that I had rarely witnessed. They had something I didn’t have and I reacted with anger. I sought to find fault with them, an attitude which they responded to with love and humility.
I believed that divisions were caused by charismatic people. It was bad enough that the Anglican church had been infiltrated. Imagine my horror when I learned that there were charismatic Christians even in the Salvation Army!
In 1987 we reluctantly accepted an invitation for our corps cadets (youth Bible group) to lead a worship meeting at a neighbouring corps which had a strong charismatic flavour. Much to my surprise, the meeting was a delight to lead. The same freshness and vitality that I had witnessed in 1980 was present in that meeting. There was a real body ministry present in that corps.
I returned later to our own corps and sat in on a meeting. The contrast between the two congregations was clearly evident and for the first time I was confronted with the question I had so long wanted to avoid. These people whom I considered so strange had something that was lacking in my own Christian life and ministry and in the lives of Christians in general.
The years following were difficult for our family. By the end of 1990 I was broken both spiritually and emotionally. Yet again I was requested to lead a meeting of worship in another corps that had a charismatic emphasis. I had never felt so hypocritical in my life. Here I was leading worship of a group of people who had a love and passion for God that was absent in my own life.
Enthusiastic
Their faith was fresh and enthusiastic. That day was 7 July 1991 and later that evening I knelt down in our sitting room and asked God to make me clean. He answered my prayer! The purity and cleanliness of the Holy Spirit flooded through my innermost being to every joint in my body. I wanted to get up and skip and dance. I loved God and I loved everything around me.
That night I was baptised in the Holy Spirit. Almost overnight I found myself on the other side of the charismatic fence and the question took on a new dimension.
The division is sad and I am not so naive as to suggest that charismatic Christians have not contributed. However to blame charismatic people almost exclusively is, as I have discovered, inaccurate and untrue.
Many non‑charismatic Christians have claimed to be made to feel inferior, confused and hurt and I don’t doubt this to be the case.
The other side of the coin has been feeling shut out; accused of having an experience of the devil; being told I am a ‘weirdo’ ‑ and I have even had invitations to lead worship mysteriously withdrawn.
The charismatic question is more than simply the unwanted intrusion of charismatic Christians into the life and style of a non‑charismatic church. If we look at it in that light we tread on very dangerous ground as we are effectively limiting the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Every denomination has charismatic Christians who speak in tongues. So if we are serious in wanting God’s kingdom to be advanced, rather than divided, we need to understand the charismatic question rather than simply condemn it.
Filled
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is one that raises many issues, such as full salvation, sanctification, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The title we give it is not important; the experience is important.
All four Gospels record the promise that Jesus will baptise with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). Jesus himself promises that we will be baptised in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5), a promise not limited to the believers at Pentecost (Acts 8:17; 9:17; 10.44 and 11:16; 19:6).
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the activation and release of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer (Acts 1:8). The disciples received the Holy Spirit on the evening of the resurrection day (John 20:22). Likewise we too receive the Holy Spirit at the time of conversion (Romans 8:9; Galatians 3:2; 1 John 3:24). However, the Holy Spirit’s release in our lives, although possible and in fact desirable at the time of our conversion, is quite a separate experience.
Scripture indicates that the release of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer may be at the time of conversion (Acts 10:44) and also on later occasions (John 20:22; Acts 2:1‑4; 8:12‑17; 9:3‑19; 19:1‑6).
The founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth testified to this fact in a letter to Dunedin Hall corps reproduced in a Christian Mission Paper in 1869:
I desire to give a few brief practical hints, and, first and foremost, I commend one qualification which seems to involve all others. That is the Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Ghost. I would have you settle it in your souls for ever, this one great immutable principle in the economy of grace, the spiritual work can only be done by those who possess spiritual power.
I would not have you think that I imagine for a moment that you have not the Spirit. By your fruits I know you have. No men could do the works that are being done in your midst except God was with them. But how much more might be done had you all received this Pentecostal baptism in all its fullness!
Experience in the last 300 years, with various revivals, testifies to baptism in the Holy Spirit being a distinct and separate experience and together with signs and wonders has been a common part of revival.
It is interesting to look at the growth, in the last 90 years, of the Pentecostal/charismatic churches which give particular emphasis to baptism in the Holy Spirit.
In the early part of the 20th century 34.4 per cent of the world population were practising Christians. Of this number 3,700,00 were Pentecostal which was less than one per cent of practising Christians.
In 1995, 33.7 per cent (over 1291 million) of the world population were practising Christians. However, significantly, of this number over 460 million (approximately one third) were Pentecostal/charismatics. Between 1980 and 1995 the worldwide number of Pentecostal/charismatic Christians rose from 158 million to more than 460 million (Statistics from David Barrett in World Christian Encyclopedia and annual reports in International Bulletin of Missionary Research).
In his book about religious beliefs in Australia entitled Many Faiths One Nation, Ian Gillman observes that in Australia the Pentecostal movement grew by 200 per cent between 1972 and 1984. He further noted that the growth in Pentecostal/charismatic churches between 1976 and 1981 was 87.9 percent, which is 75 per cent higher than the nearest traditional denomination.
These trends, I imagine, would be similar in other countries. As we ponder on these figures of fruitfulness for the Kingdom of God, the words of Jesus (Acts 1:5) promising the baptism in the Holy Spirit for all believers, need to be understood and appropriated.
Observable
Perhaps the most critical point is the assertion by many Pentecostals that the initial sign for being baptised in the Holy Spirit is to speak in tongues. From a biblical perspective, I believe there is overwhelming and compelling evidence that in the early church, the initial signs of baptism in the Holy Spirit was to speak in tongues (Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6).
Two other accounts do not directly indicate that they spoke in tongues ‑ Acts 8:17; 9:17. In the first account something observable happened, even though not the signs and wonders which occurred earlier in Acts 8:6,7.
According to many reputable Bible scholars this observable sign was speaking in tongues. In the account of Acts 9:17 when Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, although it does not say specifically that he spoke in tongues there and then, we do know that he did speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:18).
With this Biblical perspective, what about today? Is it possible to be baptised in the Holy Spirit and not speak in tongues? My own opinion is an overwhelming Yes!
Many Christians, spiritual giants with powerful ministries, have never spoken in tongues. I personally did not receive the gift of tongues until some months after the experience of baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Michael Harper shares this view and gives three reasons why people baptised in the Spirit may not speak in tongues:
Firstly, not knowing: I did not know how to speak in tongues. In fact, I believed the Holy Spirit spoke through me. I often had the urge to praise God with strange syllables but stopped myself because it wasn’t what I believed was speaking in tongues. When I finally discovered that I had to speak, the unknown language flowed.
Secondly, fear: unfortunately tongues has been misused in the past as was the case with the Corinthian church. This has caused genuine fear in some people.
Thirdly, prejudice: some are blatantly against speaking in tongues. They hear negative things about it and so are brought up, as I was, to reject it.
I would add a further reason and that is there are many who are not personally opposed, and are happy for others to have the gift, but don’t wish to appropriate it for themselves.
Universal
Another very contentious issue is whether tongues is universal for all Spirit‑filled Christians? I believe that tongues, although not appropriated by all Spirit‑filled Christians, is an available gift. I base this on a number of reasons.
Firstly, it is a glorious gift that deepens prayer life and relationship with the Lord. I have also witnessed many answers to prayers in tongues. I find it difficult to believe that God would give such spiritual benefits to some and not to all.
Secondly, speaking in tongues and praying in the Spirit are clearly identified as the same in 1 Corinthians 14:2, 13‑18. There are a number of references in Scripture to ‘praying in the Spirit’ and each appears to point to a universal use of tongues, for example, Romans 8:26; Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20.
In the book of Acts where believers prayed in tongues after being filled with the Spirit, it does not say some prayed in tongues. It is more probable that all prayed in tongues.
Thirdly, the main biblical objection to the universal use of tongues, it is claimed, is found in 1 Corinthians 12:10 – ‘to another, speaking in different kinds of tongues’. On initial reading this would appear to be the case. The argument hinges on the different Greek words use for another.
In this passage the word ‘another’ appears eight times, but it translates two quite different Greek words. The Greek words are allos ‑ meaning ‘another of the same kind’ and heteros ‑ meaning ‘another of a different kind’. So the passage reads: ‘to another (allos) the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another (heteros) faith by the same Spirit, to another (allos) gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another (allos) miraculous power, to another (allos) prophecy, to another (allos) distinguishing between spirits, to another (heteros) speaking in different kinds of tongues, to still another (allos) the interpretation of tongues.’
For all gifts, except faith and tongues, Paul uses the Greek allos. For faith and tongues he uses heteros. No one would suggest that only some have faith because the gift of faith is different. Similarly, we cannot claim that because heteros is used, the gift of tongues is only available to some.
Likewise, there are two kinds of tongues. C. Peter Wagner describes these differences as private tongues and public tongues. Private tongues is a personal prayer language, whereas public tongues, which 1 Corinthians 12 speaks about, is one which can be used publicly with accompanying interpretation.
Finally, the aspect charismatic people must beware of is spiritual pride. We have been saved, and are what we are, purely by the grace of God and none of us, charismatic or non‑charismatic, has anything to boast about (Ephesians 2:8,9).
Timely
A timely warning was given by Charles Widdowson:
Don’t go overboard with the power and the gifts at the expense of the person and the fruit. I want to underline that in the early days of the charismatic movement in the late sixties and early seventies, all you heard about was the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. We heard very, very, little, comparatively, about Jesus and love. Now that has been balanced, I believe. We’ve got to keep our eyes on Jesus. We have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love and nothing of the power is to be exercised apart from the fruit of the Spirit which is love.
I endorse these remarks. Any gift possessed and exercised without love amounts to nothing, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13.
Something of William Booth’s own attitude to gift of the Spirit can be gauged from the following letter, published in The East London Evangelist, 1 April 1869:
Letter from William Booth
TO THE BRETHREN AND SISTERS LABOURING FOR JESUS
in connection with the
Dunedin Hall Christian Mission, Edinburgh
BELOVED FRIENDS ‑ Though I have not been privileged to see you in the flesh, yet I have heard with great thankfulness from time to time of your work of faith and labour of love: and I rejoice greatly in the abundant blessing granted to your labours, and bless God for every brand plucked from the everlasting through your instrumentality. I earnestly pray that you may be made a hundredfold more useful in the future than you have been in the past. The work in which you are engaged is the most important that can engage the attention or call forth the energies of any being…
Success in soul‑winning, like all other work, both human and divine, depends on certain conditions… If you want to succeed you must be careful to comply with these conditions…
I desire to give a few brief practical hints…And, first and foremost, I commend one qualification which seems to involve all others. That is, the Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Ghost. I would have you settle it in your souls for ever this one great immutable principle in the economy of grace, that spiritual work can only be done by those who possess spiritual power. No matter what else you may lack, or what may be against you, with the Holy Ghost you will succeed; but without the Holy Spirit, no matter what else you may possess, you will utterly and eternally fail.
Many make mistakes here. Aroused by the inward urgings of the Holy Spirit, they endeavour to comply with the call which comes from the word and the necessities of their fellow men; but being destitute of this power, they fail, and instead of going to the Strong for strength, they give up in despair. Again aroused, again they resolve and venture forth, but having no more power than before, they are as impotent as ever. And fail they must, until baptised with power from on high.
This I am convinced, is the one great need of the Church. We want no new truths, agencies, means, or appliances. We only want more of the fire of the Holy Ghost. …
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O what zeal, what self‑denial, what meekness, what boldness, what holiness, what love, would there not be? And with all this, what power for your great work? The whole city would feel it. God’s people in every direction would catch the fire, and sinners would fall on every side. Difficulties would vanish, devils be conquered, infidels believe, and the glory of God be displayed…
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You do desire to see signs and wonders wrought in the name of Jesus. To see a great awakening among the careless crowds around you…
This baptism then, is your first great need. If you think with me, will you not tarry for it? Offer yourselves to God for the fullness. Lay aside every weight…
Hold on! Though your feelings are barren, your way dark, and your difficulties be multiplied, steadily hang on the word of God.
Expect the baptism every hour; wait if he tarry. ‘This kind goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting’; and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple.
I have more to say to you, but must wait another opportunity. Yours in the fellowship of the Gospel.
WILLIAM BOOTH
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
These are strong words. Every Christian today needs this baptism in the Holy Spirit. We must, if we are serious about the kingdom of God, teach this to our people and pray for revival power to return to our church communities.
Additional Comment
Renewal in the Church
by Stan Everitt
Lieutenant Colonel Stan Everitt wrote as the Divisional Commander of the Salvation Army, South Queensland Division.
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God’s Holy Spirit is being
poured out upon his people
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‘In the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.’
I am not sure if these are the last days, but I know God’s Holy Spirit is being poured out upon his people, bringing new life to the individual and eventually to his church.
Looking back on thirty years in ministry, there is no doubt in my mind that we have entered a time of spiritual renewal which, I believe, is but the beginning of a mighty worldwide renewal. As I see it, the priorities of many Christian are moving on to Bible study, prayer, and concern for the unconverted. This is happening amongst my own people as they become aware of the fact that the promise given so long ago is for each of them as individual people.
The testimony of a new Christian strengthened my belief that the Spirit of God is at work when I heard her say, ‘Knowing nothing about the Holy Spirit, I was nevertheless made aware of a new overwhelming sense of God’s presence, bringing a peace that I have never known before.’
While the organised church becomes more and more caught up in discussion on doctrinal matters and liturgical processes, individual church members are responding to the challenge of the Holy Spirit to strengthen their own faith, and in doing so, being able to communicate better with needy people in the community who are hungering for the Word of God.
As a believer, there is no doubt in my mind that the true worldwide church of God (whatever tag sections of it may wear because of traditional and doctrinal stances) will never be abolished. The true church in many developing countries founded upon the risen Lord is growing by thousands every day and is yet to have its more glorious era, as the name of Jesus is uplifted.
Although there are signs of corporate renewal, most churches in the so-called western countries, particularly in Australia, have become so much like the organised religion of Jesus’ day that our effectiveness in the community is minimal.
One gets the feeling that a monumental percentage of the clergy’s time is spent on administration and, in the light of eternity, things that are so insignificant. This is at the cost of deepening one’s spiritual life and the pastoral ministry to our people and the needs of the community.
All is not lost, I believe, but it seems that in so many places the individual Christian, often without any help from the pastor or priest, is setting the pace in areas which should be the concern of the organised church, and areas in which Jesus would be ministering if he were here in person.
In conclusion, I make a plea that we, as church leaders, might humble ourselves in God’s presence, and pray that the promise made so long ago might become a reality in our lives, making us more dependent upon the Holy Spirit than upon the organisation and ritual of the structured church of the ’90s.
What on earth is God doing? by Owen Salter
