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Renewal Journal 17: Unity

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All Renewal Journal Topics:

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

Contents:  Renewal Journal 17:  Unity

Snapshots of Glory, by George Otis Jr.

Lessons from Revivals, by Richard Riss

Spiritual Warfare, by Cecilia Estillore Oliver

Unity not Uniformity, by Geoff Waugh

Reviews: Transformations DVDs; Informed Intercession, by George Otis Jr.

Renewal Journal 17: Unity – PDF

Editorial

All one in Christ Jesus

The Spirit of the Lord is speaking loudly and clearly to the church now about unity – not uniformity.

Unity is biblical – Jesus demands it.  We have no option on that.  We are one, and are to demonstrate that oneness by our love for one another.  Jesus commanded that on his last night with his disciples before he died (John 14-17).

Uniformity is unbiblical.  We are meant to be different – different gifts but the same Spirit, different services but the same Lord, different ministries but the same God (1 Cor. 12:4-6).

We make an awful mistake if we want others to think as we do – because our thinking is too small at the best of times, and always distorted or limited.  Another awful mistake is to want others to worship or work in the same way we do.  The Spirit gives a great variety of gifts and ministries.

All over the world, the Lord is raising up movements of unity across churches.  This demands humility, repentance and forgiveness.  Ministers are often the last to come on board because they are trained in their own tradition, and may be critical of other traditions.  Often, the people in the congregation are more excited about unity than ministers!

This issue of the Renewal Journal celebrates unity, not uniformity.  George Otis gives astounding accounts of visible unity among very different churches – different in theology and practice, but one in the Spirit.  They demonstrate that to whole cities and regions.

Richard Riss reminds us of key lessons from revivals, where again there has been great unity amid wide diversity.

Donald McGavran, a pioneer in church growth writing, broke new ground in the seventies by insisting that churches need to take the power of the Spirit seriously, and expect God to heal – to do what he says he does.  It’s worth careful consideration.  We will never understand life’s mysteries, but that’s no excuse to run from Scripture.  God is God, and wants to do ‘exceeding abundantly’ above everything we can ask or even think about (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Cecelia Estillore, a medical doctor, tackles head on the mystery of the spiritual dimensions of warfare with practical application in ministry, especially healing and deliverance.  I give examples of this from Africa and from South America, adapted from Chapter 4 in my book Body Ministry.

Global reports continue to be astounding.  No one can keep up with the outpouring of the Spirit in the world today.  Evil abounds, but grace abounds so much more – and usually that abounding grace does not make it into the newspapers!

©  Renewal Journal #17: Unity (2001, 2012)  renewaljournal.com

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Unity not Uniformity, by Geoff Waugh

Unity not Uniformity

by Geoff Waugh


Dr Geoff Waugh published Body Ministry, a popular version of his Doctor of Missiology degree dissertation from Fuller Seminary.  This article is reproduced and adapted from Chapter 4 of Body Ministry: “Spiritual Gifts – From limited to unlimited”.

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An article in Renewal Journal 17: Unity

Jesus insists on unity, not uniformity.  We are one in Christ and will be forever.  That unity is incredibly and eternally diverse.  We are all created different and unique.  We have many different gifts and abilities.  These are meant to flow together in powerful unity.

Miracles in Ghana, West Africa

God honours and blesses unity.  I saw that vividly in my first trip to Africa.   Pastors from the mountain town of Suhum, about 50 miles north of Accra the capital of Ghana, invited me to speak at crusade meetings at night and teach pastors and leaders each morning.

Four of us flew from Australia to West Africa in June 1995 during the mid-year vacation at the college where I taught.  I did not realise that heavy monsoon rains fell in Africa in June!  So we arrived on a Monday amid pouring rain.  The meetings were planned for Tuesday night through to Friday night, with various independent and charismatic churches co-operating.  Their leadersd and youth groups shared leading the extended worship each night.

When we arrived at Suhum on Tuesday evening the whole town was in a black-out because heavy rain had affected the town’s electrical supply.  Our team of Africans and Australians prayed in the mud at the market place which the team had prepared for the night meetings: “God, we are here serving you and we ask you to take over and do what only you can do.”

Within 10 minutes the rain had ceased and the town power was on again.  Our excited Africans began exclaiming, “This is a miracle.  We will be talking about this for years!”  Those monsoon rains held off till Saturday, and then the next week the deluges made international news on TV.  But we hadover three days of clear, cloudless skies and tropical sun.

Every night we saw hundreds respond for prayer, and many gave salvation and healing testimonies.

The pastors and leaders had asked me to teach about spiritual warfare in the morning sessions in a local church.  As I prayed the Spirit impressed me to teach about unity.  So I did.  Prayers become powerful against evil when we are united, as Jesus demanded.

During the second morning as pastors and leaders prayed specifically for one another and confessed any resentments or hostilities, I had an open vision.  I clearly saw the church fill with a bright, golden light which swallowed up the blackest black I had even seen.  The Africans became more excited.  Men and women shouted prophecies.  Youths danced vigorously.  I looked on perplexed, perspiring under the hot iron roof dressed in the mandatory suit of pastors and speakers!

That night miracles began in the long worship.  An old man now blind discovered he could see as they worshipped and danced.  Even the offering was a long process of dancing in lines, waving coloured cloths as they filed passed the offering box at the front, led by the pastors.

Their co-operating and unity had opened the way for powerful spiritual warfare.  Everyone knew that a powerful ruling spirit dominated that area, but now it was gone.  People felt the4 difference and enjoyed the freedom.

Later on teams went out in power evangelism, praying for people to be set free.  The town market became unusually profitable and people could sell their vegetables and goods.  Churches found new vitality.  Previously isolated independent church, often competing, discovered united strength, love and unity.  God blessed their unity.

The ascended, victorious, all powerful Christ, having conquered sin and death and hell now reigns supreme.  He is the head of his body, the church.  He gives gifts to his church, specifically those called under his authority to exercise authority in the church as leaders so that all God’s people may be equipped for ministry.  That is a powerful body, the body of the risen Christ.

Our Lord’s intention for his church is for us to grow till we reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ who is all and in all (Colossians 3:11).

Body ministry requires spiritual gifts.  The body of Christ ministers charismatically.  There is no other way it can minister as the living body of the living Christ.  He ministers in and through his body, by the gifts of his Spirit.

Spiritual gifts differ from natural talents

Charismatic gifts of the Spirit are different from natural talents.  We can do much through dedicated human talent, but that is not body ministry through spiritual gifts.  Natural talents do need to be committed to God and used for his glory.  They can be channels of spiritual gifts.

Someone may sing beautifully or speak eloquently.  That natural gift becomes a spiritual gift when it is anointed by God for ministry.

Spiritual gifts constantly surprise us.  They often show up with great power in unlikely people and in unlikely ways.

A common misunderstanding, for instance, is that those with an effective healing ministry must be especially holy people.  However, many are not.  They may not be faultless ‘saints’.  Gifts of the Spirit are given by grace, not earned by consecration.

Young, immature Christians may have powerful spiritual ministries, as they discover and use their spiritual gifts.  Many do.  That is no proof of consecration or maturity, even though to please God we need to offer ourselves to him in full commitment.

Romans Chapter 12 explains this.  The well known first two verses challenge us to offer ourselves fully to God and so discover his will for our lives.  Paul then explains that knowing God’s will involves being realistic about ourselves and our gifts.  If we know and use our God-given gifts, we fulfil God’s will for our lives.

Body ministry, then, depends on the use of spiritual gifts, not just the use of natural talents dedicated to God.  Both are vital for committed Christian living, and both will be present in the church.  However, the church is not built on committed natural talent, even though churches sometimes operate that way.

Spiritual gifts differ from Christian roles

Similarly, spiritual gifts are not Christian roles or tasks.  All Christians witness, but only some are gifted in evangelism.  Every Christian has faith, but some have a gift of faith as well.  All must exercise hospitality, but some are gifted in hospitality.  Prayer is for all of us, but some are gifted in intercession.

We all have Christian roles such as leaders, helpers, servers, prayers, and supporting one another.  Gifts of the Spirit can flow through these tasks.  Our spiritual gifts add a deeper dimension to our roles or tasks – they add the depth dimension to those ministries.

Spiritual gifts flow strongest in unity with incredible diversity.

1.  Unity

Each passage on the gifts of the Spirit stresses the importance of being one body (1 Corinthians 12:12‑13; Romans 12:4‑5; Ephesians 4:4).  The whole context of Paul’s teaching on the gifts of the Spirit is one of unity with diversity; one body with many parts functioning in harmony.  Paul repeats many themes in the three key passages in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4:

  • One body:  The church is the one body of Christ on earth

(1 Corinthians 12:12‑27; Romans 12:4‑5; Ephesians 4:4‑6).

  • Gracious gifts:  They are given, not earned and not achieved

(1 Corinthians 12:1, 4, 6, 8‑11; Romans 12:6; Ephesians 4:7‑8, 11).

  • All Christians have gifts:  There are no exceptions; and each gift is important

(l Corinthians 12:7; Romans 12:6; Ephesians 4:7).

  • Gifts differ:  Value our differences; we need each other

(1 Corinthians 12:4‑7; Romans 12:4‑6; Ephesians 4:7 8).

  • Unity:  They function in unity and promote unity

(1 Corinthians 12:12‑13, 25; Romans 12:4‑5; Ephesians 4:3, 13, 16).

  • Maturity:  Spiritual gifts build up the body in maturity

(1 Corinthians 12:7; Romans 12:9‑21; Ephesians 4:12‑15).

  • Love:  Love is the top priority; gifts must be used in love

(1 Corinthians 13; Romans 12:9‑10; Ephesians 4:4, 15‑16).

Without unity expressed in love, diversity destroys the body’s ministry causing chaos, division, sectarianism, and impotence.  This is Paul’s theme in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Paul had to correct the divisions in Corinth by emphasizing the unity of the body, bound together in love.  Gifts are not to be a source of division and strife, but an expression of unity and love.  Unless rooted and grounded in love, the gifts are counter-productive.

Unity in the body of Christ allows that body to function well, not be crippled.  No one has all the gifts.  We all need one another.  No one should be conceited about any gift that God has given.  No one claim that their is gift the most important, and magnify and exalt it at the expense of others.  Gifts are to be used in humility and service.  We do not compete.  We minister in harmony and co-operation.

Paul’s great theme, “in Christ,” expresses the unity essential for body ministry.  In Christ we are one body.  In Christ we live and serve.

Love lies at the heart of body ministry.  The body is one, bound in love.  The body builds itself up in love (Eph.  4:16).  That is why 1 Corinthians 13 is central to Paul’s passage on spiritual gifts in the body of Christ.  “Make love your aim,” he insists, “and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1).

Jesus insisted on love.  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all mean will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Our unity is not based on doctrine, but on Jesus.  Unity comes from who we are, the body of Christ.  This is a fact, not a hope.  We are one in Christ.  We are one in the Spirit.  God has made us one.  Unfortunately, being sinful, we often fail to live out that reality.

A Christ-like attitude, in humble kingdom thinking and love overcomes competition and critical spirits that divide us.  That’s where we see the Holy Spirit moving in power among us as we obey the Lord’s command to love and serve one another.

Breathtaking community transformations are now happening around the world where we live this out in unity.  Whole communities transformed by God now witness to his power to heal the land and the people when we repent and unite in obedience to his requirements.

Almolonga in Guatemala, Cali in Columbia and villages in Fiji all provide outstanding examples of this transformation.  This information is from George Otis, 2000, “Snapshots of Glory” reproduced in Renewal Journal, Issue 17

Almolonga, Guatemala

The town of Almolonga in Guatemala in South America, typical of many Mayan highland communities, suffered from economic depression, inebriation, and crime.  The four gaols were full this town of 19,000.  Many criminals had to be transported to gaols in the capital city.

Guatemala City pastor Harold Caballeros reported that, “the town suffered from poverty, violence and ignorance. In the mornings you would encounter many men just lying on the streets, totally drunk from the night before. And of course this drinking brought along other serious problems like domestic violence and poverty.  It was a vicious cycle.”

Donato Santiago, the town’s chief of police, said, “People were always fighting.  We never had any rest.”  Now with crime dramatically diminished and the gaols no longer needed, police chief Santiago, says with a grin.  It’s pretty uneventful around here.”

A few Christian leaders began regularly praying together from 7 pm to midnight in the 1970s. As they continued to pray in unity, increasing numbers of people were being healed and set free from strong demonic powers or witchcraft.  Churches began to grow, and the community began to change. Crime and alcoholism decreased.

Within twenty years the four gaols were emptied and are now used for community functions.  The last of Almolonga’s gaols closed in 1994, and is now remodelled building called the ‘Hall of Honour’ used for municipal ceremonies and weddings.

The town’s agricultural base was transformed. Their fields have become so fertile they yield three large harvests a year. Previously, the area exported four truckloads of produce a month.  Now they are exporting as many as 40 truckloads a day.  Farmers buy big Mercedes trucks with cash, and then attach their testimony to the shiny vehicles with huge metallic stickers and mud flaps declaring, The Gift of God, God is my Stronghold and Go Forward in Faith.

Some farmers provide work for others by renting out land and developing fields in other towns. They help people get out of debt by providing employment for them.

On Halloween day in 1998, an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people gathered in the market square to worship and honour God in a fiesta of praise.  Led by the mayor and many pastors, the people prayed for God to take authority over their lives and their economy.

University researchers from the United States and other countries regularly visit Almolonga to investigate the astounding 1,000 per cent increase in agricultural productivity.  Local inhabitants explain that the land is fertilized by prayer and rained upon with God’s blessings.

Unity did not happen overnight.  It took time.  It needed a small group of persistent leaders who began praying together, crying out to God for mercy and for change.  That usually happens when we are desperate and realise that we need God’s intervention.

We are desperate, or should be.  We live in tough times as persecution and calamities increase globally.  But there is hope.

Some leaders now look beyond their doctrinal and denominational differences to seek the Lord together in unity, as he told us to do in humility, prayer, seeking him and in repentance (2 Chronicles 7:14).

God can change whole cities, such as happened in the city of Cali in Columbia.

Cali, Columbia

Columbia in South America was the world’s biggest exporter of cocaine, sending between 700 to 1,000 tons a year to the United States and Europe alone.  The Cali cartel controlled up to 70 percent of this trade.  It was called the largest, richest, most well organized criminal organization in history.

The drug lords in cartels ruled the city through fear. At times 15 people a day were killed, shot from the black Mercedes cars owned by the cartels. Car bombs exploded regularly.  Journalists who denounced the Mafia were killed. Drug money controlled the politicians.  By the early 1990s the cartels controlled every major institution in Cali including banks, business, politicians and police.

The churches were in disarray and ineffective.  “In those days,” a pastor recalls, “the pastors’ association consisted of an old box of files that nobody wanted.  Every pastor was working on his own; no one wanted to join together.”

A few discouraged but determined pastors began praying together regularly, asking God to intervene. Gradually others joined them.  A small group of pastors planned a combined service in the civic auditorium in May 1995 for a night of prayer and repentance.  They expected a few thousand people, but were amazed when 25, 000 attended, nearly half of the city’s evangelical population. The crowd remained until 6 o’clock the next morning at this the first of the city’s now famous united all-night prayer vigils held four times a year.

Two days after that event in May 1995, the daily newspaper, El Pais, headlined, “No Homicides!” For the first time in anyone’s memory, 24 hours had passed without a single person being killed. Then, during the next four months 900 cartel-linked officers were fired from the metropolitan police force.

By August 1995, the authorities had captured all seven of the targeted cartel leaders. Previously the combined efforts of the Columbian authorities, and the American FBI and CIA had been unable to do that.

In December 1995, a hit man killed Pastor Julio Ruibal, one of the key leaders of the combined pastors’ meetings and the united prayer gatherings. 1, 500 people gathered at his funeral, including many pastors who had not spoken to each other in months. At the end of the memorial service, the pastors said, “Brothers, let us covenant to walk together in unity from this day forward. Let Julio’s blood be the glue that binds us together in the Holy Spirit.”

Now over 200 pastors have signed the covenant that is the backbone of the city’s united prayer vigils. What made the partnership of these leaders so effective are the same things that always bring God’s blessings: clean hearts, right relationships, and united prayer.

As the kingdom of God became more real in Cali, it affected all levels of society including the wealthy and educated. A wealthy businessman and former mayor said, “It is easy to speak to upper-class people about Jesus. They are respectful and interested.” Another successful businessman adds that the gospel is now seen as practical rather than religious.

Churches grow fast. One church that meets in a huge former warehouse holds seven services on a Sunday to accommodate its 35, 000 people. Asked, “What is your secret?” they point to the 24-hour prayer room behind the platform.

A former drug dealer says, “There is a hunger for God everywhere. You can see it on the buses, on the streets and in the cafes. Anywhere you go people are ready to talk.”

Cali police deactivated a large 174-kilo car bomb in November 1996. The newspaper El Pais carried the headline: “Thanks to God, It Didn’t Explode.”  Many people noted that this happened just 24 hours after 55,000 Christians held their third vigilia – the all night prayer vigil that includes praise, worship, dances and celebration mixed with the prayers and statements from civic and church leaders.

City authorities have given the churches free use of large stadium venues for their united gatherings because of their impact on the whole community, saving the city millions of dollars through reduced crime and terrorism.

Fiji, South Pacific

Fiji now has significant examples of effective community transformation, based on honouring God in unity between churches and communities.  Fiji has experienced many military coups.  In spite of this, Fiji also experiences significant unity in local village communities and among many churches.

The 2005 documentary report titled Let the Seas Resound, produced by the Sentinel Group (www.sentinel.com), identifies examples of transformed communities in Fiji, featuring reconciliation and renewed ecosystems.  The former President of Fiji, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, and former Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, include their personal comments in this video and DVD report, now distributed worldwide.

In September 2004, 10, 000 people gathered to worship together in Suva, Fiji, drawn by reconciliation initiatives of both government and church leaders.  Only four years previously such unity among government and church leaders was unimaginable.  Ethnic tensions flared in the attempted coup of May 2000, when the government was held hostage for 56 days, and violence erupted in the streets of Suva.

As people of Fiji unite in commitment to reconciliation and repentance in various locations, many testify to miraculous changes in their community and in the land.

Three days after the people of Nuku, north of Suva, made a united covenant with God, the water in the local stream, which for the previous 42 years had been known as the cause of barrenness and illness, mysteriously became clean and life giving.  Then food grew plentifully in the area.

Fish are now caught in abundance around the village of Nataleria, where previously they could catch only a few fish.  This change followed united repentance and reconciliation among all the churches and in the whole village.

Churches in the Navosa highlands north of Sigatoka came together in reconciliation and unity.  Some people in that area grew large marijuana crops worth about $11 million.  Nine growers were involved.  The team leaders told the farmers that it was their choice, that they should obey God and trust him for their livelihood, without any promises from anyone to do any­thing for them.  If they could not, then they should not participate in the Healing Process.  By the time the Process had finished, the people had destroyed the crop as part of the reconciliation Process.  After the HTL ministry, a total of 13,864 plants were uprooted and burnt by the growers themselves.  There were 6,000 seedlings as well.

Many island communities in Fiji and the South Pacific now report similar ecological and community transformation.  See my book, South Pacific Revivals for further examples of healing of the land through reconciliation and unity among churches and communities.

This is not only an island phenomenon, where it may be easier for whole communities to come together.  It happens in towns and cities too.

When we obey our Lord who requires unity in his body, we see miraculous changes.  That unity can be lived out amid God-given diversity.

2.  Diversity

Our unity is expressed in the diversity of gifts.  There is one Spirit; his gifts are incredibly diverse.

The point is developed in all the body passages of Paul.  Diversity is to be celebrated, not squashed; encouraged, not smothered; developed, not ignored.

Body ministry will use these gifts.  God’s Spirit moves among his people in power to meet needs and minister effectively.  Those gifts need to be identified and used, and in the process, as in Jesus’ life and ministry, special anointings enable effective use of all the Spirit’s gifts.

The best use of spiritual gifts is proper use, not misuse nor disuse.  Paul describes various streams of God’s gifting.

1. God our Father gives personal gifts in grace.  Often seen in our personalities and preferences, these motivating gifts include prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, and showing mercy in compassion (Romans 12:6-8).  They blossom in us as we offer ourselves to God, not being conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2).

2. Jesus Christ, the Head of his Church, gives leadership gifts to his church, including the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:11).  These gifts are the people – not just their ministries such as evangelising and teaching.  They may be full-time or part-time, paid or unpaid.  Most are unpaid, as with Jesus and the apostles.  Think, for example, of the huge army of voluntary home group leaders giving pastoral care to millions of people, and reaching out to others in natural friendship evangelism.

3. The Holy Spirit manifests himself in our lives with gifts given to each of us for the common good.  They include a word or revelation of wisdom, a word or revelation of prophecy, faith, various gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy or speaking from God, discerning spirits, various kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).

Paul even ranks God’s gifts in order of ministry importance in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guiding or administrating, and of different kinds of tongues (1 Corinthians 12: 28).  We sometimes mix up the order and emphasize the least the most!

Not only are we rediscovering the many and varied gifts of the Spirit in the 21st century, but we are also rediscovering the vital biblical truth that these gifts belong to all God’s people, not just the leaders, pastors or clergy.  Together we learn to be supernaturally natural.

That motivates us all to be involved in ministries which include all the various manifestations of God’s Spirit among us all.

The diversity of these glorious gifts can be summarised in the following way for a simple, practical application to ministry:
motivational gifts from God our Father,
ministry gifts from Christ Jesus our Lord and Head, and
manifestation gifts from the Holy Spirit our Comforter and Friend.

Motivational Gifts from God our Father

Romans 12:6-8 lists gifts in a passage about discovering and doing the will of God in the body of Christ, using our God-given abilities.  This list corresponds closely to our natural God-made abilities filled with God’s Spirit.  Some writers suggest that knowing these God-given gifts in our lives motivates us to serve him well for his glory.

1.  prophecy:  so prophesy in proportion to our faith;

2.  ministry:  so use it in ministering or serving;

3.  teaching:  so use it in teaching;

4.  exhorting;  so use it in exhortation;

5.  giving:  so give liberally;

6.  leading:  so lead with diligence;

7.  showing mercy:  so do it with cheerfulness.

Most of us do all these things in various ways, but each of us will be gifted more strongly in some of these gifts.  Knowing our gifting helps us serve the Lord with gladness, fulfilled in our calling.

Ministry Gifts from Christ Jesus our Head

Ephesians 4:11 summarises the leadership or ministry gifts given by the risen Lord, Head of his church.  These gifts differ from all the other lists of gifts because it is the person who is the gift of Christ to his church, not just their ministry gift:

1.  apostle:  sent by the Lord (originally the 12);

2.  prophet:  speaking from the Lord;

3.  evangelist:  proclaiming the gospel of the Lord;

4.  pastor:  shepherding the Lord’s people;

5.  teacher:  instructing the Lord’s people.

Increasingly, these gifts are being recognised and developed in local churches.  Usually, where people are gifted by the Lord in these ways, they become leaders in the church, often unpaid (as in home groups or specialised ministries such as with youth or children), sometimes paid (as on staff, part time or full time).  This list in Ephesians is not a list of local church staff, although the staff will have some of these gifts.  The more that the leaders in the church, voluntary and paid, can exercise and be supported in these ministries, the more the church will demonstrate the anointing and power of the Spirit in its life.

Manifestation Gifts from the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 12, gives two useful lists of manifestations of the Spirit in the body of Christ.  Some people use the following helpful categories:

The power to know:

1. word of wisdom:  a divine understanding for a need;

2. word of knowledge:  a divine revelation about a person or event;

3. discerning of spirits:  a divine awareness about spirit powers;

The power to act:

4. faith:  a divine enabling

5. healings:  a divine provision of wholeness;

6. miracles:  a divine intervention supernaturally;

The power to speak:

7. prophecy:  a divine word given;

8. tongues:  a divine unknown language (occasionally known to others);

9. interpretation of tongues:  a divine revelation of a message in tongues.

Paul emphasizes the importance of these gifts, and strongly argues that we need one another because we are all gifted differently.  The eye cannot say it does not need the hand; the head cannot say it does not need the feet.

Gifts are gifts of grace.  We all need God’s grace as we grow in using these gifts, and appreciating them in one another.

1 Corinthians 12:28 then arranges various gifts in an order of ministry significance:

1. apostles

2. prophets

3. teachers

4. miracles

5. healings

6. helps – service

7. administration

8. tongues

Leadership in the church is crucial for it can release or stifle the use of the spiritual gifts of God’s people.  Leaders do not need to envy or fear God’s gifting in his people.  The more the body of Christ lives in its gifting and calling, the more the leaders themselves are able to live in their own gifting and calling, and not be overloaded with ministry which is neither their gifting nor their calling.

We all have many gifts from God but some people are gifted by the Spirit more fully than others in various ministries.  Gifts may emerge unexpectedly as we believe and obey the leading of the Spirit in our lives.  We often discover God’s gifting as we serve one another in various ways, for the Spirit then anoints us for those ministries.

Preaching, for example, can become prophecy as it is anointed by the Spirit of God.  That prophetic ministry may happen unexpectedly in the process of a sermon.  It may also be given in preparation as a word directly from the Lord.

Compassionate service and healing prayer will at times be anointed powerfully by God’s presence in signs and wonders to heal.  Our gift, anointing and role then merge together into strong spiritual ministry.

So role, spiritual gift, and anointings cannot be clearly divided.  Indeed, as the Spirit of God moves in greater power among all members of the body of Christ, the ministry of that body becomes increasingly anointed.

Then the professional is swallowed up in the spiritual; natural ability is suffused and flooded with supernatural life; the human is filled with the divine.

Jesus lived this way.  He laid aside the rights and powers of his divinity, though still being divine.  He became fully man, not superboy nor superman, but fully man, the second Adam without sin.

Then filled with the Spirit from his baptism at around 30, he lived and ministered in the power of the Spirit.  He was filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit.  He showed us how to live a Spirit-filled life.

Following Pentecost, his followers did the same, though not sinless like Jesus.  They too were filled, led, anointed, and empowered by the same Spirit of God.  So the gifts of the Spirit functioned fully among them also, though limited or marred by human weakness and sin, as Paul often pointed out in his letters.

You can ask for this, and expect it.  The leaders and Christians in the New Testament church did that.  They constantly prayed that believers would be filled with the Spirit.  And they prayed for boldness to live courageously in the power of the Spirit and for God to confirm his word with healings and signs and wonders (see Acts 4:29-31).  God answered those prayers.

A Body Ministry 1See also Body Ministry

This article has selections
from Body Ministry

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11  Discipleship,
   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
16  Vision,
   17  Unity,   18  Servant Leadership,   19  Church,   20 Life
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Contents:  Renewal Journal 17:  Unity

Snapshots of Glory, by George Otis Jr.

Lessons from Revivals, by Richard Riss

Spiritual Warfare, by Cecilia Estillore Oliver

Unity not Uniformity, by Geoff Waugh

Reviews: Transformations DVDs; Informed Intercession, by George Otis Jr.

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BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

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Wineskins

Renewal Journal 15: Wineskins

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

CONTENTS:  Renewal Journal 15: Wineskins

Editorial: New Wineskins for the 21st Century

The God Chasers, by Tommy Tenny

The New Apostolic Reformation, by C. Peter Wagner

The New Believers, by Diana Bagnall (The Bulletin)

Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, by Lawrence Khong

New Wineskins for Pentecostal Studies, by Sam Hey

New Wineskins to Develop Ministry, by Geoff Waugh

Book and DVD Reviews:
Pentecostalism, by Walter Hollenweger
The Transforming Power of Revival, by Harold Caballeros and Mell Winger
Transformations 1 and 2 DVDs (The Sentinel Group)

Renewal Journal 15: Wineskins – PDF

 

Editorial

New Wineskins for the 21st Century

Jesus spoke about wineskins, and it is now a well-known proverb:  You don’t put new wine into old wineskins because the new wine bursts the wineskins; you put new wine into new wineskins – and both are preserved (See Mark 2:22 and Matthew 9:17, Luke 5:37-39).

Even tea-totallers know that, although they may have never seen a wineskin nor drunk wine!  In fact, most of us probably have never seen a wineskin except in pictures!

Jesus also noted that no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new because the old is better.  Luke, the radical Gentile writer preserved that wry comment for us in Luke 5:39!  So those who like the old wine in old wineskins have a reprieve!  However, in times of rapid or massive change, the new wine pours out and needs to be preserved in new wineskins.

Like it or not (some like it, some don’t) we have all be living through these massive changes in all areas of life.  Why use a typewriter if a computer is available?  Why keep a horse if a car is available?  Why use a chip heater if electric or solar power is available?  Why use ancient English (or Latin) if few or no people understand it?  Why sit on hard wooden pews if cushions, pillows or comfortable seats are available?

Change is now so rapid that Alvin Toffler called it “Future Shock” – the culture of the future invading the present.  Some of it is good, some bad – as is true in all cultures.  So new wineskins keep emerging to contain the new wine of current moves of the Spirit of God in renewal and revival.

Some churches have managed to contain the old and the new together.  One way, among a huge possible range, is to have a traditional morning service and a contemporary or renewal evening service on a Sunday.  Some churches have both traditional Bible Study groups and relational prayer groups.  Many churches use both hymns and choruses.

However, the massive shift going on at present involves emerging new wineskins that keep multiplying, growing and changing.  This issue of the Renewal Journal gives some implications of some of those changes.  It doesn’t cover all the changes.  That would take volumes!  It does highlight a few significant ones.

Evangelist Tommy Tenny has written about the awesome presence of God invading those who earnestly seek Him.  He calls those people the God chasers.  Some of our students recently reported how they began praying together one night on an outreach weekend and were amazed to discover it was after 5 a.m. when they finished.  That was new for them.  Yet, revival is full of such accounts. By the late nineties, Peter Wagner began describing these changes in what he calls The New Apostolic Reformation.  It is not post-denominationalism because it is happening within denominations as well as in millions of independent churches and networks globally.

A leading Australian news magazine, The Bulletin, carried a significant cover article on “The New Believers” written by senior editor Dianna Bagnall.  She describes one of the more visible emerging wineskins in Australian church life, noting that Pentecostal church attendance in Australia is second only to total Catholic attendance.

Baptist visionary and pastor Lawrence Khong describes a vision and strategy for church growth he has used in Singapore where his church has grown from 350 to now over 8,000 attending.

Sam Hey comments on how emerging Pentecostal scholarship is providing new possibilities for Bible study which respond to both the Word and the Spirit.

I comment on how everyone can now be involved in ministry and also can easily participate in a huge range of readily accessible resources providing powerful education for ministry.

Revival not only provides new wine, sometimes in a rather heady mix, but also escalates the emergence of new wineskins.  Revival can never be contained in a ‘normal’ church service.  So when we keep praying for revival, we are also praying for new wineskins to help us preserve and share the new wine as God’s Spirit is poured out upon us.

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11  Discipleship,
   12  Harvest,   13  Ministry,   14  Anointing,   15  Wineskins,
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Reviews

Rev Dr Lewis Born wrote:

Renewal is no longer a matter of speculation.  It will be recorded as one of the most significant faith history phenomena of all time.  The Global Village factor makes this revival the most comprehensive international social and religious phenomena ever known.

To those who remain untouched or unexposed to renewal theology and events may I suggest that Geoff Waugh’s editorship of the Renewal Journal is a good step towards being more informed and possibly persuaded to the point of being involved, even to being a corrector of its course.

Future students of both social and church history will be surprised, both at the facts and at those who slept through them. Professor Walter Hollenweger (Missiology, Birmingham) has stated, ‘a movement which represents more or at least as many members as all other Protestant denominations taken together can no longer be considered a fringe topic in church history, missiology and systematic theology.’

Among those who still sleep are members, clergy and leaders of orthodoxy who see themselves as defenders of the faith against this threat of enthusiasm and ‘unnecessary extremes’ to traditional faith, practice and theology.  Tradition and orthodoxy need to be re-defined.  If New Testament Christianity is the orthodox, then what claims to be twentieth century orthodoxy may be labelled by future theological historians as in fact deviant.

No doubt some of the renewal theological emphasis runs into error, if not enthusiastic heresy.  Some of its worship forms and practice are too subjective and unbalanced for my limited taste.  There are many charlatans.  But who would claim that contemporary ‘orthodox’ faith and practice were free of phonies and heresy?

Contemporary renewal is one of the most significant events in the history of Christianity.  Don’t do a ‘Rip Van Winkle’.

Rev Prof Dr James Haire wrote:

Dr Geoff Waugh, an expert in Renewal Studies over many years, has begun editing an important Australian Journal which is unique in that it gathers together renewal material from the many church groups throughout Australia and overseas.

The first issue was published in the summer of 1993 and has articles ranging from an historical view of revival movements throughout history by Geoff Waugh himself to more specific accounts or revival experiences in Arnhem Land among the Aboriginal people of Australia by Dr Djiniyini Gondarra.

There are also significant articles by Stuart Robinson, J Edwin Orr, and material from John Greenfield.  In this issue all of them are centred on the theme of revival. In addition, there is material on Renewal Studies in Australia and reviews of recent books on Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.

The Journal is breaking important new ground by linking renewal with ecumenical fellowship primarily throughout Australia. For that reason it is quite a new contribution in this area.

I warmly commend this fresh and ground-breaking enterprise.  It looks as if it will play an important part in the Christian Church throughout this country.

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BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

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Discipleship

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

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All Renewal Journal Topics:

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

Contents: Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship

Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival, by Brian Medway

Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown

A Touch of Glory, by Linell Cooley

The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan

Mentoring, by Peter Earle

Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor

The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

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

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

Editorial

Make Disciples

 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

We know the Great Commission well.  The closing verses of Matthew give Jesus’ commission to his followers during a resurrection appearance on a mountain in Galilee.  Usually we hear it used, and have used it ourselves, as an evangelistic mission mandate.  It is that, and much more.

The focus is not merely on the task, but on the reason for the task – the reason for the “therefore”.  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus announced.  “Go, therefore, and make disciples.”  This commission concerning discipleship stems directly from who Jesus is as Lord of all.  We are commanded to make people his disciples.

Not make converts – though conversion is integral to the task.

Not make decisions – though life-changing decisions are involved in the task.

Not make church members – though incorporation in the church is essential to the task.

But make disciples.

Jesus’ disciples are to make disciples from all people groups – ta ethna from all the ethnic groups – from all the nations.  They are his disciples, baptized into him, and obedient to him.

Jesus’ discipleship commission does not focus on information but on formation; not on teaching knowledge but on teaching obedience: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Naturally that involves knowing what he taught them but the great commission, the final command, is to obey.  That’s breathtaking!

What did he command them to do?  Love God totally.  Love others.  Repent.  Forgive.  Serve.  Pray.  Believe.  Heal the sick.  Cast out demons.  Proclaim the astounding good news of the kingdom of God.  The reign of God has broken into this world, shaking everything, transforming everything.

The great commission is the strongest evidence against a cessationist theory – that what Jesus did and what his disciples did was only for the establishment of the church or only for the first century.  Jesus’ final instruction to his disciples is that what he did and what they did must not cease, but must be passed on to all generations – to the end of the age.

Impossible?  Certainly it is impossible through our own resources:  “Without me you can do nothing.”  Hence, the incredible final promise “I am with you always – to the end of the age.”

Disciples of Jesus

Discipleship, then, is the total process of making disciples of Jesus who are obedient to their living Lord.

That involves evangelism, mission, and equipping those new disciples for obedient mission.  This issue of the Renewal Journal looks at a few of those tasks: evangelism, mission, making disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.

I reproduce reports on transformation in the South Pacific in the 21st century.

Brian Medway applies lessons learned from revival in Argentina to the Australian scene.

Rodney Howard-Browne talks about God doing what he said he would do.  Lindell Cooley describes the impact of revival on his own discipleship and that of others.

Robert McQuillan surveys fresh moves of God’s Spirit across England.

Peter Earle examines mentoring as it relates to discipleship.

Charles Taylor reflects on the meaning of discipleship.

Paula Sandford reports on a gathering from among the nations – the ethnic groups – seeking to obey the Spirit in one body.  Stephen Milstead provides an overview of John Dawson=s approach to discipling cities, an approach well illustrated in Argentina today as indicated in the first article in this issue.

Nothing is so radical as making disciples of Jesus.  Jesus and his early disciples proclaimed and demonstrated the reign of God in all of life.  The kingdom of God has broken into this fallen world through Jesus, God’s Son, the Anointed One.  His life, death, and resurrection change everything.  The first are last and the last are first.  The least are the greatest and the greatest are the servants of all.

This issue of the Renewal Journal only begins to explore such radical changes.  The great commission still confronts us all with the implications of Jesus’ authority in heaven and on earth – his total Lordship.

As you read, pray with us the prayer Jesus taught us, including, “Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What can be more radical than that?

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

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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS(BRIEFER THANREVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH(CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

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Supernatural Ministry, John White Interviewed

Supernatural Ministry

Dr John White interviewed

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John White

Julia C. Loren, a psychotherapist and writer, interviewed Dr John White, psychiatrist and widely read evangelical author, about a theology of the supernatural.

____________________________________

 Oh I’ve come home. This is what I want.

This is what I’ve been looking for all my life.

________________________________________
 

Q.   How did you begin shifting towards a theology which included signs and wonders?

A.    An obvious case of a shift in theology was when I met John Wimber.  When I arrived at his course at Fuller Seminary (MC510: Signs and Wonders) I realized here was the Christ I was looking for all my life, the Christ who heals, the Christ who does this and it is all happening in front of my nose.  The search had been going on for much longer and I’d been having visions for much longer without knowing that I was a charismatic.  I suppose I was one then but I hadn’t entered into the fullness of being able to do these things.

Yet God had been preparing for that so‑called sudden shift for many years, both by my seeing the supernatural in operation among primitive tribal people and by my encounter with a Pentecostal guy while a medical student.  And I thought there must be something in it.  But I didn’t know what.  I thought especially that I needed to be baptized by the Holy Ghost but the Holy Ghost wasn’t cooperating.

Q.   Were you seeking such an experience?

A.   I don’t think I was. Or it never occurred to me to seek it.  I had read a writer’s work while in the New Tribes boot camp.  He described the Holy Spirit’s activity in the 19th century.  He talked about it, described his own experience and I thought, “Oh dear, I’d love that.”  But it wasn’t clear enough to me to seek it actively.

Toward the end of my time pastoring the Winnipeg church, Ken Blue was at Fuller Seminary finishing his Ph.D., and he called me about this remarkable man John Wimber.  I thought that was interesting and I’d like to sit in on his lectures.  So Lorrie and I went down to Fuller.  Fuller graciously gave us an apartment.

It was the sense of the presence of Jesus during John Wimber’s lectures; I thought, “Oh I’ve come home. This is what I want. This is what I’ve been looking for all my life.”  And Lorrie was the same. The moment I got in I thought, “Christ is here.”  It was remarkable.  My hunger for Jesus has never stopped.  And I felt that the anti‑Charismatics particularly also robbed me of Jesus.

Q.  This is the first time you ever really encountered the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit?

A.   Yes.  What happened in the third lecture he gave ‑ he would have a lecture then a workshop ‑ he finished his lecture and asked people who had sicknesses of some kind to come forward.  There were about ten of them.  The first guy was a football player who was studying theology at Fuller.  He came because his leg had, until that week, been in a cast and the cast had been removed after a month.  It was his Achilles’ tendon that had been torn.  So John propped him against the wall and asked him to demonstrate how much movement he had in both his feet.  It was very limited in range as it would be after a tendon had been sown up.

Then John prayed for him and he started shaking.  He finally went onto the floor.  And I was worried because one leg was kicking wildly and I thought that was his injured leg.  So I said to three guys, “Look stop him.  Get hold of that leg and stop him from doing this.”  When they got hold of the leg they were all shaking too.  I was mad at them and said, “Stop it!  Do what you’re supposed to do and hold that leg.”  I was concerned about his leg but I was mistaken.  It was the other leg that was injured and when he got up he had a full range of movement.  I got used to seeing things like that.

I asked John, “How do we get into this stuff?  Do we get zapped by the Holy Ghost or what?”

John’s reply was, “No, you just stick your neck out and start doing it.”  He says in retrospect that he saw great faith in me.  See a real Christian has the Holy Spirit and has potentially all the gifts of the Spirit.  That was suddenly revealed to me.  I thought, “Well, I don’t like his answer but I’ll start.”  So we started praying for people’s headaches and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.

Q.   Had it occurred to you to pray for people to be healed before?

A.   No.

Q.   Despite Lorrie being healed just before you were married?

A.  That’s right.  And despite the fact that it was my prayers that apparently did it.  I know that I was before long doing major stuff.  I was so excited about it after completing MC510 I went around the world talking about this.  I prayed for a little two year old girl in Malaysia. The parents brought her ‑ they were Haaka speaking Chinese.  She had been running around the room.  She had kept her parents awake for 36 hours and when they brought her to us, struggling, she was covered with her execma ‑ and as Lorrie and I prayed we saw the wet area shrinking.  This was very exciting to watch the shrinking take place as we prayed.   I thought, “Gosh what power I’ve got.”  And then the suggestion came to me, “Oh but maybe it’s Lorrie’s prayers that are doing it.”  And I was filled with wild jealousy.  I suddenly saw how dangerous it is to have power.  After that I was very careful.  I saw that my own heart was corruptible.

Q.  You were quick to see that and to write about it.  You mention in The Pathway to Holiness the error of considering manifestations as evidence of superior spiritual power.  Is that also a criticism of the Vineyard movement?

A.  It is more a criticism of people who have been affected by miraculous power whether Pentecostal, or so‑called “Second Wave” or Vineyard.  I think the Lord saw to it that I recognized it right away and I’ve seen it ever since.  I’ve seen what it does to people to have that kind of power.

To me Christ is central to everything.  Signs and wonders isn’t everything.  They probably will be helpful because God loves people and loves to heal their diseases but its no credit to us that we can do it.  We should all be able to do it.

Q.   After reading about Jack Deere’s theological shift I have a sense that you’d agree with him that the evangelical, intellectual mindset fights against the spirit but that we need both word and spirit.

A.  Yes it does.  I feel that intellectuals among the evangelicals are not what the Puritans were.  I make a distinction between J.I. Packer and many other Bible scholars and theologians.  Packer was part of Lloyd‑Jones studying of the Puritan movement.  Lloyd‑Jones had an experience of the Holy Spirit, an experience of being picked up in the arms of the Father so to speak.  He studied the Puritans and the Puritans knew about the Holy Spirit.  That is why John Owen, who was a puritan and I think the vice‑chancellor of Oxford University at one point, was able to write about the difference between those who have the Spirit and those who didn’t.

Q.  You have emphasized the healing gifts of the Spirit in recent years.  Do you believe that people can operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit without having an experience such as a “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” in the Charismatic sense?

A.  Yes.  I think the focus on the baptism of the Holy Spirit came with the Pentecostal movement.  It was the Holiness movement at that time.  They decided to wait on God until they had something like that.  I’m not even sure that the disciples needed it.  When Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, at that point they received the Spirit of God.  He was in them.  But I supposed they needed something extraordinary to initiate the powerful testimony that came.  That’s how it was in my own life anyway.

I don’t think there is any difference between Charismatics and non‑Charismatics. That is to say, I think those Christians who do have the Holy Spirit in them, many don’t, may never have repented and those are not true Christians.  There are many who are powerfully anointed and that is why their speaking is so effective.  They may not realize that they can heal the sick but that seems to come in waves anyway.  It seems to build somehow.

Q.   Your recent though unpublished book tentatively titled Control, reveals the way control and manipulation dominates individuals in evangelical and charismatic ministries.  You cry out against this “witchcraft” or abuse of power and advocate a humility and dependency on God to further the work of His kingdom.  You offer your subjective experience of being a “controller, con-artist, and manipulator” as the log you believes God revealed and removed from your eye so that he may remove the mote in the church’s eye.  Your subjective experience of an encounter with God leads you to call this “witchcraft” in your lectures.  Are you encouraging a more experiential interpretation of scripture?

A.  I would say first of all, it enters the whole realm of the objective versus the subjective.  That was what God said to me when my computer crashed one day.  I was filled with fear for some reason when the computer crashed and I said, “Lord what have I been doing?”  It was then that he said, “You have been practising witchcraft since you were three years old.”  That was a subjective impression.

I deplore an increasing tendency in scholarship to overemphasize the letter of Scripture and minimize subjective experience of Scripture.  The two ‑ objective and subjective ‑ are inseparable.  It is only as the Holy Spirit illuminates our understanding of Scripture that we will truly understand it.  Jack Deere has taught us that when we speak of our convictions we are often speaking of what we were taught in church or in seminary.   Divided seminaries and divided churches are an evidence that we follow human opinions as frequently as we follow divine.  Two and a half centuries ago, John Gifford taught John Bunyan this very lesson.

Q.   How have you learned to hear the subjective voice of God?

A.    That’s a tough one.  You see, nobody explained to me as a child that such communications had ceased, so that from earliest childhood I did hear, or else I thought I did.  I subjected my impressions to “scientific” checks.  I am most certain of God’s voice now as I read Scripture.  Even when I was a psychiatrist I would be listening to the Lord.  I would pray with my patients whether they were Christian or not.  And I would have hunches about them which really were prophetic.

He speaks to me on many channels now.  He speaks to me in the night when I sleep and I remember it exactly when I wake up.   This is something new for me.  He also speaks in night visions which are not the same as dreams ‑ which may emerge out of dreams ‑ but suddenly you know that you’re in a different space.  In a dream you don’t usually recognize you’re in a dream but there becomes something different about it and I can’t explain what it is.

Q.   You went from hearing God’s voice to seeing visions?

A.    Though I resisted it at the time, I was also having visions during my residency and I knew those weren’t hallucinatory experiences.  There is something about a vision that you know that you know that you know.  First of all in a vision I can understand everything.  It’s immediately self‑apparent.  I can’t explain this but it is.  Even though the vision is symbolic I don’t need anyone to tell me what it’s about.

Q. In other words, you know what your vision means but with psychiatric patients suffering hallucinations and delusions, they don’t know?

A.   They don’t know.  Many of them have hallucinations that they are demonized. They hear demonic voices.  I think psychosis reduces your ability to discern, to discern between the demonic and the differences between the two.  Satan mimics God’s voice superbly.  But God has taught me to distinguish by the darkness that comes on me.  I can’t explain it.

Q.   Do you have a sense that those who walk into a growing awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit also come into greater awareness of the demonic?

A.   You can’t have with one without the other.  The moment you are in touch with the Lord you are open to the whole bang shoot.  It’s spiritual sensitivity.  Sensitivity to spirit beings.

Q.  In the wake of your theological shift towards signs and wonders, a fury of criticism followed.  Many evangelical doors have slammed shut against your ministry while charismatic doors swung open.  How do you view this shift?

A.   I wish the two sides would get together.  That’s the only thing that I regret.  One door closes and another door opens wide.  I long for the day when people realize that the “Charismatic curtain,” as I call it, is not necessary.  Real Christians are real Christians.

Q.   Where do you believe the church is going?

A.   I’m concerned about apostasy and the parable of the wheat and the tares.  All the reformers spoke of apostasy.  Certainly Calvin did, Arminius did.  Calvin said it was impossible for them to have seen the light but John Owen explains it the best of all.

The Seventh Volume of Owen’s works is a careful exposition of Hebrews 6, focusing particularly on versus 4 through 6.  His attempt is to understand apostasy.  Owen maintains that one may operate in all the power of the Holy Spirit, without any of the inward graces of God’s character, that is, without being “saved” at all.  You do not have to be a Christian to display spiritual gifts.  Non‑Christians can display them also, since the Spirit falls on whom He will.

What John Owen says is that you can have the Holy Spirit and still apostatize and you do that because you opt for power rather than for the brightness of the glory of Christ himself.  In other words you are not pursuing Christ, you are pursuing power.  So it means that on both sides of the Charismatic curtain, there are wheat and tares.

Q.  Apostasy as you see it, is more than lapsing into chronic sin, renouncing Christ and abandoning the profession of faith.  It is an abuse of power.  Frightening thought.

A.   It is a very frightening thought.  When I first began to understand this I thought, well, what about me?  My fear about this personally was countered when Jesus said to me, “He who comes to me I will never reject.”  And that filled me with great relief.

Q.  Throughout your ministry and particularly in The Pathway of Holiness, you mention a vision of darkness “that falls on men and women when they do not let God be God in their lives,” referencing Romans 1:21‑23.  What do you foresee will happen if the darkness is not lifted off of the church?

A.  The darkness will be lifted off of the church. There are some Christians who develop so far and then they lose their curiosity and become worshippers of mammon or whatever unwittingly.  God doesn’t seem to go on doing things in them.  See, in my life, God has been merciful and constantly dragging me into something new.  Sometimes against my will.

The church free of darkness would look marvellous.  The marvellous church cannot occur unless there is a split ‑ a split between those who have the Holy Spirit and those who haven’t ‑ the wheat and the tares.  At what point that would occur I don’t know except that somehow it’s involved in world war and all that’s going to happen in the next little while.  Individuals will have to give God control and they will find one another.

© Renewal Journal 10: Evangelism, 1997, 2nd edition 2011.
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Renewal Journal 10: Evangelism – PDF

Renewal Journal 10: Evangelism

Power Evangelism, by John Wimber

Supernatural Ministry, by John White

Power Evangelism in Short-Term Missions, by Randy Clark

God’s Awesome Presence, by R Heard

Evangelist Steve Hill, by Sharon Wissemann

Reaching the Core of the Core, by Luis Bush

Evangelism on the Internet, by Rowland Croucher

“My Resume” by Paul Grant

Gospel Essentials, by Charles Taylor

Pentecostal/Charismatic Pioneers, by Daryl Brenton

Characteristics of Revivals, by Richard Riss

Book Reviews: Flashpoints of Revival & Revival Fires, by Geoff Waugh

See also: Renewal Journal – Signs and Wonders

See also: Signs and Wonders: Study Guide

Now available in updated book form (2nd edition 2011)
Renewal Journal 10: Evangelism

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GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

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Awakening

8 Awakening

RENEWAL JOURNAL 8: Awakening

Also in Renewal Journals Vol 2: Issues 6-10
Renewal Journal Vol 2 (6-10) – PDF

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Renewal Journals Index – 20 issues

All Renewal Journal Topics:

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

Contents: 8 Awakening

8 Awakening

Speaking God’s Word, by David Yonggi Cho

The Power to Heal the Past, by C Peter Wagner

Worldwide Awakening, by Richard Riss

The “No Name” Revival, by Brian Medway

Review: Fire from Heaven, by Harvey Cox

Renewal Journal 8: Awakening – PDF

Editorial

God’s Visitation

We live in a day of God’s visitation.  It has become a worldwide awakening.  Amid much persecution and difficulty, the church grows in astounding ways especially in China, Korea, Africa, Latin America and North India.  Now western countries report renewal and revival in many places.

Jesus wept because so many in his time missed the day of their visitation (Luke 19:41-44).  May we not miss our day of visitation.  As with all previous awakenings (including the early church and major revivals) it is disturbing, controversial and unpredictable.

This issue of the Renewal Journal touches on a few issues and examples of the current awakening.  David Yonggi Cho of Korea tells about moving in spiritual authority by speaking the word God gives.  Peter Wagner describes powerful spiritual weapons now being used by the church, especially in corporate repentance.  Richard Riss provides a comprehensive survey of the present awakening in its varied expressions.  Brian Medway of Canberra discusses the “no-name” revival now spreading through the earth, which also fits the Australian zeal for equality. 

Outpouring of God’s glory

The outpourings of God’s Spirit continue, not only with increasing and astounding signs and wonders in the >third world= but increasingly in the West.  Even the news media have taken notice.  Unprecedented unity among leaders in renewal and revival has emerged in many places, including Australia.  Ministers pray together.  Prayer groups seeking revival multiply.  Churches co-operate to win, nurture and equip people.  Repentance, humility and forgiveness increase.  Renewal and refreshing seem to be spilling over into touches of revival.

“Renewal has changed us forever,” notes Philip Le Dune, associate pastor of Sunderland Christian Centre in the north east of England.  “When God pinned a local gangster to the floor of the church one evening, only God knew that he and his wife were soon to be employed by the church as youth workers.  Jim & Marie now hold daily meetings with the people from the local community who are increasingly coming to see SCC as “theirs” (SCC Email Bulletin, 20 August 1996).

All the centres of renewal heading into revival include persistent and widespread prayer, co-operation between churches, humility, repentance, and the overwhelming impact of the Spirit of God including controversial signs and wonders.  Mixed in with it all is human frailty and strong opposition, as in the early church. 

Toronto in Canada, Melbourne in Florida, Pasadena in California, Holy Trinity Brompton in London, Sunderland in north-east England, and now Pensacola in Florida became household names in renewal and revival.

26,000 conversions in the first year

Reports of revival at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, north-west Florida, drew increasing crowds from around the world.  They recorded 26,000 conversions in its first year.  Many people are ignited there and take fires of revival home.  So revival spreads.

Some of the leaders at Pensacola, including Lindel Cooley the worship leader, had received a deep impact of the Spirit in their lives.  Before the current outpouring of God=s Spirit burst on them, the church had been continually praying for revival, and their worship services had extended in depth and length.

“When church would be over,” reported Cathy Wood, “you know how they play music as you exit – well that didn’t work now…  We would try to walk out but we’d get a few pews away and stop again.  The worship wouldn’t stop so we could go home.  Many times Lindel would have to wave his hands at us and say go home!  It would be 10:00 or 11:00 and church started at 6:OO.  Wow … I love remembering!  Then on Father’s Day [18 June 1995], Steve Hill a missionary to Argentina with the Assemblies of God came to give testimony of how God refreshed his life in London at a meeting and after that service … all heaven came down and has remained….  As thousands continue to come we know the Lord is not finished….  Over 1/2 million in combined attendance.  Wherever the Lord is, we know the devil is looking in, so we pray for discernment whenever the flesh arrives; but at the same time … many of the things we have done in the Spirit now such as shaking, falling, jerking, were things we didn’t really believe in either.  Now that God has touched us … we don’t know what’s next and we don’t want to be God police and stop someone who is manifesting a true touch of God. …  Many thousands have been saved – over 30 thousand counting the backsliders” (Email from Cathy Wood, 31 July 1996).

2 Chronicles 7:14 still applies!  We can humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and repent.  God promises to hear, forgive, and heal the land.

© Renewal Journal 8: Awakening, 1997, 2nd edition 2011

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GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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Renewal Blessings  Reflections from Australia  by John Davies, Phil Ashton,  Geoff Glass & Tony Stevens

Reflections from Australia

Anglican renewal leaders, Rev John Davies in Sydney, Revs Phil Ashton, Geoff Glass and Mr Tony Stevens in Melbourne comment on renewal blessings in Australia.

Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders PDF

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‘Toronto Blessing’ reaches Australia

Comment by Rev. John Davies, the Minister at the Anglican Church in Northbridge, Sydney and editor of the Anglican Renewal Ministries of Australia Sydney Newsletter (November 1994):

——————————————————————

A deepened sense of the presence of Jesus,

a heightened expectancy for the power of the Spirit

to work through me, and a refreshment in my spirit

——————————————————————

Earlier this year rumours began to reach our shores that some strange things were happening in one of the Vineyard churches in Toronto, Canada. It was reported that God was moving with new power and blessing. A particular feature was the outbreak of ‘holy laughter’ in their services.

Those who attended the Wimber conference in Brisbane in April reported something of this phenomenon happening there, where many were blessed. There seemed to be a new level of spiritual power.

Tri Robinson, from the Vineyard church in Boise, Idaho, who spoke at the Melbourne Pentecost Rally, and the Port Macquarie Conference in June, mentioned that he had been to the Toronto church. He told how he had been rather sceptical of the reported happenings, but had been convinced that it was God when he found himself on his face on the floor, unable to move for an hour.

At the end of May the phenomenon spread to several churches in London, UK, including the rather prestigious Anglican church, Holy Trinity, Brompton, just down the road from Harrods. Within weeks the London newspapers were beginning to take notice, and headlines in the daily papers proclaimed outbreaks of ‘Holy Laughter’.

The religious press in England was also quick to comment. The Church of England Newspaper of June 17 had the headline ‘Revival breaks out in London churches’ and reported that ‘Church leaders admit bewilderment as manifestations affect business and staff meetings as well as church services’. The Church Times of June 24 spoke of ‘a mighty wind from Toronto which blew through Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), laid flat a staff meeting, and then set a whole congregation laughing hysterically, crying and falling repeatedly on the floor’. There was a brief note of this report in the Australian Church Scene of July 1, but not much other mention in Australia…

The English Renewal magazine for July had a brief report under the heading ‘Spreading Like Wildfire’. This was essentially a summary of the report to HTB by Eleanor Mumford, the wife of the pastor of the Southwest London Vineyard, on her visit to Toronto. She told how she saw the ‘power of God poured out in incredible measure’. She said: ‘I saw many very weary pastors who turned up with their even wearier wives, and they were so anointed by the Lord.’

Mrs Mumford also spoke of the personal effect on her: ‘For myself, there is a greater love for Jesus than I’ve ever known, a greater excitement about the Kingdom than I ever thought possible. I haven’t had such an appetite for ministry for years. Jesus is restoring his joy, and his laughter is like medicine to my soul.’

Further reports of what was happening at HTB, and at other churches in England, appeared in the August and September issues of Renewal. There was even an article in Time Magazine for August 10.

Rosemary and I managed to hear about this just before we left on 3 months Long Service Leave in July. And, by a series of small miracles, we were able to change our itinerary to include six days in Toronto, and visits to HTB and Chorleywood in England. What we saw, and what we received, has had a dramatic effect on our lives. And, since our return, has begun to affect members of our church.

Overall assessment

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. Although some of the outward manifestations are unusual, and sometimes bizarre, the fruit that is being produced bears all the marks of true godliness.

There is, especially in Toronto, a strong emphasis on the centrality of Jesus, and the need for true repentance and faith. Many have shared of the deepening of their love for Jesus, and their increased desire to serve him. There has been a greater enthusiasm for sharing the gospel, and a steady stream of new converts. Numbers have been physically healed, including a girl with chronic ME and a ten year old boy, whom we saw, with severe asthma.

My own experience has been a deepened sense of the presence of Jesus, a heightened expectancy for the power of the Spirit to work through me, and a refreshment in my spirit.

Before Toronto

The so-called ‘Toronto Blessing’ did not, in fact, originate in Toronto. It began with a South African evangelist ministering in the USA by the name of Rodney Howard-Browne. During the early part of 1993 the Spirit of God began to move powerfully in his meetings and many were blessed.

A Vineyard pastor from St Louis, Missouri, Randy Clarke, was feeling very dry and weary after 10 years in the ministry and determined to get to a Howard-Browne meeting. As a result of the blessing he received, his whole church came alive. In September of ’93 he shared what was happening in a Vineyard leaders’ meeting and, as a result, John Arnott, from the Airport Vineyard in Toronto invited him to come for a series of meetings.

The Toronto ‘fountain’

Randy Clarke came to Toronto for a 4-day mission on 20th January 1994. The Spirit of God moved so powerfully that the meetings were extended again and again for forty days.

Originally the church met every night of the week, with meetings going often until 2 a.m.! Eventually they decided to have Mondays off. They have continued to meet six nights per week, plus Sunday mornings, until the present time, and meetings still continue until 2 a.m.

The church is situated in a small office/industrial block beside the runway of Toronto airport. Although it only seats 400, with an overflow of 200, it regularly has congregations of over 700 as visitors flood in from all over the world. Just recently they have decided to ban visitors from their Sunday Morning Service so that they can care for their own congregation.

From the beginning the Toronto leadership realised that God was calling them to give away what they had received. A number of local Baptist, Presbyterian and other pastors were invited to come together for lunch on a Wednesday. Not only were the pastors blessed, but they took the blessing back to their churches.

Word soon began to spread, and pastors from further afield expressed an interest. The Wednesday pastors’ meetings became a regular feature. When we were there, there were pastors from many parts of the USA and Canada, from Great Britain, Europe, South Africa, Cambodia, and South America.

It is as though the church in Toronto is a fountain to which the weary and thirsty from around the world might come and be refreshed. Those who come are encouraged to keep seeking after God for all that he has to give. The most common expression is ‘More, Lord!’ (The other is: ‘It’s a party!’) While some have been overwhelmed by God’s blessing on the first contact, the more common experience is that there is a progressive deepening of the blessing as people keep coming back for more.

Revival or refreshment?

The phrase ‘Revival’ was often used in the early stages, but more mature reflection has led to the conclusion that it is not fully ‘Revival’ yet. Wimber and others believe that this is, at present, essentially a refreshment for Christians. It may well be the preparation for the revival that many believe is coming soon. Or, it may be a preparation for coming persecution, or both! However, for the present, the streams of refreshment are flowing, and the invitation stands: ‘Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters’.

Strange manifestations

While many of the physical manifestations associated with this phenomenon have been seen before in previous movements of the Holy Spirit, the widespread distribution of phenomena such as laughter that has occurred this time has led some Charismatic and Pentecostal leaders to confess to some scepticism. However, most have come away convinced that this is truly a work of God.

As in previous moves of the Hoy Spirit, there are some ‘fleshly’ excesses, but the leadership maintains a careful oversight. Their attitude is that even if there is 70% flesh, they do not want to crush the 30% Spirit.

While laughter was the chief characteristic in the early days, more recently there have been instances of people roaring like lions (e.g. David Pytches) … Probably the most widespread manifestation is some kind of shaking or jerking.

It is quite common, though not universal, for people to fall to the floor under the power of the Spirit. ‘Spending carpet time’ is a common Toronto expression. In my observation, God often does a much deeper work once people are on the ground. It may be that in the surrender to his power there is an opening up of one’s life to new levels of his ministry. The ministry team are encouraged to keep praying for those who are on the ground.

While falling down, jerking, laughing, etc., may not be normal Christian experience, especially in Anglican churches, they are not unknown in the Bible. Certainly, the history of revivals such as that in New England in the 18th Century, recorded by Jonathan Edwards, showed similar phenomena. …

Spread of the blessing

The blessing has spread like wildfire in many places. When we were in Toronto in August it was reported that 800 English churches had been affected. Many more have been touched since then. At the evening service at HTB there was a queue of 200 outside the doors an hour before the service. A recent report said that it is now necessary to get a ticket to get into the church which seats 1200! 700 clergy and leaders turned up to a special day at St Andrew’s, Chorleywood in August to hear an assistant pastor from Toronto.

Many have wondered why it is necessary to travel across the world to catch the blessing. All I can say is, that is how it is so often with the gospel. Only very few are converted without personal contact with someone who knows Jesus. God has chosen to work through personal contact to spread the blessing and it is not for us to argue.

Certainly, it is those who make the commitment of time and money to seek from God who generally go away filled (Jeremiah 29:13).

Australian outbreak

Spirit Life, the Anglican Renewal Ministries of Australia (ARMA) Victoria Newsletter, reported in its October issue: ‘Two Anglican Clergy from Melbourne have just returned from Toronto … I am led to believe that the blessing has now flowed to a number of other churches in Melbourne.’

There is news in the past few weeks of the ‘blessing’ having broken out in a number of churches in Sydney. Hills CLC, Sutherland Growth Centre, North Shore CLC and Randwick Baptist all report powerful moves of the Holy Spirit, particularly in their evening services.

In our own small church in Northbridge, God has powerfully touched a number of people. Some have been refreshed, others have been changed, and there is a new sense of expectancy in our meetings. While we are learning afresh what it means to keep coming back to our Father for more and more of his unlimited grace, we are also seeking to give away everything he has given us.

No one knows just how long this blessing will last, or whether it will lead to widespread revival. Certainly it fits with a number of prophetic words, some going back to 1984, that 1993/’94 would see a great outpouring of blessing. In the end we can only tap into what God is doing in the present, and be very careful that we do not miss out because it does not fit our preconceptions.

__________

The Blessing is spreading

Comment by Rev. Phil Ashton, the Associate Minister at Christ Church Anglican, Dingley in Melbourne (December 1994):

————————————————

people in quiet and in dramatic ways

were touched by God’s Spirit

————————————————

The October edition of Spirit Life (the Victoria and Tasmania Newsletter of Anglican Renewal Ministries of Australia) noted that the ‘Tronoto blessing’ was being spread as the result of the Holy Spirit and a couple of Anglican clergy from Melbourne having visited Tronoto. I have to confess to being one of them!

The trip to Toronto for my wife Maryann and I was a miracle in itself. What with church commitments here at Dingley, four children to be looked after in our absence, a dog and a recently acquired mortgage, there was no way we could afford to go to Toronto, either commitment-wise or financially. Yet within ten days of seeking God’s will in all this, every problem had been blown away. Three people offered to have the children, someone paid the airfare, – even the dog was looked after! There was no longer any reason why we could not go!

After the trip

Our time at the Airport Vineyard was challenging, refreshing, faith stretching and a real party! But the fun didn’t stop there. Upon our return, in response to the question, ‘What happened?’, we decided to hold a testimony evening to share our story. At the end of the evening, being a safe, conservative sort of person, it would have been easier for me simply to pronounce the final blessing and send everyone home.

However, I felt God was calling us to move in faith; to stand on the edge of the cliff with him – and jump! We offered prayer to folk, and God’s Spirit came in power. There were those who laughed, those who cried, those who rested in the Spirit. Talking to people in the days that followed, we realised however, that God was changing people’s hearts. There was a desire for a second meeting following the Monday, to which about 60 people came, with similar results. A few visitors had come this time as well.

It was then decided to take, what for us was a huge leap of faith – to hold meetings on Mondays and Tuesdays for the whole month of October. We did not advertise in any formal sense, and our intention was that these meetings were for our own church folk as together we explored what God was doing in our midst.

The results, however, took us by surprise! The agenda for the meetings was kept very simple: some worship, a short teaching or encouraging word, some testimony from folk who had been touched by God previously, some practical issues were addressed (such as falling and not falling, and that people would not be pushed by the pray-ers, etc.), and then we went into a time of prayer with individuals.

The number of visitors increased as word got around, as people in quiet and in dramatic ways were touched by God’s lovely Spirit. One boy who had lost his brother in a traffic accident and had not cried since then, sobbed for a long time, before the crying turned to a gentle laugh or giggle. The change in him has been dramatic. Others have had their love for Jesus renewed and restored, and have captured again that first love that John speaks of in Revelation chapter 2.

Where are we now?

At this point in time we have moved into the larger hall; last week there were 240 people at the Monday meeting and 200 on Tuesday. A recent development from some parishioners has meant that the ministry will continue. Cumulatively over 2,000 people have been to the meetings from more than 110 churches of many different denominations. We praise God for the breaking down of denominational barriers.

Leaders and people together are coming to God for a fresh touch, a renewing and refreshing touch of his Holy Spirit. The testimonies are often simple and real:

* ‘Laid on the floor for one hour. Felt God’s love and peace, smelt the fragrance of the Spirit. Next day had amazing breakthroughs in marriage relationship and real healing.

* ‘God released me from anger and a feeling of unworthiness.’

* ‘Last night Jesus healed me from past memories of three people on different occasions molesting me. Praise Jesus.’

Some people ‘rest in the Spirit’ on the floor for a while, and God meets them there. One or two have spoken of being held down on the floor, as if God has put a great weight on their limbs and they are unable to get up until he has finished with them. Not everyone goes down. One man stood for quite a long time as the power of God came upon him. Those around sensed what almost seemed like a strong electrical current flowing into him. Sometimes the pray-ers and the catcher are touched as the Spirit manifests himself.

God is certainly at work. Whether people stand of fall is not the point. As John White has written in his book When the spirit comes with power,

manifestations, while they may be a blessing, are no guarantee of anything. Their outcome depends on the mysterious traffic between God and our spirits. Your fall and your shaking may be a genuine expression of the power of the Spirit resting on you. But the Spirit may not benefit you in the least if God does not have his way with you, while someone who neither trembles nor falls may profit greatly.

Of one thing we are sure. This is no new work of the Holy Spirit. As we read church history we note that the same things were seen and experienced by George Fox (1624-1691), by Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening (1740-1742), and by Charles Finney (1792-1875), as people came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and were drawn by God’s love for them.

Our cry to God today is: ‘Lord, do it again’.

__________

Toronto in Melbourne? Really?

The Rev. Geoff Glass, Anglican Minister at Beaumaris in Melbourne comments (December 1994):

——————————————————–

all have found a real spiritual refreshment,

a deepened awareness of God,

a bubbling joy and a deep peace

———————————————————

Some of us have heard stories of some remarkable happenings in a Vineyard Church in Toronto, Canada, and at Holy Trinity, Brompton, in England. Some of us have thought how good it would be to receive the blessings that are being poured out on people there.

On October 4 my wife Jan and I went to a clergy meeting over at Christ Church, Dingley, and found that their Vicar, Rob Isaachsen, and also his curate, Phil Ashton, had just returned from Toronto and Rob shared with us what had happened. It was obvious he had been profoundly touched by God and when he offered to pray for us I was first in. It wasn’t long before I found myself on the floor for the first time in the 21 years I have been in renewal. I lay there for some time as the Holy Spirit continued to minister to me. When I got up I felt remarkably alive and peaceful and had a new sense of freedom. Jan was prayed for soon after and she too ended up on the floor for the first time ever. When she got up she too felt the same as I did.

Later that day I was speaking to one of my church wardens on the phone and mentioned what had happened to us. He asked if he and his wife could come and see us that evening. They did, and as we prayed for them they too ended up on the floor and were profoundly blessed. Both Jan and I had a sense of the Holy Spirit releasing enormous power as we prayed for them.

As I reflected on this the next morning the Lord kept bringing to mind the phrase ‘times of refreshing’. It seemed familiar and I found a Bible reference using this phrase in Acts 3:19 that seemed to make sense of what had happened.

As we have shared this experience of the Holy Spirit with our congregations a number of people have asked for prayer. Nearly all ended up on the floor, but all have found a real spiritual refreshment, a deepened awareness of God, a bubbling joy and a deep peace. We are praying for the Holy Spirit to extend his blessing of refreshment to all of our congregation.

__________

The Blessing reaches Mulgrave

Mr Tony Stevens, editor of ‘Spirit Life’ the Victoria and Tasmania Newsletter of the Anglican Renewal Ministries of Australia, comments (December 1994):

————————————–

Let us all pray that the Lord

will keep his blessing flowing

to the churches and people

————————————–

St Matthew’s, Mulgrave, has been experiencing a mighty move of the Spirit this year. This all started around the time of Pentecost and has been heightened by the ministry of Tri Robinson and Lamar Junkins from the Vineyard.

Many people have been blessed by the ministry of the Rev. Brian Thewlis (whose home base is Christ Church, Dingley) who has been ministering here over the last couple of months. Many people from the 10.30 a.m. congregation have been freed, blessed and healed. Many of the congregation have also been to Dingley and received a blessing from the Lord there.

The church is praying for mighty things to happen next year. Praise the Lord for what is happening now!

———-

Let us all pray that the Lord will keep his blessing flowing to the churches and people during 1995. Let us all have open minds to what he is doing at this time in history.

_______________________________________________________

Selections edited from the November 1994 ARMA Sydney Newsletter (17 Trunks Street, Northbridge, NSW 2063) and Spirit Life the December 1994 Victoria and Tasmania ARMA Newsletter (PO Box 1134, Glen Waverley, Victoria 3150).

 

© Renewal Journal #5: Signs and Wonders, 1995, 2nd edition 2011
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright intact with the text.

Now available in updated book form (2nd edition 2011)

Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders – with more links
Renewal Journal 5: Signs & Wonders

Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders – PDF

Renewal Journal 5: Signs & Wonders – Editorial

Words, Signs and Deeds, by Brian Hathaway

Uproar in the Church, by Derek Prince

A Season of New Beginnings, by John Wimber

Preparing for Revival Fire, by Jerry Steingard

How to Minister Like Jesus, by Bart Doornweerd

Renewal Blessings, Reflections from England 

Renewal Blessings, Reflections from Australia

The Legacy of Hau Lian Kham, by Chin Khua Khai

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Reflections from England

Rev. Sandy Millar and Mrs Eleanor Mumford of London comment on refreshing from the Lord experienced in England.


Reminiscent of Revivals


Rev. Sandy Millar (Now Bishop), then Vicar of the prestigious inner-city Anglican church, Holy Trinity Brompton, comments on renewal and refreshing which commenced in May 1994 in their church.

 

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————————————————————

The manifestations themselves are not as

significant as the working of the Spirit of God

in the individual and the church

———————————————————–

This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel! (Acts 2:16) Or, as the old version puts it: ‘This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.’

This … is … that!

The immediate responses to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost included amazement and amusement. Some, Luke tells us, made fun of them and said, ‘They’ve had too much wine’ (v. 13). Why would anyone who wanted to be taken seriously suggest they’d drunk too much? Presumably because they looked drunk, sounded drunk and generally behaved as though they were drunk!

It is interesting that St Paul too in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus links and contrasts the effects on the body of alcohol (‘Do not get drunk with wine which leads to debauchery…’) with the effects of being immersed with the Spirit of God (‘… but be filled with the Spirit’) which leads to ‘speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 5:18-20).

Paul wasn’t at Pentecost but many times he’d seen people genuinely filled with the Spirit. Indeed he seems to have been able to tell pretty quickly whether disciples were or were not filled with the Spirit!

He may have been thinking of his visit to Ephesus described in Acts 19 when he asked what we would think of as a rather direct question: ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ To which he got back an equally direct and honest answer, ‘No we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And, as we all know, ‘on hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus and, when Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied’. Luke adds that there were about twelve men in all.

Astonishing outpouring

Since about Tuesday of two weeks ago, we have begun to see an astonishing outpouring of the Spirit of God upon our own church and congregation. It seems to be a spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit and there are certainly some very surprising manifestations of the Spirit very excitingly reminiscent of accounts of early revivals and movements of God’s Spirit.

Some of the manifestations include prolonged laughter, totally unselfconscious for the most part, and an inexpressible and glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8). For some it is prolonged weeping and crying with a sense of conviction and desire for forgiveness, purity and peace with God. For others it seems to be a silent reception of the Spirit of God sometimes leading to falling down and sometimes standing up, sometimes kneeling, sometimes sitting.

There are great varieties of the manifestations of the Spirit. They are breaking out both during services and outside them in homes and offices. At times they are easy to explain and handle, and other times they are much harder and more complicated!

We had been hearing for several days of the movement of God’s Spirit in the Vineyard Church in Toronto, Canada, and a number of people have come to us from there telling us about what was going on and of what they thought it all meant.

For that reason Jeremy Jennings and I decided to go to Toronto at the beginning of this month just for two and a half days to see what we could learn and what conclusions, if any, at this stage it was possible to draw. The manifestations are quite extraordinary and would undoubtedly be alarming if we hadn’t read about them previously in history.

That’s really why I started where I started in this article. You don’t get accused of being drunk just because you speak in tongues. And many of the manifestations of this modern movement of the Spirit of God carry with them many of the symptoms of drunkenness. Laughter, swaying about, slurred speech, movements which are difficult to control … all sometimes continuing for long periods of time.

The manifestations themselves of course are not as significant as the working of the Spirit of God in the individual and the church. The manifestations are the symptom and therefore of course it is to the fruit that we look rather than the signs.

Times of refreshing

The church in Toronto first experienced these symptoms on January 20th (1994) and since then they have been ministering to an increasing number of outside people: ministers and church members from all over America, Canada, now Europe and even further afield.

Meetings go on night after night (every night except Monday) and include a pastors’ meeting on a Wednesday from 12 to roughly half-past three in the afternoon. Their understanding is that God seems to be pouring out his Spirit, refreshing his people and drawing them closer to himself, revealing his love to them and a deep sense of preciousness in away that kindles their own sense of the love of God, their love for Scripture, and their desire to be involved in the activities of the Spirit of God today.

So this is primarily a movement toward God’s people. Naturally we expect it to flow out and over into a movement that will affect the rest of the world but for the moment it’s God’s deep desire to minister to his church – to refresh, empower, and prepare them fora wider work of his Spirit that will affect the world to which the church is sent.

Charles Finney (1792-1875) – one of history’s greatest evangelists – records his experience of the Holy Spirit immediately following his conversion:

The Holy Spirit descended upon 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… And 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. These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after another until I recollect I cried out ‘I shall die if these effects continue to pass over me’.

During the ministry of Jonathan Edwards in the 1735 revival in New Hampshire, he described some of the effects of the spontaneous work of the Spirit of God. ‘The town seemed to be full of the presence of God,’ he wrote. ‘It was never so full of love, nor of joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then.’

He describes something which happened during one of his sermons in New Jersey on March 1st 1746: ‘Toward the close of my talk, divine truths made considerable impressions upon the audience, and produced tears and sobs in some under concern and more especially a sweet and humble melting in sundry that, I have reason to hope, were truly gracious.’

During the Cambusland revival in Scotland in 1742, Doctor Alexander Webster described some of the effects of the preaching there: ‘There were two kinds – the outcrying and trembling among the unconverted and the ecstatic joy among believers… indeed such joy was more a part of this work than the sorrow over sin. It appears that many believers found themselves so moved by a sense of the Saviour’s love to them and, in turn, by their new love to him, as to be lifted almost into a state of rapture.’

I could go on and on – and probably you could add your own accounts that you’ve read about in history. There are more than one in the Acts of the Apostles.

I think it’s important that we should stay close to the Lord and be grateful for every sign of his grace upon us. Don’t let’s get too caught up with the symptoms of his Spirit, but more with him and his love for us.

Let’s encourage those who think they have experienced nothing (it may or may not be true) – and let’s above all continue to pray that through this outpouring of God’s Spirit he will build a church worthy of him: holy, equipped, and full of love and grace towards him and the outside world.

Meanwhile let’s pray that it may continue. And continue to pray for one another.

__________

The current move of the Spirit

Mrs Eleanor Mumford , wife of the pastor of the South West London Vineyard church, comments on her visit to Toronto in this edited version of her message at Holy Trinity Brompton on Sunday morning 29 May 1994.

—————————————–

This whole move of the Lord

is all about Jesus

—————————————-

I have just been to a church in Toronto in Canada. I heard that there were things going on. I wanted to go and get into the middle. I went because I knew I was bankrupt and that I was longing. And I went with a spirit of tremendous expectancy.

So the first night I went forward and this delightful pastor said to me, ‘Do tell me who you are and what you’ve come for.’

I said, ‘I’ve come for all that you’ve got. I have two days and I’ve come from London.’

So he looked at me with a glint in his eye and then proceeded to pray for me on and off for the next two days.

At the same time there was a young Chinese pastor who arrived at Toronto from Vancouver where he was pastoring and he came fasting. The darling man looked as if he’s spent his whole life fasting and he was the most wonderful and godly man. As he arrived at the church the Lord spoke to him clearly and said, ‘You can forget about your fasting. This is a time for celebration.’

Indeed it was.

An ordinary little church

The Airport Vineyard church in Toronto is a funny little place. It’s just a very ordinary little church set in an office block on the end of the runway of the airport. Even that in itself, I thought, was gracious of the Lord because so many of us can get there so easily. It takes 10 minutes from the check-out to the church!

It was a very ordinary place. I was reminded when I went in there of how the people in the crowd said at Pentecost: ‘Are not these Galileans? Are these not just terribly ordinary people?’

I went in and I thought, ‘Well, God bless them, these are just ordinary people like me.’

It’s just to do with Jesus, and yet the attitude and the sense of expectancy was enormous. As the worship leader strummed his rather tuneless guitar, he stood up and said, ‘What have you come for?’

We all said, ‘We’ve come for the Lord. We’ve come for more of God.’

And he said, ‘Well, if you’ve come for God you’ll not be disappointed.’

From that moment on that was the truth.

There was just a beauty on those who were ministering there – the leaders and the pastors and the worship leaders – the sort of beauty that I guess the people saw in Acts when they looked at the disciples and they said, ‘These people have been with Jesus.’

These Canadians were just men and women who had spent 130 days in the company of Jesus who was pouring out his Spirit on them. They shone with faces like Stephen. It was beautiful to see.

I saw the power of God poured out in incredible measure and it was all accompanied by phenomena.

Great Awakening

Jonathan Edwards, a great man of God during the eighteenth century who was part of the Great Awakening in America, wrote this in his journal of a similar outpouring of the Spirit of God at that time: ‘The apostolic times seem to have returned upon us, such a display has there been of the power and grace of the Spirit.’

He wrote of fear, sorrow, desire, love, joy, tears, and trembling, of ‘groans and cries, agonies of the body and the failing of bodily strength.’

So I thought, ‘Well, none of this is new. It may be unusual but none of it is new.’

Edwards also wrote, ‘We are all ready to own that no man can see God and live. If we see even a small part of the love and the glory of Christ, a foretaste of heaven, is it any wonder that our bodily strength is diminished.’

That is indeed what happened to many of us despite ourselves.

The truth is that this whole move of the Lord is all about Jesus. I was there for only 48 hours. I never heard anybody talk about the devil. I never heard anybody talk about spiritual warfare. I never heard a principality or a power mentioned. We were so preoccupied with the person of Jesus that there was really no time. There was no space for talk of the opposition because there was just a growing passion for the name of Jesus and for the beauty of his presence among his people.

So I went scurrying back to the Scriptures and scurrying back to church history and it’s all happened before. It’s all in the book and there’s nothing that I saw – however strange or unusual – that I haven’t since been able to read about in the Bible.

Jonathan Edwards’ wife had an intimate acquaintance with her carpet for 17 days during the time of the Great Awakening. For 17 days she was unable to make their meals or take care of the family or look after the visitors.

She said after 17 days that she had a delightful sense of the immediate presence of God – of ‘his nearness to me and of my dearness to him.’

I thought to myself when I came home, that’s what this is about. It’s about his nearness to me and my dearness to him.’ Wonderful, wonderful things are going on.

Pastors renewed

During the time I was there I saw all sorts of people coming and going. There were many very weary pastors who turned up with their even more weary wives, and they were so anointed by the Lord.

There was one very sensible middle-aged man who’d been in pastoral ministry for years and when he spoke to us after having been there for several days he was just behaving like an old drunk. It was funny. Once he stood up and talked about the intimacy that he’d gained with Jesus. Then the leading pastor said to him, ‘Well thank you, Wayne, for telling us about this. May we pray for you?’

He said, ‘I’d be glad for you to pray for me.’

They prayed for him and down he went and he rolled on the floor for the next two hours and no-one took any notice. He just continued to commune with his God.

I saw another young pastor who talked at the pastors’ seminar that I went to. He was a very all-together young man – quite serious minded and godly and thrilled with everything but very much in control and very anxious when he came and not at all sure of what he’d come to.

For a day or two he just watched and he just basked in the presence of the Lord. After a day or two he started to twitch and he was a little embarrassed. Then he started to shake and he was very embarrassed. Then after a while of shaking and laughing in the presence of the Lord he decided, ‘Who gives a rip? Who cares what people say?’

A verse in Psalms says, ‘gladness and joy shall overtake me.’ This young man had been overtaken by the gladness of the Lord. But he had a sense of responsibility and felt, ‘I’ve got to keep my church on the road.’

So he decided that the obvious thing to do was to go into the office and to type out the church bulletin, the news sheet.

‘Someone’s got to keep a grip round here,’ he said to himself.

So he went to type out the bulletin and as he got to announcing the seminar. The title of it was ‘Come Holy Spirit’.

He typed, ‘Come Holy Spirit’ and fell under the power of God.

There was another young man who was a youth worker who arrived and he was worn down with ministry. His wife had said to him, ‘Why don’t you go to Toronto?’ She thought he was getting far too straight and serious.

So he came to Toronto and arrived the night that I did. That night he fell on the ground and he laughed and laughed. I thought he would have died. The next day he spoke about what God had done for him and the refreshment that had come to his soul. Then they said to him, ‘Would you like us to pray for you again?’

He said, ‘I think so.’

So we prayed and down he went and just laughed his way through hour after hour of the pastors’ seminar.

And you think to yourself, ‘What is this?’

But this is just the refreshing of the Spirit of God. It talks in the book of Acts about times of refreshing from the Spirit of the Lord, and that’s what God is doing.

He’s pouring his Spirit out upon us. He’s sending his joy and he’s refreshing our spirits just because he loves us.

I’m not even sure that he’s equipping us. I’m not even sure it’s all about being better this, better that, better ministers. It think it’s just his love for us. It’s about his nearness to me and my dearness to him.

Joy and refreshing

I could tell you heaps of stories. There are stories about people who are ringing one another up and getting led to Christ over the phone.

There was a story about a young woman who’d lain on the floor and laughed for two hours. Then she got up and decided she was peckish and went off to a little fast food restaurant. She sat down. Opposite, she saw a whole family sitting at a table and, completely out of character, she went to them and said, ‘Would you like to be saved?’ And they all said yes! The whole family was led to Christ.

I went to the Dolphin school [a Christian school in Clapham] the other day and talked to them about what the Lord had been doing and I prayed for them. The Lord fell on those children aged five years old and they were laughing and weeping for the lost and crying out to the Lord. The teachers were affected and the parent were rolling around.

I thought, ‘God, this is a glorious thing you’re doing. This is fantastic.’

Jesus is breaking down the barriers of his church because he’s coming for a bride, and he wants his bride to be one.

We’ve been meeting with Baptist pastors this week. We’ve been meeting with New Frontiers pastors. We’ve been meeting with the Anglicans. And God is pouring his Spirit out on us all and it’s a glorious thing.

I was reminded of that verse in the Psalms (133:1,3), ‘How blessed it is when brothers dwell together in unity … for there the Lord commands the blessing.’

He doesn’t just invite it, or suggest it. He commands a blessing on us when we dwell together in unity – when we love one another and we love one another’s churches and we bless one another’s people.

So God is moving, not just on this funny little church at the end of the runway. He’s moving across the denominations. He’s moving across the land. He’s moving across London and England in a fantastic way. And he’s moving across the world.

Greater love for Jesus

What are the perceived results so far?

For myself, there is a greater love for Jesus than I’ve ever known, a grater excitement about the Kingdom than I ever thought possible, a greater sense that these are glorious, glorious days in which to be alive. I’m thrilled about the Scriptures and I’m going back to the Word and finding that it’s all been there from the very beginning.

I’m excited about church history. I have a heightened sense of what’s been going on up to this point.

I have an ever stronger sense of the whole church than ever before. The Lord said to them in Toronto right at the beginning, ‘This is not about the Vineyard; this is about the Kingdom.’ This is not about any one church. This is about the Kingdom, and about the Bride of Christ. Right across the church Jesus’ passion for his Bride is beginning to be understood.

I’ve also discovered that I’m desperate to give this away. I haven’t had this appetite for ministry for years. I mean, I’ve always been enthusiastic but I’ve not had this passion before. I’ve just found that there’s a greater recklessness in me than there’s ever been before because God is coming upon us, and the joy of the Lord is coming on the church and Jesus is restoring his joy. And his laughter is like medicine to the soul.

In our church the people are getting freed and the people are getting healed. We’ve got people who have gone down on the floor and got up healed. Nobody ever knew they were sick and they got better without us even naming the words.

The Lord is coming with mercy and kindness.

The prodigal son went to look for parties but he discovered that the best party was in his father’s house. Isn’t that the truth?

__________________________________________________________

(c) HTB in Focus, 12 June 1994, the monthly paper of Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London. Renewal Journal #5 (1995:1), pp. 24-31.

 

© Renewal Journal #5: Signs and Wonders, 1995, 2nd edition 2011
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright intact with the text.

Now available in updated book form (2nd edition 2011)

Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders – with more links
Renewal Journal 5: Signs & Wonders

Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders – PDF

Renewal Journal 5: Signs & Wonders – Editorial

Words, Signs and Deeds, by Brian Hathaway

Uproar in the Church, by Derek Prince

A Season of New Beginnings, by John Wimber

Preparing for Revival Fire, by Jerry Steingard

How to Minister Like Jesus, by Bart Doornweerd

Renewal Blessings, Reflections from England 

Renewal Blessings, Reflections from Australia

The Legacy of Hau Lian Kham, by Chin Khua Khai

Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders – PDF

Contents of all Renewal Journals

Amazon – Renewal Journal 5: Signs and Wonders

Amazon – all journals and books

See Renewal Journal 5: Signs & Wonders as on Amazon and Kindle and The Book Depository.

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Paperback books and eBooks for PC, tablet, phone
Add to your free Cloud Library then download anytime
 

Amazon and Kindle and The Book Depository

Link to all Renewal Journals

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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Reviews (7) Blessing

Renewal Journal 7: Blessing

Books

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Many books help us understand the current blessing. They include these.

  • Signs of Revival by Patrick Dixon (Kingsway, 1994),
  • Prepare for Revival by Rob Warner (Hodder and Stoughton, 1995),
  • Catch the Fire and Pray with Fire by Guy Chevreau (Marshall Pickering 1994, 1995)

place the current blessing in the context of revival phenomena especially in the last 300 years.

  • A Breath of Fresh Air by Mike Fearon (Eagle 1994),
  • The Toronto Blessing by Dave Roberts (Kingsway, 1994),
  • The Impact of Toronto edited by Wallace Boulton (Monarch, 1995), and
  • Keep the Fire by John Arnott (Harper/Collins, 1995)

all describe the Toronto version of this blessing in detail and discuss its impact and significance.

  • Something Extraordinary is Happening by Andy and Jane FitzGibbon (Monarch, 1995) and
  • The Sunderland Refreshing by Ken and Lois Gott (Hodder and Stoughton, 1995)

both detail the impact of this blessing in Sunderland in the north of England.

_________________

Videos/DVDs

  • Rumours of Revival is probably the best video around describing ‘The Toronto Blessing’. Leaders in England and America comment from various perpectives, including some negative ones. However the overall concensus is that God is moving in powerful ways in the earth through this blessing.
  • Let the Fire Burn offers an Australian pentecostal perspective by Jeff Beecham (AOG) with testimony and description of the impact of this blessing in churches today.

_______________________________________________________________

© Renewal Journal 7: Blessing, 1996, 2nd edition 2011
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included.

Now available in updated book form (2nd edition 2011)

Renewal Journal 7: Blessing
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Renewal  Journal 7: Blessing – Editorial

What on earth is God doing? by Owen Salter

Times of Refreshing, by Greg Beech

Renewal Blessing, by Ron French

Catch the Fire, by Dennis Plant

Reflections, by Alan Small

A Fresh Wave, by Andrew Evans

Waves of Glory, by David Cartledge

Balance, by Charles Taylor

Discernment, by John Court

Renewal Ministry, by Geoff Waugh

Also in Renewal Journals bound volume 2 (Issues 6-10)

Renewal Journals Vol 2, Nos 6-10

Renewal Journals Vol 2: Nos 6-10

Renewal Journal Vol 2 (6-10) – PDF

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See also Revivals Index

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GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

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BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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