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This issue of the Renewal Journal focuses on a little of the enormous harvest currently being reaped around the world. Much of this harvest is being reaped at great cost in personal sacrifice and even martyrdom. Often, the most faith-filled and faithful church is the church suffering persecution, precisely because of the persecution.
We live in a time of harvest. The fields are white, ready for harvest. One aspect of this growing harvest is the increase of revival around the world. Revival has many expressions and varies from culture to culture. The constant elements of revival, however, remain the same everywhere, as summarised in 2 Chronicles 7:14 – God’s people getting humble, praying, seeking God, repenting, and God moving in grace, forgiveness and power, bringing multitudes into his kingdom and healing brokenness in people’s lives and in the community. God can do in a moment what we can never do with all our effort.
As we look on the harvest we can all participate in vital ways:
We can ask God for a great harvest as we pray. Often. Alone. Together.
We can believe God. He is able to do far more than anything we can ask or even think about.
We can commit our way to God who is the Lord of the harvest.
This issue of the Renewal Journal is full of stories of the current harvest.
Two teenage girls in China saw astounding results in two years which they recount in their testimony “The Spirit told us what to do.”
The Argentine Revival continues to reap untold thousands right now.
Local churches continue to experience visitations of God in increasing numbers, especially where they humble themselves and pray and seek God together and with others. Toronto in Canada, Brompton in London, Sunderland in England, and Pensacola in Florida became well known sparks for global revivals. Thousands have been converted there, and tens or hundreds of thousands filled with the Spirit in new ways, igniting new ministries. Places such as Baltimore, Smithton and Mobile reported similar revivals with lasting impacts of the Spirit of God.
Australian reports include stirrings of revival in the Kimberleys, and in the national expressions of reconciliation with Aborigines and the British. Accounts of individual churches experiencing a fresh move of God continue, as with Christian Life Centre at Mt Annan.
Global reports continue to tell of the mighty works of God. As he promised, he is pouring out his Spirit on all people. Much of that is very different from our traditional forms of western Christianity! It challenges us to rethink what we do. Essentials are the biblical patterns. Non-essentials include our structures, denominations, buildings, musical preferences, orders of service, and culture Christianity. The church in many countries now looks and sounds rather like the New Testament church, persecution and all, empowered by the Spirit, with regular conversions, healing and signs and wonders.
We need to do what Jesus commanded us to do – to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into his great harvest. You can pray. We never know how God may answer that prayer – including answering it in and through us!
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
Taking Our Cities for God explores history, geography, demographics, and spiritual warfare as part of an overall strategy in wining a city for Christ. John Dawson gives sound biblical foundations illustrated with examples of his own experience in dealing with spiritual powers and principalities. Floyd McClung notes, “Occasionally a book comes along that is more than a good book, it is indeed a word from God. This is such a book” (p. 11).
People face a multitude of problems and opposition by spiritual forces on a daily basis. John Dawson identifies certain keys and spiritual insights into how we may overcome these obstacles, which may be instrumental in a overall strategy to winning any city in the world for Christ. He covers topics such as studying the spirituality of a city’s history; discerning the spiritual strongholds which work against a city; the power of intercession for a city; planing and gaining God’s strategy in breaking strongholds and restoring a city for God; and gaining understanding of the weaknesses of the spirit realm over a city. The book has a thirteen lesson study guide which includes an application for daily living.
Taking Our Cities for God has five sections.
Section One: Battle Stories
Besides the biblical and personal examples of spiritual warfare in missions and evangelism, Dawson devotes part of this section to teaching Scriptural principles. He describes the work of the Holy Spirit in the gift of discernment of spirits, and reveals the importance of acting from obedient will and faith. He brings clarity to a very touchy subject for many Christians. His dependence on God, and insistence of working with the Holy Spirit is evident, and brings this crucial situation to the door step of the reader, in any city.
Dawson combines his theory with experience. An interesting example occurred in Argentina when a group of Youth With a Mission workers came against the city’s spiritual stronghold (Pride) and humbled themselves by kneeling down with their foreheads on the ground praying. All over downtown Cordoba, Youth with a Mission workers preached to attentive audiences and a harvest of souls began (pages 19‑20).
Section Two: Deliver The Dark City
Over half the world population lives in urban centres (p.34). In developed nations like the U.S. the percentage is much higher, e.g. 91% of California’s population live in cities. He examines the historical issues of today’s modern cities, taking into consideration some of the changes that have taken place. For example, Los Angeles has four and a half million Hispanics, is the second largest Chinese city outside Asia and second largest Japanese city outside of Japan (p35). Since the fall of communism in Russia the remark that Marxist cities are closed to the gospel is no longer applicable.
Dawson compels the reader to ask “Why is this town here?” (p43) and gives examples of God’s purpose in the location of a city. For example Omaha was once the place where pioneering wagon trains were provisioned for the arduous trail into the western wilderness. “We believe that we are still to equip the pioneers,” one pastor told me. “This time it is to support world‑wide missionary work.” Now that’s a vision worth living for (p44).
Dawson realised the benefit of examining how a city will grow and change over the next twenty years. He develops an argument from an historical view of how relationships have changed with the modern city’s growth.
Section Three: Discerning The Gates Of Your City
Dawson’s main thrust in this section is to know the city’s history and what has brought about change. “When you look into the history of your city, you will find clues as to what is oppressing the people today” (p77).
He calls upon the prophets, intercessors and spiritual fathers to be the “watchmen” over the city, with the emphasis on repentance, reconciliation and prayer, alert to current and future trends. Uncovering these trends will help the church to advance.
Dawson studies the concept covenant over a city. He cites good examples such as the Azuza Street Revival in Los Angeles, and Wilber Chapman and Aimee Semple McPherson in Denver. He encourages the reader to seek God and find out what point of entry evil had to gain entrance to a city or nation. He lists twenty questions ranging through religious divisions, wars, poor leadership, economic corruption and racial practices.
Section 4: Learning To Fight
Dawson concludes that we must fight because through Jesus we have regained our stewardship of the earth (p.158). He provides the reader with the foundational traits of spiritual warfare by taking spiritual discernment a step further. He has demonstrates the realities of the two kingdoms – God’s and Satan’s rebel province ‑ and includes a biblical background on angels and their origin and functions. He reveals the tactics of spiritual warfare by first focusing on Jesus, the giver of the spiritual gifts. We are provided with the power of the cross and with the truth of Scripture .
Section 5. Into Battle: 5 Steps To Victory
Dawson divides this section into worship‑ the place of beginnings, waiting on the Lord for insight, identifying with the sins of the city, overcoming evil with good, and travailing till birth. Part of his strategy involves the importance of waiting on God, and allowing God to reveal the situation in the spirit. We need to come to him with repentance and humility. Dawson gives practical advice about overcoming evil with good by resisting temptation and taking positive action through prayer and fasting. Again the emphasis is on ministry in the opposite spirit, such as overcoming pride with humility or violence with turning the other cheek.
Dawson combines his theology with practical experience in the front line of spiritual warfare. His examination of the historical and geographical nature of a city provides an excellent understanding of how the demographics of a city will effect an outreach. His examples of the size and nature of various ethnic groups within Los Angeles demonstrates the problems a local church may face in the mission field. His consideration of trends was also an interesting revelation, as most churches do operate with a catch up mentality.
Dawson gives examples of occasions when he got it wrong, and also when he got it right. He maintains a balance, observing that although he has given the reader very good keys to the taking of our cities for God, it is necessary to seek God for ourselves.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
“When Princess Diana died, and particularly the weekend of her funeral (September 6, 1997), this nation found its soul,” Wynne Lewis, general superintendent Elim Pentecostal Churches (UK), told me when I was in England recently. “There came a realization of the stark reality that a heroine had gone – tragically – and life and materialism are very uncertain. It has become easier to preach salvation and the need to trust God.”
Indeed there has been a powerful fresh move of God sweeping through many churches, including mainline and the various pentecostal streams as well as the historic AOG and Elim movements.
A Significant Sign
Many Christians and leaders spoke of the so-termed ‘Diana prophecy’ received in two parts by a Sheffield lady as being highly significant to the nation. In case you missed it, the following is an extract:
(16/5/97) “I am at work in the heart and the spirit of the people of this nation. I am doing a work which, at the moment, is unseen. Things are happening much more quickly than you think. And as a sign, there will be a day very soon when the whole nation will mourn and put flowers in the cities.”
(31/8/97) “When that day happens the sign is this: the speed at which the heart and the spirit of the people of this nation can be affected, that is the speed at which I will work among this nation. Do not think that what you see and hear of are small, insignificant happenings. Do not despise the day of small things. For I tell you, when you see this sign, I am on the move in the cities of this nation and where flowers are laid, my Spirit will be moving faster than those flowers are removed.
“For I am bringing the power of my Spirit to bear on the cities. As fast as that mourning went through the nation, joy will go through this nation. And I tell you that you will know the miraculous entering your lives. You will see changes in areas where you never expected to see changes. You will see relatives you never expected to see coming into the kingdom of God. You will know areas in your life where you’ve battled and battled and never overcome – you will overcome in a day, says the Lord. For I am at work in this nation and I will bring (it) to its knees before me and they will know the joy of their salvation in the mighty risen Lord Jesus.
“Therefore, rejoice. And do not let that spirit of mourning pervade your own spirit. Do not let that spirit of mourning grasp at your heart. For you have joy inexpressible in your hearts. Therefore, let the rivers of living water flow from within you and know that you will have many opportunities from this point to speak of my grace, to speak of my love, to see in action my Spirit at work. Know that I will be with you in that and you will see the miraculous, says the Lord.”
God is Moving
There are several major spiritual initiatives and thrusts occurring in the UK. In particular concentrated prayer, as in other European nations and the States, has become a top priority with many leaders and churches and is bringing amazing results. London especially has become a main target for prayer. Powerful prayer meetings and conferences are calling for the nation and Christians to repent before a holy God. Church services see people repenting at the altar and even where they’re sitting.
Ken and Lois Gott’s Revival Now Ministries’ great October prophetic conference was no exception when God’s Spirit ‘blew in’ a wind of repentance and forgiveness regarding snobbish attitudes between people ‘representing’ the north and the south of England. Then individuals from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jamaica, Germany and South Africa also came to the altar to similarly apologise for their countries’ wrong attitudes towards the British. Tears flowed openly and prayer for the nation as a whole was powerful. Humbly recognising afresh that Jesus is the answer to all humankind’s needs, other nations were also prayed for.
Pioneer People’s Gerald Coates unadvertised Sowing the Seeds of Revival meetings in the rotunda Emmanuel Centre, Mawson Street (close to Westminster Abbey) five nights a week attracted over 40,000 people in a matter of months. Around 150 full of faith Chinese Christians purchased the former Christian Science building for only £2.6 million instead of the asking price £6m. Allowing the Pioneer Team to use the church has resulted in hundreds saved, many on their knees and in tears, and lives changed. Personalities from Parliament and Buckingham Palace have visited and been touched by God. Dustbin loads of surrendered pornography, illegal drugs and weapons, masonic jewellery and clothing and personal effects have had to be dumped.
London’s Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) and Queens Road Baptist continue to hold significant revival meetings with hundreds of attenders hungry for God. Many AOG and Elim churches are moving in revival and planting more churches. There is a greater openness to networking to gain more meaningful results, and many noteworthy conferences are held across the nation. More and more churches are taking HTB’s Alpha program on board and seeing converts and stronger disciples of Christ. Over half a million people have embraced the course.
Reaching Out
The AOG of Great Britain and Ireland has increased by 250 churches in the past four years. General Superintendent Paul Weaver sees the need for strong churches effectively communicating the gospel locally. With 650 fully accredited churches and several probationary, the AOG in the UK is determined to play its role in impacting the nation, and reaching thousands for Christ. Their general conference this year – Impact 21, affecting change in the power of the Spirit – should prove historic in inspiring and releasing leaders.
Christian Channel Europe, headed up by Rory and Wendy Alec, was finding good response from the UK and Europe when based in Crown House. Miraculously God arranged for the Alecs to be given top class TV studios nearby. Despite a presently limited time slot, 3am to 7am, CCE has been reaching as far away as the Baltics. Now, with the greater facilities, the channel will ‘hit Europe and the UK in a bigger and more effective way.’
Kensington Temple, England’s largest pentecostal church, has tapped into the incredible potential of satellite TV for its churches and teaching courses. These programs reach Europe as well as the UK. Praying and open-air preaching by KT youth at Leicester Square has seen thousands saved. Over 2000 people now attend KT’s Sunday night services in the new ex-BBC warehouse auditorium in North Acton. A whole month of ‘unprogrammed’ meetings Wednesday through Saturday saw hundreds of lives dramatically changed, healings and signs and wonders. On the Saturday nights the church took to the streets and saw hundreds saved.
Sense of God’s Time
Many believe strongly that God is at work in the nation and exerting his influence as Sovereign Lord over churches and Christians. Leaders are becoming more challenged and sensitive to allowing the Holy Spirit to have his way.
Ken Gott virtually echoed Wynne Lewis’ words when he stated, ‘Britain found its soul when people prayed along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, “Our Father, your kingdom come.” Princess Diana’s death deeply touched the nation spiritually. There is a searching going on!’
He then told of a man in a London pub who went over to two other men who were sitting quietly having a meal. He was searching, desperate for answers, and ‘somehow knew’ they were Christians.
‘Sir,’ he said to one, ‘I perceive you are a man of integrity. Do you have something to say to me?’
‘Yes, Jesus loves you.’
‘Do you have anything else to say?’
‘Yes, you’re dying.’
It was a sure word of knowledge. The man was dying – from AIDS. He had been walking all day around London praying to the God he did not know personally and saying, ‘If you’re real, God, reveal yourself.’ God did and the man got saved!
There is a definite awareness of God’s time for the UK. Prophet Paul Cain has declared that God has targeted Great Britain for harvest. I sensed it deeply in my own spirit and encouraged many to believe for God to raise their nation on a powerful ‘next wave’ that will exalt the Lordship of Jesus, see thousands come into the kingdom, the nation turned around and, as in years gone by, again touching other nations especially the Continent.
A deepening hunger to know God more intimately and to redeem the time is also prevalent. As Fulton Sheen put it: ‘Every moment comes to you pregnant with a divine purpose; time being so precious that God deals it out only second by second. Once it leaves your hands and your power to do with it as you please, it plunges into eternity, to remain forever as you made it.’
Hope and Expectation
The flowers have been laid and lifted and God is moving! Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that Britain would be a compassionate nation, a giving one and one on the cutting edge. I personally believe that will also happen spiritually and we’ll be receiving wonderful exciting reports of the power, grace and favour of God at work in Great Britain, with an emphasis on the ‘Great.’
Hope and expectation would aptly describe the present state of many Spirit-filled believers there. Australia may not have been as deeply affected by Princess Di’s death as the UK and even Eire, but great expectation and strong hope in Christ, accompanied by serious prayer, laying aside personal priorities and even church programs, and getting right with God, lead to amazing accomplishments in taking Jesus to any nation.
May it be so in Australia as the Holy Spirit seeks to, and is allowed to, dig new wells in places not yet familiar with the sounds of the river of God’s refreshing and his saving grace.
Reproduced with permission from The Australian Evangel, February 1998, pages 47-48.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
Lindell Cooley wrote as the worship leader at Brownsville Assemblies of God in Pensacola, America, a church in revival since 18 June 1995. This article is from his book A Touch of Glory (Revival Press, 1997).
One of the most important things I can tell you is that true revival comes when God descends upon man in His glory. That’s it. There is no formula or religious dogma to memorize and implement at your church. There is no “12‑Step Revival Plan in a Can” that you can purchase at some expensive church growth seminar. Extraordinary things happen when the Extraordinary God shows up among ordinary people who long for more of Him. That is a summary of what happened at Brownsville Assembly of God on Father’s Day in June of 1995.
When I moved my mountain of boxes to Pensacola, Florida, and began to lead worship there, I quickly realized that I had come to an ordinary Assemblies of God church. Pastor John Kilpatrick was a wonderful pastor and a skilled teacher of the Word, but he struggled with the same problems every other pastor has to deal with. He worried about motivating and training workers, finding time to handle his counselling load, and balancing his roles as administrator, family man, and spiritual leader of the flock. He worried about the welfare of the sheep in his care, and he was fervently praying for revival. It was a church that wanted more because it didn’t have it yet.
I inherited a great worship team and a talented group of musicians, but like anyone else I struggled with rehearsal schedules, motivation problems, and the constant need to learn new songs and resuscitate the old ones. The congregation was a normal mix of young, old, and in‑betweens, representing almost every musical taste you could think of. In the midst of the normal challenges, we desperately wanted to see revival spark in our services and we were frustrated. Brownsville Assembly of God was like most of the medium‑sized Pentecostal and Charismatic churches scattered across America. We wanted something that we didn’t have, and we were pressing in by faith to see it come to pass.
I was scheduled to return to the Ukraine for a short missions trip in June, but before I left I began to teach the worship team, the choir, and the music team some Vineyard worship choruses. I had done away with most of the hard‑driving, lively praise songs I favoured before. I didn’t want to do anything that smacked of hype or emotional manipulation. I just wanted to go directly into worship and bypass praise altogether. The congregation seemed to enjoy some of the choruses and was indifferent to others. Something was still missing.
Revival!
I went to the Ukraine in June of 1995 to help conduct a short choir tour and planned to return the week after Father’s Day. I was getting ready to leave the Ukraine when revival came “suddenly” to the Brownsville congregation on Sunday, June 18th. At the end of the Father’s Day service, the visiting evangelist named Stephen Hill gave an altar call. He had just delivered a normal sermon during a normal Sunday service, but everything changed when the Spirit of God suddenly descended on the congregation.
Many people who were present, including Pastor Kilpatrick, literally felt a wind sweep through the sanctuary during the visitation. A thousand people rushed to the altar that day to confess their sins, repent, and commit themselves to the Lord without hesitation or compromise. At this writing, the revival has continued week after week for two years and 125,000 souls have been added to the Kingdom by conservative count. The Lord continues to visit us with ever‑increasing power and glory month after month.
I flew into John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Tuesday the 20th after reluctantly bidding my beloved Ukranian friends good‑bye. I found a phone and immediately called Pastor Kilpatrick.
“Hey, John what’s going on?”
“Lindell, It has happened!”
“What has happened?”
“Revival is here.”
I had waited to her those words for a long time.
My heart leapt in my chest because I knew it had to be real or the man on the other end of the line wouldn’t say it like that. I wanted to get back to Pensacola just that much quicker, but I knew I couldn’t make it until Wednesday. During the flight from New York to Florida, my mind kept taking me back to those “gentle laid‑back moments in God’s presence” that I had embraced since April.
When I arrived, John and Brenda Kilpatrick picked me up at the airport, and he began to share with me what God was doing. It sounded wonderful, but I was very tired, and felt disconnected. I didn’t realize it then, but that disconnected feeling would stay with me for about two weeks. There was no doubt that God was in the house, but I was having trouble entering in. I ran headlong into a major disappointment because I was expecting “Toronto”.
Breaking Old Dislikes
First there was this Stephen Hill character. I had never met him before the Wednesday night service after Father’s Day, but this evangelist seemed to be just a little “too hyped” for me. Pastor Kilpatrick assured me that he was okay and said that he had known Steve for years. My daydreams of a ‘gentle’ move of the Holy Spirit that morning were jolted back to reality by Stephen Hill, a dynamo with an unquenchable passion for souls. He was far from gentle. I thought he came across like a speeding freight train that first night.
He had us sing one chorus for 30 minutes straight at a clip of 90 miles an hour, and I felt like I had stepped back into my old Pentecostal roots again. All the wonderful things that the Lord had done for me suddenly seemed to disappear and my own heathenistic self came out again. I thought, I am not going to do this! Sorry, but I’ve been there, done that. I don’t want to do this! I want that gentle sweetness that I had.
After the service I was pretty hard on Steve Hill once we were alone. I said, “Steve, I am not going to get up there and do all that hype stuff. If you want it, then get someone else to do it, because I’m not doing it.” Frankly, I had a rotten attitude. Do you know what Steve did? He totally disarmed me with his answer. He said, “Well, brother, that’s all right. Whatever you want to do.” I had to repent to him shortly after that because I was so mean to him. He could have been angry with me but he wasn’t. The battles in my heart would continue for a while, but we were on the way to becoming close friends with one heart.
I knew that my reaction to Steve was rooted in my dislike for the old pattern of wanting to be worked up by powerful music. After my breaking in April, I was so moved by the revelation of just loving the Lord that I could be moved to worship at any time by the slightest breath of the Spirit. All I have to do is say from my heart, “Lord God, all You want is my worship. All You want is my attention. You are like a Father to me.” I don’t need a lengthy time of praise to crank my flesh up to speed. At the mere mention of His name I am ready to fall to my knees and worship. He has touched me so deeply that I must respond.
I didn’t realize it, but God was also out to break my deep‑seated desire to be somebody important. (Everyone I’ve ever known has had this desire too.) I was just floating along on a cloud of simply loving Jesus and hungering after the Lord, but there was some hidden poison still lurking in my heart and God wanted it out.
It was the glory of God that finally destroyed the yoke around my neck. Before God touched me, I always thought that God had called me to a greater grace and a higher calling than to just be somebody’s “flunky musician.” I thank God for His mercy and grace in forgiving my arrogance.
Just when I was convinced that God wasn’t doing anything in me, He brought all my wrong motives to the surface. In the first few weeks of the revival, any time Stephen or Pastor Kilpatrick would interrupt one of my songs or stop the worship service to say something, I would be totally offended. I wouldn’t say anything or change my actions, but in my spirit I was offended. My face might have been smiling but my heart and head were shouting, “Doggone you, get away from the microphone. I don’t interrupt your sermons, do I? Now stay out of my hair ‑ I’m trying to lead worship here.” (I am not interested in being “politically correct” in this book; my goal is to speak the truth in love so that you and others can avoid the mistakes I made and move directly into God’s best.)
It was wrong, but I felt like these godly men were invading my territory. Musicians seem to have an old link to lucifer the first rebellious worship leader ‑ they have a pride that is never satisfied. They jealously guard what is “theirs” and then wonder why they don’t have what the pastor or evangelist has too.
God would be using me mightily in worship, and then this “old ugly” would come out. Right then and there, in the middle of an anointed Brownsville Revival service, I would feel my hidden spiritual pride, piety, and ego rise to the surface. I’d catch myself thinking, I’ve been in this thing a long time, and here is some old drug addict [Stephen Hill] preaching a sermon. Dear God, he just said he got saved in 1975! I was rolling on the floor and speaking tongues in 1975. Why, I’ve been in church all my life and never veered from the path! (Sounds like the older brother of the Prodigal son, doesn’t it?)
God never let me get away with it. He would just zap me and say, “Stop it. If you want Me, humble yourself.” Yes, you thought you had that jealousy under control, but I brought that out to show you that you don’t. Repent of it, and let it go.”
One of the greatest joys of working with Pastor John Kilpatrick and Stephen Hill is the fact that they are transparent. They prefer direct communication. I told Pastor John one night after service, “You know, God has brought out some really ugly stuff in me, and I’ve had to repent.” I don’t think he was surprised, but I do know he was pleased.
When the Spirit’s work was complete in the area of my calling and self‑worth in Christ (He has so much more to do in me), I had a totally different attitude. Now any time those brothers need to say something or interrupt for any reason, I think, ‘That’s fine, brother. I trust your judgement. Go ahead and do anything you want to do. If you want to prophesy, if you want to stop me in the middle of my favourite song, that’s fine.’ Yes, the musician in me will still occasionally grumble a little bit when I’m interrupted, but now I have a tolerance for it. I just tell myself, Oh well, what is the big deal? The guy is trying to follow the Lord here. Relax.
Pastor Kilpatrick, Stephen Hill, and I have great confidence in one another today. We trust each other. We’ve cried and wept in each other’s arms, and we are soldiers. We’ve been in the fox hole together, we’ve watched out for each other’s back, so all of the small differences and irritations just don’t bother us now.
New Things ‑ Even in Revival
Once my eyes were opened to the incredible work God was doing in me those first two weeks of revival, I became content. I realized, for the first time in my life, that I wasn’t “somebody’s” piano player ‑ I was God’s piano player. (My mother had been saying it for decades, but I guess I just wasn’t listening close enough.) If that was what God wanted me to do for the rest of my life, than praise His name; I would be content. I had to pass that hurdle before the other gifts within me could be released to grow. If I had failed to pass that test, my selfish ambitions would have tainted all the other gifts and callings in my life.
Very early in the revival we began to notice some supernatural occurrences in the worship service that let us know God was personally involved in this revival ‑ even in areas not related to the hundreds of souls won each night and the filled altars. I looked in my personal journal and found an entry dated August 17, 1995 (about two months after the revival began.) This is what I wrote down after I got home that night:
August 17, 1995
The service tonight seemed to be pretty average until the very end. As I was about to leave, I talked with Richard Crisco, the youth pastor, and he questioned me about a particular worship chorus we had sung toward the end of the service. It was an ad lib thing that just came out of the air. He wanted to know how I was able to cue the sound track tape to come in as precisely as it did. I told him there was no tape, it was just me and the keyboard ‑ there weren’t even any singers, but he didn’t believe me. He said that he had heard at least three voices and several instruments.
As Richard spoke, I remembered that I too had heard a third voice singing a beautiful counter melody, but was so caught up in the presence of the Lord that I didn’t see who was singing, or who it might be. I knew I was singing, and I assumed it was Jeff Oettle [one of the worship singers at the time] or someone who had felt inspired and grabbed the mike to join in.
As Richard talked, I remembered two things: First, the third voice was exceptionally clear, and the counter melody sounded rehearsed. Second, when we had finished singing, I went to sit by Pastor John who was a little lost in the Spirit (in other words, he was out like he always is), and he told me in slurred speech, “That new chorus you just did was wonderful. Could you do it again tomorrow night?”
Later on, Benny Johnson (the sound guy) and Van Lane (the children’s pastor) told me that they had heard it too. They were at the sound board, and were trying to find out what channel the third voice was on. [It wasn’t going through the sound board at all!]
My conclusion, that the third voice was definitely not of this world, wow.
Later that week I asked Jeff Oettle, “Were you singing with me?”
“No, but I was standing on stage.”
Then I asked him, “Did anybody else sing with me?”
I already knew the answer ‑ no.
All this happened during a Thursday night service, and I remember that the entire worship team was exhausted because early in the revival we used to sing for hours at the end. Somewhere close to midnight the band started to really sound bad and the singers were nearly out of it, so I dismissed them so they could get some rest. I punched in a piano program with a breathy sound on my electronic keyboard, and I just started playing a chord with a monastic Gregorian chant style.
I clearly remember hearing a backup voice and a third voice come in that was singing a perfect counter melody to my song, except that it wasn’t repeating what I was saying ‑ that would have been impossible anyway. I was making it up as I went. Yet this voice was singing at the same time I was singing in perfect counter melody with an incredibly clear voice.
I was making up the melody and words as I went and the other voices were singing right along with me while putting in these little moves in their melodies. I was kind of thinking, “That’s cool, whoever that is.”
Two girls from Puerto Rico who had backgrounds in witchcraft came to the revival that night. When I started singing this song, hundreds of people were still being prayed for at the altars, and it is normally pretty loud. When I started to sing, “Ha‑ha‑hallelujah…” accompanied only by the keyboard, everything became totally quiet. The song (with the heavenly voices) was so impressive that everyone stopped to listen. This went on for probably two or three minutes. (Everybody I questioned that night heard it.)
When I stopped singing, one of the Puerto Rican girls sitting to my far right released a blood‑curdling scream and I thought, How rude of you to interrupt. But it was almost as though a demon had left. The girl told one of the intercessors who was working with her that she had tried to get deliverance from the witchcraft that she had practiced for years, and she’d never been really free of it. Once the angels started singing, that demon left her, and that was that.
It Comes Full Circle
Once I allowed my insecurities and religious pride to be broken, God began to speak into my life again through prophecy. A prophet named Michael Ratcliff prophesied in the revival in 1995 that the Lord was giving me an anointing of “imperialism”. At the beginning of the prophecy he said that I had laid down the anointing to speak the Word because I felt it was inappropriate, but that God was commanding me to open my mouth, and that I would be used as a spearhead to pierce the darkness.
He said that when I or my music went to Taiwan or mainland China, God would give me eight different currencies to work with, and that He would begin to bless me financially. I was to give and be free with it, and the people would be touched, as well as the officials.
He also said God would give me a song that would be sung around the world, and that the Lord was giving me a ministry to heal marriages. The song would be about the Lord and His love for the union of marriage. Some of the marriages healed through the song would be the marriages of heads of state in many countries and I would sing and speak the Word of the Lord to them.
Ruth Heflin prophesied early in 1966 that because I had embraced the harvest, the Lord would make my path flat. I should take no thought, and I should not worry about the things that others do, because God would provide all that I needed ‑ houses, food, and clothing. She also said that the Lord would move me from harvest to harvest. Anywhere in the world that there is a harvest, I would have a portion of it. The Lord said that there was a generation that would follow me, though they’re incomplete, but the Lord would raise them up, and they would follow.
These prophecies closed a prophetic circle in my life by fully confirming the prophecies spoken over me long ago. Some of them have come to pass already and others are in process. Since they were in full agreement with what God had already put on my heart, I embraced them with joy. From time to time I remind the Lord about His promises to me and stand on His faithfulness. As a young man not yet in his 40’s, I am hardly old enough to publish an autobiography of my life, but I am obligated of the Lord to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the path of obedience.
For reasons known only to God, I have catapulted to a place of national and international exposure, and I am well aware that thousands of leaders and would‑be leaders are watching me. I am writing this book from the things that I know and have experienced, and I will leave other subjects to those better qualified than I. …
The glory of God has fallen on Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, and it has also fallen in significant measure in Toronto, Ontario and at Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London, England. At this writing literally thousands of reports are flooding the offices of Brownsville Assembly testifying that God’s glory is falling all across the globe. …
If you have abandoned the old landmarks that God established in your life years ago, then it is time for you to hurry back to those landmarks. Clear away the brush and debris that hide them and once again cherish the word of the Lord over your life. Protect those things that are holy and cleanse those things that are unclean.
Used with permission from A Touch of Glory by Lindell Cooley (Revival Press, Destiny Image, 1997), Chapter 8, pages 119‑132.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
Dr Rodney and Adonica Howard-Brown are pastors and revival evangelists.
Critics focus on the rip-roaring style of his revivalist “camp meetings”, but this US-based South African evangelist says all he’s interested in is God touching people’s lives.
The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people.
I don’t spend much time wondering about God’s ability
to do what he said he could do. I just trust him.
______________________________________________
On previous visits to Australia, Rodney Howard-Browne has attracted both crowds and controversy. But vigorous debate about his methods and the “phenomena” seen at his meetings has not kept thousands away. … The US-based South African evangelist spoke with Rob Buckingham about spiritual power, the simplicity of faith, and how it feels to be surprised by God.
Buckingham: Things took off for you number of years ago. Can you tell us what took place at that time?
Howard-Browne: We’d moved to America in December ‘87 and travelled wherever the doors opened. One pastor in upstate New York asked us to have two meetings a day and invited the whole congregation. So in April 1989 we went to [a town called] Clifton Park to a church with about 250 members.
I was amazed to see people so hungry for the things of God. On the Monday morning 60 people came to the morning service. This was amazing, especially in America at that time – there had been some major set backs with different major ministries crumbling, and people were disillusioned. Next day we had 100 people at the service – nearly a third of the church coming out on a Tuesday morning!
While I was teaching, just like I normally do, the praises of God just filled the room, and people started falling out of their seats. It looked like someone was sitting in the balcony and shooting people with an invisible gun. Some were crying, some were laughing, others were rolling on the floor. It took a little getting used to.
The presence of God literally filled that place. We saw an outbreak of a revival that now, this April, is nine years old. It’s gone around the world, touched the lives of millions of people, an it hasn’t subsided or stopped. It’s been a great adventure.
Buckingham: What are your reflections now on what took place back then?
Howard-Browne: I see it as an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s not like we weren’t expecting it. We were crying out to God to come and move; we just didn’t know how or when it was going to happen. So when it happened the way it did it totally took us by surprise.
Buckingham: Is there any change in what took place then compared to what’s happening now?
Howard-Browne: It’s just multiplied many times over. In the beginning it was 100 people and now it’s thousands. Whether we’ve been in China or Japan, Holland, Germany, Russia or the islands of the sea, it’s the same. People are the same and they have the same needs. The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people. There are many religions in the world, but religions will leave you empty because it’s man’s vain attempt to reach God. But Christianity is God reaching man through the person of Jesus Christ.
Buckingham: There are reports of physical healings at your meetings. Do these happen in every country?
Howard-Browne: It happens everywhere. We look at it this way. When people come to a meeting where the Holy Spirit is moving, whatever their needs are God will touch them at that point. Healing is just one of these. People come with cancer, arthritis, different diseases, and the presence of god touches them. Some are healed in their seat without even having hands laid on them, and it’s only later they find out that they’ve been healed.
Dolly, a little Alaskan native lady, came to our meetings in a wheelchair. She’d had arthritis for 18 years, the last five confined to a wheelchair and the final two years bedridden. She came as a last resort, asking God to please touch her. We laid hands on her, but we didn’t really pray that she’s be able to get out of the wheelchair, just that she’d get some joy and that God would touch her. I said, “Lady, what do you want to do?” She responded, “I want to get out of this chair.” So I said, “Well then, go ahead.” Then she climbed out of the chair and walked around the building and was totally healed of crippling arthritis. This happened back in 1991 and we’ve seen her subsequently. She’s still totally healed with no trace of arthritis in her body.
Buckingham: That’s physical healing. What about emotional healing? People can carry a lot of baggage around inside.
Howard-Browne: There are many examples. One is about a woman in North Dakota who was raped by a so-called friend. She contracted two venereal diseases, the worst the doctor said he’d seen. He told her that she’d never be able to have children.
This woman came to the meeting pretty traumatized – this had only happened weeks before. The power of God touched her, she fell on the floor and as she was lying there she felt like there was a fireman standing over her with a big fire hose washing her clean. For about two-and-a-half hours she felt this water washing her clean. When she got up she could remember the rape but it was like it happened to somebody else. God had totally removed the hurt from her. When she went back to the doctor there was no trace of the diseases. That was over five years ago. Today she’s married to one of the pastors of the church. They’ve had children with nothing wrong.
Buckingham: What about other stories?
Howard-Browne: An executive-type lady came to a meeting with a lot of deep hurt in her heart. About 20 years ago she’d had an abortion, and every time she was around things of God she felt guilty and condemned with thoughts like “God’s never going to bless you because of what you did.”
We prayed for her and she was overcome, lying there filled with joy. Laughing hysterically. Later she told us it was as if she was taken up to heaven to see a little girl dancing around, with Jesus standing to the side. The little girl said, “Look Jesus, Mummy’s laughing”. When that happened, she said it felt like a hand reached down inside her and pulled out all the hurt. When she got up from the floor she didn’t feel guilty any more. She knew that God had forgiven her and everything was all right.
Buckingham: Are these incidents isolated events?
Howard-Browne: No. People are healed from depression, a lot from fear, even from wanting to commit suicide. There’s so much pressure on people today. People feel like they can’t make it. So they come to the meetings. God touches them and sets them free. It’s wonderful to see.
Buckingham: Australians are quite different from Americans, and you minister in America a lot. How do you respond to that difference in your meetings when you come to Australia?
Howard-Browne: Because I’m a South African, I think it’s probably easier for me to respond than it would be for an American. I find the Aussies very direct, which I like. There’s no airs or graces, nobody’s pretending. I think maybe that’s why we’ve had such a great response in Australia.
Buckingham: You travel extensively around the world. That must be draining on you. How do you handle the pace?
Howard-Browne: Actually, I find the travel exhilarating, so that by the time I get to a new place I’m refreshed. We travel 46 weeks of the year, and it’s awesome to see people’s lives touched and changed. That’s the thing that’s refreshing. When we get tired, we try to take a break for two or three days.
Buckingham: Rodney, how do you describe your own relationship with God?
Howard-Browne: I would describe my relationship as very, very simple. I don’t understand some people when they always want to complicate God. I just see him as God – nothing is impossible to him. I have a very childlike faith that God honours his word. I don’t spend much time arguing about it or wondering about his ability to do what he said he could do. I just trust him.
Buckingham: How does your relationship with God impact your life personally?
Howard-Browne: Well, because nothing is impossible for him, I always want to believe him for big things. When you think that he made the heavens and the earth, then everything we come up with after that is really so small. I just think sometimes people make everything so difficult when there’s nothing too hard for God.
Buckingham: What about your relationship with others? How does your faith impact that?
Howard-Browne: I want God to do for them what he’s done for me. I’m not anything special or different. I’m just an ordinary person. But I know that if he can do great things for me, he can do great things for them.
Buckingham: How does your faith impact your care for the world around you?
Howard-Browne: When I see a need, my wife has to calm me down; she says, “You can’t do everything.” God leads you into areas where you can minister effectively to touch the needs of people. We all want to reach out and feed the poor or help those less fortunate than we are, yet because I’m busy doing what I’m doing, I can’t do it. So I try to find other ministries and get behind them. I don’t have to do what they’re doing: I just finance and support them.
Buckingham: What can people expect at your meetings this year?
Howard-Browne: Pretty much like two years ago, we’re going to focus on he person of Jesus – people being touched by the Lord and coming back to their “first love”.
Buckingham: What do you mean by “first love”?
Howard-Browne: “First love” is the love you have when you first give your life to Christ – the joy that you’ve just met him, that he’s set you free from sin, that all the guilt and condemnation is gone. It’s like a young guy and a girl; when they first fall in love, they’re just beside themselves.
It’s so easy as a child of God to get caught up in the daily grind, trying to please God, caught up in rituals and traditions. You end up losing that joy and peace. Revival is about people falling in love with Jesus all over again.
Anything can happen when people come back to their first love.
This is an edited version of an interview conducted by Rob Buckingham for use in On Being ALIVE and his weekly radio program “Rob Buckingham and Friends”. It was originally broadcast on 3MP on 29 March, 1998.
Reprinted with permission from On Being ALIVE Magazine, No. 4, May 1998, pages 30-34.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
He who sat on the throne says, “Behold I make all things new.”
Revelation 21:5
Jesus Christ is Lord. Every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords – not just in some future time or only in heaven. He reigns now. He makes all things new.
Ultimately, everything will be new. “Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25).
All dominion, authority and power belong to Jesus our Lord. He makes all things new.
We call that process by many names, including renewal. Our Lord is renewing everything. Right now he is doing that in all the earth, especially with everyone born anew or born again (John 3:3, 7).
Yet, renewal is far more than conversion, vital as that is. Our Lord is making all things new, not just some people. His renewing is cosmic and eternal. He is renewing ecology as well as communities. He heals the land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
This book explores a few facets of his renewal of all things. Each chapter is reproduced from my articles in the Renewal Journal.
Chapter 1, Renewal Ministry, explores how renewal applies to our lives as we love God and love others.
Chapter 2, Revival Worship, notes current developments in renewal worship and ministry.
Chapter 3, New Wineskins, tackles issues about emerging churches and networks.
Chapter 4, Vision for Ministry, dreams big and explores some implications of renewal in ministry and service.
Chapter 5, Community Transformation, touches on the amazing current renewal transformation in communities and ecology.
Chapter 6, Astounding Church Growth, surveys the explosive expansion of the church during the last century.
The companion book to this one,Revival, is compiled from other articles originally published in the Renewal Journal, specifically:
Revival Fire (from Issue 1: Revival)
Spirit Impacts in Revival (from Issue 13: Ministry)
Revivals into 2000 (from Issue 14: Anointing)
Revival in the 21st Century (from Issue 11: Discipleship)
Our Lord is making all things new – your life, your relationships, your destiny. I hope these books both inform and inspire.
Reproduction is allowed and encouraged with the copyright intact with the text. These articles are also available on the internet.
A summary survey of historical and current revival. Chapters are compiled from revival articles in the Renewal Journals.
Contents
Foreword
1 Revivals to 1900
2 20th Century Revivals
3 1990s – Decade of Revivals
4 21st Century Revivals
See also Revivals Index
Foreword
I will pour out my Spirit
Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-18
Revivals bring thousands into God’s kingdom as his Spirit moves powerfully in the earth. All revivals carry some or most of the characteristics of Pentecost, the prototype and forerunner of revivals. Peter, preaching then, explained what was happening from Joel’s famous prophecy (Acts 2:17-21):
And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass Thatwhoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.
This book provides a summary overview of many revivals since the first Great Awakening in the eighteenth century including some current revivals now transforming communities. I give more details in my book Flashpointsof Revival, and still further details including footnotes in RevivalFires (see Appendix).
This book gives a brief glimpse of revival in summaries. These are compiled from my articles in the Renewal Journal, available on the web at renewaljournal.com, especially the Blogs:
The companion book to this one, Renewal, also contains chapters drawn from my Renewal Journal articles, namely:
Renewal Ministry (Issue 7: Blessing)
Revival Worship (Issue 6: Worship)
New Wineskins to Develop Ministry (Issue 15: Wineskins)
Vision for Ministry (Issue 16: Vision)
Community Transformation (Issue 20: Life)
Astounding Church Growth (Issue 2: Church Growth)
Our Lord and God still pours out his Spirit, affecting untold millions of people, churches, communities and even nations. I hope these books both inform and inspire you.
Reproduction is allowed and encouraged with the copyright intact with the text. These articles are also available on the internet.
Renewaljournal.com – 1st editions
https://renewaljournal.com – 2nd editions and eStore
Amazon – see ‘Geoff Waugh’ for journals and books
Resources
This book gives a brief glimpse of revival in summaries. These are compiled from articles in the Renewal Journal :
The core of the unreached people of our world live in a rectangular‑shaped window! Often called “The Resistant Belt,” the window extends from West Africa to East Asia, from ten degrees north to forty degrees north of the equator. This specific region, which has increasingly become known as The 10/40 Window, encompasses the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists ‑ billions of spiritually impoverished souls.
As we approach the end of this millennium, it is imperative that our evangelistic efforts be focused among the people who inhabit The 10/40 Window. If we are serious in our commitment to provide a valid opportunity for every person to experience the truth and saving power of Jesus Christ, we cannot ignore the compelling realities within this region.
The 10/40 Window confronts us with several important considerations:
first, the historical and biblical significance;
second, the least evangelized countries;
third, the dominance of three religious blocs;
fourth, the preponderance of the poor;
fifth, the unreached ethnolinguistic people groups;
sixth, the least evangelized megacities; and,
seventh, the strongholds of Satan within The 10/40 Window.
1. The historical and biblical significance
The first and most fundamental reason why committed Christians must focus on The 10/40 Window is because of the biblical and historical significance of this area. Indeed, the Bible begins with the account of Adam and Eve placed by God in the heart of what is now The 10/40 Window.
God’s plan, expressed in Genesis 1:26, was that mankind should have dominion over the earth, subduing it fully. However, Adam and Eve sinned against God and forfeited their right to rule.
Mankind’s sinful behaviour increased until God intervened and judged the earth with a cataclysmic flood. Then came mankind’s futile attempt to establish new dominion in the building of the great Tower of Babel. That effort, which also occurred in the heart of The 10/40 Window, was an open defiance against God. Once again, God reached forth his hand in judgment. The result was the introduction of different languages, the scattering of earth’s people, and the formation of the nations.
In The 10/40 Window we can see clearly the crucial truth expressed in Graham Scroggie’s book The Drama of World Redemption: “A World having turned from God, He left it and chose a man through whom He would ultimately by Christ reach the world.” Certainly we can see how ancient history ran its course in the territory marked by The 10/40 Window, from the cradle of civilization in Mesopotamia across the fertile crescent to Egypt. Empires rose and fell. The fate of God’s people Israel varied in relation to their obedience to his covenant. It was here that Christ was born, lived a perfect life, died sacrificially on the cross, and rose triumphant over death. The church age was ushered in, and it was not until the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul that events of biblical history occurred outside The 10/40 Window. Without question, this is an area of great biblical and historical significance.
2. The least evangelized countries
The second reason why committed Christians should focus on The 10/40 Window is because it is home to the majority of the world’s unevangelized people. The “unevangelized” are people who have a minimal knowledge of the gospel, but have no valid opportunity to respond to it.
While it constitutes only one‑third of earth’s total land area, nearly two‑thirds of the world’s people reside in The 10/40 Window. With a total population nearing four billion, The 10/40 Window includes 61 countries, both sovereign states and nonsovereign dependencies. Those countries with the majority of their land mass lying within the boundaries of The 10/40 Window are included.
Of the world’s 50 least evangelized countries, 37 are within The 10/40 Window. Yet those 37 countries comprise 95% of the total population of the 50 least evangelized countries! Such a fact leaves no doubt that our challenge in reaching the unreached must centre on the core ‑ The 10/40 Window.
If we take seriously the mandate to preach the gospel to every person, to make disciples of all peoples, and to be Christ’s witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth, we must recognize the priority of concentrating our efforts on The 10/40 Window. No other area is so blatantly in need of the truth that salvation is only in Jesus Christ.
3. The dominance of three religious blocs
A third reason we must focus on The 10/40 Window is evident in the fact that it contains three of the world’s dominant religious blocs. The majority of those enslaved by Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism live within The 10/40 Window.
Viewing the map from left to right the Muslim world can be seen most prominently in a wide band across the north of Africa into the Middle East, a bloc representing over 700 million persons. In the middle of the map, overshadowing the subcontinent of India is the presence of Hinduism, also constituting a population of more than 700 million. On the right side of the map is the Buddhist world, encompassing the whole of China.
From its centre in The 10/40 Window, Islam is reaching out energetically to all parts of the globe; in similar strategy, we must penetrate the heart of Islam with the liberating truth of the gospel. We must do all in our power to show Muslims that the highest prophet described in the Koran is not Mohammed, but Jesus Christ. And that He is not only the greatest prophet, but the Son of God Himself who died and resurrected in order that millions of Muslims may be saved.
Overwhelmed with poverty and ravaged by disease, India is victimized even more severely by the spiritual blindness of Hinduism. To a nation in which fattened cows roam freely among emaciated humans, we must proclaim the truth that Jesus came to give us life, and give it abundantly.
Although officially an atheistic country since the Marxist revolution of the late 1940s, China is nevertheless influenced deeply by its Buddhist roots. Some scholars, in fact, consider China’s true religion to be a combination of atheism and Buddhism. In actuality, religion in China is a hodgepodge which includes folklore, mysticism, animism, and occult practices. Regardless of how one may assess the situation, the fact remains that 1.2 billion Chinese are in desperate need of Jesus Christ. They represent the largest identifiable block in The 10/40 Window.
4. The preponderance of the poor
A fourth reason we must focus on The 10/40 Window is because the poor are there. Of the poorest of the poor, more than eight out of ten live in The 10/40 Window. On average, they exist on less than $500 per person per year. Although 2.4 billion of these people live within The 10/40 Window, only 8% of all missionaries work among them.
Bryant L. Myers, in his perceptive article entitled, “Where Are the Poor and Lost?”, states that “the poor are the lost, and the lost are the poor.” He arrived at this conclusion after illustrating that the majority of the unreached live in the poorest countries of the world.
When Christians from 170 countries gathered at Lausanne II in Manila in 1989, great concern was expressed for the materially poor. In the second section of the Manila Manifesto, that concern was recorded in the following declaration: “We have again been confronted with Luke’s emphasis that the gospel is the good news for the poor (Luke 4:18; 6:20; 7:22) and have asked ourselves what this means to the majority of the world’s population who are destitute, suffering, and oppressed. We have been reminded that the law, the prophets, the wisdom books, and the teaching and ministry of Jesus all stress God’s concern for the materially poor and our consequent duty to defend and care for them.”
Committed Christians cannot ignore the reality that there is a remarkable overlap between the poorest countries of the world and those which are the least evangelized.
5. The unreached ethno-linguistic people groups
The fifth reason we must address our concerns on The 10/40 Window is because it contains the largest spiritually bankrupt ethno-linguistic mega-peoples (over one million). In fact, over 90% of the individuals in these people groups live in The 10/40 Window.
6. The least evangelized megacities
The sixth major reason we must focus on The 10/40 Window is because it contains the overwhelming majority of the world’s least evangelized megacities ‑ that is, those with a population of more than one million. Of the top 50 cities on this list, all 50 cities are in The 10/40 Window! This fact alone underscores the need for prioritizing our efforts to reach each of these great metroplexes with Christ’s love and truth.
7. The strongholds of Satan
Reason number seven for focusing on The 10/40 Window is that it includes numerous strongholds of Satan. The billions of people who live in The 10/40 Window have suffered not only the ravages of poverty and disease, they have also been kept from the transforming power of the gospel. The are poignant examples of the truth expressed in 2 Corinthians 4:4, which states that “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
We must not view this situation with a fatalistic attitude, for we have been granted power to intervene. In a later passage of the same letter, the Apostle Paul declares: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, the have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3‑4). Although Satan has established a territorial stronghold in The 10/40 Window, we must not concede one parcel of land nor one person. The gospel must advance!
Looking back across the pages of history we discover a heartening story about spiritual warfare in the writings of the prophet Daniel. A fervent man of prayer, Daniel was highly esteemed by God and by the people of his generation.
On one occasion, while waiting on God in prayer, Daniel fasted on bread and water for three weeks. Finally, a majestic angel whose appearance was as lighting brought an answer to his prayer. He assured Daniel with the promise that “…your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words” (Daniel 10:12). However, the angel then went on to explain how, en route to answer Daniel’s prayer, he was detained for 21 days by the demon assigned to the Persian king (Daniel 10:13). It was only when the archangel Michael arrived to help that he was able to free himself from the battle to go to Daniel.
This fascinating passage unveils the reality and territorial nature of the spiritual battle in the heavenlies. The angel who visited Daniel announced that he would have to return to the battle over the Persian kingdom. Apparently, that battle still rages, for ancient Persia is now modern‑day Iran. Still a stronghold zealously held by Satan, Iran is situated at the centre of the The 10/40 Window.
George Otis, Jr., has concluded that two powerful demonic forces, with great biblical significance, stand at the epicenter of the unreached world ‑ the prince of Persia (Iran) and the spirit of Babylon (Iraq) ‑ and both must be penetrated with the gospel before the Great Commission can be completed. Otis observes that this will occur in the region of the Garden of Eden, where the command to “subdue the earth” was originally given.
It is evident that the forces of Satan have great power and will resist all attempts to be overcome. If we are to storm the enemy’s territory, we must put on the full armour of God and fight with the weapons of spiritual warfare described in Ephesians 6. To depend on anything less is utter foolishness.
The focus of the concerned Christian community 200 years ago was for the coastlands of the world. A century later, the success of the coastlands effort motivated a new generation to reach the interior regions of the continents. Within the past decades, the success of the inland thrust has led to a major focus on people groups. More recently, the world’s burgeoning megacities have also become focal points of concern. Today, rapidly approaching the third millennium since Christ, we are wise to concentrate our efforts on The 10/40 Window.
Of course, this calls for some of us to reevaluate priorities. We must find the most innovative ways to reach billions of people within The 10/40 Window with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. We must mobilize for a massive prayer focus on The 10/40 Window with the body of Christ worldwide.
However, it must be clearly understood that concentration on The 10/40 Window does not mean a curtailing of Christ’s work going on elsewhere around the globe. Missionary endeavours, in evangelism, training, relief, development, church planting, and mobilization for cross cultural missions should go on unhindered.
If we are faithful to the Scriptures, obedient to the mandate of Christ, and unwavering in our commitment to plant churches within every people and city, then we will get to the core of the core ‑ The 10/40 Window. May God grant each of us boldness and wisdom and energy to do our part in taking on this great and eternally significant challenge.
By all means, get involved!
This article was written by Louis Bush, International Director of the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement.
Sharon Wissemann wrote this article on Pensacola Evangelist Steve Hill in her Diploma of Ministry studies at the School of Ministries of Christian Heritage College in Brisbane, Australia.
Since Sunday 18th June, 1995 hundreds of thousands of lives have been changed as a direct result of the Pensacola Revival in Florida, USA. The spark that ignited the revival was an evangelist named Steve Hill.
Born Stephen Hill into an upper middle class family in January 1954 in Ankara, Turkey, Hill began to rebel at a very early age. His life of drinking, smoking and taking other drugs began at nine years of age. The next twelve years of his life was spent in cults, travel, hard narcotics, parties, music and jail. Hill was arrested 13 times for car theft, narcotics trafficking and other related crimes. His life was changed on October 28, 1975 when a Lutheran vicar led him to the Lord by simply saying the name of ‘Jesus’ over and over. At 11 a.m. that Tuesday morning he had a dramatic conversion when the power of Jesus Christ flooded his soul.
In 1977 Hill entered the Twin Oaks Academy, a leadership training institute in Texas founded by David Wilkerson. At the Academy he was taught prayer by Leonard Ravenhill and evangelism by Nicky Cruz and through personal experience. He met his wife, Jeri at the Academy. After graduating from the school, he entered into church ministry. God called Hill to the mission field when he took a group of young people to Mexico.
In Argentina that Hill first saw Carlos Annacondia minister to tens of thousands of people. In his first Annacondia meeting out in the middle of a soccer field he witnessed fifteen to twenty thousand people ‘craving God’. Although he always had the desire for evangelism, Hill believes that he received the evangelistic anointing from Annacondia, who has lead over two million people to Jesus, when he laid hands on him.
Hill was involved in the Argentine Revival, seeing multitudes saved and healed. For seven years he helped plant seven churches in Buenos Aires and Southern Argentina during this revival. He also planted churches and conducted church crusades in several other countries such as Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Spain, Russia and Belarus.
As well as from planting churches in various countries, Stephen Hill has been involved ministries such as Teen Challenge, street evangelism, counselling, youth conferences and crusades. He has helped to establish drug rehabilitation centres in several areas around the world.
In 1995, Hill read an article in Time magazine about the move of God in an Anglican Church in London. He arranged for a meeting at three o’clock on January 19 with Pastor Sandy Miller of the Holy Brompton Anglican Church to see what was going on. Over 500 people were shaking and laying on the floor under the power of God when Hill arrived. Instead of having the appointment, Hill asked Miller to lay hands on him. He received a new impartation from Miller’s prayer.
On Father’s Day, June 18, 1995 Hill was invited by John Kilpatrick, the Pastor of Brownsville Assembly of God, to speak at the Sunday morning service. Kilpatrick had just lost his mother to cancer was emotionally and physically weary, so he requested his longtime friend Hill to speak in his place. Hill issued an altar call and a thousand people responded. Kilpatrick says that he felt the sensation of a wind blowing in the church. Various manifestations occurred such as falling to the ground, weeping and violent shaking. The morning service was scheduled to finish at noon but continued till 4 p.m. Likewise the night service was extended and became a five-hour long service. The Pensacola Revival had begun.
Congregation members asked Hill to stay a several more days. This he did and began to cancelling appointments, including a trip to Russia. He decided to stay and moved his family to be near the revival. It is estimated that over 100,000 people have been saved and over 1 million people from all over the world have visited Pensacola since 1995. Hill continues to minister in the revival services Wednesday to Saturday nights at Brownsville Assembly of God to this day. Steve Hill is a leader in current revival.
Why did God choose Hill to start the Brownsville Revival? There are two answers to this question. Firstly, God is sovereign and he can choose whoever he pleases to start a revival. Secondly, Hill possesses certain attributes that enable him to be one of God’s chosen vessels for this revival.
Characteristics
Several features of revivalists outlined in the 1795 classic Accounts of Revivals by John Gillies apply to Steve Hill.
The first feature Gillies listed was that revivalists are earnest about the ‘great work of ministry on which they had entered’. Steve Hill is an evangelist. His primary passion and compassion is for the salvation of the lost. Hill’s preaching echoes the words of John the Baptist and Jesus ‘repent for the kingdom of God is at hand’ (Matt. 3:2; 4:17).
Revivalists are also men of labour. Gillies explained that they labour for eternity knowing that ‘the time was short and the day of recompense was at hand’. Hill is convinced of the urgency of this hour. As an evangelist Hill’s preaching and prayers are geared towards the salvation of the lost, the backsliders and the prodigals. It is because of his own past of crime and drug addiction that he can relate to the lost in a with insight and compassion.
Revivalists are people of ‘most decided doctrine’. There is a ‘breadth and a power in their preaching’. This feature applies to Hill’s preaching. He knows the Bible and delivers his messages bluntly and directly from the Word of God. Personally Hill would rather ‘hear the hard truth and live than to fall for a soft lie and die’. This belief compels Hill to preach the full gospel, including the reality of hell, to people. He preaches Christ crucified, total atonement and the Blood of Christ. As the revivalists of old, Hill’s trumpet gives no uncertain sound.
Revivalists are also people of prayer. Hill sets time aside to pray and sit in God’s presence to learn his instructions and his ways for each day. Early in his Christian life Hill had been instructed in prayer by Leonard Ravenhill at the Twin Oaks Academy.
Another reason that Hill is involved in this current revival in Brownsville could be that he ‘caught the fire’ from elsewhere and was the spark that ignited the flame. Throughout his Christian life Hill received impartations from leaders in different fields. While at Twin Oaks he was taught by David Wilkerson, Leonard Ravenhill and Nicky Cruz. In Argentina he ‘hung around’ Carlos Annacondia for seven years. Hill received an impartation from Pastor Sandy Miller of the Holy Trinity Brompton Anglcian Church in London in January 1995. Several months later, revival broke out in Pensacola.
Hunger is another contributing factor to Hill’s involvement in revival. At the height of the great revival in Argentina, Hill experienced a personal, spiritual drought even though his devotional time was intact, his marriage was strong and new churches were being planted. Through this time of testing by God, Hill maintained his time with the Lord during the morning hours. This drought created a passionate desire within him to have more of God and less of himself in his ministry. He wanted a fresh touch, a new anointing and craved intimacy with Jesus. This personal famine produced in him an intense desire for genuine revival amongst sinners. He wanted a ‘deep holy move of the Spirit amongst sinners’ and to see them ‘drawn to the Lord just by sensing His presence’. Pensacola is the realization of those desires.
The Brownsville Revival is different from past revivals in history. This revival is not focussed on one particular personality, such as John Wesley or Charles Finney. Instead it has occurred in one particular location, the Brownsville Assembly of God, Pensacola, Florida, USA, where God has chosen to pour out His Spirit. Brownsville also illustrates the new team concept that has been prophesied about in recent years. The team has been nicknamed as Pastor Watchful, Evangelist Street Smart, and Music Director Trendy. God chose a team without fame or significant national acclaim to lead his revival.
Steve Hill is the evangelist in the current revival at Brownsville. Saved radically from a life of crime and drug addiction, he has ministered in many places throughout the world. He was the spark that ignited the Pensacola Outpouring on Father’s Day, June 18 1995, that continues to impact the globe today. The fruit of the revival proves that Hill has been effective in his gifting and calling as an evangelist. He is a man of earnest labour, prayer and doctrine dedicated to saving souls and bringing prodigals home. Hill has caught the fire, ignited it and carried it successfully to this day.
Stephen Hill has remained ‘holy, humble and hungry’, enabling God to entrust him with powerful leadership in revival.
John Kilpatrick & Lindell Cooley, leaders at Brownsville AOG
Julia C. Loren, a psychotherapist and writer, interviewed Dr John White, psychiatrist and widely read evangelical author, about a theology of the supernatural.
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Oh I’ve come home. This is what I want.
This is what I’ve been looking for all my life.
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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.
The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence 
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