Reviews (13) Ministry

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An article in Renewal Journal 13: Ministry:
https://renewaljournal.com/2012/04/06/ministry/

Renewal Journal 13: Ministry
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Fire in the Outback by John Blacket  (Albatross, 1997)

 

 

From the Foreword by Alan Maratja Dhamarrandji of Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island.

As a Christian aboriginal, it’s a great privilege for me to acknowledge in this book some of the great things that God has done in our time.  In 1979, we had revival that began at Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island and it affected the whole of Arnhem Land.  It spread south-west to Warburton Ranges, and then north-west to the Kimberleys.  We also had teams going to north Queensland to minister and spread the revival.

This has set a course for the church at Galiwin’ku to become an outreach church. Ever since that revival, we have been going to places and sharing what God has done and what he is still doing.  I am one of the products of that revival and I’m not the only one.  There are a few of us still on fire for the Lord.  Every year, on March 14, we celebrate that spiritual awakening and pray for a fresh touch from God through the power of his Holy Spirit.  These are exciting times for the church in Australia.  We must repent more and more so that times of refreshing will come to our churches.

Since 1977-1978, I have had the privilege of working as community worker with John Blacket.  He is one of the Balanda (white man) staff who witnessed that revival from the very beginning.  My perception is that John is a different man now since the revival.  John is one of those people who can communicate to an Aboriginal person anywhere, because he has learned to listen and understand Yolngu (Aborigines), then takes the time to share with them.  I admire him for this task and particularly for his endurance and patience with people.  Now God has given him this important ministry of reconciliation and bridging of Christian Balanda and Yolngu in Australia.  We want to see unity come to the church of God right across the land, then we will see revival come to the whole of this Great South Land of the Holy Spirit.  This book is a milestone for that revival.  I would like to commend John in his careful efforts in documenting and compiling these anointed stories.  I’m sure you are going to enjoy reading this book and will be blessed by the Lord.

Chapters in Fire in the Outback
1        Gathering firewood:  The background to the Aboriginal revival
2        Lighting the fire:  The Arnhem Land Aborigines and Christianity to 1970
3        A strong wind fans the flame:  The preparation for the revival during the 1970s
4        Creating a hot fire:  The Arnhem Land Revival, 1979
5        Sustaining the hot fire:  The Arnhem Land Revival, 1979-1981
6        Igniting the tinder-dry desert:  Revival spreads to Central Australia
7        Lighting many new fires:  The rapid spread of renewal in Central Australia
8        Fuelling a raging bushfire:  The crusades across Western Australia
9        Stirring the smouldering embers:  The first years after the Aboriginal revival
10    Fighting and lighting fires:  The late eighties and early nineties in the Aboriginal church
11    The coming of rain:  The legacy of revival in today’s Aboriginal church

 

The Making of a Leader: Recognising the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development. By J. R. Clinton.  Colorado: Navpress. 1988.
Reviewed by Andrew Staggs

Dr Robert Clinton has done the body of Christ a great service by researching and writing The Making of a Leader.  He skilfully deals with questions like “where do leaders come from?;  what does it take to be a leader?;  and when does leadership begin?  Clinton believes that leadership is not confined to position, title, or training, nor is it limited by experience.  It can be these things that sometimes the cloud the real issues of leadership.  In The Making of a Leader Clinton identifies the patterns God uses to develop a leader.  By studying hundreds of historical, biblical, and contemporary leaders Clinton has determined the six stages of leadership development and had established checkpoints for people to clarify where they are in the process.

By examining Clinton’s principles and case studies the reader will begin to recognise that the ministry of leadership flows from a person’s being, and that being is moulded by God throughout a lifetime.  Clinton’s book, as a result, is a book about spiritual dynamics.  The book has a focus on identifying those with leadership characteristics, directing the development of maturing leaders, recognising where people are in the development process, and counselling those who are experiencing periods of trial and frustration.

Clinton states that “leadership is a dynamic process in which a man or woman with God-given capacity influences a specific group of God’s people toward His purposes for the group.”  He also explains the use of the preferred term of “leadership development”.  Development includes all of life’s processes not just formal training.  Leaders are shaped by deliberate training and by experience.  “Leadership development” is a much broader term than leadership training because leadership training refers to the narrow part of the overall process focusing primarily on learning skills.  Leadership development includes this and much more.  Leadership development theory does what a good map is supposed to do.  It is a set of well-integrated ideas (p 24) to help:

  organize what we see happening in leaders’ lives

  anticipate what might happen in future development

  understand past events so as to see new things in them

  better order our lives

Clinton summarizes his leadership development theory (p 25) as follows:

“God develops a leader over a lifetime.  That development is a function of the use of events and people to impress leadership lessons upon a leader (processing), time, and leader response.  Processing is critical to the theory.  All leaders can point to critical incidents in their lives where God taught them something very important.”

A time-line is an important tool for analysing the life of a leader for it reveals the overall pattern of God’s work in a life.  A time-line is a linear display along a horizontal axis that is broken up into development phases.  A development phase is a unit of time in a person’s life, and they are not absolutes.  They are helpful because they force one to analyse what God is doing during a given time in a person’s life.  Clinton identifies five significant units of time labelled as sovereign foundations, inner-life growth, ministry maturing, and convergence.

Sometimes, though rarely, there is a sixth phase called “afterglow” or “celebration.”  In real life, the development of Phases III, IV and V often overlap.

In Phase I God providentially works foundational items into the life of the leader-to-be.  Personality characteristics, good and bad experiences, and the time context will be used by God.  The building blocks are there, though the structure being built may not be clearly in focus.  Character traits are embedded.  These same traits in mature form will be adapted and used by God.  Many times personality traits will be seen to correlate with the spiritual gift-mix that God gives.  Usually the boundary condition between Phase I and Phase II is the conversion experience (or an all-out surrender commitment) in which the would-be-leader aspires to spend a lifetime that counts for God.

In Phase II an emerging leader usually receives some kind of training.  Often it is informal in connection with ministry.  The basic models by which he or she learns are imitation modelling and informal apprenticeships, as well as mentoring.  There can also be formal and academic training.  Closer analysis reveals that the major thrust of God’s development is inward.  The real training program is in the heart of the person, where God is doing some growth testing.

In Phase III (Ministry Maturing) the emerging leader reaches out to others.  The emerging leader gets into ministry as a prime focus of life.  He is beginning to experiment with spiritual gifts even though he may not know what this doctrine is.  He may get training in order to be more effective.  Ministry is the focus of the rising leader at this stage.  Many of his lessons will zero in on relationships with other people or on the inadequacies in his personal life.  God is developing the leader  in two ways during this time.  Through ministry, the leader can identify his gifts  and skills and use them with increasing effectiveness.  He will also gain a better understanding of the Body of Christ as he experiences the many kinds of relationships it offers.  Ministry activity or fruitfulness is not the focus of  Phase III.  God is working primarily in the leader, not through him or her.  Many emerging leaders don’t recognise this and become frustrated.  They are constantly evaluating productivity and activities, while God is quietly evaluating their leadership and ministry potential.  He wants to teach us that we minister out of what we are.

During Phase IV the leader identifies and uses his or her gift-mix with power.  There is a mature fruitfulness.  God is working through the leader using imitation modelling (Heb 13: 7-8).  That is, God uses one’s life as well as gifts to influence others.  This is a period in which giftedness emerges along with priorities.  One recognises that part of God’s guidance for ministry comes through establishing ministry priorities by discerning gifts.

During Phase V convergence occurs.  The leader is moved by God into a role that matches gift-mix, experience, temperament, etc.  Geographical location is an important part of convergence.  The role not only frees the leader from ministry for which there is no gift, but it also enhances and uses the best that the leader has to offer.  Not many leaders experience convergence because often they are promoted to roles that hinder their gift-mix.  Further, few leaders minister out of what they are.  Their authority usually springs from a role.  In convergence, being and spiritual authority form the true power base for mature ministry.

During all the developmental phases God processes a person by bringing activities, people and problems into his or her life.  These are called process items and include integrity check, isolation, prayer challenge, power encounter etc .  The list is numerous and refers to providential events, people, circumstances, special interventions, inner life lessons and/or anything else that God uses in the leadership selection process of a person to indicate leadership potential, to develop that potential, to confirm appointment to ministry role or responsibility, or to move the leader toward God’s appointed ministry level for realised potential.  A key process item is an integrity check which tests inner character for consistency.  A successful integrity check results in a stronger leader able to serve God in a wider sphere of influence.  Integrity and faithfulness are preludes to success and giftedness.

Clinton identifies two of the major lessons of leadership development as follows:

1.  effective leaders recognise leadership selection and development as a priority function; and

2.  effective leaders increasingly perceive their ministries in terms of a lifetime     perspective.

These must be deliberately actioned for a leader to function effectively.

One of the striking characteristics seen in an effective leader is their drive to learn. They learn from all kinds of sources.  Effective leaders, at all levels of leadership, maintain a learning posture throughout life.  They also have a dynamic ministry philosophy that evolves continually from the interplay of three major factors: biblical dynamics, personal gifts, and situational dynamics.  Clinton believes that it is the ability to weave lessons into a philosophy that makes leaders effective.  One strong indicator of leadership is a learning posture that reflects itself in a dynamic ministry philosophy.  Leaders must develop a ministry philosophy that simultaneously honours biblical leadership values, embraces the challenges of the times in which they live, and fits their unique gifts and personal development if they expect to be productive over a whole lifetime (p 180).

One significant feature of the book is a comprehensive glossary of terms used by Clinton in his insightful leadership development philosophy.  These have been summarised in Appendix A.   For example, giftedness set describes the influence capacity elements of a leader.  These include spiritual gifts, natural abilities and acquired skills.  The focal element in a giftedness set refers to the dominant influence capacity elements, either spiritual gifts, natural abilities or acquired skills, that dominates the ministry efforts of a leader.  For some leaders, spiritual gifts will dominate ministry; for others, natural abilities or acquired skills will dominate.

 The Making of a Leader can be a great encouragement to lay, professional and future leaders as they begin to see the direct hand of God in their development.  They will learn of the providence of God and will sense a continuity of God’s working in their past to develop them as a leader.  There will also be a high degree of anticipation of what is going to do in the future.  The insights gained from this excellent resource will cause people to perceive themselves and others differently, and will cause people to be more deliberate in using these insights for the development and training of others.

© Renewal Journal #13: Ministry, renewaljournal.com
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

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1 Revival,   2 Church Growth,   3 Community,   4 Healing,   5 Signs & Wonders,
6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
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CONTENTS: Renewal Journal 13: Ministry

Pentecostalism’s Global Language, by Walter Hollenweger

Interview with Steven Hill, by Steve Beard

Revival in Mexico City, by Kevin Pate

Revival in Nepal, by Raju Sundras

Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle

The Rise and Rise of the Apostles, by Phil Marshall

Evangelical Heroes Speak, by Richard Riss

Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

The Primacy of Love, by Heidi Baker

Book Reviews:  Fire in the Outback, by John Blacket;  The Making of a Leader, by J R Clinton

Renewal Journal 13: Ministry – PDF

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

Spirit Impacts in Revival 

by Geoff Waugh


Video: God’s Promise – I will pour out my Spirit
Dr Geoff Waugh, founding editor of the
Renewal Journal, wrote Flashpoints of Revival (2nd edition 2009) and Revival Fires (2011) which give fuller details of these impacts of the Holy Spirit in revivals.

See also: God’s Promise – I will pour out my Spirit
See also: Jesus’ Last Promise – You will receive power
See also: God’s Surprises, by Geoff Waugh
See also: Revival Fires, by Geoff Waugh

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Spirit Impacts in Revival, by Geoff Waugh:
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An article in Renewal Journal 13: Ministry

Renewal Journal 13: Ministry
– PDF

The charismatic impacts of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament have been repeated continually in evangelical revivals.  Specific examples of Spirit impacts in revival frequently occurred in the Great Awakening and evangelical revivals of the eighteenth century as in the ministries of Zinzendorf, Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards.  and Brainerd; in revival movements of the nineteenth century including those associated with Finney and Moody; and in revival and charismatic movements of the twentieth century.  Many historians have either overlooked or minimized these charismatic impacts of the Holy Spirit in revival.

The charismatic movement now involving over 600 million people has grown from its description by Princeton’s Henry Van Dusen in 1955 as ‘the third major force in Christendom’ to a major tradition alongside and as part of the Catholic/Orthodox and Protestant traditions. This article concludes that revival offers a paradigm in which differing denominational perspectives on charismatic Spirit movements may find common ground in evangelism, equipping of Christians for ministry, and in social reform.

Baptised in the Spirit

Jesus’ final instruction and promise concerned being baptised in the Spirit and receiving power (dunamis) to be his witnesses (Acts 1:4-8).

Does the charismatic impact of Pentecost recur?  This paper affirms both the relevance and importance of specific charismatic impacts of the Holy Spirit, demonstrated biblically and historically as in evangelical revivals. It also affirms the significance of Jesus’ instruction in the ‘great commission’ that his followers throughout history ‘to the end of the age’ would obey everything he taught his first disciples including charismatic ministry such as healing, deliverance and miracles.  That position disagrees with Benjamin Warfield’s “cessationist” theory (1918), popularised by notes in the Schofield Bible.

Baptism in the Spirit and charisma (gracious gift/endowment) in the New Testament find expression in the charismata described by Luke (Luke/Acts) as anointing with spiritual power (Luke 3:16-22; 4:1.  14-19; Acts 1:1-8), and by Paul as empowering for ‘body ministry’ with a diversity of spiritual gifts in the unity of the body of Christ (Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:1-16).

Different Christian traditions emphasize different dimensions of being baptised in the Spirit.  Rather than regarding these perspectives or emphases as mutually exclusive, they can be regarded more comprehensively as inter-related and integrated.  The evangelical emphasis on conversion (Dunn 1970), the Episcopal/Catholic emphasis on initiation (Green 1985.  McDonnell & Montague 1991), the Reformed emphasis on covenant (Williams 1992), and the Pentecostal emphasis on empowering (Prince 1995) can be integrated within a dynamic paradigm of Spirit baptism.  These perspectives are essential, inter-related facets of being immersed in God.

So charisma here refers to the multi-faceted impact of God’s gracious endowment in the personal and communal life of believers, especially as empowering for mission (Acts 1:8).  God’s grace imparts abundant life (John 10:10).  Believers are incorporated into the Spirit-empowered community in which God is faithful to every promise of the new covenant.

Just as conversion is appropriated by repentance and faith, so are Spirit-empowering and Spirit-gifting. Conversion, anointing.  Empowering, and ministering in spiritual gifting may be appropriated over time, slowly, rapidly.  or instantaneously.  Complex variables affect that appropriation, including faith, knowledge, personality, tradition, environment (supportive or hostile), boldness, and God’s sovereignty.

Biblical witness

Biblical terms describing charismatic impacts of the Spirit vary greatly. They include:

the Spirit was given — Numbers ll:17; John 7:39;

the Spirit came upon — Judges 3:10; Acts 19:5;

the Spirit took control — Judges 6:34; 1 Samuel 11:6; 16:13;

the Spirit poured out — Joel 2:28-28; Acts 10:45;

the Spirit came down — Matthew 3:16; Luke 3:22; John 1:33;

the Spirit fell (or came down)– Acts 10:44; 11:15;

the Spirit received — Acts 8:15-17; 19:2;

baptised in or with the Spirit — Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5;

filled with the Spirit — Acts 2:4; 9:17; Ephesians 5:18.

The specific nature of these charismatic impacts is significant, as is the varied nature of subsequent ministries resulting from these impacts.

Jesus experienced the impact of the Spirit at his baptism, which he explained in terms of anointing with power for his ministry (Luke 4:18-19).  The followers of Jesus were baptised in the Spirit at Pentecost with immediate empowering for ministry (Acts 1:5; 2:1-4).  producing explosive church growth.  Converts from Philip’s evangelism in Samaria ‘received’ the Spirit when Peter and John laid hands on them and prayed for them (Acts 8:17).  Saul of Tarsus was filled with the Spirit and healed three days after his Damascus road experience when Ananias laid hands on him and prayed for him (Acts 9:17-18), an encounter which included prayer, fasting, visions, prophecy and healing.  The Gentiles in Cornelius’ home in Caesarea ‘received’ the Holy Spirit while Peter preached to them (Acts 11:44-47), with radical cross-cultural implications for mission.  The Holy Spirit impacted believers in Ephesus when Paul laid hands on them and prayed for them (Acts 19:6).

These charismatic impacts of the Spirit empowered people for ministry.  That ministry involved a wide range of charismata including anointed preaching and prophecy, healings and miracles, tongues and trouble.

Historical witness

Significant charismatic impacts of the Spirit of God have continued through history.  These may have been overlooked or minimised for reasons such as these:

  • Many historians wrote from the perspective of the established government or church, which often opposed and suppressed charismatic movements.
  • Strong impacts of the Spirit constantly initiate new movements which threaten the established order, so these movements were opposed and their writings destroyed.
  • Charismatic movements may be regarded as heretical, and their leaders killed, as with Jesus, the early church, and throughout history.
  • Accounts of charismatic impacts of the Spirit have been systematically destroyed, often burned as heretical.
  • Excessive enthusiasm and fanaticism in charismatic movements may bring those movements into disrepute.
  • Leaders and adherents of charismatic movements have often been occupied with more pressing priorities than writing history.  such as ensuring their own survival.

However, where such records have survived, mostly after the invention of the printing press, the charismatic impacts of God’s Spirit consistently reveal similar patterns to the biblical witness.  Evangelical revivals provide evidence of these charismatic encounters.  I give a brief selection here including first person accounts.  They indicate the charismatic nature of impacts of the Spirit of God which became the empowering force in revival.

 

Wednesday.  13 August.  1727 – Herrnhut.  Saxony

The Spirit of God fell on 300 refugees in Germany in 1727, mostly Moravian exiles given asylum on the estates of Nicholaus von Zinzendorf.  One of them wrote that “the thirteenth of August, 1727, was a day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  We saw the hand of God and his wonders, and we were all under the cloud of our fathers baptized with their Spirit.  The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took place in our midst.  From that time scarcely a day passed but what we beheld his almighty workings amongst us” (Greenfield 1927:14).

Within 25 years they sent out 100 missionaries, then by 1782 they had 175 missionaries in 27 places, and in their fist 100 years of missions sent out over 1,199 people, including 459 women, all supported by round-the-clock ‘hourly intercessions’.  Both John and Charles Wesley were converted through their witness. Their English missionary magazine, Periodical Accounts, inspired William Carey. ,He threw a copy of the paper on a table at a Baptist meeting.  Saying, “See what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the world, and preach the Gospel to the heathen?” (Greenfield 1927:19).

January.  1735 – New England.  America

Jonathan Edwards reported on a revival movement which developed into the Great Awakening as it spread through the communities of New England and the pioneering settlements in America.  Converts to Christianity reached 50,000 out of a total of 250,000 colonists.  Early in January, 1735 an unusually powerful move of God’s Spirit brought revival to Northampton, which then spread through New England in the north east of America.

And the work of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner, and increased more and more. Souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. … Those amongst us that had formerly been converted, were greatly enlivened and renewed with fresh and extraordinary incomes of the Spirit of God; though some much more than others.  according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Stacy 1842.  1989:12-13).

Monday.  1 January.  1739 – London

1739 saw astonishing expansion of revival in England.  During the evening of 1st January the Wesleys and George Whitefield with 60 others.  met in London for prayer and a love feast.  The Spirit of God moved powerfully on them all.  John Wesley described it:

About three in the morning.  as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground.  As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice, “We praise Thee.  O God.  we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord” (Idle 1986:55).

This London Pentecost contributed powerfully to revival, which spread rapidly.  In February 1739 Whitefield started preaching to the Kingswood coal miners in the open fields near Bristol because many churches opposed him.  accusing him and other evangelicals of ‘enthusiasm’.   In February about 200 attended.  By March 20,000 attended.  Whitefield invited Wesley to take over then and so in April Wesley reluctantly began his famous open air preaching.  which continued for 50 years.

Thursday 8 August, 1745 – Crossweeksung.  America

David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at 29 in 1747, tells of revival breaking out among Indians at Crossweeksung in August 1745. Concerning 8 August, 1745, he wrote, “The power of God seemed to descend on the assembly ‘like a rushing mighty wind’ and with an astonishing energy bore all down before it.  I stood amazed at the influence that seized the audience almost universally and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent …  Almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together and scarce was able to withstand the shock of astonishing operation” (Howard 1949:216-217).

The ‘Great Awakening’ which had begun a decade previously now impacted Indian settlements with charismatic outpourings of the Holy Spirit, producing both conversions and significant social improvement.

 

Sunday 25 December, 1781 – Cornwall.  England

Forty years after the eighteenth century evangelical revivals began, the fires of revival had died out in many places.  Concerned leaders called the church to pray.  Those prayer meetings included outpourings of the Spirit in revival.  On Christmas day 1781, at St. Just Church in Cornwall, at 3.00 a.m. intercessors met to sing and pray.  The Spirit was poured out on them and they prayed through until 9.00 a.m. and regathered that Christmas evening. Throughout January and February the movement continued.  By March 1782 they were praying until midnight as the Holy Spirit moved on them.  The chapel which George Whitefield had built decades previously in Tottenham Court Road, London, had to be enlarged to seat 5,000 people, the largest church building in the world at that time.  Baptist churches in North Hampton, Leicester, and the Midlands, set aside regular nights devoted to prayer for revival.  Methodists and Anglicans joined them.  and revival spread.

June-July, 1800 – Kentucky.  America

Presbyterian James McGready organised camp meetings in Kentucky, an area nicknamed Rogues Harbour populated with fugitives from justice including murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters.  On the last day of the first camp meeting, held in June with around 450 people, ‘a mighty effusion of [God’s] Spirit’ came upon the people, ‘and the floor was soon covered with the slain; their screams for mercy pierced the heavens.’  At the next camp meeting held in late July 1800 an enormous crowd of 8,000 attended, many from up to 100 miles away.  McGready recalled:

“The power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly.  Toward the close of the sermon, the cries of the distressed arose almost as loud as his voice.  After the congregation was dismissed the solemnity increased, till the greater part of the multitude seemed engaged in the most solemn manner.  No person seemed to wish to go home – hunger and sleep seemed to affect nobody – eternal things were the vast concern.  Here awakening and converting work was to be found in every part of the multitude; and even some things strangely and wonderfully new to me” (Christian History.  No. 23.  p 25).

 

August, 1801 – Cane Ridge.  America (Barton Stone)

Presbyterian minister Barton Stone organised similar meetings in 1801 in his area at Cane Ridge, Kentucky.  A huge crowd of around 12,500 attended in over 125 wagons.  At that time Lexington, the largest town in Kentucky, had less than 1,800 citizens.  Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist preachers and circuit riders formed preaching teams, speaking simultaneously in different parts of the camp grounds, all aiming for conversions.  Methodist James Finley, wrote:

The noise was like the roar of Niagara.  The vast sea of human being seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. …  At one time I saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens (Pratney 1994:104).

The Rev. Moses Hoge described it:

“The careless fall down, cry out, tremble, and not infrequently are affected with convulsive twitchings … Nothing that imagination can paint.  can make a stronger impression upon the mind.  than one of those scenes.  Sinners dropping down on every hand, shrieking, groaning, crying for mercy, convulsed; professors praying, agonizing, fainting, falling down in distress for sinners or in raptures of joy! … As to the work in general there can be no question but it is of God.  The subjects of it, for the most part are deeply wounded for their sins, and can give a clear and rational account of their conversion” (Christian History.  No. 23.  p. 26).

These frontier revivals became a new emphasis in American revivalism.  They included the ‘saw dust trail’ laid down to settle the dust or soak up wet ground over which penitents moved to the ‘altar’ at the front.  Revival early in the nineteenth century not only impacted the American frontier, but also towns and especially colleges.  One widespread result in America, as in England, was the formation of missionary societies to train and direct the large numbers of converts filled with missionary zeal.

Wednesday, 10 October, 1821 – Adams.  America

Charles Finney had a mighty empowering by God’s Spirit on the night of his conversion on Wednesday 10 October 1821.  Convicted by the Spirit that morning, he surrendered to God in the woods.  That night he was filled with the Spirit:

I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any memory of ever hearing the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul.  I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me.  Indeed it seemed to come in waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way.  It seemed like the very breath of God.  I can remember distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings.

No words can express the wonderful love that was spread abroad in my heart.  I wept aloud with joy and love.  I literally bellowed out the unspeakable overflow of my heart.  These waves came over me, and over me, and over me, one after another, until I remember crying out, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.” I said,  “Lord, I cannot bear any more,” yet I had no fear of death (Wessel 1977:20-22).

Finney continued for the rest of his life in evangelism and revival.  He founded and taught theology at Oberlin College which pioneered co-education and enrolled both blacks and whites.  His Lectures on Revival were widely read and helped to fan revival in America and England.

Sunday, 22 May, 1859 – Natal.  South Africa

Revival began among the Zulu and Bantu tribes in South Africa before it spilled over into the Dutch Reformed Church.  Tribal people gathered in large numbers on the frontier mission stations and then took revival, African style, into their villages.  On Sunday night, 22 May, the Spirit of God fell on a service of the Zulus in Natal so powerfully that they prayed all night.  News spread rapidly.  This revival among the Zulus of Natal on the east coast ignited missions and tribal churches.  It produced deep conviction of sin, immediate repentance and conversions, extraordinary praying and vigorous evangelism.

In April 1860 at a combined missions conference of over 370 leaders of Dutch Reformed, Methodist and Presbyterian leaders meeting at Worcester, South Africa, they discussed revival.  Andrew Murray Sr., moved to tears, had to stop speaking.  His son, Andrew Murray Jr., now well known through his books, led in prayer so powerfully that many saw that as the beginning of revival in those churches.

October, 1871 – New York

D. L. Moody, converted in 1855, led powerful evangelistic campaigns in America and England.  While visiting New York in 1871 to raise funds for churches and orphanages destroyed in the Chicago fire of October that year, in which his home,  church sanctuary and the YMCA buildings were destroyed, he had a deep encounter with God.  He wrote,

“I was crying all the time God would fill me with his Spirit.  Well, one day in the city of New York – oh, what a day! – I cannot describe it.  I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name.  Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years.  I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask him to stay his hand.  I went to preaching again.  The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths; and yet hundreds were converted.  I would not be placed back where I was before that blessed experience for all the world – it would be as the small dust of the balance” (Moody 1900:149).

Monday, 31 October, 1904 – Loughor, Wales

Evan Roberts, a student at the Methodist Academy in Wales, experienced a deep work of the Spirit at meetings on Thursday 29 September, 1904, after Presbyterian evangelist Seth Joshua closed the 7 a.m. meeting crying out in Welsh.  ‘Lord … bend us.’  Roberts agonised in prayer that day.  He wrote.  “It was the Spirit that put the emphasis for me on ‘Bend us.’  ‘That is what you need’ said the Spirit to me. And as I went out I prayed.  O Lord, bend me” (Evans 1969:70).

Impelled by the Spirit he returned home from college on a week’s leave and spoke nightly from 31 October to increasing crowds as the Spirit moved powerfully on them.  From the following week he led teams by invitation across south Wales, sparking the Welsh Revival which reported 70,000 conversions in three months and 100,000 within a year.  Crime rates and abortions dropped.  Many taverns went bankrupt.  Some judges had no cases to try, and police had so little to do in many towns at the height of the revival that they attended the meetings while still on duty.

Friday, 30 June, 1905 – Mukti.  India

Pandita Ramabai established a compound for widows and orphan girls during severe famine in her area near Pune (Poona) just south of Bombay,  and called it Mukti (Salvation).  By 1901 she had 2,000 girls and women and from January 1905 she began teaching about the need for revival.  Soon over 500 people met twice daily to pray for revival, mostly women and girls.  Thirty of her ladies ministered in teams in the villages.  They met daily to pray for the endowment of the Holy Spirit.  On Thursday 29 June the Spirit moved strongly on many of the girls.  On Friday, 30 June, while Ramabai taught from John 8, the Holy Spirit fell on them all suddenly with great power.  Everyone there began to weep and pray aloud, crying out to be baptised with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Revival spread through their mission, and into many surrounding areas.  Regular school activities gave way to confession, repentance, and great joy with much praise and dancing.  Many spoke in tongues (including English!), and were filled with zeal for evangelism and social care.

Saturday, 14 April, 1906 – Azusa Street.  Los Angeles

Charles Paraham conducted a Bible College at Topeka, Kansas where on 1 January 1901 Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues when Parham laid hands on her and prayed for her to be baptized in the Spirit.  That month Parham and half of the 34 students also spoke in tongues.  Those events have been seen as the beginning of Pentecostalism in America.

William Seymour, a Negro Holiness pastor, attended Parham’s short term Bible School in Houston, Texas early in 1906,  then by April was the leader of The Apostolic Faith Mission at Azusa Street, Los Angeles.  Meetings began there on Easter Saturday, 14 April 1906.  About 100 attended including blacks and whites.  The Spirit of God moved powerfully on that little mission.   Many were baptized in the Spirit with speaking in tongues, prophecies, and healings.  Its centrifugal influence ignited Pentecostal mission across America and overseas.

Sunday, 4 July, 1909 – Valparaiso.  Chile

Minnie Abrams, who worked at Mukti in India during the 1905 revival there, sent an account of it in 1907 to Willis Hoover, Methodist missionary in Chile.  Those Methodists began praying for revival which burst on them on Sunday 4 July, resulting in their church growing from 300 to 1,000 in two months.  Willis Hoover wrote:

Saturday night was an all night of prayer.  during which four vain young ladies (three of them were in the choir) fell to the floor under the power of the Spirit. … From that time on the atmosphere seemed charged by the Holy Spirit, and people fell on the floor, or broke out in other tongues, or singing in the Spirit,  in a way impossible in their natural condition (Frodsham 1946:177-178).

1914 – Belgian Congo.  Africa

Africa has seen many powerful revivals such as the Belgian Congo outpouring with C. T. Studd in 1914. “The whole place was charged as if with an electric current.  Men were falling, jumping, laughing, crying, singing, confessing and some shaking terribly,” he reported. “As I led in prayer the Spirit came down in mighty power sweeping the congregation.  My whole body trembled with the power.  We saw a marvellous sight, people literally filled and drunk with the Spirit” (W.E.C. 1954:12-15).

Monday, 7 March, 1921 – Lowestoft.  England

Douglas Brown, a Baptist minister in South London, saw conversions in his church every Sunday for 15 years to 1921.  He felt the Lord convict him about leaving his pastorate for evangelistic mission work.  Although reluctant.  he finally surrendered.  “Then something happened,” he wrote.  “I found myself in the loving embrace of Christ for ever and ever; and all power and joy and blessedness rolled in like a deluge” (Griffin 1992:17-18).  After that 2 a.m. encounter, he embarked on itinerant missions commencing on 7 March in Lowestroft, East Anglia, with immediate responses in large numbers.  Within eighteen months he addressed over 1700 meetings, and saw revival in his evangelistic ministry in England.

1949 – Hebrides Islands, Scotland

Following the trauma of World War II, spiritual life reached a low ebb in the Scottish Hebrides.  Church leaders prayed for revival.  They invited evangelist Duncan Campbell to lead meetings.  At the close of his first meeting in the Presbyterian church in Barvas the travel weary preacher was invited to join an all night prayer meeting!  Thirty people gathered for prayer in a nearby cottage.  Duncan Campbell described it:

“God was beginning to move, the heavens were opening, we were there on our faces before God.  Three o’clock in the morning came, and God swept in.  About a dozen men and women lay prostrate on the floor, speechless.  Something had happened; we knew that the forces of darkness were going to be driven back, and men were going to be delivered. We left the cottage at 3 a.m. to discover men and women seeking God.  I walked along a country road, and found three men on their faces, crying to God for mercy.  There was a light in every home,  no one seemed to think of sleep” (Whittaker 1984:159).

His mission continued for five weeks.  Services lasted from early morning until late at night and into the early hours of the morning.  The revival spread to the neighbouring parishes from Barvas with similar scenes of repentance.  prayer and preaching.  People sensed the awesome presence of God everywhere.

Sunday, 26 September, 1965 – Soe.  Timor

Revival burst into unprecedented power in Timor in 1965.  This revival spread in the uncertain days following the attempted army coup on 30 September, 1965 in Indonesia.  Four days previously a visitation from God had begun in Soe, a mountain town of about 5,000 people in Timor in the Reformed Church on Sunday 26 September.  That night, as at Pentecost, people heard the sound of a tornado wind, and flames on the church building prompted police to set off the fire alarm to summon volunteer fire fighters, but the church was not burning.  Many were converted that night, many filled with the Spirit including speaking in tongues, some using English who did not know English.  By midnight teams of lay people had been organised to begin spreading the gospel the next day.  Eventually.  about 90 evangelistic teams were formed which functioned powerfully with spiritual gifts.

The Reformed Church Presbytery on Timor recorded 80,000 conversions from the first year of the revival there, half of those being former communists.  They verified that 15,000 people were permanently healed in that year (Koch 1970).

Tuesday, 3 February, 1970 – Asbury College.  Wilmore, Kentucky

A revival broke out in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, on Tuesday 3 February, 1970.  God’s Spirit moved on the regular morning chapel commencing at 10 o’clock. Students came weeping to the front to kneel in repentance.  Others gave testimonies including confession of sin.  They prayed and worshipped spontaneously.  The staff cancelled lectures for the day as the auditorium filled with over 1,000 people.  Few left for meals.  By midnight over 500 still remained praying and worshipping.  Several hundred committed their lives to Christ that day.  By 6 a.m. next morning 75 students were still praying in the hall, and through the Wednesday it filled again as lectures were again cancelled for the day.  The time was filled with praying, singing, confessions and testimonies.  Almost half the student body of 1000 formed teams witnessing about the revival.  In the first week after the revival began teams of students visited 16 states by invitation and saw several thousand conversions through their witnessing (Coleman 1970).

Sunday, 23 August, 1970 – Solomon Islands

Muri Thompson, a Maori evangelist from New Zealand, visited the Solomon Islands in July and August 1970 where the church had already experienced significant renewal and was praying for revival.  During the last two weeks of those meetings the Holy Spirit moved even more powerfully in the meetings.  On Sunday morning 23 August on the island of Malaita Muri preached powerfully, then he said, ‘If anyone wants to come forward …’ and immediately the whole congregation of 600 surged forward in repentance.  Many saw visions of God, of Jesus on the cross or on his throne, of angels, or of bright light.  Some spoke in tongues.  Some were healed.  Most came into a new experience of God with a deep awareness of the need for humility and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

The following Thursday, 27 August, at another village on Malaita when the 2,000 people bowed in prayer, they heard a growing sound.  ‘I looked up through an opening in the leaf roof to the heavens from where the sound seemed to be coming.  It grew to be roar – then it came to me: surely this is the Holy Spirit coming like a mighty rushing wind.  I called the people to realize that God the Holy Spirit was about to descend upon them’ (Griffiths 1997:175).  Many people involved in that impact of the Spirit sparked similar revivals throughout the Pacific (Waugh 1998:69-75).

Wednesday 14 March, 1979 – Elcho Island.  Australia

Djiniyini Gondarra, Uniting Church minister in the settlement of Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island, returned from holidays on the late afternoon Missionary Aviation Fellowship flight on 14 March.  1979.  Aboriginal Christians there had been praying earnestly, and met that night in his home for another prayer meeting.  He reports,

Suddenly we began to feel God’s Spirit moving in our hearts and the whole form of our prayer suddenly changed and everybody began to pray in the Spirit and in harmony.  And there was a great noise going on in the room and we began to ask one another what was going on.  Some of us said that God had now visited us and once again established his kingdom among his people who have been bound for so long by the power of evil… In that same evening the word just spread like the flames of fire and reached the whole community in Galiwin’ku.  Gelung [his wife] and I couldn’t sleep at all that night because people were just coming for the ministry.  bringing the sick to be prayed for, for healing.  Others came to bring their problems.  Even a husband and wife came to bring their marriage problem, so the Lord touched them and healed their marriage (Gondarra 1991).

Teams from Elcho Island took revival movements throughout Arnhem Land, Northern Territory and Western Australia.  At Warburton, then regarded as having one of the highest aboriginal crime rates in Australia, the mission team saw many converted and powerfully changed.

Sunday 15 May, 1980 – Anaheim.  America

John Wimber led the evangelical Vineyard Fellowship at Anaheim from 1977.  On Mother’s Day.  15 May, 1980 at the evening service a young man spoke.  That night, after he gave his testimony, Lonnie asked the Holy Spirit to come and the repercussions were incredible.  The Spirit of God literally knocked people to the floor and shook them silly.  Many people spoke in tongues, prophesied or had visions.  Then over the next few months, hundreds and hundreds of people came to Christ as the result of the witness of the individuals who were touched that night, and in the aftermath.  The church saw approximately 1,700 converted to Christ in a period of about three months.  This evolved into a series of opportunities, beginning in 1980, to minister around the world.  Thus the Vineyard renewal ministry and the Vineyard movement were birthed (Vineyard Reflections.  May/June 1994).

Thursday 14 June – Brugam, Papua New Guinea

In the Sepik lowlands of northern Papua New Guinea revival touched the South Seas Evangelical Churches at Easter 1984, sparked by Solomon Island pastors.  It was characterised by repentance, confession, weeping and great joy.  Stolen goods were returned or replaced, and wrongs made right.  Australian missionary Ray Overend’s report includes comment on revival beginning at Brugam, the church headquarters.  on 14 June:

“About 200 people surged forward.  Many fell flat on their faces on the ground sobbing aloud.  Some were shaking – as spiritual battles raged within.  There was quite some noise… The spiritual battles and cries of contrition continued for a long time.  Then one after another in a space of about three minutes everybody rose to their feet, singing spontaneously as they rose.  They were free.  The battle was won.  Satan was bound.  They had made Christ their King!  Their faces looked to heaven as they sang.  They were like the faces of angels.  The singing was like the singing of heaven.  Deafening, but sweet and reverent” (Overend 1986:36-37).

The whole curriculum and approach at the Bible School for the area changed.  Instead of having traditional classes and courses, teachers would work with the school all day from prayer times early in the morning through Bible teaching followed by discussion and sharing times during the day to evening worship and ministry.  The school became a community, seeking the Lord together.  Christians learned to witness and minister in spiritual gifts, praying and responding to the leading of the Spirit.  This included discernment of spirits, deliverance, words of knowledge, tongues, prophecy, healing and boldness in evangelism.

Thursday 4 August, 1988 – Kambaidam.  Papua New Guinea

Johan van Bruggen, a missionary at the Lutheran Evangelist Training Centre at Kambaidam near Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, reported in his circulars on the beginnings of revival which produced powerful evangelism, deliverance where whole villages publicly burned fetishes, and healings and miracles:

What were the highlights of 1988?  No doubt the actual outpouring of the Holy Spirit must come first.  It happened on August 4 when the Spirit fell on a group of students and staff.  with individuals receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit on several occasions later on in the year.  The school has never been the same again.  As direct results we noticed a desire for holiness, a hunger for God’s Word which was insatiable right up till the end of the school year, and also a tremendous urge to go out and witness.  Whenever they had a chance many of our students were in the villages with studies and to lead Sunday services.  Prayer life deepened, and during worship services we really felt ourselves to be on holy ground. … We have been almost left speechless by what God is doing now through our students.  We realize that we have been led on and are now on the threshold of a revival (Waugh 1998:96).

1988 – Madruga.  Cuba

In 1988, revival broke out in a small church in Madruga, Cuba. “People would begin to weep when they entered the church,” said their pastor.  More than 60 churches experienced a similar move of the Spirit among the 10 million people of Cuba.  The revival produced more than 2,400 house churches.  Although open evangelism is still outlawed, teenagers were joining the children and adults to witness boldly in parks, beaches, and other public places, regardless of the risk.  There is a “holy and glorious restlessness” amongst the believers.  said one pastor.  “The once defensive mood and attitude of the church has turned into an offensive one, and Christians are committed to the vision of ‘Cuba Para Cristo!’ – Cuba for Christ!” (Open Doors, Australian Report, September 1993).

1989 – Henan and Anhul, China

The persecuted church in China lives in constant revival.  This is merely a sample account.

In 1989 Henan preachers visited North Anhul province and found several thousand believers in the care of an older pastor from Shanghai.  At their first night meeting with 1,000 present 30 were baptised in the icy winter.  The first baptised was a lady who had convulsions if she went into water.  She was healed of that and other ills, and found the water warm.  A 12 year old boy deaf and dumb was baptized and spoke, “Mother, Father, the water is not cold – the water is not cold.”  An aged lady nearly 90, disabled after an accident in her 20s, was completely healed in the water.  By the third and fourth nights over 1,000 were baptised.  A young evangelist, Enchuan, 20 years old in 1990, had been leading evangelistic teams since he was 17. He said, “When the church first sent us out to preach the Gospel, after two to three months of ministering we usually saw 20-30 converts.  But now it is not 20.  It is 200, 300, and often 600 or more will be converted” (Balcombe 1991).

Dennis Balcombe reported in a newsletter on 27 August 1994: “This year has seen the greatest revival in Chinese history.  Some provinces have seen over 100,000 conversions during the first half of this year.

Contemporary Witness

Unprecedented revival continues in China especially in house churches, in Africa especially in independent church movements, in Latin America especially in evangelical/pentecostal churches such as currently in Argentina, and in proliferating revival movements throughout the world.  All of these now involve powerful charismatic impacts of the Spirit of God and increasing awareness and use of the charismata.

Renewal and evangelism increased through the nineties into the 21st century, even in the West.  Focal points for renewal and revival have included Toronto in Canada, Brompton in London, Sunderland in England, and Pensacola in America.  However, reports continue to multiply of renewed churches, empowered evangelism, and significant social involvement (such as crime rates significantly reduced in Sunderland and Pensacola). David Barrett’s global research indicates that pentecostal/charismatic membership has grown from small beginnings around 1900 to over 460 million by 1995, over 500 million around 2000 and now over 600 million (Synan 1997:281; Hollenweger 1998:42, Burgess & van der Maas 2002).

In Australia, the 1991 National Church Life Survey indicated that two thirds of church attenders were then involved with or sympathetic to charismatic/pentecostal Christianity.  Charismatic congregations, whether denominational, independent or Pentecostal, continue to multiply, evangelize actively, and many have significant social caring programs.

These indicators suggest a massive shift in global Christianity, which increasingly acknowledges and rediscovers charisma in revival.  It holds enormous promise for “the reshaping of religion in the twenty-first century” (Cox 1995).  Charisma in revival offers a paradigm in which differing denominational perspectives on charismatic Spirit movements may find common ground in evangelism, equipping of Christians for ministry, and in social reform.

References

Balcombe, D. (1991) “Hong Kong and China Report.” Hong Kong: Revival Christian Church.

Coleman, Robert (1970) One Divine Moment. Old Tappan: Revell.

Cox, H. (1995) Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Dunn, James D. G. (1970) Baptism in the Holy Spirit. London: S.C.M.

Evans, E. (1969) The Welsh Revival of 1904. Bridgend: Evangelical Press.

Frodsham, S. H. (1946) With Signs Following. Springfield: Gospel Publishing House.

Gondarra, D. (1991) “Pentecost in Arnhem Land” in Waugh, G. Church on Fire,

Melbourne: JBCE, pp. 14-19.

Green, M. (1985) I Believe in the Holy Spirit. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Greenfield, J. (1927) Power from on High. Reprinted 1950, London: Christian Literature Crusade.

Griffin, S. C. (1992) A Forgotten Revival. Bromley: One Day Publications.

Griffiths, A. (1977) Fire in the Islands. Wheaton: Shaw.

Howard, P. E. (1949) The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. Edited by Jonathan Edwards. Reprinted 1989. Grand Rapids: Baker.

Hollenweger, W. J. (1998) “Pentecostalism’s Global Language.” Christian History, Issue 58, pp. 42-44.

Hyatt, E. (1997) 200 Years of Charismatic Christianity. Tulsa: Hyatt.

Idle, C. ed. (1986) The Journal of John Wesley. Tring: Lion.

Koch, K. (1968) The Revival in Indonesia. Grand Rapids: Kregel

McDonnell, Kilian & Montague, George, eds. (1991) Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit. New York: Paulist.

Moody, W. R. (1900) The Life of D. L. Moody. New York: Revell.

Overend, R. (1986) The Truth will Set you Free. Laurieton: S.S.E.M.

Pratney, W. (1994) Revival. Lafayette: Huntington House.

Stacy, J. (1842) The Great Awakening. Reprinted 1989. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth.

Synan, Vinson (1997) The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Warfield, Benjamin (1918) Counterfield Miracles. Carlile, PA.

Waugh, G. (1991) Church of Fire. Melbourne: JBCE.

Waugh, G. (1998) Flashpoints of Revival. Shippensburg: Revival Press.

Wessel, H. ed. (1977) The Autobiography of Charles Finney. Minneapolis: Bethany

Williams, Rodman (1992) Renewal Theology. Grand Rapids; Zondervan.

Worldwide Evangelization Crusade. (1954) This is That. London: Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.

© Renewal Journal #13: Ministry, renewaljournal.com
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6  Worship,   7  Blessing,   8  Awakening,   9  Mission,   10  Evangelism,
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CONTENTS: Renewal Journal 13: Ministry

Pentecostalism’s Global Language, by Walter Hollenweger

Interview with Steven Hill, by Steve Beard

Revival in Mexico City, by Kevin Pate

Revival in Nepal, by Raju Sundras

Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle

The Rise and Rise of the Apostles, by Phil Marshall

Evangelical Heroes Speak, by Richard Riss

Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

The Primacy of Love, by Heidi Baker

Book Reviews:  Fire in the Outback, by John Blacket;  The Making of a Leader, by J R Clinton

Renewal Journal 13: Ministry – PDF

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See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

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Renewal Journal 13: Ministry – PDF

Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle

Mike Bickle

Beyond Prophesying

Traits of a Prophetic Church

 Pastor Mike Bickle of the Metro Vineyard Fellowship in America leads a church with a strong prophetic ministry.

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 Being prophetic is essential
to the very nature and mission
of the whole body of Christ

 When Holy Spirit activity happens among fallible flesh and blood like us, tensions are bound to arise. Our church, Metro Vineyard Fellowship in Kansas City, has made many mistakes during our journey toward becoming a prophetic church.

A few years ago, David Pytches wrote a glowing report of our church’s prophetic history in his book Some Said It Thundered. I appreciated the book, but also thought there was merit in someone’s suggestion that I write a follow-up book revealing all our past mistakes in prophetic ministry. He said I should call it Some Said We Blundered.

The term “prophetic” is typically used to refer either to the fulfillment of end-time biblical predictions or the speaking forth of current revelatory messages. But beyond these areas, the church is to be a prophetic servant community in a much broader, multi-dimensional way. Being prophetic is not to be the exclusive domain of “charismatics”; it is essential to the very nature and mission of the whole body of Christ.

Those whose prophetic ministry includes supernatural dreams and visions need to view what they do in the larger context of the church’s calling as a prophetic servant community. Prophetic manifestations such as dreams and visions do not comprise the prophetic ministry in its entirety; they are really only one expression of a community that is prophetic in at least eight distinct dimensions.

 1. Revealing the heart of God

The angel of God told the apostle John, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10). The spirit (purpose) of prophecy is to reveal three aspects of Jesus’ testimony: who he is, what he does, and how he feels.

Passion for Jesus will inevitably result from this prophetic revelation. Such holy passion is the highlight of the prophetic church. The prophetic ministry is to be stamped and sealed with an affection for and sensitivity to the heart of God. It is a ministry that passionately feels and reveals the divine heart.

Prophetic ministry involves not only receiving and communicating information; it also includes, in some measure, the ability to experience the compassion, grief and joy of God. As we experience God, we will be given insight into some of his future plans and purposes.

If you “desire earnestly to prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:39) by merely seeking information from the mind of God, you have bypassed the cornerstone and the essence of prophetic ministry – the revelation of his heart.

The apostle Paul said, “Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love [for God and people], I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2).

The message and ministry of Old Testament prophets was often prefaced in terms of the “burden” of the Lord. Habakkuk 1:1 speaks of “the burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.” The word “burden” implies emotional and heartfelt issues are at stake – not just abstract truth.

So then, one prophetic dimension of the church’s ministry is to proclaim, reveal and call to remembrance God’s affection for his people. That includes his jealous longing for us and His intense grief over our sin that separates us from him.

Often I have shared at our church that our passionate affection for Jesus can only come from an ever-increasing revelation of his passion for us. Though I rarely voice a revelatory prophetic word in our church, I seek to contribute to the mission of the church as a prophetic servant community by teaching on the passionate heart of God.

2. The fulfillment of biblical prophecy

For hundreds of years the prophets told of the Messiah who would come and the kingdom he would establish. Jesus sometimes spoke of the kingdom as if it had come with the advent of his public ministry, and at other times as if the kingdom was “not yet.” In whatever sense and to whatever extent the kingdom has already come, those to whom it has come are the living fulfillment of what the prophets spoke.

Jesus said to Peter, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). He also described the kingdom of God as being like a mustard seed that inevitably grows (Mark 4:31-32).

Throughout the last two millennia all the powers of hell have been unable to eliminate the gospel or the church. The church has only continued to grow. The survival and growth of the church is a continuing witness to prophecies fulfilled – a prophetic voice of what will come in the future.

All that the church does to make herself ready as the bride of Christ -worshiping, celebrating communion, witnessing, casting out demons, healing the sick, being peacemakers – is a prophetic trumpet to the world. These prophetic acts declare not only the gospel, but also the relationship of Christ to his church and to the fact that he is coming again to reign over all the earth.

The next time you are sitting in a church service, remember that even though we are almost two thousand years removed from the first-century church, the very fact that you are gathering with others in his name is a both a prophetic fulfillment and a prophetic statement to the world.

3. The prophetic standard in the Scriptures

Scripture is the ultimate trumpet of God’s heart, purpose and will. Fortunately, while our church has grown as a prophetic community we have had several gifted Bible teachers as part of our leadership. As experts in exegesis, hermeneutics, systematic theology and the history of the church, these teachers serve as a balance and plumb line to the prophets and exhorters among us, who sometimes want to apply a scripture in a questionable way.

Sound teaching not only makes the Bible come alive, it gives the church a sense of connection with those who began the race. The church as a prophetic community must realize that we are a continuation of what they began. The torch has been passed so many times, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we are running the same race they started. Their leg of the race has been completed, and they have now gathered at the finish line to cheer us on.

The church is the living testimony of the prophetic purpose of God in history. It is also a prophetic community which is to preserve and accurately proclaim the Word of God.

4. Moving when the cloud moves

The fourth way the church must be prophetic is to discern the current move of the Spirit – the “present truth,” as respected church leader Dick Iverson calls it. Just as the children of Israel followed the cloud through the wilderness, the church needs to move when the Holy Spirit says to move (Deuteronomy 1:33). And the Spirit is continually doing a “new thing, with the church as a whole and with each individual congregation” (Isaiah 43:19).

While the scriptural truth the church preserves and proclaims is unchangeable and immovable, the relationship that exists between the church and the Holy Spirit is not static. The Ten Commandments given on Sinai are forever true and unchangeable, but the people of Israel were changing locations constantly as they moved around in the wilderness.

The kind of moving I am referring to is the changing emphasis placed on elements of truth, structure and strategy. We are, so to speak, moving around within the boundaries of the unchangeable truth of God’s Word.

Several recent examples of people sensing the Lord’s instruction concerning the means and methods of the church’s prophetic expression can be cited:

* A renewed emphasis on small groups and cell-based churches;

* The public expression of worship, now known and practiced worldwide as The March For Jesus;

* The refreshing of the Holy Spirit as experienced in Toronto and many other places;

* A new movement towards prayer, spearheaded by people like C. Peter Wagner, Dick Eastman, David Bryant, Wesley Tullis and Larry Lea.

The leaders of such movements are not necessarily those who exercise the gift of prophecy as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, yet they can clearly sense the direction the cloud is moving. They might be compared to the sons of Issachar who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

Church history is filled with examples of how part of the body of Christ discerned a current emphasis of the Holy Spirit as it related to a particular element of structure, strategy or biblical truth. Unfortunately though, some have followed the cloud to the next place in God, then never moved again. After camping around a certain structure, strategy or truth for a period of time, they shift from being a prophetic community to being a prophetic monument to something the Holy Spirit did long ago.

This doesn’t mean we should abandon all the older traditions with every new move of the cloud. The greatest expression of the church as a prophetic community is in those congregations or denominations that move on with the cloud, but carry with them all the wisdom, experience and maturity of their history.

5. Demonstrating the power of God

Elijah was a mighty prophet who called down fire from heaven as a sign of God’s power. In the New Testament, though, attesting miracles were not limited to the prophets. The Holy Spirit now distributes the gifts “individually as he wills,” one of those being the gift of miracles (1 Corinthians 12:10-11).

As in the days of Elijah, miracles attest to the truth of God’s Word. But this doesn’t mean the church no longer needs miracles, since we have the written Word. If attesting miracles were needed when the apostles personally testified within a few years of the resurrection, how much more are miracles needed today to confirm the veracity of their written accounts.

Attesting miracles are also valuable as a dimension of the prophetic community because, more than anything else, they make people aware that God is actually present with them. Without an up-to-date awareness of his presence, the church sometimes takes on the air of a society only gathered to venerate the memory of Jesus and his death two thousand years ago.

Miracles jolt our sensibilities and make us joyfully (or frightfully) aware of the fact the he is in our midst. A hundred sermons on God being with us will not awaken our hearts as much as a personal encounter with the manifestation of his presence through the miraculous.

This in no way diminishes the power or authority of the written Word. It simply means that in the miraculous the living God of the written Word shows up in a powerfully personal, intimate and tangible way. Through the miraculous, the church prophesies and proclaims that he is alive!

6. Prophetic dreams and visions

God gives certain people the ability to see and hear things that most people do not see or hear. The term “seer” carries with it some very negative connotations because of its modern-day, non-Christian applications. Consequently, when referring to someone as a “seer,” one must be careful to qualify and define this term in the light of Scripture:

* “Formally in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus:

‘Come, let us go to the seer’; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer” (1 Samuel 9:9).

* “And Samuel answered Saul and said, ‘I am the seer’” (v. 19).

Prophets like Ezekiel and Zechariah saw profound visions of God but are not known for demonstrations of power such as healing the sick or raising the dead. Often this type of prophetic person is not gifted with great demonstrations of miraculous power, yet they regularly see things by the Spirit – things such as future events, the secrets of people’s hearts and the calling of God on people’s lives.

Like Ezekiel’s visions, the things prophetic people see are sometimes baffling.

7. Crying out against social injustice

The church has the responsibility to be a “prophet to the nation” concerning the injustice and unrighteousness that eventually cause a nation to incur the judgment of God. One of the more stellar examples of this was the prophetic outcry against slavery from William Wilberforce (1759-1833) and, prior to that, from Lord Shaftesbury (1621-1683).

Many times prophets to the nation speak from a secular platform. Joseph and Daniel were two biblical examples of people who represented God in a position of secular power. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, likewise, prophetically stood for justice and righteousness in America’s social order.

The church must be careful as it carries out its prophetic ministry to the nation. Although many believers will hopefully be active in civil government and even in party politics, the church and those who speak for it must understand where to draw the line.

If and when Christians enter politics, they do so as godly individuals, not as representatives of a church’s pastoral staff. The church itself should be as a prophet standing for the advancement of righteousness – but without indebtedness to political party affiliations.

8. Crying out for personal holiness and repentance

Throughout the generations, God has raised up prophets to cry out against the sins of his people. This outcry is similar to the prophetic cry against social injustice, but different in that it is specifically addressed to the people in the church. It is less like Jonah prophesying against Nineveh and more like Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesying to Israel and Judah.

Leaders such as Billy Graham, Charles Colson, John Piper, David Wilkerson and A.W. Tozer have been effective prophetic ministers raised up to cry out against unrighteousness in the church. Their words have been anointed by the Spirit to awaken hearts to holiness and passion for Jesus. God uses such prophetic voices, just as he used John the Baptist, to prick the conscience of believers and bring them to revival.

The church is the prophetic expression of the kingdom of God on earth. It is called to represent, preserve and proclaim the truth of God to this world. Although not every member of the church is a prophet, all are called to participate in God’s ongoing prophetic plan and purpose.

Those particularly gifted with dreams, visions, prophecies and revelation need to be careful not to think of themselves too highly, as being the prophetic group. They serve only one dimension of the church’s greater calling as a prophetic community.

My prayer and eager expectation is that God will work mightily in our generation to help the church live up to its prophetic calling among the nations of the earth. The proclamation and demonstration of the Word of God through a Spirit-filled church is the only true hope for humankind.

May the Holy Spirit come upon us in unprecedented measure for the glory of God and Christ Jesus!

RJ 13 Ministry

© Renewal Journal #13: Ministry
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CONTENTS: Renewal Journal 13: Ministry

Pentecostalism’s Global Language, by Walter Hollenweger

Interview with Steven Hill, by Steve Beard

Revival in Mexico City, by Kevin Pate

Revival in Nepal, by Raju Sundras

Beyond Prophesying, by Mike Bickle

The Rise and Rise of the Apostles, by Phil Marshall

Evangelical Heroes Speak, by Richard Riss

Spirit Impacts in Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

The Primacy of Love, by Heidi Baker

Book Reviews:  Fire in the Outback, by John Blacket;  The Making of a Leader, by J R Clinton

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Rev Dr Lewis Born wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev Prof Dr James Haire wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

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Contents of Best Revival Stories

Introduction:  “I will answer” (Helen Roseveare)

 

1  Power from on High, by John Greenfield

Moravians impact the Wesleys and missions  

2  The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

2 girls start 30 churches in 2 years

3  Pentecost in Arnhem Land, by Djiniyini Gondarra

Aboriginal revival changes communities

4  Speaking God’s Word, by David Yonggi Cho

Stadium in Russia converted & official dramatically healed

 

5  Worldwide Awakening, by Richard Riss

Blessing still impacts millions worldwide

6  The River of God, by David Hogan

Revival transforms Mexicans

Resources         

Introduction

 

“I will answer”

God promises to answer us – again and again.

His answer is not always what we expect or even want, but bigger and better than our asking.

Call to me and I will answer you; and show you great and mighty things, you do not know (Jeremiah 33:3).

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

It shall come to pass

That before they call, I will answer;

And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

(Isaiah 65:24)

As I lay in bed last night, thinking/meditating/praying with soft instrumental worship playing on my CD, ‘it came to me’ that I would love to read a book of the best revival stories from the many issues of the Renewal Journal.  So here it is.  Being editor, I get to choose the ones I especially like.  Many more great stories are in my other books such as Transforming Revivals.  This editorial has another great story about living faith, miracles and answered prayer.

Helen Roseveare

Living Faith

Helen Roseveare, a missionary doctor to the Congo, recorded this story in her book, Living Faith.  She also wrote books about the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) revival of the 1950s.

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labour ward; but in spite of all we could do she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator) and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.

One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. “And it is our last hot water bottle!” she exclaimed.

As in the West it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.”All right,” I said, “Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died. During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. “Please, God,” she prayed, “send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.”

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, “And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she’ll know You really love her?” As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, “Amen”? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything. The Bible says so. But there are limits, aren’t’ t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home; anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the verandah, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly coloured, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas—that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the . . . could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out – yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle! I cried. I had not asked God to send it. I had not truly believed that He could.

Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, “If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!” Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted. Looking up at me, she asked: “Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child – five months before – in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it “that afternoon.”

“Before they call, I will answer!” (Isaiah 65:24)

Mama LukaDr Helen Roseveare (1925-), an English missionary to the Congo from 1953 to 1973, suffered terribly through the political instability in the early 1960s and as a prisoner of rebel forces for five months in 1964. After her release she headed back to England but returned to the Congo in 1966 to assist in the rebuilding of the nation.  Now retired she lives in Northern Ireland. The film Mama Luka Comes Home documents her return visit to Zaire in 1989.

Revivals abound with such stories of answered prayer and miracles.  This book contains a few of those stories.

John Greenfield’s book, Power from on High, sparkles with the vibrant evangelism and mission of the Moravian revival which flamed into the Great Awakening and Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century.

Carl Lawrence graphically describes an example of revival in China ignited by two teenage girls.  Djiniyini Gondarra traces the humble beginnings of the Aboriginal revival in Australia.  David Yonggi Cho recounts his experience of explosive revival in communist Russia.

Richard Riss gathered extensive reports of revival awakenings in North America and England, and David Hogan testifies to amazing revivals in Mexico

We too can participate in prayer and revival in vital ways:

We can Ask God for a great harvest as we pray.

We can Believe God.  He is able to do far more than anything we ask or even think about.

We can Commit our way to God who is the Lord of the harvest.

I pray that this book will both inform and inspire you.  We can all join the millions praying “… Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  … For Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen.”

More Revival Stories

Blogs about recent revival movements:


God’s Surprises – Blog
God’s Surprises – PDF
Biographical stories of current revivals in over 20 countries


Jesus’ Last Promise – Blog and Video – Pentecost
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you


God’s Promise – Blog and Video – I will pour out my Spirit
Seeing God’s Spirit poured out in over 20 countries

 

Flashpoints of Revival  (2nd ed., 2009)

South Pacific Revivals (2nd ed., 2010)

Revival Fires: History’s Mighty Revivals (2011)

Transforming Revivals (2011)

Revival (2011)

Renewal (2011)

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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

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BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

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An article in Renewal Journal 12: Harvest
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Thailand

An entire village in Thailand became Christians after a prayer for rain was answered, according to Sowers Ministry.  Lun Poobuanak, a Thai missionary among the Buddhists and animists in Kalasin Province, said a village leader interrupted a Christian service, promising that if the Christian God would bring rain to save their crops, all 134 village families would become Christians.  Lun and the other Christians prayed and fasted for three days, and on the fourth day, an intense cloudburst flooded the canals and rice fields.

Source: IRN News, January, 1998

Revival in an Indian Village, 1998

 Report from Dr Paul Pilai, Founder of Indian Inland Mission.

One of our mission stations in a village in central India, named Tarti, was under the grip of fear of an evil spirit that destroyed the crop every year.   Three families came to know Christ and a small church was established in a hut.  The church prayed for the safety of the crop and no damage took place last year.

The whole village is turning to Christ and a great revival is taking place there.  Most of the villagers wanted to receive Christ as their Lord and God.  They stopped all the animal sacrifices to the evil spirits and the demons.  None of the evil spirits attacked the crop or the villagers.  They are learning Christian songs and pray loud to Jesus to make the demons know that the true God is in the midst of them.   The Lord’s presence in the midst of them is known everywhere.

How meaningful it was when Elijah prayed before the Baal worshippers “let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant, and that 1 have done all these things at thy word” (1 Kings 18:36).

We praise the Lord that our ministry started in that unknown village at God’s word and command.  He proved to His servants that He is the Lord God Almighty, the only true and living God, yesterday, today and forever the same.

Indian Inland Mission Newsletter, July 1998, pages 3-4.

30,000 decisions for Jesus in New Delhi

Christ for all Nations were in New Delhi from 25 February to 1 March, 1998.

New Delhi is a city of ten million people and is the capital city of the nation of India, as well as the political nerve centre for the whole country.  In addition to this, it is known as a Hindu stronghold, a fact that is made even more significant by recent advances in the national political arena for the Hindu political party.  The CfaN team headed to this city only two weeks after the end of national general elections, to hold a Gospel outreach in the huge Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.  The event was billed as “The Good News Festival.”

The Festival was launched with a VIP banquet that was held the night before the stadium meetings began.  Two hundred and fifty local and international dignitaries attended, among them a number of ambassadors from other countries.  Reinhard Bonnke preached a direct and clear Gospel message and many leading citizens were seen to respond publicly to the salvation call.

250 churches participated

Pastors and churches from across the city joined together to host the event and Pastor Robert Jeyaraj was appointed as chairman of the event, overseeing the activities of the two hundred and fifty participating churches.  It was also planned that running simultaneously with the evening meetings in the stadium, pastors and church workers from the region would be invited to attend a Fire Conference, which would be held each day during the week.  An idea of the excitement generated by the whole event can be gauged by the fact that over four thousand delegates registered for the Fire Conference, many travelling considerable distances to be present.  Reinhard Bonnke, Peter van den Berg and Brent Regis handled the Fire Conference sessions.  On the final day, this particular event culminated with Reinhard Bonnke personally laying hands on the four thousand delegates before they each received a complimentary copy of the book Evangelism by Fire.  There is power in the prayers of the righteous!

Despite restrictive security measures at the stadium entrances and unseasonable cold weather, tens of thousands of people flocked to the meetings nightly to hear the Good News of the Gospel as Reinhard Bonnke preached.  The meetings were characterised by an amazing attentiveness among the large crowd, transfixed by the Word of God as the Gospel message rang out across the vast arena.  Each night the power of the Word was seen as thousands upon thousands responded positively to the invitation to receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour, to the exclusion of all other gods.  The two thousand counsellors were kept very busy, sometimes late into the night, handling the many respondents.  By the final meeting, over thirty thousand decision cards had been handed in, and these were immediately funnelled into the follow-up system to be incorporated into the local churches.  The follow-up material was available in both English and Hindi, the predominant local language.

Healings

After the presentation of the Gospel message each night, a public prayer was offered for all those who were sick.  The crowd was amazed at the testimonies that followed as people pressed forward to report what God had done for them.  Of the many hundreds healed, only a small number could be interviewed publicly due to time restraints, but the crowd shouted with joy as each person, together with witnesses, gave glory to God for their healing.  A young man by the name of Mr.  Patel came with his father to report that his right eye, which had been totally blind for five years, could now see perfectly.  Everyone rejoiced as he correctly imitated the preacher by lifting his fingers to the sky.  A woman with tears in her eyes reported that a cancerous lump in her right breast was now completely gone.  The crowd erupted in a shout of praise.  Miss Naidoo, a young Hindu woman, was brought by her relatives to show that despite the fact that she had been deaf from birth, she could now hear very clearly.  Reinhard Bonnke demonstrated this by whispering into her ear and she was able to shout out the reply.

Fanatics opposed to the Christian message were so incensed by the miracle testimonies, that they printed out special handbills denying the validity of what was happening inside the arena each night.  These they proceeded to hand out to the thousands who were standing in line at the stadium entrances.  What the people thought about it all was graphically illustrated at the close of each meeting by the fact that while thousands of the handbills lay discarded on the ground, not a single follow-up booklet was picked up by the cleaners!

When the time finally came for the CfaN team to leave New Delhi, the general feeling of all involved could be summed up in the words of the Festival Chairman Rev.  Robert Jeyaraj.  AWe have seen the power of the Gospel in action during these days in Jawarhal Nehru Stadium, and we will reap the benefits for many months to come.” Only the Lord of the harvest knows the full extent of the harvest.  You, our Missions Partners, are a vital part of this harvesting team and we praise God for each and every one who is faithful in prayer and financial support.  He is the One who sees and He is the One who rewards.  To God be the glory!

Source: Asuza, Global Revival News

Tibet

Responses to Words of Hope’s radio outreach efforts to Tibetan Buddhists nearly tripled in 1997.  Vice President for Broadcasting Lee DeYoung told Mission Network News on 23 February, 1998 that his group received over 700 letters from Tibetans in both 1995 and 1996.  Last year that number jumped to over 2,000.

Source: Global Revival News, March 1998.

Syria

A Christian ministry in Syria, known in the USA as Syrian Evangelistic Educational Development, reports that a great revival has broken out due to prayer and fasting by the believers of that ministry.  As a result, many Muslims have accepted Jesus as their Saviour.  Additionally, for the first time in recent history, the government has allowed this ministry to print and distribute thousands of New Testaments.  To help, contact <info@christianaid.org>.

Source: FIA News, 5 March, 1998

Cairo, Egypt

Last night they wouldn’t let me into church!  The service was supposed to begin at 7 pm, and in Egypt this meant that most people would arrive around 7:30.  So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived on time only to find dozens of people walking away from the church!

Hundreds of people were in the street trying to make their way through the gate into the church and were being told that there was no more room.   It was very difficult to fight my way through the crowds into the church courtyard which was packed full of people watching the service on a very large screen.   I finally went into the church and found one seat saved for me by a friend.

The place was absolutely packed and the worship time was in full swing even though it was only a few minutes past 7:00 pm.   I knew that every Sunday school room and meeting room in the church as well as the parking lot at the back had closed circuit television screens transmitting the service to them.  It was the first night of the Luis Palau revival meetings in this church, which is the largest Protestant church in the Middle East.  Probably more than 3000 people were packed into the compound!

In Egypt, Christian meetings have to be held in Christian facilities so it was impossible to consider renting an auditorium or stadium for this event.  But as the pastor was introducing the American Argentinean-born Evangelist, he reminded the audience that Luis would have a nightly hearing of more people than would fit in the large Cairo soccer stadium!               How was this?

Through an ingenious program developed by this particular church, the complete service is video taped and after the service dozens of people work all night to make hundreds of duplicate videos.   Early the next morning, couriers travel to all parts of Egypt to deliver one or more tapes to the 570 churches that have agreed to take part in this outreach!  It is expected that around 150,000 participated each day.

Pray for the tens of thousands of people in hundreds of churches across this country.  Also pray for God’s protection.

Source: FIA News

 Sudan

Despite the harsh Arabization and Islamization policy by the government, the Christian Church in Sudan is growing fast.  In the slums of Khartoum a revival has started.  Small churches, often built of clay, mushroom everywhere.  The Jesus Film is shown every night in another church.  Twenty years ago only 5 percent of the Sudanese population was Christian.  Ten years ago this number had grown to 10 percent.  Now about 20 percent of the people in Sudan is Christian!  The Anglican Church has grown from 4 congregations in 1984 to 280 now.  Because of the arabization policy a strong Arab speaking Christian Church is arising which has the fire to spread the gospel even to other countries in the Middle East.  These Christians risk severe persecution and even death.

Sudanese Muslims receive dreams

Many Muslims come to faith in Jesus through God-given dreams.  Like an influential Nuba Muslim in Sudan.  One night he received a clear dream.  He saw himself getting baptized in a Christian church, while the believers sung a beautiful hymn in Arabic.  He remembered the last part of this song very well: “Receive Jesus and you will be happy.”  Then the door of the church opened and he woke up.  “I noticed that the door of my dormitory was open, but I know for sure that I had closed it the night before.”  He shared his dream with his wife and she couldn’t sleep that night.  The next morning his son of 13 told him that he had had a similar dream.  “I was in a dark room when suddenly there appeared a light.  Then I saw daddy with a cross in his hand, where this light came from.”  When the Nuba man heard this, he decided the get baptized.  His whole family is now receiving Bible lessons.  These kinds of stories come in from all over Sudan.

More freedom of religion in Sudan

While in South Sudan a civil war is going on and the rights of Christians are trampled, Christians in the North speak of more freedom of religion.  According to an evangelist in Khartoum, the constitution was changed recently and now guarantees freedom of religion, freedom to evangelize and freedom to plant churches anywhere in the country.  He tried this out immediately: in March he held a street evangelism campaign of a few days in the north of Khartoum.  The population is mainly Muslim there.  About 3,000 to 5,000 people showed up at the campaign that included a showing of the Jesus Film.  “People were even standing on the roofs to be able to see the film,” according to the evangelist.  “The gospel was not hindered at all.  This is a miracle of God and a fruit of your prayers for us.  Just because of the war many Muslims come to faith in Jesus.”

Source: Joel News, 25 April, 1998

Zambia

 “Please ensure that Bibles are distributed in all corners of this country to give every Zambian the opportunity to have the Scriptures in their respective local language,” was the challenge issued by State President FTJ Chiluba on the occasion of the Bible Society of Zambia’s (BSZ) Annual General Meeting held on Saturday March 7, 1998.

The President continued:  “The Word of God has life and power that can shape families and society.  As people search for truth they need to experience the liberating power of the Gospel.”  He pointed out that the Society’s work of translating, printing and distributing the Scriptures was of vital importance and that there was a pressing need for an increase in local fundraising.

The President said it was “embarrassing” for the church in Zambia to always rely on external assistance, and he pledged 100 million kwatcha (US$60,000) to the Bible Society to be made available during the current budget year.  He challenged all Christians in Zambia to contribute generously to God’s work.  Lack of giving to the work of God was the reason that many people failed to balance their budgets, the President said.  “You can only expect to receive God’s blessing if you give back to him from what you have earned,” he added.

The Rev Peter Ndhlovu, National Chairman of the Bible Society in Zambia, commended the Government for its commitment to the Bible cause as he thanked President Chiluba for such a challenging message.

Source: ChristianNet ChristianNet@christiannet.demon.co.uk 18 March 1998.

Uganda

 Charles Carroll reports:

One of my favorite verses is Habakkuk 1:5, where God says, “Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed.   For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”  I want to give you a beautiful illustration of this.   In January someone sent me a copy of a speech given recently by Y.  K.  Museveni, president of Uganda.   Reuters news agency says Museveni has emerged as one of the most articulate champions of change in Africa (21/1/98).  I think you will find this speech both amazing and encouraging.

Remarks by President Museveni

Thank you, Your Excellencies, for the opportunity to share some thoughts about  the spiritual condition of the peoples of Africa.   As I observe the tribal differences, religious divisions, poverty and disease, lack of sufficient educational opportunities for our children, political upheaval and racial strife, it becomes obvious that the principles of Jesus Christ have not penetrated Africa enough!

It may seem strange for some of you to think that I would say this about Christ,  because I know many of you may think this is too religious and not a very  practical solution to the problems I have just mentioned.  Furthermore, I know that most of you do not think of me as a very religious man – in fact, I do not think that about myself.   My wife is a much better believer and prayer than I am, and those who have known me through the years know that I have had problems with religious people.   As I have grown older, I realize that all of the problems have not been theirs, but I do think that those of us who claim to love God ought to love one another – this is one of the most basic attributes of a follower of Christ.

As the years have gone by, however, even though I have not become a member of  any special religious group, I have decided to follow Jesus Christ with my whole  heart.   I find in him the inner strength, the precepts and the lifestyle that can help me and all the people of Uganda to solve the problems we face individually and as a nation.  It is one of the interesting facts about Jesus Christ that people in every nation of the world regardless of religion, whether one is a believer or a non-believer, consider Jesus the greatest authority on human relations in history.   His views on that subject have transcended all religions and cultures.   It is remarkable that the person of Jesus Christ is accepted by everyone – even when they are not attracted by institutional religion.

With that in mind, I want to stress at least three significant precepts that Christ taught and modelled, which if practised, will help Africa: forgiveness, humility and love.

Forgiveness – Jesus Christ is the only person ever to come up with the idea of  unconditional forgiveness, even of one’s enemies.   He went so far as to say, if you don’t forgive, God won’t forgive you.   In countries where animosity and division go back for generations and even thousands of years, how can peace come to a person, a group of persons or a nation if at some point we do not forgive and let God take the vengeance on our enemies – if that is what he decides to do?  It has also been discovered that if we do not forgive, in the final analysis, it hurts us more to hate than it does those we hate.   Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the message of Christ on forgiveness is the only practical solution to healing a nation’s wounds and bringing unity.

Humility – This is one of the most important attributes necessary to become a  good leader.   When you observe leaders at all levels of society, throughout Africa and I suppose throughout the world, you find them being overcome by power, greed and self-interest.   Somehow, after they have attained the prominence and positions of trust, they forget the people, their poverty and need.   They forget that they could become a great instrument to help their country, and instead they begin to live like little kings and dictators.   Only with a humble spirit, one which recognizes that we who have been given opportunities greater than most are in fact servants of God and the people rather than masters, will we be able to help our countries move from Third World status and lead the people to a new day.   As the Scripture says, God resists the proud and gives help to the humble.   If you have time to pray for me, please pray that God will give me the strength, wisdom and sense to be a humble servant.

Love – It has been fascinating to me to discover that for centuries people who have been the most thoughtful, the most respected, and who have made the most  lasting contributions to the human race have all agreed that the highest and  greatest purpose for their lives has been to seek to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.   These are people like Moses – the great lawgiver; Abraham – the man of faith and father of nations; William Wilberforce – the leader against the slave trade; Mother Teresa – and on and on.   Jesus Christ said the sum of all the law and prophets is to love God and love one another.   If love for God and one another were the rule and the prevailing attitude in our  nations and communities, all problems would move gradually to resolution.   Even  when love is not the rule for most of the population and only exists among the few, great things happen that give hope and life in a world starved for love and caring.

Today, as we meet together, let’s resolve to take Jesus Christ out of the religious setting in which we have imprisoned him and walk with him along the dusty roads of Africa where he feels much more at home.

Source: Awakening, 18 March 1998  <ccarroll@singnet.com.sg>.

Healings in Uganda

 Bishop Grivas K. Musisi, a Ugandan Christian leader claimed in an interview in the USA in April 1998 that “God has healed 223 people from AIDS” in his country.  Each one of these healings,” he says, “has been confirmed medically.”  Bishop Musisi, senior pastor of the Prayer Palace Church in Kampala, Uganda, and who oversees of 75 other charismatic non-denominational churches throughout the country, stated that he believes that God can do the same for people who are HIV positive or have full-blown AIDS in the United States.  Musisi stated: “I believe that the solution is to come back to God.  If a person can turn to God, God is willing to heal that person.  He did it to the people with leprosy and he can do it with those with AIDS.  God has been kind enough to confirm it through his Word.  It has become a calling to everyone at the church to preach and pray for the sick and see people get healed, not just from AIDS, but from many other diseases as well.  Daily, over 500 intercessors cry to God for healings at the Prayer Palace Church.”

Source: Dan Wooding  via IRN News

South Africa

  Pastor Aré J. Van Eck reports:  Our Congregation is called Nuwe Lewe Christensentrem, that is the Afrikaans for New Life Christian Centre.  We are in no way a large congregation, with attendance seldom more than 80 and normally around 35 – 45.   Part of this is due to the fact that we are in a rural area, which is church-riddled, but mostly because we are multi-racial.  Most of our attempts to try and work with other congregations fail, because we love souls more than skin colours!  What I want to share about is the way in which God is visiting us.

As for most preachers, I also went to local conferences (not being able to travel abroad) and had people like Benny Hinn, John Arnott, Rodney Howard-Browne and Randy Clark, pray over me and my wife, but always without any real manifestations.  There was the occasional “going under” but not laughing, crying or being drunk for days – just to get back home and to find that God comes and touches his people anyway.

Imagine an Afrikaans scene with Afrikaans speaking to coloured farm workers, normally the poorest people you can get, sitting cramped in a 3 roomed house (no, not 3 bedrooms, but only 3 rooms) some totally illiterate, about 16 in the one room singing Vineyard and Hillsongs which they have been taught and of which the words have been properly explained to them.  Minutes later, they

themselves start to pray, reading spontaneously out of the Word and laying prostrate under the power of the Holy Spirit, small children laughing in the Spirit, mom & dad repenting freely of hurts and sin.  Praise be to God alone.

I am no person of wealth, charisma or above average education.  I was a policeman for almost 18 years;  it is all of God.  We are near a black residential are as well.   Now there are small black kids that run away from home to attend church.   Some of them got spankings because of it, but they keep coming.   I am talking children from 6 years up to about 14 years of age.

When I first ministered to a very small one who reacted on an altar call, I was annoyed to found that he did not even understand Afrikaans or English.  All he said was “Jesu, Jesu.”  The moment I started to pray for him, that little heart broke.  He wept, fell under the power, and while lying on the ground, started to pray in his mother tongue, Xhosa.   I asked one of his older friends to interpret.  He was praying for a drunken mother and a father that left them on their own.

An elderly black man got saved, and asked prayer for his child that has vanished more than three years ago.   The police had closed the case as they had no leads to follow.   We prayed and within two weeks she surfaced in a town 300 kilometres from us, after being taken away by somebody who promised her a job.  They had her delivered to her parent’s house, and we had the privilege of leading her to the Lord as well!  Is God good or is he good?

Source: IRN News, 5 February, 1998

China

 Neil Anderson reported in March 1998.

We have just returned from a very fruitful trip to the northern provinces of China. People are on the move, and political and spiritual changes are occurring in the country.  The meetings with the believers had to be secretly held at night, because as you know in China it is against the law to meet in homes for church services.  In these houses, the rooms are very small.  In every place we went they were packed to the limit, so much so that the people were practically sitting on each other.  But it didn’t matter as the people sang and worshipped the Lord.  There were some new people there who were coming to a meeting like this for the first time.  At the end of the meetings all of them gave their hearts to the Lord.  People heard the Word with much interest and excitement.  Every night we prayed for people to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to be healed.  All who were prayed for received the Holy Spirit, and spoke in tongues.

We were able to minister to many of the church leaders in China and listened to what God is doing in their lives and ministry.  Brother Bi, one of the key leaders of many of the house churches based in the northeastern part of China has a total of 20 full time workers working with him in 50-60 different churches in the area.  He told us this story:

In January a sister name Lan was going to see her brother, along with her little nephew.  On the way to this place, it got dark and there was no light on their path.  It was cold, foggy and nothing could be seen more than a foot in front of them.  Suddenly a bright light shown before them.  It was about 5 meters wide and this light led them all the way to her brother’s house.  As soon as they stepped in to her brother’s house, the light disappeared.  After they told this news to their family, five of them gave their lives to Jesus.

Source: Hong Kong & China Report.

Inner Mongolia

Churches in Inner Mongolia are experiencing phenomenal growth.  The region, located along China’s northern border, had 2,000 Christians in 1984, Lee DeYoung of Words of Hope radio told Mission Network News.  Today there are 150,000 believers and at least 40 large churches, he said.  DeYoung, who visited the capital city of Hohhot recently, said there is no explanation for the growth other than the work of the Holy Spirit.

Source: Global Revival News, March 1998.

Japan

 The light of Christ is beginning to dawn in Japan.  Christians say they sense “a new beginning” as churches cooperate in prayer and evangelism, Paul Ariga of the All Japan Revival Mission told Religion Today.  About 1,000 churches participated in the All Tokyo Revival Mission 18-27 September, 1998.  Charismatic, evangelical, and Pentecostal congregations worked together to plan the event.  Almost 20,000 “prayer warriors” — some from other countries — logged hours of prayers in preparation.  About 1,000 people conducted evangelism outreaches in the months before the crusade.

It was the first time that Japanese Protestants of all denominations worked together.  Workers delivered Christian literature to 3 million homes in Tokyo in preparation for the crusade.  Well-known Japanese Christian writer Ayako Miura wrote the tract, called “From Discouragement to Hope”.  Another one million tracts were distributed at street meetings in the city.

The crusade drew more than 120,000 people to 24 meetings.  About 56,000 non-Christians attended 10 evangelistic services at the Nihon Budokan, and almost 6,000 made first-time professions of faith in Jesus Christ, Ariga said.  Two outreaches were held for women and children.  About 60,000 Christians attended revival services intended to deepen their commitments to Christ and inspire them to spread their faith.

The number of responses is high for Japan.  About 2.5% of the population is Christian and most churches average 30 members, Operation World says.  There are 3,000 Protestant churches in Tokyo, a city of 30 million, and 7,700 Protestant churches in Japan.  Some cities and towns do not have a Christian church.

Most Japanese claim no personal religion, but follow the customs of traditional religions including Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.   About 100 New Age style offshoots of those religions spring up every year.   Those influences, and Japan’s history of offenses during World War II and other eras, have created a “spiritual bondage” that hinders people from receiving God’s grace, Ariga said.

It takes the “spiritual warfare” of prayer, fasting, and confession of sins to break that bondage, he said.  About 19,000 people have been praying for Tokyo since 1992.  More than 1 million hours of prayer have been offered on behalf of the city in five years.  To prepare for this year’s crusade, leaders asked the people to add 377,750 hours — one for every square mile of the city.  About 3,000 people took part in a 40-day fasting chain prior to the event.

Ariga and other leaders have visited other nations to confess Japan’s sins against them.  He has visited Australia, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan in the past two years to ask forgiveness for the country’s brutal behavior in occupied territories.  Christian leaders in each of those nations accepted his apology and pledged to mobilize people to pray 1 million hours for Japan.

Reconciliation among Christians “breaks the bondage and the power of darkness and makes it easier for people to receive the message of Christ,” Ariga said.  “We drew so many people—more than expected—from all over the island.” Before the revival, seven of Ariga’s eight relatives in Tokyo were not Christians.  “Now I have eight relatives in Tokyo who are believers — that is the result of prayer.”

Source: Baptist Press, Religion Today; Joel News, 16 October, 1998.

 Russia

In the Soviet Union, in 1989, there were 550,000 evangelicals, then by 1998 there are 2.3 million in Russia alone!

Source: Hands for Christ; IRN News.

Arctic Areas

Slavic Ministries and YWAM Norway are launching an initiative to reach the unreached living at the world’s extremes.  The Arctic, Siberia and the Caucasus are rugged regions where numerous still-unreached indigenous peoples live.  The Arctic is home to more than 20 indigenous nomadic & mostly unreached people groups.  A School of Foreign Missions (SOFM) at Borgen, YWAM’s northernmost base, in Norway’s far north, was be led by the mission’s pioneers among the nomadic Nenets in April, 1998.  Siberia, the ultimate godforsaken territory where thousands of political prisoners were sent to the gulags, and the Caucasus region, with the greatest concentration of unreached peoples in Europe, are the two other target areas of this thrust.

Source:  Europe NOW, Mon, 16 February, 1998.

Bible in 2197 languages

The Bible or portions thereof has now been printed in 2197 languages, 30 more than in 1996 reports the German Bible Society in Stuttgart.  The Bible is not only the most sold book in the world, but also the most translated.  The complete Old and New Testament is available in 363 languages. 135 groups are working on a further 681 translations.

Source: Hope for Europe, February, 1998.

France

 Pastor Marc Lebrun from France reports:

Our visit to Toronto in 1995 has changed our lives and put our ministry in such a dynamic that we couldn’t expect before.

When we came back the power of the spirit fell in the place and hit our little church in such a power that it is a wonder it remained.  We organized soon renewal services and many people from around the Paris area and even further visited the church.  Many were healed up, refreshed, with a new love for Jesus.  The church grew and we needed twice to move our facilities. Our revival meetings draw around 200 people and the power of the Holy Spirit is increasing toward the revival outbreak we expect to come soon.  Intercessory prayer, fasting, gifts of the spirit, have grown up and have become a normal way of life now.

The prophetic anointing is tremendous.  Lately during a four days revival with David Herzog (David is an American evangelist missionary to France) a word of knowledge revealed that some people in the crowd had a spirit of suicide.  We had a call for those people to come forward, the spirit resisted, nobody came, but when we rebuked the spirit of death, several people were hit and fell onto the ground, screaming.  Some of our people went into intercession.  Then seven people came forward and the power of death was broken.  At the altar call 13 people gave their lives to Jesus.  Some were children, youth and some adults.  A young boy was delivered from a spirit of violence and death, he saw a vision of angels, his mother says he is completely changed.  When Naomi, a 13 month old baby girl with second degree burns was healed through prayer, it resulted in the healing of all other children that were next to her in hospital.  Please pray for us.  We expect revival to explode and touch many people and churches around.  If you have France on your heart, please pray with us and let us know.

Source  http://members.aol.com/christlum/homecln.html  via Awakening

Holland

Tessa de Ruiter from Elim Pentecostal Church in Hilversum, Holland, reports to have seen and heard angels:  On 8 March 1998 during the worship-singing I heard voices singing that I had never heard before in church.  These voices were the most beautiful ones I had ever heard, clear and pure.  I knew that the voices did not come from the congregation for I know those, who are close to the platform, very well.  After the preaching, when the invitation was given, my eyes were continually attracted to the platform, then I saw an angel on either side of the platform.  I closed my eyes quickly and was thinking: “Lord, this cannot be real…”  A voice within me said: “Look once more.”  I looked and they were still there, beautiful, with gold-blond hair, clothed in white.  In their hands they had a large golden horn, full of pure oil.  I asked the Lord what they were doing and the answer was:  “I have send them to serve and to anoint with my oil.”  I asked him what they were waiting for and the answer was: The sign to start.  “But, Lord, who will give that sign?”  The reply:  “You.  When you will go to the front and tell the people what you see, then they will begin to move.”  As a result many came forward, there were tears and Jesus touched everybody deeply – the anointing was powerful.

Source: Joel News

Ireland

Youth unity initiative in Ireland

Protestant and Catholic young people joined forces in a marathon prayer walk round the borders of Northern Ireland, seeking peace for the long-divided communities.  While sectarian marches have frequently sparked violent clashes during the years of “The Troubles”, organizers of The Reconciliation Walk-Northern Ireland hoped that linking young Christians from different traditions in the trek would serve as a symbol for a united future.  The Rec Walk was for Christian young people, between the ages of 16 and 25, who wanted to walk together with other young people and pray for reconciliation, unity & peace in Northern Ireland.  The 600-mile journey started in Belfast and basically followed the border of Northern Ireland, taking participants through former trouble spots like Londonderry and Eniskillen – sites of some of the worst violence during the years of conflict.  Local youth events focusing on peace, reconciliation and unity were staged along the way.  The event was promoted by Youth With A Mission, whose Northern Ireland leader Mike Oman hopes to see up to 1,500 young people taking part – some for one week and others for the entire route.  He said that the walk was intended to build on the fragile sense of hope for the future that had been building in Northern Ireland over the past couple of years – which had largely seen an absence of violence.     Mike Oman <100071.1477@compuserve.com>

Peace Agreement

Report by Diarmuid O’Neill.

What happened in Ireland with the peace agreement on Friday the 10th of April, 1998, was something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, it was and is something amazing.  It is a wonderful opportunity that God has given the people of Northern Ireland and the people on the island of Ireland as a whole, for peace, healing and restoration.  This healing and restoration is also needed for the church of Jesus Christ in Ireland, to be a whole body the way Jesus intended it to be.

God has done an amazing thing and I hope that he will richly bless each one of you who has been praying for however long for peace in Ireland – as an Irish man I am so grateful to you and praise God for all he has done through your faithfulness.

But it’s only the beginning.  Its the dawn of a new day, the ushering in of a new era, that is if we continue to cry out to God for grace and mercy to be given out in abundance to all those involved.

God has blessed us with leaders in the political realm who were prepared to take risks and lay down some of their own ideals, aspirations, agenda’s and pride.  The church needs to learn from these men and women so that the church will do the same and will be prepared to stick its neck out and take risks and stop trying to be always politically correct.  Let us pray that from within the church will come the role models for every stratosphere of community life, especially for the up and coming generation who have known nothing but trouble and violence.  65% of the population in the South of Ireland are young people looking for answers.  New Age and alternatives to Christ flood the market place.  These young people need your prayers that the Christians in the North will share with them their new life.

God can powerfully use leaders and Christians who are prepared to say “your will – not mine be done”, and they are the type of people the island of Ireland needs right now.  Pray that God will give leaders favour with their people, so that they will be able to persuade them to vote in favour of the peace deal.

God is without a doubt blessing Ireland (North & South) in many ways during this time and he has said much about how he will bless Ireland in the future and how he will use the people of Ireland to bless again nations all over the world.  Pray that once again revival will sweep the land, remembering that it was the people of this island who kept the gospel alive while the rest of Europe was being over-run by Vandals, Barbarians and such like.  God used Irish people powerfully to bring the gospel all over Europe, may He do it again as continental Europe now, like then, sits largely in darkness and is in desperate need of Gods love and grace.

We need to keep praying that all of these things will come to pass.  That the people of Northern Ireland will be healed of all the pain and be restored. We also need to be prepared to go and just listen and be alongside them, we need to take risks and be brave and go and face the powerful emotions of hatred, anger, loss, mourning, fear, bitterness and many more besides.  This process of restoration is not just for the people of Northern Ireland, but for the people of the South of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and beyond.  The eyes of the world are watching and God will use all that this troubled land and people have learnt through this torrid, terrible time to bring restoration and healing between peoples, churches, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile.

We need to keep praying too that nothing else will fill the void left by terrorism and intimidation by all paramilitaries.  Since the first ceasefire in 1992 the drug scene in Ireland has become drastically worse.  Believe it or not: because of the vigilante tactics adopted in the North by paramilitary organisations, the crime rate in Northern Ireland has been one of the lowest in Europe.

So please, please keep praying for Ireland North and South and all the people in it, that people’s fears of this being yet another failed attempt will not be realised.  Rather that this will be what we have been hoping and waiting for for nearly 30 years and then maybe we will be able to heal all the other wounds which stretch back over centuries!  We want to challenge the church to keep praying and fasting for this crucial time in the history of the island of Ireland – don’t stop praying, in fact pray even more.

Diarmuid O’Neill & Amaury Braga <Diarmuid@gonations.nwnet.co.uk>

Source: Joel News,  22 April, 1998.

England

 ‘Sowing the Seeds of Revival’ has continued over the last five months, four nights a week at the Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, Westminster on Wednesday to Saturday nights since the 1st of June, 1997.  Well over 55,000 people have been through the building and over 6,000 have come forward to ‘Get right with God’. Twelve dustbins full of pornography, illegal drugs, weapons, Masonic jewellery, clothing and personal effects have been collected.  Scores have been converted to Christ and dozens baptised.  Some have been so overcome by the Holy Spirit they have been unable to get out of the pool.  Members of the House of Lords, House of Commons and staff at Buckingham Palace have been present as well as the homeless and hungry off the streets of London.  Over 500 bags of food have been distributed to the hungry and homeless over that period of time. —

Gerald Coates.  Source:  IRN –  http://www.revivalnet.com]

Canada

 Vancouver

David Culley reports from Glad Tidings Assembly in Vancouver, Canada.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh …”  We are seeing it!  For the past months Glad Tidings in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has been experiencing the same renewal that is happening all over the world. Yesterday, we crossed over into full blown revival.  The morning service started much like any other.  The worship was annointed as usual, and we had a visiting revival minister as we often had before.  The thing that was different was the sea of turbans and saris in the building.  Vancouver is a multi-national city with a large Sikh population, and over 200 had come to our morning meeting.

Our guest minister, Charles Ndifon from Nigeria and New York, had been in Victoria, British Columbia, for some meetings a few weeks ago, and a young Sikh woman, who had been invited by her Christian husband was healed of blindness and deafness.  She went back and brought her favorite uncle, Charnjit, who was dying of cancer, and he left the meeting healed and saved.

Since then Charnjit has been witnessing to all his relatives, and when Charles Ndifon came to our church in Vancouver, this man invited his whole extended family.  Yesterday, after watching many people be healed of athsma (as an example of how simple it is for God to heal anything), and a 90 year old woman receive a new ear-drum, about 200 Sikhs came forward to give their hearts to God.  And it’s real.  They had already heard the Gospel from Charnjit, and to make sure, the altar call was translated into Punjabi.  After the service, the people were so excited to have found Jesus, and to be so accepted by these white people.  At the evening service another 104 Punjab Sikh people responded to the altar call.

We saw many miracles.  A 14 year old boy born blind saw his mother for the first time, deaf ears were opened, cancers were healed.  But the greatest miracle of all was that God now seems to be bringing in the Sikh population that we have been so unable to reach for all this time.

26 October 1998.    Source: Awakening.

British Columbia

Bob Brasset from Victoria, Canada, writes about the move of the Holy Spirit in British Columbia:

The outpourings continue.  In fact, it seems to be getting stronger.  We now meet four nights a week.  The response of the pastors in the area is simply an overwhelming gratitude for the goodness of God for deigning to visit us in such an awesome way.  There is an amazing, astounding hunger in North America right now.  People know that we are on the edge of not only Revival but a genuine Awakening: perhaps the greatest since the day of Pentecost.  This Awakening, I feel, will be characterized by the very kabod (Hebrew for weighty, laden down with treasure, riches, glory, and wealth), glorious presence of God coming and abiding in a room, a church and even a city, or a whole region (as in Charles Finney’s revivals).  The worship in our services now continues and flows for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, unabated with spontaneous songs of the Lord from worship team and congregation.  Bodies lie on the floor, prostrate in worship.  People report seeing angels.  Visions, mighty, inspiring ones, are plenteous.  Healings happen during the preaching of the word or worship without anyone praying or laying on hands.  We are not advertising this.  People are just coming.  Salvations are happening in each service – even when we don’t give specific calls.  We now have reported healings of fibromylagia, diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, ears opening, many necks and backs healed and severe allergies.

Source: Global Revival News, Bob Brasset <rbrasset@tcs.bc.ca>

Arkansas, USA

 Revival is breaking out in the Lee County jail in Arkansas.  In just one year, chaplains and volunteer staff oversaw 161 services in the chapel and 118 services in the jail itself.  As a result 1,459 people made decisions for Christ.  Currently, 218 inmates are enrolled in Bible studies and some 6,900 individual Bible studies have been distributed.  “There is a hunger for God inside me that is more powerful than any hunger I have ever known,” said AOG Chaplain Patrick McCowan.  “The Lord is teaching me so many things in these days about servanthood,” McCowan said.

Source: The Assemblies of God News Service

Hampton, Virginia

 Ken Lawson reported:

Bethel Temple Assembly of God has been experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit since April 1996.  Church membership is 2,200.  Revival meetings are held Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.  In April of 1996 the Sunday 7:30 am service started and did not end till 3:24 pm which bypassed the 10:30 am service. Church members were repenting, numerous people converted to Christ, and many were delivered of evil spirits.

Hampton, Virginia is the oldest English speaking settlement in America.  Bethel Temple Church is racially diverese: 40% African-American, 50% white, 10% Hispanic and Asian.

In 1996 the Senior Associate Pastor, Don Rogers, had an open vision of the Holy Spirit coming to Hampton.  He saw the Spirit of the Lord coming like a storm and it blew into their church.  In his vision when this happened it blew out a glass window in the church.

Fourteen months later, in June of 1997 the Sunday service at Bethel Temple was starting.  Senior Pastor Ron Johnson was praying and asking God to come “like a pent-up flood”.  Suddenly Pastor Johnson looked at his hands and oil was dripping from his hands.  The pastor began to tell the congregation of what was happening to his hands.  The head usher told the pastor the front window of the church just blew out.

The pastor began telling the congregation of what happened.  People ran to the altar.  Many publicly repented of sins.  God’s manifest presence filled the building.  Marriages are being restored, sexually broken people healed, myriad conversions to Christ, and many being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The vision was beginning to be fulfilled.  Part of the interpretation of the glass breaking signified the Spirit of the Lord blowing into Bethel church and blowing out.  The mission of Bethel church is to proclaim God’s glory to the nation.  The breaking of the glass window is a prophetic symbol of God’s power to release the church to carry the gospel to the nations.  Also that week, several “signs and wonders” happened.  An unexplained earthquake tremor and circular rainbow 360 degrees appeared over the city.

Unity of churches in the Hampton area is growing.  Twenty churches gathered for Easter Services this year in the town’s coliseum.  According to Pastor Don Rodgers it’s unprecedented to get twenty churches to lay down the most important service of the year.  Eleven thousand people attended.

Source: Awakening, 13 April, 1998

Greenville, Alabama

 By Ken Owen, Senior Pastor of First Assembly of God Greenville, South Carolina.

In April 1995 a first wave of revival began to crest over the congregation at First Assembly of God, Greenville, South Carolina.  Nightly meetings were held for a month with Ed Nelson.  Since then a number of waves have rolled in, building into what is now a sunami of revival.

In August, 1997, the tide began to significantly deepen.  I called Ed – a director of  a mission work to unreached peoples – to return immediately.  On October 11, 1997, Ed returned to us from Asia.  The Sunday morning service flowed like a mighty river — hundreds came forward to repent of sins.  The meeting carried on through the day till 4:00 pm.  With an hour break, it began again at 5:00 pm with a large prayer meeting and evening service.  Since then there has been no let up, only an increase.

More than two thousand people have repented of sins, converts being baptized weekly.  Many miracles and healings are accompanying the revival.

People from a variety of church backgrounds and denominations are driving to the meetings from several cities and states as momentum continues to strengthen.  There has been almost no promotion of the revival, but word-of-mouth has brought thousands of people to the meetings.

IRN News, 5 February 1998.  Source:  IRN –  http://www.revivalnet.com

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

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazonall issues

Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

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

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

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

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon and Kindle – all issues

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

 

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival

By Joel Kilpatrick

  Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Mobile, Alabama.

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest PDF

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After five years of prayer and some dry stretches,

God came mightily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That “something” keeps on happening.

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

The Lost

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

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

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

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

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

Changing “Church”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Churches unite

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

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

Reported in the Mobile Register, May 10, 1997

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reproduced from the Pentecostal Evangelist.

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

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazonall issues

Back to Renewal Journals

All Renewal Journal Topics

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

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

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

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

Renewal Journals – contents of all issues

Amazon and Kindle – all issues

Revival Blogs Links:

See also Revivals Index

See also Revival Blogs

See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals

GENERAL BLOGS INDEX

BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Smithton Revival

by Joel Kilpatrick

 

 

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

 Thousands of lives have been changed

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest PDF

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An article in Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

 

 

How Revival Came

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steve and Kathy Gray

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

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

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

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

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

Revival in the Land

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Praise the Lord!”

“Hallellujah!”

“Thank you, Jesus!”

The four-hour Pentecostal service has only begun.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Amen!” the crowd responds.

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

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

The ‘Smithton outpouring’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Slain in the Spirit’

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

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

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

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

Missouri ties to movement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The lightning of the Spirit

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

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

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

“I was ready to quit,” Gray said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘I realized God loves me’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.

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

Contents: Renewal Journal 12: Harvest

The Spirit told us what to do, by Carl Lawrence

Argentine Revival, by Guido Kuwas

Baltimore Revival, by Elizabeth Moll Stalcup

Smithton Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Mobile Revival, by Joel Kilpatrick

Australian Reports – Aboriginal Revivals

Global Reports

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

Renewal Journal 12: Harvest – PDF

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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 4: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

 

 

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

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

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

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I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids; until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob. … Let us go into his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool.  Arise, O LORD, to thy resting place; thou and the ark of thy strength.  Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy godly ones sing for joy.
Psalm 32:4,5,7,8,9.

Though we are one body, as seen in Ephesians 4:4-6, we in the church have come together with many individual agendas.  This generation of people has often been called the “bless me” generation.  We need healing, comfort, wisdom, spiritual and emotional nurture, material provision, protection, ability to overcome problems in our lives, power to defeat the enemy, answers to our questions, direction, a place to belong, an opportunity to serve in a way that would somehow make a difference, and much more.

We also come to worship and praise the Lord.  But how diversified our expectations and priorities can be!  How disappointed, critical, and angry we can become when our personal agenda is not fulfilled.

The Lord is returning for His Bride, the Church.  That’s us.  A husband should be able to rest in His wife’s heart.  He laid down His life for us – and we wear His robe of righteousness.  But He also called us to lay down our lives for one another.  Only as we let Him purify our hearts can we come into unity and the kind of harmony in which the Lord Himself can rest in us, individually and corporately.

Many in the Body of Christ are beginning to change their focus, repenting of self-centred seeking, and consciously choosing to seek God’s presence and to bless the Lord for His sake.  The Lord is doing something that even goes beyond those personal choices, and blessing a new kind of “fellowship” in Him.

From June 27 through June 30, 1996, I attended The Gathering of the Nations, at the Memorial Arena in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  More than 2,000 people from many nations, races, cultures, and denominations came together to worship and seek the face and glory of the Lord, to tune into His heart, to listen to His voice, and to respond to His leading.

A meeting without an agenda

Personal agendas were set aside.  No musicians were appointed beforehand to lead worship, no speakers invited, no topics chosen, and no projects planned.  A group of “fathers in Christ” and other leaders met daily to pray for session-by-session direction.  They also reviewed and discerned which words should be shared from the larger body.

Musicians were chosen who were young and old, native and white, representing varieties of cultures.  Speakers were appointed on very short notice, and the order and content of their messages were built well, one upon another, always with exhortation to focus on the Lord: “We are here to bless the Lord and to follow His direction.”  By divine direction, the Holy Spirit indicated at a 6 p.m. leaders meting that He wanted communion served to the entire gathering; it was done in reverence and order less than two hours later.

A chief of the local indigenous people gave a gracious welcome to the assembly.  He was not a Christian, but he spoke appreciatively of the spirit he felt in the worship, unlike what he had experienced before in Christian meetings.  Prayers of blessing were said for the Indian children, and people who chose to give for the education of Indian children – including the restoration of native language – came to tables at the front of the auditorium to leave gifts totalling nearly $27,000.

A crowd of teenagers sat on the concrete floor in front of the stage, attentive and prayerful during 2- and 3-hour sessions.  When the Indian member of the Canadian parliament greeted the gathering, the young people came up on the stage to pray blessing for him, and he prayed blessing for them.  The teens then prayed for the babies in the congregation.

The days progressed with repeated encouragement to drop agendas, focus on the Lord Jesus, and to seek the face of God in preparation for the return of the Lord.  There was strong emphasis on humility, trust, honour, and the glory of the Lord.  Anointing was increasingly powerful, and I think that some half-expected a cloud or pillar of fire to appear, or a heavenly bomb to drop, leaving nothing but ashes.  In a sense that did happen on the final day.

During the final evening session, two pastors spoke on fathering. I also spoke, but on the topic of mothering, with emphasis on nurturing, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, freeing young people to become all they can be, and what it is to honour parents.  Two powerfully anointed teen-age boys stood to repent on behalf of the teens for rebellion, and to express forgiveness toward parents.  Fathers and mothers all rose to repent publicly for sins against their children.  Then the Lord broke people open wide, and repentance was spoken for all manner of sins.  Gut-level weeping and wailing was heard all over the auditorium.  Some were on their faces on the floor, while many were praying for one another.  Then parents prayed blessing for their children, and children for parents.  This continued until after midnight.

After prayers of forgiveness and healing, the musicians began to play celebration music, and when I left with others to go to bed there were still 500 to 600 people dancing in the ashes of repentance for joy in the Lord.  The agenda of the Lord’s seemed to be fulfilled, without our help at all!  May He continue to do that in all of our lives, and wherever His Body gathers together.

Gems from the last day of The Gathering of the Nations

Maturity comes from discerning the Spirit of God and walking in a healthy fear of God.

  • The Lord is taking us into a revelation of who He is.
  • Our emotions must be brought into the purpose and will of God.
  • We need a teachable heart, ever growing, and listening, and welcoming correction.
  • Counsellors must lead to the centrality of Jesus.
  • You can’t function in authority if you carry a spirit of rebellion.  Repent for your generation.
  • The enemy hits you in the area of your anointing.
  • Whatever your abuse or wounding, the Lord will transform it into your power.
  • The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
  • The glory and fear of the Lord will be known all over the world.

The world will not take note of who you are, but when the Spirit moves they’ll know God

Used by permission from Elijah House News.

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

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

Contents: Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship

Transforming Revivals, by Geoff Waugh

Standing in the Rain: Argentine Revival, by Brian Medway

Amazed by Miracles, by Rodney Howard-Brown

A Touch of Glory, by Lindell Cooley

The “Diana Prophecy,” by Robert McQuillan

Mentoring, by Peter Earle

Can the Leopard Change his Spots? by Charles Taylor

The Gathering of the Nations, by Paula Sandford

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

Renewal Journal 11: Discipleship – PDF

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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS(BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)

BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)

BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)

BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)

BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH(CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)

BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)

BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)

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