Healing evangelist Benny Hinn leads crusades worldwide. The cover photo on this Renewal Journal 14: Anointing is from his crusade in Kenya, East Africa, with police estimating over one million attending.
This article is reproduced from his pamphlet Seven Steps to a Greater Anointing.
Many people pray like Elisha, “Lord, give me a double portion of Your anointing.” Yet they do not realize the preparation that is involved for such a miraculous thing to occur. Here are seven things that happened in the life of Elisha before God allowed him to receive “the double portion” anointing.
1. Elisha faced the spirit of the enemy. Elijah and Elisha confronted the same enemy – the spirit of Jezebel. Elijah faced a demonic spirit through this woman that once caused him to flee for his life (1 Kings 19).
Who Is Jezebel? The Lord told the church at Thyatira, “I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20).
It is clear from this portion of Scripture that Jezebel is the spirit of filth and fornication which we still fight even today. Only by the anointing can that spirit be overcome.
2. Elisha relied on God. Before Elijah was taken up into heaven, Elisha declared his loyalty and devotion to God by repeating these words: “As the Lord lives” (2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6).
You’ll never receive God’s anointing until you learn to totally depend on the Lord. Elisha had a wonderful role model in the prophet Elijah – the one who stood before the 450 prophets of Baal and declared: “Lord God of Abraham, lsaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and, that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word” (1 Kings 18:36). That’s when the fire fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice.
3. Elisha learned how to serve. Young Elisha was plowing in a field – it was seed time – when he was called to become the servant of Elijah (1 Kings 19:19). He came from a well-to-do family – after all, they had ‘twelve yoke of oxen’ (v. 1 9). And Elisha was obviously a hard worker since his family could have hired a servant to do the same job.
Plowing and praying go hand in hand. Scripture tells us to “break up your follow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord” (Hosea 10:12). The moment he committed himself to Elijah, he became his servant, not his slave.
Do you want the anointing? Get involved in a church or a ministry and start serving. When you serve you are sowing your life as seed for an anointing that one day will be yours.
Just before Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha vowed that he would not leave the prophet’s side. He declared, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you” (2 Kings 2:4). He was saying, “As long as you remain anointed, I will not depart from you.”
4. Elisha was a man of faith. In the final days before Elijah’s departure, Elisha – over the prophet’s objections – stayed with him as he journeyed to four places: Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan. Each has a special meaning.
Gilgal is the place where faith begins. That’s where the manna ceased and the children of Israel had to learn to live by faith and not by sight (Joshua 5). For forty years they had seen a cloud by day, a fire by night, and manna on the ground. Then it was over. And so it is with us. The anointing will not come on our lives until we begin to walk by faith.
5. Elisha knew what it meant to be tested. Next, they travelled to Bethel – yet Elisha still would not leave the prophet’s side.
Bethel is the place of trials and tests. That’s where Jacob fled when he was running away from his brother. He lost his family and his comfort – and was sleeping there with a rock for a pillow. It was at Bethel that Jacob made a vow that if the Lord would allow him to “come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God” (Genesis 28:21). And so also, will we be tested before God will entrust us with His anointing.
6. Elisha knew how to wage warfare. The two men of God journeyed to Jericho – the place of warfare. The place where Joshua had fought his greatest battle (Joshua 6).
Elisha became a man of war in the spirit. He understood the power that belongs to every believer, that can unlock chains and open doors. We need to realize that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).
When the demons of hell come against you, stay strong. Declare, “I will not let this thing bring me down; I’m staying until the anointing comes.”
7. Elisha had a vision. Finally, they journeyed to the banks of the river Jordan where the Lord tested Elisha’s vision. Was it of man, or of God? The prophet said to the servant, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you.” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me (2 Kings 2:9).
Elijah responded, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you.” (2 Kings 2:1 0).
In other words, “If your vision is clear, and your eyes are on things above, you’ll receive it!” Habakkuk 2:2 declares “write the vision and make it plain.”
There are 3 keys to seeing a vision fulfilled.
1) It must be plain, meaning a vision cannot be cloudy or full of questions.
2) You must run to receive it, meaning your prayer life must intensify. Walking is prayer – running is intensified prayer.
3) The vision is for “an appointed time.” Wait for it. Never give up. Your faith is vital for the vision’s fulfilment.
Suddenly, the prophet was raptured – caught up into the heavens! A chariot of fire appeared – yet Elisha could see clearly enough to pick up the mantle that was left behind.
He walked to the same river where he had seen the prophet Elijah use the mantle to separate the waters. He said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” – and the waters of the Jordan were again miraculously parted (2 Kings 2:14).
Please prayerfully read in context the Scriptures I’ve shared. I pray this teaching creates a hunger for a deeper walk with the Lord and that you will receive God’s precious anointing as you apply the Word to your life.
Reproduced with permission from the Benny Hinn’s Partners in Ministry newsletter, November 1999.
The Holy Spirit IN US is one thing, and the Holy Spirit ON US is another – D. L. Moody
Many Evangelicals, especially those who doubt the genuineness of the current awakening, look to people like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles H. Spurgeon, and Dwight L. Moody as exemplars of true Christianity, or genuine revival. However, these figures, and others to whom they look, such as G. Campbell Morgan, or D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, do not at all conform to the preconceptions of late twentieth-century Evangelicalism.
Critics of today’s move of God complain that it is inappropriate to spend time soaking in the presence of God; rather, we must be about the Father’s business, seeking and saving the lost. But such an idea would have been completely foreign to Dwight L. Moody, who believed that to be effective for God, people must first wait upon God for His power and anointing.
Here’s what he said: “Some people seem to think they are losing time if they wait on God for His power, and so away they go and work without unction; they are working without any anointing, and they are working without any power. . . . The Holy Spirit IN US is one thing, and the Holy Spirit ON US is another; and if these [first-century] Christians had gone out and went right to preaching then and there [at the time of Christ’s ascension], without the power, do you think that scene would have taken place on the day of Pentecost? Don’t you think that Peter would have stood up there and beat against the air, while these Jews would have gnashed their teeth and mocked him? But they tarried in Jerusalem; they waited ten days. What! you say. What, the world perishing and men dying! Shall I wait? Do what God tells you. There is no use in running before you are sent; there is no use in attempting to do God’s work without God’s power. A man working without this unction, a man working without this anointing, a man working without the Holy Ghost upon him, is losing his time after all. So we are not going to lose anything if we tarry till we get this power” (Secret Power, pp. 44-45).
Critics have raised objections to the laughter that has characterized the present move of God. They have said that weeping, not laughter, is appropriate for revival, since it is appropriate to weep over one’s sins in coming to a place of repentance. But Charles H. Spurgeon has said otherwise. In his Autobiography (Zondervan, 1946), p. 124-125, he writes, “I do believe in my heart that there may be as much holiness in a laugh as in a cry, and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter thoughts against God, while, at another time, I may laugh the laugh of sarcasm against sin and so evince a holy earnestness in the defense of the truth.”
“I am not so afraid of excitement as some people” – D. L. Moody
Rodney Howard-Browne was severely criticized for his comments to the effect that he would rather have some form of life in his meetings than no life at all, implying that it would be worth it, even if there were a risk that the life was of the flesh. Yet, one would be hard-pressed to see how Rodney’s comments along these lines differed from one of Moody’s sermons, “Revivals,” in which he said essentially the same thing: “I am not so afraid of excitement as some people. The moment there comes a breath of interest, some people cry, ‘Sensationalism, sensationalism!’ But, I tell you what, I would rather have sensation than stagnation any time. . . . Don’t be afraid of a little excitement and a little ‘sensationalism.’ It seems to me that almost anything is preferable to deadness. . . . Where there is life, there will always be a commotion” (Moody’s Latest Sermons, pp. 111-112).
Critics claim that John Arnott opens people up to deception by quoting Luke 11:11 in order to calm peoples’ fears about the current move of God. Yet, this is precisely the language that Moody used when he said, “I believe that if we ask God for a real work, He won’t give us a counterfeit. If we ask God for bread, He isn’t going to give us a stone” (ibid., p. 114).
Still other critics complain that, in an age of Microwave ovens, we are far too accustomed to the instantaneous. Because we are not satisfied unless things are done immediately, the quick fixes that we see in today’s revival are suspect, and won’t last. On the other hand, Spurgeon’s outlook was just the opposite. He believed that revival and its results are instantaneous. In a sermon entitled “The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit” (June 20, 1858), he said, “There is no power in man so fallen but that the Holy Spirit can raise it up. However debased a man may be, in one instant, by the miraculous power of the Spirit, all his faculties may be cleansed and purged.”
“Follow the guidance of the Spirit” – Evan Roberts
Some people criticize the idea of the leading of the Holy Spirit during a church service as too dangerous or too subjective. Rodney Howard-Browne has often been severely criticized for claiming to yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit during his meetings. This may be problematic for many twentieth-century Evangelicals, but it was most decidedly not a problem for Evan Roberts during the Welsh revival. G. Campbell Morgan, in his sermon, “Lessons of the Welsh Revival” (December 25, 1904) said of one of the meetings that he attended in Wales, that all the while, there was “no human leader, no one indicating the next thing to do, no one checking the spontaneous movement. . . . Evan Roberts is no orator, no leader. What is he? I mean now with respect to this great movement. He is the mouthpiece of the fact that there is no human guidance as to man or organization. The burden of what he says to the people is this: It is not man, do not wait for me, depend on God, obey the Spirit. But whenever moved to do so, he speaks under the guidance of the Spirit. His work is not that of appealing to men so much as that of creating an atmosphere by calling men to follow the guidance of the Spirit in whatever the Spirit shall say to them.”
Charles Spurgeon also believed that the leading of the Holy Spirit was absolutely essential in all of his church meetings. He said, “I have constantly made it my prayer that I might be guided by the Spirit even in the smallest and least important parts of the services. . . . I might preach to-day a sermon which I preached on Friday, and which was useful then, and there might be no good whatever come from it now, because it might not be the sermon which the Holy Ghost would have delivered to-day.”
“A blessed fanaticism . . . a heavenly enthusiasm” – C H Spurgeon
Some people assert that today’s awakening cannot be a genuine work of God since there are clear problems within it, and many indications that it is tainted by the work of the flesh. Such people do not realize that every awakening of history has been a mixture of the good and the bad. Here’s what Spurgeon wrote of the awakening of 1857-58: “We have received continually fresh confirmations of the good news from a far country, which has already made glad the hearts of many of God’s people. In the United States of America there is certainly a great awakening.. . . There may be something of spurious excitement mixed up with it, but that good, lasting good, has been accomplished, no rational man can deny.” Along similar lines, Jonathan Edwards, in The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of The Spirit of God, wrote of the Great Awakening that critics who “wait to see a work of God without difficulties and stumbling blocks . . . will be a like the fool’s waiting at the river side to have the water all run by. A work of God without stumbling blocks is never to be expected.”
In a sermon entitled “The Great Revival” (March 28, 1858), Spurgeon said that revival is like a hurricane, bringing chaos wherever it goes: “The mere worldly man does not understand a revival; he cannot make it out. Why is it, that a sudden fit of godliness, as he would call it, a kind of sacred epidemic, should seize upon a mass of people all at once? What can be the cause of it? It frequently occurs in the absence of all great evangelists; it cannot be traced to any particular means. There have been no special agencies used in order to bring it about – no machinery supplied, no societies established; and yet it has come, just like a heavenly hurricane, sweeping everything before it. . . . When there comes a revival, the minister all of a sudden finds that the usual forms and conventionalities of the pulpit are not exactly suitable to the times. . . . And there are sobs and groans heard in the prayer meetings. . . . And then the converts who are thus brought into the church, if the revival continues, are very earnest ones. You never saw such a people. The outsiders call them fanatics. It is a blessed fanaticism. Others say, they are nothing but enthusiasts. It is a heavenly enthusiasm. . . . It is not orderly, you say. . . . You may try to stop us, but we will run over you if you do not get out of the way.”
Spurgeon was decidedly in favor of revival, but he was opposed to some of the more controversial manifestations. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the manifestations that he disliked had taken place under the ministry of George Whitefield: “In the old revivals in America a hundred years ago, commonly called ‘the Great Awakening,’ there were many strange things, such as continual shrieks and screams, and knocking, and twitchings, under the services. We cannot call that the work of the Spirit. Even the great Whitefield’s revival at Cambuslang, one of the greatest and most remarkable revivals that were ever known, was attended by some things that we cannot but regard as superstitious wonders” (ibid).
Spurgeon is certainly not alone. One of the greatest bones of contention during the important revivals of the past has been controversial manifestations of this kind, such as people falling under the power of God, shaking and trembling, experiencing speechlessness, drunkenness in the Spirit, or holy laughter. In a 1959 sermon, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said with respect to revival that “Under the influence of this mighty power, people may literally fall to the ground under conviction of sin, or even faint, and remain in a state of unconsciousness, perhaps for a considerable time. . . . Then there are people who seem to go into trances. They may be seated or they may be standing, and they are looking into the distance, obviously seeing something, and yet they are completely unconscious, and unaware of their surroundings. They do not seem to be able to hear anything, nor to see anything that may be happening round and about them.” Lloyd-Jones lamented that “there are people who dismiss and denounce the whole notion of revival because of these phenomena” (Revivbal, pp. 134-136). He also said (pp. 136-144) that for many years, people had attempted to explain revival in terms of brainwashing, mass hysteria, mesmerism, hypnotism, or demonic activity, but that all of these attempted explanations leave many questions unanswered and fail at major points.
“A kind of ecstasy” – Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards had to deal with criticisms of the Great Awakening because of phenomena of this kind. One of his critics, Charles Chauncy, insisted that because these things were integral to the Great Awakening, that it could not possibly be a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
In his several works in defense of the Great Awakening, Edwards repeatedly pointed out that the presence of these manifestations neither proves nor disproves that God is at work. In our own day, critics attempt to argue that Edwards, especially in his later works, was against the manifestations. But any careful reading, even of his Treatise on Religious Affections (1746), will indicate that his viewpoint was always that, while the manifestations do not indicate that a work is of God, neither do they indicate the opposite. According to Edwards, the true sign as to whether a work is of God would be the positive effects in peoples attitudes and behavior, or the fruit of the Spirit in their lives and character.
Nevertheless, the writings of Edwards do demonstrate that the manifestations were a component of the Great Awakening. He made clear references in The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of The Spirit of God to “tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of body, or the failing of Bodily strength.” He wrote, “some who are the subjects of it have been in a kind of ecstasy, wherein they have been carried beyond themselves, and have had their minds transported into a train of strong and pleasing . . . visions, as though they were rapt up even to heaven, and there saw glorious sights. I have been acquainted with some such instances, and I see no need of bringing in the help of the devil into the account that we give of these things.”
“Outward signs . . . accompanied the inward work of God” – JohnWesley
George Whitefield also played an important part in the Great Awakening. At first, Whitefield did not believe that the manifestations should be encouraged. On June 25, 1739, he wrote a letter to John Wesley about them, saying, “I cannot think it right in you to give so much encouragement to those convulsions which people have been thrown into under your ministry. Was I to do so, how many would cry out every night! I think it is tempting God to require such signs. That there is something of God in it, I doubt not. But the devil, I believe, does interpose.”
But about two weeks later, John Wesley had a talk with George Whitefield about these matters, and Whitefield changed his mind. On July 7, 1739, Wesley wrote of him in his Journal, “I had an opportunity to talk with him of those outward signs which had so often accompanied the inward work of God. I found his objections were chiefly grounded on gross misrepresentations of matter of fact. But the next day he had an opportunity of informing himself better: for no sooner had he begun (in the application of his sermon) to invite all sinners to believe in Christ, than four persons sunk down close to him, almost in the same moment. One of them lay without either sense of motion; a second trembled exceedingly; the third had strong convulsions all over his body, but made no noise, unless by groans; the fourth, equally convulsed, called upon God with strong cries and tears. From this time, I trust, we shall all suffer God to carry on His own work in the way that pleaseth Him.”
“God manifested Himself much amongst us” – George Whitefield
As can be seen in George Whitefield’s own Journal, from that time onward, the manifestations were one of the components of Whitefield’s ministry. On August 3, 1740 he wrote, “Before I had prayed long, Br. B. dropped down, as though shot with a gun. Afterwards he got up, and sat attentively to hear the sermon. The influence spread. The greatest part of the congregation were under great concern. Tears trickled down apace, and God manifested Himself much amongst us at the Sacrament.” The following day, Whitefield wrote, “I asked, ‘what caused him to fall down yesterday?’ He answered, ‘The power of God’s Word.’”
Whitefield wrote that during the same year in New York, on Sunday, November 2, “After I had begun . . . the Spirit of the Lord gave me freedom, and at length came down like a mighty rushing wind, and carried all before it. Immediately, the whole congregation was alarmed. Crying, weeping, and wailing were to be heard in every corner; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and many were to be seen falling into the arms of their friends.”
Similar things happened two days later in Staten Island: “Oh, how did the Word fall like a hammer and like a fire! One poorcreature in particular was ready to sink into the earth. His countenance was altered, till he looked, as it were, sick to death. At length he said, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’ Others were dissolved in tears around him; and one of my fellow- travellers was struck down, and so overpowered, that his body became exceeding weak. He could scarcely move all the night after. God, I believe, was working powerfully in his soul.” Whitefield wrote that a day afterward, in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, “I had not discoursed long, when, in every part of the congregation, some one or other began to cry out, and almost all were melted into tears. . . . Most of the people spent the remainder of the night in prayer and praises.”
The following week, on Saturday, November 15, in Philadelphia, “the Word seemed to smite the congregation like so many pointed arrows. Many afterwards told me what they felt; and, in the evening I was sent for to a young woman, who was carried home from meeting, and had continued almost speechless.” Whitefield said that a week later, at Fagg’s Manor, “God’s presence so filled my soul that I could scarce stand under it. I prayed and exhorted and prayed again, and soon every person in the room seemed to be under great impressions, sighing and weeping. At last I was quite overpowered.” Whitefield couldn’t move, and a friend had to help him go to bed that night: “A dear friend undressed me. The Lord gave me sweet sleep, and in the morning I arose with my natural strength much renewed.”
There is an interesting quotation in The Biography of Barton W. Stone (1847) with respect to the manifestations of the Great Awakening and its aftermath: “Mr. Benedict, in his Abridgment of the History of the Baptists, on page 345, speaking of the great revival that began among them, on James River, in 1785, says, ‘During the progress of this revival, scenes were exhibited somewhat extraordinary. It was not unusual to have a large proportion of the congregation prostrate on the floor, and in some instances they lost the use of their limbs. . . . Screams, groans, shouts, hosannas, notes of grief and joy, all at the same time, were not unfrequently heard throughout their vast assemblies. . . . It is not unworthy of notice, that in those congregations where the preachers encouraged them to much extent, the work was more extensive, and greater numbers were added. . . . . Among the old fashioned Calvinistic Baptists of the Old Dominion these strange bodily agitations obtained; and many of the preachers “fanned them as fire from heaven,’ and the excitement and confusion that pervaded their vast assemblies well nigh fills Mr. J. L. Waller’s measure of a “New Light Stir” in Kentucky.’”
“He never saw a more glorious sight” – Barton Stone
According to Barton Stone (pp. 360-361), not only did George Whitefield encourage such things, but Charles Hodge wrote about them in his History of the Presbyterian Church, pages 85 and 86. Stone also wrote that “the manner in which Whitefield describes the scenes at Nottingham and Fagg’s Manor, and others of a similar character, shows he did not disapprove of these agitations. He says he never saw a more glorious sight, than when the people were fainting all around him, and crying out in such a manner as to drown his own voice.”
In his Journals and in his sermons, George Whitefield alluded frequently to the new wine of the Spirit. In New Hampshire, on one Friday and Saturday in March of 1745, “All [were] seemingly hearty friends to and great sharers in the late blessed work of God. Their accounts of it were very entertaining. Every time the Lord was with us, but he seemed to keep the good wine till the last, for on Saturday, many of God’s people were filled exceedingly.” In these cases, he is speaking with specific reference to God-given joy, and preached about it at considerable length in his sermon, “The Kingdom of God,” in which he said, “I have often thought, that if the apostle Paul were to come and preach now, he would be reckoned one of the greatest enthusiasts on earth. He talked of the Holy Ghost, of feeling the Holy Ghost; and so we must all feel it, all experience it, all receive it, or we can never see a holy God with comfort. . . . The apostle not only supposes we must have the Holy Ghost, but he supposes, as a necessary ingredient to make up the kingdom of God in a believer’s heart, that he must have ‘joy in the Holy Ghost.’ There are a great many, I believe, who think religion is a poor melancholy thing, and they are afraid to be Christians. But, my dear friends, there is no true joy till you can joy in God and Christ. . . . We are told that ‘Zaccheus received Christ joyfully,’ that ‘the eunuch went on his way rejoicing,’ and that ‘the jailer rejoiced in God with all his house.’ O, my friends, what joy have they that know their sins are forgiven them! What a blessed thing is it for a man to look forward, and see an endless eternity of happiness before him, knowing that everything shall work together for his good! It is joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Bibliography
Curnock, Nehemiah, ed. The journal of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. 2. London: Charles h. Kelly, n.d.
Edwards, Jonathan. The distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God. In Goen, C. C., ed. Jonathan Edwards: The Great Awakening, pp. 213-288. In Smith, John E., ed. The works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 4. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972.
Fuller, David Otis, ed. C. H. Spurgeon’s Autobiography. Grand Rapids: Zondervan publishing house, 1946.
Goen, C. C., ed. Jonathan Edwards: The Great Awakening. In Smith, John E., ed. The works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 4. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972.
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Revival. Westchester: Crossway Books, 1987.
Macfarlan, D., ed. The Revivals of the Eighteenth Century. Edinburgh: Johnston & Hunter, 1847. Repr. Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts, 1980.
Moody, Dwight L. “Enthusiasm.” In D. L. Moody, To the work, to the work: exhortations to Christians, pp. 67-80. Chicago, New York & Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1864.
Moody, Dwight L. “Revivals.” In D. L. Moody, Moody’s Latest Sermons, pp. 106-126. Chicago, New York, Toront: Fleming H. Revell, 1900.
Moody, Dwight L. “Secret power – ‘in’ and ‘upon’” In D. L. Moody, Secret Power, or the secret of success in Christian life and work, pp. 1-45. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1881.
Morgan, G. Campbell. Lessons of the Welsh Revival. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1905.
Rogers, John. The Biography of Eld. Barton Warren Stone written by himself with additions and reflections by Elder John Rogers. 5th ed. Cincinnati: published for the author by J. A. & U. P. James, 1847.
Smith, John E., ed. The works of Jonathan Edwards. 4 vols. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972.
Spurgeon, Charles H. “The Form and Spirit of Religion.” In The New Park Street Pulpit, containing sermons preached and revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, minister of the chapel during the year 1858, vol. 4, pp. 161-168. London: Alabaster and Passmore, 1859.
Spurgeon, Charles H. “The Great Revival.” In The New Park Street Pulpit, containing sermons preached and revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, minister of the chapel during the year 1858, vol. 4, pp. 161-168. London: Alabaster and Passmore, 1859.
Spurgeon, Charles H. “The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” In The New Park Street Pulpit, containing sermons preached and revised by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, minister of the chapel during the year 1858, vol. 4, pp. 161-168. London: Alabaster and Passmore, 1859.
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This unedited version of this article was first written for the Destiny Image Digest.
Rev Dr Phil Marshall wrote as the Evangelism Consultant for the Uniting Church in NSW. He served as a Minister in local congregations in South Australia and Queensland, Australia
The leadership gifts of Ephesians 4:11-12 are
critical to churches that are discipling people
in the post-modern Western world
We are in a time where we are witnessing the rise and rise of the apostle in the church around the world. As with the recovery of other spiritual gifts, the Pentecostal churches are leading the way, but in time, the affirmation of the gift of apostle will happen across much of the church. This gift will play a critical role in the missionary expansion of the church into the 21st century. It is important to take a fresh look at the apostolic gift in the New Testament so that the gift can be more readily discerned and affirmed.
Much interest has been shown in spiritual gifts in recent decades and particularly the leadership gifts listed in Ephesians:
“It was he (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12 NIV).
Neglected gift
Out of the five gifts listed by Paul in his letter, the gift of the apostle has been the most neglected particularly by mainline denominations.
Historically, little interest has been shown in the gift of apostle, as classical evangelicalism has associated it with the twelve apostles and Paul, limiting it to the first century. The Roman Catholic Church has tried to link itself to the ministry of the early apostles, through an unbroken succession of ordinations called ‘apostolic succession’ but this theory is rarely of interest to those outside the Roman Church. Pentecostal churches that have been willing to affirm the gift and acknowledge individuals as apostles, thereby starting a process, which in time will help many churches from different traditions, recover this gift. I suspect that in the 21st century we will see more and more evidence of the apostolic gift, and be increasingly willing to acknowledge this gift in individuals. This will happen in the same way that we have seen the restoration of the healing ministry this century. It was initially recovered by Pentecostals, then embraced by the charismatic movement and is now accepted as a normal part of most mainline denominations.
Diverse Definitions of the Gift of Apostle
Although we are seeing greater acceptance of the gift today, New Testament scholars have debated apostleship for the last hundred years. Lightfoot began the modern discussion when he included in his commentary on Galatians a section on “The Name and Office of an Apostle” (Kevin Giles, Patterns of Ministry Among the First Christians, Melbourne, Australia: Collin Dove, 1989. p. 152). He argued that more people in the New Testament than the twelve apostles and Paul were called apostles, and that in post apostolic writings the title of apostle was used quite widely with the commission of apostle being life-long and for the sake of the Gospel.
There have been diverse opinions about the definition of this gift in recent years. In the 1980s spiritual gifts were studied in great depth. During this time the gift of apostle was variously defined as general leadership, the same as the missionary gift, or as a teacher who was able to pass on the apostolic tradition of the church (Robert Hillman, 27 Spiritual Gifts, Melbourne, Australia: JBCE, 1986. pp. 22-23). There are hints of the importance of the gift but it remains on the whole undeveloped.
The Marks of an Apostle
The meaning of the Greek word apostolos literally means ‘a person sent’ (Giles, p. 153). The concept of the apostle acting in an authoritative way for the Lord was basic to the use of the term. The study of a single word is not sufficient in itself because it can not fully explain the nature and function of an apostle.
Paul, the most influential apostle, had to argue fiercely for his own claim to be an apostle when disputing with opponents in Galatia and Corinth. The marks of Paul’s apostleship were:
1. Intimacy with the Risen Lord.
To have seen the risen Lord was foundational to Paul’s claim to be an apostle (Giles, p. 162). It is not an essential mark because in 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11 it is implied that anyone can be empowered for the work of apostle. The important factors for Paul was intimacy with Christ, being gripped by the calling of Christ and having the conviction that he was sent with an authority from the risen Lord.
2. Leadership in Church Planting.
To have brought a church into existence is another mark. Paul appeals to the fact that the Corinthians were the result of his work in the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1). In defense of his apostleship Paul claims that the church which he founded was “the seal of my apostleship” (1 Corinthians 9:2). Here the planting of new churches is confirmation of the apostolic gift.
3. True to the Gospel of the Early Apostles.
To be a church planter is not sufficient in itself. Paul argues that a genuine apostle must proclaim the one true gospel. In 2 Corinthians, chapters 11 and 12, Paul condemns those who call themselves apostles but preach another gospel. A mark of an apostle is that their theology and message centre upon the proclamation of the early apostolic period as recorded in the New Testament (George Hunter, Church for the Unchurched, Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 1996. p. 152).
4. Suffering for Christ is more Important than Signs and Wonders for Christ.
Paul only speaks once of the signs of a true apostle by writing, “The things that mark an apostle – signs, wonders and miracles – were done among you with great perseverance” (2 Corinthians 12:12 NIV). The context is that Paul has to contend with the Corinthians who thought an apostle should be a more impressive figure than he was. The Corinthians seemed to have argued that a ‘super-apostle’ should be able to boast of visions and miracles. Paul puts his case in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 that he has known visions and miracles but prefers to boast of his sufferings in the service of Christ (Giles, p. 163). The marks of an apostle include signs, wonders and miracles but even more important is enduring suffering for Christ.
The case Paul makes for his own apostleship can become a sound foundation for how we build apostolic ministries today. I am not advocating a rigid checklist, but marks that distinguish the gift of apostle. These marks will then help the leadership in the local church recognise the gift and encourage the ministry.
The Character of an Apostle
The gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit can never be separated in a person’s life. The manifestation of the gift of apostle and the character of the apostle are inseparable. Cannistraci offers a general definition of an apostle that includes a person’s character:
An apostle is one who is called and sent by Christ to have spiritual authority, character, gifts and abilities to successfully reach and establish people in the kingdom truth and order, especially founding and overseeing local churches. (David Cannistraci, The Gift of Apostle, Ventura California: Regal Books, 1996. p. 29).
Not enough can be said about the importance of character and the fruit of the Spirit. There have been a number of examples of high profile Christian leaders with influential ministries ‘falling from grace’ because of moral failure or fraud. An apostle never acts alone because the gift is exercised within the context of the body of Christ. The character and relationships of an apostle are just as important as the effectiveness of their ministry.
Cannistraci rightly argues that apostleship begins in a person’s heart and character, and then culminates in action and the work of the kingdom of God (p. 96). Christian character remains an essential element to the exercise of any ministry and there needs to be tangible evidence of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) before there can be an affirmation of the gift of apostle.
Conclusion.
The leadership gifts of Ephesians 4:11-12 are critical to churches that are discipling people in the post-modern Western world and it is exciting to see the restoration of the gift of the apostle. This has already happening in some Pentecostal churches but this restoration will have a widening influence in a variety of churches across the world. The apostolic gift will find a variety of expressions but its enduring marks will be:
1. Intimacy with Christ.
2. Leadership in Church Planting.
3. True to the Gospel of the Early Apostles.
4. Suffering for Christ.
All these characteristics are undermined and therefore become irrelevant if they are not confirmed by the fruit of the Spirit in the character of the apostle. Those denominations that embrace the restoration of the apostolic gift will see an increase in new Christians and new churches.
Kevin Pate, a member of a Vineyard ministry team, reported in April 1998 on their visit to Mexico City with Pastor Wes Campbell, including a weekend mountain retreat with 18,000 Mexicans.
The week and a half that we spent in Mexico City ministering to the people there I would have to say was the most amazing time of my life. I know that is a pretty dramatic statement but I hope that you will understand as you read the rest of this account. But first a little background.
Monte Maria’s history
The following history is as best as I understand from what was shared with us while we were there: The church that we went down to help out is called Monte Maria. The history of the church is quite interesting.
Back in about 1979 a Catholic priest in Mexico City by the name of Father Gilberto was at a point in his life where he was very dry and seeking God intensely. One time in prayer he was overcome by the presence of God and started weeping greatly for the lost and hurting of the world. This weeping continued on for a year! During this time as he would perform mass, interesting things would happen – people who were in the congregation as normal were healed of a variety of sicknesses and infirmities. News of this sort travels quickly and soon people were bringing their sick relatives and friends to the church and many of them became healed too.
Unfortunately, some people in the church and surrounding area complained about the increased number of poor people tromping through their neighborhood and church (riffraff they felt) and soon Father Gilberto was told by the higher-ups at his diocese that he was no longer welcome at that church. So, Father Gilberto went down to the local city dump and started to perform mass there and minister to the poor. There was in essence a city of poor people at the dump because this was the only place where many of them could live (they were very poor!) and could get stuff to survive on (food scraps, clothes, etc.). The healings continued and many came to belief in Jesus Christ as their savior.
Simple church building
So many people came to Father Gilberto for ministry that he then started another church in Mexico City. I believe that he bought a dump (obviously he could get it cheap!), cleaned it up, and constructed a church. The church building is a very simple concrete structure — basically just concrete walls and floor, and sheet metal roof with insulation (to keep it from being an oven in the summer), folding chairs for the folks to sit on, and simple platform at the front. The air conditioning is a bunch of open windows. This church building holds about 3,000 people. There is also an outdoor area that can seat 5,000 people – the outdoor part is used for Sunday morning services because the building is no longer large enough to hold everyone.
The prayer mountain
Monte Maria has also planted about 12 other churches in the Mexico City area; each church plant has about 100-200 people. Monte Maria has home groups during the week to help the people bond together, get discipled, and minister to each other. More recently they also received 293 acres of land outside the city in a mountainous area (donation from someone) – they call this “The Mountain”. They use this for monthly (7 times per year) meetings where people from all over Mexico City and surrounding area gather for a time of worship, listening to preaching, and to receive prayer ministry. The truly poorest of the poor come to this. Many of them band together and chip in a few pesos each and rent a bus to get there. They camp out in a variety of ways – in tents, under tarps, or just sleep under the stars. The weekend we were there, there were about 20,000 people at the Mountain; in the past there has been as many as 50,000 people.
Father Gilberto has now changed his name to Pastor Aurellio Gomez since the Catholic church has told him he can no longer minister in the Catholic church. Pastor Aurellio has taken a very strong stand on preaching against idolatry (which permeates portions of the Catholic church) and this has not be popular amongst the Catholic leadership in Mexico. Pastor Aurellio has been very much a proponent of church reform and ministry to the poor but with this frequently comes much criticism from the establishment.
Wesley Campbell and team
A couple of years ago, Wes Campbell travelled down to Mexico to see what God was doing down there. Wes was the pastor of a Vineyard church in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Back in 1984 his church was strongly touched by God and has been in moving powerfully since then. Wes promised God that if this same sort of touch would come to the church in general around the world, he would do everything he could to fan the flames of renewal and revival. Wes and his wife Stacey met Father Gilberto and found a very hungry Mexican people who were in the midst of revival – many thousands of people being reached with the gospel, many being healed of all sorts of infirmities, and many set free from the power of the demonic enemy. Father Gilberto invited Wes and Stacey to come back with a ministry team to help out at their monthly gathering meeting at the Mountain and to help out at meetings at their church in Mexico City. The ministry team that was assembled was about 30 people from Westside Vineyard in Tigard, Oregon (including Arlan Askew the senior pastor), 5 from the Albany Oregon Vineyard, and 5 from the San Diego California Vineyard.
Prior to going on the trip, I shared with some friends here that I hoped to be able to see and experience first-hand what I have heard was going on down there and elsewhere in the world. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and many people are reached with the gospel of Christ. Well, I am not exaggerating when I can now say that we indeed did see and experience first-hand all of this! As the Mexicans would shout – “Gloria a Dios!” (Glory to God!). And the best part was that we got to participate in what God was doing in the people – we were the prayer ministry team who were privileged to be able to pray for people for these types of healings and lead them to the Lord!
Prayer ministry
The first weekend we were there we went to the Mountain. When we got there we were very warmly welcomed by the people. After a bit of orientation, we got to work… praying for people. There were literally thousands of people ready and waiting for prayer — lined up desiring a touch from God. It was a staggering feeling. But we all just plunged in and started praying for them one at a time, knowing that it wasn’t just a crowd, but it was individuals who deserved individual attention because God loves each of them equally. So one by one we ministered and started to see an awesome move of the Holy Spirit.
Nearly everyone we prayed for was visibly touched in some way – overcome by the power or presence of God and couldn’t stand anymore, touched by a physical healing, or even some deep touch in their emotions and spirit evidenced by tears streaming down their face. Young and old, men and women, almost all were touched! It was astounding to me to see so many people so touched by the Holy Spirit! It had to be partially due to their great hunger for God. These are the poorest of the poor and really don’t have any other options. They are too poor to be able to seek a doctor for their sicknesses and infirmities; God is their only hope.
It certainly wasn’t due to any great faith that most of us had – I was rather nervous going into the trip. It was really God’s work. Essentially all of us were able to pray for all types of problems in the people’s lives – blindness, deafness, lameness, and countless other problems. In many, many cases we were able to see immediate improvement and in many cases complete healing of the people. We had some translators available to help us communicate with the people while we were praying for them which helped immensely. At other times we had to wing it on our own without a translator.
The meetings at the Mountain started at about mid-day Saturday and lasted until late Sunday afternoon with only a two or three hour break in the middle of the night Saturday night to Sunday morning. We prayed for the people during the worship and prayer ministry time, but did not pray during the preaching time since the people needed to focus on that. Wes preached about the revival occurring all over the world, and more specifically about what God was doing in their midst there in Mexico. Arlan preached about receiving the Father’s love, intimacy with God, our relationship with God made possible by Jesus Christ and his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, and how this relationship/intimacy is the most important thing that we must seek. Everything else in our life and ministry will flow from that.
Healing and deliverance
During the week we were also able to minister at three days of meetings at their church. These meetings were more focused on teaching and training, receiving God’s love, intimacy and relationship with him, moving in the prophetic gifts relative to ministering to people, and praying for healing for each other. In the evenings we sometimes had opportunity to gather together as a team and share what experiences we had during the ministry times during the day. The following is a short listing of some of the testimonies that I was able to write down. There were many more that I didn’t write down or hear, and of course there was much more that God did that we don’t even know about:
— Woman had ears healed (was hearing a fuzz or static that was interfering with her hearing), after praying for her she could hear clearly; in addition, a pain she was having in her chest was gone too.
— Lame man who had pain in his legs healed and could walk without any pain. This was kind of a humorous incident. After praying for a while, the pain in his legs was gone and the man just sat in his chair happy that the pain was gone. The person doing the praying then reminded the man that he might now be able to walk. The person looked surprised since he had been confined for so long in his chair that he hadn’t even thought to try walking. He did and was overjoyed to find that he could indeed now walk!
— Another person in a wheel chair walked. The person had suffered an embolism 3 years earlier and was paralyzed on one side of the body. While being prayed for, the paralyzed leg and arm started shaking significantly – the power of God was evident! After a while the person was able to get up out of the wheelchair and walk.
— A man who had cataracts (obvious by clouding in the lens of the eyes) was prayed for. Gradually the clouding disappeared and the man ended up being able to see clearly.
— A woman had a tumor on one side of her body that could be felt from the outside was healed — no more tumor detected.
— A little boy who was blind in one eye, after prayer began to see, then sneezed three times and could see perfectly.
— A young boy who was controlled by a demonic spirit (thrashed about quite a bit), the demon finally acknowledged its name was the “god of hatred”, the boy finally denounced the demon, accepted Jesus into His life, and was delivered and filled with the Holy Spirit.
— More deliverances of people bound by demons.
— Woman with paralysis on one side, limped seriously, couldn’t speak, arm wouldn’t work. Interviewing determined the woman had very poor self-esteem (because of the stroke). After spiritual counselling and prayer for healing, she was overcome by the presence of God and went down on the concrete. After a little while the woman started screaming with joy, leapt up and found that the paralysis was gone and she could speak clearly.
— Woman’s eyes healed to perfect seeing.
— Woman’s knees that were in severe pain, couldn’t walk well at all. After prayer felt heat in her knees, then was able to get up and walk without pain, and even was able to jump up and down. She was very excited about this since she wanted to be able to dance during worship. What joy on her face!
— A woman with hurting feet was improved.
— A woman with hurt shoulder was healed, could move it all ways without pain.
— A woman with bum knees, after prayer got up very happy, joyfully hugged the person praying for her and said she could now bend her knees without pain, has not been able to do this for years.
— Woman with bulge and pain in her stomach (didn’t exactly know what it was
all about), after prayer the bulge and pain disappeared.
— Woman who was being prayed for started throwing up (a common manifestation of someone releasing a demonic spirit), continued praying for her and asking God to fill and cleanse her with His Holy Spirit, she then started weeping and then praising God. Very visibly changed.
— Many people were led to Jesus Christ and prayed to receive Him in their heart. It certainly helped having translators available to help in this communication.
It was awesome to be able to participate in what the Lord was doing. I was particularly happy to see the four teenagers who were part of the ministry team get right out there and pray for the people. And they saw and experienced every bit as dramatic move of the Spirit amongst the people they prayed for as any one else on the team! What a life-changing experience for them (and the rest of us of course)!
Life changing experience
With the extended prayer times that we had, I found that due to tiredness I would sometimes sort of lose focus on the person I was praying for and get distracted by other things and people around me. I would then look back at the person I had my hand on and found that there were tears streaming down their face – God was moving and touching them in spite of my tiredness and lack of focus. It was also neat to see the next person in the line that I was working down get visibly touched by God prior to me even getting there to pray for that person. It reminded me that it wasn’t really me who was doing the work in their life: rather it was all God.
It was astounding how the prayer lines would never end. As people would leave after being prayed for, others would step in where they were standing and ask for prayer. We’d be walking amongst the people and many would come up to us requesting prayer for themselves, or one of their family or friends. It was a joy to bless them since they were so hungry for God. We couldn’t get tired of that.
During some of the preaching sessions, Wes and Arlan asked who desired to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into their life. It was awesome to see hundreds and hundreds of hands raised and hear them pray to ask Jesus into their lives.
On the last teaching session at the church Arlan taught about praying for healing. For the ministry time, he told all the people to break up into groups of about eight people and form a circle. He then told each group to put one of the people in the centre who needed physical healing and to pray for them. He asked the prayer ministry team (us) to go around and coach and pray for them.
It was so neat teach them how to stepwise go through the healing prayer — 1. first the interview to find out what was wrong;
2. then seek God for guidance, dealing as necessary with any underlying issues such as the need to give and receive forgiveness;
3. then soaking prayer for healing;
4. after a while interviewing the person to see what was happening and whether there was improvement;
5. if there was, blessing and praising God for what he was doing and continuation of prayer for complete healing.
I just went around, coached, and blessed what each person and the Holy Spirit was doing. It was exhilarating to see essentially everyone they prayed for in the circle receive healing!
It was great to be able to tell all of them that the same Holy Spirit that is in us (the prayer ministry team) was also in them and that they could continue do this kind of ministry with each other, their families and friends, and the lost around them. It was wonderful to know that this and other teachings and anointings were truly imparted to them and that they will continue to grow after we’ve left.
The worship
One of the things that impressed us so much was the way these people worship. Mexican people have Fiesta (party!) in their blood and in church they integrate it into their worship. Once they get the worship going, you can’t help but be up and dancing along with them. Picture thousands of people dancing their heart out before God. The church didn’t have a choir. The whole church was the choir.
They had a wonderful dance/worship team which consisted of about a dozen beautifully dressed women with tambourines with streamers, and another dozen with flags and streamers. Their synchronized dance/worship was truly beautiful! It’s also the first time I saw toilet paper used as a worship aid. They would tear off a lengths of it and pass it around to everyone and they would wave it in the air as a streamer and praise God. It reminded me of a football game, but of course it was unto God! Oh, we can learn so much from their joy and worship!
The culture
Mexico City is a huge city; I believe the biggest city in the world – 27 million people. I heard that the entire metropolitan area is about 80 miles x 100 miles. The pollution is quite bad — Mexico City is at about 6,000 feet and in a mountainous basin which traps the air pollution in an inversion layer much of the year — quite a brown layer of smog over the city. The traffic and roads are also interesting — very congested and very bumpy. Hard to complain about our traffic and roads after being there!
Our visit to Mexico City was most interesting from a cultural standpoint. The food was of course a wonderful experience! I found the language barrier a fun challenge. The people of Mexico were VERY warm. They have a gift of hospitality that we have rarely encountered. After a few days with them, it was very difficult to leave them. When we were departing, some of the people gave us little gifts that in themselves one might say they had little value, but considering how poor most of the people are, were of utmost significance to us because we knew how much of a sacrifice it was for them.
For all that our God is doing in Mexico and all over the world – “Gloria a Dios!” and “Mas Senor!”
Pastors Raju and Samita Sundras founded Hosanna Church in Kathmandu, Nepal, in the mid-nineties which is now one of the largest churches in Nepal. Raju is active in planting churches in Nepal and Tibet and caring for a growing network of pastors and leaders. He spoke on national television in a service celebrating the first declaration of Christmas Day as a public holiday in Nepal from 2009.
They told how two young pastors who had been away at Bible School for three years returned to West Nepal in November 1998, were arrested, accused of being spies, and shot. Many pastors have been threatened or imprisoned. They pray for the sick and cast out demons constantly. They expect miracles and see many. It is the book of Acts lived today. Churches continue to multiply.
Here Raju reports on some revival meetings and ministry at the turn of the century.
Christmas in West Nepal
Happy new year. We all are lifting the name of the Lord Higher and Higher. Thank you for your prayer regarding my trip to west Nepal. It was the greatest time for us. I had opportunity to speak the Word of God at three places.
Events at the first meetings were unexpected, for me. Four hundred people were gathered to listen the Christmas Message. I shared on “Why are we celebrating Christmas?” While I was closing the message, for 10 minutes one 18-year-old boy wept loudly and said, “My both eyes are closed – I’m blind.” We were all filled with awe and fear and we were praying constantly.
The Lord told me to bring him to the front so I did. I asked him, “Why are your eyes are closed?”
He was walking on the Bibles and on the song books on the floor. [In most churches there everyone sits on the floor]. Then he said, “Forgive me, forgive me, Lord for what I have done.” He confessed and said to the Lord, “I have fallen into sexual sins for many months and I lost my witness too.” When he was confessing to the Lord, his eyes were opened again. Praise the Lord!
All of us started to pray. The Spirit of God came upon the people and one pastor went to another pastor to ask forgiveness about things in their past.
Then 50 people were healed. Among them was one girl who is 17 years old who had not talked for the last three years. She prayed like this, “Jesus save me.” Another girl who was suffering from headache for the last seven years said. “I was touched, touched. One hand came. God extended his hand to my headache and told me in my spirit, “From today you are healed and you will be healing many people.” When she laid her hands on others, the people were healed on the spot. Many people started to be healed.
I was experiencing something as if the roof of the church building was not there because people were talking to God like saying, “How are you?” just as people talk to each other. While all the participants were weeping more people started to come. All the windows were packed. All the churches were packed. I don’t know how so many people came and wept, saying, “I want to accept Christ as my personal Saviour. Help me. Help me.”
Three strong people who had been giving trouble to Christians accepted Christ, all of them praying and weeping. I told the people we had to stop the meeting because we had started from 12 o’ clock noon and it went to 6 o’clock. Then I went to speak at another meeting.
That meeting started from 7 o’clock. I did not say anything to them about what happened at the other churches. I just spoke for ten minutes and the Spirit of God came onto the people. The meeting went up to 12 o’clock midnight. I only slept for five hours then people came to me saying, “Let’s pray.” And they told me, “You must still go to other churches to speak.”
That was first time in my life I spoke at a meeting that was started from six o’clock in the morning. The same things happened there also. So we came back home on the 24th Dec and I spoke to my church at Kathmandu on 25th Dec. I just shared what had happened and that meeting went up to 4 o’clock at afternoon. Among the four hundred people, 70 people were repenting of their sins to the Lord. A boy who was not even able to walk for two years danced to the Lord.
We had baptized 35 people in the first week of December. Now within one week 45 people accepted Christ and 15 people are ready to take baptism. Praise the Lord for doing all this greatest work even though lots of persecution is going on. At the same time we have been seeing the great work of the Lord.
I want to say very, very much thank to you for your prayer. From the beginning the devil wanted to stop us from going to visit West Nepal. After we rode 40 kilometers we were in such accident that my wife and I fell down from our motorbike. We both were badly injured. Her hand and right eye were damaged, and my wife is still in treatment. I still have a problem in my knee. Our bike which helped us to go to minister in all parts of Nepal has been totally damaged. Now we are without a bike, but praise the Lord we didn’t feel any pain during the meetings.
On the way to the meetings after that accident I told my wife, “Let’s not go to West Nepal, but let’s go back to home.” She said to me, “The Lord told me we need to go to speak anyhow.” So we obeyed and went. So we have seen the mighty work of the Lord. So I want to share my prayer requests with you. Thank you for your prayer and for your cooperation.
Hosanna Church, Kathmandu
Warm greetings to you in the highly exalted name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. After 144 hours non stop prayer in our church in January I went to Tibet for two weeks from Kathmandu. Praise the Lord I had a wonderful time in Tibet and there were many ministry opportunities. We have been visiting Tibet each month. But this time we had a golden time to share the gospel and easily I entered inside to handout the tracts. Praise the lord even an 80 years old man also accepted Christ.
Just as I was ready to leave to home from the bus park, one 18 years old boy was standing with me. The Holy Spirit told me to give Gospel tracts to him. That boy told me things like ‘Where is the Jesus I have been waiting for from three years.’ On the spot we went on the mountain and spent two hours together. After that he accepted Christ.
Whatever Geoff shared during his visit in Nepal is coming true now. You know when our people are watching the video tape [taken during the mission trip] after that our people were inspired to pray. That’s why we conducted 144 hours of non stop prayer.
After that our people have a vision to share the gospel to the king also. So there is lots of persecution going on but it’s no problem. People are enjoying the blessings.
Today was a historic church day in our Church. We requested to them to do what they can do for the Lord. We have seen in the offering box lots of watches, a gold ring, even a pen and pencil also. Praise the lord that Saturday Rs 8567/- was in the box [a huge amount in a poor country].
If the Lord leads you to assist this independent work in Nepal, India or Sri Lanka, we can send your message on to them. The Renewal Journal will continue, by God’s grace, to bring you information and inspiration concerning renewal and revival around the world.
Raju (right) with their worship leader and some of the team at roadworks on the trip to West Nepal
Easter in West Nepal
Kathmandu pastor Raju Sundras reports on meetings around Easter 2000 with an Australian mission.
Greetings in the name of our Almighty God Jesus Christ from the land of Himalayas!
The Lord continues to do great things in this land, we have not much to do but to praise Him and thank Him for every good gift raining on us from Him and only Him.
It was a great blessing from the Lord to send us a team from Australia mid April. The fellowship, the Word from God, the mighty touch of the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ flourishing from our Australian brothers and sisters, the awesome presence of the Lord throughout the rushing schedule of conferences, trips, visits and etc., all were overwhelmingly expressing the great love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards this nation.
During the short stay of about two weeks with the team of eight people we had the privilege to see the ministry of the Holy Spirit through them in several occasions.
On 18 April some of the group along with me had a short trip to the Tibetan border. We started early morning and arrived there about noon time. The towns of Liping on the Nepali side and Khawsa on the Tibetan side are practically connected through a bridge on Bhotekoshi river and right in the midst of the bridge is the border white line showing the boundary of each country. At the end of the bridge on Tibetan side is the entry gate which is controlled by Chinese guards and immigration officials. After praying on the bridge we approached the Chinese officials to get a permission to enter Tibet. The first official refused but the second one nodded approvingly, taking the four Australian passports from my hand as security. The official received them and let us go free of charge! This could happen only by the supernatural intervention of our Almighty God, Hallelujah! We had good prayer inside Tibet specially on those individual shopkeepers whom I would grab and pray on without any resistance from them!
On 21 April all the 8 of Australians and I had a trip to Gochadda in west Nepal and held a three days conference over there at Easter. While driving toward the destination I shared the Word with the driver of the private bus and during the inauguration of the conference he approached the altar and accepted Christ as His personal Savior. On the same day a Christian brother whose hand was sort of crippled for six years was touched by the Holy Spirit and healed absolutely, shaking in his whole body and raising his hands, even the crippled one already healed, praising the Lord with all his strength he glorified the Lord for His greatness, Hallelujah!
Out of about two hundred participants in the conference by the grace of God a hundred of them were baptized in the Holy Spirit praising the Lord, singing, falling, crying, and many other actions as the Holy Spirit would prompt them to act. About ten of them testified that they had never experienced such a presence of power and love of God. Some other testified being lifted to heavenly realms by the power of the Holy Spirit, being surrounded by the angels of the Lord in a great peace, joy, love toward each other and being melted in the power of His presence. Many re-committed their lives to the Lord for ministry by any means through His revelation.
On the second day of the conference the trend continued as the people seemingly would fall down, repent, minister to each other in love of Christ, enjoy the mighty touch of the Holy Spirit, singing, prophesying, weeping, laughing, hugging and all the beauty of the Holy Spirit were manifested throughout the congregation by His grace and love. One woman of age 65 testified that she never had danced in her life in any occasion even in secret but the Lord had told her that she should now dance to Him and she was dancing praising Him with all her strength. For hours this outpouring continued and the pastors of the churches were one by one testifying that they had never experienced such a presence and power of God in their whole Christian life and ministry.
Some sixty evangelists from Gorkha, Dhanding, Chitwan, Butwal declared that they were renewed in their spirits by the refreshing of the Holy Spirit and they are now going to serve the Lord in the field wherever the Holy Spirit will lead them to be full fledged in His service. In the last day of the conference while praying together with the congregation and committing them in His hands, many prophesied that the Lord was assuring them of great changes in their ministry, life and the area, while the power of God was at work in our midst three children of 6-7 years old fell down weeping, screaming and testifying about a huge size of hand coming on them and touching their stomachs and healing them instantly. After the prayer all the participants got into the joy of the Holy Spirit and started dancing to the Lord, singing and praising Him for His goodness.
Before leaving Gochadda while we were having snacks in the Pastor’s house a woman of high Brahmin caste came by the direction of the Lord to the place claiming that she was prompted by a voice in her ear to go to Christians and ask for prayer for healing of her chronic stomach pain and problems and that is why she was there. We prayed for her and she was instantly healed and we shared the Gospel, but she stopped us saying, “I need to accept Christ as my Saviour so don’t waste time!” And she accepted Jesus as her personal Savior being lifted in spirit even the body as she said she wouldn’t feel anymore burden in her body, and spirit, Hallelujah!
On 25 April we held another conference in the Nazarene Church in Kathmandu, pastored by Ringi Lama, where ten churches unitedly participated in the two days gathering where about 100 people participated. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit continued in this conference refreshing many in their spirits and bringing much of re-commitment. Some cases of healing were testified, and in one case the brother testified that he had received healing from the Lord and his swollen feet and the high Uric Acid had disappeared from his body, confirmed by the Holy Spirit. We showed the Transformation video brought from Australia! All committed themselves for constant prayer to bring transformation to their cities too by His power.
Transport on the road to West Nepal and India
Leaders’ group in West NepalPrayer with pastors and leaders in West NepalCongregation worshipping in West Nepal
On 27 April we held a one day conference in Hosanna Church where the touch of the Holy Spirit was tremendous and people blessed by the Holy Spirit and His might were manifesting His power and presence in the place. While people were worshipping and praising the Lord a prophecy came and the Lord said, “What happened to the vision given to you six years ago? You have forgotten to pray about it but I have not forgotten what I have promised to you through the vision!” And I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that I had seen a vision where I was taken over the highest mountains in this country with few of my foreign friends and some of our evangelists and as we put our step on the top of the mountain it started shaking and melting and my friends and the evangelists started disappearing, then I cried out, Lord where are my friends? And He said open your eyes and see, and I saw all my friends and the evangelists were scattered all over the mountains and they were coming towards me with multitudes of people behind them. I started weeping and with a feeling which words cannot explain I was thanking the Lord for His goodness, I was laughing in the Spirit for the repetition of the vision which I could see again. Hallelujah!
I have to thank the Lord for His great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and I have to thank the Lord also for my Australian brothers and sisters who took all the burden to come over to this place and minister to our people.
Worship at Hosanna Church in KathmanduGrandfather, Father and Son – all pastors in Nepal who have suffered opposition and imprisonment
2014 Return Visit
Geoff Waugh comments on his return visit to Kathmandu.
Andrew Chee was with me on Pentecost Island in July, and was also free in August, so after a few quick email inquiries we were off to Kathmandu and northern Thailand (following up on earlier invitations).
We ‘happened’ to arrive on the first Sunday that Raju Sundas had his first afternoon service, with a full church of a thousand or so. Previously they only had a morning service, but now they have two with a full church each time. I got to share briefly and challenged them to give their lives to God, be baptised, and filled with the Spirit in a 5 minute word. The day before we left, Raju’s two children were baptised and we shared an extended family meal together.
Raju’s Hosanna Church now has a Christian school with dormitories on nearby properties and we ‘happened’ to be there for their first cultural dance program, as a witness to the surrounding community.
We had a powerful week at their Bible School. They take in about 40 (from all over Nepal) twice a year for three months full time and we ‘happened’ to be there for the first week of the new group. The translators told us that is was the most powerful start they had seen. Of course we prayed for them often, and got them praying for each other, with many healings and deliverances. Many of them were Andrew’s age and were inspired by his faith and obedience.
Raju has 55 satellite churches now, and we both preached at different ones on our second Sunday there, again with large numbers responding for prayer and healing.
Then on Monday we flew to Bangkok and on to Chiang Mai where Don & Kay Fox met us On the Wednesday they drove us the 5 hours up into the mountains of northern Thailand to the Musekee Centre where they have been arranging support for orphans and others for 20 years now, and living there for over 10 years.
We had teaching and ministry sessions with 50-60 of their pastors and leaders, and again a lot of prayer for empowering, anointing and healings. Deaf ears were opened in many meetings among other significant healings. Then on the Sunday we both preached at different churches and again prayed with many people. Later I had an email from one of our interpreters telling me how those prayed for have been testifying to answered prayers, and one woman is back at work even though the doctors said she would need 3 months off work to recover.
I am constantly aware that it is God who does it all, and together we all are a part of what he is doing.
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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Full of true accounts of what happens to whole towns and cities when God’s people humble themselves, pray, and the Holy Spirit rushed through with his transforming power. Loved every minute of these stories.
George Otis Jr presents vivid stories of the transformation of cities and regions in the two videos Transformations 1 and 2. This article about some of those cities is from Chapter 1 of his book Informed Intercession.
For some time now, we have been hearing reports of large-scale conversions in places like China, Argentina and Nepal. In many instances, these conversions have been attended by widespread healings, dreams and deliverances. Confronted with these demonstrations of divine power and concern, thousands of men and women have elected to embrace the truth of the gospel. In a growing number of towns and cities, God’s house is suddenly the place to be.
In some communities throughout the world, this rapid church growth has also led to dramatic sociopolitical transformation. Depressed economies, high crime rates and corrupt political structures are being replaced by institutional integrity, safe streets and financial prosperity. Impressed by the handiwork of the Holy Spirit, secular news agencies have begun to trumpet these stories in front-page articles and on prime-time newscasts.
If these transformed communities are not yet common, they are certainly growing in number. At least a dozen case studies have been documented in recent years, and it is likely that others have gone unreported. Of those on file, most are located in Africa and the Americas. The size of these changed communities ranges from about 15,000 inhabitants to nearly 2 million.
Given the extent of these extraordinary stories I have limited my reporting to select highlights. Despite their brevity, these abridged accounts nevertheless offer glorious “snapshots” of the Holy Spirit at work in our day. Readers interested in more details can find them in books like Commitment to Conquer (Bob Beekett, Chosen Books, 1997), The Twilight Labyrnth (George Otis, Jr., Chosen Books, 1997) and Praying witb Power (C. Peter Wagner, Regal Books, 1997).
Miracle in Mizoram
One of the earliest and largest transformed communities of the twentieth century is found in Mizoram, a mountainous state in northeastern India. The region’s name translates as “The Land of the Highlanders.” It is an apt description as a majority of the local inhabitants, known as Mizos, live in villages surrounded by timbered mountains and scenic gorges.
The flora is not entirely alpine, however, and it is not uncommon to see hills covered with bamboo, wild bananas and orchids. The Mizos are hearty agriculturists who manage to grow ample crops of rice, corn, tapioca, ginger, mustard, sugar cane, sesame and potatoes.
But it is not farming prowess that sets Mizoram’s 750,000 citizens apart. Nor, for that matter, is it their Mongol stock. Rather it is the astonishing size of the national church, estimated to be between 80 and 95 percent of the current population. This achievement is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that Mizoram is sandwiched precariously between Islamic Bangladesh to the west, Buddhist Myanmar to the east and south, and the Hindu states of Assam, Manipur and Tripura to the north.
Before the arrival of Christian missionaries in the late nineteenth century, local tribes believed in a spirit called Pathan. They also liked to remove the heads of their enemies. But in just four generations Mizoram has gone from being a fierce head-hunting society to a model community – and quite possibly the most thoroughly Christian place of comparable size on earth. Certainly in India there is no other city or state that could lay claim to having no homeless people, no beggars, no starvation and 100 percent literacy.
The churches of Mizoram currently send 1,000 missionaries to surrounding regions of India and elsewhere throughout the world. Funds for this mission outreach are generated primarily through the sale of rice and firewood donated by the believers. Every time a Mizo woman cooks rice, she places a handful in a special ‘missionary bowl.’ This rice is then taken to the local church, where it is collected and sold at the market.
Even the non-Christian media of India have recognized Christianity as the source of Mizoram’s dramatic social transformation. In 1994 Mizoram celebrated its one-hundredth year of contact with Christianity, which began with the arrival of two missionaries, William Frederick Savage and J. H. Lorraine. On the occasion of this centennial celebration, The Telegraph of Calcutta (February 4, 1994) declared:
Christianity’s most reaching influence was the spread of education … Christianity gave the religious a written language and left a mark on art, music, poetry, and literature. A missionary was also responsible for the abolition of traditional slavery. It would not be too much to say that Christianity was the harbinger of modernity to a Mizo society.
A less quantifiable but no less palpable testimony to the Christian transformation of Mizorarn is the transparent joy and warmth of the Mizo people. Visitors cannot fail to observe “the laughing eyes mid smiling faces,” in the words of one reporter, on the faces of the children and other residents of Mizoram. And nowhere is this spirit of divine joy more evident than in the churches, where the Mizo’s traditional love of music and dance has been incorporated into worship. The generosity of the people is also seen in their communal efforts to rebuild neighbours’ bamboo huts destroyed by the annual monsoons.
Eighty percent of the population of Mizorarn attends church at least once a week. Congregations are so plentiful in Mizoram that, from one vantage point in the city of Izol, it is possible to count 37 churches. Most fellowships have three services on Sunday and another on Wednesday evening (1).
The state of Mizoram is governed by a 40-member assembly that convenes in the capital of Aizawl. Although there are different political parties, all of them agree on the ethical demands of political office in Mizorwn. Specifically, all candidates must be:
persons with a good reputation
diligent and honest
clean and uncorrupt
nondrinkers
morally and sexually unblemished
loyal to the law of the land
fervent workers for the welfare of the people
loyal to their own church
How many of our political leaders could pass this test? For that matter, how many of our religious leaders could pass?
Almolonga, Guatemala
Jesus is Lord of Almolonga
In the mid-1970s, the town of Almolonga was typical of many Mayan highland communities: idolatrous, inebriated and economically depressed. Burdened by fear and poverty, the people sought support in alcohol and a local idol named Maximon. Determined to fight back, a group of local intercessors got busy, crying out to God during evening prayer vigils. As a consequence of their partnership with the Holy Spirit, Almolonga, like Mizoram, has become one of the most thoroughly transformed communities in the world. Fully 90 percent of the town’s citizens now consider themselves to be evangelical Christians. As they have repudiated ancient pacts with Mayan and syncretistic gods, their economy has begun to blossom. Churches are now the dominant feature of Almolonga’s landscape and many public establishments boast of the town’s new allegiance.
Almolonga is located in a volcanic valley about 15 minutes is west of the provincial capital of Quetzaltenango (Xela). The town meanders for several kilometres along the main road to the Pacific coast. Tidy agricultural fields extend up the hillsides behind plaster and cement block buildings painted in vivid turquoise, mustard and burnt red. Most have corrugated tin roofs, although a few, waiting for a second story, sprout bare rebar. The town’s brightly garbed citizens share the narrow streets with burros, piglets and more than a few stray dogs.
Although many Christian visitors comment on Almolonga’s “clean” spiritual atmosphere, this is a relatively recent development. “Just twenty years ago,” reports Guatemala City pastor Harold Caballeros, “the town suffered from poverty, violence and ignorance. In the mornings you would encounter many men just lying on the streets, totally drunk from the night before. And of course this drinking brought along other serious problems like domestic violence and poverty. It was a vicious cycle.”
Donato Santiago, the town’s aging chief of police, told me during an October 1998 interview that he and a dozen deputies patrolled the streets regularly because of escalating violence. “People were always fighting,” he said. “We never had any rest.” The town, despite its small population, had to build four jails to contain the worst offenders. “They were always full,” Santiago remembers. “We often had to bus overflow prisoners to Quetzaltenango.” There was disrespect toward women and neglect of the family. Dr. Mell Winger, who has also visited Almolonga on several occasions, talked to children who said their fathers would go out drinking for weeks at a time. “I talked to one woman,” Winger recalls, “whose husband would explode if he didn’t like the meal. She would often be beaten and kicked out of the home.”
Pastor Mariano Riscajché one of the key leaders of Almolonga’s spiritual turnaround, has similar memories. “I was raised in misery. My father sometimes drank for forty to fifty consecutive days. We never had a big meal, only a little tortilla with a small glass of coffee. My parents spent what little money they had on alcohol.”
In an effort to ease their misery, many townspeople made pacts with local deities like Maximon (a wooden idol rechristened San Simon by Catholic syncretists), and the patron of death, Pascual Bailón. The latter, according to Riscajché, “is a spirit of death whose skeletal image was once housed in a chapel behind the Catholic church. Many people went to him when they wanted to kill someone through witchcraft.” The equally potent Maximon controlled people through money and alcohol. “He’s not just a wooden mask,” Riscajché insists, “but a powerful spiritual strongman.” The deities were supported by well-financed priesthoods known as confradías (2).
During these dark days the gospel did not fare well. Outside evangelists were commonly chased away with sticks or rocks, while small local house churches were similarly stoned. On one occasion six men shoved a gun barrel down the throat of Mariano Riscajché. As they proceeded to pull the trigger, he silently petitioned the Lord for protection. When the hammer fell, there was no action. A second click. Still no discharge.
In August 1974 Riscajché led a small group of believers into a series of prayer vigils that lasted from 7 P.M. to midnight. Although prayer dominated the meetings, these vanguard intercessors also took time to speak declarations of freedom over the town. Riscajché remembers that God filled them with faith. “We started praying, ‘Lord, it’s not possible that we could be so insignificant when your Word says we are heads and not tails.’”
In the months that followed, the power of God delivered many men possessed by demons associated with Maximon and Pascual Bailón. Among the more notable of these was a Maximon cult leader named José Albino Tazej. Stripped of their power and customers, the confradías of Maximon made a decision to remove the sanctuary of Maximon to the city of Zunil.
At this same time, God was healing many desperately diseased people. Some of these hearings led many to commit their lives to Christ (including that of Madano’s sister-in-law Teresa, who was actually raised from the dead after succumbing to complications associated with a botched caesarean section).
This wave of conversions has continued to this day. By late 1998 there were nearly two dozen evangelical churches in this Mayan town of 19,000, and at least three or four of them had more than 1,000 members. Mariano Riscajché’s El Calvario Church seats 1,200 and is nearly always packed. Church leaders include several men who, in earlier years, were notorious for stoning believers.
Nor has the move of God in Almolonga been limited to church growth. Take a walk through the town’s commercial district and you will encounter ubiquitous evidence of transformed lives and social institutions. On one street you can visit a drug-store called ‘The Blessing of the Lord.’ On another you can shop at ‘The Angels’ store. Feeling hungry? Just zip into ‘Paradise Chicken,’ ‘Jireh’ bakery or the ‘Vineyard of the Lord’ beverage kiosk. Need building advice? Check out ‘Little Israel Hardware’ or ‘El Shaddai’ metal fabrication. Feet hurt from shopping? Just take them to the ‘Jordan’ mineral baths for a good soak.
If foreigners find this public display of faith extraordinary, Mariano sees it as perfectly natural. “How can you demonstrate you love God if you don’t show it? Didn’t Paul say, ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel’?”
The contents of the stores have also changed. Mell Winger recalls visiting a small tienda where the Christian proprietor pointed to a well-stocked food shelf and said, “This was once full of alcohol.” Town bars have not fared any better. Harold Caballeros explains: “Once people stopped spending their money on alcohol they actually bought out several distressed taverns and turned them into churches. This happened over and over again.” One new bar did open during the revival, but it only lasted a couple of months. The owner was converted and now plays in a Christian band.
As the drinking stopped, so did the violence. For 20 years the town’s crime rate has declined steadily. In 1994, the last of Almolonga’s four jails was closed. The remodelled building is now called the ‘Hall of Honour’ and is used for municipal ceremonies and weddings. Leaning against the door, police chief Donato Santiago offered a knowing grin. “It’s pretty uneventful around here,” he said.
Even the town’s agricultural base has come to life. For years, crop yields around Almolonga were diminished through a combination of and land and poor work habits. But as the people have turned to God they have seen a remarkable transformation of their land. “It is a glorious thing,” exclaims a beaming Caballeros. “Almolonga’s fields have become so fertile they yield three harvests per year.” In fact, some farmers I talked to reported their normal 60-day growing cycle on certain vegetables has been cut to 25. Whereas before they would export four truckloads of produce per month, they are now watching as many as 40 loads a day roll out of the valley.
Nicknamed “America’s Vegetable Garden,’ Almolonga’s produce is of biblical proportions. Walking through the local exhibition hall 1 saw (and filmed) five-pound beets, carrots larger than my arm and cabbages the size of oversized basketballs (3). Noting the dimensions of these vegetables and the town’s astounding 1,000 percent increase in agricultural productivity, university researchers from the United States and other foreign countries have beat a steady path to Almolonga.
“Now,” says Caballeros, “these brothers have the joy of buying big Mercedes trucks -with cash.” And they waste no time in pasting their secret all over the shiny vehicles. Huge metallic stickers and mud flaps read ‘The Gift of God,’ ‘God Is My Stronghold’ and ‘Go Forward in Faith.’
Some farmers are now providing employment to others by renting out land and developing fields in other towns. Along with other Christian leaders they also help new converts get out of debt. It is a gesture that deeply impresses Mell Winger. “I think of Paul’s words to the Thessalonians when he said, “We not only gave you the gospel of God but we gave you our own souls as well.’” (4).
Caballeros agrees: “And that’s what these people do. It is a beautiful spectacle to go and see the effect of the gospel, because you can actually see it – and that is what we want for our communities, for our cities and for our nations.”
Despite their success, believers in Almolonga have no intention of letting up. Many fast three times a week and continue to assault the forces of darkness in prayer and evangelism. On Halloween day in 1998, an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 believers gathered in the market square to pray down barriers against the gospel in neighbouring towns and around the world (5). Many, unable to find seats, hung off balconies and crowded concrete staircases. Led by the mayor and various Christian dignitaries, they prayed hand in hand for God to take authority over their lives, their town and any hindering spirits.
How significant are these developments? In a 1994 headline article describing the dramatic events in Almolonga, Guatemala’s premier newsmagazine Cronica Semanal concluded “the Evangelical Church … constitutes the most significant force for religious change in the highlands of Guatemala since the Spanish conquest (6).
Almolonga produce
The Umuofai of Nigeria
The Umuofai kindred are spread out in several villages situated near the town of Umuahia in Abia State in southeastern Nigeria (7). A major rail line links the area with Port Harcourt, about 120 kilometers to the south. Like most parts of coastal Africa, it is distinguished by dense tropical flora and killer humidity.
It is possible, even likely, veteran travellers will not have heard of the Umuofai or their homeland. This is not surprising seeing that the kindred’s claim to fame has virtually nothing to do with their size or setting. While their history does claim centuries-old roots, the truly newsworthy events are still tender shoots.
Indeed the interesting chapter of the Umuofai story began as recently as 1996. Two Christian brothers, Emeka and Chinedu Nwankpa, had become increasingly distressed over the spiritual condition of their people. While they did not know everything about the Umuofai kindred, or their immediate Ubakala clan, they knew enough to be concerned. Not only were there few Christians, but there was also an almost organic connection with ancestral traditions of sorcery, divination and spirit appeasement. Some even practiced the demonic art of shape-shifting. Taking the burden before the Lord, the younger brother, Chinedu Nwankpa, was led into a season of spiritual mapping. After conducting a partial 80-day fast, he learned that his primary assignment (which would take the good part of a year) was to spend one day a week with clan elders investigating the roots of prevailing idolatry – including the role of the ancestors and shrines. He would seek to understand how and when the Ubakala clan entered into animistic bondage. According to older brother Emeka, a practicing lawyer and international Bible teacher, this understanding was critical. When I asked why, Emeka responded, “When a people publicly renounce their ties to false gods and philosophies, they make it exceedingly undesirable for the enemy to remain in their community.” (24).
The study was finally completed in late 1996. Taking their findings to prayer, the brothers soon felt prompted to invite kindred leaders and other interested parties to attend a special meeting. “What will be our theme?” they asked. The Master’s response was quick and direct. “I want you to speak to them about idolatry.”
On the day of the meeting, Emeka and Chinedu arrived unsure of what kind of crowd they would face. Would there be five or fifty? Would the people be open or hostile? What they actually encountered stunned them. The meeting place was not only filled with 300 people, but the audience also included several prominent clan leaders and witch doctors. “After I opened in prayer,” Emeka recalls, “this young man preaches for exactly 42 minutes. He brings a clear gospel message. He gives a biblical teaching on idolatry and tells the people exactly what it does to a community. When he has finished, he gives a direct altar call. And do you know what happens? Sixty-one adults respond, including people from lines that, for eight generations, had handled the traditional priesthood.
“Let me give you an idea of what 1 am talking about. There is a local spirit that is supposed to give fertility to the earth. The people of the community believed this particular spirit favoured farmers who planted yams – an old uncle to the potato. A male from each generation was dedicated to this spirit to insure his blessing. When this priest was ready to die, he had to be taken outside so that the heavenly alignment could be undone. He was buried in the night with his head covered with a clay pot. Then, a year after the burial, the skull was exhumed and put in the shrine. These skulls and other sacred objects were never allowed to touch the ground. Of course, sacrifices were also made from time to time. This was the way of life in our community for eight generations.”
When the minister finished the altar call, the Nwankpa brothers were startled to see a man coming forward with the sacred skull in his hands. Here in front of them was the symbol and receptacle of the clan’s ancestral power. “By the time the session ended,” Emeka marvels, “eight other spiritual custodians had also come forward. If I had not been there in the flesh, I would not have believed it.”
As Emeka was called forward to pray for these individuals, the Holy Spirit descended on the gathering and all the clan leaders were soundly converted. The new converts were then instructed to divide up into individual family units – most were living near the village of Mgbarrakuma – and enter a time of repentance within the family. This took another hour and twenty minutes. During this time people were under deep conviction, many rolling on the ground, weeping. “I had to persuade some of them to get up,” Emeka recalls.
After leading this corporate repentance, Emeka heard the Lord say, ‘It is now time to renounce the covenants made by and for this community over the last 300 years.” Following the example of Zechariah 12:10-13:2, the Nwankpas led this second-phase renunciation. “We were just about to get up,” Emeka remembers, “and the Lord spoke to me again. I mean He had it all written out. He said, ‘It is now time to go and deal with the different shrines.’ So 1 asked the people, ‘Now that we have renounced the old ways, what are these shrines doing here?’ And without a moment’s hesitation they replied, ‘We need to get rid of them!’”
Having publicly renounced the covenants their ancestors had made with the powers of darkness, the entire community proceeded to nine village shrines. The three chief priests came out with their walking sticks. It was tradition that they should go first. Nobody else had the authority to take such a drastic action. So the people stood, the young men following the elders and the women remaining behind in the village square. Lowering his glasses, Emeka says, “You cannot appreciate how this affected me personally. Try to understand that 1 am looking at my own chief. I am looking at generations of men that I have known, people who have not spoken to my father for thirty years, people with all kinds of problems. They are now born-again!”
One of these priests, an elder named Odogwu-ogu, stood before the shrine of a particular spirit called Amadi. He was the oldest living representative of the ancestral priesthood. Suddenly he began to talk to the spirits. He said, “Amadi, I want you to listen carefully to what 1 am saying. You were there in the village square this morning. You heard what happened.” He then made an announcement that Emeka will never forget..
Listen, Amadi, the people who own the land have arrived to tell you that they have just made a new covenant with the God of heaven. Therefore all the previous covenants you have made with our ancient fathers are now void. The elders told me to take care of you and I have done that all these years. But today I have left you, and so it is time for you to return to wherever you came from. I have also given my life to Jesus Christ, and from now on, my hands and feet are no longer here (8).
As he does this, he jumps sideways, lifts his hands and shouts, “Hallelujah!”
“With tears in my eyes,” Emeka says, reliving the moment, “I stepped up to anoint this shrine and pray. Every token and fetish was taken out. And then we went through eight more shrines, gathering all the sacred objects and piling them high.
“Gathering again back in the square I said, ‘Those who have fetishes in your homes, bring them out because God is visiting here today. Don’t let Him pass you by.’ At this, one of the priests got up and brought out a pot with seven openings. He said to the people, ‘There is poison enough to kill everybody here in that little pot. There is a horn of an extinct animal, the bile of a tiger and the venom of a viper mixed together.’ He warned the young men, ‘Don’t touch it. Carry it on a pole because it is usually suspended in the shrine.’ This was piled in the square along with all the ancestral skulls.” Soon other heads of households brought various ritual objects-including idols, totems and fetishes-for public burning. Many of these items had been handed down over ten generations.
Emeka then read a passage from Jeremiah 10 that judges the spirits associated with these artifacts. Reminding the powers that the people had rejected them, he said, “You spirits that did not make the heavens and the earth in the day of your visitation, it is time for you to leave this place.” The people then set the piled objects on fire. They ignited with such speed and intensity that the villagers took it as a sign that God had been waiting for this to happen for many years. When the fire subsided, Emeka and his brother prayed for individual needs and prophetically clothed the priests with new spiritual garments. Altogether the people spent nine hours in intense, strategic-level spiritual warfare.
Emeka recalls that when it was over, “You could feel the atmosphere in the community change. Something beyond revival had broken out.” Two young ministers recently filled the traditional Anglican church with about 4,000 youth. And in the middle of the message, demons were reportedly flying out the door! Having renounced old covenants, the Umuofai kindred have made a collective decision that nobody will ever return to animism. “Today,” Emeka says, “everybody goes to church. There is also a formal Bible study going on, and the women have a prayer team that my mother conducts. 0thers gather to pray after completing their communal sweeping.” (9).
In terms of political and economic development, good things have begun to happen but not as dramatically as in Almolonga. Still, there is evidence that God has touched the land here much like He has in the highlands of Guatemala. Shortly after the public repentance, several villagers discovered their plots were permeated with saleable minerals. One of these individuals was Emeka’s own mother, a godly woman whose property has turned up deposits of valuable ceramic clay.
Hemet, California
For years this searing valley in southern California was known as a pastor’s graveyard. Riddled with disunity, local churches were either stagnant or in serious decline. In one case, street prostitutes actually transformed a church rooftop into an outdoor bordello. The entire community had, in the words of pastor Bob Beckett, “a kind of a nasty spiritual feeling to it.”
When Beckett arrived on the scene in 1974, Hemet had the personality of a sleepy retirement community, a place where people who had served their tour of duty came to live out a life of ease (10). Having achieved most of their goals, people simply wanted to be left alone. Though a fair number attended church, they had no appetite for anything progressive, much less evangelistic. Spiritually lethargic clergy were content to simply go through the motions.
But things were not all they seemed. Underneath the surface of this laid-back community was a spiritual dark side that was anything but lethargic. “We discovered,” said Beckett, “that illegal and occult activity was thriving in our community.” It was a rude awakening.
The Hemet Valley was fast becoming a cult haven. “We had the Moonies and Mormons. We had the ‘Sheep People,’ a cult that claimed Christ but dealt in drugs. The Church of Scientology set up a state-of-the-art multimedia studio called Golden Era, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi purchased a property to teach people how to find enlightenment.” The latter, according to Beckett, included a 360-acre juvenile facility where students were given instruction in upper-level transcendental meditation. “We’re not talking about simply feeling good; we’re talking about techniques whereby people can actually leave their bodies.”
These discoveries got Beckett to wondering why the Maharishi would purchase property in this relatively obscure valley and why it would be located in proximity to the Scientologists and the spiritually active Soboba Indian reservation. Sensing something sinister might be lurking beneath the town’s glazed exterior, Beckett took out a map and started marking locations where there was identifiable spiritual activity.” Noticing these marks were clustered in a specific area, he began to ask more probing questions. “I began to wonder,” he said, “if there was perhaps a dimension of darkness I had failed to recognize. 1 didn’t realize it at the time, but I was led into what we now call spiritual mapping.”
The deeper this rookie pastor looked, the less he liked what he was seeing. It seemed the valley, in addition to hosting a nest of cults, was also a notable centre of witchcraft. And unfortunately this was not a new development. Elderly citizens could recollect looking up at the nearby mountains on previous Halloweens and seeing them illumined by dozens of ritual fires. In Hemet and the neighbouring community of Idyllwild, it was not uncommon to find the remains of animal sacrifices long before such matters became part of the public discourse.
Nor were cults the only preexisting problem. Neighborhood youth gangs had plagued the Hemet suburb of San Jacinto for more than a century. When pastor Gordon Houston arrived in 1986 the situation was extremely volatile. His church, San Jacinto Assembly, sits on the very street that has long hosted the town’s notorious First Street Gang. “These were kids whose dads and grandfathers had preceded them in the gang. The lifestyle had been handed down through the generations.”
The danger was so great around the main gang turf that the police refused to go there without substantial backup. “One time I was walking out in front of my church,” Gordon recalls. “Three First Street guys came up behind me, while four others closed in from across the street. They moved me to the centre of the street and asked, “Who are you and what are you doing here?” It was a scary scenario.
“We were one of the first school districts that had to implement a school dress code to avoid gang attire. It was a big problem. There were a lot of weapons on campus and kids were being attacked regularly. The gangs were tied into one of the largest drug production centres in Riverside County.”
It turns out the sleepy Hemet Valley was also the methamphetamine manufacturing capital of the West Coast. One former cooker I spoke to in June 1998 (we’ll call him Sonny) told me the area hosted at least nine major production laboratories. The dry climate, remote location and ‘friendly’ law enforcement combined to make it an ideal setup. “It was quite amazing,” Sonny told me. “I actually had law officers transport dope for me in their police cruisers. That’s the way it used to be here.”
Sonny cooked methamphetamine in Hemet from 1983 to 1991. His minimum quota was 13 pounds every two weeks – an amount capable of supplying more than a quarter of a million people. And there were times when he and his colleagues doubled this production. Most of the deliveries went to Southern California, Arizona or Utah. Often the deadly powder was trucked out of town disguised as 4×8-foot forms of Sheetrock. “It was fascinating to see it done,” Sonny remembered. “Even the paper backing was torn off afterward and sold to people in prison.”
The spiritual turnaround for Hemet did not come easily. Neither the Beckerts nor the Houstons were early Valley enthusiasts. “I just didn’t want to be there,” Bob recalls with emphasis. “For the first several years, my wife and 1 had our emotional bags packed all the time. We couldn’t wait for the day that God would call us out of this valley.”
The Houstons didn’t unpack their bags to begin with. When the San Jacinto position first opened up in 1984, they drove into town in the middle of summer. Gordon remembers it being scorching hot that day. “We had our six-month-old baby in a Pinto Runabout with vinyl seats and no air-conditioning. We drove down the street, took one look at the church and said, “No thank you.” We didn’t even stop to put in a resumé.”
It would be three years before the Houstons were persuaded to return to the Hemet Valley. “Even then,” Gordon says, “we saw it as a chance to gain some experience, build a good resumé, and then look for other opportunities. God, of course, had something else in mind. I remember him saying, “I have a plan, and I’ll share it with you – if you will make a commitment to this place.” And I’ll be honest with you. It was still a tough choice.”
For a while, Bob Beckett’s spiritual mapping had provided certain stimulation. Then, it too reached a dead end. “The flow of information just seemed to dry up,” he remembers. “That was when God asked if we would be willing to spend the rest of our lives in this valley. He couldn’t have asked a worse question. How could I spend the rest of my life in a place 1 didn’t love, didn’t care for and didn’t want to be a part of?”
Yet God persevered and the Becketts eventually surrendered to His will. “As soon as we did this,” Bob reports, “the flow of information opened back up. In retrospect I see that God would not allow us to go on learning about the community’s spiritual roots unless we were committed to act on our understanding. I now realize it was our commitment to the valley that allowed the Lord to trust us with the information (12).
“Once we made this pact, Susan and 1 fell in love with the community. It might sound a little melodramatic, but 1 actually went out and purchased a cemetery plot. I said, “Unless Jesus comes back, this is my land. I’m starting and ending my commitment right here.” Well, God saw that and began to dispense powerful revelation. I still had my research, but it was no longer just information. It was information that was important to me. It was information I had purchased; it belonged to me.”
One new area of understanding concerned a prayer meeting Bob had called 15 years prior. Unable to interpret his spiritual site map or a recurring dream that depicted a bear hide stretched over the valley, he had asked 12 men to join him in prayer at a mountain cabin in nearby Idyllwild. Around two o’clock in the morning the group experienced a dramatic breakthrough – just not the one they were expecting. Rather than yielding fresh insight into the site map or bear hide, the action stimulated a new spiritual hunger within the community.
Now that the Beckets had covenanted to stay in the community, God started to fill in the gaps of their understanding. He began by leading Bob to a book containing an accurate history of the San Jacinto mountains that border Hemet and of the Cahuilla Nation that are descendants of the region’s original inhabitants. “As 1 read through this book I discovered the native peoples believed the ruling spirit of the region was called Tahquitz. He was thought to be exceedingly powerful, occasionally malevolent, associated with the great bear, and headquartered in the mountains. Putting the book down, I sensed the Lord saying, “Find Tahquitz on your map!”
“When 1 did so, I was shocked to find that our prayer meeting 15 years earlier was held in a cabin located at the base of a one-thousand-foot solid rock spire called Tahquitz peak! I also began to understand that the bear hide God had showed me was linked to the spirit of Tahquitz. The fact that it was stretched out over the community was a reminder of the control this centuries – old demonic strongman wielded, a control that was fuelled then, and now, by the choices of local inhabitants. At that point I knew God had been leading us.”
Bob explained that community intercessors began using spiritual mapping to focus on issues and select meaningful targets. Seeing the challenge helped them become spiritually and mentally engaged. With real targets and timelines they could actually watch the answers to their prayers. They learned that enhanced vision escalates fervour.
When I asked him to compare the situation in Hemet today with the way things used to be, he did not take long to answer. “We are not a perfect community,” he said, “but we never will be until the Perfect One comes back. What I can tell you is that the Hemet Valley has changed dramatically.”
The facts speak for themselves. Cult membership, once a serious threat, has now sunk to less than 0.3 percent of the population. The Scientologists have yet to be evicted from their perch at the edge of town, but many other groups are long gone. The transcendental meditation training centre was literally burned out. Shortly after praying for their removal, a brushfire started in the mountains on the west side of the valley. It burned along the top of the ridge and then arced down like a finger to incinerate the Maharishi’s facility. Leaving adjacent properties unsinged, the flames burned back up the mountain and were eventually extinguished.
The drug business, according to Sonny, has dropped by as much as 75 percent. Gone, too, is the official corruption that was once its fellow traveller. “There was a time when you could walk into any police department around here and look at your files or secure an escort for your drug shipment. The people watching your back were wearing badges. Man, has that changed. If you’re breaking the law today, the police are out to get ya. And prayer is the biggest reason. The Christians out here took a multimillion-dollar drug operation and made it run off with its tail between its legs.”
Gangs are another success story. Not long ago a leader of the First Street Gang burst down the centre aisle of Gordon Houston’s church (San Jacinto Assembly) during the morning worship service. “I’m in the middle of my message,” Gordon laughs, “and here comes this guy, all tattooed up, heading right for the platform. I had no idea what he was thinking. When he gets to the front, he looks up and says, “I want to get saved right now!” This incident, and this young man, represented the first fruit of what God would do in the gang community. Over the next several weeks, the entire First Street family came to the Lord. After this, word circulated that our church was off limits. ‘You don’t tag this church with graffiti; you don’t mess with it in any way.’ Instead, gang members began raking our leaves and repainting walls that had been vandalized.” More recently, residents of the violent gang house across from San Jacinto Assembly moved out. Then, as church members watched, they bulldozed the notorious facility.
Nor are gang members the only people getting saved in Hemet Valley. A recent survey revealed that Sunday morning church attendance now stands at about 14 percent – double what it was just a decade ago. During one 18-month stretch, San Jacinto Assembly altar workers saw more than 600 people give their hearts to Christ. Another prayer-oriented church has grown 300 percent in twelve months.
The individual stories are stirring. Sonny, the former drug manufacturer, was apprehended by the Holy Spirit en route to a murder. Driving to meet his intended victim he felt something take control of the steering wheel. He wound up in the parking lot of Bob Beckett’s Dwelling Place Church. It was about 8 o’clock in the morning and a men’s meeting had just gotten underway. “Before I got out of the car,” Sonny says ruefully, “I looked at the silenced pistol laying on the seat. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing.’ So I covered it with a blanket and walked into this prayer meeting. As soon as 1 did that, it was all over. People are praying around me and I hear this man speak out: ‘Somebody was about to murder someone today.’ Man, my eyeballs just about popped out of my head. But that was the beginning of my journey home. It took a long time, but I’ve never experienced more joy in my life.”
As of the late 1990s, Hemet also boasted a professing mayor, police chief, fire chief and city manager. If this were not impressive enough, Beckett reckons that one could add about 30 percent of the local law enforcement officers and an exceptional number of high school teachers, coaches and principals. In fact, for the past several years nearly 85 percent of all school district staff candidates have been Christians.
The result, says Gordon, is that “Our school district, after being the laughing stock of Southern California, now has one of the lowest drop-out rates in the nation. In just four years we went from a 4.7 drop-out rate to 0.07. Only the hand of God can do that.”
And what of the Valley’s infamous church infighting? “Now we are a wall of living stones,” Beekett declares proudly. “Instead of competing, we are swapping pulpits. You have Baptists in Pentecostal pulpits and vice versa. You have Lutherans with Episcopalians. The Christian community has become a fabric instead of loose yarn.”
Houston adds that valley churches are also brought together by quarterly concerts of prayer and citywide prayer revivals where speaking assignments are rotated among area pastors. “Different worship teams lead songs and salvation cards are distributed equally among us. It is a cooperative vision. We are trying to get pastors to understand there is no church big enough, gifted enough, talented enough, anointed enough, financially secure enough, equipped enough, to take a city all by itself. Yes, God will hold me accountable for how I treated my church. But I am also going to be held accountable for how I pastored my city.”
One fellowship is so committed to raising the profile of Jesus Christ in the valley that they have pledged into another church’s building program. To Bob Beckett it all makes sense. “It’s about building people, not building a church. In fact, it is not even a church growth issue, it is a kingdom growth issue. It’s about seeing our communities transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Cali, Columbia
For years Colombia has been the world’s biggest exporter of cocaine, sending between 700 hundred and 1,000 tons a year to the United States and Europe alone (13). The Cali cartel, which controlled up to 70 percent of this trade, has been called the largest, richest and most well-organized criminal organization in history (14). Employing a combination of bribery and threats, it wielded a malignant power that corrupted individuals and institutions alike (5).
Randy and Marcy MacMillan, copastors of the Communidad Christiana de Fe, have labored in Cali for more than 20 years. At least 10 of these have been spent in the shadow of the city’s infamous drug lords.
Marcy inherited the family home of her late father, a former Colombian diplomat. When illicit drug money began pouring into Cali in the 1980s, the Cocaine lords moved into the MacMillan’s upscale neighbourhood, buying up entire blocks of luxurious haciendas. They modified these properties by installing elaborate underground tunnel systems and huge 30-foot (10-metre) walls to shield them from prying eyes-and stray bullets. Video cameras encased in Plexiglas bubbles scanned the surrounding area continuously. There were also regular patrols with guard dogs.
“These people were paranoid,” Randy recalls. “They were exporting 500 million dollars worth of cocaine a month, and it led to constant worries about sabotage and betrayal. They had a lot to lose.”
For this reason, the cartel haciendas were appointed like small cities. Within their walls it was possible to find everything from airstrips and helicopter landing pads to indoor bowling alleys and miniature soccer stadiums. Many also contained an array of gift boutiques, nightclubs and restaurants.
Whenever the compound gates swung open, it was to disgorge convoys of shiny black Mercedes automobiles. As they snaked their way through the city’s congested streets, all other traffic would pull to the side of the road. Drivers who defied this etiquette did so at their own risk. Many were blocked and summarily shot. As many as 15 people a day were killed in such a manner. “You didn’t want to be at the same stoplight with them,” Randy summarized.
Having once been blocked in his own neighbourhood, Randy remembers the terror. “They drew their weapons and demanded to see our documents. I watched them type the information into a portable computer. Thankfully the only thing we lost was some film. I will always remember the death in their eyes. These are people that kill for a living and like it.”
Rosevelt Muriel, director of the city’s ministerial alliance, also remembers those days. “It was terrible. If you were riding around in a car and there was a confrontation, you were lucky to escape with your life. I personally saw five people killed in Cali.”
Journalists had a particularly difficult time. They were either reporting on human camage – car bombs were going off like popcorn – or they were becoming targets themselves. Television news anchor Adriana Vivas said that many journalists were killed for denouncing what the Mafia was doing in Colombia and Cali. “Important political decisions were being manipulated by drug money. It touched everything, absolutely everything.”
By the early 1990s, Cali had become one of the most thoroughly corrupt cities in the world. Cartel interests controlled virtually every major institution – including banks, businesses, politicians and law enforcement.
Like everything else in Cali, the church was in disarray. Evangelicals were few and did not much care for each other. “In those days,” Rosevelt Muriel recalls sadly, “the pastors’ association consisted of an old box of files that nobody wanted. Every pastor was working on his own; no one wanted to join together.”
When pastor-evangelists Julio and Ruth Ruibal came to Cali in 1978, they were dismayed at the pervasive darkness in the city. “There was no unity between the churches,” Ruth explained. Even Julio was put off by his colleagues and pulled out of the already weak ministerial association.
Ruth relates that during a season of fasting the Lord spoke to Julio saying, “You don’t have the right to be offended. You need to forgive.” So going back to the pastors, one by one, Julio made things right. They could not afford to walk in disunity – not when their city faced such overwhelming challenges.
Randy and Marcy MacMillan were among the first to join the Ruibals in intercession. “We just asked the Lord to show us how to pray,” Marcy remembers. And He did. For the next several months they focused on the meagre appetite within the church for prayer, unity and holiness. Realizing these are the very things that attract the presence of God, they petitioned the Lord to stimulate a renewed spiritual hunger, especially in the city’s ministers.
As their prayers began to take effect, a small group of pastors proposed assembling their congregations for an evening of joint worship and prayer. The idea was to lease the citys civic auditorium, the Colisco El Pueblo, and spend the night in prayer and repentance. They would solicit God’s active participation in their stand against the drug cartels and their unseen spiritual masters.
Roping off most of the seating area, the pastors planned for a few thousand people. And even this, in the minds of many, was overly optimistic. “We heard it all,” said Rosevelt Muriel. “People told us, ‘It can’t be done,’ ‘No one will come,’ ‘Pastors won’t give their support.’ But we decided to move forward and trust God with the results.”
When the event was finally held in May 1995, the nay-sayers and even some of the organizers were dumbfounded. Instead of the expected modest turnout, more than 25,000 people filed into the civic auditorium – nearly half of the city’s evangelical population at the time! At one point, Muriel remembers, “The mayor mounted the platform and proclaimed, ‘Cali belongs to Jesus Christ.’ Well, when we heard those words, we were energized.” Giving themselves to intense prayer, the crowd remained until 6 o’clock the next morning. The city’s famous all-night prayer vigil – the ‘vigilia’ – had been born.
Forty-eight hours after the event, the daily newspaper, El Pais, headlined, “No Homicides!” For the first time in as long as anybody in the city could remember, a 24-hour period had passed without a single person being killed. In a nation cursed with the highest homicide rate in the world, this was a newsworthy development. Corruption also took a major hit when, over the next four months, 900 cartel-linked officers were fired from the metropolitan police force (16).
“When we saw these things happening,” Randy MacMillan exulted, “we had a strong sense that the powers of darkness were headed for a significant defeat.”
In the month of June, this sense of anticipation was heightened when several intercessors reported dreams in which angelic forces apprehended leaders of the Cali drug cartel. Many interpreted this as a prophetic sign that the Holy Spirit was about to respond to the most urgent aspect of the church’s united appeal.17 Intercessors were praying, and heaven was listening. The seemingly invincible drug lords were about to meet their match.
“Within six weeks of this vision,” MacMillan recalls, “the Colombian government declared all-out war against the drug lords.” Sweeping military operations were launched against cartel assets in several parts of the country. The 6,500 elite commandos dispatched to Cali (18) arrived with explicit orders to round up seven individuals suspected as the top leaders of the cartel.
“Cali was buzzing with helicopters,” Randy remembers. “The airport was closed and there were police roadblocks at every entry point into the city. You couldn’t go anywhere without proving who you were” (19).
Suspicions that the drug lords were consulting spirit mediums were confirmed when the federalés dragnet picked up Jorge Eliecer Rodriguez at the fortune-telling parlour of Madame Marlene Ballesteros, the famous ‘Pythoness of Cali” (20). By August, only three months after God’s word to the intercessors, Colombian authorities had captured all seven targeted cartel leaders – Juan Carlos Arminez, Phanor Arizabalata, Julian Murcillo, Henry Loaiza, Jose Santacruz Londono and founders Gilberto and Miguel Roddguez.
Clearly stung by these assaults on his power base, the enemy lashed out against the city’s intercessors. At the top of his hit list was Pastor Julio Ceasar Ruibal, a man whose disciplined fasting and unwavering faith was seriously eroding his manoeuvring room.
On December 13, 1995, Julio rode into the city with his daughter Sarah and a driver. Late for a pastors’ meeting at the Presbyterian Church, he motioned to his driver to pull over. “He told us to drop him off,” Sarah recounts, “and that was the last time I saw him.”
Outside the church, a hit man was waiting in ambush. Drawing a concealed handgun, the assassin pumped two bullets into Julio’s brain at point-blank range.
“I was waiting for him to arrive at the meeting,” Rosevelt remembers. “At two o’clock in the afternoon I received a phone call. The man said, ‘They just killed Julio.’ I said, ‘What? How can they kill a pastor?’ I rushed over, thinking that perhaps he had just been hurt. But when 1 arrived on the scene, he was motionless. Julio, the noisy one, the active one, the man who just never sat still, was just lying there like a baby.”
“The first thing 1 saw was a pool of crimson blood,” Ruth recalls. “And the verse that came to me was Psalm 116:15: ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’ Sitting down next to Julio’s body, I knew 1 was on holy ground.
“I had to decide how 1 was going to deal with this circumstance. One option was to respond in bitterness, not only toward the man that had done this terrible thing, but also toward God. He had, after all, allowed the early removal of my husband, my daughters’ father and my church’s pastor. Julio would never see his vision for the city fulfilled. My other choice was to yield to the redemptive purposes of the Holy Spirit, to give Him a chance to bring something lasting and wonderful out of the situation. Looking down at Julio I just said, ‘Lord, 1 don’t understand Your plan, but it is well with my soul.’”
Julio Ruibal was killed on the sixth day of a fast aimed at strengthening the unity of Cali’s fledgling church. He knew that even though progress had been made in this area, it had not gone far enough. He knew that unity is a fragile thing. What he could not have guessed is that the fruit of his fast would be made manifest at his own funeral.
In shock, and struggling to understand God’s purposes in this tragedy, 1,500 people gathered at Julio’s funeral. They included many pastors that had not spoken to each other in months. When the memorial concluded these men drew aside and said, “Brothers, let us covenant to walk in unity from this day forward. Let Julio’s blood be the glue that binds us together in the Holy Spirit.”
It worked! Today this covenant of unity has been signed by some 200 pastors and serves as the backbone of the city’s high profile prayer vigils. With Julio’s example in their hearts, they have subordinated their own agendas to a larger, common vision for the city.
Emboldened by their spiritual momentum, Cali’s church leaders now hold all-night prayer rallies every 90 days. Enthusiasm is so high that these glorious events have been moved to the largest venue in the city, the 55,000-seat Pascual Guerrero soccer stadium (21). Happily (or unhappily as the case may be), the demand for seats continues to exceed supply.
In 1996 God led many churches to join in a collective spiritual mapping campaign. To gain God’s perspective on their city, they began to gather intelligence on specific political, social and spiritual strongholds in each of Cali’s 22 administrative zones (a scene reminiscent of the 41 Hebrew clans that once rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem). The results, stitched together like panels on a patchwork quilt, gave the church an unprecedented picture of the powers working in the city. “With this knowledge,” Randy explained, “our unified intercession became focused. As we prayed in specific terms, we began to see a dramatic loosening of the enemy’s stranglehold on our neighbourhoods.
“A few weeks later we used our spiritual mapping intelligence to direct large prayer caravans throughout Cali. Most of the 250 cars established a prayer perimeter around the city, but a few paraded by government offices or the mansions of prominent cartel leaders. My own church focused on the headquarters of the billionaire drug lord, José Santacruz Londono, who had escaped from Bogota’s La Picota prison in January (22). His hacienda was located just four blocks from my home. The next day we heard that he had been killed in a gun fight with national police in Medellin!” (23).
In partnership with the Holy Spirit, Cali’s Christians had taken effective control of the city. What made the partnership work are the same things that always attract the presence of the Lord: sanctified hearts, right relationships and fervent intercession. “God began changing the city,” according to Ruth Ruibal, “because His people finally came together in prayer” (24).
As the kingdom of God descended upon Cali, a new openness to the gospel could be felt at all levels of society – including the educated and wealthy. One man, Gustavo Jaramillo, a wealthy businessman and former mayor, told me, “It is easy to speak to upper-class people about Jesus. They are respectful and interested.” Raul Grajales, another successful Cali businessman, adds that the gospel is now seen as practical rather than religious. As a consequence, he says, “Many high-level people have come to the feet of Jesus.”
During my April 1998 visit to Cali, I had the privilege of meeting several prominent converts, including Mario Jinete, a prominent attorney, media personality and motivational speaker. After searching for truth in Freemasonry and various New Age systems, he has finally come home to Christ. Five minutes into our interview Jinete broke down. His body shaking, this brilliant lawyer who had courageously faced down some of the most dangerous and corrupt figures in Latin America sobbed loudly. “I’ve lost forty years of my life,’ he cried into a handkerchief. “My desire now is to subordinate my ego, to find my way through the Word of God. I want to yield to Christ’s plan for me. I want to serve Him.”
Explosive church growth is one of the visible consequences of the open heavens over Cali. Ask pastors to define their strategy and they respond, “We don’t have time to plan. We’re too busy pulling the nets into the boat.” And the numbers are expanding. In early 1998, 1 visited one fellowship, the Christian Centre of Love and Faith, where attendance has risen to nearly 35,000. What is more, their stratospheric growth rate is being fuelled entirely by new converts. Despite the facility’s cavernous size (it’s a former Costco warehouse), they are still forced to hold seven Sunday services. As I watched the huge sanctuary fill up, I blurted the standard Western question: “What is your secret?” Without hesitating, a church staff member pointed to a 24-hour prayer room immediately behind the platform. “That’s our secret,’ he replied.
Many of Cali’s other churches are also experiencing robust growth, and denominational affiliation and location have little to do with it. The fishing is good for everybody and it’s good all over town. My driver, Carlos Reynoso (not his real name), himself a former drug dealer, put it this way: “There is a hunger for God everywhere. You can see it on the buses, on the streets and in the cafes. Anywhere you go people are ready to talk.” Even casual street evangelists are reporting multiple daily conversions – nearly all the result of arbitrary encounters.
Although danger still lurks in this city of 1.9 million, God is now viewed as a viable protector. When Cali police deactivated a large, 174-kilo car bomb in the populous San Nicolis area in November 1996, many noted that the incident came just 24 hours after 55,000 Christians held their third vigilia. Even El Pais headlined: “Thanks to God, It Didn’t Explode” (25).
Cali’s prayer warriors were gratified, but far from finished. The following month church officials, disturbed by the growing debauchery associated with the city’s Feria, a year-end festival accompanied by 10 days of bull fighting and blowout partying, developed plans to hold public worship and evangelism rallies.
“When we approached the city about this,” Marcy recalls, “God gave us great favour. The city secretary not only granted us rent-free use of the 22,000-scat velodrome (cycling arena), but he also threw in free advertising, security and sound support. We were stunned!” The only thing the authorities required was that the churches pray for the mayor, the city and the citizens.
Once underway, the street witnessing and rallies brought in a bounty of souls. But an even bigger surprise came during the final service which, according to Marcy, emphasized the Holy Spirit “reigning over” and “raining down upon” the city of Cali. As the crowd sang, it began to sprinkle outside, an exceedingly rare occurrence in the month of December. “Within moments,” Marcy recalls, “the city was inundated by torrential tropical rain. It didn’t let up for 24 hours; and for the first time in recent memory, Feria events had to be cancelled!”
On the evening of April 9, 1998, I had the distinct privilege of attending a citywide prayer vigil in Cali’s Pascual Guerrero stadium. It was no small event, even in the eyes of the secular media. For days leading up to the vigilia, local newspapers had been filled with stories linking it to the profound changes that had settled over the community. Evening newscasters looked straight into the camera and urged viewers, whatever their faith, to attend the all-night event.
Arriving at the stadium 90 minutes early, I found it was already a full house. I could feel my hair stand on end as I walked onto the infield to tape a report for CBN News. In the stands, 50,000 exuberant worshipers stood ready to catch the Holy Spirit’s fire. An additional 15,000 ‘latecomers’ were turned away at the coliseum gate. Undaunted, they formed an impromptu praise march that circled the stadium for hours.
Worship teams from various churches were stationed at 15-metre intervals around the running track. Dancers dressed in beautiful white and purple outfits interpreted the music with graceful motions accentuated by banners, tambourines and sleeve streamers. Both they and their city had been delivered of a great burden. In such circumstances one does not celebrate like a Presbyterian, a Baptist or a Pentecostal; one celebrates like a person who has been liberated!
Judging from the energy circulating in the stands, I was sure the celebrants had no intention of selling their emancipation short. They were not here to cheer a championship soccer team or to absorb the wit and wisdom of a big-name Christian speaker. Their sole objective on this particular evening was to offer up heartfelt worship and ask God to continue the marvellous work He had been undertaking in their city for 36 consecutive months.
“What you’re seeing tonight in this stadium is a miracle,” declared visiting Bogota pastor Colin Crawford. “A few years ago it would have been impossible for Evangelicals to gather like this.” Indeed, this city that has long carried a reputation as an exporter of death is now looked upon as a model of community transformation. It has moved into the business of exporting hope.
High up in the stadium press booth somebody grabbed my arm. Nodding in the direction of a casually dressed man at the broadcast counter he whispered, “That man is the most famous sports announcer in Columbia. He does all the big soccer championships.” Securing a quick introduction, I learned that Rafael Araújo Gámez is also a newborn Christian. As he looked out over the fervent crowd, I asked if he had ever seen anything comparable in this stadium. Like Mario, he began to weep. “Never,” he said with a trembling chin. “Not ever.”
At 2:30 in the morning my cameraman and I headed for the stadium tunnel to catch a ride to the airport. It was a tentative departure. At the front gate crowds still trying to get in looked at us like we were crazy. I could almost read their minds. Where are you going? Why are you leaving the presence of God? They were tough questions to answer.
As we prepared to enter our vehicle a roar rose up from the stadium. Listening closely, we could hear the people chanting, in English, “Lift Jesus up, lift Jesus up.” The words seemed to echo across the entire city. I had to pinch myself. Wasn’t it just 36 months ago that people were calling this place a violent, corrupt hell-hole? A city whose ministerial alliance consisted of a box of files that nobody wanted?
In late 1998, Cali’s mayor and city council approached the ministerial alliance, with an offer to manage a citywide campaign to strengthen the family. The offer, which has subsequently been accepted, gives the Christians full operational freedom and no financial obligation. The government has agreed to open the soccer stadium, sports arena and velodrome to any seminar or prayer event that will minister to broken families.
As remarkable as the preceding accounts are, they represent but a fraction of the case studies that could be presented. Several others are worth mentioning in brief.
Kiambu, Kenya
Topping this list is Kiambu, Kenya, one-time ministry graveyard located 14 kilometres northwest of Nairobi. In the late 1980s, after years of profligate alcohol abuse, untamed violence and grinding poverty, the Spirit of the Lord was summoned to Kiambu by a handful of intercessors operating out of a grocery store basement known as the “Kiambu Prayer Cave.”
According to Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee, the real breakthrough came when believers won a high profile power encounter with a local witch named Mama Jane. Whereas people used to be afraid to go out at night, they now enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Rape and murder are virtually unheard of. The economy has also started to grow. And new buildings are sprouting up all over town.
In February, 1999, pastor Muthee celebrated their ninth anniversary in Kiambu. Through research and spiritual warfare, they have seen their church grow to 5,000 members – a remarkable development in a city that had never before seen a congregation of more than 90 people. And other community fellowships are growing as well. “There is no doubt,” Thomas declares, “that prayer broke the power of witchcraft over this city. Everyone in the community now has a high respect for us. They know that God’s power chased Mama Jane from town” (26).
Vitória da Conquiste, Brazil
The city of Vitória da Conquiste (Victory of the Conquest) in Brazil’s Bahia state, has likewise, experienced a powerful move of God since the mid 1990s. As with other transformed communities, the recovery is largely from extreme poverty, violence and corruption.
Vitória da Conquiste was also a place where pastors spent more pulpit time demeaning their ministerial colleagues than preaching the Word. Desperate to see a breakthrough, local intercessors went to prayer. Within a matter of weeks conviction fell upon the church leaders. In late 1996 they gathered to wash one another’s feet in a spirit of repentance. When they approached the community’s senior pastor – a man who had been among the most critical – he refused to allow his colleagues to wash his feet. Saying he was not worthy of such treatment, he instead lay prostrate on the ground and invited the others to place the soles of their shoes on his body while he begged their forgiveness. Today the pastors of Vitória da Conquiste are united in their desire for a full visitation of the Holy Spirit (27).
In addition to lifting long-standing spiritual oppression over the city, this action has also led to substantial church growth. Many congregations have recently gone to multiple services. Furthermore, voters in 1997 elected the son of evangelical parents to serve as mayor. Crime has dropped precipitously, and the economy has rebounded on the strength of record coffee exports and significant investments by the Northeast Bank.
San Nicolás, Argentina
Ed Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism International reports similar developments in San Nicolás, Argentina, an economically depressed community that for years saw churches split and pastors die in tragic circumstances. According to Silvoso, this dark mantle came in with a local shrine to the Queen of Heaven that annually attracts 1.5 million pilgrims.
More recently, pastors have repented for the sin of the church and launched prayer walks throughout the community. They have spoken peace over every home, school, business and police station and concentrated intercession over 10 “dark spots” associated with witchcraft, gangs, prostitution and drug addiction. The pastors have also made appointments with leading political, media and religious (Catholic) officials to repent for neglecting and sometimes cursing them.
As a result of these actions the Catholic bishop is preaching Christ and coming to pastors’ prayer meetings. The mayor has created a space for pastors to pray in city hall. The local newspaper has printed Christian literature. The radio station has begun to refer call-in problems to a pastoral chaplaincy service. The TV station invites pastors onto live talk shows to pray for the people. In short, the whole climate in San Nicolás has changed.
Villages, cities, countries
In other parts of the world God has been at work in villages (Navapur, India; Serawak, Malaysia [Selakau people]; and the North American Arctic) in urban neighbourhoods (Guatemala City; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Resistencia, Argentina; Guayaquil, Ecuador) and even in countries (Uganda). The United States has witnessed God’s special touch in places as far-flung as New York City (Times Square); Modesto, California; and Pensacola, Florida.
Early in my ministry I never thought of investigating transformed communities. I was too preoccupied with other things. In recent days, however, I have become persuaded that something extraordinary is unfolding across the earth. It is, I have come to realize, an expression of the full measure of the kingdom of God. Finding examples of this phenomenon has become my life. And the journey has taken me to the furthest corners of the earth.
NOTES
1. Most of the churches are either Baptist or Presbyterian. But there are also Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Salvationist and Pentecostal congregations.
2. Although these confradías are no longer welcome in Almolonga, they can still be found in the nearby communities of Zunil and Olintepeque.
3. Almolonga’s fields also grow cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, tomatoes, squash, asparagus, leeks and watercress. Their flower market sells gorgeous asters, chrysanthemums and estaditas.
4. See 1 Thessalonians 2:8, KJV.
5. Crowd estimates were provided by Mariano Riscajché based on 10,000 plus seats, rotating local believers and the capacity of adjacent buildings. The event was also carried on local cable television.
6. Mario Roberto Morales, “La Quiebra de Maximon,” Cronica Semanal, June 24-30, 1994, pp. 17,19,20. (In English the headline reads ‘The Defeat of Maximon.’)
7. In African social hierarchy, kindreds are situated between nuclear families and tribes. They can often be spread out in several towns or villages.
8. This is a local expression that means ‘I have pulled myself our of your clutches.’ 9. George Otis Jr., The Twilight Labyrinth (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1997), p. 284.
10. Television personality Art Linkletter made the area famous by proposing it as a mobile home centre.
11. This action was taken around 1976.
12. Bob believes that community pastors need to be willing to make an open-ended commitment that only God can close.
13. This is based on estimates developed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Colombia is also a major producer of marijuana and heroin. See ‘Colombia Police Raid Farm, Seize 8 Tons of Pure Cocaine,’ Seattle Times, October 16, 1994, n.p.
14. This statement is attributable to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. See also Pollard, Peter. ‘Colombia,’ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online [database online]. Book of the Year: World Affairs, 1995 [cited March 11, 19971. Available from www.eb.com/.
15. To keep tabs on their operations, cartel founders Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela installed no fewer than 37 phone lines in their palatial home.
16. Documenting the dimensions of Colombia’s national savagery, Bogota’s leading newspaper, El Tiempo, cited 15,000 murders during the first six months of 1993. This gave Colombia, with a population of 32 million people, the dubious distinction of having the highest homicide rate in the World. See Tom Boswell, ‘Between Many Fires,’ Christian Century, Vol. III, No. 18, June 1-8, 1994, p. 560.
17. Two years earlier, as a Christmas ‘gift,’ the Rodriguez brothers had provided the Cali police with 120 motorcycles and vans.
18. Otis, Jr., The Twilight Labyrinth, p. 300.
19. Ibid. This unique group was comprised of Colombian police, army personnel and contra guerrillas. Note: The June 1995 campaign also included systematic neighbourhood searches. To insure maximum surprise, the unannounced raids would typically occur at four A.M. “Altogether,” MacMillan reported, “The cartel owned about 12,000 properties in the city. These included apartment buildings they had constructed with drug profits. The first two floors would often have occupied flats and security guards to make them look normal, while higher-level rooms were filled with rare art, gold and other valuables. Some of the apartment rooms were filled with stacks of 100-dollar bills that had been wrapped in plastic bags and covered with mothballs. Hot off American streets, this money was waiting to be counted, deposited or shipped out of the country.”
The authorities also found underground vaults in the fields behind some of the big haciendas. Lifting up concrete blocks, they discovered stairwells descending into secret rooms that contained up to 9 million dollars in cash. This was so-called ‘throwaway’ money. Serious funds were laundered through banks or pumped into ‘legitimate’ businesses. To facilitate wire transfers, the cartel had purchased a chain of financial institutions in Colombia called the Workers Bank.
20. Dean Latimer, ‘Cali Cartel Crackdown?’ High Times [database online, cited 8 August 1995]. Available at www.hightimes.com.
21. The vigils have been held in the Pascual Guerrero stadium since August 1995. 22. After serving six months of his sentence, Santacruz embarrassed officials by riding out of the main gate of the maximum-security prison in a car that resembled one driven by prosecutors.
23. As the authorities probed the mountain of paperwork confiscated during government raids, they discovered at least two additional “capos” of the Cali cartel. The most notorious of these, Helmer ‘Pacho’ Herrera, turned himself in to police at the end of August 1996. The other, Justo Perafan, was not linked to the Cali operations until November 1996 because of a previous connection with the Valle cartel.
24. To appreciate the extent of these changes on the city, one has only to walk past the vacant haciendas of the drug barons. In addition to serving as monuments of human folly, these ghost towns stand as eloquent testimonies of the power of prayer.
25. “Gracias a Dios No Explotó,” El Pais, Cali, November 6, 1996; “En Cali Desactivan Un ‘Carrobomba,’ El.Pais, Cali, November 6, 1996, n.p.
26. For a more complete version of the Kiambu story, see The Twilight Labyrinth pp. 295-298.
27. The pastors came out of this season with a five-part strategy for turning their community around: (1) set aside a day for fasting and confession of sin; (2) require Christian men to improve the way they treat their wives and families; (3) promote reconciliation between churches; (4) raise up trained intercessors for the city, and (5) conduct spiritual mapping.
This article is from Chapter 1, “Snapshots of Glory” (pp. 15-53) of Informed Intercession (Renew 1999) by George Otis Jr., reproduced with permission of Gospel Light publications, Ventura, California, USA ( www.gospellight.com ). See Peter Wagner’s review comments in the Reviews section of this Renewal Journal.
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.
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.”
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.
Healing evangelist Benny Hinn leads crusades worldwide. The cover photo on this Renewal Journal 14: Anointing is from his crusade in Kenya, East Africa, with police estimating over one million attending.
A Greater Anointing, by Benny Hinn
Writer Joel Kilpatrick describes revival in Mobile, Alabama.
