Survey of Revivals by Geoff Waugh

Revival Fires – Blog updated

Flashpoints of Revival – Blog updated

Revival Fires – Blog

See also Revivals Index – updated

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 Revivals continue to expand, changing people and communities.  The books Flashpoints of Revival and Revival Fires contain fuller reports of these brief accounts of  revivals.

Biblical witness

Biblical terms describing revival impacts of the Spirit vary greatly.  They include:
the Spirit was given ‑‑ Numbers 11:17; John 7:39;
the Spirit came upon ‑‑ Judges 3:10; Acts 19:5;
the Spirit took control ‑‑ Judges 6:34; 1 Samuel 11:6; 16:13;
the Spirit poured out ‑‑ Joel 2:28‑28; Acts 10:45;
the Spirit came down ‑‑ Matthew 3:16; Luke 3:22; John 1:33;
the Spirit fell (or came down)‑‑ Acts 10:44; 11:15;
the Spirit received ‑‑ Acts 8:15‑17; 19:2;
baptized in or with the Spirit ‑‑ Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5;
filled with the Spirit ‑‑ Acts 2:4; 9:17; Ephesians 5:18.

The specific nature of these impacts is significant, as is the varied nature of subsequent ministries resulting from these impacts.  These impacts of the Spirit empowered people for ministry.  That ministry involved a wide range of charismata including anointed preaching and prophecy, healings and miracles, tongues and trouble.

Historical witness

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

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

However, where such records have survived, mostly after the invention of the printing press, revivals consistently reveal similar patterns to the biblical witness.  A brief selection is given here including first person accounts. 

—Before Constantine the church spread rapidly in spite of, and even because of, persecution.  The witness of the martyrs influenced many people.  After Constantine made C hjristianity the official religion of the Roman Empire the Holy Spirit continued his work in the church and the world, often causing strong opposition as in the New Testament.

—

—Irenaeus (d 195), a student of the Apostle John’s disciple Polycarp, led a considerable spiritual awakening in Lyons in southern Gaul where in addition to his Episcopal responsibilities he learned the local language and his preaching was accompanied by gifts of the Spirit, exorcisms and reports of some raised from the dead.

—

—The Montanists, or the New Prophecy movement, flourished in Asia Minor from 150-400s.  This movement included a revival of prophecies and of acknowledged prophets including women, a challenge for Christians to forsake worldly attitudes with stricter living standards in Christian communities, and a strong belief in the second coming of Christ with the ideal society soon to be established in the New Jerusalem.  Montanus spoke in tongues and began prophesying at his baptism, and taught that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were still available.  The lawyer-theologian Tertullian (c 150-223) became the most famous convert to Montanism when he joined that movement early in the 200s.  The movement came into disrepute because of excesses, particularly in prophecy, but it became a strong challenge to the lax state of the church at that time.

—

—Gregory the Wonderworker (c 213-270), converted through contact with Origen (c 185-254), became bishop of his native Pontus and appears to have led a strong movement of conversion till most of his diocese was Christian.

—

—John Wycliffe and his itinerant preachers, the Lollards, made a powerful impact on England in the 1300s.  They aroused strong opposition leading to many becoming martyrs.

—

John Hus in Bohemia and Savonarola in Italy led strong reform movements in the 1400s which brought revival but led to their martyrdoms.  Hus was known for his unblemished purity of life and uncompromising stand for truth in a decadent society.  Savonarola fasted, prayed and preached with prophetic fire which confronted evils of his time, filled the churches, and brought honesty into much of civic and business life.

—

—Gutenburg’s printing press invented in 1456 made the Scriptures widely available.  This helped spark the 1500s Reformation with leaders such as

—Huldrych Zwingli in Switzerland initially calling for freedom of conscience though later denying this for others,

—Martin Luther in Germany proclaiming justification by faith alone based on the supreme authority of scripture, and

—John Calvin in Geneva emphasizing the awesome sovereignty and grace of God.

—Radical reformers, such as Felix Manz the first Anabaptist martyr, were killed by some of the reformers in those days of heated religious conflict.

—John Knox fearlessly called Scotland to repentance amid the intense political and religious fervour of the times.

Revivals continued to break out during and after the Reformation in spite of, and often caused by, persecution.

Wednesday, 13 August, 1727 – Herrnhut, Saxony

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

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

January, 1735 ‑ New England, America

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

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

Monday, 1 January, 1739 ‑ London

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

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

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

Thursday 8 August, 1745 ‑ Crossweeksung, America

David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at 29 in 1747, tells of revival breaking out among Indians at Crossweeksung in August 1745.  Concerning 8 August, 1745, he wrote

the power of God seemed to descend on the assembly ‘like a rushing mighty wind’ and with an astonishing energy bore all down before it.  I stood amazed at the influence that seized the audience almost universally and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent… Almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together and scarce was able to withstand the shock of astonishing operation (Howard 1949:216-217).

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

Sunday 25 December, 1781 ‑ Cornwall, England

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

June‑July, 1800 ‑ Kentucky, America

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

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

August, 1801 ‑ Cane Ridge, America (Barton Stone)

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

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

The Rev. Moses Hoge described it:

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

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

Wednesday, 10 October, 1821 ‑ Adams, America

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

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

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

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

Sunday, 22 May, 1859  ‑ Natal, South Africa

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

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

October, 1871  ‑  New York

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

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

Monday, 31 October 1904 – Loughor, Wales

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

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

Friday, 30 June, 1905  ‑ Mukti, India

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

Saturday, 14 April, 1906 ‑ Azusa Street, Los Angeles

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

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

Sunday, 4 July, 1909  ‑ Valparaiso, Chile

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

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

1914 – Belgian Congo, Africa

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

Monday, 7 March, 1921 ‑ Lowestoft, England

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

1949 – Hebrides Islands, Scotland

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

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

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

Sunday, 26 September, 1965 ‑ Soe, Timor

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

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

Tuesday, 3 February, 1970 ‑ Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky

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

Sunday, 23 August, 1970 ‑ Solomon Islands

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

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

Wednesday 14 March, 1979 ‑ Elcho Island, Australia

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

Suddenly we began to feel God=s Spirit moving in our hearts and the whole form of our prayer suddenly changed and everybody began to pray in the Spirit and in harmony. And there was a great noise going on in the room and we began to ask one another what was going on.  Some of us said that God had now visited us and once again established his kingdom among his people who have been bound for so long by the power of evil…  In that same evening the word just spread like the flames of fire and reached the whole community in Galiwin=ku.  Gelung [his wife] and I couldn=t sleep at all that night because people were just coming for the ministry, bringing the sick to be prayed for, for healing. Others came to bring their problems. Even a husband and wife came to bring their marriage problem, so the Lord touched them and healed their marriage (Gondarra 1991).

Teams from Elcho Island took revival movements throughout Arnhem Land, Northern Territory and Western Australia.  At Warburton, then regarded as having one of the highest aboriginal crime rates in Australia, the results of

Sunday 15 May, 1980 ‑ Anaheim, America

John Wimber led the evangelical Vineyard Fellowship at Anaheim from 1977.  On Mother’s Day, 15 May, 1980 at the evening service a young man spoke. 

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

Thursday 14 June ‑ Brugam, Papua New Guinea

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

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

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

 Thursday 4 August, 1988 ‑ Kambaidam, Papua New Guinea

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

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

1988 – Madruga, Cuba

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

1989 – Henan and Anhul, China

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

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

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

1992 – Buenos Aires, Argentina (Claudio Friedzon)

During the 1980s, Carlos Annacondia, a businessman turned evangelist, won thousands to the Lord in mass crusades accompanied by signs and wonders, healings (including filling of teeth) and deliverances.  Churches grew dramatically. 

Other pastor/evangelists such as Omar Cabrera and Hector Giminez won hundreds of thousands to the Lord.  All of them have powerful ministries in evangelism with many signs and wonders, healings and miracles.  Omar and Marfa Cabrera discovered the power of prayer for deliverance, and now lead a church movement of over 90,000 in 120 cities.  Hector Giminez, formerly a drug addicted criminal, lead a church which grew to 1000 in a year and now has over 120,000.

Claudio Freidzon, founder of a Buenos Aires church which grew to 4000 people in five years, continues to lead powerful crusades in another wave of revival since 1992.  The breakthrough came for him and his wife Betty after seven years of struggling as a pastors with a congregation of seven in a dilapidated building.  He reported:

Sometimes pastor friends came to visit and would find me alone in the meeting.  I felt like dying: I wished I could disappear.  I used to walk among the empty benches and the devil laughed and jumped around me, whispering in my ear: “You’re no good; you’ll never make any progress; it will always be like this.”

And unfortunately I believed him.  One day I thought: “This isn’t for me.  I’m going to give up the pastorate.  I’m going to resume my engineering studies and get myself a job.”  But deep down I knew that was not God’s plan.

I went and saw my superintendent for the purpose of handing in my credentials.  But before I could tell him, he said, “Claudio, I have something to say to you.  God has something to say to you.  He has something wonderful for you.  You don’t see it, but God is going to use you greatly.’ …  He went on: “Look, I started in a very precarious house and had no help from anybody.  Sometimes I had nothing to eat and I suffered greatly.  But we prayed and God provided for  each day and we felt grateful.  I knew we were doing God’s will.  And when I think of you,  Claudio, I know you are going to be useful to God and that you are within his will.  I don’t  know what your problems are, but keep on.  By the way, what brings you here today?”

I put my credentials back in my pocket and said, “Well… , nothing in particular, I thought I would just come and share a moment with you.”  There was nothing else I could say.  When I got home Betty was weeping and I said, “Betty, we’re going to continue.”  I embraced her tightly and we started all over again (Waugh 1998, 106).

Sunday, 2 May, 1993, Brisbane, Australia (Neil Miers)

Pastor Neil Miers preached at Brisbane Christian Outreach Centre on Sunday night 2 May. 1993.  Darren Trinder, editor of their magazine A New Way of Living (now Outreach), reported:

Some staggered drunkenly, others had fits of laughter, others lay prostrate on the floor, still more were on their knees while others joined hands in an impromptu dance.  Others, although showing no physical signs, praised the Lord anyway, at the same time trying to take it all in.  People who had never prayed publicly for others moved among the crowd and laid hands on those present.

“When we first saw it in New Zealand early in April we were sceptical,” said Nance Miers, wife of Christian Outreach Centre International President, Pastor Neil Miers.  “I=ve seen the Holy Spirit move like this here and there over the years.  But this was different.  In the past it seemed to have affected a few individuals, but this time it was a corporate thing.”

Neil Miers himself was physically affected, along with several other senior pastors, early in this Holy Ghost phenomenon.  Later he viewed the series of events objectively.  “It started in New Zealand and then broke out in New Guinea, and now it’s here.  If I know the Holy Ghost, it will break out across the world ‑ wherever people are truly seeking revival.  For the moment this is what God is saying to do, and we’re doing it.  It’s that simple.”

But despite the informal nature of the events, Pastor Miers, adopting his shepherd role, was careful to monitor the situation.  “There are some who are going overboard with it; just like when someone gets drunk on earthly wine for the first time.  The next time it happens they’ll understand it a little better”  (Waugh 1998, 110-111).

Within two weeks this outpouring of the Spirit touched C.O.C. churches across Australia, from Townsville to Perth.  People were overwhelmed.  Many found release, healing and anointing amid laughter, tears, shaking or stillness.  Many saw visions.  Some had open-eyed visions such as seeing the glory of God or angels appearing in the building.  Many were ‘drunk in the Spirit’ for days or weeks.

The result?  The churches experienced anointed evangelism and mission.  The movement now has over 200 centres in Australia and more than 450 centres overseas.  It has powerful crusades in many countries, international ‘global care’ relief outreaches, international church-based Ministry Training Institutes, education from pre-school to tertiary including Christian Heritage College offering degrees in education, arts, business, and also in ministry through the Brisbane COC School of Ministries, and has regular teams involved in mission, evangelism and pastoral care.

November, 1993, Boston, America (Mona Johanian)

During November 1993, revival touched the 450 member Christian Teaching and Worship Centre (CTWC) in Woburn, Boston led by Mona Johnian and her husband Paul.  Revival broke out in their church after they attended revival meetings led by Rodney Howard‑Browne in Jekyll Island Georgia, in November of 1993.  Richard Riss reported:

At first, Mona was not impressed by the various phenomena she observed there, but she was surprised that her own pastor, Bill Ligon of Brunswick, Georgia, fell to the floor when Rodney Howard‑Browne laid his hands upon him.  “Bill is the epitome of dignity, a man totally under control,” she said.  The first chapter of her book describes a meeting at her church in which revival broke out while Bill Ligon was there as a guest minister.  From the Johnians’ church, the revival spread to other churches, including Bath Baptist Church of Bath, Maine, pastored by Greg Foster.

In a video entitled Revival, produced in his church in August of 1994, Paul Johnian said, “We cannot refute the testimony of the Church. …  What is taking place here is not an accident.  It’s not birthed by man.  It’s by the Spirit of God. …  The last week in October of 1993, Mona and I went down to Georgia.  We belong to a Fellowship of Charismatic and Christian Ministries International, and we went down there for the annual conference.  And hands were laid on us.  And we were anointed.  And I’m just going to be completely honest with you.  What I witnessed there in the beginning I did not even understand.  I concluded that what was taking place was not of God … because there was too much confusion. …  I saw something that I could not comprehend with my finite understanding.  And it was only when I searched the Scriptures and asked God to show me and to reveal truth to me that I saw that what was taking place in the Body of Christ was a sovereign move of the Almighty.  And I, for one, wanted to humble myself and be a part of the sovereign move of the Almighty.  And I came back.  I really didn’t sense any change within me.  But I came back just believing God that He was going to be doing something different in our congregation (Riss 1996, 31) .

 That has now happened in various forms in thousands of churches touched by this current awakening.

 Thursday, 20 January, 1994, Toronto, Canada (John Arnott)

John Arnott, senior pastor at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship told how the “Toronto Blessing” – which they call the Father’s blessing – began:

In October 1992, Carol and I started giving our entire mornings to the Lord, spending time worshipping, reading, praying and being with him.  For a year and a half we did this, and we fell in love with Jesus all over again. …

We heard about the revival in Argentina, so we travelled there in November 1993 hoping God’s anointing would rub off on us somehow.  We were powerfully touched in meetings led by Claudio Freidzon, a leader in the Assemblies of God in Argentina. …  We came back from Argentina with a great expectation that God would do something new in our church.

We had a taste of what the Lord had planned for us during our New Year’s Eve service as we brought in 1994.  People were prayed for and powerfully touched by God.  They were lying all over the floor by the time the meeting ended.  We thought, “This is wonderful, Lord.  Every now and then you move in power.”  But we did not think in terms of sustaining this blessing.

We invited Randy Clark, a casual friend and pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in St. Louis, Missouri, to speak because we heard that people were being touched powerfully by God when he ministered.  We hoped that this anointing would follow him to our church.  Yet Randy and I were in fear and trembling, hoping God would show up in power, but uncertain about what would happen.  We were not exactly full of faith ‑ but God was faithful anyway.

On January 20, 1994, the Father’s blessing fell on the 120 people attending that Thursday night meeting in our church.  Randy gave his testimony, and ministry time began.  People fell all over the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit, laughing and crying.  We had to stack up all the chairs to make room for everyone.  Some people even had to be carried out.  

We had been praying for God to move, and our assumption was that we would see more people saved and healed, along with the excitement that these would generate. It never occurred to us that God would throw a massive party where people would laugh, roll, cry and become so empowered that emotional hurts from childhood were just lifted off them.  The phenomena may be strange, but the fruit this is producing is extremely good (Waugh 1998, 111-112).

Hundreds of thousands have visited their church since then, most returning to their home churches with a fresh anointing for ministry and evangelism.  People were saved and healed, more in the next two years than ever before in that church. 

Sunday, 29 May, 1994, Brompton, London (Eleanor Mumford)

The Anglican Church, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) near Kengsington in London has been powerfully affected by the current awakening and widely reported in the media.  The famous Alpha evangelism and renewal course now used worldwide, comes from them.

Eleanor Mumford, assistant pastor of the South‑West London Vineyard and wife of John Mumford (the pastor and the overseer of the Vineyard Churches in Britain), told a group of friends about her recent visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard in Canada.  When she prayed for them the Holy Spirit profoundly affected them.

Nicky Gumbel, Curate of Holy Trinity Brompton, was there.  He rushed back from this meeting with his wife, Pippa, to the HTB church office in South Kensington where he was late for a staff meeting.  The meeting was ready to adjourn.  He apologised, told what had happened, and was then asked to pray the concluding prayer.  He prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill everyone in the room. 

The church newspaper, HTB in Focus, 12 June 1994, reported the result: “The effect was instantaneous.  People fell to the ground again and again.  There were remarkable scenes as the Holy Spirit touched all those present in ways few had ever experienced or seen.  Staff members walking past the room were also affected.  Two hours later some of those present went to tell others in different offices and prayed with them where they found them.  They too were powerfully affected by the Holy Spirit ‑ many falling to the ground.  Prayer was still continuing after 5 pm” (Riss 1995).

The church leaders invited Eleanor Mumford to preach at Holy Trinity Brompton the next Sunday, 29 May, at both services.  After both talks, she prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon the people.  Some wept.  Some laughed.  Many came forward for prayer and soon lay overwhelmed on the floor.

Cassette tapes of those services circulated in thousands of churches in England.  A fresh awakening began to spread through the churches.  Nicky Gumbel’s Alpha Course has spread worldwide.  Sandy Miller prayed for Stephen Hill just before his evangelistic ministry began at Pensacola.  Thousands still pass through “HTB” seeking God, and finding him. 

Sunday, 14 August, 1994, Sunderland, England (Ken Gott)

Ken and Lois Gott founders of Sunderland Christian Centre (SCC) in 1987 in the north‑east   of England, felt dry and worn out in 1994.  Ken Gott and four other Pentecostals visited Holy Trinity Brompton in London.  The presence of God among Anglicans humbled and amazed those Pentecostals.

Andy and Jane Fitz‑Gibbon reported that “stereotypes were shattered as Ken and the other Pentecostals received a new baptism in the Spirit at the hands of Bishop David Pytches.  The change was so profound in Ken that the members at SCC took up an offering and sent Ken, Lois and their youth leader for a week to Toronto.  Like most of us who have made the same pilgrimage, they were profoundly touched, soaking in God for a week, never to be the same again.”

On August 14th, the first Sunday morning back from Toronto, the effect on the church was staggering.  Virtually the whole congregation responded to Ken’s appeal to receive the same touch from God that he and Lois had received.  They decided to meet again in the evening, although normal meetings had been postponed for the summer recess.  The same experience occurred.  They gathered again the next evening and the next . . . in fact for two weeks without a night off.  Quickly, numbers grew from around a hundred‑and‑fifty to six hundred.  Word reached the region and, without advertising, people began the pilgrimage to Sunderland from a radius of around 70 miles.

By September a pattern of nightly meetings (bar Mondays) was established and each night the same overwhelming sense of God was present.  That pattern has continued ever since, with monthly leaders’ meeting on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon (with usually around 300 in attendance) and a daily ‘place’ of prayer being added.  The effect on many churches and on thousands of individuals has been profound (Waugh 1998, 122).

The church began two meetings a day with daily afternoon prayer meetings from January 1995.  Many former criminals were saved, and crime dropped in the community.            

Saturday, 5 November, 1994, Mount Annan, Sydney (Adrian Gray)

Christian Life Centre Mount Annan is an Assembly of God church located on 37 acres of park-like land near Campbelltown in the south west of Sydney.  They have been experiencing a sustained outpouring of the Holy Spirit since 5 November 1994.  This edited report is by Pastor Brian Shick, a member of the staff at Christian Life Centre Mount Annan, Sydney.

Adrian Gray, the senior Pastor of Christian Life Centre Mount Annan was born again in the mid 1960’s during a period of revival in Campbelltown.  This initial experience of the power and work of the Holy Spirit left a distinct impression on his spirit.  He believed for and worked towards full-scale revival as a major focus in his relationship with the Lord and in his ministry.

An outstanding prophetic sign occurred a short while before this outpouring took place when a helicopter flying over the church called the fire department reporting our building on fire.  Thirteen fire trucks screamed up the church driveway looking for the fire to extinguish, but there was no visible fire.  When we realised that it was a spiritual fire that had been seen, great awe came upon the church.  This happened at the conclusion of ten days of prayer and fasting for revival.

The arrival of the move of the Holy Spirit on the first weekend of November, 1994, could only be described as sovereign.  Randwick Baptist Church, which is in more central Sydney, experienced the same outpouring at exactly the same time.  Numbers of churches around the nation experienced a similar occurrence about the same time.

For many months the church had been praying for a visitation of God without perhaps really realising what that meant.  An evangelistic crusade with an “end-times emphasis” had been planned for that weekend.  The evangelist, recently returned from Toronto, Canada, preached his evangelistic message and called people forward who wanted a fresh touch from God.  Immediately over 300 people responded and as the evangelist and pastors prayed the presence of God came.  The Father’s heart of love was revealed to the people and as hands were gently laid on them they fell to the floor under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  They lay there for a long time and when they got up there were dozens of amazing testimonies of healing and restoration and life changing transformations.  The next day, Sunday, the Holy Spirit came again, and then again on Monday and Tuesday and in every meeting held since that time.  The anointing was so strong that many people in those first months would fall to the floor as soon as they came through the door.          

Two weeks later on arriving back from Toronto, Adrian and Kathy and the leadership team, convinced that this was of God and the fulfilment of the many prophecies, made a decision to commit the church to revival.  Renewal did not just become an appendage to the existing program, it became the entire program.  The Holy Spirit is free to move however he wants in any of the services.  While most pastors would say that this is the case in their churches, many have actually limited the style of meeting that is characteristic of this current move, to one or two services a week and the other meetings are “normal”.

Because of the numbers of people just visiting, it is hard to actually determine how many people in each service actually belong to the church.  There have been approximately 200,000 people pass through the church doors since the outpouring began.  The official membership has grown from 300 prior to renewal to 700 at present.  With all the services added together, 1,200 people are ministered to per week with many more during conferences.

Sunday, 6 November, 1994, Randwick, Sydney (Greg Beech)

Greg Beech, the minister of Randwick Baptist Church in Sydney, reported:

Many Christians are talking about a significant work of God that is sweeping the church today which has become known as the Toronto Blessing.  Hundreds of churches around Australia have already been touched, blessed and changed.  Christians are testifying to significant life change, wonderful fruit and a new zeal for God.  People are laughing, crying, falling down, experiencing strange body movements.  Many who have exhibited these phenomena have never had such experiences before nor, by their own testimony, did they expect to.  Services are lasting for hours longer than usual.  Many pastors are rejoicing as they observe the spiritual fruit.

At Randwick Baptist Church, some of these phenomena have been present in lesser degrees for about nine years. They occurred spontaneously and without prompting or discussion.

Late in 1993 and the first seven or eight months of 1994 had been a considerable time of change for us involving difficult decisions, change of staff, relational tensions, loss of some members, and a rethink of the church’s vision.  The ‘ship’ of the church had slowed and was making a careful, yet sure change, in direction.

The outcome of this process was a greater sense of unity in the church, a growing commitment to corporate prayer, and a desire to get on with the work of the Kingdom.  In hindsight, we realise that some of the things we went through were necessary for God to be able to come and move freely among us.  Change is never easy and refining is often painful at the time. We are filled with gratitude as we reflect upon how God was working during this time.

We recognise and wish to emphasise that the outpouring was not so much a result of anything we did but was a sovereign movement of God.  The outpouring seems to have transferred from the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, and is being transferred to churches around the world.  We have been thrilled to learn of other churches in Sydney also being touched.

While we had prayed for the outpouring of the Spirit, it still caught us by surprise!  The sheer intensity and broad sweep of the Spirit’s work has been staggering.

At the same time the critics have been quick to respond.  Several have published claims that what they believe is the Toronto Blessing is in fact demonic.  Another church has arrived at the conclusion that this is a work of hypnotism.  Yet others claim it is just a passing fad for the deluded.

The secular media have been intrigued.  Newspaper, radio and T.V. have all visited church services to see for themselves.  The response of the secular media has been mainly positive.  We need to be aware however that the media often seeks sensationalism rather than an accurate portrayal of what is happening.

What are we to make of this extraordinary outpouring?  What place should the phenomena have in our church?  How can we test it to ensure that it is a true work of God?  How should meetings be administered where such phenomena occur?  Furthermore, what is the fruit of all these things?  It is important that we follow the biblical injunction to test all things, and seek to establish biblical foundations for what we see happening.

The current refreshing is not some kind of new ‘latest and greatest’ programme which has been introduced to revitalize church services.  The ‘refreshing’ is not something that pastors introduce to see if new life can be breathed into their church.  We believe what we are witnessing is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.  It was with considerable amazement that we stood back and watched God pour out His Spirit in November 1994 at Randwick Baptist Church.  We found it difficult to come to terms with the sheer power and intensity of God’s work.

We have pastored this movement, prayed for discernment, discussed, theologized, debated with our critics, searched the Scriptures, and carefully watched and examined the fruit.  We are convinced this is a true work of God.  However, we acknowledge that any work of God which involves a human element, will encounter sinful tendencies, perhaps demonic attack, and therefore must be carefully dealt with.  The conclusions and positions we have reached, both in theology and practice, may well be rejected by other churches. We do not believe that ours is the only orthodox position.

Sunday, 1 January, 1995, Melbourne, Florida (Randy Clark)

Five local churches in Melbourne, Florida, invited Randy Clark as guest speaker at the Tabernacle Church on New Year’s day of 1995.  Unusual revival broke out including large numbers falling down, laughter, weeping, and many dramatic physical healings.  Thousands flocked to meetings held six days a week.  Pastors and musicians from fifteen different congregations hosted the meetings in a new expression of co‑operation and unity.  Randy Clark reported:

In 1994 I spent about 150 [days] in renewal meetings. During that time I never was in a meeting which I felt had the potential to become another Toronto type experience.  That was until I went to Melbourne, Florida [on] January 1, 1995.  Another revival has broken out.  Many sovereign things have occurred which indicate this place too will be [the site of] unusual renewal meetings.  I shall share some of these.

First, what made me expect something special at these meetings?  I never schedule over four days for meetings, but I scheduled fifteen days for this meeting.  Why?  I believed there were things going on which indicated a major move of the Spirit was imminent. The Black and White ministerial associations merged a few months prior to my going. The charismatic pastors had been meeting together for prayer for six years, and pastors from evangelical and charismatic and pentecostal churches had been meeting and praying together for over two years.  There was a unity built which would be able to withstand the pressures of diverse traditions working together in one renewal/revival meeting.

The meetings are held at the Tabernacle, the largest church in the area.  It holds 950 comfortably.  This was Jamie Buckingham’s church, now pastored by Michael Thompson.  The church sanctuary is filled by 6:15 with meetings beginning at 7:00.  About 1,200 are crowded into the sanctuary, another 150 fills a small overflow room, and another 200‑300 sit outside watching on a large screen (Waugh 1998, 124-125).

The revival in Melbourne continues with an astounding mixture of white, black, Asiatic, Hispanic, and American Indian people being touched by God, filled with the Spirit and witnessing to others.

The Christian radio station WSCF, FM 92 at Vero Beach, Florida, an hour’s drive south of Melbourne, interviewed Randy Clark on Friday 6 January.  The General Manager of the radio station, Jon Hamilton, wrote a report which shows how this revival can break out of churches into the community.  Here are some exceprts from the full version in Flashpoints of Revival:

I had agreed to interview a pastor from St. Louis, Randy Clark that morning. … The interview was innocent enough at first.  The subject turned to a discussion of the Holy Spirit’s manifest presence in a meeting (as opposed to His presence that dwells within our hearts always).  Rather suddenly, something began to happen in the control room.

It began with Gregg.  He was seated behind me listening, and for no apparent reason, he began to weep.  His weeping turned to shuddering sobs that he attempted to muffle in his hands.  It was hard to ignore, and Randy paused mid‑sentence to comment “You can’t see him, but God is really dealing with the fellow behind you right now.”  I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Gregg losing control.  He stood up, only to crash to the floor directly in front of the console, where he lay shaking for several minutes. … I had always known Gregg to act like a professional, so I knew something was seriously going on.  I did my best to recover the interview under the embarrassing circumstances.  I thanked the guest and wrapped it up.  (And thought of ways to kill Gregg later!)

Before Randy Clark left, we asked him to say a word of prayer.  We formed a circle and began to pray for the staff one by one.  My eyes were shut, but I heard a thud and opened them to see Bart Mazzarella prostrate on the floor.  He had fallen forward on his face.  What amazed me most was that Bart was known to be openly sceptical.  He simply did not accept such things.  Within seconds, another and another staff person went down.  Even those that remained standing were clearly shaken.

When they prayed for me, I did not “fall down”.  What did happen was an electric sensation shot down my right arm, and my right hand began to tremble uncontrollably.  My heart pounded as I became aware of a powerful sense of what can only be called God’s manifest presence.

I thought the atmosphere would abate after a few minutes and return to normal… but instead, our prayers grew more and more intense.  The room became charged in a way that I simply cannot describe.  After an hour of this, we realized that it was 10:30, the time we normally share our listener’s needs in prayer.

I switched on the mike, and found myself praying that God would touch every listener in a personal way.  After prayer, with great hesitation I added “This morning God has really been touching our staff, so we’ve been spending the morning praying together.  If you’re in a situation right now where you are facing a desperate need, just drop by our studios this morning and we’ll take a minute to pray with you.”  This was the first time we had ever made such an invitation. …

Within a few minutes, a few listeners began to arrive.  The first person I prayed with was a tall man who shared with me some tremendous needs he was facing.  I told him I would agree with him in prayer.  As I prayed for his need, a voice in my head was saying “It’s a shame that you don’t operate in any real spiritual gift or power.  Here’s a man who really needs to hear from God and you’ve got nothing worth giving him!”  I continued to pray, but I was struggling.  I reached up with my right hand to touch his shoulder, when suddenly he shook, and slumped to the floor. (He lay there without moving for over 2 hours.)  I was shocked and shaken.

Two others had arrived at this point, and staff members were praying with them.  Suddenly they began weeping uncontrollably, and slumped to the floor.  This scene was repeated a dozen times in the next few minutes.  It didn’t matter who did the praying, whenever we asked the Lord, he immediately responded with a visible power, and the same manifestations occurred. …

Fairly early in all this, we ran out of room.  The radio station floor was wall to wall bodies… some weeping, some shaking, some completely still.  People reported that it was like heavy lead apron had been placed over them.  They were unable to get up.  All they could do was worship God.

Fortunately, our offices are inside of the complex at Central Assembly, so when the crowd began to grow, we moved across into the Church, leaving the radio station literally wall to wall with seekers. …

At some point I looked up and saw a local Baptist Pastor walk in the door.  I must confess that my first thought was, “Oh Boy…I’m in trouble!”  While I knew this brother to be a genuine man of God, nevertheless I was concerned about how a fundamental, no‑nonsense Baptist might take all these goings‑on. (Besides, I didn’t have an explanation to offer!)  I walked up to greet him.  He just silently surveyed the room, and with a tone of voice just above a whisper said, “This… is…God.  For years I’ve prayed for revival… This is God.”

Within minutes more local pastors began to arrive.  Lutheran, Independent, Assembly of God… The word of what was happening spread like wildfire.  As the pastors arrived, they were cautious at first, but within just minutes, they would often begin to flow in the same ministry.  The crowd was growing and pastors began to lay hands on the seekers, where once again the power of God would manifest and the seeker would often collapse to the ground.

It did not seem to matter who did the praying.  This was a nameless, faceless, spontaneous move of God.  There were no stars, no leaders, and frankly, there was no organization. (It’s hard to plan for something you have no idea might happen!) …

Amazingly, unchurched, unsaved people were showing up.  I got a fresh glimpse of the power of radio as person after person told us “I’m not really a part of any church…”  A few were sceptical at first, and later found themselves kneeling in profound belief.

Sometimes people would rise up, only to frantically announce to us that they had been healed of some physical problem.  One woman’s arthritic hands found relief.  Neck pains, jaw problems, stomach disorders and more were all reported to us as healed.

We have received at least a dozen verified, credible, reliable comments from people who told us that when they switched on the radio, they were suddenly, unexpectedly overwhelmed by the presence of God (even when they didn’t hear us say anything).  Several told us that the manifest presence of God was so strong in their cars that they were unable to drive, and were forced to pull off the road.

The “falling” aspect of this visitation was the most visible manifestation, but it was not falling that was important.  What was important was the fact that people were rising up with more love for God in their hearts than ever before.  They were being changed, and their hearts set ablaze. I have lost count of the numbers of people who told me of the change God worked in their life. …

Christian history is full of accounts of those times when God elected to “visit” His people.  When He has, entire nations have sometimes been affected.  I believe you’ll agree, our nation is ripe for such a revival.  For such a time as this, let us look to God with expectancy (Waugh 1998, 125-132).

Sunday, 15 January, 1995, Modesto, California (Glenn & Debbie Berteau)

Glenn and Debbie Berteau, pastors of Calvary Temple Worship Centre in Modesto, California, from January 1994, strongly sensed the Lord would give them revival there.  Early in 1994, they challenged their congregation with that vision.  After the ‘vision Sunday’, individuals committed themselves to fast on specific days as the congregation became involved in a forty day period of prayer and fasting.  In early January 1995, they had a three day fast.  The church building remained open for prayer, and people prayed over names on cards left on the altar.  Those able to do so met together daily for prayer at noon.  Many pastors in the area began meeting each week to pray for the city.

On Sunday 15 January 1995, the church began holding performances of the play, Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames.  It was scheduled for three days originally but continued for seven weeks with 28 performances.  

Jann Mathies, pastoral secretary of Calvary Temple reported in April:

As of this writing, approximately 81,000 have attended the performance with 90% each night seeing it for the first time.  At time of printing, 33,000 decision packets have been handed out, and of that, (confirmed) 20,000 returned with signed decision cards.  Over 250 churches have been represented with hundreds of people added to the churches in our city and surrounding communities in less than one month.  People come as early as 3:30 pm for a 7 pm performance.  There are over 1,000 people waiting to get in at 5 pm, and by 5:30 pm the building is full.  Thousands of people have been turned away; some from over 100 miles away. …  Husbands and wives are reconciling through salvation; teenagers are bringing their unsaved parents; over 6,000 young people have been saved, including gang members who are laying down gang affiliation and turning in gang paraphernalia. . . .  The revival is crossing every age, religion and socio‑economic status. . . .   We have many volunteers coming in every day, and through the evening hours to contact 500 to 600 new believers by phone; special classes have also been established so that new believers may be established in the faith (Waugh 1998, 133).

The play became a focus for revival in the area.  Some churches closed their evening service so their people could take their unsaved friends there.  One result is that many churches in the area began receiving new coverts and finding their people catching the fire of revival in their praying and evangelising.

One church added a third Sunday morning service to accommodate the people.  Another church asked their members to give up their seats to visitors.  Bible book stores sold more Bibles than usual.  A local psychologist reported on deep healings in the lives of many people who attended the drama.

 That play continues to be used effectively around the world.  For example, churches in Australia have performed the play with hundreds converted in local churches.  Hardened unbelievers with no place for church in their lives have been saved and live for God.

Sunday, 22 January, 1995, Brownwood, Texas (Chris Robeson)

Richard Riss gathered these accounts of revival touching colleges across America beginning with Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.

On January 22, 1995, at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood, Texas, two students from Howard Payne University, a Christian institution, stood up and confessed their sins.  As a result of this incident, many others started to confess their own sins before the congregation.  On January 26, a similar event took place on the campus of Howard Payne.  Word quickly spread to other colleges, and Howard Payne students were soon being invited to other college campuses, which experienced similar revivals.  From these schools, more students were invited to still other schools, where there were further revivals. …

One of the first two students from Howard Payne to confess his sins was Chris Robeson.  As he testified about his own life and the spiritual condition of his classmates, “People just started streaming down the aisles” in order to pray, confess their sins, and restore seemingly doomed relationships, according to John Avant, pastor of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church.  From this time forward, the church began holding three‑and‑a‑half‑hour services.  Avant said, “This is not something we’re trying to manufacture.  It’s the most wonderful thing we’ve ever experienced.”  …

At Howard Payne, revival broke out during a January 26 ‘celebration’ service, as students praised God in song and shared their testimonies.  Students then started to schedule all‑night prayer meetings in dormitories. …

Then, on February 13‑15, during five meetings at Howard Payne, Henry Blackaby, a Southern Baptist revival leader ministered at a series of five worship services, attended by guests from up to 200 miles away.  On Tuesday, February 14, more than six hundred attended, and students leaders went up to the platform to confess publicly their secret sins.  About two hundred stayed afterward to continue praying.  One of the students, Andrea Cullins, said, “Once we saw the Spirit move, we didn’t want to leave.” …

After Howard Payne, some of the first schools to be affected were Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas, Beeson School of Divinity in Birmingham, Alabama, Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, Ill., The Criswell College in Dallas, Moorehead State University in Moorehead, Ky., Murray State University in Murray, Ky., Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.  In each case, students went forward during long services to repent of pride, lust, bondage to materialism, bitterness, and racism.

These revivals continued throughout and beyond 1995.  Details are given in Accounts of a Campus Revival: Wheaton College 1995, edited by Timothy Beougher and Lyle Dorsett (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1995).

Friday, 24 March, 1995, Pasadena, California (Che Ahn)

From January of 1995, John Arnott of the Toronto Airport Vineyard and Wes Campbell of New Life Vineyard Fellowship in Kelowna, British Columbia began speaking for two or three days each at Mott Auditorium on the campus of the U. S. Centre for World Mission.  By 24 March people gathered for meetings five nights a week, usually going very late.

John Arnott conducted powerful meetings there on Friday‑Sunday 24‑26 March, hosted by Harvest Rock Church, a Vineyard Fellowship.  Then the combined churches in the area continued with nightly meetings from Monday 27 March.  Later that settled to meetings from Wednesday to Sunday each week.  Then Wednesdays were reserved for cell groups and meetings continued from Thursday to Sunday nights.

Che Ahn, senior pastor of Harvest Rock Church wrote in their monthly magazine Wine Press in August 1995:

I am absolutely amazed at what God has done during the past five months.  After John Arnott exploded onto the scene with three glorious and unforgettable renewal meetings, he encouraged the pastors of our church to begin nightly protracted meetings. My mind immediately rejected the idea. I thought to myself, “The meetings were great because you were here, but how can we sustain nightly meetings without someone like John Arnott to draw the crowd?” 

The answer to my question was an obvious one. Someone greater than John Arnott would show up each night at the meetings ‑ Jesus. And each night since we began March 27, 1995, God has shown up to heal, to save, and to touch thousands of lives. There is no accurate way to measure the impact that the renewal meetings are having in our city. I do believe that we are making church history, and we are in the midst of another move of the Holy Spirit that is sweeping the world.  From March 27 to July 27, we have had 99 nightly renewal meetings.  We have averaged about 300 people per night, some nights with more that 1200 people and others with a small crowd of 120.

More than 25,000 people have walked through the doors of Mott Auditorium, many of them happy, repeat customers. We have seen more that 300 people come forward to rededicate their lives or give their hearts to Jesus Christ. These statistics don’t come close to representing other evangelistic fruit of those who have attended the meetings. For example, two church members, Justine Bateman and Jeff Eastridge, had an outreach at Arroyo High School and more than 60 young people gave their hearts to the Lord!

We have seen marvellous healings from the hand of the Lord, many of them spontaneous without anyone specifically praying for the healing.  I wish I had the time and space to share all the wonderful fruit I have seen at the renewal meetings.  Seeing the need to share what God is doing, I felt that we are producing this church newsletter to share these testimonies of lives that have been impacted by God during this current outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Waugh 1998, 133-134).

Sunday, 18 June, 1995, Pensacola, Florida (Steve Hill)

Over 26,000 conversions were registered in the first year of the ‘Pensacola Revival’.   Over 100,000 conversions were been registered in the first two years.  It still continues.

On Father’s Day, Sunday 18 June 1995, evangelist Steve Hill spoke at Brownsville Assembly of God, near Pensacola, Florida.  At the altar call a thousand people streamed forward as the Holy Spirit moved on them.  Their pastor, John Kilpatrick, fell down under the power of God and was overwhelmingly impacted for four days.

That morning service, normally finishing at noon, lasted till 4 pm.  The evening service continued for another five and a half hours.  So the church asked Steve Hill to stay.  He cancelled appointments, continued with nightly meetings, and relocated to live there, where he continues to minister in revival.

John Kilpatrick, pastor of the Brownsville Assembly of God Church, reported on their revival in 1997: 

The souls who come to Christ, repenting and confessing their sin, the marriages that are restored, the many people who are freed from bondage that has long held them captive ‑ these are the marks of revival and the trophies of God’s glory.  No, I am not speaking of a revival that lasted one glorious weekend, one week, one month, or even one year!  At this writing, the ‘Brownsville Revival’ has continued unbroken, except for brief holiday breaks, since Father’s Day, June 18, 1995!  How?  Only God knows.  Why?  First, because it is God’s good pleasure, and second, perhaps because the soil of our hearts was prepared in prayer long before revival descended on us so suddenly.

On that very normal and ordinary Sunday morning in June of 1995, I was scheduled to minister to my congregation, but I felt weary.  I was still trying to adjust to the recent loss of my mother, and my years‑long desire for revival in the church seemed that morning to be so far off.   So I asked my friend, Evangelist Steve Hill, to fill the pulpit in my place.  Although he was scheduled to speak only in the evening service, Steve agreed to preach the Father’s Day message.  We didn’t know it then, but God was at work in every detail of the meeting.

The worship was ordinary (our worship leader, Lindell Cooley, was still ministering on a missions trip to the Ukraine in Russia), and even Brother Hill’s message didn’t seem to ignite any sparks that morning ‑ until the noon hour struck.  Then he gave an altar call and suddenly God visited our congregation in a way we had never experienced before.  A thousand people came forward for prayer after his message.  That was almost half of our congregation!  We didn’t know it then, but our lives were about to change in a way we could never have imagined. 

We knew better than to hinder such a mighty move of God, so services just continued day after day.  We had to adjust with incredible speed.  During the first month of the revival, hundreds of people walked the isles to repent of their sins.  By the sixth month, thousands had responded to nightly altar calls.  By the time we reached the twelfth month, 30,000 had come to the altar to repent of their sins and make Jesus Lord of their lives.

At this writing, 21 months and over 470 revival services later, more than 100,000 people have committed their lives to God in these meetings ‑ only a portion of the 1.6 million visitors who have come from every corner of the earth …

If the prophecy delivered by Dr David Yonggi Cho [given in 1991] years before it came to pass is correct, this revival, which he correctly placed as beginning at Pensacola, Florida, will sweep up the East Coast and across the United States to the West Coast, and America will see an outpouring of God that exceeds any we have previously seen.  I am convinced that you, and every believer who longs for more of God, has a part to play in this great awakening from God (Waugh 1998, 137-138).

Pastors, leaders and Christians have been returning to their churches ignited with a new passion for the Lord and for the lost.  The awesome presence of God experienced at Pensacola continues to impact thousands from around the world.

Friday, 27 October, 1995, Mexico (David Hogan)

David Hogan, founder of Freedom Ministries, a mission to remote hill tribes in Mexico told in a sermon about the outpouring of the Spirit there.  This is part of his account:

I visited an outlying village.  It took four hours in a 4 wheel drive and then two hours on foot, uphill ‑ very remote.  There’s no radio, no T.V., no outside influences.  I’m sitting up there in this little hut on a piece of wood against the bamboo wall on the dirt floor.  Chickens are walking around in there.  And this pastor walks up to me.  He’s a little guy, and he’s trembling.  He says, “Brother David, I’m really afraid I’ve made a mistake.”

I hadn’t heard of any mistakes.  I was wondering what had happened in the last few days.  He’s got four little churches in his area.  He said, “Man, it’s not my fault.  I apologise.  I’ve done everything right, like you taught me.  I pray everyday.  I read the Bible.  I’m doing it right.  What happened is not my fault.”

I said, “What happened?  Come on, tell me what happened.”  He was trembling.  Tears were running out of his eyes.  He said, “Brother David, I got up in our little church.  I opened my Bible and I started preaching and the people started falling down.  The people started crying.  The people started laughing.  And it scared me.  I ran out of the church.”

That’s what I was looking for.  That’s what I was waiting for, when God came in our work, not because somebody came and preached it, not because I said it was okay or not okay, because I was neutral about it.  I knew it was all right, but I wanted to see it in our work not because I ushered it in, but because the Holy Spirit ushered it in.  And he did.

After I had been through all the sections, introducing this softly, it finally came time to call all the pastors together from the whole work.  A couple of hundred of our pastors came.  I wish you had been there to see what we saw!  It was amazing. 

On the first day, Wednesday, 25 October 1995, there were about 200 pastors there, and the whole church that was hosting us.  That made about 450 people.  The first day was awesome.  God hit us powerfully.  There were healings.  I was happy.  The people were encouraged.

The second day, Thursday, was even better.  It was stronger.  I thought we were peaking out on the second day.  I got there at eight o’clock in the morning and left a ten o’clock at night, and there was ministry all day.  We were fixing problems, and God was working through the ministry.  It was wonderful.   But I tell you, I was not ready for the third day.

I don’t have words to describe what happened to us when the Holy Spirit fell on us on Friday, 27 October, 1995.  We were coming in from different areas.  The Indians were all there.  I didn’t know they had been in an all night prayer meeting.  I didn’t know that the Holy Spirit had fallen on them and they couldn’t get up.  I didn’t know that they had been pinned down by the Holy Spirit all night long, all over the place, stuck to the ground.  Some of them had fallen on ant beds, but not one ant bit them.

I was staying about 45 minutes away.  I got in my 4 wheel drive and as I drove there I began listening on the two‑way radio.  Some of our missionaries were already there, and were talking on the two‑way radio saying, “What’s happening here.  I can’t walk.”

As I listened to them on the radio I felt power come on me.  And the closer I came, the more heat I felt settling on me.  I could feel heat, and I had my air conditioner going! When I got to the little church, I opened the door of the truck and instantly became hot. Sweat poured off me.  I was about 300 yards from the church.  The closer I got, the more intense was  the heat.  I could hardly walk through it, it was so thick.  I’m talking about the presence of God.  That was 7.30 in the morning!

I walked around the corner of the building.  People were all over the place.  Some were knocked out.  Some were on the ground.  Some were moaning and wailing.  It was very unusual.  By the time I got to the front of the church where the elders were I could hardly walk.  I was holding on to things to get there.  I could hardly breathe.  The heat of the presence of God was amazing. 

The people had been singing for two hours before I got there.  At 8.15 on the morning of October 27th, 1995, I walked up there and lay my Bible down on that little wobbly Indian table.  Hundreds were looking at me.  Some were knocked out, lying on the ground.  I could hardly talk.

I called the nine elders to the front and told them the Holy Ghost was there and we needed to make a covenant together, even to martyrdom.  We made a covenant there that the entire country of Mexico would be saved.  They asked me to join them in that pact.  When we lifted our hands in agreement all nine fell at once.  I was hurled backward and fell under the table.  When I got up the people in front fell over.  In less than a minute every pastor there was knocked out. 

We were ringed with unbelievers, coming to see what was going on.  The anointing presence of God came and knocked them all out, dozens of them.  Every unbeliever outside, and everyone on the fence was knocked out and fell to the ground.  There were dozens of them.  From the church at the top of the hill we could see people in the village below running out screaming from their huts and falling out under the Holy Ghost.  It was amazing.

We always have a section for the sick and afflicted.  They bring them in from miles around, some on stretchers.  There were 25‑30 of them there.  Every sick person at the meeting was healed: the blind, the cancerous, lupus, tumours, epilepsy, demon possession.  Nobody touched them but Jesus.  There was instant reconciliation between people who had been against each other.  They were lying on top of each other, sobbing and repenting. 

I was afraid when I saw all of that going on.  I looked up to heaven and said, “God what are you ‑ ?” and that was the end of it.  He didn’t want to hear any questions. Bang!  I was about three or four metres from the table.  When I woke up some hours later, I was under the table.  When I finally woke up my legs wouldn’t work.  I scooted myself around looking at what was going on.  It was pandemonium!  When some people tried to get up, they would go flying.  It was awesome.

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).  I saw that river.  I actually saw the river, it’s pure water of life from God’s throne.  If I could see it again I would know it, I saw it, I experienced it, I tasted it. 

We had five open‑eyed visions.  One small pastor was hanging onto a pole to hold himself up.  He was there, but he wasn’t there.  He said to me, “Brother David, look at him.  Look at him, Brother David!  Who is it?  Look how big he is!  Oh, he’s got his w