Honestly, all of us – me included – are like kids on a long trip. We are fidgety in the back seat of the car asking, “Are we there yet?” Well, let us ask: “Are we there yet?”
What do we mean?
Just exactly what do we mean when we ask this question? We mean: is it the appointed time for our Lord to pour out His Spirit on all mankind? How long will it be before the great outpouring that will flood the whole world like a tsunami of His presence? Please Lord, how long?
THE RECENT PAST
Great moves of the Spirit usually come every forty years. Some people are still alive that carry the message of what it was like to live through that great move of the Spirit, named the Charismatic Movement. (It swept out to the West Coast where it was renamed, “The Jesus Movement” [Hollywood rebrands everything].)
Therefore, most people alive today do not remember the spark that ignited this move, nor its rapid development and its eventual decline. But, over the 42 years since the Lord proclaimed its end, we have heard of it: the grace, the miracles, the healings, the joy . . . how they were “as those who dreamed”.
A FRONT SEAT ROW
I was fortunate enough to be married to one of the twelve that our Lord used to spark that mighty move of His Spirit. When that mighty move began in the early 1960’s, I was still in New York and unsaved.
However, in the 1970’s our Lord arranged for me to be in the same location as one of the original twelve who “prayed in” that revival.
Graciously, the Lord “saved” me, filled me with His Spirit, gave me a prayer language, and told me I would be marrying the minister of the church where one of “the twelve” was pastoring. A year after our marriage, our Lord extended the mighty move of His Spirit to the very church where my husband was pastoring. The church went from 15 adults and two children to being packed with 150 children and their newly saved parents. The church building was small, being built before the Civil War, but it was packed.
To say the least, this explosion of new Christians into the church was breathtaking. We loved to be together and had a great hunger for the Word. My husband, who was an excellent teacher, raised us up through deep study of the Word and through his example of mature, godly living.
IN 1977
In 1977 the newly saved Christians at this little church wanted to go to a huge conference in Kansas City. Brothers and sisters from all denominations – from liturgical to nondenominational were coming together to praise the Lord. The meetings during the week were held in various denominational churches. So many came that no large auditorium could hold them in Kansas City, therefore, for the last meeting of this week-long convocation, those in attendance gathered in Arrowhead Stadium. The meeting was huge, perhaps 50,000 thousand, with 10,000 having already returned home to prepare for services on Sunday. Those present were beside themselves with joy.
A SHOCK
At the end of this gathering in the stadium, a person on the platform (that was down on the field), rose to give a spontaneous prophetic word. Oh my, what a shock, after all that joy, the person proclaimed that “the body of Christ is broken,” and that our Heavenly Father was saddened and was shutting down this mighty move of His Spirit. This was in 1977 and He did just that.
Oh, it sort-of slid away over time, like water in a container with a hole in its base. But it went. A couple of books were written about this amazing occurrence as a witness to the glory, but it was over. He did not proclaim this in secret, the Lord had brought together representatives of the whole body of Christ to inform them.
NOW
Now, it has been over forty years since the stated end of that mighty move of the Spirit. Our Lord has used this time to test and mature those who came into His Kingdom in the ‘60s, seventies, eighties, nineties and now. Some have gone on to glory. But for those who have “borne the heat of the day”, you might say, those are about to be rewarded.
HE IS COMING
He is coming to bring the great ingathering He promised. Are we shocked by the corruption in the body of Christ? We shouldn’t be. Are we shocked by the lack of sound reasoning and decent behavior among the lost? We shouldn’t be. At last we can see plainly that the whole world does lie in the grip of the evil one. But righteousness has begun to make a stand and face down the champions of darkness. Already, we have been battling and are tired. But hang on, for the cavalry is beginning to top the hill. They are coming to our rescue. Their horses are breathing fire and their armor is as bright as the sun.
At their head is our Lord, our Husband, our Champion, our King and He is just and will execute the victory that has already been won.
We have been waiting for this hour. Let us give it all we’ve got.
ARE WE THERE YET?
Yes. We too are topping the hill and shouting, VICTORY!!! We are about to be swept along by the greatest tsunami of revival ever. It is topping the hill right behind us. Oh, but brothers and sisters, that wave is about to overtake us and with earth shaking impact break over us and then go before us.
Oh yes – we are “there”. The spark of this revival may not have begun in our own backyards but who cares where it begins. The great move of God has begun. So, hang on. He is coming with thousands upon thousands of angels.
Look in the Prayer Meeting section for the prophetic words spoken in the April “Prayer on the Mountain” meetings.
