Prayed…
Holy Spirit, we welcome Your presence this morning
We come before You and expect that You will ALWAYS be there
Lord, we welcome Your strength and power!
Sensing a strengthening in the spirit of man to fulfill the plan of God for each one of us
It is like medicine to the soul and body bringing strength!
Lord, we open up our lives and hearts for more
Without You, we cannot do what You have called us to do
Everything we need is found in Your river of life
Revived destinies and bodies!
Open to the flow!
Shared…
The following excerpts are taken from The Revival Study Bible:
William J. Seymour (1870–1922)
Initiator of the Azusa Street Revival
William J. Seymour was born in Centerville, Louisiana, the eldest son of freed slaves. He grew up in extreme poverty, and spent much of his early years travelling throughout parts of the United States to obtain work. While in Ohio, he had a near-fatal bout of smallpox, which scarred his face and left him blind in one eye.
Seymour was converted in a Methodist Church but later joined the Holiness movement. In 1905, the thirty-six-year-old heard of the Pentecostal movement led by Charles F. Parham in Houston, Texas. Parham liked him and allowed him to attend his state-segregated Bible school, letting him sit outside the classroom door (left purposely ajar). The two men enjoyed a brief but friendly and productive association. In mid-February before finishing the course, Seymour left for Los Angeles to pastor a small Holiness mission congregation, still without receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit he was seeking. Consumed with a passionate desire for God, Seymour said:
“Before I met Parham, such a hunger to have more of God was in my heart that I prayed for five hours a day for two and a half years. I got to Los Angeles, and there the hunger was not less but more. I prayed, ‘God, what can I do?’ The Spirit said, ‘Pray more.’ ‘But Lord, I am praying five hours a day now.’ I increased my hours of prayer to seven, and prayed on for a year and a half more. I prayed to God to give what Parham preached, the real Holy Ghost and fire with tongues, with love, and power of God like the apostles had.”
And he got what he asked of God. Yet Seymour’s ministry was rejected by the congregational lay leader and founder who disapproved of his enthusiastic Pentecostal emphasis. Only a week after his arrival they padlocked the church door against him after his first sermon on Acts 2:4. Seymour was left without a mission, without acceptance, and without approval.
Undaunted, Seymour formed a predominantly black home prayer group at Richard Asberry’s home on Bonnie Bray Street, which met regularly until Easter. During three climatic days in Holy Week from April 9–12, 1906, in the midst of a ten-day fast, Seymour and the others found what they were seeking: “More of God—glossolalia and other charismatic phenomena burst forth with unusual intensity and evident sincerity.” This was the beginning of the most influential movement for missions in the 20th Century—what we now call the Azusa Street Revival.
Rev. A.G. Osterberg’s Revival Account
The revival at Azusa Street led to the concurrent growth of churches in the Los Angeles area; one was pastored by Rev. A.G. Osterberg of the Full Gospel Assembly. Here is his eyewitness account of what happened in 1904:
“I have been asked relative to the outpouring of the Spirit in the Azusa Street Mission, ‘What in your judgment was the outstanding spiritual phenomenon of the revival?’ My reply was, ‘Without questioning the revival speaker’s own judgment, it can be answered in one word – tears.’”
Having been a Christian since boyhood, my observation has been that the greatest hindrance in the entire realm of revivals is the hardness of heart and spirit. Its cause is spiritual rebellion against God, exercised in an embezzled human sovereignty. Among Christians, hardness of heart is probably the greatest single obstacle and hindrance to revivals. The Azusa revival began where every revival should rightly begin—in repentant tears. It began in tears, it lived in tears, and when the tears ended, the Azusa revival ended.
Tears of guilt confession; tears of fault confession; tears in humble contrition; tears of self-denial and abnegation, in expression of soul humility, until high-mindedness was brought low; tears of sheer gladness and heavenly joy; Holy Ghost tears intermingling testimony and praise, often overflowing upon the congregation and a benediction from the battlements of glory. All the mechanical arrangements in the world would be unable to arrange such a program. All the great preachers of earth’s dominion could not accomplish it. It was inspired and divinely procured by the Holy Ghost.
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Continued Praying…
Father, we humbly come before You!
We ask that You would soften our hearts again and remove the hardness
Thank You for the peace that passes all understanding and the baptism of the Holy Ghost
We believe to enter into another chapter and sphere
Thank You for a fresh touch
You are aligning the body of Christ
We pray for the Methodist church!
For revival to come to that denomination and for their roots to be revealed
Calling for a free operation of the Holy Ghost
Seeing men and women taking things that have held them back and throwing them into a fire
Spring cleaning in the body of Christ—sweeping hearts clean!
Father, we pray for the God-ordained power that is in operation in us to flow out
We lift up all of the five-fold ministry gifts
Meet their needs and the needs of their families
Bring them and their families a daily refreshing
Pleading the blood over the Internet and every form of communication!
We pray for increase!
For those who have been set in position of authority to be freshly baptized with Your fire!
You know those who are in dire need of more of You
Praying over natural bodies to be fully restored and strengthened today
No man, no devil, and no enemy can stop the plan!
Stay stirred and full of Holy Ghost desire!
We pray that the Church would continually stay bent in prayer
Completing and finishing the plan
Staying steady on that way
We lift up all of the carriers of the fire and anointing!
Father, they go by Your will and plan
Greater fire!
It goes out and burns in those places and people groups!
Praying over the body of Christ, that she would burn with Your all-consuming fire
Burning out the lethargy
Turn the hearts of leaders and positions of authority
Praying over the openings and doors
Father, burn up the strange fires with the HOLY FIRE!
We lift, magnify, and worship You for You are our great desire!
Lord, You have given us the authority to push away any influence of the enemy
We clear a pathway for the King of kings and the Lord of lords!
Thank You for the plans You have placed in each one of us
You have given us the equipment to do it!
Calling the body of Christ blessed and full of increase!
Speak to individual hearts
You get all the glory and praise!
