Barb shared…
I was talking to Pastor Dustin Wednesday night. He just got back from Uganda. I asked, “How was the trip?” He was part of a missions group that Pastor Kent led to Uganda. I said, “Tell me what happened.” He told me about the things that happened and it made my hair stand up on the back of my neck. Keep in mind these are things that we pray about in here all the time. And they’re happening.
Pastor Dustin said he was in an area and a woman came up to him and through an interpreter, she said, “Thank you for coming to pray for me and healing me.” He didn’t recognize her and said, “I don’t think that was me. You’re thinking of someone else.” She said, “No, it was you. You came…” I don’t remember if he said a year to two ago, but he said he wasn’t there then. He said, “No, I think you’re confusing me with someone else.” He said she started to get mad. She said, “NO! It was you! You came to me. You prayed for me and I was healed.” Then he remembered having a dream where he had gone to this African country and he was praying for people. He said, “She must have been one of the people,” because she knew him. She recognized him. This white man who came and prayed for her and she was healed. Isn’t that awesome? So translation? Sometimes, we get in our heads and think “that was just a dream.” But it wasn’t a dream. It really happened. He was in that village and prayed for that woman.
He shared another testimony about Pastor Kent. There were a lot of Muslin people in the region. Pastor Kent asked this Muslim man who was a leader in the area if he could pray for him. Pastor Kent went over to him and he got down on his knees and he asked him if he could pray for him and then the man said through the interpreter, “I had a vision of a white man coming to me, getting down on his hands and knees and asking to pray for me.” He said, “Whatever you have, I’ll receive it. He prayed the prayer of salvation with him! The whole family did.
Pamela (Pastor Kent’s wife) shared…
When he got back, he said this was such a grueling trip. They had to walk a long ways on very treacherous terrain. Everyone was tired but they had to keep going because they had a mission to fulfill. This man was a leader of a few tribes in the area. He was like a witch doctor, if I remember correctly. Sometimes I hear so many stores they can get mixed up. He said what triggered his remembrance from years ago was Kent getting on his knees and reaching his hand to him. It came back to him that he had this dream about white people coming. They had never seen white people before, flying in a machine. This was a really remote place. I know we go to these places in prayer all the time. So it was just God making a way. So when Kent reached out his hand, it came back to this tribal chief and he had everyone stand up. It seemed like to Kent he didn’t want to pray because he stood up abruptly. He told Kent, “You’re the ones that I had this vision about.” Then he had his whole family stand and pray. So you know this man will have influence on all those tribes in the area.
Pastor Ray shared…
I remember that brother Copeland prophesied about being translated. People will be standing on the curb in one place and then, BOOM! They’re in another nation.
Barb shared…
My sister shared with me that several years ago when she was really sick, she woke up in the night and my husband and I were standing by her bedside. She lives in California. And we live here. But we were standing by her bedside and we laid hands on her and she was healed. I didn’t remember that either!
Pastor Ray shared…
I saw this article that reviews some of the men and women of God that have prayed and that continually prayed. When I was in France this last time, I used Pastor Mac’s declaration “if you don’t quit, you win.” I used it for prayer. So you just can’t stop praying. This article mentions a few people that didn’t stop praying.
This is from the Herald of His Coming magazine. It’s an article called “Humble Origins of Revival” by Sara Foulkes Moore.
A.T. Pierson writes, “From the day Pentecost there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only two or three; no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have declined; and it is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint and believing supplication and in recession that the Word of the Lord in any land or locality has had free course and been glorified.”
Pastor Ray interjected… When people stop praying, that’s when the work declines. People are enthusiastic at the beginning but then back off. I know we’ve done that. Not just about revival but different things. But we’re not backing off about praying for our country. I’m just making that declaration right now. We’re not backing off on praying for our leaders. We’re not backing off on praying for our President. But this article is saying the awakening declines when people stop praying.
The day of small beginnings in revival should not be despised. A survey of church history shows that almost every great revival that has swept the world with its power had a humble beginning. In a study of the promotion and progress of revivals, it is evident that the urge, the impulse to pray for revival was first begotten in the hearts of a few who had been aroused by the deep sense of need in the church and in the world. As they have yielded to the Spirit and given themselves up as channels of intercessory prayer, revival fires have been fanned into a flame, the church has been purified, and sinners converted.
The first revival in church history had its beginning in a ten-day prayer meeting. It was a small company in an Upper Room in Jerusalem but it was a mighty union of hearts and voices continuing in one accord, steadfastly in prayer.
Every genuine, heaven-sent revival from that day to this had its humble origin in the fervent prayers of a godly few. The mighty spiritual upheavals of the great Reformation came out of the strong crying and tears of the bold Reformers: Luther, Huss, and others. The tide that turned the terror and bloodshed of the French Revolution from the imperiled shores of England and precipitated, instead, a glorious work of the Spirit of God, was the heroic work of the praying, pioneering Methodists, under Wesley, Whitfield, Bramwell, and their associates.
John Knox, viewing the spiritual needs of Scotland, cried in an agony of prayer to God, “Give me Scotland or I die!” D.L. Moody, seeing the cities of America in the deadly grip of vice, immorality and corruption, prayed, “O God! stir the cities of America once again.” The great need of Christendom today is for giants like these of faith, prayer, and vision.
The Day of Revivals Is Not Past
The Holy Spirit is waiting to be poured out when we humbly go on our knees and ask for it. “How much more,” reads the promise, “Shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:13).
In the early part of the 19th century, a great spiritual awakening swept the cities of Ireland. For two years previous, four young men had met in a schoolhouse near Kells and wrestled day and night with God for the salvation of the ungodly. Their prayers turned a profane nation into a veritable holy land, for when the revival came, it swept everything before it. Multitudes flocked to the churches. Buildings were not large enough to hold them. Hundreds were under the conviction of sin in every service. Criminal courts and jails were closed for lack of occupants.
Cannot these past spiritual awakenings be matched today? A study of the Word of God makes it plain that any group of seeking Christians may receive the full blessings of Pentecost for their church if sought by earnest, persistent, believing prayer. Church history amply substantiates this fact.
In 1903, all Wales was ungodly, impious. Crime was rampant. In 1904, Wales was aflame with a heaven-sent revival. For years, Evan Roberts had prayed himself, and had stirred others to pray definitely, believingly for revival. When it came, it went through Wales like a blaze.
Pastor Ray interjected… What if when we get in the U.S. Bank Stadium filled up with believers and a spirit of prayer comes? Do you know that from that place, these two cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, can be changed. We began it when we met at the Stadium and all the people that were there turned to the city of Minneapolis and began to declare over the city. We just need to expect that this will not be just a fun time where we can go, “Wasn’t that beautiful!” But that it will be the right time in the right place for these cities to finally experience an awakening or revival. We’ve gone over it and over the words that have been declared over these cities, where the river and 35W intersect up here in the north, there will be an awakening and it’ll begin here and flow down south. I remember brother Copeland saying there would be times when people would fly into the airport and they’d look to the north part of the city and saw fire. They wanted to be a part of it. In the mid-90s, we had people fly in here just for prayer. There were people you know that would fly in for 3 or 4 days just to get in the prayer room just to receive. I like how Evan Roberts began by himself but then brought others with him.
Incidents such as these might be multiplied to show that it is not necessary that the whole church takes to its knees to begin with. These past religious awakenings have started in the hearts of a few men and women whom God has succeeded in arousing by His Spirit to believe Him as a God who hears and answers prayer, and upon whose hearts He lays the burden from which no rest can be obtained except in crying out to Him for the greatly needed revival.
Before the great revival came to Wales, over 300 extra prayer bands were formed throughout the land. Wales became one great prayer meeting. If only Christian America today would take to its knees, what might happen?
Witnessing the peril of spiritual indifference, worldliness, compromise, defeat and barrenness in the church today, seeing the appalling intemperance, licentiousness and vice in the nation, and realizing the imperative need of united intercession for a widespread spiritual awakening in our land, let every man and woman of God covenant to stand in prayer at this crisis hour between the nation and its great peril and God and His great power to deliver.
Pastor Ray interjected… Just reading this, I feel “re-fired” and stirred to contend for these things to come forth in our cities. The things we pray about here, we won’t always know when and where they manifest in the earth. But translation is scriptural. Maybe we don’t ever expect to be translated. I know it’s not something we seek after but we have to be open to the full plan and purpose the Holy Spirit.
Prayed…
Holy Spirit, we welcome You in our cities… we ask You to lay it more on our hearts to keep steadfast on our call for our cities to be saved… we pray over every laborer that goes out… miracles, supernatural signs… things we’ve never seen before… I pray for all the churches in the city… the atmosphere in the center of our city… that more churches would join the Pulse event… up one street and down the other… we pray into the courthouse… places of business… into the schools… colleges… we pray over the University of MN… we pray over the teachers and professors… we thank You, Father, for things to move Your way… we move to the other side of the river and pray over St. Paul… the place, that place… we pray over the leaders and positions of authority for the state of Minnesota… over the governor… we lift up the election in advance and pray for the right governor to come in… we declare Minnesota is an will continually move in Your way… God’s way… we pray over the churches in both cities… we pray over the pastors… freedom of utterance… for declarations… for spirit of prayer in these churches… a cleansing by the blood…
The whole, the whole, the whole in Jesus’ name… every little bitty town… to the great cities… and everything in between… impacted, penetrated by the Holy Ghost… the light and the life of God flowing… from the cities to the outskirts… in Jesus’ name… and even extending into the surrounding states… Your blessing here in this state… blessed of God… carrying the anointing… dispatching … to every direction… extend… let Your anointing extend out… even beyond what we have thought in our minds and declared with our mouths… let it extend even further… break down those walls… that have been set up to hinder Your move… remove them… those that separate the body, Father, remove those walls… any division, discord, remove it in the name of Jesus… that there would be unity and peace… the anointing flowing… yes, the giant rises up… this is the time, the hour… to be a witness of Your anointing and to move in Your power… it’s time for the church to take its place … so we call them up in Jesus’ name… step up, open your eyes and see… partake of His anointing… obey… take your place… everyone get into your place… we call you out from among them… come and take your place… receive that calling… that anointing that is yours… oh for the sake of the kingdom… that is expanding daily… I thank You, Father, that there are more with us than there are with them… we’re taking more and more every day… we’re snatching people out of the pit of hell… You said to ask that all would be saved… all of Minnesota… every single one… no matter their race… their tongue… their religion… what they declare as their God… I thank You that all of Minnesota is saved… that this is a blood-washed state… the power of God resides here in this state… that every leader is transformed… they yield to the anointing of God… that they make right and just decisions… even leaders of communities… leaders of neighborhoods… that they are transformed… that you move in those places… that there is nothing that limits You… if we ask, You move… this is the time that even there would be a stirring of the waters… a supernatural thing occurring… people witness amazing miracles… things happening that cannot be explained… except for God… His intervention… spontaneous healings… as people walk down the street, that Your presence comes upon them and they are spontaneously transformed and healing and saved… we take off the limits, the boundaries and we let You move here in this place… come in a big way… show Yourself strong here… electrify Your body… let the fire and glory be witnessed in this state… we’re coming out of the low place and stepping in to the high place in You… nothing is impossible to us… everything we say comes to pass… it’s time for the suddenlies… all the pastors… strength and refreshing…
