Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
Sometime in 1910, William Seymour stood up on the stage, took the box off his head… Remember he wore a box while he was on the platform? He took the box off his head and started prophesying. He said in almost a hundred years, there would be another revival like Azusa Street. Only this time, it would not be in one place. It would be all over the world. And there would be a return of the Shekina glory and the miracles. This revival would not be with just one person or just pastors. It would be with everybody in the body. I love it. Everybody. We all can get in on it.
This time, the revival will not end until the Lord returns. Seymour repeated this revelation more than once. All the saints recorded it and talked about it. On the opposite coast in New York City, according to Charles Parham’s granddaughter. Parham stood up one day and declared the same prophecy. Almost using the same exact words. This happened within a couple of days of Seymour’s prophecy. It wasn’t like he listened to it. It was the Holy Ghost. They both pronounced that this modern-day outpouring would far surpass Acts two. Topeka and Azusa. Bigger than all of them. And then the next sentence says, Celebrate! We are now in the hundred-year period, and you are alive in this time. According to Jesus in Luke 10:24, we are the envy of the prophets and kings to see such an outpouring of the Spirit. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but did not see, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear. The hundred-year prophecy is coming to pass.
I felt like Daniel. Wait a minute! This has been declared to absolute men of God that in this hundred-year period, we’re in it. So let’s celebrate! We’re alive and we get to hear it, see it, sense it, and be a part of it. And just to go along with that… These are just two things that stood out to me this morning. Charles Finney, of course, he was so well known for people being saved. And staying saved. I think it was like 80% of the people that got saved in his meetings, stayed saved. And, this is just a little clip about brother Nash because he was one of the men that would go out front and pray. Revival always follows prayer. It’s not the other way around. It’s not, “Oh, revival! I’m going to pray!” It’s more like “I’m going to pray and keep on praying and revival will come and then I’ll keep on praying.” It’s before and it’s after.
And so Charles Finney had this brother Nash guy. He’d go out on ahead wherever the meetings were taking place. I remember that for brother Hagan would come, we’d have prayer in the mornings before anything happened. And we we’d meet … all the singers and everybody. I’d go pick them up at the hotel. We’d head over to the prayer room. Prayer was happening before anything else happened. And I know like a lot of times when we’d go to the conference in France, we’d have a prayer meeting before the meetings that were prayer meetings. And the before prayer meeting sometimes was even better than the meetings. It prepares the way. And so they had a revelation of it.
So on this one occasion, it’s just talking about something that happened. He had a lot of warfare from people in the world and they were having these meetings and there were a group of young men that would come into the back of the chapel and stand there with their arms locked together and just push against whatever God was doing. They tried to come against it and stop the progress. And so in this state of things… This is how he puts it. Brother Nash and myself, after talking together, we made up our minds that this thing must be overcome by prayer.
They didn’t call security. They didn’t call the police. They didn’t call the ushers. They said this will be overcome through prayer and that it could not be reached in any other way.
That’s the revelation they had. There’s nothing else.
So we retired to a grove.
They went out among the trees somewhere. And they gave themselves over to pray until we prevailed.
They knew they prevailed as they travailed. Right?
We felt confident that no power which earth or hell could interpose would be allowed permanently to stop the revival.
They had the revelation.
Now there are times when confidence gained in prayer requires action and this was such a time. So brother Nash, normally he was just a quiet natured man. And by practice, this is what he’d do. He’d just stay out of the limelight. There were times that he’d be in the basement of the church wherever Finney would be preaching. He’s down there praying with a group of people or he’s in a hotel room, whatever. And so here’s Finney’s his own account of what happened in a service shortly after the victory was won in prayer.
The meeting house was filled. Near the close of the meeting, brother Nash… remember he was very humble and quiet.
He stood up and addressed that company of young men who had joined hand in hand to resist the revival. I believe they were all there, all these young men and they sat braced up against the spirit of God. It was too solemn for them really to make ridicule at that point of what they heard and saw. And yet they’re brazen faces and stiff neckedness were apparent to everybody there.
They were trying to intimidate people.
Brother Nash, stood up and he addressed them earnestly. And he pointed out the guilt and the danger of the course they were taking. Toward the close of his address, he waxed exceedingly warm and said to them, “Now mark me, young men, God will break your ranks in less than one week either by converting some of you or by sending some of you to hell. He will do this as certainly as the Lord is my God.” He brought his hand down on the top of the pew and just to make it… the pew was shaken. And then he just sat down, immediately dropped his head and started to grown with pain.
This is what Charles Finney said.
The house was as still as death. And most of the people just held their heads down. I could see the young men were agitated. For myself, Charles Finney, I just regretted that brother Nash had gone so far. Like why did he say that? He had committed himself that God would either take the life of some of them and send them to hell or convert some of them within a week. However, on Tuesday morning of the same week, the leader of these young men came to me in the greatest distress of mind.
Remember they won the victory. Where? Out in the Grove.
He was all prepared to submit. And as soon as I came to press him, he broke down like a child and he confessed and manifestly gave himself to Christ. Then he said, What shall I do, Mr. Finny? I replied “Go, immediately to all your young companions and pray with them and exhort them at once to turn to the Lord.” He did so and before the week was out, nearly if not all that class of young men were saved.
How did that happen? They won the victory by praying. And that’s a principle I want us to be aware of. Every day, every morning, we are in here gathered together, we’re making progress. And so many times, we have no idea what things are being prayed through or prayed out that later on down the road… maybe we’ll see it and maybe we won’t know about it until we’re on the other side. But prayer precedes revival. It always has. And it always will.
So if we want to see this prophecy absolutely come to pass, let’s keep our hearts softened to Him. Let’s keep yearning for more of Him. Let’s do like Annie, just singing “holy is the Lord” just lifting Him up. Keep requiring as a necessity His manifested presence. And I believe that more and more ministries and churches and pastors will begin to make the presence more of a requirement for whatever services or service that’s happening, whatever meeting or meetings, that it would be an absolute necessity that the presence of God would be there and would be maintained and would be respected and honored like never before. And we’ll see and we’ll hear and we’ll walk in this prophecy that was declared way back then, over a hundred years ago. Thank you, Father.
I keep hearing this word “suddenly manifestation.” A sudden manifestation… a sudden or a sudden or an even more sudden… In other words, now is the time for the Church to rise up and not take time for so many other deals and plans and ways and walks, but taking time to spend the time in the manifested presence of the precious Holy Spirit of the living God. Fall fresh on us today. Fall fresh on us again today, Lord. Holy Spirit, come. It’s such a necessity that we walk in your presence, that we sense your presence. We want it, we’re hungry for more.
We want more of you. That means less of us and more of Him. More of you, Lord, more of your presence. A touch, a change. Some changes will surprise you because the change will not be something you expect to see changed. But as you declare and pray and speak forth and call these things that are not as though they were, My change, supernatural rearranging will begin to manifest day after day after day. Expect it.
We expect it, Lord. We expect the change. There’s a sound from heaven today, and it’s a sign of change. So let’s just step in. Let’s just step out…
Yesterday, Jeannie was talking about Peter and how he stepped out by faith, stepped on the water. I believe we’ve been called to take those steps of faith. Like he did and step out, get out of the boat, get out of the old ways and the old days and step into the plans.
By faith receive. And you know, it’s not all about us. It’s about others. Not about me, not about you. It’s about others. And what we sow, it’s returned back on to us many times over. Let’s be the sowers today that sow. Maybe you should sing something else or just sing whatever you feel like, Annie. Let’s keep lifting Him up. It seems like the right thing today. It’s His plan that we keep lifting, lifting, lifting.
Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
When we just sang “There’s no one like you,” I just heard … I’ve heard this before, right back from Him, “There’s no one like you. I’ve created you.” What I saw was not a new chapter, but a new page in the chapter. And the page turned, and the page was blank. There were no words on it, but the power of the Holy Spirit in you personally, there’s no one like you or like you, or like you, or like you. You are an individual, and you have a purpose and a plan from heaven above. And it’s up to each one of you or us to write on that page. As we step out in faith, as we continually look up from where all of our health keeps on coming from… knowing page after page after page… they get better. For the will and the purpose and the plan of God is good.
Hallelujah, Lord! Hallelujah!
So by faith, we’ll walk. By faith, we’ll talk. By faith, we’ll fill in the blanks. We’ll fill in the pages and we’ll walk them out in your ways and your will. Hallelujah. Cause there’s no one like us. There’s no one like you and you created us and you sent forth that plan before we were ever created, before we were born. That’s the plan that we’ll walk out as we contend and pray, look up and call forth these things to come to pass. Now!
There must be a sign about “now.” Now is the time. These are the days. We read it in the beginning—Celebrate! We’re in the hundred years where revival will break out and be greater than ever before. Well, the Bible tells us that too. The former rain and latter rain together. And it will be all over the earth. And it will not stop until Jesus comes back. Hallelujah!
Thank you for coming today. I’m glad I was here. I’m glad you’re here and that you tuned in today over the Internet. Thank you. We’ll be here again tomorrow. Appreciate it. Thank you.
