Pentecostalism has always been the way of God. Baptism of the Holy Ghost, Speaking in tongues, Visions, Prophesy, Miraculous power and Anointing for work has always been the perfect plan of God for the Church.
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”- Joel 2:28
After centuries of men missing out on the baptism of the Holy Ghost, God had careful raised for Himself a people worth filling in the Holiness Movement. Although there were few people who manifested the signs of Pentecost in the godly and Spirit-led Holiness movement, it wasn’t until the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 that Pentecostalism was fully reborn and the signs followed. The denominational name never mattered and still does not matter to my God. For what mattered and what still matters is the Pentecostal experience.
William J. Seymour was the instrument of the Holy Ghost in the 1906 Azusa street revival. The proceeds of that move of God gave birth to many of the Pentecostal Christian churches in the word.
The lessons to learn are:
1. As always, revival is only born when men waste away in prayer. Duncan preached: “There is a price to pay for revival”. That price is nothing but prayer.
2. God is not a discriminator or a racially selective God. As at when this article was written, there is a highly tensed racial atmosphere in the Western world.
God does not want Christians to be ignorant that: ‘it is a sin to despise one’s neighbor’ – Proverbs 14:21
God used a black man in this move of God just as He used white men in others. God is not a racist and any man who is a racist will never inherit the kingdom of God.
3. For two years the bell was continuously wrung ‘revival is coming’, “revival is coming’. We may not understand the patience of waiting for a revival. But the story has thought me to always be patient and trust God’s plans. If He has promised it, we must wait for it; for He will do it!
4. Although not played in the video but happened in reality, the enemies of revival are very much part of the Church and are with us. They can be pulpit men whom I tag “theologians without the experience of God”.
They also may be ordinary members but they don’t want others to bear light and they don’t want their dark deeds to be exposed. Enemies of revival are among those we call brethren; therefore we must be watchful .
5. I call Azusa street revival- ‘the greatest of all revivals since the 20th century’. It was the revival that happened in a street but shook the entire world, giving birth to many international mission fields and many global evangelical outreach.
The true test of Holy Ghost revival or Christian awakening is not just in what it does in the life of a Christian man or woman. It is also not only shown in what it does to the Church. The true test of revival is more of what it does to the the society.
If after revival there is no birth of radical evangelists and rebirth of mission minded Christians then we have not had what we should have.
If the government and the law does not start seeing massive civil obedience, and the number of inmates and crime rate lowered drastically; if alcohol business does not cry about low sales and the church filled with new faces day after day, service after service; if sport viewership does not reduce on Sundays, and church the kingdom advances strongly, then there has been no revival.