Australian Reports
During 1997, many places in Australia have experienced significant moves of God’s Spirit. Here are a few initial accounts.
Caloundra Baptist Church - July, 1997
Pastor Ken Kilah, senior pastor at Caloundra Baptist Church on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland reports on a move of God in the church and at Caloundra Christian College.
Since February 1995 the Caloundra Baptist Church has experienced several waves of the Spirit as he has sovereignly moved on the congregation. At times people would fall in their seats as the Spirit moved in power. Since that time the church has consistently made altar calls at the end of services with various manifestations occurring.
These manifestations increased during and after a ‘Catch the Fire’ conference in October 1996. Guy Chevreaux was the guest speaker. Many people were touched by the power of God and testified to healings, refreshing, release from fears and a whole lot more.
On Thursday 10 July, 1997, the Holy Spirit unexpectedly came upon students in a Year 7 class at the Caloundra Christian College. The College is a ministry of the Caloundra Baptist Church.
Students began shaking, and falling to the floor. The teacher, well aware of what was occurring took several of the students from class to the prayer room in the church where they were prayed for and cared for by church staff.
This caused a strong reaction from certain parents who protested by collecting a petition asking the school to stop what was happening or they would remove their students from the school. The church and school responded by saying we believed that this was God at work.
A letter sent to the entire parent body explaining this position. This letter reaches the local press which carried front page articles in the weekend papers. During the next week the TV channels ran news and current affairs reports on the school and the views of opponents. Some of the major newspapers also ran magazine and news reports, and radio stations called for interviews.
Ultimately some parents did respond by withdrawing 30 children from the 371 enrolled. However, new enrolments occurred and schools across the country sent encouraging reports.
The most encouraging result has been to see the lives of children changed. The children were not afraid of what God is doing and continues to do in their lives. They were the ones who praised God for his grace towards them, and so do all at the Caloundra Baptist Church and school.
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Lighthouse Christian Centre, Wollongong - September, 1997
Dick Reuben from Pensacola in America spoke at a combined churches conference in the first week of September, 1997, in Wollongong, N.S.W., hosted by the Lighthouse Christian Centre. On the Thursday night, 4 September, 249 people were baptised in the portable tank in the BHP stadium where over 2,000 people gathered each night. The conference co-ordinator and pastor of Lighthouse, Peter Pilt, reports:
Lighthouse Christian Centre in Wollongong has, like most churches, desired and sought revival for many years. During a recent week long conference with Dick Reuben from Pensacola, Florida, as the keynote speaker, revival came to Wollongong. In what developed into the biggest Christian event in Wollongong’s history, the venue was changed just four weeks before the conference due to the overwhelming number of registrations received.
Over 2,000 people gathered each night to participate in the liberty and freedom of worship, to hear the awesome teaching of brother Reuben, and to be ministered to by the Holy spirit as the anointing was poured out liberally over everyone in attendance. "There is a biblical pattern for revival and when the pattern is right, the glory of God will fall bringing revival," Dick Reuben declared.
Awesome meetings
As most services brother Reuben blew the Shofar (an antelope horn that is one of the earliest recorded instruments in the Bible). He explained that the Shofar is blown to bring down the glory of God and to confuse the enemy. Each time the horn was blown, the anointing intensified and the victory shout that went up from the stadium (sometimes lasting in excess of 15 minutes), was an awesome experience.
After the preaching each night, Dick issued a challenge to all who were away from God or lukewarm in their relationship to get their hearts and lives right with him. Most nights 700 to 1000 people streamed to the altar area to receive ministry and refreshing from the Holy Spirit.
"Jesus requires our whole life. We often have ‘articles of affection’ in our lives that hold us back in our relationship with him," Dick Reuben said. He then invited people to come and lay anything of that nature at the altar. There was an awesome response. Many items were brought to the altar, including multitudes of cigarette packets, knives, jewellery, drugs, videos, and weapons. Amazing testimonies have been told of the liberation of whole families as a result of discarding these articles.
Holy Spirit impact
Many testimonies of physical healing have also bee received. A lady who had three major operations including a spinal fusion, and had spent the past 15 months on morphine for the pain, was prayed for during the conference and immediately bent over touching her toes. Two weeks later she had not taken any morphine, hasn’t had any withdrawal symptoms, and just recently enjoyed a ride on the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle!
On the Thursday night a baptismal service was held with 249 people baptised, the meeting lasting nearly six hours. Each person who went through the waters received a mighty touch from the Holy Spirit, many had to be lifted out of the tank.
On the following Sunday, 7 September, 1997, which was Father’s Day, Dick Reuben spoke at the Lighthouse Christian Centre. What is significant about the timing is that the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pensacola on Father’s Day in 1995. The meeting saw an incredible demonstration of God’s power. It would have been impossible to attend the meeting without being radically impacted by the Holy Spirit.
Dick and Deanne Reuben plan to return to Australia for a month of revival meetings in January 1998 at the Lighthouse Christian Centre, Wollongong. They are coming back for one reason and one reason only - they believe that the nation of Australia is ready for a national revival!
Lord, let it happen!
Reproduced with permission from the Australian Evangel, November 1997, pages 32-33.
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Garden City Christian Church, Brisbane - October 1997
The Rim of Fire Conference, from Wednesday 15 October, 1997, at Garden City Christian Church in Brisbane included speakers John and Carol Arnott, Wes and Stacey Campbell, and a team from Sunderland in England. Ken and Lois Gott, from Sunderland, unable to attend that week, flew in for meetings there on Monday-Tuesday, 3-4 November.
On the Sunday night (19 October) after the Conference, Pastor Ross Smith stood in the pulpit to deliver the announcements. The Holy Spirit had other ideas as he began to preach under the anointing, challenging the Church to repentance and calling on the prayer warriors to line the walls of the Church to pray for souls. People came running to the altar as Isobel Simpson from Sunderland U.K. sang "Run to the Mercy Seat".
The guest speaker, Wesley Campbell, said he couldn’t preach, the fear of God was in the place. It was a turning point for the church, the part sleeping giant arose in fire as confessions poured out and brothers publicly pleaded for love, humility and unity. 1,800 men, women, boys and girls assembled into lines, desire burning in their eyes as they prepared to move into a tunnel of fire, formed by the church leadership. The clang of steel could be heard as two medieval swords struck. Held high in the air, they chimed with authority, forming a gable structure that the saints would walk under. Some began to shake uncontrollably, others began to repent and wail, still more would be instantly slain in the Spirit, needing to be carried through the tunnel. In the recovery room, 8 year olds had visions, the youth travailed for the lost, families shook and hugged and the seniors moved briskly up and down, fanning the air with outstretched arms, declaring fresh love for Jesus, thanking God for a fresh visitation.
As the church proceeded through the tunnel of fire, we looked at each other, shaking our heads with delighted smiles. The church was called to repentance and we announced that we would not be soft on sin. We are going headfirst into Revival - as the Lord poured out His power, the people cried out for the lost as their hearts fell into alignment with God’s. This explosion of God’s power and conviction prompted the clearing of the weekly calendar and a Monday night prayer meeting preceded the revival meetings that were to follow every night up until the following Sunday. Wesley Campbell likened the dynamic moving of the Spirit to the outpourings he’s witnessed at Pensacola and is planning to return soon. "Revival Now"commentator Peter Wreford (from Sunderland) said he’s never known such a week in his entire life.
Reproduced from a circular mailing from Pastor Ross Smith, Garden City Christian Church.
Wes Campbell wrote:
In all services the ministry times turned into full blown times of revival intercession. The Thursday evening Stacey Campbell gave a powerful prophecy about a coming revival which will light Australia and set a fire on the whole Pacific Rim. But the real break came Sunday. Suddenly the fear of the Lord gripped the place. In fact is was just as though we were all in Brownsville, but we were not, we were in Brisbane.
People began to rush forward from everywhere. First a stream, then a veritable rampage. Soon hundreds and hundreds of people filled the altar, the aisles, and anywhere else they could find. Wailing seized the human mass, and again I repeat, there was real fear there. In truth, none of us knew what to do. The wailing and intercession that ensued was deafening. Children ages six, eight, and ten, cried out long bitterly for their sins. Teenagers screamed openly in prayer for their lost friends. Literally hundreds at a time were being affected in this way, and this was to last for at least another hour and a half, while all two thousand of the congregation waited patiently for their chance to be prayed for.
By Tuesday a previously planned city wide pastor’s meeting was crowded with hungry pastors. Again the same spirit fell and again a similar response attended the meeting, with many laying down age old divisions and mistrust. Many are convinced that real revival is in the air. The entire staff and church are up for it to keep going one day at a time. Fortunately Peter Wreford, of Joy Magazine and a member of the pastoral team of Ken Gott’s Sunderland group was present with a television quality movie camera. Most of the original Sunday evening service was videoed and they are in the midst of making a hasty editing job to make it available to the larger body of Christ.
In fact, Garden City Church’s larger intent is to send a copy of the video, as well as Dr. Bill Bright’s book called, "The Coming Revival" (presenting the world-wide call to pray and fast for forty days for revival) to all the A.O.G. churches in Australia. Along with that, Ross Smith, Adrian Gray, John Lewis, Max Legg (of Auckland), and Ken Gott, and Wesley Campbell, will lead in a corporate call to the churches everywhere throughout Australia and New Zealand calling on thousands of believers to target Lent 1998 to join in a national time of forty days of prayer and fasting on water and juice for revival. This is in anticipation of 10 to 15 cities throughout Australia and New Zealand which will embark upon a cooperative effort to launch "21 day Revival Now!" campaigns for both the lost and revival.
Reproduced from Global Revival News.
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Catholic Church, Canberra - October, 1997
This is an update of what the Lord has been doing in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. A Catholic priest from Canberra went to visit Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. As a result of his exposure to the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, the Lord arranged something miraculous in this priest's church (which is called St. Thomas the Apostle). Meanwhile, John and Carol Arnott had just finished the Catch the Fire conference in Sydney on Saturday 25 October. They decided to make an unplanned visit to this Catholic Church in Canberra for one night - Monday, 27 October. There must have been close to 1000 people altogether.
One of the most significant things about this gathering was how the walls and barriers between denominations were broken down. Churches represented included Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Catholic, A.O.G., and independent Charismatic churches. Division between churches has been a real stronghold in this city and what transpired that night was amazing.
The night started with exciting praise and worship to the King of Kings. Then the priest of the host church spoke and asked every church represented there to forgive the Catholic Church for any hurt caused by them. He was truly repenting on behalf of the Catholic church. It was awesome. Then an Anglican pastor responded on behalf of his church and the other churches represented in the meeting and extended forgiveness to the Catholic church and asked the Catholic church to forgive us.
After that, John and Carol both shared. John spoke on forgiveness. The Holy Spirit was
really working as he was speaking, and long time hurts and bitterness were being healed as people chose to forgive others. John invited people to come forward for physical healing. People were healed of long time back and neck problems. John then invited people to come forward who wanted to be born again. About 200 people came forward to the altar to get saved or to re-commit their lives to Jesus! What an awesome night it was. There was even more freedom in the Spirit on Tuesday night and at least another 100 people came forward to get saved, and many others were healed physically from pain and injury resulting from car accidents and other things.
Written by Mark Searle in Global Revival Report.
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Westside Christian Centre, Melbourne - October, 1997
Ken Gott, from Sunderland, reports on their visit to Melbourne:
How can we possibly describe what we are seeing here in Westside Christian Centre, Melbourne, Australia. We are truly experiencing Revival. One senior pastor here is calling the phenomenon we are seeing here as the drawing power of the Holy Spirit. No altar calls, no pleading, no urging by people. Suddenly during the sermon or as last night, Friday 31 October, spontaneously during the worship, people begin to leave their seats and run to kneel at the altar weeping in repentance. Soon hundreds line the altars and the aisles are full as with one voice they wail asking God to forgive their sin and have mercy upon them.
None of us can adequately describe or even believe what we are seeing. Last night over 80% of the large crowd stood to confess controlling sins in their lives. Everything is happening quite spontaneously. God is the great conductor of all that is happening. We are at a loss as to what to do. The marriage in the spirit between Sunderland and Pensacola obviously had more significance than we realised. The Pastors here in Australia are urging us to stay and fan the flames of the fires the Holy Spirit has lit. This we are considering very seriously. How can we walk away from what we have longed for unless under the express direction of the Lord. Perhaps we may go home for a week to ten days and then return. Pray for all of us this is truly unbelievable. It is truly Revival now!
Reproduced from Global Revival News.
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Calvary Christian College, Brisbane - November 1997
When most of Australia had stopped for the Melbourne Cup, the Holy Spirit moved on a Year 5 class on 10 -11 year olds in Calvary Christian College at Longan City on the south of Brisbane on Tuesday 4 November, beginning with two students who asked for prayer from their teacher. Five hours later the class had emptied four tissue boxes as students prayed for one another, saw visions of Jesus, and repented. The class teacher, Darren Iselin, reports:
For the three months previous to this visitation, a small group of children had committed themselves willingly, and of their own desire without any suggestion from either their teacher or their parents, to pray fervently for revival in their school. These children were from Baptist, Uniting Church and Pentecostal denominations yet had laid aside all doctrinal barriers to pray for revival fire to fall in their classroom, and often gave up their lunch hours to cry to the Lord to touch their class.
On Tuesday, 4 November, 1997, God sovereignly and powerfully moved upon an entire class of Year Five students at Calvary Christian College, Brisbane. After I had shared a short devotional message about being half-hearted and indifferent to the things of God, two girls came to me and asked if they could re-dedicate their lives to the Lord. I sensed an urgency in their spirits and did not delay a response to a later time. I asked if anyone else in the class would also like to rededicate or make a first time decision for the Lord. Even though I teach at a Christian School, I have five children whose parents so not go to church and of these three were un-saved. Hands slowly went up around the classroom and these children then stood along the front of the classroom. Fifteen children responded and I asked the remaining seven children to assist me in praying for their classmates.
I led the children in a prayer of commitment and rededication and then began to individually pray for each child. The seven children assisting me also prayed over each child and after praying with four children, I could sense a spirit of repentance was filling the classroom. I glanced back at the children we had prayed for and saw tears welling up in their eyes as they stood with eyes toward heaven. As we continued to pray for each child, the presence of the Lord became stronger and more tangible, and the sobs and weeping of the children already prayed for grew louder and more intense. One girl began to shake and quiver as the Spirit rested upon her and she cried out for God’s mercy. Everywhere I looked I saw children in brokenness and repentance before the Lord. I turned around to see what four boys were doing behind my back and was amazed to see them laying their hands and praying for a boy who had just recently experienced the pain of his parents divorce. As I listened to these ten year old boys praying, tears ran down my face as I heard them praying for God’s Father Heart to be made manifest in this boy’s life. Their prayers were as intense and heart-felt as any I had ever heard and some of them openly sobbed as they prayed for him.
Children were forming groups of twos and threes all over the room and were praying fervently with each other for God to have His way in their lives. I was nothing more than a fellow participant as I walked from group to group and was touched by the power and passion of their praying. Not one child was left untouched! Many of them were crying out for forgiveness and some were weeping together with friends towards whom they had harboured unforgiveness in their hearts. Still others were praying against the words of negativity and death that had been spoken over their lives by other teachers and parents and many children were visibly released from the curse of these words as their classmates prayed. Everywhere I looked there were children praying, weeping, sobbing. Some were standing, others were kneeling, some were on chairs, others were lying on the ground. The air was thick, almost misty and the awesome and holy presence of the Lord was everywhere.
After this awesome time of repentance had been occurring for about an hour, I decided to ring the school office to ask if someone could come down and bring two large boxes of tissues to my classroom as the two boxes which were in my classroom were now empty! Miss Charissa Nicholson arrived and was immediately touched by God’s Holy presence when she entered the room. She instantly began weeping and praying with some of the children, and the intensity of every child’s prayers seemed to be getting more desperate and passionate. Young boys were praying like mighty warriors, boldly and fervently interceding at the throne of grace for their classmates, their families and other teachers and classes within the school. On boy, who had just given his life to Jesus for the first time, was praying like a mature saint and was even prophesying over his fellow classmates! A young girl, visibly broken before the Lord, ran to get her mother, Cheryl, a pastor’s wife, from the canteen. Holly returned with her mother who was also immediately struck with the incredible presence of the Lord in the classroom. She later testified that in her entire life as a believer, she had never seen anything of such intensity and brokenness and she also began weeping an praying for others within the classroom.
I continued to walk around the room, crying and interceding for each child that I saw. The children continued to cry out to the Lord with even greater intensity into the third hour, and despite the lunch bell ringing, not one child diminished in their praying and brokenness before the Lord. Right through their break time, every child continued to cry out to the Lord in prayer and repentance. One girl was crying on the floor and kept repeating "I was lost but now I’m found. I was blind but now I see". She was later to share that God had given her a vision of the gates of heaven opening and the entire class coming in. Another girl had a vision of Jesus on the throne saying "I love you" to her and then saw a picture of herself turning her back on Jesus and saying "Yeah, I know," but not fully comprehending the greatness and powerful sacrifice of God’s love. She broke down in loud sobbing as she shared this vision with the class.
At 1:30 pm, Mrs Anne Noonan, a pre-school teacher’s aide came to the door and was also touched by God’s holy fire. A large number of children wanted to pray for her and she came under the same anointing as the children and wept and cried out to the Lord for mercy. She commented when she entered the room that there was a thick mist that was permeating the classroom, and she immediately sensed God’s Holy presence when she walked into the room. Many children now began to worship, singing spontaneously, heartfelt songs of commitment and consecration to the Lord.
It was at about 2 o’clock, nearly four hours after God had first begun touching the children, that the children gradually began to diminish, though certainly not cease, in their intensity of prayer and crying out to the Lord. Each time it would seem as though a lull was going to occur, another child would begin praying for another class member and then, once again, the intensity level of nearly every child soared. Some children were still being mightily touched by the Lord and there were still some children weeping and praying with their friends. It was not before 3 o’clock that the children finally ceased praying and worshipping. The classroom bin was overflowing with wet and screwed up tissues!
The children went home that afternoon and told their parents of what God had done in their classroom that day. Some parents were surprisingly indifferent to what had occurred, some were strongly supportive, and some others, particularly those from unchurched homes, were confused and quite upset.
Many parents commented in the proceeding days after this visitation that their children were so different and had noticed a marked difference in their attitudes, behaviour and devotional life. May parents also testified of being touched by their child’s new love and passion for Christ and his ways. At least five of these children were to testify in their churches on the following Sunday of God’s amazing work in their lives. One unchurched family, who had opposed what God had done in their child, amazingly decided to go to church the following Sunday - the first time they had done this in over twenty years! Their child is now enrolled in a Sunday school class.
The next day, November 5, began with a group of teachers and office staff praying in my classroom. God’s holy presence again fell with every person being touched. Tears of repentance and brokenness were again powerfully evident. The children, as they arrived for school, entered the room to pray for the adults! The power and intensity of their prayers was incredible and every adult left the room visibly touched by the Lord. One teacher was even convicted to apologise for the negativity that she had spoken over a child’s life and with tears flowing, both teacher and student made restitution and forgiveness with the young boy praying and prophesying over this repentant teacher.
This awesome move of God has left me completely humbled and hungry for heaven. I feel so inadequate, unprepared and unworthy of such a mighty visitation within my classroom and I have set my face like flint to pay whatever cost is needed to see God’s holy name exalted in my generation. I have been deeply convicted of my own cold, hard heart to the things of God and by the barrenness of my own prayer life. The passion, intensity and innocence of these children towards God and his kingdom has had a life-changing effect upon me and I have been deeply humbled and broken of my own pride and presumption regarding God’s love and his Lordship over my life. Oh, Lord spread the Fire!
Reproduced from a circular by Darren Iselin.
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© Renewal Journal #10: Evangelism. Renewal: Brisbane
Reproduction is allowed as long as the copyright remains intact with the text.