Historian Richard Riss has written books including A Survey of 20th-Century Revival Movements in North America. His doctoral research at Drew University includes study of the current awakening. This edited selection is from his Internet publication The Worldwide Awakening of 1992-1995, Eleventh Edition, October 15, 1995. The full text is available on

<http://www.grmi.org/renewal/Richard_Riss/history.html>

Introduction

During the early 1990s, a revival, or reawakening of Christian faith, became evident in many parts of the world.

Receiving its initial impetus from the ministries of many people, including Claudio Freidzon of Buenos Aries, Argentina, Rodney M. Howard­Browne, a South African evangelist ministering in the United States, Mahesh Chavda of Charlotte, North Carolina and Cindy Jacobs of Colorado Springs, Colorado, this outpouring of God's Spirit touched a large number of people in many places.

An unusual visitation among the Vineyard Churches which originated in Mississauga, Ontario, outside of Toronto, on January 20, 1994 also brought this new anointing to many people in mainline denominational and non­denominational churches throughout the world.

At all of the meetings associated with this fresh outpouring, there have been many emotional and physical healings. Many people have encountered God anew or afresh, and have been brought to a place of repentance and brokenness. People have often fallen down under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, become 'drunk' in the Spirit, and become filled with the joy of the

Lord, laughing almost uncontrollably, or weeping or shaking. Large numbers of children have been affected, many of whom have reported seeing visions of heavenly things.

Phenomena of this kind characterized a revival that began in 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina under Claudio Freidzon. According to a publication of the Assemblies of God, Mountain Movers (October 1993, p. 6), at Freidzon's meetings, 'as people entered into adoration and

worship, some became "drunk" on the Spirit and could not stand up. Others laughed in the Spirit or fell under the power of God. Each service lasted six or seven hours. Outside, hundreds waited in lines that stretched around the block to get into the church.'

Some of the components of the revival were evident for several years in many places. A. L. Gill, a prominent missionary from California, saw the 'holy laughter' in his meetings throughout the world beginning in 1983, culminating with the summer of 1993,

when he led a praise and worship seminar at Doug Girard's Vision Christian Centre on Chestnut Street in Lawrenceville, Georgia, near Atlanta. This seminar exploded into healing after a woman was dramatically healed of cancer of the tongue. The meetings

were extended over a period of many days, and became known as the Chestnut Street Revival.

Tony and Marj Abram, missionaries from Arkansas, also saw drunkenness in the Spirit and the 'holy laughter' in many places for several years. They first observed it in 1986 at an

Assemblies of God church pastored by John Lipton, currently of Dover, in England.

A church in Riverside, New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia, East Coast For Jesus Ministries, pastored by Louis Halcomb, was at the centre of a worldwide sovereign move of the Spirit beginning in the late 1980s. Particularly after Operation Desert Storm in early 1991, Halcomb began seeing God move in unusual ways wherever he ministered. Local newspapers in Paris, France, Geneva, Switzerland, the Philippines, reported on the revivals in

these places in the wake of his ministry. Halcomb saw many people slain in the Spirit, laughing in the Spirit, drunken in the Spirit, and experiencing deliverances.

In one case, when Aleen Backsly was at Halcomb's church, people were slain in the Spirit everywhere. She would hug people in the foyer, and they would fall down. At the same time, outside, people who were getting out of their cars were falling down under the power of the Spirit as their feet hit the pavement, and it caused problems for those who were trying to park cars in the church parking lot.

East Coast For Jesus Ministries became influential to a number of other churches, including Calvary Worship Centre in Port St. Lucy, Florida, pastored by Thomas E. Smith and Bob Roach. Calvary Worship Centre experienced a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit beginning in the late 1980s which reached new heights during its building dedication in July of 1994, which was preceded by a week of prayer and fasting. In this case, the revival wasn't the result of any special visitors, but there was a spontaneous outbreak of revival and its associated phenomena,

including holy laughter, drunkenness in the Spirit, and other manifestations. As a result of this new outbreak of revival, they began twelve services a week. Their new building seated 550

people, but they found it necessary to have two services on Sunday mornings in order to accommodate everyone.

According to Bob Roach, prior to the awakening associated with Rodney Howard­Browne's ministry and that of the Toronto Airport Vineyard, when LaVerne and Edith Tripp visited Calvary Worship Centre, LaVerne was slain in the Spirit as soon as he arrived, and had to be carried into the sanctuary to preach. At the time he said, 'your church is the best kept secret in America.'

Bob Roach said that 'there has been a move across the United States in smaller churches that nobody really knows anything about that has preceded the more visible signs of awakenings. In one case, Stan Johnson, formerly a professional ball player with the New York Yankees, visited and taught on the anointing for a 6 or 7 hour service. People came in stretchers and were raised up, and this was recorded on video. Many prophets come in and out of that church, including Ed Corley, whose ministry is very similar to that of Derek Prince, and Mike Connors, who was at one time A. A. Allen's associate, and who is also a friend of Wade Taylor's at Pinecrest. We want to make sure that it's God working in our midst, and we're seeing so many lives change and marriages put back together, and pastors going back to their churches restored and refreshed. In 1991 or 1992, Dr. Ron Shaw brought in Reinhard Bonnke (Shaw's brother­in­law), and there was a tremendous impartation given to the pastors who were there, including Rodney Howard­Browne, who was visiting from Karl Strader's Church (the first time he was there). Rodney did the offering at that time, and was one of many, many pastors and leaders who received a real impartation from Bonnke.'

Argentina

Karin Detert of Berlin, Germany, visited Argentina for three weeks, then later returned for another three months. While visiting King's Church in Thanet, U.K., in October of 1994, she

reported [according to Peter Verral, new-wine internet list, October 19, 1994] that a new surge of spiritual power in Argentina had begun in 1992, bringing 'a renewed hunger for God,

a new emphasis on personal holiness, a new desire for prayer, and also demonstrations of the Spirit's power. . . . In my home church in Berlin we have had many visits from some of the leading men of God who are leading this Argentine revival; ministers like Omar Cabrera, Carlos Annacondia, Hector Gimenez and Claudio Freidzon. During these last three months, I have had the privilege of working in the church of Claudio Freidzon and I have been able to see and able to learn.'

The prelude to these events was in the early 1980s, at which time God raised up Carlos Annacondia, a businessman turned evangelist. 'Crowds gathered together to hear him preach because his ministry was accompanied by signs and wonders, healings (for instance, filling of teeth) and deliverances. In mass crusades thousands of people accepted Christ as Saviour. Virtually every church grew' (ibid).

Then, according to Karin Detert,

in 1992, a second wave of revival began with Claudio Freidzon, founder of a Buenos Aires church that in four years has grown to 3000 people. Pastor Claudio, who was very busy in all areas of his church felt a need to really come to know the Holy Spirit. Whilst he was seeking an encounter with God, the Holy Spirit touched him one day in a powerful way and his ministry changed dramatically. An unusual presence of the Holy Spirit started accompanying him in his meetings.

During the services, as people entered into adoration and worship, some became drunk in the Spirit and could not stand up. Some had to be taken home by others because they could not drive or walk on their own. Others laughed in the Spirit or fell under the power of God. The services were very long (4­5 hours), many miraculous healings were reported. Other pastors came to see and to receive the same anointing. Claudio prayed for them and they received a fresh and new anointing and took it back to their churches.

A hallmark of this revival is an emphasis on worship and praise. God's presence descends as we immerse ourselves in adoring Him. Some people weep throughout an entire service; others rejoice with laughter. Many are led to deep repentance, pastors and congregation.

An emphasis on personal holiness has caused many to change their lifestyles. Less time spent watching television, for example. Critics have accused some of faking religious experiences. But the emphasis on holiness, the desire of the people to praise and worship, and increase in concern for reaching others with the Gospel are genuine. And although the revival started in Claudio's church, it has spread to hundreds of pastors and churches in Argentina.

God has also opened doors for a world­wide ministry and, wherever he goes he ministers in this same anointing, which then remains in those places; and so this revival could be brought to many other places around the world, like for instance, also to my own church in Berlin, where God started moving in a tremendous way since September, 1993, when Claudio came to minister in our church.

This new wave of the Holy Spirit started about two and a half years ago in Claudio's church and is still going on. I had the privilege of being part of their wonderful services where people were always caught up in a tremendous worship, sometimes weeping in the services, sometimes laughing. The presence of God was always very powerful. The people in the church are very healthy and spiritually strong in the Word. There is a bold emphasis on the need for balance between the Word and the Spirit. . . .

In my church in Berlin many people gave way to frustration because they had not, at first, experienced an outward experience (laughter, crying, falling under the Spirit). The work of the Spirit is much deeper. These manifestations should be the effect and not the cause, for God's work at this time is much deeper and has to do with matters of the heart. His Spirit is coming . . . in order to put the Church back on course, restoring a willingness and a desire to repent. He is putting his finger on sin and giving us the desire to let it go. But this all comes with an immense sense and realization of the awesome love that God has for us. Another aspect of this anointing is growing compassion and love for the lost. God is preparing us to reap the Harvest.

The January 1994 issue of Charisma carried an article on Claudio Freidzon, which reported:

One recent evening in Argentina, 65,000 people filled the seats, aisles and most of the playing field at Velez Sarsfield stadium in Buenos Aires. For hours they sang, clapped and worshipped God. Thousands then streamed to the platform where a handsome evangelist named Claudio Freidzon waved his arms over those gathered near the stage. 'Receive the anointing!' Freidzon shouted. In an instant, as if on cue, hundreds of people fell backward. Some laughed, others cried, some lay motionless on the ground. These people fainted, says Freidzon, because they were 'overcome by the presence of God.' . . .

What happened at Velez Sarsfield that night has been repeated on numerous occasions since the 38­year­old Freidzon launched his crusade ministry in 1992. An Assemblies of God pastor and former theology professor, Freidzon says he is consumed with seeing churches in his country filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. . . . as many as 1,000 people have been converted in one evening in Freidzon's meetings. . . .

Spiritual hunger has been evident in the South American country for a decade, ever since evangelist Carlos Annacondia encouraged local churches to unite in prayer for revival. But some observers say Freidzon has brought a new dynamic to the spiritual awakening that has jolted Argentina in recent years.

'The anointing on Annacondia is for tearing down demonic strongholds that keep the lost from coming to Christ,' says one evangelical pastor from California who has visited Argentina many times. 'Claudio Freidzon's anointing is for building up the church as it strives to minister to so many new converts.'

Freidzon's own ministry was influenced significantly by Annacondia. In 1979, when Freidzon planted his first church in the Argentine capital, he found it difficult to win anyone to Christ. . . . The success of the Annacondia crusades and a personal meeting with Annacondia encouraged Freidzon to persevere through seven years of 'spiritual desert.' Then in 1986, Freidzon says, the Lord directed him to begin preaching in a nearby park frequented by drug peddlers. That was a turning point for his ministry. Freidzon's King of Kings Church grew to 2,000 members in four years.

But Freidzon still believed something was missing in his ministry. He says he discovered the lost ingredient when he read Benny Hinn's Good Morning Holy Spirit. That book ­ and a subsequent meeting with Hinn in 1992 ­ convinced him to pursue deeper intimacy with the Holy Spirit. . . .

'Pastors in Argentina were seeking methods for church growth', he says. But after he decided to spend as much time as possible listening to the Holy Spirit in prayer, Freidzon began telling pastors that methods were not the answer.

His advice: 'There is no method. We must seek the presence of God.' It was after he met Hinn that Freidzon's church mushroomed to 4,000 members and his crusades began attracting huge crowds. . . . 'My message is simple. I'm emphasizing the presence of the Holy Spirit.'

Rodney Howard­Browne

In July of 1979, at eighteen years of age, Rodney M. Howard­Browne of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, reached a crossroads in his life. Over a period of several months, an increasing

spiritual hunger had been developing within him, and while at an interdenominational prayer meeting with about eighteen young people at this time, he cried out to the Lord, 'God, either you come down here tonight and touch me, or I'm going to die and come up there and touch you.' He began shouting, frightening nearly everyone who was present. He shouted for twenty minutes, 'God, I want your fire.'

Describing this incident at his camp meeting fifteen years later (July 18, 1994), he said it was as though all of a sudden somebody had taken gasoline and put a lighted match to it. The fire of God fell upon Him instantaneously, and he was immersed in the liquid fire of the Holy Spirit. He became completely inebriated in the Holy Ghost. He was beside himself. Overflowing, he laughed uncontrollably. He went from laughter to weeping to tongues, back to laughter and weeping again. Four days later, the glory of God was still upon him, and by this time he was saying, 'God, lift it. I can't bear it any more. . . Lord, I'm too young to die, don't kill me now.' For a two­week period, he felt the presence of God. He said that, although these things became the basis of his later ministry, this was not really evident until about ten years later.

In 1980, while still in his native country, he was travelling in ministry with a group of denominational people. He would preach, and they would sing, but he was warned not to talk about the Holy Ghost, but to talk about Jesus. One day, when they were in the vestry of a Methodist church, a woman who was in terrible pain asked for prayer. Rodney said that he continued as follows:

I got up from my seat. . . . I was going to put my hand on her head. . . . And I lifted my hand and got it about here. Just like it looked like you'd pull a six­gun out of a holster and point it at somebody. And when my hand got about HERE, it felt like my fingertips came off, and out of my hand flowed a full volume of the anointing and the power of God, and it flowed right out of my hand and it went right in to her forehead and she crumbled in the floor. . . . There was nobody in the room more amazed than me. And I looked down at the woman and I looked at my hand, . . . and I'll tell you what ­ my hand ­ the fire of God ­ the anointing of God ­ the virtue ­ the dunamis was still coming out of my hand. It felt like my hand was a fire hose. And now you start getting nervous ­ you think, 'I'd better look out where I point this thing. This thing's loaded now.'

And so the rest of the team came in, and I didn't know what to do with it other than what we'd just done, so I said, 'lift your hands.' Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, they're all out in the back of the vestry. . . . Now I'm in trouble. If the priest comes back, I'm finished. . . . So I went around and just managed to . . . get them just right and sober them up and say 'get up and pull yourself together, we've got to go in to the meeting,' and we managed to get them all up except one girl. We had her propped between two men and got them out into the auditorium. . . .

I get into the service, and that night I had to speak and I said to the Lord, I said, 'Lord, you know I'm not allowed to talk about Holy Ghost. You know I'm not allowed to talk about tongues. You know I'm not allowed to talk about 'fall' and 'power' and these words. . . . Lord, how can we have what happened in the back room . . . happen out here?' And the Lord said to me . . . 'Call all those that want a blessing.' . . . Everyone raised their hands. So I said, 'All right, get up, come up, and line up.' . . . And so I was going to go down and lay my hands on the first person's head. And the Lord said to me, 'just be very careful, and so don't put your hands on them because some people [will] think you'll push them over if you do.' . . . I take my finger, . . . put it on the forehead of the first person and I said, 'in the name of Jesus.' . . . It looked like an angel stood there with a baseball bat and smacked them up the side of their head. And the person hit the floor. And I went down the line. Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam. The whole row was out under the power of God . . . Some of the people were pinned to the floor. . . . for an hour and a half. Some of them, the moment they hit the ground they were speaking with other tongues, and we had said nothing about it. . . . And that anointing stayed again for a period of two weeks.

Let me tell you right now­­for an eighteen­year old to experience that kind of anointing ­ it's dangerous. And then suddenly, . . . it was gone. I prayed for people, they would fall down, but it was not the same. And I thought I'd lost the anointing. So now I'm starting to pray ­ to get before God and find out: 'What have I done to lose the anointing, and what formula must I use to get it back?' . . . He said, 'You can't do anything to get that anointing back. . . . That anointing is not you. . . . That anointing is all me. It has nothing to do with you.' He said, 'I just gave you a taste of what will come later on in your ministry, if you are faithful.' He said, 'If I gave it to you now, you'd destroy yourself. . . . I can't give it to you now. . . . There's no formula for it. If there was a formula for it, you'd do it and you'd get it, and you'd think it was you. . . . From now on, whenever that anointing comes, you'll know it's not you and you'll know it's all me and you'll have to give me all the glory and all the praise and all the honour.'

In December of 1987, Rodney M. Howard­Browne arrived in the United States to engage in evangelistic work, but it was not until April of 1989 in Clifton Park, near Albany in upstate New York, that he began experiencing continuous revival during his meetings. In a 1994 interview on TBN with Paul Crouch, Rodney Howard­Browne said of the outset of the revival that, while he was preaching, 'The power of God fell in the place without warning suddenly. People began to fall out of their seats. . . . rolling on the floor. The very air was moving. People began to laugh uncontrollably while there wasn't anything funny. . . . The less I preached, the more people were saved.'

From this point onward, these phenomena accompanied his ministry regularly. A description of some of his meetings at Emmanuel Christian Church of Spring Hill, Florida, pastored by Bill

Wilson, appeared in the February 14, 1993 issue of the St. Petersburg Times ('Signs and Wonders' by Dan DeWitt): 'The revival was not only the largest in Hernando County history, say the believers, but the most inspiring. As many as eight hundred people gathered by night time services. . . . Some worshipped ten hours a day. Almost all claim to have been reborn, to have been gripped by the joy of God, or to have been healed of a long­standing emotional or physical ill[ness].' At a meeting at Tabernacle Assembly of God in Orchard Park, New York in May of 1994, Bill Wilson reported that the revival at his church had continued unabated since it had begun. He estimated that 1500 people had become Christians during the previous sixteen months in Spring Hill, Florida as a result of the revival.

Rodney Howard­Browne's influence soon reached worldwide proportions. Ken and Nancy Curtis of Clearwater, Florida, have recorded a videotape, 'The Laugh Heard Round the World,' documenting the spread of this revival throughout the Philippines, Singapore, Russia and Africa after they received their own initial impartation at a series of Rodney's meetings in

the United States.

Kenneth Copeland

Rodney Howard­Browne ministered at a Kenneth Copeland meeting, probably at some point during 1992 or 1993. After Kenneth Copeland called him up to the front, Rodney began to prophesy:

This is the day, this is the hour, saith the Lord, that I am moving in this earth. This is the day that I'll cause you to step over into the realm of the supernatural. For many have preached, and it's been prophesied of old and said there was a move coming. But Oh, it's even now and even at the door. For the drops of rain are beginning to fall to the glory of God. Yes, yes, many of you that have sat on the threshold and have said, 'Oh, God, when should it be?' Oh, you know that this is the day and this is the hour that you'll step over into that place into my glory. For this is the day of the glory of the Lord coming in great power. . . . For I'm going to break the mould, saith the Lord, on many of your lives and many of your ministries. And even that which was known, the way that you operated in days gone by ­ oh, many shall rub their eyes and shall look and say, 'is this the same person that we used to know?'

Oh, for there's a fire on the inside of them. For this is the day of the fire and the glory of God coming unto His Church. Rise up this day in great boldness. Rise up this day and be filled afresh with the new wine of the Holy Ghost. Rise up this day. . . .

Kenneth Copeland then addressed Rodney, with gestures, while speaking in tongues. Still facing Kenneth Copeland, Rodney answered him in tongues with apparent meaning. Kenneth Copeland then laughed in response. In return, Rodney then laughed.

While ministering to someone Rodney Howard­Browne said: 'For there's a new dimension coming to your ministry and yes, you've known this, yes, you've hungered for it, and you've said, "Oh, God". But the Lord would say to you this night, "Yes, even in this nation." For you have concentrated on the third world. But this nation shall see through thy ministry a great outpouring of the Spirit, for this is the day, saith the Lord. And you shall run [tongues]. And some have thought, "What's he going to do next?" They're not going to know. Oh, they're even going to be more confused [tongues].'

Kenneth Copeland spoke in tongues, and Rodney then said, 'For as you've preached my word, even the miracles, the signs and the wonders that you've seen ­ that happened ­ are taking place in other nations ­ shall begin to take place, and the great dimension of the supernatural ­ that great dimension of the Spirit that you've hungered and cried for ­ yes, even this night, is your portion.'

Later, Kenneth Copeland laid his hands upon Rodney Howard­Browne, who fell to the floor. Kenneth Copeland then knelt down, laid his hands upon Rodney and prophesied over him:

The greater realm that you've been seeing all evening long is the stage set before you that I've called you to walk in, and this is only the beginning. It is only the start of the outpouring that has already begun of the former and the latter rain. Keep yourself prepared. Keep yourself in that cleft of the rock and the good presence of the Holy Spirit will come in ways that you know not of at this time [tongues]. The spirit that has been sent of the devil to hinder and to hurt and to hold you back has been broken and he will not hinder you any more.

Karl Strader

In February of 1993, Karl Strader, pastor of Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland, Florida, and his wife, Joyce, were in Hawaii for a Worship '93 conference, where Norvel Hayes prophesied that a tremendous great wind of the Spirit was about to come to them. Joyce Strader wrote in Ministries Today (July/August 1993, p. 38), 'We arrived home Saturday night. That Sunday morning Carpenter's Home Church began a planned one­week series of

meetings with South African evangelist Rodney Howard­Browne. But God had a surprise for us. The meetings went on for four weeks ­ with thousands flocking to the church to see and taste the new move of God. . . . But God never intended for it to last only a week. Full­blown revival has come to Central Florida and Carpenter's Home Church.'

During the first few months of 1993, Rodney Howard­Browne spent a total of thirteen weeks at that church, and Christian leaders from many parts of the United States, including Richard Roberts, chancellor of Oral Roberts University, came to the meetings to observe and participate, and minister in the new anointing. Charisma (Aug 1994, p. 24), stated that people flew in for these meetings from Africa, Great Britain, and Argentina to see what was happening.

Bud Williams

Among the people deeply touched by Rodney's meetings at Karl Strader's church in early 1993 was an Episcopal priest, Bud Williams (Hugh E. Williams III), who had pioneered Christ the

King Episcopal church in Lakeland, Florida as an outreach from another parish beginning in 1984. His church was not far from the Carpenter's Home Church, and his keyboardist played Sunday evenings at that Church. While Rodney was there, Bud's keyboardist called him up during an evening service and said, 'Turn on your radio, you've got to hear this!' He did so, and he heard people laughing. There was a lot of dead air time, which was very unusual, since this particular station would normally return to its regularly scheduled programming at the slightest indication of slack time.

Bud's wife, Fran, soon went to one of the meetings, but when he asked her about it, she said the Rodney made fun of 'those who wear their collars backwards, and who wear those robes and call themselves father but look like mother.' This was not particularly endearing to him as an Episcopal priest, but he was still curious as to why Rodney was having meetings almost every day of the week for several weeks running, so he decided to check into it further. He attended two 10:00 am meetings, and left at about 12:00 or 12:30, while the meetings were still in progress.

He had heard various small groups of people laughing, but other than that, he did not feel that there was anything particularly unusual about the meetings. But then, on a Sunday evening,

Andrea, a young woman from Bud's church, came to his office at 7:15 and invited him to the revival. So he went, and there were 7,000 present. Hoping that he would not be recognized, he wore street clothes and sat in the back. Rodney Howard­Browne began walking around a bit, and would stop and stare at people for long periods of time. Then he would tell them to go out into the aisle, and he would say 'filled,' and they would fall down under the power of the Spirit.

Before long, Rodney began wandering toward him. Bud later said that at this point, he was undergoing a struggle, and his head was arguing with his heart. His head was saying to Rodney, 'Surely you're not coming any further ­ stay away from here,' but in his heart he was saying, 'I wish he'd pray for me.' Then Rodney went over to the back and stared at him for a long time. Soon, he pointed to Bud and Andrea, and to two people in back of them, and said to the ushers, 'Those four, bring them out here.' He said, 'filled,' and they fell to the floor. Bud began laughing uncontrollably for twenty minutes, and eventually managed to crawl on his hands and knees back to his seat. Although he wasn't sure at the time what had happened, he later realized that God had opened up his shell.

The Lord soon changed the direction of his ministry from parish priest to evangelist, despite the fact that 'there's not exactly a high demand for evangelists in the Episcopal church.' Yet,

within days he was he was asked to speak at churches he had never known by people whom he hadn't met, and almost immediately, he was spreading the revival throughout the world. According to Charisma (August, 1994, p. 23), within a year he had spoken before 100,000 people at 120 meetings in twenty different cities.

Oral Roberts

As a result of his meetings in Lakeland, Florida at the Carpenter's Home Church, Rodney Howard­Browne was invited to Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and to Oral

Roberts University, also in Tulsa, where Oral Roberts spoke to Rodney Howard­Browne as follows:

When my son Richard went down to Lakeland where you had preached . . . when he got in the building [Carpenter's Home Church], the Spirit of the Lord fell on him and he couldn't preach. He fell down under the power of God and he laughed and he laughed and we put it on our Sunday morning . . . television program two Sundays in a row. And there's been more talk over those two half hours than we've had in months and months. People have been laughing all over America through those two programs that Richard made while he was there . . . and my wife and I sat there and we watched and we laughed and we cried.

I guess I'm the most moved tonight because God is in the now. . . . And the stream is always flowing. It ebbs and it tides. And every so often He says, 'It's time for another level of my move.' And He lays His hand on someone that nobody thought about. None of us were ever known by people. Nobody would have selected us. But the King of kings and Lord of lords knows something we don't know. . . . And my brother, the Lord brought me here tonight. I've never met you in the flesh. I was in South Africa twice in Wembley Stadium, when 30,000 came a night and your family was there but you weren't born at that time. I believe you said your brother was saved in that meeting but I just want you to know that I know who you are. [He lays a hand on his shoulder and begins to speak in tongues.] Raised up from a new kind of seed. With a new kind of revelation that those in the Spirit will know what it is. Those who are not in the Spirit and will never get in it will not know, so we cannot blame them. Yet a fresh wave. It's not something you're doing.

Oral Roberts then fell under the power of the Holy Spirit.

Richard Roberts, Oral's son, then said, 'Brother Rodney, this has been the hardest summer of my life. . . . It was several weeks before I was to go [to Lakeland]. And brother Strader had said, 'Richard when you come, everyone who has preached in my church since brother Rodney was here has been filled with a fresh baptism of joy.' [I said,] 'Well, let it happen to me.' Because, having taken on forty million dollars of debt [Richard Roberts begins to laugh. Everybody laughs.] . . .

That fresh baptism hit me at Lakeland. I was not prepared. But it has stayed on me. I was flying home, reading a book on an airplane and just began to laugh uncontrollably. The flight attendant thought there was something wrong. The people around me thought there was something wrong. [Laughter.] And I've been in business meetings and someone would come and say, 'Here's something and we don't have the money to pay for it,' and I would just fall and laugh. [Laughter.] . . . God by His Spirit spoke to me and said, 'The same way that you're laughing here you're going to laugh while I pay off the forty million dollar debt.'

Oral Roberts University then cancelled classes for two days in favour of Rodney Howard­Browne's meetings. At the close of the first meeting, 4,000 students and faculty lined up throughout the hallways and out onto the school's lawn. 'Most of them ended up on the ground after Howard­Browne touched them,' Charisma reported.

Charles And Frances Hunter

At one point during the meetings at the Carpenters Home Church, Karl Strader had telephoned Charles and Frances Hunter, the well­known Christian authors based at John Osteen's church in Houston, Texas, to tell them what was happening. They then contacted Marilyn Hickey to ask her about it. In their book on the revival, Holy Laughter (Kingwood, Texas: Hunter Books, 1994), p. 36, Frances Hunter wrote, 'I had never heard Marilyn so excited! She shared more experiences of what had happened during Rodney Howard­Browne's meetings, not only in Florida but in Denver, as well. Not only did this happen to her, but it affected her daughter, Sarah, too! As a matter of fact they spent the night before Sarah's wedding at Rodney's meeting, laughing!'

Charles and Frances Hunter came into contact with the revival when they went to Rodney Howard­Browne's winter camp meeting in Lakeland, Florida, in December of 1993, where they 'saw demonstrations of power with Rodney just pointing at people who would then fall under the power of God' (p. 38). The Hunters then went to Wayne Jackson's church, Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, Michigan, where some of the same manifestations started to break forth as a result of their ministry (pp. 40­50).

In spring of 1994, the Hunters brought the revival to London, England (pp. 51­57). The London meetings were held a pentecostal church pastored by Colin Dye, Kensington Temple, one of the largest churches in Great Britain, where more than 116 nations were represented. There was a group of twenty from Ireland who were anxious to bring the anointing to Ireland (p. 54). 'Scottish people were there, and they took this back to their nation. Representatives from other countries were also there, and they laughingly but seriously took this back to Switzerland and Germany' (p. 55). 'By Easter Sunday it was impossible to get all the people into the church. . . . It was snowing outside and we were told they had bolted the doors to keep the people out who were trying to break down the doors to get into this great move of God' (ibid).

Soon afterward, the Hunters went to the Hague and Rotterdam in Holland (pp. 57­59), where thirty visitors from Belgium then brought the revival from Rotterdam back to their own country (p. 59).

Ray Sell

Ray Sell, who died suddenly of a blood disease in December of 1994, was one of the revival's most powerful evangelists. During May and June of 1994, incredible things happened in western New York State as a result of his ministry. According to some reports, in May, while Ray Sell was ministering at Elim Bible Institute in Lima, NY, the visible shekinah glory of the Lord became manifest.

Ray had been touched by the revival after visiting Rodney Howard­Browne's meetings at Emmanuel Christian Church in Spring Hill, Florida in February of 1993. Although he was pastor of another church, he spent some time as a 'catcher' for Rodney while he was in Florida. He resigned his church and continued to attend Emmanuel before beginning his itinerant ministry as a evangelist the following year.

Early openings in 1994 led him to Michigan. Gerald Tricket of the Elim Missionary Assemblies attended Ray's meetings there, and felt freshly anointed. Gerald therefore invited him to his church north of Detroit, and a cloudburst of blessings followed there as well. Excited about what was happening, Gerald called another associate, Ron Burgio, in Buffalo, and insisted he come to the meetings. In Buffalo there was another glorious encounter

in the Lord, and the pastor of Elim Gospel Church in Lima was urged to attend, and he was revolutionized. ...

Carlton and Elizabeth Spencer arrived at Elim for Ray Sell's meetings there in the beginning of May. Carlton Spencer wrote [to Richard & Kathryn Riss, December 10, 1994], 'Never have we had so many come and stay so late ­ from 7:30 pm to 2:00 am was not uncommon. God was there and lives were revolutionized! Elim Fellowship's Annual Pastor's Conference convened immediately after the Sell meetings. Ray stayed on, ministering twice, I believe. But the pastors who had already had a fresh encounter with the Lord followed up laying hands on many ­ and the overflow continued. This made many openings for Ray in New York, PA and

Ontario, as far as Ottawa, and blessing followed.'

One of the people to attend Ray Sell's meetings at Love Joy Gospel Church in Buffalo, New York, Ted Pawlicki, wrote on May 17, 'The meetings are continuing and are quite extraordinary. People come up for prayer and often fall down, sometimes laughing. I have been to a number of these meetings and I feel that the Lord is really in them. A lot of lives are being changed.' The following day, he wrote, 'Ray Sell . . . does distribute Rodney's books. However, the practices of falling down, laughing, etc., have continued in the Church after this

fellow has left. . . . The whole thing is very new to me. The first meeting of this kind was only a month ago. . . . When I first saw this stuff, I was enormously sceptical. Nonetheless, I

cannot deny the fact that I have sampled the first fruits of these events and found them quite sweet and wholesome. I can see evidence of the Holy Spirit working (both in my own life and in the lives of those around me) through these meetings and manifestations.'

On May 25, Ted Pawlicki wrote,

I have attended several meetings administered by an evangelist named Ray Sell. The meetings have continued, after the evangelist moved on, under the administration of the Pastor of the Church I attend (Love Joy Gospel Church in Buffalo, New York). The meetings that I have been in around Buffalo have been very orderly during the teachings. Sometimes people shout 'amen', sometimes people laugh briefly. Sometimes the preacher laughs briefly.

The services follow a reasonable, predictable cadence of worship, teaching, offering, worship (brief), testimony, teaching, altar call, prayer for individuals. The preacher/pastor usually prays for those giving testimonies. These people often fall to the ground (the ushers function as 'catchers'). They will sometimes laugh, but I have not seen such laughter disrupt the rest of the meeting. I have sat and heard some very good exposition of the word of God and hardly noticed the fact that there are a half dozen people lying on the floor in the front of the sanctuary.

I have also seen a large number of people come up for the altar call wanting to give their lives to Jesus, by the way. The final prayer for individuals can last several hours and it is where large numbers of people start falling down. It is during this time that large numbers of people are laughing. I, personally, have gotten prayer, but I have not 'gone out under the power' / 'been slain in the spirit' as of yet. The preachers and pastors have been quick to point out that the manifestations are not the thing. Getting in touch with God is the thing. I have been told not to worry, that God works differently with different people. I have also been told that I need to 'press in to God' and 'yield to the Holy Spirit'. I have been told to seek the blesser (the Holy Spirit), not the blessing (a dramatic manifestation). I feel like God has touched my heart, but I have not 'fallen down'. We are also told that getting prayer from the people in charge is not necessary, that God can touch you as you sit in your pew. . . .

In the meetings I have seen, only the preachers, pastors, and appointed elders of the Church have been praying for people. People in the congregation have been discouraged from praying for the 'anointing' to come upon the person next to them. (During the meeting, that is; people have been encouraged to practice at home). The reason for this seems to be to maintain order in the meeting. I admit, it is strange to be sitting in my pew, singing praises to God while 100 or so people are lying of the floor of the church. People laughing with all their might while lying on the floor does create an impression of disorder.

It is a strange and shocking sight to behold. However, this disorder appears to happen at its appointed time. It does not seem to happen at times when quietness is in order (the teachings). So, I would say that I have seen the orderly administration of some disorderly manifestations. The 'disorder', however, has its place in an orderly meeting. And the fruit has been good. This is what I have seen.'

Ted Pawlicki reported that, by June 1, there had been about sixty 'Holy Ghost Revival' meetings in the Western New York (WNY) area during the previous six weeks, at Love Joy Gospel Church in Buffalo, Elim Gospel Church in Lima, and Tabernacle AG in Orchard

Park. He wrote, 'there seems to be a coming together of churches through these meetings. I was at a meeting last Sunday, where we counted visitors from at least 30 different churches. . . . In the WNY meetings, I have seen a handful of people give their lives to the Lord each night I have been there (about 10). This may not sound like large numbers but it is more than I have

seen come in several years previous. Lots of people have been coming up for rededication.'

By June 9, Ted was saying that the revival had been in progress in western New York for about two months. 'I was quite sceptical about the whole thing at first, but after I searched the scriptures and saw the fruit I became convinced that it was a move of God. I got a little taste of laughter (joy) about a week or so into it. Several people very close to me have had some rather dramatic manifestations and been filled with joy. (I mean really filled). However, I have not had any of the manifestation' associated with the move since my initial giggles a few weeks ago.'

On June 20, he wrote, 'there was a week of revival meetings at Elim about one month ago. Evangelist Ray Sell was administering at the time. Brother Ray has run meetings in about 5 different churches (Elim included) in the Western New York area in the last 3 months or so. I didn't go to the Elim meetings, but a crew of people from Love Joy Gospel Church (LJGC) in Buffalo (the church I attend) was there. Pastor Ron Burgio of LJGC is affiliated with Elim. There was some kind of leadership conference going on at Elim at the time. . . . I have heard testimonies about . . . visions . . . . Several people have mentioned the cloud.'

During his testimony at Rodney Howard­Browne's summer camp meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, at 10:00 am on Thursday, July 21, 1994, Ray Sell said,

I was in the ministry full time ­ this was about two years ago, and I became very frustrated ­ I became very disgusted, because I was reading the word of God and I was seeing that I should be laying hands on the sick, they should be recovering. That I would be praying for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit and they were not being filled. And I just cried out to God, and I said, 'God, I know your word's true, so obviously the problem's with me.'

And I began to cry out heart­wrenching, gut­wrenching prayers to God, and what was happening I now realize was that I was beginning to get hungry. And it was just a short time after that where brother Rodney, you came to our mother church, Emmanuel Christian Church in Spring Hill, and you prayed for me about the third day of the meetings, and not a whole lot happened at that point. But the following Sunday, at my own home church, the fire of God fell on me as I walked up to the pulpit. And what I now realize was at that time, God was beginning a work on the inside of me. And I just want to share this, because I believe there's people out there, you've been touched and you don't really realize it and all hell is breaking out in your life, and you're seeing everybody filled with the joy, and you wonder, 'What's wrong with me?'

Well I literally went through hell for a week after that point. I went through depression. I went through anger. And what was happening was [that] God was beginning to purge out of me everything that was not of Him. And He later showed me that before He could fill me with His power, that He had to eliminate everything that was not of Him, and He completely emptied me during that week. And the following Sunday [the old] Ray Sell died.

And it was at the moment that that happened, that He began to fill me with His power and His anointing. And He began to break my heart with the things that broke His heart. And He told me to resign my church, which I did. He said He was going to take me out to the road and great and mighty things were going to happen in my ministry, and I began to sit at my home church with pastor Bill Wilson, and absolutely nothing happened in the ministry for almost a year. And God said, 'Be faithful. Let me complete that work. Let me prepare you. Let me do what I have to do, and when it happens it's going to happen fast, and it's going to happen big, so you get ready.'

There were times where it was difficult, and there were times where the finances [were] very difficult, and we never said anything to anybody ­ we just trusted God. And He continued to tell me what happened is going to happen very big and very fast. And, I just want to encourage people out there ­ God has touched you. He's beginning to birth a vision on the inside of you. He's beginning to show you great and mighty things. But be patient. Don't try to kick the door down. Wait on Him. Be faithful. Where you're at, begin to allow God to birth that on the inside of you to prepare you, to give you the message that He has for you. And to begin to prepare the people that He's going to have you minister to. And in His timing He will open up the door that no man can close.

Mona And Paul Johnian

In the June 1994 issue of Charisma (pp. 54­58), there was an article by Steven Smith about the spread of the revival to the Christian Teaching and Worship Centre (CTWC) in Woburn, a suburb of Boston. The 450­member church is pastored by Mona Johnian and her husband Paul. Her book, Fresh Anointing (South Plainfield, NJ: Bridge Publishing, 1994), provides 132 pages of descriptions of the new revival from her perspective.

According to Charisma, the revival broke out in their church after they attended revival meetings led by Rodney Howard­Browne in Jekyll Island Georgia, in November of 1993. At first, Mona was not impressed by the various phenomena she observed there, but she was surprised that her own pastor, Bill Ligon of Brunswick, Georgia, fell to the floor when Rodney Howard­Browne laid his hands upon him. 'Bill is the epitome of dignity, a man totally under control,' she said. The first chapter of her book describes a meeting at her church in which revival broke out while Bill Ligon was there as a guest minister. From the Johnians' church, the revival spread to other churches, including Bath Baptist Church of Bath, Maine, pastored by Greg Foster.

In a video entitled Revival, produced in his church in August of 1994, Paul Johnian said, 'We cannot refute the testimony of the Church. . . . What is taking place here is not an accident.

It's not birthed by man. It's by the Spirit of God. . . . The last week in October of 1993, Mona and I went down to Georgia. We belong to a Fellowship of Charismatic and Christian Ministries International, and we went down there for the annual conference. And hands were laid on us. And we were anointed. And I'm just going to be completely honest with you. What I witnessed there in the beginning I did not even understand. I concluded that what was taking place was not of God . . . because there was too much confusion. . . . I saw something that I could not comprehend with my finite understanding. And it was only when I searched the Scriptures and asked God to show me and to reveal truth to me that I saw that what was taking place in the Body of Christ was a sovereign move of the Almighty. And I, for one,

wanted to humble myself and be a part of the sovereign move of the Almighty. And I came back. I really didn't sense any change within me. But I came back just believing God that He was going to be doing something different in our congregation.'

Jerry Gaffney

Jerry Gaffney, an itinerant evangelist from the peninsula area of northern Washington, began witnessing unusual signs of revival in the various churches in his area beginning at his home church, Westgate Chapel in Edmonds, part of the Fellowship of Christian Assemblies, on October 23, 1993. This church came into continuous revival on February 11, 1994, when all but four in the congregation fell to the floor under the power of God. Prior to this, he had spent over a year and a half praying between forty or fifty hours every week.

In late February, Jerry and his pastor went to New York City and Washington D.C. to visit various people in ministry, including Jim Simbla, David Wilkerson, and Rodney Howard­Browne. He said that when he was at the Rodney Howard­Browne meetings at a

Church of God in Washington D.C. on February 28, 1994, that the Lord seems to have put this mantle upon him for the spreading of revival in an unusual way.

In March, after he returned to his home church in the state of Washington, in a series of three services held on one day, 118 people came to Christ and a lady with a broken back was healed.

The following Sunday, Jerry spoke at a Four­Square church, where thirty people ran forward for prayer and twenty fell under the power of God. Among those who ended up running forward for prayer was a young man who had been brought there against his will by his parents. At the time, he was still high on heroin. Meetings were held there twice daily, six days a week, for another 26 weeks, beginning April 10, 1994. There were many testimonies of healings and of people experiencing the work of God in their lives.

Soon afterward, meetings were held at the Lighthouse Assembly of God in Port Angeles for three weeks, than at Sequim, Forks, Bremerton, Blaine, Silverdale, Ocean Shores, and Central Park. The meetings at Sequim had to move from the Four­Square church to the Assemblies of God church after the first week due to the crowds. The meetings at Sequim lasted four weeks.

Then, at a Friday meeting in Forks, one­third of the entire town showed up, and someone was healed of a dislocated shoulder. After two weeks at Forks, he went to Bremerton, where people would show up at 5:00 for services starting at 7:00. People could not wait for

the altar call. During the meeting they would say, 'Do I have to wait to get saved?' They wanted to respond to the altar call hours before it was going to be given. In one case, a lady came running down with a teenaged child, wanting to get saved.

Jerry spent five weeks in Blaine, Washington after leaving Bremerton, then went to Silverdale for another five weeks, where five people ran down to the front of the church in order to be

saved. After a two­week holiday, Jerry went to Ocean Shores for four weeks, and Central Park for the first four weeks of the new year. Then, for the next six weeks he was in Sequim, where there were eight weddings in one meeting.

One of his most unusual practices is that he performs wedding ceremonies on the spot for people who repent of fornication, in order to prevent them from falling back into sin. He said that at an Easter service, they sang two songs, baptized twenty people (many of whom were on drugs, and who began falling out under the power when they were being baptized), held a wedding for several people, had a sermon, sang songs, took up an offering, then had a

reception for the wedding.

When he held meetings in Marysville, California, one of the people present said that next to the day that he received his salvation, it was the holiest day in his life because there was such an intensity of the presence of God. One of the most conservative people in the church was shaking under the power of God.

Present at these meetings were Roy and Anne Collins, who were at Branham meetings and Kathryn Kuhlman meetings years ago. They cried and cried, and said, 'It's starting all over again.'

In his meetings, between fifty and sixty percent of those who come to Christ have typically continued in the faith. John Wilcox, who attended one of Jerry Gaffney's meetings at

Lighthouse Assembly of God in Port Angeles, remarked that 'The power of God to save and heal was evident, and many were slain in the Spirit. Jerry is a humble man, and this move of God through him is very evidently a sovereign one ­ there is obviously no fakery or self­glorification [involved].'

The Vineyard Churches

In 1988, John White wrote When The Spirit Comes With Power, dealing with revival and its relationship to strange behavioural manifestations, including falling to the ground, trembling, and crying out. The subject matter of this book became very timely for the revival, and it was in a sense, prophetic, since it contained a wealth of references to John Wimber and the Vineyard movement.

According to John Wimber ('Vineyard Reflections', May/June 1994, p. 1), in September of 1976, Bob Fulton, Carol Wimber, Carl Tuttle and a few other people, began to assemble at Carl Tuttle's sister's home for prayer, worship, and seeking the Lord. He wrote that by the time he became involved several months later, 'the Spirit of God was already moving powerfully.' During the spring of 1977, this developed into the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim, which within seventeen years had become a mother church to over 550 Vineyard churches worldwide. During those years, VCF Anaheim had what John Wimber describes as 'an ongoing interaction with the Holy Spirit in which we'd have ebbs and flows' (ibid, p. 2).

After a bout with cancer in 1993, Wimber said that by October of that year, the Lord had spoken to him seventeen times that this would be a 'season of new beginnings' for the Vineyard churches. He brought this message of new beginning to a Vineyard Board meeting in November of 1993 at Palm Springs. At the same meeting, John Arnott, a regional overseer of Vineyard Churches in Ontario, Canada, learned from Happy Leman, Midwest Regional Overseer, 'how the Holy Spirit had recently powerfully renewed and refreshed Randy Clark (VCF St. Louis) in a meeting conducted by evangelist Rodney Howard­Browne in Tulsa, Oklahoma' (ibid, p. 3). Randy began to witness similar outpourings in his home church and elsewhere, and John Arnott invited him to Toronto [or, more specifically, to Mississauga,

just outside of Toronto] to minister in his church. These meetings began on January 20, 1994, and 'four days of meetings turned into . . . months of almost nightly meetings in numerous

locations in Ontario. It has since poured out through those who have visited there into similar renewal meetings all over the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and even Europe'

(ibid).

According to Charisma (June 1994, p. 53), within weeks of the meetings that began on January 20, people were coming from New York City, Dallas, Fort Wayne, and New Orleans, and returning to their own churches to hold protracted meetings in their own areas.

The March 15, 1994 issue of Christian Week, a newspaper published bi­weekly in Winnipeg, Manitoba, featured the revival on its front page in an article entitled 'Holy Laughter Lifting

Spirits,' by Doug Koop, who wrote, 'Since the outbreak of joy began in mid­January, the Airport Vineyard has been holding services six nights a week, some in rented facilities to

accommodate crowds of up to a thousand people. In mid­February they reported a nightly average attendance of 800. . . . The phenomenon has spread throughout southern Ontario and more meetings were being held in cities including Cambridge (a reported average nightly attendance of 600), Stratford (300), Barrie (250) and Hamilton (250).'

Randy Clark said that he couldn't explain his sudden involvement as a leader in a new outpouring of God's Spirit, stating that he had been 'relatively unsuccessful in 23 years of ministry.' However, 'a major change took place in his life last summer when he attended services led by South Africa­born Pentecostal evangelist Rodney Howard­Browne.' According to the article, many church leaders were beginning to experience 'supernatural joy' as a result of attending weekly meetings in Toronto for Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Pentecostal, Anglican, and United Church pastors. 'Clark has also accepted several invitations to speak to pastors and lay leaders in denominational settings­­notably with both Convention and Fellowship Baptist groups.'

In June of 1994, Daina Doucet of Toronto reported in Charisma (pp. 52­53) that the movement had spread to Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Pentecostals, Mennonite Brethren, Anglicans, and leaders of the United Church of Canada, all of whom were attending nightly meetings at the Airport Vineyard Christian Fellowship. Guy Chevreau, a pastor affiliated with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, was quoted to the effect that the revival is 'crossing denominations, and denominational barriers are coming down. . . . What we're talking about here is God's manifest presence, such that He is seen, felt and experienced and folks' lives are getting changed.'

John Arnott has described it is as a 'nameless, faceless revival. . . . It's basically people no one has ever heard of suddenly ministering powerfully in the Lord' (ibid).

Randy Clark

At the 'Catch The Fire' Conference in Toronto on October 13, 1994, Randy Clark said that by 1986, a period of dryness, smugness, and self­sufficiency had begun in Vineyard Churches. Although there was a certain ritual, or liturgy, there was really no expectation that God would come into the midst of all of it. It was a time of discouragement and disillusionment. At his church, there had been only three healings of terminal illnesses over a period of eight years. He began taking courses from various institutes of church growth. In his head he knew that God could show up, but he didn't really expect that it would happen. He 'felt empty, powerless and so little anointed. . . . Emotionally, spiritually and physically I knew I was burning out.' By August of 1993, he was close to a breakdown. He would shake whenever there was

criticism of his church, or of what he was doing.

While he was still undergoing this desert experience, Randy became discouraged and looked at the success of another pastor who was a friend of his, Steve Sjogren. He began to realize that

he would have to do things differently. He went to his church leaders and said that he wanted to go back and start over, and make a sharp turn in how things were being done.

It was at this point that Randy received an unexpected phone call at midnight from a friend of his, Jeff McClusky, who had the gift of discernment. He asked him, 'How are you doing?' and 'How is your church doing?' To put up a good front, Randy said that things were fine, but Jeff began talking about some of his own problems. He had been on the verge of suicide. He had once known the glory of God, and it was gone. Then, he received a phone call from a friend named Donny who asked him, 'Jeff, what happened to you at about 3:00 am?' He had been led to pray for him just as he was about ready to commit suicide. Soon afterward, Jeff's aunt, Mary Ellen Hutchins called, and said that she was getting tired of being awakened at 3:00 am to pray for him.

After Jeff recounted some of these things, Randy admitted that things really were not going well, and that he was pretty low. Then Jeff told Randy that he had just returned from a conference led by Rodney Howard­Browne. 'You've got to go hear this guy.' He talked to him for hours about how he had been spiritually revived at these meetings, and about how people were being refreshed and re­filled.

But to Randy's disappointment, the next set of meetings to be held by Rodney Howard­Browne would be among the Word of Faith people, at Kenneth Hagin Jr.'s Rhema Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was the one group that Randy opposed ­ the name­

it­claim­it people. He asked the Lord if he could wait a week before going to Rodney's meetings, but he said, 'the Lord spoke to me immediately, and said, "You have a denominational spirit. How badly do you want to be touched afresh?"'

In August of 1993, Randy and his associate pastor, Bill Mares, went to the meetings at Rhema. There, at one of the meetings, Randy heard a woman laughing. 'She's in the flesh,' he thought.

But then, as if to answer his thoughts, Rodney said, 'There are others of you, who, if you get upset, that's your flesh!' Then, there was a blind three­year­old who fell down under the power of God. This convinced Randy that this was not the work of man, since it was clear that she was not imitating everyone else.

Bill was filled with the Spirit, and fell down under the power of God. Rodney was saying, 'My job is to make you thirsty for God.'

At the third meeting that they attended, Randy fell under the power when Rodney prayed for him. In 1984 in the Baptist church and then in 1989 at the Vineyard, he had been filled, but with shaking. But this time, there was no shaking, and this caused Randy to doubt that the experience was real. He thought, 'I'm weak minded. I'm just falling under suggestion.' But when he tried to get up, he found that he was unable to do so. It was as though he was pinned to the floor. He had been in a line of people who had been filled, and 'two bodies down from me, there was somebody oinking.' This caused Randy to start laughing, and he couldn't stop. After he finally got up, he got more and more drunk in the Spirit. It was a one mile walk to his car, and he walked the whole way laughing.

At a later meeting that week, Rodney announced that on the following day he would pray individually for all 4500 people. On that day, Randy got in line. There was a very long wait, but finally Rodney came by, saying 'filled, filled, filled', and Randy went down for twenty minutes. But then, Rodney was saying, 'You don't get drunk on a sip.' So Randy went to another part of the building, took his glasses off to disguise himself, and he went down again. Then he put his glasses back on, and went to another part of the building, bowing his head to avoid recognition. He went down a third time. But there was no shaking, and no feeling of electricity. He was afraid to get in line again, yet he felt a need to learn. Also, he was hungry,

because he had been fasting for two weeks. He had said to God that he would not eat anything until He had received a touch from Him.

Rodney's brother, Basil, saw Randy watching, and asked him, 'Do you want to get in line?' Randy answered, 'I've already been up three times.' Basil said, 'That's all right, you look hungry,' so Randy went yet again to be filled. When he later stood up, he realised that, suddenly, he was emotionally healthy for the first time. Because of this, he realised that God was working, even though he wasn't experiencing any shaking.

Bill then said to him, 'I can't wait until we get home and this happens in our church!' Randy answered, 'They're not ready.' Bill said, 'I can't wait that long.' Randy pulled rank and said,

'I'm the senior pastor.' But then God pulled rank and said to Randy, 'I'm God.'

So, the first Sunday back at the church, Bill and Randy testified as to what happened. Now, in their church, they had never had a manifestation of falling out under the power of God. But a woman fell, and laughed all the way through 45 minutes of worship. At the end of the service, they asked if anybody would like to be prayed for, and may people rushed forward. At the front there was a line of people that stretched wall to wall. Every single person fell down as Randy touched them.

There was one university student who was sceptical. He went up to take communion, and was unable to move. He was frozen, as though his feet were set in concrete. Randy was coming toward him to pray for him, but Daryl said, 'I don't want you to pray for me. I don't think this is real.' Randy asked, 'They why are you up here?' He said, 'I can't move.' Randy said, 'You don't think this is real, yet you can't move?' Randy prayed for him, and he was falling further and further backward. 'Randy, I can't stand up.' 'Then why don't you lay down?' 'Can I?' 'Yes!' He lay down, and got stuck and couldn't get up, and was healed of the emotional wounds that had resulted from sexual molestation. From that time onward, phenomena of this type began happening every Sunday at Randy's church.

Then, after a meeting at a Regional Meeting where all except one person fell under the power of the Spirit, John Arnott called Randy and asked him to come to minister at the Toronto Airport Vineyard. He wanted Randy to preach four times, and Randy said that he was only prepared to preach twice, but that his assistant minister [Gary Shelton, Randy's worship leader] could preach at the other two meetings. 'Do you think God will come?' 'I hope so,' Randy answered. This was the case even though a woman in Randy's church [Anni Shelton, Gary's wife] had had a vision [two weeks previously] of a map of Canada, and of the power of God

going forth from there over a radius of 360 degrees.

Randy's tentative feeling was due to the fact that his natural father had been unreliable. 'You never knew whether or not he would show up due to [his] work.' Without realizing that he was doing this, Randy had begun to project this behaviour onto God. At the meetings that Randy was going to hold in Toronto, John Arnott wanted to introduce the prophetic, and Randy's reaction was 'Oh God, no!' Randy did not like what was going on at places like Mike Bickle's church, and didn't know how to straighten out anything of this kind.

But then, on January 19, a Baptist friend of Randy's, Richard Holcomb of Ingram, Texas, called him on the telephone with a clear word of the Lord: 'Test me now. Test me now. Do not be afraid. I will back you up. Do not become anxious because when you become anxious you cannot receive me.' Randy had trusted this fellow because he always seemed to know exactly when Randy was in financial need, and on two occasions, sent him exactly the amount he needed at the time that he needed it. Without this phone call, Randy would probably never have had a central role in the Toronto Revival.

In the past, Randy had been afraid at times to step out to minister, not knowing whether God would be with him. But from this time forward, Randy Clark has had confidence that God would work through him whenever he would minister.

Argentina as a Prelude to the 'Toronto Blessing'

Commenting on a trip that he had made to Argentina in November of 1993, John Arnott said [in a conversation with Richard Riss at 'Catch the Fire' in October of 1994] that he was 'impressed by the unity of the church held together by the glue of revival.' He said that some of those associated with the revival included Claudio Freidzon, Hector Giminez, Carlos Annacondia, and Omar Cabrera.

'Carlos is a wealthy businessman (hardware manufacturer) who gave up everything to be a good steward for the Lord. He had a crusade in Buenos Aires that filled up the stadium. The goals are to take the city (Buenos Aires) for God and to take the nation for God. The sheep­stealing dynamic is absent there ­ there are too many converts ­ they don't know what to do with all of them.'

The Arnotts were also impressed by the manifestation of the power and presence of the Lord in Argentina. 'In La Plata, near Buenos Aires, there is a maximum security prison for 4000 inmates. This prison was out of control, and basically run by gangs within the prison. But permission was given to hold meetings there. They had pastors who were given responsibility over the converts. This was under the auspices of Carlos Annacondia.

'Over a period of five years, a Christian floor developed in the prison, of eight hundred people. This floor had round the clock prayer meetings, and 180 people were always praying at any given time, waiting before the Lord, and asking God to have mercy. Over the course of 5 years, 600 men completed their sentences, and only one was later re­arrested. Other prisoners always want to go to the Christian floor of the prison because it is safe and clean. They have corking on the bars to make things more comfortable. So others get saved as a result of going to the Christian floor. When they think they are ready, the prisoners apply to be transferred to another prison, and then start some of the same things in other prisons.'

The Arnotts said that when they arrived, five years after this started, they were met with a wave of people singing in Spanish, 'I'm free', right in the prison. 'We came to bless them and they prayed for us and we were all out on the floor in the prison,' John said. Carol added, 'And they made us gifts, hand­made crafts.' She was really touched by this. 'And Cindy Jacobs of Colorado Springs has these people praying for her,' John said.

The third annual Harvest Evangelism International Institute was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 4­13, 1993. In addition to John and Carol Arnott, about 100 others from North America attended, including C. Peter Wagner and Cindy Jacobs. According to Gerald Steingard, who was also present, all of these people were completely 'drunken' in the Spirit at certain times during the conference [conversation with Richard Riss, October 8,

1995]. Most of the evenings of this conference involved attending Hector Giminez's church, where, according to John Arnott, Claudio Friedzon was ministering [John Arnott to Richard

Riss, October 15, 1995].

In a brochure advertising this event, Ed Silvoso wrote, 'What is so unique about Argentina that warrants a trip to South America? For one thing, God is at work there is an amazing and

incomparable way. Have you ever read a book about revival and felt the intense desire to be there? Well, in our time, Argentina is such a place. Come and experience the hand of God

as you visit churches that hold services every day of the week.'

In the same brochure, C. Peter Wagner wrote,

Like a burning, dry tinder, the Spirit of God has ignited an extraordinary spiritual bonfire in Argentina over the last ten years. From the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) to breathtaking Iguazu Falls in the northeast, the flames of revival have blazed through Argentina and beyond, making the country one of the flashpoints of church growth in the world today. . . .

Argentine evangelist Carlos Annacondia began his crusade ministry in 1982, the year of Argentina's defeat in the Malvinas, just as the Spirit of God began to spark spiritual renewal. Since then, over a million and a half people have made public commitments to Christ during the course of Annacondia's ministry.

Hector Giminez was a drug addicted criminal when God called him into the Kingdom. He began ministering to troubled youth; and within a year, was leading a congregation of 1,000. Since 1986 his church in downtown Buenos Aires has exploded in size to over 120,000 members, making it the third largest church in the world.

The world's fourth largest church is also Argentina. Omar Cabrera and his wife Marfa began their ministry during the tough years of the 1970s. Long before most Argentine pastors, they began experiencing God's blessing as they learned the power of prayer to liberate people from sin, sickness, and the forces of evil. Now their church, centred in Santa Fe, ministers to 90,000 members in 120 cities.

The revival that began in the early 1980s has touched virtually every evangelical denomination. . . . The stirring of revival have drawn Argentine Christians into unprecedented forms of unity. ACIERA, the national association of evangelical Christian churches, and the monthly evangelical tabloid El Puente (The Bridge) has helped believers focus on common goals.

John Arnott

On June 29, 1994, in Rockville Centre, L.I., John Arnott spoke on many of the different origins of the outpouring that came to be known as the 'Toronto Blessing'. He and his wife, Carol, had spent much of 1993 and the beginning of January 1994 seeking the Lord for a fresh anointing. They spent all of their mornings with Him.

They had been powerfully impacted many years previously by Kathryn Kuhlman, and then more recently, by John Wimber, 'who really taught us that the anointing was available for everyone and in the context of team ministry things could be much improved' [John Arnott to Richard Riss, Sept. 19, 1994]. The Arnotts were friends of Benny Hinn, who also had an impact upon them. But these things tended to be mountain­top experiences, and they wanted something from God that would last.

Before the current outpouring, their church, the Airport Vineyard, had been in a hospital mode, where there was healing and deliverance, but in the final analysis, it seemed that all of

the needs were magnified, and the Lord was minimized. Then, they experienced a turnaround about a year before the outpouring, when they went to Mapleleaf Gardens in Toronto, where Benny Hinn was ministering. In those meetings, about twenty people in wheelchairs were healed. Backstage, Benny Hinn ministered to them, and Carol became really drunk in the Spirit and filled. Later, they went to further Benny Hinn meetings and to Rodney

Howard­Browne meetings in Fort Worth. However, he said this was not really what he was looking for ­ he wanted healing and salvation more than people laughing and falling to the floor.

But then, in late 1993, they went to Argentina to some meetings conducted by Claudio Freidzon. 'Do you want it?' Claudio asked. 'Oh, yes,' they said. 'Take it!' he answered, and at that time it seemed that there was just a click of faith. As a result of this, the Arnotts decided to start a monthly healing meeting at their own church in Toronto. The first was scheduled for January 30, 1994.

Then, in Palm Springs, Randy Clark had really blessed them at a Regional Meeting, so John Arnott invited him to Toronto for a series of four meetings beginning January 20. But 'the Lord fell on us powerfully there,' and the meetings continued indefinitely. 'It was wonderful. Too good to be true.' On Sunday, the last scheduled day of meetings, they told Randy not to go home. They offered to send some people to his pulpit at home and to fly his family to Toronto, and he accepted. 'Everybody catches it if they soak in it, but we're still working under Randy's anointing,' John said.

After that time, they went to many places, including Hungary for two and a half weeks. He said that it has proven to be highly contagious and transferable, and has spread to Switzerland,

Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, England, and Scotland, as well as most major cities in the United States and Canada. Many pastors visited Toronto. These were people who were very close to saying 'forget it' and they've been refreshed and have brought this back to their own home churches.

The Arnotts had once been at a meeting in which the speaker, Paul Cain, said he had a word for 'a John and Carol from Canada.' In this situation, there was a tremendous presence of God, and John Arnott said that he thought, 'Oh, God, you've found me.' But through this word he realized that his mind had been offended by the things of the Spirit. They had been making general rules at their church which were hindering the Spirit of God from moving.

These rules were their attempt to keep things tidy and presentable. He said to the Lord, 'If ever You come again [in power at our church], I will not put my hand to it.'

Speaking of the Airport Vineyard in Toronto, John Arnott said, 'when some of these things first came to our church, it sort of shut down our office. For the first three days, our receptionist could not talk. Then, after that, she could only speak in tongues. But she got so filled, the joy of the Lord just transformed her and her husband John, our sound man, and their

kids. He just got so drunk, drunk, drunk. . . . We've been having a party now for 160 days [as of June 29]. In the story of the prodigal son, the very best party of all is right there in the father's house. The angels party whenever one sinner repents, and there are thousands coming to Jesus every day throughout the world. The real joy comes in anticipation of the

wedding of the bride and the bridegroom.'

Worldwide Effects of the Vineyard Revival

On July 6, 1994, the Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, carried an article on the revival in Toronto by Julie Smyth, entitled 'Pilgrims Worshipping on a Different Plane', which points out

that the Airport Vineyard is in an unimpressive location, at a 'nondescript, flat industrial plaza', yet 'every day, 100 to 200 Christians from a variety of denominations fly to Toronto from as

far away as Japan and Australia on a pilgrimage to the church near the end of one of the airport runways.' It states that people are packing into this 400­seat church night after night, 'breaking into uncontrollable laughter, shaking, crying, falling to the ground and roaring like lions.' According to this article, when the revival first spread to the Airport Vineyard,

the ministry staff had to rent a banquet hall to accommodate the crowds, approaching one thousand people per night. Since then, they have been coming from Japan, Australia, South Africa, and many parts of Europe, especially England and Scotland.

The National & International Religion Report (July 11, 1994) reported that 'An extraordinary phenomenon has rippled across Argentina, Canada, Britain, the United States, South Africa, and India. Consistent reports describe a state similar to drunkenness, including shaking with laughter, crying, slipping into a trance, and falling to the floor. Repentance, warm feelings of love and peace, the 'return of prodigals,' and a number of salvations also have been reported. . . . The excitement started Jan. 20 for a small church in Mississauga, Canada, near Toronto. . . . Also instrumental in bringing renewal and ministering at the Toronto church was Arnott's

friend, Vineyard pastor Randy Clark. . . . 'We don't know why God has picked our dumb little church,' Jeremy Sinnott, one of the Airport Vineyard's pastors, told The Sunday Telegraph of London. . . . As reports of miraculous manifestations spread, pilgrims from the city's suburbs, the United States, Europe, Australia, Singapore, and Hong King swarmed to Toronto to receive what now is dubbed the "Toronto Blessing" and spread it to their home churches. . . . Congregations in Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Boston, Buffalo, Orlando, and Lakeland, Fla., have experienced renewal. They have come under the ministries of evangelists Howard­Browne, Hinn, Cindy Jacobs of the Colorado Springs­based prayer ministry Generals of Intercession, and other lesser­known leaders.'

By August of 1994, the worldwide reach of the revival was already recognized in Time (August 15, 1994, p. 38), Christian Week (August 23, 1994, pp. 1,4), and The Toronto

Star (August 25, 1994, p. A17).

Impact upon the United Kingdom

On December 13, 1994, Christian Week (p. 14) reported that, as of that date, the biggest impact of the Toronto Blessing had been taking place in the United Kingdom. In this article ('Airport Vineyard Still Flying High'), Doug Koop reported that 'The Church of England Newspaper conservatively estimates that more than 2,000 congregations 'have experienced the so­called "Toronto Blessing." (Some partisan observers have pegged the number as

high as 4,000 churches.)' The majority of these churches were Anglican, although many other denominations were represented as well.

Holy Trinity Brompton

One of the first and most highly publicised 'hotspots' for the awakening in England was an Anglican Church, Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), in London.

At about 11:30 a.m. on May 24, 1994, Eleanor Mumford, assistant pastor of the South­West London Vineyard and wife of John Mumford (pastor of South­West London Vineyard and overseer of the Vineyard Churches in Britain) met with a group of friends, many of whom were leaders of other churches, to describe her recent visit to the Toronto Airport Vineyard. As she explained her remarkable experiences of the power of God and prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, everyone was profoundly affected.

Nicky Gumbel, Curate of Holy Trinity Brompton, suddenly realised that he was very late for a staff meeting at his own church, and rushed back from this meeting with his wife, Pippa, to HTB church office in South Kensington. The meeting was getting ready to adjourn, so he apologized and spoke briefly about what had happened. He was then asked to pray the concluding prayer. He asked the Holy Spirit to fill everyone in the room. According to

the church newspaper, 'HTB in Focus,' 12 June 1994:

The effect was instantaneous. People fell to the ground again and again. There were remarkable scenes as the Holy Spirit touched all those present in ways few had ever experienced or seen. Staff members walking past the room were also affected. Two hours later some of those present went to tell others in different offices and prayed with them where they found them. They too were powerfully affected by the Holy Spirit ­ many falling to the ground. Prayer was still continuing after 5 pm.

At 4:00 that day, HTB's Vicar, Sandy Millar, received an urgent phone call while attending a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, chaired by General Secretary Clive Galver. Glenda, a member of the HTB church staff was calling to report that all of the members of the church team were on the floor of the office, unable to get up, after having received prayer. When Sandy asked how she had managed to get to the phone, she said that she had crawled. At an HTP service on the evening of May 29, Sandy Millar recounted the incident as follows:

I've never had such a message in my life. I was at a very serious meeting in the Evangelical Alliance, and we were talking about very serious things. And the telephone went, and Clive Calver, who's the chairman of the Evangelical Alliance, went and answered it and then he looked over at me, and he said 'It's for you,' he said, 'and it's urgent.' So I said, 'Oh, thank you very much.' And I went over and I took the call, and this was Glenda. Now Glenda works here most of the time ­ by which I mean she wasn't working that afternoon, and she said, 'Oh hello,' she said, 'I'm sorry to interrupt the meeting,' she said, 'but I thought you ought to know that the entire staff is slain in the Spirit and lying on the floor.' And these other seven solemn men and women were watching me because they wanted to know what this urgent news was, and they hoped it wasn't too serious. I wasn't quite ready to tell them, because I wasn't quite sure what it meant. So I just said to Glenda, oh, you have to be careful nowadays, I said to Glenda, 'Is that a good thing?' And she said, 'Yes, it's a very good thing, indeed.' So I said, 'Well what are you doing on the telephone then?' So she said 'Well, I'll tell you,' she said. . . . 'I have crawled to the telephone on my hands and knees.' So I managed to look solemn for another minute and I said 'Thank you very much. I will get back as soon as I can.'

Sandy rushed back to find people rather startled at what had happened. The church leaders invited Eleanor Mumford to preach at Holy Trinity Brompton that Sunday, May 29, at both the morning and evening services. After both talks, she asked the Holy Spirit to come. Wallace Boulton in The Impact of Toronto (Crowborough: Monarch, 1994), p. 21, wrote of the morning service:

There was a time of silence. Then slowly, members of the congregation began to cry quietly, and some to laugh. As the Holy Spirit came, Eleanor asked people to come forward if they wanted prayer. Many did so. As Eleanor's team and members of the church ministry team started to pray, people began to fall in the power of the Spirit. Soon the whole church was affected. There were scenes that few had ever seen before. The children arrived from their own groups and may of them were deeply touched and began praying for each other.

People lingered for a long time after each service. Audiotapes of Eleanor Mumford's evening

talk soon gained wide circulation in over one thousand churches of all kinds throughout England and served to pave the way for a massive reawakening among Anglicans and others.

Here are most of her comments:

I really can't get over that you should have asked me to come at all. But to ask me twice, in the same day, is grace upon grace, and I'm terribly grateful. We had a wonderful morning this morning, quite wonderful. And I've come back with some more friends this evening to join you again. And I was saying to Sandy just now, coming in, it just moves me greatly because I know we're family. We're all of us family, and God calls us to different corners and to do different things but the truth is, this is like heaven. It's just the family. And it's been a joy and I'm grateful to you for welcoming us and to be putting up with us.

Sandy mentioned to you that I've just got back from a little holiday. And in fact, my husband generously suggested, and I enthusiastically agreed, and then with much grace, the Lord gave me a word through somebody quite independently of us within the church that I should take a little trip to Toronto, which I did, for three days. ...

A Baptist pastor [Guy Chevreau], was involved in this remarkable move of the Spirit of God which seems to be taking place in eastern Canada. He's written this: 'At meetings hosted by the Airport Vineyard, Toronto, there has come a notable renewal and revival of hope and faith and of expectation. Over the past eighteen weeks, now about 130 days consecutively, the Spirit of God has been pouring out freedom, joy, and power in the most remarkable ways. Six nights a week,' - because they take a day off for Monday, six nights a week - 'between 350 and 800 people at a time gather for worship, testimony and ministry. Rededications are numerous. Conversions are recently being witnessed and ministry to over 2,000 pastors, clergy, and their spouses has been welcomed by a diverse cross­section of denominational leaders.'

And to date, they think that about a quarter of a million people have gone to either the Airport Vineyard or one or two of the surrounding Vineyards, or one or two Baptist churches which are much involved with this thing, as I will tell you later. This is supra­church. This is supra­denomination. This is not anybody's church. This is Jesus' kingdom.

'And with all of this there has come a renewing of commitment, and enlarging and clarification of spiritual vision, and a rekindled passion for Jesus and for the work of His kingdom. Some of the physical manifestations accompanying the renewal are unsettling for many people, leaving them feeling that they have no grid for evaluation and no map to guide them,' which is a sort of safe way of saying there are very bizarre things going on. ...

So you may say, other than the generosity of my husband and my mad enthusiasm, what did I go for? ... I went because I had heard that there was a tremendous party going on. And all through my life I've been one to get to a party. If I knew there was something happening, I wanted to be in the middle of it. It's always been that way with me. And I went in a state of personal bankruptcy. I knew that I was bankrupt, and I knew that I was needing the Lord badly, and I had an incredible longing in my spirit for the things that I had heard of. And some of the stories I was hearing were stirring me, and just making me cry in the listening, and I thought 'I need to get there.'

And so I went conscious of my need but high on expectancy. And so high that deep down, I was just sort of frightened of disappointment. I thought, 'God, I'm not sure that I'm not setting myself up to be let down, and a tiny bit disappointed, because my expectation is so high of what you're going to do.' And one evening I rang John back in London and he very sweetly in his typical way, he said to me, well now my darling, on a scale of one to ten, what do you think so far. And I said, 'Hmmm. Seventy­four?' And that's the truth. It really was. And far, far exceeded my expectations, so gracious and generous was the Lord. ... And so when I went forward on the first night, because they said on the first night, 'Anyone who's not been here before we'd like you to come first for us to pray for you.' And I went up unapologetically and the lovely pastor said to me, 'What would you like? What are you here for?' And I said, 'I want everything that you've got. I've only got two days, and I've come from London,' sort of defiantly. And behind this I was saying, 'I've payed the fare and I'm determined to get my money's worth. So what will you do?' And from that moment on they were a little bit like ­ they ­ the whole climate of this thing is surrounded with generosity. God has poured His spirit out on a people in an improbable little church, and they are now spending their time from morning to night giving away as fast as they can what God is giving to them. And as new people hit town, and as pastors hover across the horizon, they sort of savour as if it were fresh meat and they just long to come to you and lay their hands on you and give you all that God has given them, which I take to be a mark of the Lord. I just take it to be the generously of Jesus to His people.

And there was one very dear Chinese pastor who had come from Vancouver and he came fasting. He was obviously a very ascetic and Godly man and he was a very skinny man and he had spent much of his life I suspect fasting and he came fasting and famished and as he arrived, the Lord said to him, 'Gideon, you can forget about the fast because this is a time of celebration.' And so it was. It was celebration from beginning to end. I need to tell you that the church itself where I visited, it happened to be a Vineyard, but I think that was really quite incidental. It's placed on the very end of the airport runway at Toronto and is the most comically improbable building you will ever see. It's part of a little office block, and if you were blinking you would have missed it. And there was just a little bit of a paper notice in the window that said, 'Airport Vineyard.' And the band was splendid, but you know, just an ordinary church band. . . . And yet as I walked in, the atmosphere was electric with expectancy, and the pastors and the people whose church it was were just shining with the beauty of their Lord because they had spent the last 120 days in the presence of Jesus. ...

These are ordinary people ministering in the name of an extraordinary God. And their pastor, John Arnott has said, 'God is just using nameless and faceless people to minister His power in these days.' And that's what I love. There is no personality attached. There's no big name involved. There's no one church that's got a corner in the market. This is something that Jesus is doing. And the people and the church are simply preoccupied with the person and the power of the Lord Jesus. No personalities. Just Him. And I love that, because I'm tired of all that stuff. I'm tired of the heroes and the personalities. I just want Jesus. I just want Him and His Church straight. And that's what I think I received. I saw the power of God poured out, just as it was in the books of Acts, and as I said this morning, I didn't see tongues of flame, but I suspect it was because I wasn't looking. And I have heard recently in this country of a meeting which took place where the Spirit of God was poured out and the building shook. The building shook, and three separate witnesses quite independently, came home and said the building actually shook. So we're in the days of the New Testament. This is kingdom stuff, and it's glorious. But it's not new.

And so I scurried back to Scripture and I scurried back to Church history and I have discovered glorious things in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, who was the initiator of the Great Awakening in America during the mid­eighteenth century, and he wrote this, which is remarkably similar to what I saw in Toronto just last week, two weeks ago. 'The apostolic times seem to have returned upon us. Such a display has there been of the power and the grace of the Spirit.' Jonathan Edwards speaks of extraordinary affections ­ of fear, sorrow, desire, love, joy, of tears, of trembling, of groans, loud cries, and agonies of the body, and the failing of bodily strength. He also says we are all ready to own that no man can see God and live. If we, then, see even a small part of the love and the glory of Christ, a very foretaste of heaven, is it any wonder that our bodily strength is diminished? ...

I have discovered a new heroine in the last few days, who is the wife, or was the wife, of Jonathan Edwards. And she was a very godly and wonderful woman. And she fell under the power of the Spirit of God to such a degree in the 1740s, that for seventeen days, she was insensible. She was drunk for seventeen days. She could do nothing. (Now the Baptist pastor in Toronto had had to do all the school runs and all the school picnics for two days, because his wife was out for the count for forty­eight hours. And he was driving, and he was packing the lunches, and he was doing their homework ­ he was doing everything and he said, 'God, when are you going to lift off my wife, so that this home can get back into order?') But poor Jonathan Edwards had seventeen days in which his wife was insensible. And on one occasion she decided it was time to arise from the bed and to try and minister to the household, and they had a guest. So she got dressed in her best . . . and she went downstairs and lurching a little while, and as she passed the study where the door was open and Jonathan Edwards was talking to his friend about the Lord, as she heard the name of Jesus, her bodily strength left her, and she hit the floor. So they carried her back to bed, and there she stayed. And as it's said in the history books, no one recorded who made the lunch. So this thing is taking people over in the most remarkable way. And at the end of this time, Jonathan Edwards' wife said, 'I was aware of a delightful sense of the immediate presence of the Lord, and I became conscious of His nearness to me, and of my dearness to Him.' And I think it's this one phrase that has impressed itself upon my Spirit in the last week, and what I think is the key to this whole thing, is that the Lord in His mercy is pouring out His Spirit in order to persuade us, His people, of 'His nearness to me, and of my dearness to Him.' ...

I heard a story just this afternoon of a woman who had left a meeting rather as I had done, but she was reeling, and unwisely, she decided to drive home. This was all over the place, and she was stopped by the police. Honest to God, this is true. She was stopped by the police, and she got out of the car, and the policeman said, 'Madam, I have reason to believe that you're completely drunk.' And she said, 'Yes, you're right.' So he said, 'Well, I need to breathalyse you,' so he got his little bag, and as she started to blow into it, she just fell to the ground laughing. At which point, the policeman fell, too, and the power of God fell on him, and he and she were rolling on the freeway laughing under the power of God. And he said, 'Lady, I don't know what you've got, but I need it,' and he came to church the next week and he found Jesus. He got saved. And this is happening. People are going out and telling each other about Jesus with a recklessness that they've never known before. I don't know about you, but when people say 'evangelism' the hairs in the back of my neck go up and I get guilt and I feel awful and I feel destroyed and defeated. Evangelism is a breeze, people. It's such fun like this. So there was a woman who had left one of the meetings and she had been laughing on the floor for two hours, and she got really hungry. So she went to the Taco Bell . . . and she sat down . . . and she looked across, and she saw a whole family eating burritos. And she said to them, . . . 'Do you want to be saved?' And they all said, 'Yes!' All of them! And they were all saved and led to Christ on the spot.

And another man left a meeting and he went into a restaurant, and a man was watching him, and for about ten minutes, he watched him. And he had this . . . young man who came up to him and said, 'Excuse me, but are you a Christian?' And this chap had just left the meeting ­ he said, 'You bet.' And he said, 'Well, my wife has just left me. I've just lost my home. I've just lost my job, and I'm about to take my life. ... What can help me?' And he led him to Christ. And ... this is good news, people. This is news for the people out there. People are getting saved right and left. And they are now discovering even in the Toronto area that there are several hundreds of people that are getting saved. People right and left are coming to know Jesus, because Jesus is the joy of our lives. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. ...

There's a woman of whom I know. I know her story well, and it's a verifiable story, and she has been extremely ill with colitis. A most horrendous form of colitis for a very, very long time. She was, as a child, dreadfully abused. And she's married and infertile. No babies. And she's a secretary to a friend of ours. And last September, the Lord mercifully healed her of her colitis, and about three weeks ago she fell under the power of God to such a degree, and an hour or two later she got off the carpet and she said, 'I no longer have abuse in my history. I have no memory. I have nothing. It's as if there was never anything.' And she's now expecting her first baby. So God is healing the sick. And He's mending our wounds and He's doing things for us that it's taken us years of care and counselling to try and achieve. ...

People are being restored by the mercy and the sweetness of God. And, quite honestly, whether one stands or falls, whether one laughs or cries, whether one shakes or stands still, whether you go down could matter not, it just doesn't matter a bit. It doesn't matter how you go down. What matters is how you come up. It doesn't matter what goes on in the outside. What counts is what Jesus is doing in our bodies and in our souls, in our hearts and in our spirits.

We have a woman in my prayer group who is a hair dresser. And she's married to a Muslim, and her life is not easy. And she said that in the course of the last week, she's been reading her Bible like never before. But she said, 'I'm not reading it.' She said, 'I hear the voice of Jesus reading it to me. As if I were a child, Jesus reads me His book.' Wonderful things. ...

I think if we come receptive and childlike, there is infinite blessing for the people of God at this time. I've discovered in myself a love for Jesus more than ever. I've discovered in myself an excitement about the kingdom I wouldn't have believed possible. I've discovered that I'm living in glorious days. There's no other time; there's no other place where I would have chosen to be born and to live than here and now. ...

Although Holy Trinity Brompton was not the first church in the UK to be touched, the church newsletter, which detailed the events of Sunday, May 29 triggered 'an avalanche of publicity in The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Independent and The Times. Christian word­of­mouth and the newspaper coverage would draw hundreds of ministers to the church in the following weeks; soon hundreds of churches were engulfed by the most intense spiritual

fervour they had ever known. In the midst of these 'days of heaven' an HTB staff member spoke of the 'Toronto Blessing' and very soon the label became attached to what many believed was a special 'time of refreshing from the hand of the Lord' (Dave Roberts, The 'Toronto' Blessing [Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 1994], p. 12).

On May 31, Sandy Millar and HTB's Pastoral Director, Jeremy Jennings, flew to Toronto. That evening, they saw remarkable scenes at the Toronto Airport Vineyard, while the phenomena continued the following day at another staff meeting at HTB. Sandy and Jeremy returned on June 3, and Jeremy left to join a residential Alpha weekend, which was being run by the church for new believers and inquirers. Patrick Dixon, in Signs Of Revival, (Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 1994), p. 14, described what happened the following Sunday morning, June 5:

Nicky Gumbel shared what had been happening to him, and others also described their experiences. Once again, many manifestations appeared among the congregation ­ so many in fact that the normal communion service could not continue.

That night the church was completely full, with around 1,200 people. As people prayed, the main church area gradually become covered with people lying on the floor, requiring hundreds of chairs to be stacked away. More than 100 people were still praying in the church at 10 pm. Someone remarked: The word 'revival'' is one everyone's lips.

According to Wallace Boulton (pp. 22­23), Sandy Millar wrote to his congregation as follows:

We have begun to see an astonishing outpouring of the Spirit of God upon our own church and congregation. It seems to be a spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit and there are certainly some very surprising manifestations of the Spirit excitingly reminiscent of accounts of early revivals and movements of God's Spirit.

Some of the manifestations include: prolonged laughter, totally unselfconscious for the most part, and an inexpressible and glorious joy (I Pet 1.8). For some it is prolonged weeping and crying and a sense of conviction and desire for forgiveness, purity and peace with God. For others it seems to be the silent reception of the Spirit of God sometimes leading to falling down and sometimes standing up, sometimes kneeling, sometimes sitting.

There are great varieties of the manifestations of the Spirit. They are breaking out both during services and outside them in homes and offices. At times they are easy to explain and handle and at other times they are much harder and more complicated.

We have been hearing for several days of the movement of God's Spirit in the Vineyard Church in Toronto, Canada, and a number of people have come to us from there telling us about what was going on and of what they thought it all meant. For that reason Jeremy Jennings and I decided to go briefly to Toronto to see what we could learn and what conclusions, if any, at this stage it was possible to draw. The manifestations are quite extraordinary and would undoubtedly be alarming if we had not read about them previously in history.

The manifestations themselves of course are not as significant as the working of the Spirit of God in the individual and the church. The manifestations are the signs and therefore of course it is to the fruit that we look rather than the signs.

By June 18, Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent of the London Times, was reporting on the events at Holy Trinity Brompton ('Spread of Hysteria Fad Worries Church; 'Toronto Blessing"'):

One vicar was forced to cancel an evening service of Holy Communion and remove chairs from the nave because so many in his congregation were lying on the floor after experiencing the 'Toronto Blessing' named after its city of origin. Observers have described scenes where worshippers collapse en masse to the floor and burst out laughing during services. . . .

Churchgoers at Holy Trinity Brompton, Knightsbridge, which has reported on the 'revival' in its parish newsletter under the headline 'Holy Spirit Fever Hits London,' include MPs and young, wealthy people from the Chelsea and Fulham areas. . . .

According to a report in today's Church of England Newspaper, a service at Holy Trinity ended in chaos last weekend as dozens of people burst into spontaneous laughter or tears, trembled and shook or fell to the floor.

On June 19, Fred Langan and Paul Goodman provided the following account in the London Sunday Telegraph:

British Airways flight number 092 took off from Toronto airport on Thursday evening just as the Holy Spirit was landing on a small building a hundred yards from the end of the runway.

People from all over the world are flocking to this unlikely church, the Toronto airport branch of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, six nights a week. And every night there are astounding scenes of people shaking with laughter, slipping into a trance, falling to the floor, and crying.

'Last week Bishop David Pytches from England was down here on the floor roaring like a lion,' says John Arnott, the church's pastor, as he explains how evangelical Christians have swarmed to Toronto like pilgrims to Lourdes.

They come mostly from the city's suburbs, but as many as a quarter of them travel from the United States and from Europe ­ in particular England. In the world of charismatic evangelism, this is the place to be.

Already, the phenomena seen at the airport church are rippling out to churches all over the world. In London, astonished worshippers at Holy Trinity, Brompton ­ a cathedral of charismatic churchmanship renowned for its largely young upwardly mobile congregation ­ have been undergoing similar experiences.

And now, there is rising speculation among charismatic evangelicals that what may be happening is more than a renewal, more even than a revival. The world, it is said, may in fact be on the verge of a full­fledged awakening ­ something on the scale of the great Wesleyan movement that swept England during the early 18th century.

At the end of September, 1994, Mike Fearon wrote of Holy Trinity Brompton in his book, A Breath of Fresh Air (Guildford, Surrey: Eagle, 1994), p. 4, 'At the time of writing, four months after the "Toronto Blessing" made its unexpected but very welcome appearance, services there are so full that the choir stalls and chancel area behind the speaker have to be used as overflow areas, with scores of people standing in the gallery and around every doorway. Nearly 2,000 people pack into the building every Sunday.'

Sunderland Christian Centre

Ken and Lois Gott founded Sunderland Christian Centre (SCC) in 1987 in the north­east part of England. Although they moved into a new building in 1992, by the summer of 1994 they felt very dry spiritually. Then, in August of that year, Ken Gott visited Holy Trinity Brompton in London with four other Pentecostal leaders, and he was deeply humbled by the sense of God among Anglicans.

Andy and Jane Fitz­Gibbon wrote in Renewal (issue 227, April 1995, p. 11), that 'stereotypes were shattered as Ken and the other Pentecostalists received a new baptism in the Spirit at the

hands of Bishop David Pytches. The change was so profound in Ken that the members at SCC took up an offering and sent Ken, Lois and their youth leader for a week to Toronto. Like most of us who have made the same pilgrimage, they were profoundly touched, "soaking" in God for a week, never to be the same again.'

Upon their return from the Toronto Airport Vineyard, the Gotts decided not to tell the church about the phenomena they had seen. Ken said, 'We wanted to have a visitation, not an imitation.' Andy and Jane Fitz­Gibbon (ibid, p. 12) wrote:

On their return, the Holy Spirit landed on SCC! In a similar fashion to the beginnings at Airport Vineyard, the church met nightly, thinking it would last for a few nights.

After two weeks of nightly meetings without a break it seems the renewal 'kicked into another gear.' Without advertisement, word began to extend across the region. People started to come to SCC from a spread of 70 miles.

Numbers attending in the third week grew to 600 a night. . . . there have been occasions when the ministry team are still praying into the early hours of the morning. . . .

Catholics lie on the carpet next to the Plymouth Brethren. Anglican priests have fallen, shaken, and jerked along with the Baptists. . . .

Each night testimonies are given to God's changing peoples' hearts and lives. One woman testified a month and a half after her first visit that 'God has done for me in six weeks what counsellors had tried to do for 10 years,' so deep was the change in her life.

Teenagers have been given new boldness in testifying of their faith to their friends. Children as young as seven or eight are seeing amazing visions and publicly giving testimony to the fact that they know God is with them.

There have been a number of dramatic physical healings and a great increase in the release of prophetic ministry. . . .

Each night there is a ministry team composed of members of different churches throughout the region. Leading and preaching are done by a team of pastors and others who have been touched by the refreshing. The renewal meetings have become a 'melting pot' of God's people in the north­east. . . . among those who have come have been pastors and their spouses needing a fresh touch from God. Most have been spiritually dry, some even to the point of resigning from the ministry before they came to Sunderland. Many of these have testified to a renewed vision, a new sense of direction and a new empowering and anointing. Having been met powerfully, they have returned home and God has transformed their churches.

Needless to say, the effect on the church itself has been profound. Membership doubled in 1994, to just over 400. There have been many commitments to Christ during the renewal meetings. . . . One man, who had a criminal past, was brought to the meetings by his girlfriend. Half way through the meeting he ran out, unable to cope with what was happening. A few days later he was back, gave his life to Christ and received the Holy Spirit in a powerful and dramatic way. . . .

In January [1995] the renewal at Sunderland moved to two meetings a day with a daily prayer meeting in the afternoon.

By April of 1995, Charisma (vol. 20, no. 9) was reporting of Sunderland Christian Centre that its pastor, Ken Gott was leading six meetings a week at that church. 'The nightly meetings have remained constant since last summer, when Sunderland's leaders visited the Airport Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Toronto. . . . Visitors from Australia, the Netherlands and the United States have been to Gott's 400­member church, and the region's independent TV company has filmed services' (p. 58).

Charisma quoted Gott to the effect that 'We're just aware that the place is saturated with God's presence. . . . Visitors regularly claim they have [even] felt God's presence in the parking lot outside.'

On June 19, 1995, in two posts to the new­wine list on the internet, Jon W. Cressey reported that Sunderland Christian Centre had been experiencing continuous meetings for 43 weeks, and that car theft and crime, according to Alpha magazine, had allegedly dropped by 45% in the city area over the previous year.

In August of 1995, Andy and Jane Fitz­Gibbon reported in Renewal (issue 231, pp. 14­18) that John and Carol Arnott had made their second visit to Sunderland in April of that year:

The conference took place in the Northumbria Centre on the Stephenson industrial estate. Members of Sunderland Christian Centre worked hard to organize the large­scale event. . . .

Over 1,300 people had registered for the full three days, with several hundred others enrolled as day visitors and with many more attending the evening meetings, which were open celebrations. Many had travelled hundreds of miles to attend. We know of people who had come from Holland, Norway, France, West Africa, new Zealand, Australia and Thailand as well as from all over the British Isles. . . . Every night probably over a thousand people fell under the power of the Spirit and lay row after row, side by side as they soaked in God's pr