Pensacola Revival

Mike Brown, Becky Powers

Dr Mike Brown, of Global Resource Ministries International, teaches at Brownsville Assemblies of God in Pensacola, Florida. He wrote this Pensacola Update in December 1996 when the revival had been going for a year and a half with over 40,000 commitments to Christ. Becky Powers wrote the Pensacola Report in April 1997. She has been involved in the choir at Brownsville since early 1995. Current reports estimate over 60,000 conversions since the revival began in June 1995.

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the glorious fruit of tens of thousands of radically changed lives

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Pensacola Update

I thought it would be appropriate to send you a 1996 revival update. We can then join together in giving thanks for these glorious days of visitation in which we are living. Who knows what God will do in 1997 - if we seek Him with all our hearts, walk humbly before Him, and are careful to obey His Word? The possibilities are staggering.

With no attempt to be systematic or to follow any chronological order, let me give you some of the highlights from the last few months. (This would have come sooner, but with the intensity of the revival schedule, the relocation of our ministry offices - and family! - to Pensacola, and the raising up of our ministry training school, it was almost impossible to get out a timely update.) Here is just a small glimpse of what has been happening (and as I write, it is sometimes difficult to hold back the tears of joy).

Youth Revival

The Spirit continues to fall among the young people - dramatically. One Saturday night service, multiplied hundreds of students, from grade school to college, were called to the front of the church. There were far too many to put on the platform, so they filled the front area. When we prayed for them in mass, the Spirit fell on them in awesome power, and most of them collapsed to the floor, consumed with God's presence. After we continued to worship and intercede for our schools ('God, give us our schools!'), we were about to dismiss the young people back to their seats when, suddenly and unexpectedly, some of them began to weep and wail in intercession.

Soon, most of them were caught up with the burden for their lost generation - and the weeping and intercession became intense. There was no formal preaching that night, but the altars were filled with lost and backslidden people. If there ever was a service to attend, it was Saturday night, 12 October, 1996 (The video is called Intercession for Our Schools).

During a Thursday night youth service with about 700 in attendance (this is the one night that the teens have their own meeting), conviction fell during the worship. One of the Brownsville young people had a word about some of the kids having sinful, idolatrous things in their possession. There were about 300 kids visiting that night.

Spontaneously, they began to throw dozens of packs of cigarettes on the platform, then condoms, then joint paper, then joints (and, apparently, other drugs), then diet and prescription pills. The pile was so big that it filled a large, kitchen-size garbage bag! When the sheriff of the county, who happened to be in the main sanctuary that night, heard what was happening in the youth chapel, he was escorted over to see things first hand. His comment? 'This is what will change America!' Several weeks later, his daughter was saved in one of the services. Yes Lord!

Depth of Conviction

It seems that everything is increasing in intensity: the levels of praise, worship, and warfare, sometimes breaking out spontaneously and continuing for long periods of time; the numbers of souls responding to the altar calls; the depth of conviction. It is very common to see repentant sinners and backsliders drop their heads when you look at them - even when you're trying to encourage them with a gentle smile. They're too ashamed of their sins - until they know they have all been washed away.

At other times, even after my daytime teaching sessions for leaders and hungry believers, the Lord's presence has been so heavy that people have tried to make it out to their cars, only to collapse on their faces, or on their backs, or to their knees on the grass outside. It is a sight to see!

On one such day, the Spirit began to move on the line outside (they line up as early as 4 am now, or even sleep in the parking lot at night so as to be the first on line), and people began to fall under the power and repent of sin right there in the public lot - without anyone even praying for them. You can't contain revival in a building!

One night, three young black women made their way to the altar, all of them shaking, and the middle teenager literally being carried down by her friends. She was coming forward to get saved and was under such conviction that her friends had to support her as she tried to walk, her arms draped over the other girls, much like an injured football player is helped to the sidelines. That's the way to come to the Lord - utterly helpless and dependent.

Another night, early in his message, Steve Hill had a word for an unsaved young man named Scott. The Lord revealed his desperate condition to Steve, so he urged him to get right that night. At the end of the altar call - to which, we learned later from Scott's brother, he did not respond -- Steve had a word for a military man that had resisted God all his life. He told him to respond now. At that moment, a young man came rushing forward to surrender his life to the Lord. It was Scott, the military man. Talk about being singled out by the Lord!

A few weeks ago, two lesbians who had been living together and using drugs for years got right with God, ending their sinful relationship. Their baptismal testimonies the week following were glorious. One of the women had previously been married, and she had brought her son into the home with this other woman to live with them. (She confessed this with great sorrow at her baptism.) The night she got saved, she went home and told her son what happened. He said, 'My prayers have been answered!'

Transformed lives

At this point, you might be wondering, 'Well, what happens to all these people who get saved? Are they going on with God?' Yes they are. Of course, I can't account for every single one, but I can account for many. In fact, some of them are coming to our School of Ministry beginning next month!

To give you one case in point, a man from Chicago named Mark was an alcoholic for seventeen years, with a terrible family life as a result. He was dramatically saved and instantly delivered right in his home, watching a 700 Club report on the revival.

That was in September. When I saw him in November, he looked so different. He was in the midst of a 40 day fast; his marriage and home were transformed; his brother and wife were wonderfully touched; and he and his brother had brought their construction crew to Pensacola with them (they own a construction company). The whole crew got saved! Some of these men are now candidates to attend our school.

You may have heard the testimony of Robert Lowell, the wealthy businessman who was radically converted when we came to the revival at the beginning of 1996 to pull his wife out. The whole family has been touched, and in the Fall, one of their daughters got married to an Iranian Muslim, her fiancé who had also been saved in the revival. They got married on a Saturday afternoon and were in church that night. That's revival! Why? They had so many unsaved friends and relatives with them that they couldn't miss the opportunity to bring them to the evening meeting. At the end of the altar call, the young bride turned to her lifelong close friend (and member of her bridal party), asking her if she wanted to give her life to Jesus. I could only weep as I saw the two them make their way to the altar, dissolving in tears as they knelt side by side. What a wedding present! A good number of weeks later, I asked the bride what happened to her friends. She told me that all of her unsaved friends in the bridal party (along with one tragically backslidden girl) got right with God that week - and all of them were on fire. What can you say?

The life and death urgency of the hour has been underscored to us when we hear of lost sinners getting saved, and then suddenly dying one or two days later. And there was no warning that they were sick or in ill health. They got saved, and then they were gone. This has happened several times now.

Even more striking was the case of a man who was in the meeting, felt conviction, and ran from it, ending up at the pool hall playing pool with three of his drinking buddies. But the conviction there was even more intense, so he left his three friends and returned to the church, giving his life to Jesus at the end of the night. It was just in time. He found out later that, shortly after he left the pool hall, the three friends drove off in their Chevy Corvette which was almost totally disintegrated moments later after a 100 mile per hour crash. Two were killed instantly; the third critically injured. This man would have been among them, had he not responded to the Spirit's pull. He was literally snatched out of the fire!

Interest in the revival has increased. In recent months, the Pentecostal Evangel - the international magazine of the Assemblies of God - devoted 15 pages to the revival, the Dallas Morning News ran a front-page story about the outpouring in its Sunday morning edition (by the way, it was the front page of the main section of the paper, not the religion section), and Charisma Now aired a powerful TV special on the revival. Denominational leaders in the Church of God, Southern Baptists, and United Methodists (among others) have been wonderfully touched, and our recent ministers conference was attended by leaders from about forty nations. This is in addition to the large number of leaders - ranging from 300-500 - who attend every week. And best of all, the fire is spreading!

Fire is spreading

A Southern Baptist testified to a dramatic rise in spiritual hunger in his church since he attended the meetings. His son, the youth pastor was living in compromise and hardness - until God sternly dealt with him and totally turned him around. Back at the pastor's church, after a special series of

meetings ended, congregants showed up at the church anyway, even though the services had ended. They were so hungry for the Lord that they climbed into the building through a hole in a broken window. And these are Southern Baptists!

Friends of mine from Phoenix visited Pensacola and went back ignited. The Spirit began moving freely in the services, the power of God fell in unprecedented ways for that fellowship, people began repenting, some of then fasting and gathering for 6 am prayer, the young people got turned

on and starting witnessing to all their friends, winning some of them to the Lord. Such stories are common now around the country!

One Spanish-speaking youth pastor from Texas with a teens group averaging 8-10 kids returned from Pensacola on fire, and he and his wife began preaching repentance to their group. Six weeks later they were running 120 kids in the meetings! And in many cities, where disunity and lack of cooperation had been the rule, pastors are now gathering together in sizable numbers for special leadership meetings, repenting with many tears, confessing their sins, and committing to pray and cry out ... That's the key!

One of my former students, an associate pastor in a Messianic congregation, showed the children at the congregational school the video featuring eight year old Whitney Lane sharing her burden for the lost - until she breaks down crying. He invited the kids who wanted a similar burden to come forward for prayer and then, to his amazement, the younger kids there (ages 5-8 especially) began to weep, sob, and shake - for forty-five minutes! A number of them had visions of heaven, hell, and Jesus, some of them dramatic. He arrived home with a plastic bag full of the tissues these little ones had soaked with their tears. Jesus is moving in the land!

And here's a personal illustration of the love of God. A Filipino pastor from Chicago felt that he just had to attend the revival services. He arrived at the church by way of Orlando on 10 December, only to find out they we were in the midst of a break until 3 January. He was totally crestfallen, coming back the next day with the hope that the services would somehow resume. Of course, they did not; but the revival itself continues. He then received an out-of-the-blue invitation to speak in Toms River, New Jersey that weekend. It was there that he learned that the very next day - this past Monday - I would be speaking at a special ministers' gathering in - you guessed it! - Toms River. So, from Chicago to Orlando to Pensacola to Orlando to Toms River - he got in the river! You can't limit the goodness of God.

Finally, I should mention that there seems to be an increase in powerful healings these days, and this too is often taking place outside of Pensacola. A well-respected pastor in Wisconsin, a man whose church has been in the midst of an outpouring since visiting us in June, told me personally about the documented healing of a baby born blind. She is fine today, after receiving prayer from the leaders in that church. Isn't God awesome?

When God starts moving, everyone falls into place: The hungry press forward and are filled, the lost are drawn in and the backsliders drawn home, the laborers are raised up and thrust out - and the critics criticize! What else could we expect?

Actually, we ought to pity those who cannot recognize the glorious fruit of tens of thousands of radically changed lives because of a little shaking (as if God's presence makes mountains and houses shake - but not people!) or falling (as if it is illogical or unscriptural for someone to be overcome by God's power). They reject the Spirit because they don't like the style. Pity their souls and pray for those whom they mislead. We don't want anyone to be left out.

A few months ago the Lord said to me that soon it will be an embarrassment to be associated with the critics. Day by day, the truth of that word is becoming clearer and clearer. I would hate to find myself standing in the path of a divine tidal wave, shaking my skeptical fist and shouting, 'That's not God!'

Please hear my heart: We are literally on the verge of seeing the Spirit's fire sweep through whole public schools, ignite whole regions, and shake our nation from bottom to top. Young and old will meet their God, and the nation could very well be transformed. For the first time in my life, real revival across America is within range. Let's press in without compromise until the whole country is ablaze. It really is time. As Steve Hill often cries out at the altar calls, What are you waiting for?

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Pensacola Report

At the risk of 'preaching to the choir' I have been encouraged to share some of my experiences and observations about the work of the Lord at Brownsville in light of recent postings. I do not intend to argue or defend what God is doing among us here; just share and encourage fellow seekers.

My family and I have been Brownsville members since before the revival began, and participants in this outpouring since Father's Day, 1995. We were among the thousand who responded to Steve's original altar call, and have been to most of the services since that day (and night). We were among many who, in the early days of the revival, left as the sun was rising, got an hour or two of sleep, then went to work the next day. (Things have changed a little since then: now I may get 3 hours of sleep before I go to work the next day! The difference is that I have learned I can't do that every day.)

Having been born in the south, and raised in a non-Pentecostal tradition, I couldn't understand at first why everyone was so excited about revival being here. I loved what was happening, and found God's presence so exciting (and still do), but to me, a revival was what your church had once or twice a year for a week. I had not been taught to expect Revival, but I did know there would be a great harvest just before the Lord's return.

Having mostly seen 'the invitation' consist of a few getting saved, or rededicating, or moving their membership, I was totally unprepared for Steve Hill's altar calls. In the early days, we'd see 3 or 4 dozen people respond. They'd be people we knew, and we saw the permanent change God created in them. As people began coming from outside Brownsville, we saw more and more response to the altar calls.

Our expectations grew as the crowds swelled the altar calls to 100, 200, 400, and now 900-1000 people each service. It seems the response is not just multiplying. Now it's more like

exponential.

In the Spirit, I sense the urgency of the hour as sinners literally flock to the altar under the conviction of sin. When you are in the presence of the glory of God, when the Word and holiness are preached with no compromise, when the call is so clear, and the choice so simple, yet so profound, one is compelled to get right with God. Is this the beginning of the great final harvest? Only God knows for sure, but what we sense is that we are seeing the beginning of a great awakening. When sinners run to the altar, when some literally fall under conviction and have to be carried to the altar, when you can hear the groans and wailing of souls under the conviction of Holy Spirit as they bury their faces in the carpet, when grace is accepted, the load is lifted and you can see the freedom on faces that moments before were twisted in great agony of distress, it is plain that this is a sovereign work of God. In the light of such purity and holiness, the 'small' things once ignored bring instant conviction and repentance.

The numbers of souls being reported is greatly understated. Some people who come to the altar are under conviction in an area of their lives, but are not necessarily backslidden or lost. The ones who do get saved are asked to fill out a card and give an address so that they can be contacted for

follow up ministry or referral to a church in their area.

From the beginning, the emphasis has been on getting people into a Bible-preaching church where they can be accountable and can grow. Brownsville is not the only church in town where new believers are referred. Most of the churches in Pensacola who are open to this move are growing dramatically, and are seeing increasing numbers of salvations in their services.

When God is moving in this manner, word spreads quickly. There has never been a desire to advertise or promote this outpouring. God has opened doors and lines of communication that no man has opened and no man can shut. As the leadership seeks God for wisdom in pastoring the revival, He has shown them windows He has opened, and doors He has swung wide. Since we feel this is the last days and this move of God will spread to all flesh, leadership has felt God's leading to share what we have learned with other pastors so that they can hit the ground running when God moves into their church. The desire to share that and to refresh dry, thirsty shepherds and tend their sheep bites led to the implementation of pastor's conferences. The fourth conference will begin next week.

God has blessed me with the privilege of serving Him through the ministry of the worship team. From the platform, I have seen many celebrities come and go unannounced. Their presence was not acknowledged publicly, their privacy not invaded, their talents not displayed. On rare occasions, a

publicly known person has been invited to minister, but never to perform. As the leadership has been sensitive to Holy Spirit in this matter, it has been awesome to watch how He works through all of us to bring unity as ministry takes place. When someone well known does sing or speak, it always comes as a total surprise to the congregation as the appearance of the person is never announced beforehand.

One of the outstanding features of this last days move of God is that no flesh, no man will receive His glory. We are all a bunch of unknown lumps of clay, with no reason to glory in our flesh. We can do nothing without Him doing it. If we ministered in our strength, it would be no ministry at all.

We have seen many falling backwards, being refreshed by the Lord as He shows them His love, but we are seeing almost as many falling frontwards in repentance at the altars. When flesh manifests, it is dealt with. There are some manifestations in response to the presence of the God of the Universe.

Even the mountains would quake at His touch, so how much more frail flesh. Manifestations are no big deal to us. While I personally have felt a quivering inside from time to time, have felt the weightiness of the glory press me to my knees, and have been moved by the current of the river, sometimes great distances, backwards, with my eyes shut without stepping on anyone, I have never shook, jumped, jerked, had the crunchies, laughed, barked, been thrown through the air, or been immobilized by the glory. I have seen most of these occur, and have yet to discover one person, who,

after having felt God in this manner, did not love Jesus more. I don't pretend to understand, but my observation is that manifestations have drawn people even closer to the Lord.

There have been great expenses associated with a massive outpouring like we have been experiencing, but God has provided through His people. Offerings are taken up, but guests are instructed in every service not to put God's tithe into our storehouse. The tithe belongs to your home church, and we do not want it.

On the worship team, I have the tremendous privilege of watching and sensing the crowd week by week. On Wednesdays, we start all over with a new group, watching, checking it out, trying to decide how we do it, etc. After that night's altar call, the next night is sweeter, the worship is entered into more quickly, as God is working on people. Friday night is baptism, with profound testimonies of what God has done. There is great rejoicing for His work in the praise and worship. By Saturday night, there is peace and freedom. It's like watching little children on the first day of summer vacation. They're free and can't believe it, so they rejoice a little more, until they are caught up in worship. Sometimes singing in the Spirit will last 30 minutes, with wave after wave ebbing and flowing awesomely. Sometimes, dancing and rejoicing are the order of business, but the crowds

are making movement difficult.

Is Brownsville the last days outpouring? Only time will tell, and there is precious little time left. Is it spreading? Like wildfire. Is it changing lives? Radically, forever. Is Jesus being glorified? Yes, and Him only. The river is flowing, and the current grows stronger. Just as swollen rivers are flooding and sweeping away everything in their path in our land right now, so this River is swelling and encroaching the bank. Soon the flood of righteousness will sweep through willing hearts, and the Bride will see her Groom as He returns.

Even so, come quickly, Lord.

In the River to stay,

Becky Powers

hwrusty@sprynet.com

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Reproduced from the Awakening e-mail mailings.

Renewal Journal #9: Mission (1997:1) , pp. 49-54.

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