Are We Living in The Greatest Revival Ever?
William Seymour prophesied that 100 years after the Azusa Street revival had run its course, another revival would come. The second revival would be many times greater in scope than the one Seymour witnessed. It would touch the lives of millions (others have prophesied billions) of people. It dawned on me the other day as I talking with my wife that we may actually be living in that revival right now.
The Azusa Street revival began in 1906 and lasted about 9 years. It was characterized by supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit. It received much criticism from the established church and secular media. If the prophecy of revival is being fulfilled today it should have begun around 2006 and it would probably be characterized in a similar way. In order to know if that revival is taking place now, we need only ask if anything resembling this type of revival has happened in the last 7 years.
Around 2006, a young man named Todd White showed up in a YouTube video, healing the sick and injured on the streets by the power of Jesus. Todd was an oddball in the eyes of many Christians. He was a former drug dealer. Todd received a lot of criticism for his unorthodox background and his strange approach to ministry, despite the fact that his message was that we must learn to love others unconditionally.
Not long afterward, another former drug addict named Pete Cabrera showed up and began healing the sick as well. More saints were added to the church because of the radical message of power and authority that he preached. And more criticism was leveled against these so-called charlatans.
The real prototype for the present revival is actually Todd Bentley – another former drug addict, who has been used powerfully by God to work miracles. Todd’s affair and subsequent divorce created a scandal of near-biblical proportions. It took no time for the church to vilify and demonize him. And while Todd’s judgment has rightly been called into question, there can be no question that God chose him as the forerunner of the present revival, much to the dismay of church leaders.
This revival like nearly every other revival in history is a bit messy. Many of the people involved deny the idea that such “revivals” even exist. Unlike past moves of God, this one is happening primarily outside the brick-and-mortar church. Frankly, it doesn’t look like what many people expected it to. But the supernatural work of God rarely does.
Not long after the two Todds came on the scene, a flood of other unlikely ministers followed on their heels. Among them were Tom Fischer, Ryan Rhoades, Jason Chin, Brandon Lee, Tyler Johnson, Jessie Campbell, Steve Harmon, Torben Søndergaard, Jose Coelho, and others too numerous to list here.
The men and women who began this street healing movement soon became teachers. Through personal blogs, Facebook pages, and YouTube videos, they taught anyone interested how to work miracles. During the last 7 years, there has been an explosion of supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I’m a member of a Facebook group that is dedicated to training and equipping the saints to release the supernatural power of God. This group just added its 2000th member. Today there are thousands of people from every corner of the globe on the streets, in shopping malls, in hospitals, in coffee shops, and ambulances releasing the power of God to heal the sick, cast out demons, and occasionally raise the dead.
This wave of healing and miracles began almost exactly 100 years after William Seymour preached his first message on Azusa Street. The modern healing movement has been widely criticized by theologians as demonic and by the secular media as fraudulent, much like the Azusa Street revival was. The similarities between the two revivals are quite remarkable. I personally believe that we are seeing the fulfillment of Seymour’s prophecy today. So take heart, my friends. If you’re involved in the present healing movement you are a part of something that will likely go down in history as the greatest spiritual revival of all time.
Have you seen what is happening with Rodney Howard Brown these days? there are mass souls being saved, set free and delivered, on a massive, massive scale. I watch him weekly via revival.com He’s in Florida. I am not sure why but people don’t seem to want to acknowledge the huge move that is happening there… perhaps its because he is not an ear tickler. 🙂
You seem to indicate that the Seymour prophesy says the new revival (which I believe is the coming Spiritual Tsunami) will begin when the Azusa Revival “ends”? That would put the beginning at around 2015. This timetable feels more accurate to me. I think the Todd Whites and Todd Bentleys (maybe I’ll change my name to Todd!) are just the first “dribbles” from the crack in the dam that is going to burst soon. This “flood” will indeed travel around the world and make Azusa Street look like a single water balloon. Even so, Lord come!
I would agree with the end of the Azusa revival plus a hundred years to me be more accurate.
Possibly. When I read this I immediately started to think about earthquakes and all their effects and how they work. Many times there are foreshocks before a huge big one so it’s hard to tell if something more is about to break out on the scene – like a really big one that will actually be like “end-time” proportions. Could it be it was just a rough estimate – the 100 year prophecy? What do we do then with what happened in 1994 in Toronto and then in Brownsville? There was the Welsh one in 1904 that could have helped birth the 1906 – I think Bartleman was receiving prayers from them and other smaller pockets happening. Could those be foreshocks before a huge one? I’m not an expert on earthquakes or revivals. I went to google earthquakes and then I actually find out there was a major one in Los Angeles practically almost in the same week as the Azusa street outbreak and that there were two major headlines to do with the Babel of tongues and the April 18 earthquake. I didn’t know about that earthquake. I think God is taking it out there like on the streets but I believe it’ll also happen in buildings – the small person like me too may be used right on my street (can anything good come out of my little old street in old Toronto?). Right now an outpouring started a few weeks ago in Waterloo, Ontario with Pastor Mark Redman. See https://www.facebook.com/mredner/friends
There is and has been a groundswell but I believe there’ll be something still breaking out on a grander scale everywhere.
Pray for those who are unjustly hurt by others. Pray for me Thanks
KNOW—who you are–Who you belong to—Who adopted you–KNOW your identity!!! Then those that are unjust to you—can’t hurt you (your spirit) God loves you with His everlasting love—that’s all that matters!
More power to the revivalists! To my way of thinking and faith’s comprehension, we need to be focusing alongside this healing revival, on a “cadre”, a “confederacy of co-labourers” within churches, who will form up a fortress of unity amongst the churches for the sake of those being saved, healed and delivered. This is what God is putting on my heart and for which, He’s developing plans through some divine dreams, much Bible study associated with the dreams, and counsel with a prophet and other people. We desperately need a confederacy of co-labourers! Thanks for this narrative of the comparative revival and prophetic coming of this one: *makes my heart sing*.
It says AFTER… that puts us at 2015
Ted Shuttlesworth is doing amazing things right now!