THE SPIRIT WILL COME AGAIN
Due to the traditionalism of the older generation of Christians and the miserable state of affairs among the youth, I am of the opinion that God will let a second outpouring of the Spirit to happen first of all amidst the youth. Signs of this have already become visible during the past century. I would like to mention a number of cases, where cases of sprinkling with the Holy Spirit have already taken place outside church bounds.
NEW YEAR’S DAY 1901: TOPEKA, KANSAS CITY, USA
Following on a study of the Bible book Acts by students of one Charles Parham, a former Methodist preacher, the 18-year-old Angus Osman experienced the baptism with the Holy Spirit, together with speaking in a foreign tongue. During the same session both Parham and a further group of students had the same experience, of baptism with the Holy Spirit, and in a thesis written afterwards Parham made the point that that incident was proof of baptism with the Spirit.
In 1905 Parham moved his Bible School to Houston, Texas, where a young black man, William Seymour, also enrolled. When Seymour delivered a sermon on speaking in foreign tongues at a congregation of the Church of the Nazarene in Los Angeles, consisting mainly of Blacks, he was evicted. A family sympathetic to his doctrine took him into their home, where they started regular prayer meetings. At that stage Seymour was also endowed with this gift, and soon the house couldn’t accommodate the growing numbers of people attending. A new venue was found at a former Methodist Church building at 312 Azusa Street. Speaking in tongues, miracle healings, demon expulsion and discerning of spirits were among the supernatural gifts of the Spirit that were practiced there. This was the start of the Pentecost movement which has since spread worldwide.
1904: WALES
The young student Evan Roberts was busy with his study to become a preacher, when his fervor to save souls compelled him to give up his theological study. The Lord, who knew his desire, filled him with the Holy Spirit. Roberts predicted a great revival in Wales, and led by the Spirit, he started prayer chains, first at his own congregation, later spreading out, to intercede on behalf of a hundred thousand souls in Wales. This prayer spread through the entire Wales, and in two years’ time that number of people streamed to the church. Eighty thousand of these were still firm believers when a count was made five years later. This revival fire burnt for as long as twenty five years in several regions in the country. Roberts himself was led by the Spirit in 1906 to pray for revival worldwide.
1905 – 1910: ENGLAND AND FURTHER
The Wales revival flooded over into England, taking churches almost by force. Between 1903 and 1906 church members increased by more than ten per cent.
Then both Scotland and Ireland followed. The flame spread further, jumping the North Sea to reach Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden. Rumours of the massive revival reached the USA through the media, and thousands of students at several American universities, such as Princeton College and Drake University, were converted. Towns and cities almost came to a standstill to give precedence to services and prayer meetings. More than two million members were added to the seven mainstream Protestant denominations.
GOING EAST
Now it was the turn of the East. Korea experienced a gulf of spiritual rains three times, one after the other, resulting in triple the original number of churches. Church members in India increased by seventy per cent… Thus the fire took its course all over the world. As a result of this outpour, more than five million professing members were added to this new Christendom. And in most of these cases God had started an autonomous action outside church bounds with young people in the front line, eventually to bless the local churches with the fruits of the harvest.
1949: YOUTH FOR CHRIST
A three weeks long evangelical tent campaign led by Billy Graham of YFC is prolonged to nine weeks! Thousands of people are converted, and Billy Graham receives invitations to address meetings all over America and the rest of the world. God had started a new revival!
NOVEMBER 1949: SCOTTISH ISLES
Two elderly sisters, both in their eighties, one of whom blind, start praying particularly for the youth in their local congregation. They also request their minister to join them in praying for the 37 000 inhabitants of the island.
One Duncan Campbell, a Scottish evangelist, is invited to the island. On the first night of his campaign some three hundred persons attended the service, starting at 21:00 and lasting till 23:00. A further six hundred were waiting outside, called by the Holy Spirit: a hundred from a nearby dancing-hall! The second service lasted till 4 o’clock the next morning!
Campbell was then requested to visit the local police station, where some four hundred persons were waiting. On his way, he was approached by many others who were all yearning for the grace of God and of His salvation. This revival, inspired by the Holy Spirit, became a movement that spread over the entire island, and lasted for three years. More than 75% of those converted had found their way to the Lord other than through the customary route in the churches.
1949 – 1951 : USA CHRISTIAN COLLEGES
In the course of these four years revivals took place at more than fourteen Christian training colleges in the USA, among which Asbury, Baylor, Bethel and Houghton.
1960 – 1970: USA, EUROPE, SOUTH AFRICA
Who can still remember the “hippie era” of the 1960s to ’70s? A hippie, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is a person of unconventional appearance, typically with long hair, jeans, beads, etc., often associated with hallucinogenic drugs and a rejection of conventional values.
The revolution of occultism, drugs and licentiousness reached its peak with the advent of the hippie era. Thousands of youngsters entered a world completely foreign to the man in the street. The morality and values of those associated with this way of life reached an unprecedented low. The initial ideology of the movement, that of love and peace, spilled over into a quagmire of acute addiction, hallucination, possession by demons, and tragic death notices.
THE JESUS MOVEMENT
It seemed as if the youth in the western part of the world had reached their final undoing – and then the “Jesus Movement” emerged! Hundreds of thousands of youngsters were touched by the Holy Spirit and became followers of Jesus! In South Africa the movement started in Cape Town and from there it spread like a fire to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and other coastal cities.
The Jesus Movement was initially frowned upon by many traditional church leaders, as being just a passing fancy among the youth. Most of these young Christians therefore joined the charismatic churches or other independent ministrations. The author of the book is himself a product of that era. Also, many of those young people who during that period became converted are still today serious followers of the Lord and are full-time workers in His service.
MOVED BY THE SPIRIT
In the USA students at 130 colleges and universities were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Since the moment when the Lord called me to bring this prophecy about the forthcoming outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the youth, I have experienced time and again at various colleges and schools that the Spirit touched hundreds of souls at such occasions. Our youth countrywide are experiencing a deep craving for the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. If they do not find it at the local church, they will so easily become prey to the supernatural power of Satan, through drugs and the occult! 2 Timothy 3:1-3 says:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.”
These words by Paul to the young Timothy are truly realising in our time. The number of cases with which Annatjie and I have been dealing of parents being cursed by their teenage children, or insulted, or even assaulted, is absolutely shocking. In several of these cases a family had almost been ruined completely by the time somebody called for help. In many cases, too, these problem teenagers had already been through a series of treatments by therapists of all sorts, psychologists or psychiatrists, with their parents’ medical funds exhausted, before they approached
DR KRIGE AND HOUSE REGENERATION
This adapted content was extracted from A Biblical Approach to Psychotherapy authored by Dr Ado Krige, the Founding Director of House Regeneration, a South African drug rehabilitation centre offering a comprehensive discipleship training program. By applying principles of Biblical Therapy, using the Scriptures to teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness, House Regeneration counsellors show anyone who has suffered from addiction how to fully understand why they do what they do and how to bring their belief systems in line with the Word of God.
