Posted by Kathi on March 19, 2010
Maria Woodworth-Etter was a healing revivalist who ministered in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. God did many amazing miracles in her meetings and she had a uncompromising faith. She moved in signs and wonders before signs and wonders were widely accepted. There’s an excellent article about her in the AoG’s Enrichment Journal.
Excerpt from: Miracles and Marvels – How to Cooperate With the Holy Spirit in a Meeting (discovered on Billye Brim’s website)
The first snippet I offer is about heresy hunting and restoration:
But at the same time we are continually careful not to do or say anything that will displease or grieve Him, bring reproach on the cause or contempt on the work. We should try the spirits. Ours is the desire to do some big thing ahead of someone else, then watch. Ask rather, “Will the people receive light, will they be edified?” And you will probably have to say, no. Because so many spirits are not of God, some throw away God’s Spirit too. The Word and the Spirit agree in perfect harmony. We should not be trembling and fearful and excited for fear some other spirit should come in. When some wrong spirit comes in, don’t whisper around, getting others nervous. Jesus is present on the White Horse of Power to control the meeting and God can take care of His own business. Don’t say to your brother, “Stand back there because the devil comes in sometimes and uses you, I cannot trust you.” Peter backslide, but he repented, he went out and wept bitterly. If he had lived in these days, they would always be throwing it up to Peter and he would never hear the last of it. Why, he denied the Lord. At Pentecost a few days afterward, a spokesman was required. Did the rest say, “We cannot trust Peter; just lately he lied and backslide, and cursed and swore and disgraced the Lord and us.” If they had acted like that, the words would have frozen in his mouth. They knew God had restored him and filled him with his Spirit again. Take the one God chooses no matter what is in the past. What are they now? Take heed that you offend not one of these little ones that believe in Christ. (Mark 9: 42.) That they stumble not and fall because you reject them from fellowship, deny them liberty, and withhold your love.
And the second is an admonition to leaders in revival:
Now a Word to the Leaders. Leaders should be as fathers and mothers to all present, and without personal likes and prejudices, full of love for all and yet caring for the flock, peaceable, mild, merciful, compliant with all that is of God, fruitful, without guile or pretense and not using their position to avenge themselves for personal slights. God’s presence should be manifest. Don’t get settled down, contentedly satisfied in the absence of divine power, as if we could do anything of ourselves to amount to anything in the work of the Lord. Know it is the Lord God who must work through us if anything is to be accomplished that will survive the fire, which will try every man’s work. We are laborers together with God. But if God is not laboring, we should never rest satisfied till He does. Let no man glory in man or in himself. Do not let us glory or delight in, or rely upon anything that is ours, but let us glory in God and our Teacher who enables us, The Holy Spirit that is, who enables us to understand God. Let us rejoice that the communication is open with God, that our names are written in heaven, that the Revelator abides and gives us understanding of the things of the Kingdom. (Jeremiah 9: 23-24.)
Let us glory in Jesus.
Posted by Kathi on March 2, 2010
For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Matthew 24:24
The body of Christ is overcome with the fear of deception… to the point they call the Holy Ghost an agent of satan and His works evil! We have been abnormal for so long that a return to biblical Christianity (normal) is dangerous and “evil”, scorned mocked and something to dismiss. This should not be so. Let’s look at this reasonably.
A man in our congregation got up out of his wheelchair and walked last week, after 38 years of confinement. We give all glory to God for this!
Ken was talking to someone about it and the man actually said, “Well you know… satan can do miracles too.”
I’ve even had people ask me with regards to my healing, “How do you know that was God?”
WHAT?
First of all – I’m not aware of any verse in the Book that talks about satan’s ability to heal. I don’t see that as a possibility when it comes to a creative miracle like this. But let’s suppose for the sake of argument that this is a miracle he is capable of pulling off.
For false christs and false prophets…
Therein lies the first clue. For FALSE christs (that would be a person or demon that exalts themselves AS THE SAVIOR and seeks to divert worship from Christ) and false prophets (that would be a person who deliberately prophesies lies for the express purpose of turning people from God) … Is Jesus a false Christ? Is He a false prophet? Or did He speak truly that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? Was He false when He promised salvation, healing, and deliverance to His children? God does not lie.
…will rise and show great signs and wonders…
Therein lies the second clue. Yes – people prayed for Barry in obedience to the Lord and the way He chooses to heal – but no one has “risen” to show great signs and wonders that “prove” that they are the Christ or a prophet.
…to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
To deceive. The POINT of lying signs and wonders is to deceive. It’s to draw the elect away from Christ. It’s to cause people to give glory and praise to that which is false.
Guess what, brethren? satan does not come along and heal God’s people in such a way that they stand and shout praises to Jesus Christ and go around telling people what God did for them. IF satan heals it will be for his own glory and gain… not for God’s.
Do not doubt a miracle that brings glory to the Savior… He’s in the miracle-working business. 
Posted by Kathi on
Several people have asked me about the High Point Blessing videos I’ve posted on youtube. These are videos of some rather extreme encounters with the Lord – some documenting a healing, some of worship, some of a bunch of people falling on the floor… and people who’ve never seen this before are asking me, “Why?” or “What?” and “What’s the point?” or “Revival… why?”
Let me say this first: “Revival” is not posting a sign on the marquee and having a special speaker in for three nights of meetings. “Revival” is not hopped-up services, emotionalism, special music. Revival is a lot of things… and all of those things may be a part of revival… but Revival is not in the things. Revival is the raw power of God unleashed – heaven invading earth. Revival is the way Christianity is supposed to be all the time.
And let me say this, second: I am charismatic. I believe that all Christians should be filled with the Holy Ghost and fire as soon after their salvation as possible (preferably within the first five minutes…) and that healings, miracles, prophecy, and radical encounters with God similar to those in the book of Acts are not only “possible” today, but that those things should be the norm for all believers. I can only comment on revival within a charismatic context; I really don’t know about it in non-charismatic churches EXCEPT that historically, when revival has broken out in Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic churches people have become Spirit-filled in a hurry
It’s hard to answer the question, “What does revival look like?” even within the broad umbrella of Pentecostal and charismatic churches because that varies from place to place and from person to person. It seems like the Spirit has an agenda when He pours Himself out on a church or region – in some places there is a manifestation of joy, or of adoption, salvation and repentance, healing, and so on. Although all of those elements may be present, there is often a focus on a particular area He wants to minister to us in.
From the book of Acts through the great revivals that swept North Carolina in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, to Asuza Street, to the Healing Revivals of the 1950’s, to Toronto, Brownsville, Lakeland, to High Point where the Blessing is being poured out right now… there are some similarities between them all:
(in no particular order)
- Salvations, repentance, and water baptism
- Spirit Baptism and a whole lot of speaking in tongues
- Manifestations of extreme joy or excitement (often that go on for hours or days, to hundreds of people at the same time)
- Extremely vibrant ongoing worship
- Prophecy
- People falling on the floor, shaking, twitching, etc.
- Healings and Deliverances
- People raised up into ministry callings and offices
- Visible manifestations of the presence of God and of angels
- A mass-scale re-alignment to God’s Word and His will
These things are not “a person or two or even ten” because all of this is pretty common among charismatics (and should be to all Christians). It’s the level that God’s doing it on. That’s why we often use the term “outpouring”.
I think that most people can wrap their minds around most of the above except for the vibrant worship, what happens when the power of God hits the human body, and visual manifestations. (If any readers want me to talk about the rest ask me in the comments!)
A friend sent me a message asking,
I don’t get it – people spinning in circles and muttering and yelling and waving flags(?) and glow sticks, it’s just an incomprehensible way to worship to me. Why do you do it? What’s the appeal?
Worship is one of those things that can be defined in many ways. We should all strive to make every single thing we do an act of worship. When we do our jobs, when we wash our dishes, when we hug our kids, when we grocery shop, we should be doing these things as unto the Lord (1 Cor 10:31, Col 3:17)… this makes these “mundane” tasks acts of worship.
However, that’s not “it”.
(side note: I’m not going to get into the difference between “praise” and “worship” here; just lumping it all together as “worship”)
Worship is expressions of love, honor, glory, and submission for our Lord. Let’s look at some natural expressions of this: You may show your kids you love them by washing the dishes and buying them clothes, but you also show them by wrapping them up in a big bear hug or throwing them in the air or grabbing their hands and dancing around the room with them. Looked at in other ways, a wife would hold her husband close or snuggle up and enjoy closeness… or we might throw a tickertape parade or write a song or do a choreographed dance to honor someone famous… we might stand and cheer for a football team… or a child might throw herself headlong into Papa’s arms…
These are all expressions of love and intimacy, honor and respect and excitement – and when expressed to the Lord, are forms of worship.
And so you will see people dancing, cheering and shouting (or muttering) praise (in their own language or in tongues), waving flags, jumping, spinning, kneeling or laying on the floor, or even just sitting quietly meditating on His goodness. Some people even draw or paint. There’s no one “right” way to worship – He loves all expressions when we worship in Spirit and in truth. And just as you don’t love your kids or your Dad or your football team in only one expression of love… we should seek to express our love to God in a myriad of ways.
We don’t see anything funny about standing and cheering until we’re hoarse when our team scores a goal… why then do we think it’s funny to cheer and shout and bless the name of the Lord? It’s perfectly natural to dance with our spouse… why is it “weird” to dance with the Bridegroom? It’s perfectly acceptable for a small child to dance with reckless abandon… why then do the children of God feel the need to “contain” themselves?
Extreme excitement is quite thoroughly biblical – King David’s ticker-tape parade for God (2 Samuel 6), singing and praise and rejoicing and joy and dancing and music (Psalm 149, 150), even singing in the face of adversity (Acts 16:25). The atmosphere of Heaven is wild, chaotic, beautiful praise (Revelation 4) – is it any wonder that Jesus prayed, “on earth as it is in heaven”?
The other thing that tends to be shocking for those who have not experienced it is the variety of physical manifestations of the glory and presence of God upon the human body. When people have a radical encounter with Him, it’s very common for people to shake, twitch, fall out on the floor (sometimes completely unconscious), laugh, cry, shout or even roar, dance or thrash uncontrollably, and a wide variety of other reactions. People often report feeling “drunk” or “high” (but let me say this: there is NO high like the MOST high)… sometimes for hours or even days (I’m on day 7 of a continual Holy Ghost High…)
One often sees this sort of reaction when people are prayed for, but it also often happens during worship or even spontaneously. If you watch revival videos you’re sure to see a prayer line or fire tunnel where people are simply falling en masse. It’s not an example of mass hysteria or expectation as some have suggested. I know people who have fallen on the floor resisting all the way and extremely quiet people who begin to shout with reckless abandon. I’ve fallen out unconscious while worshiping at home (and woke up on my kitchen floor with gold dust all over me – and no, I do not have any gold dust in my house). I’ve also walked into the church building to do something wholly mundane, with my mind on the mundane, and it’s like walking into a cloud of glory. BAM!
There should never be an expectation on the part of a worshiper or minister that people will fall or have some other reaction (tho sometimes when you’re praying for someone you know what will happen)… some people simply stand and receive. This is usually NOT due to fear or resistance. God knows what each person needs and if they NEED to fall on the floor, trust me, He’ll do it even with them resisting all the way. God also knows what we each need and sometimes we “need” to fall over or jerk or twitch or be unconscious, and other times what we need it to just stand and calmly receive. Some ministers are “pushy” because they want you to fall down (because they think it validates their ministry) and this is wrong. Falling on the floor is not what transforms a heart or heals a body. (Some ministers are excited, too – must not confuse the two!)
The last thing that tends to freak people out is when they hear somebody say, “I saw an angel” or “the cloud of glory” or when things like gemstones and angel feathers start turning up. There’s no way I can address every phenomenon here (maybe someday in a book) but I’ll divide them into two categories: Things everyone can see, and things only a few can see. And I’ll say this of both: Yes – there are counterfeits out there… both from well-meaning or mistaken individuals, and the sort of counterfeit that satan serves up to distract us away from God. For every counterfeit there is a real (else, why would there be a counterfeit? No one prints up bright blue hundred dollar bills with their own face on the front and tries to spend those at Wal-Mart). I have my own personal criteria for judging such things, which boils down to this: “Holy Spirit, what is this that I’m seeing here?” and “Is Jesus getting the glory?”
Everyone can see gold dust, feathers, gemstones, etc. when they manifest. They are real, tangible objects that you can reach out and touch. I’m not going to touch on this too deeply but I will say this – we tend to operate under this subconscious mindset that the spiritual realm is intangible and untouchable and that is an extremely false – and exceedingly dangerous – mindset.
Angels (and demons) and visible glory are things that are usually seen (or perceived) by only a few people. Discerning of spirits is a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:10) and revival has a tendency to activate that gift. Discerning of spirits shows the spirit that is at work: Holy Spirit? Flesh? Angel? Demon?
Again, like prophecy, I believe this gift is for all Spirit-filled believers. If you don’t see stuff and you want to, ask.
I’m amazed at how many Christians ask me… are they real? Yes – they are real. Yes, I really do see it. Yes, I really can reach out and touch it. I’ve taken to praying like Elisha prayed for Gehazi – Lord, let them see!
We’ve seen the visible, tangible glory of God – it looks like a shimmering cloud. I’ve seen it up close and personal at Lakeland and at New Day, and also have seen it on revival videos. I see angels (I actually see them everywhere I go). I sometimes see demons, too, but not all the time (thank goodness). Usually I only see them when I’m ministering deliverance and ask God to reveal the problem to me, or if I’m watching a deliverance I often see it as it leaves. I don’t interact with demons, period – “leave in the name of Jesus!” and I don’t generally interact with angels, or they with me – I ask God what they’re there for (if that’s not evident; sometimes it is) and ask Him to release them to minister.
Well – that’s just the tip of the iceberg… but it might answer some questions for some folks. Ask away in the comments if you want more
Posted by Kathi on
If you haven’t been following my twitter/facebook flow you may not know this: New Day the Church at High Point is in REVIVAL! This is the HIGH POINT BLESSING! We are having intense encounters with God at church – and at home – and on the streets – everywhere we go, God is pouring out His Spirit upon us.
Someone asked me (in a Christian online forum) the other day… Kathi, what IS revival anyway?
I’d like to offer two quotes. One my my initial response, the other a story John G. Lake told about an angelic encounter.
My response:
a word was given at our church recently: “this is THAT” … when it hit on Weds night we knew… that this was that which the this is that prophecy was talking about.
how do you know? when notable miracles start occurring. when people walk into the room and are healed without anyone praying for them. when people start speaking in tongues and they don’t even know what that is. when you are so consumed with the glory of God you sit and shake like i have all morning. my brain is burning. i might have to leave and go over to the church and just lay on the floor again. when you walk into a restaurant and people turn and STARE at you because the glory is on you. when services go for five hours and no one leaves the room even for a potty break. when you have bodies stacked up like cordwood. when the word “repent” is mentioned and people do by the hundreds. when the thought of a television being on makes you throw up a little. when you can see the fire of God in the air. When you look over and the same angel that was at Lakeland and I can see on the Brownsville videos and people have told me was in Toronto is in the front of the church. when a second even bigger angel that looks like that joins him….
And here is John G. Lake’s encounter:
It reminds of the vision known as the “Portland Vision,” where John G. Lake asked the angel, “What constitutes real Pentecost?” The angel reached for Lake’s Bible, opened it to the Book of Acts and ran his finger down the second chapter, that portion where the Spirit of God came down from heaven. Proceeding through the Book of Acts to its great outstanding revelations and phenomena, he said,
“This is Pentecost as God gave it through the heart of Jesus. STRIVE FOR THIS. CONTEND FOR THIS. TEACH THE PEOPLE TO PRAY FOR THIS. For this, and this alone, will meet the necessity of the human heart, and this alone will have the power to over come the forces of darkness. Pray. Pray. Pray. Teach the people to pray. Prayer and prayer alone, much prayer, persistent prayer, is the door of entrance into the heart of God.”
Posted by Kathi on February 25, 2010
Revival BUSTED LOOSE at New Day last night. If you weren’t there – you flat-out missed it.
BUT – come to Temple Courts Fri night & church Sunday morning – God’s not gonna stop and neither are we!!
And I do mean… revival busted LOOSE. I’ve been in revival – I’ve seen the Spirit of God move with power – I have never, ever seen anything like this.
I can’t even give a play by play of what-all happened because I can hardly put a sentence together this morning. English seems like a foreign language. Ken and I can hardly walk. In fact he’s in the shower right now alternately crying and laughing…
Worship started spontaneously – and began to flow, and flow, and flow until we were all swept away. One of the teenagers got up on stage and joined in (or maybe she was already there, I don’t know) and they started singing a prophetic song that was just… 
Some of the purest worship I have ever seen or been part of.
NC Master’s Commission came and ministered – good group of young people. They did a couple of skits and tag-team preached and WOW it was incredibly good stuff. Then they did an altar call – they started praying for us (and people were getting stacked up like cordwood) and then our prophetic team started to minister to the MC folks…
WOW. I’m not sure exactly who the Spirit fell on first – if it was the girl I was praying for or the guy next to us – but it was like a lightning bolt hit. The girl I prayed for looked like Stacy Campbell for a few minutes, spun around, and fell OUT on the floor. The more we prayed for fire the more she shook. She never regained consciousness (read on…). And she was the driver for the group. 
The guy next to us fell on the floor and began shouting – and singing – alternately in tongues and english – then began to prophesy – it turns out he was the shy one who never was demonstrative or said much. He shouted and ROARED glory and praise to God for a good couple of hours. And then another… and then another… and then another…
Then one of the MC guys and Ken got hold of Barry, one of our brothers in a wheelchair.
Barry got up and walked last night. 
This is a healing-over-time – but definite. When he first came to ND he couldn’t move his legs and had no feeling in them. He’d been that way for 32 years. As he’s been prayed for, he’s regained feeling AND voluntary movement. Now he’s walking! Not able to put full weight, yet, but that’s coming. A paraplegic guy walked.
This went on for 2 hours – service wound down at 9:15, 9:30 or so nearly everyone was gone (we make it a point not to leave because the most interesting things happen after the less-interested folks go home 
) All this went on until just about 11:30. The MC kids missed their 11pm curfew but I think they had a good excuse.
Pastor Debbie, realizing the time, says, “Can anyone among the Asheboro crew even walk?”
There were only a couple. So the ones that could rolled the ones who couldn’t onto the cots we use for ministry and carried them out to the van…
I’ve got video … got to figure out how to upload it since the filesize is too big for my phone to do it as a message. There’s one video here – if the embedded won’t play here’s a link:
http://www.facebook.com/v/375095916280
