Times of Refreshing III, 7 Signs of the Move of the Spirit

And we established the first Wednesday night that signs in and of themselves are not the destination, but they're pointing you to something, right? Now, did anyone drive down Route 19 and see cars parked out on the road by the sign? Thank you. I didn't either. It would be kind of foolish to go and park your car by the sign, right? You're not going to go home tonight or this weekend and say to your neighbor, hey, come look at the sign, right? What are you going to say to people? Come and worship with us and see what the Lord is doing with us. So the sign itself is not the goal. It is not the end. It is something pointing to something more significant, something of substance. And we talked all about that the first week. Got a little buzz back here. It's growing. There we go. Hey, folks, can I tell you, for the next month or two, anything can happen. But let me tell you something else. I was at our old church building yesterday for lunch. And we had a nice lunch. It's a very nice restaurant. And by the way, I throw this in, we have a great relationship with those folks. And they have put little cards out there. If you pick up, you get 20 percent off anything that you eat for the next two months down there, which is a nice discount. But they're really reaching out to us. They're friends. But I was there. We just finished our lunch and we're getting ready to leave. And I'm talking to the owner and his son-in-law and it's, you know, all the people are the best. And there's this thunderous crash from the ceiling. And I looked up and they all looked up and I thought for sure that a leg was going to come crashing through the ceiling. And right up by one of those sort of, you know, discolored ceiling tiles, apparently the door fell off the air conditioning unit down there. So whatever happens up here, you know, just remember from whence we've come. And thank God that, yeah, we have our tweaking to do and there'll be things that won't be just right and the lights and I know all that and we're aware of it. But, hey, stuff's not falling through this roof. And it's a, you know, we have a lot to be thankful for. And we're praying, of course, that everything goes well for the friends there at Max Planck's. But it was a funny experience. I'm kind of understating how dramatic it was. So let's talk about these seven signs. I'm going to talk about six of them. I'm going to have Gene talk about the last one. These are seven signs of the move of the spirit. And some will be more measurable to you and more visible to you and more exciting to you than others. First one I've seen all around the country over the last couple of years is a supernatural unifying of pastors. Now, I have to say right out of the gate, I don't think this is quite as true in Pittsburgh as I've seen it in some other cities. How many of you have heard of the prayer summit movement? Quite a few of you. All around the country, pastors are getting together away from their churches for three, four, and five days, crossing denominational lines, crossing all other barriers, simply to pray and seek God. And it has been an unusual phenomenon, something that doesn't happen very often. And out of it, I've heard testimonies of pastors, some here in Pittsburgh and other places as well, that their whole ministries were changed, their whole approach to ministry was changed. I'm seeing pastors who are now praying for each other's blessing. Can I just confide in you a little something here? This building is very intimidating for some other pastors. And we've had some rather, I won't say abusive, but rather non-complementary conversations with pastors who think that now that we've done this building and so that more people are going to leave their churches. We're trying to assure them that's not what we're here to do. And we're trying different ways to reach out to them to bring them in here to be comfortable, and for us to go to them and be on their turf. But it is a challenge, unless the Holy Spirit does it. And when the Holy Spirit does it, I want you to know it's an exciting thing to see. I'm seeing it not just for things like Billy Graham Crusade, but I'm seeing it in other places, other ways. When we have our dedication week in April, you're going to get to meet five pastors that I fellowship with on a regular basis, all across this city, who are very committed to seeing the Spirit of God move. And we're praying and finding ways to work together to do that. So that's number one. Number two, I see a tremendous spiritual awakening of intercessory prayer. I want to talk about this for a couple of moments, because this, to me, is extremely exciting. I'm not sure if you realize just how different it is now than it was 20 years ago. Do you know 20 years ago, when I first moved back here to Pittsburgh from Fuller Seminary, I could barely find a book, and I didn't have one in my library, about how to mobilize a congregation to pray and do spiritual battle. It wasn't a common thing at all. Now, there was a couple classics out there by Jesse Penn Lewis and E.M. Bounds, but by and large, the idea of congregations strategically praying and binding demon powers and strongholds and loosing the blessing of God and releasing captives, that was not even really understood. And one of the books that most impacted me when I first moved back here in 1975, a little book that I still recommend to this day, one of my top five books of my whole Christian life, called Destined for the Throne. If you haven't read it, I hope it's still in print. I know it's a great book. But that book opened my eyes, and then from that time, things have just been happening. I don't know what some of your personal experience is, but I know many of you have been exposed to such great teachers. Joy Dawson, a tremendous teacher. Cindy Jacobs of a group called Generals of Intercession. Men and women getting revelation from the Lord about how to do this spiritual battle. And how many of you believe that there really are principalities and powers, and there is opposition to the message of God? You see, now today, I can go into my library and I can pick up all kinds of books. John Dawson, tremendous book, Taking Our Cities for God. A new book, Healing Our Wounds, all about racial division in America and where it came from, and about how we can begin to pray to unite this nation. How many believe more police aren't going to do it? I don't think the government's got a solution for the race problem, but I believe the Lord Jesus has a solution, and it's going to come as we learn to pray and lay hold to God. Peter Wagner, personal mentor, friend, instructor of mine, has written 13 books now on prayer. This one, Warfare Prayer, they're great books. Here's Engaging the Enemy. Anyhow, there's so much happening in this realm. Folks, it's not just sort of, you know, all of a sudden authors found what sells. These books aren't selling that much, but they are saying to us, indeed, there is something going on in the Spirit. There's a move of the Spirit. And I want to say one last thing about this point. I am not satisfied at all in my heart, and I share the elder's conviction here. We met last night for three hours, and about half that time we talked about prayer. We need to get serious about prayer and intercession at North Dakota Christian Community. And I want to applaud those of you who pray on your own, and we need you to be praying and undergirding the ministry, but it's time for God to find a place where we are welcoming Him into our midst, into the congregation as we pray, and that we learn to bear the power of the blood of Christ in the name of Jesus and the weapons of our warfare, and do spiritual battle for this community. And so we're going to do some things. I mean, we're going to try some things to get us gathered together. We're going to assign certain days when you and certain regions are going to gather here, if you can. Rather than just hitting this and shotgun it, we're going to try to bring our best resources together. And I want you to pray with me that by this time next year, we have a pastor on staff, a full-time prayer pastor on our staff. Does anyone else think that's a good idea? I think it's something that would make an enormous difference in our church. So pray with me about that. But before that, and prior to that, let's believe God to mobilize this congregation in intercessory prayer, because He's doing it all around the country. The Spirit of God is moving. Before you put this next one up, this next one is a phenomenon, and it's exciting. There is a great movement of the Spirit among men. Did you know that this past year alone, almost 300,000 men met in six different locations around the country for the sole purpose of glorifying God and committing their lives to serving Jesus Christ more passionately than they ever had before? Did you know that only about 300 miles from here or so, in the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, the largest—listen now, I'm going to say words I carefully chose— the largest gathering of men in the history of Christianity took place for the sole purpose of committing themselves to Christ? You say, how do you know? There's no record I've read anywhere or heard anywhere where more men gather, just men, for the purpose of doing that. You say, well, what does that mean? I don't know exactly what it means, but how many believe that's a sign of some kind? I mean, something's happening. That's a phenomenon. You say, well, it's just highly organized. No, not really. At least it wasn't here. And yet we sent a whole busload of men. The Spirit of God is pulling men out. You know who the leader of that promise-keeper's movement is? He's a football coach, University of Colorado. If you're watching any of the games, the Lord's answering prayer for him, too. I don't know if you've seen that, but I think they're 7-0, and they're heading toward national championship. And it's not just promise-keepers. It's not just that one movement. There's other movements of men. Church, two things I want to say. Number one, men of North Way, those of you who've been touched by this, I want to exhort you, and that word means to, you know, with force say, don't wimp out. Some of you were affected and made commitments and are already just beginning to fall into the whole thing of, well, you know, I guess I should. There is some great reward to be attained by those who will persevere in that commitment. And I want to say, men of North Way, let's seize this time. It's a move of the Spirit. Get in step with it. And the second thing I want to say is this, men. On January the 14th, write down the date on your orange sheet, or pumpkin-colored sheet. January 14th, I want you to pray that 1,500 men will be in this auditorium. We have a special promise keepers rally, 1,500 men on those little white chairs. Won't it be funny, you know, sitting like this? 1,500 men, January 14th, right here. Because I believe that the men of God, of this church, can lead the entire congregation on into God's greatest blessing in this coming year. And I'll tell you what, men, if we don't, we're missing the move of God. And I think the women will pick right up and go right by us. I wasn't sure about that, but I thought I said, okay. Number four, I see a broadening of renewed worship. Another move, another sign that the Spirit's moving is the places where worship is being embraced. Now, we have had worship at North Way ever since day one. Not always, you know, as great as we'd like it to be. Not always as Spirit-led as we want it to be. But always with our whole heart. Wholehearted worship. And so what I'm sharing here isn't so much revelation for you, but I want you to know, a lot of denominational churches, a lot of other congregations who are very cautious and even fearful, very liturgical and traditional, are opening to the Spirit of God in worship. And you want to know, what happens when a church begins to raise up the name of Jesus in worship? All kinds of things, doesn't it? I mean, when Jesus' name is lifted, lives begin to change. And I am finding people all over the spectrum saying, hey, we want to know more about worship. I still get letters, still get letters about our worship tape, Journey Through the Veil. It's all around the world. I mean, God is stirring, His Spirit is increasing the desire to encounter God in intimate ways in worship. Number five, unusual events in Israel. Now, I'm not referring simply to what you saw all over the television screen today and yesterday. I'm grateful for peace and the peace process, and I'm praying for it to have effect. But the Scripture teaches that it won't ultimately be the long-term solution. What will be the long-term solution? The coming of the Messiah, that's right. But, I will say this, there is evidence, and I'm hearing this from sources that I trust, that the Spirit of God is being received in Israel in ways heretofore not ever experienced. And I want you to know that most Jews are really not interested at all in Christianity. And in fact, if my information is correct, back in June, the Jewish Defamation League issued some kind of a harsh statement through a book about the Christian right as being opponents of the Jewish state, which is really nuts, but that's what they were saying. At the same time, what I'm hearing is that inside Israel itself, more and more Jews are coming to faith in Christ. More and more personal evangelism is having effect. And I am being encouraged to believe God that in this next several years, between now and the year 2000, that the heart of Israel will be open from the inside to receive the good news about the Messiah. There are unusual things. Time tonight doesn't permit me to give you illustrations, but there are things that never happened before, opening in the lives and hearts of people that are an indication that the Spirit is moving in an unusual way. And one final thing, from my perspective, there is an increasing openness and hunger, once again, for the Holy Spirit's gifts. It is amazing to me how open people are if you ask them, may I pray for you? I mean, people don't necessarily want to be testified to or witnessed to in the sense of, well, if you don't believe this, this is going to happen. But I have found people very open to pray for their needs. The person at the restaurant that I mentioned. Several people on this job who are not Christians have allowed me in the last two weeks to pray for them, just to join right with them in a private place. And in a couple of cases, I had a word of knowledge for them in the midst of that. And they were very curious, well, what is that about? And I would describe them. And you see, what's going on, folks, is that we believers realize that we can't get the job done on our own strength. How many of you are real good at leading people to Christ on your own? Yeah, it doesn't happen. But when the Spirit of God, if you have a passion to do it, the Spirit of God will give you gifts that will open the door to see things happen. He'll even show you things about people's circumstance that you can very gracefully reveal to them to help them see their need for Christ. And there's a hunger. Now, not everyone's hungry for all the gifts. And it's interesting today, in this time, I should say, at North Way, with new people visiting us, there's a lot of misunderstanding. You know, people wonder, well, and we get this at every Discovering the Way class, and every time we gather new people together, we say, well, what about tongues? What's all the flap about tongues? And if you've been here any length of time at all, you know that we kind of take the Apostle Paul's position, we feel, which is, he said in 1 Corinthians 14, 5, I would that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you prophesy. So we encourage people to pursue the enablement of the spiritual language which releases your personal communion with God. I almost want to ask you today, put up your hand if you have that enablement, but I'm not going to do that. I do want to provoke you in a positive way to not just kind of decide well, I've already tried and nothing happened, and well, so I guess God isn't all that interested. Folks, the Lord wants you to have the full range of communication in the Spirit. And so we believe that that's available to all who would be full of the Holy Spirit. We believe that. In other words, God wants to give you the whole package once you receive the Spirit of Jesus in fullness, the whole package comes in. Why do you want to take the package and take one of the gifts out? You know, if someone wants to give you a suit for Christmas, and you say, I want the pants, and I want the coat, but I don't want the shirt, that's not what you, you know, you say, no, I want the whole suit. That's what we're talking about. But never will you hear me or any of our staff or elders say, well, if you don't have that gift, you're not welcome here, or you don't fit in here, or you don't belong here, because that's not true. It's not an issue in those terms. But it is interesting to me that there's a hunger, how can I be released into all the gifts that the Lord has for me? And I see a new openness, and it encourages me that the Move of the Spirit is taking place today. Now, those are six. Let's, how many of those can go up at one time? Let's, let's see. Oh well, not too many. Alright, so there are six of them. The unifying of pastors, the intercessory prayer movement, a powerful movement among men, renewed worship, unusual events in Israel, new openness to the Spirit's gifts. Now this last one, I talked about the first week at some length. Unusual manifestations of the Spirit. And we talked about some of the things that you've heard or read about recently that's happening all around, little pockets in this country, Canada, and other parts of Europe, where the Holy Spirit is having some unusual expression through people who are open. And many times this is like a culmination of months of prayer. Sometimes it just sort of happens to people. But unusual things. Holy laughter. And we talked about that the first week. We talked about the manifestation of the power of God being so great that you literally cannot move for hours at a time. Resulting in a fresh awareness of the presence of God. Resulting in a new zeal, a passion to follow Christ. Folks, again, what's a sign doing? Pointing to some greater reality. Got it? So we're not after the signs. We're not looking for gifts of the Spirit for their own sake. We're not looking for manifestations for their own sake. We're looking to see what is God doing because of those signs telling us that God wants to do. That's the issue. And the Spirit of God wants the church to be quickened and made alive. Unlike any other time in history. And I invited Jeanne Anticos, who recently returned from an interesting opportunity, which my understanding was she was invited some time ago to go to a couple churches in Canada. And to her amazement, found out from the host pastors that, unbelievably, the Spirit of God got there before she did. And began to move into people's lives in a wonderful way. She's going to tell you about it. Let's welcome Jeanne as she comes up. Stand right under the light there, Jeanne. Thank you. Well, I could take two hours, but I'm limited to ten minutes. So I've got to get out as much as I can. So if I sound excited, it's because I am. Everything that Jay said, I saw in action in Canada, except where it spoke about the unusual signs in Israel. But I saw a coming together of pastors and churches. Revival fell in August. Three different churches in Canada. And it came at the same Sunday in each one of the services. And they had been interceding and praying for almost a year. And then it just, it literally fell. But what I saw was so amazing. First of all, I've never seen such worship in my life. I mean where we sang for hours and hours. And it seemed like you were there for 15 minutes. The presence of God was so strong that you could have cut it with a knife. And it was interesting. The Lord spoke to me that when I went up there, that I was to take an intercessor with me. And the person would come along as an intercessor. I had to have an intercessor. And this person would be an intercessor and one who would witness. And so God chose Ruth Meyers to come along with me. And she was the intercessor for me. And also to witness what had happened. And I could not begin to tell you. She would stand behind me as I prayed for the different people. I have never seen so many people on the floor in my life. And they have an expression in Canada. They call it, you know, when you go to Young and Chose Church, if there's a problem in your life, you go to Prayer Mountain. That's where you go. If you have a problem, they take you into counseling. They take you to Prayer Mountain. Well, in Canada now, the expression is, oh, you need a little carpeting. And I couldn't understand what that meant. And it was they needed to get down. And the amazing thing was that when they would get down under the power, you know, I'm used to seeing this. I've seen this for the last 49 years. And they fall down and they're up in two minutes. And I always said when I would pray for people, I'd say, if you're going to get down, don't you dare get up until God's finished with you. And so that's what we saw. We saw people that would stay there for hours. In fact, 1 o'clock in the morning, the pastor would say to me, I'm done. Are you done? I'd say, yeah, I'm done. He'd say, okay, let's you and I go. And the people were still all over the floor and still ministering and praying with one another, deliverances. The amazing thing was the worship. The second amazing thing was the prophecy with the instrumentalists. I have never seen in my life prophecy from the instrumentalists that took the congregation into the heavenlies like you cannot believe. It was the most fantastic thing I've ever seen in my life. You just didn't know whether you were coming or going. And then the other thing that we saw was that the tremendous outpouring, we never knew what God was going to do. There would be times I would have a leading and sometimes the pastor would have a leading and then he wouldn't know what to do. And then one time I said, well, what do we do? He said, beats me, let's just wait on the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit would either give a word of knowledge or a prophecy would come forth. Then we knew the next step of the way to go. No one was in a hurry to leave. There were two amazing things that I want to share with you. There had been prayer for a four-year-old child, a little girl. And mother and father, and I don't even remember who prayed. We prayed for so many people. But this little child stood in the presence of God with both of her hands raised, four years old now. Now can you imagine keeping a four-year-old still? This four-year-old stood for at least 25 minutes with her eyes closed and her hands raised to God. And all she would do is she would stand there and she would weave just a little bit. She didn't get down, she would just weave. And then she would go, and she would just stay there. It was the most awesome thing I ever saw in my life. Men, another thing that we saw, and it was interesting because the second church that I went to was a lady pastor. And she's a great big woman and she's built like a refrigerator, literally. And she eats like a refrigerator too. But this woman had a heart like you couldn't believe. And the one night I felt led that God wanted to raise up the men in the church. And even though this woman is a pastor, a woman pastor, her church is filled with men. She has more men than she has women. And so I called all the men up, and there must have been maybe 150, 200 men. And they came up, and I'll tell you, to see the hunger and the desire in these men's hearts. And everyone that we prayed for, boom, boom, boom. And I mean, we didn't do any, you know how hard it is for men to receive? You men know what I'm talking about. But there wasn't any, we didn't touch them, we didn't lay hands on them, we didn't push them, we didn't do anything. All we did was just come by. And sometimes we'd just do this. I never saw so many men. And you had to keep walking over bodies wherever you were. And I had one little 12-year-old girl who was following me all over wherever we were praying. And she kept following me and following me. And I said, did you want prayer, honey? She said, no. I said, well, what do you want? She said, I'm watching you. And she said, I want to see what you're doing. And I said, well, why? She said, oh, I think it's wonderful. I'm just watching you. So anyhow, I ended up praying for her. Down she went. And the kids were lining the front seats, fighting for front seats because they wanted to see the action. And it was the most marvelous thing. I will close with, oh, I could tell you story after story. But lives were changed. And hearts were renewed. But the last church that I was in, there was a young man, about 27 years old, came in. And he was dead drunk on alcohol. Now, the rest of the church was drunk. And so, you know, it was hard to tell which one was drunk from alcohol, which one was drunk from the spirit. Because there were times you couldn't pick them up off the floor. One woman in the other church we went, they kept trying to pick her up. And they literally could not pick her up. Her legs would not hold her up. So they gave up and left her stay on the floor. I don't know how long she was there. But this young boy came in, 27 years old, dead drunk. And he sat in the back there. And as I was ministering, he kept watching me and watching me. The next night he came back, he was sober. And so as I would call different ones up for prayer, he came up. And I knew his background. They told me he was a schizophrenic and that he was a street person, that he didn't know his mother or father. He didn't even know his own name. And, you know, I thought, I don't want to tackle this. And I'll let the pastor do that. But God gave me such a burden for this young man. I could not get him out of my mind. And so I would call him up. And he'd come up. And he told me his name. I said, What is your name? He said, David. To make a long story short, by the third night, he had invited the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart. He knew his name. He knew his mother and his father. And he walked around like this all the time with his head down. And I made him put his head up. And he began to smile. And his mother and father said, That is a miracle. And I said to him, I said, David, do you know I love you? And he looked at me and he smiled and he said, Yeah, you told me that yesterday. And, you know, that might not seem like much to you. But the church almost, I can't explain what happened in that church because of the salvation and the deliverance of this one young man. And I told him, I said, Now, David, I said, You just tell the devil that he has been there long enough. Now it's time for him to get out. I said, Will you pray with me, David? He said, Yes. I said, Okay. I said, You say, Devil, you've been there long enough. And he said, Devil, you've been there long enough. I said, Now you tell him to get out. And he said, And you get out and stay out. I mean, it was the easiest thing I ever saw in my life. Everything that happened was of no struggle. No, you know, no straining, no striving of any kind. The Spirit of God did it all. And I tell you, we've seen bits and pieces of it here. But I tell you, it's coming. Just let me say that to you. It's coming. It's going to take some intercessory prayer. It's going to take you being open to the Spirit. It's going to be you hungering and thirsting for what God wants. Now, they know the reason why that this is happening. You see, because the Lord wants a healing in the whole body of Christ. Because there is a mission for the whole body of Christ to go out and do the work that God's accomplished. And you see, what we've done before, it's been in pockets here and there and pockets here and there. God says, No, it's now time for the whole body to be healed. So that we can go out and do the will of God that He's accomplished in this land. In Joel, it says, Multitudes, multitudes are in the valley of decision. And so that's what we're commissioned to do. It isn't that we want just to have a blessing party. It isn't just that we want only the signs. And we don't want people from other churches coming here to see what's going on. That's not the purpose. You want to see this happen so that the church gets whole, the church gets healthy. And you see, we don't have five years to stay in counseling. Alright, so God's got to do a quick work. And this is how He's doing it from Revival. And in this, visions after visions and visions. And people saw angels. And they saw literally the angels flooding, I mean pushing back the dark clouds over the city. And the power of God coming down into the cities. Can I share one vision and then we'll quit. This was a vision that God gave me about three weeks ago. And in this vision, I was at another retreat. And they were praying for me. And as they were praying for me, I saw there were about 60 people. And they were real intercessors. And as they began to pray, I saw a stream of light. Just a great big thick column of light. And it began to ascend. And the more that they continued to pray, that column ascended. And then I saw it go into the second heavens. And when it went into the second heavens, there was a mushroom cap like the atomic bomb. And that atomic bomb was in the heavenlies and began to stir up the principalities and the powers. And I began to see the heavens parting. And I saw the heavens being shaken. But that wasn't the end of it. The prayer continued to ascend. And as it ascended, it went into the third heavens. And the angels were all there waiting. And as the prayers were going up, they were receiving the prayers and putting them in bottles or in vials. And they were receiving them as incense. And then at the appointed time, all of the angels at one time began to start pouring this incense back down on the earth. And the Lord spoke to me and said, that's revival. That's revival. And so that's what we need to be hungering and thirsting after. Don't be afraid of how the manifestation is going to be. Because it wasn't all holy laughter. It wasn't all dancing. It wasn't all weird. Some of it, you know, I didn't understand it. But I saw enough to know that it was real. Bless you. Thanks, dear. Sure. Careful, Wendell. Something the Lord, I believe, spoke to me to do. The key thing that she shared here that spoke to my heart was the intercessory prayer that paved the way for this. And I know Jay spoke earlier how the burden on the elder's heart. That is something we know that we really have to kindle afresh. And what the Lord spoke to me is to challenge myself and the rest of you. Are we willing to pay the price of prayer to see this happen here? I mean, it's great to hear about and it's wonderful. Are we willing to pay the price that they did for a year? Are we willing to really do that here? And what I'd like you to do, I'd like everybody to close your eyes if you would. And as silently as possible, because this is not to be seen by anybody except for it's just between you and God. If you're willing to do what God will lay on your heart, and I'm not asking, I'm just asking to do, if you're willing to do what He wants you to do and play your part in intercessory prayer, I want you as silently as possible just to stand up and think about it. Think about it. Don't just do it in an emotional reaction. I want you to think about it. Just give you a little bit of time. This should be your decision. Praise God. Praise God. Now if you would just sit down very quietly. Again, because this is not to be seen by anybody else. There will be times when we'll be calling people and God will witness to you. I want you to do that. I want you to be there. And just know this is just a decision between you and God tonight. And then He'll put on your heart what He wants you to do. That's what it's going to take to do it here. Amen. Let's all stand, shall we? Lord, thank You for Your wonderful Spirit. Thank You that we do see the signs pointing us to the reality of Your purposes and Your presence being manifested, Lord. And Father, we know that we don't have a chance,