Hungry for a Move of God

Although I was raised in a Pentecostal denomination, my church never had much of a display of the gifts of the Spirit.

Occasionally, we had tongues and interpretation when the Spirit was “really moving.” However, I was aware that supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit were possible.

 I had seen God’s Presence sweep into the church youth camp services I attended each summer in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Holy Spirit had free course there. I witnessed repentance, salvation, and rejoicing among those hungry youth. Each night the altars were filled with seekers. Young people seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and seeking God. Seeking to know Him. Seeking His Presence. Seeking His touch.

Some youth had visions of Jesus, and their lives were forever transformed. Others received the infilling of the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues into the early morning hours with a heavenly glow radiating from their faces. At times, the bodies of young people covered the floor at the front of the auditorium with the power of God holding them in His glory.

That same revival spirit never manifested in our local churches. I confirmed this with other youth at camp the following year. They experienced the same “letdown” that I did. When we returned to our churches, we shared our life-changing experiences. Although church members rejoiced at the reports, they patted us on the back and said, “Now, let’s get back to ‘regular’ church.” And the mighty move of God that started in camp was quenched in us.

What we had experienced at camp was real, and we wanted to live our lives in the Presence of God and please Him. I wasn’t sure what we could have done to keep that fire burning in our youth group.

(My perspective as an adult is somewhat different. It is perplexing for adults to be confronted with outstanding spiritual experiences from the younger generation when they have no personal context. Encouragement, however, was better than being discouraged!)

The next time I returned home “on fire for God” fresh from the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit I called a council of young people.

 The youth group in our church was small but close. As one of the few Pentecostal churches in a small town, we endured the mocking attitude of being persecuted because we were “tongue talkers.” What the townspeople didn’t know was that there wasn’t much “tongue talking” and “wildfire” going on.

After getting permission from the pastor, the youth group met at the church on a Friday night. Our goal was to pray for revival and for people to be saved.

We gathered around the old wooden bench altars at the front of the church. Those altars had seen three generations of my family saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. They had spent many hours praying and seeking God around them.

 God had moved upon my great grandparents and grandparents to help get our church started. They even worked on the construction of the building.

A Rich Spiritual History

My ancestors were farmers, not preachers. They were part of the Pentecostal outpouring (and persecution) in north Arkansas around 1905. Seeking to find better farmland for their crops, they loaded their cow, pig, chickens, and household belongings on a train to purchase their share of the rich Delta farmland between the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. When they discovered there was no Pentecostal church where they could worship God in the power of the Spirit with signs and wonders, they decided to start one.

 As a 14-year-old who had encountered a supernatural God at camp, I wanted to know what happened to the signs and wonders? Why did they stop? I was determined to find out at those same altars that had seen the glory of God. Something had been lost.

My grandmother told me how I was healed of pneumonia at six months of age. The healing evangelist, Jack Coe, held a prayer cloth in his hands and prayed for God’s healing power to go into that cloth. He prayed according to Acts 19:12 where handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul were taken to the sick, and the diseases and evil spirits left the people. When my grandmother laid the prayer cloth on my sick body, I was healed.

My grandparents had often traveled to the great tent meetings of Jack Coe, Oral Roberts, William Branham, and A.A. Allen. Some of the tales they told about these meetings seemed to be embedded in my DNA. Healings, miracles, and supernatural deliverances were part of my physical and spiritual heritage. But where did this wonderful wealth of history go? Had it been forgotten?

 Our “Upper Room” Experience

 Your young men [youth] will see visions. Acts 2:17 NLT

Arkansas summers are hot and humid. That night, the temperature was just cooling down when the youth group arrived at the church.

We began praying in the early evening hours. As the youth prayed around the altar benches, it appeared to be an ordinary prayer meeting. Quiet murmuring on bended knees, with heads bowed and elbows resting on the slick wooden altar benches stained with tears. We began by praying for people we knew who needed to be saved.

From our hearts came intercession for family members, friends from school, and people who came to our minds. The amount of time we prayed is not in my memory now, having been jolted by what happened next. It was not the gentle descent of a dove that came upon us but a sudden blast of power exploding in the church auditorium. I was flattened by it and knocked on my back.

As the heavenly language of tongues rolled from my lips, I was vaguely aware of loud crying, repenting, and praising God. Sounds of young people speaking in tongues filled the room. I was in the holy Presence of God, and nothing happening around me mattered.

Around 10 o’clock, with everyone still around the altars, the spirit of prophecy came upon me. Until that moment, I couldn’t get off the floor. When I got up, it felt like an unseen force moved me to the pulpit on the elevated stage. To my utter amazement, I preached and prophesied under the anointing of the Holy Spirit for almost an hour.

 Some of the youth were still crying when I exhorted them to repent and be saved. Little did I know that several of our church-attending young people had never been born again.

Church attendance and lip service to faith do not equal salvation. A personal experience with Jesus Christ is profound, and receiving Him as Savior is life-altering. Every young person who had not made Jesus the Lord of their life left having been born of the Spirit. Those who hadn’t received the baptism of the Holy Spirit were filled and spoke in tongues.

Such indescribable things happened that night, I find it difficult to explain. It had to be experienced.

The Desire to Share Our Experience

Once we were able to function, we wanted to tell what happened to us. No matter that it was almost midnight, such an incredible move of the Spirit had to be shared.

Some of the youth called their parents from the church phone, sobbing and praising God. Several church members without children were called too. In between sobs, they heard, “Come to the church right now! Jesus is here!” Not knowing what was happening and alarmed at the crying, everyone rushed to the church.

When parents and church members walked through the double doors, they were stunned. They were met with crying, dancing, and speaking in tongues.

 The adults saw the results of God touching our souls. They witnessed the outward manifestation of what had just taken place in us. But they did not experience the inner transformation of a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit. How could they? They weren’t there when God filled the church and His Spirit clothed us with His Presence.

At the Sunday night service following our encounter, we gave testimony to what happened. To give testimony is to present evidence of something you witnessed. We testified of salvation by the Name of Jesus. The Spirit was upon us as we preached, prayed, and prophesied in His Name. If the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, we flowed in the spirit of prophecy that night. We were baptized in the Holy Spirit as Jesus prophesied in the book of Acts.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me dis[1]cuss. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:4-5

Young People Need God Encounters

Churches that set their children and youth aside and wait for them to reach maturity before being included in “real church” are missing one of the greatest potentials for revival. Youth are hungry to experience God and often search for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. God notices and responds to hungry hearts. Young people who are truly touched by an encounter with God will never forget that event. And if they stray from Him later, they will return to their faith.

Even as a six-year-old child, I recognized the anointing of the Holy Spirit. One summer during vacation Bible school, I was sitting at a table in the church’s fellowship hall gluing and pasting Bible characters when something startling happened. My grandmother was teaching the Bible lesson when I sensed a change in her voice, and a Presence filled the room. When I looked up, she was crying.

 “Kids, you have to ask Jesus to come into your hearts. You must be born again.” We listened with rapt attention as my grandmother led us in a short prayer: “Jesus, come into my heart. You are my Savior.” After repeating that prayer, I was filled with joy. I knew something had happened to me. After class, we had an opportunity to tell what happened to us at a testimony service. We were born of the Spirit, just as Jesus said!

Two years later, my sister, our pastor’s daughter, and I had another supernatural encounter when we were baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Wildfire in the Beanfield

 It was a Sunday afternoon in September, just before the soybean harvest. My sister Beverly, the pastor’s daughter, and I were outside playing under the elm tree and enjoying the cooler weather when we began to talk about Jesus.

We had heard specific teaching on how to lead people to salvation through Jesus Christ in church the week before. My sister was five years old, I was eight, and the pastor’s daughter was thirteen. We listened intently to the teaching and memorized the scriptures to use.

Around 4 o’clock that afternoon, we decided to take the lawn tractor, go across the farm to the nearest neighbor’s house a half-mile away, and win them to Jesus.

Our neighbor had three children around our age. We had played with them a few times and found out they did not go to church.

We prepared and practiced saying the scriptures we were going to use.

There is none righteous, no, not one. Romans 3:10 KJV

You must be born again. John 3:7 ESV

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 NKJV

All three of us got on the lawn tractor onto which Dad had welded an extra seat. We made our way down the turn row, which is a strip of uncropped land at the edge of the field. The lawn tractor made deep tracks in that sandy loam soil as we headed to our neighbor’s house.

 I stopped the tractor when it occurred to me that we had forgotten a very important step that we learned in the “personal evangelism” class.

 “We forgot to pray,” I said. “Let’s go in the soybean field and pray for God to help us so they will be saved.”

The dust flew as we tromped across the turn row and into the tall beans. This was a great place to pray. It was very private.

 After stepping on the stalks and mashing down enough foliage to make a decent size “prayer room,” we sat down in a circle. I led off in prayer: “Lord, we need Your help. Tell us what to say so they will want to be saved.”

My sister and the pastor’s daughter each said a prayer asking for various kinds of help in witnessing.

We had not finished our prayers when I heard the wind blowing from the north across the tops of the beans. It sort of sounded like wind blowing through the leaves of a sycamore tree a rattling, shimmering noise, but then it became much louder as it roared closer to us.

Concerned about a storm, we peaked above the soybeans only to see what looked like fire racing across the tops of the beans. In a second, it hit us and knocked us flat on our backs.

I had been born again two years before but had not been filled with the Holy Spirit and spoken in tongues yet. Instantly, I was talking loudly in a language I did not know.

 The pastor’s daughter was lying on her back speaking in tongues. When we were able to sit up again, we were laughing, crying, and praising God!

My sister, however, was crying tears of sadness. When I asked what was wrong, she cried, “I’m not saved!”

Here was my opportunity to lead someone to Jesus!

“Just ask Him to come into your heart, and you will be saved.” As soon as she said those words, she began speaking in a heavenly language, baptized in the Holy Spirit.

After a considerable amount of time had passed, I heard my mother’s voice calling in the distance. It was time for the Sunday night service, so we got back on the lawn tractor and headed to the house with tears of joy running down our faces, all the while speaking in tongues.

My dear Pentecostal grandmother was standing in the yard with my mom. Both had worried looks on their faces when they saw we were crying. Something must have happened. Was someone hurt?

When we got near enough, they could hear us praising God and speaking in tongues. My grandmother began weeping and dancing in the Spirit, rejoicing at the outpouring of the Spirit upon us kids.

 Over the years, my sister and I have talked about this experience in 1962 and the outpouring at the church in 1968. It is indelibly etched in our minds.

 I acknowledge that these are unusual experiences, and most people receive the Holy Spirit without such demonstrations. Why us? I don’t know.

 Maybe the prayers of our ancestors reached out in time to the generation to come. Or maybe the anointing absorbed by those generations who attended the great tent meetings became part of our DNA?

Perhaps the simplest explanation is that God hears the prayers of children asking for help to witness, and that helper is the Holy Spirit. One thing I do know—these outpourings are not over, and there will be greater signs and wonders among the children and young people when the next wave comes.

The new is built upon the old. Time doesn’t flow backward but forward. This new move of the Holy Spirit will include young children and teenagers who are fresh vessels for the Spirit, untainted by religious dogma but hungry for God.