God Used Little Kids to Spark a Revival!

In 1971, at a time when rioting on university campuses across America was prevalent, the Spirit of the Lord told me to go to Howard University in Washington, D.C.

The students at this university had gathered all the chairs out of the dormitories and carried them downstairs to the front gate where they stacked them so nobody could get onto the campus.

Nevertheless, the Lord told me to go there, so I went. I’d been working with students on college campuses for years, so I caught a plane from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Washington, D.C. From the airport, I took a cab to the administration building at Howard University.

 Carrying my luggage, I went in and talked to the receptionist. “My name is Norvel Hayes,” I said. “I’m from Tennessee. Do you have a chaplain? God told me to come here.”

“Yes. Let me get Reverend Short for you,” she said and returned with the chaplain at her side.

“My name is Norvel Hayes,” I said. “God told me to come here.”

He looked at me and said, “I believe it! Where are you staying?”

I answered, “I just got out of a cab from the airport. I’ll get a motel here somewhere.”

“No, we’ll get you a place to stay,” he said. “I believe the Lord sent you here.” Then he asked if I would like to stay in a home with five Catholic priests.

 “Why not?” I said. I figured it would be a good experience.

 When Reverend Short took me to the home, he told me, “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. The reason they have an empty bed is that one of their priests just died in it.”

“Well, I’m not going to die in it, praise God forever!” I said. “I came here on a mission. What the mission is, I don’t know.”

Pat Boone was supposed to speak for the chapel service in two or three days, but something happened and Pat couldn’t come. The university staff called me and asked me if I’d speak in his place. I said, “Sure, if you want me to.”

 They told me what time the service was. I went over to the chapel hall which was totally packed. There were hundreds and hundreds of students. I sat on the stage of the auditorium with two black ministers. They invited a young man to sing a solo before they introduced me. As he was singing the solo, the Spirit of God came upon me, and I began to weep.

While I wept, I received a vision from God where I saw four winds coming down out of heaven from way up in the heavenlies somewhere. I didn’t even know that God had four winds. One came from the east, one from the west, one from the north, and one from the south. All four winds came from different directions out of the heavens.

 It was like four whirlwinds, and God let me see it. The four winds came together up in the heavenlies with a force and hit head-on.

There is something about the wind that God just works through, and the Spirit of God is coming like that wind. You don’t know where it comes from, but it is there. The wind starts going, but where does it come from? It is like a mystery.

 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. 1 Corinthians 2:7

As the four winds became one great whirlwind, they fell to earth. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, “This is the way the revival will come to the earth—like the wind, all of a sudden, out of heaven. Nobody will see it. It will just come. I am going to use young people as a big part to spark the revival. I will use young people to start it.”

After He said this to me, I sat there still weeping. As the soloist continued to sing, the word of the Lord came unto me again saying, “When he gets through singing, stand. Go to the microphone and prophesy what you’ve just seen and what you’ve just heard. Son, prophesy what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard.”

 When the singer finished the song, I got out of my seat, half stumbling and half weeping, and took the microphone. The audience, very attentive, listened closely. I opened up my mouth and began to prophesy what I saw coming down from heaven. I prophesied about the four winds bringing revival to the earth and how God would use young people. I prophesied exactly what I saw and what the Lord had said to me. As I prophesied, it felt like I took a bath inside. I spoke the prophecy out in the Howard University chapel service, and the people broke out rejoicing. They were jubilant! Many of them stood weeping and rejoicing.

 The next morning, I was eating breakfast in the Howard University campus cafeteria. Reverend Short saw me and came over to sit at my table. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.

He said, “Mr. Hayes, the Lord has sent you here. The Lord has sent you to this university.”

“Yes, I know He did,” I said.

He said, “The university executives had a special meeting this morning. They were so moved by the prophecy you gave yesterday they decided to give a couple of Christian boys on campus some money to have meetings on campus to try and stop the rioting and get the students quieted down. They know that God sent you here to give that prophecy out. They believe with this kind of atmosphere, and because of the way the students responded to you when you spoke to them, that God is the answer to bringing peace to this university. We want you to have some more meetings about God.”

Then he said, “God absolutely sent you here to give that prophecy out.”

I said, “Oh, I believe that. I believe it now. When I came here, I didn’t know what I came for, but God knew.”

 That was in 1971. I told that prophecy in my teaching for 14 years. Sometimes I told that story, and sometimes I told the people, “You might as well look out—there’s a revival coming! You might as well look out because I’ve already seen it. It’s coming, and God is going to use young people to start it and get it sparked.”

 Then in March 1985, I went to the Word of Faith Church in Dallas, Texas, to hold a satellite seminar that was supposed to last only four nights. But God had other plans.

 First a boy, about 14 years old, received a vision from the Lord. A light came down from heaven and engulfed the Word of Faith Church. The boy saw angels, and he saw what God was going to do.

 The next night Valarie Owen, a teacher from Word of Faith Bible School, stood and told of being caught up in the Spirit that morning:

There was a powerful anointing, while we were praising God. I got on my knees, then went into a trance. I could not move. God said these words to my heart: “Azusa Street, Azusa Street. You were interceding and breaking powers, and I’m going to pour out My Spirit as I poured out my Spirit on Azusa Street. But you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Azusa Street was a church in California where God began to pour out His Spirit, just like at Pentecost. God showed me this group of people were dedicated and determined to get more and more of God. They were hungry. So they got together, and they demanded from the Lord. They pulled down power from on high because they believed God. And they stayed until the power came. They say it came like a mighty rushing wind, just like on the day of Pentecost. When it fell, the people that didn’t want it ran. By the time we finish, it will be Azusa Street all over again. Glory to God! Hallelujah!

The next day little third and fourth graders asked their teachers if they could pray instead of going to recess. They wanted to come down in front of the church and pray. So they came down and started praying, and the whole bunch of them fell out in the Spirit. They just fell out on the floor while they were praying, and kept on praying. They were there for two or three hours. Little kids.

The Lord had told me 14 years before that He would use little kids to spark off the revival. I was sitting on the platform when these testimonies came forth. The Holy Spirit allowed me to relive the prophecy and the vision I’d seen in Washington, D.C., in 1971. He said, “It’s coming to pass. This is it. What I told you would happen is happening right before your eyes.”

 That night I told the people about that vision. All kinds of things started happening, both in the service and outside. People saw signs and wonders from God. They saw visions and fell out and prayed. The phone lines were jammed with testimonies of what God was doing across the country. It was the beginning of the revival that would sweep the earth.