When
Lou Engle came into school to talk about Azusa Now towards the
beginning of school I felt goosebumps, this was something so exciting
and I was blessed to be alive, to be at BSSM for just such a time as
this. Since then my excitement and anticipation has continued to
rise and now our trip to LA is only a couple of weeks away!
So
what is Azusa Now?
There
are times which Scripture describes as "full" — periods
of unusual ripeness in which God unleashes His prophetic
purpose across the earth. Such days of faith and
expectation often come during periods of crisis or widespread
uncertainty. For 15 years, amidst massive cultural decay, Lou Engle
and TheCall have sought to proclaim the bold, uncompromising message
of consecration to Jesus. Like John the Baptist, we have cried out,
"Prepare the way of the Lord!"
Yet the
last statement of John was not "Prepare the way," but
"Behold the Lamb!" If there was truly a John Movement, then
a Jesus Movement is surely coming! Believing that decades of
globe-spanning prayer have saturated the heavens, we will boldly ask
God for the rain of revival on April 9th, 2016. We will consecrate an
entire day — 15 hours — for the purpose of unity, miracles,
healing, and the proclamation of the gospel. Our rally cry: Come,
Holy Spirit! Instead of 120 in the Upper Room, we seek to gather as
many as 120,000 in one place and one accord to simply exalt Jesus.
And for inspiration, we turn to the most powerful expression of
revival in modern times: the historic Azusa Street Revival of 1906.
(From http://www.thecall.com/azusa)
So
on April 4th around 2000 BSSM students head down to LA for
5 days of street ministry before the big event itself on the 9th.
On the 9th there will also be around 1000 of the local
Bethel Church family joining us for the event. The event is also
being supported by lots of local LA churches, YWAM, Christ for the
Nations and other great organisations. It is going to be an amazing
event.
Over
recent weeks God has been speaking to me about Azusa Now being the
beginning of something we have never seen, that is, worldwide
revival. It excites me that about 6 weeks after Azusa Now students
from all around America and the world will have graduated and be
heading home and they will all be carrying the seeds of what they saw
and were part of at Azusa. They will be carrying testimony home to
add to the beautiful expressions of revival that God is doing
throughout the earth, not because what they have is better but
because it will enhance what God is already doing. How exciting is
that! I truly am so blessed to be able to be a part of this and feel
so privileged that God called me for such a time as this. We really
do live in the most exciting of times.
So
my Revival Group and 5 others (about 400 people or thereabouts) are
in the South West area of LA and this has the Coliseum in, LAX (the
airport), Venice Beach, 4 Universities and lots, lots more. It is a
very diverse area with lots of cultures across ethnicities and social
class and there are lots of different things planned for the 4 days
before Azusa Now for us to impact the area and the people who live
there.
There
are 4 other areas that the other revival groups will be impacting
before we all come together to be the ministry team for the event
itself and they are expecting at least 80,000 people to attend. It's
mad, I cannot imagine what 80,000 people looks like, never mind if
the event is full and there are 120,000 people. I just know that it
is going to be an amazing day and am truly looking forward to
worshipping God there and seeing what he wants to do.
Other
reasons I am excited are:
Recently,
when I was fundraising for the trip, one of my leaders sent me a
message that encouraged me even more than I already was. Those who
know me know that I am excitable! Talking about Azusa and thinking
about it, even writing this blog gives me goosebumps, I just know we
are going to see God come and move in powerful ways. He wants to
show LA that he is real and that he loves them and we get to partner
with that, how awesome! However, the thing that got me more excited
was that this leader had been in LA with his wife about 3 years ago
and God had told them to go to Azusa Street and get on their knees
and pray, 'God do it again, revival breakout!'. This they did. Then
this year they have met another couple who God had do the exact same
thing last year. Love it, God has been preparing the way for this
for a long, long time and I know that no matter how excited I am, he
is more!
One
of the biggest things that gets me excited about Azusa Now is that it
is all about unity. The church coming together, the nations coming
together, believers coming together to say that God is Sovereign and
to invite him to have his way. It is so beautiful! All we need to
do is go, listen to his voice, see what he is doing and join in with
him and we will see him do extraordinary things through us, his
people.
How
amazing is it that BSSM decided to cancel all their ministry trips
(they normally do over 70 trips to over 40 nations and many, many
wonderful testimonies are brought back) and send all their students
to Azusa Now. That means that all those testimonies that are usually
a part of the trips around the world are all going to focussed around
the LA area, one city in one country. With all my heart, I do not
believe that this can happen and LA remain the same, even if the
seeds are not easy to see at first, they will grow and LA will never
be the same again after the 9th April and the few days
before.
In
case you have not noticed yet, I'm a little excited about this trip!
I would love for you to partner with us in prayer to invite God to
come and invade and do what he wants to do. For him to prepare
hearts for what he has in store for them and to make us bold
witnesses for him. As we get closer to the event I hope to be able
to tell you more of the detail of what we will be doing for more
specific prayer. But for now, thanks for reading and I truly
appreciate your prayers!
Be
blessed.