Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
I write to the body of Christ around the
world, all who are connecting with the Azusa Now gathering at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum on April 9th. I have rarely seen such a stirring of expectancy
as I am seeing now. It's really not about a stadium event. Instead, everywhere,
men and women are laying hold of the kingdom in such a way that Azusa Now may be
a collective flashpoint. The great intercessor Frank Bartleman wrote of such a
time just before revival broke out at Azusa in 1906. Listen to his words,
written just a few months before the outpouring began:
“The current
of revival is sweeping by our door. Will we cast ourselves on its mighty bosom
and ride to glorious victory? A year of life at this time, with its wonderful
possibilities for God, is worth a hundred years of ordinary life. ‘Pentecost’ is
knocking at our doors. The revival for our country is no longer a
question. Slowly but surely the tide has been rising until in the very near
future we believe for a deluge of salvation that will sweep all before
it. Wales will not long stand alone in this glorious triumph for our
Christ... The clouds are gathering rapidly, big with a mighty rain, whose
precipitation lingers but a little. Heroes will arise from the dust of obscure
and despised circumstances, whose names will be emblazoned on Heaven’s eternal
page of fame. The Spirit is brooding over our land again as at creation’s dawn,
and the fiat of God goes forth. “Let there be light.” Brother, sister, if we all
believed God can, you realize what would happen? Many of us here are
living for nothing else. A volume of believing prayer is ascending to the throne
night and day. Los Angeles, Southern California, and the whole continent shall
surely find itself ere long in the throes of a mighty revival, by the Spirit and
power of God.”
In his wonderful book, The Fasting
Prayer, Franklin Hall wrote:
“Yes, the second Pentecost on Azusa
in 1906 came about just like the first Pentecost. This latter rain outpouring of
the Holy Spirit started with a ten day fast and prayer season in much the same
manner as it did upon the 120 that ‘continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication.’ A few people came to Los Angeles in 1906 and started a 10-day
fast and prayer season and the Holy Spirit fell... Mother Craton states ‘The
first thing that was done before the power ever fell on Azusa was a united ten
day season of fasting and prayer. If there was ever any sectarianism, fasting
broke it down... I believe another Azusa could be here today if God’s
people would get to travailing in much prayer and
fasting.”
With such Bible and church history roaring behind
us, should we not courageously inject our generation into that same Hall of
Faith, where those who have gone before now urge to enter?
With their
beckoning resting on our hearts and ears, we are calling a 10-Day season of
united prayer and fasting as God leads for a global outpouring of the Holy
Spirit, March 30 to April 8, leading up to Azusa Now on April 9, the 110th
anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival. William Seymour, the catalyst of that
great revival, prophesied in 1913 that in roughly 100 years another revival far
eclipsing Azusa would come. The fulfillment of Seymour’s word is overdue... or
right on schedule. Let us therefore “pray for the rain in the time of the latter
rain.” Who knows? Maybe like those who were baptized in the Spirit in the
original Acts 2 upper room, we will say, “this is that which was spoken by
William Seymour the prophet!”
Sincerely,
Lou
Engle TheCall |