|
At the beginning of the 20th century an anti-supernatural
bias began to grip the higher institutions of education. The historical validity and the supernatural events of the Bible
were being aggressively challenged in the West, while at the same time the Holy Spirit was pouring through believers of far,
as revival hit the provinces of northern and southern China, Northern Korea, the country of Wales and northern India. In 1906
president Roosevelt visited Panama, the great San Francisco earthquake occurred and long distanced radio was invented. 1906
was also the same year that the Lord’s presence broke loose in Los Angeles. It all began when William Seymour, a Baptist
and a son of formal slaves Simon and Phyllis Seymour, had come to LA to set up a base of prayer. Seymour preached the gospel
but also placed priorities on the ability of Holy Spirit. Such emphases drew criticism from some within the religious world
but to personal acquaintances Seymour was known as a man of prayer who loved Jesus. In the tradition of slaves who prayed
secretly under the cover of physical objects for fear of angry taskmasters, Seymour was the one to lock out the world completely
with his head in an apple barrel or between two crates for hours at a time until he could quote-unquote "pray- through".
From the bottom of his soul he would cry out to the Lord and the Lord would always answer. So hungry for the Word of God was
Seymour that he often sat outside Bible College classes which would not allow him to come inside because of the Jim Crow laws.
So Seymour sat at the door with the lecturers’ permission he listened, while holding on to every word which was spoken.
After an intense month of seeking the Lord, on 9 April, Seymour and a few friends found themselves in an encounter with the
Holy Spirit. Heaven opened up over 214 Bonnie Brae Street and neighbors began to join in prayer. The crowds grew so quickly
that the prayer meeting was moved to an old abandoned African Methodist Episcopal church building on Azusa Street which it
previously been used as a stabile. What happened there would change the course of church history as the manifest presence
of the Lord exploded onto the scene with tens of thousands coming from around Los Angeles. A major revival had not occurred
in the United States since the Pre-Civil War 1858 Awakening which was sparked by praying African American slaves in Charleston,
South Carolina. The Azusa street event featured some of the same anointed evangelism, supernatural miracles and strong expressions
of emotion that occurred in past revivals like the Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky during the second great awakening of the
18th century. A revival which primarily involved Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. But this event took ground where
none had done before, as it was the first revival in history to renounce and rid the moment of racism. African, European,
Asian and Latino believers, emigrants and American-born worshipped corporately together as the manifest presence of the Lord
created a non-segregated situation. Praises of God filled the air and their hearts cried out for the lost. Not since the early
days of the church had there been such a prominent blow to the walls of racial division within the fellowship of God’s
people which historians cite as a major explanation of the definitive supernatural manifestation that is largely connected
with the Azusa street revival. That definitive characteristic was the praying and praising of participants in various known
and unknown languages. Such an event was recorded in Acts when some mocked and many others marveled at the uneducated Galileans
praising God in languages that they could not possibly know. "Christianity Today" in describing the Azusa street
revival says, "Though some came to mock and scorn, many others heard messages in non-earthly languages uttered by uneducated
blacks and whites. They convinced them of the reality of the revival." As a result even the upper white class of Los
Angelis came to hear the gospel preached with power. More doctors and lawyers and politicians were coming to know the Lord
and now the growing crowds were engulfing the entire neighborhood. Services had to be held three times a day, seven days a
week for years. An angry response ensued from the critics within the established secular religious worlds, as was the case
in past revival history the newspapers were not quick to jump on board to what was going on. Editorial cartoonists and established
newspapers publicly ridiculed the revival for, quote, "intermingling of the races", for "crying all day to
the night" and for "repeatedly singing the same worship songs again and again". Still the message of the cross
was preached with power and the crowds repented of sin. All of the Los Angelis fellowships began to break out praying and
interceding for the lost. Christians who heard of the Lord dealings came in droves from across America and returned to their
communities praying and on fire for the Lord. At the same time the entertainment film industry set up shop in Los Angeles
when later the same year the very first movie studio was built right on the face of the revival. Underway was a powerful rival
which would aggressively replace a life of prayer in American homes with visual entertainment for the next 100 years. In a
close decision, the entertainment industry had barely opted to settle on the hills of los Angelis over a close runaround the
hills of Hamburg, South Carolina now called North Augusta. The charlatans came to in order to the profit from the revival
but by the time they began to arrive, the Lord’s presence had already spread like wild fire across the nation with tens
of thousands of individual prayer revivals touching the lives of millions. The various groups of people from every race, background
and denomination would be directly or indirectly effected by this one revival is estimated to be a five hundred million people.
Five hundred million who have received Jesus as Lord! Which is why "Christianity Today "labels William Seymour for
his life of prayer as one of the most 10 influential Christians of the 20thcentury alongside Billy Graham, Mother Teresa and
C.S. Lewis. The revival continued on for years with the presence of the Lord changing the hearts of men and women from every
background and bringing believers into a place of unity that had never been seen before. Much of it can be directly traced
to the burden placed by the Holy Spirit on one son of African American slaves who set his face to seek the heart of haven
and settle for nothing less than an encounter with Love Himself.
|
