Happy Thursday beloved! I hope you’re having a great week!
I have to tell you, I am bursting with expectation for what God is going to do next! Last night, a few of us saw “The Jesus Revolution” movie, and it stirred our hearts in a profound way! Here’s a pic of us afterwards. So cool that our friend and fellow evangelist Vasili was able to join us!
Between seeing (in the movie) what God did following the 1970 Asbury Revival, and seeing what is happening with the current Asbury Revival- all I can think is that we are on the cusp of another mighty wave of Glory that will sweep across America, just like in the 70’s. A NEW Jesus Revolution!
It is so exciting!
This past weekend was such a powerful one too. We saw many come to Christ, many get revived, and many get otherwise touched by the Lord. Saturday was definitely my favorite though because we linked up with Pastor Charles Taylor and Purpose Culture. They were absolutely extraordinary, and the anointing on their sound drew so many people over to watch, listen, and video. I have never seen anything like it at Riverwalk before. Here’s a short clip.
Click here for more videos- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ww6m3stwnrtahxo/AABEck2xFfo0useMc2oxLwwoa?dl=0
There were at least 300-400 people that got touched by the Word that night, and people were receiving prayer left and right. I also heard that at least 5 people prayed to receive Christ. It was amazing! Thank you, Lord!
On Friday night, I’d estimate that over 100 people were touched by the Word. Two of them came over and joined our preservice prayer meeting, which led to us ministering to them for over an hour. They were both backslidden Christians and I could tell that God had really touched them both. Here’s Laney and Diana praying for the girl. She was in tears.
Although this was cool, the most memorable moment of the night for me came after a VERY drunk man heckled me while I was preaching. He was on the walkway yelling curses at me, so I asked him over the microphone to come and speak to me directly. He stormed right over, and when he got close, I opened my arms and asked him if I could give him a hug. He angrily said he didn’t even want to shake my hand.
After talking to him for a minute, he started to calm down a little bit, and then, in a slurred and drunken voice, he demanded “If you are a man of God, tell me the ten commandments!!”
To his complete shock, I named all 10 of them. When I finished, he looked at me with big eyes and said “Wow. Maybe you are a man of God!”
After this, he started telling us about the church he goes to! I was stunned!
As we kept talking to him, he mentioned in a very angry way that several people close to him had died recently. I could tell this was the root of his bitterness. We kept ministering to him for a while and his attitude changed dramatically. When all was said and done, he shook my hand, hugged me, and went on his way in a much better mood. Such a cool (and funny!) move of the Spirit!
On Sunday night, there were SOOO many people at the beach. I would estimate that 500-600 people were touched by the Word. One really cool moment was baptizing a man that Laney had met at the beach a few days earlier. Lots of people saw it and heard the gospel by the water too. Here’s a clip-
During the baptism, a man (whom you can see in the video) started yelling profanity at me, so I acknowledged him on the microphone. I told him that even if he hated God, God still loved him. After a minute or so, he calmed down. After the baptism, I went to talk to him, and on my way over several people stopped to thank me. This was a nice encouragement before our conversation.
When I came over to the man (Sam), he was still very angry about us being there. Sam told me that he was raised in a strict Jewish household and that he was now an atheist. Being that I have been studying a lot of apologetics lately, I felt like this was a good time to use some of it. I began asking him questions about what he really believes, and he struggled to explain his worldview. I dropped a few gospel nuggets on him, but I knew I was only meant to plant a seed, so I wound the conversation down by repeatedly telling him about God’s love and forgiveness demonstrated by Jesus. I was encouraged when Sam allowed me to hug him before I went back to the tent.
Just as I was leaving, a young man who had thanked me for doing what we did, began to talk to Sam. It seemed like he wanted to share Christ with him also. Afterwards, I went back to the tent, packed up, and went to the pavilion. As I was preaching in the pavilion, to my amazement, Sam walked by, stopped, and this time HE initiated a hug! He had a look on his face like he was sorry, and he very nicely told me goodbye. Praise God!
I had some great interaction with some of the drummers on Sunday too, and at the end of the night we also got an amazing testimony from Miguel about what is happening inside the circle. He has told us in the past that there was a lot of conflict and division amongst the drummers. Now, after all these different drummers have had their hearts touched by the Lord, he said that everyone is getting along so much better and that there’s so much more peace and love within the group.
That’s our God!
BIG thanks to everyone who was able to come last weekend! Mike M, Thom, Laney, Diana, Sara, Tim, Savannah, Mike V, Deb, Michelle, Patty, Bob, Shirley, Pat/Paul, his parents, Daniel, Abagail, Mike A, Charles and the Purpose Culture team, Howie and Alin, Rene, Maria, Amber, Dave, Conrad and Aaron. You guys rock!
This weekend our schedule will be:
Friday at Bayfront Park (152) at 7
Saturday at Riverwalk (80!) at 4
Sunday at Siesta Beach (257) at 3
Please pray and please come when you can!
Just a reminder, Ft. Lauderdale is only 3 weeks away! God is putting a strong team together from multiple cities, so I’m pumped to see the revival fire hit those college kids!
Can you imagine if even a few of them get lit up and take the fire back to their campus?! This is the time!!!
Love you guys!
Chris and Sofiya