Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Madness: What Compelled the False Prophet?

The Bible was taught daily in the Adullam Home and the Gospel preached. Many of the children had a knowledge of the main themes of the Bible before the outpouring of the Spirit began and some had been converted. They attended their classes, taught by a Chinese teacher, and also had schedules for chores or working in the garden. H. A. Baker explains that such uneducated, mentally untrained, unimaginative boys could not have conceived of the things that were spiritually revealed. He insists that "many of these children were too young, too ignorant, or too recently rescued from paganism to know the Bible teaching on these sub jects" (p. 13). Amazingly children in different rooms sometimes had simul taneous visions of the same things! The prophetic experiences of the chil dren did not come from any revival atmosphere, mental excitement, religious frenzy or other self-produced condition. "This outpouring of the Holy Spirit," he writes, "came to ordinary children as they went about the not-too-exciting business of going to school" (p. 14). Baker's description of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is impressive and gives important background to some of the prophetic incidents of interest to us: The morning prayer meeting was lasting longer than usual.The older children left the room one by one to begin their studies in the school room, while a few of the smaller boys remained on their knees, praying earnestly. The Lord was near.We all felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Some who had gone out returned to the room. Such a mighty conviction of sin-a thing for which we had prayed so long-came to all, that with tears streaming from their eyes and arms uplifted they cried out to the Lord for forgiveness for their sins, which now seemed so black. One after another went down under the mighty power of the Holy Spirit until more than twenty were prostrate on the floor.When I saw that the Lord was doing a most unusual thing in our midst, I went over to the school room and told the boys that if they felt led to come and pray they might be excused from their school work.In a short time the Chinese teacher was left sitting alone by the table [he started to leave, then came in to pray, lifting his hands and pleading for the Lord's forgiveness]. pp.21-22 The meeting continued for hours, with the children seeing visions of the awfulness of hell, the anguish of lost souls and the evil force of the devil. The revelation of the grace of the Lord Jesus was so real that dra matic liberation from the clutches of the evil one occurred. "Their joy, laughter, and peace of soul in the knowledge of what they had been saved from gave them an experience which I am sure they will never be able to forget" (p. 23). 123 ■