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

Insights from Modern Church History (A.O. 1830-1980)

The Rain Falls on Me

My wife, Joy, and I were zealous young Pentecostal ministers when the LRM began. We were soon hearing reports of what was happening in northern Canada. In my junior year at San Jose State University, I was also the youth minister at the First Assembly of God in San Jose. One day the pastor called me into his office and laid a letter before me. It was from the headquarters of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri-a warning about the fanatical activities and heretical doctrines coming out of the North Battleford group. Since I knew little of what was happening, I just read the letter and told the pastor I did not know about those things. Inwardly, however, I was excited that God was possibly mov- Joy and I began to hear more and more positive reports from friends about what was happening in the north. We moved to Joy's hometown of Spokane, Washington, where I finished college. After our first baby arrived and we began our pastoral ministry, we continued to hear about the great meetings in Vancouver and how Glad Tidings had an annual camp meeting at Crescent Beach, British Columbia. This was our chance to see firsthand what was happening. The year was 1950. We were twenty years old. The camp meeting setting was rustic. In fact, the accommodations were so poor that we almost decided not to stay. I stared and listened in amazement as I observed the large congrega tion in the old tabernacle worshiping God in a genuine, biblical fashion. People were caught up in the joy of praising God. Sincere, fervent wor ship continued for nearly an hour as I watched with awe. It disturbed me that I was unprepared emotionally and spiritually for free participation in such glorious, lengthy, total and intense adoration of God. As the service progressed, I was astounded at the order, the intensity and the spiritual flow. The people employed psalmic worship forms in a natural, free-flowing style. With hands raised they praised the Lord audi bly. They stood and worshiped for a long time, yet their awareness of God seemed to dispel their tiredness. Prophetic messages were spoken and the service well controlled by the leaders. I was seeing the worship I had read about in the book of Psalms, and it was coupled with the special emphases and manifestations of the worship of the early Church! I was also impressed by the amount of prayer. An hour before the serv ices began, people gathered at the altar to pray. Many knelt, while others stood or sat. All prayed with fervency. Many spoke or sang praises to the Lord. The meetings so challenged me that I left a service one afternoon in despair. Wandering into the woods and falling beside an old log, I cried • 294 . . mg agam.