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

The Latter Rain Movement

out to the Lord, confessing my pride, arrogance, lack of spirituality and everything else I could think of. I truly broke before the Lord. It was the beginning of a great work of God in me. An unusual procedure was part of the services at the camp. Candidates who had fasted at least three days were called to the platform, where they knelt to receive the laying on of hands by a presbytery of local and visit ing prophetic ministers (see chapter 22). These presbyters spoke prophet ically, bringing confirmation and impartation to people about their call ings, giftings and ministries. In the next five years that Joy and I attended the annual camp at Cres cent Beach, this ministry of prophecy was an important and ongoing part of the program. Gradually the prophetic gift began to develop in me (as described in chapter 23). Within a year of the start of this move of God's Spirit in North Battleford, there were a number of strange happenings throughout North America also labeled "Latter Rain." Many visitors to North Battleford, and influential churches across the United States, caught the excitement of what was happening, but missed the basic truths and experience. Thus, as in every movement, characteristics were attributed to the Latter Rain movement that were not part of the original. 1. Established religious groups are usually unwilling to consider the need for their own biblical restoration, especially if the leaders are offended by teaching or manifestations in the new movement that are different. All the great movements of the Spirit are characterized by bro kenness before God-true humility that allows Him to deal with the heart. As a church body enters the second and third generation of its member ship, it tends to rely more on the established structure of its theology and methodology and less on a personal heart experience and encounter with God. The new generation tends to live by the faith of its founding fathers and less on its own relationship with God. The institutionalizing of the Church-a process we addressed in chapter 15-seems to happen in spite of the best intentions of religious leaders and people. Eventually the orig inal revival movement becomes set in its own lifeless, cemented, organi zational pattern, just like the settled institution from which it initially exited as a protest movement. Several things were different in the LRM. Hands were laid on people, for instance, to receive the Holy Spirit-an approach that seemed to vio late the old-fashioned, "tarry-and-seek" method of prolonged praying that would eventually bring the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now people 295. Insights from the Latter Rain Movement