Comments Regarding Alec's Post

Brothers and Sisters,

I appreciate Alec's honesty and transparency so much! As I read his post it seemed a striking confirmation of so many things that I have been convicted about recently. I just started a book that details the revival of the late 60's and early 70's in Indonesia (Like a Mighty Wind by Mel Tari), and here again I read that the Holy Spirit was poured out in power on these believers as 200 people cried out in corporate prayer to God. This happened in a VERY conservative Presbyterian church that formerly only allowed written prayers to be read. As the Holy Spirit suddenly prompted members of the congregation to cry out to God in corporate prayer in UNISON, the pastors tried to stop them from such disorder (they attributed this to the Enemy). But, this spontaneous move of corporate prayer and confession was confirmed by a miraculous move of the Holy Spirit that sounds exactly like Pentecost. There was repentance leading to salvation, repentance of Christians that led to restored relationships with God and man and spontaneous worship that was undirected by man. The pastors were helpless to intervene and that evening the sermon was delivered by an uneducated layman who shared that God was now directing the congregation to go out by teams immediately and spread the gospel.

This book that I have referenced is over 30 years old but I just discovered it and had found many people critical of this account since some equate it with the "signs and wonders" movement. As I read it I am becoming more and more convinced that the detractors are not so much concerned about a false doctrine, but are more concerned with explaining away our own weak and powerless faith.

I have not finished this book so I can't report today my conclusions. I will however challenge you to carefully consider Alec's words. I must prayerfully consider more of this in light of my experiences in Canton and I hope others who were there will weigh in as the Lord leads.

I, for one, agree completely with Alec and I have been searching to diagnose what went wrong in Canton and how things got off-track. Alec's post is a powerful and truthful assessment of several troubling practices that seem to keep us at arm's length from revival.

God Bless each one of you on this journey.

Steve