LESSONS I LEARNED

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG PREACHER.......WE WERE LED TO BELIEVE THAT NO ONE WAS RIGHT BUT US.....YOU HAD TO BE FROM US , AND WITH US.....IF IT WASN'T C.O.G.I.C. IT WASN'T NOTHING.....I DEVELOPED A PREJUDICE AGAINST BAPTIST, METHODIST, AND OTHER SEGMENTS OF THE CHURCH....WHO DID NOT FOLLOW "US"........WE WERE TAUGHT THAT CHARISMATICS, AND WORD OF FAITH PEOPLE WERE ONLY PROSPERITY MINDED FOLK WHO SOUGHT AFTER WORLDLY GAIN BY USING THE WORD OF GOD AS A PERSONAL BANKING SYSTEM.....WITH THESE HANG-UPS I BECAME VERY LIMITED TO THE TYPE OF PLACES THAT I COULD GO AND MINISTER TO....WE WERE WARNED////"STAY AWAY FROM THEM FOLK, THEY AINT RIGHT",,,,WHENEVER I WOULD ENCOUNTER BAPTIST PEOPLE I HAD THIS AIR OF SUPERIORITY THAT I AM GETTING IN AND YOU AINT...........I PREACHED AGAINST PANTS, MAKE-UP, PERMING YOUR HAIR, AND MANY OTHER THINGS BECAUSE THATS HOW I WAS RAISED AS A C.O.G.I.C. HOLINESS PREACHER.......DURING REVIVAL MEETINGS ....PEOPLE WOULD COME AND I WOULD TEAR AWAY AT FOLK.....I WOULD STOP PREACHING JESUS SAVES AND BEGAN TO PREACH "STANDARDS" NO PANTS, NO MAKE-UP, WOMEN SHOULD ALWAYS WEAR STOCKINGS WHEN YOU COME OUT SIDE....THIS WAS MY MESSAGE...AND NO ONE WAS GETTING SAVED.

IT WAS DURING THIS TIME I BEGAN TO SEEK GOD.......LORD I KNOW YOU CALLED ME, I KNOW THE VISIONS YOU HAVE SHOWN ME....NO ONE IS GETTING SAVED, HEALED OR BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY GHOST...WHATS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.

GOD SIMPLY TOLD ME....IT IS NOT THE PEOPLE...IT IS YOU.....I PROMISE THAT SIGNS AND WONDERS WOULD FOLLOW MY WORD.....YOU ARE NOT PREACHING MY WORD....YOU ARE PREACHING TRADITIONS OF MEN......AND I WILL NEVER MANIFEST MYSELF WHEN THE TRADITIONS OF MEN ARE BEING PREACHED.

WHEN GOD BEGAN TO SPEAK THIS TO ME ...I BEGAN TO REALLY LOOK AT MYSELF AND AT MY HANG-UPS.....I BEGAN TO SEE THAT "WE" DID NOT HAVE A MONOPOLY ON THE POWER OF GOD.........OR A SPECIAL SEAL OF APPROVAL............I SAW THAT GOD LOVES HIS PEOPLE AND WANTS THEM TO DRAW NEAR TO HIM AND HE WANTS ALL OF THEM TO BE BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY GHOST, DELIVERED, AND HEALED.......WHEN I SAW THIS ....GOD BEGAN TO OPEN DOORS, AND SOULS STARTED GETTING SAVED AND MIRACLES HAPPENED.....

WE CAN HINDER GOD BY OUR PREJUDICES AND HANG-UPS.....DO YOU HAVE ANY?

TWELVE PROPHETIC PROMISES FOR 2012! From: Morris Cerullo

I received this email from Dr. Morris Cerullo, and wanted to share it with you.

TWELVE PROPHETIC
PROMISES FOR 2012!

Receive these TWELVE Prophetic Promises, and experience 100 percent victory over 100 percent of your needs.

Promise 1: Authority! God is going to take you into a new level of spiritual authority and give you dominion over the things of this world. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalms 8:3-6).

Promise 2: A New Prayer Anointing! God is going to give you a new anointing in your prayers. Your words, spoken with authority and invested with the power of God, will enable you to confront and destroy every stronghold of the enemy. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways(Deuteronomy 28:7).

Promise 3: 100 Percent Victory! God has promised 100 percent victory, over 100 percent of your needs, 100 percent of the time. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

Promise 4: Spiritual-Warfare Power that penetrates and changes governments, nations, and political rulers! For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:12-13).

Promise 5: You Will Be Established By God! God will bring you into His prophetic purpose for your life, your family, your ministry, and your destiny. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the dominion (power, authority, rule) forever and ever. Amen (so be it) (1 Peter 5:10-11, AMP).

Promise 6: The Last, Great Anointing! God will pour His Spirit upon His Church in these last days to prepare them for Jesus' return. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: (Acts 2:17-18).

Promise 7: An Unlimited, Supernatural Power! The divine, energizing, supernatural power that God intended to flow, unhindered, through the Church in this end-time hour is being released. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not(Jeremiah 33:3).

Promise 8: The Future Belongs To The Intercessor! The future belongs to you. In these last days, you will rise and pursue your destiny with all diligence and perseverance. You must become spiritually violent! And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matthew 11:12).

Promise 9: Divine Favor! God's divine favor will give you unlimited access to His throne room. You may go boldly into His Presence and know that He will answer your requests. ...I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name (Exodus 33:17).

Promise 10: Protection! No satanic force will, in any way, harm you! You will be preserved and protected from every attack of the enemy! Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you (Luke 10:19, AMP).

Promise 11: Receive Answers To Every Unanswered Prayer! Every prayer that you have ever prayed in your entire life is in front of God right now. Not one of your prayers has been lost. God said, "Tell My people that I have not forgotten one." There is nothing that God starts that He does not finish.

Promise 12: The Prayer Command! God will give you the power of Jesus Christ to command the prophetic promises for healing, financial overflow, family restoration, and signs and wonders to be released!!! Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8).

PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF BISHOP C.H. MASON

Personal Testimony of his Baptism of The Holy Ghost

The following are excerpts from Elder Mason's personal testimony regarding his receiving the Holy Ghost.

"The first day in the meeting I sat to myself, away from those that went with me. I began to thank God in my heart for all things, for when I heard some speak in tongues, I knew it was right though I did not understand it. Nevertheless, it was sweet to me.

I also thank God for Elder Seymour who came and preached a wonderful sermon. His words were sweet and powerful and it seems that I hear them now while writing. When he closed his sermon, he said 'All of those that want to be sanctified or baptized with the Holy Ghost, go to the upper room; and all those that want to be justified, come to the altar.'

I said that is the place for me, for it may be that I am not converted and if not, God knows it and can convert me..."

"Glory!"

"The second night of prayer I saw a vision. I saw myself standing alone and had a dry roll of paper in my mouth trying to swallow it. Looking up towards the heavens, there appeared a man at my side. I turned my eyes at once, then I awoke and the interpretation came.

God had me swallowing the whole book and if I did not turn my eyes to anyone but God and Him only, He would baptize me. I said yes to Him, and at once in the morning when I arose, I could hear a voice in me saying, " I see..."

"I got a place at the altar and began to thank God. After that, I said Lord if I could only baptize myself, I would do so; for I wanted the baptism so bad I did not know what to do. I said, Lord, You will have to do the work for me; so I turned it over into His hands."

"Then, I began to ask for the baptism of the Holy Ghost according to Acts 2:41, which readeth thus: 'Then they that gladly received His word were baptized,' Then I saw that I had a right to be glad and not sad."

"The enemy said to me, there may be something wrong with you. Then a voice spoke to me saying, if there is anything wrong with you, Christ will find it and take it away and marry you...Someone said, 'Let us sing.' I arose and the first song that came to me was 'He brought me out of the Miry Clay.' O Glory Hallelujah! Praise His most wonderful name!

The Spirit came upon the saints and upon me...Then I gave up for the Lord to have His way within me. So there came a wave of Glory into me and all of my being was filled with the Glory of the Lord.

So when He had gotten me straight on my feet, there came a light which enveloped my entire being above the brightness of the sun. When I opened my mouth to say Glory, a flame touched my tongue which ran down me. My language changed and no word could I speak in my own tongue. Oh! I was filled with the Glory of the Lord. My soul was then satisfied.

HISTORY THAT MANY HAVE FORGOT, AND MAY NOT KNOW

WILLIAM J. SEYMOUR

The Founder of Modern Pentecostalism

Today, the spiritual heirs of the Azusa Street Revival number over half a billion, making Pentecostals and Charismatics the second largest and the fastest-growing family of Christians in the world. Whether black or white, Hispanic or Asian, almost all churches in this movement can trace their roots directly or indirectly to the humble mission at 312 Azusa Street and its pastor, William J. Seymour.

Seymour was born on May 2, 1870, in Centerville, Louisiana, to Simon and Phyllis Seymour, former slaves, who raised him as a Baptist. In his youth, William often had visions of God and studied the Scriptures diligently. At the age of twenty-five, he moved to Indianapolis, where he worked as a railroad porter and a waiter in a fashionable restaurant. His church while in Indianapolis was a black Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1900 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and enrolled in a Holiness Bible School that emphasized sanctification (being made holy), divine healing, and the expectation that there would be a worldwide Holy Spirit revival before the Lord’s soon return. Seymour heard God call him to become a preacher, but he resisted until he caught smallpox, a disease that often killed its victims, and left poor William blind in his left eye. After he recovered, he felt his illness had been a punishment for not obeying God’s call. So he immediately accepted ordination as a preacher.

He then moved to Houston, Texas, to find and then live with some relatives lost during slavery. From 1903 to 1905 he accepted several short-term preaching assignments. He also met a black woman, Mrs. Lucy Farrow, who claimed to have spoken in unknown tongues while accompanying evangelist Charles F. Parham and his family to Kansas as their governess. Earlier in Topeka, a woman named Agness Ozman had spoken in unknown tongues, and Parham considered this the first evidence of a Pentecost-like renewal. He had not yet experienced it himself, but he preached that it was coming. Now that the Parhams and Mrs. Farrow had returned to Houston, Seymour wanted to learn more. Parham, however, was a determined segregationist, and he would not allow Seymour to sit in his classroom with white students. So Seymour arranged to sit in the hallway outside the open door and listen to Parham’s lectures. Theologically they made sense to Seymour, though he could not abide Parham’s racism.

One day William Seymour received a letter from a small church in Los Angeles. One of its members had heard Seymour preach when she had visited relatives in Houston. The church invited him to be their pastor, and they had included a train ticket in the letter.

Seymour arrived and preached his Pentecostal message in the small house church until after a month of intense prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit fell in power on the small group and several spoke in tongues in April 1906. The experience was like fire, in that word spread so quickly that the crowds who came broke the porch on the little house, and the group had to look for another building. They found and rented a former church—then used as a warehouse—at 312 Azusa Street. Meetings were held daily and late into each night for the next three years, often six hundred people at a time crowded into the little church with five or six hundred more outside listening through the windows.

Initially the secular press and the religious leaders who opposed this movement pointed to the more dramatic spiritual gifts—the healing, prophecy, and speaking in tongues—as characteristics either to mock or question. But those were not the qualities that William Seymour believed were the most important demonstrations of the Holy Spirit’s baptism and not the ones he emphasized in his teaching. “Tongues are one of the signs that go with every baptized person, but it is not the real evidence of the baptism in the everyday life,” he wrote.

Seymour believed that the real miracle on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2 was the Holy Spirit’s outpouring of so much godly love that three thousand people from “every nation under heaven” accepted the Gospel in one day. The unity Jesus prayed for in John 17 was dramatically realized between former enemies and strangers. The gift of tongues was merely a means of communicating that love. And so for Seymour, love that could unite blacks and whites, people from India and China and South America was what mattered. He said that if people weren’t expressing this First-Corinthians-thirteen kind of love, then “I care not how many tongues you may have, you have not the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” As far as Seymour was concerned, the blood of Jesus washed away the color line in Christ’s church.

Black people—many only a generation removed from slavery and terrified by the thousands of lynchings still occurring to their race—embraced white brothers and sisters in the Lord at Azusa. Sophisticated white people humbled themselves and asked black people to “actually” lay hands on them and pray for them. This mixing among the races mesmerized and alarmed the world. But the new “Pentecostals,” as they were by then called, rose up from their knees praising God, healed of their fear and hatred, and volunteered to go to other cities or foreign countries as missionaries. Many were confident that the tongues the Holy Spirit enabled them to speak equipped them to communicate with non-English-speaking people. Indeed, while these Pentecostals most often spoke in a heavenly prayer and praise language, dozens of reports confirmed that sometimes messages in recognized foreign languages came from people who previously knew only English.

 Within two years, the movement took root in over fifty nations around the world. Seymour’s newspaper, The Apostolic Faith, reached a circulation of fifty thousand. Unquestionably, something real was happening.

But jealousy and strife also took root.

Not all white people liked the idea of a humble black man with such a significant ministry. In late October 1906, evangelist Charles F. Parham, the Texan who had allowed Seymour to sit outside of his classroom of white students, came to Los Angeles. Seymour received him respectfully, but it was soon apparent that Parham intended to take over the Azusa Street Mission. In his first message, he declared, “God is sick to his stomach” at the racial mixing that was going on at Azusa. Later his wife explained, “In Texas, you know, the colored people are not allowed to mix with the white people.” Parham was a full-fledged racist and an open supporter of the Ku Klux Klan. In time, he succeeded in drawing away almost three hundred whites from Azusa to start a rival group, but his ministry ended in disgrace because of his arrest in connection with a sex scandal.

William H. Durham, an influential Holiness leader from Chicago, moved to Los Angeles and at first seemed to join Seymour, but before long he publicly challenged some of Seymour’s doctrinal beliefs and ultimately split off about six hundred of Seymour’s followers—mostly white.

By the end of 1906 there were nine Pentecostal assemblies in Los Angeles. This would have been great, but some were not on good terms with each other, and in the end Seymour’s dedication to racial unity suffered as the groups, both there and elsewhere, became increasingly segregated and placed more and more emphasis on speaking in tongues and other “signs” rather than unity as proof of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

On May 13, 1908, Seymour married Jennie Evans Moore, a dedicated member of his church. Clara Lum, mission secretary for the Azusa Street Mission, left Los Angeles and moved to Portland, Oregon—possibly out of jealousy, since she opposed the marriage—where she joined with minister Florence Crawford. However, without permission she took with her the national and foreign mailing lists for Seymour’s newspaper. She then commenced publishing the paper from Portland as though it were still Seymour doing the writing and editing. Only later did she admit in print that she had taken over as editor. The Seymours went to Portland and tried, without success, to get Clara Lum to return the mailing lists. With only the Los Angeles area addresses, the influence of Seymour’s paper quickly declined.

Nevertheless, the Pentecostal movement continued to expand until by 1914 it was represented in every American city of three thousand or more people and in every area of the world from Iceland to Tasmania, publishing literature in thirty languages.

Several major denominations grew out of the Azusa Street Revival. One example involves Bishop Charles H. Mason who attended in 1907. He experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and returned to his home in Jackson, Mississippi, to reorganize the Church of God in Christ. His ministry included a concern for all people, black and white. However, in 1914, because of heightened racial tension, a white segment split away from the main body and formed the Assemblies of God denomination. As years passed and the various Pentecostal denominations grew, William Seymour and his commitment to unity among Christians of every race was largely overlooked. The work at 312 Azusa Street continued in relative obscurity until William Seymour died of heart failure September 22, 1922. His wife carried on the declining ministry, but after her death in 1936, even the building was lost in 1938 because of unpaid taxes.

However, in 1994 and again in 1997 leaders of the Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God of Prophecy, and various independent Pentecostal and Charismatic groups met to pursue reconciliation and eliminate racism in their congregations. These efforts have involved formal expressions of repentance and apologies from white leaders and a celebration in which whites and blacks washed one another’s feet.

Christian scholars and church historians are finally starting to realize the importance of Bishop William J. Seymour and his vision for Christian unity. As early as 1972, Sidney Ahlstrom, the noted church historian from Yale University, said, “Seymour exerted greater influence upon American Christianity than any other black leader.”

© 2000 Dave and Neta Jackson

Miracle Moment Video Blog

Jackie and Terry..............Love her

Vision That Changed My Life

Thinking about the experiences I have had with the Holy Ghost has blessed my life. To learn about Jesus and to feel what he feels and have his thoughts gives a awesome responsibility.

It was many years ago that I began to have visions and dreams. These dreams and visions began after I preached my first sermon. I was a young boy still in school  ...I then began to have deep experiences with the Holy Ghost that changed my life forever.

I was young and didn't want to sound crazy to people so many things I kept to myself and hid them in my heart.

It was during these early years of ministry that a hunger for the things of God was birthed in me.....

In one vision, I had just lay down to go to bed. In a split second I was standing in a field of wheat that was swaying with a gentle breeze that was blowing. I looked around me and in the distance there stood a man.Immediately when I saw him I knew he was Jesus. He began to wave his arms for me to come near him. I began to walk towards him and when I got close enough to touch him He turned and began to walk away.....He motioned for me to follow, and i did.

We walked through this field and we entered a town, I could see many people who were going about daily life routines. They were shopping, laughing, children playing, and other were just standing mingling around what appeared to be a outside market.

When the people say us they immediately began to cry JESUS! JESUS! JESUS !

The people began to run and gather sick people and they brought multitudes of sick people and began to line them up in the street.........I watched as Jesus would lay his hands on some, others he waved his hand over them without touching, yet others he never touched he just spoke the words "BE HEALED"

In this vision I watched as cripples began to walk, blind  eyes came open, deaf ears were unstopped.....I saw people who were paraplegics bodies came into perfect wholeness.

There were many who had various cancers, and other diseases healed.....as I watched all of this I noticed the look of pleasure on Jesus face........I could see that he wanted to heal, he took pleasure in healing the people. It wasn't out of anger or the righteousness of the people........He enjoyed healing and he had such love for the people.

There were waves of glory that flowed from him to the people.....I was amazed because I kept thinking that he would soon run out of power to heal........but he didn't waves upon waves of glory just flowed as people got up out of wheelchairs, canes were thrown down, shouts of joy and praise went up from the people as they gave GLORY TO GOD.

Suddenly i was back in the field of wheat that was still waving in the gentle breeze that was blowing.......I was standing there with Jesus alone and he looked at me , and I will never forget the beauty of his eyes.....they were piercing, yet gentle,.....he spoke and said ....NOW YOU GO DO LIKEWISE.

As quick as the vision started it ended, I immediately sat up in the bed, with both my hands up speaking in tongues and praising God.

This is why I have such a passion to see the sick healed and to see lives changed........