Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you - the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. (Joel 2:23, NKJV)
I feel led by the Holy Spirit to deal with a subject very dear to my heart. Long before my healing from throat cancer, when I launched out to do my work in Russia, I’d always believed in a coming endtime revival. In Joel 2:23 the prophet says, ‘Be glad you children of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.’
In the natural, Joel was speaking about the seasonal rains in Israel, the early rain that fell on the newly planted seed to bring it to germination, and then, immediately before the final harvest, the rain would come again, and with the sun, to swell the grain and bring it to a big harvest! Prophetically Peter understood, the Church has always understood, that Joel spoke of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit – Acts 2:16-21. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He commanded His disciples, “Wait in Jerusalem until you have been endued with Power, after that the Holy Spirit has come on you!” Acts 1:4,5,8. And so the Church began in the first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From childhood I have always believed that there would come a second outpouring in the latter days, before the final Harvest.
We know from history that, although the Church moved in great demonstration of Power and thrived in the first few centuries, by the third century, the Church had become so much part of the State, it lost most of its Power. Yes, in different periods, the Power did come back. But, having come out of a difficult period during World War II, I’ve always believed there would still come a second, major, dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
That’s why, when I was planting churches and ministering in Coleraine in Northern Ireland in 1959, when I heard that, in 1961, there was going to be a World Pentecostal Conference in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, I was so intrigued. They were expecting 3000 people to come from all over the world! I had heard of these World Pentecostal Conferences – they were being held every four years at that time, I’d been part of one that had been held in the early 1950s in London. But I sensed in my spirit that, if we could meet in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (and remember, by 1961, Israel had only been in existence as a nation in modern times for 13 years) – I believed that revival would break out! I was expecting something outstanding! I was desperate to be there!
Of course, as a penniless evangelist, with a wife and two young children, and I wasn’t even taking a salary, I didn’t have the money to go! But I had a huge determination, which resulted in my setting up that first-ever overland expedition from Britain to modern day Israel through the Iron Curtain countries. I didn’t know it, but by chance I beat a team from Cambridge University who wanted to be the first to do it! I always like to be the first to do something, to be a pioneer, it’s never left me. But what drove me in this instance was that I actually believed, that if I went to Jerusalem in 1961, that if I was in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost, this would be the literal fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy!
That’s why it was such a disappointment to me… I felt as if there were 2,999 tourists, and me, as if I were the only one seeking a real outpouring of the Holy Spirit, a real spiritual breakthrough. I didn’t see it then, but I now know, looking back over 60 years, it was the beginning of a spiritual move throughout the world, and the beginning of a spiritual move which was to come in my own life. It was the turning point! But I had been so disappointed…
I remember in 2001, exactly 40 years after that Conference, I was back in Jerusalem, this time to hold big evangelism, in the very same hall! Before I evangelise, I love to walk around the arena, praying, calling the people to come in, and this is what I was doing in 2001. In the middle of it, I became angry with God, saying, “Lord, why was it I came here 40 years ago, exactly, to the month, and nothing happened?! I came here at great difficulty to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirt – and nothing happened!!” God stopped me, and He showed me that, from that moment in 1961, my whole life had changed. I had travelled behind the Iron Curtain, ministered in Israel – and all the great revival that was to come into Russia and the Far East of Russia, and into the former East European Communist Bloc, all the revival which I saw through the 1980s and 1990s began from that point in 1961, beginning with the Bible smuggling and ministry in the Underground Churches in the 60s and 70s. So while people are talking and praying today for revival to come, since 1961 I have personally walked in an experience of revival, and I have never lost the Fire! It has increased!
God says in Joel 2:25, ‘I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.’ God has done this throughout my life. From the time I came into the ministry in 1950, through every difficulty I have faced, God has so blessed me, He’s restored those years that the locust has eaten! And in v27 God says, ‘I am in the midst of Israel and you will know that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and My people shall not be ashamed…’ In my lifetime we have seen how literally in Israel this has been fulfilled! God is in her midst! Today Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, one of the most progressive and powerful nations in the world! Small, yes. But for its size, it carries more weight and has more prosperity than any other similar nation!
And in v28, God says, ‘Afterward it shall come to pass, that I will pour our My Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions…’ Literally this is what has happened. In my life. In Russia. It’s happened all over the world. In vv29-31 God says, ‘Also on the servants and handmaids in those days I will pour out My Spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible Day of the Lord come.’
This outpouring of the Spirit Joel prophesies is to come in the Latter Days, preceding the Return of Christ! I believe we can see, we should see, I am seeing this great Last Day revival! From that small beginning in 1961! When I came away from Jerusalem, something had changed. Until then, my evangelism had been small, but after that, everything was to expand and grow, I saw great things. I was there in Hungary, in Bulgaria – under communism – when revival swept the whole nation. We’ve seen revival come in Russia, in Ukraine, in so many countries where we have ministered. God has honoured His Word…
…On the Day of Pentecost, the Church was born in a blaze of Fire and Power! Look what those early disciples did in the Acts of the Apostles – they went out and preached everywhere, there were miracles of healing, it’s absolutely incredible what happened! I believe that the Fire that fell in Jerusalem in 1961, which so transformed my life, is a Fire that will not diminish, but increase and grow and go on and on until Christ comes! Because in those verses 28-31 which describe these things, the only question is, what is your spiritual age? Are you an ‘old man dreaming’, or a ‘young man with a vision’? I may be old in years, but come on, I’ve got the vision! Your spiritual age is determined by whether you are only dreaming or – driven by a vision!!!
Right from the beginning of my life and ministry, God gave me a clear vision of the revival that would come. Later I learned that, in 1889, God gave British missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, a vision that in the last days the last great revival would begin in Russia, and the Russians would bring it into Europe, and then the Lord would come back! And the amazing thing is, I have seen that great revival, I’ve been part of it – my job has been to fulfil that prophetic vision! Because when God gives me a prophetic vision, with it comes the command to go out and do it! It was that first trip to Israel in 1961 that opened the door into those communist countries. The generation today doesn’t understand how difficult it was to obtain permissions and visas! It was almost impossible. But I was determined. On the way into Israel through Bulgaria in 1961, we were thrown into a prison camp overnight! But from 1961-1967, I was travelling to Israel through the Iron Curtain countries up to eight times a year. I saw the persecution and the suffering under communism. That’s what led me into the Bible smuggling when, in 1967, the Six Day War closed the overland route into Israel and God said, “Right, now use your travel company, your buses and your tourists to spread the Gospel right across Eastern Europe!” So after 1967, my ministry was no longer so much to Israel, but across the whole of the Soviet Empire! After 1967, the whole of my work, all of my buses, were devoted to working in the communist countries during the rest of the 60s and 70s!
And all that prepared me for the beginning of the breakthrough in the 1980s. When I look back, I actually sometimes had more freedom to preach the Gospel under communism than today! I remember I was in a meeting in Yambol in Bulgaria – it was packed to the doors, people were outside, trying to get in – and the Fire of the Holy Spirit fell on me again that day! So I said, we’ve got to take a stadium – this was under communism!!! The communist director said, “We can’t rent you the stadium,” and then he added, “but we can give it to you for nothing!” The night before the opening in the stadium, we held an open air meeting on the steps of the communist party headquarters, and the Holy Spirit fell on 10,000 people who had gathered in the square – and they all fell on their knees asking for forgiveness…
If we believe that the Lord is coming back, then we must claim the Fire, the Power of revival. Stop waiting! I learnt all those years ago, act as if God has given it to you! If I look back to 1961 when I was so disappointed, because I had literally expected to see Fire to come down from Heaven, and it didn’t happen – yet in my disappointment I acted in faith. What happened in those years from 1961 onwards was the result of my acting out my faith – believing God would do it! And God did it!
The former rain of the Fire and the Power in the early Church went out. But the Fire that has fallen today will never go out, and it will increase – until Jesus comes in Glory! Amen.