What do you get when
you cross a word from Bob Jones and a dream of Doug Addison?
A coming revival and The Cahaba River.

I just returned from Birmingham, Alabama where we had several meetings and two outreach events. It was really exciting
as we took over 145 people into three shopping malls on Saturday
afternoon to give “encouraging words”. Encouraging words are words
of knowledge and prophecy from God communicated to people in a way
they can understand (non-Christianese). We share how God sees them
and tell them their destiny in God. In just one hour we talked with
over 1500 people and several “God encounters” in which we got the
opportunity to talk deeper about their spiritual life. Imagine what
could happen if we got intentional about evangelism!

Most people that we approached were caught off guard and shocked that
anyone would want to encourage them. Many of them allowed us to pray
with them, including the employees in Spensor’s Gifts who wanted
more!

This new approach to evangelism will bring down any walls or barriers
that a person might have to talking about God. It allows us a
chance to communicate with people and to look for that special “God
moment” or divine appointment when we are in the right place at the
right time, talking to the one person that God is drawing to
Himself.

We also did an outreach on Saturday night at a New Age hangout in
Birmingham called Southside. We had many “God encounters” there as
well. One of the women who took our workshop went down to Southside
later in the week with some friends and decided to try out the
“Encouraging Words” on a passer-by. It turned out that she gave a
word of encouragement to the same woman that I interpreted a dream
for on Saturday night. The woman on the street was so moved and felt
that God was seriously speaking to her! The entire weekend was
significant for me because it marked the beginning of something new
that God is releasing in the streets.

The Dream

Last July I dreamed that I was in a church in Birmingham, helping with a
drive for the Salvation Army (get the metaphor?). Suddenly the
church turned into the Cahaba River (which runs through Birmingham).
A tidal wave swept through the entire community hitting churches,
highways, airports, and businesses. Most of the Christians were
caught off guard and even angry about the wave because it disrupted
their church services. I stood on the shore with John Paul Jackson
as the wave passed by, and I knew that this was a coming move of
God.

As I woke up, I remembered that I was going to Birmingham in October, and
I thought that this would be the time for this new release of God’s
evangelistic power. In August I was given a word of prophesy from a
friend that God was going to be doing something new, and that my
baptism would be a sign of its release. When I was 20 years old, I
had been sprinkled with water when I was baptized in the Christian
Reformed Church. This had always been fine with me, because I viewed
it as a symbolic outward sign. A year ago God began to tell me that
He wanted me to go for the plunge. For the past year I have tried to
get baptized, but with my busy schedule it has never worked out.

The Cahaba

When I arrived in Birmingham last week, I learned that the Cahaba
Christian Fellowship, where I was speaking on Sunday, was going to
be baptizing people in the Cahaba River (which means waters from
above). I was baptized Sunday, October 26, and I was told that Bob
Jones (a totally accurate prophetic guy) had prophesied earlier that
the sign of revival would be the floods on the Cahaba River. In May,
2003 there was a 50-year record flood!

What to Expect

I have heard dozens, if not hundreds, of prophetic words about
revival. Sometimes I don’t even want to listen any more because I
have really not seen all that many changes take place. I do believe
that we are sitting on something big. John Paul Jackson says that in
our lifetime we will see one of the biggest revivals since the Book
of Acts. Is this the one? I don’t really know, but I do know that
something significant is beginning to happen. As we are doing
outreach events, we are noticing more and more that people are open
and hungry. The only way we will find out if this is the big
revival, is to go out and see what happens. We must make ourselves
available for a “God encounter” with those who need His love and His
touch. We have the goods and people need it. Ask God to show you
who needs to be encouraged. This is Prophetic Evangelism!

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You
need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you
will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little
while “He who is coming will come and will not delay.” Hebrews
10:35-37 NIV