Preparing for the Next Great Awakening

We believe the Lord is getting ready for the next Great Awakening and is inviting believers to pray and get ready for great outpourings of the Holy Spirit. In this Discerning the Times article, we shall look at how the Lord is preparing PRMI to cooperate in a move of God that would not only bring revival but the outbreak of many revivals that would tip into a Great Awakening and spread throughout the nations.   

It feels as if there is an incredible advance of evil in our world today. The recent events in Afghanistan clearly demonstrate that for us. These upheavals are among a constellation of events that I believe are the symptoms of a great unraveling of the political, social, and spiritual structures that have held in check the worst tendencies of depraved human nature and the evil activities of high-level demons. (Ephesians 6:14). 

In geopolitical terms, this unraveling may be identified first as the “loss of deterrence” through law enforcement and military power.  Secondly, this unraveling is a return to “policies of appeasement” of movements like BLM (an internal Marxist movement), Radical Islamist movements, and the Chinese Communist Party. All of these movements are enemies of both human freedom as well as the Kingdom of God.  

As we look at these troublesome events, the words of Psalm 2 come to mind:

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” Psalm 2:1–3

 We are observing Satan’s attempts to block the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ by destroying the human means through which God’s kingdom is expressed on earth.

But God’s response is not one of panic:

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Psalm 2:4

The rise of evil that we see is a response to what God is already doing. He is pouring out his Holy Spirit, empowering people to be witnesses for Jesus Christ through his body, the Church. God laughs because he knows that the enemy cannot block the advancement of his kingdom.

Instead, the Lord is getting ready to do even more through the outpouring of his Holy Spirit, which will bring about not just renewal to the body of Christ but which may multiply and become the next great awakening.

Revealing God’s Master Plan 

On August 9-13, a group of PRMI/DFI intercessors and leaders gathered together. Some were onsite at the Community of the Cross and others online from Canada and overseas because they could not travel due to the Covid pandemic.

This was an amazing meeting in which we asked the Lord to speak to us about His plans for fulfilling the Great Commission and advance in His Kingdom to the ends of the Earth.  

We asked the Lord to speak to us. We spent time in prayer and studying the Word. We reflected on past revival history and evaluated what the Lord was saying to us and others prophetically.  We sought to put together a rational analysis of the guidance being received. We undertook this process with the conviction that:   

1) God will reveal his plans and purposes prophetically.

For the Lord Adonai, will do nothing, unless He has revealed His counsel to His servants the prophets.  (Amos 3:7 TLV)

2) If we ask for wisdom, the Lord will give it.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all without hesitation and without reproach; and it will be given to him.   (James 1:5 TLV)

Questions for the Lord

There were several questions that we went to the Lord with, including:

• Is this a Kairos moment for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit? 
• Lord, how are you calling us to prepare for your revival fire to fall? 
• How do such outpourings become Great Awakenings that transform first the Church as well as entire societies? 

God’s Guidance

The guidance we received from the Lord about these questions is immensely exciting.   

Yes! It is a Kairos moment for another great outpouring of the Holy Spirit!  And we are called to take part in this next great advance of the Kingdom of God. The Lord provided clear guidance on how we were to take part in His master plans. 

Continue to Ignite Outpourings of the Holy Spirit

First, the Lord is calling us to continue to ignite outpourings of the Holy Spirit but to intentionally add the three R.A. Torrey essentials for igniting revival. 

From our founding in 1966 as part of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit that became the charismatic renewal to the present, PRMI has taken part in igniting many outpourings of the Holy Spirit.   We prepared for and nurtured these moves through our various equipping programs, such as the Dunamis Project and Growing the Church. 

We are called to keep igniting these moves of God and to help those who are filled with the Holy Spirit grow in cooperating with the Holy Spirit. We are to continue and are called to extend our already effective programs and ministries like the Dunamis Project, Growing the Church, Advanced Healing and Deliverance, and others, which will be even more important than before as the global move of the Holy Spirit takes place.  

The R.A. Torrey Essentials

However, the new guidance was that we were called to intentionally deploy in different contexts (local congregations, set apart locations like the Community of the Cross, and through anointed catalytic leaders), the three R.A. Torrey Essentials that God has used in the past for igniting great revivals.  

These essentials are 

1. Bringing of people to faith in Jesus Christ or recommitment to Jesus Christ. (Acts 2:46-47)

2. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, in which Christians are empowered and anointed to be witnesses to Jesus Christ. (Acts 1:4-8)

3. The work of earnest intercession for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through which God the Father will manifest His presence on earth. (Acts 2, 4:23- 31)

These three essentials, Evangelism, Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and Prayer, prepare the altar for revival fire to fall. These three elements were part of all the great revival events that R.A. Torrey did from 1900 until 1903. These revival events ignited great outpourings of the Holy Spirit that swept around the world. They included the 1904-5 Welsh Revival, the Azusa Street Revival, and the Indian Revivals of 1906. Torrey embarked upon an around-the-world tour that ignited these great revivals.

The new part of this guidance is that PRMI will be igniting these outpourings in more locations worldwide than at any time in our history by intentionally including the three R.A. Torrey Essentials in prayer events and our ongoing programs. 

History of Revivals

We look back in history to the other great outpourings of the Holy Spirit as the basis for hope and expectations of what we believe God is doing again. 

We live in a racially divided and fragmented society that the antichrist ideology of Marxists has intentionally cultivated through the deception of Critical Race Theory, BLM, and other such movements. A great model of what we need to counter this division is the Azusa Street Revival of 1905-06.  

This great move of God was in parallel with other outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Korea, Wales, and India. It overcame and healed racial barriers manifesting the reality that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free (c.f. Galatians 3:28).

There was the experience of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for empowered witness to Jesus Christ. Above all, there was the love of God. 

This outpouring started in the working-class district of Los Angeles and then spread around the world, igniting the worldwide Pentecostal Movement.   This Pentecostal movement focused on the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit has led millions of millions of people into faith in Jesus Christ.  This great movement of God was ignited by William Seymour, the son of slaves. 

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The eugenics movement provided the supposedly scientific basis for the deception that the Aryan “white” race was superior to all other races. The result is some of the worst atrocities in human history. This deception, which continues today, albeit in different forms, is utterly opposed to the Biblical vision that all people are created equal in the image of God. The great revival at Azusa Street restored the biblical vision of humanity and the Kingdom.   

We believe that the Lord has given us the calling as well as the anointing to pray in and to take part in igniting another “Azusa Street” type outpouring as the Lord’s answer, starting with the Church, to the racist divisive ideologies of the of both the Right and the Left. The Lord is calling us to take part in praying in and igniting through the three R.A. Torrey essentials another great outpouring of the Holy Spirit – like Azusa Street!   

Prepare for the Next Great Awakening

The second guidance that we have received is that we are called to prepare for the next Great Awakening in the Power of the Holy Spirit.  

This guidance is a quantum step beyond PRMI’s calling of the last six decades of igniting and sustaining outpourings of the Holy Spirit: we are called to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to put in place what is needed for those outpourings to become the Next Great Awakening.  

Now, this is unprecedented in PRMI’s sixty-year history of igniting and sustaining outpourings of the Holy Spirit.  This represents that in God’s master plans in our epoch that we are in, there are also unprecedented signs that we are on the verge of fulfilling End Times prophecy that the Jews would return to the Land of Israel and to faith in Yeshua the Messiah. And that through the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of Jesus Christ would be preached to all nations.  

From Outpourings to Great Awakenings

From Acts 2 until the present, God’s master strategy is sending waves and outpourings of the Holy Spirit, which advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ and God’s Kingdom on earth. However, there are times in history when these outpourings have fulfilled Acts 1:4-8 with such intensity of God’s presence that the Church is equipped to fulfill her mandate to witness to Jesus Christ to all nations.

She can also embody the Kingdom of God with such manifest glory of God’s presence that entire peoples, nations, and societies are transformed and are in line with God’s Sovereign gracious rule.   This is what happens in what has historically been called Great Awakenings.  

We have received guidance that Jesus Christ is calling PRMI to put in place what is needed so that these outpourings of the Holy Spirit may become the next Great Awakening.

This is beyond the realm of our experience as the world has not experienced a Great Awakening for over 150 years or more. But we believe that the Lord has spent six decades preparing PRMI to play a key role in this next Great Awakening that has actually already started. And He has called us to have a part.

A model for us that we are called to learn from is the Great Moravian Revival. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit started on August 13, 1727, in Herrnhut, Germany. This amazing movement of God ignited a worldwide missionary movement.  This was also the actual beginning of Jews accepting Yeshua as the Messiah without giving up their Jewishness. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of the One New Humanity. (Ephesians 2:15) 

This painting seeks to capture the supernatural move of God that shows Count Zinzendorf and other people and locations touched by the manifest presence of God. 24 – 7 prayer meetings that lasted for one hundred years sustained a global missionary outreach of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations, including slaves in the Caribbean and the colony of South Carolina, and the native Indians of North America.³

This revival movement ignited the First Great Awakening in England and the British Colonies in America and impacted the world with the Gospel.  This movement transformed the Church of Jesus Christ and led so many to faith that there was a major social transformation. Most significant was the awakening to Biblical faith, which established the foundations of the American Revolution-Christian values that, “All men are created equal….”

The Five Moravian Awakening Dynamics

We believe that the Lord is calling PRMI to create new program expressions to put in place the R.A. Torrey Three Essentials for igniting revival and to add the Five Moravian Awakening Dynamics.

1. The rigorous call to discipleship which included holiness and accountability, worship, and prayer
2. Unity, love, and fellowship between believers in Christ Jesus alone. (John 17)
3. The One New Humanity: Born again Jews and gentiles together. (Ephesian 2:11-22)
4. Living the Kingdom of God together in Biblical justice and equality. (Micah 6:8, Gen 1:27-28)
5. Sending out anointed emissaries to ignite outpourings of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:14-17, 10:44-48) 

These and other aspects are the keys to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit moving to become the next Great Awakening. 

Prayer Concert for the Next Great Awakening
November 10-12, 2021, 
at the Community of the Cross and Online

The purpose of this event is to start to fulfill the following observation made by R.A. Torrey: 

“Great revivals always begin first in the hearts of a few men and women whom God arouses by His Spirit to believe in Him as a living God, as a God who answers prayer, upon whose heart He lays a burden from which no rest can be found except in importunate crying unto God.”

R. A. Torrey

I invite you to join us, praying this outpouring of the Holy Spirit into reality to become the Next Great Awakening. 

This prayer gathering is for all whom the Lord is giving a burden to pray in the next outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which will give glory to Jesus. 

Please begin praying for it, and please sign up if the Lord is calling you to participate in this prototype event. 

Many believe that this next Great Awakening has the potential to become the Great End Time Revival when the Great Commission is completed, and the manifest presence of God the Father is so powerful that the prophecy from Habakkuk 2:14 is fulfilled- “ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

Prayer Points

• Give praise to the Lord for the outpourings of the Holy Spirit, which are already changing our world. Praise him for the rapid growth of the church in Iran and Afghanistan.
• Pray that the Lord would continue to pour out his Holy Spirit so that believers can witness to Jesus Christ.
• Pray for more people to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and boldly share their faith with nonbelievers.
• Pray for the ministry of PRMI as we seek to stay in step with the Holy Spirit and pray and prepare for outpourings of the Holy Spirit, which may lead to the next Great Awakening.
• Pray that congregations, churches, and denominations would be so filled with the Holy Spirit that people are amazed at their transformation.
• Pray that the transformed body of Christ would boldly bring the love of Jesus Christ into their neighborhoods so that the light of the gospel may bring freedom, healing, and hope.

1. By Unknown author – Image from http://blog.spu.edu/wp-content/uploads/lectio/romans/week6-seymour.jpg, in the public domain., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56061571
2. By Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Alaniaris using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5201133
3. http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs155/1108762609255/archive/1115183843562.html