Like a vitamin fortified injection of faith and love, revivals are a special blessing of God to His Church. From the outset, revivals have been formative to my Christian walk. Now they have become an element of my service to the Lord.
When I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior it was January in Vermont - not a very good time to put up our fellowship’s recently acquired revival tent. Still, Richard’s testimony was chock full of revival moments. Some were from his days traveling with H. Richard Hall, a mighty man of God, who had an extraordinary word of knowledge from the Lord amongst other gifts of the Spirit. Others were from his childhood, where he used to sneak away from home to attend tent revivals led by ministers, such as Oral Roberts, who he observed healing a whole line of people with goiters instantaneously with a word. (This was before Oral Roberts traded the anointing the Lord had given to him for the university and hospital that the Methodist church offered to him.)
Just that past Summer, Richard had finally acquired his own revival tent, which he had desired for nearly twenty (20) years. Mind you, his lacking a tent had not prevented him from preaching revivals. One of my favorite stories was of the time he was preaching in an open field with a small PA in Herald Harbor, Maryland. The small group of the faithful were drawn close. They had no protection from the elements nor did Richard’s PA system. Encircling the faithful, were a hostile crowd of drunks from the local bar. As he began to minister, a storm rose up with wind and rain. Richard, rather than running for cover, rebuked the storm. The Lord, rather than cause the storm to cease, opened a hole in the storm that enabled the service to continue, while the hecklers, only a short distance away, got drenched. The next day, the newspapers reported that a “strange atmospheric phenomena” had appeared over Herald Harbor. There was no mention of the revival.
Returning to the revival tent that the fellowship had acquired the previous Summer, Richard shared with me a story about a man who attended services that Summer, who no one knew had had his inner ear blown out from an explosion during the Vietnam War. While preaching one night, the Lord gave Richard a word of knowledge about the man’s condition and what had occurred. Richard, knowing that the Lord had revealed this to him that the man might be healed, walked up behind the man, on the side where he had no hearing, and whispered in his ear, “Say Praise the Lord!” The man heard him, but it took a moment for it to sink in that he was hearing out of his ear that had none of the pieces parts necessary to hear, but when he did he shouted “Praise the Lord.” The Lord had miraculously recreated the man’s inner ear and restored unto him perfect hearing.
Such stories created a great excitement in me as a new Christian and I looked very much forward to helping put the revival tent up in the back yard that Summer. On the first day of meetings, Richard announced that the Lord had told him to preach a message he entitled “Seven Steps to Walking in the Prosperity of the Lord.” The first night’s meeting was awesome as Richard preached on “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” After every night of service we had informal meetings, for those who stuck around, in which we discussed the message preached. These after-meetings were critical to cementing the lessons the Lord taught us day by day.
After each night, I would ask Richard what the next step was. He always answered that he did not know. I being dissatisfied with his answer would spend time searching the Scriptures and praying, trying to figure out what the next night’s message would be. As the service neared, my anxiety would grow, but Richard was always at peace with not knowing. In the midst of the service, the Lord would reveal the passage that Richard was to preach on that highlighted the next step. You can still listen to that message on our ministry’s website { http://www.thefishermenministry.org/tfmaudio/revivals/7-steps-to-walking-in-the-prosperity-of-the-spirit/ }. Even as I write this, I know of folks who are listening to it now and testifying gladly of the blessing it has been to them in their lives.
Over the next ten plus years, I attended many other revivals that Richard preached. Each revival was a feast for my spirit. In particular, I often recall the simplicity of his Summer of 2000 New England Revivals where he preached “Take God Seriously, Don’t Take Yourself Seriously, Believe His Word.” Such simple, yet profound messages have served as critical landmarks to guide me on my pilgrimage. Another, particularly meaty, revelatory message concerning God’s plan for man was his 2003 series preaching on the parables of Matthew 13. Both of these messages are available at { http://www.thefishermenministry.org/tfmaudio/revivals/ }, together with other revival messages over the years, including some revivals that I have preached.
In the course of those revivals, I have observed individuals miraculously and instantaneously delivered of heroin addiction, saw my own son raised from the dead and observed a friend’s elderly father storm the altar with tears in his eyes to receive Christ as his Savior. I have also seen the Word separate people. But most of all, I have seen the outpouring of God’s loving kindness and grace, rekindling hope in the hearts and minds of those who may have grown cold in their faith. If you are interested in having revival meetings in your local church or community or desire to preach revival yourself, please get in touch.
