Azusa Then and Now
| “Heroes will arise from the dust of obscure and despised circumstances, whose names will be in blazoned on heaven’s eternal page of fame. The spirit is brooding over our land again as at creations dawn, and the fiat of God goes forth. “Let there be light.”Brother, sister, if we all believed God, can you realize what would happen? Many of us here are living for nothing else. A volume of believing prayer is this ascending to the throne night and day. Los Angeles, Southern California, and the whole continent shall surely find itself here long in the throes of a mighty revival by the spirit and power of God” – November 16, 1905, Frank Bartleman Thirty-five years, almost exactly, have come and gone since I first read the book. On April 4, 1984, we moved to Pasadena, California because My pastor Che Ahn had a dream of a black man waving to him saying “Come to Los Angeles, there’s going to be a great revival!” At that time we were reading a book called Azusa Street by a man whose name was Frank. Bartleman. He had moved to Los Angeles in December of 1904 and had come under a burden for revival there. He surrendered his soul to the spirit of prayer and fasting the whole year of 1905, the year prior to the outbreak of the great Azuza street Revival April 9, 1906. When I read this book in 1984 my soul was set on fire. Moses had a ‘burning bush,’ but I had a ‘burning book’ and I turned aside to see this wonderful burning vision of revival pulsing within it. What I heard was something akin to God calling my name. Sometimes when you have a moment born of heaven you have to pause and take off your shoes, for that place is holy ground. Hungering to understand my soul’s magnetism to this man Bartleman, I entered into many days of fasting. My prayer culminated one evening in a two-hour cry in my garage, “God, give me the mantle of Frank Bartleman! I want to pray like that man. I don’t want to read about revival, I want to see revival!” I didn’t know it then, but the following morning I found out that I had touched God and he had heard my prayer. My prophetic friend came to me that morning knowing nothing that I had prayed. He said, “last night I had a dream Lou, and in the dream, I saw a big black book and the title said “revival”. I then opened to the Inside of the cover and I saw a man’s face whose name was Frank Bartleman. His face then turned your face. I closed the book and knew I had to give it to you Lou.” I knew at that moment that the title of the scroll that God wrote about my life before ever I was conceived was REVIVAL! And I knew what my job description was for my time on the earth. It was to give myself to fasting and prayer, writing’ and mobilizing for revival. After this dream of divine destiny, I knew in the marrow of my mind it would be a kind of navigation chart for all my future course settings. I knew I had received heavens passport to walk His highway of destiny, thus assuring me, despite all setbacks and failings, that He would be walking the revival road with me. Toward the end of this fast, I sensed the whisper of God saying, ”What 1905 was to Frank Bartleman and the birthing of the Azusa Street Revival, so 2019 is to you Lou and the church for the 2020 Vision move of God.” Can I pay the price of prayer that Bartleman did in 1905? The question haunts me but stirs me. I don’t want to be a binge faster and return to normal or shall I say abnormal. Jesus said “ now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour?” But for this purpose, I have come to this hour.” Then He traveled the Via Dolorosa to the cross. The highway of destiny always leads to the highway of the cross before fulfillment. With this in mind, I feel the Lord nudging me to continue setting my face in grace-filled fasting and prayer in the seasons of his beckoning unto 2020. I believe one of The greatest ways to sustain this highway of my heart is to continue this blog, maybe not every day, but regularly as the Spirit directs. It will be to me a kind of built-in prophetic challenge to live out this navigational chart, not just write about it. I hope you have been changed by fasting and reading this blog. It’s been a great joy for me. Please send testimonies of how the fast changed your life. S I would like to invite all of you who feel stirred, to continue with me, follow the blog, and keep our fires for revival white hot together. Prayer Father, as we come to the end of this fast, we pray for the grace of divinely sustained focus in prayer. I pray that you would forge out of this fast a company of men and women who will cry out for the mantle of Frank Bartleman and give this year of 2019 to sustained prayer and fasting for the most outrageous outbreaks of God everywhere. We set ourselves for Now and for 2020. |
