Monthly Archives: July 2007

-What about Toronto and Brownsville?

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What about Toronto and Brownsville? Were they moves of God or deceptions of the enemy? I would like to hear from some of you who actually experienced these moves and were touched by them in some way. I see so much negative junk on the internet.

John and Carol Arnott brought a team from Toronto to our congregation (Mission Viejo Vineyard) for a conference early in the move because he believed that our founding pastor Ed Piorek helped to kick off the beginning of the revival with a conference on ‘The Father’s Love’. 13 years later, I can still see the positive effects of that weekend on the lives of many that I know.

What did I personally get out of the Toronto move? Greater intimacy with God as a Father who really does love me and wants only the best. I knew all that theologically in my head, but it really makes a difference to really experience it and believe it. Also, even though I was getting on in years, the Lord was not done with me in spite of all the mistakes I had made in the past. He was specifically calling me to stick around as a ‘Caleb’ to help the next generation. To help rise up, train, and support a vast army of young people that are called to bring a major world harvest.

When I read about these moves on the internet, all I read about is all the negative junk that the enemy sowed. What the enemy did has overtaken and ended up characterizing these moves in the minds of so many who weren’t even there.

What about some of you who were there or were touched by these moves in some way? I want to hear from you. I would particularly like to hear from some of you who were touched by the Brownsville revival since I know so little about it. I have observed the changes that took place in many that attended the services at Toronto including Heidi and Roland Baker who were somewhat discouraged when they when but came away with a new anointing that has resulted in thousands of churches and hundreds of thousands of converts in Africa—still counting.

-The Prophetic Movement?

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Time and again I see references to ‘The Prophetic Movement’ like it is some kind of unified quasi- church organization of some sort. What is it anyway and where can I find it? Then I see a whole lot of folks and ministries lumped together as somehow being representative of this movement and all sorts of crazy stuff which is suppose to be part of it, like angel feathers and gold dust and even miraculous gold teeth.

Then I read that it all started at a Vineyard conference when John Wimber introduced Paul Cain and let him take over. (However a prophetic movement had been going for years among some Pentecostal churches) I have read all sorts of crazy stuff about what happened at those meetings. Well guess what- I was there!

In February 1989, I was one of over 5,000 attending a “Spiritual Warfare Conference” with a number of major speakers planned. The first night John Wimber took the stand and announced that he believed that the Lord had inspired him to change the agenda and he introduced Paul Cain who spoke that first night and every night thereafter.

About five minutes into his first talk, Paul said something that convicted me personally and the Holy Spirit came upon me and I landed on my face and knees for a while, which was different and I have never been the same since. All I know, what happened to me that night was a sovereign work and I know a lot of other folks that were truly blessed at that conference. Yet when I read what the critics say about it, I wonder if it was the same conference. But I was actually there and the critics weren’t.

Later that year, I was there at the ‘Prophecy Conference’ when all the Kansas City folks were introduced including a strange guy called Bob Jones. Guess what, I was blessed at that conference also.

I guess that I have been part of ‘The Prophetic Movement’ for over 18 years and didn’t even know it. Some of the folks that are said to be part of it, I do know and have had close relationships with. Others I don’t know and don’t even agree with, but we are all part of some movement together? Some have fallen away and changed over the years, but they’re still part of the movement too?

If it is about gold dust, angel feathers, gold fillings and guys and gals with ‘Prophet’ in front of their names passing the collection plate and acting like rock stars, then count me out. If it is about re-establishing and implementing a true prophetic calling and gifting in the church, then count me in, I am part of that lower case ‘p’ prophetic movement.