Today marks the anniversary of the Brownsville Revival which captivated hearts and minds as the Holy Spirit was poured out and miracles, signs and wonders were seen in action. Here are five things you need to know about this event which became a bedrock event in the Charismatic Movement.
- The Brownsville Revival began on Father’s Day, June 18, 1995, in Pensacola, Florida.
This Father’s Day service at Brownsville Church ended up being no ordinary day as visiting guest evangelist Steve Hill shared his powerful testimony of encountering the Holy Spirit.
As the Brownsville Church site says, “Soon, Hill invited attendees for prayer, but Father God revealed a different agenda. As members surged forward, God intervened to pour out His Spirit in an amazing visitation that continues today.”
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Charisma News discussed how this one service ignited an unprecedented hunger for the Lord that could not be quenched, with revival lasting for five years.
- Revival to America was prophesied about two years prior to the beginning of the Brownsville Revival.
According to the Brownsville Church, a pastor all the way in Seoul, South Korea, had been seeking the Lord about revival for the United States.
Dr. David Yonggi Cho felt the Lord ask him to look at a map of where coming revival was heading. He was drawn to the panhandle of Florida when the Holy Spirit spoke to him and said, “I am going to send revival to the seaside city of Pensacola, and it will spread like a fire until all of America has been consumed by it.”
This word was not only accurate, but the move of God at the Brownsville Revival has gone down in history as one of the greatest modern day moves of God of our day and age.
- The number of people attending the revival grew rapidly.
Journalist Renee DeLoriea told Charisma Media that within just a few months, the Holy Spirit had done a fantastic work of bringing in people from everywhere to experience what God has for them. The line to get in the door of the revival was about three blocks long.
“I’m not saying that I knew it was going to be people lined up out the door in a couple of months,” DeLoriea says. “It was not about numbers; it was about influence in the church and in the world.”
- Brownsville’s pastor, John Kilpatrick, felt the physical presence of God when revival first broke out.
Kilpatrick was amazed as he saw how his congregants responded to Hill’s message. Suddenly, Kilpatrick felt and heard the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the room.
Charisma magazine noted that:
“The air moved about his legs like a river of water, making it difficult to move. He then heard a sound coming from somewhere in the room. It rumbled and roared like wind being blown across a microphone. He looked up toward the speakers clustered above his head, but the sound wasn’t coming from there. It was coming from behind him.”
Just as the rushing wind of the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room on Pentecost, the Spirit made His entry into the Brownsville Revival in a similar manner.
- The message that kicked off the revival came from Psalm 77.
The message that Steve Hill preached about came from Psalm 77, verse 11. This verse reads, “I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old.”
What an excellent verse to kick off a revival, one that directly describes the remembrance of the Lord’s works. Because of the works of the Lord that broke out during the Brownsville Revival, lives were changed, hearts were healed and the message of the gospel is still going out this very day.
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Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
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James Lasher