Paul Cain, a major leader in the Pentecostal movement, died on Wednesday. He was 89.
“So happy for Paul Cain to enter into glory. I remember how excited I was when I first met him because he represented the miraculous friendship with God to me,” prophetic voice Shawn Bolz tells Charisma News. “Watching him minister was just wild! I don’t know if I would even have a prophetic ministry if it wasn’t for his anointing. I probably would have lived a more normal life. Then becoming his friend was also filled with amazing stories that he was never able to tell because they were with people of such high influence. Queens, political outlaws, presidents, movie stars, stopping wars, exposing terrorist threats, giving crime details to the FBI—there was no end of fantastical stories of how Paul’s gift in the prophetic causes the world to change.”
Cain served in ministry for 76 years. According to a statement posted to his Facebook page, Cain saw many miracles, signs, wonders and healings.
“As a prophet, he was convinced that God is about to do something unprecedented, that a wonderful and powerful revival is coming that would touch the nations,” the obit reads.
Bolz agrees.
When my gifts started increasing in the prophetic, it was after he directly prayed for me and told me he was a signpost or token to a generation of the prophetic, but I would be a bridge letting people run across my faith to do greater things than I could. He gave me faith and language for what I am doing now. Time with him was nurturing, and I feel like I was able to be a part of the best of who he was. For those of you who never met him, his life played such a crucial role in giving major leaders of movements faith to do the impossible. See you in heaven, my friend; you finished your race, and we love you.
Cain was born June 16, 1929. Cain’s mother should have died in the birth but reportedly had an angelic visitation that miraculously healed her.
Cain launched his ministry at age 18 during the Pentecostal healing revival of the 1940s and 1950s. But he vanished from the scene for more than 25 years, then re-emerged in the late 1980s when Bickle promoted Cain’s ministry at his Metro Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Kansas City, Missouri, Charisma previously reported.
By the 1950s, Cain traveled internationally and drew as many as 30,000 at tent meetings in Switzerland and Germany.
His popularity also gave way to an immoral lifestyle.
As Charisma previously reported:
Rick Joyner, Mike Bickle and Jack Deere released their charges Oct. 19 in a statement on the Internet. They also said Cain was unwilling to submit to a restoration process.
Cain initially denied the charges in a statement on his own website, maintaining that his reputation was being attacked. But three months later he decided to come clean.
“I am as guilty as I can be,” he told Charisma. “I am going for counseling. I am getting as much help as I can.”
Joyner, Bickle and Deere made their initial charges public because they found proof that Cain was involved in long-term homosexual activity and often got drunk, sometimes in public.
“We apologize to the body of Christ for our lack of discernment in promoting Paul’s ministry while he had these significant strongholds in his life,” their statement reads. “We hope that Paul can yet be restored and used again for the glory of God in the wonderful way that so many of us have been blessed to see in the past.”
Deere, who pastors Wellspring Church in Richland Hills, Texas, learned of the charges last year from a man who said he had been involved in a sexual relationship with Cain. Three witnesses also told Charisma that Cain drank heavily. The drinking got so serious that Cain once collapsed in public, one witness added.
Deere asked Joyner and Bickle to arrange a meeting in Moravian Falls, North Carolina, where they confronted Cain in April 2004. He initially confessed to the charges, Deere said. But later Cain retracted his confession and even sent out letters from doctors who vouched for his emotional health.
Now, however, Cain says he is no longer in denial.
“I have struggled with homosexuality for an extended period of time,” Cain said in his written apology. “I have struggled with alcoholism for an extended period of time. I apologize for denying these matters of truth, rather than readily admitting them. I am ashamed of what I have done to hurt those close to me and for the pain I have caused those who have believed in my ministry.”
Cain’s accuser, who spoke with Charisma but asked not to be named, is now undergoing spiritual rehabilitation. Meanwhile, Cain—who is 75— says he has no intention of going back into the pulpit anytime soon.
“I plan to take a low profile,” Cain said. “I promise to seek immediate help for my problems and submit to leaders in the body of Christ who will supervise my restoration.”
Cain has enlisted Korean pastor Daniel Kim of Destiny Training International in El Monte, California, to help him. Kim, who describes Cain as a “fallen general,” says he will serve on a committee of leaders who will oversee Cain’s restoration process.
“When a man of [Cain’s] stature falls, there is often no support,” Kim told Charisma. “How we restore this man in mercy could end up being a lesson for the body of Christ.”
Kim said he believes Cain is also a “victim” in this tragedy because Christians sometimes idolize ministers and expect them to be super-human. “He had inner struggles and no one to confide in,” Kim said.
Meanwhile, Deere, Bickle and Joyner said they regret giving Cain a platform. “I think our basic mistake was to overlook a lot of serious and obvious warning signs,” Joyner told Charisma.
Deere agreed. “We all have preached that you never put gifting over character,” he said, “but that is what we did for Paul. We would have fired anyone else. The reason we didn’t is because of [Cain’s] gifting. We let that gifting excuse character.”
Despite his failings, Cain was instrumental in the lives of some of today’s movers and shakers in the charismatic community.
“I am grateful for Paul Cain’s ministry,” Bickle tells Charisma. “The Lord deeply impacted my life through him. I am grateful for his friendship over the last 30-plus years. The Lord used him in a very unique way to touch multitudes. Though victories, setbacks and failures, the Lord magnified His grace and mercy to and through him. I am grateful that he ‘finished well’ in seeking to love and obey Jesus with humility and in the fear of the Lord. I will miss my friend Paul.”
Bishop Bill Hamon says, “To our loss a great warrior prophet has gone on to his reward.”
Of Cain’s passing, Joyner said: “I’ve been blessed to know some of the most interesting and high impact people in our time, and in some ways Paul Cain was one of the most remarkable of all. With Paul I witnessed some of the most extraordinary miracles and acts of God, and learned much about the glory and majesty of God. I also learned how having great power and spiritual gifting can make us even more vulnerable to the pride that will cause us to fall. Even with the challenges we experienced with Paul, I am so thankful to have been able to know him, and have him as such a part of our life as he was, and I think we may not fully understand until the age to come, but he helped to prepare for some of the great moves of God that are now unfolding.”
Che Ahn, founder of HRock Church in California, says the two were not close, but Cain did leave an impact. Ahn even visited Cain in the hospital before Cain’s death:
We got to know him in the ’90s and had invited him to our prophetic conference a few times.
I hadn’t seen Paul Cain since Azusa Now (April 2016) at the LA Colosseum, but I did see him last week before he passed away.
I happened to be in Santa Maria at our network (Harvest International Ministry) leaders retreat. I was also invited to speak at the Healing Rooms in Santa Maria on Monday evening of Feb. 4.
After I spoke, Rick Taylor, the founder of the Healing Rooms, came up to me and said that Paul Cain was in the hospital, and Paul knew I was speaking and he specifically asked if I could personally come to see him. Interestingly, that week, right before we left for Santa Maria, my wife, Sue, had a dream of Paul Cain that he had died. We didn’t even know he was sick and in the hospital.
The next morning, Rick and I visited him in the hospital room. Paul had an oxygen mask, and it was hard to hear him. I simply told Paul that I loved him and that God wanted to heal him, either supernaturally or by taking him to heaven, the ultimate healing, so I prayed accordingly. Honestly, because of my wife’s dream, I knew it would be the latter, that Paul would go home to be with the Lord and receive his new heavenly body.
Paul was the first person I met who moved accurately in the word of knowledge. The first time he prophesied over Sue and me, which was at our prophetic conference, he gave by revelation, both our birthdates. He then prophesied that we would have a heaven-on-earth marriage. Looking back, our marriage has been like heaven on earth. I am grateful for Paul’s extraordinary prophetic gift. He had some major bumps in the road, but I believe he finished well.
RIP Paul Cain. Through it all I honor what you gave to the Vineyard for a season. You will always be a part of our history, personally & otherwise.
— Christy Wimber (@ChristyWimber) February 13, 2019
My friend Paul Cain has arrived in heaven. He is enjoying his first day there. We will miss him and his prophetic ministry. A era of ministry has ended. We are all better ministers because of the leaders from that generation. Thank you for all you did to help us be better! pic.twitter.com/JKiuWQoJX7
— Roberts Liardon (@RobertsLiardon) February 13, 2019
Health updates were posted to Cain’s Facebook page ahead of his death.
