Dear brothers and sisters,
I write to the body of Christ around the world, all who are connecting with the Azusa Now gathering at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on April 9. I have rarely seen such a stirring of expectancy as I am seeing now. It’s really not about a stadium event. Instead, everywhere, men and women are laying hold of the kingdom in such a way that Azusa Now may be a collective flashpoint. The great intercessor Frank Bartleman wrote of such a time just before revival broke out at Azusa in 1906. Listen to his words, written just a few months before the outpouring began:
“The current of revival is sweeping by our door. Will we cast ourselves on its mighty bosom and ride to glorious victory? A year of life at this time, with its wonderful possibilities for God, is worth a hundred years of ordinary life. ‘Pentecost’ is knocking at our doors. The revival for our country is no longer a question. Slowly but surely the tide has been rising until in the very near future we believe for a deluge of salvation that will sweep all before it. Wales will not long stand alone in this glorious triumph for our Christ. … The clouds are gathering rapidly, big with a mighty rain, whose precipitation lingers but a little. Heroes will arise from the dust of obscure and despised circumstances, whose names will be emblazoned on heaven’s eternal page of fame. The Spirit is brooding over our land again as at creation’s 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 ascending to the throne night and day. Los Angeles, Southern California, and the whole continent shall surely find itself ere long in the throes of a mighty revival, by the Spirit and power of God.”
In his wonderful book, The Fasting Prayer, Franklin Hall wrote:
“Yes, the second Pentecost on Azusa in 1906 came about just like the first Pentecost. This latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit started with a 10-day fast and prayer season in much the same manner as it did upon the 120 that ‘continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.’ A few people came to Los Angeles in 1906 and started a 10-day fast and prayer season and the Holy Spirit fell. … Mother Craton states, ‘The first thing that was done before the power ever fell on Azusa was a united 10-day season of fasting and prayer. If there was ever any sectarianism, fasting broke it down. … I believe another Azusa could be here today if God’s people would get to travailing in much prayer and fasting.”
With such Bible and church history roaring behind us, should we not take encouragement to inject our generation into that same Hall of Faith, where those who have gone before now urge to enter?
With their beckoning resting on our hearts and ears, we are calling a 10-day season of united prayer and fasting as God leads for a global outpouring of the Holy Spirit, March 30 to April 8, leading up to Azusa Now on April 9, the 110th anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival. William Seymour, the catalyst of that great revival, prophesied in 1913 that in roughly 100 years another revival far eclipsing Azusa would come. The fulfillment of Seymour’s word is overdue … or right on schedule. Let us therefore “pray for the rain in the time of the latter rain.” Who knows? Maybe like those who were baptized in the Spirit in the original Acts 2 upper room, we will say, “This is that which was spoken by William Seymour the prophet!”
Sincerely,
Lou Engle {eoa}
Lou Engle is a revivalist, visionary, and co-founder of TheCall Inc. For more than three decades, Lou’s passion has been to call believers into radical consecration through prayer, fasting and acts of justice. Lou has been involved in church planting, establishing prayer movements and strategic houses of prayer. He is the founder of the pro-life ministry, Bound4Life, and has inspired other justice movements.
