I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL PEOPLE
Jun
7
Written by:
6/7/2011 12:00 AM
I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL PEOPLE
June 5, 2011
(Joel 2:28 NIV) 'And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. (Joel 2:29 NIV) Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:30 NIV) I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. (Joel 2:31 NIV) The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. (Joel 2:32 NIV) And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.
Next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirt was poured out in fulfillment of Joel`s prophecy. Peter quoted the above passage from Joel on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was the day the Christian church began. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was not a onetime event. Since that time there have been many outpourings of the Holy Spirit. However, many believe the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit is yet to come. This outpouring will be worldwide and I believe it will include Japan. What can we expect from this last days outpouring of the Holy Spirit? That is a very difficult question to answer. God is a god of infinite variety. However, we can look at what happened in past outpourings to have some idea of what will happen in the last great outpouring of the Holy Spirit before Jesus Christ returns. In this message I will take a brief look at two outpourings of the Holy Spirit that occurred since Pentecost.
There were outpourings of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost that are recorded in the book of Acts in Samaria (Acts 8:14-17), Ephesus (Acts 19:1-7) and even on the Gentiles (Acts 10:44-46). These outpourings helped to establish the early church. From the time of the early church the Holy Spirit has been poured out in many different parts of the world. For this message the first outpouring I will consider occurred on the Moravians on Aug. 13, 1727. A Moravian historian described what happened on that day. “The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took place in our midst. From that time scarcely a day passed but what we beheld His almighty workings amongst us. A great hunger after the Word of God took possession of us so that we had to have three services every day: 5:00 a.m., 7.30 a.m., and 9:00 p.m.” No one could truly describe what happened on that day. They hardly knew if they were on earth or in heaven. When the people first began to meet before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit they were deeply divided and critical of one another. Most had come from the ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren, but others were from the Lutherans, Reformed and Baptists. Now the believers were in unity and truly led by the Holy Spirit.
What was the result of the outpouring? A 24 hour prayer meeting was started that lasted for 100 years. On August 26, twenty-four men and twenty-four women were assigned to pray for one hour. Even the children were greatly touched by God and began to pray. Also, a great missionary movement was begun. Hundreds of missionaries were sent to many countries. They were fearless and willing to die for their faith.
The following is a list of some of the outpourings that have occurred in Asia:
1907 Pyongyang, Korea
1965 East Timor, Indonesia
1979 Solomon Islands
1973 Phom Phen, Cambodia
1989 Henan and Anhui, China
In a previous message I gave an account of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in East Timor. Mel Tari wrote a book about the revival. Mel stayed in our home one night in Inagawa-cho almost 20 years ago. The second and last outpouring I will consider for this message is the 1907 Pyongyang, Korea outpouring. The largest church in Korea at that time the First Church of Pyongyang. Members of the church heard about the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in South Wales in 1904, and greatly desired for God to bring revival to Korea. The week of January 8, 1907, 960 men registered for a men's winter Bible study conference at the church. The days were filled with Bible study. The evening services were open to the public and 1,600 to 2,000 people gathered. At the Jan. 14, 1907, prayer meeting the leader asked two or three people to pray, but 12-20 people began praying. The leader then said, “If that's the way you want to lead, then let's all pray together out loud.' And that's when the wave rolled in." In his book, The Korean Pentecost, William Blair said, "The effect was indescribable—not of confusion, but a vast harmony of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls moved by an irresistible impulse of prayer. The prayer sounded to me like the falling of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God's throne. It was not many, but one, born of one Spirit, lifted to one Father above." The leaders allowed everyone to pray aloud simultaneously as so many wanted to pray. Praying aloud together became a characteristic of Korean prayer meetings, even to this day. Some families walked more than 300 kilometers to participate in the revival that broke out in the First Church of Pyongyang. The meetings carried on for many days with confessions of sins, weeping and trembling. The unbelievers were astounded. Many of the people that attended the meetings returned to their churches taking with them this spirit of prayer which strongly impacted the churches of the nation with revival.
The great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pyongyang prepared the Korean church for persecution that was to come. Japan occupied Korea from 1910-45. After the Second World War many Christians fled from North Korea because of the Chinese communists. Other Christians stayed in North Korea and went underground. Thousands of Korean Christians have been martyred. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the First Church of Pyongyang is one of the main reasons over 25% of the people of South Korea are Christians.
We do not know how or in what way God will bring a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit to Japan. However, we believe God will pour out his Holy Spirit in a mighty way and there will be a great harvest of souls!