May/June 2009
Awakening to God III
And that, knowing the time,
that now it is high time
to awake out of sleep:
for now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed.
Romans 13:11 (KJV)
Dearest Partners in Prayer, Shalom,
By now you know about our interrupted prayer here at Prayer Mountain in the Ozarks on June 29, 2008. A famous biblical interrupted prayer was that of Daniel (Daniel 9:21). The angel Gabriel interrupted his prayer. While the interruption to our prayer was not quite so dramatic, it was sobering. At our regular Sunday afternoon corporate prayer we were praying about the then upcoming election in November, about Israel, and about the nations when the word of the Lord came forcefully through my lips as follows:
One thing will save America.
And it is NOT the election.
It is an awakening to God!
One thing will help Israel and the nations.
It is an awakening to God.
Please refer back to my Awakening to God letters I and II. If you cannot locate yours, we do have them posted on line.
Kenneth Copeland's Holy Spirit Interruption
On April 15, Kenneth Copeland was taping a BVOV television broadcast with David Barton to be aired in July. Suddenly, as the Holy Spirit came upon him, Brother Copeland stopped teaching, put his hand upon his chest, and prophesied:
This is the time that has been prophesied about.
And at stake here is not only your welfare in the land,
but also My move in the end times of a "great awakening,"
saith the Lord.
And it is that "awakening" that will save this land
And others like it.
For it is the time of the Coming of the Lord.
And you will rise up and you will be My Name,
And you will be My power,
And I will manifest Myself through you,
And many shall come and say, "Surely He is the God of all Good."
Brother Copeland then remarked, "We're there. We're right there. And it's just hanging there for us to believe God. It is that awakening that will save this nation. Our salvation's never been in politics; it's been in the move of the Holy Ghost. And we're there."
Kenneth Copeland Ministries, sensing the significance of the word, produced a clip of the broadcast and emailed it to their partners. That's how I saw it.
A Surprising Fact
In an earlier letter, I mentioned something I can now go into in greater detail. I think the Lord caused me to notice a fact of previous awakenings relevant to our times. Two of the greatest awakenings occurred in terrible financial times.
In my previous letter I emphasized the 1857-59 Awakening that began with a prayer meeting called by Jeremiah Lanphier on September 23, 1857 in New York City in a church very near where the Twin Towers stood. This awakening is covered in books we've made available to you: Revival Fire by Wesley Duewel (pp 125-136) and The New York City Noon Prayer Meeting by Talbot Chambers.
I'd read these accounts, many times. However, while rereading Chambers account, a few statements he made seemed to leap off the page. Talbot Chambers documented the prayer meeting in its first year at the Old Dutch Church where he was pastor at the time. In reporting the rapid growth of the meetings and the causes for it, he wrote:
The general interruption of business in consequence of the financial disasters of the season, gave to
many an opportunity of regularly attending the meeting, of which a more prosperous season would
perhaps have deprived them…it can scarcely be doubted that the main cause of the general popularity
of the meeting was the gracious purpose of the Lord, making use, in His adorable sovereignty, of this
means to alleviate the gloom of temporal calamities, and lead the minds of the children of men to
higher ends than "The meat that perisheth." In no other way can we account for the eagerness with
which multitudes of men would flock together at an unusual…and most inconvenient hour…to attend a
religious service.
Financial disasters! The gloom of temporal calamities! What were they? I thought as I read. So I went to the computer and typed in "financial disaster 1857." Ten pages of options popped up on my search. At various sites I found items entitled: Panics on Wall Street…Panic of 1857 ...1857 A Year to Forget, etc. Here is a sampling of some things they reported:
"The discovery of gold in California in 1848…affected the economic development of the nation.
Everything seemed prosperous…In the early months of 1857 the nation had every appearance of
extraordinary prosperity. Then came an unexpected slacking of pace; credit had again been stretched
too far. Supposedly strong banks…failed, and immediate demands were made upon the financial
resources of New York…Several of the failures had been due to embezzlement and stock gambling."
"…railroads failed…5000 American businesses failed within a year… Unemployment…Eventually
the panic and depression spread to Europe, South America and the Far East…."
When the financial panic reached the Far East, they named it "The Western Blizzard." This could have been because in January 1857, the northeast United States experienced what is considered to be one of the worst snowstorms ever.
A factor in the financial fall was the wreck of the steamship The Central America. On 44 previous voyages the ship successfully carried gold from California to the banks of New York. But on September 12, 1857, it was sunk off North Carolina by a hurricane taking 425 lives and tons of gold. When the news reached New York City, people made a run on the banks, forcing banks to close. One source said, "When news of the lost gold reached New York bankers, the Panic of 1857 sparked a recession which set the stage for the Civil War."
Severe weather. Financial disaster. Credit stretched. Embezzlement. Sounds familiar. I thought. And then I thought, I think I'll look at the financial conditions during The First Great Awakening out of which the USA was born.
There I discovered that the Colonists went to war with the biggest superpower of the day with no money. Well, that's not exactly right. They realized they needed money, and with no power to raise taxes, they printed some. They printed Continental dollars, which soon had no value. From this comes our saying that something is "not worth a Continental."
The Revolutionary War effort and the values expressed in The Declaration of Independence would have come to naught had it not been that God saved things, primarily through one Jewish Patriot. Washington's armies were not properly fed, clothed, or armed. Continental leaders were not paid. And soon after its birth, the fledgling country faced bankruptcy. Through the efforts of Haym Salomon the country was born, and eventually saved from financial ruin. In 1975, celebrating the bi-centennial of our nation, the Postal Department published a stamp in his honor. It was printed on both sides. On it were his picture, and these words: "Financial Hero-Businessman and broker Haym Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse."
This amazing story is well told in the book we're making available with this letter: Forgotten Patriot, The Story of Haym Salomon by David Allen Lewis.
After discovering that two great awakenings occurred in times of financial disaster, I said, "Hey! We qualify."
Tithing in Famine
In Genesis 26, the Lord told Isaac to remain in the land during a great famine. Here is a revealing translation from the Hebrew in the Stone Edition of the Chumash:
Isaac sowed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundredfold; thus had HaShem
blessed him. The man became great and kept becoming greater until he was very great
(Genesis 26:12,13).
The following comment on these verses is also revealing:
According to our Rabbis, Isaac was scrupulous to determine the quantity of his crop in
order to establish how much he was required to give as tithes (Rashi).
Now, I trust I can get over to you something I believe will help you exercise faith for the tithe blessing in tough times on earth. Here is exactly how Malachi 3:10 reads in the KJV:
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove
me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and
pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it (Malachi 3:10).
Italicized words are not in the original manuscript. Therefore, the last line reads, "…pour you out a blessing, that not enough." Well, that's a little hard to see. So, let's look at the Hebrew words. The word translated that is the Hebrew ad. Ad means until. The word translated not is the word bli. Bli means without. The word translated enough is the word dai. Dai means enough.
So the literal translation would be, "…open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, until without enough." The source and supply of the blessing is in Heaven. It means the Lord will pour out a blessing until Heaven is without enough. And that will never happen. The tithe blessing is not measureable by your room on earth to receive it, but to the unending resources of Heaven to bestow the blessing. According to God's riches in Glory!
Kenneth E. Hagin Interrupted by the Holy Spirit
I recently came across something in my files that has long been in the back of my mind. In his Prayer Seminar of 1983, Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin was speaking about a great move of the Spirit he knew was to take place before Jesus comes. Suddenly, he spoke by the Holy Spirit, "Moving into that place is fueled by prayer. Fired by the Spirit. And ignited with His glory. If there is no fuel, there is nothing to ignite. (I never thought of that. It came out of the inside of me.) You have to stop and analyze that. If there's no fuel, there's nothing to fire. Fueled by prayer."
So that's what the Lord is leading us to do. Provide the fuel. That's what our united prayer is about. That's what the Wednesday noon prayer is about. We believe the Lord has touched it. Thousands of computers (some representing churches and prayer groups) are praying together. People have joined in from 68 countries. When they write, they often comment on the blessing they sense in united prayer. Here are a few comments:
"We enjoyed taking Communion with you. Prayer of repentance was very
strong," (Cory).
"The need for wide ranging corporate prayer has been evident. Thank God…"
(Samuel).
"I have felt in my spirit to stand in faith with other believers to pray for an
awakening to God for our own little part of the world, Tahmoor, Picton, and
Thirlmere, NSW Australia," (M.S.).
"I am writing from Leiden in the Netherlands…it is a privilege joining you
during live prayer…my prayer life has been lifted up to a higher level." (K.).
"Oshawa, Ontario Canada…we are hooked in with you on Wednesday…as we
have started praying into a Spiritual Awakening we are seeing the effects of our
prayers. All I can say is WOW!!! We in the Body of Christ have said, God is up
to something good, but I say that God is up to something big and it is good!!!"
(Pastor E.I.).
"There is high anticipation everywhere…." (S.F.).
"Mine is one of the vast number of computers tuned in…. What a blessing to
be joined in the crying out for Glorious Awakening.... My focus aims toward
Western Pennsylvania…." (J.B.).
"We join you in prayer every Wednesday. Our church is within a short distance
of the chapel where Evan Roberts ministered, and the college founded by Rees
Howells, who was overwhelmed by the revival and was led into a ministry
of intercession…." (W. R., South Wales).
And there are so many more around the globe.
Awakening America
I've been on a bit of a whirlwind keeping up. On April 26 I went to Pastors Dan and Ann Stratton's church in New York City where Pastor Paul Brady from Ballymena, Northern Ireland was ministering. In the afternoon 30 to 40 of us walked to the corner of the rear entrance of the Old Dutch Church where on September 23, 1857 Jeremiah Lanphier began the prayer meetings that burned across America providing the fuel for the Fourth Awakening. In the near vicinity were the site of Washington's Inauguration, the church where he prayed, the New York Stock Exchange, and the site of the Twin Towers.
The next day, Kylie and I flew to Lexington where I was invited to give a brief testimony of what has been happening since June 29 in a very special meeting. Reverend Billy Wilson, whom the Lord used to bring about the 100th anniversary of Azusa, is now led to bring leaders in unity for an awakening in his Awakening America Alliance. Here is an excerpt from the letter we received following the meeting:
Recently, over 100 leaders gathered with us at the Awakening America Leadership Summit
in Lexington, Kentucky. During out 3 days together we prayed, worked…listened for God's voice….
The diversity in our meeting was amazing with evangelicals, Charismatics and Pentecostals from
across the body of Christ uniting together.... We were also privileged to gather at the Cane Ridge
Camp meeting site to reflect on the Second Great Awakening and the radical move of God's power
at Cane Ridge in 1801.
Awakening America Rallies
We recently conducted two Awakening America Rallies. The first was in Dr. Larry and Loretta Ollison's Walk on the Water Faith Church in Osage Beach, Missouri. I taught in detail about America's awakenings. We had an excellent meeting with stirrings and movings of the Spirit of God. It is available on CD's and DVD's. The DVD's include Power Point pictures of the historic awakenings. (We're offering them with this letter.)
The second rally was in our home church in Collinsville, Oklahoma. Again, I taught on the awakenings. And again, the Spirit of the Lord moved mightily. Pastor Paul Brady had just returned home to Northern Ireland when he heard about the meeting in Collinsville and sensed the Lord wanted him to come right back and take part in it. Oh, my! The musicians (accomplished professionals the Lord sent) and the congregation made one sound. And the glory came down and all around! Mother Tucker (91 years young) danced and prophesied.
We were already scheduled to be with longtime friend, Trish Lenihan in North Dakota in August, but we called her and she agreed it will be an Awakening America Rally. Details are included with this letter.
I'm on my way around the world. When you receive this, I will be somewhere along the way having left Springfield for Australia on May 18. I leave Perth on June 8 for Israel. The Israel Tour joins me June 16-29. On my way home I stop at Gatlinburg for a meeting with Norvel and Zona Hayes July 2 and 3. (After a while at home, I'll be at the CUFI meeting in Washington, D.C. July 19-23. Israel needs us to make our united voice heard with this government. Go on line to CUFI.com and register to be with us.)
I will be blogging along the way. So keep up with me on the web page, billyebrim.org. Also, we'll be using the technology to join you in Wednesday prayer.
Please pray for us! And, thank you, Partners, for your faithful donations that keep me going for the Lord!
Love in Him,
Billye Brim
P.S. Please mark your calendars to be with us in the Autumn Assembly of Prayer October 29-November 2. It is oh-so-important this year!
For more information on this subject, click on the titles below of special products recommended by Sister Billye:
Awakening America Rally 2009 (CD Set)
Awakening America Rally 2009 (DVD Set)
Forgotten Patriot - book by David Allen Lewis
Revival Fire - book by Wesley Duewel
The New York City Noon Prayer Meeting - book by Talbot W. Chambers