Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Beginning on April 9, 1906, PASSOVER Eve, the Holy Spirit fell upon a small number of Saints at 214 North Bonnie Brae street, Los Angeles, California. From this small beginning, the charismatic and Pentecostal movement would sweep the world. Here is what Frank Bartleman, an observer of the events at Azusa Street, wrote about the beginnings of Pentecostalism.
I went to Burbank Hall, the New Testament Church Sunday morning, April 15. A colored sister was there and spoke in “tongues”. This created a great stir. The people gathered in little companies on the sidewalk after the service inquiring what this might mean. It seemed like Pentecostal “signs”. We then learned that the Spirit had fallen a few nights before, April 9, at the little cottage on Bonnie Brae street.
They had been tarrying very earnestly for some time for an outpouring. A handful of colored and white saints had been waiting there daily. It was just at Easter season again. For some reason I was not privileged to be present at that particular meeting. A number had spoken in “tongues” there.
I went to the Bonnie Brae meeting in the afternoon, and found God working mightily. We had been praying for many months for victory. Jesus was now “showing himself alive” again, to many. The pioneers had broken through, for the multitude to follow. There was a general spirit of humility manifested in the meeting. They were taken up with God. Evidently the Lord had found the little company at last, outside as always, through whom he could have right of way.
There was not a mission in the country where this could be done. All were in the hands of men. The Spirit could not work. Others far more pretentious had failed. That which man esteems had been passed by once more and the Spirit was born again in a humble “stable,” outside ecclesiastical establishments as usual. Azusa Street, How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles, by Frank Bartleman, 1925, Public Domain.
We see that the original Azusa street revival started from a “small company” that was fasting and praying outside the control of organized religion and the established Church. A small company OUTSIDE THE CAMP!
Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him WITHOUT THE CAMP, bearing his reproach.
This leads us back to the story of Gideon and God’s three-hundred (300) CHOSEN.
Jdg 7:16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a TRUMPET (shophar) in every man's hand, with EMPTY PITCHERS, and LAMPS WITHIN the pitchers.
Jdg 7:17 And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the OUTSIDE OF THE CAMP, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.
Jdg 7:18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The SWORD of the LORD, and of Gideon.
We see that God’s CHOSEN each had a TRUMPET, with an EMPTY PITCHER, with LAMPS WITHIN the pitchers. We are about to learn some good stuff here!
TRUMPET: H7782, shôphâr
BDB Definition:
The TRUMPET was a “ram’s horn” (shophar) fashioned into a musical instrument. The “ram’s horn” is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Gen 22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Gen 22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Gen 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Gen 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place JEHOVAHJIREH: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
JEHOVAHJIREH: H3070, yehôvâh yir'eh, yeh-ho-vaw' yir-eh'
From H3068 and H7200; Jehovah will see (to it); Jehovah-Jireh, a symbolical name for Mt. Moriah: - Jehovah-jireh.
Abraham calls the mountain of sacrifice JEHOVAH-JIREH, a compound word combining God’s name, JEHOVAH, with the word JIREH, which has some interesting meanings:
JIREH: 7200, râ'âh, raw-aw'
A primitive root; to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitively, intransitively and causatively): - advise self, appear, approve, behold, X certainly, consider, discern, (make to) enjoy, have experience, gaze, take heed, X indeed, X joyfully, lo, look (on, one another, one on another, one upon another, out, up, upon), mark, meet, X be near, perceive, present, provide, regard, (have) respect, (fore-, cause to, let) see (-r, -m, one another), shew (self), X sight of others, (e-) spy, stare, X surely, X think, view, visions.
If we combine the name of JEHOVAH with JIREH’S different meanings, we receive deep insights into the significance of Abraham’s obedience and the sacrifice of his son:
JEHOVAH-APPEARS, JEHOVAH-APPROVES, JEHOVAH-CONSIDERS, JEHOVAH-GAZES, JEHOVAH-MEETS, JEHOVAH-PRESENT, JEHOVAH-PROVIDES, JEHOVAH-RESPECT, JEHOVAH-REGARDS, JEHOVAH-SEES (ONE ANOTHER), JEHOVAH-SHEWS (SELF), JEHOVAH-VISIONS.
Every Christian should know that this specific story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac is a perfect allegory of the sacrifice of God and His own Son, JESUS CHRIST. It is ONLY through the BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST that we have standing before the Lord God ALMIGHTY! Only when we contemplate God’s supreme sacrifice do we truly understand how much God LOVES US!
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
The “ram’s horn” represents all these things and much, much more. Let’s take another look at the “sound” of the SHOPHAR.
Exo 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet (SHOPHAR) exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Exo 19:17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
Exo 19:18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exo 19:19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
The “ram’s horn” represents the meeting ground between GOD and MAN! We are reconciled forever with God through the BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST! We can approach Him and He can approach us. Jesus Christ is our SAVIOUR, He is our RIGHTEOUSNESS, He is our PROTECTOR, He is our PROVIDER, He is our INTERCESSOR, He is our FRIEND, and He is our BROTHER!
Next in the story of Gideon, we see that God’s CHOSEN carry an EMPTY PITCHER.
EMPTY: H7386, rêyq, rêq
rake, rake
From H7324; empty; figuratively worthless: - emptied (-ty), vain (fellow, man).
If we look up the word EMPTY in the “King James Concordance” we find some interesting context for the word.
Rth 1:20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi (pleasant), call me Mara (bitter): for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Rth 1:21 I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again EMPTY: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?
Often times, it is only when we are EMPTY that God can fill us with His Spirit and use us for His purposes. When all of our hopes and our dreams have been crushed and broken, then God can fill us with His hopes, and His dreams, and His Holy Spirit.
In Frank Bartleman’s book “Azusa Street: How Pentecost came to Los Angeles”, he wrote the following message from God:
“Shortly after God filled me, His Spirit rested mightily upon me one morning, and He said to me: ‘If you were only small enough I could do anything with you.’ A great desire to be little, yea, to be nothing, came into my heart. But it has been, oh, so hard to keep low enough for Him to really work through me.
God often times allows us to go through some very difficult and trying circumstances until we recognize our own limitations and turn to Him for our provision and begin to LEAN upon Him continually for our sustenance and for our supply.
Son 8:5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?
Like the LORD, we need to EMPTY ourselves and HUMBLE ourselves so that we can provide a fit vessel for the Holy Spirit.
Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Php 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The Apostle Paul recognized that in these earthen vessels, God has concealed the excellency of His power.
2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
The only way that God’s power can be revealed in us is if these earthen vessels are broken.
Jdg 7:20 And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
Jdg 7:21 And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.
God wants us to spend TIME with HIM! That is how God mortifies our flesh and breaks these pitchers of clay.
It is a secret joy to find
The task assigned beyond our powers;
For thus, if ought of good be wrought,
Clearly the praise is His, not ours.
--Houghton
When I was reading Frank Bartleman’s book about the Azusa Street Revival, the following verse from the Book of Genesis came to my mind:
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
God told Noah that His spirit would only strive with man for one-hundred and twenty (120) years…then the flood came. Jesus told us that His second coming would be “as it was in the days of Noah.”
Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
If we count one-hundred and twenty years from the beginning of the Azusa Street revival on PASSOVER 1906, we come to PASSOVER 2026. This is the date that I believe the “Christian Exodus” from the world “Babylonian” system (which includes organized religion) will take place. See my FREE book “Christian Exodus: Out of Babylon”. https://www.free-ebooks.net/search/christian+exodus
It is my belief and contention that all of the stories in the Bible, the characters and the timelines, are all allegories and examples to us who live in these last days. I believe the New Testament also teaches this method of interpreting the Bible.
1Co 10:10 And don't complain as some of them did. Because they complained, they were killed by the angel that destroys.
1Co 10:11 The things that happened to those people are examples. They were written to be warnings for us. We live in the time that all those past histories were pointing to.
1Co 10:12 So anyone who thinks they are standing strong should be careful that they don't fall. Easy-to-Read Version.
I believe that God has also allotted us one-hundred-and-twenty (120) years for His spirit to STRIVE with man in these last days, and then the judgment. However, I also believe that God will have one last great out-pouring of His Holy Spirit, just before the marriage supper of the lamb. I believe that this last great out-pouring will last for three-and one-half (3 and ½) years, similar to the ministry of Jesus. If we count back three-and-one-half (3 and ½) years from Passover 2026, we come to the Fall of 2022.
STRIVE: H1777, dı̂yn, dûn, deen, doon
A primitive root (compare H113); to rule; by implication to judge (as umpire); also to strive (as at law): - contend, execute (judgment), judge, minister judgment, plead (the cause), at strife, strive.
Smith Wigglesworth, a Pentecostal Evangelist who also attended the Azusa Street Revival, had a vision of one last great outpouring of the Holy Spirit just before he died.
Wigglesworth cried saying, “I probably won’t see you again now. My job is almost finished.”
As he continued to pray, he cried “I see it, I see it!”
Brother Sumrall asked, “What do you see, what do you see?
He said, “I see a healing revival coming right after World War II. It’ll be so easy to get people healed. I see it! I see it! I won’t be here for it, but you will be.” And there was a healing revival right after the war.
He continued to prophesy, “I see another one. I see people of all different denominations being filled with the Holy Ghost.” That was the Charismatic Revival. God raised up people during that era, like the Full Gospel Businessmen.
Then Brother Wigglesworth continued, “I see another move of God. I see auditoriums full of people, coming with notebooks. There will be a wave of teaching on faith and healing.” We did experience that wave he saw, and we call it the Word of Faith movement.
Then he prophesied, “After that, after the third wave,” he started sobbing. “I see the last day revival that’s going to usher in the precious fruit of the earth. It will be the greatest revival this world has ever seen! It’s going to be a wave of the gifts of the Spirit. The ministry gifts will be flowing on this planet earth. I see hospitals being emptied out, and they will bring the sick to the churches where they allow the Holy Ghost to move.”
http://www.prayforscotland.org.uk/smith-wigglesworths-1947-prophetic-word/
I may be off by a few years, but I believe that God does have a time table and an end date to His Spirit STRIVING with man. All I can say is this, if we do not humble ourselves, and prepare ourselves to meet Him when He comes is, “shame on us”.
I also believe that the last great move of God will not begin under the authority or patronage of organized religion, but it will happen when God’s CHOSEN go outside the camp and seek God’s Spirit, and seeks to know God’s will. I believe the end of the great outpouring of Pentecost will be similar to its beginnings. The Holy Spirit cannot be under the control of man…God and His Spirit is, and will always be, sovereign.
Zec 4:10 FOR WHO HATH DESPISED THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Zec 4:11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
Zec 4:12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
Zec 4:13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.
Always and forever, God uses the despised and the small things of the world to confound the wise and the mighty. God uses the few to put armies to flight. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
1Co 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
