Tod Bentley

I had an encounter with the Lord before I came to the service tonight that I am processing. It's holy, and I pray I stay under it. I want to share this here because God's going to release it and it is happening already. He is pouring out wine and you are drinking it! He's going to pour out harvest and give us fire. "Holy Ghost, come like a mighty rushing wind. Give us another Pentecost!" That's what we are hungry for, and what the world and the church need right now. It's the same glory, fire, and wine that came on the day of Pentecost as a mighty rushing wind. We need that power again, and I believe God is awakening something in our hearts. I know it is happening here in South Africa, but it is also available to the nations.

Look at how mighty God is!

There is an awakening of the healing anointing and revival-the healing movement of times past! God is opening up the wells. We are no longer going to say, "God, I have heard of Your fame." We are going to say, "Look at how mighty God is!" We're not going to talk about the way it used to be years ago; God is doing something today and in this hour! The glory of the latter house will be greater than the former house. God is going to give us the latter and the former rain together. We don't need to prophesy any more about a coming healing revival or about a coming harvest; we are already in the season of harvest at the end of the age more souls will be saved than ever before. There is a healing awakening happening in many places. I pray every nation watching gets one!

A sign of what's coming

Before I came to the meeting, I was praying in my hotel room. I have never believed it as much as I believe it now that we can have the day of Pentecost again as a real experience, a manifest encounter! We no longer have to just talk about the day of Pentecost or about Azusa Street. There are some things that God is releasing now and He is pouring out His Spirit on the church. I received power in my spirit and I can still feel it. How do you describe the power of God? It's like electricity, jolts of power! The kratos, dunamis power of God and the TNT explosive power of God. It felt like energy, and my body was vibrating with jolts of power. Something happened to me that I must share and it's going to open something in this place. It's going to open something in this nation!

Every experience and encounter we have, we need to be able to find it in the Scripture somewhere. There are angels in the Bible, and they are messengers who serve the Father's Word. We need to remember that we cannot worship the angels; we worship Jesus! People say, "It's not about the angels." Yet I say, "Oh yes it is, because there are a lot of them." The devil only got about one third. There are a lot of angels; I'm talking innumerable angels. Why shouldn't they be more interactive and we be more aware of what they are doing? They are involved in everything we do on the planet-Cherubim, seraphim, living creatures-every kind. Angels come in harvest, not only angels that protect and guardian angels, but ministering spirits and healing angels. They come to help. Angels are eternal (see Luke 20:36). The angels that were in South Africa with John G. Lake didn't go anywhere. I want you to think about that. The very angels that were working in South Africa in the days John G. Lake are still in heaven. We can say, "Father let those very angels that were a part of awakening in this nation all those years ago come and open up the wells again." We can ask the Father in the name of Jesus that the very angels that were active in the days of the First and Second Great Awakenings, and the very angels that were involved in Pentecost and Azusa Street, would come again. Men will come and go, and churches and movements will come and go, but God and the angels are eternal. I believe it's time to say, "God, let those very angels be released that were active in Portland, Spokane, South Africa-the very angels that were in South Africa with John G. Lake-let them be here again, hallelujah! Let them be working in Tongaat, let them be working in Durban, and let them be working all over South Africa." God is saying there is something about re digging the wells, and it's not just those.

People ask me, "How do you know you are having an angelic visitation and how do you know what the angel is doing? How do you know its purpose?" Sometimes when the angel comes and you know the angel's name, his name is his assignment. When God had a message for the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, each church had an angel assigned to it. Why can't your ministry and your nation have an angel assigned to it? We don't worship them, but we need to say, "God show us what the angels are doing."

A Visitation with a message

As I was thinking and praying, my faith was stirred along these lines. So I just said, "God, let the angel come that was with John Lake, which helped bring revival in this nation. It would sure be great if we had some of those angels helping us right now!" All of a sudden, the glory of God came, and in my spirit the light was blinding. It wasn't even white like an angel dressed in white. It was more like fluorescent light, rays of light; there was something inside of the light. I could not make out any features, but I knew what it was because I could feel the presence. My first thought was, "Lord, it's an angel from the highest realms of glory standing by my bed!" Before I could say anything, he put his hand on my chest. Right then the power of God came into my body and I started vibrating. It lasted about 5 minutes. Surges of power like electricity went through my body. I said to God, "That angel touched me!" And my first thought was, "That was the angel that was with John Lake!" In the middle of my encounter, my cellphone rang and it said these words that came from a friend in Oklahoma: "Todd, the last thing the angel said to John G Lake.." and he took a picture. He said the angel told John G. Lake something about Johannesburg. There is something about the twin cities of revival and power, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Then I read this: "The heart of Jesus was once gladdened here through the glory, the grace, and the power of God that were manifested in Johannesburg, but human pride, formalism, and a lack of faith brought disappointment to the heart of Him we love, but the glory will return!" The glory will return to Johannesburg, the glory will return to Pretoria, the glory will return to South Africa, and we won't remember the way that it was 100 years ago. He said, "And the tried and the true, and those that have suffered, labored, and prayed will be rewarded." He said that the angel gave him the message that the glory would return.

This gentleman had no idea that I was in the middle of a visitation and the message continued. "This is the last thing the angel said to John G. Lake in answer to the cry of his heart was that he opened the Bible to the Book of Acts. He called attention to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and proceeded through the book pointing out the great, outstanding revelations and phenomena in it. The angel spoke these words: "this is Pentecost as God gave it through the heart of Jesus. Strive for this! Contend for this! Teach the people to pray for this!"

Now is the time to Contend

How many of you know that we need another Pentecost? The angel said to strive for this! Contend for this! Teach the people to pray for this! For this and this alone will meet the necessity of the human heart. This and this alone will have the power to overcome the forces of darkness. As the angel was departing, he said: "Pray, pray, pray. Teach the people to pray. Persistent prayer is the door to enter the heart of God." My heart was stirred that there was something about this revival and awakening that we need to contend for; that we need to press in for; that we need to pray for. What we need to pray is that God would give us a fire again, a fire like He gave us on Azusa Street; a fire like He gave us on the day of Pentecost. That was the fire that originally came to South Africa all the way from Azusa Street, Los Angeles. John G. Lake and the angel came in 1908 to South Africa, and it started in Johannesburg. When this awakening began, the first word in the Sunday morning preaching in this very church where it broke out was that it was time to unstop the wells that our fathers dug. It was about re-digging the wells and that God was going to open up the healing pools again in this nation, and power was going to come back. More than ever I believe this, and I know we can have it in the Holy Ghost.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is here, and we can have through the Holy Ghost the very same Pentecost they had in the upper room! Through the Holy Ghost we can get the same fire! I am hungry for it and we are going to begin to believe God, pray and prophesy, contend and press in, so that we may be under the flame of the Holy Ghost, just as in the times of fire that appeared upon each one! That same Spirit is inside of you and me. Through the very same Spirit, we can touch the flame that came on that day, when the church began and the church came out in power.

As great as it was, the promise is that Jesus is coming back for a glorious, triumphant, victorious bride! The glory of the latter house will be greater than the former House (see Haggai 2:9). The church today will go out with a greater bang than it came in with 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost. We will go out with greater power than that time. We should not be surprised if we begin to have the same kind of harvest, the same kind of miracles, the same kind of resurrections, and the same kind of power they had after Pentecost. We could be saying, "God, it's going to happen in my living room, it's going to happen in my city, it's going to happen in my ministry, it's going to happen in my nation right now. It's going to happen!" My heart is stirred. Oh that the Holy Ghost would come and move again like a mighty rushing wind so that we could drink! I said God, "Let me drink the wine that they drank on the day of Pentecost!" That wine is still in heaven. It may be 2013, but you can still say, "Lord, I want to drink that wine!" There is a wine that we can drink today, tomorrow, and for the next decade. We want to drink some of the old wine too. We can pray for the very fire that came on the day of Pentecost!

What was the purpose of Pentecost? That we might receive power. The purpose of another Pentecost is that we might receive power to be a witness in Jerusalem and Judea and that the fire goes to the uttermost parts of the earth! We need it. When the fire came it was contagious-transferable. It says that while Peter was speaking, the Spirit fell on the Gentiles and they received the same thing that Peter and the 120 received in the upper room on the day of Pentecost (see Acts 10:47). It was contagious. Philip carried it into Samaria. This fire, the fire of revival is contagious. It is transferable. Take it into your city. Take it into your nation. Take it into your church. Revival is contagious. You can open up your mouth and become a spark that brings a fire.

The Greater Works

Then I started to think about the purpose of Pentecost. It was all about power so the gospel could go to the ends of the earth. They say that Azusa Street sent out more missionaries to the earth than any other time since the day of Pentecost. However, I am telling you what is coming in this hour, the harvest at the end of the age, the harvesters that God is going to release in this hour, are going to go out in power and will be just as great or greater. Just like when Peter and John healed the man at the gate called Beautiful, they stepped right into notable, remarkable miracles. What was the key to Pentecost? Jesus said for us to tarry and wait, to pray until we were endued with power from on high (see Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5). We need to get hungry enough to have an encounter with God, until we are endued with power. Even if that means we have to pray and hunger for nine months, we need to be willing. There are people that would say, "We have it already: completed works of the cross; finished work." We have it because of a finished work, but we need an experience, we need a manifestation. Until our shadows are healing the sick, until we are moving in the same kind of glory and power, we need to get honest and say, "Come again Holy Spirit! Come again Holy Spirit! Come again Holy Spirit! Come again Holy Spirit!" Don't let your theology and what you have because of what Jesus did already prevent you from crying out. Two thousand years of theology and still we don't have it! All the books on the finished works, and we still don't have it. The missing link is people are not having the kind of encounter with God and experience with the Holy Spirit as happened on the day of Pentecost. We need to wait, pray, and tarry until we do. You will know when you are endued with power from on high. Instead of a church trying to convince a world with all our programs that we've got something, let the church get honest and say, "Come again Holy Ghost!" Ask Him!

People say: "Don't you know the Bible says, "Lo I am with you always"? I am a temple of the Holy Spirit and He dwells inside of me." But we are not walking in power! We are not walking in resurrection! Something is missing. My favorite message is "Who You Are and What You Have in Christ." Thank God for my foundation in knowing that I am already as holy and righteous as I can ever be. It is a free gift, not only of salvation, but righteousness by the Blood of Jesus and everything that happened on the cross. This is the only reason I can come boldly before the Throne and say, "God, let Your power come upon me for the purpose of helping the human race that is under demonic power!" We need that kind of power again to get people healed of the oppression of the devil! I was so pricked, stirred, and convicted in heart when I had that encounter in my hotel today that I started to think, "God, can we have it again?" What many people don't know is that before John G. Lake got the fire that came on Azusa Street, which might have been the closest thing to Pentecost, he prayed for nine months for the Holy Ghost. Nine months! Waiting, tarrying, desperate that his soul would be filled with God, for nine months, until the power came! They prayed for ten days before the power came on Pentecost, day and night. We cannot even wait 10 minutes, and we want the kind of power that is going to turn nations upside down?

A pouring out of Glory and Power

The church has got to get honest again, because Lord is speaking that this fire that is going to be poured out in this hour is going to be the same fire that was poured out on the day of Pentecost. We are going to have it in the Holy Ghost! He said, "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" (see Joel 2:28). All young men will have visions and all old men will have dreams, not just prophets and some men and some women. If it is an outpouring of the Spirit, there must be dreams and visions. That means there will be heavenly encounters. God said, "I will show signs in the heavens above and wonders on the earth beneath" (see Joel 2:30). It will be signs and wonders and the heavens will declare the glory of God.

What God is pouring out in these meetings is more than just power, fire, and miracles; there is a realm of Presence, glory Presence. The angel said, "The glory will return." The Shekinah glory will be the last move of God. The harvest that comes at the end of the age will come with a move of God that will be the Father's glory. We are going to have the glory return to the church, and the glory of the latter house will be greater than the former house (see Haggai 2:9). I believe it is upon us right now and that we are just in the beginning stages. We are beginning to touch and taste that very glory that is going to be poured out, called the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, which will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (see Habakkuk 2:14). The entire world will have the knowledge of what is the glory of God. It is going to get deeper and deeper and deeper, hallelujah! It is a tsunami wave of God's glory that is coming, hallelujah! In that wave will be power!