Genesis 26:18 tells us "Isaac dug again the
wells of Abraham." In every generation, there have been revivals, massive moves of the Spirit that changed the
course of history. In every revival, there
were believers like you who chose to answer the call, to become the one in
their generation. Discover your call to be the one in your generation. We are about to take you face to face with history. ♪ [Music] So let's get into
what's happening at Azusa Street Revival. A little history:
Azusa Street
Revival was considered to
happen starting
April 9th, 1906 and went through... there is a little discussion
on how long it lasted but pretty
much to 1915, it was over. So, for those years,
there was something happening
there to Azusa. Some say it ended
more like 1910. Anyway... Regardless, that's about
the time frame it is. Now remember 1906 in
your history books, there was the Great
Earthquake in California. Yes, so as that great
disaster is going on, you've got this great
outpouring that God is pouring out on His
people over here on the left end side
of the city. It's wonderful, it's
marvelous to see what God was doing
at Azusa Street. But there is a lot of
history about Azusa Street that you have
to understand. Before we actually get
into the signs and wonders and miracles that
actually happened, you need to understand
where it all started and you have to understand
where the name Azusa actually comes from. Azusa is actually a
name that is Indian... it's an Indian word. You know what it means? "Blessed miracle." Isn't that amazing? I never knew that until
we just discovered that in some research. Blessed miracle
is what it means. And actually it was
first noted by a guy in 1769, father
Juan Crespi. Now he was referring to
an Indian village that he found there in the
Saint Gabriel Canyon what we now know
as Los Angeles. He found that little
village that was called Azusa. And it was actually
named after a girl... an Indian girl that
was named Coma Lee. Now Coma Lee was not
your ordinary girl there in the village
that she was in. She was considered
quite unusual. She walked around and
would pray and heal people and they were get
well and she had quite a reputation but she fell
in love with a guy and this guy was part of
the chief's family and she wasn't really on that
side of the track, she was on the other side of
the tracks, so to speak. So as this happened,
during the time of their romance as you say, the
chief who did not like her said absolute not
because she is not a royalty or of
their line. The chief got sick and
he became gravely heal and Coma Lee came
and prayed for him. Now it's interesting. He
didn't know who she was when she came and
prayed for him. He went to sleep that
night, he woke up the next day absolutely well--a
hundred percent well and when he found
out who it was, he gave his son's permission to
marry her because she got him well. So as that happened,
he renamed her to "Azusa" because she was a
blessed miracle. And that was her name. And they actually eventually
named the village "Azusa". She had a reputation. If you need healing,
there is a phrase, it said: "Go to Azusa and
be healed, go to Azusa", That was what was said. Azusa for healing. Who knew 1769 and then
here we are again in 1906 what God
was about to do. When you talk about
Azusa Street Revival, there are two names
that should come to everyone's mind. One name is... you heard and
that's William J. Seymour. Now William Seymour was
born back in 1820, I believe. And William Seymour... No 1870, May 2nd 1870. Now William Seymour was
born, he was the son of slaves and even though,
as he was born you know the slave trade ended
but they continued to work on the
plantation... As his life grew up,
even though they were slaves--his mom and
dad--he started to understand the vastness
of the slave...culture and what that really meant
to him personally, he came to the conclusion
that there was only one real way to be free. Only one real way to be
free and that's through the blood of
Jesus Christ. He absolutely knew that. So you know when you
understand that in history that he was
already a believer, he must of have a praying
mom and dad that believed God for him
because he knew, the only really way to be
liberated was to be free in Jesus and he
was that man. Well, even though
slavery had ended, there were still a lot of
racial tensions, there were a lot of prejudice
that was there and he could be in some places
and none in others. In fact, you know in my own
life I grew up in the 60s... the early 60s and I
understood, living in the state of Georgia,
we had a lot of... there were a lot of
still stuff left over from the old days. I mean, there were
places you couldn't... that blacks could not
go where whites went. They had to go to
certain restrooms and not. Now not a whole lot by then
but there were some places that still felt
that way and there were definitely a large
segment of the population felt that way
and it wasn't until you know, we've actually
grown passed a lot of that and you know, we
still have issues in our nation when it comes
to racism and racial inequality and
just issues and... I don't want to spend too
much time getting over that but understand
that William Seymour had those issues that
he had to deal with. Frank Bartleman was the
other gentleman's name. Now Frank Bartleman
is a guy that you
have to understand. Frank was not... he wasn't the glossy
front guy, not at all. In fact, the truth is if
William Seymour was and he was
the unquestioned leader of the Azusa
Street Revival, then you can say that
Frank Bartleman was the unquestioned intercessor. Frank Bartleman had
struggled and he had a burning desire to know
God and as he did this and he learned in prayer,
he totally searched high and low to see what God was
doing and really wanted an encounter with God
long before Azusa Street Revival ever happened or even Bonnie Brae... That was to come
later but he was a man absolutely compelled to
find Jesus and compelled to see what God
was going to do. Now while William
Seymour was born in Louisiana,
you know... Let me go back to
William Seymour. You know as he was
growing up, he is a black man, he
contracts smallpox and he loses
his sight in one eye. So he's a one eye black
man in a nation, has some racial
problems still. So as he went through
understanding what was going on as a black man,
at the same time you have Frank Bartleman. Now Frank and in fact,
let me pick up with the story here with Frank. I'm going to skip
his... In April 8th, 1904 Frank
heard a guy preach: F. B. Meyer. It's MEYER. F. B. Meyer was the man that
he heard preach and what was so interesting
and notable
about F. B. was the fact
that he had
been to Wales. Remember the Wales
Revival broke out in 1904 so this
is right at... This is still... This is going
on so he hears what's going on at Wales. He goes over there,
it takes part in the revival and is able
to see what's really happening. So he is absolutely
riveted by hearing pastor Meyer or Reverend
Meyer preach on revival fires. Does that
sound familiar? Revival fires? Revival fires and he
understood that while you may not have been
the person that started the revival fire, you
can carry the flame. And that's the word I
want you to get today. And that's actually in
essence, our theme of what we carry about here
at Revival Radio TV. You can carry the flame. He understood that just
because it was going on in Wales, didn't mean
it had to die there. He could
carry that flame back to the
United States. And that's what he did. He searched high and low
and wanted to see what God would do if he
carry that flame. In fact people said he was
so consumed with seeking God, his own family
was concerned about him. He didn't eat
much, he didn't... He didn't take the time
to really delve into family life like he
probably should have. He was just so compelled
to seek God and see what God was going to do. In fact, it was said he
was a fiery preacher but you know that's
in the Bible. Actually, let me
look over here. Psalm 104 verse 4 says: So here you go. Are you a flaming fire? A flaming fire is what? Frank Bartleman wanted
to be and he was destined to be that. So let's pick
up the story. June 17 of that year, he
goes to L.A. to attend the First Baptism Church. Now the First
Baptist Church... I bet you didn't know
the First Baptist Church was involved in the Great
Awakening of Azusa, did you? It was. Pastor Smale was
the pastor there. Joseph Smale pastor and
Joseph Smale was doing the same thing. Now I think that it's
interesting here that Smale himself has also
returned from Wales and had seen what God
had done and he was interested in bringing
that to his church. He didn't know and I
think that's a key here. They did not know what they were asking God to do. They didn't know--Oh God
show up so we can have the baptism
in the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues. They didn't
understand all that. Remember the baptism
in the Holy Spirit with Charles Parham...It
just really happened not long ago and it
hadn't gone everywhere or hadn't spread
everywhere at this point. But all he knew it's
that he wanted more of God and he
wanted His people. So Frank Bartleman goes
to church there with Joseph Smale's Church
and he is appalled. When he walks in, he is
sitting there and they are not doing anything. The congregation is
just sitting there. Then he found out he was
discouraged by the fact, this simple fact. No one did anything until Joseph
Smale showed up. They wouldn't
even pray. They wouldn't
do anything. They would just sit back
and wait and watch and wait for him to
lead everything. You see, there is a
point that we all have to understand and
that is that we have responsibility
for revival. You know, since we've
started this TV program, you know,
people talk to me and Pastor George calls me "Revival
man" and that's... [Laughs]
that's good but you
know I have people say: "What did
you discovered? What's the key
to revival? The key to revivals is
very simple: It has to start with you. It has to be a
personal revival first. You know, last week I
was with Todd White and as he was doing what
Todd White does, you know what a
great evangelist! What he's preaching on
is personal revival and I thought wow! This is
exactly why people get motivated to see God and
see what's happening. He's a modern
day revivalist. You wouldn't think of
him that way but he's bringing you to a
personal revival with Jesus Himself. And you have to do that. Before you
can affect others, it has to affect you. Have you ever heard
somebody preach on something or even a teacher
teach on something? But they didn't really
know that they were repeating words or just
memorize their message or memorize their course
that they were teaching. It's not genuine and
when it's not genuine, when you share it,
odds are the people aren't going to
receive it. They are going to hear
you and if it's a class, they are going to make
notes and pass the course but they are not going
to take that away. They're not going to
carry the flame of that because there is
not flame there. It's just data. And that's why we have
to carry the flame as we go through what we are
going through in our day and our time to be able
to carry and see what God wants you to do and
be that personal revival that you can
see happening. You know, brother
Copeland...you know when you are around him
and he's been away and he's come back
and he's ready for meeting. You know most of us are
usually like this, we are like
"Okay, here
he comes. What's is
he's going
to bring us
today?" And it's because you
know that brother
Copeland has spent time in
the word, he spent time praying, he's got
directions from God and he's going to deliver a
message and he's going to deliver a message
that he got from God not just something he
pull out of thin air. Amen? I know you
know I'm right. But you are sitting there
and you are ready to receive because you
know the history of what he's done, who he is. Now he's going
to minister that. That's why it's
important for you to be genuine in your
walk with God. There're been a lot of
not genuine people... Not genuine pastors, not
genuine church workers or evangelists and they
are just out to do the wrong thing and maybe
they had good intentions but they were not
doing it the right way. They were taking
short cuts. Don't take a short
cut into what God is called
you to do. The minute
you take a short cut is the minute you derail
and you start down a path of failure and it will happen
when you take a short cut. May not be right away
but it will happen. Okay? That part was for free. Let's pick up. Joseph Smale was there. He was... People... Bartleman was
discouraged at his church because nobody
was paying attention. Nobody was there. They were not
doing anything. They were just sitting
back, I just kind of picture them sitting
there like this, waiting for the pastor
to show up. "Okay...Motivate me. Get me fired up." Do you know anybody
like that in your church? Are you like that? You know that you just
sit back and you are, "Okay, feed me. Do something. See if you can
get me excited." He was mad. He was upset about that
because that's not what it was about. He was seeking God. No one had to tell
him to seek God. He was so
enraptured with it and encapsulated by it. He had to see what
God wanted next. He knew there was going
to be a great outpouring but he didn't know... he didn't know what it
was or how to get there but he knew
there was more. And I know you know
what I'm saying. And sometimes we just
know there is more, there is got to be more
than what I have right now and that's what I
want and that's where Frank Bartleman was at. Now remember this is all
before Azusa broke out. So Bartleman writes a
letter to Evan Roberts and he says:
"Please, help us! Pray for California,
pray for us that we can see God move in a way
that we haven't seen before." And miraculously, Evan
Roberts gets his letter and he write him back
and I want to read you the directions and I
want you to write this down. In fact we will put it
on the screen so you can see it because this is
so crucial what Evan Roberts said to
Frank Bartleman about revival and how
do we get that. So all right. You
are ready? Here it is. This is what he said. He exhorted him
and he said: So take this opposite
of that is: "Don't hang around people who don't
want to make a surrender." Next, pray and wait. Then believe
God's promises and
hold daily
meetings. Now let's break
that down. "Congregate the people
together that are willing to make a
total surrender." You know it's important
who you hang out with. It's important who you
are with and how you... Who you interface with. You know
and I know this. When you were growing up,
your parents probably said or whoever
was in charge... Your grandmothers,
you know: "Be careful who
you hang around with. Garbage in, garbage out. [Laughs]
and I
heard that. So you have to be
careful who you are with. Only in spiritual things
the same thing applies. You've got to be aware
of who you are with because you don't need
negative influence. You don't need the
bad to overweight good what's God is
doing in your life. So that was the
first thing. Be sure you're around
the same people who have total
surrender to God. Next it was,
"Pray and wait." Now I thought it was
interesting that he wrote, "Pray and wait." Pray and see God move? No. Pray and wait. So what he was saying
is there was a way. Now if you go back to
the Welsh Revival, if you remember, Evan
Roberts prayed and was seeking God for quite a
while before the great
outpouring happened so there was a time. It doesn't say you've
got to wait a long time necessary but there
is a time of waiting. Waiting on God and
see what happens. It doesn't mean you
sit back and kick back and just relax. No. "Pray and wait" and I
thought the next thing he said was crucial to
pray and waiting and that was "Believing
God's promises." Believing God's
promises because if we believe God's promises
when we pray and wait, we know that He is going
to fulfill our request knowing further
and farther that we had before. Then the last thing he
said, "Hold daily meetings." Now holding
daily meetings. Why is that important? It's important for
a couple of reasons. One,
people need
to be together. You know, you can't
just meet somebody
on the street and let's say
you know they are
christian and instantly be
best friends. Now best friends don't
happen just off the cuff. That's a... that relationship has to
sit there, it has to develop and pretty soon
even if you are married, it's with your spouse. The more you are with
that person, the more you start to understand
them, you know how they think and you
know how they operate and when you are together,
there is almost a communication
that can happen without you even
having to talk about it. You know what I mean? I know you do. Well, having daily
meetings, it's getting that same body together. You are spending time
seeking God together. "Forsake not the
fellowship of you together,
of your members." So he's doing that and
he's saying get together so that you can
corporately worship God and corporately
seek God to do what He wants
to do in your body. So we are praying and waiting.
We are believing God's promises to do it and
then we are congregating together and we're
doing it on the daily bases. Now you can say, "Well
what about you know, our church hasn't have a
daily meetings and we are not about the start
that anytime very soon." Well that's okay. You know, that
will come. Does not mean that you
can't if it's just you. If it's just you and
your family or you and a friend. Do it. Do it! Make an effort, make a
sacrifice which really will not be a sacrifice
once you understand the power of what you are
doing and when you are seeking God, you are
investing everything you have into your
relationship with God and I don't know of a
better relationship to invest in than that
than to invest in your relationship with God. Spend that time with Him and see what He's going to do. This letter just
absolutely excited Bartleman and he took
it to heart and he just ignited it further. In fact, Frank
Bartleman was so... enraptured in seeking
God to do something that his family, actually,
they wanted him to see a doctor because they
felt like he was maybe he was starting to lose it. In fact, there were some
folks that said he was losing his mind because
what it started at that time,
he had started praying for a Welsh type revival. "God please, pour out a
Welsh revival here like what they got in Wales." "We want what's
over there here." He stopped praying that
way and he started praying as... It's interesting: The
further he got into praying for a revival, the
further he got into the mind of Christ. "God, give us a
second Pentecost. We want a second
Pentecost here." Ha! A much better
way to pray, isn't it? He was seeking God
for another Pentecost. He was visiting... While he visited Smale's
church there several times, here is what
he said or what to pray for and I want
to bring that up. He was led to pray for
these several things and there are worth noting.
Number one: Pray for faith, pray for
discernment of spirits, healing and prophecy. So those are the four. Faith,
discernment
of spirits, healing and
prophecy. Now isn't it interesting
that discernment of spirits is
right up there? Now why is that
so important? In any church service,
any meeting you know that there is a battle
just to get to them. Just to get... Just to get to the
service some days, it's a battle. You know, with issues
at home or the car won't start or whatever. But when you are there,
you are not off the hook. The spirits that drive
men sometimes are not the ones that we want
to be around. So to be able to discern
spiritual activity allows you to know
what God wants to do. Keeping aware of what
maybe trying to come into the room. I remember traveling
with pastor Benny and we would be overseas and
great miracles services and meetings happened
and right at a very crucial point
in the message, you know, someone would
start whooping and hollering and you know
acting crazy way up in the bleachers somewhere
or in the audience. Now some of these,
they were five hundred thousand people out or a
million people and even more in some of his
meetings he continued to have. So you are trying to
figure it out who is that? And suddenly now, I'm
not looking at what the man is saying
on the podium. I'm trying to figure out
who is that over there that's you know going
ballistic in the stands or where is that
noise coming? I've taking my focus off
of what God's doing and I've got it on men. Well that spirit that is
doing that, is that his goal? Get you off of what
God is doing and start looking at something
over here in the natural enough that
it will get you away from receiving God's word. Discerning of spirits--
and Pastor Benny would obviously call them down and ushers would take them out. Now there is a
difference time, there is a difference between
that type of situation and someone just
being blessed in a healing line
or something. And this is why you
have to discern them. You have to know
which is which. Is that a
demonic activity? Or is that... this person is having
an encounter with God. It's something
we have to do. So we are going to stop
right there with our story, it's all the time I
have today. But listen, I want you to
take this from it. Remember what
he prayed for. He prayed for faith,
discernment of
spirits, healing and
prophecy. And let's go back
and let me reread
what he said in my notes here. You know all these notes are
available by the way. If you want to download
the show notes, all this is
much more detailed. Just go there
to the website and you can download
that for free. No charge, for free. We want to get this
in you so you can have another Pentecost
where you are at. So this is what Evan
Roberts said, that's what I was
wanting to read. What Evan Roberts said: So why don't you make...? Let me challenge you with that
in these last two minutes. I challenge
you to do that. Spend time with
Him every day. Hold those daily
meetings even if it's just yourself to bring,
usher in that Pentecost that you want to
see in your life. The very fact that
you are watching this program says
there is a hunger. There is some level of
hunger that you have, that you want to see God
move in your own life. If not, your family and
your church and your city. So that's good. So what are you
going to do? You are going to have
daily meetings whether if they are only by
yourself, then have that
meeting with God. You are going to pray
and you are going to wait and see what God
does and you are waiting and you are going to
believe God's promises. Believing God's
promises is the, "Oh, yes!" He really is,
He is here. He's gone make sure
that all this happens. Thank you, Father. I'm just going to wait
here and I'm ready and I'm looking for
every opportunity. So as you go through
this week, remember: Your own personal
revival is up to you. Don't be like the people
in Joseph Smale's church that just waited on the
pastor to do everything. Don't be like those that
were just sitting there refused to pray until
the pastor prayed. Because when you do
that, you are putting your religion or your
salvation in another man's hands and it's not
where it should belong. It belongs in yours and
your relationship with the Father. Remember this. Be the one. Be the one that takes
your own personal revival to everyone
around you because when it's there, you will
spread the love of God and every person you
meet will know that you had an
experience with God. And that's really
what revival all is. It's the absolute
excitement that comes from a person whose
heart turns away from what they
were to what God is bringing them to today. I'm so glad
you joined
me today. Listen, make sure
you go see us on
Facebook, download the
show notes and I'll see you
next week. Until then,
don't forget! Be the one! Do you want to
know more about
revival? Listen, I have
the answer. Our team here has
developed a
website that you need to take
advantage of. All you need to do
is go to It works on your iPad, it
works on your mobile
phone. If you've got a
smartphone, you can go to
that. I want to tell you
something really
cool. There is a feature on
there, it's called the
timeline. And on this timeline, you
can scroll through
history. You can literally
scroll through
history and see what
happened. For instance,
here is... Here is about the Assemblies
of God. Here is with the
missions that
happened. Here it's about
Russians and click
on that and you can find out more
information about
revivals. Take advantage
of the website. There is nothing
better than getting
involved and see what God
did through out
history when it came to
revivals and how
we messed with everybody's life that
we took His own Holy
Spirit and dropped it in and
totally changed
lives. Listen, you want
to go to the
website: and learn more
about it. ♪ [Music]
