Lord Send Revival

On April 9, 1906, a multi-year revival known as the Azusa Street Revival began in what formerly was an African Methodist Episcopal Church turned horse barn at 312 Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles. The Revival continued from 1906 until roughly 1915. William J. Seymour, the one-eyed 34-year-old son of formerly enslaved people, was the primary leader of this explosive Revival. It was in 1906 that Seymour, who had been pastoring in Houston by way of Mississippi, was invited to preach at a small holiness church pastored by the Reverend Julia Hutchins in Los Angeles. 

Seymour arrived in Los Angeles on February 22, 1906, and within two days, was preaching at Hutchins' church at the corner of Ninth Street and Santa Fe Avenue. During his first sermon, he preached on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and when he returned on the following Sunday, March 4, he found that Hutchins had padlocked the door, barring him from entering to preach again. The church elders had barred him from preaching anymore because they disagreed with his message about the Holy Spirit and the associated gifts.

However, Seymour's group relocated to the home of congregation member Edward S. Lee, and he began to hold Bible studies and prayer meetings there. Because of rapid growth, Seymour and his small group of new followers soon relocated again to the home of Richard and Ruth Asberry at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street. The group would get together regularly and pray to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

If you are reading this and are not yet a follower of Jesus' way, then hearing "the Holy Spirit" likely has no context or perhaps sounds strange. The short answer is that God is one God, who exists eternally in three Persons—Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit. Each Person of God's one indivisible Self has a specific role in relating to humanity and redemption. The Father created everything, and it is to Him we return when we put our trust in Jesus. Jesus, through His death and resurrection, secured our ability to return to the Father, who made us, shaped us, and loves us. The Holy Spirit is the Person of the one, indivisible God who leads us, gifts us, guides us, empowers us, and convicts us. 

From the beginning, Seymour's church, The Apostolic Faith Mission, attracted attention because of the unusual features of its worship services. As the Los Angeles Times reported:

“Colored people and a sprinkling of whites compose the congregation, and night is made hideous in the neighbourhood by the howlings of the worshipers who spend hours swaying forth and back in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication.”

For several nights, various speakers would preach to the crowds of curious and interested onlookers from the front porch of the Asberry home. Members of the audience included people from a broad spectrum of income levels and even religious backgrounds. As Seymour and his initial small group of worshipers persisted, more people were attracted to the services. Word spread about what was happening, and larger and larger crowds began to form—not only of African-Americans but also Latinos and Whites—this in a time when segregated church services were the norm. Imagine a Transcultural Church in 1906! 

One evening the front porch collapsed, forcing the group to begin looking for their eventual meeting place. A resident of the neighbourhood described the scene at 214 North Bonnie Brae with the following words:

“They shouted three days and three nights. It was the Easter season. The people came from everywhere. By the next morning, there was no way of getting near the house. As people came in, they would fall under God's power, and the whole city was stirred. They shouted until the foundation of the house gave way, but no one was hurt.”

In need of a facility, the group rented a run-down building at 312 Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles. The building was used to house the main meeting room, offices, a prayer room, and lodging for Seymour and his wife. Seymour also started a rescue mission there. By mid-May 1906, anywhere from 300 to 1,500 people would attempt to fit into the little building. The integration of different races and the group's encouragement of women in leadership was remarkable, as 1906 was the height of the "Jim Crow" era of racial segregation and fourteen years before women received suffrage in the United States.

It was indeed a work of God! It was Revival! 

These gatherings continued with intensity for over seven years. During that time, hundreds of thousands attended, and thousands more missionaries were sent out. Today, the Charismatic movement and many Pentecostal Denominations trace their roots back to the two-story horse barn on Azusa Street. 

This powerful story has so many nuances we did not have time to cover them all. But paramount to the picture we are trying to paint concerning Revival is ensuring we understand the necessity of God's Spirit and our being empowered by Him. There is no Revival where the Holy Spirit is not present, active, and empowering. We need God's Spirit to empower Revival. Holy Spirit-empowered people are those whom God works in and through to pray for, pursue, and proclaim His Reconciling and Reviving work in the world! The Holy Spirit empowers God's people to declare God's transforming work in the world. 

Without the Spirit, we have nothing—no vision, no power, no gifting, no movement. We need His leading. If you are wondering, "ok… got it, but how does this change my tomorrow? Why does this message matter to me?" Hear it again; we need God to revive us. We need God to reveal Himself to His people in demonstrable and tangible ways. 

We need His Church alive, reignited, reverberating with all the goodness of who He is in us. We need new life. We need new vision. We need new perspective. We need a fresh awakening! We need a fresh in-filling of the Holy Spirit as individuals and the Church. We need signs and wonders to go before us. We need to see God bend the will of this physical reality toward revealing His perfect Kingdom. We need to see the sick healed! We need to see the deaf hear! We need to see the blind have their sight restored! We need to see and believe for miracles to accompany bold proclamations! 

We need every gift activated! We need every Christian to live by the leading of the Holy Spirit! We need the house to SHAKE under the weight of the glory of God! We need revival!

The Church, alive, empowered and mobilised, is the literal hope of the world! May God make us that hope! 

Among first-hand accounts of what occurred in that former A.M.E. church, turned horse bar, turned church again on Azusa street, were reports of the blind having their sight restored. There were reports of diseases being cured instantly. Immigrants who spoke German, Yiddish, and Spanish all being spoken to in their native language by African-American members who did not know those languages but who were suddenly able to translate the languages into English by a "supernatural ability."

Just as in Acts four, the house's foundation shook where the Azusa Street Revival took place, and eventually, it even collapsed. God was there, working mightily amongst very ordinary people. Why not us? Why not here? What not now? Why not this Easter season.