Sunday, July 06, 2008

The BIGGEST Baptism Service Ever!!

One of the criticisms levelled against Lakeland and the use of the term "revival" is that revivals involve non-Christians getting saved and joining the church. I don't think after last night that criticism can carry much weight anymore. When we turned on God TV they were well into baptising new converts and some re-committing their lives to God. We watched it for at least two hours and saw almost a hundred people get baptised gloriously and there were still just as many in the line waiting.

I managed to take a few video clips. The first one is here. Todd baptises some children (there were dozens of children who professed their faith gloriously!) and then goes on to speak to those of us watching;



Here's the second video:



The third video is particularly special to me because Todd baptised a group of Asians who looked like they came from China/Japan/Hong Kong sort of region and they responded so passionately to being baptised! Some of them ended up being baptised several times falling under the power of God!! I felt it was such an awesome prophetic statement of what God will do throughout the South Pacific Rim.


I really hope these videos prove to be as much blessing as they were when we watched them!! What a baptismal service ... I just couldn't get over how different it was to my own. So dignified and so controlled. If the power and the glory of God is being poured out over the earth in such ways as it is in Florida and if Florida is just the beginning then I think here is a taster of what baptisms are going to have to be like!!

6 comments:

Don said...

We watched that too. I've never seen the power of the Spirit show up during baptisms, as he did that night!

Chris Welch - 07000INTUNE said...

I was jolted by the second video to wonder how many millions of men and women are like this lady...waiting for new life in Christ. All they've known is drugs.Broken relationships.

I've been hit by 2 similar points on this subject.We've been away this weekend so did not see any of this stuff...but was reading Joel 2 again. Have you noticed this phrase full-on before? I'll test you out on it...because it hit me head-on this weekend. Read this.
Joel 2:28 "And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Did anything grab you? Did you see "my servants". Some Bibles say maidservants and manservants. That is an underclass. The last day anointing is going to be so simple that anybody anywhere can get in on it.
Related to this was a similar revelation from Acts 15:16" 'After this I will return
and rebuild David's fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
and I will restore it,
17that the remnant of men may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things'[b]
18that have been known for ages.[c]

19"It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. "
It is the time of the restoration of all things. (The Restoration movement loved this passage) But what we never saw and has only been revealed forcibly in the last few weeks ....is that this is bigger than we could have ever dared hope for in the 70s. The Holy Spirit is now pinpointing Genesis 3:5. And when He says ALL things He means ALL things. Peter Stott, totally independantly,preached a literal door opening Word on all this to do with "Lift Up Your heads O Ye gates " from Psalm 24. Now the last time we really heard Psalm 24 talked about forcibly by the Spirit was 1975 in Thy Kingdom Come by Ern Baxter. This is new...and it is one stage further.It was in the Conference here at Havant.
I say this as an aside, again to whet your appetites. We must get Peter Stott's message transcribed on this site. It will blow your socks off!! (Didn't mean to say all that) Backtracking to the Acts scripture. Can you see that a.Because it is the time of Restoration b. the Gentiles are streaming in and c. James said "We must make it easy for them!!!!!

In other words, this is what the Spirit is saying now to the churches...Enough of the claptrap.
The Pews. The 6 weeks how to be saved courses.The church etiquette.
The multivarious complicated church structures. The hoops you have to jump through. Make it easy!!!! "Repent,be baptised,be filled with the Holy Spirit." When the anointing is there, He does the stuff!!!! So much that we felt we had to do, the Holy Spirit does in about 5 minutes worth of download!!!! We have to have such a Presence about us, that we actually have to do very little. The Holy Spirit does it...as He literally fulfils these end time scriptures before our eyes!!!!

lydia said...

Amen Chris! I too loved loved loved this baptism, which we chose to watch instead of going to see fireworks, and I am glad we did not miss it!
Dan I too was reminded of my own, very somber serious baptism with weeping, instead of Holy Laughter!
I loved how people just came to be baptized with such faith to be renewed and refreshed and had such hunger and eagerness to take what fire God was giving them back to their homes, their jobs, and their localities, states and nations. It wasn't just a formality or an act of obedience to make a proclamation of faith, it was so much deeper....I was blown away, and also it was more like Jesus own baptism because the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus after his baptism and many many many experienced the power of the Spirit in the revival baptism as well - I can only say, seems like how a normal baptism should be!!!

Chris Welch - 07000INTUNE said...

lydia...can you imagine 1972...what would happen when a school revival hits our school, then within days or weeks we are baptized in the Spirit...THN we learn from scripture that baptism isn't for infants...it's for those who have made a decision for Christ...so we all file down the local Baptist Church in Amersham...by this time they are a renewed Baptist Church....but even so, they didn't really know what to do with us. Each week we prayed for friends and more would get converted. So by June '72, a whole string of us were getting water baptised. Now, somebody that week got converted and she was in the pool after me. She hadn't yet been baptised in the Spirit and the Baptists had not had time to get to her, so when she was baptised she naturally received the Holy Spirit. She spoke in tongues on coming up. She was English but she spoke in Polish. We only knew that because of a visiting Polish Professor, who , gobsmacked came to the front and told us what she had said. At firs she said in Polish. Lord I don't understand,Lord I don't understand...then later after a pause she said...I don't understand, but I know , I know!!!!!!!! Talk about walking parables! How amazing was that!!!

lydia said...

Wow, Chris, I just love your stories - I have decided I think you need to write a book! Prophetic, maybe! But you have a lot to draw from and learn from.......!!!

That's really cool about the woman who automatically spoke in tongues after being baptized then baptized immediately in the Spirit.......and to think I used to be so frieked out by tongues.....amazing story!!

Dan Bowen said...

I agree with Lydia - Chris's comments and accounts are so key to the development of this blog! There is a real prophetic significance here and it really excites me because I think we are all trying to explore together what God by His Spirit is saying to the Churches!!

As regards Peter Stott's messages - again Chris, I extend an invitation to join this blog and contribute if you so wish! We need more and more prophetic teaching coming out through the blog!