Life on Wings - A Tribute to Dr Ern Baxter

Forth-coming Project: "The King and His Army".

After finishing my last transcript project; "The Priestly Clothing", I took a few months break from an extended transcribing to concentrate on getting shorter articles available on the website. However my fingers have been itching for some time and it was just a matter of deciding which series would be best next to get into print and make available. When I finished the 'Priestly Clothing', I gave a number of hard copies to various church leaders as gifts, hoping that they would be of encouragement and benefit to them - one of whom was Greg Haslam, the minister of Westminster Chapel. When my pastor friend Peter Day gave the manuscript to him, Greg immediately suggested that my next project "had" to be; "The King and His Army"!

One does not ignore Greg Haslam lightly ... so therefore I began transcribing last night.

Why "The King and His Army"?

Ern Baxter preached this series at the Lakes Bible Week in 1975. The Lakes Bible Week was the precursor to the famous Dales Bible Weeks that would begin the next year. It was the first time he had come to the United Kingdom and the Charismatic Renewal was beginning to steadily grow. Many people have pointed to this series as being key for giving foundation to their charismatic experience.

Nigel Scotland, author of "Charismatics and the 3rd Millenium" wrote of Baxter at the Lakes:

"During the Lakes Bible Week Baxter’s teaching on ‘covering’ met with sensational responses. The audiences went wild every time he came on stage ... ".

It was noted in Arthur Wallis's biography; "The Radical Christian" that;

"Ern’s ministry at the Lakes (Bible Week) made a tremendous impact. He was a gifted and effective communicator and his inspired talks on Saul and David were very well received … Ern ministered with great power and authority".

And Terry Virgo speaking on "The Story So Far" at Stoneleigh Bible Week 1998 said;

"(Ern Baxter was) An extraordinary man of God – a huge vision of God … have you heard Ern Baxter on the King and His army? … The power of the Holy Spirit was on him so powerfully … many of us were fired by that vision”.

The impact of "The King and His Army" clearly stayed strongly with Terry Virgo because that series went on to inspire his incredibly prophetic two-part keynote series at the Brighton Leaders Conference in 2004. Writing his 'Firstline' article in the Newfrontiers magazine following the conference, Terry said;

"About 25 years ago Ern Baxter, a remarkable prophetic preacher from the USA, spoke powerfully at a number of the early British Bible Weeks. None of his messages was more telling than a series he entitled The King and His Army ... Ern’s expectation was that just as Saul’s kingdom collapsed, so would the religion that regarded the Bible contemptuously, explained away its unique authority and inspiration, and failed to honour the activity of the Holy Spirit ...

In contrast, David represented a ‘new anointing’ that would ultimately inspire a new army and establish a new kingdom. Ern expected churches to emerge in our generation reflecting this new anointing and enjoying God’s favour and success, and which would ultimately replace the defunct church".

Terry saw "The King and His Army" as clearly more than simply a conference series. He said;

"Suddenly one becomes aware that Ern Baxter’s prophecy has great relevance. When he spoke 25 years ago there was little proof that what he was saying was true, but now we see the closure of multiplied church buildings and the opening of new churches. Those that don’t honour the Bible or welcome the Spirit, or glory in the blood of Christ and His cross, are closing across the UK, but churches that proclaim Biblical truth and fervently worship Christ are springing up".

With such commendations, there really is little choice in getting to work on "The King and His Army". I was greatly impacted by the power and significance of what Ern was saying, just in the first talk. Here is a taster of the series that is to come:

"And now a Word is coming of structure. A Word is coming to say, “I have not given you My Holy Spirit just to give you tickles up and down your spine, make you play tambourines, learn new choruses and dance in the aisles”. This is all part of the whole thing but the great deep meaning of this movement of the Holy Spirit has blood on it. And that sobers us. You see the Day of Pentecost was also something of a disorderly business. God has always done it this way – He shakes you all up so that you think, “What in the world is going on?” and He says, “When you really get inquisitive enough I will tell you” (*laughter*).

Now on the Day of Pentecost there had never been that much noise in the temple for years. And God was shaking things and when He got through shaking, they said “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”. Then the Word came forth. When the Word came forth, it structured what God was doing in the Spirit. I would be very disappointed if out of this so-called Charismatic Renewal nothing came of responsible divine structure. I believe that we are living in probably one of the most significant days since the days of the apostles. I think that quantatively and qualitatively we are seeing a visitation in the earth that is unparalleled. I know that those who take a negative attitude to what is happening don’t like that kind of language. But I think the language fits the event because this visitation has not just been a visitation of people getting converted. It has been a visitation of people getting the whole Peter package. They’ve been getting the whole thing! Repent, believe, be baptised and receive the Spirit and have spiritual gifts. It’s been a total dimensional thing and again I think it has been unparalleled since the days of the apostles".

So watch this space ...