One hundred and six years prior to William Seymour’s preaching which transformed downtown Los Angeles, many Americans had abandoned God. According to a 17th century historian, Ian Murray reports this moral decay in the book Revival and Revivalism. Based upon his research, 1799 was one of the darkest periods for followers of Jesus in the United States. Church attendance rapidly declined, mock communions were often held on college campus’ and committed prayers dwindled down to a few. Religious persecution grew, causing the weak to deny their faith and true believers to meet in secret, fearful of being targeted by a growing godless culture. When all seemed lost, America experienced its first great spiritual awakening in 1800 through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit like the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
A century later, another movement was on the verge of breaking loose, but this time it began across the pond in England. Leonard Ravenhill, a 20th century historian on revival went to the origin of this spiritual outbreak to see what elements precipitated God’s presence in the form of the Holy Spirit. Behind average at best preaching and worship, an anointing of prayer led to an outpouring of confession. As a result, the area crime rate dropped to zero as prisons became empty. By the time police were being laid off, churches hired these men to direct the traffic in and around prayer, teaching and revival meetings. Reaching beyond the church doors, miners felt compelled to stop cursing and swearing, resulting in retraining of mules since they didn’t know how to respond to kind words.
As a black man living in Houston, William Seymour was forced to sit outside the main lecture area, listening to God’s teaching through an open door in a hallway. Attending Charles Parham’s Bible School in 1905, Seymour did not allow his one blind eye to quench his thirst for God’s Word. Introduced to the teaching of glossolalia, known today as speaking in tongues, William felt called to take this teaching to the streets of LA. On a street called Azusa, Seymour founded the modern Pentecostal movement as the gifts of the Holy Spirit spread like wildfire across the country. Oppressed by theology, Seymour believed God is the same yesterday, today and the future, including spiritual gifts in his belief system.
Today, spiritual gifts tend to be divisive, separating the body of Christ instead of uniting under the guise of light. Both sides of the argument can assume equal blame as some churches disregard Paul’s teaching regarding orderly worship mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 & 14. Meanwhile, the frozen chosen have grown cold, lacking love and a sense of respect when it comes to discussing theology in a god honoring manner. As for me, I’ve been on both sides of this issue throughout my life. However, currently, I believe there are traces of Azusa Street in the future for America and across the world. Go no further than South Korea and Nigeria’s revival in the past 10 years to realize, God is not done with mankind. Therefore, as you live day to day, don’t be surprised if traces of Azusa make their way to your own street corner.
by Jay Mankus
