BROWNSVILLE: At ten years, that watch needs a new battery!

As a Christian and as a writer, I give J. Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine high marks. His ethics and openness to criticism are admirable and his willingness to take on unpopular issues in the Pentecostal camp is courageous ... keep in mind that their campground is haunted by ghosts of their own making.

Grady has writing an honest and probing article on an event (The Brownsville Revival) he was personally a part of, it must be painful.

Precious Memories

I'll never forget my first trip to Brownsville Assembly of God. It was 1995, the year an unusual spiritual eruption occurred at the nondescript Pentecostal church in Pensacola, Fla.

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I don't question whether the Holy Spirit was in that place. But today, more than 10 years after the Pensacola Outpouring occurred, I am asking other questions.

I am wondering why the church that hosted hundreds of thousands of visitors has shrunk to a few hundred members and now owes millions of dollars for a building they can't fill.

I am struggling to understand why so many people who once were part of the Brownsville church now feel hurt and betrayed. I am wondering if the leaders of this movement mishandled the anointing of God's presence like Uzzah did when the ark of God almost toppled on the ground (see 2 Sam. 6:6-8).

Grady's queries are questions we all want answered; but I hesitate at his scriptural application. With regard to Uzzah, it was the perpetrator that was zapped; in Brownsville (as in other counterfeit revivals) it's the spectators who are zapped. There's not a one-for-one relationship here for me.

Leadership failure

History shows us that revival is always risky. The devil opposes it, and carnal flesh gets in the way of it. The Holy Spirit is easily quenched by pride, greed, selfish religious agendas and broken relationships.

I can't be the judge of what brought Brownsville's demise. But we must face the facts and learn some lessons, or we will repeat the scenario next time.

History may, but God is always ready for revival. The mere fact Grady admits there is a "demise" is sufficient unto itself to prove a spiritual disconnect.

And he makes a false leap of logic from the leaders of Brownville to "we must face" and "or we will repeat." I'm sorry but I had nothing to do with the sham perpetrated down there. I refuse to apologize or bear guilt, period. I was against the laughter, the gold dust, the primal behavior, and the horizontal essence of their circus from the beginning.

Bad fruit always stinks

Certainly the fruit of this revival will remain that long. But for those in Pensacola who were swept up in the ecstasy of those early years, and then endured splits, resignations, debts and disappointments, the word "revival" now has a hollow ring to it.

The only fruit I see is rotten fruit, and rotten fruit stinks for a long time after its fallen to the ground.

Still, my heart cries: "Lord, do it again." Next time He does, I pray we will carry the ark the way God intended - and keep our hands off of it.

My heart goes out to those who were hurt and whose spirits were broken in all of this, but it doesn't cry out "do it again." My heart cries out, "Lord, do it for real" "do it for the first time."

Look for the comments on Grady's article ... sad!

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TAGS: Angel of Light, Bible, Brownsville Revival,
Charlatan, Last Days, Pensacola, Pentecostalism,
Holy Fire, Holy Spirit, Revival, Scripture