Colin Dye shares his recent mission to Brazil.

Alcance Church, Curitiba

In October 2021, Amanda and I were set apart by KT for the work of missions. Following the leading of the Spirit, we have visited at least 12 nations averaging one mission per month.

Wherever we go, we are greeted by former KT members and leaders. Often these people are key players in the work we do outside the UK. The recent mission to Brazil found us working with Emerson Rocha, Leyff Wenderson and Willians and Sandra Barbosa, all previous leaders within the London City Church, KT Network.

Leyff Wenderson

“My time in the KT Brazilian fellowship and IBIOL was both the foundation and inspiration of my ministry. It is so good to be reconnected with Colin.”

Leyff was a student at IBIOL 25 years ago and now leads a church in Effingham, Illinois. He is a powerful evangelist with a strong healing ministry. Together, in Sao Paulo and Curitba we saw deaf and blind people healed, and as well as those with significant mobility challenges. Many people made decisions to become followers of Christ.

Emerson Rocha

“Having finished at IBIOL, I was Colin’s assistant for 2 years. Now I lead CfAN in Brazil. London was my home for several years, and KT is where I would be if the Lord had not called me back to Brazil.”

Emerson greeted me at Curitiba Airport, helped me with my bags and said, “This is how it all began!” Emerson now is very well-known and highly-respected in Brazil and helped mail out a gospel book by Reinhard Bonnke to 1 million pastors and leaders across Latin America. He organised a packed programme for me in some of the largest churches in the region.

Willians and Sandra Barbosa

“We look forward to what God has for us in Brazil and we know that our time in KTLCC was preparing us for what God is doing now.”
Willians and Sandra helped plant several Brazilian churches in London and also served for many years as overseers in our network. Now, many years later, Willians is teaching the Sword of the Spirit training programme in Sao Paulo. Sandra has powerful prophetic ministry and witnesses numerous miracles.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement was banned from preaching in the Anglican churches of his day. That did not stop him. He went on to say, “The world is now my parish.” KT’s ministry and influence goes way beyond the boundaries of the M25, reaching through Elim missions and KT’s church-based initiatives.

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The assertion of human personality always grieves the Holy Spirit and causes Him to withdraw. Pride and ambition creep in as people try to jockey for position or prominence. They begin to think that the revival belongs to them or is because of them. This leads to the inevitable factions and divisions that James describes.
??if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.? James 3:14-16
As soon as God begins to work and reveal His glory, it seems that there is a fleshly competition between those who want to claim it for themselves. Some charismatic leader tries to take control and claim preeminence over another leader, church or denomination. Spiritual pride enters in as those ?in the revival? look down on those outside it. Jealously begins to raise its head against those who are being used greatly or being blessed abundantly, and the revival is attacked. Criticism, it is said, is the mud that envy throws at success.
The issue of how you keep the revival fires burning is a real one. The Welsh Revival of 1904 peaked for few months, and began to die down after one year. The Revival in the Hebrides flourished for a mere three years from 1949-52. The Ulster Revival of 1859 lasted but one year. The question is: how can we maintain what we attain, and keep the fire burning?
David Yonggi Cho believes the principle thing is prayer. In his book, Prayer: Key to Revival, he says, ?Once continuous and fervent prayer is forgotten, the impetus of the revival is lost and all that is left is the momentum of the past.?
Prayer has to be a vital key. And holiness is another important ingredient. Sin is bound to stop revival in its tracks. Why was the penalty so heavy for Ananias and Sapphira?
They lied to the Holy Spirit saying they had given all the money raised on the sale of their property to the Apostles, whereas in fact they hadn?t done so. They paid for that deceit with their lives. The Holy Spirit killed them on the spot. Why was He so severe? Because their sin was in danger of stopping the revival in Jerusalem. If you want God to stick around, things have to change. He won?t hang out where there is unchecked, unrepented sin.
It is said that one of the great failures of the Welsh Revival was it lacked the fuel of God?s Word. There was no teaching and proper godly direction of the revival. Extremism crept in as, lacking direction, people did their own thing, not subject to spiritual leadership.
All these things have their part to play in dimming the fires of revival. But what can we do to make sure that we are ready not only to move into revival but also to stay there? How can we learn to be ready not only to receive the fire of God but to fuel it and keep it burning until Jesus returns?
Paul issued the call of God to backslidden believers,
?Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.? Ephesians 5:14

How easy it is to let spiritual things slip away from you. Think about everything that God has ever shown you, taught you or told you to do. Think about the moments when He came close to you to reveal something of Himself and to impart some significant gift to you. Have you retained all these things? Are they still in your heart? Have you continued to walk in them?

Once an international minister came to London to lead a conference about walking in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The impact of the conference was noticeable especially among the young people of the church. For weeks afterwards they were on fire for the Lord, praying, moving out in spiritual gifts and making Christ central in their lives.

But gradually, the effects of the conference began to wear off and the zeal of these young people began to die down. A year later the minister returned for a follow up conference and the fires were lit again. God doesn?t want us to have this ?up and down? spiritual experience. He wants us to maintain what we attain. It?s only as we learn to keep the fire burning that the revival influence of the Holy Spirit can gather momentum and begin to impact our churches and our community for Christ.

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A Revival Meeting at Kensington Temple

Every revival of history has been birthed in prayer and sustained by prayer. David Yonngi Cho, the pastor of the world’s largest church in Seoul Korea says that prayer is the key to revival. All other revivals have lasted only a short time but the Korean revival has been sustained down through the years by the prayers of the Korean believers. It is common practice for churches in Korea to hold early morning prayer meetings. Thousands gather daily at 5am and build an atmosphere of revival through their praying. And so it was for the church of Acts. Prayer was paramount. From the beginning we can see that prayer is the key. The 120 met together in the upper room to pray and to wait for the coming of the Spirit. They taught their converts to continue steadfastly in prayer and they supported the great public prayer events in the Temple. It was not just that they went to the prayer meetings to say their prayers. They developed a lifestyle of prayer. Prayer was continuous. It was part of them – as natural as breathing. This kind of prayer is both a cause and an effect of revival. Prayer brings Revival because prayer brings God. But also, revival brings prayer. When God draws close he awakens in us a desire to pray.

The believers met for prayer in the atmosphere of revival

Revival is a call to stir yourself up to pray, to seek the face of God and to pour out your soul to him. There is no power like that of earnest, believing and prevailing prayer. Prayer will give you strength for the battle, it will keep you close to God in the time of trial and will protect you from the onslaughts of the enemy.

That’s what birthed the church in the first place and has sustained her in every generation since. The book of Acts tells of the miraculous healing of the lame man outside the Temple. This led to many people coming to Christ and the arrest of Peter and John. They were threatened with contempt of court if they ever preached Christ again. It was the first major spiritual crisis for the church at Jerusalem. But the believers met for prayer in the atmosphere of revival (Acts 4:23-31). How did they pray?

Firstly, they didn’t pray for themselves, that is, for their own personal needs. They didn’t cry for safety, or to be kept from the dangers outside. There was no lamenting the dire circumstances in which their very lives were under threat. No, they would have gladly died for Jesus. Instead, they prayed for boldness. Boldness to preach Christ despite the threats and for power to make him known through signs, wonders and miracles.

Now, it’s not wrong to think of your safety, or of your own needs, but the concerns of these believers didn’t centre on themselves. It centred on God. When we come to the place where we don’t care what happens to us, only that Christ is glorified, and when we crave above all things the salvation of the lost and the spread of the gospel, then we are close to Revival.

I picture that scene in Jerusalem something like this. Having been released from prison, Peter and John returned to their companions and said,”Oh, we’ve had an absolutely fantastic time! That man was healed and nobody could argue against it. He went into the Temple walking and leaping and praising God and 5,000 more have come to Christ!” They were so excited. They had found the ‘answer’ – miracles, make the way for the preaching of the gospel. “People”, they said, “let’s pray for more of this!”

They prayed fervently, as if the very destiny of their city depended on it.

They didn’t come back with a negative report: “It’s terrible! We’re all in trouble. We’ll have to run for our lives – go underground. We had better stop our public preaching!” No. They knew God better than that. And their knowledge of God sustained them, as the prophet Daniel said,

…the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. Daniel 11:32

That was the report of Peter and John as they went back to their people after their arrest and trial at the hands of the Sanhedrin. As soon as the believers heard an account of the events, they rose up in prayer. It was their first and most natural response. They were passionate about their contact with God through prayer and so they prayed with one accord lifting up their voice to God (Acts 4:24). They prayed fervently, as if the very destiny of their city depended on it. They prayed in unity, their many voices becoming ‘one voice’ before the Lord.

Oh that the church of today would respond to the crises of today like that! Instead of prioritising prayer many churches hold committee meetings, get in touch with their political representatives and try in every way possible to manage the crisis in their own strength or wisdom. But, these people lifted up their voice to God. That’s real evidence of revival. And that’s why the power of Pentecost remained with them. They were still in one place, still of one accord and still praying! Wherever you find people praying like that you find revival. Let us learn to pray like that – with unity of purpose, with persistence and with fervour.

It is clear that these were a desperate people, but their desperation was not due to their adverse circumstances. They were in danger, and they knew it. But, their concern was not for themselves. They were desperate for God, to see him act, to know his purposes and to see them fulfilled. They had a single eye for the glory of God and, desperate for the gospel to triumph in the city, they longed to see Jerusalem saved.

Don’t pray for God to send revival. God doesn’t want to send us revival – He wants to come himself!

Revival is born out of desperation. When we know that there is nothing we can do but cry out to God from the depth of our being and when our hearts are ablaze with a spiritual passion to see the lost saved and Christ magnified having no thought to ourselves, then revival will come. It’s time to carry that fire in our hearts, to be desperate for God to come.

Don’t pray for God to send revival. God doesn’t want to send us revival – he wants to come himself! He wants to come and bring revival with him. For God to send revival would be like sending someone a cheque to meet a need. It may meet a need for a little while, but what happens when that money gets used up? The greatest need of all is for us to know God in the fullness of his presence. That way God meets our core need and the supply never runs out. God wants to come among his people again, and when he comes, he will bring it all with him – all we could ever need, want, desire or dream for.

Somebody once told me that there are over 6,000 promises in the Bible. God promises us many things and is faithful to every one of these. But if I were to sum up all the wonderful promises in one promise, I would say it’s the presence of God. When you really come down to it, all God really promises is himself. And that’s enough! He promises to come and make his home with us and every other promise of the Bible is fulfilled in that one promise, “I will be with you.”

The very atmosphere of prayer was charged with the presence of God.

The believers’ prayer of Acts 4:24-30 shows the reality of God’s presence in the Early Church. When you come to this prayer, and read between the lines absorbing the spiritual atmosphere in which it is made, you encounter the spirit of revival. Prayer reveals the spiritual attitude of the person praying. You never really know someone until you have heard them pray. I don’t mean the mechanical prayers of religious observance, but true prayer, prayer which comes from the heart of the person. Prayer also is an indicator of our spiritual environment. You can take the spiritual temperature of a nation by examining the prayers of God’s people in that nation.

When you examine the prayer of these believers in Jerusalem you can easily sense the revival atmosphere they were living in. You can read the prayer and think it was a ‘nice’ prayer and you can be impressed with its results. But, if you leave it there, you have missed the point. You need to look deeper, beneath the surface, and, if you do, you will discover the secrets of the Early Church. You will begin to grasp the meaning of true revival – for yourself and others around you.

Above all, what you need to grasp is the God-centredness of their praying. It came out of their deep experience of God, that revival presence which gripped them and held every part of their life and living.

What immediately strikes you about this prayer as you read it carefully is that it is prayed in full consciousness of the manifest presence of God. In other words, it’s a revival prayer. They were totally caught up in the realisation of the presence of God. The very atmosphere of that prayer meeting and indeed the whole spiritual environment in which they lived was charged with the presence of God. And the believers were deeply conscious of that presence. This awareness is the very essence of revival.

God turns up the dial and brings his presence closer. There comes a sense of awe, a holy fear – not the fear of judgment or condemnation because his love drives out that kind of fear, but the healthy, awe-inspiring fear of God in which his glory and purposes matter to you more than anything in the world.

Additional reading on prayer:

Effective Prayer- Sword of the Spirit 1

Additional reading on revival:

Hearts on Fire: Walking in Personal Revival

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Iranian Christians Worshipping

Praise God for these Good News! Remember Iran and the Iranian Church in your prayers today!

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Elijah stood on top of Mount Carmel as the prophet of the Lord His appointed representative to call the people back to God

This is an excerpt from my book “Hearts on Fire” available on Amazon:

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Muslim Indonesia Hosts Historic Christian Gathering

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Let us ignite the fire of Revival

It is time to dedicate our lives afresh to the Lord and experience personal revival. It is my conviction that personal revival preceeds corporate revival.

More than twenty years ago, God showed me that revival is coming to Britain. It is not going to be automatic – something that will come whatever happens. Rather it is the plan and purpose of God to bring us once more into the possibilities of the riches of His grace and power.

God is the living God and He hasn’t lost His power. Neither has He lost His compassion for the lost and those separated from Him in sin.

Jesus Christ has shed His sacrificial blood for London and the nation – in fact for all the nations of the world. He didn’t die in vain. God promises to pour out of His Spirit upon all humankind (See Joel 2:28).

Jesus is coming back for a victorious Church – not a defeated people! But there is a battle taking place for the soul and the destiny of our nation. It is time for us to rise up and take this battle seriously.

There can be no more marginalising of God’s purposes in our lives – no more playing church, no more superficial living and no more neglect of the kingdom of God.

Unless we rise up and live entirely for eternal things we will not see the fullness of God – we will not see the promise fulfilled. It is time for sacrifice; it is time for total commitment.

I do not join those who are prophesying that Britain’s destiny is fixed, that it is going to be handed over to the forces of false religion and antichristian philosophy.

I believe in the Living God who will act to bring us to the place of blessing and restoration.

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Charles Parham - recognised by many as the father of the Pentecostal movement during this century.

These events marked the beginning of the modern Pentecostal revival that swept countless millions into the kingdom of God in the 20th Century. Pentecostalism currently influences over 500 million Christians worldwide. It is the largest and fastest growing global religious move the planet has ever known. And it is not confined to Pentecostal denominations. In fact there are more `Pentecostals’ outside Pentecostal denominations than there are within them!

 
The modern Pentecostal movement began in the Azusa Street revival that took place in Los Angeles from 1906-1909. The Azusa Street Papers published from 1906-1908 record this revival in detail. Issue One began with the banner headline `Pentecost has come!’ It was essentially a claim: “This is that!” Acts 2 had come back to the church.

The most powerful religious move in history

 
From that day to this there has been a continuous `Pentecostal’ revival happening somewhere in the world. The charismatic move of the 1960’s and the 1970’s, the new church move of the 1970’s and the 1980’s as well as the current revival movements across the world are all related to the early Pentecostal moves of God. Pentecostal influence has been so pervasive that the 20th century will be remembered as `a century of Pentecost’.

William. J. Seymour was central to the Holy Ghost-inspired Azusa Street Revival

However, along with the growing acceptability Pentecostals have enjoyed there has come a desire to play down the more controversial elements of Pentecostalism. Pentecostals are in danger of becoming bland and losing their cutting edge. Perhaps our success has brought complacency.

Originally, Pentecostals were very different. Their distinctive emphasis on the doctrine of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking in tongues was unique. It was also a much-persecuted position. There is a danger today of playing down this emphasis. There can be no substitute for the New Testament experience of the Spirit with the manifestation of tongues.

We must also not down play the other gifts of the Spirit given as tools for the work of God. Signs and wonders played a major part in the Pentecostal outpouring in the 20th century and the 21st century will need its own dynamic proof that Jesus is alive.

Pentecostal revival today

As we enter the 21st century we should be looking forward, rather than backward. But to prepare for this, we must first return to the fervour of primitive, pioneer Pentecostalism. There is a need to rediscover the real power of Pentecost and its God-given purpose.

We must seek God for a restoration of a full-blooded and radical Pentecostalism. This will include a revival of all the gifts of the Spirit both within our churches and out in the market place. Pentecostal evangelism must never be separated from the signs, wonders and miracles that the New Testament declares confirm the gospel of Christ.

We must press for this form of Pentecostalism here in Britain and Europe. The significant growth of some radical Pentecostal churches in Europe shows that robust Pentecostalism is effective not only in the so-called developing world. The early Pentecostals pioneered missions, women’s ministry, modern music and worship forms, the use of radio (and later on) television for the gospel and much ministry to the poor and down-trodden. We must recover all these things. They are part of our precious heritage.

Especially, we must recover the revivalism of early Pentecostalism. We must re-dig the ancient wells of radical evangelism and healing. We need more modern day testimonies of the kind of miracles associated with George and Stephen Jeffreys and Smith Wigglesworth. This will involve a return to holiness, prayer and seeking God in desperation over our backslidden state. Only then will we be equipped to enter the 21st century as flames of fire.

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Waiting for the power...on standby

In these articles I have been stressing that without the Holy Spirit we are powerless. We need power for the work and witness of Christ. And yet the modern Church seems to put its trust in human resources, rather than divine power.

Over the past 25 years we have seen an overemphasis on human plans, programmes and methods. These things lead only to barrenness and burn out. Ultimately, they count for nothing.

Jesus told us where the real power comes from. It comes from above, that is, from God. He told His early disciples, “Wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”

It is time for a fresh discovery of what it means to wait for the power

Some say that this is no longer necessary. Jesus has ascended into heaven and has sent the Spirit. Why do we have to wait?

The Holy Spirit did come to the church at Pentecost. But we all need to experience our own personal Pentecost – the power that comes from above.

Others say that we got it all at conversion. The Holy Spirit does come powerfully, convicting of sin and bringing us to faith. But there is more to the Spirit’s work than that. We need to be clothed with power so that we can be effective witnesses to Jesus.

Take time to wait

There is no substitute for the empowering of the Spirit

And this comes through waiting on Him. The early Pentecostals used to be ridiculed for holding ‘tarrying’ meetings. These were judged to be unnecessary hype based on theological ignorance. Consequently it was said that their experiences were not genuine, but psychologically induced. However, the subsequent story of the Pentecostal movement disproves such accusations.

Since the Spirit’s outpouring at the beginning of last century, there has been an unbroken chain of Pentecostal revival somewhere in the world. It ushered in the greatest era of harvest the Church has ever known.

Without this rediscovery there can be no revival. Every revivalist in history discovered this. You need to experience it for yourself. Take time with God to seek Him and He will show you His power.

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Learning how to live humbly before the King of Kings

The seventh mark of revival in your life is humility. This is, after all, perhaps the clearest sign of Christian life. The original sin was pride, and God’s plan of redemption was to undo sin’s consequences, restore relationship between Himself and mankind, and birth a new creation. Jesus himself said that unless we become like children, we would be unable to enter into his kingdom.

Philippians 2:7 tells us that Christ’s mission was to “humble himself taking the very nature of a servant”. To follow Jesus is to be like him – to be humble.

In times of Revival, God will restore what the church has lost. He will bring to the surface things, which have been neglected. It will sometimes come with a velocity and a force that is uncomfortable, but that is what happens when God shakes and refines. He will convict us of areas of our lives where we know we have been proud. But He will also expose and demonstrate how even our well-intentioned motives are sometimes selfish, too.

To be humble is to serve

To be humble is not to be weak or passive – it is to seek aggressively the nature of Jesus, and to serve radically those around you. You cannot genuinely serve Christ if your heart is proud, for your real motives will soon find you out. You cannot serve others if your secret desire is to be honoured, to be flattered or to be praised. And you cannot serve properly if you want your service to be recognised! Jesus urged us to act in such a way that even “our left hand does not know what our right hand Is doing” that is certain to remove all chance of seeking our own glory!

No place for pride

There is no room for arrogance or boasting in revival. We will find that the giftings God has given us will not pull us away from the Giver. The more God uses you, the more you will want to point to Him, and so protect His glory. There is no place for the assertion of self. Revival brings meekness and brokenness and a broken soul can find no pleasure in its own glory. Jesus said that a seed that falls to the ground and dies will bring forth much fruit. As we die to self and embrace the humility of Christ, we will discover the secret of life and godly joy.

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