REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF GOD'S FAITHFULNESS, PART 8

Our Encounter With  the New York Mafia 

It was the year 2000 and we had just moved into our new home in Euless, Texas when we came face to face with our next door neighbor, a tough looking woman in her mid-50s. We shook her hand and told her our names. With a cigarette dangling from her mouth she shook our hands and replied, “My name’s Adele. I’m a backslidden pastor from Brooklyn, New York.”

We had no contact with Adele for the next three weeks except to wave if we saw her in her yard. It was obvious to us that she had been through some deep and painful experiences with church. A superficial Christian cliché or a chic tract would do nothing for her, except probably make her angry.

The Holy Spirit Knows How

The Holy Spirit, however, knows how to reach the most difficult cases and He moved powerfully one day as Sue and I were about to back out of our driveway. Sue, who was driving, suddenly began experiencing a deep compassion flowing out toward Adele who was working in her yard.

We sat for a moment not sure how to respond to what Sue was experiencing. Finally, Sue rolled down her window and called out, “Adele!” Adle came walking over with the cigarette dangling from her mouth. When she reached the window, Sue suddenly began speaking to her in tongues.

I was sitting in the passenger seat and had the interpretation, which was a prophetic word for Adele. I knew that I should look her in the face and so I leaned across Sue in the driver’s seat, looked Adele in the face, and said, “Adele, God is saying to you, ‘My daughter, you are precious in my sight."

Adele burst into tears and then broke out praying in tongues and we had revival there in our driveway. God bonded our hearts together. She later came to our home and shared how she had grown up in an Italian, Catholic mafia family in Brooklyn, NY, and as an adult had herself joined the mafia. 

However, one of her uncles and his wife had come to Christ and had invited her to church. She went and had a glorious encounter with the Lord. She was on fire for the Lord and opened a storefront church in Brooklyn where she was reaching many of the homeless, drug addicts, and what someone described as “the hard cases.” 

However, opposition from Christians to her pastoring as a woman and an ill-advised marriage to a Jewish husband who turned on her, brought her to despair. She gave up on church, but she did give up on Jesus. That day in our driveway a tremendous healing took place in her soul and her faith and hope were renewed.

About two months after this encounter, Adele and her husband (since deceased) moved to Florida. We stayed in touch and several months later I received an email from Adele saying,

I am putting a check in the mail. I want you and Sue to come to Florida for about three days, and you can stay with us. I will have about forty people over. Most of them are not Christians. Do whatever God tells you to do.

The Holy Spirit Falls

We arrived at Adele’s home in Port St. Lucie, FL. Howie, her Jewish husband who professed to be an atheist, asked how long the meeting that night would last. I replied, “Howie, it will probably be safe for you to come home around 10 PM.” He then departed for an area casino.

Later that evening the people Adele had invited began to arrive. As starting time approached, the living room and kitchen were filled with people and it seemed that everyone was smoking. Clouds of smoke hung heavy in the atmosphere.

Many of the people were members of the mafia or former members. One little Italian woman’s husband was a mafia boss who had recently been sent to prison. She had come to Florida to work for her brother who owned a pizza chain. Some of the people had been members of Adele’s church in Brooklyn, and when she “backslid” they all backslid with her.

One woman sitting across the kitchen table from Sue and me had been a part of Adele’s congregation in Brooklyn. She and her family had recently moved to Florida and opened a restaurant. As smoke billowed around us, she said to me, “We’re all backslid.” I thought, “Well, at least, they are not trying to impress us with how spiritual they are.”

Starting time arrived and I picked up my guitar intending to lead them in some praise and worship songs. It soon became obvious, however, that I was the only one singing. Everyone seemed to just stare at me as they puffed on their cigarettes.

Realizing this was going nowhere, I put my guitar aside and picked up my Bible. God had given me a message about His unconditional love, and as I shared this message, I sensed a change in the atmosphere.

At some point, I noticed that everyone had put out their cigarettes and the smoke had dissipated. As I completed my message, a sense of solemnness and the fear of the Lord seemed to fill the atmosphere.

I then invited anyone who wanted prayer to come forward to receive prayer from Sue and me. Everyone sat quietly as if afraid to move. Adele then stepped forward and in an emphatic tone, said, “I know that everyone here needs prayer; so come on up and let Eddie and Sue pray for you.”

The first person to come up was Isabelle who was from Brooklyn and part of a mafia family. She was in deep depression for her husband and two sons had been murdered by a rival mafia family and her daughter was a drug addict, living on the street.

As we laid our hands on Isabelle and prayed, she began to sob and then fell to floor. We had no catchers, but no one was concerned, as their minds were taken up with God. Another person then came up for prayer, and she too fell to the floor.

At this point, the Holy Spirit “fell” on the people just like in the Book of Acts. Suddenly, everyone was on their knees or lying in the floor, weeping and calling out to God at the top of their voices.

The Joy of the Lord flowed 

It was a surreal moment when God came down and did a mighty work beyond anything we could have ever imagined or planned. Later that evening there was a release of joy such as I have never seen and our hearts were further bonded with Adele. Howie arrived home in the midst of this joy and was obviously astounded as everyone loved on him and greeted him.

We returned numerous times for meetings with Adele and those we call our mafia friends. On one of those visits Howie was obviously touched by the Holy Spirit and opened his heart to us and the Lord. But that is another story for another time.

        Eddie -  Sue - Adele

Drs. Eddie and Sue Hyatt are still active in ministry and their numerous books are available on Amazon and their websites at http://eddiehyatt.com and http://godswordtowomen.org. Of particular significance at this moment in history is Eddie's book, America's Reawakening, and Sue's book, In the Spirit We're Equal, which contains a message that "has the power to begin a mass movement from Islam to Christianity, beginning with the women."

WHO ARE THE SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES?

One of the major doctrinal divides between Catholic and Protestant is the Catholic concept of apostolic succession. According to this Catholic doctrine, the authority of the original apostles has been passed down to the Catholic bishops through a mechanical, religious rite called “Apostolic Succession.”  

Since Peter, they argue, was the chief of the apostles whom Christ gave the keys, and since he founded the church in Rome, his authority over all the church has been passed along to the bishop of Rome (the pope) through this rite of apostolic succession. Beginning in the latter part of the second century lists began to be made of this succession.

According to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Inquisition), since Protestant “communities” do not hold to this Roman Catholic doctrine and practice of “Apostolic Succession,” or maintain a “sacramental priesthood,” they cannot be called churches.

Being able to trace a mechanical, institutional succession back to the apostles is, according to Catholic doctrine, what makes Roman Catholicism the true church and is what disqualifies Protestant “communities” from being called churches.

No Biblical Evidence of Such a Succession

There is, of course, no evidence that either Jesus or the first apostles established permanent church offices that were to be occupied by a succession of church leaders/bishops. Judas was replaced out of necessity because he had been one of the Twelve and by his apostasy he had reduced the number to eleven.

When James, who is also one of the Twelve, is put to death by Herod in Acts 12, there is no attempt to replace him. He held no continuing office that another must fill, nor does any Christian leader in the New Testament. Instead of establishing permanent offices, Paul and the Twelve understood that the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church guaranteed that He would raise up leaders when and where they were needed.

The Idea of an Apostolic Succession Began in the 2^nd Century

The idea of permanent church offices occupied by a succession of bishops did not surface until the latter part of the 2^nd century with the church father, Irenaeus, who used it as a tool to combat heresy. Irenaeus pointed the heretics to the apostolic churches of his day—the churches of Antioch, Ephesus, Philippi, Rome and others that supposedly had been founded by Paul or one of the Twelve. According to Irenaeus, if the heretics were not in communion with one of these churches (or a church in communion with those churches), then they had no claim of Christian legitimacy.

The Roman Catholic Church claims that Peter founded the church in Rome and passed his authority along through a succession of bishops down to the present pope. The Eastern Orthodox Church, on the other hand, claims that the true apostolic succession has continued in their churches, through their bishops. They assert that, with the division between the eastern and western sectors of the Church in 1054, the true succession continued with them, while the western Church (Roman Catholic) veered from the true faith into heresy.

The Lutheran Church also traces a succession, although their succession of bishops changes at the time of the Reformation. Lutheran historian, Lars Qualben, says, “The Lutherans did not form a new Church after the schism with Rome. They merely formed a continuation of the early Christian Church, as we know it from the New Testament and from the early Christian Fathers.”

The Anglican Church’s claim of apostolic succession would be similar to those above. In fact, all the older churches that claim an ecclesial, organizational succession have continued the model begun by Irenaeus with modifications to fit their own unique historical situation.

No Institutionalized Apostolic Succession

There is, of course, no Biblical basis for an institutionalized, apostolic succession. The New Testament writers, in fact, show very little concern for church offices and organizational structure. This is why the New Testament scholar, Dr. Gordon Fee, says that the New Testament is full of surprises, “but none is so surprising as its generally relaxed attitude toward church structures and leadership.” He and others point out that, excepting Phil. 1:1, Paul never addresses himself to a leader or group of leaders in any of his letters to the churches.

Lists of succeeding bishops, such as that begun by Irenaeus, tend to be based on dogma and expediency rather than factual history. Dr. Hans Kung, who is the most widely read Roman Catholic theologian in the world today, says, “An uninterrupted sequence of ‘laying on of hands’ from the apostles to the bishops of today, an unbroken chain of succession (of the kind cited in later lists of succession) cannot be demonstrated historically.”

John Wesley, who as an Anglican minister, initially held to an apostolic succession through the Anglican bishops, found his views refined in the fires of the 18th century Methodist revival, which he spearheaded. Through his diligent study of the New Testament and after observing the Holy Spirit raise up powerful ministries from the ranks of the common people outside the Anglican Church, he declared that ”neither Christ nor his apostles prescribed any form of church government.”

In his classic work, The Primitive Church, Professor Burnett Streeter agrees with Wesley and says;

"Whatever else is disputable, there is, I submit one result from which there is no escape. In the primitive church there was no single system of church order laid down by the apostles. During the first hundred years of Christianity, the Church was an organism alive and growing—changing its organization to meet changing needs. Uniformity was a later development."

True Apostolic Succession is a Thing of Faith and of the Spirit

The idea that there can be no church without this Catholic rite of Apostolic Succession, diminishes both faith and Christ. It makes a doctrine—and a tenuous one at that—to be predominant and central. It makes both church and the apostolic appear mechanical and doctrinaire.

Jesus, on the other hand, said that where two or three are gathered together in His name, that he would sanction that gathering with His presence (Matthew 18:20). Is His presence not adequate? Paul echoes this in Colossians 2:9-10 where he says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ and that you are complete in Him.

For many Protestants, the Catholic approach to Apostolic Succession, wherein the authority of the apostles is passed along by a programmed religious rite, does not make sense or pass the test of Scripture.

I would ask my Catholic friends to consider the following questions. Should not Apostolic Succession be a thing of substance—of faith and of the Spirit? Should it not be a succession in apostolic faith, apostolic commitment to Christ, and an apostolic experience of the Spirit? Are we not all responsible for adhering to the faith and vision of those first apostles?

Apostolic succession as a thing of the Spirit cannot be restricted to a religious ritual that is mechanically repeated generation after generation--as though the Holy Spirit could be confined to a particular ecclesiastical order. The wind blows where it wishes, Jesus said (Jn.3:8). This is why Henry P. Van Dusen, former president of Union Theological Seminary, declared, “The Holy Spirit has always been troublesome to Church officialdom, because He does seem to be unruly, unpredictable and radical.”

The Whole Church Is Apostolic

The apostles recognized all gatherings of believers as true churches. Although neither Paul, Peter, nor any apostle had been to Colosse, Paul recognized the believers there as forming a true ekklesia—a church. Even though the church in Antioch was not under Peter’s authority, as evidenced by the fact that Paul publicly rebuked him when he came there and waffled on the issue of the Gentiles equal acceptance in Christ, there was no question of Antioch being a true church.

Apostolic succession is the responsibility of the whole church—of every Christian. A church is not apostolic because it has a leader who calls himself an apostle, bishop, or pope.  Every believer must seek to walk in the same selfless devotion to Christ as those first apostles. Every believer must live in the same selfless love toward others that characterized the early apostolic Church. And every believer must live in a radical dependence on the Holy Spirit as did those first followers of Christ. Only then can the Church today make any claim to being apostolic.

Apostolic succession is neither mechanical nor automatic. Apostolic succession is a succession in apostolic commitment to Christ and apostolic life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Dr. Eddie Hyatt is an author, historian and Biblical scholar. This article was derived from his book, Apostolic Leadership, available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle. To read about his vision for another Great Awakening, visit his website at www.eddiehyatt.com.

REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF GOD'S FAITHFULNESS, PART 7

Holy Spirit Orchestrated Encounters in England

Sue and I will celebrate 50 years of marriage on May 17 and I recently was stirred in my heart to share some of the stories of God's faithfulness to us through the years. Here is Part 7 in the series.

We had just picked up some food items at an Albertson’s supermarket and were driving across the parking lot on our way home. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Sue broke forth with an utterance in tongues. I immediately had the interpretation and said aloud, “The time is approaching when you will be going to England.”

We found this prophecy interesting for we had never ministered in England and had no contacts in England. Knowing, however, that if this was of God, He would open the doors, we put it in His hands went about our business. 

A few months later, I received a totally unexpected invitation to present a 90-minute lecture at Oxford University on my book, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity. I was also invited to participate in a panel discussion on the Holy Spirit the night before the lecture. It was obvious to us both that this was the fulfillment of the prophetic word we had received in the Albertson’s parking lot. 

We spent two days at Oxford, and it was a wonderful experience. The panel discussion and my lecture took place in the very same hall where John and Charles Wesley formed the Holy Club, which gave birth to the great Methodist Revival. In my lecture, I explained how God has visited His people again and again throughout history with Holy Spirit revival.

The lecture must have stirred faith in people’s hearts, for at the end a number of students asked Sue and me to lay hands on them and pray that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Many seemed genuinely impacted by the Spirit’s presence and I heard some speaking in other tongues.  

I felt both humbled and grateful, for here I was, a country boy who had grown up in the cotton fields of East Texas, lecturing at Oxford University. Our God is truly an awesome God!

Our friends, Jim and Judy Hamilton, of Apple Valley, CA, joined up with us at Oxford along with their teenage son, Josh. Jim’s mother was an English war bride and Jim had lived in England as a child and attended grades 5-7 while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Air force. This was an opportunity for him to revisit the land of his mother and his childhood.

From Oxford we went to London where God had opened another door to preach in a Sunday morning service.  From London we traveled 40 miles by train to Midhurst, a small quaint town that reminded us of something out of the Middle Ages.

Interestingly, Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas had an English affiliate in Midhurst. Since I was a part of the CFNI faculty in Dallas, the affiliate in Midhurst gave us rooms in their dorms and a Malaysian-made Proton to drive. We had a great time touring the southern part of England, visiting Stonehenge, and enjoying the various restaurants.

It was in The Tea Shoppe, a small restaurant in Midhurst, that we had an encounter that was obviously orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. The five of us sat at a table where we laughed and discussed our experiences in England and talked about the good things of God. The restaurant was crowded with waiters and waitresses bustling about. 

A young couple was seated at a table next to us and when the young man got up and left, his female companion turned her chair facing us. She was an attractive young woman with long blonde hair and was wearing shades. It was so obvious that she was watching and listening to our conversation.

Finally, she arose and walked to our table and said to me, “Are you a pastor?” I replied, “yes,” and asked, “Are you a believer in Jesus.” She replied, “I got hit by the love of God at Holy Brompton [Anglican Church] but I have gone really bad.”

I invited her to join us and she sat down between Jim and Judy. We asked about her situation and she told us about going to a revival meeting at Holy Brompton Anglican Church in London.  I had heard of this church for its leaders had put out the welcome mat to the Holy Spirit and genuine revival had erupted. This revival had been reported in various Christian publications in England, Europe and in the U.S.

She described her experience at Brompton as being “hit by the love of God.” She went on to reiterate, “But I have gone really bad.” We assured her of God’s love and willingness to forgive and led her in a prayer in which she recommitted her life to the Lord.

At this point, Jim talked to her about being filled with the Holy Spirit and told her that we would like to pray for her to have this experience. She agreed. Jim and Judy, sitting on each side of her, laid their hands on her shoulders and we all asked God to fill her will the Holy Spirit.

Suddenly, the Holy Spirit fell on her as in the Book of Acts. She began weeping and with her face turned upward and tears streaming down her cheeks, she began praising and magnifying God in other tongues.

This was all happening with people sitting at tables all around us and waitresses scurrying back and forth. It was a surreal moment. When the power of the moment subsided, she said to us through tears, “I just saw Jesus hanging on the cross.”

We all basked in the glory of that moment and all too quickly the time came that we had to depart. We gave her the address of the Bible school and Christian ministry where we were staying, committed her to God and went on our way. We have to believe that God ordered her steps and that her life was never the same.

Our first stop on returning to the U.S. was New York City where I preached to a congregation of poor and homeless street people that a ministry had gathered and fed on a public sidewalk in the middle of Manhattan. It was quite a contrast to Oxford, but that is another story for another time.

Drs. Eddie and Sue Hyatt are still active in ministry and their numerous books are available on Amazon and their websites at http://eddiehyatt.com and http://godswordtowomen.org. Of particular significance at this moment in history is Eddie's book, America's Reawakening, and Sue's book, In the Spirit We're Equal, which contains a message that "has the power to begin a mass movement from Islam to Christianity, beginning with the women."

REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF GOD'S FAITHFULNESS, PART 6

1983 - Miraculous Provision and a Prophetic Introduction

      

 In 1983, shortly after God gave us the promise to “open the windows of heaven,” I (Eddie) received an invitation to speak at a conference in NE India and I accepted. This was my first overseas travel and I was responsible for all my expenses.

I went to a local travel agency and they put together a travel itinerary and told me what the cost would be. They said I could pay when I picked up the ticket. This was a relief since we had no money in reserve and no credit cards.

To cover the cost, we sent out a letter to family and friends inviting them to donate to this mission to India. People responded and enough money came in to cover my ticket; but at this point the inflow seemed to stop.

When the day of my departure arrived, I had only $30.00 above the cost of my ticket. This posed a problem since I had an overnight stay in London and two nights in Kolkata (Calcutta) where I had to apply for a special travel permit. I then had two overnight stays on my return flight home. So, I needed money to cover 5 nights in hotels and food for four days, and I only had $30.00. 

I have found that there are times when God will put a supernatural determination down in your soul about a situation and this is what I experienced. There was never a question in my mind whether I would go. I was determined to go even if I had to sleep on the sidewalks in London and Kolkata.

My flight departed around 4 pm and the plan was for Sue to chauffeur me to the airport and stop on the way and pick up my ticket. We waited at home as long as we could thinking someone might come knocking on our door and say, “God told me to bring you this offering.”

This never happened, so we loaded my luggage and headed for the travel agency and airport. On the way, we stopped at the post office thinking there could be a monetary gift in the mail. I opened our box, and it was empty

I still remember getting in the car and saying to Sue, “God has ways to meet our need besides the post office.” However, at this point I could not imagine what it would be. It seemed that the post office was His final opportunity to come through.

We stopped next at the travel agency and the clerk who was handling my itinerary seemed all in a tizzy. She said, “I have been trying to call you since last night.” I asked, “What is the problem.” She replied that she had to completely change my itinerary because of political unrest in a certain part of India.

I asked, “When do I get to Guwahati?” She replied, “You still arrive there at the same time, but I had to change your routing.” I informed her that everything was OK so long as I arrived in Guwahati at the scheduled time.

As she was typing the new itinerary, a question came to mind and I asked, “What is the difference in the cost of this new itinerary?” She finished typing my itinerary and it turned out to be $300.00 less than the one before.

So, I walked out of the travel agency with my ticket and over $300.00 in cash. God had opened the windows of heaven. He had provided in a way I could never have dreamed or imagined. Sue drove me to the airport, and I flew out for my first overseas mission.

After stops in London and Kolkata, I arrived in Guwahati, Assam at the appointed time. From there, I took a two-hour bus ride through the Khasi Hills to the city of Shillong in the state of Meghalaya. I was scheduled to minister for 10 days among the Khasi people in their churches and in their yearly conference. I stayed in the home of my host, Dr. R. Joseph Skinner, who was the pastor and overseer of about 50 churches and Doulos Bible College.

On Saturday night, before my first meeting on Sunday morning, God gave me a word of prophecy to speak forth in that service. Interestingly, I knew that the message I had been given was an interpretation to a tongue. I Corinthians 14:5 tells us that tongues with interpretation is equal to prophecy, and I knew that I was to wait for a message in tongues before speaking the prophetic message I had been given.

This raised the question in my own mind as to how I would know when somebody gave a message in tongues, since I knew nothing of the Khasi language. In addition, I did not know for sure if they practiced messages in tongues and interpretations in their services.

I went to the church service the next morning in faith and with a determination to be spiritually alert and see how things would unfold. The small building was packed with every seat filled and people standing shoulder to shoulder, filling every nook and cranny.

I stood alongside several Indian pastors and leaders on the platform and someone began leading the congregation in singing worship songs in the Khasi tongue. The worship was very passionate and fervent, and I recognized some of the songs by their melody.

At the close of the singing there was an extended time of fervent, corporate prayer. The crescendo of prayer eventually subsided until everything became still and quiet. It was an ominous sort of stillness and no one moved or spoke, including the leaders on the platform.

Suddenly, out in the congregation, the silence was broken by someone speaking in a beautiful, melodious tone.  I was alert and thought to myself, “That sounds like a message in tongues.”

I then stepped to the microphone and gave the interpretation I had been given the night before, which was a word of encouragement to that congregation. I finished speaking and one of the Khasi pastors stepped forward and interpreted to the people in their language what I had said. Shortly thereafter, I was introduced and peached my first sermon in India.

After the service, I wanted to know for sure that I had interpreted a message in tongues. I, therefore, asked my host, Dr. Skinner, about it.  He replied, “Yes, that person spoke in an unknown tongue. She was not speaking Khasi.” Wow!  God had worked the prophetic gift through two people of different languages and cultures who had never met! And it flowed so seamlessly.

God used this manifestation of prophecy to introduce me to the Khasi people. It brought an immediate acceptance and respect that I could not have earned on my own. We then had a wonderful 10 days of teaching, preaching, and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit.

It was also the beginning of a life-long friendship with the late Dr. R. Joseph Skinner, his brother, Kitbok Ryntathiang, and the Khasi people of northeast India.

Drs. Eddie and Sue Hyatt are still active in ministry and their numerous books are available on Amazon and their websites at http://eddiehyatt.com and http://godswordtowomen.org. Of particular significance at this moment in history is Eddie's book, America's Reawakening, and Sue's book, In the Spirit We're Equal, which contains a message that "has the power to begin a mass movement from Islam to Christianity, beginning with the women."

REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF GOD'S FAITHFULNESS, PART 5

When God Orchestrated an Amazing Mission to Indonesia

Because of my book 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, I was invited to be a part of the ministry team at the 2006 100-year anniversary celebration of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. I was also asked to compile and edit the official book for this event, which was published under the title, Fire on the Earth.  At this gathering of 50,000, I spoke at a workshop and did a book signing at the Charisma House exhibit, the publishers of both the above books.

After this, I received an invitation to be a part of the ministry team for the Azsua-Asia celebration in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was announced as a time for Spirit-filled believers throughout Asia to come together and celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the world-wide Pentecostal revival and the 80-year anniversary of the Pentecostal revival in Indonesia. I was responsible for covering my own travel expenses.

In Jakarta, the capital of the largest Muslim nation in the world, I had the privilege of speaking in three different church services and in a dynamic workshop packed with Spirit-filled believers from throughout Asia. I also had the privilege of speaking to the 70,000 Spirit-filled believers from throughout Asia who filled the soccer stadium. It was almost surreal to hear them rejoicing and praising God in their native tongues and in the language of the Spirit.

But what I want to emphasize in this essay, is how God orchestrated Sue’s involvement in such a remarkable manner. Although I was the only one invited, Sue and I decided that she would go as well. I then emailed my hosts in Jakarta that my wife would be accompanying me, but they never responded. Just before departing, I emailed them again that my wife would be coming with me, but there was still no response.

In the meantime, Sue heard the Holy Spirit instruct her to have three messages ready for the time in Jakarta. She, therefore, prepared three messages and had them ready when we departed Tulsa, where we lived at the time.

From Tulsa we stopped in Los Angeles and then Hong Kong before finally arriving in Jakarta. We were met at the airport by two pastors, a man and a woman. They handed Sue a bouquet of flowers and were very kind and hospitable. Knowing we lived in Tulsa, the man informed us that he had been to Tulsa many times when he worked for Parker Oil Company, which was based in Tulsa. Small world!!

They handed us our schedules, and we were both pleasantly surprised to see that Sue had been scheduled to speak three times: twice in a large church pastored by a woman and once in Bethel Seminary, which was connected to the Church of God, Cleveland, TN. She was prepared because she had obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Sue ministered twice in this church where the husband and senior pastor had just recently died. His wife, however, was such a strong person and leader that the congregation asked her to continue in that role as senior pastor. There was a powerful work of the Holy Spirt as you can see from the pictures. Sue gave the pastor a copy of her book, In the Spirit We’re Equal, and she immediately asked Sue to come back and teach it to her congregation. Sue replied, “No, you study it and you teach it.”

 Sue next spoke at Bethel Seminary to about 400 students. After delivering the final message she had been instructed to prepare, she invited the students to stand and began lifting their hearts to God in prayer and praise. As the students were responding, Sue walked off the platform to a young man on the front row who stood with his eyes closed and his hands in the air worshipping God.

As she took his hand, he swooned and then fell to the floor. At that moment, it seemed that the Holy Spirit fell as in the Book of Acts. All over the building students fell to their knees calling out to God with all their might. Some fell to the floor, slain in the Spirit. It was an incredible moment. Afterwards, we met with the leaders of this seminary and gave them copies of our books, for which they expressed great appreciation.

On our final night there, the pastor of the large church where I had ministered (around 2000 in attendance) took us and others to a restaurant. There must have been about 10 of us sitting around a large round table, everyone Asian except us.

Sue was sitting next to a woman that she discovered was the sister of the Indonesian pastor who had brought us to the restaurant. She shared with Sue that she was married to a Chinese pastor and they had come from China to Jakarta for this conference. Sue happened to have another copy of In the Spirit We’re Equal with her. She pulled it out and handed it to this woman who expressed great appreciation for it.

At this very time, I had a new book just about ready for publication but lacking the funds for printing. As we sat around this table enjoying this time with our Asian brothers and sisters, a Christian businessman passed a large 18-carat gold ring around the table to me and said he wanted to give it to me as a gift. It provided the funds needed to publish the new book, America’s Revival Heritage, which has blessed so many people. In addition, before we departed we were surprised with a $2000.00 love gift to help cover our expenses.

What an awesome God we serve! I am reminded of Proverbs 3:5-7, Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not to your won understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Yes, as we approach our 50th wedding anniversary on May 17, I am writing this series of articles remembering and reminiscing about God’s faithfulness through the years. And as I said before, if there is one testimony we would leave behind when we depart this world, it is this: He has been faithful!

Drs. Eddie and Sue Hyatt are still active in ministry and their numerous books are available on Amazon and their websites at http://eddiehyatt.com and http://godswordtowomen.org. Of particular significance at this moment in history is Eddie's book, America's Reawakening, and Sue's book, In the Spirit We're Equal, which contains a message that "has the power to begin a mass movement from Islam to Christianity, beginning with the women."

A GREAT AWAKENING ERUPTED WHEN THEY REALIZED THE MODERN CHURCH IS A MISSION FIELD

"I who went to America to convert the Indians had never been converted myself," wrote John Wesley, a baptized, confirmed, and ordained Anglican clergyman. He stated this after coming to the realization that his faith had been in the outward, institutional forms of Christianity rather than in Christ Himself. He had accepted the Christian religion but not Christ Himself, and in that state he had no internal peace or assurance of being accepted by God.

Wesley's Heart-Warming Encounter with Christ

The change for Wesley came while attending a Moravian revival meeting and hearing someone read Martin Luther’s explanation of the change of heart that comes when a person puts their faith in Christ and Him alone. Wesley afterwards wrote,

I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sin, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Wesley always considered this to be the time that he became a true Christian, and he was never the same. After this conversion experience, he spearheaded the great Methodist Revival that transformed the British Isles and impacted the Church around the world. He insisted on a real heart conversion to Christ and in his Journal dated June 10, 1741, he wrote,

I preached in the morning on the inward kingdom of God. And many, I trust, found they were Heathens in heart, and Christians in name only.

This new understanding  that it is faith in Christ alone that makes one a real Christian, had a two-fold impact on Wesley and his preaching: (1) Although he did not dispense with the outward forms of the Anglican Church, he now emphasized that those forms were “dead works” apart from faith in Christ and (2) he realized that many who were not Anglicans—Baptists, Quakers, Nonconformists—were real Christians even though they did not identify with the order and liturgy of the Anglican Church.

George Whitefield and the Great Awakening

Wesley’s colleague and protégé, George Whitfield, brought this same message of personal faith to colonial America where he spread the Great Awakening up and down the eastern seaboard. He too was a baptized, confirmed, and ordained Anglican minister and, like Wesley, had experienced a personal conversion or “new birth” as he liked to call it.

Whitefield emphasized that many professing Christians had built their faith on faulty foundations, such as church membership, good deeds, family pedigree, social status, and cultural refinement. He emphasized that these old foundations must be overturned and faith in Jesus Christ alone must be laid as the only foundation for acceptance with God.

As a result, thousands in colonial America realized that they had never truly been converted to Christ. They realized that they had adopted the religion of their parents and grandparents but had never put their faith in Christ and him alone. Whitefield brought this vividly to the minds of the populace with his message on the parable of the ten virgins found in Matthew 25:1-13.

Although his words may sound harsh to modern ears, they needed to be said. He pointed out that all ten were virgins and all had lamps, which he said symbolized their outward profession. However, only the five wise virgins had oil in their lamps, which Whitfield said symbolized a new heart brought about by a living faith in Christ alone. He told of the five foolish virgins, who had no oil, knocking at the door of the wedding but being turned away by the Lord.

“Lord, Lord,” say they, as though they were intimately acquainted with the holy Jesus. Like numbers among us who, because they go to church, repeat their creeds, and receive the blessed sacrament, think they have a right to call Jesus their Savior and dare call God their Father, when they put up the Lord’s Prayer. But Jesus is not your Savior. The devil, not God, is your father, unless your hearts are purified by faith and you are born again from above (Hyatt, George Whitefield, 54-55).

Both Wesley and Whitefield came to realize that the church to which they adhered, the Anglican Church, was a mission field with many members who had never been converted to Christ. Many were merely following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents.

Their message of personal faith in a personal Savior bore much fruit. Entire cities were transformed. Benjamin Franklin told of the change that came over his hometown of Philadelphia after Whitefield spent several days there preaching to thousands from the steps of the courthouse. Franklin wrote,

From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 101).

So, the great Methodist Revival in England and the Great Awakening in America were not with people who had never heard the Gospel. Their impact was with religious people and church members being awakened to the fact that “religion” alone would not save them apart from a living faith in the living Christ

This Same Message is Needed Today

A new spiritual hunger is obviously sweeping across the land. Bible sales are surging and many of the younger generation are returning to church. Revival meetings on college campuses are being attended by thousands of students who are seeking something more than contemporary culture has to offer.

We as Christians and Christian leaders must be ready to offer them more than the Christian religion. We must point them to Christ Himself. We must let them know that they can encounter Christ for themselves and have that New Birth of which Jesus spoke in John 3:3. Everything in their lives must flow from that central point of faith in Christ.  C. S. Lewis nailed it when he wrote,

The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men to Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.

This article is derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's latest book, America's Reawakening, available from Amazon and his website at http://eddiehyatt.com.

RISEN INDEED! A WORLD-FAMOUS LAWYER IS CONVINCED BY THE EVIDENCE

Sir Lionel Luckhoo was called “the most successful lawyer in history” by the Guiness Book of World Records. He was given this designation because he won 245 consecutive murder trials as a defense attorney. A native of British Guyana, he was named to the Queen’s Counsel in 1954. The Queen’s Counsel is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (in this case Queen Elizabeth) to act as their representative. He was also twice knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

For a person to have this kind of success they must possess a very sharp mind and tremendous analytical skill. They would have to know how to sort the evidence and be able to decide what can be trusted and what must be discarded. Sir Lionel possessed these characteristics as many prosecuting attorneys discovered while facing him in the courtroom.

Sir Lionel also had a political career.  He served as the Mayor of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, in 1955, 1956, 1960, and 1961. He was also involved in negotiations for the independence of both Guyana and Barbados. He was appointed High Commissioner for Guyana and Barbados in Britain (1966-1970) and was also Ambassador for both countries. From 1967–1970 he served as a joint ambassador for Guyana and Barbados in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Sir Lionel confessed that later in life he developed a sense of hopelessness and meaningless about life. He was challenged to examine the biblical claims of Jesus and the Resurrection and decided to accept the challenge. 

He approached the task as a lawyer in the a court of law examining and cross examining the witnesses. After months of sifting through the testimonies of Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul, he became convinced that the biblical record was true.

He became a devout follower of Christ and became an itinerant Christian speaker and authored a number of pamphlets including, What is Your Verdict. He considered the biblical evidence for Jesus and His Resurrection to be overwhelming. He declared,  

I say unequivocally that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.

Because of his reputation, Sir Lionel had the opportunity to address audiences worldwide, including presidents, kings, parliaments, bar associations, and the United Nations. He was not shy about declaring his faith and more than once was heard to declare,

The bones of Muhammad are in Medina, the bones of Confucius are in Shantung, the cremated bones of Buddha are in Nepal. Thousands pay pilgrimages to worship at their tombs which contain their bones. But in Jerusalem there is a cave cut into the rock. This is the tomb of Jesus. IT IS EMPTY! YES, EMPTY! BECAUSE HE IS RISEN! He died, physically and historically. He arose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God (Hyatt, The Book that Made America Great, 128).

The above was derived from The Book that Made America Great by Dr. Eddie L. Hyatt, which is available from Amazon and his website at http://eddiehyatt.com.