A PREVIEW OF HEAVEN

I've been in L.A. for a week, attending the Azusa Centennial Celebration. This is the 100th year commemoration of a revival in 1906 on L.A.'s Azusa Street that 600 million people worldwide believe is the modern-day outpouring of the Holy Spirit, much like the same outpouring in Acts 2:4 in the Bible.

People from all over the world attended this event, 25,000 strong. To be in L.A.'s Sports Arena with this many people praising the Lord in audible ways was...I can't even readily think of a word to describe it, and here, I'm an author! Awesome? Too bland. Magnificent? Stupendous? Spine-tingling? Thrilling? I'm getting there. Amazing. Tear-producing. Heart-tugging. Joyful. Sort of like Heaven's going to be? Oh, yes, that's the best description of all. A preview of Heaven. We're all going to be together in Heaven in one place, giving praise and glory to Jesus.

I'm telling you, it was...well, here I go again, not being able to describe the event and the feelings I had. I've been to many events with this many people or more. I've been to Jaguar football games and basketball games and baseball games (my husband is a sports nut). I've screamed and cheered with the best of them, and I've felt that exhilarating feeling of being together with people who are doing the same thing. It gives you chills. But if you REALLY want some chills, get together with 25,000 Christian believers cheering the name of Jesus, and you can't fathom--or explain--your feelings.

The thing that staggered me in L.A. is how big this "thing" is. 600 million people worldwide! 600 million people now speak in other tongues.

The Azusa revival in 1906 was started by a black man, Rev. Seymour, who was said to be the son of a slave. Isn't that interesting? It was only 41 years after the Civil War ended. Talk about blacks being put down and held back? Try living in that era! Yet, Seymour was the LEADER of this, a phenomenon of history. Blacks worshiped with whites, and whites worshiped with blacks. Just goes to show that when the Spirit of God invades a place, prejudices cease.

Through Seymour's preaching, many, at first, found salvation. Then he taught them they could receive a second work of grace, the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Thousands received this glorious experience, blacks and whites and Asians and Swedes and Germans, and, well, from all over the world. They came with hungry hearts and received this powerful experience.

I figure if people could speak in other tongues in the Bible, why not today? If we have enough faith to believe in the supernatural virgin birth of Jesus, why not enough to speak in other tongues? Is one any harder or any easier to believe in? No, they both require simple child-like faith, the kind Jesus honored. To believe that a virgin conceived, when you and I know good and well it takes a man to impregnate a woman, is a big act of faith. Yet, we, as Christians, DO believe this. Then why not the other, the speaking in tongues, which was taught BY JESUS (see the Book of Acts)? It takes only mustard-seed faith (small) to receive this second experience of grace, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The Azusa Centennial Celebration. A preview of Heaven. I'm glad I got to go. And participate.