"Letter From Lou Engle About Azusa Now" by Lou Engle

Pasadena, CA

Dear brothers and sisters,

I write to the Body of Christ around the world, all who are connecting with the Azusa Now gathering at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on April 9th. I have rarely seen such a stirring of expectancy as I am seeing now. It's really not about a stadium event. Instead, everywhere, men and women are laying hold of the Kingdom in such a way that Azusa Now may be a collective flashpoint. The great intercessor Frank Bartleman wrote of such a time just before revival broke out at Azusa in 1906. Listen to his words, written just a few months before the outpouring began:

"The current of revival is sweeping by our door. Will we cast ourselves on its mighty bosom and ride to glorious victory? A year of life at this time, with its wonderful possibilities for God, is worth a hundred years of ordinary life. 'Pentecost' is knocking at our doors. The revival for our country is no longer a question. Slowly but surely the tide has been rising until in the very near future we believe for a deluge of salvation that will sweep all before it. Wales will not long stand alone in this glorious triumph for our Christ... The clouds are gathering rapidly, big with a mighty rain, whose precipitation lingers but a little. Heroes will arise from the dust of obscure and despised circumstances, whose names will be emblazoned on Heaven's eternal page of fame. The Spirit is brooding over our land again as at creation's dawn, and the fiat of God goes forth. "Let there be light." Brother, sister, if we all believed God can, you realize what would happen? Many of us here are living for nothing else. A volume of believing prayer is ascending to the throne night and day. Los Angeles, Southern California, and the whole continent shall surely find itself ere long in the throes of a mighty revival, by the Spirit and power of God."

In his wonderful book, The Fasting Prayer, Franklin Hall wrote:

"Yes, the second Pentecost on Azusa in 1906 came about just like the first Pentecost. This latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit started with a ten day fast and prayer season in much the same manner as it did upon the 120 that 'continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.' A few people came to Los Angeles in 1906 and started a 10-day fast and prayer season and the Holy Spirit fell... Mother Craton states, 'The first thing that was done before the power ever fell on Azusa was a united ten-day season of fasting and prayer. If there was ever any sectarianism, fasting broke it down... I believe another Azusa could be here today if God's people would get to travailing in much prayer and fasting."

With such Bible and Church history roaring behind us, should we not take encouragement to inject our generation into that same Hall of Faith, where those who have gone before now urge to enter?

With their beckoning resting on our hearts and ears, we are calling a 10-Day season of united prayer and fasting as God leads for a global outpouring of the Holy Spirit, March 30 to April 8, leading up to Azusa Now on April 9, the 110th anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival. William Seymour, the catalyst of that great revival, prophesied in 1913 that in roughly 100 years another revival far eclipsing Azusa would come. The fulfillment of Seymour's word is overdue... or right on schedule. Let us therefore "pray for the rain in the time of the latter rain." Who knows? Maybe like those who were baptized in the Spirit in the original Acts 2 upper room, we will say, "This is that which was spoken by William Seymour the prophet!"

Sincerely,

Lou Engle
Co-Founder of TheCall, Inc.
Founder, Bound 4 Life 
Email: response@thecall.com
Website: www.AzusaNow2016.com

Could We Be in a Day of Great Salvation and Spiritual Awakening? by Lou Engle

Pasadena, CA

A few months ago I dreamed all night long, being awakened by God five times with the Scripture Jeremiah 34:8 blazing before me. I looked it up and it said that they made a covenant to proclaim liberty to all their male and female Jewish slaves.

The context of that passage is when the Babylonian army had besieged Jerusalem. The Prophet Jeremiah had already spoken that judgment was at hand and there was no hope and the Jews were going into exile into Babylon. However, at the last minute when the Israelites made this covenant to release their Hebrew slaves, the Babylonian army withdrew from their siege. This is the power of forgiveness and this is the language of Jubilee. (Photo via Pixabay)

In this Jubilee year, if we will proclaim liberty to our brothers and sisters that we have held in bondage through unforgiveness, if we will reconcile with those whom we have wounded, if we will begin to unite together around Christ not fighting and dismembering the Body of Christ, we will see a great lifting of the spiritual siege over our cities and nation. A spirit of revival and freedom will break forth.

Years ago, the late John Wimber was seeing extraordinary miracles at Fuller Seminary. One night he subtly spoke concerns about the faith movement, and for a whole week they saw no miracles. He inquired of the Lord and the Lord spoke, "You touched My anointed." He was so tenderized and broken over this that he asked forgiveness of the Lord and the healings broke out again. What a story. We cannot afford to point the finger at any other members or movements in the Body of Christ. We can be prophets to one another, we can disagree with one another, but we must love one another.

At the Azusa Street Revival, the Spirit of God baptized all races and denominations into a spirit of love. At Azusa Now happening April 9, 2016, 110 years after the Azusa Street Revival, we are gathering to the Memorial Coliseum to make a covenant to proclaim liberty. April 9th is also the anniversary of the surrender of General Lee to General Grant that ended the American Civil War and freed the slaves. If the Church will end the civil war among us, I believe Christ will release the Jubilee of Luke 4:18: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me...to proclaim liberty to the captives."We are in a day of great salvation and spiritual awakening. (Photo via Pixabay)

We are calling the different races and denominations to gather together to make a covenant to release their slaves, to bless the Church, the Body of Christ, to forgive all those who have hurt us to where there have been Church splits, to bless and not curse. I believe if we do this, signs and wonders will break out that afternoon, and it could be a flashpoint for a third great awakening. Over the next month, let's unite, let's guard our lips, let's bless our brothers, and then gather to Azusa Now, daring to believe that the color line can be washed away in the Blood.

Lou Engle
Co-Founder of TheCall, Inc.
Founder, Bound 4 Life 
Email: response@thecall.com
Website: www.AzusaNow2016.com

Lou Engle's MIRACULOUS Story About This April 9, Azusa Event at the L.A. Coliseum by Lou Engle

Pasadena, CA

God is the Author and Finisher of our faith. In other words, He has written a story about our lives that has a beginning and has a fulfillment. So it is with my personal story.

In 1982, my Pastor, Che Ahn, dreamed of an African American man waving to him and saying, "...come to Los Angeles, there is going to be a great revival." Because of that dream, 12 of us moved to Pasadena, California, in 1984.

I was reading a book called Azusa Street by an intercessor named Frank Bartleman who became the key eyewitness to the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. While reading his book my heart was lit on fire. I went into days of fasting, and one night cried out for the intercessory mantle of Frank Bartleman like I had never prayed. The following day, a friend came to me and said, "I had a dream last night. In this dream I saw a big black book, and the title saidRevival. In the dream I turned to the inside cover and I saw a man's face, and his name was Frank Bartleman, and in the dream his face turned to your face, Lou." At that moment I knew the title of the book God has written over my life is "Revival," and my job description is to raise up fasting and prayer to that end.

Fast forward 30 years to when we were holding TheCall in Berkley, California. For 16 years TheCall has gathered hundreds of thousands in arenas, fields, and stadiums, praying for the outpouring of the Spirit. As such, in Berkley, we were fasting prior to TheCall when the Lord suddenly interrupted me and said, "Get reconciled with Fred Berry the leader of the Azusa Street Mission." (Photo of Fred Berry via Facebook)

Six years before, I had written an insensitive letter to African American leaders in America and Brother Fred, and I had a hurtful interaction over it. He had tried to call me a few times to work out our differences, but I just put it off. Sensing the Lord's heart this time, I reached out and called Fred on the phone and we got reconciled. Then he said, "Lou, 'TheCall: Azusa Street' is still waiting for you." This word struck me like lightning. Could this be a fulfillment chapter of my Bartleman dream of 30 years ago?

The story I tell here begins with reconciliation between an African American man and an Anglo for such a time as this. As I was praying into this, God's thoughts filtered into my mind, "Look up April 9th, 2016, the 110th anniversary of the Azusa Street revival. It's a Saturday." I knew the Lord was saying we could hold TheCall on that day. I looked it up and it's a Saturday. So I called my friend that had the Bartleman dream and told him this run down. He said, "Lou, do you remember the dream that I had in 2013 while we were fasting 40 days?" No, I didn't remember.

He said in the dream we had to buy five sets of five plane tickets, and the only airline we could fly was United Airlines. In the dream he knew that grace was being given to the Church and knew that she must fly United because only a united Church can heal a divided nation. In the dream, he was also concerned that he would miss the flight, so he looked up the expiration date and it was in "1,080 days." Waking from the dream, he Googled 1,080 days from that day. You guessed it: It was April 9, 2016, the 110th anniversary of the Azusa Street revival! I knew in that moment that God had a date for the Church to gather together in unity and prayer for Azusa and beyond. (Photo via TheCall.com)

I believe God is shouting John 17 to the Church right now: "I pray that they may be one even as I and the Father are one." The Church must be united because the nation is so fractured, and this is the prayer of Jesus.

Another interesting point in my prophetic journey toward AzusaNow happened while we were fasting at the end of 2015 for 40 days on the campus of USC right next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. While in the middle of that fast, someone came to us and said, "Do you know there is a United Airlines jet on the USC campus and it is facing the Memorial Coliseum?"

On April 9, 2015, we had gone to the Memorial Coliseum and the USC officials told us that this coliseum was where the first Super Bowl was played when Vince Lombardi was the coach of the Green Bay Packers. This single piece of information so struck me because 20 years ago I recorded an encounter and wept from 12 midnight to four in the morning as two 11-year-old Asian girls in the midst of revival in Mott Auditorium in Pasadena, CA, were caught up in the heavens and described the angelic realm. (Photo via TheCall.com; Billy Graham Crusade – September 8, 1963 & TheCall Nashville – July 7, 2007)

One moment stood out amongst them all when the girls began to prophesy, "Mott's too small! Stadiums will be filled! There's Vince Lombardi in Heaven!" I asked them, "Have you ever heard of Vince Lombardi?" They said, "No, we have never heard of him and don't know who he is, but he has a football helmet on in Heaven." I was shocked.

Because of these visions, I've been asking God for 20 years now, "Is there coming a super bowl for the Church where stadiums will be filled? Why did they see Vince Lombardi in Heaven?"

When the USC official said, "This is where the first Super Bowl was played," I instantly knew that TheCall was the answer to those prayers and AzusaNow was to be held in the Memorial Coliseum on April 9, 2016. Amazingly, the Jubilee Super Bowl was just recently played in California. We hear the sound of Jubilee. The natural things speak of the invisible. It's jubilee, it's time for unity, it's time to release those we've held in bondage. It's time to forgive, it's time for Luke 4:18, the time for signs and wonders, and the proclamation of the Gospel!

At Azusa Street an African American man, William Seymour, opened the heavens, and by the power of the Spirit, races and churches united and the tongue of fire exploded out of L.A. into the nations of the earth. We must have revival, but "they were all together in one place and one accord" before "suddenly out of Heaven" took place. They saw "Azusa Then." Now we must see "Azusa Now." (Photo via TheCall.com; William Seymour, Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA)

Gather to AzusaNow on April 9, 2016, the 110th anniversary of the Azusa Street revival at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and dare to believe for a flash point into a new Jesus movement, a new day of harvest, and signs and wonders. Let us gather together to bless and forgive so that all the streams may flow into one river.

Lou Engle
Co-Founder of TheCall, Inc.
Founder, Bound 4 Life 
Email: response@thecall.com
Website: www.AzusaNow2016.com

"An Open Letter from Lou Engle to African American Pastors" by Lou Engle

Pasadena, CA

To African American pastors and leaders,

I humbly submit this letter for your gracious consideration. Over the last six months I have been greatly provoked by the loving challenges of my brother, Fred Berry, with whom I previously had a falling out. This happened in 2008 when I sent a letter to 50 African American Pastors and leaders challenging their support for now President Obama in light of his stance on abortion. In my fervor, I spoke in a manner that I now realize was both insensitive and proud.

For 20+ years, I have felt burdened to both intercede for revival and pray for the turning of America back to God. Together, Jesus called His Church the salt and light of the earth, so overturning abortion has been a clear focus of my prayers. I still seek this because I do not see abortion as primarily a political issue dividing Democrats and Republicans, but a moral issue which the righteous must undertake. However, in my passion for the cause, I believe my zeal overshot my wisdom. I missed the heart of love.

I have been on a learning journey. It began in 2004 when I and 70 young people prayer-walked the infamous 750 mile Trail of Tears by which the native peoples were forcibly removed from their lands to Oklahoma. We felt the Lord was telling us that we could not deal with the issue of abortion unless we had first walked in the sandals of Native Americans to better understand their suffering and pain. The Lord was instructing me in a principle. Again, prior to TheCall Detroit I lived in a shuttered elementary school in that broken city, fasting for 40 days with my Hispanic and African American brothers and sisters. I glimpsed the difficult realities of inner city life and began to touch more of the pain and promise of the African American story. Then in 2014, prior to TheCall Berkley, the Lord spoke to me that I should reconcile with Fred Berry of the Azusa Street Mission, one of the recipients of the original 50 letters. Fred had previously tried to reconcile with me. Sadly, I did not immediately respond. When I finally called him, we were joyfully reconciled. It was so good. From this reconciliation Azusa Now 2016 was born. 

I now feel deeply that the Body of Christ must unite first and foremost around the Lord Jesus and the power of the Gospel to transform lives. Obviously Biblical standards help inform our unity. But in 2008, I spoke in ultimatums, not friendship; in unintended presumption, rather than humility. I realize that I need to walk in the shoes of the African American community if I am to understand their story. To the degree that I mobilized parts of Christ's Body in such a manner that left others feeling uninvited or unheard at the table of fellowship, I would like to confess my failure in speaking beyond our sphere of relationship together. It is easy to speak as Job's counselors without having walked in the suffering of Job.

With whatever measure of influence I possess in the fellowship of the saints, I beg the forgiveness of my African American brothers and sisters. I am moving forward in a different spirit, one with no less clarity and conviction on abortion, but with my personal code also wedded to humility, dialogue and partnership. I am convinced that the Lord is shouting to His Body that the time for John 17 is now. We must be one as He and the Father are one. I am afraid for our nation if we don't get this right and I beg your mercy and grace toward me and to the whole Body of Christ as we work out the great challenges of our day amidst an increasingly fractious culture.

In 2008 I feel like I lost many dear African American brothers and sisters due to my insensitivity. The Holy Spirit has gripped me with a desire to walk in unity so that we can believe together, with all God's family, for a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Of this I am convinced. Love conquers all. Jesus is Lord. And now, more than ever, only a united Church can heal a divided nation.

Thank you,

Lou Engle, Co-Founder of TheCall, Inc.

Lou Engle at Shekinah Worship Center