While writing The Next God: An Appeal to Heaven for Spiritual Awakening, I traveled to many cities to witness pockets of revival breaking out.
What the Holy Spirit showed me is there are many expressions of revival. Of course, they are all marked by a fervent hunger for the presence of God. One expression of revival is manifesting in Bristol, Virginia.
What started as a three-hour service with Ryan LeStrange and Jeremiah Johnson has turned into a genuine outpouring at Impact International Church there.
It all started when Johnson, pastor at Heart of the Father Ministry in Lakeland, Florida, released a prophetic word about an appointed season of transformation and revival opening up in the Tri-Cities region of Tennessee and Virginia.
“The atmosphere shifted and it became clear that this was not an ordinary meeting,” says LeStrange, founder of Impact International Ministries in Bristol. “There has been a tangible move of purity and fire sweeping the nightly services.”
They're calling it Awaken21: A purity and power revival. The number 21 represents a set time in which God is igniting the outpouring. It also represents holiness and completion.
LeStrange says one of the most powerful moments was when people started repenting for exalting their gifts above intimacy. The room, he says, was filled with the cry of hunger.
“Young people have been flooding the altar crying out for more and being set free,” LeStrange says. “People are committing their lives to the Lord and restoring their first love.”
Johnson points to God's healing power in the meetings, noting a powerful miracle when LeStrange prayed for deaf ears to be opened.
“A man who was watching online from Ireland was instantly healed and his deaf ear began to hear. He reported that he had been deaf in that ear since childhood. Many others have been healed of various infirmities,” Johnson says.
“On Saturday night healing power swept the meeting and a woman who had driven in from North Carolina received a powerful miracle in her back. She had surgical rods in her back and was suddenly able to bend and move. After the meeting she took her brace off free from pain and restored movement.”
I have worked with both Ryan and Jeremiah. They are both sowing the seeds of revival everywhere they go as we enter into what I believe is a Third Great Awakening. Sure, it's growing darker in America, but I believe the next move of God is emerging even now. (Click here to listen to Ryan and me talk about the next move of God.)
I see the remnant rising. I see people from different denominations praying together for awakening. I see more desperation than I've ever seen in the body of Christ. Despite all the doom and gloom I see around me, I have never been more hopeful. We're not there yet, but I believe a spirit of repentance is coming over the church and those who embrace it will help usher in the next great move of God.
Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet and Satan's Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.
