We are in a season that God is setting up “The Greatest Show on Earth”. God is going to “Show up and Show off”. I have been saying this for quite a while. But I have also been teaching that everything that can be shaken will be shaken.
The last few weeks we have all been affected by the Corona Virus and our lives have been completely uprooted from our normal routines. I live in the City of Los Angeles and at this current time we are under quarantine. We have been instructed by Governor Gavin Newsom that California’s 40 million residents should stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs, errands and some exercise.
The Corona Virus: A Great Shaking Around the World
And this is not just happening in California – but all over the world. There is a great shaking that is taking place and many people are fearful. There has been reports of stockpiling of food, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other items. Restaurants, bars, theatres, businesses and gyms have all been instructed to close. Most people have never experienced this in their lifetime! What is going on?
God is allowing this shaking to come all over the world because He wants us to seek Him. He wants to pour out His glory upon the earth and is preparing the earth for a great end-time Harvest of souls.
Hebrews 12: 26-28
“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, Once more I will shake not only the earth but the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is, Created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and Awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
The Azusa Street Awakening
We can learn much from studying history. Many of the greatest moves of God have always had a shaking before the awakening came. One of the examples that I will give you is The Azusa Street Revival in the City of Los Angeles.
Here is the story of the history of the shaking that led up to the Azusa Street Revival. William Seymour, a black holiness preacher, and his friend, Edward Lee were instructed by the Lord to fast ten days, beginning April 6, 1906. They were just three days into their fast when Lee asked Seymour to pray for him, so that he might receive holy spiritual power with the gift of tongues, as at Pentecost. Seymour laid his hands on his friend and brother in Christ and prayed for him. Immediately Lee burst forth in an unknown tongue and exclaimed, “At last! This is that!”, referring to Peter’s words on the Day of Pentecost.
Later that evening they were at the home of Richard and Ruth Asbury at 214 North Bonnie Brae Street, Los Angeles, where a group of black people had gathered to worship. Seymour rose to preach and recounted the experience of earlier that day. Shortly afterward Lee lifted his hands and spoke in tongues and Douglas Nelson described what happened. “The entire company was immediately swept to its knees as by some tremendous power. At least seven, and perhaps more, lifted their voices in harmony of strange new tongues. Some rushed out to the front porch, yard and street shouting and speaking in tongues for all the neighborhood to hear. Thus, on the evening of April 9, 1906, the 20th century Pentecostal movement was born in a black ghetto of Los Angeles among the poor, despised and rejected black members of a white dominated and fundamentally racist society.
Resulting from this initial experience, numbers increased very rapidly to include whites as well as blacks, and it became necessary to rent an old African Methodist Episcopal chapel at 312 Azusa Street, where the seating consisted of wooden planks laid across boxes. But something happened just a few weeks after this initial outpouring that was to shake things up and really put the fear of God in people.
At 5:12 am on the morning of April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by a deadly and powerful earthquake. Most seismologists believe the quake exceeded 8.0 on the Richter scale. Though it only lasted between 45 and 60 seconds, the earthquake left over 3,000 people dead, destroyed over 28,000 buildings, and rendered over a quarter of a million people homeless. The devastating disaster caused panic throughout southern California, and the saints of the newly formed Azusa Street Mission, who viewed the convulsions as a sure sign of God’s judgment and might, used the opportunity to escalate evangelism and call men to repentance.
Frank Bartleman, who chronicled the early Azusa Street Pentecostal revival in Los Angeles, was spiritually spurred by the event and went to great lengths to spread the gospel in the weeks following the earthquake. Before the quake, Bartleman had written a tract entitled, “The Last Call”. He and other Christian workers in the City distributed over 10,000 of the pamphlets on April 22nd. While many other preachers in California were working overtime to prove that God had nothing to do with the earthquakes and try to allay the fears of the people, Bartleman and others felt compelled to warn others of their need to speedily repent and turn from their sins (II Chronicles 7:14).
Frank Bartleman reported that the atmosphere in Los Angeles was frenetic. He reported that business in the city was at a standstill and that the “people were paralyzed with fear and that men were at a breaking point”. He said that “I found the earthquake had opened many hearts”.
There is a Great Awakening Upon Us!
With what we are seeing transpire around the world with the pandemic of the Corona Virus many people are afraid and opening their hearts to God. There is a great awakening upon us! Let us use this time to tell others about Jesus and wake up their hearts to accept the Lord. It seems that there are some interesting parallels from the Azusa Street outpouring in 1906 and to what’s happening around the world in the year 2020.
Let us all pray that men and women around the world will open up their hearts to God and turn from their sin and seek God’s face. It was prophesied by William Seymour during the Asuza Street revival that a greater move of God was going to come upon the earth 100 years after that movement. I believe that we are at that time now! Let us use this opportunity to tell others about Jesus and to turn their hearts back to God! We are at a time for “The Greatest Show on Earth” to begin.
II Chronicles 7: 13-14
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to Devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The significance of this venue at the Orange County Fairgrounds was that a young hippie named Lonnie Frisbee was hitchhiking on Fair Drive when Chuck Smith’s daughter’s boyfriend, John, picked up Lonnie Frisbee and drove him to Chuck Smith’s house.
William Seymour was a one-eyed black man who was the son of former slaves. He was hungry for God and attended a bible school in the south where he had to sit outside the door to learn. Segregation had even infiltrated the Christians and the Jim Crow laws were in effect. He was invited to come out to Los Angeles and be the pastor of a small church. He arrived on February 22, 1906, and started preaching to small crowds on Santa Fe Street. His message was that the “Next move of God” was getting ready to be poured out in Los Angeles and that the congregation should be expecting and believing for the power of the Holy Spirit to come!