The North Georgia Revival

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My husband and I had the privilege of going to the North Georgia Revival this past Sunday night. The Revival began in February of 2018 according to Pastor Todd Smith, after the church went through a time of prayer and fasting, and are now on week 91.

The Pastor shared that after the time of prayer and fasting in January 2018, the Lord gave him a vision where he saw fire over the baptistry and He told him that He (The Lord) was going to baptize people with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Pastor said this was the first vision he had ever had and he knew nothing about being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire (he was a Southern Baptist Pastor), but all of that has changed. He, along with many other Pastors and church members from various denominations, including Baptist, Methodists, Church of Christ, etc. have experienced being baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues and many have been healed or filled with the Holy Spirit while in the baptistry.

Pastor Smith shared the first miracle, which took place in the baptistry. He said there was a young man who had dyslexia and one eye that turned all the way in towards his nose. He also wore glasses. While baptizing the young man, the Pastor said he felt him trembling and thought that he was just cold (he didn’t realize that it was the power of God touching him). After being baptized, the young man went to put his glasses back on and said “these don’t work anymore” and took them off. Then, while he was standing there in front of the church, the eye that was facing his nose went straight and his vision was restored so that he no longer needed glasses. Also, he was healed of dyslexia.

That evening, many people who had traveled from other states were baptized. Some were standing in for others who were sick and believing for them to be healed or to be healed themselves and some were requesting to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Many were dragged out of the water after being baptized because they were overwhelmed by the power of God and evidently not able to get up.

The Pastor said that he has been traveling to other states and everywhere he goes, they are experiencing the same kind of outpouring of the Holy Spirit, with miracles occurring in or around the baptistry.

One of the things that impressed me is that this church had several other Pastors and churches that joined with them on Sunday nights to participate in this Revival. Different ministers took turns praying, introducing, speaking, and baptizing (there were two baptismal pools and a team of people in the baptistry that prayed for and helped catch the people who were being baptized). This is a regional move of God, crossing denominational lines and bringing God’s people together.

Also, I was impressed by how they reverenced and honored the Lord and was careful to set and protect the atmosphere. They had intercessory prayer starting at 5:00 and going to 5:45 and the doors were locked during the intercessory prayer time. At 5:45, they opened the doors and allowed people to start coming in for the service, which started at 6:00. They had great praise and worship and at one point, one of the Pastors said, the Lord has just come into the building, everyone, please come to the altar or kneel where you are or pray at your seat and honor and reverence the Lord and everyone did so.

I believe this is an important element of worship that many churches have lost. The fear (reverence and respect) for the Lord. If we really want God’s presence, we need to honor and respect Him and cherish His presence, realizing that He is a holy God, who deserves all our praise, honor and respect. We can’t let God’s presence become something we take for granted or treat as commonplace. In Revelation 2:4-5 Jesus said that the Ephesian church had lost their first love. In verse 5, he says “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent.” (NKJV). We don’t want to be like other churches, who lost the anointing because they lost their first love and failed to properly honor and respect the Lord.

Next, another Pastor shared a message from II Samuel 23 about David’s mighty men of valor. He talked about how the enemy would come in at harvest time, after the Israelites had sowed and worked hard tending their crops and bringing them to a place of maturity, and try to steal their harvests. Verse 12 says that Shammah stationed himself in the middle of a field of lentils and defended it and killed the Phillistines, so the Lord brought about a great victory. He said that many of us have prayed and worked hard and now that is is harvest time, the enemy is trying to steal our beans and we need to stand our ground and say “You can’t have my beans”. I can relate to this, as I’m sure many of you can also, especially the intercessors.

I also heard a vision shared by a well-known prophet recently where he said the Lord showed him a woman who was big and pregnant and past due and He told him that this is where many of the intercessors are. They are past due, but have not been able to give birth because of all the stress, trials and attacks of the enemy that they have been going through, but the Lord told Him that He would intervene and rebuke the enemy and the intercessors would give birth to what God had placed in their hearts.

I believe that we have entered into a new season and are on the verge of seeing the answers to our prayers and seeing a greater move of the Holy Spirit than we have ever experienced before (as the Lord showed my husband in a dream, several months ago, which I shared previously). Also, I have read and heard many reports of revival going on all over the United States and other countries.

Galatians 6:9 says: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”, (NKJV). Stay strong and be encouraged everyone, we will reap our harvest! God bless you all.

Kelly Rowe