Praise the Lord! Christians have been praying for God to bless us with the prophecy of Joel 2:28-31, promising the outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days. We are beginning to see that come to pass. I had been seeing video after video on the internet of many thousands of people, mostly young people, in stadiums and streets across the world, worshiping Jesus Christ, with hands raised, joyfully singing praises to our Christian God. Then I received my Decision magazine from the Billy Graham organization with the article entitled Lives Redeemed in Indonesia by Hannah Davis, and the caption which read “Over 2,400 respond to the gospel after Will Graham preaches in the North Sumatra Province.”
The planned two nights of meetings was called the Celebration of Love in Medan, Indonesia. More than 27,000 attended, with over 2,400 coming forward during the invitations. Churches in Indonesia had been praying for years for something like this to happen. To quote, “In preparation, over 800 churches held more than 400 “I Am Andrew” classes involving about 450 congregations, and when the long-awaited event finally arrived in the Southeast Asian nation, the spiritual power the church had been seeing for months continued.”
The “I Am Andrew” program involved Christians writing the names of unbelievers, praying for them and inviting them to the Celebration. Many responded to churches even before the special event, with pastors rejoicing that most of those who sought to be saved were not of a Christian background. One pastor stated that one “whole family accepted the Lord. They took their idols and threw them away. They gave their lives to Jesus.” The article stated that Indonesia has the highest Muslim population in the world, so non-Islamic religions remain in the minority. To follow up on these decisions, about 300 churches received discipleship referrals with names of those who responded to the Gospel at the Celebration–47% of whom were age 25 or younger.
Videos I saw on my computer showed thousands praising God, singing Christian worship songs on the streets of Seattle, Washington, D.C., on college campuses, of
45 ,000 in the Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, where the fire marshall had to block more from entering, and to “cap” the altar call because too many were flooding onto the field surrendering their lives to Jesus. I also rejoiced to see many more hundreds and thousands in Brazil, Italy, Ethiopia, Columbia, Great Britain, and other places where people were freely worshiping and praising God.
After Googling, I found information about Lagos, Nigeria, where more than half a million people gathered for a worship and prayer vigil. Nicaragua saw massive evangelism campaigns drawing nearly one million people, with tens of thousands of conversions and healing reported in 2023. In Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, this year, thousands gathered for worship events led by ministries. I also read more about the miraculous movings of God in the Middle East, with Muslims making decisions to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing it may cost them much.
So many are responding to messages such as that given by Evangelist Will Graham, son of Billy Graham, who said in Indonesia, “God loves you so much that He gave you a gift. That gift is forgiveness of sins. All you have to do is receive it tonight.” Even here in the Bible Belt, we still need to realize there are many who need to hear that message. Let us pray!
People get ready, Jesus is coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
