Introduction

  Phoenix, Arizona in the summer is so hot that Hell doesn’t scare anybody. It was there, on one Sunday morning in 1955, that the fire of God was sparked in a young man’s heart and swept beyond the Arizona desert, igniting hearts in barren cities around the world. As Wayman Mitchell prepared for church that Sunday morning, he seemed like the most unlikely man on planet Earth to spread the gospel. In that distant past, he had all the marks of a nobody. But, by the mid ‘80’s the fire in his heart had spread to many thousands across the U.S. and into 13 countries on 5 continents. If he could be used in such a powerful way; there was hope for many more like him.

  It’s not hard to take an intelligent, smooth, aggressive, winner and turn him into a “preacher”. Yet Christianity, using this calibre of candidate, has made little impact in our day. One third of the churches in America have less than 45 attending on Sunday morning, and two thirds have less than 75. Yet Mitchell, who was always labelled a loser, would gather around him the quitters, the addicted, the insane, and the hopeless and see God transform them into powerful preachers who would be released into ministry to reach hundreds, and even thousands.

  True greatness has always been the ability to take the average and cause it to be stretched into something more than it ever could have been if left alone. It happened with David and his mighty men. It’s always been the foundation of revival. , from Jesus taking twelve rejects, to John Wesley and the explosion of the Methodist revival. Out of Prescott, Arizona that same transformation took place. Wayman Mitchell took those destined to be dishwashers, gas jockeys and Taco Bell raiders and has seen them become powerful men of God.

  That morning in 1955, when God touched him, there was no way to see the powerful forces that were being released in the man’s life. As this book is being written, a tidal wave of revival is beginning to break. Hundreds of Churches have been started that are reaching out to every continent on Earth. Men by the hundreds are responding to the call and pressing in to be used by God. Meetings in the states are seeing tremendous miracles and huge crowds are filling large auditoriums. Overseas, the response has been even greater.

  In 1984 crusades were held in the Philippines that were New Testament-like in their impact. In Romblon, Larry Huch was scheduled to preach a small crusade, but 10,000 people showed up. Never has there been a crowd that large in the small city park. The people’s excitement mounted to the point where they were climbing the trees just to catch a view of the preacher. The mayor of the city was afraid for the park and made them leave, so they moved over to the Church. The people packed the church. In the Philippines, to say people “pack in” is to talk of something Americans can’t comprehend. A “jeepney” ( a taxi made out of a jeep) that, to us, could not hold ten at the most, in Manilla is considered empty without 30 people. They pile in until they are stacked three high. The building was so crammed with bodies that it literally began to bulge, breathing was almost impossible. When no more could get in, others, desperate to hear, began to hang from the windows and finally began to tear the back of the church off.

  On another occasion, Tommy Alvarez was preaching a simple sermon on the baptism of the Holy Spirit at a pastor’s conference in the Philippines. At the halfway point it became obvious that a majority of the Pentecostal pastors and workers present had never received the baptism. After Alvarez made an alter call, over 150 came forward for a mass prayer and Pentecostal power fell.

  In Mexico, Jack Harris has seen some of the most powerful meetings to date. In the small border town of Nogales, a recent crusade saw over 4,000 people cram into a small building. There, amid the pools of dry blood on the ground and smells of violence, Jesus’ blood set countless Mexicans free. Tumours disappeared, a boy with a blind eye was instantly healed, and a girl with a huge goitre brought screams of shock from those near her as they watched it melt away.

  In previous crusades, newspapers have run false stories and accusations, branding Harris with every evil label imaginable. Their goal was to discredit the meetings and discourage people from responding. What a shock it was when, at this crusade, the TV. station came to broadcast the services. A mother and her little girl stood and told how watching the program on T.V. the night before, they had prayed and taken the braces off her legs. Now they both came walking, wanting to worship God. At the next Sunday service the church had doubled as hundreds of visitors came out to hear the good news of the gospel.

  These are only a few of the miracles that happened as a result of one man’s commitment to God. But for young Mitchell, in ’55 these things were years in the future. To him, God pouring out his Spirit in nation after nation seemed to belong only in a world of fantasy.

Foreword