INTRODUCTION
I have just returned from Florida, having taken advantage of a small gap in my schedule to be refreshed and to experience firsthand what has been happening there nightly for the past two months. I also wanted be able to credibly respond to the many requests I have had from pastors and leaders asking me if this is real or not!

INTERNATIONALS

Driving down the one lane country road on a hot and dusty day in Lakeland, Florida, there seemed to be little local awareness that just around the corner the so called ‘Florida Outpouring’ is attracting thousands nightly, from many nations, to a tent the size of two football fields at a remote corner of the regional airport.

A sandy field acts as the parking lot while hundreds fight their way through the dust clouds and hot Florida sun to line up from mid-afternoon seven days a week.
 

THE OLD AND THE NEW

Noticeable from the outset is the strong flavor of the southern healing revivals of the fifties, but this isn’t your grandmother’s revival - or tent! This structure can hold 10,000 people, is air-conditioned and with state of the art sound, lighting and video screens.

Also, during my visit this week, out of the 7-8 thousand who came every day, I saw only one suit and tie. What was more common were shorts, T-shirts and tattoos! Noticeably absent was much evidence of the religious spirit, however, in essence this was more like a classic ‘Pentecostal’ revival, smacking of Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Brown, Toronto, Pensacola - but on steroids!
 

THE WRAPPING OR THE GIFT?
Some have made the observation that the American Church has been over-feminized in the last 40 years, but there is no evidence of that at this revival. There is almost a grungy, high level of testosterone about Todd Bentley’s ministry style and Roy Field’s worship leading that has determined the flavor of this outpouring, going every night for the last two months and showing no signs of abating.

Spiked hair, tattoos, studs and earrings pepper the crowd that has equal numbers of all generations and all walks of life, from folks in their eighties and nineties to lots of children. Teenagers were everywhere, passionately worshipping the Lord.
 

I can’t recall ever being enamored with the paper in which gifts I have been given were wrapped! But that has not stopped me from receiving the present. This outpouring is packaged in a way that may not appeal to traditionalists, but it is surely attracting a lot of the young generation, which is too often neglected by the vast bulk of churches in the USA.

RESURRECTIONS

A strong sense of the Lord’s presence even comes in the worship team’s rehearsal time an hour before the services begin every night. Hundreds of arms are lifted heavenward in front of the stage and stay there for up to three hours of the most intense worship I have experienced. Television and the Internet have played a major role in the rapid expansion of this revival, but it just does not match being there!

Then Todd takes the microphone and begins to proclaim healing for all kinds of diseases. Those healed testify to seeing from blind eyes, hearing from deaf eyes, loosing tumors and all kinds of diseases. While I was there it was announced that 18 people had been resurrected from the dead, directly or indirectly as a result of this outpouring.

A RISING TIDE

Many reports say that this ‘healing anointing’ has broken out in many other parts of the world and in several cities in the United States including Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, N.C. and other places. This is mostly as a result of those visiting Lakeland and taking the anointing back to their homes, but there have also been some reports of spontaneous breakouts of signs, wonders and miracles in places where no one has been to Florida. This has been the case in my own ministry up to now. We have seen an exponential increase in healings and the supernatural wherever we have ministered since mid-April, before we even heard about what was going on in Lakeland.

Although this ‘outpouring’ clearly revolves around Bentley and his staff, there is no question about where it is centered! While I was there, the focus unmistakably and repeatedly pointed to Christ!

FOR OR AGAINST?

All moves of God have had their passionate proponents and detractors, and this one is no different. Even this early on, there has been major controversy within Christianity with very little middle ground. Some of this has centered around the meaning of a tattoo on Todd’s body. I don’t personally care to have tattoos on my body, but I would rather have souls in the Kingdom with tattoos than on the outside without them!

All I could see was a holy hunger in those who came. It would be difficult to question the sincerity of that hunger, and even harder to think that God would not respond to the high level of passion directed squarely at Him, even if the critics were right and it was misguided!

FOCUS ON HIM

As for me, I did not go to Florida to meet with Todd Bentley, but to meet with God. And I encountered Him with an intensity that I have not experienced for a long time. I know that I can meet with God anywhere because He is everywhere, but if He is doing something special in a particular location, I want to be there. If I am misguided in going to Florida, I will have to trust that God will still honor my sincere desire to seek Him out wherever He may be.

 

Either way, I am believing that I will see much more fruit in my personal and ministry life. Fruit takes time and time will tell. #