By Ron Baca
May 15, 2006

The lights are dimming, and anticipation is in the air. The Fire Still Falls drama is about to begin. As the lights shine, the bottom floor of the auditorium is filled with an estimated 2,400 that came with a hunger to receive more than just entertainment. The actors and actresses, in 1900-era attire, enter into the auditorium from the back, flowing through the aisles toward the stage and into the first scene. The stage is set in a church scene, with only part of the actors and actress with the finest attire sitting down at the pews to have church.

(A worthy note: the Thursday evening production concludes with Scene two, the power and anointing of God fills the auditorium, and people run to the altar to repent with no formal altar call. What a sovereign move of God! )

Bishop Kenneth F. Haney takes the pulpit and lays the foundation from the Book of Acts. Here are the main points of his sermon:

· Our blueprint is the Book of Acts; the Holy Ghost is what this is all about. In John 14, Jesus gives His disciples insight into the baptism of the Holy Ghost, beginning the chapter with, “Let not your hearts be troubled. If you believe in God believe also in me.” That chapter was about His ascension, that He was going to leave, but that He was sending a Comforter. Jesus made statements such as, “I am with you, but I will be in you.” What is the Holy Ghost, and what is it all about? This Comforter is the Spirit of truth and will lead and guide us into all truth.

· Joel 2:28 speaks about the coming and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: “In the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” We cannot talk about our past without going to the Book of Acts. Acts 1:8 and Acts 2 gives us an introduction to what happened at Azusa Street.

· After a prevarication, the church was in the Dark Ages. God will not bless false doctrine. There was a gap between the pew and the pulpit. The Lord never intended for His church to have a separation like that. When He filled men and women with the Holy Ghost, He would give them unction and an anointing. Every Spirit-filled believer that speaks with tongues has a ministry and that ministry is endowed with a power and an unction and an anointing. If you have the Holy Ghost, you have a ministry. That ministry should be carried to the streets; that ministry should go house to house. That’s the ministry that turns the world upside down. The early church had an awesome power and anointing and unction, with signs, wonders, and miracles. That is characterized by what happened at Azusa Street.

· It begins with 120, then 3,000, then 5,000. You couldn’t and cannot stop the church. Jesus said in Matthew 16 that the gates of Hell will not prevail against this church. All the demons from hell, all the suppression of the enemy, all the governments and parliaments cannot stop the progress of the church. The early church went from house to house and wherever they could find places.

Whatever our past has been, God, give us a double portion. We’re on the wind up of this thing; church, we are down to the last. God is expecting something out of His church. You cannot flinch, you cannot compromise, you cannot back up, you’ve got to go move with more zeal and more anointing and more power than ever before.

I would be remiss if I did not tell you that my own grandparents received that gift of the Holy Ghost here at Azusa Street.

Bishop Haney tells the story of his grandmother as a missionary in Japan. Receiving a tract about the outpouring on Azusa Street prompted her to return to America, as her heart’s desire was to experience the Book of Acts outpouring. Because of her sickness, her doctor sent her to southern California for a change of climate. She was excited because she knew that God was going to fill her with the Holy Ghost. She also met her husband at the Azusa street mission. There they found a group to send them to Japan, and for 40 years they were missionaries to Japan.

This is our heritage; this is what it is all about. I believe that the Holy Ghost has been falling for 100 years in unprecedented measure, and God is getting ready to give a great revelation of whom He really is. We know who that God is and His name is Jesus. We are really celebrating Azusa and that was before the great revelation, but let me tell you it’s hard for me to celebrate Azusa without celebrating everything that goes with it, signs wonders and miracles, and who Jesus really is. To day I bring you the past and in bringing you the past I say that He is the same yesterday today and forever and He has not changed. My friends this is our greatest hour I am so glad you have come to Los Angeles to celebrate what God is doing and what God has done and what He is going to do in the future.

Here are the key ideas from Bro. David Bernard’s message:

· “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God” (I Corinthians 2:2-5). In this passage of scripture, Paul tells of the message of the name of Jesus going forth, founded on the Word of God and personal experience, with a personal testimony with a demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power. The same is true today: we’ve got the Word of God, we’ve got the doctrine, we’ve got the message, we’ve got the history. What we need are miracles, signs, and wonders with gifts of the Holy Ghost operating in every local church. That’s what Pentecost today must have!

· “I come to you not with excellent speech and wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God, but in power of the demonstration of the spirit of God” (I Corinthians 2:4). Paul was an educated man. His point was that he was ignorant and didn’t know anything; his point was that he was determined that he was not going to rely on his human ability. We have the original message and experience with God. We’re nobody in ourselves, but Jesus has touched our eyes.

· Quoting Paul in I Corinthians 2:2 (“…determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”), Bernard reminded us that Peter preached the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. In Acts, the crowd responded with conviction by asking: “Men and brethren what shall we do?” Peter explained how to respond to the Gospel by acting on your faith, repenting, and being baptized the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. When these conditions are met, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:38 is the response and you will participate in the resurrection life.

· Press more fervently into the dimensions of signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the spirit—not to glorify self, not to glorify the preacher, but to let God loose. Bernard stated that the burden in his heart for the service was for God to give us a demonstration of His spirit. We preach it, we believe it, we love it, but we need to see God do some miraculous things in our mists to confirm His word. We have the Jesus name message. We have the Holy Ghost message. We have the holiness message. It’s right, it’s good, it’s real, but we need to put into practice. It seems like God wants us to move aggressively into our world with a miraculous demonstration of the spirit of God.

As the altar call is taking place, ministers call for people that want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and people that need healing. Hundreds fill the altar and are prayed for.

On Friday afternoon on Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles, choirs were singing. During one hour of angelic singing, the power of God falls, and 18 people received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. As the emcee takes the microphone, he states that the power of God is here. He asks if this organization could start the celebration next year, as the Azusa Street celebration will become an annual event.

As he addresses and gives recognition to the Azusa Street “Latter Day outpouring,” Bro. Anthony Mangun mentions Elton, Louisiana, where in 1915 people were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. He quotes Karl Marx as saying, “If I can steal their history, then I can take their nation.” He also states that is why the revolutionists exist in America today; they know if they can steal America’s God-centered heritage, then they can steal America’s heart from God. The same holds true of church history. If the devil can steal our history, if he can steal our Pentecostal Apostolic Book of Acts message and doctrine, then he has stolen the heart of the church.

Other key points of the message:

· Moses told Israel that if they neglected the rock Who beget them or if they forgot the God Who gave them birth, they would lose their historical reference point. Psalms 106 admonishes Israel: “You forgot your history, and because you forgot your history, it has cost you your past.”

· We are to fulfill the God-given prophetic future. God yet has a destiny for the church that is called by his name. God is a God of revival, and we have not seen our best day yet. There will be an outpouring of the revelation of the mighty God in Christ—who His name is. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4) and beside Him there is no other—that God’s name is Jesus. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

· It is time that we stay strong and make an issue on the Name. There is no other name but the name of Jesus: we walk in it, we talk in it, we eat in it. Everything we do in word or deed, we do in the name Jesus. That name can save you; that name can deliver you; that name is going to give us miracles.

Bro. Mark Morgan began his sermon with the story of the prophets of Baal gathering together at Mt. Carmel. Then he stated that we are at Mount Carmel, and there is a God that is about to answer by fire. The fire still falls!

Key points of Morgan’s sermon:

· The entire nation is assembled at Mount Carmel. The prophet makes this proclamation: “How long halt ye between two opinions? How long are you going to walk after Baal and then turn and try to walk after Jehovah God? We are going to choose today who is God. We will not be crippled any longer. Let the God that answers by fire, let him be God.”

· They had followed after Baal; they had forsaken the altar of the Lord. The nation of Israel was at a crossroads. They had to choose—to either follow after Baal or follow Jehovah. Morgan relates this story to the present, stating that we’ve come to this coliseum tonight to declare to America that it’s time for us to decide who is really God and let the God that answers by fire, let him be God!

· There are a lot of similarities between America and Israel. America was founded on Christian principals; it doesn’t matter what anyone else says, that is fact. We still believe in the true God of this nation, and we’ve come tonight to exalt that God. We’ve come to magnify that God. We’re going to exalt His name in this place; we’re going to magnify Him.

· The doctrine of Baal was very simple. It was almost like prosperity, blessing just worry about money and finance. We presently live in a nation where everything comes down to the almighty dollar. Do we want to follow God or do we want to follow gold? This nation has a choice to make. I feel like Joshua: As for me and my house we are going to serve the Lord! We do believe that God will prosper His people; we do believe that God will bless His people. However, money is not our God.

· There is only one true God; He’s not in the graveyard. In Him we live and move and have our being. And before the night’s over, He’s going to answer by fire. Let’s follow the steps of Elijah; let’s get ready for a God that’s going to answer by fire. The Holy Ghost and fire is about to be poured out.

· The first thing Elijah did was rebuild the altar. If the fire is going to fall on the altar, it will need something to consume. Morgan stated that we’re here after what John the Baptist said: He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and Fire. If we can get the fire of the Holy Ghost through here, it’ll burn drugs out of you, it’ll burn alcohol out of you, it’ll burn immorality out of you, and it’ll burn disease out of you. That’s why we need the Holy Ghost and Fire.

· America needs revival; we are going to repent for Los Angeles.

As Morgan led the auditorium in a repentance prayer; he called upon God for the forgiveness of the nation.

I have never experienced such a move of God. As the altar call was ongoing, waves of people were coming from all points in the auditorium. You could feel the presence of God on your skin, and a moving of God that is unprecedented. I see two people get out of wheel chairs, one of them frail in body, but now just hopping from one foot to another, rejoicing. You can feel that what you were seeing is just the beginning. God has opened a window of Heaven and signs, wonders and miracles are pouring out.

The official numbers of people filled with the Holy Ghost during the Azusa Centennial are:

509 at the Dramas
93 at the lectures
685 at the Crusade

1,305 in three days

This outpouring continued on in our local church on Sunday, with 17 more being filled with the Holy Spirit and the service continuing for four hours!

© 2006, Ron Baca

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Ron Baca is a minister and the director of the Prayer Station at Bellflower, California.