‘Extraordinary Move’ Reported at Recent Maryland Prayer Gathering
Over 1,200 people were present for a five-hour prayer rally in Baltimore, Maryland, where unusual moves of the spirit were reported.
“The extraordinary event was held at Life Source Church led by Pastor Michael McDermott, and the house was packed,” stated P. Douglas Small, liaison for prayer ministries for the Church of God.
Church of God General Overseer Dr. Culpepper shared the opening sessions of the conference with African mega-church pastor, Jackson Senyonga. Senyonga is one of the national leaders featured on the Transformation Videos series and was at the center of the national revival that was experienced by Uganda. He told of the call to 24 hours of prayer when than nation was being ravaged by the Ebola Plague. More than 20,000 came to plead with God for the nation – and the plague was stopped.
Both men shared from the same scriptures, James and I Kings, on Elijah, without consultation. Both urged prayer and declared God’s desire for a national revival.
“At one point, the crowd stood in passionate prayer and a sustained roar was heard in the house,” Small continued. Dr. Ron Martin, administrative bishop for Delmarva called it “a sound within a sound.” According to Small, the sustained moment of prayer seemed to be joined by a sound from another world. “It was an unusual moment, beyond the natural,” he said.
The day-long marathon prayer experience, without breaks, began with a worship procession and an offering. Martin then suggested that someone in the building had a desperate need. He invited them to come forward to “take a handful of money” as a gesture of the goodness of God and his people.
“There was silence – stunned silence,” Small said. “No one moved. Then suddenly several people came. They stood cautiously before a model of the Ark of the Covenant on which checks and cash had been laid. The Bishop had to urge them, ‘Go ahead. Take!’ Suddenly, there were more people – individuals whose projected spirit and demeanor indicated personal need or even a broken spirit. A couple stood with the joined hands, prayed and wept. One lady simply collapsed before the opportunity. A young mother stood with two small children. Others came. The Bishop noted, ‘I just called one.’ Then with grace and compassion he added, ‘But you are here. Go ahead. No more after this!’ But they kept coming, perhaps as many as a dozen altogether, until the crowd itself restrained others from coming refusing to allow a moment of grace to turn to greed. ‘No more,’ the Bishop said a mix of definitiveness and sensitivity, ‘You should have come when the call was first given!’ The absence of rebuke, even to those who came later, and the grasp of what the crowd had just witnessed sent an unbelievable wave of praise across the entire audience. Suddenly people began to run to the front of the church, not to take, but to give, throwing money and checks on top of the model of the Ark of the Covenant. More than $13,000 came in almost spontaneously. The spirit of giving had gripped the crowd. And with that, came powerful moments of prayer and worship. Jackson Senyonga would note, ‘In all my travels, I have never seen anything like this!’”
Small finished the day by challenging the crowd to “go to court” in prayer, that answers are not found here, indeed, “Heaven is a kind of courtroom where we make our appeals to God based on his promises, and we ask for intervention!” He offered Biblical models for courtroom prayer. One listener noted, “I have never been taught to pray like that. I have never even considered the privilege of being heard in heaven in such a personal way.”
The day concluded a series of similar prayer rallies that have been conducted in Delmarva in the place of the traditional winter prayer conference over the last five years. Delmarva may never be the same. Videos of the event are available from the State Office in Maryland.
