Cleveland, Tenn.–Thousands of churches across all six inhabited continents declared God’s power from their pulpits on Pentecost weekend and joined Empowered21 in issuing a fresh call to new generations encouraging them to embrace the Holy Spirit and experience the power needed for 21st century evangelism.
Among Christians, Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon 120 followers of Jesus including the apostles as described in Acts Chapter 2. Pentecost was “the Birth of the Church” and the beginning of the great Christian harvest with 3,000 people receiving Christ as their Savior on that day. Pastors commemorated Pentecost 2012 by preaching and teaching on the Holy Spirit and His work among God’s people in a weekend of unity and power—some of them for the first time in the history of their church.
Personal testimonies and reports of salvation, miracles, healings, baptisms and persons receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit have been submitted from locations around the globe– Australia to Argentina, Burundi to Brazil, Canada to Costa Rica, Philippines to Puerto Rico, Slovakia to South Africa, The United Kingdom to The United States. Testimony highlights from pastors and lay people who participated in Pentecost Sunday commemorations, along with a daily blog tour from leaders in the Spirit-empowered movement, can be viewed at www.pentecostsunday.tv.
Below are a few Pentecost Sunday testimonies:
Tim Ross, Founder of Tim Ross Ministries in Fort Worth, Texas – I was completely humbled and honored to preach on Pentecost Sunday in Gosforth, New South Wales, north of Sydney, Australia. Preaching on the Holy Spirit with awareness that millions would be doing the same worldwide created an anticipation that was nearly palpable! Many people were filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time and many believers were REFILLED–something we need to teach more of.
On the Pentecost Sunday we preached the message of the Holy Spirit as power to change our life as He did in the time of the Disciples. We explained how all were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in new tongues, and how the gospel was spread everywhere by the power of God’s Spirit. 250 were filled with the Holy Spirit. Thank you for this movement. Keep reminding us about Pentecost.
Simeon, Burundi
Wow- there was a demonstration of the gift of tongues and interpretation and words of prophecy and a tremendous altar call with fillings and re-fillings of the Holy Spirit. It was a glorious day.
Russell, Virginia
Protocol was replaced by the Holy Spirit’s presence and we entered the Inner Court and were bathed in the flow of worship. I won’t soon forget the experience and will never forget God’s gift to us!
Tina, New Jersey
Pentecost Sunday was a marvelous miracle—with the Holy Ghost anointing touching every member of the Church in different ways. Many calls are coming to my cell –telling of God’s deliverance.
Udezeh, South Africa
We had a powerful Pentecostal service from start to finish. Two distinct altar calls with altars filled each time; two messages in tongues and interpretation at two different times in the service; several healings; 20 baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time; Hundreds received a fresh infilling. The Lord is faithful!
Nelson, Texas
All of a sudden some of the congregation started going down one by one on their knees. People came forward and as the congregation lifted them up to God praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. A wind just blew over them and all started opening their mouth and speaking with other tongues. Seven among them among were healed. It was a blessing by God.
Gideon, Accra Ghana
A great service with teenagers and adults being “filled up” and speaking in tongues for the first time. Many others were “ re-filled up”. Extremely encouraging for whole church.
Brian, Australia
Founder and CEO of Charisma Media, Steve Strang – I was in the Atlanta area with my family over Memorial Day weekend and I wanted to visit a church I knew was on fire and would celebrate Pentecost Sunday, as I had urged everyone to do in a previous Strang Report, and I wasn’t disappointed.
President of Associated of Related Churches (ARC), Greg Surratt – We had great services this weekend. It’s the first time we had a full on celebration of Pentecost Sunday in 24 years of the churches existence. We started a new tradition! – South Carolina
Billy Wilson, Executive Director for the International Center for Spiritual Renewal and Empowered21 and Co-Chair of the Empowered21 Global Council, challenged constituents of the Spirit-empowered movement on Pentecost weekend to answer God’s call. “First Samuel, Chapter 3 gives an account of Samuel’s calling. Samuel misperceived the call as coming from the Priest, Eli. The call continued until finally– Samuel answered God’s insistent call to him and became a flaming prophet to his generation. God is calling for a new generation to awaken to experience His fire and reach the world in the 21st Century.”
Presently Empowered21 has 11 global leadership teams that have formed to pursue initiatives and events in their region of the world– helping shape the future of the Global Spirit-empowered movement by focusing on crucial issues facing the movement and connecting generations for intergenerational blessing and impartation.
Each regional cabinet, Africa, Francophone Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, United States, USA Hispanic, Oceania, and the Caribbean operate under the same global vision, mission and purposes in their region and pursue them in unique ways. All of the regions participated in the Pentecost Sunday initiative. The next Empowered21 Global Congress is scheduled to take place the week before Pentecost Sunday 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel.
(Source: Center for Spiritual Renewal)