The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives,
And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord . . .
Isaiah 61: 1-2a

To attend or not to attend - that was the big question for me about two years ago when Billy Graham wrote a number of his friends to lay out his vision of bringing thousands of the preaching evangelists of the world together again for prayer, fellowship, training and seeking the will of God for His plans and anointing for completing the Great Commission as early in the twenty-first century as possible. I had attended "Amsterdam 86" as Billy�s personal guest, but this time I would have to come up with $3,500.00. But when I really put the matter before the Lord, I felt that He wanted me to go for several reasons: I needed to meet and pray with many of his humble servants from the Third World who labor under far different circumstances than we evangelists and revivalists here in the Western World; I needed to hear God�s finest messengers in an atmosphere of the most prayed-for event in the history of the Church; and I felt the Lord promising me that He would speak to me during the conference. That was enough. I would go. So at the next Christian Renewal Board Meeting, it was decided that I would pay half the expense and the Ministry would cover the other half.

What a wise decision! What a wonderful investment! There were 12,000 evangelists from 190 countries. We were old and young, male and female, educated and uneducated, known and unknown, and all colors and cultures.

I�ve never heard such anointed preaching! Billy Kim, senior pastor of the 13,000-member Suwon Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea, declared that the lawlessness of our times demands evangelism, the lostness of mankind urges evangelism and the love of God should be our motive for evangelism. . . . J. I. Packer, professor of theology at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., spoke on The Content of The Gospel - the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, the story of God�s Kingdom and the way of salvation. . . . Ravi Zacharias, a native of India, and now an evangelist with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, addressed us concerning the barriers we face in proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st century: the bold face of atheism, the growing impact of eastern spirituality, the dominance of the visual, the increasing power of a youth-dominated world; we must bring the focus back to the eternal and live lives that make the Gospel visible, not merely argued but felt. . . . John R. W. Stott declared that the Bible gives the evangelist�s message its content: The Gospel comes from God, it focuses on Christ, it gives our message its authority and power. . . . Anne Graham Lotz spoke on Isaiah�s personal revival - the prophet was a good preacher but he became a great preacher after his life was shaken, his heart broken and his eyes opened. . . . George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, had as his subject, "Preaching Christ in a Broken World." He said the answer lies in Jesus Christ because the Gospel not only speaks powerfully to human need but it also supplies an eternal answer. . . . Chuck Colson spoke on "The Power of Christ�s Gospel in Cultures Worldwide." He saw opportunity for Christian Renewal in this new millennium, showed that Christianity provides the only world view by which people can live naturally and how Christians may reach the world with the Gospel and with Biblical truth. . . . Bill and Vonette Bright, of Campus Crusade for Christ International, spoke on "The Evangelist and Prayer." They insisted that only through prayer will Christians enter their full inheritance in Christ and find the wisdom and power to evangelize the world. . . . Dela Adadevoh, from West Africa, defined revival as an exalted view of God and His glory, a renewed hunger for holiness, a deepened commitment to obeying God and a deepened commitment to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. . . . Stephen Olford, of Olford Ministries International, Memphis, Tennessee, spoke on "The Evangelist�s Inner Life," spelling out the need for the consciousness of a pure heart, the constancy of a pure heart and the consequence of a pure heart. . . . Franklin Graham spoke on "The Evangelist�s Heart of Compassion," and made it clear that this driving force can only come to the modern evangelist as the Holy Spirit is allowed to reproduce in him or her the compassion of the Christ. . . . Paul Finkenbinder, missionary to the Caribbean area, showed how the evangelist must rely on the Holy Spirit in his private life, in his devotional life, in his public life, in his public speaking and in his spiritual quest.

The above represent only about half of the interesting speakers at "Amsterdam 2000." No one was unmoved by the African Children�s Choir. We all wept almost uncontrollably when Steve Saint introduced the Auca tribesman who speared his father to death, along with four other American missionaries including Jim Elliot, in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956. What a miracle of grace in the story of the winning of that tribe to Jesus Christ by family members of those who were martyred. The tribesman who took the lives of the missionaries now radiates the love of Jesus Christ, and has a passion to win the world for His Savior.

The most powerful times during the conference were those times when 12,000 people in the arena were called to prayer. Imagine three or four thousands groups of three or four people calling on the Lord under the anointing of the Spirit, praying in their native tongues and crying out in an uninhibited manner. I have to go to the book of Acts, chapter 4, v. 31 for words to describe the situation: "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness." Such bold praying reminded me of prayer times during some of my own services in Seoul, South Korea, in Baguio City, The Philippines, in Plymouth, Indiana, in Martinsville, Virginia, in Summersville, West Virginia, and in Bozeman, Montana. As a divine response to such prevailing prayer, one felt a very "rending of the heavens!"

The Lord used "Amsterdam 2000" as a means of confirmation of my vision of revival. In fact, from the messages I heard and the seminars I attended, I realized that the Spirit is saying the same thing to His messengers all over the world: I am calling My people to prayer in preparation for the greatest and final revival and harvest before My Son returns! Sitting high up in the stadium, and alone, on Thursday night August 3, 2000, I felt the Lord close in on me and speak into my spirit: My son, you need not feel alone, small or insignificant in this grand place. I want you to know that I am pleased with you, as you have obeyed the vision of revival I entrusted to you 15 years ago. Now, go home and continue to preach and teach as you have in the past, and trust My Word and be true to the vision. Do not fear what man may try to do. I am with you, and I will not fail you. I am the God of vision and provision. Continue to pray and seek my anointing. Go only through the doors that I open. Call on Me and allow Me to show you great and mighty things. Keep humble before Me, and I will exalt you in due time.

What a peace and calm has been in my soul ever since! As important as it is to be affirmed by family members, fellow ministers of the Gospel and special prayer partners, I need more than anything to be confirmed by the Lord Himself. It meant everything to me to hear Him say that He was pleased with me. I flew back over the Atlantic with "joy unspeakable and full of glory," knowing that the time and money and energy invested in the conference was worth it all. I have enjoyed the past two weeks here in Dothan praying, studying and preparing for the fall tour of ministry in West Virginia, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Maryland, Arkansas and Florida. Rachel has now put the finishing touches to my latest book, The Spirit of Prayer, and it should be off the press in a few weeks. Anyone may pre-order by using the Resource List on the back.

Pastors and friends, let us go to prayer - Spirit-anointed prayer, passionate prayer, burdened prayer, believing prayer, bold prayer, prayers mixed with faith and tears and backed with fasting. If we will do this, we will see revival. God will visit our hearts and homes and churches and communities. And when this happens, the unsaved will suddenly become interested and we will reap a harvest of souls. Christians will start to forgive and love one another as the Lord taught. Believers will get sanctified holy. Marriages will be saved. Bodies will be healed. Miracles will happen. The whole community will start to praise God. This is revival, and it is our greatest need. It cannot come except by prayer. It is prayer time for the people of God.

-- James W. Tharp, Editor

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Revised: February 25, 2004.