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Reflections on Azusa Street Revival 1906
by Gary Sonmore
 One hundred years ago, in Mid-April 1906, God began to pour out His Holy Spirit on a small group of people in Los Angeles, California. These people were on their knees crying out for God to move, and more specifically to move upon them as He did in Acts 2 some nineteen hundred years earlier. The “Baptism of the Spirit”, speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit operating in peoples lives, was almost non-existent. There is little account of anyone operating in these gifts throughout almost two millennia.
I’m sure there were many that were filled, and did move in the various gifts, but
there is no real account of this, and it was not something that was active in the
churches or denominations.
But in April, God did answer their prayer, and the Azusa Street Revival broke forth. The power of the Holy Spirit began to overwhelm people and “utterances” in known and unknown languages were spoken forth daily. From this, the word soon spread, and thousands of people from around the world flocked to Los Angeles to see… to
feel… to be touched… to be filled.
 This revival then spread throughout North America and to the rest of the world. Whether in Africa, Europe, China or South America, most Spirit filled churches and denominations have a connection to this great event. Many phenomenal stories and accounts were told and written, and still echo in these circles. In late April 2006, tens of thousands of people from every continent came to Los Angeles to celebrating this
Centennial.
The convention centers were full and much excitement marked the occasion. Most of the major, well-known high profile charismatic ministries were there. This is their Mecca and they were having an epiphany. Christian radio and television stations like Daystar broadcasted live the various events. It’s was big… really big. Most Pentecostal denominations from Assembly of God, Four Square, Church of God, United Pentecostal, and most other independent Pentecostal or Charismatic type churches, look back to this event as the birth place of their denomination.
 Even though I am not a part of any of those denominations or churches that find their roots in this move, I look at this revival with fondness and have a personal historic connection with it. I do believe that God ordained it and that He chose Los Angeles, California in April of 1906, William Seymour and that certain group of people, to sovereignly move upon and begin to restore once again the Baptism and giftings of the Holy Spirit. He could have done it at a different time, in another place, to another people; but He chose then, and there, and them.
Many are there today in hopes of a reviving of the revival of a hundred years ago. Some hope that God will move once again in that place. I am not there. I do not worship that place, or the ones that God moved upon at that time; but I do recognize what God was doing there.
The connection that I have is not just to this single event; but this event is just a piece of what If time plan of God that began with Martin Luther and is concluding in the day that we now live. I don’t understand or even know all of the events of this past five hundred year plan, but I am thrilled in my spirit with the sense of it. And even more so, that we are privileged to live in the final days and years of this great plan.
In a nut shell let me give you a further glimpse into this plan. In the early 1500’s, Martin Luther saw the fallacy, deception and religiosity within the Catholic System. God spoke to him that we can not buy our salvation with money or by our association with some religious organization; but that we are saved by grace and justified through faith in Jesus Christ. From this bold move.
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the Reformation was birthed, and this truth of God was re-established. This gave platform to the Protestant movement and many like Zwingli, Calvin, Tyndale, Knox, Fox and thousands of other ministers of the true Gospel. Some of these great men and women even paid with their lives for speaking truth and not backing down to the decrees of Rome. Then in the 1700’s, John Wesley along with others spoke about the need for holiness and sanctification. This birthed the Holiness Movement that was a much needed step in preparing the way for the healing revivals of the 1800’s and Wales and Azusa Revivals of the early 1900’s. I believe all of these were God’s stepping stones and building blocks that we today still stand upon. We may not know our history, or may not even sense any connection to these great men or great moves; yet they are there, and I believe played a critical role in paving the way and provided a foundation for the next great revival to stand upon.
God is so amazing and so wonderful.
An interesting note is that these men that I’ve mentioned, who played such a central role in these moves, would most certainly turn over in their grave today if they saw the organizations and religious systems, and unfortunately the people and doctrines, that have come out of these moves. They would be the first to stand on top of their pulpits and decry ICABOD. They paid a great price, in most cases, to come out of a status quo religious system. Yet their followers, in maybe even an innocent attempt to capture the move or not lose the theme of the message, created just another organization that failed in this very objective.
These “revivals” over the past five-hundred years are not isolated, disconnected moves of God; but single pieces in the more comprehensive, progressive full-salvation process of God. It’s beautiful… it’s glorious.
There was another great move of the Spirit of God that occurred in the last century that is as much or more crucial to the overall plan of God. This is the Latter Rain Revival that broke out in a small Bible school in North Battleford, Canada in February of 1948. In this move, God began to establish prophetically the message of the “Overcomer” and of “Sonship.” Some of the key individuals were George and Ern Hawtin, P. G. Hunt and George Warnock. George Warnock was in his early thirties and was not necessarily a part of the main ministry there; however, God anointed Brother Warnock to capture in his book, The Feast of Tabernacles, the essence of what God was speaking in the midst of those gatherings. Though written in 1949, this book is still central in my heart and I believe plays a key role in this same five hundred year plan of God. www.georgewarnock.com
The Pentecostal denominations were well established by the 1940’s, and God did not intend to stop there and camp around the manifestations of the Spirit. God established that as a stepping stone to His final feast. He wanted to go beyond Pentecost into The Feast of Tabernacles. Each of these three feasts were but types and shadows, and correlated directly with the three courts of the Tabernacle itself. God was physically expressing the pattern through these elements and events. God was hiding Himself in plain site. And to those that would seek it out, He was revealing clearly His ultimate plan when He would finally restore man to a place where He could tabernacle Himself within man.
Rev. 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Please note that there are not two feasts, or four feasts, or twenty feasts, there are THREE; and three courts as well. This third court, the Holy of Holies, was where the glory, presence and fullness of God dwelt. All else was only in measure. But the veil was rent, and entrance was made through Christ for man to partake of His glory and presence in the Holy of Holies. And the time of the third feast, and this third court, is now at hand.
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Praise God for Salvation by Grace. Praise God for the call to holiness. Thank the Lord for the understanding of divine healing. Praise God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, tongues, prophecy, miracles and all the gifts of the Spirit. All these are integral to the capstone of Sonship. Not only did Christ come to bring salvation to our souls, but to bring salvation and full redemption to our entire beings.
But this Latter Rain move was rejected early by the Pentecostal denominations, first because it happened outside of their organizations, and later on, because of what they perceived to be the Manifested Sons of God doctrine. And their suspicions were confirmed when they were provided the ammunition they needed by remnant offshoot groups that erroneously proclaimed their perfection, not understanding the process or the timing of God. This blacklisting by the mainstream churches has done more damage to prevent people from even having the opportunity to hear the revelation that God brought forth through this revival.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God…(For) the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit (Pentecost), even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Tabernacles). What do these scriptures mean to those that reject this doctrine? It’s ironic the similarities between how the Evangelicals reject the truth of the gifts of the Spirit birthed out of Azusa Street, to how the Pentecostals have rejected the truths birthed out of Latter Rain. If you do a search on the Internet today under “Latter Rain” you will find more derogatory information than supportive.
Just as most Pentecostal denominations came out of the Azusa Street Revival, most “End-time”, “Kingdom”, “Sonship” groups were birthed out of, or have some link to, this great revival in North Battleford. Again, just as with prior moves, Satan was right there to derail and to plant seeds of doctrinal or systematic destruction. We can point to each move and show where they went amiss. But let us not throw the baby out with the bath water lest we miss the import of God’s beautiful plan and gifts made available to us as Believers. Eternal Life would have been enough, but oh how great a salvation it was that in the redemptive plan of God there is also restoration both of man and earth. And such plan could not be accomplished without the putting under foot of the Adversary, and the arresting of sin and death (I Cor. 15:25-26).
Just as from these moves of God came organizations, denominations, systems of men, doctrinal error, even deception, it is important to recognize the truths of God that He Himself established through the lives that He set apart to sovereignly move upon to bring revival. Maybe you have felt that these past moves had no relevance to you or to where we are going in God. Our tendency may be to write-off or reject these moves because of what has come out of them, starting in the Spirit and seemingly ending in the flesh. But I think we must take a second look, and allow God to show us and separate for us the true purpose and plan of God in these events, from those things that were sown by others that God never intended to be sown. Certainly our future growth in God is not dependant on events of the past; however, to understand what happened and what God was birthing, and to have an appreciation for those that braved new territory in the Spirit is a good thing. They are our brethren. They are those that are now a part of that great cloud of witnesses cheering us on unto the final sealing of the Saints of God. Praise His Holy Name! They may not have seen the full revelation, but I want to believe that they do now. They served an integral part of God’s Great Redemptive Plan, and therefore they too shall have their portion.
His plan of Salvation was not just to give us heaven, but that when he shall appear, we shall be like him and He will come bringing many sons unto glory. May God help us not to fall short of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Praise God!
Gary Sonmore
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