Fire Starters

Franklinville, NC

Scott,
I am sending a few emails with photos from our Leadership Day Apart where we used your book. It has been an invaluable resource for us. We used it at our retreat as a way to focus us on God's plan for renewal in 2010 at Grays Chapel. Your online study questions were a great help in our break out sessions. Thank you for your phone calls and prayers in preparation for this retreat. Over the last few weeks your book has also been the fuel for a sermon series that has seen an amazing response from our congregations. (We will try and have these sermons online in the next week or two.) Our themes have been

Jan. 10th - "The God Who Answers by Fire"
Jan. 17th - "Healing and Restoration"
Jan. 24th - "A  Life of Compassion"
Jan. 31st - "The Land of More Than Enough"
Feb. 7th - "Your Latter Will Be Greater"

On  January 10th we offered a time of anointing for those who wished to have the Holy Spirit come into their life with fire to come forward. A most amazing thing happened as the entire congregation (nearly two hundred people) stood in unison to come forward. The center isle was filled for the next 20 minutes with people standing and working their way forward for anointing. God is doing an amazing thing among his people at Grays Chapel and we thank you for fanning the flames of this fire. In the weeks since we have seen an increase in those who are unchurched flooding into our sanctuary each week. On Feb. 14th we will start a third worship service during Sunday School to accommodate this increase. May God bless His church with the fire of the Holy Spirit to move us from the frozen chosen to flaming faithful. This is the time of awakening.

Depending on Christ,
Doug Miller
Lead Pastor - Grays Chapel UMC
Franklinville, NC

Austin, TX

A Texas pastor’s shocking act of humility has ushered in a powerful move of God at his church. Members of Promised Land Church in Austin were stunned when Kenneth Phillips preached about the need to root out pride-and suddenly removed the hairpiece he had worn for more than twenty years. “”People were absolutely shocked, and then they began to fall on their faces on the floor,” said Phillips’ son Randy, an associate minister at the two thousand-strong independent Pentecostal church. “Ever since then it has been the deepest, most intense worship we have ever known. God has completely turned this place upside down.”

The church has had to add a second Sunday morning service to copy with the increased attendance. More than two   hundred people have been baptized, and many others baptized in the Holy Spirit. There have been reports of healings, and churches across the country have requested copies of the video of the service that introduced what has become known as “The Austin Awakening.” The move has been characterized by intense worship and a deeper hunger for God.

New York City, NY

I believe our only hope is full-fledged, heaven-sent move of God that must begin somewhere with someone. It happened in 1859 in New York City with a forty-six-year-old businessman named Jeremiah Lamphier. All he did was call a noontime weekly prayer meeting where business people could meet for prayer. They began at the Old North Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street on September 23, 1857. The first day there were only six businessmen who showed up, and not all on time. But within six month there were hundreds of thousands of people prying in 150 prayer meetings across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Tell Your Story

 

Book Excerpts

We are calling a hiatus on sin and negative thinking, realizing that the God of the Bible-the God of Elijah-the God of fire is moving fire is moving across the world.

I believe we are again at the point in history where kingdoms are topping and cultures are yielding to the very potent influence of the Holy Spirit working in a Spirit-ignited church, a church born of Fire.

We are farther down the history of this world than we know. The time is now to be the prophetic voice with signs following, and to rescue a nation that has gone whoring after other gods. I challenge and summon the church in America to witness the God who answers by Fire.

Each person has a vision from God to discover.