 Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a new week, new session. Let's just begin this time with a word of prayer. So could one of us please lead us in prayer? Mr. Rupa, can you please lead us? Good morning, sir. Good morning. Good morning, friends. Father God, Father, we acknowledge Your presence in our midst, Lord. Holy Spirit God, thank You for Your work in each one of our lives, Master. Father, we commit this time at the throne of grace. We commit our hearts. Please open our hearts to receive Your teaching through Your servant, Lord. Bind us together, Lord. Father God, pour out Your power and presence and Your knowledge into our midst, Lord, that we may receive and perceive. Lord God, Father, we thank You and let Your will be done in our lives and let Your purposes be fulfilled through each one of us. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Rupa. Okay. Before we begin, let's just quickly do a review of what we did last week. So last week, we looked at chapter five. We looked at a few revival stories and how the revival that these people, that the Lord used, we also looked at a few reflections. So let's look at the first one. We looked at the Moravian revival and how in Germany, Counts ins and off a rich man through him, very young man, 27 years old, but through prayer and times of dedicated prayer and standing together in unity, we see that the Moravian revival went on for a hundred years. We looked at there was unity. They were responding to the Holy Spirit. None of them said, no, I don't want this happening. I don't know why the Holy Spirit is doing this. Nothing like that. They were responding to the work of the Holy Spirit. And also this movement fueled missions and revivals is the different parts of the world. And then we looked at the second great awakening as well, where we see that it went into North America and then college campuses saw revivals. And one of the precursors we saw to revival was consistent prayer movements. Now, something unique in all of these, not unique, but something common in all these revivals was the aspect of prayer. It was the aspect of prayer. And also we see that most of these revivals, there was unity because later on, we see that there was in certain revivals, there was divisions later on, misunderstandings, jealousies and all of that. But the main precursor for a revival was prayer and unity. We also looked at how God was able to use normal people, working class people and the layman's prayer revival in New York. What started off with about 10 or 12 people, six people initially went on to 20 and then 50. And then they saw almost 10,000 people all across New York. Coming in the afternoon at 12 noon, 12 o'clock one in the afternoon, praying for revival in New York. And this, again, this prayer movement was lasted for many years. And through this prayer movement came the whole aspect of ministry towards working class people. During this time, it was New York, America was going through a depression. Things were, business was low. The churches also were seeing a dampened state. But we see that God used this man, Jeremiah Landfier, a working professional. I just put a burden in his heart to start a prayer from 12 noon to 1 p.m. But little did he know that this prayer movement would sweep across America and touch thousands and thousands of lives. Later on, we see that the same prayer movement went into Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Britain, Netherlands, West Indies, South Africa. All these countries began to have a 12 to 1 p.m. prayer time. Did he, would he have pictured this? Maybe Jeremiah Landfier would have thought, okay, just a few friends, let's just get together and pray. He may have never thought that this would turn into a revival. The whole point of coming together was, God, just help us get back to our feet. As a nation, we have gone away from you. As a nation, we are deprived. As a people, we are sinful. So God put this in his heart. And here's the important thing. He was obedient to that. And he didn't say, okay, 12 to 1 is our resting time. Or 12 to 1 is who's going to come. It's a working day. Who's going to come? But with the six people who came, Jeremiah Landfier took this whole prayer revival to another level. Thousands of people gathered together in prayer. So we see something that took off through this was, God used just lay men. None of them were pastors. There was no pastors. There were no preachers. We see that in that revival later on, pastors, evangelists, those who are in the ministry would try, would come in and attend these prayer meetings because they wanted that spark of revival in their own hearts and then in their own churches as well. So God used just lay people, regular people to do, to start a revival here. And also we see that newspapers played a very important role. People started reading the newspaper saying, Hey, there's something happening 12 to 1 o'clock. There are thousands of people gathering in prayer. And then news reporters would put this on their newspapers, news channels. And so there was a global impact. But I'm sure Jeremiah Landfier wouldn't have thought of all of that. He would have just said, okay, let's start prayer. And then we looked at the Welsh revival, how God used Evan Roberts, a coal miner's son, simple young man, but completely dedicated to God. He joined the Bible College. And after the Bible College, he was so much in fire for God that he went back to his hometown, began to preach to the students and the youth there. And we see that through this Welsh revival, people came at four o'clock in the morning. They didn't want to go back home. The first five weeks saw 20,000, 30,000 people in attendance. But more of all, the outcome of this Welsh revival was extremely impactful. Towards the end of last class, we saw that Taverns were closed. Drunkenness was dropped to a half. There was no crime. The police had no work. So they would join the singing team in the church and the coal miners wouldn't use bad language. And so everything, there was a complete change. And the moral standards of people in Welsh. And many years later, we also see that one of the things that Evan Roberts didn't do was because of his pressure of his schedule and rigorous ministries traveling to places, he did not take care of himself. And he went through a difficult time physically, mentally. He almost went into a place of mental pressure being so much that he almost went into an emotional collapse. But he was able to revive from that. He spent the rest of his years just writing books and all of it. But eventually the Welsh revival lasted for some time, but then it just dampened out. The news reporter asked Evan Roberts, can we see a revival like we saw during your time, during your youth when there were 20, 30,000 people every Sunday's meeting and people crying and wailing and asking God for forgiveness. Can we see that? Evan Roberts said, we can see it, but who's willing to pay the price? Who's willing to pay the price? And so what the reflection that we see from this or the learnings from this is, Evan Roberts prayed for seven years for revival. He was surrendered to God, he wanted to pursue God. He was an uncommon person, not a son of a preacher or a pastor or anything, just an uncommon, a coal miner's son. And we see that here the Holy Spirit began to bring fruit into people's lives. And so it's so wonderful to study all of this, to see how God is using these simple people, yet he's able to empower them with such a power, such an anointing that is able to impact entire nations, people who are in small cities, small towns, impacting the entire nation. So we stopped here. From today, we'll just pick up on two more revivals and we'll take a few reflections from that, and then we will bring this chapter to a close. And so we can, you know, the main point of this chapter is to have a few takeaways from each revival. Now we're not going entirely in-depth into the revivals in the sense that we're not studying about what are the books they wrote, because all these revivalists wrote many books from their experiences as well. So we're not going deep into that. We're not going into deep into events that happened, but we're just doing an overview so that we can have some takeaways. So 1905, I'm on page 70. We did touch upon the Mukti Mission revival and Pandit Ramabai. So we know that Pandit Ramabai, she was a Brahmin girl. She gave her life to the Lord. She started a house for Brahmin widows in Mumbai. And it had about a hundred children. And then from there she started another home in Pune, which is called the Mukti Mission. And that had 2,000 girls. Now these girls were young girls who were married off to rich Brahmin, older men. And then they would die. And so these girls had nothing to do, very young in life. So Pandit Ramabai would take them into the orphanage. But what she would also do is it was not just kind of a shelter home or something, but she would pray, she would get everyone together and she would pray for revival. She said, it is said that many of those Brahmins didn't know what is revival. Because Pandit Ramabai, she would spend a lot of time reading about these other revivals. The Great Awakening, the first revival, the Korean revival that inspired her. And Hudson Taylor was one of her inspiration where he went into China and did great work there as well. So she was very keen on seeing a revival. So she would ask these girls, these Brahmin girls, why don't we pray for revival? And they said that those girls wouldn't even know what is the meaning of revival. And she knew it that they didn't know. But she would just say, let's pray for revival. And so she would get around all of them up, 2,000 people, children or girls, young girls praying for revival, praying for an outspouring. It is said that Pandit Ramabai would do that every day in the morning, the afternoon and in the evening. Then she would go back to her home or her room and she would spend many hours praying, many hours fasting and praying for revival. And eventually they began to see a move of God. These Brahmin girls who didn't know what is revival, didn't know much about Christianity, she began to teach them about the word of God. So she realized, okay, we need to teach the word of God to the girls. So she would spend many hours studying and teaching and preparing the girls. All of a sudden there was an outpouring. The Holy Spirit moved in that place. The girls fell under conviction. About 1,200 girls were baptized in two months. Picture this, 1,200 Brahmin girls were baptized in two months. So Pandit Ramabai also heard of the well-survival and what was happening there. So she was encouraged even more. She said, okay, what we're going to do now is, now we've received the Holy Spirit, now we have come into the Lord, she made teams of prayer groups, 10 girls in each team. Now you go ahead and pray for this purpose. She would make prayer points and give each of them prayer points to pray for. And so there were girls praying in groups throughout the day. About 30 young women met at Mukti Mission to pray for the Holy Spirit. And then they would evangelize. The Holy Spirit would move powerfully among the girls. And then slowly these people, these young women would go out and minister to other people. Now picture this, this is the early 1900s. This is India. Now imagine you've got some young girls probably in their early 20s filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, completely on fire for God and they're making groups and they're going out onto the streets and evangelizing. Now firstly, it's India. Secondly, they are women. If you read about the history of India, women were not considered people who should be going out. They were more, you know, they had to be at home and they were looked down upon and, you know, they still had that kind of a culture. These are Brahmin girls who have become Christians and they're going out to preach. But what happened? People were moved to tears. People began to pray. People began to see visions. They fell on their face. You know, others started seeing visions of Jesus. The meetings went on nonstop for 17 hours. Now these young girls would take turns, you know. So we read more about the Mukti Mission. What they would do is they had no instruments because they were only young girls and not many of them knew. It is said that they would come. A group of ten would sing. The moment they would finish the first song, you know, by the time they finished the first song, already people are crying. Already people have fallen on their, you know, fallen off their seats crying, weeping under conviction. Before the first song ends. So they would open it up. People would come in front. They would cry out their prayer. Then that would go on for a couple of hours. Then another group would come sing another song. And then they would sing that song. Again, there's another group of people under conviction. So this went on and on. 17 hours in a day. Repentance, conviction of sins, speaking in tongues, dreams, visions. There were stories of people prophesying. There were stories of miraculous supply of food and, you know, God's intervention for the women in the Mukti Mission. So it's so powerful to hear this. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was so evident in that place. It is said that people who walked on that street would be so convicted that they would fall off on the streets. And so people would run out, hey, there's some people falling and they're crying on the street. They don't know why. People outside don't know why they're crying, but these who are inside you. So they would go and carry them and bring them in and then pray for them. And they would, you know, they would become believers accepting the Lord. And so this was the kind of move that was happening. It is also said that people began to see visions of Jesus. They felt that Jesus was right there in that auditorium next to each of them. They felt that, you know, a burning sensation on them. At times they felt, you know, like rain being poured out on them. So it was a, you know, complete mixed emotions. The Holy Spirit was working in different ways. There were times, four hours they would feel a burning sensation in their body. Next, a couple of hours they would feel like the rain of the Holy Spirit. So it was a powerful time. 10,000, 15,000 people would gather to hear insignificant Brahmin widows to come and preach the word of God. 15,000, 20,000 people. One of the problems that they had was they couldn't find place to, you know, to have these meetings. So they said, okay, we divide these meetings. We will send one group of people to this place, 10, maybe 10 girls to this place, another group to this place. And so they were divided. So, you know, it doesn't, they don't have to come to one place. Many Westerners came to the Mukti Mission. One of them was an American Methodist missionary named Minnie Abraham. And she writes a book, and this was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And in that book she writes, it was as if we felt we were in heaven. It was, it was as if God was moving in our midst, walking in our midst during the meetings. Minnie Abraham herself, she came to write about it. She was a, you know, Methodist preacher. And she saw all of this and she said, this is a genuine work of God. This is what happens. And there is an outpouring of the Spirit. This is what happens. This is what happened in the Book of Acts. People said that, you know, a lot of these Brahmin widows, even though they were young, they went through a lot of physical ill treatment. So they had bruises. They had pains in their bodies during their time of marriage with these older men. They would sexually abuse them. But during the meetings, they were all healed. Nobody prayed for them. Just the Holy Spirit moving on them and they were all healed. This revival that happened in a small town in Pune. And then these Methodist American preachers writes about it. And this whole revival spreads to different parts of the world. What happened? This woman played a very significant role in the Mukti mission. She was willing to take up the task that God had given her. It was not easy. Picture this. It's not easy being a woman firstly. Two, you got Brahmins who have been converted and it's not an easy task, but she was faithful. One of the important things that happened in this Mukti mission. One was prayer and two was teaching of the Word of God. They completely relied on the Word of God. So let's look at a few reflections that we can take from this. Once again, just like every other revival, prayer was the precursor. They saw a deep hunger and they had a deep longing for the presence of God. Pandit Ramabai, she would go into a room and spend many hours praying and seeking God saying, God, you need to do something in this place. A deep hunger, a deep desire for God. Secondly, Pandit Ramabai stewarded that revival in the right way. The word steward means to look after. We use the term steward what God has given to us. So she stewarded the revival in the right way, which means that when there was this, she was praying for revival, but when the revival slowly sparked, she didn't go and announce it to everyone, okay, revival is happening here. She just kept calm. And when they are pouring, the revival just overflowed. That's when she was able to, she told everyone, okay, and everyone got to know that this was a revival. And we see that she was able to consolidate the work. She didn't say, I'm only the leader. I should be there everywhere. No, she made teams of 10 people everywhere and the work was consolidated. And three, we see that the spreading of the revival was done only by Bible women who went and evangelized and spread the fire of revival. So God is able to use anyone. It does not matter. It doesn't need to be a man. God can use women. Simple women. All we need is the desire or deep hunger for God. God is able to move in our hearts. So that was some very important learnings from Pandit Ramabai's life. And even now, what happens there is, I'm not sure if they've renamed the place. I didn't look it up. But one thing I do know is there are homes in Pune and Mumbai, which house of widowed women and there they teach them the word of God and they teach them about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. So those things are still happening. But we don't know whether they still have these times of prayer morning, afternoon and evening like how Pandit Ramabai did. So we see that God used this woman powerfully. Okay, let's look at the last one, the Azusa Street Revival. Now this was also one of the most famous revivals that we can read of. The first thing that comes to our mind when we say, yes, Mangi has raised your hand. Go ahead, Mangi. Thank you, sir. Pastor, I just have a question. My question is what's the difference between revival and someone who doesn't know Christ, knowing Christ for the first time, because when you are teaching and instructing us about revival, it feels like it is kind of the same thing where people get filled with the Holy Spirit, they go out and preaching and then people get to meet Jesus. So please, can you help us with the difference between revival and someone being born again? Thank you, sir. That's a good question, Mangi. Thank you. Right, so here's the thing. The word revival means to revive something, right? We looked at that, something that's already taking place to bring it back to life. So for example, if somebody is swimming and they're drowning, and then they've lost breath and then you save them, what do they do? They try to revive that person back to life. So, Mangi, revival is basically, see, what happened in the book of Acts was evangelism, the move of the Holy Spirit, right? And we see that there was an outpouring of God, right? Many lives touched the, you know, the disciples, you know, told the world upside down, they went, they evangelized, and the ministry was going well. But like what we studied was in the first century, it was doing well. But then slowly the Roman Catholic Church came and there was a complete oppression towards the gifts of the spirit and things that were happening in the church was completely turned away, right? There was like what we studied, right? We studied that, you know, the believers could not have their own Bible. And so many of them gave their life just for, you know, writing the Bibles and all of that. So, they, the people that God used were revivalists, right? Martin Luther, when he did the 95 theses, they wanted to revive the church in the sense that they said, hey, this is not what the church is meant for. When we look at the book of Acts, right, the Holy Spirit fell on everyone and there was a move of the Holy Spirit. But now we don't see it happening. And so the, you know, Martin Luther said, we are saved not by the Catholic church or the Catholic system, but we are saved by faith through, you know, through Jesus Christ. So that was his main message. So what they wanted to do was they were revivalists trying to revive the church as to what it should be, right? Now, when they were trying to do that, there was a revival in the sense that, okay, people began to see the truth, which is what? Okay, it is not, this is not how the church is supposed to be. But, you know, the church has been revived. And so many people began to accept the truth. Now during a revival, it could be that, you know, Christians who are living an empty life, a dry life, they don't really know God. They have been revived back with the power of the Holy Spirit. They've been revived back. They're thinking their understanding of ministry or Christian, the religion as a whole, their work with everything has been revived back, right? And also the Holy Spirit has touched many other lives who are not believers, right? So for example, if you see during the first and the second century, there were many people who were not believers, right? If you look at, you know, nations like Africa and even India and Sri Lanka, where we see that people wanted to revive the church. But the outcome was not only did the church get revived where believers got to know their true identity, but also unbelievers began to come under the conviction of God. So to answer your question, Maggie, what you're expressing is revival is a fact of, you know, now their mindset was, I want to bring back, you know, the way the church should be, right, as in the scriptures. Now they were revivalists. Their focus was to get the church back to moving in power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And with that in mind, the Holy Spirit began to move on everyone, right? So for example, if we see in Africa, in China, during the communist time, Hudson Taylor, they wanted to, they went there or the aspect of, okay, they went as missionaries, right? So they went there to teach the church, to, you know, impact the church, to teach them on the word of God, to teach them on the gifts of the Holy Spirit or whatever. They went to teach the church. But they, because with what they were doing, they had this deep hunger, God, do something more. And so what happened? People in China, whether they were believers or unbelievers, all started to get, you know, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and all of them began to, you know, accept the Lord Jesus as their personal savior. So they didn't go with the mindset of, okay, we want revival, we want revival, right? Like meaning thousands of people should come and maybe that was not the mindset. The mindset was more of, let's get back to God, right? Let's get back to God. And the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring conviction, right? So for example, what we just studied here in Pandit Ramabai's case, she prayed that there will be a move of God, right? She was a believer. She took in these Brahmins, right? But she prayed for a move of God, for her life and for the church in general and for the place in that she's housing these girls, right? And the Holy Spirit came and convicted all of them. Now through this revival, we see that other churches were impacted. Other ministries were impacted in different countries. So to sum it up, Maggie, I would say that the focus when we say revival, now for example, we are praying in, Maggie, you're in Africa. So you're praying, God, revive the church. You know, the church is doing so much here. So many wrong things are happening. So we are praying for Africa. Now, not only will the church, the believers come back to God with a true, you know, repentance, but there may be Muslims and people from other religions, Hindus, Muslims and people from other religions. Because of the move of the Holy Spirit, even they will confess their sins. They will come to know the work of God and they will come to know the God saving grace and they will be pulled in, meaning they will accept the Lord Jesus as well. So that the Holy Spirit is not contained to one church, right? And we see here that it spread to different places. So I hope that answers your question, Maggie. Do you have any follow up question? Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. That's awesome. Okay. Thank you. Yes. All right. So let's look at William J. Seymour, William Joseph Seymour, the Azusa Street revival. Now, the Azusa Street revival is one of the most famous revival. So, you know, when I was studying in Bible college, when the first time I read about the Azusa Street revival, I was so much impacted with it. I will never forget his name, you know, in the notes that we had when we were studying it was William J. Seymour. So only later on I came to know it was Joseph Seymour. So William J. Seymour, the Azusa Street revival. Everyone would know that, right? Because God did a powerful work through a black man, right? So let's study about this Azusa Street revival. William Seymour was born of Louisiana parents who were slaves, right? At a young age, he contracted smallpox and he lost his eyesight in one eye. But he was very fervent for the word. He was, you know, he always loved the gospel. He loved to preach the gospel. And so he began as an evangelist going to many places. And as he was growing up, you know, a friend of his told him, okay, you're such a good preacher. Why don't you join a Bible college so that you can study more of the word. And then after you study, you can be, you know, God can use you even more. So he said, okay, and he joined a Bible college. And in that Bible college, they were teaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, this Bible college was in Texas. And so he was not allowed to sit with the whites, right? Remember, the blacks were considered slaves, the whites and the blacks were always separated. And so the whites were sitting in the class. He would have to sit in the corridor with a few other blacks and they would listen to the lectures that were happening. And so William J. Seymour was very fervent. He would sit in the class, take notes and he would listen to each and everything that was being taught. And it would just be like a, you know, like a funnel just receiving everything that was being taught. And they began to study about revivals and that really touched him. He said, if God has moved this way in North America and the first awakening and God has used these people, God can use me also to, you know, to touch many lives. And so William J. Seymour, even before he graduated from Bible college, a friend of his said, invited him to a church to preach to another church. And so he went and he preached and he delivered a powerful message on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But the problem was this church was not a charismatic church. It was just a, you know, a regular church that did not believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a traditional church. But he went and gave them a strong sermon on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And he thought to himself, you know, God is going to move. But eventually, you know, they asked him to, you know, they never called him back because it was something that was above their understanding. And so he was no longer part of that church also. They were asked to, he was asked to leave that place. And so another friend of his gives him a small room in his home and William J. Seymour starts off with a Bible study and prayer meetings, weekly Bible study and prayer meetings. And all of a sudden those prayer meetings, which started with 15 African Americans, there was a powerful visitation of the move of God. The Holy Spirit began to just all of a sudden fall on people. They were beginning to speak in tongues and, you know, William J. Seymour would lay hands on people and they would just fall on the ground. And there was another woman named Jenny Moore who spoke six languages and she would play the piano and sing in tongues. Now eventually it became 50, 60 people and they had to move out of that place. And so they took up another small place and their prayer meetings went on from morning to afternoon. So they would have the worship and then they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Same thing. They would fall on the floor like that. They would speak in tongues. People on the streets would hear that and come in and they would be convicted of the Holy Spirit. And the ministry began to grow. So they needed a place to, you know, have their regular services. So in Azusa Street, now if we look at pictures and, you know, Azusa Street is like a main road. And parallel to that main road is these, you know, the streets. And so it was a corner's place, Azusa Street, a dilapidated building which was partly burned down. And so William J. Seymour took this place. He used it. There was like a ground floor and then there was a first floor and then a room on top. So he would use the ground floor for prayers. The top floor was for meetings, meaning the staff meetings and all of that, and Sunday school. And then the floor above that was where he would stay. And so the whole movement started to spread powerfully. Now here's the thing. People from different cultures, different background, different races, different ethnicities would come for this revival. They said that it came to a point that even whites, white people came to the church, right? In that street corner, that small place, which could house actually only about 1,000 people. They were cramping up with almost 2,000, 3,000 people. William J. Seymour said, this is not happening. We need to do something about it. So he would have a morning service. He would have an early morning service, then a mid-morning and an afternoon and evening, and then a night service. And this was every day. So on a daily basis, they had about 15,000 people coming in and going, coming in and going. So it was like, you know, which service did you attend? Oh, I attended the early morning service. Which was you attend? Okay. I'll attend the evening because I didn't get place in the morning. So that was the atmosphere that time. The whole day services are going on. So people would come, people would go. At times people wouldn't go because the anointing was so much, the move of God was so much. It just stayed there itself. The unfortunate part was they could not find a bigger space. And even if they did find, they did not have the finances, you know, because they were, see another thing was they were black. So they were not given preference. And now you've got people coming from different races, different cultures coming in and setting for those prayers. God is moving powerfully. It is said that in the Azusa street, the corners at 5 a.m., people would come with their umbrellas and they would stand and wait for the church doors to open. And the team and Azusa's, sorry, William J. Seymour had a team of people. The moment they would come open the door, people were just strong inside that place. They would stand outside waiting in the rain. Some of them would come early because they would have to go to work. So they want to finish the morning service and they would go. Now, this is not only on Sundays. This is every day. Every day, thousands of people, 15,000, 20,000 people picture this in a street corner. What's happening? News channels are there. News reporters are there. There's revival happening in Azusa street. God is using a black man to impact the lives of so many whites and so many people. There was a, there was a, you know, the Daily Times wrote, Azusa street is the center of attraction for the entire city and the nation. A small, narrow lane, you know, a burnt building. You know, they asked William J. Seymour, why don't you repair this place? And he said, if I, if I try to repair this place or get it renovated, where will we have our services? So leave it as it is. Thousands of people are coming. I can't stop them. More than the, you know, the infrastructure, they're seeing a move of God. So let it be so. When we dig deeper into the Azusa street revival, William J. Seymour went to many places for to get a, you know, a bigger piece of land. But since he was a black, he was not given a place. People denied him. But still God's favor was upon him. There were people who were, who had become believers who were well off. And so they would give to God, give to his ministry. And so he was able to, you know, form a team. He was able to have paid staff. He was able to, you know, house these places, you know, to keep the church open the entire day, seven days a week. So that was a blessing for him. Now, what are the things that we learned from this revival, right? William J. Seymour was a man intense, with intense hunger for God. Even as a young man, we see that his, his, you know, his standing in society did not stop him from knowing God, even though he had to sit outside the corridors for the Bible school. There was no self pity. Oh, I'm like this. How can God use me? No. He said, God is able to, if God has used people before, he's able to use me. So he was so intense for God. He was fasting and praying. You know, while praying, he would spend five hours a day in prayer, five hours a day. And then one day he was, you know, as he was praying, the Holy Spirit ministered to him and said, if you want to see revival, you need the work of the Holy Spirit. And he said, okay, I want to move my prayer from five hours to seven hours. So seven hours a day he would pray and this happened for two years, continuously seven hours a day. And we've said this so many times. Our public ministry reflects only what happens in private. Here we see why is it that 10,000, 15,000 people are coming to a corner of a street standing with umbrellas of the rain early morning to this burnt building with no facilities, nothing, to a black man's church. Why is it that they're coming and standing there? It was nothing, you know, if you see pictures of William J. Seymour, he was a stout man, very his eyes, one eye was like kind of a bulged since it, because of smallpox. He had a lot of, you know, spots on his face. One of the eyes was blinded and so his eyes was all bulged out and very offensive looking kind of a person. Why is it that 15,000 odd people are coming every day to listen to this man? Because when he goes back home, he's praying five to seven hours a day. So they're not coming to see William J. Seymour, they're coming because of what he carries with him. He was a man steeped in prayer, day in and day out. The most important work or the most important mission of Azusa's ministry was prayer. Even as he, you know, there were times that Seymour spent most of his time behind the pulpit praying. And there were instances that we read that, you know, they would finish the worship, all of it. William J. Seymour was a stout man, so he was short and stout. And so by the time he would come up from the chair to the pulpit, he would stand and he would open his Bible. And by the time he opened his Bible, there would be a deep sense of conviction in people. They would begin to cry and beep and they would all, you know, come in front. He wouldn't have even started preaching. So William J. Seymour himself says there are times I've prepared for four or five hours on a sermon but I've not even been able to preach it. Because remember earlier on he loved to preach, but he didn't get much opportunities to preach because the move of God was so powerful. Every time he would go, people would just fall off, even because of the anointing that he carried. But yes, later on what he did was he also started Bible studies, home groups and all of it where people could meet together and study the word of God. So one of the other things that we noticed was the services in Azusa was spontaneous. There was no special choirs or special singers and all of that. What was happening there was, if God is moving in a certain way, all of them would be in line with that. The local church pastors, evangelists, preachers, they would all come to Azusa Street. Why? Because they wanted to carry that spark and go back to their churches. And many churches saw that many pastors, evangelists, they carried that fire. Their churches began to grow bringing, you know, attendance to thousands each week. The most important aspect is here races mixed together and they were worshiping God together, which didn't happen during the early 1900s. Another important thing was William J. Seymour planned and organized this thing. He had regular staff, he had regular volunteers, he had membership, he had a statement of faith, he had an accountant. He had children's church, he had organized teams, organized volunteers. He had a director of missions and so it was very organized. It was not random. Even though what was happening in the services was God was moving in his own way, he had a good team, volunteer staff, directors, director of missions and all of these things. They had pastoral meetings, staff meetings. It is said that their staff meetings would have about 600 people, meaning staff and other pastors also began to come, pastors and evangelists. So you didn't know what to do, you didn't have place to have these meetings on top, which is the office kind of place where they would meet in the church. The moment they would come down to the church, the presence of God was so powerful that they could not even have the meetings. But here's what happened towards the end of this ministry. There was strife. There was jealousy. Some things had to, you know, this whole thing of the organization caused problems. There was, you know, criticisms, misunderstandings. People started saying, how can the blacks be with the whites or how can this happen? This is not of God. How can, you know, so a lot of ministries had to close down. Eventually, the revival fire was completely dampened. You know what happened in the end? It was one of the most sorrowful stories. Azusa Street revival was completely dampened. The church in the end had about 10 people, 10 blacks people sitting in the church, 10 or 12 people sitting in the church. And William J. Seymour continued to pastor that church till his death. But the ending was very sad. God used this insignificant person, a black person, so powerfully. But we see that he had good organization, good structure, good leadership, but jealousy, pride, organizational values came higher to the work of God. And so the revival was dampened. It was a sad ending. But the ministry did make a large impact over different nations spreading revival across the world. Right, so we will close with this. We have completed this chapter. Sorry, I've taken a few extra minutes. So we'll pick up from tomorrow. Let's just close in prayer. Okay. Father, we want to thank you for today's class. We want to thank you for all that we've learned to God. Lord, it's such a joy that you choose to be unqualified, to be qualified in your presence to God. Lord, what a joy it is to serve you. And I pray God that each one of us will have this desire, this hunger for more of you in our lives, that we will spend time in prayer, worship, reading of your word. And Lord, that you will use each of us in the ways you want to use us a God. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for the work of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives. And I pray for each and every student, Lord, that you will continue to, Lord, bring your word, bring revelations into each of their hearts a God. Be with them throughout this entire week, Lord, as they study, may your word bring life into their spirits. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Sorry, I took an extra time. Have a great day ahead. God bless.