Band of Survivors and the Staircase Revival
Friday, August 12, 2005
This summer 25 young adults from the Metropolitan Division of the Central Territory embarked on a month- long discipleship school known as Band of Survivors. Taking its name from 2 Kings 19:29-31, Band of Survivors participated in worship warfare, evangelism, service at local corps, Christian community, and studied the book of Acts. Each team member played a part in a prayer rotation that spanned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Connecting Survivors with the mission of the early Salvation Army was also a main focus of discipleship; Survivors read about the Army’s history, studied and even reenacted old Army texts such as William Booth’s “A Vision of the Lost,” and sang songs of praise and worship from the Salvation Army song book.
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I am giving you a personal account of what happened on July the 5th, 2005. That night the Band of Survivors led a youth meeting at the Salvation Army Blue Island Outpost on the South Side of Chicago during which they participated in prayer, testimony, worship, and gave a gospel challenge. I was thoroughly convicted of my iniquities throughout the meeting so I responded by humbling myself at the altar and prayed that God would forgive my poor, wretched, filthy soul. He quickly did. Another member of our team—who was enslaved by drugs and trapped in gang culture—came forward and sincerely accepted Christ as his Savior.
At the conclusion of the meeting four Survivors sang a simple gospel benediction:
O Lord, how excellent. How excellent is thy Name. There is none like You. Jesus, excellent is thy Name in all the earth.
The Holy Spirit stirred in a powerful way as they sang these words. One member of the quartet was particularly blessed as the Holy Spirit came down upon her. She glowed and tearfully sang. When the meeting concluded she left the chapel. I was concerned and felt she had unfinished business with the Lord. I took a picture of her with my digital camera as she sat weeping, outside the chapel.
The first picture did not turn out very well so I took another; this picture was incredibly bright and blurry.
As the congregation greeted and embraced each other, one rather serious team member approached me as I was staring, dumbfounded, at the aforementioned picture. He asked me what I was looking at and I immediately replied, “The Holy Spirit.” I was just as surprised by the comment as he was. Even so, his countenance soon melted and he surrendered his burdens to Christ, asking for forgiveness and for the strength to forgive his father, who had abandoned him.
After we finished praying I told him that our moment of healing was possible because I had asked for forgiveness; the Lord was rewarding me for repenting of sin and was encouraging me by allowing me to minister to him. I thought about how a spirit of repentance attracts the Holy Spirit. The two of us packed up our things and as we left the chapel, another team member ran to us and said we needed to see something. He sounded scared. We walked behind him and approached the distant sounds of wailing and screaming.
(Entering the unexpected presence of the Holy Spirit is like walking into a sauna. The sensation is overwhelming. Your pours explode. You feel alive.)
There were already a handful of Survivors there when we walked down the narrow, poorly-lit cement staircase to the basement of the Corps. At the bottom, the girl who had the Holy Spirit fall on her during the meeting (who I had taken those two pictures of) was held down by a few team members who were rocking with and praying for her.
The girl was convulsing, furious and shouted, “I am not yours! I am not yours! You are not my father! I will never love you!” She was only 14 years old and I assumed that she was rebuking an abusive past, perhaps a memory or situation she had long repressed. As she continued to be held on the cool, tiled, basement floor, the staircase gradually crowded with the twenty other Band of Survivors members. Soon I realized—with breath-stopping clarity—that she was not rebuking a father but was calling out the Devil himself.
She prayed these fervent prayers for well over an hour, howling: “I am not yours! I am a child of the light! I have been washed in the blood of my Savior!” Her radical, destructive, audacious faith had completely shamed me. I had never even thought about rebuking the Enemy with such audible frustration and aggression.
And then…there was an explosion of prayer. Each Band of Survivor member erupted in praise and petition of our Lord. Some prayed in Spanish, some in English, some sang songs or read scripture. Most wept. The Lord gave words of encouragement or prophesies. For over two hours the Band of Survivors prayed for their friends, family, Corps, for Chicago, Israel and for the revival of The Salvation Army. We had an “upper room experience” (see Acts 2) in a crowded, dark, old, brick staircase of a Corps basement.
Initially, I believed that we were going to be in that staircase for days, even weeks. I was about to make preparations for a long stay but the Spirit had other plans. We needed to go; to share; to live. We sang our theme song for the summer, a great old Army battle cry, “Storm the Forts of Darkness” (SASB #696). We were red hot in our faith and boldly proclaimed these words:
Warriors of the risen King,
Great Army of salvation,
Spread his fame, his praises sing
And conquer every nation.
Raise the glorious standard higher,
Work for victory, never tire;
Forward march with blood and fire,
And win the world for Jesus.
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That Staircase Revival was the beginning of an incredible summer for Band of Survivors. For in those moments the Holy Spirit convicted, comforted and strengthened us to be “Warriors of a Risen King”. The Spirit had sealed us for a great work; we saw people set free, salvations take place, Survivors transformed by the power of prayer and our team accept their great inheritance and mission as Salvationists.
Posted By: Eric at 1:23 PM : Link : 1 Comments
