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Wednesday 16 February 2022

Spirit Inspire: WIlliam Seymour—The Catalyst Of Pentecost | Digitalk World




The Protestant reformation began with Martin Luther in Wittenburg, Germany, in a broken-down building in the midst of the public square—a humble beginning for a revival that would shake the world. D’Aubigne described that place 1: In the middle of the square at Wittenberg stood an ancient wooden chapel, thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, whose walls, propped up on all sides, were falling into ruin. An old pulpit made of planks, and three feet high, received the preacher.  

It was in this wretched place that the preaching of the Reformation began. It was God’s will that that which was to restore His glory should have the humblest surroundings. It was in this wretched enclosure that God willed, so to speak, that His well-beloved Son should be born a second  time. Among those thousands of cathedrals and parish churches with which the world is filled, there was not one at that time which God chose for the glorious preaching of eternal life. Similarly, a few hundred years later on  a dead-end street in the middle of the industrial section of Los Angeles, California, the beginning of the Pentecostal movement would begin in a humble, former Methodist church  building at 312 Azusa Street. In that modest building, an unassuming group of racially mixed folk who were hungry for the presence of God would experience the Pentecostal fire falling upon them.  The leader was not a theologian with a compelling presence or commanding speech. He was a humble, one-eyed black man with a light beard and a face scarred by smallpox who came from Houston, Texas, with the Pentecostal message burning in his heart.William J. Seymour was born on May 2, 1870, in Centerville, Louisiana. 

His parents, Simon and Phyllis, were freed from slavery only a few years earlier. Seymour was born in a time when racial prejudice was rampant. The Ku Klux Klan was visible in almost every community in the South, and the Jim Crow Law was in full force preventing the mixing of the races. Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system that operated primarily, but not exclusively in Southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws; it was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African-Americans were relegated to the status of second-class citizens. These heinous laws enforced separate use of water fountains, public bathhouses, and separate seating sections on public transport. The Jim Crow laws represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. Sadly, discrimination and segregation were also prevalent in the churches, and many Christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were the “chosen people,” blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. Many in those days did not believe that blacks even had a soul. The coming Pentecostal revival would eventually drive a stake into the heart of these detestable laws and beliefs. Young Seymour “found his identity in Jesus Christ, believing that the Lord was the only liberator of mankind. He was a sensitive, high spirited youth, and hungry for the truth of God’s Word. It is said he experienced divine visions, and that early in life began to look for the return of Jesus Christ.”2 With no formal education, like many others in those times, he taught himself to read by constantly reading the Bible. He was christened in the Roman Catholic church and was probably raised in the Catholic church, although some believe that he was raised as a Baptist.There were few who were willing to leave their hometowns in those days, but Seymour, restless and a man on the move, left Louisiana in 1891 while he was still in his 20s. First, he went to Memphis, Tennessee where he worked as a porter in a barbershop and then as a driver for the Tennessee Paper Company. In 1893 he traveled up the Mississippi River and landed in St. Louis, Missouri where he worked as a bartender.3 Seymour arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana at the age of 25 and found work as a waiter in some of the city’s finest restaurants.


 Not long after his arrival, Seymour joined the A.B. Simpson Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church. This branch of the Northern Methodists had a strong evangelistic outreach to all classes, which appealed greatly to Seymour. Their passion to reach out to all helped Seymour formulate his belief that there is no color line in the redemption of Christ. In 1895 Seymour moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he continued to work as a waiter. While there he came into contact with holiness teachings through Martin Wells Knapp’s God’s Revivalist movement and Daniel S. Warner’s Church of God Reformation movement, otherwise known as the Evening Light Saints. Believing that they were living in the twilight of human history, these Christians believed that the Spirit’s outpouring would precede the rapture of the Church. These teachings deeply impressed the young Seymour.”4 It was while he was with this group that he received his call to the ministry—a call he wrestled with. In the midst of the struggle, he contracted smallpox, which was usually fatal in that time. He survived three weeks of horrible suffering and was left with blindness in his left eye and severe facial scarring.5 After his recovery, he immediately submitted to the call of God and was licensed and ordained as a minister by Evening Light Saints. Soon, he began traveling as an itinerant preacher. By 1900, there were 30 black leaders in the group, and they strongly encouraged their ministers to work hand in hand.6 The emphasis on unity again strengthened Seymour’s resolve to see a united people serving the purposes of God. Seymour left Cincinnati sometime in 1902, and there remains uncertainty regarding his whereabouts until he arrived in Houston, Texas, in 1905. 

HOUSTON, PARHAM, AND GOING TO BIBLE SCHOOL 

In the summer of 1905, the Houston newspapers included glowing terms about Charles Parham and his crusades in Bryn Hall in downtown Houston. At that time, Houston was a city of cultural variety, and people of all races were drawn to Parham’s meetings. While attending the meetings, Lucy Farrow, an African-American believer, became friends with the Parham family and was soon offered the position of governess. Although she was pastor of a small Holiness church, she decided to return to Kansas with the Parhams when they left Texas. At that time, she had recently become friends with Seymour and asked him to pastor the Holiness church until she returned a couple of months later.7 When Mrs. Farrow returned, she could not wait to tell Seymour of her experiences in the Parham home. While she was with the Parhams, she was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Seymour was a bit reluctant to accept this “new doctrine” as he believed that he had already been baptized in the Spirit when he was sanctified in Cincinnati. However, after a time of searching the Scriptures and praying, his heart was changed. In a book written by Sarah Parham, Life Of Charles F. Parham, Parham says that the Lord revealed to Seymour that he had been mistaken in his doctrinal position, and as a result, he accepted the idea that the Holy Spirit baptism was a third work of grace.8 As mentioned previously, in 1905, Parham announced that he would open a Bible school in Houston that would be formed similar to the school in Topeka. It was a communal-type living arrangement in one house, where the students and the instructor spent days and nights together in praying and studying the Word in an informal fashion.

 When Seymour heard about the school, he begged Parham to let him attend. Parham, however, was reluctant because of the Jim Crow laws, but at the insistence of Mrs. Farrow, he finally relented. He would allow him to sit outside the window and listen, and on rainy days he could sit in the hallway where they would leave the classroom door open. And because of his race, Seymour was not allowed to “tarry” at the altar seeking the Holy Spirit with the other white students. Despite the impositions from Parham, Seymour was not deterred, and because of the intensity of his spiritual hunger, he did extremely well in school. “Later he would be able to recite Parham’s teachings word for word.”
Undaunted in his spiritual pursuit, Seymour continued to preach and testify at the black missions in Houston, and it was at one of these missions that he met Neely Terry. “She told Seymour that in her home church in Los Angeles, a Black Baptist congregation, a certain Sister Hutchins had recently preached at a revival and sounded much like him.”11 When Terry returned to Los Angeles, she then told Julia Hutchins about Seymour’s unusual and powerful preaching. Subsequently, Julia Hutchins sent a letter to Seymour requesting that he come and assist her in the work in LA. Seymour described his call to Los Angeles in the first issue of The Apostolic Faith newspaper, the official voice of the Azusa revival: It was the divine call that brought me from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles.



 The Lord put it in the heart of one of the saints in Los Angeles to write to me that she felt the Lord would have me come over here and do a work, and I came, for I felt it was the leading of the Lord. The Lord sent the means, and I came to take charge of a mission on Santa Fe Street, and one night they locked the door against me, and afterwards got Bro. Roberts, the president of the Holiness Association, to come down and settle the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that it was simply sanctification. He came down and a good many Holiness preachers with him, and they stated that sanctification was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But yet they did not have the evidence of the second chapter of Acts, for when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. After the president heard me speak of what the true baptism of the Holy Ghost was, he said he wanted it too, and told me when I had received it to let him know. So I received it and let him know. The beginning of the Pentecost started in a cottage prayer meeting at 214 Bonnie Brae. (Apostolic Faith Vol.1, No. 1.)

When Seymour received the invitation to Los Angeles, he discussed it with Parham, who was not in favor of him leaving. Parham tried to convince him to stay until he received the Holy Spirit. He also wanted him to remain and work among the blacks in the city. “But once again Seymour won out, and Parham gave him railroad fare out of the common treasury. With prayer and the laying on of hands, Seymour was dispatched from Houston to Los Angeles sometime in January, 1906.”12 214 NORTH BONNIE BRAE STREET Many evangelists had been stirring the hungry hearts in Southern California for a number of years, and there was already evidence of a spiritual stirring in Los Angeles before Seymour arrived. Many groups were engaged in intense prayer, door-to-door witnessing, and waiting for the coming revival that they longed to see. Los Angeles, a melting pot of various ethnic groups, was the fastest growing city from 18801910; and blacks, Orientals, and Mexicans accounted for 5.6 percent of the population. By 1906, there were over 100 churches preaching the “full gospel” in the city.13 One particular group, the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, was waiting for the return of their pastor, Rev. Joseph Smale. He had been on a three-week trip to Wales to sit under the teachings of the great Welsh revivalist, Evan Roberts. Smale was on fire for God and was hoping to bring the same revival that had visited Wales, home with him to Los Angeles.14 Another evangelist and developing journalist joined the Smale church—his name was Frank Bartleman. Bartleman was born in Carversville, Pennsylvania in 1871. He was saved in 1893 and accepted the call to preach. He preached as a Baptist, a Methodist, a cadet in the Salvation Army, and then as a Holiness preacher. At one time, while he was in Chicago, he was blessed to hear D.L. Moody preach.

In 1905, he arrived with his family in Los Angeles, and while there, he corresponded with Welsh revivalist Evan Roberts about his passion for revival to come to California. Bartleman stated that it was these letters that encouraged him to believe that a revival would come. Shortly after Seymour’s arrival in Los Angeles, he preached his first sermon at Sister Hutchin’s church on Santa Fe Avenue. His theology on the Holy Spirit would clash with hers because that church believed that they had already been sanctified and received the Holy Spirit. The clash came to a head when he was finally locked out of the church. Sister Hutchin would not allow his “extreme” form of teaching to take place in her church. Consequently, Seymour was left without any money or a place to stay. Fortunately, a family of the church, the Lees, opened their home to Seymour, and he remained there continuing in prayer and fasting and looking for God’s direction. He soon began organizing prayer meetings in the homes of black friends for those who were hungry to hear to his message. Then Mr. and Mrs. Richard Asberry invited him to stay in their home on North Bonnie Brae Street. Seymour accepted, and they started holding meetings in their home in February 1906. Seymour made a strong pitch to the group to invite Lucy Farrow to come join the group. Consequently, money was collected to bring Miss Farrow, and when she arrived, Seymour called for ten days of prayer and fasting. During that time, Edward  Lee, a janitor employed at the First National Bank, asked Seymour to come pray for him because of his ailing health. Seymour arrived, anointed him with oil, and he was healed.  Then Lee asked him to pray  for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Even though Seymour had not personally received the experience, he prayed for Lee, and Lee immediately began speaking in tongues.  They couldn’t wait to get to the meeting that night.
When they arrived at the Asberry Home on Bonnie Brae Street, every room was packed with people. Many were already praying. Seymour took charge of the meeting, leading the group in songs, testimonies, and more prayer. Then, he began to tell the story of Mr. Lee’s healing and his infilling of the Holy Spirit. As soon as Seymour finished, Lee raised his hands and began to speak in tongues. 



 The entire group dropped to their knees as they worshiped God and cried out for the baptism. Then, six or seven people lifted their voices and began to speak in another tongue. Jenny Evans Moore, who would later marry Seymour, fell to her knees from the piano bench as one of the first to speak in tongues. For three days they celebrated “early Pentecost restored.” The news spread quickly bringing crowds that would fill the Asberry’s house and the yard surrounding their home. It is said that the Asberry’s front porch became the pulpit, and the street the pews, as Seymour would address the people from this home. It was on the third night that Seymour would finally experience his own encounter with the Holy Spirit. Late on the evening of April 12, 1906, after many had already left the meeting, the long awaited gift finally came to the man who had been preaching of this gift for so many others.
There was no keeping the crowds away, and because of the loud prayers that disturbed the neighbors and the increasing number of people cramped into small quarters, there became an urgent need to find a larger building at a different location. Seymour’s friends quickly located a vacant, two-story, whitewashed, wooden frame building at 312 Azusa Street.

 And on April 14, 1906, they had their first meeting in a building that had been a Methodist church and then had been sold and remodeled, the top half as apartments. When they acquired the building, the top floor was being used for storage and the bottom floor was used as a horse stable. They were offered the building for $8.00 a month. A.G. Osterburg, a boss for a local construction company, paid several men to help renovate the building. Volunteers swept the floors and whitewashed the walls. J.V. McNeill, a devout Catholic and owner of the largest lumber company in Los Angeles, donated lumber for the cause. Sawdust was placed on the floor, and planks were nailed to wooden barrels for uses as pews. Two empty crates were nailed on top of each other to act as Seymour’s pulpit. Four days after the opening of the Azusa Street mission, on April 18, the great earthquake of 1906 shook the foundations of San Francisco. Combined with the fire that erupted during the earthquake, the city of San Francisco was almost totally destroyed. Considering the apocalyptic size and destruction of the earthquake, along with the religious fervor in Los Angeles, the stage was set for a Holy Spirit eruption. The previous year Frank Bartleman, a Holiness preacher from Pennsylvania, arrived in Los Angeles. After working with some of the churches, he found to his disappointment that many of the people were lukewarm and not ready for his long-desired revival. While in Los Angeles, Bartleman started to correspond with Evan Roberts about his passion for revival to come to California. In June of 1905, Bartleman wrote that Los Angeles was truly a spiritual Jerusalem. He felt that this place would become the city where God would pour out his Spirit.  There was something there that inspired him, and he continued to give himself to prayer. 

He knew that the divisions among God’s people were great hindrances to revival, and thus he wrote these words in his book,  Azusa Street. Every fresh division or party in the church  gives to the world a contradiction as to the oneness of the body of Christ, and the truthfulness of the Gospel. Multitudes are bowing down and burning incense to a doctrine rather than Christ. ...The Spirit is laboring for the unity of believers today,  for the “one body,” that the prayer of Jesus may be answered, “that they all may be one, that the world may believe.” Bartleman attended the meetings on  Bonnie Brae Street, and when they moved to 312 Azusa Street. He was there with them enjoying the warmth of Pentecostal fires. Bartleman, who was there at the beginning of the revival, best described those early days also in his book, Azusa Street: Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty boxes, one on top of the other. He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting, in prayer.  There was no  pride there.  

The services ran almost continuously. Seeking souls could be found under the power almost any hour of the day or night.  The place was never closed nor empty.  The people came to meet God—He was always there. Hence a continuous meeting.  The meeting did not depend on  the human leader. God’s presence became more and more wonderful. In that old building, with its low rafters and bare floors, God broke strong men and women to pieces, and put them together again for His glory. It was a tremendous overhauling process. Pride and self-assertion, self-importance, and self-esteem could not survive there. The religious ego preached its own funeral sermon quickly. 

No subjects or sermons were announced ahead of time, and no special speakers for such an hour. No one knew what might be coming, what God would do. All was spontaneous, ordered by the Spirit. We wanted to hear from God, through whomever He might speak. We had no respect of persons. All were equal. No flesh might glory in His presence. He could not use the self opinionated. Those were Holy Spirit meetings, led of the Lord. It had to start in poor surroundings to keep out the selfish, human element. All came down in humility together at His feet. They all looked alike and had all things in common, in that sense at least. The rafters were low, the tall must come down. By the time they got to Azusa, they were humbled, ready for the blessing. The fodder was thus placed for the lambs, not for giraffes. All could reach it. We were delivered right there from ecclesiastical hierarchism and abuse. We wanted God. When we first reached the meeting, we avoided human contact and greeting as much as possible. We wanted to meet God first. We got our head under some bench in the corner in prayer, and met men only in the Spirit, knowing them “after the flesh” no more. The meetings started themselves, spontaneously, in testimony, praise, and worship. The testimonies were never hurried by a call for “popcorn.” We had no prearranged program to be jammed through on time. Our time was the Lord’s. We had real testimonies, from fresh heart experience. Otherwise, the shorter the testimonies, the better. A dozen might be on their feet at one time, trembling under the mighty power of God. We did not have to get our cue from some leader; yet we were free from lawlessness. We were shut up to God in prayer in the meetings, our minds on Him. All obeyed God, in meekness and humility. In honor we “preferred one another.” The Lord was liable to burst through anyone. 

We prayed for this continually. Someone would finally get up, anointed for the message. All seemed to recognize this and gave way.  It might be a child, a woman, or a man. It might be from the back seat or from the front. It made no  difference. We rejoiced that God was working. No one wished to show himself. We  thought only of obeying God. In fact, there was an atmosphere of God there that forbade anyone but a fool from attempting to put himself forward without the real anointing—and such did not last long.  The meetings were controlled by the Spirit, from the throne.  Those were truly wonderful days. I often said that I would rather live six months at that time than fifty years of ordinary life. But God is just the same today.  Only we have changed. Someone might be speaking. Suddenly the Spirit would fall upon the congregation. God Himself would give the altar call. Men would fall all over the house, like the slain in battle, or rush for the altar en masse to seek God.  The scene often resembled a forest of fallen trees. Such a scene cannot be imitated. I never saw an altar call given in those early days. God Himself would call them. And the preacher knew when to quit. When He spoke, we all obeyed. It seemed a fearful thing to hinder or grieve the Spirit.  The whole place was steeped in prayer. God was in His holy temple. It was for man to keep silent.  The shekinah glory rested there. In fact, some claim to have seen the glory by night over the building. I do not doubt it. I have stopped more than once within two blocks of the place and prayed for strength before I dared go on.  The presence of the Lord was so real.

 WHEN HEAVEN INVADES EARTH 

A few months after the revival had opened, hundreds were pouring into the little building on Azusa Street. Osterberg reported that as many as 21,300 attended the services, and up to 800 crowded into the building at a time. Every inch big enough for a chair was jammed full. The Los Angeles Daily Times reported, “The room was crowded almost to suffocation. Many were seated in the windows and scores who could not enter crowded around the lobby and struggled to view….” In one of the issues of The Apostolic Faith newspaper a man attending the Azusa Street meetings proclaimed, “I would have rather lived six months at that time than fifty years of ordinary life. I have stopped more than once within two blocks of the place and prayed for strength before I dared go on. The presence of the Lord was so real. Many of the newly baptized in the Holy Spirit would feel a call to the mission field. Consequently, men and women were departing for Scandinavia, China, India, Egypt, Ireland, and various other nations. Even Sister Julia Hutch in, who initially locked Seymour out of her mission, came to Azusa, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and left for Africa.

 At this time, everyone loved Seymour. When the Spirit moved, he was known to keep his head inside the top box-crate in front of him, bowed in prayer. He never asked for a salary, so he was continually trusting God for his finances. John G. Lake visited the Azusa Street meetings and in his book, Adventures with God, wrote these words about Seymour: “But I want to tell you, there were doctors, lawyers, and professors listening to the marvelous things coming from his lips. It was not what he said in words, it was what he said from his spirit to my heart that showed me he had more of God in his life than any man I had ever met up to that time. It was God in Him that attracted the people. One of the most remarkable features of the meetings was the “heavenly choir.” A few, or as many as 20, would sing in their unknown tongue. There was no human orchestration. It was all under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Truly, heaven had come to earth.”

Excerpt From "Robert Liadon -The Azusa Street Revival"

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