This
is a special area of Missouri. As early as four years
ago John Davis ran a series of revival meetings which
lasted more than half a year in the boot heel area.
One was missing this night, he was a special person
-- Danny Ramsey had died earlier during the year. It
was the touch of God that drove Ramsey to build a new
FM station dedicated to revival in the Poplar Bluff
area.
POPLAR BLUFF, MO -- Partners in
Revival came to the Black Water River
Convention Center and for two days the river
flowed while reports came filtering back from
Pensacola about the awesome Friday night service.
EVANGELIST
VERNON WILLIS
Pastor John Kilpatrick and
Evangelist Vernon Willis were both touched by the
response at the meetings in the Boot Heel area of
Missouri.
God was in this meeting as more
than 1,000 believers gathered at the Black Water
Coliseum on Sunday night and anointed every seat in
the house. It was the power of intercession that
would set up the large gathering for Monday night.
Pastor Kilpatrick entered the
meeting on Monday night and a sweet presence of God
hung over the great auditorium. As Pastor Kilpatrick
had warned of great change in revival -- great change
also began to happen in the United States. Mike
Motley brought down the presence of God as more than
2,000 people came in and filled the bottom floor of
the great auditorium. By the time the pastor took the
pulpit people had filled the bottom sections of the
large 5,000 seat auditorium. People came from the
entire boot heal area of Missouri -- Sikeston, Poplar
Bluff and Malden were just a few of the towns
represented. Being close to Arkansas several from
that area came to the meeting and the Little Rock
area. The presence of the Holy Spirit was filling the
place and you could see the smile on the
pastor’s face as he also knew God had come to
visit this night.
This is a special area of Missouri.
As early as four years ago John Davis ran a series of
revival meetings which lasted more than half a year
in the boot heel area. One was missing this night, he
was a special person -- Danny Ramsey had died earlier
during the year. It was the touch of God that drove
Ramsey to build a new FM station dedicated to revival
in the Poplar Bluff area. At Davis’ Malden,
Missouri meeting -- Ramsey was touched by the power
-- he came back to the city under the power of the
Holy Ghost that night. He found it rather hard to
drive the car as he was under a heavy anointing of
shaking and glory. We looked for him at the meetings
and were very saddened to find out he had passed
away.
THE PRESENCE
OF GOD WAS IN THE HOUSE
Before Pastor Kilpatrick came
forward the atmosphere was light and saturated with
the presence of God. To a preacher preaching, these
are the nights you do your best. The powerful
intercession and unity that was displayed the night
before among the pastors was now being honored by the
presence of God. Sunday night every church involved
in the crusade had closed their doors and had by
passed their offerings to seek the presence of God
for the boot heel area. They would not be
disappointed.
Evangelist Vernon Willis introduced
the pastor from Pensacola. He mentioned the fact that
this was the home town of Lindell Cooley’s
mother. Pastor Kilpatrick began to explain the burden
he had for America and the prayer meetings he had
conducted in Little Rock, Minneapolis, and in New
Jersey. "We were next to a city that held the
largest Jewish population outside the nation of
Israel (New York City) and yet we fell short of our
budget and went over it by $6,000." He explained
the new banners that had been created for the prayer
meetings. One by one he explained them and when he
got to the schools banner the Holy Spirit brought to
my mind the fact that the Supreme Court had banned
all prayer in schools this month. Pastor Kilpatrick
knew you couldn’t keep God out of the schools.
It was in a public school in Columbus, Georgia, when
a 14-year old boy named Kilpatrick was called by the
voice of God while he sat in a classroom. He is a man
truly chosen by God for the hour. He explained the
foundation of prayer before the Brownsville Revival
and said the burden of his heart was to establish
that foundation for the United States of America
to have revival. The vision of a boy had stretched
from a Columbus, Georgia, classroom to the
auditoriums and coliseums of America to call the
entire country to repentance. Like David with a well
aimed rock, he was aiming for his target all the
while knowing that God was on his side.
He spoke this night of the four
great tests he had to endure before he came to
fulfillment in his life. On a side note he mentioned
that he started in ministry at a young age as a piano
player for a Southern Gospel group in Georgia before
he accepted his first assignment to a country church
in Georgia.
REVIVAL
TAKES PRAYER
What does anyone know about revival
other than it takes a lot of prayer. Anyone will tell
you they cannot tell you what the Holy Spirit is
going to do from night to night. God was in the house
and the freedom for ministry was there. Each
situation that was spoken of from the four churches
that Kilpatrick had pastored gave people the
understanding of the price one has to pay to receive
God’s glory in the house. As a young pastor
Kilpatrick spoke of a blood clotting disease that
almost took his life as a young man. The small church
gathered around their 19-year-old pastor to pray for
his healing while his wife and first child looked on.
Amazingly the power of prayer brought him back.
Kilpatrick mentioned the time he fell off the roof of
his house and landed on the ground. His entire pelvis
was swollen and he was in so much pain that day he
lost his eyesight for a short period of time. He
walked up and down the stage and told the people this
kind of fall should have crippled me for the rest of
my life but I stand before you tonight without a
pain, with out a deformity, and I have been totally
healed by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is good
and He has a plan for all of us. "After each
situation of tragedy in the four churches I pastored
I saw the Spirit of God move in and explode behind
each situation to make things better than they had
originally been. God is a good God and He only wants
the best for us."
On Tuesday night the crowd was
larger as Pastor Kilpatrick spoke on the five
definitions of Hell. He was an evangelist looking for
souls this night. Each time he spoke, he spoke with
authority and was shining the searchlight of
conviction. He spoke of the body many people will
receive in Hell that will never burn up. Conviction
was there that night as even the best of Christians
made their way down front to be sure. There were
several first time salvations and many renewed
commitments. The sermon on Hell did its job and the
power of the Holy Spirit brought forth conviction as
the bottom floor of the great hall was filled with
the large crowd going up the aisles. The two days of
meetings in Poplar Bluff were a tremendous success by
ministry standards -- many were saved, filled, and
delivered. The budget of the great meeting was met as
the Churches in the boot heel area of Missouri found
unity under one roof for a great outpouring of
God’s love. Vernon Willis said this, "The
main ingredient was here these two days and that was
Jesus. What else would you want, as long as He comes,
we are at peace."
