TOKYO, JAPAN — Bringing the fire of the Pensacola Revival to Japan," has been in the hearts of many Japanese Christians since the revival started at the church in Pensacola, Florida. Dick and Deanne Reuben, and Craig Howell from The Brownsville Assembly of God recently preached for Japan’s Pensacola-Revival Conference near Tokyo from December 3rd through the 5th. Approximately 2,000 people attended the meeting with a hunger and thirst in their hearts for revival fire in their own country.

The executive committee for the conference had prepared the meeting at one of the largest hotels near Tokyo, The Tokyo Bay Hilton Hotel. The registration fee was fairly expensive including the hotel rooms, but to our surprise there was overwhelming attendance with more than the anticipated seating capacity. People had to be asked to sit on the floor during the meetings. Almost 50 percent of the audience were from evangelical churches in Japan. This is unusual for fundamental evangelicals to attend a Pentecostal-Charismatic meeting. These non-Pentecostals were hungry for what Jesus wanted to do in their lives. This careful blending set the mood for what God was going to do in my homeland of Japan.

The familiar face of Dick Reuben from the Brownsville Revival appeared on the first night and made a proclamation over the land, " Revival has now begun from here." Reuben proclaimed the revival message with the sound of the shofar over the large crowd of native Japanese. The blowing of the shofar at the meeting began signaling the moment and the move of what God was going to do at this three day conference.

Another familiar face from Brownsville was present as Craig Howell addressed the mass meeting of evangelicals. Howell is the assistant to Lila Terhune at Brownsville for intercessory prayer group. On the first day of the conference, he led the audience into intercessory prayer. He appealed to the audience saying "Pray for the people in the United States that God will help them to see how truly desperate and destitute we are without God. Pray for the United States that they would become burdened for Japan. Howell then called for intercessory prayer over the nation of Japan, that revival might hit the island nation. As he prayed he made the statement about the people at the conference and what he could see in their eyes. "We pray for the people that have come here, that the desire for God would even become more intense than it is now. I see so much hunger in your faces and hearts that is pleasing to God at this moment."

The parade of banners around the make shift hotel sanctuary was next as eight individual banners of burden were passed for review. The banners for Japan represented the following: revival; government and the Imperial Family; repentance of the nation; unity of the church; spiritual warfare (idolatry); salvation; holiness and healing; pastors and leaders. Each title was inscribed in native Japanese upon each standard. When they were finally assembled at the front the command was given to the people to shout the Shuyo Prayer ( saying Lord 3 times). This has become a tradition in the Korean Christian Church. Prayer for revival in Japan followed. The flow of what God was doing in the meeting could be felt as conference speakers and Japanese pastors prayed for one another in the audience. The Spirit of God began to soak the entire meeting from this time on and it would intensify as the meeting gained momentum. .

In the night session, Rev. Dick Reuben proclaimed, "Revival fire has now been ignited here. This is a war to set the captives free. The devil has to be cast out from here. The victory is ours!." Then he blew the shofar with all his might. After the worship, he taught about the wilderness Tabernacle of Moses to show the right pattern to follow before the glory would fall. He prayed for the audience to received a double portion of the anointing of the Spirit of God.. He said " I have never seen such hunger on the faces of people. There is a revival spirit in each and every one of you," and then he wept. The audience was told that he had been weeping in the last 24 hours from seeing the hunger on the faces of the Japanese people.

The session reached its peek when Reuben gave an altar call during one of the morning services. The majority of the large assembly flooded to the altars in front of the auditorium repenting of their sins. Also in that morning session, after Reuben preached about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, he called the audience to the front to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Many evangelical Christians came forward and received the baptism and spoke in their prayer language. The power of God swept the large room as people were laying everywhere under the sovereign move of God’s Spirit. The presence of God flooded the room as waves of glory could be felt by everyone there. To our surprise, a well known evangelical pastor from a large fundamental church asked for Rueben to pray for him to receive the Baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence. As he layed hands on him and prayed, he was immediately slain in the Spirit to the meeting room floor .

In the following afternoon service the Holy Spirit grew in intensity as many came back to the conference with expectant anticipation. Craig Howell preached about the importance of forgiveness. He pleaded with them to forgive persons unconditionally. Then the chairman of the committee challenged the audience saying, "We as Christians should not judge each other. Unless we repent from judging each other, the kingdom of God would not come in the midst of us and revival would not grow unless we deal strongly in this area." They confessed that Pentecostal and Charismatic churches judged the evangelical churches for years and all those that have spoken this way in the past should repent. It was a tremendous move of God as all in the audience repented from the judgement against each other. He also addressed Japanese Christian organizations that had sent formal apologies, which stated Japan repented of the sins of the war crimes during World War II and wants to ask their forgiveness, to the government officials, Christian churches, and mass media in Asian countries. He commended them for being involved in these acts of forgiveness and that by doing this they were truly showing God that they wanted revival in the land. He again repeated with an open apology by saying boldly, "Japan was wrong and we repent and ask your forgiveness, but if you have unforgiveness and bitterness against the Japanese, please repent from them. "He also appealed to Japanese Christians that they should humble themselves again and ask forgiveness before the Lord and should not judge but love and forgive each other and pray blessings over their enemies.

One of the pastors asked for forgiveness of the sins of the churches against the Jews to Dick Reuben and his wife Deanne as being Jews. They hung their heads and wept with each other on the platform. Greg Howell called out the ladies who had suffered from sexual abuse to the front to be healed. Then he asked men who have committed the sin of abuse against women to step forward. It is an unspoken taboo in the Japanese church to publicly expose the shame of people but the Spirit of the moment moved men to repent. Many came to the front weeping to be healed. Reuben preached on the repentance from any kinds of sins. The general altar call during this time did a deep work of cleansing. Thousands of people flooded to the altar in front of the auditorium repenting from their sins. The Spirit of repentance did a mighty work in this afternoon session.

In the evening session, Reuben spoke on the Golden Altar. He said when the Golden Altar is enacted it served as an act of intercession and worship to God. It also allows symbolically the casting of the cares of this life into the fire by the release of the incense. Each conference delegate lined up to burn the incense at the altar and experienced the releasing of their problems.

"The move of God has begun and the revival fire is going to sweep through the entire country of Japan." In the final session of the conference Reuben testified that God told him to come to Japan many times in the future. He encouraged Japanese Christians not to think of themselves as a small number but the Lord would use them in the future to bring a revival to the entire country. He said "I cannot help crying by seeing your faces." He announced "I am not going to be the same after this meeting, God has done a work in me here also. It has been awesome to be here."

The revival fire has been ignited. The fire of God is going to sweep Japan." Answering my questions at the interview, Reuben said " The lasting fruits are here to continue to kindle this fire. The move of God has begun and the revival is going to sweep in the entire island nation of Japan."

During the ministry time many people received the fire of the presence of the Holy Ghost. God did a complete work in many that attended the conference. Reports of deliverance and healing were among the 2,000 that attended. One lady testified she was healed from heart disease. At the closing service several delegates witnessed and felt great freedom from the bondages that were laid down at the conference. The Spirit of unity and brotherhood touched several as fundamental Christians and Full Gospel Christians danced arm in arm in a circle with the unique dancing of the Japanese. It was a powerful three days many will never forget as the Holy Spirit came to visit us through the message of the ministry of the Brownsville ministers. Thank you Brownsville for being obedient.

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