John Arnott - Preparing for the Glory: Getting Ready for the Next Wave of Holy Spirit Outpouring

Acknowledgments

WE WANT TO SPECIFICALLY THANK THE CHURCH FAMILY AND leadership of Catch the Fire Toronto (Formerly, Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship). This wonderful outpouring that we have been enjoying since 1994 is because of your stewardship in the local church and your commitment to serve the nations.

May His glory continue to fall upon you, as youve consistently proven your trustworthiness to release it to the nations.

Thanks to Nancy Smith, Larry Sparks, and the team at Destiny Image for making this book possible.

THE NEXT WAVE OF REVIVAL IS BEING CALLED A TSUNAMI, A BIGGER wave than weve ever seen.

A tsunami is an enormous wave, gigantic and powerful. Tsunamis begin in a region at the bottom of the ocean called the Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates and volcanic activity are constantly in motion, shifting and firing and eruptingand causing earthquakes that cause massive waves at the surface.

Scientists can somewhat predict when and where a tsunami will hit. There are signs that begin at the bottom of the oceanrumblings and shakings and quakings. They often will send out alarms and warnings to the people in the way of the wave.

People feel it, even if they dont always know what theyre feeling. When those precursors become evident, preparations need to be made. Those in the path of the tsunami need to get ready. They may need to change location. They may need to change their living situation. They need to prepare.

The rumblings are happening. All over the world, the evidence that God is on the move is growing. The underground church in places like China and Iran is exploding. Muslims are reporting that Jesus is appearing to themin their homes. In remote areas of Africa, villages who have never seen anyone from outside are being evangelized, learning the truth of Jesus Christ. Europe is undergoing massive change in its governments, as is America. The shaking is happening.

We quoted a prophetic word from Cindy Jacobs at the very beginning of this book that was given to us in January of 2014. The rest of her word says, England is next, and then My Spirit will jump to Asia and the Pacific Rim. Europe will be ablaze with My glory and France will be touched in a glorious way. Not one continent will be left out, for this is a season when the anointing will fall on those who have come, both young and old, and they will go home rejoicing and carrying revival fire!

We may need to change how we do life.

Do you feel it?

Revivals can be compared to tsunamis. Earthquakes begin in Heaven, where God is in motion. He is constantly moving toward the day when Heaven and earth will be one, when the Bride and the Bridegroom will be joined in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. He is always shaking up the way things are to bring them into alignment with the way they should be.

He is always shifting the landscape.

When a tsunami makes land, it sweeps away everything in its path. What stood in its way is reduced to rubble. Ways of life need to be rebuilt from the bottom up. Cities and governments often need to be restructured.

Our landscape is about to change. The tsunami wave of revival that will usher in the coming of the Lord is about to make land. The rumblings are evident; the evidence is clear. We are feeling the quaking. But though we would move away from a tsunami in the ocean, we run toward the tsunami of Heaven. We prepare, we take action, to be ready for the changes to come.

We may need to change how we do life. We may need to shift our priorities, change our focus. And we need to sound the alarm: The Bridegroom is coming! The Bride is making herself ready! The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is being prepared, and all are invited. The glory of the Lord is about to cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.

Are you ready?

I BELIEVE WHAT GOD RELEASED IN TORONTO BACK IN 1994 WAS not an isolated event; it was part of a great River of the Spirit that had been flowing in other parts of the world; and I also believe that this outpouring continues to this day.

As we prepare for what God is going to do next, I thought the following segment from my book, Baptized in the Spirit, would be a fitting way to close this most timely work by John and Carol Arnott. After all, their book could have easily been a memorial to the past, celebrating the glory days of Toronto. And there is much to celebrate about that wonderful move of God! But they didnt provide such a volume.

Preparing for the Glory, in my opinion, is an eschatological perspective on revival. Often, some expressions of eschatology (end-times theology) involve preparing believers for something thats to come. In many popularized, bestselling end-times works, the focus has been on preparing for collapse, disaster, and the unfolding of a satanic agenda. Well, Preparing for the Glory is the samebut different.

This invitation calls the body of Christ to be ready, for sure, but to be ready for the fulfillment of a prophesied outpouring that God wants to release into all the earth. Im convinced we have a biblical mandate to continue to pursue this great move of God until we see the fulfillment of Acts 2all flesh experiencing the wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

So, everything John and Carol celebrate about what God has done in the past has implications for us today. The Arnotts prepared for a sovereign suddenly of God. Even though God is sovereign, and thus, His sovereignty motivates His suddenly visitations, as John wrote about, I believe the Arnotts call us to model the early church and give practical teaching on how to position ourselves for another great suddenly move of God.

We commit to being good stewards of what He is currently doing, while pressing in and positioning ourselves for new dimensions of the Spirits outpouring.

Revival in the 1990s

The mid-1990s witnessed the beginnings of yet another revival. This particular move of God has been called by many names: Laughing Revival, Toronto Blessing, Brownsville Revival, and Smithton Awakening. It began in 1992 in Argentina with pastor Claudio Freidzon. Miracles, signs, and wonders broke out in his church, followed by explosive growth.

On the heels of this Holy Spirit fire in Argentina, fire broke out in Lakeland, Florida, at Karl Straders church, the Carpenters Home Church. This happened when evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne came to speak. People fell down under the power of God, oftentimes unable to get up for quite some time. Weeping and laughter also characterized this particular move of God. Many considered the laughter a new and novel manifestation when in fact laughter can be found during other outpourings, within both Protestant and Roman Catholic revival history.

Then in January 1994, revival broke out in Toronto, Canada, when I went to speak for a planned four-day meeting. I was the bridge between Howard-Browne and what happened in Toronto. I had gone to receive ministry from Rodney twice before going to Toronto. The outpouring of the Spirit happened in my church for months and at the regional meeting of the Vineyard in the Midwest when I spoke prior to going to Toronto. Those meetings were the reason John Arnott invited me to come to Toronto.

I had already experienced my suddenly, but it was to continue with even greater moving from hiddenness to a world platform. This revival in Toronto became the longest protracted meeting in Western history, with people gathering six nights a week for twelve-and-a-half years until the summer of 2006. The influence from Toronto quickly spread around the world. During the first two years, more than two million people came to Toronto for the meetings.

Some say as many as four million came during the first five years, and reports indicate over 50,000 churches were touched during the first three to four years. An army of itinerates who had been touched by God went out to preach the Good News. It would not be an exaggeration to believe that thousands went out to the nations.