Chapter 20: Where We Stand Today

It appears that the great end-time outpouring of the Spirit will coincide with the Third Great Awakening in American history and that it will be the apex of what began with the Latter Rain movement in 1948-1952. Yet whereas the Latter Rain movement was somewhat localized, the coming move of God is expected to spread throughout the world.

I do not expect this move to die out or even diminish. The only real question is where this will begin. Where will the spark meet the tinder? There have been many prophecies about this move of God beginning here or there—including Minnesota, by the way. When prophecies seem to be contradictory, it may be that some are wrong, but it may also mean that prophecy is still “in part” (1 Cor. 13:9).

In the end, this will cover the whole earth, so it is only a matter of time before all of the prophesied starting points are actually fulfilled one way or another.

My Input into the Prophecy

My own “part,” I believe, is to connect this end-time outpouring with the Latter Rain movement. Jonathan Edwards’ grace revival in the 1730’s was not a single moment but a starting point for a longer Awakening, propelled by men like John and Charles Wesley, that took us to the founding of America (1776-1800). We see, then, how this Awakening really took about 70 years to reach its climax.

The second Great Awakening began in 1825 with the rise of Charles Finney, laying the early foundations for the Pentecostal outpouring in 1900-1905. Others such as the evangelist George Whitefield, Dwight Moody, and Maria Woodworth-Etter took this Pentecostal move of the Spirit to new heights until it reached its apex in 1900-1905. Hence, the second Great Awakening climaxed after about 80 years from Finney to Seymour (1825-1905). Only then did it become known as the Pentecostal movement.

The work of grace in the First Awakening did not end with Finney. Finney merely built upon that earlier foundation to take the church to new heights in understanding the nature of God and the relationship with Him that we may enjoy. So also, the feast of Passover and its unique work of grace does not end with Pentecost. Pentecost is built upon the foundations of Passover and is designed to bring us to a new level of experience and relationship with God.

Unfortunately, there are some who are content with their Passover relationship and cannot imagine that there is anything better. They tend to point to the excesses and follies that are seen in the Pentecostal movement, as an excuse to reject one of God’s feasts. They seem to forget that grace, too, is often abused (Rom. 6:1), and many unbelievers point to such abuses in order to reject the grace message. The fault lies not with the feast but with men’s misunderstanding and abuse.

So then we come to the Third Great Awakening, beginning with the Latter Rain movement. God often establishes His work and His word in three steps, by the law of two or three witnesses (Deut. 17:6; 2 Cor. 13:1). When we see that it took decades for the first two Awakenings to reach their apex, it is not hard to see that the Latter Rain movement was also a mere beginning point that was to culminate decades later.

As I write this in 2023, it has now been 71 years since the end of the Latter Rain in 1952. I have no revelation about the precise timing that we might expect to see the Tabernacles move of God, but it seems clear that we are now in the season and that we must be watchful. Many have laid foundations for this next outpouring of the Spirit.

I should also remind you that I am not talking about the second coming of Christ. I am talking about the Third Great Awakening. How this move of the Spirit may relate to Christ’s second coming, I cannot say. I do not want to speculate on that topic, because there will always be some who will hear something that I did not say. Even now, by dealing with the revelation of timing, many have claimed that I am trying to date Christ’s second coming. It is as if the second coming of Christ is the only event that lies ahead. But that is far from the truth.

Repeating Israel’s Wilderness Journey

I have often talked about my personal 40-year “wilderness” journey from 1981/82 to 2021/22. But there is a greater fulfillment of this in the church as a whole. The church did quite well in its early days, as seen in the book of Acts. It was not problem free, of course, but the church grew rapidly in the first century under the anointing of Pentecost.

However, during the fourth century, the church became institutionalized, and by 606 A.D. it became centralized in Rome. The Roman bishop then claimed authority over all other church bishops. God then raised up Mohammed in 609 to bring judgment upon the church.

As the papal empire grew in strength, the darkness increased. Historians refer to this time as the Dark Ages. Finally, God raised up a Roman priest named Martin Luther to spark what is now called the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation came mainly through a new revelation and understanding of Romans 4 and the truth about imputation of righteousness. He came to see that justification was by faith alone and did not depend upon the works of men.

This was the point where the truth of the feast of Passover was restored to the church—faith in the blood of the Lamb. The church then had opportunity to “leave Egypt,” as it were.

The church’s next stop was the Red Sea, signifying baptism by the law of cleansing. This also signified the wave-sheaf offering on the first Sunday after Passover. The Wesley brothers in the 1700’s were the main carriers of this message, and it came to be known as the Holiness Movement.

After the Wesley brothers led the church across the Red Sea, the church arrived at Marah, where they received the revelation “I, the Lord, am your healer” (Exodus 15:26). In the 1800’s, with the rise of Charles Finney and the start of the Pentecostal Awakening, they were given the revelation that God was still the same Healer that He always was.

Then came Elim, the place of “twelve wells of water and threescore and ten palm trees” (Exodus 15:27, KJV). The wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3, KJV) picture the gospel going to the seventy nations of the world. (If you count the beginning of nations in Genesis 10, they total 70.)

So in the 1800’s, we see the rise of the great missionary movements, along with the various Bible Societies, who were compelled to bring the word of God to all the nations. In 1885, a man named C. T. Studd went to Africa as a missionary, then to India in 1900, and Africa again in 1913. His remarkable story was told in a book written by his son-in-law, Norman Grubb, who lived across the path from me in the early 1970’s when I worked for the Christian Literature Crusade in Fort Washington, PA.

I myself was from a missionary background in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, founded by A. B. Simpson in the 1880’s. I grew up in the Philippines as a missionary kid during the time when the CMA was the largest missionary organization in the world. So I was familiar with the revelation of Elim, even though I did not yet know its connection to the CMA.

The next stop in the journey of the Church was at Mount Sinai, where God came down upon the mount to speak to the people directly. That day was commemorated thereafter as the feast of Weeks, which, more than a thousand years later, was called, in Greek, Pentecost. This feast, of course, was re-established in the church from 1900-1905.

From Sinai, the Israelites were led to Kadesh-barnea, south of Canaan, from which place the 12 spies gave their report in Numbers 13. The spies brought back samples of the fruit of the land (Num. 13:23, 24, 27), giving them a taste. But as we know, ten of them gave a bad report, which the people believed. For this reason, they were not allowed to enter the Promised Land for another 38 years (Deut. 2:14).

The 12 spies gave their report on the 50^th Jubilee from Adam, and if they had been able to enter the land from Kadesh-barnea, their calendar in Canaan would have coincided with the Creation Jubilee calendar. However, they did not enter the land until 38 years later, so their actual calendar was 38 years different from the one dating from Adam. It would take thousands of years to align the calendars so that all things might be restored.

The event at Kadesh-barnea was comparable to the Latter Rain movement, which was able to get a taste of the feast of Tabernacles, but in the end, they had to wait for a later time. It is of interest that from 1948-1986 was 38 years. October of 1986 was the 120^th Jubilee since Adam. But because no one in authority knew to declare the Jubilee in 1986, it was deferred for another ten years to 1996. We were led to declare the Jubilee in 1996 and make it retroactive to 1986, according to the Hezekiah Factor (turning the clock back 10 steps in 2 Kings 20:10.

This served to make the final correction on the calendar, realigning us once again with the Creation Jubilee calendar.

This also took us past the 40^th Jubilee of the church in 1993, which marked the end of the prophetic reign of “Saul” and the rise of the House of David (1993-2000). Then we saw the rise of the House of Joseph (2001-2008), followed by the rise of the House of Elisha (2009-2010), followed by the rise of the Saints of the Most High (2010-2017).

This sequence of events can be seen as prerequisite to the apex of the Tabernacles era that began with the Latter Rain movement in 1948-1952. As of this writing, we are now in 2023 and are already seeing evidence that the Third Great Awakening is upon us.

In order to understand where we are in the long expanse of Kingdom history, we must see ourselves in the context of the past. We do not function as points in time but as travelers on a highway of time, passing through many “towns” and “villages” along the way that serve as markers. Those markers give us a Kingdom vision, not only telling us where we came from but also where we are going and how far we have come. Those who recognize the markers along the way are better equipped to note the progression and see the direction in which God is leading us.

These are the ones who have the clearest Kingdom vision to guide the rest of humanity into the light of this new day. Hosea 6:2, 3 says,

² After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. ³ Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning [“dawn”]; and He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.