It was for Aug 12, 13 and 14 that we made an appointment to visit this ancient town.. not as tourists, but with an event we produced to address any and all that would come. My ministry partner in India, Joshua Victor, and I hooked up with 5 key pastors in order to organize the event with only 40 days notice. Getting these devoted leaders together to form an action plan was the first miracle. God really moved among us to see the business of the kingdom above and beyond all else and volunteers from 100+ churches were mobilized to make everything happen. The Life Gate Revival Festival was arranged.

Prior to this, the largest Christian gathering in memory in this ancient temple town of kings was 750. But this year a new era began, because the area has undergone a shakeup. The hindu priest who ruled here with subtle intimidation has fallen from a position of prominence to one of reclusion, turning the attention of the whole nation towards Kanchipuram. With all that had gone on, everyone involved in the event had such a keen focus on declaring via this festival that Jesus is the King over all kings and kingdoms, and that a new time of Christian liberty has arrived.

So we started the first night and I felt great anticipation regarding all that the Lord would want to do and say through me. The atomosphere of faith all around me was unmatched in anything I had experienced in my 10 years of public ministry. The worship was declarative of the authority and wonder and mercy of God — a perfect match for what was in my heart to preach. The Lord prompted me to focus on the message of purity.. for the individual, for the church, then the final night, for the city itself. Although many wanted me to focus on healing miracles, I had an affimation in my heart that a prophetical focus was my calling and gift. The messages spoke to individuals as well as to the spiritual climate and history of the place of renown. One key element was that the church would rise out of obscurity to a place where her spiriual authority would bring great peace and blessing upon the land. The faith of all present was elevated and the reports I hear 30 days later is that faith, love and hope remain elevated among the churches.

At the end of each service, I laid hands on hundreds of people. It almost turned to chaos as people were literally grabbing for my arm so that I would touch them longer. Although this offended my sensibilities regarding proper order, I managed to put off my religious mindset and appreciate the deep faith that was in operation here. Reports came back of many healings on following days, with one particular testimony of a man healed of jaundice and nervous sytem problems! We prayed for deliverance and salvation each night and later we found out that over 1800 decision cards were collected, with 500 of them being reports of genuine first time confessoin of Jesus as Lord! The other 1300 were testimonies and prayer requests that I understand are being diligently followed up upon among the 200 participating local churches.

On the final night we especially experienced great joy. The crowd was estimated to be 5000, and people everywhere were ready for God to visit them. The backdrop of this city’s concerns is that there had not been decent rain in the area for over 3 years. Farms were losing crops and the waer supply was drying up. As I was preaching, I kept hearing the Lord tell me that He would cause it to reign as the church raised it’s voice of mercy and authority in the land. Well, guess what? From August 20th through early September, Kanchipuram has had unusually high rainfall, and the churches are all celebrating the wonders of God, and teling their neighbors about this great miracle.

In light of this great open door the Lord has given us, we are now making plans to return to Kanchipuram next year and have a pastoral training conference in conjunction with evening crusade services. The team is being formed now, so please hook up with us to discuss how you can be a part of it!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2005 at 11:43 am and is filed under 2005 Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.