Why Not Here

Why not here?

Acts 2:1-4 KJV
Coming of the Holy Spirit

1And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

If it happened there; then I ask why not here and if it happened then, then I ask why not NOW? I believe that the first steps to a Real Holy Spirit Outpouring are: #1. The folks have got to be together in one accord! There can be No Separation by color, sex, or religious barriers… #2. Let the 500 become 120… It’s ok the 3000 are waiting! Don’t be afraid when folks leave, there not really with you anyway, God has an army of people who will stand with you and for you as you seek God’s will… #3. Don’t be afraid to wait for it!!! (Even when others are leaving, WAIT!) #4. Be prepared and ready to be blessed…

Acts 2:12-21 KJV

12And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
13Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
15For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
16But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
19And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
20The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:
21And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Again, if it happened there; then I ask why not here and if it happened then, then I ask why not NOW? In Acts Chapter 2 the Heavens opened up and God poured out His Spirit upon ALL FLESH!!!! So why is today’s church Not Experiencing the same? I ask, Why Not Here in Philippi WV? Why Not Here at an old Skating Rink called Haven of Hope? Why not here with a group of average normal people who love their God? I say God if You can do it then and there then why not Here and NOW?

Some may say, “Why or how could God show up in Nowhere Philippi WV…” Well let’s look at Holy Spirit history in America… It was May 2, 1870 and two former slaves named Simon Seymour (also known as Simon Simon) and Phillis Salabar, who lived in Centerville Louisiana, had a son… They were just ordinary black folk who were freed from slavery and really had no special or supernatural qualities… Just regular folks like us! The two named their new born son, their first child, William Joseph Seymour… It was said that the family was beyond dirt poor… The dad had got malaria from the southern swamps after joining President Lincoln’s army to fight for his people’s freedom and the mother’s personal property was valued at 55-cents when she died…

William Seymour also suffered the injustice and prejudice of the reconstruction south. Violence against freedman was common and groups like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized southern Louisiana. So this 1-eyed Black man named William J Seymour who was from many different religions; his parents were married by a Methodist preacher, he was baptized by a catholic priest, and a Baptist minister preached his parents funereal. Seymour attended a black freedman school in Centerville and learned to read and write. He later became a Methodist preacher. Soon, however, he joined the Church of God Reformation movement.

God had healed Seymour from a near fatal bout with smallpox; the illness left him blind in one eye and scarred his face. But he wore the scars as hope that God brought him back to life for a reason… He would later find that reason as he walked into a converted warehouse where a group of believers were having prayer meetings!

The date was now April 1906 in that old empty warehouse located at 312 Azusa Street in the industrial district in LA, California… the Front page Headlines of LA Times read, “the fire of Pentecost comes to LA on Azusa Street” The believers said “the very atmosphere of Heaven had come down!” Revival from Acts 2 had hit the west coast in the United States of America… One reporter wrote, “That evening would be hard to describe. People fell to the floor as if unconscious; others shouted and ran through the house. One neighbor, Jennie Evans Moore played the piano, something she did not have the ability to do before. People were speaking in other tongues…” Over the next few days of continuous outpouring, hundreds gathered. The streets were filled and Seymour preached to the streets. In that old empty warehouse located at 312 Azusa Street in the industrial district in LA, California… In an unfinished building with a low ceiling, a dirt floor, (used as a storage building and stable) and mix matched chairs with wooden planks laid out for a prayer altar and two wooden crates covered by a cheap cloth became the pulpit. GOD SHOWED UP!

In a time when strict segregation was the norm in America, White and Black families sang and prayed and worshiped together… and A one-eyed black son of slaves stood up and called forth the power and the glory of GOD! And Fire fell from Heaven and within weeks the Warehouse could not contain the people! They came from the North, South, East, and West, every color, Black and White, Men and Women, and children alike! Revival Fire Fell… They spoke and sang in tongues of angels and saw healings and miracles…

Today over 600-million Spirit-filled Christians trace our roots back to that old empty warehouse, and a 36-year old William Joseph Seymour, and the Azusa Street revival…

Now, I say all of that to say this: If it happened there; then I ask why not here and if it happened then, then I ask why not NOW? When folks get together and are in one accord! No Separation by color, sex, or religious barriers… And we can say, “Let the 150 become 60 or 70… It’s ok the 3000 are waiting!” God’s Holy Spirit will COME in a Mighty way, Revival will pour out, and the Heavens will open up! Church, Greater days are ahead, be prepared and ready to be blessed…


Pastor Howard

Youth Attack

What a Great church Service Sunday… I believe that God has started a FIRE at our church for the Next Generation! Lately I’ve noticed that almost every news story or statistic that you read or hear in reference to today’s teens is So Negative.

Here are just a few stats I picked up:

70% of teens believe that a Christian is “someone who goes to church and reads the bible sometimes...” <> 900,000 teens are abused at home each year, 1 in 5 teens have considered suicide before the age of 18, 40% of teens have self inflicted injuries, 9 out of 10 teens have been exposed to online pornography… <> 57% of people who are unmarried and sexually active have an STD (50% of teens are sexually active), 1 in 4 female teens from ages 13-19 have an STD (oh yea 50% used condoms and still contracted the disease), HALF - One out of two sexually active youth will contract an STD by age 25., Nineteen (19) million new STD infections occur each year (almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24)

And the stats go on:

Three in ten teenage girls (31%) become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20 – there are more than 750,000 teen pregnancies a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 81% are to unmarried teens. In the US ¼ of high school females have been the victim of sexual abuse… <> 21% of our nation’s teen’s abuse drugs, Sixty-two percent (62%) of the nation’s high school kids – some 10.6 million – and 28% of middle school kids (2.4 million) will go to schools where drugs are used, kept, or sold. Nationwide, 25.4% of students had been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug by someone on school property during the 12 months preceding the survey. Half of teens (50%) have tried an illegal drug by the time they finish high school.

And the stats go on:

There are 3-million teens suffering from alcoholism in the US, Three out of every four students (75%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by the end of high school. About two fifths of students (41%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) by 8th grade. More than half (58%) of 12th graders report having been drunk at least once in their life, One fifth (20%) of 8th graders report having been drunk at least once in their life.

And the stats go on and on and on….

In a Christian Nation (regardless what a selected few may say, history shows that the USA WAS Founded as a CHRISTIAN NATION!) Godly values and morality is unseen… A Humanistic philosophy has infected our society and it seems that a silent majority has taken a back seat to a minority of unbelievers. This minority group has succeeded in taking God out of the Public eye, Out of Schools and colleges, and out of Main Stream America… Christianity has become a joke to the Washington and Hollywood elite. As a result, every moral and ethical area of our nation has been declining decade after decade. And the church has set back and done nothing! In a Nation that: 80% confess to be Christians, 74% want public schools to display the Ten Commandments, 83% want students to say prayers at graduation ceremonies as part of the official program, 71% want the Bible used in literature, history, and social studies classes, 70% want daily prayer to be spoken in the classroom, and 70% want creationism taught in public schools… WOW, this is something you’ll never hear on CNN…

I feel that our Nation has been under attack for decades by the enemy (the Devil) and I say, “It’s time to take it BACK!” Today, I make a Public Declaration of War on Satan and all of his demons…Sunday morning at Haven of Hope several kids took the first step and became Spiritual Knights in the Lord’s Army -- Agreeing to fight for their generation… This next Generation is too important; we must not allow them to slip away from God’s destiny for their lives! Join them and me in this worthy fight to save the next generation, “A Generation Worth Fighting For!!!”

>>> Youth Attack its Time to Fight Back!!! <<<

Pastor H
(Stats found from ATF, SADD, WUCT online, and geocities…)