Glory Manifestations

The following historical event took place at a house church on the southwest side of Houston, Texas. The event received no public attention, but it should have been written down in the history books as one of the greatest house revivals of modern times.These true events took place in 2010 in my living room at 13319 Avonshire Street. I had a burning desire for a revival to come to my city. I had no experience or education on the subject, so I started a journey to study and discover the recipe for a great awakening. My wife and I wanted more than just a Sunday routine week after week. We wanted God!I started a Bible study in my house that gradually grew into a small house church. In the early days of the church meetings, all I would preach was repentance. The Lord used me often to prophesy over the people, and they would tell their friends to “Come and see this pastor who has told me about my whole life.” The church grew to a good solid twenty members. As long as I was prophesying, the people stayed.However, when the Lord started telling me to preach on sin issues, church membership dwindled. On one Sunday in particular, no one showed up. It was just my wife, our children, and I in attendance. I was discouraged and devastated. I felt like I had let God and my family down. However, my wife urged me to preach to her and the kids like they were the crowd. Even though it was encouraging what my wife said, I needed new direction and I needed it fast.

The Next Move

The church was dismantled, but I had to pull myself together. I made up in my mind that God had promised me revival, so I wasn’t going to stop seeking Him until I received it. I was like Jacob wrestling with the angel for the blessing. So, I went on Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural! website, and I found a show in his archives about the Azusa Street Revival. The author of the book was Tommy Welchel, and the name of the book was They Told Me Their Stories. It was about the youth who had been used by God at the great Azusa Street Revival. I went to purchase the book online from Sid Roth’s website, but there were no more in stock.I went to Tommy Welchel’s website, and it directed me to buy the book from the printer. The name of the man who printed the book was Dr. J. Edward Morris. I found it ironic that we both shared the same last name. To top it off, he lived in Houston as well. I told the Lord, “You must be doing something here.” Dr. Morris and I quickly became good friends. We went out to lunch, and he took my wife and me to his house. He gave us two copies of the book. He kept insisting that I needed to write a book. However, I just wanted to read about how these anointed people had ushered in a revival.As I read the book, my faith skyrocketed to another level. I longed to see those kinds of miracles in my own life. I had the anointing at the time to a certain degree, but it wasn’t on the scale that this book was referring to. I knew I need to see more of what the Lord had to offer. I wasn’t satisfied with a small portion of His presence and power. I wanted the fullness of His Spirit or nothing at all.

Answered Prayers

Several weeks passed, and I read the book over and over again. I would cry out at the altar in our living room for the Spirit to move like He did at Azusa Street. I told the Lord I didn’t want the burden of revival if it wasn’t like Azusa or better. I didn’t even want to do the work of the ministry anymore if His presence didn’t manifest. It became a relentless desperation to see revival. I was no longer a pastor at that point; I had conformed into a fire-filled revivalist.We began to invite people out for our monthly revival meetings at the house. Many came because they didn’t feel obligated to join our house church. In Houston, if you didn’t have a building then you weren’t a church. One day, I was led to do a three-day dry fast, which included no water and no food; we called it the “Esther fast.” My wife was running last-minute errands before the meeting, and she left me alone in the house so I could seek the Lord.

I lay prostrate on the floor and tried to enter into the Holy of Holies. I started to fall asleep, and I heard a voice say, “Tonight revival is coming.” I remained on the floor and saw visions of clouds. My eyes were closed, and my body went numb as I saw a bright light. All of a sudden, my wife walked in the door and said, “What have you done?”I opened my eyes and responded, “What did I do?” The house was full of a thick mist that covered the entire floor. We thought someone left something on the stove burning because the entire house was foggy. I got up to see it clearly, and as soon as I raised my hand, my wife flew across the room. She fell every time I went near her. This is something we never experienced before. I knew in my spirit something had been released to us, but what was the big question. That night, I was waiting to see what would happen. I knew my wife had felt the power of God, but what about the people’s reactions? I didn’t know how long the fog would remain. I was thinking maybe it’s just my wife who’s being affected by it. I did feel very sensitive to the spirit as I have in the past. However, this time my eyes and ears were clearer than usual and the visual manifestation of the fog in my house totally blew my mind. At that moment, I had no idea what was taking place and the fear of the fog lifting had me nervous that whole day.It was 7:00 on a Friday night; people began to arrive at our home. Some could barely see because of the cloud; the mist was still in our midst. People were slain in the Spirit as they walked through the front door. They were not even hurt as they fell forward to the marble floor on their faces. I had seen people fall backward before, but never forward. It was all new to me. Many would fall from their chairs as I preached messages of repentance. Some couldn’t get off the floor because their legs where weighed down by the Shekinah glory that filled the house. That night I knew we had called down revival and my prayers were finally answered. The first few days into the revival, no one could come close to me because I had extreme heat and glory that pulsated from my body. My wife made me sleep on the couch just so she could rest. I stayed up for three days and three nights straight with no sleep. I asked the Lord could He please let it lift off of me or else I was going to die. The glory was so strong that I had electrical waves racing through my body every thirty minutes. My eyes were so dilated they thought I might have to be admitted into a hospital. However, on the fourth day of the revival the Lord lifted the anointing off of me so I could function normally again.

For months, oil from heaven dripped from our ceiling in all our rooms. People wouldn’t leave the meetings until four or five in the morning. Gold dust appeared inside and outside of the cars that lined up on our street. It would cover the faces of the people, especially the children. People were getting healed of all kinds of incurable diseases. Many would levitate off the ground during deliverance services. Cancerous tumors would fall from people’s bodies unto the floor. Those in wheelchairs would get up with no hesitation. Every healing and miracle came with ease. Many healings took place without us even laying on a finger. The atmosphere was so anointed that as soon as you walked through the door, whatever you needed would manifest instantly. Angel feathers would fall from midair during our children’s meetings in the morning. I believe the Lord gave them that manifestation because they were so innocent. Neighbors reported seeing a cloudy mist around our house at all times during the day. At some of the meetings, people said they saw rainbows and flashes of light by our pulpit. Many reported that they saw fire come out my mouth when I preached. I never saw it myself, but others did. It would actually rain inside the house when we worshiped God. Many people went into trances and had heavenly visitations. It was like heaven invaded our home.

People came from other cities to see the manifestation and movement of God at our little house church. What made it interesting was the fact that we had no promotional team, no flyers to advertise—we were not even on social media at that time. Everything was done by word of mouth. Conviction was so heavy that homosexual men and women would get converted instantly and start speaking in tongues. Cross-dressers would come back the next day dressed up in the clothing of their gender. Men would dress like men and women would dress like women. There would never be a dry eye at alter call; even during my message people would break out into a travail and I couldn’t finish the sermon. A heavy sense of conviction and longing for God was in that place.The Lord also used the youth to prophesy. My eleven-year-old daughter Ida would stand in front of people and call out accurate words of knowledge. Grown men and women would fall down and burst into tears because of the accuracy of the prophetic word. There were miracles of instant weight loss; money appeared in bank accounts, purses, and wallets; and many miraculous healings and heavenly visitations took place. God visited us in powerful ways. My prayers had been answered. Revival had arrived, but how long would it stay? That was the question that haunted me the whole duration of the revival. As much faith I had during the revival to operate in miracles, the thought of it lifting was my biggest fear.

The Fire Fades

The revival on Avonshire Street lasted about eight to nine months. Myself and my wife being young in the faith, we allowed a few so-called seasoned pastors to come in and help us with the revival. We were looking for spiritual mentors who could help us understand what we had TAPped into. So, they came in and tried to bring order and structure to the meetings. They would pressure us about getting a building. They wanted us to become more organized. So, I began to try to get more structured and organized likeI was told by theses wise elders in the faith. Once this took place, the fog begin to diminish, the healings slowed down, the attendance dwindled, and even prophecy began to fade. No one understood how it came or how it went. However, my wife and I knew. The media never got involved or covered the story. However, those who were touched by it will never forget its impact. The landlord and the neighborhood association banned us from having meetings in the house. They said we were operating a commercial business in a residential area, so they shut us down. The truth of the matter was, the neighbors got upset with us because people were parking in their parking spaces during the revival. The AC unit and many other household appliances started to break down, and the oil that dripped from the ceiling dried up. It was over; the fire had faded, and any hope of it spreading worldwide proved to be a pipe dream. During the revival, many prophets came and prophesied that we were carriers of revival. One prophet said I had the mantle of William J. Seymour, not knowing that I had been studying about him prior to the Avonshire revival.

Prophetess Glenda Jackson, who is the niece of Maria Woodworth-Etter, told me that one day she was reading my book and God told her Prophet Shawn was the descendant of William J. Seymour of the Azusa Street Revival. She said the Lord told her that I carried the one-hundred-year prophesy that was spoken by Seymour around 1910. She said revival would come out through my ministry to fulfill the prophecy of my ancestors. When Prophetess Glenda shared this with me, the Holy Spirit hit me like a lightning bolt. I was struck by the power of God, and waves of glory went through my body. Other prophets had said that to me before, but when this woman of God said it the Lord confirmed the word with signs following. I saw why the Lord gave us such grace. I was a part of the revival bloodline of God’s generals, just like Glenda. Even though the Avonshire revival wasn’t on the level of Azusa Street, the Holy Spirit graced us with a taste of what was to come. If the Lord had allowed me to experience that measure of His Spirit at Avonshire when I was spiritually immature, imagine what would happen in the days to come as we began to TAP into the wells of revival.