Power-Releasing Revival in the Holy Presence

In 1996, I led a revival that broke out in Cleveland, Ohio.

It covered the entire Cleveland region near where I lived at the time. People gathered five nights a week for ten months straight. Every night Monday through Friday in excess of 350 people came.

The most striking thing about the revival was that intercessors would find themselves praying for hours before services. Mostly women, these intercessors produced an awesome army of prayer warriors. The presence of God was thick and tangible every night.

Healings, miracles, and families coming to the Lord abounded. Some nights we could see what looked like a cloud thickening over the church sanctuary. In the Old Testament this thick cloud is referred to as the kabod, or glory of the Lord. When the glory came, our shoes were taken off for we knew it was holy ground.

Just as Moses took off his shoes when God appeared in the burning bush, so did we do the same. This presence lent the moment to silence and to bowing before Him.

The word kabod means weight, so all things bow to the heaviness of the glory presence. On more than one occasion, the weight of God’s glory caused me to collapse to the ground. My words would not form on my lips, my brain felt inoperable, and there was no preaching on those nights. The cloud of God’s glory was directly related to the women’s prayer and praises. God Himself loved it. He presented Himself more and more as He heard the women’s praises.

For the Love of Children

Some of the most beautiful experiences was seeing teenagers and children in awe at the Presence of God. Tears of joy filled the faces of boys and girls.

Speaking of children, I recall ministering in a large Houston, Texas, church where I was preaching at two morning services. Between the services, the church provided a guest room for relaxing. A six-year-old girl brought her ten-year-old sister who was born “deaf and dumb” to the room. She asked me to pray for her older sister as they held hands. She specifically asked me to ask Jesus to heal her sister so she could hear and talk.

How could Jesus refuse. I cast out the deaf spirit and then the dumb spirit in Jesus’ name. I then clicked my fingers to see that she could hear. A big smile broke out on her little face and she nodded in the affirmative. I then asked her to look at my lips, and I had her pronounce her first word. I told her to say the word, “Jesus.” The two syllables came forth one at a time. “Je” “sus”; then finally “Jesus.” We broke into applause at what the good Lord had done. I then introduced the two girls at the beginning of the second service so the entire church community could thank God that Sunday morning! This was the third time I had seen Jesus heal a person from a deaf and dumb spirit.

When I returned to ministry, one of my first meetings was held in Nashville, Tennessee. During the time of ministry, I pointed out in the audience a fifteen-year-old girl standing to my left. She had a huge goiter growing on the left side of her neck. I spoke that the Spirit of the Lord said she was being healed right now. The power of these words caused her to crash to the floor. Metal chairs fell along with her. I then walked over to her and placed my hand on her neck.

Immediately the tumor went down, down, and then was gone. Her father stood over her crying at what the Lord had done. He had hearing aids in each ear. He told me artillery fire damaged her ears while serving in the military. I told him to take out of his ears the two hearing aids. I prayed, and God instantly opened both ears, healing his punctured eardrums.

While these two miracles were going on, a pretty little three-year-old girl was twirling around beside her mother in the back of the auditorium. The little girl tugged on her mommy and shouted in excitement to her, “Mommy, Mommy, look at the man up front.” The mother said, “Yes, that is Dr. Sizer, the preacher.” But the little girl replied, “No, not him. I mean the beautiful man behind him.” The little child saw a beautiful big angel standing behind me as I ministered in signs and wonders like I had done so very many times in the 1970s and 1980s. God was reaffirming to me the ministry of miracles that He had imparted upon me many years before. He was confirming His great works through the archangel’s presence ministering with me. This was thrilling news to me.

Supernatural Gifts

Moving in supernatural gifts is no doubt very exciting. The gift of word of knowledge is one of the wisdom gifts of the Holy Spirit. You can read about it in First Corinthians, chapter 12. When I point out someone, a strong sense of knowing something supernatural comes over me. I know things that I shouldn’t know. Let me give you a few examples of moving in the gift of word of knowledge.

Shortly before this meeting in Indiana, I was ministering in Minnesota where I walked over to a man I had never met before. I looked at him and told him that his gift was wisdom from God. I said he would guide and direct many people in Christian counseling. It turned out he was a licensed counselor.

At a meeting in southern New Jersey, I walked over to a man and said, “You are a boat captain and fish for a living. Now you, like Peter, will become a fisher of men.” His name was Bob Bradbury. He went into ministry having dropped his captain’s nets. He helped evangelize young people in the country of Uraguay for a number of years thereafter.

Recently, I mentioned to a small group of forty people in Pennsylvania that a woman present in the room is a fraternal twin. The Spirit of God told me that she had a falling out with her sister two months before, so I said that out loud. God wanted her to step forward for prayer now and reconcile with her sister who wronged her. A woman stepped forward and declared it was her. She asked the Lord Jesus for forgiveness on the spot. Chances of a fraternal twin in a group of forty people is low odds if one was guessing. It is easy to say such a thing to a crowd of five thousand but not to forty people. But the truth is, this is far from guessing. It is “knowing that you know that you know”!

At a church in Philadelphia I pointed out a person by saying, “That woman in a red blouse who is fiftynine years old back there.” There were a thousand people present, so it was not easy to see the woman, but there she was. I said, “You have stage four cancer and the doctors expect you to die, but you want to live. God is healing you now.” With that said, she trembled and cried with her hands to her face. She shook, then with the power of the Holy Spirit, God healed her and no one but Him laid a hand on her body to free her from the cancer. There are dozens of more examples. The point is with every word of knowledge, our God knows us. He knows every hair on our head. He knows everything about us.

In 1997 while I was ministering in a country church in Indiana, God would surprise us all again. During the service, I pointed out for healing a large man on crutches who was standing in the back of the church. The man’s leg was injured in a motorcycle accident. I walked back to him and told him God was more interested in the state of his soul than He was in healing his leg. I told him he needed to get his life right with God. The big man looked sheepish at this point with his eyes downcast.

I told him that God could forgive his many sins. That he might know that God had the power to forgive his sins, I said to him, “God is going to heal your leg.” I told him to drop his crutches and in the name of Jesus to walk. To everyone’s amazement, the man walked pain free and healed by the power of God. I brought him to the front of the church for salvation. I asked the pastor to lead him in a prayer of forgiveness. Then he prayed for the man to be born again. When the prayer was finished, I spoke over the two men that this example of forgiveness of sin and physical healing would become a paradigm for the revival that was falling on this church in Indiana.

Many people would be coming here for God to change their former lives into something beautiful. I stretched out my hand over the two men and both of them were picked up off the floor by the power of God and flew back in the opposite direction until they fell on the carpet. The pastor was slain in the Spirit for over two hours. During that time, the glory of God filled the church. Little children, teenagers, mothers, and fathers wept and repented in the presence of God.

For months after, people were led by God to drive off the interstate between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, pull up to this church, which was kept unlocked during the day, and find the presence of the living God inside.

One example of restoration was the story of a mother and her daughter who came to the sanctuary. When they both stepped into the church, they grew uncomfortable and tried to leave for fear. As they reached the back door of the church, they could not get the doors open. Both were slain in the Spirit without any human being present. The girl was delivered from drug addiction, and the mother came under conviction for her many sins of not being there for her daughter and was forgiven.

Marinating in His Presence

As we “marinate” in prayer in the presence of God, we take on the properties of God. His holiness and presence rubs off on us. We do not become holy and like God by trying harder to be like Him. This would be a work of the flesh. It must come with spending time with Him. I can thank God for some of my time in the seminary. It virtually was a monastery at the time; a place to carve out a deep well of prayer life before His presence and in His presence. It taught me one thing—to be comfortable in silence so I could learn to hear His voice.

John chapter ten says Jesus is the Good Shepherd. His sheep hear His voice; and the voice of another stranger His sheep will not follow. It is the voice of a loving Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. As you grow in relationship with God within, you will

cultivate a place for hearing God. When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, you will feel the well springing up in your belly, flowing with living waters. You, like me, will learn how to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd from the voice of the wolf leading you astray.

Moses went up the mountain to pray for forty days to be with God. As Moses marinated in the presence of His holiness, he became holy. When Moses came down from Sinai, his face glowed with a radiance of the presence of God. The radiance on his face frightened the people. To choose the holiness of God means to separate from the world. A clear division must occur between the secular and the holy. We are not different because of what we wear extrinsically as some religious sects. But we are different because of what we cling to intrinsically in Christ, putting on the new self. We become set apart by God and for God, though we are in the world but not of it. Paul puts it best when he states that we are consecrated to be “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession…” (1 Pet. 2:9).