Boldness


In 1996 my wife and I traveled with two friends to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship to experience the presence of God at the Toronto Revival.  We arrived on a Friday afternoon and attended the Friday evening meeting.  There was a time of singing, and time of instruction, all leading up to an extended time of prayer ministry.

During that prayer ministry time the leaders asked the people wanting to be prayed for to line up shoulder to shoulder so that members of the church prayer team could easily touch and pray for everyone.  I was standing next to a college-aged young man with my wife on my other side.

As people received prayer and the Lord's gracious touch most people would simply melt to the floor and lie on the carpet to 'soak' in God's presence and to allow the Holy Spirit to continue to minister to them.

As I lay on the carpet with everyone else the young man next to me would quietly and gently roar.   He sounded like the lion in the movie "Over The Rainbow".  He would roar, then laugh and laugh for about a minute, then he would roar again.  All of us who could hear him would also laugh when he laughed because it sounded so interesting.  Eventually the prayer time ended, the meeting was finished, and we all prepared to go back to our hotels.  As we got ready to leave the church I asked that young man what the Lord was doing in his life to make him roar as he did.  He told me that before that night he was so shy that he would not have been able to carry on a conversation with me.  But, he said, "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah just gave me some of His boldness, so I am able to talk with you now."

Many people have objected to the Toronto Revival, but I hope that you do not find this report objectionable!