40 Days of Prayer on College Campuses for Revival In America

40 Days of Prayer on College Campuses for Revival In America

Hey CCN Associates,

Thanks for joining the CCN Conference Call. Below is a description and explanation of the vision to mobilize 40 campuses in 2006 for 40 days of 24/7 prayer to bring revival to America. We also had a good time of sharing about "contending for the power of God" on our college campuses. (If you want the notes to the teaching I gave email me jaeson@campuschurch.net)

For those of you who want your campus to adopt 1 out of the 40 days to have your campus pray 24/7 please email

becky@theburningheartcontract.com
coach@campuschurch.net

or sign up at our new website!

www.campustransformation.com


Read the 40 day vision details in below and the daily journals from Becky to inspire you to see REVIVAL FIRE break out on your campus and every college campus in America in 2006!!!!
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40 Days of Prayer on College Campuses for Revival in America

Who? Students, faculty and administration who desire to pray for revival in America along with up to 40 other institutions.

In advance of the opening of your prayer room, 24 prayer room hosts should be assigned to one hour. They can cover the hour in prayer or be available to pray with others. Normally, about 5 students enter the prayer room each hour. A “livejournal.com” update will be posted for all 40 days for any students who have been in their prayer room to record their experience with God. One faculty and/or student should be the coordinator with whom all/any can contact for information on the room.

When? 24 hour shifts (or more, if requested) for each institution between January 20, 2006 and February 28, 2006. Choose your date as soon as possible—and contact Becky Tirabassi at Burning Hearts, Inc. to post on the Burning Hearts website.

These are the proposed dates at this time; there are open dates between January 26 and Feb 13 at this time…other dates may open up or more than one institution is able to pray on the same date.)

Where? A well-located, safe room with an entry door (class room, study room, church chapel) on your campus that is transformed into a prayer room for 24 hours.

How? Invite prayer groups, club leaders, sports team captains, or any other student body campus leaders to come together for this all-campus effort.

First, pray.
Second, choose a date for your campus and contact www.campustransformation.com
Third, secure the prayer room.
Four, assign 24 prayer room hosts and prayer room team.
Five, invite students to sign up for your date/hours through all forms of media: print, e-mail, chapel announcements, flyers.
Six, determine prayer room team to creates/build the prayer room.

Week in advance: remind students daily; have a daily prayer mtg.
Day before: Build and consecrate prayer room

Day of: Watch God work!

What: A Prayer room should be big enough for at least 5 to 10 students to fit comfortably. These are a few ideas of what a prayer can consist of:

(1) comfortable, movable furniture (couch or ottomans, throw pillows, bean bag chairs, carpet/rugs, floor lamps, etc.),
(2) journals, water, pens, and crayons
(3) walls covered with butcher paper for posting names or nations for whom students are praying
(4) continuous, low-playing worship music
(5) confession and communion stations
(6) a place for shoes to be removed before entering the room


*Contact Becky Tirabassi at becky@theburningheartcontract.com or call 800-444-6189 x 11 to sign up or for answers to questions.
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This morning I was so encouraged by A. W. Tozer’s comments found in The Pursuit of God about chasing after God, loving Him with our emotions, wanting to know Him better and more than anyone else! Quote after quote encouraged me, including his call to become “justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.”



My heart burns, and I know yours does to…to connect people with the God who loves Him. In our zeal for revival, I am reminded that our truest, purest passion must be first and foremost for God alone. As you spend time with Him daily, allow Him to light the fire within you!



W. Tozer, “For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience thy are not the better for having heard the truth.”


The 24 hour prayer rooms will offer a unique, powerful experience with God for anyone who enters. Oh, how thrilling to be a part of inviting many to experience God in His power and presence and passion and purity! Wow!
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I feel overwhelmed, almost breathless, every morning that I wake up…the only way I can explain it is with these words:



I feel the weight of all 40 days on my heart—I felt this way with a 4 day revival and with the 24 Hour Prayer room we hosted… (God began early on to prepare my heart and mind to be clean and right before God, consecrated, dedicated, full of His Holy Spirit, very careful about what I watched, said and did! I wanted to be ready to speak, lead, open, pray…)



40 Days of Prayer seems like 10 x’s the weight …knowing that I need 40 prayer room coordinators who will indeed take the responsibility to “prepare a place for Him.” They will be my contact, but they will connect each person who enters their room to the living, loving God.



The preparation, dedication, consecration of each room—and signing up all 24 hours in advance of the room is quite a responsibility, but so far I have found men and women (all but about 7 days) who will carry that responsibility for their campus. I ask you prayer for each of them…and to pray that we find/add the last 7 very soon.



“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16



As I make plans to attend each room (see list attached) I grow more and more aware that I will experience/sense/see/feel the presence of the Lord in each room! I anticipate a feeling—just as I felt in our “classroom, turned prayer room” this past summer…but for all 24 hours He was there. He was! And I get the impression that He will visit each prayer room for all 24 hours in each city—and it will be life changing for everyone who enters. Those who are assigned to pray—and those who are drawn to enter in—will find Him to be their all-in-all and they will never forget their experience with God.



Thus it is important to pray for each city—especially those immediately before and after your rooms…



It is most important to locate and dedicate your room, to visit it often as a small team of pray-ers, to gather a prayer team to create the room who will commit to covering every hour of the 24 hours, knowing that hundreds will add to your small numbers as the momentum gathers.



I also have a sense that the holiness of God—a power many have not felt before—will be in each room. All that I have read of Wesley, Edwards, Owen, and Murray is that those of us who are a part of revival should expect His presence, power, and holiness to be in and all over us. Let us begin to pray together for each other and our own room—and know that I am in prayer for you as individuals—your own consecration before God over these next 25 days.



I am about to book the first week of flights…For all involved (or joining in prayer support), please begin to spend time daily in the Word and pray over the next 25 days as we head into the 40 Days and then with each day…we are team brought together by God, most of us have never met in person, but He is our leaderJ! Great reads include: Religious Affections by John Edwards, Christ in the School of Prayer by A Murray, and Finney’s Lectures on Revival by Finney, The Calvary Road by Roy Hession, and if you want to join me in reading the daily devotional by Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, I know that we will be encouraged.



I will continue to send updates; I am also at your service. Until we meet in person…I love this opportunity to partner with you!!!!!!!!!

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A wonderfully “on fire” student mailed a book to me this summer titled, Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening. It is filled with quotes by and stories of those who have been in the midst of revival on college campuses.



The ninth chapter is titled: Results of Spiritual Awakening on Campus. It opens with a quote from Edwin Orr’s book, Campus Aflame. He quotes Frederick Rudolph, who said, “The really effective agency of religion in the life of the college was the revival…which brought many into church and ministry. Most college presidents and college faculties of this era felt that they…had failed a collegiate generation, if once during its four years there did not occur a rousing revival.” The author of Fireseeds, Dan Hayes (a CCC staff) goes on to write…



“Only God brings awakening. He has outlined our part in preparing a way. But when we do our part, a spiritual awakening should produce some predictable results.

The outworking of revival seems to fall into four areas:

1. Holiness of life for believers

2. Obedience to God and His word

3. Increased power from God

4. A massive movement of God’s Spirit in evangelism.”



Dan Hayes, a campus minister had been a part of the revival that swept campuses in 1995 and thus the book. In support of his finding, Charles Finney—over a century ago—was convinced that if you want to see revival, you must pray for revival. This list of four signs of revival is a very concise way for us to pray for the 40 days of Prayer in a semester long effort. (Hayes even breaks it down into HOPE: Holiness, Obedience, Power and Evangelism.)



One final note…a very dear woman, Ev Christenson (a friend of Edwin Orr) who has seen and written much about world-wide revival and prayer recently met to challenge me with her findings on revival—she was adamant that its end result should be true awakening…new life in Christ for those who witness the revival of Christians. She felt so strong that not only should the church be revived, but the greatest result of a revival should be that the lost, those dead in Christ, should be born again in great numbers.



This is much to consider…I believe if we pray, as Finney suggests, for revival and the result it will have on each campus and throughout our country, we will receive exactly what we pray for…believing that this—revival and awakening—is passionately pounding in the very heart of God.





Be encouraged,



Becky

949-300-1490

becky@theburningheartcontract.com

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As I continue rereading Tozer’s Pursuit of God, I continue to see that what the 24 hour prayer room offers each of us is an experience with God to enter the “holy of holies!” Tozer addresses how many of us hold back from entering this place. In modern America, I suspect that the 24 hour prayer room will be a traveling temple!



Many “priests” in each city will prepare the room—and their hearts will be prepared in advance through prayer and worship and confession and time alone with God. Many sojourners in each city will enter the prayer room and for the first time in their lives have a breath-taking experience with God. We all will come face to face first with ourselves and then with the Holy God!



Ps 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Tozer describes how the holy fire of God purifies our hearts and how pure hearts burn with fire for Him. This sounds like Pentecost, eh?



Pray today that you, who are children and priests of the living, loving God, will examine your hearts before Him, be purified by His holy fire, then prepare each prayer room with that experience in mind. He, the Holy God will be traveling from room to room…and those who enter will indeed experience Him, they will be changed by His presence, power, love and mercy. I trust they every individual will see, taste, and experience the living, loving God. He is drawing them even now.
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Wesley Duewel, a former president of OMS International and missionary to India for 26 years, author of Revival Fire, as well as author of 2 other great books, Ablaze for God and Touch the World Through Prayer says that REVIVAL is preceded by prayer, fasting and obedience.



He lists, from his world-wide experiences, what revival looks and feels like:



unanswered prayer is gloriously and immediately answered
atmosphere is filled with God’s presence
awareness of sin is real, unsolicited, and deep
some preaching, some evangelism, much confession
some people tremble
unsolicited prayer meetings erupt
miraculous, instant healings occur
joyful song breaks out
lasting conversions
tears flow easily
hours of prayer
NIGHTLY, DAILY PRAYER MEETINGS


Charles Finney, in his book, Finney’s Lectures on Revival described prayer that reflects revival leads to…

overwhelming conviction of sin
sudden and powerful conversions to Christ
earnestness in prayer for others
profound moral changes
wrestling in prayer for others; angst
desire for the Word of God
bold evangelism
sobriety
deep love (emotion) for God
the Word of God is ablaze/alive
confession and restitution PROOF OF REPENTANCE
SPECIAL DAYS OF FASTING AND PRAYER
Prolonged, prevailing prayer
Hearts that burn for cleansing
First awe, then tears
Little to no backsliding
Facial transformation
Tears released uncontrollably
Sounds of Rushing winds and thunder filled the rooms
People didn’t want to leave
REPENTANCE, RESTITUTION, RECONCILIATION
PERSONAL TESTIMONIES
ANXIOUS SEAT (this is cool…you can read more about this in Finney’s Lectures on Revival)


Finney believed that prayer meetings were the primary means of the revival!





I get fired up when I read these lists—because I’m seeing these very things happen on college campuses. Whether few or many are present, the revival fire of God has a look and feel to it…generation after generation. Now is the time for this generation to prepare themselves for His coming revival—yes?



The 40 Days of Prayer is still looking to fill 8 more days—maybe Southern California schools are missingJ from our list! From 6pm to 6pm PST on Jan. 29-30, 30-31, 31-1, Feb 2-3, Feb 8-9, Feb 9-10, Feb 10-11, Feb 11-12 are still pending, but open. Please contact me directly for details.



Be encouraged,



Becky Tirabassi

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Happy New Year’s Eve!



As we watch the New Year turn—as I just did…in Hong Kong!!—I am reminded that in each city over the 40 Days of Prayer, some of us will be preparing and hosting a prayer room, others of us will be waiting for our room to begin. No matter where we are on the schedule—we are one! As students and campus ministers, we have the privilege to pray for each other…knowing the concerns we have for our own campus, we can pray for each other with true power and insight.



While meeting with the student leader of Berkeley’s prayer room this week (down in LA), I felt it would be very exciting for each of the room coordinators to invite the Chancellor or president, as well as any faculty members of each school to visit the prayer room. Perhaps this will be easier to facilitate on the Christian college campuses for many reasons. But I would ask you to make these invitations a matter of prayer! God wants to bring revival and awakening on your campus—perhaps just the simple invitation to a “prayer room” might indeed revive a dim heart or awaken a dead heart!



Ephesians 3:20…He does immeasurably, more than all we can ask or imagine!!!



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Happy New Year!



Wherever (and whenever) this e-mail finds you…be encouraged by the words in Psalm 46…”Be still and know that I am God.”



Hannah Whithall Smith, author of A Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life (around 100 years ago) spoke of her greatest struggle—unbelief! She committed to mortifying it—rather than letting it steal her faith, joy, and love for God.



Tozer said God’s voice is always waiting for us. Listen today…be still. In your alone time, He will speak above all noises—all doubt, fear, unbelief, and anxiety—and make Himself known to you!

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There is a great power added to your life when you live with expectation. To live barraged, hindered, or overwhelmed with doubt and unbelief—or even without expectation that God is working, and moving, and indeed speaking to us all day long—steals our faith!



If you’ve been reading the CYL Daily Bible (or any version of the One Year Bible), today’s reading in Genesis…is a very simple illustration that both the enemy (Satan) and God speak to men and women. They must choose to believe—in faith—that to believe God means to step out, to expect Him to do what He says He will do. At the very same time, the enemy whispers lies and half truths to deceive us, twist God’s words, or create doubt and unbelief. We get paralyzed, or worse…we ignore God and either do nothing or sin.



Today’s NT reading in Matthew is about John the Baptist—the preacher who “preached repentance,” preparing the way for the Lord.



In the scheme of things, over the next 2 months…it is critical that we listen to God, ignore the lies of the devil, and believe with expectation that we—each prayer room—is “preparing the way” for the revival that is on His heart.



Pray for each other.



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Once again today’s One Year or CYL Daily Bible brought a concept to light—40 days! In Noah’s time, God purified the land in 40 of rain and floods! (Did you hear the definition of Katrina means “purify?”) In the New Testament reading of Matthew, Jesus is baptized and then sent into the wilderness for 40 days of temptation. Oh my—the expectation that 40 Days of Prayer on college campuses can/will/must both purify and prepare us is exhilarating! Let us stay in the word—as Tozer says—“the Bible is the infallible declaration of His mind for us put into our familiar human words!”



I’m attaching a “view of the 24 hour prayer room” from a Berkeley student. This might encourage you in fresh ways to prepare the 24 hour prayer room on your campus.



40 Days of Prayer for Revival on College campuses begins in 17 days—woo hoo!



Prayer Room Idea Blurb


Berkeley has had a few 24 hour prayer rooms and I have visited a couple others at different events. There are a few essentials and then of course some optional ideas for building a prayer room. First and foremost, when you enter there is an area to leave shoes, cell phones, bags, distractions, etc. with instructions on the room and any other important information on the room. Next there is a separate area for repentance, which is super important to have in order to come clean before God before entering the corporate prayer area. Next is the corporate prayer area. This are should be the largest of the areas to fit all the people. It is a great idea to have blankets, pillows, and bibles available to everyone. As well as rugs for the floor if needed/if possible. Other nice things to have are candles, CD player with worship music, a guitar, a book of worship music. In one of the prayer rooms there was a tub of water with rocks around the repentance area, and that was really nice. Some of the rooms had areas separated by hanging sheets and that was really nice as well. A clock somewhere can be helpful so people don’t need to bring their cell phones. It is important to have phone numbers and contacts so that people don’t walk home by themselves during the late night shifts. One of the most used areas in the prayer rooms I have been in is the art area. Having card to right prayer requests on and paperclips and fishing line to hang it up on, lots of markers, crayons, pens, collage supplies, etc. is good. Also large sheets of butcher paper with different themes written across the top to be written on are good. If you have a prayer room where many denominations will be visiting incorporating the Stations of the Cross and other art work can be nice. Also, it is nice to have different stations or hanging posters that have ideas of what to pray for, for example, specific request for the school, community, prayer room, city, country, world, etc. A corporate journal, either using a laptop or an actual notebook is great as well as a posted sign up sheet of who is going to come when and perhaps a contact phone number for them is beneficial as well. A few of the rooms had little corners with coffee, water, & snacks which can be great for the shifts that are late night or people that are coming during a rushed time. The main idea is to make the room welcoming, comfortable, and above all a holy place. It should be a place that has reminders and outlets for worship and interaction with God.


And silent room for all…
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January 4th!! I got a call last night from two students—the “prayer leaders” from Days 1 & 2 (APU and CSU)—they called to tell me they were meeting with 12 others to PRAY FOR EVERY SCHOOL AND then wanted to know more about each of you!! They FIRED ME UP!



I’m beginning to hear the stories of how “the room for prayer” is being revealed to some of the “state school” students who are in charge of “preparing the room” on each campus, how the “burden of the Lord” is pressing in on individuals to live “set apart lives” when they return to campus after break, and the excitement that grows when they pray for the 40 days—all leading to blazing hearts afire! Yes, “COME ON!” the student yelled into the phone! That always fires me up!



Can you feel the fire? Can you feel and hear the wind? These students are sensing that God is going to come and bring more of Himself to each campus than we could ever imagine!! And they are specifically praying for the last 8 days to fill…by this Friday! Will you join us in this prayer request?



Oh, I was so encouraged by their courage and fire and enthusiasm and heart for prayer. In fact, I needed a bit of encouragement yesterday—and as if on cue, they called me (Darren was actually yelling my name into the phone when I picked up—he was so fired up!)



Now to businessJ…Charles Finney especially talked about the importance of prayer to prepare for revival. In one of the meetings we held in Feb 2005, we prayed at noon for 7 days prior to the meetings—in the room where the meetings would be held. It was unbelievably powerful to SEE the answer to specific prayers days later…in that very room! (In KC, a gal said she couldn’t stop crying when her friends, for whom she had prayed 6 months, came forward for prayer). I encourage you to set aside time to pray in your “campus prayer room”, if possible, even for 30 minutes daily for one week prior to your room. Finney, in his book, Lectures on Revival wrote about (p. 86) the “Spirit of prayer.” He wrote, “The Holy Spirit gives Christians spiritual discernment of God’s ordering of events, a discernment of movements of providence. Their sight seems prophetic.”



I want to encourage you to ask God for the spirit of prayer for your campus, your prayer room, those who will enter the room, how He will prevail on your campus and throughout the country during the 40 Days of prayer. God will begin to give you thoughts, ideas, and “marching orders”—what to include in the room, who to call even today to be on the prayer team. I know many schools are having a pre-prayer room meeting—some are meeting during the opening few hours of prayer…to worship and consecrate themselves, to petition and praise together while the prayer room is providing the quiet place of God’s personal presence for each person who removes their shoes and enters in…(I know one particular school that is building a shoe-cubby at the entrance of the room!)



Oh yes, the students who called last night could not contain their fire, their expectation!! God had answered my prayers from the morning through them last night!!! Let us continue to pray for each other, the rooms, the 40 days, of the revival to come.



Be encouraged,

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Another fabulous book that a student encouraged me to read and is called The Calvary Road by Roy Hession. He got my attention when he said he had read 3 times…it’s a quick read and has become one of Matt’s handbooks for “life with Christ;” it has also become one of mine and just yesterday a prayer leader whom I sent it to months ago said, “I’m on my second time through it now.” Hmmm…Roy Hession was a youth worker and a part of revival in England—he wrote the book in 1950! In speaking about revival—he wrote, “The outwards forms of revival differ considerably but the inward and permanent content of them all is always the same—a new experience of conviction of sin; a new vision of the Cross of Jesus and of redemption; a new willingness for brokenness, repentance, confession, and restitution; a joyful experience of the power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse fully from sin and restore and heal all that sin has lost and broken; a new entering into the fullness of the Holy Spirit and of His own work through His own people; and a new to gathering in of the lost to Jesus. (and that is just he intro…)



He opens with, “We want to be very simple in this matter of revival. To be broken is the beginning of revival!” Roy takes the first few chapters and asks each reader to examine their lives and get rid of self—the big “I” and make it a little “i” as found in Christ!! He doesn’t stop with a one time examination for those heading into revival or extensive seasons of ministry. He calls leaders, students, followers of Christ to examine their lives daily—to be “clean cups”…to “clean your cup” daily. In fact, most of the book (50 pages) is about “how to keep the cup clean.” He is adamant that the “clean cup” is the way to keep revival in your life—and never lose it! He says, “Jesus wants you to begin walking in the light with Him in a new way today. Join with one another—drop the mask. God has no doubt convicted you of one or more things you have to be honest about. Start there. Be a team of two to work for revival amongst your friends. As others are broken at the Cross they will be added to your fellowship.”



I’ve seen this “clean cup” concept of revival working among college students—I know those who are staying accountable and prayerful are powerful. One student called yesterday to tell me that he is returning to his campus with a new level of consecration to God—though much is acceptable, even allowable, he is returning to campus to lead a prayer revival—and he wants to be a clean vessel—II Timothy 2:21.



One final thought—I’ve been present in many meetings when Bill Bright asked the same—daily self-examination and cleansing from anything that hinders--of those who were going to partake in a fast. (In fact, he felt a day of self-examination (honest, transparent conversation with God, any amends, restitution, apologies, willingness to change any area that God asks of you) was critical to seeing breakthrough as a result of our fasting.



So here, I believe, is our mandate…to understand that revival is first (and always) a place of humility and brokenness before God. The willingness to be more for Him, more like Him, more usable by Him will/does look different for each of us, but it will require a daily brokenness before God—a daily clean cup. (And if we are honest, it takes a concerted effort to keep one’s heart and mind and mouth and body clean before the King for 24 hours!) So, let’s walk in the light together! Let’s come before God today and come clean—and stay clean. For the power of a holy God is about to enter each prayer room, each heart, each campus, each community!! In other words, if you and I have known broken relationships, if we have hidden sin, if we have hatred or angst in our hearts, if we struggle with unbelief and risk bringing others “down” to our level of unbelief, if we make excuses for sins of jealousy or pride, if we have division or unforgiveness between fellowships or persons…dear friend, ask God to help you today.



And let us pray for each other, let us extend forgiveness to each other—and as we find reconciliation, as Hession says, others will find Christ—they are looking for love and will find true love if His disciples are known by their love!!! Yes, yes, yes!



Dear Lord…we pray together today…clean our cups…make us one…heal our hearts…heal our relationships…bring revival. Come Lord Jesus, come…



Be encouraged,



Becky Tirabassi

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Burning Heart Contract, or why I call people to have “Burning Hearts”, I thought I’d give you a bit of the history! (This is an excerpt from The Burning Heart Contract, Chapter 20…)



“In 1947, Henrietta Mears went overseas and began to sense a move of God in her life as never before. On Tuesday night, June 24, 1947, while meeting with hundreds of young Christian leaders, she spoke with more urgency than ever before, rousing the crowd to become “expendable” for God, compelling them to ask God what they could do for Him.



She called them all to be difference makers, disciple-makers, and to love prayer and the study of the Word of God.



Following the message, Richard Halverson (former Chaplain of the Senate), Bill Bright (later to become the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ), and youth pastor Louis Evans had been powerfully moved by her message. They asked if they could meet with her for prayer in her cabin. They prayed for long hours, weeping and confessing sin, and “asking God for guidance and seeking the reality and power of the Holy Spirit. Then the fire from heaven fell, for God answered their prayers with a real vision.” (P. 281 Dream Big)



At the conclusion of their meeting, they determined to share their vision of taking the good news to college campuses throughout the world with leaders across America. And with an extra measure of power, within the next 24 hours, they brainstormed, prayed and planned a conference that would be held only two months later.



BURNING HEART VISION



The purpose was not to start an organization, but to spark a movement of the Holy Spirit.



Then the men and Henrietta Mears drew up a pledge called the Fellowship of the Burning Heart (A Commitment to (1) not less than one hour in prayer and bible reading daily, (2) and (3) to offer themselves in sobriety and complete chastity/fidelity, and (4) to lead at least one person to Christ each year).



And as teams went out to invite people to the conference, they were invited to join the Fellowship.



The eight-day conference would be help upon returning from the conference where the Fellowship of the Burning Heart was birthed….



Upon once again imparting her vision, the entire college department (at Hollywood Presbyterian Church) set themselves in motion to publicize the event and spread the word, sending invitations across America.



They began circulating literature… “God has spoken. The revival has started… the Holy Spirit spoke to a small group as they knelt in prayer… He gave them a vision with a plan for worldwide evangelism, filling them with the power of the Spirit in a manner not unlike the experience of the disciples at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has continued to lead…



There is continued evidence that this revival is the work of the Hoy Spirit and not something conjured up in the minds of men. This has been demonstrated by the fact that this experience was followed by personal confession of sins by individuals in great numbers and complete consecration of life on the part of many heretofore lukewarm Christians. Such action must necessarily precede any great religious movement, thereby providing “cleansed vessels” through which the Holy Spirit may work.” (P. 286 Dream Big)



Not knowing how many would come, when over 600 showed up at the conference center that held 500, expectation was in the air.



The event was unscheduled. There were speakers invited but not time frames were planned in advance as the commitment was made from the on-set that “the hour-by-hour program would be led by the Spirit of God, and no leader was to speak who had not been singled out by the Spirit working through the entire faculty, chaired by Henrietta Mears.” (P. 292 Dream Big)



The first day began with the group congregating in an open air meeting place called, VICTORY circle.



The entire first day was filled with just testimonies of how they had been invited, even compelled to come to this event.



Then, Henrietta slipped away to pray. Realizing that so many lives were so ready to make a difference in their world, but unprepared to do so, she spoke to them about sin, confession and forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit to perform such an internal-outer cleansing… if they would just be truly honest with God and give Him their lives… their hearts—the center of their desires and passions and personality.



87 colleges and universities had been represented and what was called the College Briefing Conference. And all attendees left with a sense of mission to “win their schools to faith.” (P. 295 Dream Big)



Henrietta Mears “encouraged every possible effort to win young men and women on campus to Christ.”



Present in every meeting from 1947-49 were public confessions of sin and great calls and commitments to surrender their hearts to the Holy Spirit, whatever direction that might take them.”

posted by Jaeson Ma @ 1/09/2006 11:18:00 PM