A Mercy Drop of Revival

On Sunday morning, April 3, 2011, a move of God began at The Summit Church in Little Rock, AK. Since that morning, more than 200 have gathered nightly for two to four hours of prayer that includes repentance, confession, people coming to Christ, spontaneous baptisms, and passionate intercession.

“This is a mercy drop of revival,” comments pastor Bill Elliff, “but in over 42 years of ministry, I have never been involved in or observed a moment quite like this, and I am humbly amazed and grateful.”

Prior to April 3^rd, Elliff had sensed for a long time that God was about to move. In an audio interview with Life Action Ministries’ Byron Paulus, Elliff stated that it felt like there was “gasoline on the floor of the church waiting for a match.” In March, Elliff had put a microphone on the floor of the sanctuary, just waiting for a time when his congregation might need to use it. He was preaching a series on the Holy Spirit. However, as he began the series, God told him to throw out his plan and just preach whatever the Lord would give him each week.

On April 3^rd he was preaching on quenching the Holy Spirit. Midway through the second service, as Elliff was preaching, he sensed God say, “stop preaching.” He commented to the congregation that he did not know why, but God told him to stop. A man stood up and said, we need to begin to pray. Before Elliff could say much more or give instructions, the altar started filling up. Soon people came to the microphone and began confessing sins, testifying what God was doing in their hearts. The service lasted three hours.

One man said he had been quenching the Spirit in his own life by not being baptized. The Lord had been prompting him to do that for years. He took off his shoes and asked to be baptized right then. Four more baptisms followed. Each night the next week (except Saturday) saw numbers build, 200, 275, 350 by Wednesday night, as people came to pray and meet God. More confessions, baptisms, salvations occurred as people obeyed what the Spirit was saying to them.

The following Sunday the two morning services just merged together and went five hours as the prayer revival continued. Now more than six weeks later (at the writing of this story) hundreds of people from churches around the area are still gathering each night as the prayer revival goes on.

In a report to fellow pastors about this move of God, Elliff wrote of the gatherings: “there is a deep sense and constant awareness that the Spirit of God is the ONLY leader. We are to listen to Him and do exactly as He directs. God has given us a deep faith during these meetings. The more we are led to pray, the more we realize it is God; therefore He has an agenda, a purpose, and we are merely cooperating with Him.”

“The Lord has awakened us,” continued Elliff, “it seems, to pray primarily for our city. There have been deep prayers for individuals, but also prayer nearly every night for the pastors and spiritual leaders and churches in our city. Many nights we have gathered around and prayed over pastors who have been attending.”

Powerful reports have come out of these prayer meetings–reports of transformation, meeting of needs, and so on. One significant outcome was reconciliation that came between two churches—Summit Church and the Baptist Church it had come out of in a division 12 years prior. The reconciliation was not planned, but as the Spirit moved members who had been involved in the division suddenly confessed sin and asked for forgiveness. God used the time to bring a spirit of forgiveness over the prayer meeting which brought healing over various issues in the lives of many.

–Prayer Connect magazine. To subscribe, click here.