The Howerter Blog

We arrived at the church where the Florida Outpouring was being held at about 5pm. The doors didn’t open until 6:30 or so. When we arrived, there were about 400 people already waiting. The crowd was dispersed with people playing instruments, singing or playing the shofar. Some of these people were by every definition of the phrase “out there”. I am not questioning their validity, intent, commitment or motives. I just know that they were a little different for me. Some of these were singing, laughing or screaming at different times. Many of the people were talking to each other, even though they were strangers. At about 6:30 the doors opened and they let about 100 people in. They had to let admit people in shifts because so many people were trying to get it. It took us about 25 minutes to get inside. We went to the balcony of this church because we knew that the main floor was already full. Throughout the night, ushers would walk through the church asking people to sit closer together so that more people could come in. They had been shut down by the Fire Marshal on a previous night so they were counting patrons so as to not have that happen again. There was already discussion about trying to find a bigger venue. It is getting to the point where a stadium is needed. We stayed at the revival from 5 pm to about 12:30 am. It was pretty incredible. There were many healings. Throughout the night Todd Bentley (the speaker) would call get vision about people’s infirmities and they would be healed. He would ask those that were healed to come to the stage and profess what had happened. I witnessed more than one person with crutches use them to get onto the stage, and then leave without them. At one point when Todd prayed for healing on a young boy, the Holy presence of God descended on us and a solemn quiet fell on all 3000 of us in the church. It was a weighty presence like something sitting on my chest. This presence stayed for quite a while. At the end of the service, Todd prayed for kingly anointing and laid hands on everyone in the church. As I am writing this I am sitting outside the church waiting to get into the evening service. It is currently 3:08 pm and the service starts at 7:00 pm. There are about 400 people here right now.