From the Desk of James W. Goll

The most holy day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, was this past October 7th and 8th. I trust it was as meaningful a time for you as it was for me. This week we move into the Feast of Tabernacles - the time of the harvest. So we are going to carry the theme of the harvest and the greatest youth awakening into our Global Prayer Storm. Let’s pray to the Lord of the harvest that He sends laborers into the field!

I have great news to share with you! My oldest daughter, GraceAnn Elizabeth Goll, just got engaged to the charming Andrew Visser this past Friday night. They are planning a summer 2012 wedding. They are excited and I am so happy for them as they make a wonderful couple.

As you receive this weekly communication, I am headed back to Germany for “round two” at His Place Wellness Center for additional tests and treatments from October 12–26th. This requires me to take the month of October off and alters the income streams coming into Encounters Network • Prayer Storm • Compassion Acts. We are continuing the Health Recovery Fund for the month of October. We need 175 more people to donate a one-time gift of $100 to help us through this month, but any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Thank you to everyone who has helped this Summer and Fall.

The FIRE ON THE ALTAR - International Prayer Storm Convocation is approaching very soon. Consider joining Cindy Jacobs, Don Finto, Julie Meyer, Sean Feucht, Faytene Grasseschi, McKendree and Rachel Tucker, myself and others November 3-5, 2011 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We will have an all night worship BURN Friday from 10PM until Saturday at 10AM that is open to the public. In addition,  every daytime registrant receives my Prayer Storm book free.

Remember, our new Encounters Network Resource Special for the month of October – purchase the book The Coming Israel Awakening and get a FREE copy of Praying for Israel’s Destiny. If you already have a copy, this is a great opportunity to sow into the lives of others. Don’t stop praying!

Remember, in Jesus, We Make a Great Team!

James W. Goll and the EN Team

If the ministry of James W. Goll and the combined ministries of Encounters Network • Prayer Storm • Compassion Acts have blessed you, please consider giving a financial contribution so that we may continue to serve you and others. Checks can be made out to Encounters Network and sent to our office address, P.O. Box 1653, Franklin, TN 37065, or contributions may be made online by clicking here or call 1-877-200-1604. Gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law and a receipt for your donation will be mailed to you.

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It's Time for Another Great Youth Awakening

And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those day.
(Joel 2:28–29, nkjv)

The time has come for another Great Awakening! In 1967, a youth revival started up that was called the “Jesus People Movement”, and it swept across the country, exploding in colleges and coffeehouses. People were being saved everywhere. It was radical. I was young and caught up right in the middle of it!

Now, more than 40 years later, we are crying out, “Do it again, God! Way beyond the Jesus People movement! Way beyond the charismatic movement! Do it again, God! Do it again in this generation!”

We’re heading around a corner. It happened before. It can happen again. It’s time for another Great Awakening of youth. Why not have the Greatest Youth Awakening that the world has ever seen?

Revolution - Always Begins With Young Adults

Almost every revolution you have ever heard of started with students on a college or university campus. Throughout history, it seems to be the case that revolutions get started, both bad ones and good ones, because student-aged young people are hungry for change and willing to lay down their lives for a cause, whether it’s political, social, or spiritual. Think of revolutions such as Marxism, Nazism, and Communism, or Pentecostalism and the Jesus People movement.

Campuses, of course, are where the future leaders are collected together in one place and are being trained. They are influenced by powerful voices and trends and they influence each other. Educational institutions also host many young people from other countries. In fact, there are more than 550,000 international students attending American universities currently. Young adulthood is a time of great change. For example, statistics show that more than 77 percent of all Christians made their decisions for Christ before they turned 21 years of age.
A spiritual awakening among young adults is therefore a prophetic promise for an entire generation. If Christians can reach campuses for Christ, God can in turn reach cities and nations. The words that the apostle Paul wrote to the young man Timothy can apply to young adults on campuses today:

I’m passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in.
(1 Tim. 1:18, tm)

Throughout Christian history, spiritual battles results in spiritual awakenings, and young people are clearly at the center.

Campus Ministry, Cambridge Style

In 1799, an evangelical move of the Holy Spirit began at King’s College, Cambridge, England. It began with the conversion of a student named Charles Simeon. This movement progressed slowly but surely for years, until there was enough evangelical activity that, by 1877, students from across Cambridge’s 17 colleges organized the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU), which in turn caused an increased interest in salvations and missions. An evangelistic campaign led by D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey resulted in a noticeable increase in enrollment in theology schools and missions involvement, including the launching of the “Cambridge Seven” to China, led by C.T. Studd, who had been a well-known cricket player.

More than a century later, CICCU still exists as Cambridge’s longest-tenured student group, and CICCU has helped with the formation of InterVarsity organizations across Great Britain and North America. Campus ministries such as InterVarsity, Campus Crusade for Christ and the Navigators have helped immeasurably to spur the growth of evangelical faith over the past fifty-plus years.

Evan Roberts and the Welsh Revival of 1904

Young Evan Roberts began to seek the Lord when he was only 13 years old. By the time he was 26, his earnest, prayerful efforts brought revival to his hometown in Wales. In a short time, the Spirit of God came so powerfully that 100,000 people across the country gave their lives to Christ, and the effects of that Welsh Revival are still being felt today, especially because of its contributions to the birth of Pentecostalism in the United States and across the world.

Evan Roberts’ simple prayer was “Send the Spirit now for Jesus Christ’s sake,” and “Send the Spirit now more powerfully for Jesus Christ’s sake.” He was a young man, but people of all ages responded to the Gospel message because of his revolutionary zeal and his humble, prayerful, obedience to the Holy Spirit.

The Role of Prayer in Student Revivals

In order to understand revival, we must understand the role of prayer in the history of revivals. J. Edwin Orr, the famous revival historian, said, “Young people in student-led prayer cells have been at the forefront in almost every awakening.”

For example, the Moravian 24/7 prayer and missionary movement that was started in 1727 by Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf was built on his youthful zeal. By the time he graduated from the equivalent of high school at the age of 16, Zinzendorf had started no fewer than seven different student prayer groups, and he continued his prayer disciplines while he was a student at the University of Wittenberg from 1716 to 1719.

The First Great Awakening in North America and Europe was ignited by a Yale University graduate named Jonathan Edwards and by Oxford students John Wesley and George Whitefield. The Second Great Awakening was sparked by Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, at Yale University. After his 1797 message to Yale students, nearly half of Yale’s student body came to Christ in a few short months.

Samuel Mills was a freshman at Williams College in Massachusetts in 1806, when he met with four friends for prayer about revival and world missions. When a rainstorm hit, they took refuge under a haystack and continued to pray (thus becoming known as the “Haystack Five”). “When the rain subsided, Mills stood up, slammed his fist into his hand, and announced ‘We can do this, if we will!’ These five young collegians stepped out in faith and not only initiated the first nationwide student movement, but also began the first six mission agencies from North America. Although there were just 25 colleges in America (averaging about a hundred students each) at the time, the "Haystack Five" helped launch small world mission study and prayer clusters on many of them.”

About eighty years later, a twenty-something young man named Luther Wishard who had just been appointed as a leader in the YMCA, heard the story of the Haystack Five. Inspired by the story, he committed himself to a revival of the same vision, and went on to found the Student Volunteer Movement, which became the largest missions movement of all time. “Over the next generation, students on every campus in the U.S. committed themselves to the ‘evangelization of the world in this generation.”  Over 20,000 of them sailed to the foreign mission field, and over 80,000 others had personally committed themselves to prayer and to financially support those being sent out.” These are just a few examples of the phenomenal revival zeal that comes out of the college-age generation.

The Law of Night-and-Day Prayer

Anyone who signs up for Prayer Storm already appreciates the value of 24/7, day-and-night, night-and-day prayer. This Scripture is a familiar one:

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.
(Luke 18:7–8, niv)

This passage portrays night-and-day prayer. Why are we convinced that this is what’s called for and that it is going to be effective? I have assembled the following list of reasons:

• 24/7 worship and prayer is what is done in heaven.
  Let it therefore be done on earth!
• 24/7 worship and prayer releases God’s justice on the earth.
• 24/7 worship and prayer fuels the Great Commission (see Matt. 28:19).
• 24/7 worship and prayer hinders the plans of the devil.
• 24/7 worship and prayer releases revival breakthrough.
• 24/7 worship and prayer prepares the way for Christ’s second coming.

As I have often said, a sustained move of God is comprised of three generations, because God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three generations walking together as one generation. We need the wisdom of the older, the resources of the middle, and the zeal of the younger. We need the synergy of all three.

Regardless of which chronological generation you are a part of, there is one thing every one of them must do, and that’s pray. You might not be able to do anything else except pray. Pray up a prayer storm. Pray!

I declare that the greatest youth awakening that the world has ever seen is coming upon the stage of time. Now is the time! This is the generation. The joining of the generations is upon us. My people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power.  Let another historic awakening begin now for Jesus Christ’s sake!

The Goal of Prayer Storm

I am dedicating Prayer Storm to this purpose and I fully expect the greatest youth awakening the world has ever seen. It will happen! With the goal and its fulfillment of one million consecrated prayer warriors joining in on the Prayer Storm – can anything less happen?

Become a part of the Prayer Storm weekly prayer thrust, with one target being the greatest youth awakening the world has ever seen at www.prayerstorm.com. Join us also at our FIRE ON THE ALTAR – International Prayer Storm Convocation November 3–5, 2011 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at Life Center. Sean Feucht of Burn 24/7, will be speaking on this “youth awakening” theme.

Lord, we call forth in our day and in this generation the greatest youth awakening that the world has ever seen. You have done it before, now do it again, even better and bigger and more powerfully. Release Your Spirit and send Your angels to usher in one billion more souls for Your Kingdom, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Send revival! Send it now! Move quickly, Holy Spirit and raise up the greatest youth prayer army of all time. We declare that these prayers are in agreement with Your prophetic purposes for this generation and we praise Your holy name. Amen and Amen!

Expectantly!,

James W. Goll

Prophetic Promises of a Great Youth Movement

If you read your Bible with an eye toward young adults, you can see how readily that God engages this generation for His purposes—even before colleges and universities existed. Biblical prophecies about the first and second comings of Christ are not confined to the prophetic books of the Old Testament. A surprising number are found in the Psalms. Here’s an example:

The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet."
The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion;
you will rule in the midst of your enemies.
Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy majesty,
from the womb of the dawn
you will receive the dew of your youth. [or your young men will come to you like the dew]
(Ps. 110:1–3, niv)

This psalm portrays God the Father speaking to His Son Jesus, while David observes and narrates by writing the words of the psalm. He’s talking about Jesus being revealed as the Messiah, whose “mighty scepter” will be extended from Zion. Where is Zion? It is not as much a physical place as it is a presence, specifically the Presence of God giving glory to His people in the Messianic age. Wherever God’s authority has been established, He lives and works. Zion can be among the believing Jews of the Old Covenant as well as the believers of the New Covenant of the Body of Christ.

The Father’s mighty scepter of power will be stretched forth from “Zion” because His authority has been transferred to His people, and they will be able to rule with Him even in the midst of their enemies. They will volunteer freely, abandoning their former plans in order to walk in holiness and obedience, carrying out God’s will and accomplishing His purpose. This won’t apply to just one or two people, but rather to a host of them, largely young people, who will appear like the dew on the ground.

I for one want to be one of those “young” people. I want to see young men and women coming to the Lord and I want my youth to be renewed in the process. Most of all, I want to be one of those who is privileged to usher in the Kingdom of God in the age in which we live. I want to encourage young people as they respond to God’s invitation to serve Him.

An Amazing Encounter

In 1995, I had an intense dream and visionary experience in which I saw stadiums filled with young people praising God. I heard this piercing word, “Out of the belly of the Promise Keepers Movement shall come forth a Youth Extravaganza that will rock the nations. The stadiums will be filled as out of the belly of the Promise Keepers movement shall come forth a Youth Extravaganza that will rock the nations.” I’m expecting to see the fulfillment of this word.

Notice it didn’t say “stadium,” singular, nor did it say “nation,” singular. Stadiums and nations will be filled and rocked. In my vision, I saw a large football stadium filled with young people and adults who were radically worshipping and praising God, and I saw a laser-beam light show crisscrossing the sky. Then the lights met high in the sky above the stadium and formed into a cross. On a giant Jumbo-Tron at the end of the stadium, I saw a depiction of the passion of Christ, with a close-up of the hammer coming down upon the nail that was being driven through the wrist of Yeshua (Jesus). In the background, I heard the old Jesus People song that was sung by Randy Matthews, “When the Hammer Fell Upon the Wooden Nail.” As the hammer fell and the cross shone in the sky, a spirit of conviction fell upon the audience and the people began to cry out and even shriek to the Lord for mercy.

The central focus of the youth awakening will be the cross of Jesus, lifted high for all to see. Giant gatherings will occur across this nation and other nations as the world is swept in an unprecedented move of worship, prayer, and fasting. This is what we are praying and working toward. This is going to happen because of the intense prayer storm that precedes it, the prayer gatherings and the all-night prayer vigils and the solemn assemblies that unite the generations across the nation.

Visitations with Bob Jones

Twenty years before my vision, in 1975, Bob Jones, who has had a great prophetic influence on my life, had the first of a series of encounters with angels who spoke about an outpouring of the Spirit that would be characterized by prophetic intercession; this appeared to Bob like an atomic explosion of light. Then in January of 1984, the Lord showed Bob that prophetic intercession would need to be joined by “compassion and worship” to be complete. These elements needed to cross-pollinate each other. The combination of these anointings would result in several things: (1) revival in the Church, (2) power evangelism in world missions, (3) justice in society, (4) pockets of mercy (“cities of refuge”), and (5) worldwide intercession for Israel. Between 1975 and 1983, Bob had been given over 100 prophetic revelations about a worldwide youth movement that would rise up. (Earlier, Bob had been brought back from a near-death experience so that he could be used to anoint the next generation of leaders who would help usher into the Kingdom one billion souls.) All signs point to a worldwide youth awakening.

We’re seeing a number of exciting developments in these days that show us that these prophecies and many others are being fulfilled. The 24/7 prayer movement is one example, as is the explosion of The Call, the stadium-based prayer and intercession gatherings of young people that Lou Engle has spearheaded. At The Call - Nashville on 7/7/07, the stadium was filled with 75,000 people. This was the first time one of The Call worship/prayer events had filled a stadium. I had the honor of being the chairman of that event, and I felt that it was as if the heavenly birth process got advanced that day. A membrane ruptured and water got released and “labor” intensified.

Coming up on 11/11/11 is The Call - Detroit. It’s time for righteousness to reign and radical worship and prayer to arise. Someday we will see a fulfillment of the prophetic words and visions. So this week in our Global Prayer Storm – during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles – let’s cry out to Lord of the harvest for the greatest youth awakening to come forth in our day!

In Christ,

James W. Goll