Revival Stories
The 1994 Toronto Blessing: From Burnt-Out to Burning Bright
The sovereign hand of God moves in ways that people often don’t expect. Sometimes the revivals that start in the humblest of ways yield an unexpected and world-spanning impact far beyond what anyone anticipated. The Toronto blessing was such a revival. In 1992, the pastor of the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church was John Arnott. He had served for many years as a church planter in Canada. He and his wife labored in the ministry and saw good standard spiritual growth, but after years and years of doing counseling and teaching and running the church, they were starting to run dry. They were feeling nearly burnt-out.
In September 1992, John and his wife Carol were drawn to attend the local meeting in Toronto of a visiting healer-evangelist. They watched in delight as, not only did 1000 people receive the Gospel, but also there were powerful miracles at work: the blind would see, the crippled would walk. It greatly inspired them, and they fell in love with Jesus again and what He could do through them. As their hunger grew, they asked the Lord for what the next step should be. He told them: “If you’re serious, I want you to do two things: commit your mornings to prayer, and interact with others who are anointed.”
For the next 18 months, they set aside their mornings simply worshiping, reading the Bible, and praying unto the Lord. They could sense their love for Christ deepening each day. During this time, they personally visited many cities in the midst of spiritual awakening and also invited many guest speakers to come to their church. The whole assembly wanted to hear more of how God was powerfully moving through His servants, especially many revivalists who were doing ministry in Argentina and South Africa. John befriended another pastor by the name of Randy Clark, who also was enthralled with revival and receiving God’s anointing to work in mighty ways. John invited Randy Clark to speak at his church, to give 4 messages in January 1994. Randy was not even sure he had 4 messages to give and was a bit anxious for God to show up in a significant way, but he agreed anyways. God did not disappoint.
As Randy and his team prayed intensely to get ready, God gave them a vision with a map of the entire world in front of them. The city of Toronto ignited to flame, and the fires spread to all the nations. During that first meeting on the outskirts of Toronto with just 120 in attendance, God did show up. But it wasn’t just with salvations and healings. When the Spirit of God started to move there, His presence caused many people to shake, to cry, to dance, to fall down, and to laugh. A strong conviction of sin also swept across the room, and those in the audience would see supernatural visions. Many of these manifestations have been seen in historic revivals before, but these were accompanied by a particular blessing of joy, of refreshing, and freedom from oppression. They called it the Father’s blessing, as God’s tangible presence touched the crowd with an overwhelming sense of Father God’s love for His sons and daughters. Within days, news of this great Spirit outpouring spread, and it spurred thousands of people to visit this little church by the airport. And even more significantly, the visitors would often return home and carry the vibrant revival fire back to their home churches. Looking back, in 1992, historic revival exploded upon this little church in Toronto in a way no one had ever expected.
QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS:
- What causes servants of the Lord to go dry or to burn out? What do you think made the difference in John and Carol’s life to stir up fresh fire in their hearts again?
- When have you been most hungry for the Lord in your life? Would you have taken up God’s challenge if He had given you the challenge He gave to John and Carol? What crazy sacrifice might you be willing to do in order to see a great outpouring of God in your life?
- Sometimes we hope for and expect a certain good thing from, and He gives us something unexpected but far greater. What good things are you hoping God will give you in the next 5 years? Imagine: What are 3 things that would be outside your box right now but if God gave it to you in the next 5 years, it would forever change how you experience God?