A NEW PENTECOST?

A New Pentecost?

By Mel C. Montgomery

My friends, in recent days I have been truly astounded at what I am seeing. It is as though a great mosaic, consisting of many small pieces of what God is doing, is forming before me into an unexpected picture of the move of God that is in the earth at this time. And what I am seeing is significant enough that I want to share it with you for your edification and so that you can make this a matter of prayer.

One morning in 2006, the moment I awoke, the Holy Ghost said in my spirit, "Start a blog."

I was so groggy from sleep I actually said out loud, "Start a blog?"

And He replied, "Yes, start a blog."

When I had a few minutes to consider the matter and rub the sleep from my eyes, I realized that this was indeed a good idea. I could put my teaching articles on it, and also some biographical information on it about the Goodwins. There was nothing on the internet about them. I understood that such a blog could really fill a niche and be a blessing to many. A couple of weeks previous to this, the Holy Ghost had said to me also, "Someone who knew the Gooodwins is going to get ahold of you."

In obedience to the Holy Spirit's instruction, I started a blog. And thirty minutes after I published the first article on it, true to the Lord's comment, someone who knew the Goodwins contacted me. An e-mail came to me from Rev. Ron Sirkel who had known the Goodwins and had attended their church. This seemed to me to be an immediate confirmation of the rightness of starting a blog.

Shortly after this, pastors who had read my teaching articles and the articles I had written about the Goodwins began to contact me. Two went so far as to invite me to come hold meetings for them: Rev. Kelvin Easter with Destined to Win Christian Center in Chicago, and Rev. Mike Burns with Christian Fellowship of Joy in Long Island.

While preparing to go minister for these pastors, things escalated further.

In a few weeks, Don and Beverly Davis contacted me. They had attended the Goodwins' church years ago, and had even ministered with Mom Goodwin after Dad's death. They told me that they had the master tapes to all of the Goodwins' services and meetings. Within a few more weeks, in consultation with Dr. Charles Goodwin (the last living Goodwin son), they approached me with the idea of making these recordings available to the world over my website. Their vision was that these would be made available by download, for free. They wanted these treasures sown into people's lives all over the world, at no charge and with no strings attached. I was honored that they chose to include me in their vision of taking these recordings to the world. It took some doing, alot of research, and some trial and error, but we found a way to upload the recordings and make them available to the world for free.

The Goodwin Collection--as I called it--consisted of some of the earliest known recordings of Kenneth Hagin and John Osteen, plus numerous ones by Mom and Dad Goodwin, and also some of the only known recordings of Howard Carter. These had been kept in storage since Dad's passing and had never been released to the public, other than occasional individual copies that had been made.

Then things escalated further.

As I was listening to these recordings, editing them, making slight format changes and uploading them to the website so that you could listen to them, people began contacting me with other rare Pentecostal recordings. Another Howard Carter recording was sent to me by Rev. Keith Malcomson Director of the School of Christ in Limerick, Ireland. And he has a couple of other rare recordings he is planning to send me.

I then found out about a lady in nearby Springfield, MO whose father had pastored a church that Howard Carter and Stanley Frodsham had attended in their final years. She has recordings and pictures of them that she is collecting and planning to send to me.

As if that were not enough, a man contacted me with more rare recordings. He was a Rhema graduate, and Buddy Harrison had allowed this man access to his private library to make copies of various recordings. This collector gave me numerous recordings by David Du Plessis, who was affectionately known as "Mr. Pentecost," and had brought the baptism in the Holy Spirit to the old-line denominational churches and to the Roman Catholic church through the 1950's to the 1970's. He also gave me recordings by F. F. Bosworth whose book "Christ The Healer" set the Pentecostal world ablaze with a new understanding of God's healing power in the 1920's and 1930's.

Whenever such recordings come to me, I try to contact the speaker or their heirs to make sure that we have their permission to put these recordings on our site. Technically, this probably isn't legally required. I have been advised that these recordings are old enough that I could host them without anyone's permission. However, Mom and Dad Goodwin had an excellent reputation for doing things decently and in order, and it behooves us to rise to the same standard. So when Doug told me he had recordings of F.F. Bosworth he wanted to share with me, I tracked down Bosworth's granddaughter to see if I could have her permission to host these recordings on this site.

How glad I am that I made the effort to contact her! I found Bosworth's granddaughter to be a delightful sister in the Lord. She is very thankful for her grandfather's ministry. She told me that unknown to most people today, her grandfather had a radio program in the 1930's, and that many of the radio programs were recorded along with other sermons he preached elsewhere. She said that she has literally hundreds of recordings of her grandfather that have been in storage since his death in 1958. She also told me that she is having these recordings converted to CD, and is writing a biography of her grandfather, and that these will both be released next year. Praise the Lord!

It was in talking with Bosworth's grandaughter when something was mentioned to me that has become a theme that I am hearing over and over. She said that the Lord had told her that the old Pentecostals had lit the fires of revival across this land and throughout the world, and that these revival fires had nearly died out. But He added that He is going to bring these recordings back, and use them and other means to blow on those smoldering embers to relight the fires of revival amongst us again. She told me that concerning the Bosworth recordings, and I believe this is true also about the Goodwin recordings, that God had hidden them to be brought forth "for such a time as this."

The further I go, the more I am running into this same story--recordings audio or written, long thought lost are coming up out of basements, and down out of attics, to be made available to us in our day. And the majority of them have two things in common: One, they are recordings of solid ministries that stood the test of time. And two, they involve individuals who received the Holy Spirit at or around the time of the Azusa street revival. Look at the following people whose recordings have reappeared in the last 3 years:

Stanley Frodsham--filled with the Spirit in 1908 in England. He went on to help found the Assemblies of God denomination, to write a biography of his friend Smith Wigglesworth, and to bless the Body of Christ with his excellent teachings for over 50 years.
Howard Carter--filled with the Spirit in England in 1915. He wrote the book "Questions and Answers on Spiritual Gifts" which has become a classic. He taught and ministered the baptism in the Spirit all over the world with a young Lester Sumrall, and ministered for over 50 years.
The Goodwins--filled with the Spirit in the 1930's, taught sound doctrine and ministered in spiritual gifts for over 50 years.
David Du Plessis--filled with the Spirit in South Africa in 1918. Wigglesworth prophesied to him, and it came to pass, that he would be used to bring the baptism in the Spirit to old-line denominational churches. And so he did in the 1950's and 1960's.
WFP Burton--Pentecostal evangelist to Africa. Filled with the Spirit in England in 1911. We have a recording of Burton giving his testimony.
F. F. Bosworth--Pentecostal healing evangelist. Visited the Azusa Street revival with John G. Lake and others and was filled with the Spirit under Charles Parham's ministry.

And I truly believe this is only the beginning of the materials that will resurface in coming days.

Now it escalates even further.

A man has written a book about the Azusa Street revival. As a yong man in 1960, he was running from the Law when he ended up stranded on a street in California. Two little old ladies approached him and began to testify to him about the Lord. He accepted Christ, and they invited him to their home. They were old-time Pentecostals. They had been children during the Azusa street revival, and were now living in a community of other seniors who had been children during that revival also. He spent the next six years sitting at their feet, writing down and memorizing their stories, knowing that one day God would have him share these stories with the world.

The Azusa saints told him that William Seymour--the pastor of the Azusa mission--and a number of others of that generation had prophesied that a new and greater Pentecostal outpouring would come again just after the turn of the next century when we went from the 1900's to the 2000's. They told him to hold these stories until then. Well, just last year (2006) he felt impressed of the Lord to publish the story, and he has done so. I've read the book and it is a marvellous work. If you are interested, you can purchase the book, "They Told Me Their Stories" by clicking on that link.

So in addition to Pentecostal audio recordings we now have this written account also surface after all these years. My friends, for so many similar records by similar individuals to appear within the space of the last 3 years is too much to be a simple coincidence. I think God is doing something profound in our midst.

The Pentecostal pieces of this great mosaic are falling into place, and the picture that is presented to us is one of fire, and wind, and water, and blood. The fire and wind of the Spirit. The water of the washing of the Word. And the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. This mosaic shows us these four elements coming together in greater manifestation than we have seen in a long time. It may indeed be greater than the Pentecostal Outpouring at Azusa, as the Azusa saints prophesied that it would be. I do not know.

I will not predict a new Pentecostal Outpouring. I never "predict" anything. Either God says something to me, or He doesn't. He hasn't said to me "Pentecostal Outpouring." But as friends can tell you, His Spirt has come upon me several times and overwhelmed me with a word that I have prophesied out--concerning these recordings that are on this site. And the Word has been:

"You have no concept of the magnitude of effect these recordings will have on the lives of those who hear them." Again and again, the tears have flowed as the Lord has said one word over and over in my spirit: "Magnitude . . .Magnitude . . . Magnitude!" I truly believe that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have our hearts understood the "magnitude" of what God is doing in our day. He isn't "going to do" nor is He "getting ready to do. . ." No. He IS doing it.

I do not know what form this move of God will take. I do not know when the fulness of it will come. I do not know if it will fall in one location and spread from there, or if it will fall in many places at once. But I do know that God is no respector of persons. Nor is He limited in any way.

Allow me to tell you a couple of things that I DO know.

I know it is time to humble ourselves, pray, and seek God's face.

I know also that as the move of the Spirit increases in our midst, we need to avoid the mistakes of the past. As God has moved in the past, too many times we have thrown our discernment and sound doctrine out the window, and have let in the bad with the good. We can not allow that to happen again.

I am convinced that God has attempted to give us some substantial moves of His Spirit in the past, and men have not judged what was happening, and error and a wrong spirit got mixed in with what God was doing until nearly more harm than good was done. Look back at the Latter Rain, the New Prophetic Move, the Toronto Blessing, the Pensecola Outpouring--and I believe they had two common themes. One, God was in all of these moves to a certain degree. Two, little or no discerning was exercised in much of them. Even the strongest proponents of these moves admit that frequently these meetings lacked appropriate order and oversight. God did indeed move. But among those who fell out under the power, and those that laughed in the Spirit, were those who barked like dogs, roared like animals, or hissed like snakes. Among those who preached sound doctrine were those also who preached various errors such as the idea you can prophesy at will.

My brethren, God leaves it up to men to judge and correct what happens in our services. If we want to let God flow, and we allow familiar spirits and spirits of error to manifest, then the blame is on us not on Him. He's done His part. We must do our part to keep things within scriptural boundaries.

This is why I believe that God has brought back the Goodwins' teachings at this time. We need a better understanding and a closer adherence to scriptural order. And the Goodwins were highly developed in spiritual protocol and order. As God moves, leaders in this new move need to have the courage to separate the sense from the nonsense, the genuine from the fake, and the Spirit from the flesh.

If there was one lesson that was demonstrated again and again in the Goodwins' ministry, it was that a true move of the Spirit goes hand in hand with doing things decently and in order. Mom and Dad Goodwin had no hesitation whatever in putting a stop to things in their services that were wrong, or that for which they could find no Scriptural support.

So must we do also.

I'll end this by urging us all to pray, to humble ourselves, to seek God's face, to be open to the moving of the Holy Spirit, but to also try the spirits to see whether they be of God, and to plainly and firmly reject that for which we can find no scriptural backing. A move of God is not a free-for-all.

Contact Guidelines

Brother Mel is especially interested in hearing from:

Anyone who has been blessed by this website.
Fellow ministers.
Anyone who knew the Goodwins or other faith giants.
Anyone who has old recordings they would like to donate to us so that we can share them with the world.

Please keep in in mind:

All e-mails are confidentially screened.
Sincere questions or comments are always welcome, and will be forwarded to Mel.
Brother Mel personally reads and answers all e-mails that are forwarded to him.
Because of the demands on Brother Mel's time, a response will usualy take several days.

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Abusive e-mails. Senders are blocked.
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Rediscovering Pentecost With Pastor Mel

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and tell My people their transgression. . . " Isaiah 58:1.