GBI
Antiokhia Church Restoration Story
This
is just a glimpse of the amazing story of how God began
to pour out His Spirit in a mighty way at GBI Antiokhia
(Antioch Church). This has been named the Restoration
Movement because the entire Church was transformed in
a very short space of time and continues to be renewed
and restored on a daily basis.
Early
in March 2002, Pastor Kitty Hamilton, from the United
States of America led a seminar, Healing of the Mind,
at GBI Antiokhia and as she taught on the topics of
restoration, self-image and inner healing from Acts
3:19-21 on March 14th through to March 17th a mighty
hunger was birthed within the pastors of the Church
for a release of the Holy Spirit in their midst. They
came to the realization that Jesus Christ promised to
restore GBI Antiokhia and ultimately the Church of Christ
to a state where His presence could be gloriously manifested
and where the people of God would be greatly refreshed.
They acknowledged that any move of God would not be
the result of man-made programs or human opinions but
would happen only in the timing of God and in His way.
This
was the beginning of an amazing journey of supernatural
release and an incredible outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The
following day, on Monday the 18th March 2002, the senior
pastor and his wife made an agreement with God believing
that the Church would be restored to a position of glory
and that He would have His way in our midst. Along with
another pastor from Surabaya, they prayed, using oil
to anoint various items as the Holy Spirit led them,
including the Church building and all its contents,
in order that God might sanctify His Church completely.
Several
days later, on Thursday 21st March 2002, deep in prayer,
all of the Church pastors joined together to sanctify
the Holy Room (auditorium) of the Church, including
the platform, all its equipment and the seats. Then
on Friday 22nd March 2002 the pastor, his wife and all
Church staff made a unified commitment to pay the price
to allow the Holy Spirit to move freely and committed
themselves to a greater fasting and praying effort and
longer prayer taking place from 06:30 - 12:30 each Saturday
morning. Since then the presence and power of God has
fallen with great intensity each time fasting and prayer
has taken place.
Thursday
28th March 2002 was a day of great revelation. Two major
prayer meetings were held and great manifestation of
the Holy Spirit took place. A word was spoken in tongues
at this time and interpreted as following:
- Everyone that comes to Him will be accepted without
discrimination.
- The truth must be established in His Church without
any compromise.
- The restoration process must be started from within
the Worship team.
- Members of the Worship team must establish holy lifestyles
so that they can be victorious in all forms of spiritual
warfare.
Thursday
night is our combined cell meeting for all Church members
and on the 4th April 2002 the presence of God fell with
great force and He instructed the entire Church body
to live in complete holiness - especially the worship
team. The purpose for this was to begin the restoration
process by ensuring that the people were looking to
His face and not to His blessings.
A
third prayer and fasting meeting was held the following
day - Friday the 5th April 2002. On this occasion God
started visiting all of the members of the prayer team.
A renewal broke out in praise and worship and the entire
prayer team was filled with holy laughter. Immediately
we proclaimed the victory of Christ over all sins, weakness,
illnesses, diseases, poverty and many other curses.
Friday
12th April 2002 was a momentous occasion when we held
the fourth prayer and fasting meeting. Six people who
had shown incredible devotion and faithfulness in prayer
and fasting meetings before the restoration were exalted
to become pioneer members of the Church. God made it
clear that He expected them to increase their commitment
toward taking care of and ensuring unity, obedience
and faithfulness within the Church more than any of
the other congregation members. That same evening, from
22:00 through to 04:30 the next morning, effective fervent
prayer was offered up and three important revelations
were birthed during this time:
- God said to the people of the Church that they must
accept the movement of the Spirit into which He was
leading us. He did not force or coerce but simply said
that a deep longing and hunger for Him was required.
- He (God) asked the people to surrender their life
and talents completely to Him.
- Many people in attendance experienced very real supernatural
visitations and some were asked by God to make commitments
in certain areas of their life.
The
following week, in the combined cell meeting on the
17th April 2002, God gave guidance to the people who
were prepared to serve Jesus Christ willingly and seriously
with their whole heart. He made it clear that all of
the things that we do in God will not be useless and
that we will receive the prize according to those things
that we do here on earth. He told us to be glad for
those who hear and understand about paying the price
for God.
19th
April 2002 marked the fifth prayer and fasting meeting.
During this time of consecration God taught us many
things concerning longing - that we must have a desire
to look upon His face and that this needs to be the
highest priority in our life. It was again clearly stated
that we must not focus only on His blessing. We also
learnt about the need to understand the principle of
sowing and reaping in our deeds and behaviour and also
in our ministry and giving.
On
Saturday 20th April 2002 God reminded us that the spiritual
warfare had begun and through a powerful vision the
pastor had received, God advised us of several things
which needed to be attended to with great vigilance
and watchfulness during this restoration:
- Do not allow any ties or spiritual bondages to create
strongholds in our midst.
- Do not fear the devil because the power of the blood
of Jesus is far greater than anything else.
- Do not fear barriers and challenges because Jesus
Christ (Emmanuel) will be with you.
- Do not allow mediocrity or weak Christianity to creep
in so that we are no longer useful as a tool of spiritual
warfare and thus allowing the enemy to destroy both
us and other people.
- Do not fear the war in the spiritual realms because
God is on our side and no-one can stand against us.
- God will smooth down all roads and streets for us
so that we can go and win souls for Him.
Since
the time of this account many many lives have been radically
transformed as a result of the ongoing spiritual rain
that is taking place at GBI Antiokhia. The powerful
manifestation of the Holy Spirit has continued to intensify
and increase each week as the hunger deepens and the
people develop a closer relationship with Him. There
are really no words to express the glorious thrill of
standing in the presence of the Most High God.
We
conclude with the statement that when Jesus Christ is
given freedom to operate as the Head of His Church He
will continue to restore more and more of His Churches
so that the entire body of Christ will be ready for
the great harvest in front of us - and especially the
great harvest in the coming end time.
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