HERRNHUT: A CARIBBEAN SHRINE YOU NEED TO KNOW

I am now 75 years old, and as you can imagine, looking back in gratitude to God for all my adult life spent in ministry. There are too many highlights to mention but here is one that stands above many others:

In 1987, on the 250th Anniversary of its' founding, I visited New Herrnhut Moravian Church on the island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Being at this mountain-side shrine and the jungle overhanging its cemetery impacted my life in a way I will carry to my grave. There are churches in the Western Hemisphere much older than Herrnhut but none can compete with its' special history.

In 1737, the first missionaries of the modern era came to this jungle island to bring the gospel to African slaves. When Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann, stepped ashore on St. Thomas, Bibles in hand, they struck the "gong" that awoke a slumbering evangelical church and sent the mission movement around the world. From the vibrations of that gong, in our century alone, more than 100,000,000 new believers in Latin America and the Caribbean have come to Christ. Let me share part of this beautiful story with you.

In the early 1700's, a congregation of some 300 Hussites, Anabaptists, Calvinists, disciples of Swingle, Schwenkfold, and other non-conformists, trying to escape the fire of religious persecution in Europe, sought refuge on the estate of Count Zinzindorf in Saxony, East Germany. Like the Count, who was only 27 years old, most members of the community were young; all had fled persecution in other countries.

In the beginning, they quarreled over doctrines of baptism, predestination, holiness, etc., until the Count encouraged them to concentrate on their love for Jesus. It was the Cross, not doctrines about the Cross, he reminded them, that brought their redemption. In that understanding, they united in Covenant-agreement and began seeking the Lord in travailing prayer. What happened not only changed their world--and our’s–but will personally change you. Here is what happened:

Tuesday, August 5, 1727, Count Zinzindorf spent the entire night in watching and prayer. "Herrnhut" means the "Lord's Watch".

Sunday, August 10, 1727, At noon, when Pastor Rothe preached, the congregation fell under the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wednesday, August 13, 1727, at morning Communion, the fire of God fell upon the entire community in such shattering force that men working in the fields 10 miles away were stricken under the shock of it. Even today, its' impact is without parallel in modern Christian history.
Tuesday, August 26, 1727, the children were anointed with 3 hours of anguished intercession.

Wednesday, August 27, 1727, at the initiation of the children, Herrnhut began a prayer meeting that lasted night and day, without stopping, one hundred years. That century-long prayer meeting of laboring, travailing intercession, 1727-1827, birthed the modern mission movement. One hundred years later, long after the original members of Herrnhut were dead, every Protestant denomination actively engaged in carrying the gospel to foreign lands did so because of that century of Moravian praying.

John Wesley, who began the Methodist Church and sent revival around the world, was converted under Moravian influence. The first Baptist missionary to India, William Carey, in pleading for support, threw a Moravian magazine on the table before his peers, challenging them to take up the Cross of world evangelism. Many other Christian bodies came under the impact of Moravian revelation.

1737. Ten years after the Holy Spirit's fall, the first Moravians left for St. Thomas. During that decade of self-crucifying preparation, ripening of grace, they sought the Spirit's endowing for the work. They well knew that once in the Virgin Islands, they too might become slaves. Still they determined to go. When the day came to make the choice as to who would be the first to leave, Scripture quotations were written on slips of paper and placed in a box. After agonizing prayer, each person drew out one of the notes and obeyed its command. Whether one stayed in Moravia or went to the mission field was determined in that way. Acts 1:26. With heart racing, one of the young men opened his paper and read the words,

"Send the lad with me and we will arise and go." Genesis 43:8.

With that message in hand, Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann left home, walking more than 100 miles to Copenhagen, Denmark. In the port they found passage to the islands by working as deck-hands on shipboard. They were soon followed by Tobias Leopold who went to the island of St. Croix. What they found numbed them. Slaves were not allowed near churches. One who left his master's carriage and listened outside the church window was punished by having his ear cut off. Frederich Martin soon joined Leonard and David in St. Thomas but was imprisoned in the Fortress dungeon at Charlotte Amalie for his preaching. Through a tiny, barred window of this 1671-built fort, he boldly proclaimed the Word to listeners outside. Slave-churches which these men established still survive on St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, and surrounding islands.

Back in Moravia, the Holy Spirit began flooding Missionaries out of Germany like water over a spill-way. Within 25 years more than 200 excited gospel-bearing preachers went to every Continent on earth, including Greenland. Embracing each other in tears of farewell, they left home knowing they would not meet again until Heaven welcomed them. But they went! In the zeal of First Century believers, these Spirit-baptized youths took the flame of the Holy Spirit to every country in North and South America, much of Asia and Africa. Of the 18 missionaries who sailed to the Virgin Islands, half perished of tropical disease the first year. Tobias Leopold died on St. Croix, shouting the message of the gospel. Most avoided the U.S. in preference for unevangelized areas and for that reason, Moravian Churches are practically unknown in North America.

On my first trip to St. Thomas, I wanted to leave part of myself on the island. I did that by exploring every dungeon in the old Fort, kissing its' stone walls, praying, telling Frederich Martin I loved him. The big impact came later, pushing my way through jungle growth to find tomb stones below Herrnhut Church. Here, I hearde voices of young men and women speaking from 250 years in the past.

There is no way to describe that moment. As an evangelist, flying in and out a number of times in the comfort of a modern jet or in the luxury of a cruise ship, I felt unworthy to touch their burial ground. I wept aloud, yelling my thanks at the top of my lungs for what they did. It didn't matter who heard me. I wanted Hell to hear me. I wanted my own heart to hear me. Most important of all, I wanted God to hear me say I would die unfulfilled unless I experienced the same love for Jesus and power of the Holy Spirit that those young Moravians knew.

Suddenly, as if coming from long-silent voices, I heard Heaven reminding me, "How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" Luke 11:13. Standing there alone in the remoteness of that jungle grave yard, it happened. “Heaven came down my soul to greet, And Glory crowned the Mercy Seat.” The Holy Spirit flooded me. He went through me with the same love that Tobias, Frederich, Leonard, David, and others had known. In that moment, the dirt on my feet seemed too holy to wipe off. But it wasn't dirt I carried out of the cemetery. I took with me the knowledge that the same Holy Spirit who empowered the Moravians was willing to empower me.

Being 75 years old isn’t bad at all! My life has been so rich, so blessed, so full, and with Heaven’s help I look forward to another 20 years of Holy Spirit-empowered Kingdom-preaching. God willing, I intend to go back to that old church in the Virgin Islands. There are some youthful German-speaking preachers hiding among the trees I need to hear again. Perhaps some of you younger men and women will go and meet them. But when you go, don’t go merely as a tourist or historian! Go as a disciple of Jesus! Get bathed in the fire of God! Get filled with the Holy Spirit! Let the example of Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann talk to you. Listen to the memory of Tobias Leopold, Fredrich Martin, and others. The dungeon will shout their message at you. I promise. You will not be the same. And when you get to be an old man or woman your memories may include some of the same friends I have. If so, their friendship will make you as rich as I am.


 

Confessing Theological Failure--But Recovering From It

In a North African field hospital during the Second World War a young British medical corpsman thoroughly cleansed a small wound in the shoulder of a fellow soldier. He was applying a bandage when the doctor stopped him. "Let me examine that wound more carefully," he said, and then inserted an instrument directly into the injury. The soldier let out a yell; the probe had touched something buried deep within the flesh. "Get me the forceps," the doctor requested. Within a few minutes the foreign object, a piece of shrapnel, was removed, the wound cleansed and the dressing applied. As the young corpsman watched the procedure he was deeply grieved by his error; an error that could have cost the other soldier his life. The real injury was not on the surface as he had supposed; it was deep within. The impact of that incident remained with the medic into his later years. In time, God called him to preach, began speaking to him about the reality of unclean spirits that were hiding--out of sight--below the surface of believers’ lives. Today, the teaching and deliverance ministry of that young medical corpsman, now deceased, has impacted the church world-wide. He was Derek Prince.

One of God's accusations against Israel was that the Priests had "healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly." Jeremiah 6:14. They had cleansed and bandaged the exterior wounds but had not probed into the injury to find and remove the underlying cause. For many, it remains that way today. I remember numerous instances in my former ministry when church members came to me for help with sin-problems ranging from alcohol to anger, adultery to swearing. These were not hardened sinners but genuinely repentant, weeping people who desperately wanted to be free from their own sin and the mutilation it brought. A few individuals had nervous breakdowns and were financially destroyed. Families were torn apart, and in the most severe cases, children ran away from home. I prayed with the guilty parties and exhorted them not to sin again. What more could I do? I sterilized the wounds as best I knew and used the bandages I had. But, like the young medical corpsman, I did not know that the real cause of destruction was still imbedded in their flesh.

What am I saying? I am confessing that the real problem was failure in me more than in them. As pastor, I could not meet their needs because I had rejected that part of Biblical teaching which would have equipped me with the power to remove the foreign object.

My ministry in this area consisted wholly of applying Band-Aids and was a miserable failure. For example, during that time I attempted to help a church member with a major drinking problem. I took him from one alcohol-detox center to another. On one occasion, I drove off and left him standing on the steps of a state-operated facility that had refused to admit him. Fortunately, God later took that brother from my congregation and placed him in the care of another pastor and church who operated in the power of the Holy Spirit. (continued on page 3)

The man was miraculously delivered from addiction by having the unclean spirit cast out. The buried shrapnel was removed. Until the day he died he was an active Christian with a lay-ministry that sent thousands of gospel teaching cassettes around the world.

I thank God, today that brother would not have to go somewhere else for help. On a regular basis, I see drug addicts, suicidals, homosexuals, depressives, and people who have been abandoned as hopeless, be set free by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s miraculous gifts are indispensable in this type of ministry. Interestingly, the language used in New Testament Greek to identify the charismatic gift of “discerning” of spirits was used anciently as a medical term. It meant to “cut and look below the surface.”Through this wonderful gift, I Corinthians 12:10, a believer is able to see beyond symptoms and identify the underlying cause.

I still experience failure in ministry but the greatest disappointment I encounter is with church leaders who close their eyes and deny the plain, straight-forward message of Scripture. When they say, "Charles, those verses no longer apply. That power passed away in the first century. They won't work ..." I reply, "It's too late to tell me that! I am seeing them work!"

God does not want us healing His people “slightly.” He expects us to use every benefit Jesus purchased at the Cross--benefits that enable us to look below the surface and remedy the real cause of pain. Be like Derek Prince. Accept correction and benefit by what you learn. People’s lives depend on it. That wonderful power comes through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Get it! People whom you are presently turning away can easily be helped when you are able to “look below the surface” of their wounds.
 

THE POWER OF “BELIEVING”

1. Mark 9:20-23. Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said to him, "If you can believe , all things are possible to him who believes."

2. Matthew 9:28-31. And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you." And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, "See that no one knows it." But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country.

3. Mark 9:24. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe ; help my unbelief!"

4. Mark 11:24-25. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

5. Mark 16:17-18. And these signs will follow those who believe : In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

6. Luke 8:13-14. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

7. John 5:44-45. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

8. John 11:40-45. Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."


9. Acts 26:27-30. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe." Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian." And Paul said,"I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains."

10. Romans 10:14-15. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

11. 1 Corinthians 1:21-22. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

12. Ephesians 1:18-20. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.

13. 1 Thessalonians 2:13. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

14. Hebrews 11:6-7. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

15. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.