Exalted Bondservants
Frank Bartleman was the resident intercessor in the Azusa Street Revival, which was a beginning of the Pentecostal movement in 1906. On May 1, 1904, he was present at the Lake Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in Pasadena California when a revival began to break forth there. People had been praying that God would visit Pasadena.
That night, Bartleman wrote, “God has always sought a humble people. He can use no other… There is always much need for heart preparation, in humility and separation, before God can consistently come. The depth of any revival will be determined exactly by the spirit of repentance that is obtained. In fact, this is the key to every true revival born of God.” 1
The other leader in the Azusa Street Revival was a young black man named William Seymour. Born the son of two slaves, he had braved much insult and humiliation to learn to read and to preach the Scriptures, including having to sit in the hall and listen through a partly open door in Charles Parham’s Bible school in Topeka. Having been blinded in one eye by smallpox, it is prophetic that his name was “Seymour.”
These two humble agents became lightning rods through which power came to the Church from the throne of God. Humble yourself before God and He will exalt you into His service.
1 (from The Power to Change the World, Copyright © 2006 by Rick Joyner)