What happened to
Brownsville's fire? The Florida church that hosted the Brownsville Revival has dwindled
to a few hundred people. Did it have to end this way?
I’ll never forget my first trip to Brownsville Assembly of God. It
was 1995, the year an unusual spiritual eruption occurred at the nondescript Pentecostal church in Pensacola, Fla.
The rumor was that God had visited the quiet Southern town. I
came not only as a reporter, but
also as a hungry seeker.
In the early days of the revival,
the faithful came by bus, car and airplane from all over the world.
Eager worshipers waited for hours in the sweltering humidity
to get a seat for 7 p.m. services that often lasted past midnight.
When evangelist Steve Hill finished his nightly sermons—in which he demanded repentance
from spiritual compromise—the
majority of people in the
auditorium would run to the front of the church and bury their faces in the floor.

“The Holy Spirit is easily
quenched by pride, greed, selfish religious agendas, and broken relationships”

Wailing was commonly heard during those meetings. Some
people shook under the weight of conviction. It did not matter if
you were a drug addict needing conversion or a pastor living in
secret sin—everyone found forgiveness, and an unusual sense of refreshing in that holy
place.
My life was changed there. I wept
in the carpet, and repented for my journalistic cynicism. One
night, in the midst of all the pandemonium near the stage, I ran over to where Hill was
praying. He grabbed my head and screamed, “Fire! Fire! More, Lord!” I was one of the thousands who fell backward on
that floor. I was not pretending. I felt as if God had placed a heavy
blanket of His presence on top of me.
I don’t question whether the Holy Spirit was in that place. But today, more than 10 years after
the Pensacola Outpouring
occurred, I am asking other questions.
I am wondering why the church that hosted hundreds of thousands of visitors has shrunk
to a few hundred members, and now owes millions of dollars for
a building they can’t fill. I am struggling to understand why so
many people who once were part of the Brownsville church
now feel hurt and betrayed. I am
wondering if the leaders of this movement mishandled the
anointing of God’s presence like Uzzah did when the ark of God
almost toppled on the ground
(see 2 Sam. 6:6-.
History shows us that revival is always risky. The devil opposes it,
and carnal flesh gets in the way of it. The Holy Spirit is easily quenched by pride, greed, selfish religious agendas, and broken relationships.

www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/charisma_grady_brownsville.aspx