Introduction
This story is about a revival that developed on Sunday morning, October 20, 1996, at Christian Tabernacle in Houston, Texas (now Inspire Church). The senior pastor at the time was Dr. R. Heard.
Extraordinary Prayer and Desire for More of God
Heard said that he had fallen into the trap that many pastors fall into, and that was allowing the demands and busyness of the job to erode his personal devotional time.
Beginning in May of 1994, Heard refocused and initiated the devotional time with the Lord that he longed to have. With this renewed focus, he immediately began experiencing God at work, renewing and refreshing his intimacy with Him.
Throughout the entire year of 1995, Heard’s sermons and teachings were focused on knowing Christ intimately. Through this emphasis the entire congregation began to develop a real hunger for more of God.
Hector Gimenez
In August of 1996, Hector Gimenez, a pastor from Argentina, had visited the church and spent a week conducting services. There were many significant healings taking place and God was moving in power in every ministry in the church.
Dr. Heard had invited Evangelist Tommy Tenney to preach at the church on Sunday morning, October 6th. During Tenney’s visit, the congregation’s hunger for God grew even more.
Tenney was invited to come back again the following Sunday, October 13th, and again, the presence of God was very powerfully sensed. Though Christian Tabernacle had been praying for revival for many years, they felt led to call a special Monday evening prayer meeting the next night, October 14th.
On Wednesday of that week, Heard felt he should ask Tenney to minister again at their church on Sunday, October 20th—the third Sunday in a row.
Steve Hill, preaching during the Brownsville Revival
Visit to Brownsville Revival
Knowing of the ongoing revival at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, Heard took 30 of his staff there to become immersed in that atmosphere and receive an impartation, and they arrived back on Saturday.
What Happened
On Sunday morning, October 20th, a strong presence of God was already sensed throughout the sanctuary of Christian Tabernacle. Tenney, the guest speaker, said that the presence of God was so strong that
the air was ‘thick.’ You could hardly breathe… At times the air was so rarefied that it became almost unbreathable. Oxygen came in short gasps, seemingly. Muffled sobs broke through the room.
As Heard went to the pulpit to introduce and welcome Tenney to preach, he first read from 2 Chronicles 7:14:
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Following that reading, Heard told the congregation that he felt as though the Holy Spirit had been speaking to him, and that they were to seek his face and not his hand. Heard went on and explained that many people were seeking manifestations and something from God without actually seeking God.
Immediately following those comments, the Spirit of God came upon Heard very powerfully. He grasped the acrylic pulpit to brace himself, and there was a thunderclap that echoed through the sanctuary, and Heard said that
it was like someone just threw me across the platform.
Pulpit that was split in two, prior to it hitting the floor
At the same moment, the pulpit he was leaning on to brace himself split in half and fell to the floor. Simultaneously, the tangible terror of the presence of God filled the room and people began to weep and wail.
Tenney then stood and said,
If you’re not where you need to be, this is a good time to get right with God.
Tenney mentioned what happened next:
I’ve never seen such an altar call. It was pure pandemonium. People shoved one another out of the way. They wouldn’t wait for the aisles to clear; they climbed over pews, businessmen tore their ties off, and they were literally stacked on top of one another, in the most horribly harmonious sound of repentance you ever heard. Just the thought of it still sends chills down my back.
Concerning that moment in time, Heard commented later, saying,
I’m not given to manifestations, and have told the people of our church, ‘If you ever see me fall, it will be because God put me down. I don’t do courtesy falls, and no one pushes me over.’
Heard continued with his description of that time:
I almost hesitate to tell you that . . . I literally could not move. I’ve heard about people being pinned to the floor and things like that, but to be honest, I came from a classical Pentecostal background and I’ve seen genuine moves of God and I’ve seen my share of weirdness. And if something like this happens, and it doesn’t happen to someone that I know, that is credible and a person of integrity, I don’t discount it, I just have a tendency to let the jury stay out until I know that this has indeed happened to credible people. But I could not move. And I saw a manifestation of the glory of God. . . . I saw a vision… I saw his glory. . . . There would be bursts of light that would come through that would just go through me absolutely like electricity. . . . and that went on for an hour and a half.
During Heard’s encounter with God, all across the sanctuary people were involuntarily falling prostrate on their faces.
There were three services on Sunday mornings at Christian Tabernacle, and as people kept coming for the subsequent services, they would become aware of the overwhelming presence of God when they entered the foyer, and it would cause them to weep. They would then make their way into the sanctuary and head straight to the altar, crying out in repentance.
This congregation had doctors, lawyers, business leaders, and they were all laid out all over the sanctuary, prostrated due to the power and presence of Jesus.
Heard added more to his personal experience:
I tried to get up and couldn’t. It was as though every electrical mechanism in my body had short‑circuited. I couldn’t make my hands or my feet respond to what I was trying to tell them to do. It was as though I was paralyzed. And I was able to slowly lift a finger, and one of the pastors saw me and I beckoned for him to come and he got some of the other pastors and they carried me into the office and set me down.
Tommy Tenney
Baptisms
With people coming under severe conviction of sin, and having rapidly cried out their prayers of repentance, they immediately felt an urgent need to be baptized. With Heard still being “unavailable,” overcome by the power of God, and a growing number of people demanding water baptism, even prominent people from that church, the water baptisms were commenced by an associate pastor and Tenney. These baptisms were the physical sign that the individuals had repented before the Lord, and these baptisms continued for hours.
Though Christian Tabernacle typically had three services on a given Sunday morning, on this day there was only one, and it lasted till 2 o’clock Monday morning.
What Developed
A decision was made to have a service the following evening, Monday, and following that day, decisions on what to do were made on a day-to-day basis. Later in that week it was obvious to Heard that God was wanting to do something on an extended basis, so they continued their regular Sunday services and conducted services on Wednesday–Saturday, with Mondays and Tuesdays being days off.
Christian Tabernacle: 13334 Wallisville Rd.; Houston, TX.
In 2019, the congregation moved into their new building on 11727 East Sam Houston Pkwy N., Houston, TX.
Three Months of Cancellations
The church at the time had 122 ministries. Some of those were designed to attract people and keep them coming to their church. What they found was that the presence of God was more effective than many of those ministries, so some of them were cancelled. Those cancelled were major efforts, like the Christmas musical, the Passion Production, children’s plays, etc.
During the first three months of the revival there was such an awareness of the presence of God that it was next to impossible to sing or preach. As attempts to do so were made, the individuals would end up prostrated on the floor, or unable to rise from their seats.
Following those first three months, the preaching of the Word returned, as well as the singing of the choir. Even after those first few months, there would be times when the presence of the Lord would come and disrupt what had been planned.
Numerous Healings—often occurring sovereignly, with nobody praying for them
► Four tumors completely disappeared.
► Sleeping disorder instantly was healed.
► Digestive ailment that had persisted for 25 years was instantly healed.
► Many other healings took place.
Manifestations
► There were angelic visitations.
► The presence of God was so profound that it brought on tremendous conviction of sin, driving people to repentance.
Heard said that
Everywhere in the church the carpet was stained with the tears of those who were touched by God, leading them into deep repentance.
► There were some who experienced the presence of God so powerfully that they were “intoxicated” for 10 days.
► Previously the worship services were driven with a lot of high volume and energy. When the presence of God manifested, it was as if people were afraid to open their mouths, or even play very loud on the musical instruments.
► Services were often not structured. They just got out of the way and let God work.
► The acrylic pulpit that split in two wasn’t broken due to the fall, it split in two before it hit the ground. The split was not at the seams where it was joined together, but across the middle. Engineers subsequently examined that pulpit, and they said that that pulpit could be dropped from a 10-story building, and it might shatter from such a fall, but it wouldn’t split like it did. The engineers also said that the tensile strength of that plastic was about 114,000 pounds per square inch, indicating that it was a supernatural power that split it.
Results of the Revival
► Pastors and others began flying in from other locations around the country to be part of what God was doing, as well as to receive an impartation.
► Churches throughout Houston began to experience similar visitations of the presence of God, including Baptist, Assembly of God, Methodist, Church of Christ, Nazarene, and others.
► Throughout the revival there were powerful times of repentance, evangelism, and healings.
► Evangelistic power was multiplied as people received boldness and freedom to share with others.
► Sincere humility was pronounced.
► There was a greater love and hunger for the Word of God.
► A year later, there were still 30-40 people per week who were being saved.
Today the church’s name is Inspire Church, located on 11727 East Sam Houston Pkwy N., Houston, TX, in 2019.
Sources
► Our History from Inspire Church Website
► Tommy Tenney Video Testimony by Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural!
► The God Chasers by Tommy Tenney
► Testimony of R. Heard by Renewal Journal April 15, 2013
► Testimony of Tommy Tenney by Renewal Journal April 28, 2014
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