Skip to main content

The Spirit is going viral in Haiti

So many things have been crushed in Haiti, people, homes, and government buildings. You’d think that hope would be one of them. Today we saw where a building had tumbled down on a man, snuffing  his life out, leaving his blood and his shoes behind in the rubble. You’d think hope was lost in …
By Seth Barnes
So many things have been crushed in Haiti, people, homes, and government buildings. You’d think that hope would be one of them. Today we saw where a building had tumbled down on a man, snuffing  his life out, leaving his blood and his shoes behind in the rubble. You’d think hope was lost in the rubble too.
 
But what we’re seeing has defied all our expectations.

So many of us have been praying that the kingdom would come for much of our lives. After all Jesus told us to pray that way. Frankly, I didn’t used to have much of an idea what that even meant. As much as Jesus talked about it, it remained an obscure concept.

But here in Haiti, I’m seeing the kingdom come. The Spirit is not just falling, he’s going viral and spilling out into every street corner.

We drove to meet a pastor and found the road blocked. Ahead in the middle of the street a band was playing and hundreds of people were dancing. We stopped and our gang piled out of the van. It wasn’t any one church – it was just a bunch of people celebrating the kingdom coming to Haiti through their dance.

Our youth pastors dove in and joined with them – twirling and singing with the masses.

Coming back they raved, “Wow – that was awesome! It was a moment of pure spiritual joy.”
We drove through the city streets and came to a complete halt as a huge parade of people blocked our way. They were carrying signs, “Jesus for Haiti. Haiti for Jesus.” They were singing. They were chanting. They were marching and dancing. A truck loaded with speakers blared out praises.

We stopped at a tent city with 2500 people living in it. A committee was taking applications. “What have you been able to do for your people?” I asked.

“We got a well put in here for our people and now we have water,” one of the leaders said.

“What do you need?” I asked.

“We need food – we’re hungry. We want to get some land to build homes. And our people are still hurting, we need to have our hearts healed.”

“Do you have a church who can help you?”

“No. Could you help bring one here?”

“Yes, we will do that. And could we come back tomorrow morning and pray for your hearts to be healed?” I asked.

“Yes, come and pray for us. Our people are carrying grief in their hearts. We see God fulfilling Matthew 24 in our midst. We need your help.”

We gave them a bunch of water and some bread and the promise that we’d return tomorrow to pray. We’ll be back at 9 a.m. and see what God wants to do. We tweeted the interaction and asked Anderson Cooper to come and bring help tomorrow. And in less than an hour, it’s been re-tweeted hundreds of times.

And I’m wondering, “Is this in the news? It should be. Do people out there see what’s going on here?” I’ve heard it referred to by Americans as a “national day of mourning.” But that’s not what’s happening. On the heels of the greatest natural disaster of our time comes the greatest outpouring of God’s Spirit that I’ve ever seen. I’m still trying to absorb it.

All you intercessors out there crying out for God’s presence, all you seminary students learning how how to put people in touch with him, all you desperate people who feel abandoned by God, I have a suggestion: You need to get on a plane and come to Haiti.

You can go a lifetime and never see anything like this. We can sing “Rend the heavens and come down,” but God already did – it’s happening here in Port-au-Prince.
 
Don’t let worries about security dissuade you. We’ve not seen or heard of any threats. All we’ve seen is a massive outpouring of joy and praises.
 
So many people traveled to Lakeland, FL, Toronto, or Brownsville, seeking God. If God is what you want, get on a plane and come here. The kingdom is coming here in Haiti. You can go your whole lifetime and not see this. What’s happening is the stuff of dreams.

Comments (7)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *