Almost 20 years ago nearly 1,200 women came together for an epic series of meetings that changed lives, families, churches and cities.
Hunger is how it all got started. We were all different but the same; women who had a long history with Jesus and new believers, young with young families and older with grandkids, all shapes and sizes. Together in a church that believed in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing and all the good stuff. It was a denomination founded by a woman but had slipped into some backward ideas that women were best at childcare, bible studies and tea parties. There was a rumbling in our spirits, a knowing that just doing stuff in church was no longer good enough. A cry rose up in our spirits, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1 Ours was a collective heart cry to find a deeper connection to God, to know Him more.
As our hunger grew, revival broke out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at a Vineyard church and word got back to us that God was moving in a powerful and personal way. Some of us went there to check it out and returned to share what we had learned, “God loves us and wants to touch us and speak to us in a personal powerful way.” As we grabbed for the new thing that God was doing, He met us by soothing the deep hurts, pouring out His love on us and changing us from the inside out. Then the revival came to town! Churches hosted conferences and evenings of prayer where more of God could be had. Wherever we heard He was doing something we went and Jesus showed up.
Eventually, we found ourselves together more and more. We were all on the ministry team blessing other hungry souls. Joining up for prayer focused on revival and personal refreshing for everyone we knew. Something was bubbling up in our souls and the more we sought Him, the hungrier we were.
Then we heard about a meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada and made arrangements to go. There was to be a group of 12 or more but by the time we were set to leave the group had dwindled to 5; what with small children and family responsibilities. The five of us were not close, except for me and my Mom, but we just knew that we had to go.
The first night God spoke to us through John Arnott, who prayed “precious daughter” over each of us even tough we were spread out around the building. As we compared notes we were flabbergasted and a little amused since we did not feel “precious.” The next day our little group went to a workshop titled, “What Paul Really Said About Women.” Although that revelation blew all of our minds our children’s pastor was gloriously set free. Following that she and Bertie had quite a time sharing the Father’s love in the Ladies Room. The Spirit of God in them literally laid out the entire bathroom as women slid down the walls to rest on the floor, while others slumped over in the sinks. The weekend literally moved from Glory to Glory as we saw banners used for the first time, we were set free to dance and filled with joy. The last night of the conference we were called to testify on the platform and ended up soaking there for the entire meeting.
On our way back to Portland we thought about all the women who had not been able to join us and how much God wanted to touch them with a revelation of how God sees them. We could not wait to share our experience with the gang! We met in the basement of the church to watch our testimony on video. After the video someone said, “I’m sorry, that must have been so embarrassing.” It really had not occurred to us that we had made a complete spectacle of ourselves or that we had anything to be embarrassed by. So filled by the Spirit of God, it did not matter to us that we were drunk in the Holy Ghost and not making a lot of sense…it was just so good to be in His presence. Even though most of the women had not seen such extreme behavior, they were dry, hungry, thirsty and eager to see all of the women in our church touched by Jesus. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be completely satisfied.” Matthew 5:6
Our church supported us holding a women’s conference and Precious Daughters was born. The women who had been seeking more of His presence banded together to bring a new revelation of God’s love to those women who had yet to experience it. A foundation of prayer was laid as women, with toddlers in tow, joined together in the Sanctuary everyday at noon to worship and pray. The Lord literally planned the conference by His prophetic word – do water baptism, have banners… He miraculously supplied $3,000 for us to purchase flyers, postage and airfare. Like the upper room filled with people praying and waiting for a visitation, we prayed and waited in anticipation that He would meet us at the level of our hunger.
We sent out a simple flyer that basically implied, “come meet a man who knows everything about you.” John 4:29 paraphrase Our team was a beautiful mix of women from various churches and ministries, all ages, races and types as prepared as we could be. We could not have prepared for what would happen as there had never, in our experience, been such a meeting for women. But they came broken and looking for a real experience with their Father. God did not disappoint as He brought healing, deliverance and freedom. Women met Jesus for the first time, were baptized in the Holy Spirit, baptized in water, danced, shouted and rolled on the carpet. It was glorious!
You may be thinking, “that was then…what about now, what about me?” This is our “testimony” and by repeating it we call on God to “DO IT AGAIN.” The Hebrew word uwd translated as testimony, literally means just that, “DO IT AGAIN!” I don’t know about you but I am hungry for a fresh move of God and I want to see women all over the world set free to know the goodness of God. Once again women are praying for more of His presence, once again we are crying out for rivers in the wilderness, once again we are asking Him to blow a wind of His presence over His daughters.
Are you hungry? Do you want to be part of a new revival of women in the Northwest and around the world? Ask God for more of His presence and join with us Tuesdays and Thursdays as we pray for more of His presence and ask Him to do it again. God is about to break out in a powerful way, stir up your hunger for Him and be a part of it!