A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES
Therefore we also, since we are now surrounded by so great a CLOUD OF WITNESSES, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews, Chapter 12, Verses 1-2.
In Chapter Two I wrote about the Building where the Organization of Churches met the first time in 1906. This is where the Church of God Denomination was formed. There were many great moves of the Holy Spirit which took place in this Building. This Building stands only a few yards up the road from where the Camp Creek Outpouring first began. There were several other properties, buildings and homes in the area where the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place. The Assembly building is still standing in Camp Creek. The Building is visited at times by small groups of people who meet there to pray for a new Outpouring of God’s Spirit and to worship Him. Today there continues to be many manifestations of the Holy Spirit which occur inside the Building. Many people are being touched by the Holy Spirit as they walk through the door.
As of this writing we have a small group who meet in the Building at times to worship and pray together for another Great Outpouring in the area. Our group consists of Christians who the Lord has spoken to and told to move to this area to be a part of the coming OUTPOURING. No one in the Murphy group is from the Murphy area. However, members of the group are frequently meeting others in the area which God has told to move here in order to help prepare for the Outpouring which is coming.
There are many encounters and manifestations of the Holy Spirit and the worship is incredible when people meet together in the Building. Many of the people in our group have seen visions and have experienced visitations from the Lord. The Holy Spirit and the presence of Angels have been felt in the Building.
The following are testimonies of some of the people in our group who have experienced supernatural manifestations and the Manifest Presence of God inside the Building:
Our story starts with an invite to the General Assembly Building at Camp Creek. My family and I, with two other couples, all showed up to visit and worship the Lord at the building. From the outside it just looks like an old building—one of many in the area. As we walked through the door of the building we entered into what I would call the reception area. It is just an empty room before you enter the into sanctuary part of the building. Inside this room there are about ten pictures hanging on the walls. As I looked at the pictures I realized they were from the early nineteen hundreds. We moved into the next room, which was not much different in looks or appearance from the first room. I could tell this was where church was held. As we walked around the small room I looked at more pictures. We all sat down in some chairs in the sanctuary and were told the history of the building and what happened there. After that we entered into a time of worship. As we were worshipping I began looking around the room. The floor, the walls and the ceiling of the room were all made of wood. Suddenly the walls, ceiling and floor of the room each turned a turned a different color. It was as if each board had soaked up some type of liquid. The stains were like water stains which occur after a house is flooded then dries. During the middle of the second song, the atmosphere changed. I realized that the stains were not stains at all but colors which had spiritually permeated the wood from years and years of worship in the room. I could feel the walls breathing and coming alive in agreement to the true worship which was permeating the building as we sang. It was like the walls were dripping with the joy and the Presence of the Lord. As we sang a third song I saw what looked to me to be a Great Cloud of Witnesses. I sensed that the previous congregations who had worshipped in the building many years ago were there and were worshipping with us. I could see in the spirit that the room was full of other worshippers. The Cloud of Witnesses were happy and happy that they were there worshipping with us. It was as if they had never left this Holy Place. The Lord then spoke to me and said, “What you see are the many people who planted seed every Sunday in this building. They planted and planted for such a time: and that seed caused a Harvest—and that Harvest is this generation of believers. As the Cloud of Witnesses looked to the future they saw you, and that your generation was to bring to full circle the Revival that started with them and that God was going to bring Revival to this area again. The Revival is near and like the Great Cloud of Witnesses in this building you are the seed that has matured to fullness which will usher in God’s will--His will that is going to bring Revival that will bring millions to Salvation.”
Camillo Castellana
Our visit to the Meeting Place was amazing. When we entered the door it seemed like we had gone back in time. When I stepped through the doorway into the room where they met my knees felt like they were going to crumble. There are different places i.e. by the fireplace you can barely stand because the Presence of God is so powerful. As we sang some songs it sounded as if there were Angels singing with us. For me the Podium was a special place. I could have stayed there forever. How important are all those who were here before us paving the way. To see the pictures hanging on the walls it seemed as if I knew them all. Lucy Hoelzer, Ordained Minister from Panama City, Florida. I could feel the Presence of the Lord as soon as I entered the building. The Spirit seemed to be stronger in some places than others. The strongest place for me was at the corner of the fireplace where my knees almost gave way. As I stood there and prayed, I was humbled by the thought that God would bless people with such a strong Presence and that it could remain over so many years. It really brought home to me that some locations or pieces of ground are extremely important. We found some old song books in the second room and sang a few old songs, (songs you do not hear much in these days). Even though I cannot carry a tune, the songs were beautiful. It was coming from the heart of all four of us.
Helen Willis, Panama City, Florida.
When I first walked into the Assembly Room, along with my husband and two other couples, I felt such a spirit of humility. It brought me to tears and as we sat down in the old fashioned chairs we began to pray and cry and pray and cry for about 20 minutes. One of things I remember praying was “Let us release all judgments we have held against others.” One of the other ladies with us began to play her guitar and sing and worship the Lord. As she sang and played, I felt the Holy Spirit touching me with His power: specifically. I felt His power touching my right leg-certainly not anything I could control or wanted to control. It’s always good to experience a touch of the Holy Spirit-not that we should seek the experience because He can touch us in many different ways; or we can receive from Him at times and not feel anything at all. The six of us stayed there and prayed and worshipped and spoke as the Holy Spirit gave each of us utterance for about three hours. Afterward, I had such a sense of peace and reassurance. I also felt that the atmosphere over the entire area of Murphy had been cleared of any demonic entities. And then I felt darkness trying to creep back in after a couple of days. I think the Lord is saying that he wants us to STAY in that atmosphere in a more permanent way than just every now and then and He will bring the revival we have all been seeking for many years.
Patricia Rallo.
We met at the Fields of the Wood with some friends and had lunch. Afterwards we went to the General Assembly building to worship, pray and seek God for the coming Revival that is expected here in the Murphy area. When we arrived at the building and started getting out of our vehicles we could feel a strong presence of God. The closer we got to the door the stronger the presence of God was. As I walked inside the door my legs began to give out. I had to either sit down or fall down. I sat down in the first chair I came to and immediately I was in deep clouds. They were beautiful. I said to myself “I do not want this to ever end.” Wave after wave of the Holy Spirit was pouring over me. It was a presence like I had never felt even though I have always been in Church. I could hear singing and music like I had never heard before all around me. I began to pray in the Spirit and as I did I gradually came back to myself in the building. I knew I had an encounter with Heaven itself. Others were praying all around and nobody could get up for a long period of time. One of the ladies picked up her guitar and began playing and we all started singing praise to the Lord. Others were getting words from God. It felt like there were many more people than our group in the building. They could not be seen, but you could feel them around you. They were worshipping and praising with us. There were many pictures of some of the folks who had worshipped in the building over a hundred years ago. It was such an awesome feeling. It seemed like they were there in person praising and worshipping with us. After a long period of time I was totally unable to move or speak. It was as if I was in a CLOUD and I was part of the CLOUD. It was the greatest and most awesome and powerful experience I have ever encountered. It continues to bubble in my heart every day since that time.
Alma Randolph
A lady in our group stepped through the doorway of the Church building in front of me and her knees immediately buckled. Someone had to hold her up until she could find a seat. As I stepped into the room where meetings had been taking place for more than 100 years, the JOY of the Lord came upon me and I started laughing. Others in the room also started laughing. I could see a cloudy haze in the building. I knew it was the Cloud of God’s Glory. The Presence of God was undeniably there in a mighty way and had been there since before we entered the building. It was like He was just waiting for someone to come in and commune with Him. After a while Angela Logan started playing her guitar and singing praises to the Lord. The atmosphere was full of the Manifest Presence of God. I have preached Revivals before and been to many of the great Outpourings of the Holy Spirit in the last 35 years, including some of the greatest ones in recent Church History. However, I can never remember experiencing the power of God’s HOLINESS I felt when Angela was playing the guitar and singing about the BLOOD OF JESUS. I have never felt the Holiness of God in such great measure before. I had gone into the building with a camera and thought about going over and taking a picture of Angela as she sat in the floor singing and playing her guitar. I thought I have got to get a picture of this. Then I remembered that Holiness and virtue are not photogenic. Though I wanted to I could not photograph what I was seeing and feeling that day in the building. What I was experiencing could not be caught on film. I had experienced the Holiness of God before, but never in the way I was experiencing it then. I would laugh for a while. I would cry for a while. Sometimes I would laugh and cry at the same time. At times I found it hard to speak. Like others, I did not want to leave. I walked around in front of the Meeting Room and stood behind the Podium a few times and felt blessed to have been able to stand where other men of deep purpose who had profound callings of God on their life had stood. I had also wanted to have a picture taken of myself at the Podium. I thought to myself “what an honor it would be to have a picture of me standing in the place where others stood who helped begin this Movement. Then my thoughts changed when I began thinking about how unworthy I was to have my picture standing where those men had stood. Those men and women of God had paid a great price in the Camp Creek area as they stood and proclaimed the Holiness Gospel in the midst of persecution. Many had their homes burned to the ground. They were persecuted by people who were supposed to be their brothers and sisters in Christ. I saw a vision of a young lady who was dressed like a Quaker with a little white hat and white apron on. She had a little baby in her arms and she was feeding it with a bottle. I thought maybe she was one of the people who belong to the CLOUD OF WITNESSES. Then the thought came to me that she WAS there as a witness AND a sign that something new had been birthed as the group was meeting in the Assembly Place together. Later that night when some of the people in the group met at the home of Allen and Angela Logan there was a new couple who just came into the group. The young lady looked just like the lady in the vision. She held a tiny little baby about three months old that looked exactly like the baby I had seen in the vision. This to me this was a confirmation that what God was speaking to me about the group in the Meeting Place in Camp Creek was right on. I left the Meeting Place with a new determination to seek God for a new Outpouring of His Holiness. I had been praying for another Great Awaking for years, but experiencing what I did at Camp Creek let me know we were on the verge of the next and final Outpouring of God in order to prepare the Church to reap the Great Harvest. A NEW PENTECOST.
Don Randolph