Randy Clark in SF (Aug 26, 1994)

I had been looking forward to this meeting with egar expectation all week. Could hardly wait to get there. The meeting itself was very good, but somehow it was not what I expected. I did not get a deep touch from the Lord and went away a little disappointed. I'm journaling this just so that people who go away disappointed know that it happens to everyone, not just to them.

Randy Clark took over the service after the worship. He shared a little about what the Lord was doing in various places, such as Toronto and many other places around the world. This got our enthusiasm up. Then he shared how his own Church was being hurt by this since their senior pastor was on the road most of the time now. They'd already lost about a fourth of their members because of this. He wanted to hire two staff people part time to fill in the gap. He said that the offering would go towards a fund for their salaries. My heart went out to his church and I wanted very much to give, but I had not brought any money in with me. Randy went on to say that we should only put offerings in the basket -- that our tithes must go to our own Church. He had David Ruis play music (bluegrass) while the offering was taken.

Randy had several specific words of knowledge (mostly about healings) that he had been given before the service began. He described them and got people to whom they applied to raise their hands. He told them that when ministry time started, he'd have them come down for prayer. Then Randy gave his own testamony. He was very humble and gave the Lord all of the glory. It was a story of a man who was at the end of his rope, having given out all he could in ministry and beginning to wonder if he could continue in ministry. He shared how he was starting to struggle with depression and anxioty. A friend of his called him and told him he must go to Rodney Howard Brown's meeting. He shared a humerous story of getting in line over and over to be prayed for by Rodney and of Rodney eventually recognizing him. (He tried to be subtle. The first time he had his jacket off and his glasses on, the second time he reversed it. However, Rodney recognized him anyhow and prayed "Bless him for the 2nd time, Lord.") So he started following Rodney and watching him pray for others. This apparently caught Rodney's eye and distracted him, so an usher asked him to stop. He stood near the stage watching from a distance Rodney pray for the last group, which were up on the stage. One of the staff saw him and asked if he wanted prayer. He confessed that he'd already had it three times that day. The staff guy said, "you look hungry, so go ahead." Randy got in line and got prayer once more.

Then Randy went on to share his story about how the renewal got started in Toronto. He said that he did not want to go because he was not sure whether or not the Lord would show up. He even told that to John Arnott, who told him to come anyhow. The day before the trip, the Lord spoke to Randy and told him that He was going to back Randy up and that Randy never had to worry again about whether or not God would show up when he prayed for people. They had originally scheduled four meetings. God showed up with more than they expected and they just kept having more and more meetings.

I really liked Randy. He was humble and full of the Lord's love. He also had a very powerful anointing on him, but was careful to give all of the glory to the Lord.

Then Randy started having altar calls. The first call was for unsaved people to accept Christ and backslidden people to return to Him. He did not let the ministry teams start praying with them right away. He led them through a time of repentence and then commitment to the Lord first. Then Randy released us to go pray with them.

While we prayed with them, he gave another call for those who had raised their hands during the words of knowledge to come down for prayer. He had them, if at all practical, put their hands on the part of their body that needed healing. Randy prayed for most of the people who'd come up for this call, but the Ministry team also prayed for people. Randy then opened it up for anyone who wanted prayer. But instead of having them come up to the altar area, he had them line up around the room facing the walls and about 3 feet from them. It was actually a very practical way to line people up and make maximum use of the walls.

I guess there was some confusion, because many people who were not on the ministry team thought that they had been released to pray for people. Everyone was praying for everyone, and not always using a catcher. Randy worked his way around the line and prayed for each of those who were still standing.

I stayed up at the altar area and continued praying for those who were up there. I ran into one fellow who was trying to kick the drug habbit. I hadn't expected the prayer to go this way, but it turned out to be a short deliverance from "addiction". I broke the power of addiction over him and put him under the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I started pleading the blood of Jesus over him, he had a fairly violent reaction. So I stayed with him for a while and continued praying until things calmed back down. (Normally we don't do any type of deliverance prayer at the renewal meetings; we just ask God to fill them and deal with them.) This this seemed to be what the Lord wanted to do here, so I went with it. I must have prayed for him for about 10 minutes, which is a very long time to spend with a single individual in this type of setting.

Then I started moving down the line and soaking some of the people who Randy had prayed for.

As it got later, I decided that perhaps I should get some prayer myself. Randy was praying for people in the far right corner of the altar area. So I went and stood in that vicenity. As he prayed for the person next to me, he put his hand on my forehead. He never said a word to me or prayed verbally for me, but I went down after about 30 seconds. I could feel the Lord's presense and it was nice, but it was not particularly powerful or deep. I remember being a little disappointed as I lay there, wishing that the Lord would touch me deeper. I stayed down for a while, maybe 15 minutes, just waiting on the Lord. It was pleasant to be in His presence, but nothing other than a quiet peace was happening for me. The Lord was not speaking to me, He was not empowering me and He was not giving me any sort of revalation or vision. I finally got up and started talking to a friend.

She decided that she wanted prayer but was hesitant to go line up, so I went with her and stood behind her, ready to be a catcher. Randy had just prayed for Jan, and she was pogo-sticking up and down. Someone was still behind her to catch in case she went down. Randy prayed for one more person and was now only one person away from my friend. Suddenly Randy asked if anyone had any abdominial pain and went on to describe it in detail. He said that the Lord had given him a word of knowledge and that He wanted to heal that person. Jan, who was still pogo-sticking up and down, raised her hand. Her catcher called Randy over. He touched her stomach and she when down. (Jan is the woman with cancer.) Randy prayed with her for a long time. My friend decided to go wait for Micheal Bordeur, our head pastor, to pray for her instead.

I went and talked to another friend for a while. I had mixed feelings about the meeting. I could see that the Lord was moving powerfully in some people's lives and I was glad for them. But I had come with such high expectations and not much happened for me, so I also felt a little disappointed.