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God began to deal with Pastor Johnny Branch about his dead spiritual and "religious" state while he was in his fifth year of youth ministry in the Williamson area. Here is Pastor's testimony of how "Revival Fire" changed his life.
"I can't really remember the exact moment that I knew that I was spiritually dead, but it came at a time when to most people it would seem that God was really moving in my ministry. I had a ’successful’ youth group in a growing church. Our kids
were staring bible clubs, working and ministering in the church through mime teams and reaching out to the community. We had just finished a regional youth crusade called Youthquake where we saw over 200 youth give their lives to Jesus. I guess that is when I got my first clue.
Two hundred and thirty young people saved! Having your face plastered on the front page of the city newspaper, and having your story told on statewide television news. That is exciting! Any youth pastor or any minister would be overjoyed to have had a part in an event like that. That was just it. I wasn't. I was numb. Why? That was the question I had asked myself over and over for months. Shouldn't I be turning cartwheels? Shouldn't I be basking in the moment? The only thing I could do was to feel empty.
June 3, 1996 was the day when my ministry, my world, my very life was changed forever I was sitting in my office desperately trying to put something together for my weekly Monday night youth service. I was a little uninspired, so I decided to surf the net looking for ideas. I came upon the Charisma Magazine web site where two articles caught my attention. I decided to read them. They were on the Brownsville Revival. It wasn't the first I had heard about the Brownsville Revival, also called the Pensacola Outpouring. In September of 1995, I met the Brownsville youth pastor, a man by the name of Richard Crisco. I was attending a national campus ministry conference in Springfield,Missouri. They called Richard to the platform to speak on what had been going on at the Pensacola church for nearly three months. He was so consumed by the presence of the Lord that he wept. I can't tell you exactly what he said, I just remember thinking, I just don't get it. Then I heard Dave Roever, who was also attending, speak about a face to face in the flesh and spirit encounter with the Son of God that he had in the Alaska wilderness. This was all too much for me to take in. There was something there that I just did not get, but a seed was planted in me that would take nine months to bring forth in birth. I was sitting in my office on that Monday afternoon in June, weeping as I read the testimonies of Amy Elizabeth Ward and of her sister, Alison. I wasn't just crying, I was weeping uncontrollably. Then in what seemed to me to be an audible voice, the Lord spoke to me, 'Ezekiel 37'. Nothing else, 'Ezekiel 37'.
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?'
I said, 'O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.'
Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
That is how I felt. Bone joined to bone. All together the way they are supposed to be. A skin covering, yet no life. I looked like what I was supposed to be, my extra long hair excluded. I sounded like what I was supposed to sound like. I said and did all the right things that a youth pastor was supposed to say and do, but I just was not alive.
Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet --a vast army.
I cried harder and harder. I was the only one at the church that afternoon. I don’t remember quite how I it all came about, but I put some praise music on in the sanctuary. I ran to the front with my Bible in tow and lay on the altar as I read those verses in Ezekiel over and over again. I cried out, 'Lord this is me...this is me! I’m dead. I might look alive to everyone else, but I'm dead. I want to live!' Then the Lord spoke to me once more, 'Read it again'
I read that passage from the prophet's book.
Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet --a vast army.
'Now pray it!' So I did. I prayed, 'O breath, come from the four winds and breathe in to this one slain so that he may live.'
At that moment an unseen force knocked me backwards several feet and I lay beneath the front pew. What transpired after that seemed to take several hours, yet I was only down for several minutes. While there, the Lord spoke to me, 'The revival you read about today, I am placing in your heart at this moment'. I didn't realize exactly what the Lord meant by that, just that it was fine with me. A short time later I realized that I was standing and delivering a message. Preaching to no one seen. Preaching in a heavenly language. Possibly it was the L
ord letting me practice on him, delivering the message He would use me to deliver to thousands of people over the next year."
During its first year, Living Water Assembly of God has seen nearly 400 people come to the Lord through Revival services and outreach ministry.
Revival Services are held each week and many from the Williamson area gather to worship the Sovereign Lord and to be changed by his presence.
Baggage Check
A vision received by Pastor Johnny Branch IV
"I had made five different trips to Brownsville in one year. As I was worshiping in the overflow area in August of 97 God took an opportunity to expose me to a truth about worship--You can not stand in the glory if you can't ascend to worship. You can’t ascend to an atmosphere of worship carrying a lot of excess baggage.
As I worshipped, I saw a great towered pedestal. It was formed of individual bricks that upon closer inspection I saw as gold. At the top was the throne of Christ. Along the base of the tower were ladders extending to the top. Beside each ladder were tables. The people were in line and holding bags and packages. I spoke to the Lord "What is inside those bags? "An angel motioned me to the tables. I reached out towards a black carpet bag. The latch of the bag came unfastened and opened by itself. I peered inside and saw a dark abyss. I had already become aware that the bags were full of sins. I tried to see the individual sins but all I could see were objects rolling in darkness. Then the Spirit spoke this into my heart. When God sees sin He sees darkness. In the scope of the God realm all sins are darkness. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all.
I checked my own bag and began my ascent. You must dump the trash before you go to the throne. As I climbed higher I heard singing, louder and louder- more sweet yet more powerful. When I got to the top I was surrounded by the glory. I was standing on it and yet in it. I could no longer see the ladder or the ground. I saw many colors and energy waves as it seemed.
Then I saw the throne of Christ. On the throne was the Lamb of God. His hair was white. I ran my hands through it as I lavished my love on him. Then I looked into his eyes. They were a translucent pearl color with a fire burning inside. I just looked in them for the longest time. He was wearing a blue garment. I supposed this was the ephod of the High Priest.
As I stood there loving him the glory wind picked up his hair and whipped it across my face. I closed my eyes and stood there in that experience. I felt rapture and love. I felt glory. I opened my eyes. Instead of seeing the area around the throne, I was now part of a great number of riders on heavenly horses. The hair of the lamb was still whipping against my face. This time, however, he was the head rider of the number. I was riding with him. It wasn't the battle of Armageddon. It was the journey of the 'Kingdom'. I continued to worship to the sound of hoof beats and wind."
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