In 2006, as I was sleeping, the Lord took me into a vision in the night. I was standing on the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The air was crisp. There was a cool breeze blowing. The atmosphere was completely heavenly. Joy filled my soul. All of a sudden, a stairwell shot up violently from the Mediterranean, pierced the clouds, and went straight into the heavens. Someone I admire and love very much appeared in the dream. When this servant of God stood on the stairwell and began to walk upward, he said, “Follow me.” As I followed him, I looked down and saw millions upon millions of eastern Mediterranean people following us up the stairwell. I’ll never forget the beauty of the stairwell. It was a shade of white that I just cannot describe. Its purity was amazing. It seemed to be made of heavenly ivory or pearl. I saw Greeks, Turks, Lebanese, Israelis, Syrians, Cypriots, and many others finding this beautiful stairwell and following us up into the heavens. As we got into the clouds, the stairwell became much steeper. Instantly, it narrowed and the rails fell off. The wind picked up, and I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to fall.” Te man in front of me turned back and said, “Just walk. Just walk.” And as we continued to walk, multiplied millions followed us into Heaven.
When I woke up, I was shocked to my core. In the ministry world, that region is known as the “preacher’s graveyard.” I’ve heard many say that it’s closed off, it’s bound with religion, it’s hardened. But I’m here to tell you that a great and historical outpouring of the Holy Spirit will break out in the eastern Mediterranean in the Middle East and millions of Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Jews will walk into Heaven as they gaze upon Jesus.
I’ll never forget the sense of urgency and hope that I felt after that encounter. As you know, I am a Greek, and to see God’s plan for this region touched my heart deeply. It birthed a desire in my heart to preach the Gospel in Greece one day. So, I waited and waited year after year, asking the Lord, “When will I go to Greece?” A few years later, I tried to go. To be honest, I knew in my heart it wasn’t God’s timing, but my eagerness got in the way so I tried to push a door down. I can tell you now that never works. Finally, in 2012, this desire became a reality; doors began to open. I reached out to dear friends of mine, the Stimanti family, and told them what had happened to me in that encounter. They began to open doors around the country for me, and we planned a twenty-six-day trip from city to city throughout the nation of Greece and the nation of Cyprus.
At Jesus Image, we believe in fasting and prayer. Our desire is to know the Lord more, and if Jesus fasted, we fast. So, we called a forty-day fast, and we began to seek the Lord. We weren’t seeking the Lord for the sake of going to Greece. We were just seeking the Lord to know Him more and to discover His love. One night toward the end of the fast, something happened that I’ll never forget. I was sleeping and instantly I was in the Spirit. I was lying there in my bed, but I knew I had been taken into a new realm, a realm of the Spirit. My wife, Jessica, was lying next to me. This is an experience that is difficult to explain with words alone. I can assure you it was more real than the book you’re reading right now.
As I looked toward my bedroom door, I saw about six to eight evil spirits come into my room and begin to harass me and torment me. They began to curse and say vile things. They began to try to inflict fear in my life. I would say the name of Jesus, and they would withdraw, only to return again in just a few seconds. I tried everything. I quoted Scriptures. I claimed the blood. I rebuked them. While these efforts would get rid of the spirits for a moment, they would constantly return. This began to wear me down. I was extremely tired and, I must say, a bit fearful. After this went on for some time, I heard the Lord say, “You fought enough. Now simply lean on Me and worship Me.” And so, that’s what I did. Like a little child, I leaned into the beauty of the Lord. It was as if the side of my face was on His chest and I rested in Him. Oh, I felt the breakthrough—an incredible breakthrough. With my own ears, I heard a knock on the wall to the right of my bed. A ball of light pierced the room. Immediately, those spirits were gone. Needless to say, I was blown away. I could not believe what just happened to me. I then heard a voice. It was the voice of the Lord. He said to me, “Because you fasted and prayed, I have now given you the keys for breakthrough in Greece. I have given you this nation. You don’t have to fast and pray when you get there now. The victory is already yours. Just go and preach the Gospel.” So, that’s what I did.
I landed in Athens and made my way to Thessaloniki. After a few meetings in Thessaloniki, I had a healing service scheduled at a church there. A few hundred people gathered, and we began to worship the Lord. The presence of God was beautiful. Once I felt the Lord’s presence saturate the meeting, I began to preach. I’ve learned to do that. I’ve learned to wait until He’s real to me to start preaching. You see, when He’s real to us, we actually have something to talk about because we’re leading people to a person that we’re experiencing in the moment. But something happened in that meeting that we had never experienced before. After the preaching, we began to worship the Lord again. Many were saved, and it was a time of celebration. During the worship, a physical wind blew from the right side of the pulpit and began to fill the room. I will never forget what happened. People began to scream, they began to cry, they began to shout and laugh, and I knew that the Lord was healing people.
One girl had entered the service wearing a back brace, and when the Holy Spirit blew through that room, her back began to audibly pop. She physically felt her back realign, and her mother heard her back pop back in place. So, the girl tore her brace off and came to the platform to testify. I’ll never forget that moment as long as I live. Two other girls were called forward to the platform. They were set free and filled with the Holy Spirit. It was like He came and worked so quickly that we could not keep up with what He was doing. You see, when He comes, you know it. I’ve heard some people say, “Well, I think the Holy Spirit’s working in my life. I think He’s working in my ministry.” If there’s one thing I can promise you, it’s this: when He does, you know He’s there. When He’s working, you know He’s working. When He touches your life, you’ll never be the same. If He’s really moving, if He’s really come, there will be no doubt in your mind that He’s there. Let’s remember that He is God Almighty.
He loves to make a statement. Do you remember that when Solomon finished the temple, there were 120 priests sounding trumpets? Second Chronicles 5:13-14 says that “…the house of the Lord…was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” I’m telling you, when He comes and fills a room, He makes our job much easier. I used to know (or thought I knew) so much. I used to know what songs to sing and when to sing them. I would pray for anything that moved. I tried this, and I tried that. Then the Holy Spirit told me, “If you’ll just create the setting and the atmosphere where I am welcome, I’ll come and do the work.” And you know what? He has, and He has never quit doing the work.
It happened again in the upper room. Do you remember the 120 that were gathered in Acts 2?
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Ac ts 2:1- 4).
This was a fulfillment of the promise from Joel 2:28-29: “…I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” He is the King of a mighty entrance. Just think tongues of fire, a thunderous wind—this is a demonstration of power. He came to earth in an incredible manner.
I’ll never forget hosting Steve Hill, the great evangelist from the Brownsville Revival, at our church in Southern California. Steve was a dear friend of mine with whom I became close. He traveled with our crusade team and with my father-in-law, Pastor Benny, for years, and was a dear friend of the family. When he preached for me at the church, I asked him, “Steve, tell me what happened when the Lord came that first Father’s Day at Brownsville? What did it feel like? What was the moment like? I have to know.”
He said, “I stood on the platform, and I heard a sound behind me. It sounded like a huge wave coming. People turned around to look, and there was no wave; but instantly I pulled up my pant legs because it felt like I was standing in water. I looked down, and there was no water. Then I realized the Holy Spirit’s here and revival came.”
Or how about John Wesley? When he would preach the Gospel, he would tell the people, “Come down out of the trees because when I preach, the Holy Spirit comes, and you’ll fall out of the trees.”
I’m often asked, “Why do people fall in your meetings?” My answer is simple: “Because God touches them.” It’s an easy equation: God versus the people. If He touches them, He wins. That’s not to say that everybody who’s been touched necessarily falls, but for those who do, that is the way that God manifests Himself in touching them. Why is it so difficult to believe that human beings cannot stand when God’s holy power and presence manifests?