MALASIAN
REVIVALS
by John C. Miller
I hope this short report may inspire your faith and praise for our magnificent Redeemer.
Malaysia is divided into two sections: the west occupies part of the peninsula at the south eastern tip of Asia and the eastern section is part of the island of Borneo. Ethnic groups include the Malays, Chinese and Indians.
Among the aboriginal tribes there are the famous ex-head hunters. One of their customs was that, when a youth reached maturity, he should bring back the head of an inhabitant of a neighbouring village. This continued until missionaries took the Good News of the gospel and there were great changes among them.
The people in Borneo were more open to the Spirit than in the western section of Malaysia. Some of the aboriginal tribes of the island had known several revivals accompanied by miracles and signs. The first of these moves took place in the forties.
The Lung Bawang tribe of Borneo was looked down upon by the others. They lived practically drunk, under the influence of alcohol, one hundred days in the year. A book called «Drunk Before Dawn» tells how God intervened in their lives. They were so degraded that, after head hunting was forbidden, they gave themselves over to drinking. A government report said that only the dogs remained sober. Because of there behavior, they became subject to plagues and pests. God intervened when they faced extinction. Christianity brought tremendous changes, today they are the tribe with the highest percentage of professionals.
In the year 1973 another sovereign move of God began in a high school among a group of young people in a place called Bario. This group used to get together at night to pray for hours after class. They were inspired by the book «Like a Mighty Wind» and believed God could sovereignly move among them also. They prayed: "God, if you did it in Indonesia, you can also do it here."
When the answer came from heaven, they were overwhelmed by deep repentance accompanied by crying. Conviction was such that even small things appeared great in their eyes. Impoliteness or arriving late to class was seen as something terrible in the eyes of God. At first the teachers were very put out. The students spent all night praying when they would soon be having their final exams. The Spirit of God began convicting the teachers till they also started to cry out to God. Revival began with a group of 20 or 30 people, but it became so large that it can be read about in government archives.
We had an interview with a witness of that revival; he shared the precious things that took place there and in his own life. He told us that God brought forgiveness and reconciliation and many wrote letters asking for forgiveness. When exam time came, the students passed their exam with honours. When it was time for holidays at the end of the year, the government suddenly and without any explanation sent the school money. This was as compensation for the teachers; such a thing had never happened before nor did it ever occur again. With this money the teachers were able to return to their homes and visit other towns. In this way the revival extended to other places. "Bario", in their language, means "wind." It was the wind of the Spirit of God that blew on many.
The young people, who went back to their villages, took the fire of the Spirit with them, this affected other tribes. God gave them word of knowledge. Many times they would take members of their family by the hand and make a description of their sins, exhorting them to repent. Often they would indicate where they kept some fetish or article related to witchcraft. The revelation caused them to fall on their knees and cry out to God. They would remain there from morning to evening, often for several days, till the whole tribe turned to God.
During that revival, they saw many miracles. The Spirit indicated that they should go to one of the villages. They travelled for many hours until after it got dar. In the midst of dense vegetation, a phosphorescent, transparent light appeared in front of them, illuminating their path. Wild animals did not bother them, and the light moved in front of them. When they entered a village, the people were very surprised! When they told about what God had done, there would be revival in that place. In every little village where these ignited hearts went, there would be fire of revival.
On a certain occasion, God told a group of young people to visit a certain village. To get there they had to travel at night through the forest along dark paths. The Spirit of God told them to gather branches or leaves so that is what they did. When they broke a branch off a tree it became light in their hands. Those who saw such a miracle thought that when they arrived at the village the tribesmen would be very impressed. Much to their surprise, however, when they arrived the light vanished.
In the town of Bakelalan December 1973, people started to fall under the power and speak in other tongues during a meeting. One woman, the wife of a tribal chief, was about to have a baby. She fell under the power and remained like that for two days. When she came to consiousness, she gave birth to her child, and he was fine.
Many villages witnessed the Lord’s visitation.
After experiencing the conviction of the Holy Spirit and repentance, the people were flooded by a wave of tremendous joy. They began to jump and shout and laugh. When the missionaries saw this, they said: "This is not God." The missionaries did not accept this move of God and stopped it.
During the pastors’ conference we had when we first got to Malaysia, we spoke to someone who had witnessed the move of joy in 1973, he said: "Only now do I understand this joy and laughter. What we experimented then was snuffed out by the missionaries. Now that I see and hear what God is doing in our midst, I can understand what happened back then."
In 1984 and 1985 God again visited this land with great grace. Strange signs accompanied this new move. God raised a prophet among the people, and his word was listened to. A reporter of Malaysia's most important newspaper found out about the signs that took place. He went there by helicopter with the intention of making fun of God's move. While there, he witnessed great heavenly signs with his own eyes. He took photos and consequently, thises was published in his newspaper.
On 20th September in1984, an angel appeared to the people and instructed them to gather on a small hill. They took with them a can of roughly five gallons of water and another large can with some grains of rice. As they began to pray, the water was turned into oil and the grains of rice were turned into flour. I have photos of the miracle bread they made with the flour. This happened many times. God multiplied miracles before their eyes.
On 9th April in1985, there was a prophetic word given, saying that at a certain time God would show a sign. A ball of fire moved around the heavens for several hours.
On 9th May this happened again. At this time it was witnessed by 300 people. The ball of fire moved rythmically in accordance with the song the people sang. When they changed their song, the ball of fire moved in accordance with the new rythm. It sometimes appeared over the mountain, and other times 500 meters (a little over a quarter of a mile) in front of them.
On 25th May another group of 300 people went up the mountain to pray. As they were going up, they saw someone on the top with his arms extended foward them.. He was dressed in white and walked surounded by a choir of angels. When they got to the place indicated, they found nothing but bushes. There was no ground upon which one could walk freely.
On 15th July in1985 there were more than a thousand people gathered together. God told them He would show signs, again balls of fire appeared in the heavens.
Witch doctors and sorcerers have a lot of influence among the people. One of them tried to show how much more powerful he was than the God of these Christians. However, he had to give up and accept that there is only one greater than all powers of darkness and that is God. The conversion of this witch doctor opened the way for many in that region to give their hearts to Christ.
Sign after sign witnessed to the power of God that was manifested to the Malysans. They saw fire descending on a mountain and leaving behind the mark of a cross on it, devouring all vegetaion along its path. Photos were taken of this also.
Among so many photos taken at that time, one was enlarged. You can clearly see angels playing the trumpet. We had lunch with the secretary of the minister of agriculture, and he let us take several photos of the wonderful events which occurred at that time.
God's hand has not been shortened, and He can continue to call to Himself the hearts of those who are and will be His. In 1990, a group of young people went with their teacher to a camp. The place where they met was near a beach. Their plans were changed owing to problems with the bus in which they were travelling. They stopped in a lonely place and prayed, asking God to sanctify that place. When they got together to sing and to pray, the Spirit of God came upon one of the teachers, inviting hearts to repent. The Spirit brought conviction to the hearts of those adolescent girls, and they came forward, prostrated themselves and asked God to forgive their sins. A few moments later, one of the girls said that at 2 a.m. the Lord would manifest Himself to them. All other activity was put on one side, even eating. They kept their hearts in an attitude of prayer till 2 in the morning. The house where they were staying overlooked the beach. The night was dark. There was no moon. At 2 o’clock in the morning it got lighter and lighter as though it were dawn. A cloud appeared, then another and another. The clouds began to move and form letters, then words and even phrases. The first word which appeared in the sky in big letters was: "joy." Then the clouds moved and formed the word: "love." After that, "peace" and "I love you." The girls shouted, laughed and cried. They did not know what to do. God was telling them that He loved them. "Jesus is coming soon," was one of the many phrases which they saw written in the heavens. They also saw an immense thron. On the throne there was a crown, an open book and a hand writing with a pen. They saw the immense face of an old man. Underneath were the words: "Go and preach the gospel." They also saw an immense sword move in the heavens from one side to another.
The group was very impressed by all this. They did not sleep that night. They continued singing, praising and shouting. Most of them decided to be baptised the following day. When the first of the girls entered the water, the rest began to shout and point upwards. The teacher looked at the sky. It was daytime and the clouds had formed an immense book and a hand holding a pen. The hand was still. When young Mary came up out of the water, the hand started to write in the book. What was written in the open book was .... HER NAME!
The same thing happened with every one of the girls who were baptised.
Malaysia has seen the sovereign work of God, mainly among the tribes, but now the time has come for other ethnic groups which make up this nation. I firmly believe you will hear more about this country.
OUR TRIP TO MALASIA IN 1992
Our first meetings were held in Penang, a tourist center of that nation. The pastors and workers had come together for a conference. With great joy we saw God move freely in their midst.
After that we participated in meetings in different congregations. The power of God was wery noticeable. There were liberations, and the people were flooded with tremendous joy. We saw pastors, pastors’ wives and many others drunk with the wine of His Spirit.
It was so hot that often our clothes were dripping wet, but we rejoiced to see God reach hearts and renew lives.
From there we flew to Borneo, the eastern section of Malaysia. To our surprise we found a different spirit there. We later understood why when we learned about what God had done on several occasions among the tribes dispersed among the dense vegetation.
The Spirit of God moved sovereignly during the conference which included several churches, mainly made up of Chinese people. The climax was Sunday’s meeting, and I want to share with you what happened.
As we were singing that morning, someone fell to his knees and began to exclaim in a loud voice: "Jesus, Jesus." That person and others saw Jesus come in through the door and walk along the aisle of the auditorium. People started to fall in the aisles. The Spirit of God said to someone: "Put away your glasses." As soon as she did so, the Spirit came upon her and told her to dance. "Me, dance? I don’t know how to dance," she thought. In services I have only jumped a little bit. In addition to that, she could not see well; she had put away her glasses. Suddenly the Spirit lifted her up, and she began dancing, going round the auditorium and leaping like a gazelle over fallen bodies.
The Spirit of God was in that place! As I went from person to person, I said: "Jesus is here. Jesus is here." They would cry and say, "I know! I know! I have just seen Him. Jesus is here."
My father, who was ministering with me, started to prophecy over that nation. While he did so, the person, who had been dancing like a gazelle, ran toward the platform. Under the power of God, she waved her hands from one side to another. Later she told us she could see the Malaysian flag. God had put it in her hand with a pole more than three feet long. She waved it all the time the prophecy was being spoken. She then remained on the floor under the power of the Spirit of God till the end of the meeting. The anointing and the power of God were very real that morning among that group of people.