First the headlines:
-Over 3,000 people came out during a rainstorm! The largest attendance we have ever seen in a tent happened in the worst possible weather.
-We had to start the meeting an hour and fifteen minutes early! By 5:15 p.m. the Tent was packed and people were sitting outside in the rain. This was the earliest any crowd has ever arrived in our history.
-So many people came forward to receive Jesus that we could not count them. It was by far the largest harvest we have ever seen in any of our Tents.
-We had to turn hundreds of cars away. Three main roads became gridlocked. Every possible parking place was taken. It took hours to get all those cars sorted out. There is no way of knowing how many people actually tried to get to the Tent tonight.
This day began quite differently. It was a very dark and heartbreaking one for me. As we were driving from Buffalo to Batavia, all I could think about was how low the attendance might be because the rain never let up. I was going over to the site much earlier than normal when I received a call, in the car, from Frank Saldana that was impossible for me to believe.
Frank sent me pictures of the record crowds in the Tent which showed the large number of people already there. That is when I realized a miracle was taking place.
In my 52 years of ministry, I have never seen God punch the devil in the face like He did last night.
I am struggling for words right now. I am trying to impress upon you how much more explosive last night’s meeting was than anything we have ever seen. The fire in the atmosphere—the hunger in the people—the power of God in the tent, all of it was indescribable.
The worship led by Gary Chapman and Friends reached a crescendo that was amazing. There was a moment in their rendition of the old hymn ‘There is a Fountain Filled with Blood’ when I thought the heavens were about to open and reveal the Glory of God.
In my 52 years of ministry, I have never seen God punch the devil in the face like He did last night. The vengeance of God was more powerful and unstoppable than I have ever felt.
God warned us there would be a harvest of souls in Western New York but, truly, nothing could have prepared us for what happened at the end of my message. It resembled a mass prisonbreak more than an altar call.
Under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, souls were openly weeping. They advanced to the front of the Tent, and it soon became clear that this would be the largest single harvest of any Living Proof Crusade. They came forward and they would just not stop coming. It looked like a tidal wave, but only God knows how many came and were saved.