Final Decade, 20th Century 1993
May 2—Brisbane, Australia Neil Miers
Neil and Nance Miers
Jill Austin from Kansas City in America spoke at the pastors’ conference for Christian Outreach Centre in New Zealand in April 1993 where Neil Miers, the President of Christian Outreach Centre, also spoke.
Jill Austin is a part of the prophetic team at Metro Christian Fellowship. God has used her to impart His manifest Presence to congregations—to bring refreshment, prophetic vision, and proclamation, and to ignite the fires of God among them. That happened in New Zealand, causing drunkenness in the Spirit, visions, prophecies, laughter, tears, and people overwhelmed on the floor.
Neil and Nance Miers returned to Brisbane, Australia, their headquarters, to lead the national conference for their regional pastors. Neil preached at their headquarters church in Brisbane on Sunday night, May 2. Fire fell.
Darren Trinder, editor of their magazine, A New Way of Living (now Outreach), reported:
Some staggered drunkenly, others had fits of laughter, others lay prostrate on the floor, still more were on their knees while others joined hands in an impromptu dance. Others, although showing no physical signs, praised the Lord anyway, at the same time trying to take it all in. People who had never prayed publicly for others moved among the crowd and laid hands on those present.
“When we first saw it in New Zealand early in April we were sceptical,” said Nance Miers, wife of Christian Outreach Centre International President, Pastor Neil Miers. “I’ve seen the Holy Spirit move like this here and there over the years. But this was different. In the past it seemed to have affected a few individuals, but this time it was a corporate thing.”
Neil Miers himself was physically affected, along with several other senior pastors, early in this Holy Ghost phenomenon. Later he viewed the series of events objectively. “It started in New Zealand and then broke out in New Guinea, and now it’s here. If I know the Holy Ghost, it will break out across the world—wherever people are truly seeking revival. For the moment this is what God is saying to do, and we’re doing it. It’s that simple.”
But despite the informal nature of the events, Pastor Miers, adopting his shepherd role, was careful to monitor the situation. “ There are some who are going overboard with it; just like when someone gets drunk on earthly wine for the first time. The next time it happens they’ll understand it a little better.”
God is doing many things. He’s loosening up the church. He’s working deep repentance in certain individuals, and healing deep hurts in others. Just like the outpouring in Acts, it was the public ministry that followed which really changed the world. First God has to shake up the church and then He uses these people to shake up the world.
Splashes of this revival have touched people’s lives throughout the Christian Outreach Centre movement around the nation and the world (Trinder 1994, 65–74).
This outpouring of the Spirit at Christian Outreach Centre in Brisbane affected people deeply for weeks. Office staff, when prayed for, were overwhelmed, so sometimes the phones rang unanswered. The Bible College cancelled lectures as staff and students were powerfully affected, often “drunk in the Spirit. ” They had vivid visions and prayed for others constantly. Children in the primary and high schools were similarly overwhelmed, saw visions, and worshiped and prayed as never before. Many people now in full-time ministry were powerfully impacted then, and the Christian Outreach Centre movement continues to grow rapidly internationally with approximately 200 churches in Australia and over 350 overseas in 1997.
© Geoff Waugh. Used by permission.