A C Valdez Jr. was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father was the evangelist who took part with Charles Greenwood in the Sunshine Revival in Melbourne (which began in 1925). Pastor Greenwood founded the Richmond Temple AOG, in a theatre next to the Town Hall.
When A C Valdez Jr. came to town it was as though “all hell broke loose”! When Valdez mentioned in a message that children could be possessed, a man sitting next to Lorraine suddenly jumped to his feet and shouted at the preacher that it was not possible. Valdez turned to the passage in the gospel where Jesus asked the father of a small boy, “When did this (demon) come into him?” The father replied, “Why, as a child…”
The man kept on shouting, even while two deacons were showing him the door. I said to a rather shaken Lorraine, “Tomorrow night we’ll sit upstairs.” Yeah, well, as they say these days, how did that work?
It turned out to be Round 2: The Deacon Vs. the Demon. While the offering was being taken up a man began swearing and screaming at the deacon who was taking it, and then swung a “haymaker” at him that would just about have removed the deacon’s head if he hadn’t ducked. (Deacons were tough in those days.) The pugilistic shouter was half frog-marched, half-carried to the door and then ejected.
A C Valdez Jr. did not enter the meeting until the time came for him to preach; until then he prayed in the back room. He was overweight and died in middle age, if I remember correctly. He had a gift of healing in his right hand, and for many years I’ve believed that the Lord imparted that same gift to me by laying his hand on mine in one of those meetings.
The Apostle Paul longed to see the believers who were in Rome because he wanted to “impart to them a spiritual gift” that would “establish” them in the faith. Well, that gift (along with some sound teaching) certainly did that in my case.
I believe that we here in Australia are on the cusp of our first-ever national revival. Spiritual infrastructure is being put in place through the ministry of evangelists, the kind of miracles of healing that have not been seen since the days of Oral Roberts (when he preached and prayed for the sick in huge tents).
Another indication is the rise of political leaders who are prepared to make the changes that previous ones wouldn’t. Now when the Lord begins to move the political furniture around it’s time for the church to vacuum the carpet, so to speak. Expect to hear sermons from your pastor that speak to these changes.
Enough of the feel-good stuff that’s supposed to comfort the emotionally injured, while their brethren and sisters in the faith are being murdered worldwide. God willing, and I can see no reason why He would not be, Lorraine and I will participate in the coming awakening. While flying into Brisbane on his first visit, the late US evangelist Jim Spillman had a vision of a large sports ground filled with people who had come to be healed.
The Lord pronounced the name Brisbane as “Brisbun” and Spillman the American asked Him, “Lord, isn’t it Bris-bane”? Spillman publicly prophesied over me on March 9, 1978 (which was Lorraine’s and my 15th wedding anniversary). His wife approached me privately and invited me to join their work in Los Angeles, and write books for her husband. (If I had accepted the offer, our children would have thought they were “made in the shade”.)
This is all the background to what I believe is about to happen. “Known unto God are all His works, from the beginning of the world.” It’s already happened in the mind of God, and we’re about to play catch up! Get involved now if you wish to be involved!