STORY: by Andy Butcher

RESTORED MINISTER USHERS IN REVIVAL AT NEW ORLEANS CHURCH "Marvin Gorman's meetings have 'all the elements of the book of Acts'"

There is a growing belief that New Orleans, the city that boasts throwing the largest free party in the world, could one day be better known for revival than revelry - and many believe a man linked to the city's notorious ministry sex scandals will play a key role in the transformation.

THE COUNTRY'S NEXT MAJOR MOVE OF GOD IN NEW ORLEANS?

While thousands annually visit New Orleans' historic French Quarter for the Mardi Gras celebrations - renowned for drunkenness and nudity - a growing number of visitors are heading to a suburban church to investigate what is being heralded as possibly the country's next major move of God.

The healings, deliverances and Holy Spirit encounters being reported at Abundant Life World Outreach Center are coming through the prayers and touch of Marvin Gorman. Once a leading pastor in the city, his ministry and personal life came crashing down in 1986 when he resigned from New Orleans' booming First Assembly of God after admitting to infidelity.

Gorman's accuser had been Baton Rouge-based TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whom the following year Gorman photographed with a prostitute at a New Orleans motel, prompting Swaggart's own ministry collapse. In 1991, Gorman won a $10 million slander suit against Swaggart for spreading rumors about his supposed involvement with other women.

HUMBLED THROUGH HIS FALL

Although shunned by many, Gorman remained in New Orleans. He pastored a small church and wrote a book about how God had humbled him through his fall. He returned to television and began to speak in pastors' conferences about the challenges and trials of leadership.

When Gorman visited Abundant Life in January, it was to be for just four nights. But pastor Jonas Robertson "began to realize that this was very possibly something like Pensacola." Within weeks the church and Gorman had committed to continuing meetings four nights a week through the end of the year. The church's youth group quadrupled within a month.

THE POWER OF GOD IN A NEW WAY

"The power of God just came down in a new way," Robertson said. "This revival has all the elements of the book of Acts. It's being filled with the Holy Spirit, being saved, being delivered, being healed from just every kind of disease, creative miracles."

Church member Paul Eymard said his life had been dramatically impacted. After one service he began to feel sensation returning to the fingers of his left hand, which had been almost severed in an accident more than 20 years ago. He was also freed from troubled dreams about the accident. "There's so much more joy in my life," he said. "It's made me much more outgoing, there's a complete personality change."

PROMISE THAT LATTER DAYS WILL BE GREATER THAN THE FORMER

Now 67, Gorman said that he believed the move of God was the fulfillment of a promise that his latter days would be even more fruitful than his former. "This whole thing, what God is doing now is giving people an opportunity to do what they didn't 15 years ago," Robertson said. "And the church will either fail or pass the test. They will forgive and love mercy or will continue to hold bitterness and judgmentalism."

PART FULFILLMENT OF CINDY JACOB'S PROPHECY

Robertson points to what has been happening at his church as part of the fulfillment of a widely circulated prophecy by Cindy Jacobs in 1998 that foresaw a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in southern Louisiana that would spread up the Mississippi and across the United States.

Copyright 2001 Strang Communications Co.
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NOTE FROM STEVE SHULTZ, THE ELIJAH LIST Here is that word by Cindy Jacobs from 1998 From: http://generals.org/index-word.htm

June 4, 1998

God's Hour for South Louisiana

By Cindy Jacobs Given June 4, 1998

Editors note: In preparation for our upcoming GloryFire New Orleans conference, we are posting this prophetic word given by Cindy to South Louisiana in 1998. Please pray! More information on GloryFire New Orleans may be found on our Attend A Conference page.

GENERATION "X" TO BE USED IN A POWERFUL WAY

So the Lord would say to South Louisiana that this is your hour, it is God's time for this area. And I am pouring my Spirit out in a new and unique way, for I am restoring the covenant, I am renewing the covenant that I made with My people many, many, many years ago. And the generation refused the call. And they did not keep the call. But I would say now there are those I am raising up, even some who are relatives of those who made covenant with Me in this area. There are those in the generations who I have called, and I am calling a new generation. I am calling those unlike what has been seen before; in fact, I am even going to use Generation X in a powerful way. I'm going to move by My Spirit like a river and there is going to be an outpouring of My glory that is going to come to this area.

GLORY LIKE A RIVER COMING TO LITTLE TOWNS AND LITTLE CHILDREN

And the Lord says, I am going to touch some places that have been poverty-stricken. Where the economy has seemingly gone down and down, there is going to be new life coming, new industry. I'm going to renew it, for I am renewing this covenant, says the Lord. My glory is going to start filling the churches and it's going to happen at unexpected places that no one would dream. I'm going to visit those little cities, those little towns. I'm going to come and I'm going to surround some of the larger cities and the anointing will be in the smaller cities surrounding the larger cities and then I'm going to take them.

I'm going to move like a river, says the Lord. I'm coming through, with My glory. My glory is going to pour all the way up the Mississippi, says the Lord. The anointing of God is going to come; I am going to humble this state in some ways, but do not be concerned about that, because it's going to bring greater glory in the end.

I AM MOVING AMONG THE LITTLE CHILDREN

And the Lord says to you, Look to the children, for I am moving among the little children of South Louisiana. For they are going to prophesy. Look to the schools, for the Lord says I am going to do a work in the high schools that will be read in the newspapers of the nation.

ANOINTING OF A LAWGIVER--CHANGING OF THE GUARD

I am going to cause the eyes of the United States to be focused on this geographic region. And people will be startled and amazed and even say, Surely God is there; we must go see. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.

STATE WILL CAST DOWN ABORTION

And the Lord says, I am going to put (establish) the anointing of the Lawgiver, and it's going to come through Louisiana as a state. There's going to be statewide measures, the Lord says, that are going to cast down abortion. I'm going to do a great work in that state, says the Lord. I'm going to do a work that will be landmark, precedent-setting.

For God says, I'm moving to start from the bottom and go to the top. There is even going to be an anointing for revival. I'm putting My hand upon this area even now, says the Lord. I'm going to shake it. Don't be afraid of the shaking. And God says, I am even going to shake the political systems; I am even going to shake city councils. I'm going to shake school boards. And the Lord says, I'm going to remove some and I'm going to set some up.

Even with some churches-- if they resist the Spirit, there is going to be a shaking, Says the Lord. For I prophesy the changing of the guard in Southern Louisiana. And the Lord says, Behold, I do a new thing. I'm going to make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The desert places are going to become fertile, even those places that have not produced that should be very fertile will produce.

HIDDEN TREASURES REVEALED, BRINGING NEW WEALTH

This is not only something that will happen in the spiritual realm, but in the physical realm, says the Lord. For there are even treasures of darkness under the earth that have been shut up for the end-times, that I am getting ready to open. And I'm going to pour out the anointing even for the wealth of the sinner that has been laid up for the righteous, and I'm going to send the anointing of missions to go all over the world-even to shake the 10/40 window from this area.

Email GENERALS OF INTERCESSION AT: generals@generals.org