In the 1960’s and 1970’s God poured out His Spirit in a mighty and powerful way during a sovereign move of God that was known as the Jesus Movement. It seemed as if overnight, suddenly God moved. God spoke to Greg Lancaster, “It’s going to be the 1970’s again”. That next week after receiving that word from the Lord, America pulled out of Afghanistan just like what took place in the 1970’s when America pulled out from Vietnam. It was a confirmation of the word of the Lord. Despite the things that took place in the negative, God was doing some amazingly awesome things! Many people were overcome by the presence of the Lord as Jesus Christ was being revealed to thousands upon thousands. Jack Hollis was one of those men and he recently sat down with Greg to talk about his exciting journey of walking with the Lord.
God was moving so mightily, and so powerfully, that Jack would hold a weekend retreat and invite whoever would want to come. Nearly two hundred people would come and his wife, Shelly, would cook camp stew for everyone, which they all loved! During those moments of so many people gathering together, Jack would lead a few people to share testimonies of what the Lord was doing in their lives. One particular testimony involved two Methodist ministers that had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, but had never been water baptized. These two men brought other ministers down to see Jack. They had asked Jack to take them down to the nearby creek to be baptized in the water.
People were lined up in the water, waiting to be baptized. As Jack shares, “when I baptized them, when they come up, they would come up speaking in tongues. The one behind him, the next one up is looking at me with eyes this big, and I’d grab him and baptize him, and he’d come up speaking in tongues. It happened with all of them.” This is what God did in the Book of Acts when the Lord was moving upon ALL people, even to the surprise of Peter as he was sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter was a Jew and thought only Jews could be saved. Even after receiving a vision of the Lord that he didn’t understand, he was led to a Gentiles house to share the Gospel. Suddenly, it was the Holy Spirit that showed up mightily. If any Gentile doesn’t believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that’s what brought us all in!
Jack recalls how the Holy Spirit was moving mightily upon so many of those that were hungry for Holy Spirit when he was invited to teach Charismatic Bible in a Catholic Church in Panama City, FL each of the Charismatic references in the Bible. People were so hungry for this truth that Jack was invited to come back every week. After so many moments together of learning the Word of God, a lady came up to Jack expressing how many ladies were having difficulty seeing Mary, the mother of Jesus as being a part of this. As Jack recalls, “you know this upper room experience they had, where they all spoke with tongues? All the women are nodding their heads in agreement as Jack is bringing their attention to this important moment. “Mary was up there. She was in the middle of that” he continued. “They all just grinned from ear to ear and took off!” It’s so important to remember that this is what the Lord does. As Greg points out, “when the Holy Spirit comes down, He breaks all the dividing walls that men create and all the division. And He says, ‘I love everybody, and I want everybody to filled with My Spirit’, and when He does that, He takes over”.
Recalling the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in his life, Jack recalls a time when he was gathering at an old TV shop for a few years. One fateful day, a particular lawyer in town came up to him. “I just wanted you to know that me and [two other lawyers], we have been trying to put you out of business, behind your back, for two years and we can not make one inch of headway. And we just want you to know that we’re leaving you alone.” Jack didn’t have a clue that they were even doing that at all! This is what God does. As Greg shares, “God definitely protects us from a lot of things.”