Revival

The Bigger the Mountain the Bigger the Testimony

Father’s Day 1995 The Lord Himself did a mighty work when He poured out His presence in Pensacola Florida during the Brownsville Revival that resulted in the nations being reached with mighty testimonies of His Glory and many coming to Salvation through Jesus Christ. Steve Hill was the Evangelist who labored alongside Pastor John Kilpatrick night after night as thousands of souls repented for their sins and wept in the sweet presence of Holy Spirit. Jeri, Steve’s wife was also there night after night responding to the call to grow ever closer to the Lord.  

Years before the Brownsville Revival was ever on anyone’s radar, Steve and Jeri were ministering in Chile and Steve was wanting to go to a certain city to share the Gospel. No matter what path or road that Steve attempted to take, he kept encountering obstacles. After exhausting every option he could think of, Steve encountered a local who instructed him to drive the truck on the railroad tracks the 5 miles to get there.  Before Steve left the man he was instructed, “you have to pray there isn’t a train coming because I couldn’t tell you when the train comes”. After taking the route of the railroad tracks and not encountering any oncoming trains, Steve and his team was then met with a sleet storm. After all these repeated obstacles Steve turned to his team and shared this encouraging perspective, “for us to be going through all of this, all these obstacles, it must mean that God is really going to move”. The difficulty is proof that God is going to move. How many of us quit in the midst of difficulty? The difference is when we press through.  

When Steve was sharing the testimony to Jeri of what the Lord had done when they arrived in the Central area of the city he described how people would be walking by and suddenly just stopped walking when they got close to Steve and his team. They would ask the people why they stopped walking only to hear, “my feet are glued to the cement”. The people could not move. God wasn’t just drawing the people walking by, but also the people driving by. As Jeri shares, “cars would be drawn into the Central Park to see what was going on. Steve would get in one car, lead everybody in the car to Jesus, get out the other side of th e door, go into the next car and lead people to Jesus. He kept doing this over and over and over.”  This is the way of life that Steve always lived. As he once shared with Jeri, “It’s not about an easy life, it’s about a dedicated life. It’s about a  life. It’s about dying to ourselves so that we can proclaim the Gospel because people are dying in their sin and they need to be rescued”. This is the very truth and reality that we need to be thinking about. People are dying every day. Greg captures the very truth of this reality. “You don’t know that the person next to you might be preaching your funeral tomorrow”. Only God knows that day for all of us.  

What does the life of an Evangelist Look Like?

Father’s Day 1995 The Lord Himself did a mighty work when He poured out His presence in Pensacola Florida during the Brownsville Revival that resulted in the nations being reached with mighty testimonies of His Glory and many coming to Salvation through Jesus Christ. Steve Hill was the Evangelist who labored alongside Pastor John Kilpatrick night after night as thousands of souls repented for their sins and wept in the sweet presence of Holy Spirit. Jeri, Steve’s wife was also there night after night responding to the call to grow ever closer to the Lord.  

 In a recent conversation Jeri Hill talks about the importance of praying for the lost with a broken heart weeping before the Lord. Steve and Jeri continually kept the verse of Psalm 126:6 before them, “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” They continually lived their lives with a focus on reaching the lost with the love of Jesus Christ. As Jeri recalls, “going to church every single night, it wasn’t just at Brownsville. We were in church services evangelized. And that’s how we planted every single Church: we evangelized, went out on the streets, told people about Jesus and planted a church by evangelizing.” It’s important to be people focused and to notice those that the Lord has placed right next to us. As Greg describes, “the person next to you is an opportunity, they’re not a problem”. 

Jeri recalls one particular teenager that she had witnessed to. “Every single day for six months I witness to this young lady…and I told her that Jesus loved her and had a plan for her life. She was an Argentine Revolutionist. She didn’t want to hear it and for six months she rejected it.” Jeri didn’t let that response stop her. “I began to fast for her, and I wept for her and sometimes I would cry…everyday I wept and wept and wept”. Jeri details how something changed after six months and in a conversation with this young lady that was challenging Jeri, Jeri slammed her hand down on the table, which was a glass table declared boldly, “I believe in Jesus Christ and I believe He died for you and I believe that He has a plan for you and you have to give your life to Jesus Christ.” By this point Jeri was screaming these words at her. This young lady took a couple steps back and simply said, “okay, I believe you now”.  This young lady becomes the first female missionary to go to Cameroon, Africa and preaches everywhere she goes. She ended up moving back to the United States and shared with Jeri, “you taught me how to do this. You did it for me, I can do it for somebody else”. Jeri continues to point out how important is not to miss those moments. “You do not know what is going on in a person’s life and what they’ve been crying out. It’s just what we say to people, God is working behind the scenes in people’s lives. He might be giving them dreams. He might be giving them vision of things. He might be speaking to them in audible voices…but what we don’t know what God is doing behind the scenes.”  

Greg describes a similar journey when he himself was in the middle of the Brownsville Revival also running a business of his own. He would run his plastics company and leave work everyday, heading to the Brownsville Revival, and tell one of his employees, “God loves you and has a plan for your life”. Day after day the same words. Even after inviting this employee to Revival over and over, this employee would always respond with a kind “no thank you”. Until one day, Greg offers, “If I pay you, will you come?” That was all he needed. This man ended up witnessing what Greg had been trying to share with him all these times, and encountered the love of God, the power of God, and he gave his life to Jesus Christ that very day.  

Steve Hill did the same thing each and every day sharing about the love of God, the power of God in his memorable messages. As Jeri describes, “Steve had to prepare a message every single day. He’d get up at eight o’clock in the morning, go over to the office and have a message done, and ready for that evening by two o’clock in the afternoon. Everyday”. Contrary to belief, Steve had never used props before in his messages until he started preaching at the Brownsville Revival. Steve had a powerful message that he would also share with people who been coming to the Brownville Revival, “don’t come in and hog the sanctuary, leave room for the sinner, go out and evangelize, don’t come every single night we need room for the sinners that are coming”.  

What else is additionally important to recognize about the Brownsville Revival is not only how many lives were touched, but also the many lives that were touched during that time that are still faithfully serving the Lord. As Jeri describes, “the other second thing that is the most important is the fruit that remains and is producing fruit…it’s not supposed to stop, we have to pass it on”.  As Steve got older, he ended up getting cancer. Not even cancer could stop Steve from bearing good fruit for the Lord. Jeri continues, “during that time he was doing videos for the online school of evangelism because he wanted to leave behind something that would help people to grow in producing more fruit after he was gone”. One of Steve’s last videos was conversation with Peter Wagner talking to the nations.  

When you look at the lives of Steve and Jeri, you can clearly see that there is no fear of how people will respond. As Jeri says, “I don’t care what people think about me”. Jeri also shares that “Steve always wanted to be ed for Jesus”. People may be surprised to know that people came to the Brownsville Revival with weapons hoping to kill someone on the platform. When somebody comes to Jeri’s front door of her house, she isn’t afraid to answer the door. “I don’t run away. There is somebody that is coming to my door that needs to hear about Jesus…they can not walk out the door without me talking about the love of my life.”  Jeri also talks about how she uses the many different props from Steve’s past messages from the Brownsville Revival that are displayed around her house that she uses to bring up Jesus to those that visit her home. We can do this very same thing and put things that represent what God has done in our lives around our homes for the purpose of bringing up Jesus to them and telling them that Jesus loves them and has a plan for their lives.   

Are You Willing to Follow the Lord?

Father’s Day 1995 The Lord Himself did a mighty work when He poured out His presence in Pensacola Florida during the Brownsville Revival that resulted in the nations being reached with mighty testimonies of His Glory and many coming to Salvation through Jesus Christ. Steve Hill was the Evangelist who labored alongside Pastor John Kilpatrick night after night as thousands of souls repented for their sins and wept in the sweet presence of Holy Spirit. Jeri, Steve’s wife was also there night after night responding to the call to grow ever closer to the Lord.  

In a recent conversation, Jeri Hill talks about the life of transition that her and Steve lived following the Lord in those beginning days of the Brownsville Revival. “In that first year we moved nine times because we didn’t know how long we were going to be there”. They were following the lead of the Holy Spirit, until five years later, in 1999, they decided to leave Pensacola. “The only reason we felt led to leave Brownsville is because there were less sinners coming.” All the while during those five years of the Brownsville Revival, Steve was receiving invitations from around the world for him to come preach in their nation, “we cannot all go to Brownsville, please come to us”. After leaving Pensacola, FL, Steve and Jeri travel to Japan to share the Gospel.  

It was during an event in Japan that Jeri felt the Holy Spirt suddenly impress upon her, “go outside and evangelize right now”. After grabbing an interpreter, she was handing out Gospel tracks and inviting people to the even that was about to start in 45 mins. Her and her interpreter run out of tracks and Jeri tells the interpreter to go get more tracks. “All of a sudden I’m doubling over weeping and wailing for the people of Japan. I am bawling my eyes out wailing an saying ‘the people of Japan need Jesus! the people of Japan need Jesus!’ and I am wailing…” Suddenly Jeri is approached by someone in their ministry team who recognized Jeri and tells Jeri that the girl with him is a pastor’s daughter who wants to leave and doesn’t believe in what Steve is doing in their city means anything. She confronted this young girl and boldly declared, “the devil has you right where he wants you, he wants you to leave, he does not want you to believe that he’s real, and the devil is dancing, he’s pleased, he’s so happy that you are about to leaving.” But Jeri didn’t stop there, “if you have even a little mustard seed of faith, you get back in there and listen to my husband preach”. The girl ended up walking away, and suddenly the burden of the Holy Spirit lifted. During the message, Steve called Jeri up to be alongside him praying for the pastors. It was while Jeri was on the platform that she felt a tap on her shoulder, and it was the young man and girl who told Jeri that she gave her heart to Jesus! So many people miss those promptings of the Holy Spirit. If we don’t pay attention to how the Holy Spirit is leading us, we can miss Him. As Jeri shares, “that’s what it’s all about. My job was to be interceding and praying and believing…”  

Remembering The Wonders of The Lord; How Steve and Jeri Hill Met

Father’s Day 1995 The Lord Himself did a mighty work when He poured out His presence in Pensacola Florida during the Brownsville Revival that resulted in the nations being reached with mighty testimonies of His Glory and many coming to Salvation through Jesus Christ. Steve Hill was the Evangelist who labored alongside Pastor John Kilpatrick night after night as thousands of souls repented for their sins and wept in the sweet presence of Holy Spirit. Jeri, Steve’s wife was also there night after night responding to the call to grow ever closer to the Lord.  

In a recent conversation, Jeri talks about how the Lord brought the two of them together when they were in Bible School under David Wilkerson. They recall a time when Steve talked about those unforgettable days and how they submitted themselves to godly leadership.  “Gwen Wilkerson, David Wilkerson’s wife, came to me and said, ‘Jeri, you may be making the biggest mistake of your life. Jeri may not be the girl for you’”. That wasn’t what Steve wanted to hear. Steve continues, “you know what that caused me to do? PRAY! PRAY! Instead of living in orbit, I got my feet back on solid ground and got on my face. ‘Jesus I’m infatuated with this girl. Get this out of me and speak to me. Speak to me Jesus, I don’t want to make a mistake.” Steve had to know, and asked the Lord, “IS THIS YOU OR NOT? IF IT’S YOU THEN YOU GUIDE EVERY STEP.”  This is so important to think about and remember. Steve continues to describe how so many people would not receive that kind of leadership in their lives. “Some of you would never put up with anything like this because you’re snots, you’re stuck up…there’s people that will not receive a word of counsel from nobody.”  

After Steve and Jeri decided to move forward in their relationship and date, the direction they received from their leadership was that they could spend 15 minutes a week with each other. Specifically, “you can spend 15 minutes with her but don’t touch her”. So, Steve asked, “can I shake her hand?” “No” was the response he got”. Steve continues, “I happened to get around godly counsel. They told me to behave myself.” For those who would rebel against godly leadership and counsel like this, Steve says, “friend I want to tell you where you’re going. You’re going down the wrong path. With an attitude like that, you ain’t going to make it nowhere with Jesus cause He’s put authorities in your life.” When the time came for Steve to ask Jeri to marry her, he still didn’t know what her hand felt like, or even had a ring to give her.  

On one of their short walks together, Steve knew this was the day to ask. But his time was running short, he only had 15 minutes with Jeri. “Jeri, will you marry me?” “How can I say no?” A long drawn out “moooooo” came bellowing out from one of the neighboring cows in the nearby pasture. That was confirmation. 15 minutes was up. “Well, see you later. She goes walking off one way. I mean this is the girl I’m gonna marry. Not even a handshake.” Steve continues to point out what happened during that season of their lives. “We fell in love with each other, not in lust… It’s hard to get to know a girl in the back seat of a car with the windows steamed up and a bunch of heavy panting going on. You’re not going to get very intimate in your spirit with a woman like that and you’re gonna end up marrying the girl AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HER!”  This is where having godly counsel in your life can guide you to make wise decisions. “So I got around wise counsel that was so contrary to the world’s counsel.” What would the world’s counsel have said? “The world would say ‘shack up with her for a few months man before you marry her’. The world would say, ‘make sure you got some type of marriage agreement before you ever get into this thing.’ It’s a whole lot different with Jesus”. Many people don’t start with God’s values in views or with godly counsel leading the way. It’s hard to unmake a wrong beginning. You got to go back to the start.  

Jeri recalls those memorable moments as well as she talks about during those days at Bible School under David Wilkerson, she used to clean the Wilkerson’s home. One day, David Wilkerson asked for a volunteer to clean his car. Steve raised his hand and was cleaning the car. Steve shared with David, “I’m interested in Jeri Larson.” David responded, “you’re getting the best girl on the ranch”. As Jeri explains, “it was growing in my heart, this love for Steve, and I did not want anybody”. Up to this point in her life, Jeri had only experienced dysfunctional relationships and had only planned to be sold out for Jesus and not have any man in her life. “And so for two months I was binding the enemy with this emotion that was happening in my heart. Every time I saw Steve, my heart was beating out of my chest.” Jeri continues to describe how she was fighting, what she thought, was distractions from the enemy, “I would get up three o’clock in the morning and pray till five, binding the enemy that was distracting me in my relationship with Jesus Christ…God was putting it there but I was fighting it.” She even went to her advisor to ask for prayer because her prayers weren’t working. The advisor wanted to know what they were praying about. “Well, somebody is distracting me. My emotions are distracted when I see one of the guys and I need victory over this, and I need a prayer partner. Please help me pray for victory.” After 45 minutes of her advisor insisting on wanting to know who it was, she didn’t say and ended up leaving.  

Later in the day, Jeri is approached by Steve in the lunchroom and she is just appalled that he would approach her. GET AWAY FROM ME was what she felt belting out of her spirit towards him. Steve knew something was wrong and followed after Jeri as she walked away. “Jeri! What is going on?” She replied, “nothing God can’t handle.” Steve insisted, “Well tell me what’s going on and I’ll pray for you.” Without missing a beat, Jeri retorted, “you don’t need to know what it is to pray”. Steve immediately went into his prayer closet to pray for Jeri and the Lord spoke to Steve, “she’s fighting love for you”. Come to find out, Steve was waking up at three in the morning, praying to the Lord with hands raised, until five in the morning, thanking God that the Lord was bringing him and Jeri together. Days later Steve and Jeri see each other in the office and Steve says to Jeri, “[the staff] know about us”. As Jeri hears this, she has her own internal dialogue with the Lord, “God, I was praying for deliverance from this. Do I not have a say in my life? Immediately God said to me, ‘No. You don’t have a say. Your say has to be yes.’”  So many people can completely understand and empathize with Jeri’s perspective.  

So many people have been hurt and wounded by relationships. We can be whole people, in Christ, without needing a relationship with a spouse in order feel whole. Thinking about her marriage with Steve, Jeri says, “I think what really played a part in how our marriage went, is in Bible School, they told us ‘to give 100% and don’t expect anything in return. If you expect something, you’re going to be disappointed, and if you give 100%, as unto the Lord and you’re doing it unto God, you will receive so much satisfaction in doing it as unto the Lord and not create drama.” Our spouses can never fulfill our lives where only Jesus can be. Jeri continues, “I didn’t look for Steve to fulfill me. I looked to God to fulfill me and use me.” This is what was so beautiful between them in their marriage because they never defined each other by what wasn’t given, or by what couldn’t be given at the time. Jeri continues to point out the decision she made every time Steve walked into the door.  

Rewinding the journey back to story of being surrounded by cows and being asked by Steve to marry him, Jeri talks about she wanted to serve the Lord with all that she had, but she knew the decision of marriage was important. “You used to be a heroin addict. I used to be a drug addict and we were lost. If you think for one minute that you are going to go back into drugs, tell me today. Because even though I love you, I don’t want to marry you.” Steve responded to her, “I am going to live for God all the days of my life.” That’s all she needed to her. As she clapped her hands, she said, “okay let’s do it”. Moments before Jeri was about to walk down the aisle in her wedding, wearing her wedding dress, someone asked her if she was nervous. She kicked off her shoes, twirled and said, “No, I’m excited!”, and then proceeded to put her shoes back on and walked down the aisle.  

DAY AFTER DAY! NIGHT AFTER NIGHT! GET, GET, GET, GET READY!

Father’s Day 1995 The Lord Himself did a mighty work when He poured out His presence in Pensacola Florida during the Brownsville Revival that resulted in the nations being reached with mighty testimonies of His Glory and many coming to Salvation through Jesus Christ. Steve Hill was the Evangelist who labored alongside Pastor John Kilpatrick night after night as thousands of souls repented for their sins and wept in the sweet presence of Holy Spirit. Jeri, Steve’s wife was also there night after night responding to the call to grow ever closer to the Lord.  

In a recent conversation, Jeri talks about how when her and Steve where evangelizing in South America, they were laboring day and night. This was long before Brownsville was on anybody’s grid. Evangelizing during the day, church services during the night. A lot of people don’t understand “the work” of ministry, they just think it just happens. As Jeri explains, “it’s a matter of stepping out, opening your mouth, handing the track, praying with them, whatever they would allow you to do, you just did it.” Steve and Jeri immersed themselves into the culture as they both were able to speak Spanish after moving to Costa Rica and living with a family, asking them to teach them, and correct them regarding their Spanish.  

So many people are afraid of just “getting out there”, afraid that they will make a mistake or say something wrong. Jeri recalls one of her first encounters after only be saved for two months, she was in the city amongst the people handing out tracks. A man comes up to her and says, “okay, just don’t give me a track. Tell me what it means to you…for forty-five minutes I shared my testimony with him and what God had done in my life. He took the track that I had and said, ‘thank you’, and he walked away.” Jeri thought there was more to do wanting to know if she could have prayed for him. That next Monday, in a Teen Challenge meeting, people were standing up and sharing testimonies. One man who gave his testimony stood up, who turned out to be same man that Jeri had just shared her testimony to. After telling all those who were listening about the young girl that he had met, and that he wanted to know what the track meant to her, he took the track and walked away. As he was walking away, he told the crowd what he said to the Lord, “God, I want what she has”, and he gave his heart to Jesus as he was walking away. As he was finishing his testimony in the Teen Challenge meeting, he pointed at Jeri, “that’s the girl right there, would you stand up”. Jeri was shocked, “it works”, she told herself. As Jeri plainly says, “we’re supposed to have a passion for God, and a burden for people.” 

Revelation 12:11 declares, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death”. There is power in the simple truth of sharing your stories of what God has done in your life with other people. If you’re dead in Christ, you’re not worried about yourself. Your yes to God matters so much to God. There are so many people want to give their everything to God, but they totally feel held back because their spouse is not following the Lord. Jeri talks about how powerful your witness is when you are committed. “God is powerful to keep a marriage together, even when they aren’t seeing eye to eye. So, God doesn’t want them to give up on that person, because they are just as important to God as going out and doing something else for God.” Even too, when children come along in a family, that may change how ministry looks, but it doesn’t have to stop ministry. Jeri continues, “in the beginning I took Ryan out on one hip.” When the Brownsville Revival started, Steve and Jeri had a three-week-old baby, “so I would be back in the nursing room quite a bit, but the whole time I was so on Steve’s page because I wanted to see people get right with God, so even if it was Steve doing it, or if it was me doing it, it was being done”.