They were living in a small room of a church, using the auditorium to gather people to pray. A printer who was a man of prayer offered to print a paper for them to help spread their deep burden that the Church worldwide be clothed in holy garments, ready to meet Christ at His coming. Brother and Sister Moore had no experience in editing and had no thought of printing a paper. Neither had they any money. But a friend who had given them $50 to print tracts agreed they could use the money toward the paper.
The first edition of 10,000 copies had a good reception, and a second was printed. Others followed, and in this way God led His servants into publishing Herald of His Coming monthly. In 1943 Gospel Revivals Inc. was established as the non-profit corporation which publishes Herald of His Coming.
God made the Moores to know Herald of His Coming was to be undenominational. It was to be kept unworldly and unadorned and printed economically on newsprint that it might be sent without charge, that no one be denied the Gospel because they could not afford to pay for it.
After the church in which they were working closed, God led the Moores through a series of moves, to a large second-floor room in a former mortuary in downtown Los Angeles. They were living and working here when the building was put up for sale. Through the sacrificial giving of friends, they were able to purchase the building and here the ministry was housed for about 25 years.
As many as 12 to 15 workers lived and worked in the building. Additional workers lived in economical hotels nearby. A number who helped shoulder the work not only volunteered their time but also gave to the work from their modest pensions. Others whose love and zeal for the Lord made them gladly wiling for the simple, unworldly, dedicated living and working which the humble ministry required, received in exchange room and board and a small allowance for necessary expenses.
Calls for Herald of His Coming began to come from around the world, and eventually the paper was being mailed into as many as 200 countries. The number of papers printed grew steadily until a peak was reached in the early 1960’s of 425,000 papers monthly. Six four-page papers for the unsaved were printed and mailed by the hundreds of thousands. A number went to distributors who took them to the highways and byways of the world to many beyond reach of the post office. About 20 of Brother and Sister Moore’s editorials were printed in tract form and circulated by the tens of thousands.
From the beginning, prayer was the heartbeat of the work. Lone prayer vigils in early morning or late night, twos and threes agreeing together throughout the day, prayerful hearts at the work desk, and especially the gathering of the staff in the old mortuary chapel, where prayer times were sparked by the fiery, faith-filled prayers of Brother and Sister Moore – all told that God’s blessing on the ministry was dependent on and the result of prayer.
The ever-present needs of the ministry for workers and finances were brought before the Throne of God as well as the need for divine blessing on the messages of the Herald. Always there were prayers for revival and for the salvation of dying souls. Often God was beseeched to send deep conviction on sin to bring men to repentance, for without repentance, God cannot come and save and deliver and heal – whether it be the individual soul or a nation.
Brother and Sister Moore sometimes wished they could do nothing but shut themselves away and pour out their lives in prayer. But God had placed on their shoulders the responsibilities of the worldwide work of Herald of His Coming, and they were faithful workers, giving themselves from early morning until late at night – their breaks being mostly prayer breaks, or breaks for necessities such as sleeping and eating and short walks. They lived in the simplest of rooms alongside the staff. Personal comforts and conveniences were all but forgotten in their zeal to finish the work God had given them to do and in their loving concern for their co-workers.
The fire in their hearts had been lighted by God and it was fueled by the Holy Spirit whose anointing they humbly and constantly sought. Supported by co-workers of like heart and mind, likewise sparing not themselves for the sake of world revival and world evangelization, the Moores were able to send out the fiery messages and faithful teachings from God’s Word regularly, without fear or favor.
God also gave a host of priceless friends from among Herald readers scattered around the world. Some were hearts already akin, and others had a fresh fire kindled as they read the paper. Taking the ministry on their hearts for prayer, sending gifts even to the point of sacrifice, and ordering copies to help spread the flame – made them invaluable co-workers in the continuation and growth of the ministry.
In 1968 it seemed wiser to move from the old building in downtown Los Angeles than to fix it up to meet changing fire codes, and so the Moores and part of the staff moved to the high desert outside Los Angeles. The mailing department remained in the Los Angeles area for convenience’ sake. All but a minimum staff and the Moores moved back to a Los Angeles suburb to merge with the mailing department in 1972 when a suitable building was found to lease.
It was in 1973, when Sister Moore’s strength was totally spent, that God gathered her to her rest. Brother Moore and faithful staff members carried on the ministry until he, too, at the age of 90, was called above in 1980.
For the next eight years the ministry continued in the Los Angeles area, with Lois J. Stucky serving as editor, and Louise A. L. Woerner, as treasurer, and with a loyal staff working shoulder to shoulder. In 1988, Elmer Klassen, who had published the German Herald of His Coming for almost 30 years, returned from abroad to live in his home state of Kansas. It seemed the Lord’s leading at that time to move Herald of His Coming ministry to Kansas and to ask him to serve as president/treasurer/publisher. Under his capable leadership, Herald of His Coming published in Kansas until July, 1999, when Mr. Klassen retired.
At that time God led to move the ministry to Indiana, near Terre Haute, where Dave and Kimberly Butts, founders and directors of Harvest Prayer Ministries, welcomed Herald of His Coming to partner with them. They serve as president and vice-president of Gospel Revivals Inc. Lois J. Stucky continued as editor until 2009 when an editorial team was formed to share the editorial work. Lois serves on the team along with Rich and Gail Carmicheal and Gayla Royer.
As the torch has passed into the hands of a new generation, equipment and methods of work have been modernized to keep up a good outflow of the Gospel, but we seek to maintain the same prayer/revival call that Brother and Sister Moore issued faithfully through the years. At the present time, about 91,000 Heralds are printed monthly, about two-thirds of which are sent to readers outside the U.S.A. Also in print are RIGHT CHOICE Salvation herald, HEAR, O ISRAEL for unsaved Jewish people, and TRUTH FOR YOU to warn of the occult. About thirty-two books have been printed in magazine format. They are mostly classic books on prayer and revival, first published by others some years ago. All publications are sent without charge.
Herald of His Coming ministry has been totally supported from the beginning by gifts of readers whose hearts God touches to share with their offerings. The participation of interested friends is essential and is greatly welcomed and appreciated. In this hour there is eagerness for Christian literature among readers in developing countries especially, and there are great opportunities to increase the present outreach.
OTHER LANGUAGE EDITIONS
In the early 1950’s, during a time of revival among missionaries in the Orient, several who experienced a deep touch of the Lord on their lives, found in Herald of His Coming messages that fueled the flame in their hearts. They wanted such messages for those among whom they worked. As a result, affiliated Heralds began to publish in the Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages, as well as in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu in India.
Later in the 1950’s, workers in Europe were inspired to print in German, Dutch, Italian and French. Through the years other editions have been added. Current language editions are:
Amharic in Ethiopia Arabic in Egypt Burmese in Myanmar Dutch Finnish French German Greek Hakha Chin in Myanmar Hausa in Nigeria Igbo in Nigeria Indonesian Italian Korean (website only) Malayalam in India Marathi in India Nepali Portuguese in Brazil Romanian Runyankore in Uganda Russian Shona in Zimbabwe Sinhalese in Sri Lanka Spanish Swahili in Kenya Tagalog in Philippines Tamil in India Yoruba in Nigeria
Foreign language editions needing subsidy are helped by Herald of His Coming. Offerings for the extension of Herald International are welcomed, and may be sent to the office in Seelyville, designated for whatever edition they are intended. Addresses are supplied by Seelyville as inquiry is made.
You can recieve your own herald freely by filling out your info here:http://www.heraldofhiscoming.com/other/new_subscription.htm
Also consider donating to this excellent ministry here: http://www.heraldofhiscoming.com/other/donations.htm
The prayers of friends for the Herald ministry are much appreciated, and please pray fervently for worldwide revival and for the evangelization of earth’s lost multitudes!
Herald of His Coming P.O. Box 279 Seelyville IN 47878 U.S.A.
Sister Dabney is a black sister who makes prayer a business. If she sleeps at all, it is to be refreshed to resume her day and night vigils of prayer and waiting on God. She confines herself to one simple meal a day. She never has light conversation with anyone. Usually she comes quietly to a meeting an hour before the time announced and begins to pray. When the meeting is over she slips quietly away to her room where her real ministry of travail for the deliverance of souls is carried on, far into the night.
In an interview Sister Dabney revealed how she came to enter this effective work for God and for souls. Her husband is a black preacher. He was sent from a prosperous church in Philadelphia to labor in a poor one. At their first meeting no one was present but themselves. She saw it was going to be a difficult field for it was in the most wicked part of the city. She was made to know that nothing but prayer would touch the situation.
She determined to give herself to prayer. She made a vow to God that if He would send sinners to that place and save them, she would give herself to prayer three days and three nights each week in the church for three years. She vowed during two of these years to fast as well as pray. When she first told her husband of her intentions, he was unwilling to have her spend three days and nights each week in the mission alone in prayer. But the Lord made him to know it was of Him.
As soon as this little wife began to pray alone in her husband’s mission, God began to work. Sinners were sent in and soon their hall was crowded out. Her husband asked her to pray for a larger place. God moved a merchant out of a better and larger building across the street and gave them this building. As Sister Dabney continued to pray, this building too was crowded out. Again her husband asked her to pray for a larger church. She did, and God gave them a fine large church on a main boulevard in the same neighborhood. Always the meetings were packed out and souls were delivered from sin and believers in multitudes were baptized in the Spirit.
One morning at the church door as she was entering to keep her vow of prayer, the Lord met her and said, "Go home." But she did not want to go home. She wanted to pray. Then He asked her if she knew what day it was. She felt led to open her purse and read her vow and discovered from the date on the vow that she had exactly completed the three years she had given to God for prayer. She wanted to go into the church and adore and worship Him but He said again, "Go home."
She obeyed. Her soul was exulting in His presence. Then He said to her, "Go to the basement." She was afraid of the dark basement and hesitated. She said, "Lord, if you are going to take me home to glory, first let me see my husband and son." She was afraid the Lord was going to take her home in the midst of all this rejoicing. But she put on perfectly new pumps and went to the basement. Instead of darkness it was filled with a wondrous light. Then the Lord spoke to her again. He said, "You have prayed through. Now I have come to bless you."
From the ceiling a fountain seemed to pour forth living water. This water rose higher and higher until it engulfed her. The joy and the presence of the Lord were so gloriously manifest to her that she began to dance. The Lord told her that wherever she went and prayed, He would deliver sinners from their sins and fill believers with the Holy Spirit. She danced the heels and toes off her brand-new pumps.
This happened several years ago, and God has kept His word. Wherever, Sister Dabney goes and gives herself to prayer, sinners are delivered and the saints are filled with the Holy Ghost and fire. She does not preach but only counsels saints and sinners to seek the Lord till He is found. The following letters give an intimate insight into her life of prevailing prayer.
"I am burdened unto death this morning. My heart seems as if it were going to break. The burden of sinners is upon me greater than ever before. I can hear the cries of the dying world day and night.
"The Spirit is crying for a great outpouring of the Holy Ghost. This is God’s great ingathering day. For some cause He counted me worthy to suffer the agony of death that our poor people might be delivered before the cry is made, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom is here!’
"There are few people who are willing to suffer that others might see the light. This is an awful day. The people are hungry for real examples of true holiness. The day is crowded with self and the desire for personal gain; therefore we who are awakened must work double time to help push this battle to the gates.
"Prayer is the only remedy for this day of ills and chills. In the midst of it all, thank God I have found a place, away out in the Spirit upon the mountain, where a praying woman can go and be with God.
"Come, dear one, with me out there where Jesus will intercede through you and deliver many sinners through your prayers. If you will follow me into this field of prayer you will thank me for urging you to give your life to pray sinners through to God. He has praying ground to give you which has never been possessed by anybody. He has praying hills and mountains nobody has ever asked Him for. Your feet can stand on a new height every day and night.
"Preaching is good. Teaching is essential. But praying is the secret. One God-heard and answered prayer will shake creation!
"The Spirit of the Lord is crying out for thousands to be saved.
"The people have heard the truth, plenty of it. But they need help to deliver them out of bondage, that they might serve God in true righteousness and holiness. Preaching, singing, shouting, teaching will not altogether send the earthquake that will open the grave in that sin-prison graveyard where millions are dead in trespasses and sins. We must have power now to help these people. Demonstrations are in order in season, but when it comes to breaking the seal Satan has placed on the hearts of sinners it is going to take prayer or an unlimited conversation with God.
"So many are praying but few are able to pray through into His glory and divine will. Jesus went into the Garden and talked with God until flesh gave way and sweat like blood ran freely down from Him.
"This is the hardest work God has to offer. Like a farmer I have to dig day and night. It is like new ground where bushes, trees, stumps, and rocks have grown far down into the earth. In the earth all kinds of bugs, snakes, and worms are living. You are in danger of digging up one of these unpleasant things at any time. Digging is a hard job. This is my task. The voices of millions of souls are crying in my ears all day and all night. I have prayed myself into business with God. This is the reason I refuse to visit or receive visitors. I am no good for anything but this. I am wholly given to prayer. This burden is ever upon me. I cannot lay it down and rest for even a moment."
Again. "Early in the morning, at noon and late at night, the Lord lifts me to a new place in prayer. I was so overshadowed last night with the glory of the Lord that seemingly my flesh died and I was led out somewhere in the garden of prayer where I have never been before. The Spirit of the Lord cried, ‘Thousands shall be saved; call upon Me, I will deliver!’ Then the groaning was very great. I wept before the Lord, and offered myself in prayer until all His wishes had been served."
Again. "The Lord has commanded me to call the women to prayer everywhere. I am praying that He will call two thousand especially who will make the sacrifice and pray through to His glory. He has led me to call them to prayer at four o’clock in the morning. About 350 assembled at 3:30 a.m.. When I arrived at 4 o’clock the Lord was in His temple visiting His children with blessings. The saints cried to be led out with me into this Garden of Prayer. His Presence filled the room. Everyone was overshadowed. In a great way the Lord poured His oil upon our heads. I heard the Spirit crying for souls to be revived and renewed and that they might not only be swimming in a river but out in the ocean of prayer.
"Our God is not dead. He is not tied. He is willing today to do as great a work as He ever did. If He stopped the sun for a man, if He heard the cries of a woman and broke the bars of death and gave her back her child, is He not able and willing to shake creation for you and me who are calling for the table to be filled with those who are in the hedges and highways? Yes, He hears! All we have to do is open our mouths--the mouth of the soul--and talk with Him until He comes in His divine might to prove Himself to you and me, ever the same yesterday, today and forever.
"There is no greater blessing than talking to God. I am filled to the brim! Oh this privilege He has opened to me for an unlimited conversation with Him!"
Later. "Over four hundred meet me every morning in the four o’clock prayer meeting. The city is stirred!"
"God is in His Garden of Prayer. Some never leave the church. Through rain and shine the people gather for prayer. For two mornings I walked to church so that I might get a real view of the people running from all directions at four o’clock in the morning to pray. Every street we came to there were people running as if it were their last time to meet God. They were rushing into the tabernacle as fast as they could to meet God at four o’clock in the morning. They all fell on their knees and their voices blended in one prayer to God. Then the Lord came and perfumed the place. He breathed His quickening breath upon us and we were aware of His divine Presence. This is what God is doing in this wicked city at four o’clock in the morning in answer to prayer. Many souls are finding God and many believers are being filled with the Spirit."
Let us who will, thus assemble ourselves, and America will be swept by a mighty soul-saving revival.
One’s ability to stay with God in the place of prayer will be the measure of his ability to stay with God when he is out in the place of activity (Psalm 55:17).
In all ages God’s people have found deliverance from their enemies when they sought the Lord’s mercies through fasting-prayer. The Saviour not only fasted, He taught His disciples to fast. The only restriction the Saviour put on fasting was that it be without hypocrisy.
Divine Intervention
When a Christian fasts, he is putting God first. When we fast and pray for revival and the worldwide outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it means we are determined now to give the whole heart and the whole man to prayer and waiting on God for revival. Thus fasting and praying wholeheartedly for home, loved ones, church or nation, means to put these needs before the needs of food and all other things that would divert from an intensity in prayer for the Spirit’s outpouring.
All through sacred history, when threatened and in peril, God’s people have sought Him so earnestly that they fasted and prayed. They ever triumphed. When Nineveh sought God’s mercies in repentant prayer, neither beast nor man did eat or drink for a time (Jonah 3:7). In the reign of Ahasuerus when the Jews were imperiled with extinction, for three days and three nights they neither ate nor drank. Thus mercy triumphed over judgment in that day and will also in ours if we will humble ourselves and seek the Lord with all our heart for Divine intervention.
Today Jew and Gentile are in times of fearful urgency. The world is being invaded by the forces of evil. These hell-driven forces must be challenged and repulsed by the forces of righteousness. We must now seek the Lord with all our heart till He comes and rains righteousness upon us!
We must want revival in our homes, churches and nation more than we want food, want sleep, more than we want business, relatives, friends. We have let things drift too far and now in the extreme urgency of the extreme need we must set aside duty and pleasure as doomed Nineveh did, while both ministers and members of the Body of Christ, with one heart and one mind, seek the Lord for the worldwide outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Oh, let all the heart within us go out to God in praying, “God, save our nation!”
“Turn Ye Even to Me…”
“Therefore…saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning…Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people…assemble the elders…Let the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them…then…the Lord will answer and…remove far off…the Northern Army…and the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow” (Joel 2:12-32).
Before revival will come, God’s people everywhere, in this intense way, will have to definitely seek Him in fasting-prayer for the Spirit’s outpouring. Joel 2:1,12-17 shows this to be so. May each one of us now, without excusing ourselves, set our faces to seek the Lord, as did the people of Nineveh in their day of doom, until the very current of our times is changed by the impact of our united prayers and fastings.
Prayer for revival like this will, for the glory of Christ, receive answer and we will see the evil forces overthrown as the purified and empowered Church of God wields the sword of the Spirit and handles the dynamite of the gospel and thus accomplishes God’s purposes in grace and judgment for the end of this age. See Ephesians 5:26,27; Mark 16:15-20).
“Lament Like a Virgin Girded With Sackcloth” Joel 1:8
As we now search our hearts for the removal of every sin in us hindering revival, we do well to fast as we turn to Him and confess our failures and faults and seek to make restitution. The radical and righteous kind of praying we must do now calls for rock-bottom repentance and deep, true sorrow for our sins of omission and commission.
Some mercies and blessings are never obtained from the Lord except “by prayer and fasting.” Revival is one of these things. Something is wrong with us when revival does not come and the way to find out what displeases Immanuel so that His power and presence is not manifest among us is–like Joshua and his elders–to go down on our faces before Him and stay there from morning until evening till by fasting-prayer, He reveals why the forces of evil are triumphant and we–His people–are defeated and powerless.
Genuine repentance often involves fasting and prayer. Let us not be guilty of confessing our sins and not repenting and forsaking them. Can it be our pretended turning to God is insincere with no real sorrow for sin, no effort at restitution, and no real change of heart? The ghastly wickedness of sin is hidden from us light-hearted moderns. The Lord is calling upon us in these critical days to take time apart to search our hearts and find out what it is in you–in me–that is holding back revival. If we spend enough time now in fasting-prayer and heart searching–the fallow ground of our hearts will be broken up and the Lord will come and rain righteousness upon us (Hosea 10:12).
“Rend Your Heart” Joel 2:13
Fasting and prayer leads to victory over sin. Everywhere you go you find Christians who are constantly falling under the temptation of Satan. They cannot love one another. They cannot forgive one another. They have no love for souls, no zeal for the Lord. Is there victory for such defeated Christians? Blessed be God, there is! Christian Victory is gloriously found in times of fasting and prayer and waiting on God–laying aside every duty, every pleasure, and wholeheartedly seeking the Lord in repentant fasting-prayer till the full assurance of victory over sin and self is given.
“He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). It requires faith to pray. It requires more faith to fast and pray. To seek the Lord in fasting-prayer shows greater desire, greater determination and greater faith. Our prayers for revival without fasting are too often shallow and insincere. Fasting is potent proof to God that we are willing to pay the price in sincerity, in fervor, in single-heartedness in our prayers for His rulings and overrulings, in the affairs of this and every nation.
The all-important things for us to do now is to turn our hearts unreservedly to the business of obtaining from the Lord, without delay, the promised worldwide outpouring of the Spirit. If great deliverance came to God’s people in Esther’s day, by three days and three nights of fasting without food or water, will not deliverance come to us in the same way? With God is no respect of persons or places.
Our weapons are not carnal but mighty through God to the tearing down of strongholds. Prayer is our super-weapon. Nothing can long withstand the sustained, united impact of fasting-prayer. Whole-souled, surrendered, fervent, determined, fasting-prayer will open the way swiftly for God to rule and overrule in the power of a glorious Heaven-sent, Spirit-given, worldwide awakening. Nothing but this holy violence will serve to repulse Satan’s violence in the earth today.
God glories in revelations of Himself as He who keepeth mercy and covenant with His obedient people. If we in this predicted Age of Laodicean blindness will anoint our eyes with eyesalve so that in Joel we can see God’s commands and promises for this hour, when the Day of the Lord is at hand, and if we will ask of Him the full enabling of grace to fulfill our part of the Covenant of Rain in the time of the Latter Rain, and thus seek Him in a way that is acceptable to Him in fasting, in prayer, in weeping, in mourning, in confessing, repenting, forsaking our sins of omission and commission–this, Joel declares, will open Heaven’s floodgates and the torrential spiritual floods promised in the Former and Latter Rain to end this Age–will inundate the whole earth, while Christ takes out a people for His Name–all glorious within and without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. See Zechariah 10:1; Hosea 6:3; Hosea 10:12.