Back in April, the last time I wrote in this space, I ended with the somewhat grandiose statement that “God is up to something wonderful.” The proof that drew me to that conclusion were a couple of examples of the profound changes that had taken place in the lives of friends of mine.

I said it had to be a movement of God, because these were lives that had up until then gone along fairly routinely for years.

Far be it from me to claim any kind of prophetic gift, but the intervening months have brought fresh evidence that I was not alone in sensing something unique was taking place.

The first was an e-mail invitation to churches to join in prayer for Vancouver. “God is working, lives are being changed, the spiritual atmosphere of the city is brightening,” it said. “For many years people have asked God for revival and spiritual awakening for the city of Vancouver, and they are sensing that God is in the process of answering that prayer.”

Of course it is not just here that the Spirit is moving. There is change taking place around the world. In an interview, British missiologist and author Martin Robinson explained how the rapid advance of Christianity in the developing world in the last 50 years will over time revitalize the church in Europe and North America.

“The thing about movements—because, really, what we’re trying to do is recreate Christianity as a people movement—is that in the early days, the numbers [of people] are quite insignificant. But as numbers begin to multiply rather than just add, relatively small numbers can become significant almost overnight,” he says.

“So you might have five, 10, 15, 20 years where the numbers are insignificant, but then eventually you reach that tipping point where suddenly the five per cent, the 10 per cent, the 15 per cent become incredibly significant, and shift the whole culture.

“Now we’re a long way from a tipping point—a very long way—but I think at least we’ve begun.”

Even Hollywood and the media are ripe for change, according to Trinity Television president Willard Thiessen. “I think when things are bad and getting worse, something starts happening, where there’s a desire for the good to become better,” he told me.

“I really believe there’s going to be more open doors for righteousness to be expressed in the media. I’m not saying the gospel—I’m just saying that which is righteous, good [and] wholesome is going to find opportunity for expression.”

But perhaps one of the most intriguing signs of God moving among His people was also almost unnoticed. A Salvation Army publication, The War Cry, reported in March that what had started out in February 2004 as a week of round-the-clock prayer in their Vancouver prayer room was still ongoing…and with no end in sight.

And until God directs them otherwise, they have no intention to stop. On the contrary, the War Cry reported, “we are launching a new prayer room in another area of the city in order to see more Christians in Vancouver access the beauty of prayer.”

Historically, that is how revival begins. Farewell indeed to the old settled order.