During the first eight months after the Temple was opened, between 8,000 and 10,000 souls kneeled at the altar, seeking the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Hundreds have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and other scores have been healed of their diseases in answer to believing prayer. Cancers have melted like snow before the sun. Tumors and tubercular bones have been healed, and signs and wonders wrought in the name of Jesus.
For months, the revival has gone, sweeping on and on, day after day, without sign of cessation. The Temple seats still continue to be filled with people, but also with the glory of the Lord.
Sunrise prayer meetings. Just as each new day is breaking, a little stream of earnest pilgrims can be seen making their way toward Echo Park and entering the Temple doors. These are they who are sincerely and devotedly in earnest, waiting upon the Lord for the mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire.
They have not met to visit with one another, nor to engage in idle conversation—they have not even met to sing or testify or hear the ministers who bring sermons from the Word each day. They have come together to pray and to “tarry until” they are endued with power from on high.
They mount the steps that lead to the upper room, which accommodates just 120. Here they fall upon their knees. Sometimes, the prayer meeting continues until noon-sometimes through almost the entire day.
The Watch Tower. A few weeks after the Temple was formally dedicated, another room was built on the top floor. This room was named “The Watch Tower” and solemnly dedicated to continuous prayer. Since February 1923, intercession has been made therein, without ceasing night or day.
There are 320 people on the weekly Watch Tower schedule. They pray in two-hours shifts. Telegrams, letters and cables have come from almost all parts of the globe asking for prayer. Many times we who dwell close to the Temple have been awakened in the small hours of the morning by the fervent voices of those interceding for the lost. To state a truth: Prayer moves the Hand that moves the world.
Water baptismal services. Each Thursday evening since the opening of the Temple, a most impressive water baptismal service has been held and largely attended. In many instances, whole families have been baptized together; in scores of instances, husbands and wives have been baptized side by side.
Week after week, these services have continued without abatement as new converts have given their hearts to the Master. During the first eight months, more than 2,000 were immersed.
Angelus Temple Training Institute. An Evangelistic and Missionary Training Institute, wherein students are preparing for the missionary field abroad and for the evangelistic field at home, has also been growing in power and numbers since February 1923. Multitudes come flowing in over the threshold to hear the story of Jesus and His love, catch up a lighted torch and go streaming out again to all quarters of the land, taking with them the message of “The Foursquare Gospel: Jesus, Only Savior, Baptizer and Healer, Jesus the Coming King.”
Adapted from This Is That by Aimee Semple McPherson, copyright 1923. Published by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Read part one: The Angelus Temple Story: Building the Temple
Read part two:Â The Angelus Temple Story: Dedicating the Temple
