If you met Heidi Baker, you might think at first that she was an average, blonde-haired, blue-eyed California girl from an upper-middle-class family. But you would be wrong. When healing evangelist Randy Clark prayed over Heidi 24 years ago, she had a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit—and she hasn’t been the same since. God is now using her and her husband, Rolland, in mighty ways. She has brought the gospel of Jesus to around 110 countries and is serving the least of these in Mozambique through her evangelism ministry, Iris Global.
I had the privilege of attending Iris’ Live to Love conference in Orlando, Florida, last week and interviewing several of its speakers. I was impressed with the spiritual power in the messages, but I was even more impressed with how many young people attended. In my experience, most people who attend conferences like this one are 40 or older. But at the Live to Love conference, I saw scores of young people hungry for God, eager to worship and passionate for the Spirit’s presence. In a time when perhaps the majority of Millennials are cold toward the Lord, it was encouraging to see Heidi impacting this generation for God’s glory.
While at the conference last week, I had the opportunity to interview Heidi about what she saw God doing in the world. Above all, she says, she sees God opening His people’s eyes to the cry of the needy and the oppressed around them. Secondly, she sees God helping people understand their identity in Jesus, making them unafraid to do whatever He calls them to do.
As a result, Heidi sees revival everywhere she goes, especially among the young people. For example, she was recently in California, where she saw an unusual revival take place. The ministry she was with began worshipping God on surfboards in the ocean. As they worshipped, the presence of God was so strong that young people began swimming out and joining them in worship.
“I get to see revival happening everywhere!” Heidi says. “I’m telling you, this is the greatest time to be alive!”
And it’s not just in developing nations that Heidi sees revival spreading. She says it’s in every nation she visits, among every socioeconomic class. More than anything, she says, people are hungry for what’s real. They’re tired of imitation Christianity, of emotional hype and money-hungry evangelists. They want the power of the Holy Spirit.
The problem, though, is that many churches and ministries don’t give God the time He needs to fan this hunger for revival into flame.
“We need to give God time,” Heidi says. “Some places I go, there’s hunger, but somehow people don’t want to give anyone time to worship, for example. If you don’t have intimacy, then you don’t really understand the plot. But if you’re intimate with Jesus, and you’re really, really close to Him, then you can’t forget the plot.”
I encourage you to listen to my interview with Heidi below. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to my podcast, “The Strang Report,” to hear more interviews with people who will inspire you to go deeper in the Spirit. With my podcast, I’m trying a new format, so feel free to listen to my latest episode and email me at [email protected] with your feedback.
For the past 43 years, it has been a blessing to serve the charismatic community and report on what the Holy Spirit is doing around the world. If you feel led to support our Spirit-filled journalism, visit charismamediapartners.com and partner with us as we follow the Holy Spirit.
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