How a Demonic Outbreak Spurred Revival in This Church

What happens when the leaders of a conservative, Word-only Bible Fellowship begin to pray for revival? Pastor Dennis Gibson would have never guessed that the answer to these prayers included an invasion of public demonic manifestations to his suburban church. Supernatural manifestations were completely foreign to his church—much influenced by the teachings of cessationist John MacArthur.

Gibson recently shared this powerful story on Jesus Movement Now with Adam Narciso on the Charisma Podcast Network.

“It was Super Bowl Sunday, 2000. At the end of the third service, I was getting ready to head out of the church. [Pastor] Brian Brennt called me, ‘Dennis, come help!’ So I drop my stuff and head down to the platform. A bunch of guys gather around; we get this guy on the ground—we didn’t know what to do. We got eight guys holding him down. I get on his chest and start commanding these demons to come out of him.”

It was “pretty messy,” Gibson said. “This guy is spitting and swearing … He could do curl ups with a 250-pound guy on his arm—we’d never seen this stuff before.”

When asked why he didn’t run, Gibson laughs:

“Either you’re going to run or you’re going to fight. I always like the fight. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no clue. I didn’t understand my authority [in Christ].”

About 150 parishioners looked on as Gibson and Brennt took turns trying to get the demons out of this young man—a scene that continued until the evening service, sadly without breakthrough.

Little did Gibson know, the evening service would prove to be just as eventful as another person violently manifested evil spirits.

This was only the beginning.

Gibson’s church was invaded by a move of God that caused demons to manifest week after week in a concentrated form for the next two years. This pressurized season not only brought revival to this church, it also launched Gibson into a deliverance ministry that has set hundreds free.

“Dennis Gibson is the most experienced and grounded deliverance minister I know in all the world,” Narciso says.

Tune into Jesus Movement Now with the Charisma Podcast Network to hear Adam speak with Dennis Gibson about the God-story behind this demonic outbreak and gain some critical tips and insight for deliverance ministry. {eoa}