Pastor Robby Gallaty of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Tennessee posted Sunday on his Facebook page a testimony of how God worked in spite of a full-blown power outage that took place during their 11:15 AM service this past Sunday.
“We just encountered something I haven’t experienced before at Long Hollow or at any church for that matter,” Gallaty explained. He said the event happened while he was preaching on 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, where Paul tells the Corinthian church: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We now with unveiled faces are looking at the glory of God are being transformed.”
Gallaty said halfway through his sermon, all the power went out. “The back-up lights continued to work for 15 minutes. Unbeknownst to us, the transformer caught on fire, and blew out at the substation right when I was ending my sermon. We heard a loud bang, and then, boom! We were sitting in pitch-black darkness.”
Having never been faced with this type of scenario before, the pastor said most people took out their cell phones and turned on their flashlights, lighting the room. Gallaty considered ending the service, thinking, The power is out, my TV is out, my mic is out, the worship team can’t play their instruments, so I’ll just close the service in prayer.
‘The Enemy Will Not Get the Victory’
As the pastor prepared to say, “Let me pray as we close the service,” Gallaty said something stopped him. Instead, he said, “We are not going to let the enemy get the victory today.” Gallaty said he listened to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and changed course. “What happened next was unreal,” he said.
Because the there was no electricity, the only power was the sound of his voice, so he began yelling so everyone in the auditorium could hear him. Gallaty invited anyone in the congregation to come forward who needed to be set free from addiction, resentment, bitterness, shame, guilt, porn, drugs, pride, or any other sin that might have a foothold in his or her life.
“There was a palpable presence of God,” Gallaty said, as he knelt to pray. The pastor began to uncontrollably weep as many in the audience also came forward to the altar and began to weep.
The powerful service ended without a trace of electricity and only an acoustic guitar and the voices of God’s people filing the room singing “Death Was Arrested.” “It felt like a Book of Acts service,” said Gallaty. “No lights, no frills, no electric instruments, no show; just the people of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Gallaty told ChurchLeaders.com, “I don’t think it’s any accident that while I was preaching the final sermon of the Holy Spirit series, during the final service, on the second to last line of the message, the Spirit manifested His presence. He definitely left a lasting impression on all of our minds.”
A Prophetic Journal Entry
Gallaty shared later that Sunday that his wife Kandi had written a journal entry the day before the power went out about 1 Kings 8:10-11, when God’s glory fell on his people and disrupted the service. Kandi wrote, ”Can you image not being able to minister or do anything because of The Lord’s glory?! You can’t move or sing or form words because all you can do is just be in his presence. Nothing you do would scratch the surface of being sufficient.”
In her journal entry, Kandi had asked, “Lord, may we experience that in our Sunday morning services! All we can do is be still and sit in the awe of your glorious presence. Holy Spirit come!!!”
On Saturday, Kandi sent an image of her journal entry to her husband, saying, “I’m praying that happens at Long Hollow.” Less than 24 hours later, God answered her prayer.
Long Hollow Baptist Church’s Baptisms
Since December of 2020, Long Hollow Baptist Church has seen over 1,200 baptisms, some of those were from people who don’t even live in Tennessee that felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to drive to the church and obey what the Lord was telling them to do. The revival started after Gallaty says he started to deal with personal sins of pride, arrogance, and jealousy after hearing God tell him, “The problem is not with your church, it’s not with your staff; the problem is you.”
“I’m convinced prayer births revival and revival births prayer.”
After 10 months of dedicated prayer on his front porch, Gallaty says God revealed to him that he was to begin leading spontaneous baptisms. Although he was hesitant at first, he says his obedience to God’s instruction has allowed him to witness 1,235 baptisms to date.
Join Gallaty in Prayer at the SBC’s Annual Meeting
Gallaty will kick off an hour of prayer at the NAMB’s Send Conference on June 13, 2021, prior to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting at IMB’s SEND Conference. The ‘Prayer for Spiritual Awakening‘ event will take place at the Music City Center (Davidson Ballrooms, A&B on the 1st Floor Mezzanine) at 5:30 PM and will last an hour. No preregistration is required.
Read more of Gallaty’s story here.