For the past few years, CBN News has been reporting about revivals taking place at college campuses, but now one at a local Texas church is getting attention. The spiritual outpouring at Waco’s Mercy Culture Church comes after years of prayer.
Pastor Nikki Cody told us how four years ago they started holding services in a tent, something that forced them to depend on God while cultivating a deep hunger for his presence.
“What He literally did was put us on our face, on the ground, crying out for our city, like nothing between us and the ground, nothing between us and the earth. Our tears penetrated the concrete to where, when we got up from prayer, we were literally pulling rocks off of our forehead because we would cry out for hours on the ground,” Pastor Nikki explained.
Now in a state-of-the-art building, the women leaders of Mercy Culture Church recently took part in their annual 40-day fast. This year’s focus was on freedom in the nation. It is a movement that was launched by Mercy Culture Senior Pastor Heather Schott, who, along with her husband, Senior Lead Pastor Landon Schott, leads 10 campuses across the country, including an online campus that reaches nations around the world.
“She invited a group of women into this 40-day fast, which turned into now every campus,” said Pastor Nikki. “Every campus has their own group that leads this 40-day fast. Every year, we feel like the Lord is asking us to cry out for revival in our nation.”
As part of its motto of taking people from corporate encounters with God to daily personal encounters, the Fort Worth-based ministry hosts what Mercy Culture calls “Marked Night,” a time for women from various churches to unite in worship, prayer, and spiritual renewal.
Pastor Nikki said, “We’re seeing miracle signs and wonders at our Marked Nights. We are prophesying over the city and establishing God’s reign.”
Many who attend report stories of supernatural intervention and deliverance.
“Throughout my life I struggled with depression and mental health issues,” said an attendee named Emma. “And at points I’ve had very intrusive thoughts of wanting to harm myself in very permanent ways, but the Lord completely renewed my mind, and He healed me in a way to where I’m so thankful for my life.”
Another named Vah experienced physical healing.
“I came in today limping,” she said. “My right knee was really, really hurting. It was really hard to walk and physically extend it and bend it. But today, a beautiful lady named Anna prayed for me, she laid hands on my knee, and she prayed over it the first time. It got better, but it wasn’t fully healed, and then she prayed over it again. And she said, ‘God is not a God of 20 percent.’ We prayed over it again, and I was able to bend it, and then they made me jump, so now I can jump on it. So, God has healed me.”
Seeing women set free like this has been especially rewarding for Lauren Caldwell, whose family relocated from Ohio to Texas.
“It’ s beautiful because that’s what the Holy Spirit does,” Caldwell explained. “It’s not to make you shake and roll around on the floor. That’s wonderful, and God encounters us there. But it’s really for Him to say, ‘There’s something in you that doesn’t belong. Can I come in and push it out the way so more of Holy Spirit can come inside?’ So, it’s been marking for me to see that and to experience it personally. It’s just been transformative.”
The encounters are also reaching families across the city.
“I can tell you I wouldn’t be married if it hadn’t been for revival,” said Lucy-Beth Harris. “Our marriage was lukewarm, which was about how our Christianity was as well. And when we came to Mercy Culture, we both encountered the Holy Spirit like we never encountered before.”
Pastor Chantella Esquivel testifies that her son Josiah has seen angels in their home, a sign that God is moving in the younger generation at the church.
“He came to my bed last night at one in the morning, and he said, ‘Last night, there was angels surrounding my bed,'” Esquivel explained. “And he said, ‘They were anointing me with the oil.’ And so, I can’t help but get so weepy about it because I didn’t grow up in church, and it was something I cried out for, and the Lord is doing it now.”
Meanwhile, Pastor Nikki points out that Waco was once known for its so-called healing springs.
“People would come from all over the nation and get in this water,” she said. “And they claimed the healing properties of it. Since then, of course, the wells have dried up.”
Now, with the spiritual renewal happening in Waco and around the nation, she sees that as a sign that God is reopening wells of His presence to anyone open to receive.
“The healing wells of revival will come back here. That’s what we’re praying for. That’s what we’re crying out for. If we can get into His presence and we can hear Him and we can encounter the Lord, there is nothing that He cannot do in this earth – nothing,” said Pastor Nikki.
