The name David Greenow may not be a household name among Christians in the UK, but in Northern Ireland he's widely regarded as a gentle giant of the faith. Universally respected as one who not only faithfully preached the gospel, but who genuinely lived it out, David was a mighty man of God, or, as he would put it, "just a man with a mighty God".
Deeply formative years
Born in Wales in 1927, David suffered the tragic loss of his mother’s death when he was just a month old, a loss that he felt keenly throughout his life. Converted to Christ at the age of 15, he received a baptism of the Holy Spirit the following year. Deeply impactful as this was, he never saw it as a once-for-all experience; rather all his life he continually sought infilling of the Spirit.
Attending the Apostolic Bible School in Penygroes in the early 1950s, David and fellow students received a notable "visitation of the Spirit" lasting for weeks and temporarily suspending classes. While this seems to have been a genuine - and truly exciting - touch of revival, I felt it would have been instructive had the author explored the (controversial) Canadian roots of this movement.
He was regularly known to pray for hours on end in his "spiritual language", and to fast for a week or ten days at a time.
A powerful ministry unfolds
The depth of David's spirituality is revealed on his transfer to Northern Ireland to serve as an evangelist with the Apostolic Church. He was regularly known to pray for hours on end in his "spiritual language", and to fast for a week or ten days at a time.
The Welshman appears to have been repeatedly blessed by moves of God's Spirit during his life. Remarkably fruitful evangelistic crusades in Belfast in 1954 and in Portadown the following year were graced with flourishes of revival, with many healings and several thousand hopeful conversions recorded. This was part of the ‘Healing revival’ that sprang up in America in the late 1940s (with names such as Oral Roberts, Gordon Lindsay and Jack Coe); as such, a consideration of the more dubious aspects of this movement would once again have been helpful.
A quieter, more localised (and perhaps more authentic) mini-revival sprang up spontaneously in the small village of Saintfield, Co. Down under David's house-ministry shortly after.
Keeping close to God
Some of the most beautiful elements of the biography are the regular testimonies of lives being transformed through direct prophetic words' spontaneously offered by David to various individuals he encountered in his day-to-day ministry. The accuracy of these words, proved through experience, is deeply impressive, and reveals what all who knew him knew - that this was a truly humble man who kept in close union with God.
Some of the most beautiful elements of this biography are the regular testimonies of lives being transformed through direct prophetic words' spontaneously offered by David to various individuals he encountered in his day-to-day ministry
This highlights a truth I’ve observed repeatedly over the years; that the people with the most genuine and accurate prophetic gifting are generally not the ‘big’, well-advertised leaders of the so-called worldwide ‘Prophetic Movement’, but rather, the ‘little’ people with no national ministry, whose reputation spreads principally by word-of-mouth, and who unobtrusively share ‘words’ of prophecy as and when the Spirit leads them.
A later chapter of the book explores yet another revival episode - the evangelist's connection with the Glory People of Newark, Nottinghamshire during the '50s and '60s. Following this, his work with the International Gospel Outreach is outlined.
A bonus section looks at some of David's main teachings over the years, with such topics as prayer, faith, healing, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and revival.
This study is a beautiful life-story, and a very rewarding read. If you didn't know David Greenow before, after reading this moving tribute, you certainly come away feeling like you do now.