Who Was David Du Plessis?

     Mostly forgotten today, David Du Plessis was a man mightily used of God to bring to pass the Charismatic Renewal.  He was Born in 1905 in South Africa, saved in 1916 and filled with the Spirit in 1918.  Brother David was ordained in 1928 thorugh the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa.  Then when he came to America in the late 1940's, he transferred his ordination to the Assemblies of God.

     Early in his Christian walk, Brother Du Plessis, like many early Pentecostals, suffered a great deal of persecution and criticism from the liberal denominations and the Catholic Church.  He had no intentions of ever ministering anywhere but in the Pentecostal churches he loved.  But God had a different plan for him.

     In 1936, Smith Wigglesworth prophesied to David that God would use him to usher in a mighty move of God's Spirit that would take place in the old-line "liberal" denominations.  David made no attempt to cause this to happen.  But in the late 1950's, God began opening doors for him among  liberal churches and in the Catholic church.

     David took the message of the baptism in the Holy Spirit into these circles and found many hungry hearts among the Priests, Bishops, and Cardinals.  David willingly laid aside his prejudices against the liberal denominations and the Catholic Church as he discovered that his feelings were wrong.  He learned many precious lessons along the way as God used him to bring the Baptism in the Holy Spirit into tradition-bound Christian groups.  

     Brother David was mightily persecuted, criticized, and misunderstood for crossing the denominational line and reaching out to Christians in the old denominations.  His ordination was revoked by the Assemblies of God, and he was denounced from many pulpits.  But as is true with any genuine servant of God who is obeying the Lord's will, God saw him through the persecution and rejection, and vindicated him at the end.  The Assemblies of God later reinstated his papers as they understood better what God was doing through him.  And the Catholic Church and the liberal denominations so loved and appreciated him for bringing to them the knowledge of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, that by the time of his Homegoing in 1987, they had come to call him by the affectionate title of "Mr. Pentecost." 

     I urge all ministers to listen closely to Brother David's recordings on this site.  They are full of wisdom about how to minister in the power of the Spirit, how to reach people, and how to stay true to God so that you finish your ministry in glory and not in shame.