Sid: As you know, because I’ve said this on the air, I went down to the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival in Mobile Alabama and I was sooo pleasantly surprised; and I got to meet Pastor Kilpatrick who also was the one that God used for the Brownsville Revival and I got to meet the Evangelist Nathan Morris and I interviewed both of them. And there was one person I didn’t meet, and this person walks in humility so she wouldn’t say it, but I’ll say it, without worship I don’t know that they would be having the revival that there having. She’s the worship leader, Lydia Stanley and Lydia said she didn’t have a chance to meet me when I was down there and Lydia why did you tell me you didn’t meet me?
Lydia: Well, at that time you were very very busy, shaking on the floor under the power of God.
Sid: Ha-ha-ha.
Lydia: I did not get to meet you when you came.
Sid: Well, Lydia I am fascinated by what God did to cause you to be the Worship Leader of this great move of God’s Spirit, called the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival. And let me take you back to before you were even born. Your parents could not conceive and so they were at a meeting and in fact I believe they were leading worship and a prophet from Ghana prophesied over them and tell me what they told you.
Lydia: Absolutely, Mom and Dad had been leading worship that night and at that point I think they had been trying to have a baby for about two years and of course with no success and so in the course of that meeting my Mom just kind of sat down on the piano bench next to my Dad and the Prophet came over to her and said, “A this time next year there will be a red rose seated at your feet.” And Mom just knew in her heart that meant that she would have a baby girl. And so it was only by that time next year of course there I was.
Sid: Just out of curiosity, was there a little bit more to that that I don’t know, did he have any vision, did he see a red rose?
Lydia: Yes Sir, he actually saw, he could see the red rose, he was having a vision of the red rose you know seated at Mom’s feet and so he said yeah, “By this time next year you’ll hold a red rose.” And so by that time next year of course I was born; but even while I was in the mother’s womb Mom and Dad would play the piano and sing to me; they’re amazing worship leaders in their own right. And they would sing over me and teach me music even in the womb; and so that’s just kind of been that’s my heritage; worship is my heritage.
Sid: And although your whole family are worshippers they began to bless you as you’re just a little child and tell you about your destiny and your purpose. Do you remember some of the things that they said to you?
Lydia: Do you know even from the first time I ever felt God’s presence I was just, I was just probably two years old, and my Grandmother was…
Sid: You know when I was two years old I wasn’t even sure there was a God and your feeling God’s presence at two years old!
Lydia: I’m telling you, well I don’t know how it happened, but you know I can remember it just as clear as anything. I remember my Grandmother holding me in a rocking chair and she was probably trying to get me to take a nap because I was one of those full time kids; I mean you see me leading worship, I’m fully involved and I was fully involved from the time I was born. So she was holding me and she was singing over me about the Lord passing this way. It was a song you know calling for the Lord to pass this way. And as she sang I remember feeling something, and of course I was too young to know what it was and I was like, I must have, my eyes must have shown you know that I was sensing something; and she looked at me and said, “Baby that is the presence of the Lord; that’s what you’re feeling right now,” and I went, “Wow.” That’s my first memory of that, but all along when I was a little girl they would tell me. They never called me to be a worship leader; you know they never told me this is something you have to do. But from the earliest that I can remember they would look at me and say, “The Lord’s destined you for ministry, you’re not like other kids, you’re not better than other kids, but you’re different because God has called you to the ministry, you know that you’re called; there’s a call on your life and the hand of God is on you.” And from the time I was a little girl they told me that, they told me and my brothers that.
Sid: Now, when you were much older, twelve years old your parents take you to the great Brownsville revival in Pensacola, Florida. You had never sat through a service that long; tell me about that first service.
Lydia: Well, it was about four or five hours long, I mean we were astonished because of Brownsville, we had gotten a bit religious and you know four hour service is my goodness we couldn’t even image it.
Sid: I mean that’s going against the trend, seeker services in an out in one hour or the pastor will lose his job, but go ahead.
Lydia: Absolutely, I mean we were the Lord use to move at our church but never for four hours, my goodness we were just astonished! But I’ll never forget, I mean you could, it felt as though the air was thick, just thick like you could just cut it with a knife, that’s how tangible the presence of the Lord was and you know we had felt the presence of the Lord, but never like that. And I remember, you know my brother and I were you know young, I was twelve and he was seven and we were ready to go home and Steve Hill the Evangelist said, “First timers lets pray for the first time visitors.” And Dad was going to go down by himself, but he looked, he turned around and looked at Mom and he said, “No, we came as a family and we are going to get prayer as a family.” And I’m so glad that he did that, because I mean it changed our lives. We went down front and actually Steve was explaining to everyone that, “Don’t let anyone pray for you unless they have a purple badge that indicates they are with the prayer team,” and he was working in the opposite direction from where we were standing. But suddenly and without any kind of warning, he spun around pointed at my Dad and said, “Sir, the anointing is raining all over you and your family.” And Dad just said, “Well okay,” you know, “Thank you.” ha-ha-ha and so Steve turned around to finish his instructions for prayer and he tried to finish it but he couldn’t. And he turned around and said, “No, I said it’s raining all over you and your family, and again he raced off the platform as only Steve Hill could do and the first person that he touch in family was me and he took my face in his hands, and he said Sis, “The anointing is all over you and it is going to carry you through.” And of course I was hit by the power of God and I was on the floor for quite some time, I couldn’t…
Sid: Now was this different than anything that you have ever experience before?
Lydia: I had never experienced anything like that before, I mean I could not get up it was a heavy weighty presence of the Lord. I looked up and I said “Mom, I can’t move.”
Sid: Well, you know the Hebrew word is Kavod, which mean a heavy weight, a weightiness and when the Kavod in an Orthodox Judaism they don’t realize it when the Kavod comes on Orthodox Jews they start bending over because they can’t can’t stand straight. Ha-ha-ha.
Lydia: You can’t when that heavy presence comes, you can’t stand no you can’t do it.
Sid: Now, your brother Philip, he had an encounter there, what did he see and how old was he?
Lydia: My brother was seven, Philip is an awesome guy. I mean he was always a very matter of fact kid, not demonstrative or making up stories, just not that kind of person; and even from a little boy he was just always pretty straight forward you know. And so my Dad and I had both been hit by the power of God and we were actually on the floor. My Mother was still standing and she was just crying and praying and my brother was standing there with her, he started pulling on her sleeve and he said, “Mom, Momma.” And she said you know “Baby Moms praying,” and you know and tried to kind a shush him, because she thought that he was going to say something not significant and so, he kept on and he said, “Mom I see golden rain falling all around us, and Jesus is over there and He’s smiling at us,” and he put his hand in his pocket and he said, “What is going on here?”
Sid: Ha-ha, how old was he?
Lydia: He was only seven years old, he…
Sid: Oh my goodness!
Lydia: He had never said anything like that before and he’s never said anything like that since, but that’s what happened to him that night and it just struck her like, oh my goodness my son has seen the Lord in church; and it was amazing and that was our introduction to revival.
Sid: And you use to travel every month to go to a meeting there and it was about what coming from Augusta, Georgia about five hundred miles each way?
Lydia: Yes Sir, one way it was five hundred miles.
Sid: You know your family must have been hungry for God!
Lydia: And when you’re hungry for God you will do anything.
Sid: Well, you know we’re talking to people and we’re provoking them to jealousy Lydia and it’s, they all would like to go to the Revival, Mobile Alabama, they all would have liked to have gone to the revival in Pensacola, Florida and the Brownsville Revival. And even better than go to it they all would like to have been there every night and soak in that glory, and they’d all turn out like you. But you know what I listened to your CD which was recorded live with that anointing, the best of the best songs that you’ve had the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival and then four DVDs and we were so pleasantly surprised with the four DVDs called “Revival Rewind,” because it’s the best of the best; it shows the whole history, it shows miracles taken place. But I have to tell you I was just playing the DVD in my office and several of my staff came in and they could feel the tangible presence of God…