Will Graham will be presenting a message of hope from the Gospel of Jesus at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Queensland on Saturday night, 29 June. Will is following in the footsteps of his father, Franklin, and his grandfather, Billy Graham, who in 1959 led a national revival when he first preached the Gospel in Australia, with around 3 million people attending events.
Will joined Neil Johnson on 20Twenty to share some stories about Billy Graham and talk about what’s lined up for the Look Up Celebration.
Up until 2006, Will Graham was enjoying his role as a pastor in a little church in North Carolina before God called him to be an evangelist. He has since shared the hope of Jesus with more than a million people across the globe through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Carrying on the Legacy of Billy Graham
While many expected Franklin and Will to carry on the legacy of Billy Graham’s ministry, Will doesn’t put that expectation on his son. Billy Graham’s ministry continues to this day by the grace of God. When Billy started the ministry, he didn’t expect it to last more than a few years, so he had no expectation that his son, let alone his grandson, would carry it on.
‘They thought it was only going to last for a few years, so they thought they would strike while the iron was hot. That’s why you saw him do all these crusades so quickly, especially in the 1940s and the 1950s,’ said Will. ‘My dad was born in 1952, so even some of my granddad’s first crusades—his big ones—my dad hadn’t been born yet, so I’m not sure if he was saying, this is something that my son’s going to do because he didn’t think he was going to be able to finish it in his own lifetime. … He knew that the work of evangelism would continue. He probably never imagined that it’d be his son and his grandson that would continue it. We’ve just been very blessed by the Lord to be able to do this.’
‘My father never put pressure on me. My grandfather never put pressure on my father because this has to be a calling of God. You can inherit a family business. You can inherit a company. … But when it comes to ministries, that’s something you do not inherit. Those are given by God. They’re not ours to inherit. They’re of God and for God to give to people whom He chooses. He gave it to my granddaddy, and now He’s chosen to give it to my father. Will He give it to me one day? I don’t know. The Lord has to give it. It’s not my dad’s to give away,’ said Will.
Influencing Those in Power
As we watch the moral deterioration of our society who are doing everything in their power to push God out of the picture, we need to remember that God is able to bend even the most resistant and evil leaders to His will. God is always ultimately in control. Will shares one example of how God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar, the most power and evil leader of Babylon, the most powerful empire.
‘God influences one individual at a time. Sometimes it will be a king, a queen or a president that will hear it and give their life to Christ. There are going to be many of those leaders who are going to reject it because they feel like they’re the ultimate in power and the ultimate in authority, and they don’t want to bow their knee to anybody else,’ said Will. ‘But when you read the Bible, there’s one king that stands out above them all. He was referred to as the head of gold. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. …He thought a lot of himself, and God humbled him.’
‘It was a few years later, he looked up to heaven, the Bible says, and he acknowledged God for who He was, and God restored his kingdom and his sanity to him, and he was a blessing to the people of God,’ said Will. ‘I believe I’m going to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. When you look at his last message, it’s one of the greatest proclamations of the Gospel of what God can do for you.’
King Nebuchadnezzar conversion came about because of Daniel’s influence. Imagine the horror of being taken captive, taken away from your homeland to a pagan country where you were told to worship a golden statue, eat food you thought was unclean and survive in this hostile environment without compromising your loyalty to God and His laws. This was Daniel’s reality. But God’s plan was to use Daniel, who found favour with Nebuchadnezzar and became his right-hand man, to bring the powerful king to his knees and ultimately bring him and the people of his nation to God. Our God is amazing!
Billy Graham’s Influence on Presidents
‘My grandfather only asked to meet with one president ever in his life, and that was Harry Truman, at the very end of World War II. Our president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, known as FDR, would die while in office. He was the longest serving president in the history of the country. World War II would start under him, but he would die toward the end. Harry Truman came in, and he’s the one that would drop the atomic bomb. That’s what he was known for,’ said Will. ‘Harry Truman was the first one my grandfather asked to meet with, and it was a total disaster. It went bad. The media tricked him into giving up some information. He was ignorant on protocol about what you talk to the press about regarding what you said to the president or what the president said to you. You’re supposed to be quiet on that stuff, and he went out and talked to everybody about it, and Truman was ticked. So, it took years for my granddad to repair that. After that, my grandfather never asked to meet with another president. He just said, “God, that’s up to You.” Then God allowed him to meet another 12 presidents. So, my grandfather has known more US presidents and anybody else in the history of the world and had an impact on their life for the Gospel because he represented the true King, the one King—Jesus Christ. And because of that, God opened up doors for him to be an ambassador to other people around the world.’
Integrity Upheld Through the Modesto Manifesto
The reason people trusted Billy Graham’s ministry was because Billy and his ministry team, Cliff Barrows, Grady Wilson, and George Beverly Shea understood the pitfalls of other evangelists. For this reason, in 1948, they drafted the Modesto Manifesto to ensure they remained strongly rooted in Biblical principles. It was set up to hold each of them accountable with things such as never meeting women in private, honesty about dealing with money, never discouraging or talking negatively about other pastors, and not exaggerating results of their ministry campaigns.
The 1959 Revival in Australia Attracted 3 Million People
The incredible great revival that took place in 1959 in Australia was experienced by between 24 to 26% of the entire population with around 4% of the population coming forward to commit their lives to Jesus. When Billy returned to Australia in 1969 and 1979, there was the same expectation, but it was not to be.
‘They didn’t put the work into it. They weren’t praying about it like they should have. Not that God didn’t work, but their expectation was that Billy Graham had it in a box, he opens it up and revival pops out because of the success of 1959, which was impressive,’ said Will. ‘My grandfather said the last time he saw a great revival take place was 1959 in Australia.’
Will and his team were invited to speak on the Gold Coast by churches from 17 different denominations who want to see their community hear the hope of the message of the Gospel. For the past year, much preparation has been happening in the background to get churches prepared. People have been trained on how to share their faith and to participate at the event as counsellors so that when people come forward, they can help lead them to Christ and help them find a church to strengthen their faith.
‘We’re going to help people if they don’t have a church to go to,’ said Will. ‘We want to see the local church encouraged to grow not just spiritually but numerically too and to see it strengthened. That’s our goal is to work with the local church. This is not about Will Graham. It’s not about the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It’s about the church because the church is still going to be here next week or next month after I go home. … We want to see churches encouraging these people and working with these people to bring them to maturity in Christ.’
While 17 different denominations are involved in the event, each having their variations on how their church operates, Will says that he will be preaching on the core message of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ loves sinners and died for sinners on a cross. All we have to do is receive it as a gift by faith.
‘Are we going to disagree on a few things? Yeah. But those are the minor things. This is the major thing,’ said Will. ‘That’s why this thing is so wonderful. …Look at the unity of churches coming together for one purpose—to see their friends and family and neighbours come to know Christ.’
To get more information about the Look Up Celebration, click this link. It’s a family friendly free event featuring music from award-winning Christian bands, The Afters, Taya and Planetboom.
To hear Will’s full interview with Neil Johnson on 20Twenty, click on the link below:
