Because Dr. Randy Clark is a well-known revivalist who prays for impartation globally, I was quite surprised when I first picked up his book There is More to find a very different account of him. He writes:
“The first time I received an impartation I was so embarrassed that I tried to hide under a screen. I was at the James Robinson Bible Conference in Dallas. As a Baptist, I knew how to recognize when someone was under conviction, but I had never seen the power of God move visibly on people.”
A Baptist pastor, Dr. Clark had decided to risk attending a Spirit-filled Bible conference in Dallas, Texas. Alongside his deacons, he watched as the hem of a woman’s dress began to shake. Then her entire body, and soon those she touched began shaking too.
He later felt prompted to raise his own hands in worship, and shares that “for the first time, the Spirit of God hit me… I felt ready to lose it emotionally, so I ducked behind the projection screen. But the Spirit hit me again, and I slid into a heap at the bottom of the screen, visible to everyone.”
John Wimber, founding leader of the Vineyard Movement, prophesied an apostolic call over Dr. Clark’s life, and the rest is history. Like many impartation testimonies, what confounds me the most about this impartation is how one single moment can change everything… even in a man who expected nothing.
Impartation is biblical—Global Awakening has taught me that much. More than that, impartation is desirable. So many people crowd into our events longing for more of the Holy Spirit, and Dr. Clark believes not only that “there is more”, but that there is a way to prepare your heart for that more.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
What is impartation? This is a question that also confounded me when I first began my time at Global Awakening. It’s not deliverance, healing, prophecy, or the spiritual gifts per se, though those things often accompany impartation. How then to describe the experience of receiving “more” of God, and for what purpose?
Whenever Dr. Clark teaches on impartation, he always emphasizes that it is not reserved for some spiritual elite but is a biblical norm. For example, the Spirit resting on the seventy elders who shared in Moses’ anointing (Numbers 11:17), Elijah’s mantle passing to Elisha (2 Kings 2:9–15), and Paul encouraging Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God” imparted through the laying on of hands (2 Timothy 1:6, NIV).
Specifically, we sometimes define impartation as the transference of anointing from the Holy Spirit for a greater measure of what God is doing through a person’s life. Those who receive often experience a new gift being activated or an increase in spiritual effectiveness.
Impartation may happen through the laying on of hands or waiting in God’s presence. It may be dramatic—shaking, falling over, heavenly visions—or it may be quiet. Yet, at its core, impartation is about receiving more of God.
As Dr. Clark often says, “When I pray for people to receive an impartation, I don’t pray for them to receive mine. I couldn’t do that if I wanted, and they wouldn’t want it if I could. God is the one who chooses, supplies, and delivers the gift.”
WHY IMPARTATION MATTERS
I used to think that impartation was a solitary experience that happened when God came near—a shaking, falling out, or love encounter that warmed you temporarily and faded over time. Yet lately, I’ve wondered if it isn’t God’s way of revealing Himself through His people?
Dr. Clark once said, “The primary purpose of the power of God is to display His compassion, love, and nature.” In fact, God has always desired to reveal Himself. Scripture tells us that even creation declares His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20), and the Holy Spirit reveals His very thoughts to believers (John 14–16).
Impartation is how the Church participates. When Paul preached, it was “not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” so that faith would rest on God’s power, not human wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:4–5). Essentially, miracles, healings, and impartations do not simply prove doctrine but reveal His very nature.
Every time God moves in power, He reveals Himself: His compassion, His mercy, His goodness. When we seek an impartation, we seek a deeper revelation of God. It’s not just something that happens to us but an experience that transforms us.
In fact, impartation almost always comes with lasting fruit. So many of the believers we know today, living radical lives for the gospel, were transformed through impartation: Randy Clark, Heidi and Rolland Baker, SoPhal Ung, Kim Maas, Leif Hetland, and more. Through impartation from God, they were called and equipped to lay down their lives for the gospel.
If impartation is how God displays His glory and empowers us for the gospel, how do we prepare for it?
POSITION YOURSELF
While there’s no formula, at Global Awakening, we have noticed these three patterns consistently position people to receive more of God:
1. RECOGNIZE YOUR NEED
Impartation begins with our humility to recognize that we can’t do Kingdom work in our own strength. “We must come to face our weaknesses,” Dr. Clark writes, “realizing we need God to do any work of the Kingdom.”
We must become aware of our personal inadequacy, spiritual poverty, and deep need for more of God.
2. BECOME HUNGRY
God gives Himself to the hungry. Once we recognize our need, we must ask or allow the Holy Spirit to create a longing in us for more fruit and grace in the Kingdom.
In his message “Out of the Bunkhouse,” Dr. Clark emphasizes that though we enter the Kingdom through forgiveness of our sins, many of us stop there. Yet Jesus didn’t come only to pardon us but to pave the way for us to live victoriously: to overcome every form of spiritual stagnation and to do greater things than Him.
Therefore, we must allow the Holy Spirit to make us hunger for a victorious lifestyle.
3. DESIRE GOD’S GLORY
Impartation never really was about personal experience—the manifestations and empowerment in the gifts. Those things happen, but they are not the sole purpose of impartation. “We do not ask for impartation as a spiritual high that makes us feel good,” Dr. Clark says. “Rather, we ask for the power and gifts to make us commensurate to the task before us—to go into the world and preach the gospel with signs and wonders.”
Our motive must be His glory, not our reputation.
PRACTICAL POSTURES FOR RECEIVING
Dr. Clark often teaches these simple, practical steps when receiving prayer for impartation:
- Wait upon the Lord. “Often God comes in waves to be gentle with our bodies,” he says. “Don’t short-circuit what He may be doing—He might not be finished yet.”
- Don’t strive. “Don’t try to fall, and don’t try to stand. Never fake an impartation, and when it comes upon you, don’t resist the Holy Spirit.”
- Be still and receive. “I often encourage people not to pray or speak while receiving prayer,” Dr. Clark writes. “I have found this often hinders the impartation experience.”
To receive an impartation is to surrender. The Holy Spirit knows what we need and how to meet us. Often He comes His way, not ours.
FINAL THOUGHT
Impartation is not only desirable but also God’s desire. When we hunger for God, He comes, every single time.
The same God who poured out His Spirit in Acts, in Toronto, and in so many revivals since still longs to empower us today. As Dr. Clark often says, “If your heart burns to do more, be more, and see more in the Kingdom of God—then you need more of God.”
Beautifully, there’s always more.
READ MORE:
Randy Clark, There is More, (Minneapolis, MN: Chosen, 2013).