Revival in America

Revival in America

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard revival has broken out on the campus of Asbury University.  My new book “Quest for Revival”,  due for release later this year, contains the account of the original move of the Spirit at Asbury University campus 53 years earlier, almost to the day.  It sounds amazingly close to what God is doing today.  Look at the account:

The service that morning was expected to be little more than an ordinary fifty-minute chapel assembly. Instead, it lasted one hundred and eighty-five hours and was a non-stop, twenty-fourhour a-day, visitation of God in the midst of His people. Intermittently, the revival continued for weeks until ultimately it spread throughout pockets of the United States and even to other parts of the world.

Dr. David Hunt, a former student, recalls the incident this way, “When you walked into the back of Hughes Auditorium…there was kind of an aura, kind of a glow about the chapel.”

The academic dean, Custer Reynolds, was scheduled to preach that morning. For some reason unknown to him (but obviously known to the Holy Spirit), he decided to give his testimony instead. After he had finished, he issued an impromptu invitation to students to come forward to share what God had

done in their lives. One student responded, then another…then another…then another. Suddenly, spontaneously, students from all over the room began pouring down to the altar. The “ordinary” chapel service broke open under the presence of God. Gradually, inexplicably, students and faculty members alike found themselves repenting, praying, weeping, and worshipping.

Those first affected sought out others whom they had wronged and asked forgiveness and reconciliation. The chapel service went on and on. Asbury, like most Christian campuses held scheduled “revivals” booked in advance, but this was not the same. This was not the plan of man, and certainly no man

was leading it. No one could put a halt to what God had begun.

The word spread like wildfire, “God is on the scene.” Other faculty members, students, and even people from the community who had not been present at that historic chapel service, came racing to see what was happening. One faculty member, Dr. J. T. Seamands, was skeptical, but once he witnessed what was transpiring, he felt as if he was baptized in an unaccountable spirit of love, and his skepticism vanished: Without a doubt this phenomenon was not of man, it was of God. The school president, Dennis Kinlaw, described the visitation this way:

You may not understand this…but the only way I know to account for this is that about twenty minutes before 11 a.m. that day, the Lord Jesus walked into Hughes Auditorium, and He’s been there ever since. The whole community is paying tribute to His presence.2

Earlier, I gave a simplistic definition of revival: “God came.” When God’s presence fills the Church, revival always comes. Every revival of history is simply the restoration of God’s presence among His people. 

There is little doubt that man cannot plan it, organize it, or set its date. The key responsibility for God’s people is to prepare their hearts for God’s move. Nothing is more central to cultivating the presence of God than a heart of worship among His people. Many of the great revivalists knew the supreme value of the atmosphere of worship, which cultivates a communion between God’s people and the Holy Spirit.

 Like God’s move then, it is spreading to pockets of the United States today (Lee College, Cedarville College, Samford University and many others).  There have been pockets of revival, but this is the first move of God now that is drawing national and international attention and participation right now.  So what should our response be:

1. First, rejoice!  If for any reason you are jealous or judgmental, it is an indication of your heart and could reposition you to be disqualified for His touch.

2. Realize you can’t manufacture it, but you can cooperate with the move of God.

3. Pray! As Evan Roberts (Welsh Revivalist in 1904) told those seeking revival at Azusa Street, “…Congregate the people willing to make total surrender. Pray and wait, believe God’s promises … “, and He will show up.

4. Be humble.  This is not a moment to try and gain notoriety.  The Asbury revival is not led by a student or a faculty member, it is just people submitting to God.  Humility is not being a doormat, but it simply means to submit to the view and opinion of God.

5. Give place to the Holy Spirit. Often we become too bibliocentric.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not intimating the Bible is not the center of all we do, however, Jesus tells us in John 4:23, 24 “…true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth…”  One endorses the other.  The presence endorses the principle.  The principle gives direction to the presence.  For revival to take place, you must give place to the Holy Spirit.

There is a SHIFT coming to the body of Christ, to America, and to the world.  It is the time for revival.