We often only realize that we reside through historic events by looking back on them.
Consider the Moravians. In 1727, this group of Christians fleeing persecution within the modern-day Czech Republic began a 24-7 prayer vigil. They couldn’t foresee that their non-stop prayer session would ultimately last for 100 years and launch a world missions movement.
Or take the instance of John Wesley and George Whitefield. In 1738, in a New Year’s prayer meeting, where the boys and others were gathered, at “about three within the morning, as we were continuing fast in prayer, the facility of God got here mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy” later wrote Wesley in his diary.” The preachers likely had little concept that in the following months, they’d start traveling across the UK teaching the word of God, a campaign that will mark the start of the Wesleyan revival and the First Great Awakening within the US.
Church history has taught us to never underestimate the long-term impact when God’s tangible presence comes upon a gaggle of individuals; this understanding has led me to closely track the aftermath of the 2023 outpouring at Asbury University.
For those that need a refresher: One 12 months ago this week, as a seemingly bizarre Wednesday morning chapel ended, 18 or 19 students lingered to worship and pray. Though the college in rural Kentucky has a history of revivals, few likely believed that this meeting would proceed for the next 16 days, drawing over 60,000 people, including students from 300 university campuses and Christians from almost every continent.
While now we have yet to see a world revival since Asbury’s concluded, there’s more happening than our eyes can see. I feel that now we have entered a season of spiritual preparation. I’ve observed parallels between this event and a biblical preacher who also hailed from the countryside and who also drew a crowd: John the Baptist.
Prophesied by Isaiah as “the voice of 1 calling within the wilderness” (John 1:23; Is. 40:3), John called the people to repentance and consecration. He was the embodiment of answered prayer and devoted his ministry to proclaiming that something greater would soon be following him. Seeing evidence of those elements all world wide provokes me to wonder what next global move Asbury may need heralded.
A call to repentance and consecration
From the wilderness, John the Baptist earned his nickname by “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). Crowds followed him into the desert to admit their sins, get baptized, and reconcile themselves to God.
In an analogous way, crowds entering Hughes Auditorium were confronted with the state of their very own hearts. Here is how David Thomas, who was within the core leadership team stewarding the outpouring, described it to me in an email interview:
For the primary few days of the Outpouring, it seemed that repentance and forgiveness were just about all we could do. All over the room, people were making their strategy to one other, tumbling over each other to make the primary move of offering apologies, owning mistakes, forgiving grievances, and explaining misunderstandings. The front steps of Hughes were populated by people on their phones sending texts of reconciliation and restoration.
Thomas’s remarks were echoed by one in all the transatlantic visitors. Al Gordon, a London pastor, reported feeling a weight within the air even within the parking zone.
“I used to be met with an amazing sense that I even have to get right with Jesus,” he recounted. “Before I stepped into the chapel, I used to be crying out in repentance, confessing my pride, humbling myself before God.”
Asbury students led the way in which in modeling this wave of repentance. From the stage, tons of shared their testimonies. Their stories would vary from easy things like, “I sensed Jesus inviting me to text a friend asking forgiveness for something in our relationship that was not quite right,” to dramatic transformations akin to, “Three days ago I renounced witchcraft and gave my life to Jesus.”
Student leaders would also not allow anyone to steer worship who was not “authentically right with Jesus,” said Thomas. Instead of offering them and the guest speakers who got here an ordinary green room, they created a “consecration room” where they were asked to receive prayer and ask for God’s forgiveness for any sins, prior to sharing anything from the platform.
A call to prayer
John the Baptist was born out of prayer, specifically those of his elderly parents. When the angel appeared to his father, Zechariah, his first words were, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard” (Luke 1:13).
In the identical way, there was an unwavering conviction among the many Asbury leadership that “every little thing that happened in Hughes Auditorium those 16 days was the fruit of prayer,” said Thomas. When people entered the space in small-town Kentucky from other cities or continents, he would thank them for coming. But they’d correct him. “Don’t thank me. I had to return. I needed to get here and put my eyes on what I even have been praying for all these years!”
“People from throughout had been praying, and this story was theirs,” Thomas shared.
The prayer temperature globally has increased significantly this last 12 months. The Asbury outpouring “released fresh hunger and fresh hope” within the lifetime of Pete Greig, the founding father of 24-7 Prayer, in addition to among the many ministry itself, which has 25,000 prayer rooms in 78 nations.
“There’s an increase in prayer,” Grieg said. “There’s a deeper expectancy.”
In New York City, Church of the City is organizing prayer events every morning, afternoon, and evening, Monday through Friday. Its pastor, Jon Tyson, visited the outpouring himself and was deeply impacted by it.
“It was extraordinary,” he said. “Having studied revivals extensively, I witnessed what I only had examine.”
This hunger for awakening has also been felt across the ocean. Three London churches have organized all-night prayer evenings held every other month, where around 1,000 students and young adults have shown up and called out to God for revival. The atmosphere is so dense with the presence of God, “you could possibly light the air with a match,” said Al Gordon, one in all their pastors. Another pastor, Pete Hughes, remarked, “And we’ve committed to maintain going until we see an awakening in our city.”
The same longing is seen on other continents. “Here in Australia, Asbury has caught many individuals’s attention,” said Mark Sayers, a author and the pastor of Red Church in Melbourne. As a response to Asbury, the congregation opened a prayer room.
After several months, one evening “the room full of essentially the most tangible sense of God’s presence,” he said. “No one wanted to go away. Quiet, peaceful, unlike anything I even have experienced in a prayer meeting or service. That moment radically modified numerous individuals who were there and significantly deepened our church’s spiritual life.”
Pointing to something greater yet to return
John the Baptist was at all times clear that his role was to point to the one coming after him: “He must develop into greater; I have to develop into less” (John 3:30). He was also keenly aware that his ministry was a preparation for a movement that will follow.
In the identical way, Asbury kept Jesus on the forefront with a countercultural message of “no celebrity except Jesus.”
Asbury leadership hopes that their experience will in the future be a part of a plethora of chapters about what number of met God.
“We stay up for a day soon when there shall be one other outpouring story that may eclipse this one at Asbury,” said Thomas. “I hope that story will come from where you’re—your city, your campus, your church and family, your individual life.”
The leadership pointed to Asbury as being the alternative of Las Vegas. The saying goes that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But what happens at Asbury mustn’t stay in Asbury. Instead, they called for the revival to go across campuses, churches, streets, and society.
“If it doesn’t get to the streets, if it doesn’t get to the nations, it didn’t get where it was meant to be,” stated Thomas.
No more business as usual
It is less complicated to acknowledge the beginnings of a movement of God once we are centuries removed. But what if we’re within the midst of a recent starting? If God sends a world revival in our generation, surely you and I don’t need to miss it.
This is just not a time for business as usual. It is an invite to wherever God placed us, to arrange the way in which for the King. It is a call for repentance and to get straight with God in our personal lives, our ministries, and our vocations. How are we preparing the way in which within the places where God has placed us? How are our university campuses, local churches, and mission organizations preparing the way in which? For those of us within the marketplace and businesses, what are we doing to be sensitive to a piece of God?
“God is closer than we expect and more able to move than our faith would often allow for,” wrote Gordon, the London pastor who attended the outpouring. “The ceiling is thinner than our eyes can see, and in some unspecified time in the future it’s going to interrupt open.”
One 12 months has passed. And it is barely just starting. Will the worldwide church be able to make way for the King?
Sarah Breuel is the manager director of Revive Europe and serves on the board of directors of the Lausanne Movement.
