Revival 2023

As I hear and watch the reports of a great outpouring of God's Spirit at Asbury University, my spirit is filled with the personal memories which are mine as a result of being in such a moment in 1970 at Asbury, but it is not just about memories.  To see what God is about once again is to have my own spirit rekindled again with the burning power of the Holy Spirit.  I have often wondered why such outpourings of the Holy Spirit seem to fall upon colleges and universities instead of the church.  It would seem that the church would be a more likely place for such revivals to be ignited, but it more often seems that the church is impacted by the rippling effect of such holy movements.   

Of course, when we go to the record of the first Pentecost in the book of Acts, we see a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a group of disciples who had been gathering not in the Temple or a synagogue, but an upstairs room on some no name street.  It would seem that in the very beginning the power of Pentecost fell not upon the institutional presence of God in the world, but upon His people who were gathered with a spiritual hunger.  What happened in that upper room certainly grew a church and transformed the world, but again, it was because of the powerful spiritual ripples set forth from Jerusalem that day.   

And there is another thing which cannot be ignored. Had the Spirit fallen upon the Temple, what happened could  have likely been a Jewish thing.  Instead, when the Spirit came in power on Pentecost, it came at a place and time which enabled those present to take what had been experienced home with them to places like the ends of the earth.  A little reseach shows that Asbury is represented by 29 states and 35 countries and throughout the week buses from other universities have come bringing their diverse people who will also be scattered into the world and into the church.  God will bless the church with this revival as He has in the past, but the blessing will come through those who will now go to give leadership to it, to serve within it, and to long for spiritual power to finally once again be what carries it forward.