How God Worked at the Asbury Revival

I want to read two scriptures with you tonight. First of all, Psalm 85, one verse, and then Isaiah 57. So, if you have a copy of the scriptures or you have it in your phone, there's no excuse these days. You've always got the Bible some way. So, Psalm 85, verse 6. Some of you will be familiar with these words. Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? What a prayer. I don't know what version you've got, but you could say it with me. Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? And then Isaiah 57, verse 15. And these are verses on revival, I believe, that are very seldom focused upon. Isaiah 57, verse 15. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him or her who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. And we'll look at that verse a little bit later on. I want to relay my experience of being in America over the last couple of weeks. It really starts off with a regular trip that I take to the city of Little Rock in the state of Arkansas a couple of times a year over the last number of years to a house church there and a renewal ministry called Dwellings. And I was booked to go for this biannual trip. And so my son was able to go with me, my 17-year-old son Noah, this year because it coincided with half-term and he had to miss a couple of days of school, which he wasn't too sorry about. And he came along with me. And the two of us were, as you do, sitting up to a big hearty brunch in Heathrow Airport waiting on our next flight. And we got this message through from my wife about something on social media in regard to a revival or some kind of awakening in Asbury University in Kentucky. And it was actually the Dwellings website or social media posted this. So we began to look into it and got quite excited about what was going on. But we had our schedule already all pinned down and didn't think this was going to affect us, it was very interesting. And so we arrived in Little Rock that Friday evening and all the talk was about this awakening. And I had a Saturday off and then we kicked off on Sunday morning in the little house church. And then we had scheduled a meeting on the Monday evening, a more public meeting. And then we had special events in the houses as we do on the Tuesday and the Wednesday night. But from the very get go, it was apparent that there was a real burden upon us to seek out what was going on up in Asbury and to find out what was happening. Now, the problem was it's nine or ten hours drive away. And I'd already come 20 odd hours across half the world. And then the thought of sitting in a car for nine or ten hours, but I was prepared to do that. I mean, it's not every day that a revival lands when you're in the same country, is it? But we had our schedule and all the rest. And even on the Thursday, we had arranged a retreat, special quiet day of reflection and seeking God about ministry and so forth. But we began to discuss with one another and thought, what's the point of seeking the Lord here when he's doing something over there and maybe waving over and saying, I'm over here, you know. I don't know whether that fits into your theology or not, but let me talk a little bit about Asbury University. Asbury University is a private Christian liberal arts university in a little town called Wilmore in Kentucky. And it's actually a university that's affiliated with the Wesleyan holiness movement, which you might be familiar with. And they have had a series of historic revivals. The first one I think that was recorded was in February 1905, which is interesting when you consider the 1904, 1905 revival in Wales and right across the world and other places other than Wales across the world were affected by that move of the spirit. But Asbury actually was touched by something in that year. And then probably the most famous after 1905 was 1970. And some of you may have heard of that move of God, which was quite similar to this one in 2023. But you may not be aware that this actually impacted the Jesus movement. And some of you might be aware that the Jesus revolution film has just come out in America. I'm still trying to work out how to get to watch it here. But if you know how to, you can tell me afterwards. I think you'd probably get it online somewhere. But that move in Asbury actually had an effect on the Jesus movement that swept across the United States. And we are still feeling the impact of that move of God even now in our own generation. But this particular recent move began on the 8th of February, of course, 2023. And it's interesting when you look at the revivals that have happened in Asbury, all of them, there's quite a few of them, all of them happened in the month of February and one in the month of March. Strange. I don't know why, but I'm just telling you that that's what has happened. And on the 8th of February, following a scheduled chapel service, some students stayed behind in the Hughes Auditorium. And among that handful of students, one student decided to openly confess some of his deepest and darkest sins to the whole gathering. And the record is that immediately, I'm just quoting, they said the atmosphere changed and others of the students began to confess their own secret sins and repented of them. And they stayed, they lingered on and they prayed for one another and they began to worship the Lord. And the word quickly spread about what was happening. But what's very interesting in our own modern era, the particular spin today on it all is that the word spread primarily through social media, particularly TikTok. And this is interesting because this move of God was peculiar, initially speaking, to what is called the Gen Z, the Generation Z of our population. Do you know what that is? It's really anyone that has been born between 1995 and around 2010. So if you're 25 years of age and under, you fit in the Gen Z. And so we're talking about college students, university students. They were the ones who were the confessing of their sins, who were praying for one another, who were repenting, who were worshiping, who were crying unto God for revival. And they were the ones who were spreading the news through social media. And it's interesting when you think of that because the early disciples were Gen Z, not between 95 and 2010, but they were of that age group. Let's remember that. And the leaders, I have to say it was quite impressive to say the least, observing how the leaders of the student movement, I'm talking about the older people who were ministering among the students, how they stewarded this move of God because they were sure to maintain the Gen Z characteristic of this move of God. And once the word got around, all the adults from all over the United States and further afield were coming to see this move of God. But they made sure that it was still student-led and also that the students still had their place. And so there were two queues to get in. Now on the Thursday night when I was there, it took an hour to queue to get in. It wasn't so bad because it was quite mild. But the next night it was actually snowing and it took three hours to queue to get in. But my son, because he was Gen Z, got immediately in because they had a separate queue. And not only did he get in, he got straight on the stage for some reason or other. But isn't it interesting? Two features of Gen Z is that they are digital natives. Do you know what that means? They don't remember dial-up Wi-Fi or internet, I should say. They don't remember Wi-Fi at all. Sorry, dial-up. They've only had Wi-Fi. They've always had a screen in front of them. They've always known smartphones. And yet the distinct absence of technology in this move of God, apart from spreading the word, is quite remarkable. Another characteristic of Gen Z is that the world they have lived in has never felt safe. And from September 11, 2001, they have lived in a very different world than many of us have. And they've known financial crises, energy crises, high anxiety, and of course more recently COVID. And isn't it fascinating that our God has chosen to use that generation and come to that generation with this present move? Now some people might ask the question, why did you bother traveling from where you were to that move of God in Kentucky? Well, as I said, we had a retreat booked, but we felt it's time to move to where God's doing something. And I've read some things that have made me very cross to say on the internet about this move of God, particularly from conservative evangelicals, it has to be said. And one of the things that I even read tonight on social media was, you know, speaking of 19 men who traveled nine hours to spend 30 minutes praying in Asbury Auditorium, Hughes Auditorium. Why on earth are they doing that when God's omnipresent and he's everywhere? And that shows so much ignorance, not only of revival theology, but actually of the Bible. And can I say to you, most of these people, Protestant, conservative evangelicals that are speaking these terms, I want you to understand something. And I need to be careful I don't go on a rant here, but they don't believe in revival. I want you to understand they do not have a theological framework for revival. And very well, let me put it like this. Their idea of a revival is their kind of revival that looks like them, sounds like them, and produces robots like them. But another thing to understand is they don't actually have a theology of the Holy Spirit that looks like the acts of the apostles. They don't believe that the Holy Spirit does the things today that he did in the Bible. And once you understand those two things, then you understand that they cannot at all accept what is going on, even if it's right in front of them. It's a bit like the modern day Pharisees, essentially. It doesn't matter that Jesus raises the dead right in front of their nose, they cannot accept it because their theology won't allow it. And why I'm saying that is the Bible does teach that God, when he shows up at times, and I have to be careful I don't deviate here, but God is omnipresent. But he's also especially present where two or three are gathered in Jesus' name. We know that. That's why the church is important. That's why we don't just go out in the forest and worship God individually. There's a special sense of the presence of Christ when we meet together as believers, yes? But there's also what is called the manifest presence of God, where at times, even though he is everywhere, and as the Puritans said, his center is everywhere, his circumference is nowhere. We all agree on that. But there are times when he manifests his presence in like a heavy weight, a shekinah glory spoken of in the Old Testament, or the kabod, the glory of God, the weedy presence of God, where there's a density of his presence, an intensity of his presence, and you know God's around. And I have to say that some places are made very special because of that. And we're not saying we have to go to special places to worship God. We're not saying that. God is everywhere, and if you're a believer, he lives in your heart. But we are saying that when God appeared in the burning bush to Moses, God said, take your shoes off from your feet, because the place on which you stand is holy ground. Because the manifest presence of God makes ground holy. It infuses atmospheres with the presence of God. That's why in places across our world where there has been revival, there very often is a residual sense of the presence of God, if you're able to discern that. So I used to think, of course, years ago that there was ridiculous people running around the world chasing revival. But the fact of the matter is, in revival history, we often hear of people who have heard of a move of God, and they went to see, and they caught, and carried back with them something of what God was doing. And we celebrate, and most evangelicals here in Ulster celebrate the 1859 revival, but they don't realize that the 1859 revival started in New York with a prayer meeting of 12,000 men, Fulton Street prayer meeting in New York. But many don't realize that two Presbyterians traveled on the boat over to that prayer meeting. Dr. William Gibson, if any of you have read the book, The Year of Grace, all about the 1859 revival, he went to New York, and Reverend William McClure visited there as well, and they saw what God was doing there, and of course he was doing it in Great Britain as well. But they came back, and they reported what they had witnessed, and that sparked something in the spirit that began a hunger, and eventually resulted in the 1859 revival. And there are times, folks, that we do need to go to places where God is at work. And there are times we need to go to people who God is working through. It was Moses who said, when he saw this strange sight, I will turn aside. I will turn aside to see this great sight. Do you remember the woman at the well said, come see a man who told me all things that ever I did is not the Christ. And one brother said to another, come and see. I think the question really is, how hungry are we? How hungry are we? Oh, I don't need to go anywhere. God's with me. You know, sometimes that is just code language for I can't be bothered, and I'm too lukewarm and passive in my Christianity. It's hardly the same as the psalmist who said, my soul follows hard after God. I'm a God chaser. I want to chase God down wherever he is. And like the great theologian of revival, Jonathan Edwards says, rather than asking God to bless you where you are, go and look and see where the Redeemer is at work and go there. So let me give you a few observations from Asbury. It's not a critique. It's just a witness's account of what I saw. And I want to read first of all from a post I put up on the internet at the time. And this is some of it. It was amazing. But at the same time, ordinary. Ordinary people, nothing sensational, nothing spectacular. We queued about an hour the next night, three, a constant flow in and out of the chapel, worship songs to piano and guitar, sometimes out of tune, simple gospel messages, brief enough, and then an appeal to consecration, surrender, and the spirit-filled life. A holiness message for an unholy hour. On the one hand, there seems nothing remarkable about the content of these meetings. And yet on the other hand, everything is remarkable. Nothing sensational, but when all is considered, it has to be concluded that it is exceptional. A constant stream of people for over a week, a week and a half it became, now coming for nothing, only a hunger for God and to commit their lives to Jesus. Nothing of performance to draw them, no celebrity preacher or artist to wow them. Let me share four things with you based on what I've just shared. First of all, what struck me was the simplicity of what was going on in Asbury. Can I say there was a great clarity in the message? There's a lot of nonsense being talked about no gospel being preached and it all being sang. Like several of the revivals in Asbury, it was based on testimony, gospel testimony of these young people whose lives have been changed and the gospel was preached. I heard it preached. I heard appeals for the gospel. There was a clarity in the message, but the simplicity was it was not built around personas or charismatic personalities. I'm not talking about theology there. I'm just talking about big, big wigs and big names. It wasn't based around performers or performances, but it was all around Jesus. Now there's a lot of singing, but that was because there was a lot of worship. And the celebrity culture that's been prevalent in Christianity over the last number of decades, I believe came crashing down and Jesus rises as the only star. There's great simplicity in it all. That was the extraordinary aspect of it. Someone wrote me and said, how can it be revival if it's ordinary? I'm telling you that was the extraordinary aspect that it was so ordinary and yet people were coming. It didn't look much different or feel much different than tonight, but the people were coming in their thousands and giving their lives to Jesus. And what you were left with was standing there, your mouth open saying, why? Only God could do this. Only God could do this. There was simplicity. Another thing was there was humility. There was no known leader to this move of God. Now there were leaders, but they were all hidden. And it's interesting that it filtered through after a while that some famous, very famous worship leaders were all attending and very kindly offered their services, volunteered free of charge to lead worship and they were very politely declined. Now please listen carefully to what I'm saying. It's not that we don't value talent and gift from God. We very much do. But what this move of God reminded us of is God doesn't need it. It's not that it's not special, but God doesn't need it to do his work. I have a book in my study by a man called Johannes Fatsias. I don't know if any of you remember him, but he was a leader in the intercessory movement. He's now with the Lord and it's a life story of his, and it's entitled God Can Do It Without Me. And his publisher was aghast at the thought of this title. He says you can't pick that title. It'll never sell. People want to know how God needs them to do whatever it is that he wants to do. And he said, if I was writing a sequel, it would be God still can do it without me. But you know, it's so true. If anything is essential to revival, it is humility. And we read tonight from Isaiah 57, 15, thus says the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. That means, well, revival is a reaching high, isn't it? You want a greater Christian experience and you want a greater knowledge of God. So revival is a reaching high as if we're trying to bring heaven down. But what Isaiah is saying is, if we want that reaching high, there must be a bowing low. And reaching high can only be attained by the bowing low. I dwell with the contrite one, the broken one. The high and the lofty one dwells with the one that is broken, cleansed, and fell. And I love that this is a Wesleyan college with a holiness message. And you know what they were preaching? The cross of Jesus. That we need to die with Christ. We need to empty ourselves of self. And we need to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus and filled by the power of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection life of Christ. And that's what's going to change the world. And that's what's going to change you. It's really the gospel. And it's a holiness message for an unholy hour. I don't know whether I should say this, but I think I will. It came to my knowledge that this particular movement within Methodism had moved away from a lot of ungodliness that was in Methodism in the United States of America. And I believe even here that in some of our denominations, as we move towards the holiness of God, we've been praying, thy kingdom come. And we need to start praying, hallowed be thy name. Once we recognize that and step out and stand with the holiness of God our Father, I believe he will honor that. And he will pour out his blessing. Simplicity, humility, thirdly, accessibility. What I mean by that is ordinary people were doing things ordinarily. And of course, we have an extraordinary God, don't we? And he takes the foolish things. He takes the simple things, the things that are not to confound the things that are wise and mighty. And I have a 25-year-old friend, Gen Z, just about in there, an American fellow who was with me and sharing a hotel room as we were in Asbury. His name is Jack. And Jack put on a social media post after his first experience of Asbury that what struck him around the ordinary nature of this move of God was, as he walked away, he said to himself, why can't this happen in my hometown? And the fact is, it can. And the simplicity of it all lends to the accessibility of ordinary people. What were the early disciples? Only ordinary people. Very ordinary people. We wouldn't have picked them, the ones that Jesus picked. But that's how he turned the world, the known world upside down. With ordinary people who could speak to ordinary people, and it could turn ordinary people's lives around by their witness. This is for everyone. It's time the church hears again that this is for everyone. It's not a special class. It's for everyone. Every man, woman, boy, or girl. Simplicity, humility, accessibility, and finally, reproductivity. What I mean by that is, it's very accessibility and simplicity means that it's ideal for duplication. And that's exactly what's happening across college campuses in the United States right now. And some will say, oh, they're just copying. Well, listen, if there's anybody in leadership here this evening and knows what any preachers or clergy here tonight, you know what it is if you preach an extra five minutes on a Sunday morning, don't you? What can happen? Armageddon can happen. And you know what it is? Having a special weekend of meetings, some once a year or something. Or perish the thought, a week of meetings, maybe Holy Week or something like that. These are young people who are willingly staying 24-7 to pray, to worship, to intercede. There's no ban, there's no attraction, there's nothing, only the presence of God. You can't tell me that this is orchestra. It's incredible. And the beauty is it's reproducible and it's happening now in colleges across USA and even other parts of the world. I heard reports today about things going on in Brazil. I'm hearing reports about the same sense, the same spirit, the same thing taking place with no direct association. I believe God is doing this right across the world. Now, is this revival many are asking? Well, that's a big word and I'm not going to get into all the ins and outs of what that means. Essentially revival, I believe in its truest sense, is when many people start to get born again and there's community transformation. In other words, the outside community outside the walls of the church start to be impacted. It was remarkable, I was talking to my friend Jack in the hotel room and he said to me a number of months ago, we had had a Zoom and I was asked the question, how will you know when revival is real revival? And one of the things apparently I said, I can hardly remember saying it, is you see when the secular media start to take note of what's going on, you can be sure God's up to something. And would you believe it, the reason why he was saying this back to me was that night me and him and another girl, Catherine, were on the news, actually on Fox News talking about what was happening in Asbury. And he said, after I said that in that Zoom months ago, he said to himself, I find it very hard to imagine that ever happening, at least not in my lifetime. Not in my lifetime and a few months later, it was happening. Now, you may not want to put the word revival on it, I don't really care, it's semantics to a large degree, but I'll tell you this, I believe with all my heart that what I saw in Asbury was a genuine move of God. And we have all these crazy Christians, I'm sorry, but I have to say it, denying that this is a move of God, you would think the devil was attracting people, young people to Jesus Christ to give their life out and out and all and all for him. I mean, the devil must have lost the plot really. But you know something, every revival has had an offense to it. Did you know that? Every move of God has had an offense to it, and usually it was a church in some area or sphere who opposed the moves of God. And perhaps the offense to this particular move of God is its ordinariness. The charismatics really can't get their head around it. And the conservative evangelicals are waiting and watching, trying to find something to pick a hole with. Do you understand? And it's just like God, I imagine he's probably sniggering, maybe thinking, I've got them this time. But really he hasn't, of course, because we are ingenious in our ways of finding offense at God. Jesus said, remember, in his message to John the Baptist, blessed are they who believe in me and find no offense. Remember, Jesus was spoken against because of his ordinariness. Remember that? He eats and drinks with tax collectors. They called him a drunkard. Isaiah 53 verse 2 says, there is no form or beauty in him that when we should see him, we should desire him. There was nothing attractive cosmetically in the son of God. In other words, he didn't stand out in a crowd. That's Jesus I'm talking about. That's what scripture says. But it was those who had faith to see who would behold the face of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Arthur Wallace said, if we find a revival that is not spoken against, we had better look again to ensure that it is revival. Every revival was spoken against. And maybe it's with hindsight that we look back and we see how widespread a move of God is. But why do we do this? Why do we analyze? Why do we commentate? Why do we dissect? And why do we not just jump in and say, Lord, whatever it is, I want more of you. I want you, Lord. One of the things I've learned is to let God come to me as he pleases. If he's God after all, is it not up to me to allow him to come to me as he pleases? Not as I wish and I want and I think is acceptable. There's a psalm that says, may we be ready or willing or volunteers in the day of your power. And as this move of God comes to the earth and if it were to come here tonight and I wonder, but how would it find you? You know that there were people who stood and looked Jesus Christ in the eye and said, you have Beelzebub and by Beelzebub you cast out demons. And those were men who knew their Bibles inside out. And yet there were lepers and prostitutes and tax collectors who would fall at his feet and say, my Lord, my God, Son of David, Savior, Messiah, King. It's all to do with your perception. And it's all to do with your heart. It's all to do with faith. Let's pray. Now, let's just take a moment and there will be healing prayer in a moment or two, but you know, and I know that there's some dear people here tonight with very grave needs for healing. So, I don't in any way want to underestimate those issues at all. But you know, A.B. Simpson once wrote a hymn many years ago, once it was the healing, now it is the Lord. And I know you want healing and you want maybe freedom, but you want the healer, you want the deliverer, you want the Lord Jesus. It's much better to have him than any healing. And the good thing is he is a healer and he does do healing, but do you want him? You want his holiness in your life. And it's not a legalistic, you know, Protestant, Catholic denominational thing of do's and don'ts that we're so used to in our land. It's not that, that's not it at all. It's a change of heart where he actually takes your old heart that is prone to sin and he puts it to death and he gives you his new heart, his Holy Spirit, so that you can live by his life. That's the holiness of the New Testament. You want that. We need revival, folks. Our only answer are times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. We need not an aspire as such. We just need whatever God wants to give us, but it needs to come from him and it needs to come from heaven and it needs to be his spirit outpoured upon us. And it starts with personal revival in your heart. Like that young man that stood to his feet and confessed his own secret sin. You need to confess maybe something that's wrong in your heart. Will you come tonight to the Lord Jesus and do that? If that's your phone, would you turn it off, please? The Lord Jesus Christ is here this evening and he wants to touch your heart and revive your life. Maybe you're a minister. He wants to revive your church and maybe you've lost faith in that. You once believed it and maybe when you started out you were blazing a trail for Jesus, but you put it all down to zeal without knowledge all those years ago and youthful passion. Listen, one of the things that I got when I saw those thousands of people queuing up and going in and out day after day after day, all those queues, one of the things I got was hope. God can do this. He can do it today and he can do it here. And listen, minister, he can do it in your church. He can do it in your parish. He can. Will you believe it? Father, I am a simple witness of what I saw and I pray that it is a true witness of what went on. I pray that you will wash away by the precious blood of Jesus Christ anything that is of the flesh or not of you, but I pray that if there's anything at all carried from that place to here, that it will land by the power of the Holy Spirit of the living God upon people gathered here tonight and that they will take back the power of revival to wherever they go from this place. Will you not revive us again? Lord, we're at political impasse. Our churches are beginning to dwindle and there is apostasy, rank apostasy in the house of God and our only hope is you, Lord. Our only hope is you. And we repent and we say that our righteousness are as an unclean thing and we would seek to turn from our wicked ways that you would hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land, forgive us our pride, forgive us our arrogance. Forgive us. Oh God, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. God, have mercy upon us for our judgmentalism towards one another. Forgive us. Forgive me. Even if tonight I've been judgmental against those who don't believe in revival, Lord, forgive me. I bless them in Jesus' name. But Lord, would you pour out from heaven upon us. Pour out the power of your spirit and grace. In Jesus' name I pray. Now you can come forward tonight for prayer for anything I imagine, as long as it's biblical. So, if you want revival in your heart or you want prayer for more capacity to move in the Holy Spirit, I'm sure that the team are open to that as well as healing. I just want to say this to you as an encouragement as well. There's folk in another part of the world who saw that I was here tonight doing this meeting. It was particularly a healing meeting and they reminded me that this day last year that they received their miracle. And it was a big one. And nine months later we saw it. And they just wanted to remind me and remind you that God is a God of miracles. And lay hold of the miraculous and the supernatural power of God and what he can do tonight. As you come in prayer for whatever it is you need prayer for. May the Lord bless you. I hope this has been encouragement. And let me encourage you keep hungering after God and keep hungering after his work of awakening in your life because it's all about Jesus. Revival is falling in love with Jesus all over again. God bless you.