You probably have heard about the Asbury University Revival that is broken out on
the campus of Asbury University. Now, Asbury University is not as strange to revivals and
if you read on their website, you see different events that took place for the past 100 years
of different moves of God. One of them that I want to highlight is in February 1950, a student
testimony led to confessions, victories and more testimonies. This went on uninterrupted for 118
hours and became the second leading news story national wide. It's estimated that 50,000 people
found a new experience in Christ as a result of this revival and witness teams that went out from
it. Now, the Revival that has happened in this University 50 years ago that's in 1970 on February
where a dean was scheduled to speak in the chapel he felt led to invite persons to give testimony
instead it's interesting, I see the correlation between giving testimonies at this University and
something that I love in our church, we put huge emphasis on testimonies and same thing happened
here, he felt led to invite people to give their testimonies instead many on the campus have been
praying for Spiritual renewal and were now in an expectant mood. Soon after there was
a large group waiting in line to speak, a spirit of powerful Revival came upon the congregation,
the chapel was filled with rejoicing people, classes were canceled for a week during the
144 hours of unbroken Revival but even after the class resumed on February 10th, the auditorium
was left open for prayer and testimonies, these sessions were prayed over by these
people and some 2000 people witnessed, pretty much went out from this University to churches
and at least 130 campuses around the nation were impacted and then what happened was that last week
on Wednesday, a chapel service that started at 10 am with some 1,600 students has not stopped
since it's still going and there's been a report of Revival breaking out at this
University again to small Evangelical College in Kentucky attracting hundreds of people that are
joining 24/7 prayer and worship according to the reports and the stat. Let's take a look at the
news report about what's been happening for the past week. Coming from other cities and colleges
to be a part of what's happening, Sean Moody explains in tonight's LEX 18 Big Story at 11.
On a Friday night at Asbury University
A chapel service doesn't really seem all that unusual
For the people here tonight though, this is something different. There's just like not even
words to describe it. Because it's not really a Friday service at all. We've been here 56 hours
This is what a 10 a.m Wednesday service has become. It just never stopped, people just
never left, never went to class, never went to lunch and then later people started coming back
to Chapel. Ava Miller was a freshman. She was here Wednesday morning when this started. She
said when it ended at 11, people just kind of lingered and the band kept playing. Since then,
people have come in and out continuously keeping the service going. Administrators have brought in
food and water for people. Miller says it's spread beyond Asbury's campus. Last night,
we had people from Pennsylvania, we had people here from Asbury of course like UK we had in
the middle of the night a bus from Mount Vernon Nazarene College come down with just a bus like
a band of students that just came. Ohio Christian University there's like Revivals like breaking
out there. Administrators here say this kind of thing has happened a few times over the years. In
February 1970, there was one that went on for 144 hours. However long it goes this time, they hope
it leaves an impact. And so our prayer is that God would be honored and then students lives would be
changed. But all of our lives would be changed. In Wilmore, Sean Moody. Almost every Christian news
outlet like Christianity Today as well as secular news outlets are highlighting this surprising work
of God that's happening in a college campus. A lot of my friends and other people are actually making
trips there, just to sit and just to receive from what the Lord is doing. They're believing
that the same thing will be breaking out even in our churches. I posted this week a photo, almost
22,000 people already liked it and shared it and I think that we're all hungry for Revival. This
revival is a little bit different than others. There's no big speakers, famous bands or lights.
It's more focused on repentance, on testimonies and manifest presence of God. I think that our
generation is hungry, our young people are hungry for the move of the Lord. In the United States,
in the last four or five years, we've been seeing a lot lot of protests for gun reform,
march for our life on 2018, then there was this huge emphasis on climate change, then there was
this huge protest against racism and so forth and so on. Then we've seen what happened with
the pandemic, the war that is still going on in the Ukraine as well as what happened to Turkey
and Syria just last week. I do believe that in the midst of this great darkness, God wants to spark
a Revival and out of all places, in our college universities. Colleges and Schools have become
places of indoctrination and the Holy Spirit wants to bring a fresh move for our generation that will
be sparked and marked by repentance, by holiness and by righteousness. Now America and I'm gonna
mainly just target America right now, not that God isn't moving in other nations, I believe He
does but God wants to bring a Revival to America again. America has sent missionaries all around
the world and God wants to bring a Revival to the United States and me, being an immigrant
in the United States, I bleed for America, I pray for Revival in America because it will touch the
world. America has been a transporter of garbage around the world, from pornography from all the
garbage in Hollywood from even destroying the traditional marriage and pushing the gay agenda,
really encouraging abortion around the world and so God wants America to be a hub of Revival. Now
America has had a history of Revival. Revival is not new in the United States and this one
blogger actually went through last few hundred years of what has happened in the United States,
first talking about the Great Awakening in 1734 that happened with Jonathan Edwards and how 80
percent of America's 900,000 people per personally heard this preacher George Whitefield, how it will
spread like wildfire over 100 towns and people were just being saved left and right. I mean
that was just incredible. Jonathan Edwards, you know 300 people in six months, the church grew in
the town of 1,100 people. That's just incredible awakening that was taking place and then we see
a Second Great Awakening taking place and that's where Charles Finley and so many other evangelists
that were pioneering that. One in 15 of America's population belonged to an Evangelical Church
and then we see that when Charles Finley started to evangelize and so many others
hundreds and thousands of people started to get saved and then if we go a little bit further,
businessmen's Revival that broke out in the United States, where a lot of businessmen were
being touched by God and it was called the great prayer meeting Revival where over 1 million people
were added to the church and were converted and then there was a civil war Revival. Now
most people heard of Civil War but they didn't hear about Revival that took place in Civil War,
where one out of 50 Americans died in the war and at first, soldiers left their faith but then in
1862 among the Confederate forces over 300,000 soldiers were converted and it was crazy Revival
that was taking place and then when we go a little bit further, the urban revivals with businessmen,
Dwight L Moody and then if we go the revivals of 1905, the Welsh Revival with Billy Sunday again,
millions of people added to the Lord and then the Bible that a lot of us, Pentecostals and
charismatics were affected by and that was the Azusa Street Revival that happened on Azusa. Now
an African-American Holiness Pastor blind in one eye went to Los Angeles to be a pastor and after
he preached, he gets kicked out of the second service, he began prayer meetings nearby home and
the Holy Spirit started to visit, what they call it the second blessing and this second blessing
fell after many months of prayer and this revival birthed Pentecostal movement and later charismatic
movement which actually exploded worldwide. Then we go to post World War II Revival with the latter
rain healing Revival, Bill Bright, Billy Graham and so many other things that were taking place
in the United States. Then the charismatic renewal and Jesus movement. There's actually
a movie coming out in the theaters concerning the Jesus movement, how it sparked different things
and in fact in this revival, this person actually highlights Asbury College Revival as being one of
the things that has happened during the Jesus movement and then in 1990's we saw the Toronto
Revival, Modesto Revival, Brownsville Revival and so many more, The Promise Keepers Revival
that took place. Now I like what he highlighted here, something that I want us to keep in mind
looking at the history of revivals that happened in the United States and honestly around the world
and he's mentioned 10 characteristics of Revival. The first one is timing.
Revivals emerged during the times of spiritual and moral decline which leads to intense prayer.
The second characteristic is prayer. God puts a longing into the hearts of many to pray for
Revival. The third one is the word. The preaching and reading of God's word brings conviction and
desire for Christ. The fourth one is the Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes people into a spiritual
depth they could not achieve on their own. The fifth one is the conviction. Affected sinners
are inconsolable except in Christ. The sixth one is the glory of God. God receives the praise the
honor and the glory for bringing Revival. The seventh one is reformation and renewal.
Revival produces lasting fruit, new ministries are founded and society experiences a reform of morals
as more and more convert. The eighth one, this is where it gets a little bit tricky, manifestations
like fainting, groaning in prayer and miracles vary by culture and denomination and ninth is
messy. Revivals are messy. They are controversial because of miracles, abuses, excesses suspicions
and theological disputes to name just few and the tenth one is that revivals usually die out.
Now some people maybe look at this and say, we don't need these revivals. We just need to be
steady preaching God's word and seeing believers get saved. It's true, we need to be steady and
consistent. What revivals do, they spark a fresh desire toward Christ and they can break through
certain norm that we need breakthrough in and revive a sense of passion and longing for Jesus,
cause repentance and also challenge a status quo, produce a Reformation in the culture and we need
those revivals but we need to also steward them well. Now as Christians, what does the bible teach
us about how to experience this revival. The verse that most likely you are very familiar with is in
2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14. If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and
pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven and will forgive
their sin and heal their land, that tells us that God's recipe for Revival is His people praying,
fasting, seeking Him, turning from their wicked ways and what we see with this revival happening
right now in Asbury is the students are repenting, they're sharing testimonies, they're worshiping,
they're pressing into Jesus and that's a beautiful thing. The scripture also tells us in Isaiah
40 verses 3 to 5, The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain
and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth;
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth
of the Lord has spoken.” This tells us that before Jesus came God sent John the Baptist you know and
this is a blueprint, a template for Revival. Before there could be a Revival, there has to
be repentance. Before there could be the glory of God, Jesus coming, this awareness of His presence,
there has to be repentance, there has to be hills have to be brought low, crooked places have to be
made straight, rough places made smooth and that's why I think it's very important for us to pray,
to fast, to humble ourselves. It's something that we do in our ministry regularly to begin
to experience sustainable Revival of new people meeting Jesus, people being healed, people being
delivered, believers being empowered, believers becoming disciples and disciple makers and in
order to do that, we have to prepare for Revival by repentance. Before entering the promised land,
Joshua gave this warning to God's people, he said, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow God
will do wonders in your midst. If we want God to bring wonders, miracles, awakening, quickening of
His Spirit, we gotta sanctify ourselves today. We gotta prepare ourselves today by praying,
by fasting, by dealing with our personal sins. The goal is not to have a Revival that everybody hears
about. The goal is to have a Revival that pleases God and touches your community, your church, your
school, your university, your family and brings your life closer to Jesus and being a reflection
of His glory. Paul says to Timothy, that in a great house there are not only vessels of gold
and silver but also wood and clay and then he says this, if anyone cleanses himself. It's interesting
he doesn't say if God cleanses us, that means the repentance, confession, we have to start
that. Now the spirit of God begins that work in us but we have to respond to that. If anyone cleanses
himself from the latter he will be a vessel of honor and then actually Paul tells us how
to cleanse ourselves. Flee youthful lust, pursue righteousness, faith, peace with those who call
on the Lord out of a pure heart and so I would encourage you, if you can, pay a visit to Asbury
Revival but something even more important is not only to show up there so you can take a photo and
get along likes and say wow, I've been to hashtag Revival but you can flee youthful lust, you can
sanctify yourself, you can begin to set yourself on fire by repenting, by confessing your sin,
by dealing with skeletons in your closet, by going further after the Lord, opening your Bible by
beginning to you know cut off the entertainment, the stuff you're using to numb yourself and to go
and nurture your spiritual life by spending time with Jesus because what God started in Asbury,
He wants to start in you, He wants to start with me and the goal isn't just to get Revival but
it is to live in Revival. Revival is not an event. Revival is a lifestyle of repentance,
of renewing our passion, act to His purpose for our life. It's a joy of ours to bring content
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