The Unplanned Awakening at Asbury
June 2023
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“O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years.” —Habakkuk 3:2
Asbury University is a private, independently owned Christian college located in Wilmore, Kentucky. The university’s website says it was founded in 1890 as the fulfillment of a pledge made by the Reverend John Wesley Hughes, a Methodist evangelist. I have known about this conservative college for many years. One of their distinguished Spirit-filled professors, Dr. Craig S. Keener published a book in 2021 entitled Miracles Today: The Supernatural Work of God in the Modern World. It’s a great book, both scholarly and spiritually—totally biblical.
At Asbury, on February 8, 2023, after a regularly scheduled chapel service ended, a group of about twenty students lingered and began to worship and pray for one another. According to the students, as they stayed and prayed, an unexplainable, surreal peace descended upon the room. Minutes of worship and prayer turned into hours. After several hours, some faculty and other students showed up to join into the worship. The college administration allowed the students to continue to use the auditorium all that day, that night, and the next day. In a few days, the fifteen hundred wooden flip seats in that auditorium were filled, mostly with students worshipping and praying for each other.
Unsophisticated and unscripted worship continued hour after hour. Students walked to the front, fell on their knees, and cried out to God, admitting their need for Him and for forgiveness of sin. Some testified that a deep peace came over them and that there was a sense of awe as they lingered in worship. Some testified of a heavy presence of God in the auditorium. Early on, someone started showing this worship on social media platforms that went viral around the world. Some of these videos were viewed by more than a million people, and I was one of them. I was glued to my iPhone, worshipping and rejoicing as I watched literally hundreds of people worshipping and seeking God in Hughes Auditorium. It is estimated that more than fifty thousand people showed up from different states in America to participate in this real outpouring of the Spirit. It was also estimated that students showed up from more than two hundred and fifty colleges and universities. Quite a few individuals from other foreign countries hopped on a plane and flew to Kentucky to see and experience what God was doing on the campus of Asbury University.
For sixteen days nonstop, the prayer and worship gathering at Asbury University inspired tens of thousands of people to get involved. There’s no question about it, many lives were changed. I believe it was a real revival and a real outpouring of the Spirit. I did not get to visit the Asbury campus, but by watching it on the internet and my iPhone, I got caught up into the spirit of renewal and revival. And I prayed here in Baton Rouge that the hunger for renewal and revival would captivate us here at Jimmy Swaggart Bible College, at Family Worship Center and its media church members, as well as all those watching the SonLife Broadcasting Network. God’s awesome Spirit is stirring among us.
I pay close attention to what is going on in our society today. America has been experiencing some unbelievable negative and destructive events and activities these last few years. Think of the many violent episodes of crime and vandalism we have seen in some of the major cities of America recently. Think of the unbelievable shootings that are reported on the evening news, and this transgender movement, so destructive, that is gaining influence in America. Consider what the military forces of Russia are doing right now to destroy the nation of Ukraine. Civil wars are happening in Africa, Asia, and South America even now. America needs revival. The whole wide world needs revival badly.
Someone shared with me these ten characteristics of real revival, and I’d like to pass them on to you:
- Real revival occurs during times of great spiritual darkness and moral decline in a city or nation.
- Real revival begins when just a few believers become desperate, humble, and hungry for revival.
- Real revival happens only after much prayer, fasting, and repentance.
- Real revival happens when Christians truly renounce worldliness and sin.
- Real revival happens when there is strong conviction of the Holy Spirit in the worship services.
- Real revival happens because of the anointed preaching of the power of the blood and the power of the cross.
- Real revival requires a strong emphasis on humility and repentance of sin.
- Real revival will cause unusual manifestations of the Spirit of God.
- Real revival brings much love, joy, and gladness to the church.
- Real revival lingers when the congregation gives all the glory to God.
- Chronicles 7:14 reads, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Please take notice of the following five points:
- The Holy Spirit says, “If my people, which are called by my name.” Revival comes when the church listens and obeys God’s Word. This verse is not to the world.
- The word here commands us to humility. To be a victorious church, we must realize that we really need the mercy and grace of God.
- The church must pray and seek the face of God. We must approach God in prayer with sincere earnestness and humility.
- The church must admit to its sinful wicked ways and turn from them to do the will of God. Repent means to turn and go in another direction.
- If we do these things, God said that He will hear our prayers, forgive our sins, and heal our land.
What happened at Asbury University can happen in every church and every city in this nation.
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