On Pentecost, Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit. They spoke the Word of God in special, inspirational ways. Emotions were expressed and the Holy Spirit was blowing, changing lives, starting spiritual fires.
Another revival took place at Asbury University, a Christian college in Wilmore, KY after a morning worship service. Twenty students stayed after and prayed. They sat in smaller groups.
The spontaneous moment of prayer stretched into the afternoon and kept going into the evening when hundreds returned. The next day hundreds more showed up; not just students but people from the surrounding cities and even other states.
The student newspaper posted online about sins confessed and salvation announced, “Cries of addiction, pride, fear, anger and bitterness sounded, each followed by a life-changing proclamation: ‘Christ forgives you.’” The school president recalls thinking, “We don’t know where it’s heading, but we know it’s good and bigger than us” (https://time.com/6258703/asbury-christian-revival-america-connection/).
By Friday 3,000 people were participating, about as many as were baptized on the Day of Pentecost in the Bible. Just ten days after it began, the hashtag #asburyrevival had been viewed more than 60 million times (https://www.premierchristianity.com/news-analysis/gen-zs-first-revival-what-really-happened-at-asbury-university/15173.article). After two weeks and thousands more joining the revival, it all wrapped up. The event wasn’t without incident as school officials needed to make quick decisions about participants expressing their particular views inappropriately.
Why do I tell you this? Because the Holy Spirit is not bland, on our leash, and boring but is bigger than us in grace and God’s gifts. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
The Holy Spirit is not dry and lifeless, or disappearing somewhere in a musty church basement but is dynamic and active wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed in Word and Sacrament.
Where the Holy Spirit is, there is revival, and that brings me to the third and final place of revival: you … us … here!
If you have been baptized, you have been born again by the Holy Spirit who has come down from heaven to rest on Christ in you, for a new life that isn’t controlled by old ways or cursed by ongoing struggles with sin. That’s revival!
If you are teaching your children how to worship and say prayers and trust God in times of trouble, the Holy Spirit is moving into them and building a home in their life to lead them spiritually through peer pressure when they’re away from your home and at school. That’s revival!
If you are fighting the good fight of addiction, gender confusion, marriage or divorce difficulties, pornography or screen time overload with repentance that pursues more of God and less of you, that friction creates sparks used by the Holy Spirit to kindle the fires of faith and holiness in ways that your will power can’t. That’s revival!
If your church educates children in Jesus’ name, gathers together for small groups in Jesus’ name, welcomes everyone warmly to worship in Jesus’ name, reaches out to the community in Jesus’ name, and witnesses to Jesus’ name in its preaching, teaching and personal conversations, the Holy Spirit is walking with that church on Jesus’ mission performing miracles of rebirth and renewal. That’s revival.
It’s here. It’s now. It’s happening in you. It’s happening among us. It’s God. We don’t know where it’s heading, but it’s good and it’s bigger than us. Amen.
PRAYER: Let’s make it a revival, God! You’re here. I’m here. Other Christians are here. We’re born again by the Spirit and the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed for salvation.
SPIRITUAL NEXT STEP: How many times in one week can you say the word “revival?”
