There are different words used over the history of Christianity to describe a supernatural work of God in the hearts, minds, and lives of people. The often used word is revival, which basically means to come back to life. In historical revivals thousands of people came to faith in Christ in a short amount of time. Those great revivals in the past usually had an individual who was the main preacher/evangelist. Another term is “Awakening,” and another is “Renewal,” which would be a time of lukewarm, backslidden, nominal Christians getting on fire for God with repentance of sin being a major part of what happens followed by heart felt worship and commitment to seek the Lord and serve Him. Most people use the terms interchangeably which is fine because usually all the elements of revival, awakening, and renewal are there which are anointed preaching of the Word, repentance of sin and apathetic living in a worldly way, reconciliation between people who have been bitter towards each other, spontaneous worship, and commitments to seek God through Bible reading, prayer, scripture memory, and gathering with other believers. The most distinctive element written about in all revivals, awakenings, and renewals has been the very powerful sense of God’s presence which is what initiates the event in the first place. The Revival/renewal happening right now at Asbury University is on the news, Facebook, talk shows, and every social media outlet there is. I have been reading everything I can find on the event, watching video clips put on social media by those attending the event. There are people from every State and many countries of the world showing up.

It is of great interest to me because I have read most books written on past revivals and awakenings, I have been praying for revival in our country for a number of years, and when JBC has its prayer events revival gets prayed for often. At our last “Five Days of Prayer” event I was sure that revival was going to break out in Jefferson soon. Revival starts with the powerful presence of God being manifest and it ends when that presence leaves.

Historically revivals end when to many people try to lead or control what is happening, when to many people start showboating and pretending to be impacted by God’ presence, and the effects start happening purely from the emotion generated by genuinely changed lives.

The genuineness of a revival according to Leonard Ravenhill who studied revivals probably more than anyone else is that it is spontaneous. The revival happening in Ausbury seems to be that from everything I have read and heard.

I am thinking seriously about driving back to Kentucky and seeing if I can experience some of what is happening. I am going to wait until Tuesday to see how hot the fire is still burning. In the meantime, I am going to see if I can find some others who would like to go, and a car that gets good gas mileage. My grandson and some friends are there now and will probably be back by Tuesday so I can get a report from them on what is happening.