Since our church is within relatively driving distance of Asbury, I have been getting a lot of questions concerning what is going on. Since the same three questions have been coming up repeatedly, I thought I would make this quick post and video with my thoughts. I hope you find it helpful.

First of all, it warms my heart to see so many people curious about what God is doing. My hope is it encourages God's people to realize God is still active and interested in moving among His people. Jesus' miracles in the Gospel of John were called "signs." They pointed to Jesus. Whenever God does something "out of the ordinary," they are signs pointing to Himself. I pray this will keep God in the minds of His people and grow a hunger that cannot be satisfied by the status quo.

1- Is it "of God?" 🤔

It breaks my heart to hear this as the first question people ask. We live in a culture of counterfeits, so I don't begrudge anyone for the questions. However, I get frustrated with people who make snap decisions before attending or listening to the testimonies.
Respectfully, I'll say you are asking the wrong question. A better question is,

"Who is it glorifying?"

It takes a long time to gauge the fruit of anything. When I was a part of the Brownsville revival, they always said from the stage, "We don't care if you shake or fall. We care about your walk with God when you leave here."  We won't know the fruit of what God is doing for some time in the future. However, we can determine the focus now. From what I hear, the focus at Asbury is continually praising God, calling a nation to repentance, and making a difference in their community. That sounds like their focus is in the right place.

Caution!! If unsure, see for yourself where the focus is and who they are glorifying.

2- Why doesn't God do that everywhere? 🤷

The short answer is I don't know. Michael Brown says,

"We can no more schedule a revival than we can schedule a hurricane. They are divine acts of God. All we can do is be ready when they come."

God does what He will do; we cannot manipulate Him to do anything else. Also, seeing God move in a unique way takes a willingness to seek after Him and patiently in prayer. Most people are unwilling to do the hard work of spiritually tilling the ground, planting seeds of faith, watering those seeds with spiritual growth, and waiting for the fruit to come.

Our job is to pray and trust God to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons.

3- How can we "get God" to do that here?

God can do anything, anywhere, all the time.
The problem usually isn't Him. It's us. God's Word says...

2 Chronicles 7:14, "If My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from Heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land."

What I have noticed is that God is ready to move. He wants to forgive people of any sin and heal our land. He has laid out the template to see Him do great things in our generation. Here are the three things I have noticed when God moves...

1- Revival begins with prayer.

God moves when we focus on humble prayer and intercession.
When you see God moving in a special way, you can almost bet someone has been praying for it to happen for a long time. When God's Spirit began to move in a special way at the Brownsville revival, it was because the church had been praying for years beforehand. God will move IF you will pray.

2- Revival points to repentance.

There is nothing higher on God's agenda than for His people to find forgiveness and be brought close to Him. God moves when we focus on repentance and come back to Him.
The primary reason God moves is to draw people to Himself. He is more interested in your freedom than in your experiences. So, a great way to tell if God is "in" something is to see where it points people.

3- Revival celebrates what God is doing through worship.

Worship becomes the response to what God is doing. Worship is the byproduct of freedom. You can see this in all aspects of life. When something good happens, we celebrate. That is what worship is. Worship is celebrating God's goodness in our lives.

I hope this helps bring clarity to this discussion. I am excited to see what continues to happen in Asbury and even more excited to see how it creates a hunger in God's people to see more. God is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all we could ask or think if we are willing to draw close to Him.