ASBURY
As many of you know, my wife, Janene, prophesied about a strong move of the Holy Spirit which was coming. That word was passed on to you on February 15 in an Edition of Locusts and Honey entitled “A Freight Train is Coming”. At that time I referred to the prophecy as having come a couple of weeks prior to that. That prophetic word came to Janene during a church service on February 5, 2023. The Asbury Revival of 2023 broke out at a service held at Asbury University on February 8, 2023.
I am delighted that God would move powerfully among students and young people. However, I am disappointed to find out that College Authorities, Civic Authorities and Law Enforcement have determined to shutdown this powerful move of God by having the Asbury College Authorities mandate that the last public worship service be scheduled for today, February 20 at 2:00 P.M. and the last evening service for college-age and high school students be held on Thursday, February 23.
All of this is concluded due to the fact that parking and seating capacity has been exceeded and a desire to maintain a spirit of “good-will and humility” with the community. The President of Asbury states that they are trying to “discern the right balance between orderliness for our university students, faculty and staff and our campus visitors—and creating space for individuals to have a life-transforming Christ-centered encounter.” Despite these pretty words, there apparently is no room at the Inn for the life-transforming revival which will be moved to some unnamed location elsewhere in Kentucky. I find this to be disappointing.
Ask yourself this question: Does God desire to see this revival to continue? I believe the answer is “Yes”. Also, ask yourself, does Satan desire to see this revival continue? The answer is “No”. Do the actions of this college help the revival to continue or instead to shut it down? The answer is obvious.
In short, revivals are nice but let’s get back to what is really important which is doing business as usual as a teaching university and as a city. We don’t need the crowds, the congestion or the life changing power of the Spirit. Like the people of Gadara in the Bible, they want to get back to business as usual. We would rather live with the demon-possessed in chains and our pigs on the slopes instead of inundated by the water in Lake Galilee. When the people of Gadara had spoken, Jesus did as they wished, got into his boat and left for elsewhere.
We talk of revivals and moves of the Spirit, but when they come, we really don’t want them. The long-suffering town of Wilmore, Kentucky (30 miles from Lexington, Ky) with its college and seminary and population of 6,000 people weathered the revival and outpouring of the Holy Spirit for a total of twelve whole days. It is time to get back to the reality of studying about revivals rather than participating in them. What a shame.
In contrast, the Azusa Street Revival went on in Los Angeles in 1906 through 1915. I wonder what would have happened if it had been shut down after 12 days so that there would have been a good witness to the community. I think we need to be much more concerned about offending God than offending our neighbors. The early apostles in Acts kept on preaching rather than obey the dictates of the political authorities of their time believing that it was more right to please God than to please man.
The closing down of churches and revivals are often masked with the very best of motives. Here we see such excuses as the need to comply with parking requirements, capacity requirements, and the need to be nice to our neighbors and to our businesses. It seems to me that the excuses go more to the approval of men and secular authorities than to God. I have written in the past in my 2018 Book entitled Death of the American Church- Volume Two about how zoning, occupancy and parking restrictions can be used against the church. Further, all of us have of late experienced how health promulgations have been used against the church during the COVID Epidemic, including the shutting down of churches.
I can imagine how modern statutes such as those we have today might have been used in Biblical times. When Peter’s house was filled to capacity and the lame man was lowered from the roof through the ceiling, the local police might have showed up and shut down the meeting due to too many donkeys in the area and the violation of zoning ordinances and capacity restrictions. Obviously there was not enough seating.
With thousands later on the hillside, hearing the Beatitudes, the police might come and shut it down due to the fact that there are not enough food vendors and porta potties.
In actuality, Jesus did have to move out of houses and even out of cities as the crowds became too big. We find Jesus teaching on the hillsides and from boats along the shore because of the crush of people. People are seeking God and when God wants to move, people want to be there. It is unimaginable to me that we want to kick God out of a revival and want to return to business as normal. God has come to break the pattern. He wants to change lives not to slightly improve their education. In my opinion, you would do better to get out of the way and let God do what he wants to do than seek to manage God and his revivals.
Perhaps, God in his mercy will allow this revival to spread. Perhaps other places will catch fire and only embers will remain at Asbury. I don’t know. I do know that it is wrong to seek to manage and control the Spirit of God and his work in renewing people.
God can use any number of adverse situations for His plan. He used the Persecution after the death of Stephen to spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. Perhaps God in his mercy will use this situation to further spread the fire of revival elsewhere through our country and the world. I hope so!
