What is happening right now at Asbury University should not only be the headline in all our news feeds, it should be the first thing Christians greet one another with:

Revival is breaking out in Kentucky! Wanna take a road trip?

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After eight days and nights of continuous prayer and worship on this quaint, Kentucky campus, the only establishment coverage I have found so far is by NBC News and Tucker Carlson. Refreshingly, both stories are very well done.

The setup is simple. No projector screens or high-tech integrations, just wooden sanctuary chairs filled with people, and an open altar call with an invitation to prayer that still hasn’t ended. ~ NBC News

At the time of writing, The TikTok hashtag #AsburyRevival has over 25 million views.

Tucker Carlson invited an Asbury student to come on his show to provide a first-hand account.

Tucker opened the segment by suggesting the hyper-politicizing of everything that happens in our world is forcing people to ask better questions. More important questions. Spiritual questions.

Politics has no meaningful solution as evil is aided and abetted to flood into our families, schools, society, and souls. Particularly, when politics is the root cause for much of the onslaught.

This is when Tucker hints — People are being forced to find theological language to discern and decipher our devilish dilemma.

Tucker asks the student about the revival. “What is this?” She joyfully replies with a verse from the Bible:

Look among the nations and see. Wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if you were told. ~ The Book of Habakkuk, Chapter 1

So What is This?

On Wednesday, Feb 8, the normally scheduled chapel service took a rare, seldom-traveled path. It was not in response to a well-positioned smoke machine or the retrofitted tour bus of a hot new Christian artist. Instead, the speaker lowered his guard and made himself vulnerable before the students.

He spoke of sexual abuse at the hands of his father and set it within the context of Romans 12:

Let love be genuine…love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Precisely how do we love and honor those who have harmed us most? When someone is brave enough to pull the pin on a truth grenade like this, it detonates within every heart.

The chapel service came to an end, but a dozen or so students lingered. The worship team began playing again and a student stepped up to the microphone and confessed his sexual brokenness. Nearly 200 hours later, we are all grateful he did.

Throughout history, one of the stalwart hallmarks of Christian revival has been the public confession of sin. This may seem strange to the casual reader, but in a day where hurting people are trained to twist their wounds into a self-affirming identity, the confession of sin before a holy God is the most natural thing you can do.

The difference between intersectional victimization and Holy Spirit conviction of sin is this: One leads to eternal bondage and the other leads to eternal freedom.

I remember when revival broke out at my two son’s Christian High School. The script was nearly identical.

A guest speaker came to the chapel service and shared a very personal account of sexual abuse. That pulled pin permitted several boys to step up to the microphone and confess their ensnaring sexual struggles.

The chapel ended, but a few lingered. And that lingering turned into a campus-wide explosion of prayer, confession, worship, and love. Huddles of students were found everywhere praying for one other. Students who reluctantly attended the school at the demand of their parents suddenly desired baptism. And the fires that started to burn on campus were quickly brought back to their homes.

Our home was one of them.

Our older son had severely sprained his ankle just a few weeks before he was to play the lead in the school play. As I walked into the kitchen, I heard a pace of speaking that carried an element of heartfelt pleading.

As I quietly peeked around the counter, I saw my younger son holding the injured ankle of his brother asking God to heal it.

With the same tears now that I had then, I can tell you my son’s ankle was not only healed, but he “Broke a leg” in that show.

And What Stops It?

Pastor Bill Johnson says: The Lord starts every revival. But we are the ones who stop them.

The priests of Old Testament Israel were charged to keep the holy fires burning:

The fire on the altar shall be kept burning. It shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning…fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually. It shall not go out. ~ The Book of Leviticus, Chapter 6

Adonai is the One who starts the fire without a match, but He charges us to collect the wood, cherish the flames, and take every care to protect it from being doused.

I told my boys: Do whatever it takes to keep these fires burning so this doesn’t become just another, ‘Remember when’ event.

What we are hearing from Asbury is something the broader church can learn from. There is no one leading the event. There is very little preaching but there is continuous worship. There are no Christian celebrities, authors, or bands beckoning the crowds to come.

The presence of the Holy Spirit is filling the room so I don’t want to be anywhere else. People are being delivered, healed, saved, and set free. But most of all: Everyone is simply enjoying the presence of God. ~ Asbury Student

When Yahweh is releasing His glory, it’s best to not say much. Yet too often, we can’t seem to help ourselves.

The nation-changing Azusa Street Revival (1906 – 1908) was one of the most powerful and significant revivals America has ever experienced. Supernatural signs and wonders abounded as a glowing glory cloud would sometimes settle over the building. Uncountable numbers were saved, healed, baptized in the Spirit, and dispatched across the country carrying revival fire like Olympic torch bearers.

But first-hand accounts describe how the flow of power quickly became crimped or quenched when people failed to honor and revere what The Host desired.

Hearing about the outpouring and desiring to be associated with it, itinerant preachers would travel to the Bonnie Brae house to deliver a message. As the speaker took their place and began preaching, the palpable power of the presence of God quickly dissipated and everyone in the room knew it — except the preacher.

Scripture portrays the Holy Spirit as a gentle, potentially fleeting dove. We are told it is possible to both grieve and quench Him. At the baptism of Jesus, it says:

Behold, the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and came to rest upon Jesus. ~ The Gospel of Matthew

Like a dove.

One of my passions is the honor of leading worship in the prayer rooms. The songs are merely the tool. The opening of heaven and the descending of the dove is always our goal. And so, our worship is not always robust hymns and boisterous choruses. Sometimes our worship is romancing, wooing, loving, and coaxing as we invite the Spirit of God to rest upon us.

And once He does, everyone hold your breath so as not to startle the dove.

The Asbury revival is a precious pearl to all of us. May this blaze spread to the north, south, east, and west and settle upon our churches, our schools, and our homes. And when it does, may we humbly listen before we speak, bow before we move, and enjoy the glorious presence of The Lord. In everything we do, may the dove be at rest upon us.

Please post your prayers in the comments!