Written by Beth Walsh
Good afternoon church family,
I have several “friends of friends” who are sharing their first hand accounts of being at this revival at Asbury and thoughts about what is taking place. Below I have posted one that has really stuck with me. The key takeaway from this post to me has been the importance of laying a foundation of prayer…putting in the work beforehand. I feel a great sense of urgency for as many of us as possible to be praying for this revival and revival across the world, but particularly right here at home. I think this is very timely considering Lent begins in a little over a week. However, we can’t wait for Lent to start. I’m asking for you to join me in prayer RIGHT NOW as we have an amazing opportunity to be a part of this right here in our community! Hang with me through this long email.
Many of you know that I am involved in a prayer group at SNU in which we have been praying for repentance and revival to come to our campus. We have been praying for almost two years for the same kind of movement of God that is happening at Asbury. We have seen answers to many of our prayers and God has raised up a small group of faithful students who have been meeting regularly to worship and pray. Many of these have experienced the filling of the Holy Spirit and have poured that back out by ministering to their peers and have seen friends and strangers on campus and off come to Christ.
I have just learned that a handful of these students are headed to Kentucky. They all wanted to go and were prepared to petition Dr. Newman to close campus so others could go to Asbury. However, some of the students felt impressed to stay behind and “lay the foundation” with prayer so that instead of SNU students going to revival, revival will come to them!
SNU is an integral part of our local community and in many ways sets the tone for our surrounding area and much of Bethany. I am firmly convinced that the neighborhood in which I live, the school district my kids (and the Campbells’) attend, and the surrounding areas, of which our church is part, have been flourishing in renaissance due to the faithfulness and diligence of true Christ-followers at BFC, SNU and BPS. However, there is a concerted effort in all of these places to corrupt and pervert the beautiful work the Holy Spirit has done. These few students are standing in the gap and refusing to let the enemy gain any more ground! Join me in praying for these students and for revival to come to SNU and spread to Southwest Christian and all surrounding churches and public schools! Already revival is spreading to other campuses – Ohio Christian, Indiana Wesleyan…Holy Spirit we are desperate for you to come here! Please join me now in praying for these students and for SNU!
Shared post:
“I have been posting much about the God Event taking place in Asbury. I want to share a couple of thoughts…stick with me as I get to the point. I remember years ago there were “car kits” available for the VW “Bug”. You could transform your “bug” into a variety of different looks. They were fiberglass kits that bolted onto the chassis of “bug” and you would suddenly be a Dune Buggy or a Duesenberg. I believe there was even a “Cobra” kit. For the untrained eye and the casual car buff it was difficult to differentiate between the “kit car” and the real thing. But for those who were actual car buffs and knew their cars, they had a foundation of knowledge that enabled them to know the real from the fake. I want to emphasize the word “foundation”.
First, I have no doubt to the reality and the genuineness of what is taking place in Asbury. One, because I have seen it before and have a foundational knowledge of what to look for and that doesn’t make me an expert, just an informed observer. Two, because I have studied and watched events like this in the past. They have a common denominator – a common foundation. In 1968 at the age of 16 when I experienced my first “revival” which went on for 23 days, there were several praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit on the church. Two or three ladies felt a desperate call to prayer for revival and were meeting a couple days a week in the basement of the church in a room right next to the coal bin This went on for nearly a year. I also would often find my dad literally wrapped around the altar of the church in the early morning hours and the late night hours pleading to God for an outpouring of His Spirit. I know from experience there were numbers of people in my college town of Spring Arbor who were praying for revival in 1970 along with others around the nation when it broke in Asbury and spread to my campus. The point – there is a foundation necessary for the real to be identified from the imposter. One only needed to dig past the fiberglass body to find underneath the chassis of a VW – fake. One only needs to dig far enough into revival to identify the sensational from the genuine. The sensational is human attempts to copy the genuine. You cannot humanly duplicate what God does. On the surface it might look similar, but underneath the surface if there is not a foundation of praying people desperate for and outpouring of God it is not God. Further, God always focuses on forgiveness, restoration, reconciliation, freedom from sin, a deep desire to press in ever closer to God and a deep sense of Presence and peace. During times like this there are healings and manifestations of the Spirit that may be outside of our understanding, but they do not become the focus. Human efforts on the other hand, tend to focus on the sensational. Those efforts are often “pushed” or “contrived”. I am reminded of moments in my life when we sang “Just As I Am” for the 56th time and yet no one was coming to the altar.
Jesus’ entire ministry was based on the foundation of spending time with the Father. There was a time when the disciples could not cast out a demon and Jesus’ response was intriguing – “This kind only come out with prayer and fasting”. To me this simply means, you haven’t spent enough time in the foundational efforts of prayer to be close enough to the Father to have the power necessary to do His will and experience the miraculous.
There will be some, who may try to “replicate” what is happening in Asbury today in their church service. Let me say, you will probably not get what they have because your foundation has not been built on prayer and you will carry an agenda into the pulpit built with human hands not the hands of God. Could it happen in spite of your human effort? It could, but likely not. This attempt to focus on the sensational and human replication of a God moment will not only ruin it for you, but it could potentially ruin the whole.
I am praying for a protection over Asbury and other campuses/churches that human hands will not touch what God is doing and that the focus will remain on salvation, restoration, freedom from sin, reconciliation and the restorative grace of God. There will probably be healings – don’t focus on that. There will probably be deliverance – don’t focus on that. Focus on Jesus! It is about Him. Keep praising Him. Keep singing His praise. Let the Holy Spirit do what He desires to do and stay focused. Jesus knew His lot in life because He had a foundation of prayer and in those final moments of prayer He was able to say, “Not My will but Thine be done”. So for the continued revival at Asbury – not your will but that of the Father. Be careful not to put human hands on it. When the Spirit is done its OK. When it feels that God has done His work, its OK to move on. Don’t attempt to humanly prolong what is a God moment. At the same time don’t put human hands on it to end it. For those who desire this event to come to your church, put the foundation under it – PRAY. It may happen only thru ‘prayer and fasting'”.
