Responding to Asbury

How to "Bless what God is Doing"

I think by now, we are all aware of the remarkable outpouring of God’s Spirit that is currently happening at Asbury University in Kentucky. As expected, we’ve been responding in different ways to the viral news. Yet, how we respond matters, so let’s consider this together.

First of all, if anyone needs to be caught up to speed on the outpouring, here are the last two Come Aside articles, Revival in Canada and Beginnings of Revival?. I want to reemphasize the idea that I wrote about in the first article, that revival at its most basic, is Jesus being revealed and us responding to that revelation with awe and worship. Then secondly, the idea that revival is an act of God’s mercy, not our achieving it, and because it is His mercy that is new every morning, we can expect He will somehow reveal Jesus to the younger generation who has not had the benefit of experiencing some of the previous moves of God that us older ones have. God’s heart is moved with compassion for them. Ours should be as well.

I won’t give you a full accounting of the outpouring, because I’m not there. However I’ve been following it as closely as I can from afar and would commend to you these reports:

• Bill Effill’s blog posts Part one, Part two, and Part three - each of these brings a humble, mature perspective from a true spiritual father.

• Remnant Radio’s discussion about what is happening, which is based on being on site, not just critiquing from a distance. The three pastors you’ll hear in this clip are Charismatic leaders who have been working to try to mentor the biblical usage of the gifts of the Spirit.

A VARIETY OF RESPONSES

As people become aware of what is happening in Asbury you can notice a variety of responses. We mustn’t think that our response doesn’t matter to God— when ever He draws near He always notices how we respond. It’s a bit of a litmus test. We have a visitation of the Spirit happening right now and how we respond reveals our heart. As we see our heart condition revealed, it could show us our need for healing, or even repentance. Let’s consider some of the various ways we might respond and what could be going on in our hearts:

• Excited, I need to check it out, I want to go to Asbury! This might be a God-honouring desire to get near to where He’s moving so that we can encounter Him, but it might also be that we are behaving like the crowds that followed Jesus when He was doing mighty miracles. Let’s be careful that we are seeking Him, not just wanting to be where the action is for the entertainment/excitement factor. Jesus had lots of spectators, but in the end, not many true disciples.

• Cynical, I’ve seen a bunch of these “outpourings” before and none of them were real. Be very careful here if this is how you are inclined to respond. Let the Lord take you back to where you first felt that disappointment and disillusionment. Did a seed of bitterness or unbelief get rooted in your heart? Has your heart become hardened or fearful of the idea of revival because of painful disappointments or having experienced man’s attempt to conjure up a revival?

• Reserved, I’ll wait and see what happens- will it continue, will there be measurable fruit? While this may seem like a wise, measured approach it echos the response of Gamaliel:

  “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5:38,39).

  Now Gamaliel didn’t directly oppose the work of God, but neither did he end up leading the council of the Pharisees to embrace the gospel and the revelation of Jesus, the Messiah. He stayed safely aloof and uncommitted.
  
  If we are responding this way, let’s search our hearts. Do we want to protect ourselves or our reputations in case things go off the rails like they did with Todd Bentley or other movements? We can choose to self-protect and make sure we’re not embarrassed through adopting a wait-and-see attitude, but think through scripture, and even revival history if you have some familiarity with it— has that wait-and-see posture been the one the Lord commends? Might there be more pride or fear in the mix than actual wisdom?

• Wohoo, God’s doing it again, PARTY! Again, be careful here. If we expect every move of God to be a replay of previous ones, we’ll be off key. From all I’ve read and the clips I’ve watched, this is not a reboot of the Toronto Blessing, it’s a sober, sweet, pouring out of the love and holiness of God that is utterly captivating. Let’s not presume we know how to “do revival”, let’s get low, draw near and let God be God.

BLESS WHAT GOD IS DOING

The response I would suggest, (and I’m in good company here) is the response to a move of God recommended throughout history by the likes of Jonathan Edwards, Henry Blackaby, and John Wimber:

Notice what God is doing and lean in, bless it,

align your heart with the current work of the Spirit,

partner with God in what He’s doing.

This involves humility and hunger.

Humbly recognizing we don’t have what God is doing in Asbury here in Canada, but we need it, our teens and young adults need it especially. We are not full, our programs are not sufficient, so we are willing to openly confess our lack and our deep need for Jesus. We hunger and thirst for Jesus to draw near and rescue, heal, and save a generation.

We don’t come to God with any ideas of how to cultivate or shape what He’s doing, rather we notice and yield. We follow the Spirit rather than trying to lead Him.

WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE

Here are some practical suggestions for how to do this for those who might feel a bit of a need for a starting place:

• Pray- this is obvious, but it’s still important to mention it. Pray that what has begun will be protected and honoured, and also that it will spread. Pray that it won’t be co-opted or distorted by those who want to use it for their own purposes. Pray that it will be held as holy. Pray for those shepherding and leading in different capacities, that they would keep creating a space for God to move as He desires.

• Pray- for the Asbury outpouring to multiply in colleges, churches, bible colleges, and seminaries. Focus your prayers on the younger generation regardless of how much you personally would love to receive a fresh touch. Of course it’s not one or the other, but notice that God is particularly moving in the youth— bless that.   

• Make space- Notice the way God is moving in Asbury and make space in your life and your church for that same Holy Spirit emphasis. Give room for conviction of sin and repentance if the Lord starts brooding over hearts. Allow for more waiting on God, longer spaces of worship and expressions of hunger without trying to manufacture or hype something into being. Don’t fake it, lean in.

• Believe- Hold your heart in a posture of faith in God’s mercy and His ability to pour out regardless of how broken or dysfunctional our churches might be. We can never earn revival, we can never save ourselves. He’s the one who rains on the just and the unjust (Mt 5:45). He’s the one who encourages us to ask for rain in the time of rain (Zec 10:1).

• Worship- Give more intentional time to worship Jesus and honour Him — this is the spirit of the Asbury outpouring— extravagant, heartfelt worship. Join in to the flow, not as a means to an end, but because that’s what God is doing right now.

A STRATEGIC MOMENT

Before I close, I want to make sure we are aware of the strategic moment we are in, a moment that could lead to extraordinary convergence. Let’s saturate each of these upcoming events in prayer, God could use all of them to exponentially multiply this current outpouring.

1. Ash Wednesday - Feb 22- Liturgical churches will be gathering to mark the beginning of Lent, and those liturgies take the congregations into a carefully guided reflection of “see if there be any wicked way in me” allowing space for the Spirit to convict of sin in the beautiful way He does. This ends up being a deep time of corporate repentance and is, in my experience, incredibly filled with the  presence of God as hearts get right, renewed, sin is washed away, and joy restored. I always say this is the most revival-oriented service of the year, so pray that God uses it powerfully this year!   

2. Jesus Revolution Film - Feb 22- The movie about the Jesus Movement is due for release next week. What might that mean? How might that restore faith and hope for a fresh move of God that is similar in scope and impact? Let’s pray!

3. Collegiate Day of Prayer - Feb 23- Remarkably, for the last year, this national (US) day of prayer for campus revival has been on the calendar. It’s going to be live-streamed from Asbury, to over 1,700 campuses! Could we add our prayers to this moment, perhaps praying for YOUR nearest college campus, bible college or seminary?

RESPOND LIKE HEAVEN DOES

Regardless of how much we are able to lean in to this moment, let’s not miss this day of visitation. Even if the Spirit lifts today and it all winds up, we still want our response to be the same as the response of heaven:

 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:4-7