Standing at the Back of the Room

The goodness of making space for others...

The outpouring at Asbury caught everyone’s attention. As it should. Many rushed to experience it and to quench their desperate thirst for God’s presence, if Kentucky was a wee bit closer, I’d have been right in the middle of that crowd!

It now appears that there remains an afterglow, where those who have had the gift of encountering God in those golden, glorious days have been changed and are living out of that change. Some are saying revival has broken out in other places. I don’t refute that but I do know that we tend to exaggerate (with the best of intentions) even the most embryonic signs of a genuine move of God. Without being on the ground in the colleges or churches that are reporting a continual visitation, it’s impossible to know how much might be that same grace from heaven vs a hopeful enthusiasm. I sure hope it’s the former!

Even still, I know from experience that it’s impossible to encounter the Lord in that level of intensity and not be changed. To borrow lyrics from John Mark McMillan:

“When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions,

eclipsed by glory.

And I realize just how beautiful you are

and how great your affections are for me.”

(O How He Loves- John Mark McMillan, 2007)

ENCOUNTERED BY JESUS

That’s just it, isn’t it? We suddenly are captivated by His presence, His beauty, and utterly undone by His love. Time stands still, afflictions, anxieties, and temporal pressures fade into the fuzzy background and all we are aware of is the glory and love and goodness of the One who is revealing Himself to us. In scripture, the most common response to these kinds of encounters was to fall, or collapse, to the ground.

These encounters go to the core of your soul and shape you permanently. You can never fully walk away or convince yourself that God isn’t real or doesn’t love you after these transcendent moments.

So I am confident that what has just been experienced by thousands, will continue to grow and bear fruit —whether it’s in public meetings or in prayer closets. God is not done. This was a foretaste of the way He desires to encounter a generation and there is much more to come. You can take that as my prophecy.

RESPONDING

With that in mind, how do we respond to this moment?

At the top of the list is intercession. Becoming like the Shunammite woman who would not relent until Elisha himself came and resurrected her son (2 Ki 4:24-35). No half-measures were going to satisfy her. Friends, let’s keep asking, seeking, and knocking for full-blown, widespread, revival and renewal.

But let’s also notice the unique, specific way God is moving right now and position ourselves in alignment. Asbury has been about presence, worship, and repentance.

And God is specifically targeting Gen Z.

That matters.

FATHERS AND MOTHERS

It’s time for us who have had those life-changing moments in God’s presence as a part of our story, to serve the next generation as fathers and mothers, regardless of our age. Of course, we want to encounter Jesus afresh, but should we not be deeply concerned for a generation that has, by in large, not had that experience? They have been ravaged by despair, tormented by lies, and led down a path of destruction. Could we catch the Father’s heart and be gripped with compassion for them?

Think for a moment about all the fathers and mothers in the gospels who sought out Jesus on behalf of their children. None of them said to Christ, “so I do have this kid at home that is deathly ill or demonized— but my request is that you’d bless me!”

Or think of the story of the friends who opened up the roof in the house that Jesus was teaching in so that they could let down their paralyzed friend.

 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. Lu 5:18,19

They didn’t open up the roof and jump in themselves so they could be blessed, they stayed on the roof and lowered their friend.

This was the heart that was modeled at Asbury.

As I’ve read reports, I landed on a couple of accounts of those who served in the backrooms. Initially a handful of leaders gathering in a random storage closet quickly evolved to be the command centre for the de facto leadership team that pastored and protected the outpouring. Servant-leaders in every sense of that word.

In that team were older, mature leaders, some professors at the University, some renowned theologians, who sacrificed not being in the auditorium so they could steward what God was doing through prayer and administration behind the scenes. There is something here for us to learn. Were they hungry for God? I would venture a guess that they were even more hungry than the young people worshiping in the auditorium, but they held that hunger in an incredible maturity, choosing to serve rather than rushing to receive— for the sake of the next generation.

There are elements of this maturity that we want to understand and embrace so we too can walk this way. It’s one of the key ways we can prepare— in addition to our contending intercession— for more waves of this outpouring. What are some of the elements that we could adopt?

• A faith that there is more than enough of God’s blessing to go around. Rejecting the poverty mentality which believes that God will ration out encounters to the most worthy and you have to prove your desire/worth by being front row at every meeting, jostling and elbowing your way through the crowd so you can be noticed by God.
  
  This faith that yields space to others is not to be confused with indifference, which might also hold back, rather it is a confidence that Jesus sees us even as we serve in a backroom or hold ropes on a roof. Then because He sees us, He sees our longing and has all ability to encounter us. He’s generous and faithful to His word to draw near to the humble, to feed those who hunger for righteousness, and to reveal Himself to the pure in heart (Jas 4:6-8, Mt 5:6, 5:8). It’s His character to be unwilling to send hungry away empty (Mt 15:32).
  

• Secondly, a faith that we don’t need to go through a priest to encounter Jesus.
  Sadly, in the last major move of God, the Renewal, (or Toronto Blessing) the biblical practice of impartation (2 Tim 1:6,7) became distorted into an unbiblical idea that having hands laid on you or a word given to you by one of the “spiritual elite class” (like a priesthood) was necessary to get an encounter or breakthrough. That idea remains today in some circles.
  
  We set up this de facto “priesthood” of Christian celebrities who were either in ministry or had had powerful encounters themselves. They became an elite class who seemed to have access to God in ways that the common Christian didn’t. Let’s reject that unbiblical idea and put our faith back on Jesus, not reaching for celebrities or their anointings.
  

• Thirdly, a practice of recognizing God drawing near and enjoying communion with Jesus as you enable others to be blessed, rather than clamouring for it yourself. There are two great commandments, not one. Yes, loving God comes first, but the second is like it and you can’t separate them. “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 1 Jn 4:20b,21.
  
  Yes, there is a blessing that comes from being postured at the feet of Jesus like Mary of Bethany, but there are also times, that our adoration of Him is expressed as serving others. Jesus modeled this (Phil 2:4-7).

MORE OUTPOURINGS

If we are in a time where we will see more outpourings in different ways and different places, this posture of a parent is needed. This is one who has been touched by the love of God and is now willing to lay down their lives and their opportunities to be blessed so that a generation who has never had this experience can deeply receive.

We need an army right now of spiritual parents who are willing to labour in prayer for more birthing contractions of revival, more outpourings of grace and mercy, especially sweeping through Gen Z. It’s not about trying to make something happen, but leaning in, holding space for God to move, unwilling to move off of our intercession for the kids.

We also need an army of spiritual parents who, when God begins to move in our area,  don’t put up our elbows and push others aside so we can save seats at the front of the room, but rather who step aside and make room for the kids, fully confident that as we do, Jesus can find us and meet us in our places of hunger and longing at the back of the room. We need to be ready to serve and sacrifice. That’s what parents do.