[revival] "I WAS AT the ASBURY REVIVAL" -by Tom 'The Hawk'.It is rather difficult for me to express to each of you in words whatoccurred on my visit to Asbury College this past Friday but I willtry. The words that come to mind are overwhelmed, unpretentious,amazing, awesome, unnerving, and simplistic, yet powerful.Thursday night I had a group of people over at the houseworshipping the Lord. The intention was for several of us to go toAsbury the following evening.I live about three hours north of the college and so we would leaveafter I got home from work.I called my wife and told her to pack usan overnight bag in case we needed to stay the night.It’s funny how we are sometimes reluctant to go somewhereoutside of our area, thinking things like, “Why do we have to goto _____ to see or experience God or His working?” or “If God isdoing that there He’ll do that here too.” Funny how we’ll travelhundreds and thousands of miles and even cross the oceans tosee an event like the Super Bowl or the Olympics and yet have adifficult time going three hours down the road to see if God is there.Makes you wonder about where our priorities lie.Asbury is just south of Lexington, KY, and as we approachedLexington the snow began to come. Fortunately we were only afew minutes away.We arrived at the college and I thought that the building where thiswas happening would be obvious. I figured there would be a bunchof people around it and the cars would be parked all around there.Boy, was I wrong! Instead it looked like a normal Friday night on acollege campus - not much activity at all. I didn’t know if that wasnormal or simply due to the snowfall.We drove around for a while trying to locate the building where thiswas taking place and finally went down a driveway that looped infront of a number of buildings. Andy spotted the building we werelooking for but there was no place to park on the loop, so weparked the car out on the street.As I entered the hall I was totally overwhelmed by the presence ofGod. I don’t really know how else to explain it. It was totallyunexpected and I was absolutely overcome in my spirit. I rememberputting my hand to my heart and Andy asking me, “What?” Isimply replied, “I’m overwhelmed.”I couldn’t believe it! It was unlike anything I had expected!As I stood there I looked at the huge words over the front of the hall,which read, “HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD”. Truly this was a holyplace. There were only about two dozen people there. There was astillness in the air and such a wonder, “How can this be?” It wasreal and yet very unnerving. The living God is here!Andy told me he was going to go up front to pray. I told him to goahead. I felt somewhat frozen to where I was. I then noticed acouple of people praying down front, a couple of us standing, andthe majority of the people just sitting there. I fell to my knees andbegan to pray.After some time one of the men down front read a scripture aboutblind Bartemaeus. A couple of people got up and sang some songsof praise and worship to the Lord. I decided to go ahead and sitdown in one of the chairs that I was praying behind. When I did Irealized why most of the people were sitting.As I sat there I began to feel His love come over me. It was sooverwhelming that all I could do was to weep and weep and thankHim over and over again. We were all just basking in His love.The singing stopped and I would go from sitting to reading topraying to sitting to praying to reading and so on. All the whilepeople are coming and going. Another couple comes in and sitsdown across the aisle from me. They are both overcome by theLord and begin the weep.Another lady got up and began to play the piano. She didn’t sing -just played music. I don’t know why but as she played it was as ifthe Lord was drawing nearer and nearer to us. It was so intense forme that I remember asking Him to stop because it was simply toomuch for me to bear. He then said to me that this was just a dropin the bucket compared to His Fullness and that if He came in HisFullness it would be more than anyone could bear!I don’t know or really understand the whys and how of all of this. Ijust know that I had an experience, no, an encounter with God. Hislove for us is so powerful and so overwhelming that it is hard for meto adequately describe. All I know is that He has such a great lovefor all of us. I now know that there is nothing, nothing, nothing,ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that can separate us from His love. If wecould all only realize how great a love He has for us and receivethat just once in our lives we would never forsake Him or flee fromHis presence. Draw us Lord by your great unending andunchangeable love.After some time, I went to Andy and told him we needed to go. Heasked me why and I said that if we didn’t go I don’t know if I’d everleave. God’s presence was so powerful and yet so unnerving. Howcould this be and yet it was.I don’t know if this is revival or not but I am revived as a result.We left the hall, but that’s not the end of the story. When we gotinto the car we looked at the clock and realized we had been inthere for three hours. It seemed like just a short time and yet wehad spent hours with our Lord. It was as if time had stopped andwe felt like two very fortunate men to have enjoyed these momentswith our Lord.As we drove home I was overcome once more by His presence. Ibegan to weep again and speak of His great love for us. Andy toohad encountered God and had a renewed fervor to pray for our cityand for His love to be poured out upon our community.I don’t know what all of this means or where all of this will lead butthere is something about prayer that definitely moves the hand ofGod. Saints of the living God cry out to Him night and day and Hewill hear the cries of His people. He does not turn a deaf ear to theprayers of His people but is faithful and true to answer each andevery one according to His will and by His great love.Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; andthe peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guardyour hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen![To read the entirety of the above article, please go to the Forumat- http://www.revivalschool.com ]-----------------------------------------------------(2) "ANOTHER HOLY OUTBREAK at ASBURY" -by J. Lee Grady.A sense of revival erupted this week on a college campus inKentucky. It could be the sign of a spiritual tsunami headed our way.Students at Asbury College in Kentucky arrived for their usual10 a.m. chapel on Monday of this week. Some of them are still there today.Students are worshiping, weeping and praying. Many of them tookoff their shoes in Hughes Auditorium because they felt they werestanding on holy ground. A photo on the nondenominationalChristian college’s Web site shows students with their handsraised in praise as they crowd near the chapel’s altar.There's nothing else you can do when you meet your Creator faceto face like we did yesterday. -Student Ben Greenhoe“God’s will just broke out,” said one student, Michael Spann.“People were just yearning for God. I can’t even describe it. I didn’twant to leave until I felt the Lord was in me the way He wanted to be.”“There’s nothing else you can do when you meet your Creator faceto face like we did yesterday,” sophomore Ben Greenhoe said on Tuesday.The president of Asbury, Paul Rader, stayed in the auditoriumwatching the scene until midnight Monday. Folks in the small townof Wilmore, where Asbury is located, heard about the protractedmeeting and wandered in. A local grocer sent water and snacks tothe campus after hearing that the prayer service was going nonstop.Wednesday night there were several hundred students praying inthe chapel. Some stayed until 4 a.m.On Thursday Rader led the morning chapel and felt what he called“an awesome sense of expectation.” He said: “From the first praisechorus students began coming to the long altar at the front of theauditorium. Soon the altar was crowded with students again. Therewas incredible freedom in the Spirit as we sang and prayed andshared testimonies of God’s gracious work in the hearts of students.”This is not the first time Hughes Auditorium has been the site of arevival outbreak. On Feb. 3, 1970, the Holy Spirit invaded a chapelservice that was supposed to last 50 minutes. It lasted 185 hours,running 24 hours a day, and then continued intermittently for weeks.It eventually spread throughout the United States and to severalforeign countries.Asbury is an interdenominational Christian college with Wesleyanroots.The 1970 revival broke out when the school’s academic dean,Custer Reynolds, gave his testimony and then asked students toshare theirs. After several students spoke, Reynolds said something “broke.”“Then [students] started pouring to the altar,” Reynolds told theLexington Herald Leader.The newspaper noted: “Asbury, like many evangelical organizations,held annual, scheduled ‘revivals’ with guest ministers and servicesbooked in advance. This, however, was not the same. No one hadplanned it. No one was leading it.”Asbury’s president at that time, Dennis Kinlaw, was later askedby a reporter to explain what happened at Asbury. Kinlaw struggledto find the words to describe something that seemed holy and otherworldly.Said Kinlaw: “Well, you may not understand this, but the only wayI know how to account for this is that last Tuesday morning, about20 of 11, the Lord Jesus walked into Hughes Auditorium, and He'sbeen there ever since, and you've got the whole community payingtribute to His presence.”History books now say that the 1970 Asbury Revival spread to 130colleges, seminaries and Bible schools. Students from the schoolfanned out and shared their testimonies in churches and schoolsall across the nation, and their fervor spread like some kind ofheavenly virus.A 1970 book about the revival One Divine Moment by Asburyhistory professor Jeff Blake, described the event as a modernPentecost. Other historians have noted that it occurred at thesame time a neo-Pentecostal movement was breathing new lifeinto American churches during the Jesus movement.And all of this begs the question: Are we on the verge of anotherrevival of the same magnitude?Perhaps this week’s gathering at Hughes Auditorium is some typeof divine thermostat, helping us read the spiritual temperature?Could the outbreak of revival fervor among these students be thefirst faint sound of a huge wave that is headed our way?It would be just like God to orchestrate it this way. Genuine revivalhas an uncanny way of sneaking up on us. And when the HolySpirit comes in renewing power, He doesn’t come on our own timejust because we programmed Him to, nor does He visit the placeswe have prearranged.All I can do is take off my shoes and say: “Do it again, Lord.”[NOTE: The continual meetings seem to have wound down fornow. See the Asbury College website- http://www.asbury.edu ]J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
