The Holy Spirit in Revival: A Spiritual Awakening

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by some special friends of this ministry. Pastor Greg?

I wanted to say a special word of thanks to the Harvest Partners who make this ministry possible. Next time you're online, check out Pastor Greg's personal blog at blog.greglaurie.com. Pastor Greg Laurie points out when the culture seems to have lost its way, sometimes God brings a great spiritual awakening.

You know, in the late 60s and the early 70s, America seemed to be unraveling. But in the middle of the drug revolution, in the middle of the sexual revolution, God sent the Jesus revolution. So it's good to look back and reflect and learn from it because our prayer today is that God would do it again. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

You can find those reassuring words in 2 Peter chapter 3. And when a culture seems intent on its own destruction, sometimes God's hand moves in miraculous ways. It's happened before in the history of our country, and today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says it can happen again. But we play a part in bringing it to pass.

Glad you're along for a fascinating series that launches today. We're going to take a little walk down memory lane and revisit the last great spiritual awakening that happened in America called the Jesus movement, also called the Jesus revolution. This revival, this awakening impacted the church. It impacted the nation. And really, it impacted the world. Some might say, well, why go back and look at something like that? That was a long time ago.

Here's the answer. The fame of revival spreads the flame of revival. So it's good to look back and reflect and learn from it because our prayer today is that God would do it again. That we would see another spiritual move in our land.

Because I'll tell you what, our country desperately needs it. So back in the day, a lot of people wore their hair really long. I had long hair. I wish I had any hair right now. I miss hair. Listen, if you meet a bald guy and he says, I don't even care about hair. They're lying. They want hair.

Okay. I'm speaking on behalf of all bald men. So back in the day, hippies, as they were called, would admit they're hippies. Yeah, we're hippies. Now today we don't really have hippies. We have hipsters. But the difference between a hippie and a hipster is a hipster will not admit they're a hipster. Are you a hipster? I'm not a hipster.

Yeah, I need a latte and some avocado toast, please. Wait. Yeah. So let's think a little bit. We have some young people up here on the stage talking about parallels between the 60s. In the 60s, Noel, a lot of young people were using drugs. And this is before we knew as much about drugs as maybe we know today and how destructive they are. I would say today most people use drugs to numb themselves, to disconnect, to escape. Back in those days, many were using drugs, I have to say, myself included, because we were searching. And we were told, oh, man, if you take drugs, it will expand your consciousness, you know.

In fact, the mantra of the day was turn on, tune in, drop out. And many kids did, to their own detriment, I might add. But, you know, as you look at the culture today, you almost wonder if, like, it seems like people are looking for some kind of family, some kind of community, because so many come from broken families today. You had an interesting thought about where people go to find that.

Yeah. So people, I feel today, are going to social media trying to find their self-worth and just trying to chase that. Those likes are just trying to feel like they're wanted, like being a part of a group.

Like, back in the day, they were trying to find their self-worth, and I think it was Woodstock and other groups like that, just trying to, like, feel like they belong, a sense of community. And today, because of social media and everything, it's really just causing everyone to be separated and just being more isolated, more lonely than ever, than actually going face to face and finding that community out in the world, like where we should be, like, at church and stuff like that. Yeah, it's all an imitation of the church.

Wouldn't you say, Stephanie, you had some thoughts about that as well? And it reminded me as we looked back to the Jesus movement in time then and our generation now, how in Ecclesiastes it says that nothing is new under the sun, and every generation is chasing something to find their worth and their identity in. And I think it's so important that the church be aware of that as these new generations are coming, because we know God's Word doesn't change, and we know we all have that void in our heart, but we're seeking a relationship with Jesus, but how we approach that and how we connect, and as Noelle was saying, we're so isolated in our generation knowing and trying to learn how do we connect with that generation then, because things are different now. Yeah, very true, but like you said, nothing's new under the sun. Things are different, and in other ways, things are the same.

Here's the big paradigm shift. Back when I was a kid, we were rebelling against the status quo, and the status quo was largely conservative. It was like pro-family, pro-values, TV shows like Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver. Father was a good authority figure. Now we have modern family, a reinterpretation of the family, right?

Everything's different. So those young kids, many of them went into academia. They went into the media, and in many ways, they set the cultural cues, and now instead of it being a largely conservative worldview, it's largely a very, well, unbiblical worldview. And so when you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're like the new rebel, because you're not going with the grain of society. You're going counterculture. Counterculture now is biblical culture, and that's the interesting thing, how everything has sort of shifted since then.

But then there are some things that haven't changed. You know, back in those days, there were icons, musical icons like Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison of The Doors, and these are people that we're looked up to. But they all joined something called the 27 Club, and that's because they all died at the age of 27, all drug-related deaths. And fast-forward a generation. You had Kurt Cobain from Nirvana.

Fast-forward some more years. You have more recently Amy Winehouse and the DJ Avicii, electronic dance music. And I didn't realize his popularity until I watched a documentary on him on Netflix, and it was so sad because he's just a young guy, and he's catapulted into fame, and people are chanting his name, Avicii Avicii, and he's traveling the world and living the life that so many people want to live, and he's so miserable, and he starts drinking heavily, and he's damaging his body.

And ultimately he commits suicide. And I thought, you see, like you said, Stephanie, nothing is new under the sun. It's the same old problems, and it's the same answer. That's why our nation, that's why this generation needs another Jesus revolution, another spiritual awakening. And, you know, I think this is something that we can pray for boldly. I don't think we need to be timid when we ask God to send an awakening.

I don't think we pray along the lines of, well, God, if it's your will, and if you want to do it, and maybe you don't want to do it, but please, no, no. God wants to do it. He wants to pour his Spirit out again. In fact, he even gives a prescription for revival, if you will, at 2 Chronicles 7, 14, that was given contextually to the nation Israel, but I think principally applies to any nation when he says, If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then God says, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. I don't know when America has been more fractured, more divided than it is right now, and we need that to happen. So let me make a distinction between the word awakening and revival. Awakening is what a nation needs. A revival is what the church needs. So we need to pray that it will start with us, and then it will spread to the rest of the culture. So I want to talk to you about that a little bit today.

Turn to Acts chapter 2, and the title of my message is Jesus Revolution, the Holy Spirit in Revival. You know, in the late 60s and the early 70s, America seemed to be unraveling. There was a very real threat of nuclear war in the mid-60s. Nikita Khrushchev made some very serious threats against our nation, including placing nuclear missiles in Cuba.

And President Kennedy faced off with him in what is called historically the Cuban Missile Crisis. But for kids in school, I was one of those kids in school, we thought we might all die tomorrow. So we had bomb drills in our classrooms where we would get underneath our desks in case there was a nuclear blast. Which, when you look back in retrospect, do you think being under our desk would have saved us from a nuclear blast?

I don't know. So one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis, our youthful president, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Meanwhile, this traumatized the nation, by the way. Some of you who are alive then will remember this. Very traumatizing event.

All of America mourned. Meanwhile, the Vietnam War, which was never officially declared, raged on with young men coming home in body bags. And then the drug revolution is breaking out at the same time. Thousands of kids are turning to drugs for some kind of self-realization, some kind of answer, hopefully, and it just made things worse. Add to the drug revolution the sexual revolution, with the discovery of the birth control pill in the early 60s. Free love reigned, and everybody just wanted to express themselves and push away those parameters and those barriers that existed for so long. It all sort of culminated in a big music festival called Woodstock, which was billed as three days of peace and music. And Jimi Hendrix played the Star-Spangled Banner on his electric guitar.

Everything was really groovy, man. But then in 1968, all the psychedelic colors turned to black and white as reality began to kick in and we reaped the consequences of all of these horrible decisions. It was in 1968 that civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated. And then on the heels of that, shortly after, as a matter of fact, Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of President Kennedy, who was running for the presidency, was also assassinated in Los Angeles, right here in California. And then all of these rock icons died in a relatively short period of time.

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison of The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin. So this is the reality. And because things were so dark, with riots in the streets and division, Time magazine put out an ominous cover story, black cover, red letters reversed out, Is God Dead? That's how a lot of people felt that maybe God was dead, but God was not dead.

God was very much at work. And we don't know exactly when it started or where the actual beginning of it was, but in the middle of the drug revolution, in the middle of the sexual revolution, God sent the Jesus revolution. So only a few years later, Time puts out this cover with Jesus revolution on the cover. What a difference a few years make. What a difference a revival makes. So I have an issue of this, and let me read to you something from that particular issue of Time magazine.

And imagine for a moment reading this in Time magazine today. Headline, Jesus is alive and well. The article says, quote, Jesus is alive and well and living in the radical spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans who have proclaimed an extraordinary religious revolution in his name. Their message, the Bible is true. Miracles happen.

God really did so love the world that he gave his only begotten son. What, is this Time magazine? Bibles abound whether the cherished, fur-covered King James Version or scruffy back pocket paperbacks.

They are invariably well thumbed and often memorized. There is an uncommon mourning freshness to this movement. A buoyant atmosphere of hope and love along with the usual rebel zeal.

But their love seems more sincere than a slogan, deeper than the fast fading sentiments of the flower children. What startles the outsider is the extraordinary sense of joy that they're able to communicate, end quote. Can you imagine again that being in Time magazine today?

And that's exactly what was happening. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We send these daily studies out via radio, satellite, and over the Internet. And we don't always know how these messages are touching lives. But when we hear the stories of our listeners, it really is encouraging to us. Do you have a story to tell of how Pastor Greg's teaching has impacted you? If so, why not email him at greg.harvest.org.

Again, that's greg.harvest.org. Well, we're revisiting the era of the Jesus movement today. Pastor Greg is pointing out how we need another great move of God's Spirit.

Let's continue. Now a little history lesson because it's important for us to know what God has done in the past so we can pray for what He wants to do in the future. America has had four great spiritual awakenings. The first awakening was in the 1700s, led by such men as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

This is actually before we were officially a nation. George Whitefield, an evangelist from England, came over and preached to so many people living in the colonies. Thousands were coming to Christ and a revival broke out. So you can make a very good case for the fact that America was born in a time of spiritual awakening. It was that fertile soil of revival that produced the parameters that we could safely have this great experiment in of liberty and freedom and a belief in God as our founding fathers had. That was the first great awakening. The second great awakening, the 1790s to 1840, was led by many, including Charles Finney. This was in the days of the Wild West.

Law was disregarded. Sexual sin was rampant. But people would gather for what they called camp meetings, often out in the middle of the forest. They would build little structures or put up tents and put the sawdust on the floor. And people would walk forward to accept Christ.

And that is where the phrase, the sawdust trail, came from. That was a great revival. The third great awakening in America was from around 1857 to 1859, led by a young man in New York named Jeremiah Lanphier. And it started as a prayer meeting. Jeremiah Lanphier felt it would be a good idea for New Yorkers to start praying. So he called a prayer meeting at lunchtime and, needless to say, very few people showed up. Then the stock market crashed. And then a lot of people showed up because people were alarmed and concerned. And within a relatively short period of time, thousands of New Yorkers were coming to Christ. There were 10,000 additions to church membership every week during this revival. In one year alone, 50,000 people came to Christ. And when it was all said and done, one million came to the Lord in this brief period. That brings us to the fourth and the last great spiritual awakening, the Jesus movement. I had the privilege of being there.

I had a front row seat. I didn't know it was a revival. I didn't know I walked into the middle of a spiritual awakening. And there was a man that opened his heart and opened his church to it named Chuck Smith. And so all these young kids are getting saved.

And they want to go to church. And a lot of churches took one look at them and said, You're not coming in here looking like that. But for the churches that opened their doors to the Jesus people, as they were called, or the Jesus freaks, as they were also called, those churches experienced revival. For the churches that kept their doors shut to these folks, they did not experience revival.

Here are some things that kind of stand out to me about that time. Number one, there was a sense of expectancy in the services. So when you came to church, you came with a sense that God is going to do something. You know, we talk a lot about the need for anointed preaching. But I think there is also a need for anointed listening. That we come with the right attitude to church. We come with an open heart, with an open Bible. Come with a notebook, listen, say, Lord, speak to me today. No one was ever late for church back in those days, by the way.

Because if you were, you wouldn't get a seat. So that sense of expectancy. Number two, the Word of God was pretty much taught in every service. You know, Pastor Chuck Smith taught us to love the Bible. And we would go through books of the Bible. And our lives were changed by the Bible.

We were a bunch of young kids that knew nothing. We were ignorant of all things biblical. But we developed at that time a biblical worldview. And then also there was worship. It was a whole new kind of worship that was born before our very eyes.

We would give invitations in pretty much every service. And I think what happens is when nonbelievers come to a church that is alive. A church that is experiencing revival. They want to know God. So we brought friends and people would accept the Lord.

Here is another big earmark of that time. We believed in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. We believed that Christ could come in our lifetime. So some of you would say, well, what is that, 45 years ago? I think your timing was a little off, Greg. Yeah, well, you know what, I don't regret living in belief that Christ could come back.

And you know what? We are 45 years closer to His return than we were there. I still believe it. I believe Jesus could come in my lifetime. Well we would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

And I think it is a very important thing. You know some might ask, well, why didn't He come back then? Well a lot of us were praying Jesus would come and catch us up to heaven in 1970. But let me take a quick poll. How many of you have come to believe in Jesus since 1970? Raise your hand up. Aren't you glad God didn't answer our prayer?

Yeah. So here is what the Bible says. God is not late as some men count lateness.

He is long suffering toward us and not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God is waiting for that last person to believe. Can you imagine if there was one person the Lord was waiting for and you knew who it was?

Would you be tempted to pressure them? Dude, will you get saved? What is wrong with you? The Lord knows who that person is and it will happen in His timing of course. But we need to pray that God will do this again. Psalm 85 says, Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?

The prophet Habakkuk understood this when he prayed this prayer in Habakkuk 3.2. I have heard all about you Lord and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. In this time of deep need, revive your work as you did in years gone by.

Show us your power to save us. And so it is similar to how you might feel now. Some of you might be thinking, well that must have been so great back then.

I wish I could have been around then. God wants to do it again because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Okay, so it starts with us. Pastor Greg Laurie with fascinating insights on the Jesus movement and how we play a part in inviting another great move of God's hand on our culture today. And before this edition of A New Beginning concludes, Pastor Greg returns to lead us in a word of prayer.

So stay with us. Now the title of today's message is The Holy Spirit in Revival. It's part of the series we launched today, Jesus Revolution. And if you missed any part of today's study, you can hear the whole thing again by going to harvest.org. You can stream the message while you're online or download an MP3 for later. Or request the CD by calling 1-800-821-3300.

That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. And by the way, Pastor Greg goes into much more detail about the Jesus movement in his book Jesus Revolution. It's a great read.

And Pastor Greg, it talks about what we can do to help usher in the next spiritual awakening. That's right. You know, I was thinking about all the people who have stationary bikes in their home. Yes, why? Why have them? No one uses them.

You buy it, you use it for the first week, then you hang stuff on it afterwards because they're usually in the garage. Am I right? That's just about right. But theoretically, you know, they can use those things and pedal for hours and not go anywhere.

No. Myself, I'd rather pedal a short time and go a lot of places, but that's just me. When it comes to trying to usher in revival, how can we make sure that we're not pedaling for years and not getting anywhere? Well, you know, in the high-tech versions of these now, you can get little screens attached to them and you can have scenery you look at that's been pre-filmed or you have a coach on there telling you to ride harder and all that. But still, you're sitting on a bike and going nowhere.

I think it's much better to go somewhere. So instead of spinning our wheels or living in the world of theory, how about some practical steps? I think there are practical things that we can do to bring about a personal revival as an example. In the book of Revelation, we have the church of Ephesus, a passionate, fiery church. They had great discernment.

They were being used by God, but something was drifting, and Jesus identified it. He said, you know, I know the things that you do. I know that you have discernment, but here's my issue with you. You've left your first love. And then he says, remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works quickly. So it's like the three R's of personal revival. Remember, repent, and repeat.

First you remember. Here's a question to ask yourself. Was there a time in my life as a follower of Christ where I was more passionate about Jesus? Was there a time when I had a greater hunger for the word of God?

Was there a time when I was sharing the gospel with people more? So remember, it's a point of reference. Sort of like, you know, was there a time when I weighed less when I get on the scale and I weigh more? Yes, okay, so remember it.

It's a point of reference. Okay, now repent. So if we're going back to the diet analogy, stop eating pizza morning, you know, noon and night, and sitting in a La-Z-Boy. Go back and do the things you used to do. Remember, repent, repeat. Okay, going back to the diet, repeat. Go back and exercise more.

Eat less fattening foods. So now let's apply that spiritually. First I remember there was a time I was more passionate about my relationship with God. Now I repent. I turn from that, and I repeat.

He says do the first works quickly. I think we overly mystify revival, and we don't understand that there's simple steps we can take to make it better. I've told this story before, but some of our listeners may not have heard it. It's about a lady that wanted to divorce her husband in the worst way.

So she went to a divorce lawyer, and she said, I want to divorce my husband, but I don't want to just divorce him. I want him to suffer. I want him to feel pain. So what should I do?

This attorney was a crafty one. He says, I'll tell you what. For the next six months, smother your husband with affection. Affirm him.

Tell him how much you love him and appreciate him. And then at the end of six months, we'll drop the bomb and serve him with divorce papers. She says, I'll do it. So for the next six months, she told her husband how much she loved him, how much she loved being with him, how much she cared about him, how much she admired him. And the attorney called six months later and says, all right, let's draw those papers up. Let's get that divorce going. She said, divorce? Are you kidding?

We're going on our second honeymoon. Now, here's my point. What did she do? She did something she didn't necessarily want to do, but as she did it, let's just say her emotions caught up with it. She did what was right.

She did what she probably should have been doing in the beginning. So in the same way with revival, we're waiting for some emotional experience. Oh, Lord, send a revival. Well, how about if you just start doing revival-like things?

And then all those things will sort of synchronize together. So I talk about that and a lot more in my book, Jesus Revolution. It's my story of how I saw firsthand, I had a front row seat to the last great spiritual awakening in the United States of America. Some historians say it was the greatest of all the revivals, but I'll tell you this much.

It was the greatest revival I saw, and it's the only revival I've seen, and I pray I'll see another before I go to heaven. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great if we started seeing thousands of people come to Christ in our nation? Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could see people of different races coming together? Wouldn't it be amazing if we could see marriages healed?

Wouldn't it even be more amazing if we could see people in different sides of the political aisle set their differences aside and work together? God can work in our nation. God can send a spiritual awakening.

We need to pray for it, and we need to prepare for it, but maybe we just need to start taking some practical steps. Get a copy of this book, Jesus Revolution. You'll find out what those practical steps are, and I'll send it to you for your gift of any size. So whatever you send, I'll send you in return a copy of Jesus Revolution. Some of you can give more, some not as much, but whatever you send, be assured it'll be used to get the gospel to people and teach them the word of God.

So thanks in advance for what you can do. Get your own copy of Jesus Revolution. Yeah, we have it here waiting for you. The subtitle is How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today. And we'll drop it in the mail to thank you for your investment so that these teachings can continue each day and so we can keep reaching out and changing lives. You know, more than 150,000 people made decisions for Christ through Pastor Greg's teaching last year, and that was in spite of all the COVID restrictions.

It's such a good investment, an eternal investment. So thank you for your donation today, and we'll send you Jesus Revolution. And by the way, as a bonus, we'll include a copy of a brand new study guide that goes with it.

It'll help drive the points home, and you can study this with your family or a small group fellowship. So write us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514, or call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more from Pastor Greg's message, The Holy Spirit in Revival, exploring what we can learn from the Jesus movement. But before we go, Pastor Greg comes back to close today's study time. America needs an awakening, and the church needs revival. So I thought we would pray for that together. Let's pray that God revives the church. Let's pray that God will send a spiritual awakening, and let's pray that it starts with us.

Father, you know better than any of us how badly our nation needs you. And Lord, we're asking for you to move powerfully by your Holy Spirit and send a spiritual awakening to America. We pray, Lord, that thousands and thousands of people will come to Christ as we've heard about in these last four great awakenings. Lord, we're praying for a fifth great awakening in the name of Jesus Christ. And we're even going to ask for a sixth one and a seventh one. Lord, move powerfully, move mightily, and let this revival now start in us. Let this revival start in me. In each of us, individually, we need to be living in that close, intimate, first love relationship with Jesus Christ. So let it start in our own hearts, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.