Revival at Asbury

Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible.

Surely Weaver wants to take you there. And now, here's today's episode. Hey everyone and welcome.

I am glad you are here. We are hearing throughout the church world reports of this revival that's going on on the college campus at Asbury University in Willmore, Kentucky. And of course, our interest, because the focus on this Running with Horses podcast is God's divine intervention, his appearing, his injecting, or interjecting, not sure what the word there is, his coming into the center of where we are.

And it sounds like to me that that is the case on the campus of Asbury University in Willmore, Kentucky, which as you probably know is a Christian private university. And what we're hearing, what you may hear, what I am hearing specifically, that there is a sustained, tangible moving of God's Spirit there that really began in a chapel service, just a normal, regular chapel service, but it just didn't end. You know, and it sounds like to me there is a presence of God, this tangible, and all of this has been sustained over several days. And as I'm recording today's podcast, it's actually been one full week. So that's not months and years, but hey, that is a week of young people gathering to worship God, to hear from him, and to receive his download to them personally and to the corporate body there. And you know the reason I'm so plugged into this whole thing? We've prayed for this.

I bet if you're listening to this podcast, you've prayed for this. We've believed God for our schools, for our campuses, because that's where our young people are. That is where such impression is made, not only on the heart and the mind of a developing, maturing adult, but also there's every kind of contradiction to what we believe to be true Bible faith. So we believe for this, whether it's a college campus, a lower school campus, whatever. Again, this is where our next generation is heavily invested. So what should be our response? That's our purpose today of this podcast.

And I say that because, you know, there's so much that's available right now online. You should check it out on every social platform and in the news as well. Maybe not the secular news, but hey, you just do an online search, you will see exactly what I'm referring to. So first of all, here's my first question. Is this answered prayer? And if so, what do we do with this? What's your response?

What's my response? And I think of Acts 12 where, remember Peter was imprisoned, he was being held for any number of reasons, and because the church was praying, the believers were praying, God intervened, God interjected himself into Peter's situation where he was imprisoned, and a manifestation of deliverance came for Peter. And it was so shocking and so unexpected for Peter that the Word says in verse 11, he had to come to himself, like he shook off his conditions and came to himself, and he realized that the Lord had sent his angel and rescued him. And so he left the prison and he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where people were gathered, praying for this very thing, for his deliverance. And Peter, remember this, knocked at the door entrance, and the servant Rhoda came to answer the door. And you can imagine when she saw him, she was so overjoyed, she went back to the praying group and said, Peter's at the door. And they didn't believe her.

They said, this is what they said, you're out of your mind. In other words, what we're praying for could not possibly be happening. But she kept insisting, and they said, well, maybe it's Peter's angel. You know, we extrapolate whatever it is we can accept when we can't really accept a divine intervention from Almighty God.

We come up with something that we can get our mind around. But listen, right here, Peter kept on knocking, and eventually they opened the door and saw that it was Peter, wasn't it? It wasn't a figment. It wasn't an imagination. And again, the word here, they were astonished. They were astonished that what they prayed now existed. So the application, of course, would be, should we recognize that God has answered our prayer for our campuses? And I say, yes, we should. We don't fail to discern.

We don't jump to conclusions. But see, in the example out of, again, that was Acts 12, that example was there was a proof. Peter was at the door.

Physically, humanly, he was at the door. That was the proof of God's answered prayer, and concerning this moving of God on the campus at Asbury, we have proofs. We have plural, more than one proof, in the form of eyewitness testimonies that are confirming this is an authentic, God-given, God-breathed, God-breathed, God-authorized release of His Spirit right into the center of the congregation there. So you and I naturally are thankful and grateful to Him that even if nothing else happens, like if everything stops today, you know, if nothing else happens, still we recognize what God has done, is doing, and we add to that our expectation of what else is coming, there is more. And for that, we are grateful.

And I just, you know, I am a mother and a grandmother and I know for a fact gratitude is a learned behavior. It does not come natural to any of us. It is a developed, mature response to what God does.

Thanksgiving doesn't come naturally. We understand that that is our part, to be thankful, to recognize God's moving and to be thankful. And secondly, as we are grateful and as we are thanking God, we realize that there will be a bold voice coming forth because there already is. And sometimes that voice is correction because God is after our repentance, both individual and secular, excuse me, individual and corporate.

I just read this, Graham Cooke, a wonderful Bible teacher, I'm pretty sure the date is June 2022, which means it's current. Graham Cooke said this, as partakers of Christ, and the scripture referenced there is Hebrews 3.14, we have a heaven to earth spirituality. And that's what's happening. That's the great awakening that's going on in this country. Graham Cooke said that that is what he believes. And for some, this awakening will be a rude awakening.

It will be a rude awakening for those who say, oh yes, we are a Bible believing church, but their lifestyle isn't actually evident of Bible believing churches. And he goes on to say that that's not quite right. That in fact, our lifestyle, the lifestyle that we've accepted and that we operate in most often is that we're in this constant struggle, this constant need. We're trying to, you know, get from where we are to whatever. And he pointed out that even the pastoral ministry of the church becomes rooted in cleaning up the old man.

You know, you've probably seen this, 15 ways to change this, 14 ways to do that. Therefore, the pastoring focus is on the old man, the old man. But instead in this revival at Asbury and what God is doing now in this new day, it has to do everything to do with the new man, the born again, redeemed, standing upright and ready to move forward and mature.

You know, leave behind that struggle mentality. So what would be your voice? What would be my voice?

What would be the role that each of us have? I believe we see this, the answer to that question in a prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 1 through 10 and it goes like this, the hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley and that valley was full of dry bones. Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones. I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. That was the prophecy in Ezekiel 37 and of course we know it was spoken to and about Israel but I believe it also applies to us today and it is the pattern that belongs to the church right now and to each believer specifically. Whatever is dry, whatever is dead, God prophesies now to the dry place, to the dead place, I am breathing on you and my breath has come into you. So that's just some of what we're seeing at Asbury and what is now beginning to spread to other campuses which we will continue to talk about but for right now, your focus must be what is your role, what is your part, can you allow God to breathe, is that your prayer, your desire and your earnest expectation that his breath, we know it's occurring there at Asbury on that campus and in that chapel but the breath of God is breathing on you right where you are right this minute.

I believe it and I declare that for you and we're going to talk more about this so stay tuned. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list, download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.