Asbury University should be an encouragement. Courtesy | Wikimedia Commons
A phenomenon occurred at a small Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky last month. What started out as a handful of students staying for prayer and worship after a chapel service progressed into what became ongoing worship for days on end, attracting over 50,000 visitors.
We cannot control or dictate when God invokes a revival, or what that should or will look like. While we may have preconceived notions or judgements toward what an ideal revival should be, our utmost concern should be examining our own hearts and praying in such a way that aligns our desires with that of the Lord’s.
Defined by Jonathan Edwards, the main proponent of the “Great Awakening” revival in early America, revival is “a glorious and wonderful working of God when the Spirit of God is poured out in a far greater and more glorious measure.”
On the evening of Feb. 8, Asbury University students flocked to the auditorium where a message was delivered by Zach Meerkreebs, a graduate of Asbury’s seminary program. Afterwards, some students stayed to worship. For the next 16 days, the university held consecutive worship services. Many students from other colleges in the Midwest arrived, as well as international visitors.
Headlines such as “Did Asbury spark the next Great Awakening?” and “Hearts Strangely Warmed at Asbury” and even a title suggesting that what was happening at the school is the “‘Latter Rain’ before Jesus’ Return” began to surface. The idea of a “revival” going on at Asbury University caught popularity like wildfire.
NBC News wrote, “The set up inside the sanctuary was ‘simple.’ Rather than facilitating the use of a lot of technology, the worship atmosphere was very simplistic, involving many lifting up in their hands in praise and partaking in prayer.
According to The Week, Asbury ended the “public worship services” on Feb. 20, but continued to facilitate services for their students through Feb. 23. However, on Feb. 24, “no further public Outpouring services [would] be held on Asbury’s campus.”
Alexandra Presta, the editor for Asbury University’s newspaper, told Relevant Magazine, “We want to expand it, but it just isn’t sustainable for our university to keep hosting. We don’t want to hoard it, because the Holy Spirit’s not limited to Hughes Auditorium. The Holy Spirit’s everywhere we go, and you can have a revival right in your living room if you’re willing to lean into His love and His grace.”
The so-called Asbury Revival has garnered great attention by believers and unbelievers throughout the nation. Many Hillsdale students have recognized some similarities between Hillsdale College and Asbury University, such as the number of students enrolled at both, and both schools identifying as private Christian institutions.
We should long to see revival. Revival is something that presents a unique opportunity through the simple means of reading and hearing the Word of God as well as worshiping that souls are won for his kingdom.
As Christians, we should desire to see God working in the hearts of people turning to Jesus. We are called as believers to be optimistic in hope and expectation that God is working in the lives of his children, and “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” as Philippians 2:10-11 says.
Designed in God’s image, we are called as His children to seek the heart of God above all else. And when we do this, God promises us complete fulfillment and restoration in him, whatever that may look like. As Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Privileged with a wonderful community of believers, insightful faculty, and a beautiful chapel all right here on campus, Hillsdale students are blessed with an environment that allows us to immerse ourselves in seeking the will of God rather than our own, and serve as an encouragement to the secular world to do so as well.
Whether we participate in week-long consecutive worship services attracting thousands or not, we are still called to ultimately pursue the heart of God, and to bring him glory by professing faith, waiting and ready for whatever he may ask of us.
