Revival Waves vs. Woke Dogma—Which Will Prevail? -

revival waves

REVIVAL WAVES. The head of the Anglican denomination, Justin Welby, has delivered a serious blow to godly foundations worldwide. He recently promoted the Church of England decision that priests can bless same-sex relationships. As a result, archbishops of 10 of the 42 Anglican provinces globally have already rejected his leadership. But this betrayal of God’s word affects churches beyond the Anglican denomination. Now churches can no longer stand together against woke pressures to remake nations in their image.

For instance, the churches have only two of 34 seats on Belize’s Constitutional Commission. Now our churches can no longer speak as one against the socially corrosive LGBT agenda. Also, Pope Francis recently said, “People with homosexual tendencies are children of God.” Not only does that defy previous Catholic teaching. It defies biblical teaching that only those who receive Jesus as Lord become children of God {Jn. 1:12).

But God is now releasing waves of revival in the US to overpower the waves of wokeness. If God moves the same way here, we will have lots of voices saying yes to a godly constitution. And no to a woke and pro-LGBT constitution. Pray that the small beginnings at Asbury keep increasing until we have global revival and reformation.

It began with a few people who stayed a little longer at the end of an Asbury University chapel service. Then stayed a little longer to keep seeking God after that. And then stayed a lot longer until the service kept going nonstop.

From small beginnings to nationwide impact

In less than three weeks, the revival at Asbury University has spread by leaps and bounds. Already, dozens of more US colleges are holding meetings day and night. So are dozens of churches. It is radically changing lives, especially of young people. They are getting free of ungodly sexual habits and mental disorders such as suicidal thoughts.

So many people are hungry for God to change their lives that they are swamping the Asbury campus. The chapel can fit only 1,500. The local town of Wilmore, Kentucky has a population of only 6,000. Yet in the second weekend alone, more than 20,000 came to Wilmore.

They had to tell people to stop coming. The town lacked enough food or water for them. The revival had to spread elsewhere. Now 20+ colleges and 20+ churches are holding daily meetings.

Choosing men of the word and prayer

The apostles in the early church faced a similar challenge.

Acts 5:42-6:10. “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”

It’s easy to overlook some people when your numbers increase so quickly.

Verse 2. “So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.’ This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”

Not only was Stephen was “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” He was also a good choice because, like the apostles, who were devoted to the ministry of the word and prayer, he too was a man of the word and prayer.

We see that when people opposed him, he spoke at length from the word (Acts 7:2-53). And when they stoned him, he prayed for them (verse 60). His prayer resulted in the conversion of the church’s main persecutor—Saul. Afterwards he became the church’s main preacher and certainly a man of the word and prayer.

God changes people and times

Along with Stephen, the disciples chose Philip. Philip was such a man of the word on hearing a man read from Isaiah, he jumped up into his chariot. And he explained the Scripture to that Ethiopian eunuch and got him saved and baptized. The eunuch went back to Ethiopia and later, Ethiopia developed one of the strongest early churches.

As the numbers gained in revival increase, we will need servant-leaders like Stephen and Philip. After starting by serving tables, if they are men of the word and prayer, they can multiply disciples. Then we will need more to serve tables and train others to do so before they advance further.

In this way we equip “the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:28). Unfortunately, many of us are maxxed out with our current responsibilities. Some of us would hardly have time to attend revival meetings let alone lead them. But the only way to have revival is to make time and make room for revival. It will require lots of work and lots of workers.

But revival itself can motivate people to abandon fruitless pursuits and help revival to happen. So preach revival. Find servant-leaders. And motivate them to seek God in His word and in prayer for how to prepare for revival. When He moves, watch to see which ones are moving with Him. Share with them God’s word for these times, and Holy Spirit prayers for these times.

Then we will not only change people, we will change the times. Because the times need changing, by move after move of God.

Photo by Bree Anne on Unsplash