Revival

Some call it REVIVAL. Some call it an OUTPOURING. Some call it a MIGHTY MOVE OF GOD’S SPIRIT. Whatever you may call it, it’s real, and it’s happening right now all over the world! The One True God is revealing His presence and power, supernaturally drawing people to Himself. This is what many devout Christians have been praying for Him to do in these last days, because they recognize the need for God and man to work together to bring in the end-time harvest of souls. After Jesus gave the Great Commission at the conclusion of the Gospel of Mark, the final verse says: “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.” (Mark 16:20, NKJV)

Some might ask where God has been since the days of the early church. I think it would be better to ask where the majority of the church has been. From the leadership to the laypeople, so much of the modern church has been asleep, misguided, and/or lukewarm. Countless believers have fallen into compromise, and have continued to live in darkness instead of using their life in Christ to shine as the light of the world. In short, they have dropped the ball, resulting in powerless and apostate “Christians” more concerned with the things of the world than the interests of the God they are supposed to represent. This has left the lion’s share of the work to a minority of believers who have been marginalized as zealous freaks by the church-at-large, a sad condition that has discredited authentic Christianity in the eyes of the broken and dying world that needs to be reached with the Truth.

Biblical Christians have been praying for God to show Himself strong in the midst of this mess. They also believe that if large numbers come into His Kingdom, these people can be discipled to fulfill the Great Commission in their lifetime. Jesus put it like this before he sent out his disciples in Matthew 9:37-38: “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (NKJV)

And then, in February of 2023, just a few miles from where ARISING LIGHT is located, something started at Asbury, a Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky. The Lord began touching a new generation…a generation not stuck in religious preference, habit, or man-made tradition.

This supernatural event ignited when some students lingered in prayer after a Wednesday night service on campus. God’s Spirit manifested in a powerful way, and that gathering grew and continued non-stop for two full weeks. Thousands upon thousands of young people from Kentucky and other states came to join those students in repentance, basking in the magnified presence of the Lord and passionately worshipping Him with one voice. (Yes, many “older” people also made the journey to Asbury, and it was great to see them participating in that unity, but in my observation, it was primarily the “younger” people that God was dealing with.) The town was soon packed to capacity with visitors, who thronged outside in the cold waiting to get into the service while traffic was sometimes jammed in the streets. Meanwhile, the phenomenon spread, and the Holy Spirit began to touch students on a dozen other campuses in the United States. Not long afterwards it spread abroad, and we’re still hearing of amazing things happening in other countries, with thousands coming to the Lord and accepting His salvation found only in Jesus Christ!

What happens when people don’t want to partner with God and cooperate with His agenda? We learned the answer to that when some "older" ones felt it was necessary to shut down what was happening at Asbury---as if God Almighty didn’t know what He was doing when He interrupted the routine of things in a small college town. The Lord didn’t argue with that human decision; He simply moved on. He seemed to express His opinion, however, by what happened to a giant metal road sign that displayed where to exit an expressway in order to get to Asbury. This sign was yanked loose from its base, spun/dragged 90 degrees, and then flattened on the side of the freeway. None of the other signs in the vicinity were the least bit affected. Here's a video and some pictures:

Whatever caused what happened to this sign, we can take heart in the fact that God is never defeated by man. Let revival continue! We need the Lord now more than ever.

If we want to cooperate with the movement of His Spirit, there are two things we should strongly consider. First, we need to get out of His way and be certain that we're not opposing Him. Secondly, we also need to keep from opposing one another. We need to get over man-made differences that have separated Christians around the world. We need to remember that Jesus didn’t die on the cross for any particular denomination, and admit that there isn’t a single one that does everything right in His eyes, anyway.

The world doesn’t need more Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, or anything else specific to a denomination. The world needs more CHRISTIANS---believers who fully obey God’s word, are filled with His Spirit, and who humbly surrender themselves to follow in the footsteps of their Savior.

Jesus didn’t come to earth to start a religion. In the same way, He didn’t come to found a church fractured by different denominations. This is what He prayed concerning His followers in John 17:20-21: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (NKJV)

Clearly, it was (and is) God’s will for all Christians to be in unity. Why, then, has the church been so divided? It’s true that a split can be necessary when there’s corruption in leadership and/or doctrine, but apart from that, division has all too often been the result of people making unbiblical choices. As a consequence, our disunity has been a poor witness to the world.

This is THE TIME IN WHICH WE LIVE! We need to find common ground on Truth that is indisputable, and “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3, NKJV).

It’s not about us. It’s about Him and His harvest.

- Pastor Christopher Dufour