More revivals and more baptisms continue to happen.
And I think I may have a name for this Revival/Awakening
I thought I would take a break from the Doolittle Raiders and give a brief update on the revivals that continue across the U.S. and the world. I can’t remember where I left off, but here are a few of the more recent ones I’ve encountered.
“Unite Us” is an outreach ministry to college students. It began on September 12, 2023, at Auburn University in Alabama. Thousands of students gathered in the Neville area with one purpose: “to lift the name of Jesus.” It grew into a nationwide ministry. To date, 70,000 students have attended these events. The latest update I found was from February of this year, which reported that 8,000 students attended a Unite Us event at the University of Kentucky.
'They Want God': 8,000 Students Seek Jesus in Huge Kentucky Revival, 2,000 Give Lives to Christ
"I've never seen anything like what happened last night. Kids lining up to get baptized in 30-degree weather – it's truly amazing what's happening," ~ Abigail Robertson, CBN Reporter
UK Revival
But the revival isn’t just happening in California or even in America. Revival is happening in the UK!
2,000 Young People in UK Encounter God at All-Night Prayer Gathering: 'A Sense of Holy Awe'
Some are calling the event another Asbury College moment.
“…the presence of God was so thick that more than 500 people stayed beyond the event in a scene reminiscent of the early moments of the 2023 Asbury revival…”
It would be great because, as CBN News recently reported, the U.K. has not been an easy place to share the Gospel for decades…
Sadly, that is true. Years ago, we had some friends who were missionaries to the UK. They told us that witnessing in the UK was hard. People were not interested in spiritual things. So 2,000 people showing up and staying all night is huge. Statistics also show that young Brits are turning to Christ.
Do not miss the significance of what’s going on. This is a 180-degree turn from decades of indifference to the Gospel. How far does this indifference go?
Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese commander who led the Pearl Harbor Raid, sensed the UK’s spiritual deadness when he held evangelistic meetings there after WW2.
He addressed a number of school gatherings, which convinced him that Christianity was divorced from everyday life in London.[i]
That means that in all likelihood, it goes back eight decades. Sadly, he saw the same thing in Europe.
“They had lost Christ,” he lamented. “And now, all over Western Europe, I saw how materialism had conquered most of the people, like a false god.[ii]
The Quiet Revival
Quiet revival – an interesting name for a revival. We may see it as quiet, but I guarantee you it’s not quiet in heaven.
“Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
It may seem quiet because the lying media isn’t reporting it. Somehow, I seriously doubt they will succeed in suppressing the work of God. They’ve never been able to do it in the past. No one can stop the moving of the Holy Spirit.
I ran across two more this morning: one in Jacksonville, Florida, and another one in Spartanburg, SC. The one in Jacksonville has been holding their beach baptism event annually for a decade. For Spartanburg, this is their second annual event. They planning for a city-wide one June 6-9. By the way, Baptize California will have a nationwide event, Baptize America” on June 8. Wow! I can’t wait to see what happens.
I see similarities among these revivals as well as with past ones.
1. Baptisms
Again, I find it fascinating that baptism plays such a prominent role in this. It reminds me of the early church. We’ve come to look at baptism as a ceremony, relegating it almost as an optional act of obedience. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Baptism means identifying with Christ. They were done even though it essentially put a target on your back. Christians were arrested, persecuted, and killed. That is still true in many, many countries the world over.
It’s also happening in Western Civilization, especially on our college campuses. I suspect these students understand the cost much like the early church did. I applaud them for publicly standing up for the gospel, no matter the cost to them socially.
2. Prayer
“The secret to revival is what happens in the prayer closet, not on the platform.” ~ Scott Pauley
All of the organizers of these various outreach ministries state that prayer is key. When I saw that, I remembered that historically every revival started with prayer.
“Every great move of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.” ~ D. L. Moody
The UK Quiet Revival revolves around prayer.
Al Gordon, pastor of Saint Church, has been a part of leading a bimonthly prayer gathering in Britain that is at the forefront of this "spiritual awakening."
This reminds me of the Pastor Christian Fuhrer, who held weekly prayer meetings for years, asking God to “tear down that wall” as Reagan had pleaded for. God brought that to fruition through Reagan’s efforts and their prayers.
The Unite Us organizers bathe each event in prayer, praying for months ahead of it..
Jericho Marches. Love it! And it’s so apropos. The children of Israel marched around Jericho, and God brought the walls down so they could assail Jericho. Through their prayers, God is tearing down the strongholds of Satan so we can reach the lost with the Gospel.
3. A revival of the youth.
Stunning stat: Gen Z-ers — especially Gen Z men — are actually more likely to attend weekly religious services than millennials and even some younger Gen X-ers, Burge’s analysis shows.
Shocking, right? You know what’s perhaps even more shocking? Christianity is on the rise in Silicon Valley. I heard someone on Fox Business interview a young tech engineer. He said that his co-workers not only work together but also worship together! Amazing!
When I read that it was the youth, I remembered how the Great Welsh Revival was considered a “revival of the youth.” I suspect that may hold true of just about every revival and awakening. In studying the history of revivals, I discovered that it was primarily the younger generations who were saved. They also played major roles in them, which is good. Today’s revival meetings tend to go for hours, just like they did in many past revivals. The younger people have the energy for these marathon meetings. Older Christians? Not so much.
Lightbulb moment - Name for this revival
It turns out that Gen Zers are also known as Zoomers. When I saw that, a lightbulb went on.
Perhaps we should call this the Baby Zoomer, or the Baby Zoomer revival?
It seems apropos since, similar to the Baby Boomers of the 1960s-1970s, Zoomers are living through another wave of cultural Marxism, Wokeism, aka Progressive Socialism, which is just another iteration of Marxist ideology.
Like the Baby Boomers, they are discovering that Marxism doesn’t live up to its promises, especially when it comes to caring about them as individuals. The individual doesn’t matter to the Woke Mob or Socialists any more than it did to the Soviet Marxists, aka Russian Communists. There is no balm in Marxism to soothe, much less heal a person’s soul.
Their disillusionment has driven them to search for the truth just as it did the Baby Boomers in their youth. Ironic how we think that Marxist indoctrination will end Christianity, yet historically the opposite happened and still happens.
This phenomenon is also happening in the Islamic world. The Voice of the Martyrs notes that young Kuwaitis are rejecting Islam and are open to new ideas. This is also true in Iran. Why? For the same reason, Zoomers are rejecting Wokeism and various forms of socialism. Yes, Marxism and Islam differ little from each other. Neither cares about the individual. There is no balm in Islam to soothe and heal a person’s soul.
Hence, that has sent the Zoomers searching for the truth and something to heal their needy, and often wounded, souls. Many are discovering that Jesus is the only balm that can heal their sin-sick soul.
Yes, God is moving in the most unlikely places. That should not surprise us because it is in the darkest moments of human history that the true Light, Jesus, shines the brightest.
[i] Prange, Gordon William, et al. God’s Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor. Potomac Books, Inc., 2004.
[ii] Ibid.