Our Experience at Asbury Outpouring

 On February 20th we attended the Asbury Outpouring.  I have been praying, pondering and processing it ever since.  Trying to understand what we experienced and what the Lord is doing in this season.  (For those who might not know, Asbury University is a small Christian university in Wilmore, KY that hosted an unplanned (by man) outpouring of the Lord that began Feb. 8th. It was attended by students from at least 200 campuses as well as tens of thousands of visitors.)

As a backdrop, we have been praying for revival for a long time.  I don’t say this to take some kind of weird credit, but to explain that this is something we have been longing for and studying. Even so, I don’t think I was prepared for what I experienced.

When we approached the campus, there were cars and people everywhere.  No one was directing people where to go.  We circled the campus and there was a line of people winding around, maybe a half mile long.  Our son and his family dropped Jack and I off and went to find a place to park.  We didn’t know where to go. We stopped and prayed, “Where do we go, Lord?”  I heard the Lord reply, “It doesn't matter, I am here to meet with you.”  We approached a circle of maybe 150 people.  There were young people in the middle of the circle passionately leading worship with a guitar and drum box.  Singing with their whole hearts to the Lord.  They would pause and another young one would read a scripture and then right back into worship.  They would pause again and this time a young one might give a short exhortation and then right back into worship. Some around them were weeping, some were passionately worshiping, some were spectating, but no one was ignoring what God was doing.

We found seats in one of the overflow spaces, Estes Chapel, which is Asbury Seminary’s chapel and is right across the street from Hughes Hall.  It was completely full as well with probably 500 people. In fact, while we were there every overflow venue was also overflowing.

Here is what we saw or noticed.

·         The worship was focused on Jesus.

·         The worship team was focused on worshipping and although they were leading, they made no effort to tell others how to worship.

·         The congregational singing was passionate and unified.  No one tried to raise their voice above the rest.

·         They asked for those who had a scripture to come read it for the Call to Worship.  Many young people got up and sometimes through tears would read the word.  The leader would then declare, “This is the Word of God” and the crowd would respond with great zeal, “We believe it!”

·         The testimonies were faith building demonstrations of God changing the life of people in the room.  People being set free of hardness of heart, bitterness, anxiety, and fear.

·         Amazing hospitality and kindness

·         There was nothing for sale.  No books, no t-shirts, no music.  Even the food trucks were giving away snacks and water. 

·         No asking for an offering, nor even a place to give an offering.

·         No one was introduced by name.  It truly is a nameless and faceless gathering.

·         When people shared from the pulpit it was short and concise, so as to not distract from the main focus-Jesus.

·         The call was for radical humility, radical hunger, radical obedience, and transparency.

·         There was no attempt to manufacture any fervor or emotion in the physical surroundings, worship, or in the sharing, nor did we see any suppression of fervor or emotion.

·         Pure and simple devotion to Jesus.

We have been blessed to be in many meetings where one could feel the presence of God.  When faithful people unite, humble themselves, welcome Holy Spirit and yield to Him; He is gracious to come. The way I describe it is we pursue the Lord and He answers.  This was different.  At Asbury, it felt as if He was pursuing us and we answered.  This was God’s idea.  He was pursuing us.  Those who were hungry and those were worn out.   The resistant and the skeptical. The young, yes, but also the old.

It has become one of my core prayers that we won’t be satisfied with the fires we can create, but hunger for the fire only He can send.  Only He can send the wind, the fire and the rain!

The picture the Lord showed me in one prayer meeting last week as I contemplated Asbury was of a person coming home after working very hard.  They didn’t even know what time it was.  As they opened the door, they instantly smelled the fragrance of something baking in the oven like fresh bread.  They immediately realized how hungry they were.  I think this is a picture of many.  They have been working hard sometimes even for the Lord.  They don’t understand the timing of the Lord, but at the fragrance of Jesus they realize how hungry they are.  They realized what was lacking.

Many who have been touched have been faithfully working for the Lord but didn’t realize how hungry they were FOR the Lord.  Some who have been touched have been seeking but didn’t know that what they were seeking was Him.  They may have tasted some stale bread or religion offered by the church but hadn’t known they were just hungry for Him.

I believe this is a first wave, where God is releasing the fragrance of the Lord, stirring up hunger for Him all over the world.  We will see more.  Salvations, miracles, signs and wonders. For those of us who think we know how God will visit us, he is giving us the opportunity to repent for our judgements and to surrender our expectations.  He is giving us time to lay down any ways we manufacture movements and yield fully to his good plans.

Many have asked me or prayed with me about what do we need to “do” to bring this to where we are.  It is an innocent question, but I sensed a better question might be what do we need to be?

I sensed we need to be

·         Humble

·         Repentant

·         Surrendered

·         Transparent

·         Available

·         Obedient

·         Willing to lay down our traditions and sacred cows.

·         Loving

·         Kind

·         Hungry

The wonderful thing is that when God is pursuing people, he will find those who are none of the above and because our hearts are in the right place we will rejoice and declare the goodness of God.

We came away changed. We came away hopeful. We came away with a new normal.

We came away from Asbury thinking this is what pure and simple devotion to Jesus looks like.

Have you been able to watch any of the revival services? What are your thoughts?