What's Happening at Asbury? Is Jesus Getting Unpredictable? - Newsletter

Friday, February 17, 2023

Hello, Friend

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The original newsletter has been enhanced as a resource page for the Asbury Revival.

Is Jesus getting unpredictable?

To be real, I think we can say he's always been unpredictable. From the Gospels onward, he's Dynamic, challenging the status quo. Everything about him is New Wineskin. We can say he is Quintessential Disruptive Innovation!

I sense a stirring in recent days. I went with my wife and one of our daughters to an early viewing of the Jesus Revolution movie which begins in theaters Feb. 24. It's a fun movie. Yet it also brought tears and a surprising stirring in the heart.

It's about the true story of the Jesus People Movement in the late 60s and early 70s -- Time Magazine dubbed it "The Jesus Revolution."

I'd be interested in what you may be sensing, but it feels to me like we may be at some kind of inflection point for the good.

Take someone and go see it!

Jesus Revolution

What's happening at Asbury?

See resources to learn more about the Asbury Revival at the end of this newsletter.

Something is clearly happening at Asbury University in Kentucky. The last I heard it has spread to maybe 20 other colleges and universities. It's likely more. It will spread to many more campuses.

Something was flamed in a typical weekly chapel service on Feb 8 and it has not stopped 24/7. My understanding is that it began with a student confessing something publically .... and that was it. The Holy Spirit came in a special way and has not lifted from the gathering.

It's humble, organic, raw worship, prayer, confession, and Scripture reading. There was no plan for this. It's student-led. There's a strong sense of humility. No celebrity preachers.

Begin to follow it. My hope and prayer is that this will spread everywhere. It's already starting.

"I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival, but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than with consequences, with the disease rather than with the symptoms …" (A.W. Tozer in Keys to the Deeper Life, originally published in 1957)

Newsletter continues after images.

Payback season?

I was talking with my wife early this morning and I think (I say I think because it was early and the fresh coffee was just beginning to do its work) .... I think I felt a raindrop of prophetic unction on what I said.

They shut down churches. In some places, they said you can't sing because you'll spread the virus. They masked everyone.

There are probably many things at play here, but I wonder if one of them is Jesus now saying, "I'm going to spread renewal everywhere in gatherings."

"They are going to sing all day and night. They will gather and pray, confess, worship, and proclaim. I will be their reward."

They are going to spread this like kindling in my world.

God overdoes it!

What if God overdoes it on behalf of his people?

"You stopped my people from gathering. You covered their countenances for too long. Shut their mouths. Watch. I'm going to glorify my people with My Renewing Presence and sicken the powers of darkness."

At creation, the oceans, skies, and land teemed with new creatures. Stars are limitless. They each have a unique glory. How big is the universe? The one we know about.

The oil flowed in the widow's jars as long as she could provide jars. If she could have found a million jars, they would have all been filled. The oil stopped with the last jar.

New wine from another world flowed in a big way in Jesus' first miracle, the wedding at Cana. John says it was the beginning of signs that showed God's glory. I'm wondering now if that wine had something in it from the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Was it something they never tasted before ... like something from the "powers of the Age to Come (Hebrews 6:5)."

What about that catch of fish at the word of the Lord? Nets were tearing. Boats sinking. Peter exclaimed the Lordship of Jesus.

God is not on the cheap. Our understanding of an Abundant Mindset looks like child's play compared to our Father.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us" (Paul in Ephesians 3.20 NASB).

What if God overdoes it on behalf of his people?

LATEST EPISODE: The Cross Factor: Unlock Your Life (Ep 307) Listen > JesusSmart.com/307

Your most important real estate -- your inner room

Let's discover how to steward the presence of the Holy Spirit. Personally. Corporately. And flowing out into the Father's World.

I want to say this. Your most important real estate is your Inner Room with the Lord. It always starts there.

You will hear things whispered there. And then all bets are off.

I'm on the grow too. Let me say it this way ... everything else is downstream from your Inner Room with the Lord.

Jesus said to get there and shut the door. He honors it.

Vital corporate life is downstream from the Inner Room. You can know for certain that what we are seeing now in Asbury started in Inner Rooms. Then Prayer Clusters and Corporate Prayer.

Now it's being shouted from the housetops. The Inner Room is a precursor to the Rooftop. That's what Jesus said would happen.

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Appreciate you. Until next time.

Brian Del Turco

Videos & Articles on the Asbury Revival:

Videos:

Consider watching this documentary about the 1970 revival at Asbury College. I feel it helps to understand the nature of the revival this Spring. The content is substantive. It was not a revival of preaching. It was sharing, confession, and witnessing, along with worship, prayer, and repentance. It spread to 120 campuses. It's said that when students shared across the country and in Canada, it was "recapitulated" in other contexts. I.e., it sparked the same type of renewal.

(via YouTube video description) Jim Garlow, was one of the first people to post about the Asbury University revival on social media when it started 13 days ago. In a follow-up interview, he explains what sounded like waves of an ocean as he stood in the wooden pews worshipping God in Hughes Auditorium. Well Versed World (Jim Garlow's site) | Strang Report (Steven Strang's site)