News and Updates
March 1, 2023
David Copeland · March 1, 2023
Newsletter · Volume: 23 Issue: 3
My heart has been filled with awe and gratitude over the outpouring of the Sprit that has taken place at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky in February.
On February 8th, at the end of the chapel service, students gathered in the altar there and prayed, repented, cried, confessed, and stayed…and stayed…and stayed. That one service alone lasted over 144 straight hours, day & night as these students pursued God and He answered with a special touch from heaven.
Many have criticized this move because they were using the wrong version of the Bible and singing the wrong worship songs. Other have criticized this event because certain false teachers have attended. But this has been a student led event from the very moment it started. I am told several famous worship leaders & preachers have offered to come and “help” but were rejected because the university leadership wanted this to remain a student led movement.
I say “movement” because since then, similar events have spontaneously erupted on several university campuses around the United States; I even saw one report of it happening in Spain over the weekend.
Any service or event that causes people to repent of their sins, confess their sins to God AND to people and draws them closer to God IS of the Holy Spirit. May we not try to put the fire out simply because we were not the ones who started it. With all this in mind, I want to share with you some simple thoughts on what constitutes a real revival?
What Constitutes A Real Revival?
I have preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ for over four decades, and during all these years, there has been an irritating mindset in many people and churches that revival is nothing more than a week of meetings designed to get people saved. While I am on this earth to be a channel the Holy Spirit can use to lead people to Christ, I submit to you a genuine revival will not only see people saved but it can also see the following:
1.Genuine Revival will be marked by a strong call to repentance for the church.
No pastor, no preacher, no church, no denomination is doing church 100% right. Last time I read the book of Romans Paul said all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). I know many people, preachers and movements who are absolutely convinced they are the only voice of God left on planet earth. When this mindset controls your thinking, you become cultish and an obstacle to the Holy Spirit bringing people to a fresh relationship to Jesus. Repentance of all sin…even sin in the life of the believer will come as a precursor to revival.
2.A genuine hunger in people to get closer to God will be evidenced in a real revival.
Not an attempt to keep another list of rules and regulations; but a new desire to please God and have a relationship with Him. Not just on Sunday but also in your everyday lifestyle; in the places you go… things you say…how you live your life every day.
3.Genuine revival will also bring a new compassion and love for all people groups. I have been in churches across the U.S. that when someone of a different race came in the door, people couldn’t worship for watching those people. Jesus is not solely a white man’s God, He is not only a black man’s God, or a brown man’s God: He is king of Kings and Lord of Lords for all of humanity. Genuine revival will destroy the two hindrances that are blocking the church in this hour: racism and gender bias!
Oh God, please send a real revival to America! I pray that this defining moment we are seeing will change our hearts and cause us to be open for the next thing God wants to do in our lives. The next thing God does is always greater than the last thing He did.
2 Chronicles 7:13,14
13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. KJV