Like thousands of others across the country, I took the Christian pilgrimage down to Asbury University this week to see firsthand what the Holy Spirit was up to. It was wonderful.
When such movements of God happen in the Bible, it always causes Bible scholars to ask, “Why?” In the same way, we all today are wondering why the Holy Spirit has pushed this one-hour chapel service to last over a week straight now. I don’t have more of a concrete answer than anyone else, but I’ll explain how the Spirit is using the timing of it to speak into my life.
Churches have been dry for a long time, and it was never drier than during the pandemic, in which the church nearly fell apart entirely. What we are looking at in our churches now is the remnant that stuck with it. And just as the Spirit called my congregation to “repent and make space for new gifts” in 2022 (via a rather crazy story), I sense he may now be doing that across the American church at large, just before we’re all compelled by the Spirit to run out into the wilderness and fast for Lent (which is a Christian tradition that has weighed unusually heavy on my heart this year).
As Pentecostals often say, “It’s not about the person getting knocked over by the Holy Spirit, it’s about what they’re like after they come up.” We see crazy experiences happen in revivals all the time, but Asbury is an intriguing revival because it’s not a worked-up experience. It’s not polished. It’s not marketed. It’s not hijacked. There’s no reason to go there and flip tables. It’s just a thing that’s happening and people are welcome to either visit or press into what the Spirit is doing in their own location. It is a place people want to visit in order to get right with God. The experience is heart-focused.
Now that I’m home from this pilgrimage, I want to make some space in my own area for people to keep pressing into what the Spirit is up to at Asbury. We’re not trying to mimic or copy them, but rather join in for a few hours. So this Saturday at 6:30pm, we invite you to stop by 1208 Greenwood Church for an unspecified amount of time as we get our hearts right for lent, hoping to come out the other side of Easter tested and true, with the revival living on in our hearts, and the empowerment of the Spirit filling us up for a new season of ministry, just as he filled Jesus in response to his fasting.
Jamin Bradley 