All who have attended the Asbury University revival have talked about the authenticity of the move of the Holy Spirit. God’s love and tenderness is bringing many to repentance and revival is spreading to other college campuses across the nation. Prophet Jeremiah Johnson is warning Christians about some of the responses and perspectives being posted online.
“My prayerful concerns are not in regards to what is actually happening there but rather the responses and perspectives that I am seeing posted online daily from people who are visiting there,” he wrote on Facebook.
He lists some of the comments frequently being posted on social media:
“This is real revival because there are no famous preachers here…”
“This is a real move of God because there is no popular worship team here…”
“This is a real move of God because it’s so peaceful and there are no crazy manifestations here…”
Jeremiah’s main concern is how people have formulated a check list of why revival would or wouldn’t happen without realizing that God can move however He desires. When you take a look at revival history each move of the Holy Spirit looks different.
“The truth is that all throughout revival history, you have VARIETY and DIVERSITY. It’s what makes it so stunning and beautiful. At the Asbury revival, there are no famous preachers and worship leaders. In the Second Great Awakening, there was a famous preacher named Charles Finney that God used to convert hundreds of thousands to Christ,” Jeremiah says.
In 1821, during the Second Great Awakening there are reports of seven ministers preaching at the same time. Those who were there say it sounded like “the roar of Niagara Falls.” In one circumstance a group of 500 people were swept down as if they had been hit by a bomb, trembling and crying for mercy. This movement produced the modern missionary movement.
At one of Rees Howells meetings in 1915, a young girl came under conviction and she broke down praying and crying. Five minutes later the entire congregation was on their faces crying out to God. They felt as if lightning and thunder came down from heaven transforming an entire region.
I don’t think any of those things have happened at Asbury University. That’s the beautiful part of God, He has many different facets.
“In some revivals there have been wild manifestations and miracles like at Azusa Street and the Latter Rain. At Cane Ridge and Hebrides however the conviction of sin and fear of the Lord shut down local bars and put people prostrate for days,” Jeremiah says.
Jeremiah says he has sought God since the Asbury revival started. He feels that God has instructed him to pray for those who are visiting to receive, worship and repent and then go back to their own cities and ask God how He wants to move there.
He feels the true threat against the revival at Asbury University is from those attending that believe they know the secret sauce to what a revival looks like all to accuse another move of God in the past, present or future.