ASBURY REVIVAL FIRE (Part Two) … The Real Thing
“For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, which is Christ himself.” Colossians 2:17 NLT.
Memories of my conversion in 1970 at an Asbury College altar during the spontaneous revival are a blur. So last week I called the only person I knew was there. Steve Seamands was a senior at the college and remembered it well.
He said he can never forget it- 53 years later- because it was his first experience watching a baby being ‘born-again’. I told Steve that I barely remember the details. “Of course not,” he said. “Babies don’t remember being born.”
But for Steve, this was unforgettable since he was a young spiritual father in God’s delivery room. A spiritual son named Timmy was being re-born. It was dramatic and painful. God’s neo-natal birthing room can be a bloody mess!
Now, in the wake of this 2023 revival, social media is full of professional Christians who are analyzing whether the revival is ‘real’. I cringe at some of the commentary by people who have never been anywhere near Asbury. They are observers of real revival instead of participants. I weep for them.
So how do I know it is ‘real’?? Let me give you some personal proof.
For starters, when I stood up from the altar, I loved people that I hated the day before. I am thinking of two very specific young people. It was a juvenile eighteen-year-old teenager rivalry, but very real at the time.
Next, the incredible burden of sin was gone. It was like going from being a caddie carrying a 100-pound tour bag full of thirty clubs and junk up a hill to being the a ‘tour player’ with God Himself on the bag, carrying all my burdens for me. Essentially, it is the freedom that comes from being forgiven!
I hope you know what I mean. It was NOT- ‘okay, here we go and now I am gonna really try harder this time’. None of that. It was God’s forgiveness and mercy and grace. Who would not want that kind of love?
But foremost of all the signs of reality was the bold spirit that invaded me. I wrote letters to old friends. My younger high school brother Danny came to Jesus, along with four of his pals. Boys named Ben and Norm and Jim and David are still talking about 1970 to this day. Our old public high school talked about nothing but Jesus and His revival. There was nothing the ACLU could do to stop it.
‘Witnessing’ seemed normal. Why? We were merely telling a ‘real’ story about a ‘real’ God.
Imagine this- “I went to the Masters last week and let me tell you what happened. I saw Tiger Woods carve a four iron around a tree… (blah blah blah).” Of course, you’re gonna tell someone what you saw. Or how about your first Hole-in-One. Did you tell anyone?
How can you keep quiet when a real story about a real Christ is living inside of you? Multiply the Tiger Woods or the Hole-in-One illustrations a thousand times and you begin to get the picture.
Asbury had lots of rules in the 1960’s. They seemed quite silly at the time (and often were). But the revival that God sent our way was not a revival of obedience to rules. Just the opposite. The entire campus understood Paul’s words to the Colossians were true for Asbury too. “For these rules were only shadows of the real thing, Christ himself.” (Col. 2:17 NLT).
Rules became irrelevant when we all agreed that Christ himself was the real thing! The Law is not needed when the Spirit comes!
So Jesus Christ was real and my story was real. No worries about someone asking a God-question too hard to answer. This was just my story- that’s all- and a true one.
In February 2020, I returned to the Asbury campus to speak about the 1970 revival. Click here for an audio of chapel on that day, or watch the video documentary When God Comes. We prayed that day that God would do it again. And now, in 2023, it looks like He did.
Stay tuned!!!