As a spontaneous revival at Asbury University passed the 100-hour mark over the weekend, a pastor who visited the campus as an outsider said he was “moved” by what he experienced – and that he didn’t want to leave.
Bill Elliff, founding and national engage pastor of the Summit Church in North Little Rock, Ark., and a frequent conference speaker, penned his reflections in a weekend blog and asked readers to pray that the Asbury revival will spread nationwide.
At Asbury … God is here. Very real. I very quickly turned from spectator to broken participant. How can you not in Gods manifest presence? pic.twitter.com/RRnMAEbrjW
— bill elliff (@belliff) February 11, 2023
The revival began Wednesday when students stayed long after a regularly scheduled chapel service in Hughes Auditorium at the Wilmore, Ky., campus. Soon, others joined them.
At Asbury University and praying for God to revive our nation and to start a revival on the campus of @Cedarville! Join me in praying for Jesus to be exalted high! pic.twitter.com/lBd1WV8fkq
— Thomas White (@DrThomasWhite) February 12, 2023
“We’ve been here in Hughes Auditorium for over a hundred hours – praying, crying, worshipping and uniting – because of Love,” Alexandra Presta, the executive editor of the Asbury Collegian, wrote on Sunday, the fifth day of the revival. “We’ve even expanded into Estes Chapel across the street at Asbury Theological Seminary and beyond.”
Elliff, who visited the revival, wrote, “This is real. God is very present.”
“Several hundred gathered in the morning hours, but the crowd filled every seat by the afternoon in the 1500-seat auditorium,” Elliff wrote. “… Worship is glorious, unified, and simple. A piano and guitar, led by various student teams who understand that worship is not performance. The altar is almost always full. Wonderful prayer counselors from Asbury are helping them.”
Within the first hour, Elliff wrote, he had “moved from a spectator to a humble participant.”
When the microphone is opened for testimonies, he wrote, there are “long lines of grateful people telling what God has done in the last 72 hours.”
“Healing – both emotional, spiritual, and physical has happened in glorious ways,” he wrote. “Very real and profound things are occurring quickly in hundreds of lives.”
The unity and worship are “heavenly,” Elliff added.
“No pretense, pride, or show. No manipulation. You don’t want to leave,” Elliff wrote. “The Scripture was read this afternoon for a long time by multiple people, washing over the congregation. After each Scripture, the response was, ‘The Word of God, and we believe it!’
People seem to be moved by Christ deeply, not merely by emotion, although emotions are present. (How could we not be emotional if God is in the room in power and lives are being transformed?).”
Elliff urged Christians to pray that the revival spreads elsewhere.
“Pray that God would send revival to His church and then a mighty awakening to the lost,” Elliff wrote. “Ask Him to manifest Himself in power so that millions can be brought to Christ and the church can rise again into its missionary calling. Pray for the acceleration and rapid expansion of the gospel … for His Kingdom to come. As I spoke to the hotel receptionist this morning, she told me they were sold out of rooms. ‘We were not prepared for revival,’ she said. May it not be true of us.”
Related:
50-Plus-Hour Revival Sweeps Asbury University: Students ‘Stayed All Night’
Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Hannah Busing, this is a stock image.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.