Might Our Storm Clouds Be Parting? A child shall lead…
By Kat Stansell
Last week, students at small Christian college in Kentucky gathered for their regular Wednesday chapel service. Ten days later, it has not ended. People from around the country and the world continue to join in. No matter your religion or lack thereof, THIS is an exceptional happening. More exceptional even, is that this spirit has spread to other colleges and universities.
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On Wednesday, Feb. 8, a young man in a regular weekly gathering at the chapel of Asbury College in Willmore, KY, stood up and began to speak about what was going on with him; the mistakes he’d made, and where he thought he’d gone wrong. He poured out his soul, they say. According to others in attendance, there was nothing terribly catching about his words. But those words held enough power, somehow, to ignite a movement, a revival, a “marathon church service” in the words of Tucker Carlson, among people around the world. There have been confessions, singing, praying, dancing and support from one participant to the other, n a continuous flow. Social media has drawn many of them together.
After the young man finished, more and more stood to say their piece. And feel their peace. The service continued all day and night. People began showing up on the campus in Wilmore, Ky, a quiet country town, 20 miles SW of Lexington. They have come, so far, from all 50 states, and several foreign countries, including Brazil and Indonesia. More spaces had to be opened and the gymnasium was pressed into service. It continues to this day, now ten days after it began.
This strength of spirit has overflowed from Asbury to other Christian colleges: Lee College in Cleveland, TN; Ohio Christian University, Circleville OH, and Campbellsville University with seven locations throughout KY, and a graduate school for marriage and family therapy in Encino, CA.
This is not the first time this has happened to this small college in Kentucky! To realize this, is to be even more amazed by the power of the Spirit.
In 1970, as the hippie/free love/Gloria Steinem years were going full-steam a spontaneous revival began at Asbury and lasted over a week. Some of the 2023 attendees were there, then. Young people of the ’70’s were feeling as off-course then as they do now. Their societal norms were being shattered, and their moral guideposts challenged with hatred and division. Just like, today.
Today’s “Gen Z” is, too, suffering head-spinning changes in their world, many of which show the direct face of Evil. These shocks to normalcy are coming even faster and more severely today than 50 years ago because they are being forcefully and openly installed by a rogue government. I can attest to that. I have been around for both.
We didn’t get tagged by Generation “alphabetology” back then, but we were at the beginning of the boomers being told to question everything and leave nothing the same. From attitude to attire, everything was changing suddenly and not for the better. How different is that from today? Truly, it was just part of the same Marxian continuum we see now.
The youth of today are at ground zero of life’s rapid slide into the dark, and they sense it. They have their whole lives ahead.
Asbury’s student body president believes that a “young army of believers is rising to claim Christianity for its own.”
The school’s Director of Communications says that she believes the students today are “desperate for something other than what the world is giving them.” Many students who have attended the gatherings say they are experiencing a release of inner darkness.
Would that this might happen for us all!
Asbury College has 1639 students from 40 states and 31 foreign countries, who are taught by a faculty of scholars 75% of whom hold the top degrees in their fields. There are also four masters’ programs. It is just a good small college in the middle of our country. There is nothing at all special about it at a cursory glance. Yet, as of this writing, this spirit of revival – or is it a revival of the Spirit? – is still growing. So far, it is at 10 days and counting. I truly pray that this is just the start of something Biblically huge; that our dark clouds of evil are beginning to part.
Why am I telling you this? You may well have heard it on the evening news, if you listen to one of the more conservative outlets.
First, I thought I just wanted to share some good news, because, Lord knows, we all need some. Then, it struck me that the Lord DOES know, and would like this to be shared in other ways than social media. I think He wants this to get around, to all, of every age, everywhere.
I am not a formally religious person. I try to live my faith rather than preach about it. But this “happening” is so near to the Scriptures that we ALL need to feel it – really feel it – and consider it as a bright spot of light in our ever-darkening world.
In the Bible, The book of Isiah was written as a message of great hope, during a time of great distress. In it, the Lord calls the people out of sin and selfishness. It was said that then – as now – great disaster looms in the future if the present choices and lifestyles are continued.
At a moment of personal despair, when Isiah felt certain that he had failed in his mission, God answered him with the staggering promise that his efforts would reach the entire world and bear great fruit. And, that was in the days of difficult communications, very different from our electronically linked age today.
Isiah became a great prophet giving the promise of salvation from the darkness engulfing the earth.
Is the young man at Asbury our Isiah?
After all, Isiah Chapter 11, verse 6, says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion, and the fattened calf together; and a child shall lead them.
Kat Stansell is the Grassroots Outreach Director for the American Policy Center. A native of Cincinnati Ohio, and graduate of Denison University, Kat served the Village of Mettawa, IL, as treasurer and chair of the Planning Commission, where she got a good look at the process of civic vs. corporate interaction. She has been a local activist, working for several candidates and organizations. She has also written for newspapers and websites, and organized events highlighting issues of the day.
Published with permission of americanpolicy.org