ASBURY REVIVAL 2023: Wally’s perspective

Warren (Wally) Latham is a name known to Regulars here, has graciously given me free reign to quote him, and yesterday he wrote this —-

I Missed It

Asbury University is in the midst of a spontaneous move of the Holy Spirit, a revival not unlike the one that forever changed the school in 1970. I missed that one, arriving as a student 18 months after the “One Divine Moment,” as it was written about by Dr. Robert Coleman.

Now I am 70 and 6 hours from Wilmore. I thought about going, but this revival is not for me. It’s for a new generation of pastors and missionaries, and professors and Christian apologists, and Bible Teachers, and disciple makers, and moms and dads. A new generation of transformed leaders is being raised up. It is an answer to the prayers of thousands prayed over many years.

God knows we need a revival. The church in America has been in significant decline for decades and the decline has been rapidly accelerating in the last few years.

Evangelism has been lost, replaced by a do-goodism which lacks any transformational power. The voice of the church has been swallowed up by a woke culture which knows nothing of sin and atonement, salvation and sanctification, neither inward nor outward holiness.

We sure needed it in 1970 when the church had become anemic and ineffective and the culture was caught in turmoil and radical change.

We need it again in 2023 and it appears God is supplying what we need. This is happening without electing delegates, hammering out legislation, spending millions of dollars to further the ineffectiveness of the church. Like on the day of Pentecost, God is doing this and no one can claim responsibility for it. It is a move of God.

For over 50 years those transformed during the 1970 Asbury Revival and soon thereafter have spread out across the world. Their ministry has had profound impact on every inhabited continent and in most of the troubled spots in the world. They have built schools and churches and hospitals. They have served the least and the last, most often without any earthly reward or recognition. They have founded theological Seminaries and trade schools and colleges and universities. They have helped launch new apostolic movements all across the world.

And now they are old, like me. Many are still fully engaged in ministry into their 70’s in spite of a formal status of “retired.” But none of us has the energy nor stamina of youth. And anyone who is 70 or older and says they still feel young is at best delusional. We may think we are young, but the mirror and our medical care tell a different tale.

What will this new generation of “on fire” young people do? God only knows. But God certainly knows. And God is doing this work to accomplish his desire: the salvation of the world. And he is moving powerfully again in the little town we Asburians refer to as the Holy City. And it is that tonight. The Holy of Holies has opened up on the campus of little Asbury University. The Great High Priest is glorified and lives are being changed through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I’ll miss this revival like I did the last one. But I can’t wait to see the impact of this one as I have lived and seen the impact of that one in 1970. Holiness Unto The Lord.