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At the beginning of the first article in my ongoing series on revival, I asked, “Does anybody remember that “Asbury Revival” everybody was talking about back in February this year?” At the time, I mentioned the fact that there was little evidence that it had spread beyond a few similarly Christian universities in several other states.

But now we have news of at least two secular universities that are experiencing a spontaneous outpouring, with significant numbers of conversions and baptisms. The universities where this is happening are Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama and Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I discovered this in an article on an online magazine I follow titled The Stream, which had an article on what’s been happening at Auburn University.

Of greatest interest to me was a couple of anecdotes from that article. First, Christian author Jennie Allen, who was the speaker at a Christian event on campus, posted this on Instagram:

“Last night I finished a message at Auburn and was off stage and a student texted the pastor beside me they wanted to be baptized tonight. So I went back on stage and asked if anyone else wanted to trust Christ and be baptized.

Dozens raised their hands.

So thousands of students left the arena and walked to a lake and a red barn a mile away.

They circled the lake and 6-10 of us were in the water baptizing hundreds.

People surrounded the lake till almost midnight hearing the stories of life change and shouting and cheering and praying together. God is moving and He isn’t stopping.”

Later, a student messaged Allen on Instagram:

“Jennie, the place where you baptized 200 of my classmates is also the same place we have been meeting at 6am every Friday morning to pray for our community and Revival in Auburn. It was unbelievable to see a MIRACLE happen on the very ground we have been praying over.

Another miracle happened last night, we called one of our friends who hadn’t been able to make it to worship night and told him to come to the Red Barn, and he said “Oh I’m already here! God told me to come and bring my guitar and pray! I’ve just been praying for one person to show up.”

So God not only prepared the “ground” in people’s hearts, but He also prepared the literal ground where it would be fulfilled!

In an interview, Allen said,

“It was initiated by them. We didn’t think of this. We didn’t plan this. Are you kidding me? This girl that texted her pastor to be baptized started this.”

So when the writer of the article at The Stream noted that “Prayer sparked this outpouring of repentance and newness of life”, I believe these align well with David Bryant’s second phase of revival, which I’ve been working through in my “What is Revival?” series, Preparation, which he describes as:

“Christians begin to persistently pray and prepare for revival. They pray both individually and corporately with a growing consensus of what revival should look like and that revival is near. The prayers are expressed in terms of joyful anticipation but also sober repentance.

Above all, ardent requests are made to God to fulfill His promises. Christians also commit themselves to reorder their lives and ministries to be ready to run with the full impact of revival when it comes. Repentance is a primary characteristic of how they pray and prepare.”

What’s happening at A&M University appears to have been bubbling away for over a year now, even before we heard about Asbury. In an article at CBN News a couple of weeks ago, the youth pastor of a local church where this is occurring, New Life Church in Corpus Christi, is quoted:

“We are seeing these people repent from compromise and make a decision to make a public declaration of, ‘No, I want to give my whole life to Jesus starting today.’ And then we see them radically transformed before our eyes where their lifestyle is radically different [and] [they have] boldness to preach the Gospel to their friends like never before… The culture of holiness has really been remarkable among these young people. They are living in purity and righteousness even at this secular university.”

Again, there’s Bryant’s “pray, repentance, reorder”.

Reclaiming Ground

What strikes me about all of this is how God so often brings about transformation in the very places we thought the enemy was in the ascendancy, if not full control. In this case, it’s universities, particularly those in the U.S., which have been the seedbed for the growth of what’s become known as “Cultural Marxism”.

Since the early 1960s, the educated elites of the next few generations have been increasingly hardened against the Gospel at university, to the point where they have become extreme Left-wing fortresses. It’s from the universities that such things as “cancel culture”, “deplatforming”, “Diversity, Inclusion and Equity” practices, among other phenomena, have originated courtesy of neo-Marxist grievance politics.

So, I’m sure there are many who thought such a visitation on a university campus was out of the question. On that basis, whether or not this is another piece of the revival puzzle being put into place, you’d definitely have to admit that it’s miraculous.

As a personal footnote, when I showed the first article from The Stream to my wife, she’d just finished her Scripture reading, and she showed me the chapter she’d just finished. It was Zechariah 2. This is a chapter containing a prophetic vision of Zechariah’s where God shows him a desolate and ruined Jerusalem being measured out for expansion due to God’s favour. The reason is found back in chapter 1, where God tells Zechariah, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.” (v. 14)

Then, in vv. 16-18, Zechariah tells us,

Therefore the Lord says this: “I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; My house will be built in it,” declares the Lord of armies, “and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.”’ Again, proclaim, saying, “This is what the Lord of armies says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’”

Then, in 2:4-5, we find God’s further promise:

“‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as open country because of the multitude of people and cattle within it. But I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire to her on all sides, and I will be the glory in her midst.’”

This is the promise of revival, when God shows up in power and majesty, with a wall of protection for His faithful people rescued from captivity and persecution. But even more so is the next passage, where God plunders the former surrounding enemy nations to bring former enemies into citizenship in the Kingdom of God:

“For the Lord of armies says this: “After glory He has sent me against the nations that plunder you, for the one who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. For behold, I am going to wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the Lord of armies has sent Me. Shout for joy and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord.

“And many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of armies has sent Me to you. And the Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 2:8-12 NASB)

Isn’t this what’s happening in these universities? God “plundering” the former “nations” which were making “slaves’ of Christians in their midst?

Let this also be a lesson to all those Christians who focus so intently on what the enemy is doing, and even in many cases, what he’s suspected of doing, especially in places of power. Our focus should never be on the activities of the kingdom of darkness, except for the purpose of bringing light to those ensnared and enthralled within it.

Instead, it’s these moves of the Holy Spirit we should be focusing on, and praying, not only for these visitations, but that this will be a part of what God is calling us all to in this time of preparation for revival: pray, repentance, reorder.

The last word belongs to Zechariah:

“Be silent, all mankind, before the Lord; for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.” (v. 13)