Tag: move of God

The Humble Beginnings of the Asbury Outpouring

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Asbury University is experiencing a move of God and there’s something extremely exciting about it that you need to see!!!! See the HUMBLE BEGINNINGS of this move of God- https://vimeo.com/797744823/9e907f4d59 – THIS is the chapel service from which the outpouring started. Please take a look at it – fast forward through it. It’s not all that exciting – haha. The lighting is blah, the speaker who gives the call to come pray is not charismatic or extremely passionate (not a knock on her, she probably could be – she just wasn’t here). The worship team is . . . average (I don’t want to be critical) – they’re students, and they’re inviting God’s presence – but they’re not the reason that thousands of people are lining up at four different buildings across campus right now. I’m sure they’d be humble enough to say this. There’s no major personalities, or fanfare, or videos, or even lyrics on screens.

Watch the above video progress . . . a few prayer people at the altar, a few people come up for prayer, along with a few to pray on their own. The prayer continues. STUDENTS BEGIN PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER! It dissipates and almost dies down in one area of the front, then begins to fire up in another area . . . a little. Some students leave, a few more come. The worship team switches out, has fits and starts, builds momentum sometimes, sucks momentum other times. The altar prayer continues . . . then, right before the video ends, the altar prayer time begins to grow . . .

All of this points to the fact that God is involved! In a generation (and a nation) that is longing for the authentic, chafing at something being forced, and running from God and church (in general), this is the move that God chose to pour Himself out through . . . and it’s perfect! It’s beautiful! It’s just like our God!

Will there be personalities and charisma that arise out of this? Probably. But never forget the origin! God moving on people’s hearts so that they HAD to respond to His presence, they are compelled to stay, they are compelled to repent, compelled to worship, compelled to pray, compelled to seek God! I can’t wait for what God is sparking through this – I want to be a part of it! You should too!

Dr. Jared Stepp

If you Don’t Hit Water . . .

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I’m sure there are few things more frustrating than back-breaking digging a well that produces no water. As we are praying and fasting these days, getting ready for our First Wednesday Gathering (tomorrow night, 7 PM – be there), the Lord directed me to ask, what happens if we come up dry? What happens if you, in the middle of praying right now, don’t feel like you’re hearing? Or don’t sense the breakthrough? Or God even seems absent from your prayer times? The answer is simple . . .

Keep digging. If you’re digging a well, and you don’t hit water, either 1. You haven’t dug deep enough or 2. You need to dig another whole in a little different spot. But if you’re thirsty and the alternative is your family dying because you don’t have access to clean water, the answer is never to give up. The answer is KEEP DIGGING. Spiritually we are thirsty, and in our present culture, without the Living Water of the presence and work of God Himself through His Holy Spirit, we will die. There is no other option – we must keep digging. Keep praying, keep looking in God’s face, keep listening for God’s voice, looking for His pictures, tuning yourself to His way of communicating. We MUST HIT WATER.

Digging will feel hard while you’re in it, it has to, it’s not rewarding otherwise. It’s not impactful or meaningful otherwise. However, when your boots first get wet, and it’s time to get out of the hole, and see what you’ve got – IT’S ALL WORTH IT! God is THE Spring of Living Water – He will provide us with fresh water AND now is the time to keep digging. It will be worth it. David said in essence – I will not offer the Lord that which cost me nothing (2 Sam 24:24 & 1 Chron 21:24). It’s time to dig, feel the cost, and trust God that the payoff will be worth it.

This Surprising Truth about Jesus is in Almost Every Story in the Book of Mark

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Laying on the floor, eyes closed, incapable of movement – I heard a symphony of noises all around the room: loud praying, yelling, singing, “More, Lord” repeatedly (the same prayer that sent me to the floor without anyone touching me), BUT ALSO WEIRD ONES – someone roaring like a lion in one corner, someone else acting like they’re giving birth behind me, someone barking like a dog in the other corner, and laughter not like someone told a good joke laughter – but rather embarrassing, uncontrollable laughter – loud and awkward. Those sounds were accompanied by abnormal movement – shaking, jerking, doubling over, gyrating like electrocution happened. And ALL OF THAT would have freaked me right out and caused me to scream “fakers”, except for the UNDENIABLE work that God was doing in me . . .

As I laid paralyzed, God began to speak to me and confirm in specific and unavoidable ways many things He’d been telling me about my future and ministry. On the screen of my imagination, He flashed vision after vision of things He had for me and I would do for Him. Those things ALL HAPPENED, His words ALL came true. 25 years later I still remember many of those words, visions and fulfillment.

If you want to call it emotionalism or excessive – you’re entitled to that opinion. You’d be wrong though. Were there people who embellished a little – maybe – but when God shows up undeniably in your life you might freak out too! There’s excess in every Gathering of believers from the beginning, but in a move of God, we get our excesses out IN THE OPEN so we can grow from them and learn, rather than all the private sin of other believers

Also in a move of God those excesses are the exceptions that prove the authentic work of God in people’s lives. I know God was moving and HE was aggressively and consistently pushing me OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE and that’s what brings us to Jesus (sorry it took me a minute to get there – haha) . . .

Throughout His life, Jesus aggressively and consistently pushes people out of their comfort zone. As we’ve studied Mark (and throughout the rest of it – I’ve read ahead – hehe) this is one thread that’s not going away. Jesus was a pusher. Jesus militantly crushes barriers in which people were personally and spiritually comfortable. He only and always broke down the barriers that who would separate people from God. Personal space – crushed. Self-righteousness – crushed. Earthly thinking – crushed. Doubt in His power and goodness – crushed. Every time. He aggressively pushed people into a place of encounter with God!!!

Jesus is STILL aggressively pushing people out of their comfort zone and into authentic encounter with God!!! Ask Him, HOW AM I TOO COMFORTABLE? When I come to church, what are my next steps toward encounter with You? In my prayer time right now, Holy Spirit please invade my comfort zone and bring me into Your growth!!!