Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. - Psalm 1:1-2 (ESV)
I had not planned on much more time invested in the Asbury situation. That was until today when I received a video of someone testifying how real it was and how anyone who dared to disagree that this was a genuine move of God was 'sitting in the seat of mockers." I found this deliciously ironic since the context for that verse, found above in the key verses reveals that there are two parts to this idea. The first is that we are not to be found in the seat of mockers but the way to accomplish this is by delighting in the law of the Lord. Of course it is the law of the Lord, or His word, that is sorely lacking from Asbury. I read a testimony from someone who called Asbury and asked some general questions to a very nice lady manning the phones. The one that stood out was why there is no preaching at this revival and the answer was they did not feel that the students needed the preaching of the word, given the worship, testimonies, and verse readings. Let that sink in. They believe the preaching of the word, is not needed at their "revival."
The bible has many instances of documented revival. The Old Testament is full of such stories, whether it is the reign of King Josiah and the removal of all idolatry in Israel or Ezra reading the Torah to the people. The central feature of revival as such was not people lying on the ground or rolling around. It was not in 24-hour worship programs. It was a serious return to the word of the Lord. Anything else was idolatry and the second feature of these biblical revivals was the removal of idols from the land and the cessation of worshiping false gods. There is NONE of that is Asbury. I do not blame the sincere college students who are merely emphasizing what they have been taught as important. The reason why Asbury is devoid of preaching and why they do not even think it is needed is because in the regular course of business it is not needed! It is not emphasized. It is hardly just Asbury as most NAR apostate churches see the same phenomenon. In fact, most NAR preachers will insist that the word is not as important as their personal experiences. Those that insist on scripture are deemed to have a religious spirit or are trying to keep God in a box. Don't believe me?
Let's go back to the video I received where one of the major themes during the ten minutes was in fact how those that disagreed with Asbury were trying to keep God in a box and how their religion could just not see what a true move of God looked like. What absolute, NAR, nonsense. That box they keep bad-mouthing IS scripture. God set the boundaries and guardrails because He knows how wickedly deceitful our hearts truly are. The defense offered in this video and others I have seen all amount to emotionalism. Look at the teenagers worshipping! They are on their faces! They chose to stay! Yet I have seem two interviews and neither young adult could even provide a coherent summary of the events they were experiencing. This mushy gushy lovey dovey Jesus is not what we see in scripture. His expectation of our love is based upon our obedience. The women in this video kept gushing over how all of the worship songs were "vertical" but it has already been reported that the vast majority of sings are heretical or originate from heretical outfits such as Hillsong or Elevation. I say this all of the time but telling God how much He loves us? Yeah, that's not worshipping Gid.
I am sure to some this may seem like no big deal. I often get the "why not just let it be" refrain. The reason why is there are eternal souls at stake. The slander of church that occurs leads people away from church and towards these types of movements where there is little to no accountability. Why am I concerned? Ask someone who survived the Pensacola revival, or the Toronto blessing nonsense, of the Lakeland -come get kicked in the face" - Revival, how they are today? God does not show up for these brief seasons to stir everyone up into a frenzy and then leave them all in the dust wondering what happened. And before you go thinking this is different, Todd Bentley, who orchestrated the Lakeland debacle, is at Asbury! Is anyone remotely concerned that Asbury is being widely promoted by the most rank heretics of our day? So for the record, I am extremely happy that youth at this one bible college in Kentucky seem to be hungry to desperately seek the Lord. Now my prayer is that someone opens a bible and introduces Him to them.
That aside, let us also acknowledge that the mystique of Asbury is starting to fray around the edges. This is being billed as a sovereign move of Almighty God, spontaneous and led by the youth at this college. The ensuing promotion of course was conducted by actors in the apostate church movement, led by Charisma News. This has led to the four-hour lines just to get to step inside Hughes Auditorium. This of course has real world implications for the tiny town of Wilmore Kentucky as it has been overrun by people from the outside, hoping to "soak" in the revival. Local residents have politely complained about no parking spaces and filled lots at the supermarkets. It seems that God's holy visitation has disrupted life in small town America. Not to fret because the officials have decided to end the revival after this coming Wednesday night.
Huh?
So, this spontaneous movement of the Lord, where people have sworn that Jesus has literally sat next to them, is being ended because of bad parking. This outpouring of the spirit from heaven is being ended because of the inconvenience of full parking lots at the local Winn Dixie. Or maybe it as this Asbury student explained:
"It's been hard to keep up on academic and investing in where God wants me to invest and figuring out where I'm supposed to be at what times,"
Yes, I believe this is how the revival when David brought the Ark back to Jerusalem ended. Listen, I am sure that the chaos in Wilmore is real. This is what happens when people travel hours upon hours to "experience God" as if He was not available in their own home town. Still, how can anyone be expected to believe in the "authenticity" of this move if people can so casually decide to end it? When we see revival biblically it usually ends when some great evil comes against it. The next King ends up leading the people of Israel back into idol worship for example. Not so for the great Asbury Outpouring, which in the end will have been a bright shooting star across church history, flaming out after only two weeks. Was it the rise of some great evil that did it in? Did the people eventually consider their idols too great to give up? No. the Great Asbury Revival of 2023 was eventually defeated by the parking availability at the local Kroger Marketplace.
Do I need to explain the ridiculousness of this? Hey, I understand that this experience may have went a lot farther than you had ever thought or contemplated but you are left with two choices. You either restructure your lives around the sovereign move of God you claim is occurring or your admit your fraud and end it on a manmade timeline based purely on carnal issues. I would have to think that parking space problems can be resolved. Students could easily be given academic credit for attending a revival if that is what it truly was. How was the choice of telling God He has to leave the way to go here? How do you tell the creator of the universe it's been a great two weeks but Publix has a sale this week on Easter baskets and well, you understand right God?
If that sounds like mockery, you would be correct but I do not sit in the seat mocking God but rather defending Him. He is not a genie that you can put back in the bottle when He becomes inconvenient for your life. Any true revival of Him starts and ends with His word. It doesn't start by skipping class and end when local politicians want their parking spaces back.
Reverend Anthony Wade - February 20, 2023
