As numerous others, I have been captivated by the revival at Asbury University in Wilmore Kentucky over the past two weeks.[i] Watching videos of the 24-hour worship in Hughes auditorium, the presence of God is palpable. The format is extremely simple, no sermon messages, high tech equipment or elaborate worship music—usually only a piano, guitar and a few singers. None of the usual accoutrements of religious services seemed to be missed. Those gathered only wanted the presence of God. An Asbury seminary professor commented that when he attended, intending to stay about ten minutes, he ended up staying for over an hour. Others report spending 3 hours, five hours, ten hours, all night, returning numerous days. As participants describe their experience, terms such as gentle, peaceful, tender, and serene frequently surface. No wildness or extreme emotionalism marked the worship. As commented, ‘no one was swinging from the chandeliers’.
[i] Carlson, T., Tucker Carlson covers the Asbury revival, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=qRlftJUkgHw, accessed 2.20.203.
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By the second week of the revival, thousands of people had traveled to Asbury just to experience the presence of God. The draw at Asbury was Jesus Himself. As I watch and re-watch videos of the worship in Hughes, it is compelling, even from a second-hand experience through technology. This led to thinking about the magnetism of Jesus. He enters a space and nothing is the same. This is what has happened at Hughes auditorium.
HIS PRESENCE
The gospels indirectly suggest the compelling quality of Jesus’ presence without overtly identifying it. The miracles and healings Jesus performed induced great crowds to seek Him and made Him singular, but there was also something else. He is noted as possessing authority beyond that of other religious leaders. Further, ordinary people, irreligious, sinners and tax collectors were drawn to Him. The unwelcome woman in the Pharisee’s home, bathing Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair, somehow knew He would welcome her. A tax collector climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. He must have heard something genial in the tone of Jesus’ voice when He said, ‘Zacchaeus climb down, we’re coming to your house for dinner’. Those who attended the dinner, tax collectors and impious people, were comfortable sitting around the dinner table with Jesus, intuitively sensing the presence of a God who loved and accepted them.
As a magnet produces an invisible magnetic field pulling certain types of materials to it, Jesus projected an invisible but real presence of God for those who were receptive. A magnet attracts from unlike poles. Jesus had that magnetic quality, drawing those who were unlike Himself. He was holy while those around Him were not. The presence of God’s love in Him created a field that attracted those who desired to experience purity, but was not off-putting or condemning.
THE TWELVE
The twelve disciples certainly must have intuitively perceived the accepting love of God in Jesus, a strong contrast to the harsh religious teaching of the Pharisees. Certainly, His power over sickness, nature, and matter and His authoritative teaching would have predisposed them to follow Jesus, but as I have noted in another blog, the disciples’ allegiance was tested by the rejection of Jesus by leading religious leaders, fickle crowds and His unanticipated words and actions that could be difficult to grasp. Regardless, they remained with Him. He loved them and they knew it. He was truth and they knew it. He was eternal life and they knew it. How did they know these things? They knew them because they were spiritually hungry and He carried the presence of God. How do the people in Hughes auditorium know they are experiencing God? They are spiritually hungry and like a magnet with unlike poles, Jesus draws them. They realize He has what they don’t have, but want.
THE DISCIPLE JESUS LOVED
John identified himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. This seems a curious way for John to characterize himself since we know that Jesus loved all the disciples. Perhaps, it is because love was the paramount quality that mattered to John in his relationship to Jesus. It is thus not surprising to find that love appears more often in John’s gospel than in Matthew, Mark and Luke and love is mentioned twenty-seven times In the five chapters of the book of First John. It was the intangible presence of God that drew and bound John to Jesus.
SAMARITAN DETOUR
Jesus deliberately traveled through Samaria on His way to Jerusalem. Why would He route Himself to encounter people who were hostile to Jews? As it turned out, after meeting a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and spending two days in the town, many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus. During this time, the only miraculous occurrence was Jesus telling the Samaritan woman all about her past. There is no account of Jesus healing the sick or delivering the tormented. There was no multiplying of food to feed the hungry. What was it that overcame the Samaritan’s animosity? We can only surmise that the arresting presence of Jesus Himself touched their hearts and spirits.
THE PRESENCE
Accounts and observations of the Asbury revival, often speak of the presence of God. Dutch Sheets predicts that the outpouring at Asbury University is only a beginning and what will follow will be more of a presence movement than a preaching movement. On Jim Garlow’s website, Well Versed World, Todd Adkins describes the experience in Hughes auditorium as “stripped down worship, simplified, filled with the presence of God…”[1] Garlow similarly speaks of spending nine hours in The Presence and notes the altar being filled with seekers of The Presence. Another writer, Mike Cortney, refers to the “incredible, joyful, life-giving presence of Jesus.”
[1] Garlow, J., Asbury revival update, Well Versed World, February 21, 2023, https://www.wellversedworld.org/asbury-revival-2023, accessed 2.21.2023.
The power of the presence of Jesus cannot be discounted. This is what our hearts long to experience. Even more than miracles, we want Him to come into the room with us. There is nothing else to explain why thousands of people have traveled to a small town in Kentucky and remained for hours doing nothing but worshiping God. If His presence was absent, I doubt that anyone would have lingered for very long. There was nothing else other than Him to hold them in the auditorium and bring many back for repeated visits.
As Jesus traveled, His presence substantially contributed to His ministry. His presence imparted life to those who gathered and crowded around Him. It was an unspoken quality. It was evidence of the abundant life that He spoke of giving to those who would choose to follow Him. It was an experience of divine love that human love cannot duplicate. It was the presence of living water that could satisfy, an insatiable thirst that nothing else could quench. It is what we were made for—to live in His presence. He is that magnetic attraction that draws us in ways we can’t express.
THE PAINTING
The nine panels are suggestive of magnetized fields with the dark circle in each attracting the irregular, colored forms. Whether centrally positioned or off-center, left or right edge, upper or lower portions, the dark circular forms govern the orientation of the colored forms. Never still. The colored forms actively surge toward the dark forms. This visual representation is not unlike the magnetic quality Jesus exerts when we come into His presence. Like a magnet, He draws hungry hearts and spirits. As the dark circles in the painting, regardless of location or circumstance, His presence reaches out.
Lord Jesus, we need Your presence, not just every once in a while, but every day. Why does it so often escape us? Is there a cost that we are unwilling to pay? The people at Hughes auditorium waited for hours in freezing temperatures and, on some days, in the rain for the chance just to be in Your presence.
Teacher Bill Johnson says we make a difference in the world when we carry Your presence. Lord, You certainly carried the presence of God and made an inestimable difference in the world. As Johnson observes, You indwell all believers but not all believers carry Your presence with them. How can we expect to carry Your presence with us, if we have not taken the time to acquire it? If we carried Your presence with us would it create a magnetic field that would draw others to You?
It was not too difficult for the worshipers in Hughes Auditorium to acquire Your presence. They just had to make the effort to be present and then receptive once they entered into the outpouring of Your presence. They will carry Your presence with them. I have read remarks such as ‘When I return home, life won’t go on in the same way as before’. Yes, the two weeks at Asbury are what we refer to as a ‘mountain top experience,’ and we can’t live on the mountain indefinitely, but that doesn’t mean we can’t seek Your presence on a daily basis. During Your three and half years of ministry, You carried the presence of God every day and so can we if we seek to do so.
Be Still and know that I am God.
Isn’t this what Asbury was about?
Isn’t this what we are to be about?
Sydney Walker, February 22, 2023
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