Revival Report: Revival is Here, Now
During the summer of 2020, my husband Parker and I had the opportunity to begin leading revival on the beaches of Orange County, California.
I use the word revival with care and caution. To be honest, I think it can be one of the most misused and often abused words in Christian culture. I’ve learned quickly that revival is way more than a Christian conference. It is the Church, the saints, being awakened, revived, and set ablaze with the Kingdom of God. What was ignited in the summer of 2020 is extremely significant for the new ground being laid out for the Church in this hour. As my husband and I step into leading revival in new cities, in tents, and on the streets, I can’t help but notice that this moment is an opportunity for all of us.
Throughout history, we see times when God has truly poured out His Spirit and transformed entire regions with His glory. I believe revival isn’t just a sovereign act of God, but the Holy Spirit is searching for consecrated burning ones who want Him above all things.
On a daily basis, I whisper to myself, “This can’t all really be happening, can it?” I fondly remember my first few winters evangelizing in New York City in my mid-twenties. At the time, I wasn’t being invited to preach anywhere. I was desperately searching for resources on how to share the Gospel, and I felt a bit lost myself. There were so many cold afternoons when I would stop someone on the street and ask, “What does the word freedom mean to you?” This was my desperate conversation opener for a chance to stop the blur of the city to share the Gospel with a stranger.
I remember the first time my street evangelism methods “worked.” I was in a small deli and asked a woman in her mid-fifties my little “freedom question.” She quietly responded, and for a moment I was lit up with the fact that we were actually having a conversation and not distracted by the busy world around us. While she waited for her egg sandwich, I probed further. As my heart raced and my fingers trembled, I muttered out, “Is there anything I can pray for you about?”
She said, “Yes.”
As I prayed for her finances, I felt like I was diving into the deep end of my small faith and wasn’t sure if I knew how to swim. As we prayed, I begged God to show up and do something. I looked the woman in the eyes and asked her, “Do you feel God’s presence right now?”
She looked at me, shocked, and said, “Yes, yes I do.”
I was equally shocked.
I then grabbed her cold, weather-beaten hands in mine and shared the Gospel with her in a whisper. “Jesus loves you. He really loves you, and He is really real! He wants to forgive you for your sins. He died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead! Jesus is alive and wants to give you a brand-new life! Do you want that brand-new life? Do you want to follow Jesus?”
She said, “Yes!”
I couldn’t believe it. I felt the ecstatic emotion of Christmas morning burning in my chest. An uncontainable joy consumed me and I began to cry as I held her in my arms. Then we prayed together. Among the old coffee machines, construction workers in line for breakfast, and steam floating in the air from the hot griddle, she was saved. She was saved in that deli on 23rd street!
It was a simple, ordinary day in an ordinary place, but I immediately became addicted to sharing the Gospel. I learned a lifetime lesson in that moment: You don’t need to be famous, you don’t need great lights and music, you don’t need to be in a special place or need permission to be used by God.
Evangelist Smith Wigglesworth once said, “The Acts of the Apostles was written because the apostles acted!”
“The Holy Spirit is searching for consecrated burning ones who want Him above all things.”
Since that day at the deli, I have been in acceleration mode when it comes to sharing the Gospel. I have had the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s greatest evangelists (including the late Reinhard Bonnke), pick up new tools from some of the most creative missionaries on earth, step out in faith in wild ways, fail miserably, have an identity crisis, surrender everything, overcome fear, read piles of books, practice what those books say, surrender everything again, plant micro churches, make disciples in my living room and lead thousands upon thousands into eternal life through Jesus Christ!
I believe that we are in revival. Now. Like, today.
In my book, Wildfires, I will invite you into the story of a revival that is happening now.
In Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Perhaps Jesus is sending us out, you and I, together.
I wrote this book so that we would become kin, family that goes forth into battle with one heart and one mind. I hope this field guide helps you along the way. I pray that the lessons I learned that came at a great cost would help you overcome every snare and trap of the enemy. Keep it close, share it with your dearest friends, and, together, let’s sustain a never-ending flame of revival till the return of King Jesus.
