The Philippines, Uganda, Puerto Rico, Baylor University, Texas A&M University, and Asbury University are all places around the world connected by one thing. Revival. And more may be on the way. Yet it may be surprising to say that revival has started in the most unlikely of places, or has it?
For a long time now, like most of you, I have been praying a very dangerous prayer. I have been praying for revival. Though I have been praying for it in an unlikely way. I love praying for the unlikely, for the things that I know without God would never happen, things that most people may never pray for. I have been praying for revival to take place among the younger generation. Why this is unlikely, you may be asking? Because the generation that is slowly fall out of the church is in fact the younger generation. It is a generation that has many people in the church becoming afraid of where the church may be going, yet it is that generation that I pray for. I do not pray in the sense that I want them to change, but I want them to be the change, and that is what is happening.
It isn’t unknown that God tends to use the most unlikely of people to do the most amazing things. If you have any doubt, just look at the disciples, mainly at Matthew. A tax collector, turned disciple. You don’t get any more unlikely than that. Tax collectors where shunned by society, were seen as outcasts, and even hated by the Jews for good reason. Tax collectors where traders that stole from people in order to guarantee a better life for themselves. To think that one of them would be called by the Messiah, as one of his disciples, would have never crossed anyone’s mind. Yet that is what happened. Not only that, but this very unlikely person not only followed Christ, but also recorded all of his steps and actions, making the first gospel. From unlikely to extraordinary.
So what does this have to do with revival? How many of you would have thought revival would start at a university by young people, let alone Gen-Z? A could of years ago, I would have never thought that to be a possible. I always thought revival would come at a worldwide church conference, camp meeting, or some other sort of conference. God had something different in mind. God used those that the church has seen as unlikely and is using them for revival. God is turning the unlikely generation and is turning them into something extraordinary. In the days to come, we as the church have to accept the extraordinary that is to come. This revival is going to grow, and those involved are going to walk away from it and do something extraordinary. We must ask ourselves this — are we willing to accept the extraordinary from the most unlikely, ordinary, or even hated people.
~ Pastor Jillian