Most people have never heard of Wilmore, Kansas. The town boasts of a population just over 4,000 people. Wilmore is located about sixteen miles from the larger town of Lexington. Wilmore is the home of Asbury College.
On a blustery morning back in 1970 students gathered for a typical chapel service, which they were required to attend three times a week. College Dean, Custer Reynolds, was scheduled to preach that morning but he did not have a peace about doing so. He sensed the Lord might want students to share testimonies about what God was doing in their lives.
The chapel service began at 10:00 a.m. At around 10:40 God invaded Hughes Auditorium and revival began. When college president Dennis Kinlaw was asked what happened he answered, “You may not understand this, but the only way I know how to account for this is that last Tuesday morning, about twenty of eleven, the Lord Jesus walked into Hughes Auditorium, and He’s been there ever since, and you’ve got the whole community paying tribute to His presence.”[1]
Months before that chapel service many students had been reminded of a revival God sent on that campus in 1905. They yearned to see God do it again and began praying fervently. The students lived in a state of expectancy during those days.
During that chapel testimony service a senior stood up to speak. He said, “ I’m not believing that I’m standing here telling you what God has done for me. I’ve wasted my time in college up to now, but Christ has met me and I’m different. Last night the Holy Spirit flooded in and filled my life. Now, for the first time ever, I am excited bout being a Christian! I wouldn’t want to go back to the emptiness of yesterday for anything.”[2]
Other students rose giving testimonies of the fresh work of God in their lives as well. One professor, realizing that time was getting away from them, rose and gave an altar call so students might settle any unresolved issues. A herd of students went forward in mass. Other students knelt at their seats making that their altar. That chapel service lasted for 185 straight hours. It was such a holy experience many thought of Moses’ encounter with the Lord in [Exodus 3:5] “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
As students were invited to share their experience with other colleges and churches, God continued to move. Students went to the Meridian Street Church of God in Anderson, IN. God packed people in that church in revival. The revival lasted for fifty consecutive nights and eventually had to be moved to the High School gymnasium where 2,500 people gathered to be touched by God.
Steps to Revival
1. Over and again as we have been reading these revival accounts we hear the testimony that they were started in prayer. Will you give yourself to prayer for revival?
2. God is not limited in how he brings revival. It doesn’t always come through a pastor or evangelist. He used students at Asbury College. Are you willing for Him to use you as an instrument of revival?
3. Express your heart to God concerning what you would like to see Him do.
Wilmore is actually in Kentucky, not Kansas.
ReplyDeleteMatt - I was in Wilmore, Kentucky, about a year after the Asbury Revival. As I walked into Hughes Auditorium on the Asbury College campus, I could still sense the Shekinah glory of God resting on that place...
ReplyDeleteMarv Gregory