Jesus Now! God Is Up To Something BigSample

In Christ Alone

Is a fresh revival ready to sweep across this nation? Is it already happening? Could God really be about to ignite a holy fire that could kindle the hearts of millions with a holy passion for Himself and His kingdom? While I believe the answer is yes, I know one thing for sure: God sees beyond our crippling human condition to the new life in Christ He desires for every person.

I remember when the wife of a pro-basketball player told her story on the final day of a Billy Graham Crusade in San Diego. She was divorced and hurting. She turned to drugs and became one of Satan’s prized examples of how people build their own prison with chemicals—until Christ set her free. She described how others could also find the freedom she now enjoyed.

After the San Diego crusade, I received a one-page letter with these three lines: “Me full of heroin. Pockets full of heroin. And I went forward to receive Jesus.” The letter was signed by Raul Gonzales, who was in the audience that day. He had been a drug addict living on a diet of pills and powder until his self-punishment became too great. After he met Christ, he returned to the people who had managed to survive his real-life nightmare.

Raul became a part of the Jesus-Now Awakening, and for over twenty years, he and his group (Teen Challenge, in Hartford, Connecticut) have led pimps and pushers to a Carpenter from Nazareth who has helped them rebuild their lives. “We are seeing revival in our cities,” says Raul. “It is happening with people who have nothing but Christ.”

Should I have been surprised that one as humble as Raul is actually a beam of light, part of a new spiritual awakening? Should I have been surprised that God works through the weak, the poor, and the unlikely? People ask me, “What does revival look like? Will we know it when we see it? What if revival were happening right now?”

What if you and I could be a part of this Jesus-Now Awakening? I wonder what God could do if we all found our place in this new spiritual awakening?