Having returned to youth work in 2004 after. Is Awakening. in Our Future? by Becky Tirabassi

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1 STUDENT FEEDBACK Is Awakening in Our Future? by Becky Tirabassi Having returned to youth work in 2004 after quite a few years away from those trenches, I found an intensely-sensitive-to-prayerand-revival young generation. Over the past four years, these students have become my teachers, my sojourners in the pursuit of a depth of revival that we ve all read about, but most of us alive have not corporately experienced. This pursuit began with a tour of almost 40 college campuses that I visited with the express purpose of praying with students for revival, first in their own lives, and then for their schools. I must admit, I often felt considerable resistance from the adults to fan this flame of revival. Yet the students called, persisted, and kept calling out for an immediate outpouring of God s Spirit upon them. I m confident that this young generation will not let up until they see the answer to this prayer! When NNYM asked me to gather a handful of students who might speak about their passion for revival, I ed a multi-ethnic group of students, each from a different stream of the church college and high school age, who attend both Christian and state schools young men and women. Their swift and oddly similar replies speak loudly of a generation that longs for their leaders to usher them into both personal and corporate revival, which Charles Finney defines as a new obedience to God. W h e n y o u t h i n k o f r e v i v a l o r awake n i n g, w h at co m e s to yo u r mind? David Milburn: To me, revival is simply the empowerment to live the life the Lord intends us to live. S ambrosia Curtis: I think of 2 Chronicles 7:14 of people repenting of their sins, destroying their idols; God bringing healing into their lives and into the land so that He can be glorified. Since I ve been at Kansas State, I ve always desired to see the football stadium filled with people worshipping the Lord instead of men (football players). Theresa Babbitt: Initially I think of the great revivals of old, where people flocked from miles around and crammed

2 Bios S ambrosia Curtis is a senior at Kansas State University majoring in secondary education and English. She is the coordinator for KSU campus-wide prayer vigils and a worship leader. Grace Kim is a junior at the University of Louisville majoring in biology with a minor in Chinese language. She was one of the leaders for the statewide prayer movement in Kentucky for spring She enjoys playing the violin, hiking and reading. Joshua Krehbiel is from Colorado Springs, and now attends Northwestern College in Minnesota. Josh has been on an exciting journey of passion for the place of prayer since the fall of his senior year of high school in He feels called to plant and launch houses of prayer in unity with local churches in the future, as well as empowering the body of Christ to know the love of Christ through learning how to spend time with God. into a building for no other reason than they had to have more of God. But I also think of personal revival. The reviving of our personal hearts by the breath of the Holy Spirit, making us aware of the presence, love and goodness of God. Theresa Babbitt graduated from Azusa Pacific University in 2007 with a Christian Ministries degree. She has a heart to see students encounter God in the place of prayer. Since graduation, she has been on the staff team at the Azusa House of Prayer. Lilly Higgs: I picture a massive amount of people touched by the glory and presence of God. This leads to a radical transformation in their spiritual lives and impacts everyone around them! Lilly Higgs is 19 and lives in Canby, Oregon with her parents and her brother, Levi. Lilly loves to dance, play music, and spend time with Jesus. She is planning to attend school at the International House of Prayer. Grace Kim: The first image in my mind is liquid fire that just burns with intense heat it is the Refiner s fire that purifies us, and in a way, it is God s mercy, because this is not our well-deserved judgment. I connect this image of revival/awakening with fiery praying people who are unafraid of taking bold actions to change the society, and a massive turning back of the people to God through the tangible presence of God. David Milburn is a senior at the University of Southern California, where he is involved with AGO (a Christ-centered fraternity) and Campus Crusade for Christ. David hopes to use his degree in public policy, management and planning, and his minor in construction planning and management, to help create businesses in developing areas of the world. He spent this past summer in Rwanda with Business as Mission, which is associated with YWAM.

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4 AWAKENING continued... Joshua Krehbiel: I see the bars and clubs emptied and the strip clubs abandoned on any given night, because the real action is happening in the churches. I see the professors on university campuses repenting of rationalism and becoming like little children in the kingdom of heaven. I hear conversations everywhere about God (the true One) and miracle stories on the news at five o clock. David: Yes, I ve experienced revival in the midst of tremendous pain, where the youth literally dropped everything to BE the church. There is so much potential when we live as a body, and put love before our differences and our individual lives. We all have a part to play, but we need to do it together. Pray and stop planning. Revival can not and will not be brought about by man s strategies and structure. H ave yo u ex p e r i e n ce d a ny t h i n g like that; something that would b e a g l i m p s e o f G o d b r i n g i n g awakening? Lilly: I was a part of the International House of Prayer s 24-hour intercession for six months. I saw first-hand the hunger in teens to meet Christ and be changed radically. At events like Onething and The Call, thousands and thousands of teens gave themselves to God and made major life commitments to fasting and prayer for their cities and nations. I think they represent the process of an awakening being birthed in my generation. Grace: I experienced an incredibly powerful week of non-stop prayer with a number of colleges in the state of Kentucky last spring. Many campuses experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and students accepted Jesus Christ! Sam: God has put it on a few students and faculty members hearts to meet for prayer. We have been gathering in the chapel to pray and worship, and the presence of the Lord has been so sweet. I have read that most, if not all, campus revivals begin with a small group of people coming together with the intent of bringing God s kingdom there. W h a t c a n a d u l t y o u t h w o r k e r s do (or not do) to prepare the way for awakening in their groups? Lilly: I think youth workers should make prayer in their lives and in the lives of those they lead the number one priority. Prayer prepares our hearts to receive the working of God, whatever that may be humbling, chastening, purging, cleansing and renewing. David: I would say we need to live a life that shows them there is more. Live an awake life, if you want an awakening. Sam: Pray and stop planning. Revival can not and will not be brought about by man s strategies and structure. It can only come through the moving of God s Holy Spirit in the hearts of His people. Seek God yourself, and encourage your students to do the same. Pray with them! It s so beautiful to see the different generations seeking the Lord together. Joshua: Spend considerable time with the Lord on a daily basis, and then teach their students how to spend time with God in the secret place. How are we going to know or love God if we don t spend a considerable amount of time with Him on a daily basis? Grace: I think there should be more intercession and crying in prayer than just little prayer of hey, we ll pray for this need today. Why not have nights with two or three hours of intense worship and prayer, giving ample time for God to do work in the students? In that midst, I think there will be prophetic encounters and the empowerment from the Holy Spirit; for God inhabits the praises of His people. Theresa: Also, remember that the burden is not on you. It is the Lord s responsibility to save, heal, deliver and awaken hearts. He is the one who does it and He does it best. I know far too many people who try to get more of God for the sake of others, rather than to simply enjoy God. What positive signs do you see for awakening? Joshua: It seems as though our nation is on the doorstep of a breaking point that will force church-goers to take sides: hot or cold. I see persecution coming, and I see powerful moves of God in the midst of all of the pain. continued on page 18

5 AWAKENING continued... Lilly: I see youth workers and young adults willing to pray and fast for it! And this in their own lives, not just the church as a whole. I see young adult leaders wanting to take their groups to a deeper level in Jesus, no matter what it costs them. I sense a kind of desperation slowly rising up in my generation that is a definite prerequisite for awakening. another for different viewpoints, for the world will only know that we are of God as we stand united in love. Sam: MAN PLEASING! Campus ministries here are so concerned with creating programs that will attract students, that they forget the one thing that will get and keep them there the presence of God! Sam: Individuals with a passion for prayer are being divinely connected. I see more hunger from students for truth and a frustration with apathy and legalism. Students are so hungry for God right now! David: I think we focus on ourselves too much and that makes us chase after revival instead of the Reviver. Grace: I am seeing more and more students gathering to pray for our schools! Young people on the frontier! Also, there are churches that are seeking more of God s will than their own agenda. Theresa: We need to see a humble surrender of our hearts to God. We often make God in our own image, rather than letting Him make us into His. So we have all of these misconceptions about God. We need to admit that God is much, much bigger than we are. And because the word What we must cry out for is not a visitation from God, but rather a habitation from God. What roadblocks do we need to see removed for awakening? Joshua: First, the roadblock of comfort is huge. Most of us have no desperate needs, and therefore, are not even close to a point of brokenness. We need brokenness. Then, the message of repentance must be at the forefront, and from a place of repentance, a right understanding of our position before God as children and saints, through grace, can be realized. Grace: I think there should be a breaking down of denominations. We have to be united in love. Even if there were denomination divisions, we should be able to love each other and not condemn one revival means a variety of different things to different people, I sometimes wonder if we ought to throw the word out altogether and just say when God comes. I also think that we sometimes get hung up on a formula of how we think revival should come. We try to produce it in one fashion or another. Joshua: For far too long, Christians have contended for revival to come. If we look through the pages of history, it has come and then it has left. What we must cry out for is not a visitation from God, but rather a habitation from God. God commands us to pray that His kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. And I am pretty sure that in heaven right now there aren t just visitations happening. In heaven, God is dwelling with His people, and that is what He is on a mission to do here on earth. Becky Tirabassi is the founder of Burning Hearts, a student organization formed to call students to be sold out to prayer, set apart in purity, and sent out with purpose. She is the author of numerous books on prayer including Sacred Obsession and Sacred Obsession Devotion. Becky has been married for 30 years to Dr. Roger Tirabassi, pastoral counselor and pre-marital pastor at Rockharbor Church in Costa Mesa, California. They have one son, Jacob, a 29-year-old teacher and missionary, who recently married Khara.