How to Keep Holy Hunger Whet by the Asbury Revival Alive in Our Hearts

What I witnessed at Asbury during one of the last public services: Beautiful, no-hype, worshipful, reverent hunger. A small Baptist church near campus, graciously offered as an overflow space, filling with those seeking not an experience, but simply Jesus. A livestream glitching and voices all around the church spontaneously rising to lead worship. Students taking the lead, worshipping, preaching, sharing their life verses, testimonies of God reaching through their walls and hurts to love them.

Everywhere an air of humility and expectancy. Peace. Unity. People joyfully serving each other, offering free snacks, water, homemade spaghetti.

Asbury wasn’t naming it, defining it, or containing it. It wasn’t rehearsed or polished. But hunger is magnetic and authenticity attractive. So people came from all over the world, stood hours in freezing temperatures, worshiped in the line and on the lawn and the stairs and the overflow spaces.

Perhaps you were there too, or at Lee, Cedarville, Samford, or one of the other colleges following suit. You’ve gotten a taste of the sweet presence of Jesus, the healing that unity brings, the freedom that comes with tender confession. And now you’re asking, What next?

Let’s talk about it—because a taste is meant to whet the appetite not to satisfy.

1 Peter 2:4 offers a key to continued growth regardless of our “mountain-top experience: “keep coming to him who is the Living Stone” (TPT). Let’s back up to verse 1 for context:

So abandon every form of evil, deceit, hypocrisy, feelings of jealousy and slander. In the same way that nursing infants cry for milk, you must intensely crave the pure, spiritual milk of God’s Word. For this “milk” will cause you to grow into maturity, fully nourished and strong for life—especially now that you have had a taste of the goodness of the Lord Jehovah and have experienced his kindness.

So keep coming to him who is the Living Stone . . .
1 Peter 2:1-4a TPT

The “keep coming” part is the difference between temporary and lasting life change. One experience. One conference. One Bible camp or Bible study or revival. As deeply as it changed you, it’s not enough to keep you going.

We need Jesus. Every day. That’s how holy hunger stays alive.

Years ago, a mission trip leader explained to our team that our hearts are like a wood stove. We have to keep adding in wood if we want the fire to continue burning.

But we tend to forget. Stuff in some extra wood here and there and call it good.

Keep coming Jesus, the Living Stone

I’m over stuffy religious words. Trying to look like a Christian on the outside without it being real on the inside. Complicating what it means to love Jesus.

I’d guess that you and your neighbors are too.

And so were the majority of people flocking to Asbury the past few weeks. That’s what was so refreshingly different about this revival, if that’s what we’re calling it.

It wasn’t flashy, scripted, or polished. It was simply hungry people finding how deeply God loves them, hungry people leading others to the feet of Jesus, hungry people coming together across denominational lines. It didn’t need to be anything else, and it was beautiful.

What I hope for all of us is that hunger will continue to make us “intensely crave the pure, spiritual milk of God’s Word” (v. 2). That we won’t be content to reminisce about that one time God showed up, because the same God is present when we’re elbows deep in dishwater or deep in conversation with a neighbor.

What does insatiable hunger for God look like?

1. Coming open and often.

First, we clear our hearts and minds of clutter by confessing where we’ve chosen our own way. Confession opens our hearts to receive nourishment from God’s Word. Truth can’t root deep when our hearts are hard, and humility and honesty till the soil.

We also make a daily habit of sitting at the feet of Jesus. Surrendered. Seeking Jesus more than what He offers. Our behavior reveals how hungry we are.

2. Giving reverent honor.

What I saw on Friday—both on and off Asbury’s campus—brought 1 Peter 3:15 to life:

But give reverent honor in your hearts to the Anointed One and treat him as the holy Master of your lives.
TPT

Reverence is a word we don’t use a whole lot, so let’s look at Merriam-Webster’s definition.

1: honor or respect felt or shown : DEFERENCE

especially : profound adoring awed respect

2: a gesture of respect (such as a bow)

3: the state of being revered

4: one held in reverence —used as a title for a clergyman

When we approach God with reverence, we better see our need and His greatness. Adoration fuels our hunger. It becomes a joy to give Him our praise and preference as we submit to His leadership.

3. Growing in maturity.

Holy hunger changes us because it brings us to Jesus, and the closer we get to Jesus, the more we start looking like Him. We let go of the things that draw lines between us and God, us and other people. And we simply love.

Carrie Stephens explains it beautifully in Jesus, Love, and Tacos:

Because God’s missional will in the world is that all people would experience the kind of love and care they deserve as people made in his image, any act we participate in that provides evidence that God rules, reigns, saves, heals, comforts, and empowers is the work of God’s mission in the world.
p. 156

As we’re promised in John 15:5 when “we live in union with [Christ] as [our] source, fruitfulness will stream from within us” (TPT). Simply put, when we keep coming to Jesus, we keep growing. We’re nourished. Strengthened. Empowered to join our missional God wherever love leads Him.

Simply put, when we keep coming to Jesus, we keep growing. That's why Asbury's revival doesn't stop.

Staying hungry

Let’s remember that what happened at Asbury is available to all of us because there are no parameters on when hungry people can seek a God who loves them with unimaginable love.

May we stay hungry, even when life feels ordinary.

May we keep the fire in our hearts burning by coming, again and again, to Christ, the Living Stone.

May we let the great, deep love of God change us.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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