The Holy Spirit is lighting spiritual fires across America, I believe that at some point they will merge together forming a massive national revival.
The latest outbreak took place at Liberty University, a private Evangelical university based in Lynchburg, Virginia. It has a student population of around 96,000 and its motto is ‘Knowledge Aflame,” but it seems the Holy Spirit may have ignited a spiritual fire at the school, CBN reports.
The school’s Office of Spiritual Development (OSD) is responsible for the spiritual life at the school, and on Thursday (Feb. 29, 2024) it organized a prayer and worship service at the Worley Prayer Chapel. It was part of the National Collegiate Day of Prayer.
However, when the day arrived, there was an overwhelming response at the chapel, which typically only had ten people using it.
“When we got there, there was a line out the door which I’ve never seen at the prayer chapel before,” said third-year religious student, Daniel Spinney.
“There were so many people that were there…that couldn’t even fit inside the chapel to where they started worshipping and praying outside on the lawn, in front of the chapel…it was like 30 degrees outside but they were undeterred,” he added.
Spinney added that he had never seen anything like that in his three years at the school. “There were so many people in there to where when we were singing, we were singing so loud that we couldn’t even hear the microphones and the worship collective singing through the speakers.”
So I wondered what led to this powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit?
In one word: PRAYER!
One of the goals of OSD is to see students grow in their faith and the emphasis this year has been on prayer. The group has been encouraging students to gather at the chapel and pray for themselves and others.
In addition to this, OSD has been encouraging its Community Group Leaders to pray in the dorms, leading some to initiate overnight prayer sessions.
“We want to teach them how to pray on their hall and watch them grow throughout the four years that they’re here,” said Kara Wheeler, who helps lead OSD’s Prayer Ministry. “It’s amazing to see their transformation…”
Prayer is the key to personal and corporate revival.
When Cornelius built a prayer memorial
When we read how the Holy Spirit fell with power on the Gentiles who were meeting in the home of the centurion Cornelius in Acts 10:44-48, it is easy to overlook Luke’s description of what led up to this.
Luke says that Cornelius “prayed continually to God” (Acts 10:2). Then, when an angel appeared to Cornelius telling him to send men to Joppa to bring Peter to meet with Cornelius’ group, the angel said, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4).
Cornelius’ continual prayer and alms served as a memorial in the spiritual realm. A memorial is a permanent structure that people build to remember and remind others.
Describing the Greek word, mnēmosunon, Thayer’s Greek Dictionary writes that Cornelius’ prayer was “a memorial (that by which the memory of any person or thing is preserved), a remembrance.”
Because Cornelius had built a prayer memorial, it was a constant reminder. God couldn’t forget this centurion, and the Holy Spirit responded to this with a powerful outpouring.
The hundreds of millions of Gentiles who today are part of the church can be traced back to one man who built a prayer memorial in heaven.
OpentheWord.org 