Recalling Asbury: ‘Revival’s Real!’

“What an honor it is to be here. Revival’s real! It isn’t just a story we’ve heard about. It’s come, and it’s not just come here today, but it’s about to spread out to the nations. It’s about to spread out to the United States,” a young man identified as ‘Gage’ proclaimed during the revival.

After traveling for over six and a half hours to get to the Asbury Revival, Gage and his friends didn’t know what they would find. What happened was God used an ordinary young man to give an extraordinary message to fan the flame of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring.

Through all the videos showing the praise and worship, prayer and from sermons, it’s clear the Holy Spirit has been working on the hearts of all those who have come near and far to see the Asbury revival taking place. And one particular testimony stands out. Multiple videos have been shared on TikTok and YouTube about the testimony of ‘Gage’ who bravely spoke during the revival’s early hours. God tugged on his heart about what is happening there and what He is doing.

“We’ve been learning about revival, but I’ve never seen it. I didn’t even know it was real,” Gage says.

When the young students arrived at Asbury, they noticed how quiet everything was before the chapel service started. Some students were even sleeping. This led Gage to question what revival was supposed to look like. When chapel started, he received an answer to his question.

“God said revival isn’t hype. It’s ordinary people who are hungry.”

When the Holy Spirit nudged him to go up to the altar, Gage looked around. He saw old and young praying together as the full room worshipped Christ in spirit and truth.

“And He’s like, go to the altar, and I go to the altar and worship starts. And He’s like ‘This is revival. Look left.’ And I look left and there’s this young college woman getting prayed over by an older woman. And He says, ‘Look right,’ and then there’s this young guy praying over an older guy. And He says, ‘Look behind you,’ and everyone’s just raising their hands. And He said, ‘Gage, this is revival. It isn’t hype. It’s ordinary people crying out for a move of God in our generation.”

Students roared over the testimony of this young man’s words, and the video shows a clear power and authority that overtakes him as he started to declare God’s hope and promise to do great and mighty things for this generation. Revelation 19:10 says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. What an amazing prophecy for this young man to say that revival is coming to the whole world!

Part of what made Gage’s words so powerful was the inclusion of his own personal testimony. A year and a half ago, he left behind everything from his past to follow Christ, and he admits that it is incomparably the best decision of his entire life. Because he has personally experienced such a transformation, he was able to encourage the other students at Asbury to keep their eyes on the prize of Christ.

“Forget the job, forget the girl, forget the guy, forget everything, He’s worthy! He’s worthy!” Gage exclaimed.

This young man’s story is just one of many that God cultivated at the Asbury revival. What’s incredible to see is where God is choosing for revival to break out: the college campus. For so long it seems as though we’ve seen news about the decline of university culture across the country as a place of indoctrination, and that Gen Z is now long gone because of the ideologies they’ve been exposed to on the campus. Asbury is proof that not all colleges and not all young people are lost. Instead, God is mounting up many with wings as eagles so they may run and not grow weary (Isaiah 40:31). He is pouring out His Spirit on anyone who is willing to abandon themselves in heart, mind, body, soul and spirit to Him.

Gage said it best when he said that revival was already here. When Jesus hung on the cross and said “It is finished,” all sin, sickness, disease, hardened hearts—everything that plagues us—had been paid in full. He took it upon Himself. He took up those things so that we could be free and experience a life of victory. Why wouldn’t revival be part of that victory?

It’s this kind of revival that spreads and draws people out of darkness. Matthew 24:14 is very clear about how things will happen: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” What a perfect time we are living in for the kingdom of God to be preached, and for it to be seen as it is at the Asbury revival. Hearts are being prepared so we can say, “Lord Jesus, come.”