The last great spiritual awakening in America was the Jesus movement, which took place about 40 years ago. I was there, and I think we can not only learn from history, but we can be inspired by history. A few years earlier, an April 8, 1966, Time magazine’s cover posed this question: “Is God Dead?” What a difference a few years can make, especially when God intervenes. Five years later, a 1971 issue of Time described a spiritual awakening: “Jesus is alive and well and living in the radiant spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans. … If any one mark clearly identifies them, it is their total belief in
an awesome, supernatural Jesus Christ, not just a marvelous man who lived 2,000 years ago, but a living God.” The words “revival” and “awakening” are often used interchangeably, but there is a distinction. An awakening takes place when God sovereignly pours out his Spirit, and it impacts a culture. That is what happened during the Jesus Revolution, and it’s what happened in multiple spiritual awakenings in the history of the United States, predating its establishment as a nation. A revival, on the other hand, is what the church must experience. CONTINUE
