My husband and I were blessed with a visit to Asbury University to witness, for ourselves, the powerful work of God that started nearly three weeks ago. There are so many things that we took away from this precious time experiencing the presence of God in the form of peace and love. I will never forget our visit to this campus and how everyone we met from the President of the University, staff, volunteers, students and others, like ourselves, seeking to have a front row seat to this expression of God in a small town of Willmore Kentucky.
Shortly after we returned home the leadership at Asbury made the difficult decision to close Hughes Hall (campus’s main chapel) to the public. This created quite a stir amongst believers in various circles I am in connection with. Understandably, no one wanted to see this mighty work of God closed or shut down. Yet also very understandably, this small town of 6000 couldn’t sustain an influx of nearly 20,000 people descending upon its infrastructure. This decision certainly had my attention, and I began to dig into the reasoning behind this resolution.
Having personally met the President of Asbury University on our visit, I sought out details that expressed his reasoning behind this decision. It was at this time I came across a video on the university’s website where Dr. Kevin Brown, President gave a statement regarding the decision and future plans for this revival (outpouring, renewing, or awakening as many were unsure what to call it). A statement he made struck me, hard!
He stated early on that the “radical humility” experienced first hand with deep compassion, confession and life altering commitment. It was these two words that really sent me into a study.
“Radical humility”! I have been using the word radical for some time. As I pray for family members that are lost, I pray that their lives are radically changed. Radical = affecting the fundamental nature of something. No soft salvation, no mild confession but a commitment, a season of complete confession that will forever transform and change the direction of their lives.
Dr. Browns words struck me deeply as he spoke about the fruit that transpires from a life committed to God. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Galatians 5: 22-23 All these transpire through this “radical humility” and was visibly being expressed through the staff and students during this outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon their campus and an immediate means of extending such expressions to the thousands of people seeking to share at the table God had created right there in their midst.
I love to do word studies and so I began to dive deeper into the word “humility’ or being “humble”. The scripture talks a great deal about being humble so maybe if we gain a greater understanding of the meaning, the value of that word, we can in turn take it to it’s radical stage and welcome a new awakening within.
Humility is derived from the latin word “humus” meaning “of the earth”. This is mankind in a nutshell. Dust….dirt! Genesis 2:7 The only thing that make us any different is that God breathed His breath into that which He formed from the ground, the dirt. It isn’t the dirt that makes mankind, it is the breath! The breath of God poured into our lungs that springs us from being a clump of dirt to being a living breathing being created by God.
There is something about human nature. We are prideful, arrogant! Destined to fall flat on our faces when pride and arrogance take over. Proverbs 16:18 As a wonderful masterpiece created by God with all our abilities to create, think, develop; we tend to forget the master who created us. We tend to elevate ourselves to a higher position forgetting who created us, in HIS IMAGE. Genesis 1:26
Reports show that one young man stood up during the regular Wednesday chapel and began to confess his sins. He expressed radical humility in relinquishing any pride in self and saw himself for the sinner that he was. With great humility he poured out to those present his failings. And that is when the presence of God descended upon Hughes Hall. At the precise moment of expressed humility.
For many years the Christian community has been speaking and praying the passage of scripture 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” This scripture provides the perfect formula, as designed by God himself to call out HIS PEOPLE to be humble, pray, seek HIS face and repent; turning away from their past sinful life and turn towards a life of holiness.
RADICAL HUMILITY! Remove any pride, any self and with complete abandonment of all things, fall on our face before Our Heavenly Father. Pray for forgiveness, seek His face while we plant ours into the dirt that he created us from and repent! Turning away from all things that would separate us from God. ALL THINGS! Holding nothing back. There is where we find HIM. There is where God wants us as HIS PEOPLE, on our face before Him with radical humility and in awe of who He is, the Great I AM. The Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end.
Link to Dr. Kevin Brown, President at Asbury University announcement. Some of my blog writings are based on this video.