C97) Comments on Asbury University, a Revival? Discernment followed a short Prediction at the end, S. Dobbs, 18th Feb 2023:
Introduction: I believe I have received some discernment on some of the Asbury meetings, those that I have observed online from videos. I have not received a prophecy concerning these events as such, although the last discernment, (which I have put at the end of this article), does, in part, double up as a short predictive prophecy. I placed this series of short discernments as part of the following commentary to give them context. Since my commentaries do tend to get a bit wordy I may try to make this more succinct, if I get time to, later on. I don’t, as yet, feel particularly led to follow these events but may do so, out of interest, if I have time. I may then add to the end of this article if God shows me anything more. As of 18th Feb, I do believe that what is taking place at Asbury is genuine, it seems spiritually pure, and the students there seem to be quite well rooted in reality, and I expect in the bible, (at least so far). However, I don’t believe or accept most of what is now being claimed about these events by much of the Christian media. Some of the larger online prophetic ministries are also trying to co-opt the Asbury meetings as proof that their previously failed predictive prophecies were true after all, and are now coming to pass. Predictive prophecies and visions that they had already claimed had started several times in the past decade or so and which they have also given dates to, as in, “this will be the year” etc., dates which have long since come and gone. I think there is a very real danger that their co - opting and the grandiose claims made by much of Christian media about these humble, simple repentance meetings at Asbury, and the way in which those students are now submitting more deeply to God, could distract them, deceive them and do them great harm. Let’s hope and pray that’s not the case.
It is now the 17th February, 2023: The first video I watched of these meetings was sent to me by someone who appeared to believe a great sovereign move of God had started which was leading the students at Ashbury University into deep repentance as the start of a great move of God that would sweep across the USA and beyond. I was highly sceptical and expected to see the move of a counterfeit anointing from another spirit, as happens so often these days, with all sorts of weird unbiblical and occult pagan manifestations present, deceiving Christians into believing it was the Holy Spirit. The first thing I discerned was that there was no counterfeit anointing present, so this was genuine, biblical Christianity. This may be because the leaders are bible based? That’s a big positive these days. However, I didn’t discern much anointing from God on that meeting either. It was mostly just people repenting, I couldn’t tell how deeply but it was genuine, much the same as one might find in a decent church meeting where people decided to seek repentance. I concluded from that one video that what was happening was positive and genuine but was being massively hyped up out of all proportion by much of the Christian media. [In later videos I discerned ore than that happening though, see below].
In that video though I discern that there were several people present, all of whom appeared to be standing up, not kneeling in repentance, (as far as I noticed), who were carry what I understood to be significant “packages” of sin in their hearts and this ruined my overall perception of what was going on. In hindsight, though, they appeared to be older, not the students themselves, (as far as I noticed).
I then saw some testimonies; from the students who also appeared genuine. They weren’t trying to hype up what was going on, unlike much of the Christian media. I didn’t watch many testimonies so don’t know if there were any reports of healings or miracles or not, (which I do believe in by the way). I just heard very realistic down to earth testimonies that God was doing something amongst the students, that an attitude of repentance, humility and increased unity was being adopted. That’s a big positive. But I discerned no great move of the Spirit upon this, (in those videos). These were good testimonies of individuals who were now submitting more to God than before which was very significant to them. Having experienced the back end of the 1970’s and 80s move of the Spirit in the UK I am not easily impressed, though, as that was more powerful than what was being described at Ashbury. So I initially put this down to mostly hype.
In another video; the picture was different. The meeting hall had more people in it and almost everyone was repenting. I discerned that God was present there, not so much with an anointing but present, almost in a way as if not to attract attention to Himself, and his peace was there with those people repenting in the meeting. I assume, therefore, that fairly deep genuine repentance and sincerity towards God was being expressed by those individuals present. That’s a huge positive, and I think those meetings may well lead to a revival in Ashbury if that continued, and in any place that pursued Jesus with equal earnestness and humility.
The final few videos; I watched parts of several videos of meetings, that may have been the same meeting, yesterday and today, (on 17th of February), in which the auditorium which was packed. There was no overall large scale anointing present. However, the anointing was coming up from within the people themselves, I saw springs of water coming up from within them. This seemed to be happening, to one degree or another, within many/most of the people present. I could not see any packages of sin present this time. There were no bystanders, everyone was praising God. Those engaging in praise were anointed and meeting with God largely because of this. It was almost as if each person praising and/or experiencing the spring of the Holy Spirit raising up within them had their own small anointing around them. There was no overall significant corporate anointing as we used to commonly experience in the UK up until 1987. The combined effect of all the smaller individual anointing’s was of a good anointed meeting. This was very different to what I remember of the charismatic renewal in the UK in the 1980s. The meetings back then were very often more anointed than what I was discerning from those videos of Ashbury but that was more an anointing coming down upon people, more of that element dominating. What I discerned as happening in Ashbury could be better described as people experiencing an inner revival, experienced by the individuals present, those who were genuinely seeking to repent from their flesh and submit their lives more deeply to God. That’s an encouragement to us all. Someone I know was given the term, “Inner Revival” as part of a prophecy on this, (link). He had also seen springs of water welling up within people. I didn’t, however, discern this as a sovereign move of God, no great anointing being poured out from above, as much of the Christian media are claiming. Maybe it will expand and grow and then God may pour His Spirit out more in the way many have been expecting, I don’t know. I am also only going by the few bits of video that I have watched and discernment on them.
Conclusion: I would conclude that many students at Ashbury University have decided to submit more deeply to God, to repent from individual issues of the flesh and are experiencing genuine inner revival as a result. When they come together this results in very good meetings. Any church, group or individual that decides to do this can experience the same inner revival if they persevere, (it’s not easy on your own though). I don’t witness to any great sovereign move of God having started. That’s not to say that what’s going on at Ashbury University couldn’t continue on into something more powerful, spread to others and also lead to a greater corporate anointing from God as a result. So I believe an inner revival is being experienced by many of the students at Ashbury not the start of a great outpouring from God on the USA, although it has the potential to spread. In many ways an inner revival is better as its rooted in genuine submission to God, although this has to be maintained as a continuous lifestyle, (people move back to their previous more compromised walk with God otherwise and the previous spiritual state they were in). A powerful corporate anointing can come upon churches or nations for many reasons. For example, a small group of earnest Christians may be fasting and praying for years for a great outpouring on their nation, leading, eventually, to God answering those prayers and making more anointing of His Spirit available to every church in that nation, to all those who are open to revive this, at least for a season. All that nations Christians can then experience more anointing for that season even if they have not submitted to God much more than before at a fundamental level. When that corporate anointing leaves, though, those who remained dependant on it and didn’t submit more to God personally, who still not have springs of living water springing up from within them, can find themselves slipping back into old ways or backsliding by comparison. On the other hand a great outpouring like that will protect what is going on, at least for that season, giving those Christians the potential to mature more rapidly in God and move onto inner revival as well. I believe the corporate anointing available in the UK during the 1970’s and 80’s dried up suddenly in 1987 because we didn’t, in the main, do that, we didn’t really submit enough to justify that level of anointing, most of us not moving on to significant enough submission to God and, therefore, inner revival as well. One problem, as I see it, in Ashbury, is, therefore, that the anointing is dependent on the individuals concerned and could, therefore, easily be quashed if they become discouraged, distracted or get diverted and go off track in some other way. Even if that happens what has taken place is still an encouragement to us all as it reveals how available God makes Himself to those who submit deeper to Him. Any church could pursue this, although, (at least in my experience), it is quite hard to do as an individual without others around to encourage you.
The devil will obviously oppose everyone and every church that seeks to go deeper with God. We do not know what will come against those at Ashbury University. We have moved into some very dark days and a season of deception with counterfeit healings and miracles is probably approaching on the horizon, fuelled by a false, counterfeit occult anointing. The bible predicts apostasy will become common as we head towards the last 7 years. I believe a great wave of apostasy will soon sweep through the churches of the western world, starting with fallen angels appearing as angels of light and then many Christians falling due to them relating in an unbiblical way to the Holy Spirit, based on a misunderstanding of the Godhead.
Another danger comes from other believers; especially the Christian media. In one way media exposure is good because other Universities and churches are already finding out about what’s going on at Ashbury and are pursuing God more deeply themselves as a result. On the other hand many in the Christian media are already claiming that this is the great move of the Spirit that some have predicted prophetically, which we have heard so much about particularly over the last fifteen years. Imagine the pressure to perform this could put on those students at Ashbury and their leaders. They may feel they are responsible for birthing a great move of God nationally, which could divert them from their present simple submission to Christ. Then there are the spiritual tourists who will be attracted to the Ashbury meetings by the Christian media. Many of whom will be looking for excitement and a spiritual fix whilst not really being willing to submit deeper to God themselves. They could swamp the small Ashbury meetings, ruining them. What could be particularly harmful is if those who Christians move in a counterfeit false anointing started manifesting that in those meetings, or even start introducing an occult form of spirituality to those students. Other big names ministers may co-opt Ashbury and join forces with their leaders and introduce errors or a less humble attitude that way. What I really hope doesn’t happen is that due to the lack of an overall, protective, corporate anointing from God the devil may be able to send a counterfeit wave of the spirit on those otherwise good meetings, leading to huge confusion and deception. This could then lead to division amongst those present despite them submitting more to God at present. If we are watching the videos maybe we should also be praying for them at the same time rather than becoming online spiritual tourists ourselves?
I don’t believe we will experience a great move of the Spirit in the western world until after the Jewish people, the Jews as religion, have accepted Jesus as their Messiah. I believe that will result in the end times outpouring of the Holy Spirit form God. I also believe there is going to be a great wave of counterfeit spirituality and apostasy before then, particularly across the churches of the western world, (see warning words on this site, especially A40, link). We are living in spiritually perilous times. I believe what is going on in Ashbury is genuine but not the start of a great sovereign move of God as many well- known ministers and much of the Christian media are now claiming. The leaders at Ashbury may do well to keep at least some of their meetings as part of the University curriculum so that they remain as they are. If they start hiring larger venues as their base, in order to accommodate all the curious Christian visitors that a start arriving, they may get swamped. This could take the wind out of their sails and dissipate or completely ruin what is presently going on in the Spirit. And we can all seek inner revival wherever we are, here’s a link to that prophecy again; (B13), Inner Revival, (Mark Aldridge, 2002).
PS: A Discernment and Predictive Prophecy: There was one important thing I forgot; I suppose you could call this piece of discernment a predictive prophecy as well: In the good praise meeting I mentioned above, (in which many of those present at an Asbury praise meeting, held prior to 18th Feb, had springs of water of the Holy Spirit welling up from within them), I saw almost all of those Christians, in that video, symbolically, as if they were leaning forwards spiritually, all at the same angle of about 30 degrees, signifying that they were all moving forward in God together, (in reality most were standing up straight so this was definitely symbolic). However, they were also a part of something bigger, which I perceived as part of some kind of vehicle or boat, their small part of which appeared translucently behind them. I believe the translucent nature of this symbolised that it was not immediately apparent in those meetings. That the Asbury meetings were part of something larger,* some sort of vehicle, which was already moving forwards slower than those meetings and would come staggering to an abrupt stop, jolting everyone on board. I was not shown the outcome of this collision/impact between the forward momentum taking place at Asbury at present and this jolt in the opposite direction.
* I initially thought this larger vehicle/boat would be the overall larger Church of the USA or Church of the Western World that the Asbury meetings were also a part of but in hindsight that was really a presumption, it may be something else.
S. Dobbs, 18th Feb, 2023.
*24th Feb, Ive heard the Asbury meetings have now been stopped, if true it appears, therefore, that the larger vehical/boat they were a part of was the denimination or organisation related to that colledge not the larger church of the USA.