One cold, wintry day, students at a small Kentucky college went to their weekly chapel service. This was a mandatory service for all non-seminarians. 185 hours later they emerged changed beyond their wildest dreams. Confessions of sin, tremendous outpourings of forgiveness and love, testimonies to the Lord and countless new commitments to Christ marked this amazing chapel service-turned-revival — the Asbury Revival! “One Divine Moment the Holy Spirit walked among us…”

The revival at Asbury College on February 3rd, 1970 will go down in history as one of the greatest supernatural events of the last half of the 20th century. The service, a routine Chapel meeting, was scheduled for 50 minutes. Instead, it lasted 185 hours non-stop, 24 hours a day. Intermittently, it continued for weeks. Ultimately, it spread across the United States and into foreign countries. Millions of people across the United States and the world were impacted by it. A moment in time. One divine moment, God moved across the hearts of those students and professors.

"We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” ~2 Corinthians 6:1-2

Now is the time to reap a last days’ harvest… Now is the time to become a part of the last and greatest move of God on the earth as we know it! If we can just believe for a moment that God wants to move — that God has a strategy and He has a time in mind… a moment when revival and an overwhelming outpouring of the Holy Spirit will simply break loose on our generation.

A Divine Moment

…"that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him.” ~Ephesians 1:10

The Message Bible says it this way, “He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”

Nothing is by accident — every moment we are given is a sovereign extension of God’s plan for our lives. There is, however, a special moment above all others where God is doing something very special. Ephesians 1:10 is eluding to a point in time when God purposefully aligns all things in congruence: When His plan, mankind’s attitudes, the overall social state and conditions of a people, region or nation — economic and political — all come together at one predetermined moment to present the perfect collection of circumstances for God’s optimum moving…

Paul says, “This is the accepted time…” That means there is an accepted time as opposed to an unaccepted time. A divinely appointed time when God will bring His purpose to pass on the earth. Jesus laments more than once over Jerusalem that they did not recognize the time of their visitation, that they have missed their moment of divine impartation.

A subtle underlying example of this happening is found in John 3:8

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ~John 3:8

The wind blows “as it wishes” in multiple directions — we hear the sound of it, we perceive its operation and can see its effects in the trees and feel it on our faces, but we cannot discern the air itself in substance. We cannot capture it and keep it, or find it again at a whim when it disappears. We only know that it exists by the effects which it produces: “So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The effects are as discernible and as sensible as those of the wind; but the Spirit itself we cannot see. Every one that is born of the spirit (born again) has heard this wind, WHEN IT WAS blowing and responded to it in that moment… Because when it goes, we do not know where it came from or where it went again to…

There is a human element involved here that makes it not-so-automatic. We need to actively pursue the moment, step into the move of God, recognize His moving, His timing, His desire to do something amazing at that very moment… or miss it altogether at our own peril. Do you recognize it? Do you see the timing? Are you able to step into it? We need to be able to facilitate this divine moment of God’s moving in our own lives… and seize it with deliberate persistence! Can you seize the moment?

Daniel releases a decree in prophecy as a response to a vision and dream given him by God. He has no idea the monumental effect this will have on subsequent generations and starts the prophetic time clock of God by which ALL events from that point on until the end of days are measured.

Jonathan and his armor bearer (1 Samuel 14) seize a moment of faith and an opportunity to “…Come, let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison that is on the other side… see what God is going to do…” God delivers powerfully at that moment His purpose in His timing and a great victory is won.

Elisha is faced with the Syrian troops as they surround his encampment. His servant panics and is filled with fear. Elisha challenges him to believe God — so that he can see and grasp the divine moment. The timing, the open door of God’s moving and purpose is evident and Elisha prays for his servant that God will “open his eyes so he can see” what is really happening, that there are more with us than against us, that in the Spirit there is a battle raging and a warrior force of God’s angels ready to do battle on our behalf. God has picked that moment to show himself strong…

My family and I, while missionaries in Zambia, were traveling to South Africa to preach in Cape Town when our vehicle broke down somewhere in Botswana. We were stranded on the edge of the Kalahari desert miles away from anything and our vehicle is completely unresponsive. A plethora of emotions whisked through me as I got angry, frustrated and scared. We prayed and watched the road for any signs of life. “Why would God allow this at this time?” “What is going to happen to us?” “How are we going to get out of this predicament?” We were facing a moment of faith and truth. Not even 10 minutes later, a pick-up truck driven by a Polish man pulled up. He spoke broken English, but had a tow strap and seemed to know what to do. He towed us 60km to a place called Pallapye, Botswana. There he pulled our vehicle into a repair shop in the middle of a modern development that contradicted its surroundings. He then led us to a 3-bedroom ranch house where we were told we could stay until the car was fixed. There were groceries on the table and he gave me keys to a red Honda Accord outside. “If you need anything else, take the Honda to the store about a mile away,” he said. How does a man break down in the middle of Africa and find himself so well taken care of in such a short time. This was a divine moment. We were in the middle of a neighborhood built for European workers who were building a power plant for Botswana. We found ourselves sitting by the pool of the German project director’s house, sipping iced Tea and witnessing to them about Jesus Christ. They gave their lives to Jesus and we became fast friends. Two souls. Two. God used Americans living in Zambia, caused them to break down in Botswana so they could be picked up by a man from Poland to take them to two Germans that needed Jesus! One divine moment!

I believe we are are facing a divine moment as a nation and the consequences for missing this moment are eternal! You may be facing a divine moment in your life personally — you feel the spirit — the wind blowing and perhaps you are afraid to step into it. What will you do when the wind blows? Do you hear it? Do you recognize it? Will you step into it?