And this was his message:
“After me comes the one more powerful than I,
the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
(Mark 1:7-8, NIV)

The title of this chapter is a present-day metaphor that aptly describes the ministry mandate of John the Baptist as found in the gospels. John was preparing a landing strip for the spiritual revival that Jesus launched.

… as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him’” (Mark 1:2-3, NIV).

John was the way maker for Jesus. With his message of repentance, followed by baptism, John prepared the ground for the great revival that occurred under the ministry of Jesus. John was Act One in this great drama of the ages. Jesus was Act Two. And via the Holy Spirit, the apostles are featured in Act Three, and of course, we read of their accomplishments in the Book of Acts. But the Book of Acts has no end. The work of the Holy Spirit continues to this present day.

John the Baptist and Jesus were revivalists—the greatest revivalists of all time. This dynamic New Testament duo set in motion a whole series of revivals that stretch down through the ages and continue to this day.

Remarkably, John the Baptist glimpsed all this. Operating in the prophetic realm, he predicted that Jesus would baptize his followers with the Holy Spirit. That prediction was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on those who were gathered in the upper room (Acts 2:1-4).
Oh, how we need an upper room experience—a baptism in the Holy Spirit experience!

It has been said that the Holy Spirit is like a jet plane. Jet planes cannot land just anywhere. They need a properly prepared runway.

Did any preparation precede the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost? Yes, there was a good deal of preparation. Jesus gave his disciples this specific command:

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5, NIV).

The disciples obeyed Jesus’ command. They spent ten days gathered in prayer waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Their hearts were yearning for what the Master promised. This was preparation time.

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). Photo by David Kitz

Are you and I eagerly anticipating the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives with power? Are we hungry for God? Are we expecting the mighty rush of the Holy Spirit to swoop down into our lives? Have we prepared the runway with prayer? Are we pregnant with expectant faith?

The Holy Spirit comes to prepared hearts, and he is actively engaged even now in preparing hearts. Is the Spirit preparing the runway of your heart for the moment of touchdown?

Times of revival often bring an unexpected wave of Christ-centered fervency among young people who have been lost in the world system. This has been true throughout the ages. In the notable revivals of the last century, young people were at the forefront.

In desperate times, God often shows up, surprising everyone.

Many young people today struggle with hopelessness. Even free drugs from government agencies are not solving the plague of tragic opioid deaths. There is an emptiness in the lives of many youths that only God can fill. Times of revival involve the prophesied turning of the hearts of the young back to their fathers and to the living God. This is really a return to one of the core truths of the Elisha code.

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction” (Malachi 4:5-6, NIV).

We, David Kitz and Ed Hird, are an example of a dynamic duo writing about biblical dynamic duos. We have many things in common, such as our experience in charismatic renewal, the Jesus movement, and our similar Lutheran and Anglican heritage. We were teenagers and college students when God poured his Spirit out upon both of us again and again.

Both of us experienced the joy of being fully immersed, something that happened frequently during the Jesus movement at seaside beaches, lakesides, and church baptistries. Full immersion baptism was one of the defining features of the Jesus movement. Why was that the case?

It really was a full-blown return to first century Christianity. The key verse we heard quoted repeatedly during that time was drawn from Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost.

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, NKJV).

We saw ourselves as living and re-enacting the New Testament. The miracle of rebirth was our new reality.
But the Jesus movement was preceded by the Hippie movement. The Hippie movement brought 100,000 youth to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco for the 1967 Summer of Love. But by the end of 1969, many had died from drug overdoses. Then in December 1969, a young man was stabbed to death at a free rock concert in Altamont, California. Out of the ashes of the failed hippie dream of free love and peace, the Jesus movement unexpectedly emerged.

Looking back, we can see there are some striking similarities between our current situation and the social and political climate of the late 1960s and early 1970s. We live in a time of sharp division and social and political upheaval. Everywhere long-established norms are being questioned and jettisoned. Many would say we have lost our moorings and are drifting in a dangerous current with no sense of direction. The same was true in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With the Vietnam War raging and sharp divisions between the generations, many found themselves at a social and emotional breaking point.

Jesus stepped into the mess of that time, and we are confident he will step into the upheaval and mess of our time as well.

With the recent Asbury revival and the release of The Jesus Revolution movie we are remind of the vitality of the 1970s Jesus movement. An estimated three million young people entered the Kingdom during this remarkable season of refreshing. It had a profound effect on the culture of that time. Revival is often a small thing when it breaks out, but it spreads like a prairie fire.

This was a fresh Spirit-prompted awakening with unique characteristics. It was a movement that spread from the bottom up. It sprang up spontaneously with no central theme or figure except the Lord Jesus. In the beginning, it had no defined leadership though overtime various leaders emerged. Though it began on the west coast and maintained a west coast vibe, it soon hitchhiked across the continent and marshalled young Jesus followers in diverse communities and every major city.

Like previous awakenings, the Jesus movement changed the music and the prevailing culture of that time.
A word of caution is warranted. The Jesus people movement of that time grew and filled many churches to overflowing. But at the same time, many churches were largely unaffected. Churches in decline often continued in decline. The tide of revival did not lift all boats.

Why was that the case?

Some churches welcomed these radical young Jesus followers, while others scoffed at their newfound faith seeing it as only a passing fad. For some who were swept up in the moment that criticism was valid. The devil is only too eager to snatch away the word that falls along life’s path so it cannot take root. But for those who were received into fellowship and grew in their love for the Lord and the Word of God, the impact was transformative and lifelong.

If revival breaks out among young people today will our churches be ready and welcoming, or will our response be negativity and criticism? We need to position ourselves to receive what the Holy Spirit brings our way. It may look different than what we expect.

Sometimes a revival, like with the Jesus movement, comes completely out of the blue. Similarly, no one planned or expected the latest Asbury outpouring among college students.

So many tens of thousands poured into this 6,000-person college town in Wilmore, Kentucky, that police had to post highway signs saying, ‘Revival Over Capacity.’

Asbury College has had many youth revivals over the years: 1905, 1908, 1921, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1992, 2006, and now 2023. One of our heroes, Dr. E. Stanley Jones, experienced the Asbury revival of joy and holy laughter in 1905, before being sent to India as a missionary for the next fifty years. He commented:

…suddenly we were all swept off our feet by a visitation of the Holy Spirit. We were all filled, flooded by the Spirit. Everything that happened to the disciples on the original Pentecost happened to us.[i]

Jones spoke about being calmly intoxicated with God’s love:

For three or four days, it could be said of us as was said of those at the original Pentecost.  ‘They are drunk.’  I was drunk with God (…) For three days, there were no college classes…I saw into the heart of reality, and the heart of reality was joy, joy, joy. And the heart of reality was love, love, love.[ii]

Asbury, said Jones, had both the ‘warmed heart’ and the ‘world parish’ missionary passion[iii]. Acts 1:8 reminds us that outpouring precedes outgoing. God is similarly raising up many young people in the current outpouring that will go to the ends of the earth with the good news.

Country trail at sunset — photo by David Kitz

Once you have a taste of revival, it leaves you longing for more. God willing, Jesus movement veterans like us may have the privilege of living through several coming revivals. We pray that we will be humble enough to have eyes to see, and not reject coming youth revivals because they may look different than what we remember.

Come Holy Spirit in revival fire. Touch down on the young generation. Land the jetliner of your presence with the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

[i] E. Stanley Jones, A Song of Ascent (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1979), 68.

[ii] Jones, A Song of Ascent, 69.

[iii] Jones, 67