Tag Archives: Jesus People

Preparing a Landing Strip for the Holy Spirit

04 Sunday Jan 2026

Posted by in The Elisha Code

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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.

This is the seventeenth weekly excerpt from the award-winning book 
The Elisha Code & the Coming Revival

Is a return-to-Jesus revival possible in our time?
This book points the way forward.
For details click here.

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

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

[iii] Jones, 67

Filled with Laughter

24 Sunday Aug 2025

Posted by in Psalm 126, Psalms

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Psalm 126

A Song of Ascents

When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,
we were like men who dreamed.
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like streams in the Negev.
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.
He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him.

I cannot read this psalm—Psalm 126—without immediately identifying with it. I have lived this psalm; I have experienced the reality of it.

Now that’s a rather bold statement; some might call it an ignorant or arrogant statement. The historical context of this psalm is readily identifiable. The psalmist is commenting on the joyous return of the exiles following the seventy-year Babylonian captivity—an event that occurred in the sixth century before the birth of Christ. How could anyone alive today claim that they have lived or experienced this particular Psalm? None of us were present during these dramatic events in Jewish history.

But again, I repeat: I have lived this psalm; I have experienced the reality of it.

The whole premise of this book is built on the notion that the psalms can come alive within us. The writer of the Book of Hebrews reminds us that “the word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12).

Photo by L. Kranz

What is there then, to prevent this living word from coming alive within us? Why can we not experience this active word of God transforming and transporting us to the throne of grace? Only two things hinder us from living in the power and wonder of the word of God, and they are sin and unbelief. And sin and unbelief are only too eager to form within us, a constricting bond that smothers the Spirit empowered Word.

But when the power of sin is broken, and unbelief is purged from the doubting soul—oh what liberty awaits! The word of God comes alive within us. The LORD is then free to do great and glorious things in us, and through us.

That was my experience as a young man in the early 1970’s. The LORD was bringing back the captives to Zion, “and we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.”

I was caught up in the vortex of the Jesus People movement of that time, and amazing things were happening. Young men and women were coming to faith in Christ at a phenomenal rate. At every church meeting newcomers were finding the forgiveness they needed. The prodigals were coming home in droves. Every gathering closed with a baptismal service as new believers affirmed their faith in the crucified and risen Christ. There was a heady infectious joy in the church that could not be contained.   

At that time, “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.”

The spontaneity of the worship experience during those days was truly astonishing. New songs were born—born by the Spirit—right within the corporate worship time. Many of them came directly from the scriptures. The psalms became the source book for our worship. The captives—captives of sin and Satan—had been set free, and now there was a new song in our hearts, and on our lips—a song of praise to our God. We could not keep this to ourselves. Who could possibly contain the overflowing goodness and mercy of God?

This ingathering of souls was God’s doing. A lost generation was arrested by the Almighty. He was turning us around, and we were discovering Jesus. And this move of the Holy Spirit did not begin in the church. No, it began in the flop houses and hippy communes. It started on the street—in the world—the sin-saturated world. It did not start with saintly scholars and philosophers, but rather with the young and restless, the hitchhikers and misfits. God was calling them to Himself, and He was miraculously transforming lives as only can God do.

Because this new thing that God was doing started in the world, many Christians were suspicious of it. Could this really be God? Many churches stood aloof. But those who welcomed these misfits found themselves overwhelmed and transformed by what God was doing. He had initiated this, and He stood at the center of it.

Soon the Jesus’ movement was affecting the entire youth culture. Amazing Grace became the number one hit on top forty radio. A half dozen hit songs spoke of the man from Galilee. Time magazine ran a cover story on how the youth across the continent were discovering Jesus. Suddenly, it was cool to love Jesus and to follow him.

And I was a frontline witness to all this. I was seeing lives changed all around me. Close friends, who were far from God, suddenly were having life altering encounters with Jesus. We were like men who dreamed. And in that dream Jesus had come to live among us. His long flowing hair had become our own. He was with us again, just like he was with that band of fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, and the nets were full of fish—boat swamping full of fish.

“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for them.'”

The world knows when God is doing something remarkable, and the psalmist records the ancient world heard that the captive Jewish nation had been released. The exiles were free to return to their homeland, and return they did. In the early 1970’s the modern world heard that Jesus was bringing young people to himself. They too were free—set free from a load of guilt and sin, set free from addictions and hang ups—free to love and serve God with hearts washed pure by the blood of the Lamb.

“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!”

That was my experience—an experience that was shared by thousands of others across this continent during this remarkable time. It was the LORD’s doing. He did great things for us—things I will never forget.

But …

But there is a pause in this psalm. This is a psalm written in two distinct sections, or stanzas. In most translations, this break between stanzas is indicated by a blank line. The psalmist abruptly transitions from joyous triumph to sober petition, from exuberance to sobbing desperation. We are left wondering what happened in between. What happened in that blank line? Why this sharp transition? In bleak desolation the psalmist pleads, “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.”

Atacama Desert, Chile — Photo credit http://www.explora.com

Streams in the Negev are intermittent. A raging torrent one day becomes a mere trickle on the next day, and then nothing on the third day. The boisterous river of joy turns into a blank line on the desert floor. Nothing—just nothing.

The Negev is the parched desert region to the south of the land of Judah. Cloud bursts there can produce these streams in the barren desert, and with the sudden arrival of this moisture, long dormant seeds spring to life. Suddenly new life abounds. But without further moisture, the scorching sun takes its toll. The harsh environment reasserts its dominance. Land that was briefly lush and verdant reverts to desert dust.

Is it any wonder then that the psalmist cries out, “Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.” The psalmist longs for the flow of new life to continue.

And right along with the psalmist I cry, “Send your river flowing through here once again. Send a cloud burst of your mercy down on this nation again. Invade this culture again. Turn our young people to Jesus, yet again. Touch this new generation. Let them find themselves walking with you, the living Christ. You did it once, Lord, and I saw it. I experienced it. Now do it again! Do it again, not for me, but for those who don’t know you. Do great things for them. Set them free from the sin and the lies that ensnare them. Touch all of us, once again!”

“Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negev.”

In those days, at the height of what God was doing, I saw a dozen young men line up in the freezing cold. They arrived early. They were waiting for the pastor to arrive on a Saturday night to unlock the church so they could come in and give their hearts to Jesus. I saw hundreds of young people being baptized at that same church—more than three hundred in a year—one for every day of the year. The God of the harvest was adding to the church “daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

This was not about the Holy Spirit tickling the churches’ funny bone. It was about sinners finding God. Time after time I saw the lost crowding the altar at the close of the service. They wanted Jesus, nothing more, nothing less, just Jesus.

Now, only the faithful come to the altar, if anyone comes at all.

 “Restore our fortunes, O LORD.”

 I echo the psalmist’s prayer, “Restore our fortunes, O LORD.”

Fortunately, we are provided with the promise of God’s word in tandem with the psalmist’s petition, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

A field of harvest ready oats near MacNutt, SK — photo by David Kitz

If you live in a dry land, water it with your tears. If the wind of God’s Spirit is a distant memory, remember seasons change. The seed of God’s word is still viable. It is always power packed and ready to spring to life. Just add water.

“He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”

God’s promise stands sure and certain, but for us, two questions remain. Are you going out weeping? And are you carrying seed to sow?

Perhaps the church in Canada has never experienced a harsher spiritual climate than that which exists today. We live in a society that by and large has turned its back on God. The gospel message is often treated with contempt or outright ridicule. The church exists in a spiritual desert. Figuratively, Canada is the Negev. Conditions in in the United States are only marginally better.

In such a harsh climate the natural inclination is to cocoon ourselves away. The world out there is inhospitable. It’s best to stay inside, to huddle amongst ourselves. Isn’t it better to cloister ourselves away, than to expose ourselves to the harsh elements and the criticism of others? Let’s circle the wagons and entertain ourselves. This has become the unspoken modus operandi for many churches.

Into our cloistered existence the psalmist speaks. He instructs us to step out of our sheltered place. He tells us to go out weeping. What a bizarre command! Weeping is for private places. Why would we want to go out into the world weeping? Yet, this is what we are encouraged to do. Could it be that we are to get out of our churches and cry? Cry over what?

How about crying over a lost generation? How about crying over the homeless, the addicted and the needy? How about crying over the devastating effects of sin, and the degradation of our youth?

One day in the late 1950’s, David Wilkerson opened a copy of Life magazine where he saw photos of young gang members in New York City. Looking into their eyes, he broke down and wept. This young pastor left the shelter of his country church to bring the gospel to the toughest gangs in New York City. He went “out weeping, carrying seed to sow” and yes, David Wilkerson returned “with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” He proved that the message of the cross is more powerful than the switchblade.

God has given us His seed—the word of God—for a reason. We are to scatter it out in the world. There can be no harvest unless someone goes out and plants the seed.

Are you carrying seed to sow? Don’t just carry it into the world. Scatter it. There is no joy quite like the harvester’s joy. The harvester has worked with God, and the LORD’s joy becomes his own.

“He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”

Bringing Life to the Psalms

  1. Have you experienced the joy of harvest, where new souls have been added to the Kingdom of God? What was that experience like? What role did you play? Read 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 for Paul’s perspective on planting and harvesting.
  2. What is the difference between ingathering and revival? There appears to be a place for both in the economy of God’s Kingdom. Take note of the revival that took place under the leadership of Josiah, King of Judah, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 34-35. The discovery of the Book of the Law of the LORD was a key element in this revival. In a similar way, I would contend that the release of the Good News, New Testament by the Bible Society contributed significantly to the Jesus People movement of the early 1970’s. How important is it for you to have an understandable translation of the scriptures?
  3. Are we living in a harsh spiritual climate? Is the gospel message impacting the culture in which we live, or is the culture of the world impacting the church?
  4. What are you personally doing to sow the seed of God’s word? What are some innovative ways to get the seed out into the field? What can churches do to facilitate going out with the seed of God’s word? Have you circled the wagons? Are you merely entertaining yourselves? What is the role of tears in the harvest that God wills to bring on the earth?
  5. Reread Psalm 126. What is God saying to you by His Spirit?

Today’s post is Chapter 25 from the book Psalms Alive! Connecting Heaven & Earth by David Kitz. To find out more or purchase click here.