RichDrama - Blog #Asbury RevivalRichDrama - Blog #Asbury Revivalhttps://www.richdrama.com/blog/tag/Asbury-RevivalThu, 09 Apr 2026 03:37:53 -0700http://zoho.com/sites/<![CDATA[The Difference]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/the-differenceI just woke to this #ScriptureInTheNight : My upcoming performance of Journey to the Garden on Saturday (www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/JourneyWCCN) will h ]]>

Between the Asbury Revival of 1970 and the Outpouring of 2023

I just woke to this #ScriptureInTheNight:

My upcoming performance of Journey to the Garden on Saturday (www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/JourneyWCCN) will have a focus on worship, which parallels the revival we’re watching explode around the world! 

When we drove 11 hours to experience the Asbury Outpouring, one of the people we spoke to there had experienced the Asbury Revival in 1970. He said that one was marked by testimonies. There was worship, but the way he remembered it, more of those 185 hours were filled with people telling how the Lord changed their lives and what they were turning away from to follow the Lord more closely. We saw some of that in the 374 hours of the Outpouring in ‘23, but most of it was non-stop worship! 

Joyce wrote about her theory about the difference: 


     Friday, February 17, 2023


     Lord, let worship tear down demonic strongholds.


Yesterday Rich Swingle, IFA contributing writer and prayer leader, spoke with a man who had been a classmate of Jeannine Brabon, who was instrumental in the 1970 Asbury revival. The man made an interesting comment about the differences between the two outpourings: The 1970 revival was marked by testimony, usually focused on repentance, and then with worship: this current outpouring seems to be marked by worship, followed by testimony of repentance, healing, and deliverance.


Worship has always been central to spiritual warfare. Judah — the tribe whose name is linked to praise — was the tribe that disembarked first from the Israelite camp (Numbers 2:1–4). Joshua sent first the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, representing the very presence of God, into the Jordan when the Israelites began to take the land (Joshua 3). The Lord ripped open prison walls when Paul and Silas worshipped in the Philippian prison (Acts 16:25–40).


Further, the Bible tells us that the Lord is enthroned on the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). That being the case, is not the heartfelt expression of worship going to bring the overwhelming power of the presence of the Lord into our environment, circumstances, and community?


And given that the days are increasingly evil — seemingly more evil than those of 50 years ago — the presence of the Lord in overwhelming abundance is even more necessary to the clearing away of demonic strongholds. As the love of most grows cold, the fire of His presence as He inhabits the praises of His people melts away the ice, burns away the demons, and creates a new ladder to heaven (Genesis 28:12).


The Lord is accomplishing His work today in Asbury and beyond, even as He did in the 1970s. Throughout the ages and across the globe, the Lord has visited His people to recover them to Himself through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His wisdom, He chooses the means and the expression of His visitations. We are left to revel in His goodness and rejoice with the saints.


As Joyce Swingle, IFA contributing writer and prayer leader, reflected on the Swingles' days in Wilmore, she told IFA that a spirit of humility is dominant. This was also emphasized by student body President Alison Perfater in an interview with Glenn Beck: "My generation struggles with pride, and what we've seen here is a radical humility. Students are standing up and confessing …  and they're opening their hearts up not only to the presence of God but to each other, and that is a very intimate thing. … There is that core of honesty that we are holding onto."


Radical humility. Is that something you want? Please post your prayer in the comments.


Info/Link to Live Stream
]]>Tue, 24 Mar 2026 02:59:30 -0400<![CDATA[The Importance of Repentance in the Welsh Revival]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/the-importance-of-repentance-in-the-welsh-revival1 Originally Songs of Revival: Hungry After God Himself  was titled  Songs of the Welsh Revival.  Then the Asbury Outpouring be ]]>

Hosting Headline Prayer Live

Originally Songs of Revival: Hungry After God Himself was titled Songs of the Welsh Revival. Then the Asbury Outpouring began. As I write we're one year after the 298th hour of continuous worship, testimony, preaching, Scripture reading, Salvation, and rededication. We knew we needed to incorporate that amazing story and open at the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Asbury Revival, but we didn't want to give up on the initial vision. So we folded the Welsh Revival into that story of freshmen at the anniversary praying for the Lord to visit again. On the original drafts we just mentioned that the Welsh Revival was quite significant and had many hallmarks of what the students were praying for. But after our debut of the complete "singing play," Dr. Vernon Whaley, who set up the performance, pointed out that the first (of nine) Asbury Revivals broke out during the Welsh Revival! 


I've written more about that in this contribution to my series on the importance of repentance in revival: 


The Importance of Repentance in the Welsh Revival

Lord, thank You for granting repentance during the Welsh Revival, the first Asbury Revival, and the revivals soon to follow!

We’re tracking the importance of repentance in revival in this series, and the Welsh Revival of 1904–’05 is key to seeing how the Lord has been reviving his people up to the present.

[Click here to read the whole article...]


With Judy McDonough, our host of Headline Prayer Live, unavailable Joyce and I got to host the show. We covered the article above and several others: 

If you'd like to get updates when Joyce and I are on Headline Prayer Live sign up at www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/Prayer.


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I've now posted my entire series on the importance of repentance in revival, 

which you can find by searching for #ImportanceOfRepentanceInRevival on www.HeadlinePrayer.org.

]]>Tue, 20 Feb 2024 20:03:10 -0500<![CDATA[Reposting Dutch Sheets]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/the-importance-of-repentance-in-the-welsh-revival Shortly after my first article in my series  on the importance of repentance in revival ( #ImportanceOfRepentanceInRevival )   Dutch ]]>

And Dutch Sheets Reposting Me

Shortly after my first article in my series on the importance of repentance in revival (#ImportanceOfRepentanceInRevival) Dutch Sheets posted a powerful teaching about what repentance is and how revival removes the veil which prevents people from repenting. As I was preparing an intro for his post on www.HeadlinePrayer.org, Joyce told me that Dutch Sheets read Part One of my series on Give Him 15! It seems Holy Spirit is awakening both of our ministries to the importance of repentance in this season.


Here's our repost of Dutch's teaching: 


What Repentance in Revival Means

Lord, direct our prayers for repentance and revival in our land, and remove the veil for more repentance through revival!

An Incredibly Harmful Misunderstanding 

What I am about to share with you is not related to what is coming in 2024 in a predictive sense. But it is very related in a causative sense. It is extremely important, greatly misunderstood, and terribly under-taught. Please put your student hats on today and THINK. Holy Spirit, open our ears to hear today, and give me the ability to communicate with great clarity.

[Click here to read the whole post and/or watch him read it...]


And here's Dutch reading my first article in the series:

For any unfamiliar with Dutch Sheets' ministry, check out www.DutchSheets.org. To give you a sense of his reach, 51,000 people watched him read my article. Glory to God! Lord, keep moving our hearts toward you! 

When Joyce and I attended the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance I prayed I'd get a chance to thank Dutch for reading my article. I also wanted to give him a link to my portrayal of Rees Howells. I reported earlier how I'd offered to write and perform a monologue for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Intercessors for America. I was given a list of people that could be good, which included Rees Howells. We prayed over it and felt clear that was where we were being directed. I performed in the morning, and after lunch Dutch spoke and used a long illustration about Rees Howells! John Beckett, who helped steer me to Howells was at the next table over, and we were poking each other like school children! When IFA CEO Dave Kubal told Dutch about the performance he said, "No way!" Then he told how, as he was preparing he kept hearing Holy Spirit whisper, "Rees. Rees."


As soon as we walked up to the Museum of the Bible for the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, there was Dutch in line to get in! He graciously accepted my link and reiterated that he wanted to share more of my work. Praise the Lord! 


Photo courtesy of IFA.

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]]>Thu, 15 Feb 2024 18:49:48 -0500<![CDATA[The Asbury Outpouring]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/the-asbury-outpouring As I'm writing ( 2:22 p.m. Eastern) it's the hour the Asbury Outpouring started to build momentum on this day last year, four hours into t ]]>

A Blessed First Anniversary of the First Day!

As I'm writing (2:22 p.m. Eastern) it's the hour the Asbury Outpouring started to build momentum on this day last year, four hours into the 374-hour service. Greg Haseloff, University Pastor at Asbury University, told me he first sensed something was different about 20-30 minutes after chapel let out on February 8, 2023: About a dozen of the 35 students who had lingered after chapel was officially released went forward to the altar, and there was a shift. 


We allude to this moment in our new "singing play" Songs of Revival: Hungry After God Himself, as we do for the next shift...


During the 2:00 p.m. hour students started to pray people outside Hughes Auditorium would experience the intense presence of the Lord that they were enjoying, and others went out to let the rest of the campus know something was happening. In Songs of Revival we portray our friend Dr. Jim Shores, a professor at Asbury, when his class was interrupted by Zeke Atha (who we also represent in the story), a senior who had been praying for revival since he was a freshman. 


We hope you'll bring Songs of Revival to your community to experience what happened next and many of the details that preceded last year's 16-day revival.

We're super excited about our new artwork! 


What do you see? 


Which way is the fire traveling?


When we first saw it, we thought it was going up, but the artist's vision is that it's coming down through the roof and burning up the sacrifice on title, which is an altar. We're hoping it "sparks" discussion, because revival goes both ways! 


Can you see the word "Word" in the flames? Revivals are not just about feelings, but about a people returning to the Word of God and repenting of everything that puts them out of alignment with the Holy One. I just finished a series about that: "The Importance of Repentance in Revival."


Can you see the Hebrew letters? 


If you have the time, do yourself a favor and do a little sleuthing. When I figured out what it meant I was BLOWN AWAY. 


I'll give you a hint: One definition of the noun form means “Word,” so the poster says, "Word," whether you're reading left to right or right to left (or in this case, top to bottom). 


Still don't get it or have the time to figure it out?


It's דבר.  


I found this at Abarim-Publications.com: 


The root דבר (dabar) is complicated. It occurs about 2,500 times in the Bible and is most commonly translated with "to speak". Yet it rather means to formalize, i.e. to transcend the realms of subconscious intuition, the mental equivalent of muscle memory and the subliminal governance of experience, and to consciously describe what is going on with very precise words that everybody can understand and take to heart without having to accumulate years of experience and mental muscle memory. This verb is obviously a very big deal. It sums up the essence of human awareness... it allows years, decades, centuries, and millennia of human experience to be compressed into data (concrete units of information), and to rise above the mind that produced it [human authors of Scripture] and settle into a mind that hasn't.


That's our heart with Songs of Revival! 

We want to bring our experience of the Lord to settle into minds that have never known Him, or haven't known Him as long as we have. 

After the 1970 Asbury Revival the college received many requests for students to travel to communities around the country and beyond to talk about what happened during that 185-hour service, and in many of the places where they spoke, revival broke out! It's our prayer that by telling the stories of the Welsh and Asbury Revivals that we'll help people to see what's possible and become desperate for it. As G. Campbell Morgan -- the author of  Lessons from the Welsh Revival -- wrote, "We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.”

We'd love to share the production with your community! Visit www.SongsOfRevivalLive.com for more information and to schedule a performance.


And now, here's my article that finishes the series "The Importance of Repentance in Revival":

Anniversary of Asbury Outpouring

Lord, thank You for leading souls to repentance during the Asbury Outpouring! May Your Spirit continue to move hearts into radical humility, so they’re ready for more of Your Presence!


We’re tracking the importance of repentance in revival in this series, and on this anniversary of the start of the Asbury Outpouring we’re looking at what happened in Hughes Auditorium this time last year.

[Click to read the whole article...]


Here are interviews embedded in the article...

]]>Thu, 08 Feb 2024 16:10:27 -0500<![CDATA[Seeking God for Revival]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/seeking-god-for-revivalYesterday Intercessors for America ran my article "Seeking God for Revival," the first in a  series which will cover the importance of r ]]>

The Importance of Repentance in Revival

Yesterday Intercessors for America ran my article "Seeking God for Revival," the first in a series which will cover the importance of repentance in the 1970 Asbury Revival, the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival, and the 2023 Asbury Outpouring: 


Lord, thank You for leading souls to repentance at Asbury in 1970 so that revival could flow then, and also now, during the 2023 Asbury Outpouring!


Though not all repentance leads to revival, you can’t have revival without repentance.

[Click to read the whole article and hear the interviews with three graduates of Asbury who experienced revival there in 1970 and/or 2023...]


Also yesterday, IFA dedicated the entire episode of Headline Prayer Live to the Asbury Outpouring. Joyce and I shared stories and clips from interviews from the alumni above, a fourth alumnus, the president and the university pastor at Asbury University, and filmmaker Alex Kendrick's son Josh, telling how a week-long revival hit Lee University the same time as the 374-hour Outpouring: 

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Pray we can help spark revival in Paris during the Olympics and Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival, and pray about helping us get there.

www.GiveSendGo.com/ChariotsParisEdinburgh
]]>Wed, 03 Jan 2024 02:32:13 -0500<![CDATA[Graves into Gardens at the Asbury Outpouring]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/graves-into-gardens-at-asbury-outpouring
Earlier I posted about my favorite time at the Asbury Outpouring (3:00 a.m.). Here's a worship song from that hour that we used for a recent service at Westchester Chapel Church of the Nazarene: 


Pray revival keeps breaking out around the world, and report it if you're a part of it!

This was a part of a service at Westchester Chapel Church of the Nazarene.

CCLI# 352386
Used by permission.
 
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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

]]>Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:30:00 -0400<![CDATA[Love: The Engine that Powered the Asbury Outpouring]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/love-engine-that-powered-asbury
Here's an article Joyce wrote for Intercessors for America about the chapel message that launched the Asbury Outpouring: 
Lord, pour Your Love through Asbury to Your people, and to the nations, and back again to You in worship and adoration.

At times, hushed whispers of adoration. At other times, exuberant praise and joyous refrains. Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University, in Wilmore, Kentucky, was host to an extraordinary visitation of the Holy Spirit for upwards of 370 hours — more than 15 days. This was a time of lingering and renewal that most had never experienced.
Pray for love to power the many revivals springing up all over America!

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

]]>Sun, 12 Mar 2023 01:20:00 -0500<![CDATA[Revival Is Going Global!]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/revival-is-going-global
We're so blessed every time we hear how revival continues to spark around the world! Our prayers are being answered! Let's continue to press in! 

Here are a few examples:

Revival Goes Nationwide, Hits Theaters After 'Jesus Revolution' Film as Well as ORU, Portland, Ohio State
The move of God that began as the Asbury Awakening is becoming increasingly decentralized as it spreads across the country. It's popping up in all types of spots, from secular colleges to theaters to youth events to special church services, with passionate responses to God's outpouring of His Holy Spirit. Reports are surfacing of people choosing to give their lives to Christ after seeing the Jesus Revolution movie. Here's an amazing clip of prayer and revival breaking out in one theater in Miami, Florida....

Jeannine Brabon sent this video of her interpreting a pastor's wife telling how challenging but rewarding it was for her and her husband to get from Chile to the Asbury Outpouring. We now know people traveled from Canada, South Africa, the UK, Nigeria, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Norway, Haiti, Myanmar, Israel, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand, now Joyce's country of birth, Chile, and all 50 states! 

John Fornof (founder of Circle Creative Media), who's won awards for his writing, described his experience at Asbury University: 

Last day at Asbury Revival. Long lines of people. Overflow rooms.

They were only allowing 16-25 year olds into the Hughes Auditorium, where this all started. By a miracle, I got in. And I literally got a front row seat (front and center!) on the revival. My daughter Melissa was with me, which made it extra special.

We stood in a hundred-year-old building filled to the balconies with young people enthusiastically praising Jesus and hungering for the very heart of God. You could feel the hunger, the expectancy, like dry kindling ready to catch fire.

We sang the worship chorus “You are Good.” And then they hit the phrase “You’re never gonna let, never gonna let me down.” The reality of that phrase sunk in. The young people all around me were singing from their hearts...loudly testifying, enthusiastically proclaiming the truth of that phrase.

Modern worship choruses flowed into great old hymns, like “How Great Thou Art.” And the fervor continued.

Here’s what it wasn’t: It wasn’t spectacular. No celebrity, no names, no words on the screen. * No fancy lights or fog machines. A girl on a guitar, a guy on the piano, and another guy on the cajon drum. No agenda. No set schedule.

Here’s what it was: It was all focused on Jesus. It was repentance at the altar. Salvations, healings, restoration. It was worship. It was the word. It was worship songs. Some brief housekeeping notes. Young people lined up with their favorite “life verse” from the Bible. More worship songs. Brief testimony or two. More worship. A brief sermon talk. And more worship. Lots of worship. Amazing, beautiful worship.

*Despite denominational differences, by the third verse of the hymns, we were all singing in tongues.

It wasn’t spectacular. It was profound. I looked around, watching hundreds and hundreds of young people praising Jesus. And I savored the fire. Time now to bring it home.

P.S. Will this revival fire last? Yes! Here's how I know. Earlier that day, I ran into Allen Mather, a tall, lanky guy in his mid to late seventies, with a twinkle in his eyes. I heard him tell a group of Africans, "I was here!"

He was here in 1970 when the earlier Asbury Revival hit. He had been pursuing God and his degree from an intellectual point of view. Then the revival came. "I caught the fire," he said. "And I'm still on fire!" And he explained what it is: "It's the fire of God's love.
Here are John's photos: 


Click here or on the image to see them all.

Pray revival continues to break out around the world! 
 
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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

]]>Fri, 03 Mar 2023 14:31:00 -0500<![CDATA[Asbury Revival! Daily Updates ]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/asbury-revival-daily-updates
We're still trying to figure out when the last of the worshipers from the Asbury Outpouring left Hughes Auditorium (post a comment if you know), but we connected with two people who left at midnight after the Collegiate Day of Prayer service ended, so that seems to have been the official close. That means -- if you count the Collegiate Day of Prayer, which flowed out of the Asbury Outpouring -- February 8th's chapel at Asbury University went at least 374 hours. 

Friday the last of our contributions ran on Intercessors for America's Asbury Revival! Daily Updates. You can visit that page to see them all, but here are highlights from ours:

Friday, February 24
Rich: While driving home to New York City from Asbury University we passed through the Washington D.C. area for a family event. We prayed into the commissioning we sensed we have all been given from Asbury. On the drive down we prayed for IFA state prayer leaders as we drove through their states , so we also picked up Virginia and Delaware on the drive home:


Thursday, February 23
Rich: On Thursday, Feb. 16, a speaker at Asbury University (they are intentionally not introduced to keep the focus on the Lord) read from John 15, focusing on verse 4 (ESV): Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.


I have to point out that those empty seats were about to be filled! There were hundreds in the line waiting to get in. 

Also, I found out later, the anonymous speaker was Zach Meerkreebs, who preached in the service on February 8. After he was done with that one he texted his wife: "“Latest stinker. I’ll be home soon.” Three hundred and seventy four hours later the University felt they had to close that service to get back to being a university.

Tuesday, Feburary 21
Joyce: My first day, Tuesday, February 14, at the Asbury Outpouring, I spent less than a minute in Hughes Auditorium, the main venue for the worship services. Even so, the presence of the Lord was so tangible, I burst into tears.

Saturday, February 18
Rich: My favorite moment at Asbury University — and actually a favorite moment of my life — was early Tuesday morning, Valentine’s Day. I woke up and saw that it was 2:44 a.m. I remembered that Jeannine Brabon said she first experienced the Shekinah Glory fall at 3 a.m. on October 3, 1969, four months before the 185-hour revival. I wanted to be fresh for Tuesday’s Headline Prayer Live, so I asked the Lord if I should go. I just burst into tears remembering how I sensed Him say: ‘You need my permission?’


Friday, February 17
Joyce: Yesterday Rich Swingle, IFA contributing writer and prayer leader, spoke with a man who had been a classmate of Jeannine Brabon, who was instrumental in the 1970 Asbury revival. The man made an interesting comment about the differences between the two outpourings: The 1970 revival was marked by testimony, usually focused on repentance, and then with worship: this current outpouring seems to be marked by worship, followed by testimony of repentance, healing, and deliverance.

Thursday, February 16
Joyce: “Viral is not revival.” Joyce Swingle reports from on-site at Asbury University: We spoke to two professors. One mentioned that he realized he had assigned a group project for a Friday deadline and he thought it would be difficult for the students to get together to do the work. He queried his class and realized they were keeping up with the schoolwork. He also mentioned he and several of the professors were finding that the outpouring was not keeping students from their classes. Fewer were cutting than the professors expected. Seems this outpouring is not making the students indolent but industrious!

Tuesday, February 14
Rich (My original article): Chapel on February 8 at Asbury University went long…and as I write it’s still going! In 1970, a chapel service in the same Hughes Auditorium went 185 hours. Ever since I heard about it circa 1987, I’ve been praying — as many of you have — for another revival to break out! I believe revival is breaking out.

Praying Our Way to Asbury
Rich (this was a separate article): On our way to Asbury University for Tuesday’s Headline Prayer Live, we decided to pray over each state we drove through on the 11-hour drive from New York City. We also prayed for each of the state prayer leaders. It ends with us walking into Hughes Auditorium, where the revival went for 185 hours in 1970. This outpouring has been going over 150 hours as I write, and there’s a line stretching down the road to get in!


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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

]]>Mon, 27 Feb 2023 00:09:00 -0500<![CDATA[Declare God's Salvation]]>https://www.richdrama.com/blog/post/declare-gods-salvation
Joyce opens with Communion, referring to Jesus Revolution. I give testimony centering on the Asbury Outpouring of Feb. 2023

Rachel Taylor presents a message from  2 Peter: 3: 15, with a focus on the first part of verse 15, as she continues the series "What Happens When a Created People Walk Away From Their Creator?" She also refers to Jesus Revolution.




This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.

If you want to know more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ visit www.WestchesterChapel.org/Salvation.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

]]>Sun, 26 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -0500