Tonight, for the last time, thousands of people will gather at lifeguard station 20 on Huntington Beach, California. Many will embrace Jesus and give their lives to God. This has been going on for a month now and each week this revival has gotten bigger. Last week, 2500 showed up and 300 or so were baptized. Many were healed.
But the authorities are nervous and said, “this will be the last time you do this for a while.” So who knows what will happen next.
How did this start? Is this God or just a group of Christians who should be more careful about the virus? What are we to think?
My view is that it is a God-led movement, and that, as with any move of God, there is the potential for people to mess it up. Yes, they should wear masks, and socially distance, but the story of how this came about and the testimonies of changed lives are dramatic and lead me to believe God started this.
I’ve known Jessi Green since she was a World Racer ten years ago. She was a NYC socialite whose life was radically transformed by Jesus before she went on the World Race.
Four years ago, while she and her husband, Parker, were on a 21-day fast, Jessi Green had a vision. She saw hundreds of people in the ocean off Huntington Beach. She saw them being baptized. And then they’d turn around and baptize those behind them. The Lord said, “The next revival is for the equipping of the saints.”
Jessi flew home and told Parker. He showed her his journal where God said, “I’m moving in Southern California.” So at point they sensed confirmation and knew that they had to move.
How would you respond if God showed you a vision like that? Would you quit your job, leave your extended family and move across the country? It required a lot of faith, but they did it.
For the last year, Jessi and Parker have been preparing for this revival by meeting in their home with 37 pastors in the area. And now that the revival is happening, the pastors have been helping to assimilate the fruit. They put up this webpage.
What has happened looks just like the vision God showed her. Jessi said, “People need to experience what God is doing. His presence is thick here. The culture shift going on in our country is the threshing floor. But what is happening in Huntington Beach should be normal elsewhere.”
And she has a challenge for World Race alumni: “The sleeping giant that is the WR alumni needs to be awakened and help spread this around the country.”
Of course there are critics and pushback to all of this. The nation is fighting the Covid virus. People are dying. It’s a time for caution. But Jessi notes that people are also dying for a lack of hope. God is bringing hope through this revival to people who are desperate.
Scripture is full of stories of God moving and people doubting him in the midst of it. Thomas famously disbelieved that it was really Jesus. Other disciples on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognize him. And most of the disciples were in hiding when he was resurrected.
We are called “believers” because we press into doubt. We each give an account for how we respond to God. Here is me: This is the manifestation of something I’ve been praying for 14 years. I wrote about it here and here. After all these years, I’d almost given up believing.
But I have given my life to the proposition that Jesus is the answer to the worlds illness. I don’t know what will happen next, but I think he’s been showing up in Huntington Beach and will be there tonight.
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This is awesome! Thank you for sharing this. It is good to see where God is moving in this season that has been so full of discouragement and doubt.
Fantastic! So great to see the Kingdom growing and spreading with a passion from these young people who are laying down their lives!
SO EXCITED TO SEE THIS! I’ve been long praying for a revival and another Jesus Movement! Prayer coming your way from Virginia
Love the faithfulness of Jessi and Parker to the Lord!
Seth could you please email me this article so I can print for my records. God Bless Peggy
Sure, Peggy
A stirring development for sure. Seth, you are more than an influence, you are an inspiration! Thank you for this consideration and for pointing to things that matter. They open my eyes, embolden my heart, and make me ask myself: “What can I do today?”
Thanks, Gregg. I love that Jessi was pressing into God and saw the vision. Everything else we do is just Aaron and Hur lifting up Moses’ arms.