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If a 'Great Awakening' is coming, prayer and repentance come first

If a 'Great Awakening' is coming, prayer and repentance come first


If a 'Great Awakening' is coming, prayer and repentance come first

A Christian apologist says the time is right for another “Great Awakening” in America – and in fact, one might already be here.

From the Southern California beaches to the troubled cities of Portland and Seattle, and across the Rockies across the rest of America.

Christian apologist-author Alex McFarland, co-host of the “Exploring the Word” radio program on AFR, says he's seeing an awakening far and wide in the U.S. – and right on time.

“It seems like in critical junctures in American history, when actually the very future of the country seems to hang in the balance,” he says, “God, at the critical moment, moves.”

What is known as the First Great Awakening happened in the U.S. colonies, around the time of the Revolutionary War, and that movement shifted the culture on sin, personal holiness, and genuine repentance. 

Church historians say the second movement came during America’s bloody Civil War. 

During the turbulent and violent 1960s, the “Jesus People” who emerged from the hippie movement watched the Holy Spirit turn hearts and change lives. It wasn’t but a few years later Bob Dylan sang:

By His truth I can be upright,
By His strength I do endure,
By His power I've been lifted,
In His love I am secure.

McFarland, Alex (Christian apologist) McFarland

According to McFarland, the U.S. is ripe for a new movement of God because everything around us --- from a rotting culture to shrinking church attendance --- is crying out for a change that is genuine and permanent.

“If the past is any predictor,” he tells American Family News, “then I believe we've got to be on the cusp of a Great Awakening.”

But how do you know if there's a genuine revival afoot? McFarland advises for God’s people to watch for four things: people bowed in prayer; people repenting of their sins; an urgency to share the gospel; and a thirst to read, study, and understand God’s Word.