How God is at work in surprising places and ways
Nearly thirty million more US adults are following Jesus today than was the case just four years ago, according to Barna. Their CEO, David Kinnaman, called this “the clearest trend we’ve seen in more than a decade pointing to spiritual renewal.” He notes that this movement is being led especially by “younger generations.”
God is moving in other parts of the world as well, places where the death of the church has long been predicted. In France, for example, 10,384 adults were baptized on Easter Sunday, a jump of 46 percent from last year and nearly double the number in 2023. The number of teenagers baptized was ten times higher than in 2019. One priest said, “We are overwhelmed by what is taking place.”
God is moving dramatically in the UK as well:
- Bible sales in the country increased by 87 percent between 2019 and 2024.
- Twice as many people are making first-time commitments to follow Jesus compared to 2021.
- Last year, more than two million people tried the Alpha course, a ministry designed to answer seekers’ questions and lead them to faith in Christ. This is the highest figure ever recorded.
- A woman showed up at one church seeking help because Jesus spoke to her in a dream, telling her she needed to be baptized.
- A young woman came on an online Alpha course with a painful case of shingles. The Alpha leader prayed with her, and the shingles vanished.
- One church saw 120 people respond to the gospel on Easter Sunday.
- A PhD researcher in Wales collected more than six hundred stories in just a couple of months of people being healed.
- A youth ministry called Spring Harvest saw 630 professions of faith last year.
- Last Christmas, more than one hundred thousand believers took the gospel to the streets of London, singing carols and sharing the gospel. There were numerous reports of salvations, healings, and revivals in churches.
If you’re like me, your first question is: How can we join this movement? What will it take for a true spiritual awakening to transform our nation?
The answer may surprise you.
The true purpose of the universe
All of God there is, is in this moment. Jesus promised us, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). But for what purpose? What is the living Lord Jesus trying to do in our lives today?
- S. Lewis wrote:
The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.
Our Father seeks for us to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) and sent his Spirit to indwell us (1 Corinthians 3:16) so that Christ can be “formed” in us (Galatians 4:19). The “fruit” he manifests is the character of Christ operating in and through our lives (Galatians 5:22–23).
If God will settle for nothing less than Christlikeness in our lives, we should join him. Oswald Chambers warned, “The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough.”
Jesus wants to be as real in our bodies as he was in his, seeking to incarnate himself in Christians to continue his earthly ministry through us. In this way, he becomes “the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). As a result, accepting anything less than Christlikeness is settling for less than the abundant, victorious, overcoming lives we are supposed to be living today.
Here’s my point: The more we become like Jesus, the more this miraculous transformation in our lives catalyzes us to lead others to him.
And the more we advance the spiritual awakening we need so desperately.
Four biblical steps
So, here’s the practical question: How can you and I partner with Christ to become more like him?
First, seek spiritual renewal for yourself and your nation. Our Lord promises, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Philip Yancey is right: “God goes where he’s wanted.”
Second, stay close to Jesus to become like Jesus. Paul wrote that when we are “beholding the glory of the Lord,” we are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is why consistent prayer, Bible study, and worship are vital “channels of grace.” It is also why the enemy tempts us to separate Sunday from Monday and religion from the “real world.” The more we practice the presence of Jesus, the more we become the presence of Jesus to others (cf. Luke 6:40).
Third, ask in every setting the familiar question, “What would Jesus do?” Then ask the Spirit to empower you to be the change you wish to see (Ephesians 5:18).
Fourth, spend your life and influence leading others to do the same. We become like Christ as we help others become like Christ. Only then do we align our lives with the purpose of the one who came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). This is God’s design for humanity in which we are linked to one another in his tapestry of grace.
“The only thing in the world worth caring for”
The theologian Sinclair Ferguson noted:
God’s ultimate purpose is to make us like Christ. His goal is the complete restoration of the image of God in his child! So great a work demands all the resources which God finds throughout the universe, and he ransacks the possibilities of joys and sorrows in order to reproduce in us the character of Jesus.
The Scottish evangelist and biologist Henry Drummond added:
“To become like Christ is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.”
Do you agree?
Quote for the day:
“God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of his children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor an ill-intending person to afflict us unless he uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of his Son.” —Jerry Bridges
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