Frankie Mazzapica - Revival Is Happening Now
Thank you for tuning in today, my name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is "Revival is Happening Now," it's happening. Does anybody believe that? Come on, it's happening right now. Let me pave the way for this message with the Word of God, and then I'm gonna give you a series of examples to prove to you that revival is happening all over the country right now. And there are embers of revival, there's embers of fire, all over the country right now, and I want to tell you, if you want more of God, if you want more of his presence in your life, it is available to you like never, ever before. Do you believe that? Come on, do you believe that? I believe that by the end of this message, you will become more and more convinced of what we just talked about, but let me lay the foundation using Scripture.
In Daniel chapter 2 verse 21 it says this, "And he changes the times and the seasons. He brings down kings, he brings down leaders, and he raises kings, leaders, up. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those with understanding". Let me share another verse. "In the last days, he will pour his Spirit upon all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. The old men will have dreams, and the young men will have visions". Come on, do you believe that? I want to share with you that, and some of you have heard about it already, there's a revival in Kentucky called the Asbury Revival, and raise your hand and wave at me if you've heard about this. But it's not just there, it's also at Lee College, it's also at Oklahoma Bible University. It's also taken place in North Georgia. It's taking place throughout the country.
Now, these are the places that I have heard of. It's happening all over the place, that there's fires, there's bonfires of the presence of God like never before. Right down the street at Texas A&M, there's another revival taking place, right down the street. Just so we're all talking, and we all have the same definition of revival, revival is when you feel the presence of God in such a way that you do not want to leave it, and that's the common denominator between all of these revivals. You can watch on YouTube the Asbury Revival. People don't leave, they're there all day. They stay all night. There's a line down the street. You do not want to leave the presence of God because you've never experienced a love like that before.
People who have no relationship with God, they come in, it's not the message of the preacher, oftentimes there is no speaking. It's not the worship team because in most cases the worship is very simple. It's just the presence of God. I cannot explain to you on what that feels like. I experienced it just for a small moment of time for about three months in 1996, and I gotta tell you, I would walk into the sanctuary and most people would just fall to their face. Some people would stand up, some people would kneel, but nobody wanted to leave. Nobody wanted to leave. So, that's the working definition when I say revival right now. People are being saved during revival. Believers are being built up and seekers are being drawn. Some of these revivals, people are just driving by and they feel the presence of God and they pull into the parking lot.
There's recorded stories of things like that happening, but let me just share with you there are three common denominators with all of these revivals. Number one is that there is a gathering, number two is there is prayer, and number three, there is repentance. Let me just dive right into the first one, that there is a gathering. You don't ever hear about somebody experiencing a massive downpour of the presence of God when they're all by themselves, and it sustains, and people are being saved, because they're by themselves. Now, I have to say this, I have experienced his presence in an undeniable way when I have been praying alone, in an undeniable way. And when I plan to pray 20 minutes, I've prayed four hours. But as far as a sustained move of God that lasts for days, and weeks, and sometimes months, and years, these happenings take place in a gathering. They always have. They always have.
In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, Paul says this, and he's pleading. Listen to this. "Do not forsake," do not stop, "Gathering together as brethren," watch this, "as some people do". And the some people that do, they always have their own theology. "Well, I just believe. I just believe". But they never support that with any kind of Scripture, because Scripture never contradicts Scripture. It never happens. It never, ever happens. So, when a person says, "Well, I just believe," ask them which Scripture you support using to support that belief. This is a gathering, and I want to tell you that if you ever want to stop gathering in the church, if you ever wanna just kinda start skipping service and come when you feel like it, sometimes our feelings dictate our life.
Feelings should never dictate our life. Decisions should dictate our life. Commitments should dictate our life. And when you commit to the Lord, that I'm pursuing you more now than I ever have before, that's not being based on a feeling, that's being based on hunger and commitment. Do you believe me today? So, the first thing is a gathering. There are three revivals that have taken place and are taking place right now that I want to show you a video of. The first one is a beach revival that took place during COVID, and I met the girl that started this. I was in the middle of an interview with some TV program up in Pennsylvania, and the person who was interviewing me was the one that started the beach revival. It was so funny, because she's interviewing me, and then I found out she was the one, and I'm like, "I know you're interviewing me, but I got a lot of questions".
That interview went woop real quick. I want to talk about you, I don't wanna talk about me. I'm boring, you tell me about the move of God. So, that's the first one that I'm gonna show you. It's a beach revival. There was a gathering that took place. The second one is a revival up in North Georgia. I also have a friend of mine, he's the associate pastor there. I got to sit down with the senior pastor and his wife for about an hour and just ask questions. This revival is very unique, because this revival people are showing up by the hundreds to be baptized in water.
It's fascinating, because when they're baptized they come out of the water and they're free from addictions that they could not break on their own. They're being healed, and that could have never happened by any doctor. I've been baptized in those waters, and I sat in the back and there was, like, hundreds, hundreds of people just sitting there waiting to be baptized. It's a powerful thing. This third revival that I want to share with you, I forgot the third one, what's the third one? The Asbury Revival. Oh my goodness, that's happening. So, take a look at this, watch this.
Isn't that exciting? You know, I've heard over the years, many people say to others, "Man, if the pastor would have just let the room linger a little bit longer, if the worship team would have just kept going a little bit longer, I believe a revival would have broke out". I gotta tell you, I've studied revival. I've studied revival in school and taken theology classes. That's not how it works. That is not how it works. That is not how that happened.
It was a gathering of people, they were praying, that's my second point, and there was a bomb. It was just like, what just happened in this room? You cannot create it and play a certain tune and cause a revival. If that were the case, we would put the chord on YouTube and the whole world would experience revival. If we were to say, hey, if you just linger a little bit, if that were the case, we'd all be lingering. I gotta tell you, if you study revival, it happens like that. It happens like that. Let me talk a little bit about prayer. So, there is a gathering and then there is prayer. Prayer, if you study these revivals, there is always a nucleus of believers praying.
I'll give you an example. One of the very first revivals, probably the first, well, it wasn't the first one, but the one that started the 1st century, the century of the 19th century was the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 to 1915. But before that revival broke out, and I gotta tell you, people were riding horses across the country just to be there. They were coming and standing outside just to be close to the building. This went on from 1906 to 1915, but it all started on Connie Brae Street. Is that the name of the street? Bonnie Brae, thank you very much. Bonnie Brae Street, where there was believers that were getting together and crying out to God.
The Brownsville Revival from 1996 to I think it was 2004 or 2005. I'm friends with the son, I've interviewed the son of the pastor, I'm friends with him. I've interviewed the worship leader. Do you know that they had prayer meetings on Saturday night for over a year before revival hit on Father's Day, 1996? I'm gonna tell you, if we try, if anyone tries, any church, any believer tries to circumvent gathering, circumvent praying, and you think that you're gonna experience something special by circumventing gatherings, by not praying, good luck with that. I'm not saying it's not gonna happen, I'm just saying I've never seen it happen. Are you with me? Say yes, are you with me? Say yes, even if you don't agree, say yes.
Leonard Ravenhill said this, he says, why don't we stir ourselves up? He goes on to say this, that people who desire the presence of God aren't willing to sacrifice anything. Obviously this is a broad stroke, and everybody is included in that statement, because there are a lot of people that stir themselves up. There are a lot of people that would sacrifice and have a history of sacrificing whatever thought that comes to their mind from the Holy Spirit, whatever the Holy Spirit tells them. They have a history of sacrificing things in their life. But there is also a swath of believers that if it requires any sacrifice at all, they're out, they're out. If it's a sacrifice of an addiction, a sacrifice of an attitude, a sacrifice of worship, a sacrifice of prayer, a sacrifice of their Sunday morning being the Sabbath in the house of God.
I've met so many people that have their own definition of Sabbath. Sabbath is a day of rest, time for me to stay home and eat broccoli. Come on, Sabbath means to rest in the presence of God. They say, "Well, I can feel the presence of God everywhere". Of course you can, that's the omnipresence of God, but then there is this presence of God that is in the house of God where the gathering of the people take place. It is the presence of God, and so when you come up with your own definition of let's just go to the beach, day of rest, let's call it a day off. See, there's the manifest presence of God, which is where God has said my people will experience me here, and then there is the omnipresence of God, where it says you can't go to the moon without experiencing me.
But it's the manifest presence of God that caused the gatherings, where there's prayer, where there's urgent prayer, where there's desperation of prayer, and what does that look like? It goes on all day, every day. Every single time it crosses your mind, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. I worship you, I worship you, I worship you, I worship you. You say, "Frankie, that's a lot of repeating". Do you know that there's nobody in your life that can tell you I love you too much? Have you ever said, "Okay, okay, okay, I don't want to hear I love you anymore"? Stop saying it. I know you've said it a thousand times in my life, but that's it, don't ever say it again.
Come on, come on. Let me hit the last and final point. Repentance always happens in revival. There's a gathering, there's prayer, and there is repentance. Repentance starts by confessing your sins, but it always leads to a change of mind about sin, about God, about heaven, and about hell. Repentance changes your frame of mind. It changes the direction of your life. It is a sacrifice of all the things that you know do not please God. It's a sacrifice.
Now, you may say that's a strong word, "sacrifice". Sacrifice takes place when your desire and God's desire clash. It's easy to submit to the Lord when he's asking you to do something you already want to do, but when it's a sacrifice, you go, "Ahhh," and sometimes there's a back and forth. I don't think that's God. I don't think that's God. That's where the sacrifice takes place. And do you know that when they made sacrifices in the Bible, they would tie down the animal? Tie it down, set it on fire, and they say, well why did they tie it down? Because oftentimes the things we sacrifice, I'm gonna pick it back up. And every time that sacrifice rises up again, you gotta sacrifice it again. Sacrifice it again. There's some things in life, there's some things in life that you can sacrifice in a moment, and then there's other things in life you gotta sacrifice every single day. Does anyone agree with that? Every day, my sister attends Texas A&M University, and she has been going to the revival at Texas A&M.
Now, it's fascinating because there was no leadership that drew them all together. And they have a Bible study, it's one of the largest Bible studies on a university in the country. Some would say it is the largest, and it's been going on for years. But it wasn't a leader, it wasn't a preacher, it wasn't a worship team that made the revival take place. What's fascinating is over 400 kids were drawn, they came together and started worshiping. Now, some would say, "Ah, that never happened, that's not real". I'll say this, every single time revival has ever come up, there's always been people saying that's not real. I'll tell you this, you know teenagers. Even if you don't have a teenager, you know teenagers. They're not going anywhere and staying up all night long in the freezing cold for nothing. Something is happening at A&M. I want you to take a look at this video.
Abby Mazzapica: Hey, everyone, I'm a student at Texas A&M University, and on Tuesday, February 21st, I went to Breakaway, which is this big service that happens every Tuesday night, and all the college students go on campus, and by word of mouth, I just heard that afterward, everyone was going to go to Aggie Park and worship and pray. So, I went on over there, as I was approaching, there was a big circle of people just worshiping and just spontaneously leading into different well-known songs and worshiping. And at first I was just observing what was going on, and then I began to enter into worship and praying, and as I was standing there, I just closed my eyes, and then I looked up at, like, the lights at Kyle Field, and I'm just listening to all these voices just crying out to God.
I'm hearing people just calling on the name of Jesus, and I just began to cry. I felt like the Holy Spirit was moving on me, because I was just like, how beautiful is it that this is happening here? And there's no, like, adults, like, leading this out, this is all just student led. And people were given the opportunity, like, if they had a word, they were able to get on the mic and give that word. And I remember one of the first people that got up there said, "You know, this isn't about us, but, like, let's just pray for revival to come. Let's pray that the Lord moves on this campus and just continues to do a work here".
And so, that's what we just began to do, and I remember specifically when we were singing, "Nothing But the Blood," that was one of the loudest songs that we sang, because I think that that's just, like, one of the more well-known songs, and I just felt like the Lord saying, like, I'm washing my blood over, like, Texas A&M, and like, America, and like, with everything that's going on. And one of the points from the sermon that had happened that night at Breakaway was repentance leads to joy. And so, that's what I felt like the Lord was speaking to me, was like, you know, what a place, what an environment of, like, a college, university, where there's people that are not living, you know, completely sold out to God, and there's confusion, and idolatry, and all these things, and they don't want to give up certain things in their life, but at the end of the day, repentance leads to joy.
And that was the spirit that I felt, and there wasn't that many people that were praying over other people. There was not a lot of that. And to me, there wasn't a need for it, it just felt like peace. You know, I expected more, maybe a lot more, like, hype, and like, energy, and yes, there were more people that were vocal than others, but overall, it was just a sense of peace and like, people are just individually here to experience the tangible presence of God, and it was just a beautiful thing to witness. I'm inspired by it, and I'm so ready to see what more God has for Texas A&M University.