It is wonderful to see all the reports of large groups of people, worldwide, coming to Jesus, including college students around the country (details here), and the mass baptisms at Pirate’s Cove (details here), which is famous for its role during the Jesus Movement in the 1960s.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media does not report many of these events. They are mostly ignored. Anything “Christian” is off-limits for journalists these days. However, a small number of news agencies are trying to report these large gatherings.

This youth movement resembles the ongoing revivals in Iran and China, where revivals are necessarily forced underground due to the brutal persecution Christians are subjected to if caught. The difference here in America is not persecution (yet), but a calculated effort to erase or actively ignore Christianity.

An underground revival is underway in the United States, mostly among young adults, college, and high school populations. Since the nation kicked God out of school and Christians abdicated the public square to the secular world, our world has a pervasive sense of hopelessness. The upcoming generations have recognized this and are now desperately seeking Hope wherever they can.

The Holy Spirit responds to that desperation by engaging those suffering hopelessness with the Truth of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need the mainstream media to turn the hearts of the desperate towards God.

A few weeks ago, during prayer, I had a vision of this underground Revival and the potential for a true transformational revival. Transformational Revival is when God manifests His Presence sovereignly, affecting large portions of the population with a profound sense of the merciful conviction of sin. This kind of revival event would significantly impact daily life. Similar to the revivals in the Hebrides islands during 1949–1953. Many people who had never gone to church were heavily affected by the Holy Spirit, so much so that they were stopped in their tracks, entirely overcome by the Presence of the Holy Spirit.

Transformational Revival is a complete societal, God-sparked revival.

This kind of Revival doesn’t just affect the churches but invades society in general, bringing radical change to every facet of society. For example, in one of Sentinel Group’s Transformation Videos of the late 1990s, George Otis, Jr. interviewed one of the pastors in Cali, Columbia, where revival was taking place. The churches in Cali were experiencing massive growth—not just a few select churches in one denomination but all the churches in all the denominations. 

George asked the pastor what the secret was for the growth. He asked, “What kind of programs are you using to get this kind of growth?”

The pastor looked at George as if he didn’t understand the question. But, after a moment, he understood what George was asking. He said, “Programs? What kind of Programs? We don’t have time for Programs. We’re too busy hauling in the nets for Programs!”

What was happening in Cali was not something the churches had done or were doing except for, perhaps, prayer. Everything the churches were fervently attempting to produce was purely a work of God. People were streaming into the churches from off the street, desperately seeking God. There were so many people that all the elders, deacons, pastors, and anyone of leadership, were overwhelmed with leading people to Christ and beginning the discipling process.

The pastors in Cali, Columbia, were purely responding to God’s overwhelming presence, which brought the conviction of sin upon the city, and people were crying out for forgiveness. 

One of the problems with this kind of Revival today is that Christians have no idea what it looks like or how it feels to be part of something like this. Western society has no memory of it or even how to pray for it to come, or that there could even be such a thing. 

It is encouraging to see how the Holy Spirit is moving in the younger generation. Pray that this desperate desire for Hope will become viral and affect the rest of the United States and the Western Hemisphere.