Revival Rocks West Virginia School, Surrounding Towns
04-22-2016, Wendy Griffith
Something big is happening in southern West Virginia. Reports are pouring in of a spiritual awakening that began in the schools and is now spilling over into the towns. For the last several nights, the large sports complex known as the Field House in Williamson, West Virginia, has been packed with people of all ages crying out for God.
At a recent gathering, one person prayed, “That you would enter our hearts God, and touch every family associated with my school, Lord. You’re going to break the chains.” “This will only spread and no matter where people go, we will share it with the world, God,” one girl in the crowd said.
The revival is seeing hundreds of students come forward to give their hearts to Jesus. Pastor Mitch Bias, with the regional Church of God in Delbarton, said prayer, plus desperation, have paved the way for this spiritual breakthrough, especially among the young people.
“It’s a climatic time,” he said. “I think the many years of creating a spiritual vacuum inside of kids by not teaching them the true reality that there’s a destiny in God — time plus chance, plus matter has produced a vacuum on the inside. “I think when they hear a message of hope it really speaks to them because they’re kind of hanging in a spiritual limbo,” he added. “And they press into it quickly to take it ’cause they know that’s the truth.”
Bias said the revival isn’t a church or denominational thing – but a God thing. He believes what’s happening in southern West Virginia has the potential to spread to other counties, states, and even the nation.
The revival meetings will continue in Mingo County next week and perhaps longer if it continues to grow.
04-29-2016–More by Wendy Griffith, CBN News
MINGO COUNTY, W. Va. – There’s a new sound coming forth from the hills of southern West Virginia – a sound many prophets have foretold but haven’t heard until now.
For the past three weeks, the large sports complex in the small coal-mining town of Williamson, West Virginia, has been filled to the rafters with people crying out for God. It all started when Tennessee evangelist Matt Hartley visited a local church for what was supposed to be a three-day revival service but it just kept going.
“This is not man-made, charismatic, hyper spiritual,” Hartley told CBN News. “This is the presence of God that is overwhelming us, that is being released upon hungry people that are tired of just stagnant Christianity and “safe” church.”
“They want Jesus more than anything else. That’s why they’re here,” he said. Hartley also spoke at the local high school where revival seemed to break out among the students. “Four-hundred to 450 students got saved at Mingo Central from Matt Hartley coming in and speaking at a voluntary prayer club,” Katie Endicott, with the Mingo Central High Prayer Club, told CBN News.
“It has just gone from school to school, from youth group to youth group,” she said. “Denominational barriers have just been cast down and we’ve just had a great spirit of unity.” Many are calling it the greatest spiritual awakening in southern West Virginia history.
“We couldn’t have done this if we wanted to,” Endicott said. “We’ve had so many revival services, so many special services and nothing like this. This is true awakening.” Endicott says prayer plus desperation has paved the way for this spiritual breakthrough, especially among the young people.
“Oh my gosh, it’s amazing!” 18-year-old Belfry High School student Andrew Fletcher exclaimed. “I’ve never seen something like this happen where the young people just get on fire.” “It’s really cool to come to church and it’s really cool to worship God – nobody’s judging you or saying anything about it because they’re all with you,” he continued.
“We’re starting to have prayer circles at school and we’re reading and having Bible studies at school,” he said. Others, like Erica Priest of Lenore, are seeing God answer very specific prayers. “My husband just got saved this morning,” Priest said. “I’ve been praying for him for seven months and he’ll be baptized this Sunday.”
Hartley believes the sound of revival now being heard in these West Virginia mountains has the potential to spread around the world. “I believe God has preserved this state for the end-time awakening that’s coming to America,” Hartley said.
“I believe that this is the beginning of where it happens and it’s going to spread as a wild-fire throughout the nations of this world, that Jesus is going to be exalted,” he predicted. “And the more Jesus is exalted the more the river of God is going to flow — and we have not seen anything yet to what God is releasing,” he said.