July 8, 2026

The Fire that Forged America

I love sharing posts that prepare and help us pray for the emerging revival. Today is one such post. It is adapted from Larry and Mercedes Sparks’ new book, The Fire that Forged America. Larry and Mercedes tell us:

History has a way of humbling our cynicism. Every generation that has declared a city or a nation too far gone for God to rescue it has eventually been proven wrong by the transformational move of the Holy Spirit. America is no exception. From the colonial era to the present, the places most often written off as spiritual graveyards have become the very epicenters of revival.

Let me take you on a brief journey through American history—not as a nostalgia trip, but as a prophetic provocation. These are blueprints, not footnotes. They tell the truth about God and expose the lie about those so-called “hard places.”

When Hard Ground Became Holy Ground

The First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s). By this point in America’s history, strict religious devotion had given way to the compromise of the half-way covenant, producing generations who attended church as a cultural obligation rather than a heart encounter with God. Religious form remained, but spiritual fire had waned. Into that dryness, God thundered. Through the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, the Holy Spirit pierced complacent hearts, producing weeping, repentance, and radical conversions. God can rewrite the story of a people, even in an age of compromise.

The Second Great Awakening (early 1800s). Following the Revolutionary War, moral decline, drunkenness, and lawlessness swept the new nation. Many predicted Christianity’s influence would fade entirely. Instead, God raised up revivalists like Charles Finney and Barton Stone. Camp meetings like Cane Ridge drew tens of thousands. What began as rural stirrings spread into cities, producing mass conversions, societal reforms, and the seeds of abolition. A nation once thought adrift was redirected by the Spirit.

The Noonday Prayer Revival (1857–1858). On the edge of Civil War, Jeremiah Lanphier’s noonday prayer meeting in Manhattan seemed almost insignificant. But within months, prayer meetings multiplied across America, and thousands were being converted weekly. What started as a small group praying in New York became a nationwide prayer movement. Even commercial and cultural capitals can become houses of intercession.

Azusa Street, Los Angeles (1906). In a segregated, suspicious, and spiritually parched environment, under the humble leadership of William J. Seymour, the Holy Spirit birthed a multi-ethnic, missions-sending revival whose fire has circled the globe, ultimately producing over half a billion on-fire believers celebrating the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit. If Los Angeles could become an altar, which city today would be beyond the Spirit’s reach?

The Jesus People Movement (late 1960s–1970s). In the countercultural hotbeds of Southern California hippies, addicts, and spiritual seekers were baptized by the thousands. The generation many assumed was too far gone became burning ones for Jesus.

The Brownsville Revival, Pensacola (1995–2000). On Father’s Day 1995, what began as an ordinary Sunday service ignited into one of the most significant outpourings of the last 30 years. Under Pastor John Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill, the Holy Spirit fell with convicting power. Millions visited over five years, with altars filled night after night as people wept, repented, and encountered the fire of God. In an age of growing cynicism, Pensacola became proof that revival was not a relic of the past but a living reality.

The River Is Breaking Banks Right Now

These snapshots from history bring us to the present moment — because the pattern has not stopped. In February 2023, the Asbury Outpouring reminded us that revival is not exclusive to the history books. Students filled a chapel in Wilmore, Kentucky, and what began as a simple time of prayer and worship stretched into days, then weeks. Thousands came from around the globe—not because there were big-name preachers or cutting-edge production, but because God's presence was tangible, the worship was pure, and the altar was open for people to have holy encounters.

What Asbury signaled was not an isolated visitation. It was a signpost of what God is doing across America in our day. Since 2020, the ground has shifted. In the aftermath of crisis, confusion, and cultural upheaval, hunger has begun to rise again. Secularism has not delivered the utopia it promised. Atheism has not satisfied the ache for meaning. Postmodernism has only deepened the swirl of confusion. And in the middle of this disillusionment, a remnant is rising.

Across university campuses, thousands are gathering—some in arenas, some in open fields, others in lecture halls. They are not satisfied with watered-down religion. They are desperate for bold answers, unapologetic truth, and encounters with the real Jesus. Multitudes of students are filling spaces to worship, repent, and be baptized—not because of slick campaigns, but because they have tasted the emptiness of the world and are desperate for the River of Life, the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit Is Stirring in Unlikely Places

But this stirring is not limited to campuses. It is showing up in the places that once seemed least likely—among Hollywood creatives and cultural influencers. Top podcasters are asking questions about God, Scripture, and the meaning of life. Some of the most listened-to voices in the digital public square are giving airtime to conversations about Christianity—not as an irrelevant icon of the past, but as an urgent question for the present.

Could it be that God is seeding the next great awakening not only in church buildings but also in podcast studios, university stadiums, and on cultural stages? The places we are tempted to write off as too dark or too hostile are being invaded by light. Revival is erupting in a podcast. It is breaking out in a dorm room. It is whispering in the conscience of top influencers. It is stirring in the places most people thought were sealed to the Gospel.

The River is not trickling quietly just within the four walls of the church. It is breaking banks—flooding campuses, flooding culture, flooding influencers with questions and convictions they cannot shake.

You Carry the River Into Dry Lands

Here is what I want you to carry with you: you are not a spectator to this story. You are part of it. Jesus' invitation still rings: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. …out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38 NKJV). People are thirsty—and the Spirit-filled Church carries the solution. You are filled with the River of Life that dry and thirsty people are desperate for.

The River of God’s Spirit flows from within you into the world around you. The dryness of your environment does not threaten your fire. It is fuel for it. The very headlines that trouble your city, state, or nation may point to the specifics of your calling. You may be assigned to bring the River of God into those places. Don't curse the ground God called you to water. Speak life.

The River of God is rising. Spiritual graveyards are turning into gardens. History prophesies to us about the future: what God did in times past through historic revival and awakening, He can and will do it again. And you—right where you are—are part of how revival history is written.

Pray with me:

Father, let Your river continue to rise. Renew the face of America by pouring out Your Spirit in a mighty way. No sphere or sector of society is beyond Your reach. And Lord, we say with the prophet Isaiah, Here I am, send me. Pour out Your Spirit through me. Use me wherever You have called and assigned me to be a voice and vessel of awakening.

And we pray that Your fire would burn once again in believers across our nation. Continue building the glorious church You spoke of until it isn’t only a remnant that is on fire, but millions of believers are ablaze with Holy Spirit’s burning passion. Return leaders to their first love; baptize them afresh and anew with the power and passion of Holy Spirit. All of this we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Our decree:

We decree that the present outpouring of the Holy Spirit is turning spiritual graveyards into gardens of life!

Click on the link below to watch the video.

You can find out more about Larry and Mercedes Sparks at LarrySparksMinistries.com. Their book, The Fire that Forged America, is available on Amazon.