Last week, the movie Jesus Revolution played in theaters across our country. It tells the story of the Jesus People Movement in Southern California in 970. We were living in San Diego at that time and were deeply impacted by what we saw going on around us. This movement was the forerunner of the Charismatic Movement. Here is a blog I wrote some years ago. I want to encourage all of us this same Jesus is available to everyone who is spiritually hungry and thirsty for more in God.
Spiritual Quest Begins
The ongoing crisis of our son’s battle with leukemia brought a tremendous pressure to bear upon my life. I knew there was no way that I’d survive this unless I could find a God who was not silent, but who would make his presence known to me like he did to people in the Bible.
For all my years of church going, I did not know how to find God or if He was even knowable. Over the years I listened to many experts debate and discuss the validity of God, the person of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. I frequently heard things like, God doesn’t do that any more; that was only for their time. Or He doesn’t need to do miracles, cast out demons, or heal the sick. That time is over with. And those apostles, prophets and workers of miracles—well, we don’t need them either. They are not for us. We have something better; we have the book that tells us how it used to be.
Is God dead?
Some even said that God was dead. In April, 1966, the cover of the Time Magazine asked, “Is God Dead?” Apparently He wasn’t very knowable by ordinary church people.
In the early 1970s the spiritual climate across southern California was stirring; there was a longing in the air for something more. Old ways no longer satisfied. In the 1960s, youth from across the nation had come there in droves, seeking more freedom and liberty. For many, it was a time of copping out or breaking free from rigid, lifeless life styles. For others, it was a time of seeking spiritual reality—they hungered for a living and personal God who could give their lives meaning.
God answers
A fresh wind was blowing in the Christian community too. From every quarter of the world, books about the power of the Holy Spirit 
poured into the marketplace. These authors gave accounts of men and women who were experiencing God in a new and living way. What was this all about—miracles, healings, and other supernatural phenomena? Apparently the report I’d read in Time Magazine of God’s death was premature.
Now it was time for me to find out these things for myself. My search took me to small storefront churches where “Jesus People” in sandals and shorts sat on the floor worshiping God. I went to large healing crusades and Full Gospel meetings, where people lifted their hands in praise to God. All these groups seemed to have something in common: The people were alive with joy and enthusiasm. They radiated a sense of God’s presence among them, and they expected God to do something for them.
I searched the Bible, asking, Who is the Holy Spirit? I pondered St. Peter’s words:
Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off… (Acts 2:38-39).
Can it really be? I asked myself. In the midst of my searching, an expectancy began to rise within in me.
Our church opened itself to these new ideas. Controversy swirled over the Holy Spirit, miracles, tongues, prophecy and healing. People
were all stirred up over these things. Some of my friends hungered to know for themselves; some did not know; others openly said they did not want anything more from God.
Ask, seek, knock
Finally I made up my own mind and heart. I became convinced that it was possible to experience God in a personal way—now, in the twentieth century. I began to seek Him in earnest, confessing my sins, and asking Him to forgive me. Nothing happened or seemed to change.
The Bible says, “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
I was asking and asking. One day, I knelt down beside my bed and cried out to God, asking him to come into my heart. I told him how much I needed him. Nothing happened. Another day, I stretched out on the floor before God, crying out for him to fill me with His Spirit. Again, nothing seemed to happen. Then I followed all of the steps in a how-to-book, reading the prayers, confessing His name, and praising God. But to no avail. Nothing happened. I was still the same on the inside. I had no confidence that my sins were forgiven and Jesus lived in my heart. I couldn’t find the ‘magic’ formula.
The key character in the renowned classic “Pilgrim’s Progress” begins his spiritual journey from his home town, the City of Degradation.
Question: Why do you think it takes some type of crisis to propel us into a quest to seek for God?