The CDOP is near and i’m incredibly excited about the prospect of every College Campus being covered in prayer by thousands of believers. Jesus’ passion burns for these high hills of ideological development in the land. As a result, I can’t help but reflect upon the axis of eternity that has rested upon the college campus in the past, the present, and most certainly the future. Without question, the Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing in every realm of society amidst what seems like a quagmire of polarizing political, social, and cultural clashes of opinion. For the past several years; the campuses have again become one of God’s key threshing floors for raising up messengers who will become ambassadors of heaven’s justice agenda. As evidenced through the tragic events that took place in Charlottesville, VA at the University of Virginia in 2017; they are also targets for the proliferation of Satanic ideas that war against the beauty of Jesus as expressed within the skin of every ethnicity. As a result, perhaps the corporate invitation to hear from God on the campuses could not come at a more strategic time.
It’s also Black History Month. The assassination of Dr. MLK, Jr. in April 1964, effectively marked the beginning of the end of the revered historic Black Civil Rights movement. It’s crowning legislative achievements were the end of segregation and the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. College students were critical players in challenging norms and helping the pendulum begin to swing toward a more equitable or heavenly society. Simply having bold leading voices at the helm would have been fruitless without the voluntary response of this collegiate army. Campuses then became the birthplaces of organizations like the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and the SNCC( Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee.) For example, a young man named John Lewis (now a U.S. Congressman), and others like Diane Nash and Matthew Walker Jr. were among a group of Fisk University students who led protests throughout Tennessee. They notably participated in sit-ins at Nashville’s downtown lunch counters and remained committed to nonviolent resistance even as they endured intense violence. According to The Tennessean,
“Their bravery spurred citywide action, as blacks and whites alike boycotted department stores that refused to integrate their lunch counters. Walker got his teeth knocked out while demonstrating, but the protestors’ efforts were rewarded when, in 1960, Nashville became the first city in the South to desegregate its lunch counters.”
Their example gave courage to students across the nation who imitated and escalated these activities in their regions. However, this measure of justice that God would bring upon us 100 years after the end of slavery, was just that…a measure. For close to 50 years following that era, America had coasted in the doldrums of contentedness. We largely believed we had finally overcome 350+ years of systematically violating the Imago Dei of countless people groups, while nation building with a measure of biblical principal. But in the spirit of the prophet Hosea, “those who sow to the wind will reap the whirlwind”. The whirlwinds we are navigating have stirred waters that expose the trans-generational wounding, the unfinished business, and the broken foundations in our nation today.
But there is HOPE. After generations of desperate, tear-filled prayers ascended to Heaven from the mouths of those with scar filled backs in the Deep South; a Sovereign outpouring of the Spirit swept across 19th century America. Fiery preachers of the Gospel became supernaturally empowered extensions of a Kingdom in which “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female”. Through the divine release of the mercies of God which came in the form of a spiritual awakening, abolitionist societies sprang up among the privileged majority culture who risked everything for the slave to be made free under the conviction that “the slave is our brother.” In a similar way, I’m convinced that God is again raising up a holy solution to the crises of our day through the release of another supernatural wave of mercy. This wave will not be merely a cacophony of human empowered social justice movements fueled by a humanistic unity around temporal rights. It will be led in part by students, professors, and administrations who have been completely immersed in the transcendent love of Jesus. This wave will be marked by an uncommon people who walk in an experiential revelation of this preposterous Gospel that actually blesses enemies, and who carry the ministry of reconciliation as peacemakers. God’s judgments are redemptive and His mercy triumphs over the stings and the stains of history. Therefore, let’s respond in this divine hope to the prophetic invitation of Hosea 6:1-2:
“Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. 2“He will revive us after two days, He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him.
—Jonathan Tremaine Thomas
Jonathan Tremaine Thomas is the President of Civil Righteousness, Inc. while pastoring at Destiny Church St. Louis. In addition to his work with a plethora of national movements and international ministries as an evangelist, prayer mobilizer, and cultural apologist; he leads prayer fueled healing, reconciliation, and community restoration initiatives in Ferguson, Missouri.
Instagram: @jontremaine @civilrighteousness