painting of Jesus by Lonnie Frisbee

by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D.

I believe there are times and seasons when certain testimonies need to be released to breathe new life into new generations. I feel that God is highlighting the Jesus People Movement as a testimony He wants to release for such a time as this to prophesy into what He wants to pour out this year and beyond. The Jesus People movement was a move of God in the 1970s that came through the most unlikely of people, hippies. Nobody expected God to use this community and many even missed this vibrant move of God because they weren’t able to receive through others who looked so differently from them. This movement was messy. There was nothing traditional about it.

The Jesus People cultivated community and embraced a culture of family. Acts 2 was a model for them. They knew there was more to the Christian life than just following a program. They sought to do life on life with their brothers and sisters and created a rhythm of family, evangelism, and stirring each other on to good works. I believe the story of the Jesus People movement can inform where God wants to take us next.

God will pour out His Spirit through those we least expect and we may even be offended by. It is important that we don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. We must humble ourselves to receive all God has even if it comes through a package we least expect. God is also pouring out new wine. We must be open to new wine skins emerging to steward the new wine.

Lonnie Frisbee

Just as the movie Jesus Revolution is being released this February as a prophetic call for a new Jesus People Movement, now is also the time that the story of Lonnie Frisbee needs to be highlighted. *To read about my “accidental” encounter at Pirate’s Cove intersecting with the director of the film and the one who plays Jesus in the Chosen and Lonnie in the film , see my blog here.

This hippie preacher played a significant and catalytic role in the Jesus People Movement, Calvary Chapel Movement, Vineyard Movement, and releasing signs and wonders in everyday evangelism like hadn’t been seen before. Lonnie’s life gives people hope that if God can use someone who wasn’t polished around the edges or was perfect in any way but who was yielded to the Holy Spirit, He can use anyone for His kingdom.

Sharing his story is important for dismantling the cancel culture ideology and celebrating and honoring the legacy of people despite their failures. His story teaches us that we must not use people for their gifting, but we must become family together. His story is a call to fight for each other, believe the best, and cover each other in our times of weakness. It is a story about being fully yielded to the Holy Spirit and being used by God to spark revival.

Love

Another reason I feel to release the words “Jesus People” as a word for 2023 is if you love what these two words represent, you fulfill all the commandments. Our highest calling is to love Jesus before all other things. Then we are also called to love People as we love ourselves. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus says,

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The world will know we are Christians by our unfailing love for each other (John 13:34-35). I feel that in 2023, there will be a real stirring, melting down of walls, and invitation to seek greater unity within the body of Christ for the sake of the kingdom.

On August 13th, 1727, when the Moravians laid down their differences to covenant to run after Jesus together in love, the Holy Spirit crashed in with power. This became know as the Moravian Pentecost. From this encounter flowing from unity, the 24-7 protestant prayer movement was born not long after. Out of the prayer movement, a protestant missions movement was ignited, which eventually played a key role in launching John Wesley into his life-changing encounter before he started the Methodist movement.

Where there is unity, God increases anointing and commands a blessing (Psalm 133).

Unifying the Bride

I believe God’s heart for 2023 is one of unifying the bride. The body of Christ must learn how to lay down all offenses and come together in humility for the sake of making Christ known. Love must take precedent over all wrongs. We must become a people who stand with and for our brothers and sisters in the face of trouble. We must enter an era where we stop kicking our brothers and sisters when they are down but instead cover them, fight for them, war on their behalf against the principalities and powers trying to take them out, and always remember the true battle we face is never against each other.

Persecution will increase. We will need our spiritual family by our side. No matter how much we disagree with them on non-essential issues, they are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. In a war, you stand by each other when the enemy attacks. We must learn how to stand by each other now, before the attack of the enemy increases. We must learn to lay down our weapons and seek to worship and glorify Jesus, the king of kings. We must come back to our first love without anything clouding our paths.

May 2023 be a year where we love Jesus with everything inside of us. May we be so overcome with receiving His love, that we freely love our brothers and sisters in Christ at a deeper level than ever before. May there be a common focus to glorify the name of Jesus above all else that melts down walls of offense. May unity among the Church cause an increased anointing for the glory and presence of God to overshadow us. May heroes arise from the dust of obscure and despised circumstances to shine like the stars in all the earth. May God use whoever gives their wholehearted yes to Him to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. May we become a People known as those who walk with Jesus. May we become a People marked by Jesus once again.

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Jesus People Movement II

February 23-25, 2023

by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D.  

 On April 6, 2022, the day before launching my next online School of Revival on the theme of Martyrdom, I headed down to a beach I rarely visit but is known as a historic well of revival in Southern California. One of the last times I visited Pirate’s Cove was during the COVID-19 lockdown. My friend Jessi Green with Saturate Global was hosting a revival meeting there on August 7, 2020. On that day, also the final day of our School of Revival intensive on Pioneering Revival, many people were baptized in the Pacific Ocean just like so many new believers were in the height of the Jesus Movement in the 1960s and 1970s.  

 On my latest visit to Pirate’s Cove, I thought I would enjoy a secluded, mid-week quiet time with God. To my surprise, when I walked down the stairs toward the parking lot, I noticed it was filled with media trucks, tents, and people bustling around. Then, when I got to the overlook, I saw that the cove had been turned into a movie set! My curiosity led me further to investigate.  

When I got to the sand, it felt like I was transported to the early ‘70s. I was surrounded by hippies! When the crew broke for lunch, I approached someone to learn more about what they were filming. I knew I was in a significant well of revival where legendary Lonnie Frisbee baptized people during the Jesus People Movement and wondered if this movie was going to re-tell his story. It turned out I was talking with one of the film’s directors and writers, Jon Erwin. Erwin was so kind to stop and chat with me for a bit. He told me the movie they were shooting, titled Jesus Revolution, does in fact include Lonnie.

Growing up in Southern California in the Vineyard movement led by the late John Wimber, I often heard stories about a hippie evangelist named Lonnie Frisbee who had helped birth the Jesus People Movement and had been catalytic to release the Holy Spirit in the Vineyard movement. One story stood out: Mother’s Day in 1980 Frisbee was invited to speak at the Anaheim Vineyard for the first time. When he welcomed the Holy Spirit to come in power, it is said that when he lifted his hands up in a V-shape, people fell out in the Spirit in the same direction as his hands. Something broke open that day and there was a radical release of the Holy Spirit that shaped our movement to this day. I consider myself so blessed to have grown up in and continue to live in the momentum and ripple effects of one hippie preacher’s “yes” to be yielded to the Holy Spirit. I was thrilled to discover his story would be featured in a major movie.

 As I was talking with Erwin, Greg Laurie walked up, and Jon introduced me to him. Laurie is pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and played a significant role in the Jesus People Movement himself. He was greatly impacted by Frisbee and had also been present at many of the historic baptisms that took place at Pirate’s Cove. I later found out that the movie is largely based around Laurie’s story.

Before I left that day, I gave Jon and Greg a copy of one of my books on the Azusa Street Revival because it tells the story of other deep apostolic wells of revival here in Southern California. When Jon received my book, he noticed that the subtitle of Ignite Azusa: Positioning for a New JESUS REVOLUTION had the exact name of their movie in it! I hadn’t realized that at the time I gave him the book. Before I left, Jon invited me to come back the next day to be an extra.  

So, there I was, a Southern Californian revival historian at a well of revival simply in awe of what was unfolding before my eyes. When I returned the next day, now as an extra, I saw Jonathan Roumie, who plays Lonnie Frisbee in the film (and Jesus in The Chosen). He was doing a recreation of the baptism scenes. As they filmed, I could feel the presence of God on the set. It felt authentic as if people were really getting baptized. I prayed, God do it again! Let the synergy of these anointed saints re-digging this well of revival catalyze a new Jesus Revolution in our day!  

It was amazing to see how God brought together just the right people at just the right time to recover this important and often misunderstood story. The timing of this film is prophetic especially in a time where cancel culture has become more prevalent. Lonnie’s contribution to the body of Christ needs to be recognized. It provides hope for us that God can and will use anyone, regardless of their faults, who gives a yielded yes to the Holy Spirit. I am so grateful that this film is celebrating his legacy and honoring his impact to the body of Christ.  

Seeing this revival story captured on film feels significant. Could it be a divine prophecy that once again God wants to move through this generation in an incredible way? Might God be stirring up a new Jesus Revolution in our day? He did it once before; He can do it again. Maybe, just maybe, if we have eyes to see, we might even recognize that it’s already begun!   

by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D.

This week I had the opportunity to visit the home of Aimee Semple McPherson, a healing evangelist who has pioneered and paved the way for women in ministry. I was like a kid in a candy store when I walked in. So much epic revival history in the same place I was born at. We had a wonderful tour by Jackie who is in her 80s and still as vibrant as ever. So inspiring to see how she partners with the Holy Spirit to welcome people into Aimee’s home. This home in the heart of Los Angeles carries so much peace and glory.

At the end of our tour, we got to play a few worship songs on Aimee’s piano and the presence of God was so thick there. At one point a few dropped to their knees and God ministered beautiful healing and encounter right there in Aimee’s living room. When we walked out of the doors, it literally felt like we walked out of one heavenly glory realm back into the real world. It was such a sharp contrast. I love how God decided to send Aimee all the way over from Canada to dig a deep well in the heart of the City of Angels.

Even though I have studied Aimee’s life and even taught classes on her legacy, this was the first time I made the trip to visit her home. It was also so special to have two passionate Jesus loving friends, Tiffany and Yesenia, join me on this adventure. Here’s some pictures and a little more about Aimee’s legacy below.

“Oh, Lord, I am so hungry for your Holy Spirit. You have told me that in the day when I seek you with my whole heart you will be found by me. Now, Lord, I am going to stay right here until you pour out upon me the promise of the Holy Spirit for whom you commanded me to tarry, if I die of starvation. I am so hungry for Him I can’t wait another day. I will not eat another meal until you baptize me.”

— Aimee Semple McPherson about her 1908 Spirit Baptism encounter

Aimee moved to Los Angeles where she felt called to build a large church with only $5,000 right before the Great Depression. This got finished and fully paid off in cash. She also fed more people than the Red Cross during that time. Aimee became the first woman preacher on the radio. She was also friends with many movie stars who attended her church. She was known for presenting the gospel in a creative way that spoke to the culture of her time. Angelus Temple later released missionaries around the world and birthed the Foursquare movement which is continuing to impact the world for Christ today.

When Canadian born Aimee felt called to plant her roots in California, she tapped into a gold mine of apostolic inheritance deep within this land. So many powerful and radical Holy Spirit movements have since been birthed in this soil. From the Jesus People Movement with Lonnie Frisbee to Calvary Chapel with Chuck Smith to the Vineyard Movement with John Wimber to Iris Global with Heidi & Rolland Baker to Bethel Church with Bill Johnson and so on. And we must not forget what came before all of these in 1906 when a little band of friends hungry to see a move of God in their day who were desperate for a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit gathered at a little house in Los Angeles. From that little Holy Ghost prayer meeting led by a one eyed African American man, son of slaves, William J. Seymour, the Azusa Street Revival was born.

I could go on and on about the rich revival history in California but I do want to say that God is doing a new thing in this land of revival for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The nations will once again be shaken by the mighty move of God that’s being birthed here in our era. May hunger for more of the Holy Spirit, which was at the foundation of most of these movements, lead us to a place of unyielding courage to run after Jesus with everything inside of us today.

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*To learn more about Aimee’s legacy, there’s a whole chapter on her life in Bill Johnson’s Defining Moments. And to learn more about the move of God in California at the Azusa Street Revival, see Ignite Azusa below.