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.