Op-Ed: Awakening – Part 1

By James Wilson • June 9, 2025

The following Op-Ed was submitted by James Wilson. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

Michael Schwarz declared in The Western Journal, and The Blaze, “President Donald Trump’s political ascendance has coincided with what honest future historians will characterize as another Great Awakening.” Many will know I have been predicting America’s 4^th Great Awakening since the 1990s as a coming event, and as a present reality since 2014. Honestly, there can be little intelligent doubt that God has birthed His promised Awakening in our midst. Donald Trump’s second rise to the White House is not coincidental to the Awakening; it is iconic of what God has brought forth.

As to the reality of the Awakening, let us recall three central features: Awakenings – versus Revivals – begin as outsider movements. They enter the churches – after first meeting rejection – because they transcend the doctrinal and procedural boxes in which churches operate. (Transcendence does not change scripture; it achieves scripture.) Awakenings are so God’s-Word writ-large they impact secular culture and (even) people professing neither belief nor obedience toward God until they find themselves turning toward his purposes. (They later acknowledge Him as the source of the goodness they embrace.) Finally, Awakenings – unlike Revivals – change the cities and sovereignties in which they erupt.

To clarify, Revivals are authentic moves of God, and just as important as Awakenings. They often trigger Awakenings, as the Azusa Street Revival – followed by the charismatic revival of the 60s – undergirded the Jesus People. The Toronto Blessing laid the foundation and outlined the culture for this present Awakening. As a general rule, we cannot have one without the other; Awakenings personify Peter and Paul, while Revivals honor the service of Andrew and Barnabas.

This Awakening was specifically prophesied more than a decade ago. It broke out with the ministry of Sean Feucht as he defied the COVID lockdowns to tour the country. He made a specialty of holding worship rallies in public places when his own home church – a charismatic giant in Northern California – cast him out of its midst for going against the go-along-with-government-restrictions attitude of church elders. Feucht – the first identified leader of the current awakening – now travels the world, but specializes in holding large and rambunctious (i. e. radically charismatic) worship rallies at the entrances to state capitols. Many thousands have been baptized at these public events and – to make the phenomenon even more public – public health officials (in the beginning) warned repeatedly that these gatherings were a COVID infection magnet. In fact, there has yet to be a single case of COVID passed at such a rally. Outsiders, check.

Feucht and his friends were only the opening gun. Multiple leaders of every conceivable stream in the River of God have presided over Awakenings in their geographical spheres and – the corker – nobody knows their names outside their territories. One of the prophesied features of this Awakening is that the time of the rock-star revivalists is over. Reality is that the “old guard” is still predicting a coming Awakening, little realizing it is a growing bonfire already ablaze. (Enthusiastic participants like Lance Wallnau and Mario Murillo are exceptions proving the rule.) The old guard has been so busy hollering, “Follow Me!” that they’ve neglected to follow God.

The issue is not charismatics and evangelicals versus establishmentarian church bodies. Many of the former – Greg Laurie comes to mind as one example – are still awaiting the return of the Jesus People. Laurie’s hit film, The Jesus Revolution, threw gasoline on the fire – Praise the Lord – while Laurie’s movement imagines a second Jesus Revolution is on its way. Reality is that early prophecies of the Awakening were clear that God is doing a brand new thing, but only those able to recognize and appreciate what God did through the Jesus People movement will be able to recognize and appreciate the current move. The point remains that this Awakening is sourced and fueled from outside every conceivable Christian box. Transcending Church,check.

This Awakening has featured secular celebrities from rock music and Hollywood to major broadcast news and political leaders being mega public about their faith. Pro football stars and 2025 Superbowl opposing quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are among the athletes making names for themselves as men of faith. (Hurts and his coach, Nick Sirianni gave public glory to God after their Philadelphia Eagles triumphed over Kansas City.) Film stars Nicole Kidman, Chris Pratt, Denzel Washington, and Viola Davis – Tom Hanks too – are vocal about their faith. Jim Caviezel and Jonathan Roumie give interviews and lectures to college students when not portraying Jesus on film. Kristen Chenowith, Gwen Stefani, and Justin and Haley Bieber praise their Lord Jesus in their music and in their public statements.

Broadcast journalists Tucker Carlson, David Harris Jr, and Steve Bannon are among the very public personalities of obvious and foundational faith. They are joined by not-quite-committed-to-Jesus colleagues like Joe Rogan, who keeps providing a platform for Christians and expressing sympathy for their views, and uber business and political figures like Elon Musk, who paddles the same surfboard. Trump Administration officials from VP JD Vance to cabinet officers Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Sean Duffy – and Trump himself – are fully transparent in their presentation of a faith-filled foundation for their service.

But – and perhaps most important – Awakenings change the cities, the cultures, and the sovereignties in which they occur. Already in the first one hundred days of the new national administration we are seeing a resurgence of ministries – from the pornography-addiction-liberating unchainedleader.com – to a rising national commitment to making America healthy again by introducing restored science to the treatment of chronic diseases and the resurrection of our national approach to food processing. This is no theocratic cult making public policy, but a critical mass of seriously faith-based people inspired to seek and platform authentic truth in their work. Impacting cities and culture. Part 2 coming.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, The Holy Spirit and the End Times, Kingdom in Pursuit, and his first novel, Generation – available at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, or at praynorthstate@gmail.com