Matt Chandler, the pastor of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, sees “embers” of spiritual revival emerging all around the nation, even as chaotic cultural problems seem to be increasing. Chandler, author of the new book, “The Overcomers: God’s Vision for You to Thrive in an Age of Anxiety and Outrage,” told CBN News, “There’s been an earnest desire to see God do something significant for a long time.”

The Texas preacher said last year’s Asbury outpouring, mass baptisms, and other events show an elevated spiritual fervor breaking out in various areas of the country, and Chandler believes these events have helped inspire the faithful. He said, “For those who are outside of a smaller group that has been really kind of contending for this and asking God to do this, it put it back in … maybe the center of the imagination of what’s possible.” These moments come at an intriguing time, as culture and society seem to be in tatters, particularly on the moral and ethical fronts. With culture always marching toward the end of days, some have wondered, biblically speaking, whether negative events happening indicate we’re now closer than ever.

But the baptisms and elevated spiritual temperature of late could throw some common beliefs up into the air. For instance, some might assume revival or spiritual outpourings won’t happen as the end draws near, but Chandler believes both can unfold simultaneously. He said, “I think they absolutely will happen at the same time — that it will get better and worse simultaneously. More than the Bible paints a picture of things getting worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse until the Lord comes, it paints a picture of both happening.” He believes Jesus referenced this very thing in Matthew 13:24-30, when He talked about wheat and tares growing together until the “harvest comes.”

Chandler said, “The wheat and the tares … they’re growing up together … until the harvest comes.” He also cited other end-times verses to argue that some people might be misreading Scripture by assuming everything will simply be terrible in the end. “The Bible says that people will be getting married and given in marriage, just like they were in the day of Noah,” he said. “It’s an ordinary time. There are horrible things; there are beautiful things. We’re just going to be getting married. We’re going to be doing the things that we normally do, and then the end will come.”