STOCKHOLM – The sight of young men cheering wildly and jumping up and down in their bathing trunks after a lake baptism is a sight one might never have seen in Sweden years ago. However, a mighty move of God is underway in what has long been seen as one of the least religious nations on earth.
Sweden is experiencing something it hasn’t had since the Jesus movement in the 1970s: a deep hunger for God among its youth.
Religious belief here has been in almost continuous decline since World War II. By 2000, as few as five percent of Swedes attended church.
A 2011 survey found that most members in the Church of Sweden did not believe in Jesus.
Faith in God was long viewed as a sign of ignorance. Then came a radical and surprising shift.
Youth Name Jesus ‘Influencer of the Year’
It would come as a shock when Swedish youth picked Jesus Christ as “Influencer of the Year” for 2025.
Philip Falk Azevedo, who began Sweden’s Jesus Conference with friends, says, “There is such a longing, such a longing for Jesus. Within the young generation, people are hungry for the Word of God, and they want the truth.”
Falk Azevedo says God gave the idea for the Jesus Conference in a vision during a prayer time, “…with a lot of young people gathered for Jesus. So, so we thought, ‘God, this sounds amazing, but we don’t know how to do this, and we need your help.'”
By the third year, attendance was over 3,000.
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Social Media Spreads the Gospel Message
Program host and Pastor Josef Barkenbom gives a lot of credit to social media for Sweden’s awakening, allowing people to share the Gospel, free from the control of Sweden’s secular media culture.
“Because of social media, they can’t filter it anymore,” Barkenbom said. “A lot of people that have come to faith have actually come through social media. I was part of starting a social media project here in Sweden called ‘Why Christian?’, and we’ve seen people from all over Sweden come to faith through social media.”
Christian leader and entrepreneur Marco Strömberg, who began a business school to raise up Christian entrepreneurs and ‘The Calling,’ to develop Christian leaders, told us, “The faith among the young people is growing and we can see it statistically. In the Lutheran Church, when they open the confirmation classes, they are fully registered within 24 hours.”
Secular Sweden Left ‘Gen Z’ Feeling ‘Empty’ and ‘Lost’
Strömberg says the secular Sweden created by their parents and grandparents has left Gen Z feeling empty.
“When you can do whatever you want, all of a sudden they become lost. So, a lot of them are actually seeking for traditional values, the family, the church, a community. Especially the men.”
That includes Oscar Jakobsson, who told us he used drugs to medicate the loneliness and lack of meaning he felt before accepting Christ.
He said, “Young people, most of them, you will find out at the clubs and they get very drunk because they tried to escape reality, because I don’t think they see much of a meaning with life when they’re sober.”
After he was saved, Oscar invited his friend Zeke Hanzén to church, who told us he only came to talk Oscar out of becoming a Christian. Suddenly Zeke found himself surrounded by church members, praying over him, and he saw a vision of Jesus.
Zeke said, “I begin to see like a figure, feel the figure. So, I closed my eyes and there it was again. And when I opened my eyes the other time and understood what I saw and what I felt, I began to cry because I understood it was real.”
Years of Prayers for Sweden Being Answered
Swedish Christians have been praying for a revival for years. Lars Enarson, a Bible teacher living in Israel, told us, “We were praying day and night, 24-seven for this awakening to come.”
A national survey confirms that belief in God is rising.
The number of young people attending church has doubled in four years, to 34 percent.
Enarson believes that Sweden will return to its Christian heritage.
He said, “We talk about the countries or the nations in the north with the cross in their flags; that they have a special calling to experience the power of the cross in their lives, and to then go with that message over all of Europe.”
Falk Azevedo said, “People have prayed Amos 8:11 every morning at 8:11. It says that God will send a famine in the land, not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God.”
Among Young People, It Has Become ‘Cool’ to Be a Christian
Some of the older generation in Sweden don’t like what’s happening; however, among Swedish young people, it is now ‘cool’ to be a Christian.
“You have parents, even grandparents, who are secular, so if you want to be a ‘punk,’ you want to rebel, you become a believer. You have a Bible under your arm. That’s the most punk thing you can do in Sweden today.”
SIGNS OF REVIVAL ACROSS EUROPE:
CBN News has produced a documentary on how the Lord is working in the lives of young people across the U.S., too. It’s called “Revival Generation,” and you can stream it or order a DVD by clicking HERE.
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