THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BRIDGE COLLAPSE

A PROPHETIC PERSPECTIVE 8/10/2007

If you have looked at this website at all, you are aware that since Dec 29, 2001 I have been on a prayer walk up the Mississippi River, praying for the Body of Christ in America. This is an e-mail that I sent out to my e-mail list shortly after the Bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Walking both sides of the River, I have prayed for the ministries and the pastors that I know, calling them each out by name, and pleading the Blood of Jesus Christ over them and their families and their ministries.

As I walk, I pray for the Church in the area where I am walking, and for the Pastors and those whom the Lord has placed in leadership in His Church. There has been a few times in my walk that the Lord has opened the door for me to work for an extended period of time alongside a ministry in a particular area, and that always ends up being an extension of the prayer walk or an opportunity for me to see more areas where the Church in America needs prayer.

As I was prayer walking through the Baton Rouge area, I was praying that the Church would rise up to impact their neighborhoods for the Glory of God. A pastor asked me to stay a while in his community and to work with him. The community had a large drug problem, and 32 felons lived there. After six years of working in that area, the pastor was about to quit, because he couldn’t impact the community for Jesus Christ. We stayed there for a year and a half. During the course of our stay there, many people prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, and a dozen people (ones that were thought to be unreachable) were baptized in the Amite River, and lives were changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We didn’t attempt to substitute the Holy Spirit for programs, as so many churches do now days. We had FELLOWSHIPS and Friday night gatherings where we would eat and laugh and pray together. I made myself available to the community 24/7, and held services aimed at equipping each member of the body of Christ for ministry on Saturday nights. I had several visits in the early morning hours by people who were drunk or drugged up and crying out for help. To impact a neighbor hood, a community, a city, a state, or a nation for Jesus Christ requires real sacrifice of comfort and convenience on the part of those who say they want to see change.

As I was praying for the Unity of the Body of Christ, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and I was blessed with the opportunity to go down there and work with a church at a relief center. Hallelujah! I was given the privilege of speaking into the lives of hundreds of teams of volunteers that came from all over the United States and Canada as to the priesthood of the believer, and the Authority of the Church.

For 18 out of 20 months, I gave morning devotions under my tent aimed to equip the Christians for ministry 5 – 6 days a week, and then the last two months, I gave devotions 4 days a week so some of the church staff could share as well. Every night for 20 months, there was a service at 7:00. Some ministries from the area came on board and took a specific night for ministry and/or prayer for that period of time. We got to see some wonderful times under the tent. Many people were saved, healed, and baptized (55 baptisms) because the Church of Jesus Christ was working in one accord with each other. For those 20 months, I averaged about 5 hours of sleep a day because of the wonderful ministry opportunities that presented themselves to me.

Now as I prepare to continue my prayer walk up the River, I am working with another ministry here in Marksville, La. I am getting more sleep, and still having opportunities to minister to people on practically a daily basis, but certainly not on the scale it was there in New Orleans! But, Hallelujah, I am available for ministry to whoever needs it!

Of course, since I am on a prayer walk up the Mississippi River, anything of major concern that happens anywhere on the river will capture my attention, and that bridge collapse in Minnesota is no exception. Some of the radical Muslims are declaring that “Allah” caused the bridge to collapse as a judgment against the “great Satan”, the United States. Well, a true child of the One True and Almighty God knows that it isn’t some god called “Allah” who is the one who is able to pass Judgment on a nation.

There is only One God who can do that, and that is the God Who is revealed in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God Who manifested Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. The God Who created all things for Himself. That is the God who can pass judgment on a nation, and whether He was the cause of this bridge collapse or not, I cannot say, but I certainly see some spiritual principles that can apply here. I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with a ten or fifteen page message so I will send this in a couple of installments. I don’t know if it will end up being ten pages long, but I want to make sure that you will want to read this! So…Stay tuned for the next part of this series! I hope you will be blessed and challenged. It might be kind of hard, and there may be some things that are written that will offend, but you need to know that I love each and everyone of you, and while my desire is not to offend anyone, I also desire to see a true move of God in this nation. I believe that what I am writing is what I believe the Lord has given me to write, and I do so without any fear of man's reprisals.