HISTORY

November 30, 2000

While out on a run, God almost knocked me off my feet with the vision for Pentecost Walk.

I’m usually a guy that’s pumped up by exciting things, but this vision scared me—big time. I spent the next two months on my face with my knees literally knocking together.

January – May 2001

With the agreement of Deanna and our kids, I said “yes,” and we all rolled up our sleeves.

Here’s the bottom-line why I said “yes:” When I asked the Lord why He wasn’t calling someone else—someone far more qualified and connected to do this, He spoke to my heart, saying, “You’re the third guy I’ve asked to do this. Do you want me to go to the fourth guy?”

June 3, 2001 (Pentecost Sunday)

We started our first cross-country prayerwalk on the beach in Santa Monica , California .

Even though God had assured us that we’d make it every step of the way, the pain in our feet in those first days told us different. Daily walking mileage was usually between 20-25 miles per person, but it could get into the high thirties, even up to 42 miles one day. (That was a long day, and the first time our team member from Kenya, Pastor Joseph, ever swam in a swimming pool.)

September 9, 2001

While prayerwalking with a group of intercessors through downtown Charlotte, NC, I was suddenly moved to look up—at the tallest building in the city. What a vision God gave me: I saw the building explode before my eyes, as God shouted in my heart, “I’m bringing revival to the United States!”

This was the most startling of any vision God had ever given me. I was still shaken when I preached about it that same night at Concord First Assembly.

September 11, 2001

A day none will forget.

When we saw the horror on television that Tuesday morning, it was all too familiar; I’d seen it before—just two days earlier.

October 9, 2001

Our team arrived at the gates of the White House, having walked over 3,000 miles across the nation via the Virginia coast, site of Captain John Smith’s historic landing in 1607.

It was about 10:00PM on a Tuesday night. We would have gotten there much sooner, but we got lost in the dark trying to figure out the best walking bridge-route across the Potomac.

October 11, 2001

This was the day we’d had a meeting scheduled with the President, to present the signed copies of the National Prayer of Repentance. It was cancelled, as were all other non-military meetings at the White House, due to security concerns at the onset of our military’s air strikes in Afghanistan . Later that evening, while praying with a close brother in the Senate on the steps of the Capitol, the Lord spoke to my heart, saying, “You could meet with [the President] now and he’d see what you’ve done as a spiritual movement, or, you can come back with millions of signatures and he’ll see what you’ve done as a spiritual mandate.” From that moment on…everything changed.

Congress was working late in those days, in the wake of the military build-up in Afghanistan. Every time my friend’s pager would buzz, he’d run back in to the Senate floor, to vote on the next measure, and then he’d return to pray some more. It was a gorgeous autumn evening—balmy and breezy. It seemed that God even set the weather conditions to make it a night I’ll never forget.

October 13, 2001

I was honored to be the anchor speaker at a prayer rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, commemorating all those lost on 9/11.That same day, Deanna and I were invited to the White House, to pray throughout the West Wing, even though it was still in lock-down and off limits to all visitors.

About two hours before I was scheduled to speak, the Lord moved me to turn on my cell phone immediately and check my messages. The Deputy Staff Secretary to the President had just left a voicemail asking if Deanna and I wanted to come over and pray. There was hardly anyone around on that Saturday afternoon. The atmosphere in the West Wing was so peaceful, like nothing we’d ever experienced. Isn’t that amazing—such tangible peace in the hallways of such enormous decision. Prayer makes all the difference—and during those days, there were probably more saints praying for President Bush and his staff then ever before.

October 18, 2001

In New York , I was asked to lead an impromptu prayer meeting with construction workers, firefighters and other pastors on the smoldering ruins of Ground Zero.

The most sobering experience of my life to date—the air was still pungent with the smell of burning metal. The story of how I came to be there is utterly amazing—a 12-stage miracle, but too long for these pages. Stay tuned.

Throughout 2002

Traveled extensively across the US —speaking at various churches and citywide gatherings, preaching repentance in unity, while making preparations for our next border-to-border prayerwalk.

God began to open relationships with some key leaders in Washington DC and beyond.

June 14, 2003 (Father’s Day)

Started Pentecost Walk II: Florida Keyes to the Canadian border in Maine . After a shaky start in Florida , we regrouped in South Carolina and saw God’s favor like never before.

Any sane person would have quit before we started. The challenges seemed insurmountable: the promised RV hadn’t shown up; our schedule, which we’d understood to be set, was nearly empty; we had no hosting arrangements past the first few days—in other words we were in that “without a paddle” place. By the second week, I called Deanna in tears. “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it,” I said. “Has God called you to walk?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied. “Then walk, Honey. God is with you.” That was all I needed to hear. God kept pulling rabbits out of hats to get us up as far as Hilton Head, SC where Deanna’s sister, Carol and our good friends, Dave and Carey White, welcomed us into their home. For a few weeks, we prayerwalked back and forth from that home base—all the way to Charlotte, NC.

August 3, 2003

That Sunday evening, two churches of national influence from opposite ends of the denominational spectrum—one, Southern Baptist, the other, Church of God , came together in glorious unity to celebrate our mission. All night long I saw a vision in my heart: Water spraying out of fissures in the dam—the dam of division in the Body of Christ in America .

I continue to see those fissures in my heart. The cracks are getting longer; the streams are spraying stronger; breakthrough is at hand.

October 19, 2003

We completed our second 3,000-mile prayerwalk, having reached the Canadian border in Maine .

I believe God showed me these two prayerwalks across the length and breadth of the land were symbolic of His “marking the boundaries” for a Great Awakening across our land.

March 9, 2004

I led an all-day prayer meeting onsite in the Boston Statehouse, as their Congress met for what amounted to a Constitutional Convention on the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.

Over 200 people crammed into a stifling hearing room designed for 50. We prayed for over 14 hours and no one got off track. When I went out to speak on the Commons across the street, I called the Christians in the crowd to repent for the fact that homosexuality is often the subject of our mocking jokes. Scripture does not indicate that God shares our sense of humor about sin.

August 2004

We moved our family cross-country from the Central Coast of California to the Nashville area, settling in Franklin , TN. We now enjoy much closer geographic access to more of our nation’s metropolitan areas, as we advance our mission coast to coast.

More and more, God is revealing how strategic it was for us to move here at this time, to the “buckle” of the Bible Belt. He’s blessing our circle of fellowship—conservative to charismatic. I‘ve become even more thankful for something God had been leading us in since our first steps: Our mission’s success comes by partnering with the Church through the “doorkeepers” for His Body—in other words, through pastors. If we’re diligent to partner alongside God’s under-shepherds, then we bear fruit pleasing to God—remaining fruit.

October 24, 2004

I was honored to speak at America for Jesus, on the National Mall in Washington , DC . When I called the crowd to pray, every participant, every passerby, even the sound technicians—stopped still in their tracks, arrested in that moment by the Holy Spirit. Thousands of hands were extended toward the White House as we prayed the National Prayer of Repentance.

Dick Simmons and Leon Hoover, two close friends of mine, pointed this out to me. I hadn’t noticed—I was looking up as I prayed, not scanning the crowd. Only God can arrest a crowd like that. Only God can put His thumbprint on a prayer that could become a mandate. Only God can bring a supernatural silence to an event that allows us to “be still and know that [He] is God.”

2005-Present

Following God’s call to “continue walking until breakthrough comes,” we’ve been traveling the nation in preparation for RU4ONE :Repentance in Unity for One Nation Under God.

Thank You God for favor. Thank You for new relationships. Thank You for calling us to buy the truth—not to sell it.

Please agree with us to see God’s will fulfilled unto His glory:

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, and because of Your truth. (Psalm 115:1)