A little over two years ago, Bishop Anne Gimenez (Senior Pastor Of Rock Church, Virginia Beach, Va), contacted me and said, "Mike the nation is divided. We can't even get ministries to cooperate and come together for anything today because everyone has their own agenda. Our nation is at stake. It's worse than it was in 1980. This is the 30th Anniversary of Washington For Jesus! Before my husband died, he told us to go do one more. We need to do something to heal this division. Can you see about getting a permit for us?" Within two weeks, Sister Anne was struck down by a major heart problem that almost took her life. In fact, she almost died from a rare heart disease that hit her heart.
During the next year, as she recovered, I had continued discussions with her son in law, John Blanchard, Jim Cucuzza (former WFJ logistics coordinator), and even discussed briefly with Gordon Robertson about a gathering on the Washington Mall to do this event. As Jim and i continued to talk and pray, we recognized that doing a rally on the Mall was no longer unique since everyone does their rallies there now. We knew we had to do something different. Much thought was given between John, Jim and myself about doing a smaller solemn assembly of invited guest in the rotunda of our national capitol. This thought came out of a thought about how divided our government was so why not go to the seat of government and pray there. John had even been surprised during one of Awakening Alliance board meetings under the direction of Billy Wilson, that one gentleman suggested the same idea not knowing we were thinking about this. However, nothing was moving forward due to Sister Anne being near death.
Personally, I had hoped we could get this event wrapped up by the fall of 2011 due to our desire to stay away from the political events coming up in 2012. We all knew that their was no political solutions to our spiritual problems as a nation. God answered, and led us to go a different way.
In March of 2011 I was invited into a private intercessory prayer meeting, hosted by a Washington DC lobbyist named Sue Ironfield and a former Texas district attorney named Bill Hunter in the bottom of a small hotel ballroom in Washington, DC. About 30 people gathered and I knew no one there. During this strategic moment I met some wonderful intercessors like Jamie Fitt, Beverly Clayborn, and Robert Claiborne from the Philadelphia area. Also present was a prophet named Dave Wagner from Pensacola, Florida. During this time Sister Anne was still recovering from her heart problems while her daughter, Robin Gimenez Blanchard stood in faith believing God she would fully recover. She grew stronger and stronger everyday. I was shocked when Robin shared pictures of her mother on a breathing machine and watched with amazement God having resuscitated her and giving her a new heart according to her doctors.
Well, here I was in this small prayer gathering with Sue, Bill praying for Washington but then all of a sudden the prayer shifted to Philadelphia. Bill Hunter began to pray for our nations first capitol and the first capitol of Israel Jerusalem. As he was praying, Dave begins to prophecy "Washington was the head, but Philadelphia was the heart and the heart needed to be resuscitated! Wow, right then and there I knew we weren't to gather in Washington- we were to go to Philadelphia. Just as Robin had prayed for her mother's heart to be resuscitated, God was calling us to Philadelphia to our nations first capitol for the heart of the nation to be healed. I knew right then and there, Sister Anne had called for a national gathering to end division and was attacked immediately in the heart just as a prophetic sign that our nation's heart was near death and needed to be healed just as her heart had to be healed. God was calling us to hold a National Prayer Meeting in Philadelphia not DC.
To make a long story short, I went to Sister Anne in August 2011 and shared my heart, what I had heard, the prophecy and what history I had learned as to why I thought we should go to Philadelphia. I knew Sister Anne was a great woman of faith, who would hear God, and summon all of us to gather if God said so. That night, she sat intrigued, promised to pray about it and said to me, Why Not! Why Not! we've got to do something! Prayer changes things." I'll never forget as I witnessed a great anointing come on her that night. I went home and waited for God to speak to her and confirm we were hearing God.
After a few weeks of prayer, a bowl of Sister's Anne's awesome Tex-mex soup, She began to meet with several key leaders like Pat Robertson, Billy Wilson, Prophet David minor, and others to listen to what they thought about going to Philadelphia. Then along comes a prophet named Phillip Cappuccio with this prophecy from 2 Kings 2:19-22 (KJV):
"And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee,
the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is
naught, and the ground barren. [20] And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put
salt therein. And they brought it to him. [21] And he went forth unto the
spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord
, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or
barren land . [22] So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the
saying of Elisha which he spake."
The beautiful city of Jericho which had become the first city
gained by the Children of Israel in the Promised Land, was suffering from
polluted waters, causing death and bareness in the land. Elisha gave the
instruction that a NEW CRUSE of SALT be brought to him and that he would cast
it in at the specific place from where the HEAD WATERS flowed. This resulted in
the waters being healed
Today, our beautiful nation has become barren and is
experiencing death in so many ways. And especially within the last 40 years, we have seen what would
have easily been considered the shameful and sinful blights of past generations
now become the very portrait of our present American culture. These sinful, unrighteous and immoral practices have become and
are continuing to become 'codified' by the laws of our land.
America is in a STATE OF EMERGENCY! We have been witnessing a
clear and steady moral breakdown of our nation from the family unit on up!
Especially, over the course of these past 40 years. Unless there comes a renewed and revived force of RIGHTEOUSNESS
arising from within the converted hearts of the redeemed throughout our land,
it will become quite apparent that all hope for our nation's recovery will then
be lost.
Ours is not primarily a POLITICAL problem, nor a FINANCIAL one.
These are the clear and measurable symptoms of a much deeper problem. The
'soul' of our nation desperately needs healing!! And the only remedy to heal our national 'soul' will be a true
Spiritual Awakening! And again, we NEED a National Day or 2 or 3 of a FASTING &
PRAYER Gathering. Our National Moral & Spiritual Crises in this hour
demands it!
This Holy Convocation should not not be primarily directed
toward who will become the next occupant of the White House (as important as
that is). But solely, should be a gathering once again under the banner of 2
Chronicles 7:14; Characterized by our humble appeal to Almighty God, for a
REVIVAL of RIGHTEOUSNESS to take place throughout our land. And for a true
SPIRITUAL AWAKENING to sweep across our country!
We need to see that same kind of Renewed Righteousness that was
awakened during one of the greatest Spiritual Movements ever to take place in
recorded history... THE GREAT AWAKENING of the 1730's! This Awaking produced such a Conscious awareness of God that it
summoned a renewed zeal for true Righteousness, which in turn brought about an
exaltation to this nation from its fledgling beginnings.
Those Righteous principles and concepts then became reflected
within the very fabric and the framework of our founding documents. All of these flowed out from PHILADELPHIA, PA., America's city
of BROTHERLY LOVE!
Let us now return to that city, only this time bringing with us
a NEW CRUSE FILLED WITH SALT! Humble; Penitent; Prayerful and Faith-Filled
hearts to renew a National (salt) Covenant with God , paying and believing for
the preservation of our nation as God intended from the beginning. Let us return to that city from where the HEAD WATERS of Great
Spiritual Awakening and our National Identity was first drafted and signed and
then from where the formation of our new government was ratified. Rediscovering the HEAD WATERS of our nation... PHILADELPHIA: 1730's THE GREAT AWAKENING. The city of Philadelphia became a main center for the Great
Spiritual Awakening of the 1730's, ignited by then English born Revivalist, the
Rev. George Whitfield. Having swept through the New England colonies already, the Great
Awakening culminated in Philadelphia, which was at that time perhaps the most
influential city of the colonies along with Boston, MA.
Here is a brief but very telling description of Benjamin
Franklin's personal account of the Awakening's affect upon the city of
Philadelphia in the year 1739: "From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it
seem'd as if the whole world were growing religious, so that one could not walk
thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families
of every street". -The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
1776: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The place again was Philadelphia and the year 1776. Fifty six
representatives affixed their signatures to this DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. A document which would define AMERICA as it's own independent
and sovereign nation, to be reckoned among the nations of the world. According
to this document we as a nation would be identified as having a
"national" conviction in a Creator. And One who has endowed ALL men
with certain unalienable rights. Among which are: LIFE; LIBERTY and the PURSUIT
of HAPPINESS!
1787: THE US CONSTITUTION
Eleven years following the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, Philadelphia would once again play the vital role of being that
host city to 55 delegates who would become the architects and signers of a
NATIONAL CONSTITUTION, defining the framework of a newly formed government to
serve those ideals spelled out within the Declaration. This would take unswerving dedication and tireless commitment on
their part. But what came about eventually resulted in becoming a blueprint and
framework for what would become recognized as being one of the greatest
National Constitutions ever written. To date, our US CONSTITUTION is the
longest running ORIGINAL NATIONAL CONSTITUTION in history. Perhaps, it is because again here in Philadelphia all 55
delegates of the Constitutional Congress got on their knees daily before God,
appealing to his aide and wisdom before commencing with the enormous task at
hand. These were motivated to do so, by a special motion made by the
senior statesman within their midst, Benjamin Franklin. The delegates had been in convention for 4 or 5 weeks making
little progress. When Benjamin Franklin, not noted by the way to be a
particularly religious man, yet had become so touched by the Awakening and
seeing God's intervention during our battle for Independence against Great
Britain, proceeded to make an appeal for the Convention to begin on their knees
with daily prayer: "...I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live,
the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God GOVERNS in the affairs
of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it
probable that an empire can rise without His aide"? -Benjamin Franklin
(1787 Constitutional Congress).
George Washington, who then presided over the Constitutional
Congress and to whom Franklin directed his motion, concurred and so as a matter
of historical record, the US CONSTITUTION flowed out from the prayerful and
inspired hearts of America's founding fathers as they convened in Philadelphia. And so it seems quite apparent that the city of Philadelphia
(Brotherly Love) was that influential city to be chosen as the place from where
the HEAD WATERS of Spiritual Awakening and our National Identity would flow.
Ever since those "waters" began to flow from that
city, history will forever record America as being one of the greatest nations
that God brought into existence. Truly A LIGHT and a BLESSING to the nations of
the world.Within our relatively short history as a nation, more
missionaries carrying the LIGHT of the GOSPEL have left from our shores than
any other nation in existence, to date. More AIDE has been extended from our
National Prosperity and resources to the the hurting nations of the world,
especially during their hours of national crises and calamities. And more immigrants have willingly and eagerly left their
counties and kin to head for these shores. And it was all because God had given
our nation a reputation throughout the known world for being a LAND OF FREEDOM;
OPPORTUNITY and PLENTY! Our own NATIONAL CRISES now demands that a NEW CRUSE FILLED WITH
SALT (a Renewed Covenant with God for preservation) be brought back to where
the HEAD WATERS of NATIONAL AWAKENING and NATIONAL FREEDOM first flowed. The
City of Brotherly Love... PHILADELPHIA! Let there come a NEW CONVENTION hosted in the bosom of that city
once again. Only this time, A CONVENTION of desperate PRAYER; REPENTANCE and
HUMILIATION before God of His own Redeemed remnant under the the banner of II
Chronicles 7:14.
Sister Anne took this prophecy as a serious confirmation from the Lord. But further confirmation from the prophets would be needed before she would go. The scriptures said, (II Cor. 13:1) "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." As Jim Cucuzza prayed God gave him, I Sam. 23 where God tells David to go up against the Philistines a second time only this time go a different way. Normally, when God called us to gather as a nation he told us to go to Washington DC. This time, Jim said, God is telling us to go up a different way- Philadelphia (The original US capitol).
Another prophetic word from Pastor Phillip Heflin was passed on to us which said:
This is an Extract from the Book, "William Penn, A Biography, By Harry Emerson Wilde's, Page 212
On August 12, 1684, he boarded the ketch, "Endeavor" to set sail for England. As the little vessel with its tall mainmast forward and the much shorter jiggermast aft stood down the river, he composed a prayer for the little city of Philadelphia. "And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of the province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service and what travail has there beein to bring thee forth preserve the from such as would abuse and defile thee; my soul prays to God for thee, that thou mayst stand in the day of trial that thy people may be blest of the Lord and thy people saved by His power"
Prophecy, July 28, 3:30am
Philadelphia, even as I ordained that you were to be a city in which a great nation was to be born, even so now do I call you forth to further fulfill your destiny in this end-time to be used to birth an end-time, world-wide revival.
This is My doing! By My Spirit, I shall do a work that will be felt, first through out this land and then, also throughout the world. I shall lead in this and the hallmark of My doing shall be in the unity of all involved.
My ministers shall not be empire builders, but Kingdom Builders. All differences that may have been a part of their lives and their ministry shall have been abrogated, set aside. They shall be known as "Seekers," those that seek Me at all times to know My will and way. They shall quickly ascribe all signs and wonders unto Me for I am the one who shall do them.
It is because of this seeking after Me that I shall raise them up. It is a consistent seeking and a consistent worship that shall be the spring board of this end-time revival. Philadelphia shall truly become a city of brotherly love! Out of this atmosphere, she shall birth My ministers who shall go forth to do My bidding in My time, for I am the Lord.
Come forth, O Beloved Philadelphia! Have done with racism, denominationalism, sectarianism-all that would divide My Body. My Body consists of those "New Creations" who are a part of Me, of My Body. Know that these "New Creations" are for the purpose of My manifesting Myself with all My power through them to the world. Know assuredly that "eye hath not seen nor ear heard" what I shall do through these of Mine, but these shall know for they shall know Me, saith the Lord.
So as you can see we had several major confirmations that Philadelphia was the place we were to gather to pray for the healing of America. Since these moments of confirmation, we all have encountered spiritual warfare trying to discourage us, divide us, losing heart about doing this etc. Friends along the way have had health attacks, financial attacks, and friendships tested. Christians along the way, have called this a "dog and pony" show, accused it of being politically motivated to defeat the President, told us that it wasn't God's will for a national gathering, he only wanted it to be a local thing. I've heard people say "no one's coming to over inflated numbers that supposedly are coming. We've been told if he comes, I'm not going... If he serves I will not... division, division, division coming from a divided "City" principality over the City Of Brotherly love. Hmmm.... Again, let me be very clear here: "God has been summoning The Body Of Christ together in Philadelphia on September 28-29, 2012 The only question we each have to ask ourselves is "Am I going to be there, regardless of who else comes?"
There are only TWO reasons to be there:
1. To pray for the divisions of our nation to be healed. (II Chron. 7:14) God wants to heal our
land
2. To understand that September 28-29 is an important date in our National history.
On September 28-29, 1789 our first continental congress gathered to ratify a document
to end the division of the 13 original colonies. They had functioned under the articles of
confederation for several years but found it inadequate to address the divisions in
the four cultures of America. That new document pulled together and has sustained
our nation over it's history. It is called the Constitution of the United States.
God is calling us to reaffirm ourselves to this national
confederation for several years but found it inadequate to address the divisions in
the four cultures of America. That new document pulled together and has sustained
our nation over it's history. It is called the Constitution of the United States.
God is calling us to reaffirm ourselves to this national
convenant! It is our salt covenant.
The Bible states in 11 Cor. 3:17 that "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!"
Unfortunately, American culture was born with four different cultural understandings of this word liberty. In the Puritan founding of our country, Liberty meant "ordered liberty." This led to any hints of disorder would necessitate a "purging" of those causing it. Liberty was denied to those who did not live their lives as the puritans defined it. The second understanding of liberty, established by William Penn was called, "Reciprocal Liberty," which means I can't deny the rights of others that I'm seeking. William Penn's relationship with the first nations people was seen as his attempt to give equal rights to all people. The third idea of Liberty, was held by the great Tidewater area of Virginia which sought to define "liberty" in terms with "conformity" to the Anglican Church and allegiance to the English government. They loved "Frames of government" and saw "liberty" as a right if you complied to be a good citizen. The final understanding of liberty given to us by the south meant "personal liberty." It meant being free from government. A man's word can be based only on his honor. All four of these cultural values were brought together under our present constitution. But when there is no "Presence Of The Lord" our nation breaks down into these four divisions. In 1789, George Washington sat in a chair with a hand-craved sun in the chairs wood for nearly three months of the Federal Convention's continuous sessions. James Madison reported Benjamin Franklin saying, "I have often looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now I... know that it is a rising...sun." He knew because of our four regional cultural differences we needed the help of God to overcome our four cultural ways... which are still with us today. Our gathering in Philadelphia requires the "Holy Spirit's intervention." Left to ourselves we always find ourselves in a war of culture!
This gathering in Philadelphia should be focused on "resuscitating the heart" of our nation. Only God himself can resuscitate our hearts. Even we as the church need our hearts to be resuscitated. Philadelphia gives us an opportunity for "reciprocal liberty" to be extended once again. We can't go there to demand our rights to the exclusion of others rights... if so, then on another day another group will come and then deny us our rights of Religious liberty to pray. We need a spiritual encounter with the Holy Spirit. Only He can make us "one nation under God with LIBERTY AND JUSTICE for all!" Our gathering in Philadelphia is a solemn assembly to pray for our "Divisions" to be healed and reaffirm the constitutional heritage that God gave us as a people. Anything less would be disappointing, displease God, and be a travesty and assault on our faith!
God bless each of you... as we gather as "One Nation Under God!"
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