From point A to point B…

I could hardly wait until our next prayer meeting. The excitement and anticipation within my spirit seemed to increase every day. Each day I would find myself saying, “Lord, I just know that You are up to something here! You have not forgotten what You did at Barney Creek! You are going to do it again! You are sending Barney Creek Second Edition!”

When we finally gathered for the next prayer meeting, we were eager to see what God was going to do next. As we were getting ready to pray our focus was again turned to the fact that God had chosen this place over 100 years ago to pour out His Holy Spirit and if He wanted it here then, He still wanted it here now! He has not changed His mind!

During our prayer, I was again drawn to a time of repentance. My prayer was something like this:

“Father, when You poured out Your precious Holy Spirit here, it became our ‘Point A’ and You desired us to be here today at ‘Point B’ in a greater measure than we are presently. We repent for allowing detours and distractions to hinder us on our journey. We have wandered around and around just like the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. They could have arrived in the Promised Land in a much shorter amount of time, but through their attitudes and actions, they delayed their arrival and many did not even get to experience the joy of entering in.

But You, Father, are more than able to supernaturally propel us to the place we should be had we not allowed these detours and distractions to have taken place. Take us to that place, oh Lord!”

Then the prophetic word of the Lord began to come forth which stated that He was more than able to take us to that place just as if we were on a super highway with no detours, no distractions and no limits.

Once again we felt within the very depths of our spirits that God was indeed taking us from point A to point B in ways that were beyond our human understanding.

Do it again, Lord!

Following the September 2010 Breaking Free Retreat for Women in Coker Creek, the burden to see a fresh outpouring of Holy Spirit began to increase. It was seldom from my thoughts and prayers. It seemed every conversation would eventually turn that direction. God began to bring other prayer warriors across my path who had the same burden.

One of my prayer partners, Bobbie Williams, was reared in that general area. Richard and R.G. Spurling had held a tent revival on her grandparents’ property in the Norwood Hills area sometime around the turn of the century. From that revival, seven churches were formed. One of the churches was Piney Grove Community Church. The church was destroyed by fire a couple of times and the current structure was rebuilt in the 1940’s.

Bobbie’s grandmother, Dorcas Freeman Bowers, was the first known and verified credentialed lady minister in the Church of God. Dorcas’ brother, Andrew Freeman, is listed on the marker at the First Assembly House as an attendee of the first General Assembly of the Church of God. The minutes of the first General Assembly states the following:

“Family worship was discussed by Andrew Freeman and others. It is, therefore, the sense of this assembly that we recommend and urge that the families of all the churches engage in this very sacred and important service at least once a day and at a time most convenient to the household and that the parents should see that every child is taught, as early as possible, to reverence God and their parents by listening quietly and attentively to the reading of God’s Word and getting down on their knees during the prayer. We recommend further that the ministers and deacons of each church use their influence and make special effort to encourage every family in the church to engage in this devotional exercise every day.”

From what I have learned, throughout the years the Piney Grove Community Church has struggled with attendance. Sporadically, the doors of the church would be closed for a season and then reopened at a later time. Thus was the situation in the spring of 2010. The church was reopened and services were once again held there. Some of Bobbie’s relatives began attending services there again.

Around December 2010, the pastor of the church, Rev. Richard Freeman, offered to allow us to meet to pray in the church. We began to prepare for a day of prayer in early January 2011.

God was working individually on each who would eventually join together in prayer on Friday, January 7, 2011. One of the ladies had spent the summer of 2010 researching the history of that area of Monroe County going back to the 1500’s. She also researched church history as well.

There were 5 of us ladies who met for prayer at Piney Grove Community Church on Friday, January 7, 2011. Our opening prayer asked for God’s direction for all that we did. We invited Holy Spirit to lead us in obedience to God’s purpose for this end-time move of His Spirit. We sensed that the first thing we needed to do was to repent.

The established churches of Monroe County (Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian) did not welcome the introduction of the Christian Union into the region. The established churches banded together to put down the revival. But the greater the persecution, the more the revival grew.

To us, this had been the Body of Christ wounding the Body of Christ. As part of the Body of Christ, we each accepted responsibility for the wrong, the wounds which had been inflicted by each of the denominations and repented for them unto the Lord and to each other. We then prayed blessings over each denomination.

We also repented for those who had embraced the pentecostal movement and had developed a holier-than-thou attitude and a prideful disposition which caused others to have an unaccepting attitude toward them. We again repented to each other and prayed blessings upon the various pentecostal streams which grew from this early movement.

We also repented for failing to live up to the fullness of our covenant with God and recommitted ourselves to it. We repented for attitudes and actions which prevented the strong pentecostal presence to remain in this vicinity. We asked God to restore the things which satan had stolen, hindered, and diverted from us.

At the close of our time of prayer, we interceded for God to once again pour out a fresh flow of Holy Spirit – a Barney Creek Second Edition. One of the ladies asked God to again shake this area with His presence and as a sign to us to send an earthquake – not a strong one which that would cause harm to property or injury to persons – but would just shake this place.

The following Monday morning, January 10, 2011, there was a 2.2 earthquake Sweetwater which is located in Monroe County. Sweetwater is at the intersection of Highways 68 and 11. (Incidentally, Barney Creek is located just off Highway 68.)

The following morning, Tuesday, January 11^th, we awakened to a beautiful blanket of snow covering the ground. This reminded us of the Scripture found in Isaiah 1:18, “…though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Yes indeed, we sensed that God was pleased with our prayers and was going to once again send a fresh flow of Holy Spirit. Do it again, Lord! Send Barney Creek Second Edition!

In the beginning...

Before moving to Monroe County in east Tennessee in January 2006, I had visited Barney Creek, the First Assembly House and Fields of the Wood, all of which are significant to the history of the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee. When I had visited them the first time, I viewed them with a “so this is where it all began” attitude – like that of a tourist. But my attitude toward these places changed when I began to get to know some of the precious people in this area.

Before I go any farther, allow me to give you a brief history of the beginning of what occurred at Barney Creek.

On August 19, 1886, in a grist mill along the banks of Barney Creek in the Coker Creek area of Monroe County Tennessee, a group of nine believers joined together to form The Christian Union. Richard Spurling and his son, R.G. Spurling, operated the grist mill which was also known as the Barney Creek Meeting House.

The Spurlings had felt that there had to be more to church and the Christian life than the creeds and rituals which they were experiencing in the churches they attended. They felt that the church should be founded upon the law of love which the Scriptures taught and that the New Testament contained everything that was needed for guidance for the church and Christian living.

During their time of searching the Word of God and hours upon hours of prayer, they experienced the grace work of sanctification and an in-filling of Holy Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts. The young church experienced much persecution but through it all they remained strong in their faith and commitment to the Lord.

Additional information can be found at the Church of God International Offices’ website, http://churchofgod.org/a-brief-history-of-the-church-of-god.

The Christian Union eventually became known as the Church of God has continued to grow and is now in virtually every country of the world and its membership exceeds six million people.

As I stated earlier, as I came to know more about this area and the people in it, my attitude changed. My heart began to be burdened and grieved because there was not the strong pentecostal presence in the area that I felt should be. Since this was the place God had chosen to pour out His Holy Spirit over a hundred years ago, I couldn’t help but feel that He still wanted the power of Holy Spirit in this area in a mighty way.

We began having Breaking Free Weekend Retreats for Women in the Coker Creek area and prior to the retreats we would spend time praying over the area. We would go to the top of Buck Bald Mountain to intercede. Buck Bald Mountain is an amazing place. There used to be a fire tower on the top of it and there are no trees at the summit of the mountain. The view forms a 360 degree panoramic vista. You can see Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia (and possibly South Carolina) from there.

During the summer of 2010, we were preparing for another retreat in late September. In August we began a 40-Day Mountain Top Prayer Journey in preparation for it. We made several trips to the top of Buck Bald Mountain to pray and proclaim the Word of God over that area and those who would be attending the retreat. We interceded for the power of Holy Spirit to again flow through this area.

On the day the retreat began, the retreat staff gathered on top of the mountain again. One of the ladies prophetically declared that there had been a paradigm shift in the atmosphere. To be honest with you, I was tired of “hearing” prophetic words about “paradigm shifts” and “new levels” and not seeing any results. But something seemed different that day. And it has been different since then!