Hey my friend! Hope you’re doing amazing!
When Sofiya told me a few months ago that her brother Mark was getting married in South Carolina in June and that she wanted the 3 of us to go there for the entire weekend, I must admit I was a little hesitant. To get me to leave town for the whole weekend and leave the outreaches to the team takes a lot. But, as I sought the Lord about it (and as I realized how badly she wanted me there) I agreed.
The wedding was on Saturday June 14th, so we decided to leave town on Thursday June 12th and do the driving over two days to make it easier on Natalie. When we got to the east coast, we were ready for a short break, so we pulled over into a park that we saw on A1A. I was stunned when I went to the bathrooms and saw this message written in the concrete:
The park was named after a police officer that was killed in the line of duty in 1987, so I’d imagine that the park is at least roughly that old. How wild that someone years and years ago wrote this and we just happened to stop here on our trip. Talk about a sign that we were right where God wanted us to be!
That night we ended up staying in St. Augustine, where I had just been several weeks earlier. Read about that epic trip here- Jacksonville/Fort Caroline Trip Recap – Awaken Florida
I ended up walking around the historic downtown area while Sofiya was putting Natalie to sleep and I came upon this historic spot:
This was actually the first place in (what later became the United States) that European settlers ever set foot on. How cool that it is in Florida! Yet another example of how we are the forerunner state!
As I walked around the city, I began to feel the weight of grief over the deadly divisive conflict that emanated from there all those centuries ago. You may know this, but St. Augustine was founded in 1565 to be a military outpost so that the Spanish Catholics could mount an attack on the French Protestants that were living outside of Jacksonville since 1562. Their attack was successful and all the Protestants (The Huguenots as they were called) were martyred for their faith.
This wave of grief was especially grievous at the time because prior to going on this trip, the Lord had been speaking to me a lot about His desire for unity. In fact, just days before we left we celebrated Pentecost Sunday by being part of a massive unity gathering in Tampa Bay where over 75 churches came together for one service under one name- Jesus. Here’s the 3 of us at the gathering.
What was also timely (and I believe prophetic) was that the night before Pentecost Sunday, our friend Isaac Farias was officially commissioned as the leader of the Sarasota House of Prayer. Isaac actually came to Sarasota from the ministry in Tampa (Abide Church) that spearheaded the unity movement. Here’s Isaac being commissioned on June 7th. Pastor Gio of Abide Church is there too:
So to go from the excitement of seeing unity in the body (and the excitement of seeing signs that more is coming), it was very heavy to walk those St. Augustine streets, knowing that spirits of division essentially inspired its founding. I do believe that much was accomplished in the spirit though as Sofiya and I prayed and worshipped over those grounds prior to leaving town the next morning.
Around 9am, after creating an altar of praise at the site of Florida’s founding, we hit the road for South Carolina. Once we got into South Carolina, I truly fell in love with the state. Not only is it beautiful, but the amount of Jesus billboards on the highways blew my mind. It felt like there was one every 20-30 miles! I also happened to pass by a massive Christian bookstore in the Capitol city Columbia:
Needless to say I felt right at home in this state!
We got to Sofiya’s parents’ house on Friday 6/13 and the wedding was at 4pm the next day about 20 minutes away. Sofiya had a lot to do to get ready so I took Natalie to the place that I always said I would visit if we ever stayed with her parents- a Revolutionary War Battlefield that is about 20 minutes away:
The victory at the Battle of Cowpens was fought on January 17th, 1781, and it was one of the most decisive victories our army had during the Revolution. We won in about 30 minutes against major British opposition and through this victory we stemmed the advance of the British through the south. As a result, our army slowly but surely regained the ground taken by the British in the south, helping to ultimately turn the tide of the war.
Here’s a short video explaning the victory:
Here’s a pic of us on the battlefield and of a Continental Army soldiers’ uniform and weapons in the Museum:
Here are some banners with statements people made about this battle:
That day I worshipped and prayed on the grounds of this battle, and I earnestly asked the Lord to release a grace upon His people to fight and win spiritual battles and to take back ground in our nation. It was a powerful time.
Being that this was my first time ever visiting an actual battlefield from the Revolution, I knew it was a significant experience for me, but when I found out the significance of the day that I was there, I knew that the Lord was stirring something that was bigger than me.
That day was June 14th, 2025, the 250th anniversary of the official formation of the US Army. This proclamation was made the day before:
In the proclamation, President Trump included the powerful story of how The US Army was founded:
How wild is that!? I had never heard this story before, and I was amazed at how it fit perfectly with what the Lord had been showing me about a unity movement rising amongst His people so that we would ban together as soldiers and fight against the invading spiritual armies in our land.
Then, he makes a statement in the proclamation that is essentially what I prayed for on the battlefield:
You can read the entire proclamation here- 250th Anniversary of the Founding of the United States Army – The White House
Later that day President Trump even had a massive military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary. In the parade there were even people dressed like the Continental Army. Here’s the video of it, it was quite specatacular:
So, after seeing all this I was truly blown away. I really felt like the Lord caught me up in something way bigger than me and I became convinced that He was going to accelerate this militarization and unification of His body in the days soon to come.
Here’s a cool video the White House put out giving more details about the formation of the Army too if you’re interested:
Oh and the wedding was great too. This was my favorite moment, when they bowed down and worshipped at the altar:
The next day, I went to Elevation Church in Charlotte, which was a really cool experience:
Then, before we had our family gathering for Father’s Day, I took a motor scooter around downtown Charlotte and went to two historic places. One was where General Nathaniel Greene was sworn in as the commander of the Southern Army:
And the other was to the place where the Mecklenburg Resolves were filed in 1775, which officially divorced Mecklenburg County from its allegiance to British rule. It was one of the first resolutions like this in the US and it helped spark the courage to ultimately declare independence as a nation a little over a year later:
At these places I asked the Lord to release a grace in the spirit to help many In His body to lead armies and to spark a spiritual revolution in their regions.
The next day, Natalie and I toured the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, which was AWESOME.
Crazy that there’s even a huge road named after him right by the airport that takes you to the library:
To see all that the Lord did through brother Graham was so inspiring. Pretty cool that I even got to stand behind one of his actual preaching pulpits:
What so moved me about the exhibits were the pictures of the massive crowds that would come to his crusades. Here’s pics from a 1954 crusade in Times Square:
And here’s a pic from a 1991 crusade in Central Park:
What is so fascinating about these crusades and about brother Graham’s ministry is that it took hundreds of churches working together, sometimes for years to put one of these crusades on. That is truly the hidden story behind these famous pictures and it was such a powerful reinforcement of how much can be achieved through our unity.
These gatherings, and the pictures and video of them are also some of the clearest examples of John 17:21-23 that I’ve ever seen.
“that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
I feel like when people see those pictures and see all those people united to hear the Gospel, it’s one of the most compelling signs that Jesus was sent by the Father.
After we left the Billy Graham library, it was almost time to start heading back home but I kept feeling like there was one more place that we needed to go. I sensed strongly that the Lord said it was a place of an assignment and as I sought Him about it I felt strongly that He said it was Charleston, South Carolina.
By faith, we drove there and arrived around 11pm. Once I arrived, the Lord revealed to me the purpose of the trip- to come against the spirits and the altar of disunity.
I didn’t know this before I arrived, but the deadliest and most divisive conflict in our nation’s history began in Charleston- The Civil War. This happened in April of 1861, when confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, which was a federally occupied Fort. Here’s the spot where the shots were fired:
What I also learned was that Charleston was also the hub of the United States slave trade, which was the main reason for the conflict. In fact, the city even preserved part of the old slave mart (where they literally sold people like cattle) and made it into a museum. Here’s me outside of it:
While standing on the street, taking in this insane history, I became grieved in my heart. America at the time was full of people who claimed the be Christians yet one group of them was willing to kill the other just to preserve the rights to own people as property. Talk about demonic!
The Lord led me to do a Jericho March around the entire complex and to pray, worship and decree over it, so I did. A few minutes later, as I got about halfway around the block, I saw a building on my right and I was STUNNED when I realized what it was- The first Huguenot Church ever built in America:
It goes all the way back to the late 1600’s, over 150 years before the slave trade found its hub here. What I suddenly realized was that the same spirit of division and murder that followed the Huguenots to Fort Caroline, also followed them to Charleston. In 1565 that spirit manifested as Catholics slaughtering Protestants, and beginning in 1861 it manifested as “Christian” slave owners slaughtering Christian non-slave owners.
How crazy that the Lord would send me here on the tail end of trip that began by warring against that same spirit in St. Augustine. It became very clear that the Lord was doing something significant.
Then, after a few minutes of soaking in the weight of this realization outside the Huguenot Church, I continued walking around the complex and got blown away again when I saw this street that was right across from the slave trading complex.
I felt like the Lord said to come back to this street after completing the 7 laps around the block and to read and pray John 17 over the church of America.
What was so profound, was that pretty much the entire time I was walking there was virtually no breeze at all. Once I finished the march and prayed John 17 on Unity alley, the wind started blowing strong and steady until I made it back to the car. It was awesome!
Here’s a video I recorded afterwards:
After all this, and after praying where the shots were fired, I knew my assignment was complete. May the Church of Jesus Christ in America be One as Jesus and the Father are One and may we all make whatever sacrifices we must make to bring that about.
God bless!
Chris