The End – The Beginning and What’s Next;

The final day – Sunday – the schedule was full for about half of the morning – Again, I reminded God that the problem was being turned over to Him, and He was fully expected to take care of it. Would we be able to finish? To the mortal eye, the answer was no way. To God’s eyes, the eyes of the Spirit, the answer was yes and amen.

By mid morning we had many, many people checking back in, wanting to help us finish strong, and getting more reading assignments. By 2:00, we were down to the very last chapters. I wanted Heather to have the honors of those last chapters since she had been there at the beginning, standing beside me in faithful uncertainty. Heather read and then insisted that I read the last verse.

We shouted. We prayed that God’s word would do what it was sent to accomplish, and that we would begin o see the fruit of our actions.

Then, it “just happened”, that Sharon’s daughter had a shofar. She blew the shofar in worship and in praise, she blew the shofar in war fare, she blew the shofar for VICTORY.

Read more about it here; The Significance of the Shofar

This event was made possible at our County Court House by a proclamation from Governor Brandstad that Iowans should  participate in the 99 County Bible Reading Marathon at their county courthouses in each county, and that Christians should read their Bibles daily until the Lord returns. Well, as you can imagine, that riled up the enemy of our souls, and brought much warfare in the direction of our Governor.

Each reader was encouraged to write a short note of encouragement to Governor

Brandstad, thanking him in their own words for his stand for both freedom of speech and for his stand for Christ and the Holy Bible. These notebooks were created in each county that participated, and will be forwarded to the Governor to give him something tangible to show that his stand was not in vain.

What’s next? Well, 52 of 99 counties participated in this reading. There is a plan in place to have the other 47 counties have readings around Labor Day. (Could be the weekend or this could be the week before.)

If you are reading this and wish to have a reading in your county, you can contact me and I can get you connected. Since we’ve already done it here in Muscatine County, doing it in other counties will be much easier. I would be happy to help you gather captains to help you and share some short cuts.

One more thing I’d like to share with you. On a prayer call with Iowa intercessors on Saturday morning, some shared “pictures or visions” they believe God showed them.

Here they are. Read them and consider.

Our Bible reading is like throwing a stone in a pond. The stone causes concentric circles, moving out ward.

Even more than that, it is like MANY pebbles being tossed into the water, (bigger than a pond) and moving outward.

But then, it is more like hailstones breaking violently over the face of the water. Who knows where hose ripples end?

Our prayer was that the reverberations and ripples to increase, that the enemies power be broken by the Word of God, being sent forth to finish all it is sent to accomplish, and not return void. (empty)

I want to thank you so much for staying with this blog series. My prayer is that you can be encouraged, and see that even though it is much bigger than you, if GOD asks you to do something, He will always provide.

After all, it’s not your problem any way is it?

Intercessors, Leaders, Officials, Strangers, Friends;

On the first day, a lady I did not know, and who was not signed up, came and wanted to read. I placed her, and asked her to read from the New Testament. Well she sat in that chair for a really long time, and then finally asked me if she got to read. I said “Yes, of course, I thought you would be reading already.” “At the same time as him?” as she pointed to the reader reading the Old Testament. (It was the first day, so I guess I didn’t explain myself very well).

Anyway, she, Sharon, began to read aloud,and stayed with us until wrap up time at 10:00. 

Now at 10:00,she stopped reading and pulled me aside. She said that while she wasn’t reading, God had instructed her to quietly pray for me. Then she asked me if she could pray for me now. Of course. It is foolish to say no when a person with the same mind set as yours wants to pray for you. She laid hands on my stomach, and  began to pray. Her prayer was so powerful, and all the people loading the truck stopped to join in. A sweet time of fellowship. Short and sweet, and to the point.

(Photo – Sharon on the left, her daughter on the right)

How sweet of God to send this woman here, and have her sit so quietly,staying on task, and without complaint.

There were several city leaders and pastors present, lending to the recognition of the importance of reading the Bible out loud over our “Sphere of influence”.

There were also strangers among us. People from other counties who heard about this event, but didn’t find it happening in their home counties. They came as strangers. We only new each other by the Spirit of God. They participate is the readings and gave glory to God. They parted as friends.

The People Continued;

On Saturday morning, early, Bruce and Susan came to read. They signed up for multiple readings. After their readings, Susan and I began to contemplate what actions to take should we not finish our readings on Sunday.

Not 20 minutes after Susan left, a truck pulled up, and four guys got out. It was a little startling at first, since only Heather and I were there, until we realized that they were all carrying Bibles. They had heard about this event, and they all wanted to read.

It was then, that the plans Susan and I had just talked about was put into use. I gave each a section of the Bible to read, and they began to read, all at once.

Meanwhile three others came to read as well. So 7 people, were reading God’s Word, all at once, spread out but still in ear shot of each other.

Now this sounds like it would be crazy making. But as I walked around and listened I realized, and remember thinking, “This must be what Heaven sounds like.” An orchestra of His Word going forth, from every direction, all at once.

Heavenly perfection.

Some time later in the day, Heather went home for lunch and such. She “just happened” to talk to a neighbor, and discussed what was going on at the court house. Now these neighbors had waved before, exchanged greetings, but never really chatted. This neighbor, said she would go down later and check it out.

A little while later, I met Patti, who “just happened” to be the  mom and grand mom to the guys in the truck. Hmmm. What are the chances?

She came back, read much, and now it “just happened” that we became friends.

Divine appointments!