005 - Let us Cleave in Cleveland

Letter From the Editor:

Shortly before Azusa Now in LA, I had a stirring dream that has come to the forefront of my attention once again. In the dream, I went up to an African American woman who was standing in front of a church congregation. I took her hands in mine, kissed her head and then fell to my knees weeping and crying aloud, “God, forgive us for not cleaving to one another as unto Christ!”

Several months after this dream, we were in DC praying with our African American brothers and sisters when I was sent a dream from a friend in another part of the country. In her dream, she happened to be in Cleves, Ohio in the path of a destructive tornado. She had a little girl named Hope with her and they ran into a nearby church for shelter. Once inside, she found herself amongst an all-black congregation and there was no basement in which to take cover. Their only safety was to hold onto Hope and sing the songs of the African American Church. Suddenly, as they did, the sun broke through the clouds and they knew they had turned the storm with their song!

As foreshadowed by these dreams, we have found that the cleaving together of the Body of Christ - especially where there has been hurt and division - is of utmost importance in this hour. In the following article, Lou brings more understanding of God’s heart for union and how it has driven us to a crossroads of intercession in Cleveland, Ohio.

- Cheryl Amabile

THE BRIEFING 005 - LET US CLEAVE IN CLEVELAND

By Lou Engle

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

America is in a time of a great fracture. Racism, division, ethnic strife, unforgiveness, and outrage, terrorist bombings, political chaos… and King Trump can’t put it together. Our legislators, educators and city officials can’t heal our wound. But a prophetic word was released years ago that, out of Cleveland, an awakening would come forth that would change the nation. On July 22nd and 23rd at Azusa Now Cleveland, saints from all over Ohio, young and old, from different ethnic communities will gather to fast and pray at the “Q” for the release of that awakening.

We pray for Acts chapter 2 revival, but we never fulfill the requirements of Acts 2:1, “and they were all together in one place and in one accord.” The cry of Jesus in John 17 will be answered someday and in someplace, “I pray that they may be one even as I and the Father are one.” When Jesus came to the city of Jerusalem he looked over it and wept and said, “How often I would have gathered you under my wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks. If only you would have known the things that make for peace, but you would not have it. Therefore, your house has been left to you desolate.” How Jesus longed to gather his people to himself, not to a cause, not to an ideology, but to himself. Immediately, he went to the only place that could bring peace to the city and said, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all ethnos (i.e. ethnic groups), but you have made it into a den of thieves.” When Jesus looks out over Cleveland would he say, “I’ve longed to bring you together in a house of prayer for all ethnic groups to bring peace, but you weren’t willing to cleave?” Is this the primal reason that there is no peace for our cities?

On April 9th, 2016, 70,000 people gathered from many different ethnic communities praying in unity together and the presence of the Lord filled the Coliseum in Los Angeles. It was another flashpoint of something that took place 110 years ago when an African American man named William Seymour was the pioneer of the great Azusa Street Revival. At Azusa, many ethnic groups gathered to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Frank Bartleman, an intercessor in that revival, declared, “The color line was washed away in the blood!” Now, we believe we are at another flashpoint moment in the city whose original name was “Cleaveland”. Here, in Cleveland, we are calling the divided Church to gather together and cleave at one of the few places where  we can agree: before the throne of Jesus in worship, prayer, and the proclamation of the gospel.

TheCall doesn’t have the answers, but it was born out of a dream of Joel chapter 2. “Blow the trumpet in Zion, gather the people, call a solemn assembly, consecrate a fast, and afterward I will pour out my Spirit.” For 17 years we have sought to do this with much weakness, but with a great testimony of God’s grace. In the book of Joel, all the nation was in crisis, breakdown, economic destruction, and falling away in apostasy from God. His simple answer was this: if you are willing to gather together across denominational lines, gender lines, racial lines, age barriers, and call on the Lord, then things could actually shift in a day. This is our hope that when we unite together something could be released that is stronger than racism, stronger than the drug overdose epidemic, stronger than the death march of abortion, and stronger than political divisions. The great spiritual principle is that if you overcome you get authority to overcome. This nation will never unite unless the Church unites and gains authority over division, for only a united Church can heal a divided nation.

We believe we have come to a time and place of God’s choosing here in Cleveland for a breakthrough that will impact the entire nation!

• Pray for the gathering on July 22nd and 23rd, that a prepared remnant will come together in deep humility and unity to fast and pray.

• Pray for a manifestation of love and healing among us.

• Pray that something will be unleashed to shape the history of our nation and turn the storm of anger and division that is bearing down on this generation.

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