Rebuilding An Altar of Fire

2 Chronicles 7: 1-2, 12-14 (NKJV)

7 When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.^[a] 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. … ¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

God, Country, Family!

Rowan County is representative of the heartbeat of America. It is a place where you can truly sense the importance of God, country and family. When you drive through it,  there is an aspect of the Lord’s glory there in the quietness and beauty of the countryside. They still hold wonderful Fourth of July parades, and even have a town called Faith.

The Varnadores

We held our Worship Gathering in Gold Hill, NC at the prompting of new friends Max & Kathy Varnadore.  I (Yvonne) met this wonderful couple during the special Fourth of July weekend at Lake Junaluska near Asheville, NC. Max & Kathy were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that weekend and they invited me to join them for dinner when they saw that I was at a table eating alone. I told them about what we did as a ministry and they said it would be great if we came to their county.

The Old Shaver School Event Center – There and Back Again

Later that month, I started searching to find a location in that county and happened upon the Old Shaver School Event Center.   I mentioned to the owner that we were coming to the county because of this wonderful couple, Max & Kathy Varnadore, and then owner Larry said they were his neighbors. And sure enough, the place was sort of just around the corner from where they lived.  And the feeling I got was that this was truly a place where everyone knew your name and where neighbors were sincerely neighborly.

Kathy ended up joining me to meet with Larry and I heard the story of the school. It started out as the place where their church held bible school for the children and along the way became a bar. BUT,  Larry had an amazing testimony of how he was able to buy it back and restore  it as a place for family and community.  Oh, how we need that type of restoration to sweep across our nation!

Crossroads

From our research, we found that Rowan County was in the middle of key crossroads, and that there were even new developments springing up all around them. In those scenarios, there is always the fear that what is new will change what is there. However, we could sense that this county would instead change what was coming. There were mighty winds blowing the day of our Worship Gathering and prophetically we could sense a mighty stirring to have what was hidden and tucked away in this beautiful county released throughout the state, region and nation. Even the wildfires that were raging to the west  and the floods that were to the east were prophetic signs of revival!

Wind & Fire!

So we worshiped Our King with the people of this county and we released the fire of past revivals in the region – the Moravians,  who had also settled in Forsyth County, & the 1st Great Awakening, James McGready, who was run out of Orange County to Kentucky,  & the 2nd Great Awakening,  and GB Cashwell (from Dunn) and AG Garr (Charlotte) who brought the fires of the  Azusa Street revival to our region – as well as the overflow of the wind from our recent gatherings & outreaches to Fayetteville (Cumberland County) and  Guilford County.

We specifically targeted:

• Economy – having the “gold” standard restored and repenting of past greed & perverseness;
• The blessing of Family & Land – simpler, life, simpler ways & means, and the celebration of community;
• Education – righteousness to rule there once again;
• Victory over wildfires, floods and at the time an unsettled Governor’s race

Psalm 33:11-12  (NKJV)