Arthur Blessitt, The Cross,What's going on?

Arthur Blessitt as I heard him in 1972 Having heard this fiery preacher fearlessly leading hundreds to Christ in Trafalgar Square London 1972...I would have naturally kept Arthur travelling around the world speaking to masses. Job done. Obvious!But no...God gives him the specific , I believe, intercessory call to walk the cross around the globe. Makes no sense humanly. But if you understand intercession...a bit like when they marched silently first around Jericho...it makes all the sense in the world literally! Thirdly I was arrested by his last day of walking after 38 years. How he felt to lay down flat on the cross and fully identify with the death of Jesus. I was so excited to read that and it showed me a dimension that I just hadn't seen. By the 80s I had felt God say to me how important this Crosswalk was in opening the world up to the gospel. But what I hadn't seen until now is that there was a whole new level to it...and this is unique to our time .For the first time in history masses are going to understand "our identification with Christ " This affects our ability to walk things out. Only the privileged few understood this in time past...and Arthur's last act on the morning of the last day was so prophetically charged....because it was saying from now on we won't just understand the Cross for forgiveness of sins...but will understand that we died there...and from now on it's Christ living His Life out through us. It's like a fore runner of a whole burst of revelation that will run through the whole Earth!!! +++++++++++++++++++

So what's going on?

All over Facebook friends are talking about different aspects of what the Cross has done for us.

Dan Bowen has just done a post on the subject :the Cross ,without the resurrection and the ascension is meaningless. In answering him and agreeing with him,I saw that God has meticulously prepared us for what went on at the Cross. In relative terms, the death of Christ followed by His resurrection all took place within 3 days. If you were not in the vicinity, you would not have been aware of any of it. So for hundreds of years leading up to it, God instructed the Jews to set up a tabernacle so detailed, it was effectively a slow-motion, frame by frame account of what was going to be accomplished at Jerusalem. And then, if that was not enough, He then used someone who was only converted later, the Apostle Paul, who could not be diverted by any external aspects of living with Jesus for three years, to give a similar Holy Spirit Xray of the entire process from a Spirit point of view. We can catch this in the letters he wrote, and (if it was Paul also,) we can read more in the letter to the Hebrews. Key of David meetings can be like a titles sequence for a movie or documentary. They flag up what is about to occur....but often at the time, our understanding of the titles sequence can be pretty sketchy.If you know this blog, you know I have an agenda. But when I go into a key of David meeting or any Havant meeting, I drop this agenda and along with the others try to pick up what Jesus , the now Jesus, is saying. Through song, prophecies scriptures,sovereign waves of the Holy Spirit, He brings out the key threads of that meeting....and sometimes it may seem like nothing.

In 2008 I brought a word about the Father's house, but had no idea of its centrality in the months ahead. A year later I brought a song about the sound of God moving the heavenly furniture of His headquarters into its rightful place...the throne room. This word was behind the video series, and also the subject of Jack Fortenberry's book (unbeknown to him or me) "Corinthian Elders". I "hear" sounds of adjustments being made in the Body of Christ and ministry. Paul Noble has also prophesied about this in the Facebook group "Prophetic Voice" and is very much the subject of the last blogposts.

Some of the latest Key of David "smoke signals" have not been through me, but people like Hannah Morton and Peter Stott and Helen Rubio on the "the Lamb/Lion" and the "meaning of the Cross".

With this in mind I publish the Facebook conversation Lydia Grewell and I had as we first read Arthur Blessitt's gob-smacking account of his Cross Walk in his book The Cross.

I feel now is the time to share that the Cross is more than we ever knew.

It is a walk. It is life for us. It is meaning for us.

It unlocks everything that has eluded us. It is not religion. It is death. Very real death to what we thought was us.

But it is life for us. A very real practical down to earth faith life.

I do not hold with those who do not meet as the Church. This is as mad as a married couple saying,"I've got the marriage certificate,I do not need the marriage bed!"

We meet together now precisely because we have been fused all week with the Saviour.

We meet , because we can put everything down, and gather together exclusively with our Corporate Lover Jesus. And folks, smell those oils!!

But, Church, there is life outside of the bedroom. And this makes up the last 3 chapters or so of Song of Solomon. "Leaning upon our beloved as we come up out of the wilderness- FUSED with Him."

There is a Facebook Group I was told about today called Arthur Blessitt Official Site "The Cross" movie and Crosswalk.

I wrote about Arthur as an example of one who walks "in the order of Melchizedek" His publisher kindly emailed Lydia Grewell and myself after this post, offering us early copies of The Cross to review. It is not an easy task, because the book is what it is: strands and threads describing a wonderfully unique calling and intercession. Here is our conversation interspersed with a couple of extracts from the book:

Arthur writes: "THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS The cross is perhaps the most well-known symbol in the world. From its origin as an instrument of suffering and death it has become—through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ—a symbol of life, love, hope, and salvation. On the third day Jesus arose and ascended to the Father, and now he ever lives to make intercession for us. The good news of the gospel is focused on the cross and the shed blood of Jesus for our sins. I have had the humbling privilege of giving well over half my life to the calling of carrying the cross from nation to nation. I've walked tens of millions of steps. This has been a journey not just of walking, but of walking with a cross—feeling its weight and hearing people's love or reproach for the cross. Today, as I was thinking about this chapter, I took a walk with the cross. The sun was shining brightly, so I could see the shadow of me carrying the cross as I moved along the street. Tears filled my eyes as I remembered tough days in the jungles or deserts or war zones. I remembered walking in rain, in snow, in heat, and in cold. I remembered people coming to the cross and finding new life and salvation. And, yes, there have been rejections, but I choose not to magnify those occasions. In the shadow of the cross I have lived, traveled the world, raised seven children, and found welcome and love all around the world. I am encouraged by what Jesus is doing today. After having carried the cross in every nation, I can say that the world is open to and hungry for the good news of Jesus and the cross. The only problem is that the laborers are few, as Jesus said. As I complete this mission, I feel peace. Jesus is ruling and reigning in the world today. The church is triumphant, and people around the globe are welcoming Jesus. In the shadow of the cross you see firsthand the glorious kingdom of God all around the world. You see the suffering and resurrection of Jesus that have the power to set us free and change our lives. As followers of Jesus, we face great challenges. But Jesus is with us, and he has all power. I have also felt the agony of the cross as I walked among people suffering from war, hunger, injustice, and oppression. Tears often wash my face as I walk. The weight of the burden of the lost and suffering is heavier than the physical weight of the cross. Yet I walk on....." ******************************* more from this chapter "As I journey round the world,I find the cross to be a universal symbol of God's love that can be understood in spite of language and cultural barriers. One of the most wonderful responses came from Poland, where I carried the cross each year from 1981 to 1984. The welcome I received in Poland and the understanding the people had for me and this pilgrimage with the cross are the greatest I have ever known. When I looked into their lives, we connected instantly. They could see the struggle , the hurt, and the living faith in me, and i could feel their struggle and hurt and see their battle for faith." it, to be close to it, to touch it. The wonderful people of Poland had suffered greatly—and were still suffering—for their faith under the oppression of communism, and they were thrilled to see the symbol of their faith being carried through their country. I stood at a village church for two hours while a steady flow of people came in and cried. A sweet woman who helped the priest couldn't speak. The priest told me the Nazis cut out her tongue when she was in Auschwitz. She cried and cried. The cross meant so much to her. As I walked in a large open field, I could see people—thousands of people—coming across the field from every direction. They were running toward the cross. I couldn't believe my eyes. People left their work; they came on foot, on bicycles, in cars, on horses, and in wagons. They were crying, smiling, and laughing. It was awesome. At the edge of a wheat field, where the nearest house was at least half a mile away and the closest town farther away than that, a huge crowd gathered. Cars and trucks stopped on both sides of the road. The traffic jam must have stretched for half a mile. Crowds of people just kept coming as I walked through Poland. They filled churches and overflowed into the streets. Some drove many miles to see the man carrying the cross. People kissed the cross, and they kissed me! In the villages, people waited along the roadside for me to come to them. Word would spread, and masses of people would run across fields to see the cross. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Peter Stott of Havant astounded us last summer with recollections of helping drive the provided landrover down for Arthur as he prepared to go into Europe in the early 70s. Peter worked at this time supplying vehicles. Some 10 years before the existence of Havant Church, and while Peter was still up north. +++++++++++++++++++++++ Facebook conversation with Lydia Chris 7th Feb2009, if you've seen my post you'll know the Arthur Blessitt book has arrived, and I'm riveted. You know what might be cool is to share comments here, then cut and paste our conversation onto the blog. I'm only a few pages in but I already see so many parallels in the way he has been led and my own life. He has had this amazing singular calling, and the physical practics of his life have been so different. But the various tests he underwent in order to learn to do exactly what the Holy Spirit was telling him to do - I identify with that...also the friction it can cause in your environment....looking forward to getting right into it. Chris wrote at 09:52 on 13 February 2009 Have nearly finished Arthur's book. Reminds me of Forrest Gump without the disability. Talk about walking with history. will do more hopefully with you after 7days or so. Lydia 13th February Yeah, funny it does remind me of Forrest Gump kinda too I actually just got back into reading Arthur's book today, and am enjoying it.......... Chris 23rd February 2009 .I finished Arthur's book and I feel slightly overawed even trying to make any comments. Here are some of the things that hit me. The reality of following Jesus moment by moment...what I call operating in the Now experience of Jesus, this Priest who operates in the order of Melchizedek...knowing no beginning or end of days. Pulling all the strings on the right hand of. God the Father....running the whole show from heaven and mediating His plan through and in the Power of His Holy Spirit. Secondly, having heard this fiery preacher fearlessly leading hundreds to Christ in Trafalgar Square London 1972...I would have naturally kept Arthur travelling around the world speaking to masses. Job done. Obvious!But no...God gives him the specific , I believe, intercessory call to walk the cross around the globe. Makes no sense humanly. But if you understand intercession...a bit like when they marched silently first around Jericho...it makes all the sense in the world literally! Thirdly I was arrested by his last day of walking after 38 years. How he felt to lay down flat on the cross and fully identify with the death of Jesus. I was so excited to read that and it showed me a dimension that I just hadn't seen. By the 80s I had felt God say to me how important this Crosswalk was in opening the world up to the gospel. But what I hadn't seen until now is that there was a whole new level to it...and this is unique to our time .For the first time in history masses are going to understand "our identification with Christ "This affects our ability to walk things out. Only the privileged few understood this in time past...and Arthur's last act on the morning of the last day was so prophetically charged....because it was saying from now on we won't just understand the Cross for forgiveness of sins...but will understand that we died there...and from now on it's Christ living His Life out through us. It's like a fore runner of a whole burst of revelation that will run through the whole Earth!!! Fourthly...Perhaps the greatest simplest key of all How do you walk the Cross round the Earth/ complete the huge things God calls us all to do??? ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!! What has been hitting you in the book? Lydia Grewell wrote at 00:23 on 24 February 2009 Hey Chris I loved the same things as you Chris! I loved how he described walking through the fields and letting God tell him which way to go, even though he already knew the most straight and sensible path. I so appreciated that part that God told him he was in training. I had a similiar couple of things this past summer where I felt compelled to go a certain route in my car one day and I was filled with joy, I had no idea where I was going or why, but I just knew God wanted me to. This happened a few times and I sensed it was God preparing me to listen to his directions. So to me this was awesome to get confirmation of by reading Arthur's testimony! I also loved the whole aspect of one step at a time. God is the I am, the God of the now.....each day has enough troubles of it's own right! So to hear his whole life journey, which was HUGELY profound, that he just focused on ~ one step at a time was a wonderful truth and example for others. God has been helping me to remember to be faithful in the little and to follow him day by day! I didn't get through the book, so didn't read the part about him laying on the cross, but when I read it in your comment it really struck me as profound, seriously. I pictured our death with Jesus by picturing myself on that Cross.....it's so true, most do not know that they died, their old adamic nature died with Christ! So to see this with a visual is WAY COOL!!! Thanks!! I must go finish the book........Peace to you Chris!! Chris About Arthur's book. Didn't you see the correlation with Forrest Gump? Whereas Forrest Gump was not screwed up by a great intellect...and is a story...Arthur has willingly chosen to lay his own ideas aside and rigorously follow God's calling...yet finding the same thing..that he has literally walked into the history books...or rather, walked in a Gump fashion into the frames of historic events, without being recorded as such. If you read Brother Andrew "Light Force" you will find a similar walk. About 10 years before the rest of the world he was identifying the rise of the extremist muslims. Nobody else saw the impact of the threat to come. Similar "nation-bending" activities are happening through Nicholas and Pam right now. I found Arthur's meetings with USA presidents together with his impact on Arafat, and iin Burundi absolutely amazing. Lydia Grewell I read a bit more last night.....yes I see it the correlation, I hadn't read up to the point where he had been in all those situations with Pat Roberston in the (1980)March, and Yasser Arafat and Billy Graham, in our prior chat.......the more I read the more I am so blessed and amazed and really provoked even!! This guy had his gaze so fixed on Jesus and was so determined to walk out his calling.........Wow!! He sure got an aerial view/big picture of the world huh? The movie will be wonderful and powerful, I truly hope!! Hope to read more today.............. Lydia Grewell wrote at 15:43 Chris, I haven't finished the book yet, but was able to get done 2 more chapters, and boy does it just keep getting better! I read the chapter where Arthur talks about sharing Jesus with all kinds of people and I just love his humility and his heart, what an example!! Chris Welch wrote That chapter was so great. It is amazing that after 38,000 miles of sharing Jesus in 38 years…Arthur Blessitt has found that people do not have a problem with Jesus. They have a problem with the church…or with Christianity as practised. I like it when Mark Stibbe said Jesus began his ministry in a wedding feast providing wine at a banquet….and His current ministry hasn’t changed much!!!! It was a bit like that today in both our meetings. I haven’t a clue any more whether I would call them 2nd or 3rd level meetings. All I know is that since the Florida Outpourng Havant meetings have been like golden honey poured down on everybody. Back to the book I was reading the beginning again. Actually that is where the report of his final day of the journey is.But you can see how from the beginning, he like all of us put up these walls as to what we can and can’t do. Then the festival organiser says “I’m in charge here and sure you can come up on stage and preach. Then in the chapter There are No Walls you see how Arthur went absolutely everywhere….though the Israelis said the Arabs won’t let you pass. And the Arabs said the Israelis won’t let you pas. And people said “You’ll never get on the Great Wall of China….and you’ll never get into North korea! etc etc What an encouragement. Today when I was reading about his second wife receiving dreams and visions about many lands….but no missionary organisation would take her because she’d not done Bible college. And I thought again “We don’t have to submit to restrictions….our only mandate is to believe for the Melchizedek Order….to believe for the real stufff….though the fake seems so enticing.” And sure enough God only teams her up with one of the most significant ministries of the 20th Century…..even though no one else would have her. I still get a kick out of how God sent some of the most significant people of 1973, still under an amazing anointing and vision, all the way from Houston to our little old grammar school near London. Chris Welch wrote at 23:22 And since that time I've always been encouraged to believe for the totally outlandish!!!! There are loads of books on ministry and doctrine...but how good to learn from one who has spent his whole life doing it. Just about every page of Arthur's book is packed with extraordinarily useful real life stuff about walking with Jesus and being used to share the love message of Jesus. +++++++++++++++++++++ Arthur writes in "Roads of Glory" If you asked me to close my eyes and say what comes to my mind when I think about walking with the cross around the world, it would be the faces of those who gather around the cross. The faces are of many colors, and the people speak hundreds of languages. They may be smiling or they may be weeping, but they know that they are feeling the presence of the Lord. I am not saying that I am holy or that the wood of the cross itself is holy; but I am saying the hand of God is upon this walk, and people experience his glory as the word spreads that the cross is coming down the road. Time and again I have seen people come in anger but melt into tears as they draw near to me and the cross. Hundreds of thousands of people have touched the cross or me and rubbed themselves as if they are blessed just by the touch. They feel something they have never felt before. I stop with every group and proclaim that it is Jesus who blesses and saves, and I share how to invite him into their lives. The glory of the Lord touches people, because the Holy Spirit of God is present in such a way that they are drawn to the cross and Jesus. Even individuals who are devoted to other religions experience the miracle of God's glory that travels on the road with the cross and me. They feel love and mercy in a way they have never felt before. Only God knows people's hearts, but millions have heard the message of Jesus and prayed to receive him. I often speak of the bubble of glory that seems to surround the cross, me, and anyone with me on a trip. Many say they have seen a glow surrounding the cross. But for sure I know that when people get within fifty to one hundred feet of the cross they are aware of the glory of God. They may not describe it in those terms, but they feel something within. Many get goose bumps or cry or break into a smile. I have seen people who were coming to attack me, raging in anger, become totally calm as they draw near the cross. Hard hearts often melt. Time and again I have said to tough men full of hurt and anger, "Here, feel the weight of the cross." As they lift the cross, the power of the Holy Spirit breaks through, and I lead them in prayer as they weep. Brokenhearted people weeping with pain and grief have been healed as we talk and pray. I always say, "Jesus did it. Jesus drew them. Jesus saved them. Jesus is present in the glory of God that the people feel." These people come from every walk of life. They are battle-hardened soldiers who melt before the cross with tears in their eyes. They are old women and little children, eating, smiling, and feeling the love and glory of God as they gather around the cross. It is the glory of the Lord on the battlefields, along the roadsides, and in the homes and churches of the world. The glory is present when I just walk down the road. I know that I have a glory team at all times: God who is Father, God who is Jesus, and God who is Holy Spirit! This thought alone is enough to set my feet dancing on a hot road in the desert. The following stories give specific examples of experiencing the roads of glory as the cross is carried around the world…….   the Amazon reference is here