OK. So you need to know up front that this may come off as a little peculiar, but hey, after all, Scripture says that we are "a holy priesthood, a peculiar people." Often, I can relate more to the latter than the former, but I digress. Yesterday (Tuesday April 18) was a fairly incredible day, and I want to take a moment to relay some of the strange happenings that marked my day. Two, in particular, stand out.

In the morning I met with Dana and Amantha (on the Board of Directors for Tribe Issachar – the Athens prayer room) about this Sunday night and our wrapping up of 21 days of 24/7 prayer. We knew the Pagan Student Association is planning a major event called "Take Back" this Friday on campus, but had no other information. Our heart for Sunday night at Legion Field is a calling to repentance and earnest prayer for an Awakening of the lost and Revival in the Church here in this community. Neither me, nor the ladies had any inklings about the format of this time, so we agreed that we will show up and see what God does. Since we had 20 minutes left with nothing to actually plan, we began to pray for that time and a moving of God's Spirit on the campus. Here's where it gets interesting…

I have to preface this by telling you that I do not usually have visions. But as we prayed, in my mind's eye I began to see Legion Field where we will be meeting. It was just after sunset and things were dark as people were gathered to pray. As we cried out to God, HUGE drops of rain began to fall. They were enormous – the size of VW Beetles! And it wasn't a heavy rain – it was just the onset of a shower with a light sprinkling, but here's the really cool part. As the drops hit the ground, they weren't water! They were comprised of light! And wherever the drop hit, instead of being wet, the darkness was pushed back and there was a ray of warm, golden light in that spot. As we finished praying, I shared what I had seen with the ladies, and they began to chuckle. At the risk of having my fragile male ego crushed, I asked what was so funny. "Oh nothing really." was the reply. "It's just that Dana had the same vision this morning at 4am in the prayer room!"

How awesome is our God? I am terrified and excited about what might happen this weekend at Legion Field. Is this the onset of what we've been longing for and praying for so long?? We shall see…

Later that afternoon, Scott (one of the guys I disciple) and I were downtown. We saw the line for Ben and Jerry's for the free cone and it was down the street and around the corner, so we went up to the prayer room. No ice cream cone is worth waiting in line for 2 hours. In the prayer room, I say Dana's sketch of the vision we'd both had. Chills.

Scott and I prayed and worshipped for a while and then we went walking around downtown Athens. Someone had told us about a new bar that had opened back in September called "Repent" and that it was an incredibly spiritually dark place. We thought we'd go check it out for ourselves. So we got there and sure enough, the presence of the enemy was oppressive just standing outside looking at the place. The ragged wings on either side of the name "Repent" clearly mocked the Truth, and as we stood there gawking, a goth-looking girl came out the door. I told Scott I wanted to go in and look around, so we approached her. She works there and said it would be ok to go in, so we did. The Satanic elements and symbols were heavy all around the room. The first thing I noticed was the huge clown hanging from the ceiling over the bar, grinning with sharp fangs and demonic eyes and giving everyone the finger.

Scott and I were only in there for maybe 4 minutes, but we both sensed in our spirits that we had overstayed our welcome. On the way back to the door, I noticed something I missed coming in. It was a subtle, blurred mural near the entrance that consumed an entire wall and I was astounded that I hadn't seen it earlier. It was a demonic face staring at you with red, glowing eyes.

Now, I've been doing outreach in front of the Toppers strip club for almost 2 years now. The darkness there is heavy, but it is the kind of place where the people inside are deceived about their sin. They think that it's ok and good to be doing what they're doing and they would vehemently deny any demonic presence or backing in what takes place inside that establishment. "Repent" was VERY different, and the darkness we experienced there was far more pronounced and brash. It was an in-your-face "Here we are!" kind of darkness that is clearly embracing the demonic. The impression on my heart was that of a group of people who are clearly unashamed about their allegiance to Satan and unafraid to stand up and make it known. My prayer is that God would raise up a generation of people who would be as bold for Christ…may it happen soon.