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The cars and trucks rush up and down Interstate 35 everyday-a ribbon of road that cuts the nation in half and goes all the way from Laredo in the south to Duluth in the north.A number of Christians have come to believe that because of recent prophecies, dreams, and visions I-35 is the highway spoken of in Isaiah 35, verse 8-"And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness."The first of these prophetic dreams came to a prominent German prophet in 1984. Prophetic intercessor Cindy Jacobs of Generals International told CBN News, "And in this dream he saw a highway that went from the bottom of someplace to the top that had a '35' sign on it. And God showed him that revival was going to begin at the bottom of this highway and go to the top.Many other prophecies followed. Jeff Baldwin, college and career pastor at Dallas' Heartland World Ministries Church, said, "There've been very specific cities given in these prophetic words, and they say, 'Go to these cities and cry out for holiness and purity, and I'll come down and I'll invade.' And all those cities were along the I-35 corridor."Now dozens of Midwest ministries have linked arms to pray these prophecies are soon fulfilled, and they've set aside 35 days-from October 28 to December 1-to concentrate on I-35. For one thing, Jacobs pointed out, "We have 17 24-hour prayer rooms going on."Non-stop prayer and worship go up from these locations. Two of the main organizers of the I-35 efforts are Jacobs and Heartland senior pastor Steve Hill, famous for his evangelizing in the Brownsville revival. Along with all the 24-7 prayer and worship efforts, Jacobs said teams of on-fire Christians are gathering to worship and pray outside abortion clinics, gay bars, strip joints, and porn shops."We're crying out for abortion to be overturned, and marriage between one man and one woman, and for the heart of pornography to be ripped out in this nation.the same for drugs and prostitution.we want a holy nation!" Jacobs and Hill call these gatherings Purity Sieges.Hill said God's using them to "...set people free from drug addiction, alcoholism and stale religion-see them get on fire for God from Laredo, Texas all the way up to Duluth, Minnesota. It's quite a challenge-it's a vision from the Lord. And we're already seeing it happen."Like what occurred several weeks ago at the first Purity Siege outside a prominent gay bar in Dallas. The event was so different and peculiar, it even attracted coverage in the local gay paper, The Dallas Voice.As young Christians worshipped, partiers from the bar tried to break it up, but evangelist Joe Oden kept ministering."The first guy I prayed for, he got baptized in the Holy Ghost right there.Nobody was talking about the Holy Spirit ... he just received the Baptism. The second person...he was a backslidden youth pastor who got slain in the Spirit and hit by the power of God."Then up came James Stabile, a 19-year-old homosexual who'd come by to drink and party. "I was getting drunk in one bar and I was on my way to go continue getting drunk, and actually I was on my way to meet my fiance," he said. But he ran smack-dab into the Purity Siege and Joe Oden, who asked him, "'Have you ever felt the Presence of God?" Stabile said he answered, "No," and Oden asked him if he'd like to.Stabile recounted, "He just barely touched me and he said, 'Fire!' and I remember staggering back and I thought I was tripping on acid. It was the weirdest thing ever. And he said, 'Fire!' again and I fell in the Holy Ghost." Stabile said right then he felt God "...just came in and transformed me and radically saved me."One thing disappeared immediately: his homosexuality."I didn't feel the desires to be with men like I had felt before," he said.Oden recounted the same story from his side of the event."We laid hands on him," he said."He was hit by the power of God and filled with the Holy Ghost ... got plugged into our church, and is just living for God."Hill and Jacobs are thrilled by what's happening to the unsaved at these Purity Sieges. Hill said, "Every single time we see souls saved ... people set free from all kinds of addictions." Jacobs added, "They're falling under the power and getting up saved, delivered, changed. And this is revival. This is what happens in revival."Twenty-year-old Sarah Sanders of the Heartland School of Ministry loves being right in the middle of the unusal goings-on at these Purity Sieges. She said, "If we're going to go out to the streets and we're going to go out and share the love of Jesus, why not expect something crazy to happen?" Sanders and her friend Rimannuel Appling typify the new fearless, on-fire young Christians used to moving out in boldness.Appling told CBN News, "I laid hands on sick people, God began to heal them. I prayed for people, God began to touch them. I was only 15-and-a-half years old. I talked to a sick person. I said, 'Can I pray for you?' Jesus began to touch them, began to heal them. I began to talk to them about the love of Jesus Christ. That's all you have to do."Youth pastor Jeff Baldwin says that's the kind of walk it will take to reach this generation. "They want a Kingdom encounter. They want to see the demonstration of the power of God made public." As evangelist Joe Oden put it, "It's time the church came out of the closet." Hill believes God has an awesome plan that starts along I-35. "Let's draw a line in the center of America, set people on fire for God, get young people saved, get moms and dads saved, get churches on fire, living holy and watch how it affects the rest of America."Jacobs added, "What do we expect to see? We expect laws to be changed in cities. We expect righteous leaders. We expect a movement and reformation that will literally sweep the earth." Baldwin said enthusiastically, "There's something happening. There's a shift in the heavenlies. I believe we're moving angels and demons right now."Some folks might think it odd-God doing a major work along an American freeway. But how strange is it really that He's using a highway to lead people to The Way?As in the days of Noah....
