David
Stryzewski
Greetings fellow Brothers and Sisters in the Body of Christ,
My name is David Stryzewski, and the following is a testimony of one of the most sovereign acts that I’ve personally witnessed. I have been sharing this with people at various events over this last year, and feel that there is now a window of opportunity to (Hab 2:2) “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” So I pray that the Lord would speak to your life though this testimony, and that this message would awaken the Bride of Christ to take her rightful place in intercession to shift this nation back into alignment with the Lord. (Please wait to open the photo until after you’ve read the story as it will have more impact on your spirit after you’ve heard what the Lord is saying though it.)
It was the morning of August 14th 2008; I had traveled with a
team of young adults from Washington State and the House of Prayer
in Kansas City to Washington DC to be apart of the event that Lou
Engle was hosting simply known as “The Call.” If you are unfamiliar
with this ministry, The Call events are specifically focused to
mobilize massive gatherings of fasting and prayer in the spirit and
direction of the book of Joel chapter 2. Nearly 100,000 believers
from many regions and denominations gathered at this particular
event at the Mall in WA-DC on the 16th to cry out to God in
intercession on many fronts in the midst of a very important
election year. As Lou says it “When there is no hope… when there is
no remedy… God still has a holy prescription!”
So we had all just arrived and decided to go see and prayer walk our nations capital in order to prepare our hearts for what was going to go down in the next few days, and to get a sense for the spiritual atmosphere of the city. The National Mall was our venue and it is basically this huge park in the middle of downtown that on one side has the United States Capital building and on the other the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument with a reflection pond. Now the Lincoln Memorial and reflection pond have been the platform for likely more historically famous events in our nation’s history than anywhere close. This place has seen events like Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream” speech, to countless Presidential inaugurations, and Promise Keepers putting a million men on the Mall.
After spending a few hours in the near by Holocaust Museum (which will change your life and mess you up all at the same time), our group went out to prayer walk the Mall, and see what the Lord would have to say. No joke, almost as soon as we arrived on this perfect hot and sunny August day everything began to change! Suddenly a major cloud system begin to roll in over us accompanied with a thunder and lightning storm, and it began to rain harder than I think I’ve ever seen it rain!
Just then the Lord began to speak to me and remind me that one of the translations for the word intercession is “to stand in the gap.” Isn’t it interesting that the Lord designed a gap in the middle of the our densely populated nation’s capitol called The Mall, which again is this huge park that we were literally going to be standing in, in intercession on behalf of our nation only days later! Now my spirit was beginning to recognize that the Lord was speaking to us directly through our circumstances as we were literally standing in this place of the gap with this wild and unexpectedly severe storm raging around us. I began to put the pieces together and pray “Yes God, Roar like a might thunder storm from Washington DC again … come oh God, may you reign in this city and nation again, we need you to come and cleanse our land!”
After this time of proclamations and contending for The Call gathering and its impact on our nation to follow, the sun began to come out and I clearly felt the Holy Spirit impress upon me that I would have an opportunity to take a picture of the National Monument with a rainbow or lightening or something unique over it. And that this picture would hold keys concerning The Call event that we were attending and how we would go forward as a praying people.
We were standing near the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the reflection pond and I quickly positioned myself dead center so that I could get the right shot when He did what He was going to do. Well, 15 or so minutes pass by, the rain has now dissipated, the sun was now totally out, and my group that was psyched by what just happened in prayer and what had been impressed upon me had now gone off to explore and left me standing there with one buddy. I was for sure expecting to at least have seen a rainbow by this point, but no. The sun is out again, no rainbow in sight and the thunder and lightening which had been near to us earlier was now way off in the distance.
So I asked out loud. “God, am I missing it here? I don’t want to play games; didn’t you just say that you were going to do something?” Then about 30 more seconds passed as I stood there waiting patiently with Will and my camera steadily zoomed and ready to shoot. I then felt the Lord say “Count to three and snap the picture.” I literally counted out loud to three and clicked the camera at the same time as a BANG! Will and I rejoiced with everything in us jumping for joy and giving glory to God for this incredible miracle captured on a digital camera! (Now you can take a look at the pictures)
Powerful right! But this next part is going to blow you away… The next day at the Pre-Call rally, The Lord directed me to sit down next to a lady who during one of the breaks was asking me about myself and what was happening in WA. So, I was giving her the download and then started to share with her about out this picture from the day before, when she stopped me to say, “David you have to be kidding me, do you have any idea who you are sitting next to?” “No, I responded with a smile.” She said “Twenty-five years ago my father worked for a company that was contracted to service the lightning rod at the top of the National Monument, and he’s the guy whose job it was to climb out and repair it. So you are literally sitting next to the daughter of the guy whose job it was to make sure this lightning rod was grounded that no one in the building would be killed if it was struck.” Wow, her dad had serviced the lightning rod that this bolt is striking in this photo!
Here are a couple of things that I believe the Lord is saying through this…
Isn’t it interesting that one of the words for Intercession is the word “paga,” which I have heard Dutch Sheets share in a message as meaning “to strike a specific mark or target with power.” He then likened this word through our intercessory prayer to being like the “Lighting bolt of God that would strike the mark with power in order to bring forth a shift and change!” And here’s the kicker, as we are all aware, later on that year our nation elected Barack Obama as President, whose first name in the Hebrew literally translates as “Thunder.”
So this picture is literally an encapsulation of the promise of God on our intercession in this season, that as we stand in the gap on behalf of this nation, that our prayers will strike the mark with power in order to bring forth a shift and change that would be seen through the restoration of the Lords mighty Reign in this land. And as we all know if lightning strikes though it may be delayed Thunder is sure to follow! A picture is worth 1000 words!
Now as we all know prophecy is contingent upon our getting into alignment with God, and the key that He immediately spoke into my spirit after this event took place was the Key of “if” found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 which is a promise to us IF we will respond to the call.
I don’t know what you’d like to do with this revelation and
profound photograph, but I would be willing to let the
Praying Church use it to unite and inspire people all over the
nation to Fast and Pray with a renewed hope for God’s hand
to shift history back into alignment with His righteous purposes and
plans. Please forward this testimony to who ever you’d feel lead to.
I truly do believe that God has entrusted me with a gift for us, and
that we need to make sure we’re going to act and mobilize within the
lifetime of this opportunity He has for us. God bless you!
Please wait to open the photo until after you’ve read the story as it will have more impact on your spirit after you’ve heard what the Lord is saying though it.
[Click Here...] to see the photo.