A step, no peace

It was 1972 and I had carried the cross from the English Channel at Dieppe to Paris, France. I was heading east toward Germany. As I put the cross on my shoulder that morning and started to walk out of the campground in Paris, just as I was in that first step, I felt "no peace," but very troubled. I stopped in mid-step. I knew something was wrong.

 I asked the Lord, "I walk on toward Germany or Italy?"
 No peace.
"I go north toward Denmark?"
 No peace.
"I go back to England?"
 No peace.

I stood in shocked silence. The only way left was south to Spain and Africa. That was the way I did not want to go. Then I said, "Lord I will go south?" Wow! I can feel it even as I type this.

"Yes" and the awesome Glory of the Lord covered and filled me. Peace, like peace beyond words filled my heart. I immediately headed south through France, Spain, and Portugal then into North Africa and a two-year walk across Africa. I knew and never doubted that call that day.

Since I was a child I have felt the Voice of Jesus speaking to me. The Father sharing and the Holy Spirit leading in my heart and life.

As a child some nights I would climb a big tree in our front yard and sit there in the branches looking at the night sky and talking with God. I knew His Presence and Voice. In the cotton fields Jesus would lead me so many steps in one direction and then in a different direction. He was training me as a child.

Many people ask me how I knew and know where to go in carrying the cross. My reply is, I pray and Jesus speaks and gives a time and the places to go in order. I simply go in that direction. I do not question His leadership. Looking at a map Jesus will show me a certain road to walk. Often people will tell me: "Don't go that way; there is fighting or bandits." I just say, "This is the road Jesus wants us to walk" -- and go on.

My call to carry the Cross

The call to carry the cross was so clear. I was preaching a crusade in Garland, Texas the first week of September 1969 at the First Baptist Church and at the Garland Stadium. As was normal for me, I also went into a night club to share Jesus Christ. There was a chain of night clubs called "The Cellar." That night I was preaching on the stage at the club in Dallas. The Cellars are notorious for their dancing girls and the drug addicts and rednecks the girls attracted. I had preached in the smoke-filled, loud and rowdy club on stage for fifteen minutes and then talked to the customers until very late. That day I had spoken at a school, then church, and then the club. Then in my room as I got ready to go to bed, Jesus spoke to me and said, "I want you to pray all night." As I knelt by my bed with only the sound of the air conditioner in the small one-story motel, I prayed. I was 28 years-old, only weeks away from my 29th birthday on October 27th. For years I had traveled America preaching youth crusades in churches, parks, beaches, bars, and parking lots then God led me to minister on Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California. I often wonder what would have happened should I not have obeyed and just went to bed. Would God have called again?

As I prayed suddenly Jesus spoke to me ... not in an audible voice, but in my heart and mind. I know His voice. In a clear revelation of witness to me, Jesus said, "I want you to take the cross that is hanging on the wall in HIS PLACE and put it on your shoulder and carry it on foot across America!"

I was stunned. The words lingered in my mind and then wave after wave of the power of the Holy Spirit swept over me, from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head like ocean waves. It seemed as though inside of me my inner being was aglow. I was immersed in that incredible call, bathed in the Holy Spirit's lingering presence. I was crying. Tears were pouring down my face, even as I was smiling, praising God and laughing, saying, "Thank you, Jesus, wow! Yes, Lord! Thank you, Jesus."

The Lord spoke more. "I want you to take the cross to the roadsides and streets of the world to identify my message in the streets with the common man. I am sending you into the secular world. I am going to put the gospel on television, on the radio, by your walking. I want you to bear witness of My life and My love; proclaim My peace in the streets."

As I thought on these things it seemed the Lord was telling me, "When I was here in the flesh I was in the streets with the common man, that is where my message has to be identified, in the streets." I didn't question the call, only thrilled that Christ had spoken to me.

I raced out of my motel room to the next room and began to pound on the door. "Wake up! Open the door!" I cried out.

I could hear stumbling toward the door and then it opened. "What in the world are you doing, Blessitt?!" It was O.J. Peterson and Jim McPheeters, my singing group; they were on the staff of HIS PLACE in Hollywood. O.J. had been a night club piano player and was now converted. Jim had been in the Marines in Vietnam and had been converted at HIS PLACE. They were in their early twenties.

I turned on the light as they stood rubbing their eyes.

"Praise the Lord, God wants me to take the cross that is on the wall at HIS PLACE and carry it across America from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. and spread the Word of Jesus across the land. Jesus is the answer. He is the way out of our troubles. He is the solution"

"Blessitt, are you crazy?" they said, trying to get awake.

"Can we go with you?" they asked. "We can sing and you can preach across America."

"Praise God!" I said.

I knew it was right for them to go with me. I sat down at the foot of their bed and we began to plan the trip in the early morning hours. In all my wildest dreams I never thought my life would be indelibly imprinted with a twelve-foot wooden cross. That was in 1969 and as I write this, it is over 40 years later and I am still living in that call. Never questioned or doubted the Voice of Jesus in my heart that night.

Arthur Blessitt Website