Randy and Barbara Walter: "Name Your Gates and Take Back Your City"

From the desk of Steve Shultz:

This is a most awesome word full of testimonies and God reports from a group of people who took back their land for the Lord! Many are calling for revival in their cities and region...and WE play a big part of that!

Randy and Barbara Walter share from their own journey of how the Lord lead them, step by step, to pray over their own street, city and then region. You'll read about this and much more in this exciting word!

The Walter's share:

To take a city for Christ, praying at its gates is vital. In ancient times, the gates were where authorities heard people's causes and rendered judgments. As entrances to marketplaces, gates were often named accordingly (sheep gate, fish gate)... Knowing that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, spiritually fortifying city gates is a major defensive strategy. No wonder Nehemiah was so grieved when he learned Jerusalem's gates were "burned with fire."

Let this word encourage you to be proactive as the Lord leads you to take back your gates!

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Take Your Gate Back From the Enemy

"If you don't name your gates, someone else will," the Lord instructed as we prayed at the head of our street. We had just walked its length – declaring, praying and taking communion at houses whose residents were corrupting the town. We had been leading intercession all around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, praying and doing prophetic acts at hundreds of locations. Meanwhile, in our small town, the street we live on was taken hostage by the enemy and needed to be liberated. We had previously walked and prayed our street many times, but not for several years.

The issues on our street were: someone was arrested for child pornography, another man on our street would threaten to kill people whenever he was intoxicated, a neighbor was addicted to computer pornography, and then one of the largest drug busts in county history occurred on our street when SWAT team members with automatic weapons took down a house and found a huge cache of drugs.

Before leaving our house, we prayed, put on the whole armor of God, took Communion, and pled the Blood of Jesus over ourselves, our property and our family. Standing in our yard, we anointed the soles of our shoes with oil to carry a blessing of peace wherever our feet trod. Then we discreetly took communion in front of each house of offense, committing a portion of the elements to the ground for the healing of the land. We repented for what had occurred there and what led up to it, and called for the salvation of souls. It was obvious that our prayers were invading the darkness by the language which poured out of the windows of one house.

We walked a half-mile to one end, turned around and walked to the other end, the head/gate of our street where the town war memorial is located. Knowing the importance of praying at gates, we anointed it with the oil, sprinkled salt to symbolize our covenant with God, and took communion, again committing a portion of the elements to the ground. Then we asked the Lord to tell us the name of this gate, expecting it to be edifying like the names He had given us for gates in other places. (Photo via Wikipedia)

"The name of this gate is Perversion – until you change it," He said as we listened in shock. "If you don't name your gates, someone else will." We repeated the dedication of the gate and asked the Lord what we should rename it. "Journey," He said. "Call everyone on your street onto the journey into the Kingdom of God, or pray them off."

We did as instructed and within the week, people started leaving. The men with the child pornography and drug abuse issues went to prison. The woman with a large cement gargoyle in front of her home suddenly left. A house of hoarders was condemned by the health department, and the residents were forced to move. We think the other man with a porn issue repented. We made friends with the guy who threatened to kill people. In all, about seven houses were sold or vacated. We assume that everyone who remains on our street is destined for the Kingdom of God.

"Why Don't Your Gates Have Names?"

For years, we had been leading prayer journeys about 20 miles away in Salisbury, Maryland, our regional center of influence and commerce. When we started, this small city of 35,000 people was on its way to becoming the nation's fourth most dangerous city for its size. The Lord told us to, "Oppose a spirit of death in Salisbury," and charged us to name its gates. "The gates of My city had names. The gates of My temple had names. Why don't your gates have names?"

First, we had to identify the gates. That was easy. Two major highways intersect in Salisbury. Large signs are posted where each enters the city limits, reading, "Welcome to Salisbury, Crossroads of Delmarva." (Delmarva is a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, containing portions of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.) Our prayer team strategically named Salisbury's gates, "Truth, Holiness, Justice and Peace." To this day, we pray whenever we enter through one of these gates.

To take a city for Christ, praying at its gates is vital. In ancient times, the gates were where authorities heard people's causes and rendered judgments. As entrances to marketplaces, gates were often named accordingly (sheep gate, fish gate). Gates regulated what entered the city. If a gate were breached by an enemy, the city could be captured and its people plundered. Knowing that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, spiritually fortifying city gates is a major defensive strategy. No wonder Nehemiah was so grieved when he learned Jerusalem's gates were "burned with fire."

It is foolish to think we can pray only once or twice. If we let down our guard, the enemy will try to retake the territory we capture from him. So after praying several times at Salisbury's gates, we organized a "Freedom Ride." Two dozen intercessors took a three-hour bus ride around the city limits, declaring blessings, repenting for the city's sin, and singing praises to God. We stopped to pray at each of the gates and the Planned Parenthood office. We spoke light and life to the city, superseding its covenant with death. Our intercession and worship established a wall of righteousness around its borders. (Photo via Randy Walter)

We printed and distributed 200 yard signs which said, "Salisbury, It's God's Time for You. PRAY: Churches come together, righteousness prevail, wells of revival flow."

Over the 6 1/2 years we have prayed for Salisbury, violent crime has declined by 55%. The chief of police acknowledges prayer as a major reason. "If it weren't for the tremendous work you are doing, none of it would be possible," she said. We have prayed on-site at all its public schools and colleges, and at churches, government offices including police and fire headquarters, the courthouse, crime hot spots, homeless enclaves, parachurch ministries, and locations known for human trafficking. We prayed for families and fathers, prodigals and backsliders, and declared, "Living water enter every home" at an artesian well and the city pumping station. We called that campaign, "A Time to Love Salisbury."

Regional Gate

The Chesapeake Bay represents four things prophetically: GOVERNMENT – three state capitals and Washington, DC are near the bay; MILITARY – on the bay are the U.S. Naval Academy and numerous military installations; COMMERCE – it is a thoroughfare for commercial fishing and shipping; and BORDERS – it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at the nation's Eastern Gate.

Prior to our Salisbury campaign, in September, 2007, the Lord told us to sail across the Chesapeake and declare His Word. On a passenger ferry as we faced each point of the compass, Randy spoke page after page of Scriptures to the land, water and people. We didn't realize until later that it was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

The Lord explained that our voices would carry farther over the water than on the land. He told us to anoint the soles of our shoes with oil when we landed and to "carry a blessing wherever your feet tread." Then He said, "Pray for the land ahead of the people, for the land is more cursed than the people are." The iniquities of the fathers are passed down to the third and fourth generations, but the land retains curses from sin until it is purged through repentance. As long as curses remain on the land, they hinder man. (Photo via Randy Walter)

We changed ferries in the middle of the bay at Tangier Island. Because of its spiritual heritage from Methodist camp meetings conducted there during the Second Great Awakening, the Lord called Tangier, "the pearl in the oyster." This was a strategic place from which to pray for the entire bay region to experience repentance and salvation.

The Lord told us to return with prayer warriors and "take territory." We rallied our network of intercessors, sending them e-mails with prophetic messages, prayer points and regional history for spiritual mapping. In May, 2008, we led 43 intercessors to Tangier Island to pray with its residents. With us were people from Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. It was 400 years since the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, and 200 years after those historic camp meetings started on Tangier.

On the ferry ride, the praise and worship were so extravagant that islanders said they could hear us coming. It was highly significant that this occurred on the water. We met for prayer in Tangier's historic Methodist Church, rending Heaven with pleas for the farmers, watermen and 17 million souls that live around the Chesapeake area. Then, after fellowship and breaking bread, it was time to depart.

As we prepared for this incursion, Barbara and I journeyed to the grave of Joshua Thomas, the "Parson of the Islands" who helped start the Tangier camp meetings in 1807. Leaning against his vault was an oyster shell. It seemed important so we took it with us. I had that shell in my pocket as the ferry returned from Tangier Island, and the Lord said to anoint and pass it among the intercessors on board to pray over. Then He said to throw it into the bay and declare, "Revival to the shellfish!" In retrospect, we were naming this gate Revival.

Ecologists, government agencies and the media had all sounded the death knells of the bay for many years, saying the oysters and famous Chesapeake blue crabs were dying out due to pollution and disappearing habitat. Eleven days after we prayed on Tangier, the mayor called and said, "Crabs are runnin.'" It was the beginning of the largest crab harvest in living memory. After crabbing season, watermen went out for oysters and "every man caught his limit," the mayor would later tell us. All this occurred in Tangier Sound, the portion of the bay where we threw in the oyster shell.

Each year since 2008, the crab and oyster harvest has increased and spread to other portions of the bay. When we asked the Lord what actually happened, He said, "If you can speak it (revival) to the shellfish, you can speak it to the people."

National Gate

Just as the Chesapeake Bay is the gateway to Delmarva, the eastern seaboard is America's Eastern Gate. Its gateposts are the covenants with God affirmed in 1562 by French Huguenots at Jacksonville, Florida, and in 1620 by the Mayflower Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Its doors open and close over the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. (Photo via Randy Walter)

The Lord has instructed us to stand on the beach in Ocean City, Maryland, face America's Eastern Gate and proclaim, "No access to terror!" With scores of intercessors, we have declared Psalm 24 over the ocean:

Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.

We asked the Lord to enter through the Eastern Gate and release the love, glory and government of God to wash over the land and refresh the people.

Ocean City is one of the east coast's premier beach resorts, hosting millions of tourists every summer. U.S. Rt. 50 begins in Ocean City, horizontally bisects the United States, and ends over 3,000 miles later in Sacramento, California. In 2011, intercessors prayed at the eastern end of Rt. 50 and asked the Lord for the name of this gateway to the nation. He answered, "Destiny."

Where are the gates to your city and region? What are their names? Are they dedicated to the purposes of God? If not, what are you waiting for?

Randy and Barbara Walter
Shiloh Ministries | Salisbury Revival Prayer Network
Email: shilohministries@comcast.net

Randy and Barbara Walter conduct Shiloh Ministries on Maryland's Eastern Shore, emphasizing intercession and the prophetic, and facilitating seminars and workshops. They have interceded on-site and led prayer journeys at hundreds of locations through their Chesapeake Revival Prayer Network. The Lord has assigned them to pray for awakening, outpouring and cultural transformation. For 25 years, Randy edited a regional Christian newspaper called the Manna. Randy and Barbara have ministered together throughout their 33 years of marriage. They have recently published their sixth book, Where Do You Hurt? Where Do You Hide?

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