A Burden for University/College Students – Spring Break
The Story Begins
Back in 2009, I experienced a culmination of several dreams and supernatural experiences led me to one of the most significant ongoing intercessory burdens that I carry. I am referring to the intercessory burden of praying for young adults, especially college students. Here is the story of how this came to be. I know it is a bit long, so thank you so much for reading.
You may have already read the first part of this story of how God led me into a specific burden to pray for young adults, particularly those of college age. On March 22, 2011 the Lord took this intercessory burden to a new level. First I will share with you the original story that happened last summer and then will tell you what happened in March around spring break time. The following has to do with, what we call, prophetic dreams and visions. These are a few of the ways the Holy Spirit communicates the things that are on his heart to us. The following is the story of a prophetic journey that led me to one of the strongest burdens of intercession I have carried to date.
Dream 1
I had a dream that my friend, Randall Martin, and I were at a university campus. I do not know which university it was. We were standing under a breezeway because it was threatening to rain. To our right, and slightly downhill, were about a hundred students gathered in a campus square. They were approximately 100 yards away. Instantly, there came a torrential downpour and a heavy wind. Most of the students ran for cover; however a group of 20 or 30 raised large umbrellas as if they thought it would be fun to ride out the storm. Suddenly a strong wind picked them up into the air, and many of them dropped to their deaths from 50 or 60 feet. Some were caught up and never came down. As we observed this, we fell on our faces in grief and travail (Strong weeping prayer). The next scene was several hours later. The campus was covered with national and international news media. There were many people being interviewed about what they saw happen. It seemed that the nation was being shaken by this event.
In response to the catastrophe, a major student revival had broken out on the campus and Randall and I were a part of it. We weren’t leading the revival; we were just facilitating and watching over it. The students were leading the revival. The students were praying for one another with full-blown signs, wonders, miracles, healings and salvation’s happening.
God in the Night Seasons
Now we are going to jump forward about three weeks. We were living in Glasgow, Scotland at the time in an old three-story stone house. In the middle of the night my wife Darla and I were awakened by a noise in our room. It was the sound of the walls, ceiling, floor and furniture creaking as if the room was expanding. The next thing we noticed was that the music on our laptop had stopped. We have a list of worship songs on iTunes that we play each night and the music just stopped. A few seconds later the music came back on in the middle of a Delirious song called, “Did You Feel Mountains Tremble.” This song was written in 1994 by Martin Smith and Matt Redman. When the song came back on, this was the verse that was being played:
And here we see that God You’re moving
A time of Jubilee is coming
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide You heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord
I heard the Lord speak to my heart and He said, “This is what I want you to hear.” It seemed the line “when young and old return to Jesus” was being highlighted by the Holy Spirit.
Dream 2
I had another dream about university aged young people. This one was much more disturbing. In the dream, I was at Bob Jones’ house in South Carolina. I was standing with him and Bobby Conner, and we were watching a newscast on the television. It was a report on a large gathering of college students on what seemed to be the top of a high dam, like the Hoover Dam in Nevada. It seemed like a spring break party-type atmosphere. Then all of a sudden I was not watching on television anymore, but I was there. I was standing on a high cliff overlooking the scene. On the left side of the dam there was a chute of water steeply running down. Somebody shouted that they should slide down this chute. The chute was directly beneath where I stood and I could hear the screams as young men and women fell hundreds of feet to their deaths. They had no idea that this chute ended with a straight drop off. I awoke extremely shaken by what I had seen in the dream. As I spent time in prayer that morning I noted the date August 30th. I then thought I would look in my journal to see what the date of the first dream was, and it was July 30th. Thirty is the number of the age of maturity in ministry. I knew that I was onto something.
Back To Delirious
The Lord reminded me about the story of Martin Smith and his near fatal car crash in 1995. This is the Wikipedia account of the crash:
On August 30th, 1995, Martin Smith was driving back from a gig at the Grapevine Festival in Lincolnshire when, in the early hours of the morning and only around the corner from home, he was involved in a serious car accident. (The song “August 30th” on the ‘King of Fools’ album was written about this event.) The crash turned out to be an important moment in Smith’s life and the life of the band.
I then remembered what happened in our bedroom and the Delirious song. God was beginning to put it all together:
- Jesus, Joseph and David all were 30 when they entered the fullness of their calling.
- The band “Delirious” was called by God to awaken a generation.
- Bob Jones talks about the “Billion Youth Revival” that is coming.
- I believe the enemy wants to bring a pre-emptive strike against this young generation because he sees them as a great threat to the kingdom of darkness.
- Just as in the life of Moses and Jesus, there was a decree to destroy the deliverer before he reached the age of maturity.
- Bob Jones (who has since gone to be with the Lord) and Bobby Conner are prophets, but they are also fathers in the body of Christ. This generation desperately needs fathers and mothers to pray for them and speak into their lives.
- God is about to pour out on university campuses around the world.
I was able to share this burden later that evening on August 30 with the leaders at Glasgow Prophetic Centre. I told them that this was something really on God’s heart and asked if we could spend a few minutes in corporate intercession for this generation. The intercession was focused and powerful, many praying with passion for this young adult generation around the world.
Forward to March 2011
The night of March 21 I made plans to spend a couple hours in prayer the next morning. I went on a prayer hike at a park near our home in Gartcosh, Scotland. When I awoke on March 22, I was thinking about spring break and the experience that I was relating to it last summer. As I was driving to the park I decided to spend the time praying for college-age young adults. I prayed for the various spring break gatherings, especially in America. At one point in my walk through the woods, during a time when I was praying that God would defeat the spirit of lawlessness at these events, I had a vision…
The Spring Break Gathering Vision
In the vision, I was standing on stage at a spring break concert. I immediately began to pray for those at the event and then I declared a proclamation with force. I took my walking stick and, with both hands raised vertically, hit the stage four or five times. I said, “I declare an end to the spirit of lawlessness and I release the spirit of purity, holiness, integrity and righteousness. Then I perceived the leading of the Holy Spirit to preach to this crowd of what I knew to be 3000 young adults. As I began to preach, the place was struck by an earthquake. It was so dramatic that I felt it physically as I was standing on the trail. I had to open my eyes and take a step back to keep from losing my balance. Once I regained my balance, I closed my eyes and immediately reentered the vision. I looked out and saw the back one third of the outdoor venue sinking into the earth, along with all the young adults that were in that area. As this happened, the rest of the crowd began to press towards the stage. I saw those hanging over the precipice being pulled up and saved. Once again, I began to pray for the crowd that they would have a revelation of Jesus. I ask the Holy Spirit how many remained. He firmly said, “You have 2000 remaining before you, NOW PREACH.” I preached the gospel to them and they all responded. I could see angels coming to minister over them as they received salvation. That was the end of the vision.
After the vision I went back to my car and wrote out what happened in my journal. As I put away the journal I heard the Spirit say to me “Do you remember what day this is?” Then it hit me. March 22 is my spiritual birthday. On this day, 36 years ago, at the age of 17, I gave my life to Jesus.
Forward to July 30, 2011
On that day, we were doing a Burning Hearts School of Intercession at a church in Springfield, Oregon. On Saturday morning we had to move our training from the sanctuary into a much smaller room. The church had realized that they have booked the Saturday morning for a funeral in the sanctuary. We said that would be no problem and crowded about 30 people into the smaller classroom. As I begin to teach I felt a great prompting by the Holy Spirit to tell this story. As I was telling of the first dream my wife Darla raised her hand. She said, “That dream happened a year ago today.” We all were amazed. As I continued to tell the story of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in a room was almost overwhelming. I could hardly speak for tearing up. We stopped right then and, as a group, interceded for college students. It was as if the Lord wanted us to be in this smaller place to bring a unity in intercession that may not have had in the other room. The interesting thing was that my friend Randall, who was in the first dream, was there in the room. .
I then realized the place of the first dream was the University of Oregon campus. Randall also works at the University of Oregon. The dream happened at what they call the Memorial Quad. This is a large courtyard area, with crisscrossing sidewalks, that is surrounded by the university library, art museum and other buildings. In the dream Randall and I were standing in front of the art museum. After the training I told Randall that I thought the dream was at the U of O. we decided to go there and pray on Tuesday, August 2. We prayed for all the students of the University. We ask God to send revival to that campus as well as all the other campuses. It was a tremendous time of prayer.
Our Response
Will you join us in continuing to pray for this generation… that the enemy will not prevail in destroying these deliverers before they step into the full maturity of all they are called to; and that God would move powerfully on university campuses all over the world? Will you pray especially for all the spring break gatherings Pray for their protection and safety as well as for God to move mightily in this generation. This request is coming, not just from an intercessor, but from a Dad who has had two daughters in university. I implore you to please spend some time in prayer about this. Thank you so much.
Mike Bachelder
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