After pastoring 70 years, fighting in World War II, and preaching at revivals all over the U.S, a 93-year-old pastor now believes he is called to his final mission to usher in the spiritual awakening of the nation again.
It was two years ago that he encountered God at his prayer garden two miles from his house in Marble, which he calls " right House Mountain," the Baptist Press reports.
The Rev. Fred Lunsford, who was one of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in 1944, spent many hours every day in his prayer garden, and he prayed over serious prayer topics.
"I was ready for the Lord to take me home, then God said, 'Not yet because I've got some unfinished business that I need you to take care of,'" he told the BP. "Celebrate 70 years in the ministry and get everybody you can to be praying for spiritual awakening. I want to send renewal. I want to send a new work among you."
"He [God] extended my years for a reason, and He wanted me to pray for spiritual awakening and to get as many people praying as I could," Lunsford said to Bp News. "God spoke into my heart, and I yielded to it. It's not me; it's the Lord."
For the next two years, Lunsford told everyone he could about his mission to pray for revival and believed that it would come.
David Horton, president of Fruitland Baptist Bible College in Hendersonville, N.C was inspired by Lunsford's testimony and shared the mission with Greg Mathis, a pastor of Mud Creek Baptist Church visited and spent a day with Lunsford January 20, 2020, and the men prayed for the spiritual awakening to begin inside their vehicle, and Lunsford said that with the pastors' visit, it had begun.
"I don't know how to explain to you what happened that day," Mathis said. "I have never felt a manifestation of the Spirit of God like I did in that vehicle that day."
Lunsford and Mathis began planning for a gathering of 100 pastors which quickly turned into 200 at the top of Lunsford's "Light House Mountain" to pray for revival and awakening.
"I believe honestly that God is going to do something extraordinary, that will get the attention of people all over the world. I don't know what it is, but I believe it with all my heart," He added.
Mud Creek Baptist Church is releasing a documentary on Lunsford's life and mission. You can watch a preview of the touching testimony here.
