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Arthur A Pilgrim Chapter-30

30. A FATHER AND SON’S WALK

October 1, 1981 – On this day, my son Arthur Joshua Blessitt came to me, pale and trembling. He could hardly speak. He finally pulled himself together and told me he had been in the yard and Jesus spoke to him. Joshua said he couldn’t see because he was blinded by a bright light, and that Jesus blessed him and said, “Joshua, make a cross and carry it alongside your father.”

He was ten years old. Praise God! We worked together building the cross and put a wheel on it. His cross was beautiful! I prayed for the glory of God to be upon Arthur Joshua Blessitt. I was so proud of my son. Awesome emotions went through my mind. I was helping my ten-year old son build a cross that he was going to carry beside me around the world, and knowing all I’d been through, tears poured down my cheeks. I was smiling and happy, yet burdened, knowing the life that was before him. What a child! I remembered the words in the Bible, “A child shall lead them.”

October 3 – At an “America for Jesus” Rose Bowl Rally, which is a follow-up to the “Washington for Jesus” Rally, many great and famous preachers were preaching today: Rosy Grier, Bill Bright, Shirley and Pat Boone, Demos Sacharian, John Jimenez, Pat Robertson, and many others. The Rose Bowl is where the New Year’s Day football game is played and where the famous Pasadena Rose Parade takes place just before the football game.

This was the first day that Joshua was to carry his cross. It was an historic day, a day I shall never forget as Joshua stood beside me and we prayed. We stepped out together, each with a cross, down the same street that eleven years earlier I had walked with the cross on my first day. We were going to march through Pasadena.

When we arrived, there were about 60,000 people at the Rose Bowl for the great rally. It was also being televised all over North America by TBN, The 700 Club and Christian Broadcasting Network. Paul Crouch spoke before me sharing the power of the Holy Spirit, a challenge to all Christians. He introduced me, as he often does. The anointing of God was so strong. I arrived on the green playing field carrying my cross, with Joshua carrying his cross behind me. No one had ever seen anything like it. . Two crosses, a father and son. Joshua set his cross next mine and knelt down to hold both of them. I can’t explain how I felt, to stand there and preach with awesome unreal power of the Holy Spirit, as Joshua knelt nearby holding our crosses. It was unbelievable. I was the last preacher. When I finished I told the people who had given their lives to Jesus Christ they could fill out and mail the card that everyone had received when they entered the stadium. But the power of God was so strong, so many people needed to be saved, I needed to do more.

I told to the people on the platform, “You may have made a mistake by inviting me, but I must give an invitation now for people to give their lives to Christ.” Then I said to the worshipers, “If you are in the stands and want to give your life to Jesus immediately come down to the front.”
And they came. Crowds of people were moving forward, crying and praying. I went down into the crowds. We were praying with hundreds at a time, trying to counsel and share with them. It was great and glorious.

Joshua was called by God to carry his cross beside his father on the first of October. On the second we made the cross and laid hands on him and committed him to Jesus and cried over him. On the third day of October he began in Pasadena and walked right where the Rose Parade is held, carrying the cross into the Rose Bowl before 60,000 people and Christian television, and made his declaration of commitment to Jesus and to carry the cross. What a day for Joshua! What a day to start his walk with the cross. Nobody can start in a bigger way, carrying the cross and ministering for Jesus. And, what a day of glory it was for me to see God call Joshua to do all this.

He had lain on my chest during our trips in Belgium and France in 1972 when he was just a little baby, for there was no room to lay him on the floor of my Volkswagen bus. When Joshua began to walk and talk we lived on the road overseas. He didn’t know he was an American. He didn’t know what country he was in, but he knew his daddy and he’d say to me, “Where you go, I go, Daddy!”

Those words ring in my ears every time I think of him “Where you go, I go, Daddy!” were some of his first words and his desire. He didn’t know where he was, he didn’t know what was happening, but he knew he wanted to go with me and then ten years later the Lord called him to take the cross and carry it beside his father. I think that is what we need, to fall so in love with Jesus and become so captivated with the call of Christ, that we would say, “Lord, where You go, I go. I’m not sure what the future holds, but I am sure I want to face it and live it with You. With all my heart I cry, where You go, I go, Jesus!”