X

New Jesus Movement

New Jesus Movement                                        

Check out our new website that shows many photos of the Jesus Movement along with links for videos, books, materials and live streaming, The Cross movie, etc. from 1967 on  www.newjesusmovement.org

This is my personal story, seen through my eyes of what became the Jesus Movement and how it moved around the world written by me, Arthur Blessitt. Please view and read about our:

www.blessitt.com/sunset-strip-his-place-and-the-late-60s

There is a stirring in America and the world about a New Jesus Movement. Many different groups are doing events and meetings to bring this to pass. Most of the people involved in present day efforts to bring this to pass were not part of the start of this movement in 1967 or 1968. It is very important to see and understand what was in the past to face the future.

It is very important to know that you do not have to use the word Jesus Movement or New Jesus Movement or any other term to be a part of the true proclaiming and witnessing of Jesus anywhere in the world today. 

You may be a pastor of a church focused on sharing Jesus, great! You may currently be a missionary, sharing Jesus and teaching the Word of God, great! You may have a home Bible Study or an outreach evangelism team, great! You may be an evangelist witnessing, preaching and seeking to bring the lost to Jesus, great! As you teach, share and pray and go in the power of the Holy Spirit you are as much a part of the Jesus Movement as someone using that name in promoting their witness. 

Almost all the time as I went around the world carrying the cross and witnessing for Jesus I seldom used the term Jesus Movement. I was seeking to help people to know Jesus and follow Him as followers of Jesus have been doing for 2,000 years. 

Our website has hundreds of pages but I only use the term Jesus Movement, Jesus People, Jesus Freaks, or Jesus Revolution a few times. Even though I was and am a part of the movement so are all the followers of Jesus loving and sharing Jesus in power with zeal and joy! Glory!

The Jesus Movement began when the angel Gabriel said to the virgin Mary, “You shall call His Name Jesus… the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:31-35.

Then: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11.

Jesus then called His twelve Disciples or Apostles. Matthew 10:2. Then Jesus sent out the seventy. Luke 10:1-17.

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people”. Matthew 9:35.

Jesus spent about three to three and a half years traveling around preaching, teaching, performing miracles and fulfilling the prophecies showing He was the Messiah, the Savior. 

Jesus carried the cross to Calvary and shed His Holy Sinless Blood for the sins of the world. Jesus died on the cross and was buried and on the third day He arose! Alive and living, victorious over death, hell and the grave. Glory. After showing Himself to many He ascended into Heaven.

Before He went into heaven He told his followers (120 men & women) to wait and pray “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in all Judea and Samaria , and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8.

Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost in the streets in Jerusalem where 3,000 people were converted to Jesus and saved. The people that were now followers of Jesus took the Jesus Movement back to their nations. Acts Chapter 2. 

Later after great persecution upon the new church “those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word.” Acts 8:4.

To get the story of Jesus please read in the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then read the Book of Acts and see how the message of Jesus moved across the known world of that day. And to get a complete picture read the remainder of the New Testament through to the Book of Revelation. The original Jesus Movement was filled with the Fire of the Holy Spirit and the Power of God filling followers of Jesus with love and a zeal to share the Gospel with all the world.

The message of Jesus went out to the world for the past 2,000 years with billions of people calling themselves Christians. There have been a number of periods in history where names have been given to times of revival, awakening and outpourings of repentance and salvation. Many of these occasions have a name associated with the mighty works of God.

I remember as a child hearing of the great revivals and was converted and saved at the age of 7 years old at a ‘Brush Arbor Revival Meeting’.

I loved Jesus from a baby but getting saved was the beginning of the Jesus Movement in me. The next day I started sharing Jesus with my friends and surrendered to preach when I was 15 years old. Following Jesus, sharing Jesus and preaching Jesus has been my life. I have not been perfect, but to serve Jesus and follow Him is the passion of my heart and I have never turned away from that.

I shall skip many years as I have written about these times in other books. That brings me to Hollywood, California 1967. I will share a brief look back because should the past being the reference point of such a movement and given the name of this movement we need to know something of the history.

This will not be an overview of the entire reach of what became the Jesus Movement, but my personal testimony! As one involved from the first days of this outpouring of Jesus upon the youth of the ’60s and then into the early ’70s. 

This will be a very pointed personal view of my part in this awakening. I will not be talking about the other glorious people and ministries that came to make up this movement. I will not be talking about my family, staff or the many people that in one way or another worked with me. To do so would require volumes and I wrote seven books covering those days.

I have never written about my overall view of the events that impacted me or what I did to impact the sharing of Jesus to the masses of people in need of the Savior. This moved from ‘Personal Soul-winning” to “Jesus Freaks” to “Jesus People” to “the Jesus Movement” or “Jesus Revolution” and now the desire for a New Jesus Movement. Just remember, this is just my own personal story not a complete history of the movement. This is from my own eyes and Jesus at work in me.

The Jesus Movement did not begin in the late ’60s nor did it die in the mid ’70s. It began with Jesus and is still moving! It has never stopped.

For those who say it died out I would say that it may have died out of many peoples lives when they lost the love, passion, power and zeal that they had for the lost. But it has never died out in my life! I have lived to see with my eyes and hear with my ears the Jesus Movement go into every country and major island group on earth as I’ve carried the cross sharing Jesus.

There was no meetings or planning of events that was the springboard to this revival in 1967. It started on the streets and parks and then in a few small gatherings on Sunset Strip, Hollywood and in San Francisco and around the Bay area and Southern California. 

The real foundation of what was to become the Jesus Movement started much earlier than most think. It took deep root long before the major news media jumped in during 1971 and became huge news in 1972.  

In 1967 I was preaching at a wrestling match and in a topless nightclub in San Bernardino, Ca. As well as a big rally in the parking lot at a psychedelic nightclub near Phoenix, Az which was in the newspapers and on TV. We were leading the young people out on the streets at the churches I preached at. The time was electric. The hippie movement was exploding and the moment was ready. 

I was preaching at First Southern Baptist Church, La Puente, Ca. in the L.A. area. With the pastor and about twenty young people we drove into Los Angeles to a big hippie gathering at Griffith Park. There was hard rock music playing and the air was full of smoke from the hippies smoking grass while drinking. It was wild and certainly not like the crowds that were coming to my youth revivals.  

I had on a suit and tie and looked totally out of place. We were giving out gospel tracts about how to be saved as we passed through the crowds sitting on the ground. One young man seemed very blown away with what I was saying as I shared Jesus with him. 

Every time I would say, “Jesus” he would jump and say,“Wow.”

But Jesus was at work that day with a plan I did not know about. 

The man looked at his watch and said, “The band is about to stop and another will come on. There is a gap of about 5 minutes and I want you to get up there and tell the kids what you have been telling me about Jesus! Don’t take over 5 because the music will start.” 

I was in shock! I had preached in nightclubs before but this was different by far. I knew that my regular message would not work there. I got ready. The man took me to the stage and when the band stopped he handed me the mike and said,“Go!” I rushed to the front of the stage with about 15,000 hippies in front of me. 

I shouted “How many of you want to get high?” There was a huge cheer. 

I replied “Then pray, you will go all the way to heaven!” “How many of you want to get loaded?” A great cheer. 

“Then load up on a little, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!”

There was silence…

What was happening??? For me it was the first drop of water of a coming flood! Jesus was moving.

“Many of you are tripping. But soon you will come down with a crash.”

“Jesus is the ultimate eternal trip and Jesus will never let you down!”

I had never spoken using these words but they were hitting hearts in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

As I finished the brief message I said, “Any of you that want to receive Jesus as your Savior meet me under that tree over there.” 

Our group gathered there and about a hundred to two hundred of the hippies came over with dozens being saved. My life was never to be the same. Jesus spoke to me so clearly. “Go walk along the Sunset Strip and share Jesus. Go where the people are!” 

Soon we moved to Hollywood. I started walking the streets and going into the Hippie hangouts and nightclubs sharing Jesus. We rented a small room on the Strip so new converts could meet and get follow up Bible study and prayer. We opened it when we came back from the streets at night and then took them out to share Jesus with others. The hippies began to call us Jesus Freaks. The nightclubs were open to me to share in and even speak on stage along the Strip. 

In early 1968 I began preaching on stage at Gazzarri’s nightclub where Bill Gazzarri ‘the godfather of Rock and Roll’ welcomed me. I preached on Tuesday nights with crowds lined up to get in. I arranged for music by getting Eddie Smith, Andraé Crouch, Sharon Peck and the Sunshine Sisters, Charles McPheeters, and The Jimmy Owens singers and others.  Starting at 10pm for one hour we’d have singing then I would preach and call people to the front to receive Jesus. This was awesome. Teen Magazine did a big feature on me in September 1968.

We realized we needed a Jesus coffee house so that the many coming to Jesus could come in, get free coffee and snacks along with the gospel. Our preaching was at midnight every night. When the clubs closed at 2am we stayed open and the people poured in. We shut the doors about three to four in the mornings.

Church youth groups would come and meet at His Place, the name of our building. We would do some brief evangelism training and then send them out to share Jesus person to person then they would come back for the midnight gathering. 

The heart and soul of what was happening was focused on leading a person to Jesus and immediately taking them out to where they had been hanging out to share Jesus with their friends and strangers. 

Many ministry groups started coming to the Strip to witness. I have written two books about those early days in the late ’60s. One is called ‘Life’s Greatest Trip’  by Word Books and the other “Turned on to Jesus” by Hawthorne Books. We also recorded an album called “Soul Session at His Place”. In a supermarket I saw the price stickers on cans and got the idea for “Jesus Stickers”. One inch stickers with messages like “Turn on to Jesus”, “Smile God loves you”, “Real Peace is Jesus” and more. I still give out Jesus stickers today and they are available at our Online Store. One man, a wonderful friend, Fred Roach bought us five million Jesus stickers! 

I was not alone but with a family and staff. I am just sharing a brief overview about the move of Jesus at this time. Just know I worked with some of the best men and women ever to witness on the streets and attend our Jesus nightclub ‘His Place’. 

We saw a huge awakening in Louisville, Kentucky starting at Walnut Street Baptist Church, the crowds grew so we moved to a large auditorium and then on to Freedom Hall with 18,000 young people. I spoke in almost every high school in the area. The pastor Dr. Wayne Dehoney of Walnut Street said, “The youth crusade breaks out of the church and shaken the city.” 

Different outreach groups would meet all over Southern California and go out witnessing in their area. In Hollywood there were several wonderful ministries and sometimes we would gather in rallies with awesome response. 

I would use one word that might help one understand what was happening. The word is ‘Zeal’! A Zeal given by God and filling the hearts of the people going out for others to be saved. Most conversations between the people witnessing was about prayer, evangelism, the Holy Spirit, Jesus and how to reach Sunset Strip and the world with the message of Jesus. Plus there was a second word I like to use and that is “Joy”.  Almost all the people out sharing were happy. Smiling and full of love and excitement. This can’t be worked up. It was Jesus given!

In 1968 after we opened His Place Jesus told me to make a big life-size cross and put it on the wall inside of our building. We got a very heavy wooden light pole cross beam and cut it into a 12 foot by 6 foot cross. 

The first time I carried the cross it was for only a few feet from where we had made it in the middle of the room to the wall. I had no idea I would carry a big cross around the world in every nation and major island group. But that was the first step and I’m still walking on with the cross in 2019, fifty-one years later. I am listed in The Guinness World Records for the world’s longest walk and now including pilgrimage. For the next two years I carried the cross many times in the Hollywood area. We were often in the news both secular and religious. The word of what was happening was spreading across the nation free and spontaneous.

Soon after making the cross and putting it on the wall I felt Jesus wanted me to carry the cross along the Sunset Strip from time to time in the mist of the thousands of hippies. They loved it. I was radical like them but for Jesus! 

1969

I remember in the summer of 1969, during one weekend, Campus Crusade for Christ sent about one thousand students to the Strip to share Jesus. The streets were flooded with Christians sharing Jesus. The nightclubs got upset and we faced many battles but we refused to leave and kept sharing Jesus. 

One of the most powerful things that happened on the Strip in these years that seemed like a disaster but turned into a glorious event was our ‘His Place’ being shut down and evicted from the building. Jesus led me to take the cross outside and lean it against a light pole where a trash can had set. We put a strong chain around the cross beam and then chained my arm to it. I vowed to remain there drinking only water and a diet coke with 1 calorie until we got another building for His Place on the Strip. I was there 28 days and nights on the sidewalk. The news coverage grew and then hundreds of followers of Jesus around Southern California started coming down to witness and stand with us. It then grew to thousands a week. Often there was almost no one to witness to because the people out on the sidewalk were mostly on fire Christians. Several very famous and well known people came to Jesus at the cross on the sidewalk. Pastors flew in from around America and had a press conference on the sidewalk by the cross. All of this spread the word of the ‘Jesus People’ and ‘Jesus Freaks’ witnessing for Jesus. 

This also put me in touch with the people involved with protest movements and radicals of all kinds. They came out to support us. They liked His Place and the fact that it was a free place to rest, talk, make music and hear about Jesus.

On the Strip and in the Outreaches across America the plan was simple.

We would pray!

Give a few instructions!

Go out and share Jesus!

Meet back at a set time and give praise reports and have new converts tell what had happened to them. 

The passion of the new converts was so powerful. One would hear a person in our building say, “Let’s go witnessing! I haven’t led anyone to Jesus today!” Out would go that person and often several more with them leading people to Jesus which was exciting and straight from the Bible.

Most of the prayers were for the people witnessing. We believed that God already wanted people saved but is was the laborers that were few and needed the Power of the Holy Spirit leading them. 

As I became known as the Minister of Sunset Strip which is what the news and people called me, I took some trips to the major hippie camps around the country. I also did Love In’s and Rock Festivals like the West Palm Beach International Rock Festival where I spoke on stage and our band “The Eternal Rush” played. There were great names there like Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Sly, Steppenwolf, Pacific Gas & Electric, the Birds and 15 other groups.  We set up a Jesus tent in the event area. Nearby churches sent in youth groups to witness and we saw thousands pray to receive Jesus. All of this exposure in the secular world attracted great attention and helped spread the word of Jesus.

Remember these were explosive years in American history with riots, sections of cities burning down, demonstrations against the war, assassinations along with drugs, sex and rock and roll. The slogan was ‘tune in, turn on and drop out’. And in the middle of this was a growing Jesus revolution! Jesus had put me on the front lines at this historic moment.

For me, I did not want to organize the movement. We had many calls to open satellite “His Places” all over America and overseas. But this was not my calling. I’ve never wanted to organize but lift Jesus up! 

I’ve been called to be ‘free’ and able to move as Jesus leads. I had good theology and now Jesus was about to ask me to live out what I believed in dramatic fashion. 

Then… things in my life changed again. One night in September ‘69 as I returned from preaching at a nightclub in Dallas, Texas at about four in the morning, Jesus said, ‘Pray all night!’ I was doing a revival at the Garland football field and had been ministering all day. I was tired and sleepy. I knelt by my bed so I would not fall asleep. Jesus spoke oh, so clearly. 

“Take the cross from off the wall of the building and put it on your shoulder and carry it on foot across America and identify My message with the people where they are!” 

I said, “Yes, when do you want me to start?” 

‘Christmas Day’ came the answer. 

I rushed out of my room and knocked on the door of our music group. I told them and they said they wanted to go with me and walk and sing at rallies! Nothing but total obedience to the call of Jesus.

We started preparing to leave on Christmas Day 1969. Some of our staff would keep His Place open because I would be gone for over six months. 

Two weeks before we were to leave I experienced a headache, pain and numbness on my right side. Doctors at Glendale Adventist Hospital injected dye into my brain and saw two places where deep in the interior, blood seemed to be seeping. I was allergic to the dye and almost died. My neck swelled really huge and was packed in ice. I lay there faced with the call of Jesus to Go! Christmas Day and the doctors report for me was possible surgery. I prayed but realized Jesus had already told me what to do. 

I said, “I’d rather die in the will of God than live outside of it.” 

Another thing I realized was that,“circumstances don’t alter the call”.   

I flushed the medicine down the toilet and walked out to die with the wind in my face! A few days later it was Christmas Morning. Glory!

We stayed open all night on Christmas Eve and had about a hundred or so people to see us off with the cross from His Place on Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. It was difficult for me to talk without slurring words and my right side had lost some mobility. I had the greatest pastors Dr. Gwin and Norma Turner. Pastor Turner prayed me off. Many years later he met me back at the same place after having completed carrying the cross in every nation. He has now passed into heaven but his wife Norma is still a part of this ministry. They have been a strong and glorious part of the ministry on Sunset Strip and to all the world. 

I lifted the cross up and started the cross walk across America. I tell of this under ‘Countries’ USA – across America on our website. But I will just say that the journey was a great key in spreading the message of Jesus and people seeing what it was all about. Thousands were saved and we preached in churches, had big rallies and huge marches in many towns and cities. Sometimes we would pause and I would drive or fly to colleges to speak in many states. The road became home and about six months later we arrived in Washington DC via New York. We had a rally at the Washington Monument and at the end of the wonderful meeting Jesus spoke to me to fast and pray and witness at the cross at 15th and Constitution right at the Washington Monument. I was to fast 40 days without food or juice, just water or a 1 calorie drink! Glorious things happened and I completed that time. I wrote a book about that called “Forty Days at the Cross”. 

This event gained huge publicity and we had groups coming there to pray and go out sharing Jesus. It was a Jesus People move in the heart of this nation. Years later I would say a few words and lead a Jesus Cheer at Washington for Jesus with half a million people in 1980.

I returned to Hollywood and we had a great welcome for me at Griffith Park were it all started for me back in ’67. The crowds of hippies and young people on Sunset Strip were largely gone. The word was that there were so many Jesus People carrying Bibles and giving out the Gospel that most did not want to go to that street anymore. We had major national and world news coming almost every week doing special features on the young people converted to Jesus and interviewing me. I was preaching to the world. 

Jesus rallies and marches were breaking out all over the nation. I went from one city to another leading marches and preaching. We had beach rallies, outreaches in places like West Palm Beach where after the witnessing and call to Jesus we would baptize hundreds in the ocean. 

1970 and ’71 was beyond words. Jesus was making a huge change in the lives of the youth of the nation. Young people were just rising up and starting outreaches and rallies in their own towns and cities. I did national morning tv programs and late night shows. 

Jesus called me to go to New York for about three months in the summer of 1971. We opened a small office version of His Place just off of Times Square. People lined up to get in! Every night I would preach right in Times Square. Hundreds would gather around to hear. We would sit in a circle, sing and then I would preach. We had witnesses mix in with the crowds and share personally seeking to lead the lost to salvation. Times Square is a mixing place of people from all over the world. They were being saved and taking the message to the U.S. and to their countries. Another thing was that Jesus had used me in Hollywood and the media center there and now He had put me in the news media center of the world for three months. Night after night the news would follow me and film or do stories of me and our teams talking and praying with the people. 

On March 2nd, 1971 The Wall Street Journal did a front page story in which I was included. Then Time Magazine followed that with a front cover “The Jesus Revolution” on June 21st, 1971. There is a photo on the Publisher’s page of me with the Time Magazine staff for the story and a report on me on page 61. Of course, this story reported on the Jesus movement all across America. This changed the perception of many church people and they opened their doors to this Jesus Movement. At last after four years of pounding the sidewalks witnessing for Jesus the impact on the nation was documented. Now the movement was ‘big time’. Things changed overnight in many ways.

I felt mission completed. There were now Bible studies, outreach groups out sharing Jesus, Jesus marches, Jesus rallies, Jesus concerts, Jesus churches, Jesus coffee houses, Jesus music, Jesus Festivals and of course Jesus Stickers! 

Now Jesus was to move me overseas! “Carry the cross through the British Isles.” 

I said yes to the call and prepared to fly overseas. A night or two before I left I had a long talk with the reporter, Mr John Smith, of the largest newspaper in the UK called The Daily Mirror.  I told him I was leaving in a couple of days to fly to London and carry the cross to Scotland. He was so excited and wanted my flight info, which I gave him.

Now except for him, people did not know we were heading to England. When we got off the airplane there were about thirty or forty news media waiting for us. 

The story by Mr. Smith was a feature of the Daily Mirror with a two page center-fold photo of me with this huge caption: “Are you Listening, John Lennon? Suddenly, Jesus Christ is more popular than the Beatles.” 

Then I was taken from one TV studio to another for interviews. Other papers followed. The Sun: The “switch-on-to-Jesus” movement has arrived! Sunday Telegraph: “Jesus Freaks’ Leader at Hyde Park Pop concert!” A couple of days later, The Daily Mirror: “That’s the Hip Gospel.” Daily Mirror again “Turn on to Jesus.” The Daily Mail “Signing on… for Jesus.” The People: “Mr Blessitt and the meek” Yorkshire Post: ‘Freaks’ on the road, another paper “Warning! Jesus is sill at large! Another paper “Suddenly everyone’s talking about the Jesus People.” Another paper “Man, are they turned on! Another paper “The Jesus Freaks” arrive in Scotland.” Another paper “En-route to Belfast.” Belfast Telegraph: “Jesus Freak arrives.” Another, “Jesus People Popular.” Another paper, “It’s the Jesus Road Show,” another “cross and message are in Dublin” on and on as I have dozens of newspaper articles on that UK and Irish cross walk. 

On top of all this, Christians by the tens of thousands were having a huge gathering in London’s Hyde Park. Most of the major church leaders were there along with Cliff Richard, the singer. Only Jesus could do this but I was invited to bring the closing message. Of course, I shared Jesus and invited people to receive Jesus. Then I felt led to do something that will be remembered for a long time. I asked the people to get down on their knees in the grass and pray with me the “Lord’s Prayer”! Even many of the police knelt and thousands of people were weeping and praising God. 

Why did I share this with you? To let you know that when a real move of Jesus breaks out and the Lord wants His message known. Jesus will do it. I did not have a PR person and no contacts to arrange things. All glory to Jesus. 

The next year, 1972 I spent months sharing Jesus in New Hampshire and other states including a great beach outreach at West Palm Beach, baptizing in the sea. Also a big rally at Vanderbilt Memorial Gymnasium with 17,000 young people. In the spring we returned to the UK with large meetings in parks and stadiums at: Glasgow, Falkirk, London, Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Belfast, Birmingham, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and many other places. There was a Jesus awakening across the U.K. and Ireland. 

I did forty days of crosswalks and preaching in Northern Ireland. Billy Graham came over towards the end of May and early June. I took him into the area of conflict and fighting. I took him into a bar and crossed the Peace Line to the other side. A bomb exploded and we went there. The news media saw Billy Graham out on the streets with me and they spread the message world-wide. He had come in unannounced so that I could take him to meet with fighters and people on both sides. 

These were glory days of witnessing and evangelism. Even now many decades later I get e-mails from people saved on the roads or at rallies and are still living for Jesus. Many are pastors, professors and lay leaders. Untold thousands of people were saved. The Fire of the Holy Spirit was moving across the land. 

At this point I knew that Jesus wanted me to go on to the world carrying the cross. I was leaving at the call of Jesus and knew that Jesus was with me no matter what I would face. 

In early summer Jesus led us to carry the cross on the continent of Europe starting in France, then on to Spain and Portugal and then on to Africa. We saw a huge move of Jesus in Spain with huge crowds gathering along the way. 

The Jesus Movement around the world.

It is simply impossible to share in a few paragraphs the longest walk in the history of the world according to Guinness World Records. Plus the fact that I was carrying a 12 foot cross in every country and major island group. I have written several books about the glorious move of Jesus around the world that I have seen with my eyes. 

The passion of Jesus burns deeply in my heart for the lost people of this world that are one heartbeat from an eternity in the lake of fire in what is called hell, for all eternity. 

So through the decades I kept walking on with the cross doing what I did on Sunset Strip in the late ’60s and early ’70s during the time that has been called the Jesus Movement. I continued to carry a cross, give out Jesus Stickers, Gospel tracts and doing Jesus cheers! Nothing has changed. 

Fifty-two years after I first went walking Sunset Strip sharing Jesus I’m still doing the same thing today at the age of 78. In every nation, I have wanted to leave at least one person behind to be an evangelist to teach the Bible, the Word of God. Often we have trained many but my focus has been on one! One at a time.

Oh, what my eyes have seen and my ears heard. Just go with me for a moment: Crowds line the roads waiting for the cross by the thousands, Spain! Papua New Guinea! Vanuatu! Central America! Irian Jaya! Solomon Islands! Kiribati! India! Lithuania! West Africa! Bangladesh! East Germany! Philippines and so many more! 

Salvations in numbers too many to count. Physical healings all along the way. Hope in areas of poverty and in 54 nations at war, North Korea and through the Middle East. Every country! 

I did not always use the word Jesus Movement but I shared the same message and used the same method of sharing Jesus. 

My focus has been on sharing Jesus! Openly and without shame preaching the cross and the message of the cross… Jesus. 

In one particular area where my wife Denise and I carried the cross, which is totally muslim, with no churches at all many of the villages now have on Sunday a “Jesus Day.” They can’t call it church but celebrating Jesus is ok! The message of Jesus has been moving from village to village in a big silent way for several decades now. 

I have carried the cross to royal palaces and president’s offices. Have met with world and religious leaders as well as with gunmen. From the city streets to the jungles to the deserts I have carried the cross and witnessed Jesus to the people. I have eaten and drank with the people, s stayed in their homes and prayed with them. People of all major religions, colors and languages. 

After more that fifty years on the roads of the world, I am optimistic. This is a beautiful world and people are wonderful. Sure, there are hurts, pain and evil, but I refuse to let the few spoil the many for me. I love everyone. I hold no hate or bad intent for any person on earth. I am at peace with God. 

I must add something else, ultra important. My wife has been with me and the cross in 295 countries and island groups. She has been on every trip I’ve taken for decades. She is strong, tender, lovely and wise as well as fearless. We are together! We are one! She is a mighty soul-winning witness for Jesus. God knew I could not have made it without her. She was saved in a park in London, England, outside when the Jesus Movement found her, as a man and his wife shared Jesus with her. They were from Africa. Glory!

One more thing I feel needs to be shared is that TBN TV has helped us so much in reaching the world for Christ through the years. Founders and President Paul and Jan Crouch became dear and personal friends in 1976. From then until now the TBN family has stood with me in prayer and sharing Jesus with America and the world. I have filmed several thousand tv programs about how to share Jesus. I would be gone for months or a year carrying the cross then return and they would put me on the Praise program to tell what was happening with people coming to Jesus around the world. I never paid for any program on TBN.

Now with the passing into heaven of Paul and Jan, their son Matt and his wife Laurie, Caylan and Cody have stood with Denise and I in still taking the Jesus Movement to the world. Matt and Laurie produced and directed the movie, “The Cross, the Arthur Blessitt Story”. 

 This has been shown in hundreds of theaters, on DVD and on the internet to millions of people in every country and major island group in the world. I know because with the help of Dale Schaefer we contacted a person in every country and mailed them a DVD or had someone go there and give a DVD. This is one way a simple man carrying a wooden cross, talking one to one and with crowds along the road was also able to reach the masses. This has been a big part of the Jesus Movement through the years even though the term was not often used. The message was the same. 

I want to thank my family, children, Board of Directors, financial supporters and dear friends who have stood with us on this ministry of carrying the cross and sharing Jesus with the world. They have been a vital part of my life reaching the world for Jesus.

So I pray you who read this will know that Jesus can use you for His glory in whatever way He desires. You see why I like to stay free and ready to go where ever the Holy Spirit blows me. I love seeking to do the Will of Jesus in my life. I am a saved sinner and every night pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me a sinner.”

I have lived to see the Jesus Movement move around the world! Step by step… person to person… nation to nation. 

So I support a New Jesus Movement. 

But as for me personally, 

I don’t need a new Jesus Movement!

I never left the First!

America needs a New Jesus Movement.

The World needs a New Jesus Movement.

You may need a New Jesus Movement.

So dear sisters and brothers, I cheer you on!

I stand with you. 

I know we shall see a fresh outpouring of Jesus upon the earthfrom the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. The Lord’s Name is to be Praised.” Psalm 113:3.

I’m not a bystander but just as I walked the streets on Sunset Blvd. in 1967 sharing Jesus with people, I still am. I was out today carrying the cross talking and praying with people. We do live-streaming in social media with many thousands reached each month around the world.

A final word that I have learned from the Sunset Strip to all the world is this: “When criticism and praise effect you the same… you are beginning to get free!”  

So when you see me, an old man carrying a big cross down the road you might stop and say hello and that you are a part of a New Jesus Movement! We will rejoice together and then share Jesus with someone else. Or should you see Denise and I on the internet on social media, listen for a while and post a comment that you are sharing Jesus and are part of a New Jesus Movement. 

Always remember it’s All About Jesus!

Jesus did it. All Glory to God!

Jesus said, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.” Luke 10:23-24.

Those of you who realize that you are lost and in need of forgiveness and salvation, I invite you to pray this prayer:

“Dear, God. I need you in my life. I confess I am a sinner and ask You Jesus to forgive me of my sins, I repent. Jesus I welcome You into my heart and confess you openly as my Savior. Make my home in Heaven. I’m not ashamed of Jesus. Help me to share Jesus with others. In Jesus Name I pray! Amen!”

For those of you who are saved and following Jesus but know you need to be sharing Jesus with others, I invite you to pray:

“Lord Jesus, I give You my life! I am not ashamed of You Jesus; fill me right now with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit that I may witness for You to others. Father, Thy will be done in my life. I want to follow Jesus all the days of my life and lead others to know and follow Jesus. In Jesus Name I pray! Amen!”

Now start a New Jesus Movement group in your area. Pray and study the Bible as you go and share Jesus today! Or you could join up with one of the many groups that are already a part of a New Jesus Movement.

I believe when Jesus comes again there will be a great time of worldwide evangelism, witness & ministry. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Matt. 16:18

A pilgrim follower of Jesus,

Arthur Blessitt along with my wife Denise.

Luke 18:1  

www.blessitt.com

Copyright © 2019

ARTHUR BLESSITT EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION®