Jesus Wept for the City

"As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it(Luke 19:41,NIV)."

For twenty-five years on my drive to work, I have driven down one of the longest streets in the world.

Chicago's Western Ave. is one of the longest continuous streets of any world city. Extending from 119th St. on the south to Howard St. on the north it is 24.5 miles. It is not a street tourists are pointed to when they visit Chicago in the glossy brochures. Far from the sparkling shops and glitter of Michigan Ave. or the bustling commerce of State St, the grandeur of Buckingham Fountain, Lake Shore Drive, or Chicago's world famous architecture, Western Ave is a gritty mix of Auto Dealers, "Supermercados" and ethnic restuarants(this is the place you can find a real Chicago hot dog,not at the tourist price), old city parks and churches, viaducts and overhead el trains, wall murals, trucks, buses, and it seems hundreds of students and city residents waiting for buses. This is the place where you will see the real Chicago.

Along its banks, so to speak, live the nations of the world, and that I believe is why the Lord longs to pour out His Holy Spirit on the 42 distinct neighborhoods that the street passes through. . Here you will find Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and many of the other nations of Latin America, Jews, Arabs, the largest Irish population in the United States, African-Americans and AfricannAfricans, recent immigrants from that continent, Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, Italians, Indians, Pakistanis, peoples of the former Soviet Union republics, Serbs, Albanians, Bosnians, Sudanese, Turks, Afghans, even Napalese. Every race is represented and so many of mankinds's ethnicities that the listed are just some of them. This is the place where you can have Juevos rancheros for breakfast, a Chicago hot dog for lunch, and Shashlik for dinner, and you could try different variations of these meals for many, many days.

I believe this is the kind of place, just like in Jerusalem(another urban center, with a polygot of peoples) that God longs to pour out one of next greatest moves of His Holy Spirit just like He did in Los Angeles at Azuza Street. There in that city, which is now the second largest in the United States with an equal or even greater amount of ethnic diversity, the Holy Spirit came down in power in 1906 which is still reverberating around the world. Led by a one-eyed African-American preacher named William Seymour, the moving of God's spirit touched people from all over the globe who had come there to see what was going on. It seems that God doesn't necessarily have to do that today. He has brought the nations right to the cities like Chicago.

Along just this street of Chicago, more than 1,000,000 people live now. New 2010 Census figures may show even more.

Recently, the Lord has burdened me for just one of the neighborhoods along that route. Two months ago, he called me to fast, especially for the neighborhood I live in Morgan Park, which is primarily made up of Irish Americans and African-Americans. I was especially impressed with this Scripture from Hosea 10:11-12: "Judah must plow and Jacob must break up the ground. Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you."

Since that time, on the days I fast, I have a strong impression from the Spirit, that I am getting on a spiritual bulldozer breaking up ground for a great outpouring of His Spirit on the city.

I'm sure there is unplowed, hardened ground where you live. It is time to seek the Lord! Who else do we have to call on?

It will cause you to weep for the city as Jesus did!