On 9/22/06 Cindy Jacobs, Chuck Pierce and Steve Hill launched the I35 Highway of Holiness to the world. After the launch, a Godly friend of mine who visited the I35 service calls me and said the Lord spoke to him that He’d just witnessed, "The emancipation proclamation over Dallas." He went home disturbed. He went on line and discovered that Abe Lincoln gave the Emancipation proclamation speech on September 22, 1862, that declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate States of America.
A little over a year later Bill Johnson is at Starbucks in Las Colinas, Texas with a few of his staff enjoying some beans. A friend of mine Joe Oden sees him and calls me. This Starbucks is 2 miles from our office. I fly over there and ask him to pray for me. He asked me what I wanted pray for specifically...."Just More" I replied. After he prayed for me, I sensed real peace, but nothing unusual. I was just honored to meet him. That night I’m having family movie night and rent the movie Evan Almighty. My jaw hits the ground when the movie unfolds and God appears to Evan and tells him a flood is coming through his community on 9/22 and he must build an ark. After that I was watching a brief commercial promoting the hit sitcom “Lost.” The commercial states on 9/22 a plane crash occur. Again, God has my attention.
After this, I'm starting to get a little spooked. A day later, I'm speaking with our worship leader Brian Sanders out of CFNI. I tell him the deal about 9/22 and he looks at me and says, "guess when my birthday is?" You guessed it 9/22. I called our other worship leader Brandon Richardson and asked him how old he was. You guessed it, 22. So I'm telling another leader Jacob Watson about this and the Spirit of God comes upon him and he says,”The key of David was worship. Worship is the key" Immediately I felt to go to the Starbucks Bill Johnson prayed for me with Rimmanuel Appling. I asked the asst. manager Rachel if we could play instruments in there Starbucks and create a positive atmosphere. She immediately said, "when can you start?" The other Baristas were listening in and asked, "when is this, we want to come and listen too!" It just so happened that day that Starbuck Coffee was on sale by the pound for $6.22 next to the cash register.
Without planning this, it works out that our first worship set in Starbucks was on Dec. 22 at 22:00 with a 22 year old worship leader name Brandon Richardson. Brandon’s best friend Matt Bumala who now leads worship in that Starbucks was born on …..you guessed it 9/22. I do not have time to tell you of a dozen other 22 miracles leading up to launching worship in Starbucks. They are too obvious to avoid. We have now begun worship in Starbucks around Las Colinas Texas and are expanding the concept to the nations thanks to Sean Feucht and The Burn. We have called it the "22 Mandate."
- Jeff Baldwin