Tent of Promise Darling River Blessing
Wilcannia NSW, March 2019

Contributed by Adele Kenyon

Gathered in the dry riverbed of the once mighty Darling River this past week were a handful of sojourners from Queensland who had driven 1,500 kilometres to the tired town of Wilcannia in far western New South Wales.

YouTube Video: TENT OF PROMISE - Entering Wilcannia 2019

For this small group the township of Wilcannia was the focal destination of their long drive: with their hearts set on praying and prophesying for the revival of the once mighty river and its communities from this spiritual starting point - gleaned after a sustained period of prayerfulness over several months in their home base up north.

Led by Bishop Barry Cunnington, Founder of The Tent of Promise Incorporated, based in southern Queensland, the small team of Christian supporters strongly believe their prophetic/prayer mission begun this month in Wilcannia will usher in not only a revived and flowing river, but a spiritual reawakening within the Wilcannia community and beyond.

Bishop Cunnington trusts this is a pivotal season for Christian renewal around Australia and believes the seed of blessing sown this week and symbolically poured directly into the dry Darling River riverbed in Wilcannia will herald a new era of reawakening to spiritual truth tied with genuine reconciliation. He explains the spiritual foundation for the belief as being in the Holy Bible (defined as God’s Word to a holy people). One verse consolidating the stance is in 2 Chronicles 7:14, found in the Old Testament of the Bible. The verse is cited below.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV

To bless the river the team prayed together in the riverbed near the Wilcannia Bridge on Thursday, led by Bishop Cunnington, who invited a Christian representative of Australia's indigenous/Aboriginal community to prophesy in partnership with he and Wilcannia’s local minister, Pastor Seta, of the Australian Aboriginal Outreach Ministries (AAOM). The indigenous intercessor present was Hazel Morgan, formerly of Pinnacle Pocket in the Northern Territory and now residing in Brisbane.

Mrs Morgan’s representation of Australia’s indigenous peoples was itself significant, said Bishop Cunnington – as the pair had both been present at a 1999 gathering at Yulara near Uluru as part of a Christian reconciliation event organised by the Australian Christian Pastor’s Prayer Network.  This year represents the 20th anniversary of that Yulara event.

To complete the blessing of the Darling River the three appointed representatives together poured olive oil and red wine into the riverbed, followed by the pouring of clean water. Bishop Cunnington said the oil signified “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our nation” while the red wine signified “the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse the earth” with the oil and wine “coming together to heal our land and our nation”.

“The pouring out of the water signifies the welling up of water to flood and fill the River Valley again, in the mighty name of Jesus,” Bishop Cunnington said, adding that this is being fulfilled “as God’s people pray for this town.”

“We have the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to bring this (water/healing) today to earth… So today, prophetically, we release that full river of Heaven to flow here in this land,” he said.

YouTube Video: TENT OF PROMISE - Blessing The River Darling, Wilcannia March 2019

As the TOP team continues to trust that these faithful steps into the riverbed at Wilcannia will spark a nationwide revival which will well up and out of Australia's rural and indigenous heartland, out of "country" -- the members of the team also have faith in the renewal of the Darling River from the red centre through God’s grace.

The team believes the reawakening that will potentially radiate from the Australian heartland/red centre to bush and coastal areas around Australia will usher in a spiritual revival around the nation. This could be a spiritual link to a prophetic word made more than four centuries ago over the south sea lands by Portuguese explorer, Pedro Fernandez De Quiros, who in 1606 hoisted a banner in the New Hebrides and proclaimed this region and lands beyond it as the "Terra Australis del Espiritu Santu", the last two Spanish words meaning “Holy Spirit”. De Quiros reportedly thought he was in the island -continent of Australia. (Reference:https://christianfaith.com/lookout/sacred-australia or TACL Vol 27 #1 2006).

In more recent times, a popular Australian Christian song, “The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”, written by Geoff Bullock, features lyrics echoing the Portuguese explorers’ proclamation. The song’s chorus captures the essence:

“This is the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit

A land of red dust plains and summer rains

To this sunburnt land we will see a flood

And to this Great Southland His Spirit comes”.

The TOP mobile ministry is affiliated with The Promise Faith Centre Churches International (PFCCI), with a base in Coolangatta, Queensland. Bishop Cunnington oversees the PFCCI and on its website (https://www.promisefaithcentre.org/about_us) explains how he has personally experienced transformation in his life and knowing the Grace of God “is compelled to bring the revelation of God's Word in the Power of God's Holy Spirit to those who have the need and Grace to receive”.

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