Slaves' "Prayer Bowls Over America" Echo 150 Years After the Civil War

Will Ford : Apr 10, 2015
Bound4Life

"It begins with a 200 year-old black kettle pot, used by my Christian slave forbearers in Lake Providence, Louisiana. While used for cooking and washing clothes during the day, this kettle was secretly used for prayer..." -Will Ford

(Dallas, TX) - The American Civil War finally came to an end 150 years ago recently, on April 9, 1865. Reflecting on this moves my heart in a profound way, partly because of the sacrifice of prayer in my family – who were formerly slaves. (Photo of Will Ford via bound4life)

I believe their prayers led personally to my freedom, and nationally delivered a nation from God's judgment. It's a testimony of great spiritual inheritance, a story so large it's difficult to share.

Prayer Bowls Over America

It begins with a 200 year-old black kettle pot, used by my Christian slave forbearers in Lake Providence, Louisiana. While used for cooking and washing clothes during the day, this kettle was secretly used for prayer. Forbidden to pray by their slave master, my ancestors were beaten unmercifully if found doing so.

However, in spite of their master's cruelty, and because of their love for Jesus, they prayed anyway. At night, sneaking into a barn, they carried this cast iron cooking pot into their secret prayer meeting. As others looked out, those inside prayed. (Photo via bound4life)

Turning this pot upside-down on the barn floor, they propped it up with rocks - suspending the pot a few inches above the ground. Then, while lying prostrate or kneeling on the ground, they prayed in a whisper underneath the kettle to muffle their voices. The story passed down with the kettle is that they were risking their lives to pray for ensuing generations. One day, freedom did come.

An unknown teenage girl decided to keep this pot, and pass it down along with the story of how others prayed for our freedom. She passed the story and the kettle down to Harriet Lockett; who then passed it on to Nora Lockett, who then passed it on to William Ford Sr., then to William Ford Jr. - who then gave it to me, William Ford III. 

Whispered Prayers on Earth, Loud Cries In Heaven

It is important to understand the dynamics of what happened in the spirit realm. Revelation 5:8 speaks of "bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" before the throne of God. Zechariah 14:20 says, "And the cooking pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar." (Photo of Will Ford and Matt Lockett with the family prayer kettle: courtesy of Will Ford)

This "prayer bowl" caught muffled prayers on earth, just as bowls in Heaven caught their prayers as incense. Though my forefathers only used this kettle as an acoustic means to keep them from being heard, symbolically - probably without their knowing it - this pot became their bowl of intercession.

Another interesting dynamic to note: in Revelation 8 when these bowls are released, one of the manifestations upon earth is voices.

White Christian abolitionists/revivalists like Francis Asbury and Charles Finney became voices for the voiceless. Their sermons in public became answers to whispered, private prayers. Along with black revivalists and abolitionists, like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, they awakened the conscience of America to the value of human life, equality, and justice. 

Revelation 8 also says that at some future point, God adds His incense and fire to these prayers, which manifest His judgment or justice on earth. And that is just what He did. 

The Supreme Court of Heaven Rules Courts on Earth

In 1857, many felt a Supreme Court decision sealed the fate of enslaved African Americans. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, Supreme Court justices ruled by a 7-2 decision that slaves were the property of their masters - with no human rights and no representation in court. However, because of prayer and acts of obedience, hearts changed and eventually this demonic decree was broken over America.

Revival was released and justice came, setting slaves free in America; God's heart was comforted through prayer and action. Now, our generation is being called into prayer and action today to be voices for the voiceless, releasing revival and justice in our day.  

During the Civil Rights Movement, just as it was during slavery, there was a remnant of White and Black that labored together. Of this, Dr. King said in his "I Have a Dream" speech: "...for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny." (Photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. Mural in Washington, DC via bound4life)

"And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom," Dr. King continues. "We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back." 

In the same way God raised up a unified remnant of Black and White during slavery and the Civil Rights Movement, He is doing the same today - connecting the past with the future, in more ways than one. 

A Most Amazing Divine Connection

As God would have it, as my Lockett forefathers prayed for years for the ending of slavery in Lake Providence, Louisiana, God ended slavery through the Civil War - on April 6, 1865, the last shot was fired on a property called Lockett's Farm on Sailor's Creek.

You may be aware that my friend Matt Lockett, Director of Bound4LIFE and JHOP DC, is a direct descendant of this family of Locketts. In other words, the Civil War ended in Matt's forefathers' front yard! History records this farm was the site of the last battle before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered three days later - on April 9, at Appomattox Court House. 

Just think: Secret prayers for freedom, under a kettle pot in Louisiana from my ancestors named Lockett, were in part answered at the farmhouse of slave owners in Matt's family named Lockett, where the Civil War ended! While God was answering prayers for freedom on my family side of Locketts, he was also answering the prayers on Matt's side of Locketts as well. (Photo via bound4life) 

Matt noted recently that an earlier Lockett in his family line was one of Francis Asbury's circuit riding preachers - an abolitionist who stood for freedom. Matt also has Lockett descendants who taught former slaves to read and write during the Reconstruction period. In light of what his ministry and impact is today, it is no coincidence that all this is part of Matt's family heritage.

Nor do I think it is a coincidence that for 10 years, I've been in a friendship with a descendant of those same Locketts - contending together for revival as a new breed of abolitionist today. By His Providence God connected two people from Lockett families - from what we've discovered, most likely the same Lockett family line – uniting us to war against injustice in our day, and to cry out for awakening in our generation.

You read that correctly. After over a year of research, we're 90 percent certain that Matt's family of Locketts in Virginia once owned my Locketts in Louisiana - who originally came from Virginia. (The details of how we met, and the uncanny way our stories come together, can be heard in our sessions from Hilltop Conference.)