Prayer
Tremors of Revival at the National Day of Prayer
I am still in Washington, D.C. where the 65th Annual National Day of Prayer took place on Thursday, May 5. In my thirty five years of participating in the NDP, this one was the most powerful I have ever attended.
Maybe that’s because we have never needed God more than in 2016 to intervene the affairs of a nation that is going off a leadership, moral and financial cliff.
I saw some tremors of revival at this year’s NDP…
Here is a report from John Bornshein, the Vice President of the event. I will make some personal comments between his commentary.
“Every year, the National Day of Prayer (NDP) Task Force facilitates several events on Capitol Hill including the National Observance at the Cannon House Office Building. With speakers like Tony Evans, Chuck Swindoll, Oliver North, Max Lucado, Beth Moore, and Franklin Graham, the expectations are always high and the response is overwhelming.”
“More than five hundred thousand people tune in live each year, via video stream and televised broadcast, for what is sure to be a prayer event highlight reel as representatives from each branch of government, prominent ministries and businesses share encouraging and convicting messages with ambassadors, delegates, and individuals from all walks of life in the historic Caucus Room – and the 65th annual National Day of Prayer observance did not disappoint.”
This year’s NDP featured up to 47,000 different prayer events all over the nation with millions of people involved. It was the largest day of Americans crying out to God in the history of the nation.
The morning began promptly at 9:00 a.m. eastern with the presentation of the colors by the Joint Armed Forces Color Guard and the National Anthem. Mrs. Shirley Dobson, Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, kicked off the momentous celebration with a warm greeting and introduction of Rabbi Jonathan Cahn. She then had everyone on the edge of their seats when she made the following statement: “
“’In 1988, the late Vonette Bright began petitioning Members of Congress to support a bill that would designate the first Thursday in May as the annual National Day of Prayer. By a joint resolution of the United States Congress, it was signed into law by President Reagan on May 8th of that year.'”
“‘Mrs. Bright continued in leadership until 1991. Then she and the National Prayer Committee asked me to succeed her as chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. After much prayer and careful consideration, I accepted the responsibility and have now served for 25 consecutive years. The Day of Prayer has been observed by more than 33 million people at 630,000 prayer gatherings around the world…and today, another chapter begins.'”
“‘I am pleased to announce that Mrs. Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Dr. Billy Graham, will succeed me as the new chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. It is imperative that we preserve this American heritage to insure that this powerful expression of our religious freedom will continue for generations to come. I couldn’t be more grateful that the Lord has laid upon Anne the mantle of leadership for national prayer. She is eminently qualified to serve the nation in this capacity. We honor her for accepting this responsibility.’”
I truly believe that Anne Graham Lotz is God’s chosen leader for the next era of the NDP. Her strong evangelistic voice, commitment to God’s Word, and prophetic understanding of the dark days we’re in are utterly crucial to what lies before us.
“The National Observance continued and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn (author of The Harbinger) took the podium first and blessed the occasion with eloquent words and a personal challenge for how we should view the exercise of prayer and solemn assembly. He then put the Shofar to his lips and belted out what seemed to be the longest held note to echo throughout the halls of Congress in the history of our nation. At that moment, we knew the prayer event had begun and not just in Washington D.C.”
Cahn was powerful and moving–like hearing a modern-day prophet of God. We must turn from our sins or America will cease to be, The atmosphere was electric as he called the nation to repentance.
“The line-up of speakers that followed were second to none with each building on the other, emphasizing repentance and a return to the God of our Fathers. After a series of convicting messages and prayers of reverence to the Almighty, Dr. Tony Evans, the 2016 Honorary Chairman, concluded the gathering with the National Prayer that was spoken aloud in unison by the standing-room only crowd that had remained steadfast throughout the full 3-hour plus gathering.”
The biggest tremor of the day occurred when Glenn Sheppard called us onto our knees and faces to cry out to God. Groans and cries for mercy were heard all over the chambers of the Cannon Office Building for a number of minutes. We had touched the agonized heart of God for America.
“It was a powerful and fitting way to conclude the National Observance while serving as a springboard to more than 47,000 similar gatherings that took place from coast to coast. In addition, an estimated 90 nations participated in the annual observance along with South Korea, India and Australia where prayer coordinators mobilized thousands to fast and pray for the United States.”
“From pilots flying over capitols to petition from above, to balloon launches, parades, park gatherings and more, there were millions of prayers lifted up at an unprecedented level. President Barack H. Obama and all 50 Governors unanimously called on Americans to pray.”
“Truly, the 65th annual National Day of Prayer was a historic moment in time for God’s church, across the oceans, to unite in prayer in One Voice. It was the largest such day of prayer in the modern era and already, many have started their planning efforts for May 4, 2017. “
Following the Capitol Hill event, In late afternoon, local believers gathered as God’s rainbow coalition to pray for the city. Prayers were offered in many languages, Pastor Lon Solomon repented on behalf of the city’s pastors for pride, isolation, and division between churches. The young generation was prayed and for and encouraged to take their place in a genuine American revival. It was an awesome experience of praise, tears, prophetic words, and thundreds of prayers going up to God on the west lawn of the US Capitol.
When the day had finished, I was convinced that God had heard our prayers and His tremors of revival had begun,
“Immediately following the National Day of Prayer, the NDP Task Force, announced that it was partnering with Pulse Ministries to rally intercessors far and wide back to Washington D.C., July 14-17 (National Prayer Summit and Together 2016) for what will be one of the largest gatherings of prayer at the National Mall.”
I was privileged to be a part of the first large prayer gathering for revival in America–Washington For Jesus–on April 29, 1980. God used that event to bring many streams of renewal into our land that lasted for nearly a generation, Together 2016 is the rallying cry of the next generation for God to do it again.
It has never been more needed.
But be encouraged.
After National Day of Prayer 2016, some tremors of revival have begun.
Pre-Revival Winds of Prayer?
This week I taught a college course in Tacoma, Washington which focused on God’s global plan of salvation over the last 4000 years.
Yes, God has been directing history–His Story–from the very beginning.
I pointed out that in every generation there are five undercurrents–key factors–in God’s Kingdom enterprise. One of those factors, which can grow into a spiritual tsunami in nations, is a growing wave of desperate prayer that proceeds an outpouring of God’s Spirit.
In the United States, this spring, is God launching pre-revival winds of prayer?
Chapter Four of my book, The Fourth Wave: Taking Your Place in the New Era of Missions (available in e-book and in paperback), is called “What Causes Rising Tides?” When I first began researching mission movements and expansion over the past two millennia, I focused on the people that God used in various time periods. To name just a few:
- Peter, James, John and Paul in the Early Church era
- Willibrord and Boniface and Patrick during the Middle Ages.
- Count Zinzendorf, William Carey, David Livingstone and J. Hudson Tatlor during the first and second waves of modern missions.
- Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright, and Luis Bush in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Yes, God uses people to advance His work on earth “There came a man sent from God whose John was John” (John 1:6).
But He also works through five other key factors that unleash, sustain, and grow His waves of redemption.
1. Unity – among believers, the fruit of humility and prayer, is a key proponent in the advancement of God’s kingdom. Unity is the main focus of Jesus High Priestly Prayer in John 17–that his people “would be One as I and the Father are One” (John 17:21).
2. Revival – this is God’s people coming back to “life” through the power of His Spirit. Charles Finney said that “revival is nothing less than a new beginning of obedience to God.”
3. Providence – God has plans for peoples and nations in every generation. The key is finding what He is doing and flowing with His wise and righteous desires.
4. Technology – Using the tools of the time to share the Good News, whether it is the Roman roads and Greek language of the 1st century, the ocean-going ships of the age of exploration, the Gutenberg printing press of the Reformation, or the airplanes, sound systems, and Internet of the modern world.
5. Prayer – The fifth and maybe most important factor in God’s reviving nations is the power and dynamic of prayer. I call it either the fire or fuel of revival and missions. In fact, I normally put it first on the list because it seems to be the essential human activity that sets everything in motion.
When God’s people pray, then supernatural things happen. Chinese missionary Jonathan Goforth once explained: “There’s no secret to revival. Revival always comes in answer to prayer.”
As 2016 enters its fourth month, it appears that the God of the universe is launching some pre-revival winds of prayer that could certainly affect the United States and beyond. I not only want you to be aware of what He is doing, but also encourage you to join in–either on location or in your own home and community.
Something is afoot this spring. Desperate prayer is rising in the world’s leading missionary-sending nation. Here are a few of the encouraging signs.
East-West Revival Sandwich?
Amazingly, God has led two different spiritual movements to call strategic prayer gatherings on the same day–this Saturday, April 9, 2016–2600 miles apart. One is in the east in our nation’s capital. The other is in the west in the city of Los Angeles.
Washington, D.C. is the “city of authority”–where our laws are enacted and enforced. Los Angeles is the “city of influence”–the cultural and artistic hub of the United States of America.
On the same day and time, on two different coasts, in two of the most important urban centers of America, God is leading his people to gather to Him and pray desperately for our nation and world.
Here are the two God-inspired events.
1. Azusa-Now
This prayer gathering is an invitation from Lou Engle, leader of The Call, and a prophetic voice to this generation of youth. Lou says:
“Believing that decades of globe-spanning prayer have saturated the heavens, we will boldly ask God for the rain of revival on April 9th, 2016. We will consecrate an entire day — 15 hours — for the purpose of unity, miracles, healing, and the proclamation of the gospel. Our rally cry: Come, Holy Spirit! Instead of 120 in the Upper Room, we seek to gather as many as 120,000 in one place and one accord to simply exalt Jesus. And for inspiration, we turn to the most powerful expression of revival in modern times: the historic Azusa Street Revival of 1906.”
If you are anywhere near LA this Saturday, don’t miss a once-in-a-generation clarion call to the Church to embrace and receive a 21st century outpouring. If you live elsewhere, here’s how you can participate in Azusa Now:
- Phone apps: Apple – https://appstore.re/us/Ydnjbb.i. Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.doubledutch.the call
- Webcast: www.AzusaNow2016.com
Azusa Now is primarily a call to the Millennial Generation. We need another Azusa Street visitation from God. Will you join your heart and prayers with Azusa Now?
On the other side of the nation, at the same time as Azusa Now, up to 30,000 pastors and spiritual leaders will also be crying out to God to bring a nation-shaking revival to America. United Cry DC 16 is a broad movement of groups of pastors and leaders.
“Gathering in our Nation’s Capital has been of historical and spiritual significance. It has been a major gathering place for Christians to come together in solemn assembly to pray and repent for their nation. Each time thousands of Christians gathered to pray in Washington, DC, our nation encountered significant events and God intervened.”
“Throughout our American History pastors have also always played a significant role in bringing about spiritual and social transformation in our nation. We need our pastors to rise up, teach us how to pray, and lead all of us within the Body of Christ back to a relationship with the Lord! Strong times call for strong measures – It’s time to gather again and pray!”
So while the youth are crying out to God in the west, the pastors and leaders will be crying out to Him in the east. “From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised” (Psalm 113:3).
Maybe God will use April 9, 2016 to fulfill Malachi 4:6: “And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.” That’s the last verse of the Old Testament–and it’s loaded with significance.
The coming of Jesus follows.
3. National Day of Prayer – May 5, 2016
One month after Azusa Now/Cry Out DC16 comes the annual National Day of Prayer for the United States. Some 40,000 gatherings for prayer will take place around the nation on that date. This year’s theme is “Wake Up America” which seems to line up with the building crescendo of prayer that God is inspiring.
I will be in the nation’s capital that week for a variety of meetings with the National Prayer Committee and the official prayer meeting on Capitol Hill and the evening city celebration.
Go to the NDP web-site and find out what’s happening in your area. If there’s nothing nearby, why not schedule your own prayer meeting at school, church, or in your home?
4. Together 2016 – July 16, 2016
In July, God has initiated another national gathering of youth to call out to God for revival in America and around the world. Called Reset or Together 2016, it follows the legacy of past Washington For Jesus, Promisekeepers, and The Call movements to mobilize this generation to seek God’s face.
The leaders of Together 2016 want America to reset–a great modern word for repentance. They are praying for one million young people to join them on the National Mall on 7-16-16.
Can you come? If not, can you join in prayer?
A final prayer focus of note is Franklin Graham’s Decision America Tour 2016 where the evangelist is traveling to the capital city of all fifty states this year to lead gatherings for repentance and prayer. Please go to the web-site and look up the date for your state–then go in person or pray right where you are.
There are many things to intercede for in America and world. Broken families. Back-slidden cultures. A slumbering Church. Racial division. Millions of aborted babies. Economic malaise. Floods of refugees. The scourge of terrorism.
Columnist Steve Berman believes that God could even use our prayers, like he did during the dark days of the Revolutionary War, to bring a change of godly leadership to America:
“We, however, like George Washington, can submit ourselves to prayer. Those who do pray and seek God know His power and that He can conduct 9,000 troops to safety under the eyes of the red coats. He can certainly change the hearts of disaffected and estranged voters.”
“So when the time comes to unify, God can be in our midst to draw us together. There’s a more powerful force than politics (thank God He is) at work here, and the answer to our unity problem is found in Him, not in polls, or personal insults, or accusations.”
Exactly right–through God’s power.
Will you join God’s pre-revival winds of prayer?
Different Degrees of Thanksgiving–or Not
For the past two weeks when I sat down in my office to compose this weekly blog, I experienced the same agonizing phenomenon:
The power went out and I was plunged into darkness.
Last week, the Pacific Northwest was struck by an unusual November storm that thrust 200,000 people into hunker-down mode. We slept in a cold home that night, took care of our parents with generators and visits, and waited for the work crews to do their thing.
The wait lasted 28 hours.
Yesterday, some violent winds from the north again knocked out power to 20,000 homes–just as I sat down to write to you. After only four hours in a cold bedroom, the lights burst on and our lips pursed a “thank you” for the blessing of electricity, heat, refrigeration, and hard working repairmen.
Some thoughts on the different degrees of giving thanks-or not.
Of course, Thursday is our USA Thanksgiving when hundreds of millions of Americans gather with friends and family and give thanks for their many blessings.
Gary Randall wrote a good piece this week on the origins of the American Thanksgiving Day. The first one took place in October of 1621 when the Pilgrims joined forces with the native tribes near Plymouth, Massachusetts to eat, play some games, and give thanks to God.
One hundred and fifty years later in 1777, during the early trials of the War for Independence, all thirteen colonies joined in a day of giving thanks. Twelve years later, following their “providential victory” in the war for freedom, George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Another eighty years went by, including forty years of advocacy by an American journalist, until Abraham Lincoln authored his famous Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863 during the dark days of the Civil War.
But it wasn’t until 1941 that Congress, during the early stages of World War II, established the fourth Thursday in November as the official American Thanksgiving Day. Every year since, each American president has signed a proclamation calling the citizens of our nation to give thanks.
You can read the details here.
With the power going out and Thanksgiving arriving tomorrow, I’ve been pondering the many aspects of how human beings give thanks–or fail to do so. I’m sure on November 26, 2015, there will be a variety of responses around the nation:
- Many will gather with family and friends and say a prayer around the dinner table (like they do on the TV show Blue Bloods during each episode–one of the only evening sit-coms that I sometimes watch).
- Other will attend parades, watch football, and maybe even begin their holiday shopping.
- A few will attend special church services and Masses to give thanks.
- And some will do nothing at all except to lay around and enjoy a day off.
The different responses reveal a different attitude about life, God, gratitude and what and who a thankful spirit should be directed toward.
Gratitude is an attitude–but there’s a negative form as well.
There are a few people that are so angry at God and life that their “thanks” takes the form of profanity. My father once had a patient who was dying of cancer. During his last moments of consciousness, this man’s bulging face spewed obscenities at God whom he hated for his circumstances in life.
His last words contained gurgling hatred-not an ounce of thanksgiving for the life he’d been given.
Other people see the “glass of their lives” half empty much of the time. They bitch and moan about most everything and everyone around them. You all know people like this. The ones I’m most familiar with live in the Western world in “palaces” compared to the poor of the earth. They have shelter, heat, electricity, cars, TV sets, cell phones, and bank accounts–but are, for a variety of reasons, disgruntled at their lot in life and rarely say a word of praise or thanks.
If they took a moment and thought about the poorer two-thirds of the world–without running water, in horribly hot climates, without jobs, living in huts or shanties, and many without hope in God–they might repent of their attitude and realize just how grateful they should be–at least for the “stuff” they have that others don’t.
These “Eeyores” generally will not say a prayer when they feast on turkey and the trimmings, and will probably get mad when their favorite team loses the game on Thanksgiving Day.
Bitterness is a poison, and is not fun to be around.
So that’s a quick look the negative attitude side of the Thankgiving meter–those who are angry at God and those who are generally mad at their circumstances.
Then there is the positive side: the attitude of gratitude.
There will be many people in America tomorrow who will spend some time thinking about or thanking God or someone for the good things in their lives:
- They will be thankful for family and appreciate getting together around a good meal.
- They are thankful they have a job in a continuing bad economic environment.
- They will be grateful for the day off to rest, eat, watch TV, and hang out with people they love.
- They are pleased with their overall health and the safety of their loved ones.
- They might even be thankful to be an American–and appreciate the freedoms they enjoy.
This list could go on and on if we had time, thought, and length of page. There is really no end to the things in our lives that bless us, encourage us, and let us know that life is worth living.
I believe when most Americans think about Thanksgiving this year, they will be thankful for at least something. In fact, when we think about Thanksgiving at this time of year, we usually focus on the stuff if we’re worldly or “blessings” if we’re religious.
To many Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of rest to be thankful for things. But “things” are a lower level of the attitude of gratitude.
Let me give an example.
The young groom-to be is excited to finally give his bride her cherished wedding ring. He arranges all the circumstances leading up to one of the greatest moments in their lives.
She doesn’t know what’s coming. But at the pre-planned moment, he drops to one knee on the carefully chosen beach, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a package that looks like it might have a ring in it!
She gasps and accepts the small box….and excitedly opens it. There it is! A beautiful personalized engagement ring meant only for her and only from him!
Lost in wonder, she pulls the ring and box close to her chest and begins dancing up and down the beach giving thanks for the ring! She has an engagement ring! Drunk with delight, she completely forgets about the ash-fallen man still kneeling on the sand behind her as she frolicks down the beach alone.
She’s thankful for the ring!
Now, wait a minute. Let’s go to take two.
The groom gives her the ring, she opens it and bursts into a tearful shout of joy! She admires the ring, but quickly closes the box and jumps into the smiling guy’s arms because the ring is all nice and good–but what she really appreciates, loves, and is thankful for, is him.
It’s not the gift that is most important. It is the loving heart of the giver that is most to be cherished. In this scene, the two love birds then walk arm in arm down the beach holding the ring but truly being thankful for each other–not the stuff.
That’s the higher level of thanksgiving. It must be directed at a person, not at things.
Material things are good. They are blessings in our lives. But loving relationships–the source of all gifts–are far more important than the things.
And the giver of all good things is God (James 1:17).
Our thanks must be directed to a Person who loves us, died for us, and wants us to be with Him forever. Some don’t do it because acknowledging Him demands that they give Him his rightful place in their lives–as Savior, Lord, and Friend.
Those who love Him do. Thus the Bible focuses thanksgiving and praise toward God, not his blessings. “Give thanks TO THE LORD” ( i.e. Psalm 106:1 and Psalm 136:1).
Don’t settle for a lower level of thanksgiving this year. Lovingly submit to God. Pray for those who are angry and bitter, appreciate deeply the blessings of your life, but in everything:
Give thanks TO THE LORD.
Happy Thanksgiving.