Will We Still Pray?

It's over!  The elections, I mean.  For some there's a sigh of relief.  Some are jubilant, while others are despondent.  That happens after every election.  But there's something different about this particular election.  Now so much because of the candidates or even the results.  It's different because God has been doing something behind the scenes.

God has been energizing and mobilizing a movement of prayer in the Church in the United States.  After crisscrossing the nation multiple times during the past few months, I would say that we have seen the greatest number of Christians praying... perhaps more than ever in America's history.  Oh, we've still got a long way to go toward becoming a praying Church, but we have taken a significant step.

Across the nation I heard Christians praying for God to step into this situation.  The Body of Christ came together across denominational lines to humble itself before the Lord and repent.  A cry for revival within the Church arose across the land.  We began to recognize that the problem isn't the White House, but our house.

It's over... or is it?  Not the elections, but the re-energized movement of prayer.  (The days following Election Day might well be more crucial than Election Day itself.)  Now we must decide whether or not we will continue to seek God's face on behalf of our nation.  It is now, after the heat of the political process has died down, that we see if the Church will allow the fire of the Spirit of God to still empower our prayers.

The Lord made it very clear to me last summer that this call to prayer for the elections was, in fact, not about the elections.  Our national elections were simply the occasion that the Lord used to stir us to prayer.  Now come the test of our hearts.  Will we still passionately seek the Lord in prayer?  Will churches still come together to pray?  Will we slip back into a "we can do it" mentality, or have we learned to depend upon God in every way through prayer?

I encourage every believer to keep praying.  I encourage every pastor to rally your church toward deeper levels of prayer... for revival and for our nation.  Don't sit back now!  ...  May God bless our churches and nation in the midst of this prayer movement He has raised up!

How to Pray for the Persecuted Church - Day 5

That they will rejoice in sharing the sufferings of Jesus so that they will rejoice even more when Christ is revealed

Hebrews 10:34 “…accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.”

Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

I Peter 4:13 “but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.”

How to Pray for the Persecuted Church - Day 4

That they would love Christ's appearing all the more

2 Timothy 4:5-8 “I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Hebrews 11:35 “…others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection”.

How to Pray for the Persecuted Church - Day 2

That God would give them the right words and that they would fearlessly make Christ known

Here Paul tells how to pray for him when he was suffering for Christ in jail—notice his prayer was not for release.

Ephesians 6:19-20 “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Colossians 4:2-4 “Devote yourselves to prayer… praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”

[See Open Door's Effective Evangelism section]

How to Pray for the Persecuted Church - Day 1

For their physical protection and deliverance.

Matthew 26:39 “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

Acts 12:5 “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.”

Philippians 1:19 “For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance (from jail) through your prayers.”

Philemon 22 “I hope that through your prayers I shall be given to you (from jail)”

Romans 15:30-31 “Now I urge you, brethren… to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea”.

God predicted persecution:

Acts 20:23-24 “the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course”

And the suffering came:

Acts 21:30-31 “And all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together; and taking hold of Paul, they dragged him out of the temple; and… were seeking to kill him.”