STARTS TODAY SEPTEMBER 28 TO NOVEMBER 6, 2012
Today, Friday September 28, 2012 marks exactly 40 Days to the most pivotal election season in American history. Regardless of who wins or loses, America is in a horrible place...and spiritually decadent or lost. In some instances (not all) we are not unlike the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which had no good king and bowed down to the false gods of this corrupt world. The soul of America - corporate and personal - is in mortal danger. For the next forty days, until the November 6 General Elections, a growing number of U.S. Christian ministries have called for and are actively engaged in Intercessory Prayer; Fasting and Crying Out in desperation to the ONLY One who can redeem and change us - the HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.
Many of these ministries are using the much quoted verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 as the platform for corporate intercession, as the Body of Christ. However, for this verse to apply from its context where Solomon had prayed to the Lord, and the Lord then answered him, to where prayer warriors wish to extrapolate it to America in 2012 could take some doing! I encourage the reading of this portion of Scripture by clicking here. For the many Christian ministries who are this verse (2 Chronicles 7:14), please read the full context here:
Many of these ministries are using the much quoted verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 as the platform for corporate intercession, as the Body of Christ. However, for this verse to apply from its context where Solomon had prayed to the Lord, and the Lord then answered him, to where prayer warriors wish to extrapolate it to America in 2012 could take some doing! I encourage the reading of this portion of Scripture by clicking here. For the many Christian ministries who are this verse (2 Chronicles 7:14), please read the full context here:
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (2 Chronicles 7:12-16 ESV)
A thorough reading of this portion indicates that this is really a call for Repentance. If the hundreds of thousands of American intercessors who are pressing into the Throne Room of God, for these next forty (40) days just so that there is only some kind of an economic turnaround, with no spiritual factor in the equation, this will crash and burn big time! As I wrote here two weeks ago, America was in a similar place in the early 1850's when the Lord led a man named Jeremiah Lanphier to start a simple prayer meeting on Fulton Street in New York City, which exploded in a hurry into the Third Great Awakening. The question is, do we have that fire in the belly for the Lord, as we have for the latest iPhone5 or the NFL referee controversies?
In the hearts of serious men and women of God, there IS that passion and zeal for His House, which consumes us. Our hearts are aligned with the Holy Spirit and therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ. We see HIS big Heart breaking over the condition of His children in the west, while His saints in the persecuted church stand strong and firm in the Faith. The fire in the belly in the persecuted church is the same one we should have....and the fruit of that passion for the Christ, is sown with Repentance.
So, we say with the great prophet Joel here, in our call to National Repentance, as Day 1 starts:
Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
and cry out to the LORD.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
The seed shrivels under the clods;
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because the grain has dried up.
How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer.
To you, O LORD, I call.
For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.
(Joel 1:13-20 ESV)
NOTE:
Over the next forty days, we will occasionally update, and post Scripture or prayer concerns, as the Spirit leads and the wider body of intercessors read the times, and proclaim a word to be prayed into. We WILL be praying Scripture regularly...and more on this, this coming Sunday. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment