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. Not 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 these 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 this re-energized movement of prayer. November 7th might well be a more crucial day than November 6th, election day. Now we must decide whether or not we will continue to seek the face of God 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 comes 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! Keep coming to 40daysofprayer.net and prayerconnect.net for encouragement and resources to help you pray with more passion and direction. May God bless our churches and nation in the midst of this prayer movement He has raised up!

“Being curious about Christ second coming is one thing, being ready for it is another, writes A,W. Tozer. “I cannot think of even one passage in the New Testament which speaks of Christ’s revelation, manifestation, appearing or coming that is not directly linked with moral conduct, faith and spiritual holiness. The teacher who engages in speculation to excite the curiosity of his hearers without providing them with a moral application is sinning even as he speaks.”

I’m much in agreement with this statement of Tozer’s. It shouldn’t surprise us that one of the reasons we are to live in a right way before the Lord’s return, is so that we can pray with greater power and effectiveness in these critical days. The Apostle Peter said it this way: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (1 Peter 4:7).

The events and trends of our day have many Christians wondering if we are living in the last days. Unfortunately, the response of many is to worry and live in fear. The godly response is to pray. As we look forward to the Lord’s return, whenever that might be, we must live the kind of lives that allow us to replace fear with intercession that will release the Lord’s power and purposes into our needy world.

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

The World Prayer Assembly in Indonesia, May 14-18, 2012, was a wonderful time of prayer and fellowship with more than 9000 prayer leaders from around the world. I was there representing America’s National Prayer Committee, a group I am privileged to serve as Chairman. God touched my heart in so many ways. One of the most significant things has to do with our fall elections. The Lord seemed to press in upon me that we must pray as never before if we are

It seems that a time of intense prayer for 40 days prior to our elections is in order. I have to confess . . . I argued with the Lord about this. I thought, not another 40 day event! But He was insistent that this be not another event or prayer gathering such as we have had . .  . but something unprecedented in American church history. The testimonies of these amazing praying international Christians prompted much of this. We are talking about 40 days of 24/7 prayer!

To issue such a call to prayer is beyond the parameters of the National Prayer Committee or any one group. It needs to come from a wide-spread array of leaders. Denominational, para-church, seminaries, publishing houses, broadcast ministries, etc., must all be a part of this call to prayer. I’m not proposing a single event or activity for everyone to get behind . . . but a call for everyone to get behind something. I envision a dozen different 40 day initiatives. I’ve already had a number come to me over the past few months.

This needs to go beyond what one ministry or denomination can do. My sense that this is a call to prayer for three things:

•  The Elections–asking for the Lord’s intervention.
• A righteous standard to be raised over the nation.
• Revival in the Church.

It seemed to me, first of all, that this call to prayer is essential for America. If we will mobilize and pray, we will see Him work. Without intense day and night prayer, we will not see the hand of God at work to transform our nation. The second thing is that I believe that many of the communities that do 24/7 prayer for 40 days will continue beyond that. We may well see a huge and immediate proliferation of 24/7 prayer across the nation as a result of these 40 days. It would be just like God to use something that we are interested in (the election) to produce something He is interested in (day and night prayer).

A website will soon be launched with further information to help disseminate the word about this vital prayer initiative. You will see information and links to other prayer initiatives that are focusing on this election. We are not endorsing these initiatives, but making you aware of them. Our intent is to stay far away from anything that looks like an endorsement or movement for any particular candidate or party. What we are asking for is the intervention of God on behalf of our nation.

Will you join us? The first thing you can do is go immediately to our new facebook page and “Like” us. This is so you can receive immediate information about the site and the initiative as it becomes available. Click here to go to the facebook page. Then help us get the word out!

One of my favorite verses on prayer is a real challenge to me to persist in my praying. Habakkuk 2:1 calls us to a commitment to pray until something happens. “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”

The prophet Habbakuk’s situation was clearly wrapped up in prayer. In the first chapter he was bringing to the Lord the crisis facing the nation. The Lord’s response was confusing and unexpected. Habbakuk didn’t quit. He kept praying, and here in the beginning of the second chapter declares his intention of continuing to pray. But this was not a situation where someone decides to keep praying until God gives them want they want. Not at all! As a matter of fact, what Habbakuk was hearing was not what he wanted.

His commitment to persistent prayer was not about his own desires, but God’s purposes. He could easily have said, “I don’t like what I’m hearing from God, so I quit.” But this was a man of prayer who understood the critical need of standing on the (spiritual) wall of his nation and crying out until the purposes of God were revealed.

This short prophetic book gives a hard answer to Habbakuk’s prayer. Invasion was coming. Tough times were about to hit the people of God. But the prophet also saw a vision of God overcoming evil. He saw a time when, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”(2:14).

It is time for that sort of persistence in prayer for the people of God today. We face times of crisis. Who is crying out for the purposes of God to be revealed in our day? Who will stand at their watch and pray? Not the kind of prayer that tries to talk God into giving us what we want, but lining our prayers up with the desires of God. I invite you to join me in praying one of Habakkuk’s prayers: “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2).

In a radio interview regarding revival in America I was asked, after many years of traveling and teaching on prayer in the Church, do I think things are better or worse. My answer? Both! That’s not intended to be a cute answer, but an accurate one. In so many ways, the Church in America is in trouble.

Stagnant church growth, abysmal discipleship, poor prayer life, confused leadership, a blending in with our culture rather than a prophetic stand . . . and the list goes on. Yet, to paraphrase Dickens, “it is the worst of times; it is the best of times.” It is becoming the best of times because I am seeing a growing awareness of our desperate situation.

Out of that awareness comes a realization that the critical need of our day is for revival!

Revival never comes to a self-satisfied people. Revival never comes to a people who think they can fix things with another new program or strategy. Revival only comes to those who are at the end of themselves and are convinced that only God can bring what is necessary for the healing of the land. There is a rising tide of that holy desperation in the Church today!

If the Spirit of God is stirring within you regarding revival, then I encourage you to go to the OneCry website, sign the declaration of spiritual emergency, and then join our team of intercessors. We are committing to pray daily, fervently, faithfully for revival in our nation. May the Lord awaken His people to the presence of Christ in such a powerful way, that it overflows from our churches into the streets and neighborhoods of our nation.

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries