His Call to Prayer
By Dr. Jamie Morgan
While in Israel on my 50th birthday, my tour group visited many different Old and New Testament sites, including the Garden of Gethsemane. As sightseers often do, our cameras were ready to snap pictures of the place where Jesus prayed while facing His crucifixion. It’s also the place where the disciples fell asleep after He asked them to pray.
In the middle of this photo opportunity, God began revealing His heart to me.
I could feel my heart beating loudly. An intense grief washed over me. To say that my spirit felt sick and in tumult would be an understatement. I looked around the group to see if anyone else was responding in like manner; they weren’t.
God had my attention.
“Lord, why am I having this reaction?” I asked.
I knew God was pulling back the curtain of His heart but didn’t know why. He didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Just as the disciples fell asleep when Jesus asked them to pray, my Church has also fallen asleep to the place of prayer. I am raising you up, along with leaders around the world, to call the Church to pray for revival.”
I felt stunned, honored, and overwhelmed at the same time. He had revealed His heart. God wants to revive His Church and is calling His people to a movement of prayer that will serve as the precursor to that revival.
God Initiates and Calls
When God wants to accomplish a particular purpose on earth, He establishes a pattern:
1. God deposits His heart into the heart of a leader.
2. The leader begins to intercede and invites others to join.
3. The Holy Spirit draws intercessors to unite with the leader.
4. A prayer movement is birthed.
You can rest assured, when God moves upon the earth, someone has answered the call of intercession.
Shortly after returning home from the trip, I began my new prayer assignment: the United States Prays was birthed. Since then, I have conducted prayer journeys to many former revival sights across our country, our state, and our nation’s capital, as well as our city.
We have also cried out for revival at the Mason-Dixon line, the U.S. southern border, abortion clinics, and even in a movie theater parking lot after viewing the powerful prolife movie Unplanned.
And we have conducted rhythms of 24-hour prayer during elections and other crucial events in our nation, with thousands of Christians around the country joining.
It all began eight years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane, when God revealed the desire of His heart: revival.
It’s an honor to live with the weight of God’s heart pressing down on mine. When God gives us even a small glimpse of His heart, we turn that into intercession. This will cause our prayers to go from “Bless me and mine” to “I cry out for the salvation of nations”—or whatever prayer assignment God has given you.
Although darkness covers the earth, if we make God’s heart our foremost concern and partner with other Christians in prayer, God will send breakthrough, relief, and Kingdom advancement. What a day to be alive! The Holy Spirit is imprinting prayer movements upon the hearts of believers all around the world, with the call to link arms.
What do you sense He is speaking to you?
Lightning Rods of Change
God is breathing upon many different prayer movements in this season of the Church. When today’s Christians unite with one of these movements of prayer, they become lightning rods of change in the hands of Almighty God. There is an urgency of the hour. And much is on God’s heart right now.
Prayer for our children is one of the movements God is highlighting. The attempted theft of our children’s salvation, identity, and safety grieves the heart of God. He is calling us to partner with Him in intercession to reverse this premeditated attack from the enemy.
School board meetings featured on the nightly news stand as mirrors exposing what’s transpiring in the classroom. Ungodly curriculum that reflects an anti-Christ agenda, the celebration of the sin of homosexuality, and the tragic but prevalent school shootings in our nation have caused parents, teachers, and concerned Christians alike to arise and cry out to God on behalf of our children.
After the tragedy in Uvalde, TX, in May 2022, labeled as the deadliest school shooting in the history of our nation, God spoke to Donna Martin to launch the prayer movement “Covered: The Largest Online Back-to-School Prayer Gathering.”1
She says, “It’s easy to post ‘thoughts and prayers’ on social media after a tragedy. But God has mandated me to call every mother in our nation to contend in prayer for their children’s protection, identity, and encounter with the God who loves them.”
Prayer movements for the lost are also on God’s heart. You’ve never locked eyes with someone Jesus doesn’t deeply love and His mercy can’t reach. If we could hear God’s heart beating, it would sound like this: “SOULS, SOULS, SOULS!” Yet, one-third of the world is denied access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
An example of a prayer movement God has raised up to focus on intercession for the Great Commission is “A Third of Us.” From this movement, the “International Day for the Unreached” was birthed to bring prayer awareness to this critical issue (athirdofus.com).
Through prayer movements like this one, we can intercede together to increase the population of heaven and decrease the population of hell—always primary on God’s heart.
Movements on God’s Heart
Another key prayer area God is emphasizing in this season is intercession for pastors. Sadly, statistics reveal that 42 percent of pastors are currently considering permanently leaving the ministry.2 Many pastors are only hanging by a thread; it wouldn’t take much for them to walk away.
The reasons are many and varied, but include discouragement, pandemic fatigue, the upheaval in our nation that has brought division to the Church, loneliness and isolation—and the list goes on and on.
Revived churches are led by revived pastors. The old adage, “As the pulpit goes, so goes the pew,” still rings true today. Prayer for pastors is often one of the most overlooked, but desperately needed, components of revival.
The assignment to pray for pastors is one that JoAnn Kates of “Pastors Need Prayer—The Movement” takes seriously.3 Through online and in-person gatherings, she prays for pastors across the nation, imparts a passion to God’s people to pray for their pastors, and teaches the body of Christ how to biblically cover their pastors in prayer.
And yet another area of deep concern to God in this hour is government—city, county, state, and national. When righteous men and women are placed in governmental offices, godly laws will be established and godly justice will prevail. In addition, the leaders presently in office need to be immersed in prayer, no matter their political affiliation.
One of the many prayer movements that focuses on prayer for our government is, “Move the Earth,” led by Glennys Hyland.4 Through prayer calls, onsite prayer, and in-person gatherings, she helps fulfill 1 Timothy 2:2, “Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity” (nlt).
In addition to the key areas of prayer already mentioned, other prayer movements that I believe portray God’s heart in this season focus on intercession for the family, business, arts and entertainment, higher education, worship, and biblical social justice. Still more concentrate on prayer for the godly transformation of cities, specific people groups (Hindus, Muslims, etc.), and the salvation of entire nations.
Releasing God’s Power
Prayer movements are weapons in God’s arsenal against the enemy. Satan hates them because they’re the vehicle God uses to release His power on the earth. When our prayers go up, God’s power comes down! However, if we’re willing to live without seeing God’s greater purposes accomplished on earth, we will. God forbid that is said of us!
The Church doesn’t need new styles or methods, but people who unite in prayer to see God move. Prayer movements are the powerhouse of the Church. Each of our prayer assignments, though different, are equally needed because each carry a piece of God’s heart. Together, every movement of prayer reflects the heart of the Father.
Which prayer movement is God laying on your heart to join? Or perhaps He is calling you to launch one, like He did me. Ask God to unveil your prayer assignment and strategically connect you with other intercessors to achieve His plans. Stay true to what He shows you, letting nothing discourage or distract, regardless of your prayer mission field.
God’s heart is beating loud and clear. Can you hear it? Will you answer His clarion call to align with a prayer movement to see God move in power and might on the earth?
1Covered: The Largest Online Back-to-School Prayer Gathering, prayer leader: Donna Martin, mygirltruth@gmail.com.
2Barna Group, “Pastors Share Top Reasons They’ve Considered Quitting Ministry in the Past Year,” https://www.barna.com/research/pastors-quitting-ministry/.
3Pastors Need Prayer—The Movement, prayer leader: JoAnn Kates, joannkates@hotmail.com.
4Move the Earth, prayer leader: Glennys Hyland, glennyshyland@movetheearth.org.
JAMIE MORGAN is an ordained minister, revivalist, and founder of Trailblazer Mentoring Network, a mentoring movement for women in ministry (jamiemorgan.com). Her book Thirsty: A 31-Day Personal Journey to Revival is available at prayershop.org or wherever you buy Christian books.
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