Praying the News in Critical Days - Church Prayer Leaders Network

Exerting a Positive Force on Current Events

By Dave Kubal

I remember balancing on a teeter-totter as a kid. What a surprise when a mischievous friend jumped off the other end, plummeting me to the ground!

As an adult sharing a teeter-totter with my own kids, I had to be careful not to, as we used to joke, “send them to the moon!” Eventually I discovered that the teeter-totter could be adjusted so that even my smallest child could lift me off the ground. I watched my son as he delighted in the power of being able to boost someone much larger than himself.

My kids loved the opportunity to influence the direction of motion and change the outcome. They were no longer passive teeter-totter victims.

What a fitting image to bring to the discipline of praying through the news. When it comes to God’s desire to answer prayer and change circumstances, what provides the “fulcrum,” the leverage for His activity? How can we adjust the fulcrum of prayer so that we are not passive participants, but we can, instead, exert a positive force on current events?

Definition:ful•crum n. 1: The point on which a lever is balanced when a force is exerted. 2: A thing that plays a central or essential role in an activity, event, or situation.

Many people much older and wiser than I am have told me that, within their lifetimes, the United States has never been in such a desperate state. Today we see our adversary the devil exerting and releasing his force upon America and the world in calculating ways (1 Pet. 5:8). Yet, there is also a “fulcrum” for change that can provide a platform for God’s opposing force of goodness and grace.

Several steps are necessary to fully let loose God’s blessing upon America during a time of austerity. As we seek God’s compassion and also search for leverage to intervene in this desperate hour, the Book of Daniel provides a model for a three-part fulcrum.

1. Look at the Signs

“I, Daniel, understood from the Scripture. . .” (Dan. 9:2).

Understanding the “signs of the times” requires a habit of looking at the news through the lens of Scripture. What has God said through the Bible that has timeless application for today? It is so easy to allow the culture’s slow erosion of values to affect our understanding and replace a biblical worldview. These influences creep in through such things as entertainment and our culture’s push for “tolerance.”

Imagine a pair of high-tech reading glasses that would superimpose related Scripture verses over events we are watching on TV. Or picture a downloadable app that would reveal Scripture verses related to article headlines. The weekly email alert from Intercessors for America is one such pair of lenses that delivers scriptural insight and news updates as a prayer resource.

However, this is no substitute for relying on the Spirit of God to direct and shape our individual awareness. A heart immersed in the Word of God, a heart that invites the Holy Spirit’s “high-tech lens” to correct its vision, is a heart ready to pray the news.

In 1865, President Lincoln understood the need to use the lens of Scripture as he called the nation “to confess [our] . . . sins and transgressions in humble sorrow . . . and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

Understanding how to pray for issues takes time and research. This can be an overwhelming task because it’s difficult to research every issue. But, knowing our limitations, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us when our knowledge is in short supply.

Those who persistently pray through the headlines may find great rewards. In Manchester, KY, the site of a modern-day revival, churches united to pray for the headlines, and each week the town newspaper reflected the many answers to prayer. From one headline to the next, those who were praying praised God for the reports of drug dealers arrested and community corruption exposed.

As we pray for Christ to come, here are some practical ways to, in effect, “rewrite” the headlines through prayer. Our prayers, combined with action, can help create headlines that honor God instead of reflecting a decline in godly values:

Create a list of political leaders and pray for them daily. (Download a list of the top 130 U.S. officials at getamericapraying.com/prayerguides.php.)
Take a course on politics to better understand the process of government.
Consider running for political office.
Get involved in the local political process and attend open government meetings. (Learn about who is praying with state governmental authorities through the Congressional Prayer Caucus.)

2. Turn to God

“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting” (Dan. 9:3).

God spoke to Daniel’s heart and said the only prescription for the day’s events was to turn to the Lord. The sequence here—Daniel’s prayers, his pleading, and his fasting—is significant. There is a subtle, yet important difference in these three actions.

The first word, the Hebrew word for prayer, is tefillah, and it conveys the notion of judging oneself. In the Hebrew mind, the ultimate purpose of prayer is transformation. God does not change. We do. Tefillah is the method God gave by which individuals can change and thereby establish a new relationship with God and a new destiny in life.
To “plead,” tachanuwn, is to ask or to move someone to favor by petition. That is, Daniel made a specific request to the Lord for a specific outcome. He could do this because he knew what God wanted. It has been said that praying is presenting a wish list to God, while interceding is knowing the will of God and asking until it comes to pass. This is what Daniel did. He knew the mind of God and asked for His will to be accomplished.
Daniel did all of this in an environment of humility, denying himself through the discipline of fasting. The Hebrew word for “to fast,” tsuwm means to cover the mouth. As a prerequisite for turning to the Lord, Daniel understood that when he elevated his spirit above his flesh—the need to pray over the need to eat—he would see greater results.

This is how we are to pray the news and witness God’s blessing in turning to Him. Again, Manchester, KY, is an example of what can happen when people humble themselves and pray, with some even fasting. The Clay County High School principal reported that in the mid-2000s, 90 percent of the high school students used drugs. That’s a staggering number! Then 63 churches joined together, prayed, pleaded, (again, some fasted), and marched in the city.

This was the turning point, and God came to town. Over a period of months, the drug epidemic receded. Meth labs were destroyed, addicts received care and counseling, and lives were put back together. (For an article describing this community transformation, see Prayer Connect, vol. 1, no. 1.)

As we pray for Christ to come and heal our land, here are some practical ways we can turn to Him:

Daily confess personal sin and ask the Lord to bring conviction and transformation to your own heart.
Subscribe to blogs or prayer ministry alerts. (Intercessors for America’s alerts can be found at getamericapraying.com and Capitol Hill Prayer Partners’ updates at chpponline.blogspot.com.)
If your health allows, fast on a regular basis. Invite others to join you. Many people participate in a First Friday Fast.

3. Confess All Sin

“We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws” (Dan. 9:5).

Daniel boldly confessed someone else’s sin in addition to his own. This is called “identificational confession.” He identified himself with those who had committed trespasses, and he refused to let his own pride or apathy become a roadblock to repentance.

We can do the same. Often, it is not our natural thought to confess someone else’s sin, but God allows us—just as Old Testament priests did—to stand before Him, to shoulder the burden, and to take responsibility for our communities.

Daniel did not confess his people’s shortcomings with arrogance. Instead, he humbly identified with these weaknesses. This kind of humility attracts the presence of God.

One of the first things the pastors did in the Manchester, KY, revival was to confess their sins and repent of being more interested in their own church programs than in the Kingdom of God. This simple confession, years in the making, acted as a crucial fulcrum for revival.

Another president of the United States, James Buchanan (president from 1857 to 1861), acknowledged our nation’s need to turn to God in humility this way: “Let us, then, with deep contrition and penitent sorrow, unite in humbling ourselves before the Most High, in confessing our individual and national sins.”

President James Madison once asked the nation to confess its sins as he called Americans to acknowledge and identify with “the transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasures; of seeking His merciful forgiveness, His assistance in the great duties of repentance.”

As we pray for Christ to come to our land, here are some practical ways to pursue this “great duty of repentance” in our nation:

Seek the Lord to understand community strongholds.
Walk in a spirit of forgiveness and humility with others.
Invite others to join in repenting on behalf of the community and the nation.
Organize a prayer meeting that extends beyond your church. *Visit the Sentinel Group’s website (glowtorch.org) and learn how prayer is changing many communities.

As we pray for our nation and nations around the world, may we be encouraged to understand the scriptural “fulcrum” created when we look, turn, and confess. Regardless of circumstances or national crises, this three-part fulcrum will bring greater glory to our Lord as we exert a positive influence upon our nation.

DAVID KUBAL is president of Intercessors for America, a ministry uniting believers in effective prayer and fasting for America.

Praying through Tough Times By Dave Butts

We live in a hurting world. From the small frustrations of everyday life to major tragedies, we will experience varying degrees of pain and suffering. The question is, “How will we handle these difficulties?”

Those who follow Jesus will follow Him to the cross. Suffering becomes a part of the Christian life that allows us to draw even nearer to our Lord. This triumphant lifestyle in the midst of this world’s suffering allows us to draw near to those who are hurting and bring them in prayer to the Savior’s healing hand. Jesus tells us very clearly, “In this world you will have trouble.” But He doesn’t leave it there. He continues on to say, “But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Our world is obviously in a time of increasing sorrows and difficulties. What will be our reaction as the people of God? In a self-centered and self-absorbed culture, sufferings and difficulties are to be avoided at all costs. When tough times do impact our culture, the tendency is to run from them, complain about them, or sink into depression. The Church is not immune from that pervasive attitude.

As we approach the end of days, it will be absolutely essential for the Church to embrace wholeheartedly the spiritual discipline of suffering. Tough times are coming! Paul wrote to Timothy and warned, “There will be terrible times in the last days” (2 Tim. 3:1). Jesus said graphically, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive” (Matt. 24:22). In spite of clear warnings in Scripture, the modern Church moves ahead with next to no preparation for these tough times in the days to come. It is time for clear teaching on endurance, suffering, and overcoming prayer. A prepared and prayed-up Church will be a triumphant Church, even in the midst of troubled times.

At least part of our problem is a theological one. Many, perhaps even a majority, of the Church today hold to a pretribulation rapture view of the end times. They believe that before the seven years of the Great Tribulation, the Church will be removed (raptured) to be with the Lord.

Without weighing in on the accuracy of this position, I simply want to point out the potential danger of the Church counting on missing the tribulation, and then perhaps having to face great difficulties without adequate preparation if that view is wrong.

Even if the rapture takes place before the Great Tribulation, there will be (and are, in fact, today) terrible times that the Church must face. We must not allow an escapist mentality to rule us. “Don’t worry about tough times, the rapture is coming, and we won’t have to deal with it.” I fear the Church will not accept its responsibility to pray and minister in the power of the Holy Spirit through the times of crisis that are upon us.

To the many who believe that Christians will miss the last seven years of human history because they will be taken away by the Lord in the rapture, I say, “Praise God!” But just in case that timing is inaccurate, be prepared to move through those days in powerful prayer, depending on the power of God to use us to accomplish His purposes through our intercessions. It is not the wrath of God we will face in those days; we are protected from that. If we are here through those days, it is the wrath of Satan that we will face, though not without the strength of the Lord as our shield.

Prayer

Lord, we long for Your appearing. As the nations and the very earth itself convulses in anticipation, please give us Your lasting peace in the midst of troubling times. Help me to endure any hardship for Your sake. I want to be like You, Lord Jesus, as You endured the cross for the joy set before You. May You be my strength and my shield in every situation.