National Day of Prayer – Opening Letter from Mike Bickle, Lou Engle & Brian Kim
There are moments in history when a door for massive change opens. Great revolutions for good or for evil occur in the vacuum created by these openings. It is in these times that key men and women, and even entire generations, risk everything to become the hinge of history—the pivotal point that determines which way the door will swing.
We believe that America is in a pivotal moment in history. The question is what will this generation do with that moment? Brothers and sisters, the nations are shaking. Economies are falling. America’s constitution is being shredded by ideologues, who seek to alter the godly foundations laid by our forefathers. In moments like this, when there is no human recourse, no political solution, God gives His prescription: “Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice . . . Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you” (Ps. 50:5,15). Again in Joel 2, the prescription given is to “Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people” (Joel 2:15).
The National Day of Prayer takes on possibly more spiritual significance this year than at any other time in our nation’s history. It seems that in 2010, everything hangs in the balance. It is a year of transition and consequence. We want to see the Church, every ethnic group and every denomination, setting one day apart to fast and pray with humility and penetrating personal repentance, asking God to put an end to the Church’s and the nation’s moral defiance of Him, and to send a great spiritual awakening.
Humility, fasting and tears, a sincere rending of the heart, and sacrifice must mark this National Day of Prayer. We need undeserved mercy, not empty promises of a great retirement plan in the mirage of our American dream. Shut it all down and call upon God to turn our nation in repentance to Him. We must have righteous leaders in every sphere of society. Promotion comes only from the Lord, and only an appeal to heaven can loose such favor.
We must turn our hearts from the pursuit of wealth to compassion for the poor. We must work justly to answer our great national sin of abortion. We must see a reversal in the Church of her easy agreement with divorce. What can end the plague of pornography that sweeps our pulpits and our people? It has always been “If my people will humble themselves and pray” (2 Chr. 7:14).
This National Day of Prayer is not meant to be just another good idea. Let everyone cry to the Lord with fasting. May God grant us revival in our day of trouble. TheCall, the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, and the prayer movements of America unite wholeheartedly behind James and Shirley Dobson and the National Day of Prayer.
