This Thursday, May 4th, is the National Day of Prayer. The motto this year is, 

"Hear Us... Forgive Us... Heal Us ...For Your Great Name’s Sake!" 

This was Daniel’s prayer. Daniel was an intercessor during a time of great captivity, and his diligence in intercession was greatly rewarded. 

Mordecai was another intercessor in Scripture who was greatly rewarded for his labors. When we read the book of Esther, it is easy to focus on her story, but Mordecai was the one who first began interceding when he saw the plans of the wicked to destroy God’s people, and he was the one who influenced Esther to go before the King. 

Our nation, which once — for the most part — promoted righteousness, has been promoting things in the world that are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. Our God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, but he also forgave and restored Nineveh when they repented of their wicked ways! He did this with a great revival that spread from the top down.

Only the spirit of repentance sweeping across our land can change the hearts and minds in this nation. We desperately need a revival, which will be what spares us from God’s judgment. This revival can begin with you and me!

In the past those whom God used to bring about revival were men and women of God who had sought Him with all their hearts — men and women of prayer. We cannot stop praying until we see revival become a reality!

1 Chronicles 21:1 says, “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” David was a God-fearing king, a man after God’s own heart, yet there was a time in his reign that he succumbed to the principalities and the powers of darkness in heavenly places. Because of David’s action judgment fell on the people of Israel and 70,000 men died. One wrong decision from one man brought great suffering to the people under him.
 
It is vital that we pray for both our political and spiritual leaders because the decisions they make affect us for good or for bad.
 
Today America is a divided nation because of past decisions that have been made by our leaders, both politically and spiritually. When spiritual leaders fail, the church suffers; and when the church suffers, our nation suffers.
 
In 2 Chronicles 6 we find Solomon's prayer as he is before the Lord and before the people.

With a new administration it could become easy for God’s people to begin trusting in man instead of God to solve America’s problems. It is very easy for us to become complacent when things seem to be going well, but we can never forget that our eyes must always be on God as our source of help.  
 
We see in scripture that when God’s people put their trust in the arm of flesh, the result was always tragic; but when they put their trust in God, He blessed them.
 
In 1 Chronicles, the sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manassah went to war with some of their enemies and were helped against them. Their enemies were delivered into their hands BECAUSE they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer BECAUSE they trusted in Him. Many of the enemies were slain because the war was God’s!
 

And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it (John 14:13, 14)
 
Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not (Jeremiah 33:3)
 
Prayer does not release some mere force of man or nature. Prayer releases the immeasurable wealth and power of the Almighty God!  "Call unto Me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jer 33:3). There you have it. It is the voice of God!

OUR PRAYER
BY WESLEY L. DUEWEL

Lord, light again the sacred flame of Holy Ghost revival fire,
He who at Pentecost then came is He Whom we so much desire.
We need Him in our midst today; Oh, send Him to us while we pray.

Revival is Your work, O God; Tis for revival that we plead!
Spread holy flames of fire abroad and meet Your people's deepest need.
Oh, send the Spirit's holy power upon our waiting hearts this hour.

We need the Spirit to convict and bring once more the sense of sin.
May sinners feel their conscience pricked
And see how far from God they've been.
With Holy Ghost conviction seize till sinners fall upon their knees.

Since the creation of man there has been a continual battle between light and darkness, between good and evil, between the wicked and the righteous. This spiritual battle continues to rage over our nation.

For some years now the wicked have been ruling this nation, and the righteous have mourned and wondered if our nation was lost for good. Throughout this past year God’s people have awakened from their slumber and lifted their voices — repenting and praying for revival. God heard our prayers and divinely intervened for His people in the elections.

As we watched the drama of election night it was clear that there was a spiritual battle for this nation. That evening we witnessed the power of prayer. This political victory, for which we thank God, should not cause us to take our ease but rather to continue what we have begun — drawing near to God in repentance, praying for a national revival. This political victory is not the answer for America! It is a blessing but not the answer. This election is only temporary.

Dear Prayer Partners,

I would like to let you know that AFA is calling God's people to fast and pray tomorrow for our nation. Below I have attached some information for those of you who may be interested.

 
I also want to let you know that Franklin Graham is inviting believers to join in prayer with him. The prayer event is scheduled to take place on Facebook live on Nov. 7th at 9pm Eastern.

A few weeks ago we gathered on the Capitol grounds to repent for our sins and to pray that God’s favor would once again be upon our nation and that He would save us. As Franklin Graham said, “Our nation is in trouble, and our only hope is in God!”

Our nation is in trouble because we have sinned against God and rejected Him. He has lifted His hand of blessing, but still our hope is in Him because we know He is a merciful God that can forgive us if we repent and cry out to Him. He can save us! 

We have held more communion with man than with God!

We have given a greater prominence to man's writings, man's opinions, man's systems in our studies--than to the Word of God. ( Is 8:20; I Thess. 2:13)

We have drunk more out of human cisterns than divine.

We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered among us.

We are in dire need of the presence of God. It brings Life; it gives us joy which is our strength; it breaks chains; it causes our enemies to be defeated. 

Israel understood the value of the presence of God as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. They knew that with God's presence they would have the strength they needed to fight the battles, and their enemies would not survive before them.

In Joshua 2:24 the spies said to Joshua, "Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint hearted because of us."

In a recent APN prayer meeting a pastor prayed, “Lord, how can a sick church help a dying world? It’s not possible, Lord… but You can heal us and then we can help save the dying world.” The church in America is sick which is why we have had no power to help our dying nation. Regardless of what church or denomination we belong to, we are all apart of this sick body. BUT each one of us also has a part in the healing of this body.

We are like the man in the parable of Luke 10 who was beaten, robbed, and left dying on the Jericho road. We desperately need our God to pass by and pour in the wine and the oil and raise us up!

WE NEED THE SPIRIT

Lord, light again the sacred flame of Holy Ghost revival fire.
He Who at Pentecost then came
Is He Whom we so much desire.
We need Him in our midst today;
Oh, send Him to us while we pray.

Revival is Your work, O God;
'Tis for revival we plead!
Spread holy flames of fire across our nation
And meet Your people's deepest need.
Oh, send the Spirit's holy power
Upon our waiting hearts this hour.

We need the Spirit to convict
And bring once more the sense of sin.
May sinners feel their conscience pricked
And see how far from God they've been.
With Holy Ghost conviction seize
Till sinners fall upon their knees.

We need the Spirit to empower,
To cleanse and fill and sanctify.
Send Him upon the Church this hour
Till all their Savior glorify.
Make holy love to overflow;
Set lives and faces aglow!

Oh, send revival once again;
Lord, set our spirits all aflame!
Reveal Your glory unto men;
Once more exalt Your Holy name!
Revival is our greatest need;
Oh, send the Holy Ghost we plead!

-Wesley L. Duewel

What great things God has done!

What a wonderful work He began in 2015! This was the year of small beginnings, a year of the seeds pushing up into the sunlight, reaching out to heaven opening their small leaves to the light.

Now what is the Lord's plan for us in 2016?One obvious coming prayer theme is the 2016 elections. Let us implore the Lord for a righteous person to lead our country. But what does the Lord want from us this year? What other great and wonderful works will He do? What is He saying? At last, the Lord gave a familiar verse to lead us into 2016.

2 Chr. 7:14, "If My people who are called by My name will 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."

Each time we come together in prayer for national repentance and revival, I'm reminded of my own great need for personal repentance. Many times I have asked the Lord to open my eyes to my true spiritual condition and asked for the Spirit of Repentance to come upon me. While He has allowed me this to some degree, the Lord has also begun to reveal an even greater truth. Until I see myself in the perfect, holy light of God Almighty, how can I ever understand the depth of my own sinful condition? Have I, in all my pursuits, lost sight of the great holiness of God? Furthermore, have my thoughts towards Him become less than who He truly is? Have I, in my mind, created an image and even possibly an idol, of who I think God is--an image that is far less than His consummate glory?

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE PRAYER!

Desperate times call for desperate measures! For God’s people, desperate times call for desperate prayer. Now is the time to move the heart of God with desperate prayer and fasting. As Hollywood values and sodomy replace Christianity, we must turn to God. Our hope lies not in the White House, but in God’s house, and His house is filled with the prayers of His people. 

We must humbly come before the throne of God who will always respond to our desperation. God delivered Esther and her people when they humbled themselves with fasting and prayer (Esther 4). He answered Elisha’s cry and gave resurrection life (2 Kings 4). When Hezekiah cried out, God gave him victory in battle (2 Chronicles 32). Blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus despite the scorn, and he received sight (Mark 10). Imagine if these ones had not cried out; they would not have experienced miraculous transformations!

When will we repent?

Great spiritual awakenings are the sovereign work of Almighty God. Revival is when God comes down. I have experienced this only one time during my 38 years in ministry. God came down with the sound of a freight train rolling through 200 pastors and lay leaders who broke out into repentance, while I was preaching a revival among the villages on the border of Uganda and Kenya. It is my passion to see this happen in America.