Have We Been Praying Enough?

We need to ask—Have I been faithfully on my face interceding for this pandemic to stop in its tracks? I know there are faithful intercessors crying out, but I am concerned that many of us have left the serious intercession up to others...then we just counted the days as we sat back and waited it out only to get disappointed when we didn't see the results for which we were hoping.

“Five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and prayed more, and given more.”
-Leonard Ravenhill

We need to ask ourselves, “How serious have I been to do my part in bringing about the miracle of this calamity being lifted off of us? How often have I been getting on my face and crying out to God for forgiveness for our nation, and crying out for forgiveness for my personal sins? How serious was I to see the miracle when I spent such a small portion of my day calling out in repentance for my nation?”

In WWII the nation of England was crying out to God for their country that was at war. The churches were filled throughout the week—crying out  for their young men stranded on the shores of Dunkirk. There was no hope in the natural, yet the king and the queen were daily on their knees in Westminster Abby, the Cabinet and all of Parliament daily fell on their knees crying out to God for deliverance. The nation itself was in fervent prayer… and God brought a miracle. Would they have seen that miracle if they had gone about their business and complacently said, “It’s ok! God is going to take care of us.” ? We have an active part to play. We live in a fallen world and we cannot afford to neglect our responsibility to intercede.
  
I have been so pleased and thankful for the ones who have seriously appropriated God’s Psalm 91 covenant of protection over their families. We have received testimonies of supernatural miracles when people have placed faith in its promises for their household and cried out for mercy. But, we must not stop short by just covering our own loved ones.  

God established this great nation—the greatest nation  that has ever been birthed. Therefore, we as citizens have a God given responsibility to take that same Psalm 91 protection covenant and pray it over our entire homeland. I believe God is wanting us to begin asking ourselves, “How desperate am I to see God’s intervention for our United States—not just for my close friends and relatives only“. This nation is a gift from God and it is our responsibility to faithfully intercede throughout each and every day for our country to turn back to Him.  

There is a powerful prophetic message in what happened to Sodom. God didn’t ask for much. He would have spared the entire city of Sodom if only ten people had repented. Now, we are on this side of the Cross and there are untold numbers of Christians, but we need to ask ourselves—am I fulfilling my call to repent and pray? If God would have saved Sodom for just ten righteous people who cried out, would He not expect the bulk of Christians in our nation, who have been blessed beyond words, to fall on our knees and collectively turn this attack through prayer. God is waiting for us to cry out for not only this plague to pass, but to personally repent and in compassion cry out for the lost and the complacent to fall on their faces and come running to Him.

We who have been blessed so exceedingly beyond Sodom, and blessed beyond all other nations, should we not be concerned beyond our four walls and cry out day and night until this evil plan to kill steal and destroy is under our feet. There is so much for which to repent. How did a nation so blessed by God come to a place where we have allowed the occult to slip in right under our noses? There are horoscopes filling the pages in our daily newspapers, yoga tolerated and even participated in by Christians, babies legally aborted by the thousands, churches standing half empty every Sunday, Harry Potter books being read to our children in many of our public classrooms… So many people argue, “What is the difference between the evil in Harry Potter and the witches in our old fairy tales."? There is a huge difference. The witches in the old fairy tales were proclaimed to be evil and lost their power in the end. Children understand that witchcraft is not good when the witch ends up in the oven at the end of the story while Harry Potter, on the other hand, is proclaimed to be good, admired and his witchcraft accepted. How sad when we use our Christian platform to condone any form of witchcraft when it is an abomination to God. When will we close those doors in our own lives and then cry out for mercy and repent for our nation. We cannot clean up our nation until we drive out the evil in our own homes.

One of my biggest shocks was when I was told that our soldiers were not allowed to take a Bible into the Iraqi war. (This came from a close friend whose son was one of the first inserted into that war.) She actually hand wrote Psalm 91 and other Scriptures and put them in his military bags so he would have portions of the Word to give him strength. When she asked why Bibles were not allowed, she was told they did not want to be offensive to our enemy.

To verify this, we had a similar experience when we could not get the USPS to ship Psalm 91 books into Iraq during the war for our soldiers because of an agreement signed with Iraq. It is appalling that a defeated enemy was able to keep Bibles and Christian materials from being put in the hands of our soldiers. I don’t know if that explanation was true, but could the fear of offending an unbeliever who has attacked our nation possibly be the reason for compromising of the importance of God’s Word outside of our home—in our schools, military, etc.—we are scared of offending someone? What has our Christian nation come to?
How many people and/or churches were on their faces before God when President Trump declared a National Day of Prayer. Many of our major news stations failed to even report that the President of our United States had called for the nation to pray collectively that day. If a station refused to even acknowledge the president’s request to cry out to our God, every Christian in this nation, should refuse to even listen to that station again? Some say, “Well, we have to keep up with the news.” There is nothing wrong with staying informed with the news, but not feeding upon the news. There are some legitimate sources to keep us informed in order for us not to even give attention to the ‘fake news’. Why do we tolerate and daily listen to the discrepancy from the ones that are promoting their own false agenda? We will be held accountable for what we listen to and unbelievers have agendas contrary to God’s word. (see Mark 4:24, Luke 8:18)

I’m sure there are many Christians praying— but, considering the number of confessing Christians in our nation—are there far too few in serious prayer? Are there far too many lifting up a quick request and then hurrying on with their day? Are God’s people actually on their faces seriously crying out and repenting to God on behalf of our nation? The kind of prayer we are going to need is not a fast few words thrown up to God as we rush out the door. No! Prayer is often hard work. Too many of us as Christians are lazy, and lazy doesn’t work during a crisis.

Too many of us are counting on certain people and certain dates to magically stop the virus rather than doing our part and contending for our nation. I am eternally grateful for the ones who are faithfully interceding and crying out, but what about the rest of us?  
  
We, as Christians, must start crying out and fulfilling our calling. We know from the tower of Babel that nothing is impossible (Genesis 11:6) when we come into obedience and unity—yet the builders of the tower went the wrong direction and agreed on the wrong thing. We must start where we are and cry out for a return to the Lord. We can’t just say—too few are doing it. We must each one simply take our stand and be faithful to do what we’re called to do.

The Bible tells us in I Chronicles 12:32 that Issachar, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, recognized the times. If each of us will recognize the times in which we live and determine to do what God is calling us individually to do, we will see the miracles. It is imperative that we not miss our window of opportunity. God is calling the righteous to cry out. The timing depends on us. God has unbelievable mercy, but we must not wait too long. There is a day of reckoning.

Think about it! Has there ever been a more perfect time to pray when so many people are confined at home? At the judgment are we going to say, “I was bored so I played cards and watched  the news and listened to hundreds of TV programs trying to entertain myself"? If we are going to call ourselves ‘believers’, then let’s act like believers. Believers would be starting their day crying out to God and making good use of this time of quarantine.

I’m going to put out a challenge to every born again believer—I challenge each one of us to commit to a designated amount of time every day, crying out in sincere, fervent prayer for our nation. And to take Psalm 91 beyond just a covering for our own family and to cry out for others in order to safeguard our nation with it. If we do that, I believe God assured me that there will be no end to the miracles we will see.  

-Peggy Joyce Ruth
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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 heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

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