Twenty-two years ago, on the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, IFA Board Member John Beckett, denoted as “JB,” sat down with Dr. Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ), “BB,” and Dr. Henry Blackaby (Experiencing God), “HB.” Their insight in this excerpt is just as poignant today and helps us know how to pray. Please share your thoughts and prayers in the comments.
BB: Well for the last nine years, beginning in 1994, I have fasted and prayed for 40 days each year, for revival for America, the world, and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. I long for the day when we’ll see the kind of revivals that swept our country during the first, second and third Awakenings. As yet, that has not happened. There are isolated churches, isolated groups where there is a mighty outpouring of God’s Spirit in America. Individual pastors have been transformed. Some churches have been transformed. But for the masses there remains a tremendous need for awakening and for revival.
Pray for your fellow intercessor.
HB: Bill, I felt the same thing. My heart cry for revival goes back a long way and to a specific assignment in 1998. I have been not only praying but leading conferences, leading others to pray, guiding them to know what to pray and I sense that we may have missed the opportunity to have a larger fellowship of God’s people unite in serious intercession for revival. I keep sensing that we are a covenant people, and that’s a corporate identity.
But, since the ‘60s everyone has functioned individually. It’s almost like spiritual anarchy where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. If there was ever a time when there ought to have been a covenant kind of response right across the Christian community, it was in the wake of 9-11, but we lost it.
BB: I think most of the problem goes back to our understanding of who God is and our view of our biblical heritage as a nation. You know most of our founding fathers were Godly men, even though there are secular writers and biographers who never mention that or even reject it. Patrick Henry said, “This is not a nation built on religion, it’s built on the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was expressing the feelings of Washington and Madison, Monroe and even Jefferson who was probably a deist-and Franklin, who was not a true biblical be writings you have to know they’ve been influenced. This nation has a biblical heritage. I’ve been praying that somehow the masses today would have the opportunity to be exposed to our heritage. Like Ancient Israel forgot it’s spiritual heritage, sinned, and turned away from God, it was not until they were brought back to the basics and again discovered their covenant with God that they had national revival.
HB: After 9-11 I listened to many of the spiritual leaders of America-they did not have one voice. And I looked a long way to find anybody who called God’s people to repent. Leaders were comforting, and they ought to have been, but it was almost like a sociology, as the leaders of God’s people began to speak what they thought the world and media wanted to hear. But you can always tell when someone has been in the presence of God, it has a whole different tone to it, and a whole different focus to it. The message delivered by the leaders of God’s people needs to be one message, so no matter where the people of God turn, the message from God’s heart will come through no matter how different ones have expressed it. I think we missed delivering that solitary message from the heart of God. Too many of the spiritual voices had differing messages, so the people were confused.
JB: What are the two or three dominant themes that are on your heart for America at this time?
BB: Repentance, confession of sin, being restored to the light as God is in the light, and love. We need to demonstrate supernatural Agape love – the 1 Corinthians 13 love. We do it starting in our individual lives, in our families, with our spouses and our children, then in the church. Jesus said, “I command you to love one another.” This is not an option. We’re commanded to love, and we start by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and then our neighbors, our enemies, our fellow believers. There’s so much conflict and tension in the church, but when we confess our sins and get right with God then we will love our brothers and sisters.
Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments.
(Photo Credit: Carol M. Highsmith, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)