Do you feel it? A dissatisfaction or shifting? Maybe it’s a spiritual shakedown. There is restlessness in the air. Like a mother about to give birth who cannot get comfortable. There seems to be an anticipation and discomfort in the spiritual realm. I hear that others feel it as well. I hear pastors discussing this change in the air, and prayer warriors from many different congregations wondering at its meaning.
I don’t pretend to understand what is happening, but if there is about to be a monumental spiritual shakedown of some kind I do know that I want to be standing among believers, in the presence of my God.
God has set believers apart. In Matthew 16:16 Peter has just announced his revelation that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus responds by saying that he will build his church on that foundation of faith and truth. Then in Matthew 16:19 Jesus repeats what is said in Isaiah 22:22 when he says “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Jesus had all authority. He gave it to Peter, the disciples, and thereby to all who call on His name. He gave this authority to us. We are a royal priesthood. We, as Christians, are a chosen people. (1 Peter 2:9)
And now we stand at the precipice of something. What is coming? I don’t know. Revival? Awakening? Perhaps. But how can we prepare when we don’t know what we are waiting for? We simply do what we can do. We can know the Father. We can know the Son and we can know the Spirit. We can hear the Word of God, read the Word of God and sing the Word of God.
In preparation we can persist in the place of prayer much like Ezekiel did in Ezekiel chapter 37. Do you remember the story; Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones? God commands Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones and over their breath. He was obedient and spoke to the bones telling them to come to life and they did! But he had to prophesy two times. His prayer was not completely answered the first time he called it out. But when he obediently spoke it again “… they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”(Ezekiel 37:10)
Perhaps God is speaking to the church in America. Perhaps that unrest we feel is the sound of dry bones rattling as they begin to come together. Perhaps we need to persist in prayer as Ezekiel did and speak over our nation, over our families and over the church. Perhaps we need to come together, just like those dry bones. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we have the opportunity to be “an exceedingly great army”.
Just like Ezekiel was obedient to prophesy over the bones as commanded by God, we can be obedient to pray together in unity. Jesus longed for our unity. It was his last recorded prayer before his arrest (John 17: 11-26).
Every year our nation sets one day apart for prayer. The National Day of Prayer is May 4th in 2017. Katy, Texas has a beautiful legacy of prayer and has celebrated this national event since it’s inception. In recent years the churches of Katy (70+) have come together in the Merrell Center to pray and worship in unity. The worship will continue for a total of 50 hours at Fire on the Altar, held in the Epicentre on the campus of Grace Fellowship, UMC. It’s 1 Event, 2 Locations, 3 Days. Awesome! It’s a unique opportunity to interact with God in a fresh way.
I invite you to come to both locations. Seek the face of God in a new place, in a new way and see if He will speak to your soul. Stand together with other believers in the presence of God and be refreshed, come alive again.
Katyprays.org for full details and to volunteer.
May 4th: 7 – 8:30pm @ the Merrell Center more than 70 churches will pray together with worship led by Phillips, Craig and Dean.
May 4th: 8pm @ the Epicentre more than 30 churches will take turns leading worship and prayer all day and night until the finale, 7-9pm on Saturday, May 6th with a city wide celebration.
Stephanie Leggett is the Director of Community Relations at The Great Southwest Prayer Center in Katy, Texas. Thegreatsouthwestprayercenter.org .