God is a god of closure, not loose ends!

“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

Are you properly equipped to fight in the war going on in your own backyard?
Who are you going to recruit to help you fight this spiritual war?

During the 2002-2003 school year, I met nearly every Wednesday morning at Culpeper High School from 7-8 AM with a few students in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for a devotional time, including prayer for people in the school. Andrea Kebede was the most faithful participant.

On Sep 13, 2007 Laura Kebede called to invite me to a prayer gathering on Sep 17 at 7 PM at St. Stephen’s parish hall. She asked those with a heart for seeing teens come to Christ in Culpeper to come and ask the Lord’s blessing on this school year and dedicate it to Him. Laura is a high school senior and Andrea’s younger sister.

While driving to St. Stephens last night by myself, I suddenly felt led to pray for God to usher in His spiritual tsunami. I haven’t prayed like that in months. I reminded God that He was the one who told me a year ago that a spiritual tsunami was coming to Virginia in 2007 unlike the world had ever seen before. I told God, “You are not a man that You can lie.” Then I received a clear leading to keep pressing into God to call forth the spiritual tsunami. I thought about Elijah praying for God to shut up the heavens with no rain for 3.5 years (James 5:17) and God did that.

For a while this year it seemed we were seeing larger and larger spiritual earthquakes in Culpeper and then a few months ago things seemed to quiet down. I didn’t understand why it seemed we were losing ground to the enemy.

What happened at last night’s prayer meeting blew me away. We started with only 5-7 people, but by the end twelve people had come. Three of those (Laura, Felecia, and Devon) are students at Culpeper High School. Their prayers touched the deep recesses of my heart bringing tears to my eyes on several occasions.

Just before we began praying, Laura handed out a short list of student prayer requests. The first item on the prayer list was the “Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames” drama in Culpeper on Sep 23-25. That is near and dear to my heart because my daughter and wife both invited Jesus into their hearts at that drama six years ago in Sep 2001. I’ll share more about that tomorrow. In addition to praying for that, I also prayed for God to provide a new place for the high school Rize Up students to gather to pray each morning since they lost use of the band room they used last school year.

Another item on Laura’s written prayer list was the annual “See U at the Pole” event on Sep 26. While another person prayed, the idea came to my mind for students to gather around the flag pole at the high school every morning before school starts. I remembered what an impact it had on me uniting hands in a prayer circle around the school flagpole as buses drove up to drop kids off at the school. I prayed for God to make that happen in Culpeper.

About 5-10 minutes later, Devon prayed thanking God for my confirmation of the same idea that God had given him independently about praying each morning around the flag pole. Devon committed to do that. Wow! What an uncommon, yet simple idea. Wouldn’t it be powerful if students at schools across America did that each morning? Publically crying out to God every morning to intervene and stop the destruction and poor choices. I sensed that what was happening in Culpeper last night was similar to the Fulton Street revival that started in New York City 150 years ago.

At the end of our prayer time, Erick Kalenga shared that he had listened over and over to the song mentioned in my Sep 16 devotional titled “If I die before you wake.” As he did so, he became acutely aware that “We are at war” – not just in Iraq, but right here in Culpeper and America. We are in a huge spiritual battle with the enemy for the minds, hearts, and souls of our young people. God wants us to press in with corporate prayer.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, thank You for what You birthed in the hearts of those at last night’s prayer gathering in Culpeper. Bless Laura, Felecia, and Devon to go back to Culpeper High School to start a fire of revival through prayer. Take this idea of students praying around the flag pole every morning and multiply it across America. Touch the hearts of our young people, O God. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Link of the Day
Laura Kebede’s list of things to pray for this school year

Blessings to become a daily prayer warrior!