When there is no hope for a nation, when there is no remedy, God has a holy prescription.
“Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders… Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord.” … Be glad you children of Zion, for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” – Joel 2:12-28
The first chapter of Joel depicts a scene of a devastating plague, leading to total economic collapse and agricultural devastation – the very judgments of the Lord against Israel’s spiritual apostasy. Israel has left their God. This isn’t too different from America and many nations on the earth. Fortunately, Joel gives a prescription for the extreme national crisis and the removal of the plague. The prescription is mass turning to the Lord in humility, united fasting, and prayer.
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” – Joel 2:12
Are we not in another moment of devastation from this Coronavirus plague? Have the nations of the earth left their God or rejected the God of gods? Let us not miss the divine prescription or fail to seize this divine moment. Today, the second day of the Esther Fast, we lay hold of Joel’s prescription. Let us globally humble ourselves. David said he humbled his soul with fasting. Join me in confessing our sins and the sins of our nation and forsaking them. Let us believe that this is God’s chosen fast and that we were chosen to call upon Him in this hour, crying out, “Spare Your people, O Lord,” that God may avert the crisis.
Could we, in this fast, also see the breaking of the power of unrighteous rulers like in Esther’s day, the promotion of reformers in the seven spheres of influence, and the sending forth of laborers into the world that is ripe for the gospel because of the shaking? Could this storm also be releasing a demonic rage that creates political upheaval in order to remove God-ordained political leaders and thwart the program of heaven that is being carried forth in these days? We must give ourselves to aggressive prayer, decreeing, “Not on our watch!”
With this response of our hearts, should we not believe that, in this 40-day Global Joel/Jesus Fast and three-day Esther Fast, sudden reversals of fortune will occur and that our prayers will be answered with a global outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the rains of revival in Joel 2:28? “And it shall come to pass afterward (after the fast) that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.” Would you cry out for your nation?
Having confessed your sins and the sins of your nation (Dan 9), clothe yourself now in the free gift of Jesus’ righteousness. Throw off shame and see yourself seated with Christ in heavenly places. Then prepare yourself, for tomorrow we enter the throne room of God with our brethren around the world to resist in the name of Jesus this virus. The waves and wind still know his name (“It Is Well” by Kristene DiMarco)
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