In light of what we witnessed on November 8th into the early hours of November 9th, 2016, all I can say over and over is:
1) Thank You for Your mercies, Jesus!
2) We serve the God of miracles!
3) Now is when the war fought on our knees really begins!
I fully realize the divide in our nation, and even that there are other believers that do not share my opinion & feelings. My prayer becomes that we really would be unified as the body of Christ and as a nation, truly one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As much as I have prayed, believed, fasted, and cried out to the Lord over this election, I have a confession: my faith was NOT strong on Tuesday, November 8th mid-morning to early afternoon. I was believing the enemy’s lie that the Church was too little too late. There was a very ominous realization that we could have a very, very different United States of America by the time my little boy is a teenager, one that our forefathers would not even recognize. That America would be a nation no longer able to be called “one nation under God” by any stretch of the imagination. Even though I KNEW the Lord had instructed me to keep my eyes off what was seen and on what is unseen, but foolishly in my mind, I went there.
“What if the Lord doesn’t move on our behalf?”
“What if our nation takes the dive head-long into the abyss, completely deceived?”
But, when Ohio “went red” last night everything changed. I knew deep in my bones God was doing what we had so diligently and desperately prayed! We asked Him to restore righteousness in our land…to heal our land. There was only one candidate that carried the hope of the restoration of righteous judges in the land, only one candidate that stood for life.
Ohio was highly significant to me for a couple of reasons. I was in Middletown, Ohio exactly 1 year ago at the Appeal to Heaven Conference, on a prayer assignment from the Lord with my Mom and my 2 co-workers. It was centered completely around praying for our nation. In just the past 2 months, revival has broken out in the state of Ohio especially among high school kids! It’s been through God’s sovereign timing in a movement called “Revive Ohio” (through the ministry Time to Revive). As we watched the live coverage on TV, then came Florida & North Carolina as the next critical states to go red. Both are states where Time to Revive has been pouring into cities with the Gospel & carrying the message of unity in the Body of Christ.
As the body of Christ in America, we really had prayed and believed 2 Chronicles 7:14 faithfully for our nation. I cannot begin to count how many nationwide simulcast prayer events and prayer calls sprang up in response to the Lord calling us to cry out to Him.
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
However, American Christians are not the only ones who were praying for America! It seems the world could feel how significant this outcome would be. One of the most touching to my heart was a group of thousands of believers from all nations who gathered in Jerusalem on November 7th and they cried out to the Father for America.
Locally, 2 Chronicles 7:14 gripped our whole county. 30-40 different churches committed to preaching on this same topic for 4 weeks leading up to the election. It culminated with a prayer gathering held Sunday night before the election.
It’s estimated 4,000-5,000 men, women, and children of all ages and denominational backgrounds showed up at a park just off our little town square to worship the Lord God and pray together over this election. (photo credit: Isaac Duke)
In each of these gatherings, believers humbled ourselves, we prayed, we sought His face, we confessed sin and began turning away from wickedness and “Lord, forgive our sins and heal our Land” was our mighty request of the Father. I believe that because of His mercy, His grace, and His immense kindness, He did hear us from heaven. Oh yes, and glory to His Name, we will watch Him as He heals our land! Not one thing has changed yet on a large scale, yet this we call to mind & therefore we have hope, His mercies are new every single morning.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, I fully believe He intended to revive His Church from our slumber. Trump or Clinton, we are destined to become unified as the body of Christ because our Father loves to give His Son what He asks for. Jesus prayed for US in John 17:21-23.
21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. 22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.
Jesus asked that we would be one so the world would know He came. We get to take that personally! And as my sweet friend pointed out to me, as we watched state after state go “red” it was as if you could watch the blood of Jesus cover us. We were seeing a picture of His mercy triumph over judgement. His mercy rained down on us.
I had been so disturbed recently by Barak Obama’s words as he took the stage in support of Hillary Clinton. His phrasing was this: “Let’s finish the job!” In my mind, it’s as if I could hear the enemy’s voice in those words, “Let’s put the nail in the coffin of what this nation was created to be.” YET, our God is greater than he who is in the world! What the enemy absolutely intended for our destruction, our God meant for good. Just days after he had said those words, I witnessed another miracle while watching President Obama’s first addressed the public following the elections. When he spoke about the peaceful transfer of power between he and Donald Trump; I was genuinely impressed by his sincerity. This was not the same Barak Obama we have come to know, he was different it seemed…humbled maybe. Come to think of it, in the Presidential acceptance speech on Tuesday night, neither was it the Donald Trump we’ve come to know. The Prince of Peace is on the move, and may America’s government be on His shoulders (Isaiah 9).
I believe as we watched the Lord miraculously move across our nation Tuesday night, we got the double portion of blessing instead of the curse. He is going to revive His Bride and He is going to heal our land. But the mantle on us, the body of Christ, is that we must continue to humble ourselves, continue to pray, continue to flee from the devil and draw near to God. We are to be the salt and light in this generation on the earth. Our next assignment, as the Church, has just now begun!
Because of this election outcome, the option for our nation to be under God is alive! He is a God of His word and the God of miracles! My hope is placed firmly in that fact, and not any man nor any other elected official. I firmly believe that our King of Kings deposes and raises up earthly kings to reside over nations. I believe that He has chosen Donald Trump for such a time as this and we are to be lifting this man and so many other leaders in prayer.
I am firmly believing God for the turning of our nation back to Him…for a third great awakening in this nation. There are fields ripe for harvest, may we be willing to be sent out into His harvest fields. May we carry the Good News to a dying and deceived world with love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, with goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. May we carry God’s grace and truth and speak with boldness.
At 2:44am I watched Gov. Pence take the stage as the VP-elect. This is a man whose Bible was open to the book of Acts on his desk as friends at the True Woman Conference in September toured his office in Indianapolis. It was the same day of the Cry Out women’s national prayer event that we hosted in our town. In 1857, on the same day (September 23rd) a nationwide revival began which started with a very small group of people committed to prayer (You can listen to the story here). There are no coincidences!
There are many things that I do not know and do not yet understand, but this is what I do know:
- Our God is an all-consuming fire.
- His hand is not too short to intervene. Ever.
- Nothing is too hard for Him!!!
- We witnessed one of the greatest miracles of our lifetime last night in the national realm. All glory goes to our great & awesome God because no man can explain it.
- Now we get serious about praying for President-Elect Donald Trump, VP-Elect Mike Pence, and every other elected official & cabinet member & Supreme Court justice, both currently and the ones who will be appointed.
- Now we press forward in believing Him for even greater miracles of healing and alignment in the body of Christ & our nation at large.
We must become messengers of His goodness and grace like never before to our fellow Americans who have a very different ideology of the direction America should go. Blessed are the peacemakers…may we be peace makers in Jesus Name. May His grace on our lives be contagious and winsome, our words seasoned with salt because there is much hurt and confusion out there. Jesus is the answer to all of it. And we get the privilege of being His hands and His feet…
I want to leave you with a portion of the statement given by Dutch Sheets on November 9th, 2016:
Last night, as the results came in, I wept, knowing that mercy had, indeed, triumphed over judgment (James 2:13).
While I rejoice, however, I also realize there is still much work to do. Though it is appropriate to celebrate, we must remember this is only a beginning. Yes, it can be the new beginning we have so passionately craved, but it is still just that—the beginning. In the words of the immortal Winston Churchill, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
As for me, I intend to do my part to ensure that the Church doesn’t go back to sleep. I will continue to work tirelessly for the fullness of a great revival—a third great awakening—to sweep across America and the world. Nothing else will empower us to finish what has begun. And we must continue to pray for President-elect Trump and our other government leaders. For this assignment, however, I simply say, “Well done, praying Church, well done.” –Dutch Sheets
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