As we begin to come into election season, as we face uncertain times ahead as Christians, and just in general – the times we live in, let us look back to the Word of God for guidance. In truth, this is a message for all times, as God has commanded it to His people for all times. I’m sure this is something that we all have heard, but it bares repeating. There is nothing wrong with repetition. The Apostle Peter himself told us so in his epistles. The Bible says so – faith comes by hearing (and hearing and hearing, etc) the Word of God. I know of one such minister who preached the same message fifty years apart. And it was still working. It was still the Word of God. There’s nothing wrong with repetition.

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2:1-4

In the above scripture, we can see the importance that God puts on praying for our leaders. How important is it? We are told that above all – first thing – to pray for our leaders. We aren’t supposed to pray for our children first, or ourselves, or our needs, or the church, or healing, or anything else first. When we come to God in prayer, the first things we are to pray for is our leaders – those in positions of authority.

Why is that? We can see why is verse 2 – that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. When we live a quiet and peaceable life we have the opportunity to preach the Gospel. Less people get saved during times of war. Why is that? Travel is restricted. Resources are taken for the war effort. In times of turmoil and unrest finances are not as free flowing as they are times of peace. The Gospel is free, but it takes money to get it to those who need to hear.

How Important Is It To Pray For Our Leaders And Our Nation?

One may ask why is it important to pray for our leaders. What’s the big deal. Well, first off, God has commanded us to pray for our leaders. He has given us the awesome responsibility to guide our nation from the throne room of God in prayer. He has given us this responsibility because we are the only ones with the power (the authority of Jesus Christ) to get it done. And if we don’t do it, we leave the course of our nation up the the devil and his lot.

It is our responsibility to pray. If we don’t we will be held accountable for not doing so and for what happens in our country. This is exactly what Jesus Christ said to Dr. Kenneth E Hagin when He appeared to him back in 1979.

Now I understand many people may not believe that Jesus Christ appeared to Dr. Hagin (or to any one for that matter). However, listen to the words that Jesus spoke and see if they do not line up with the Word of God.

Jesus said,  “If the Christians of this nation had done what I told them to do in My Word and had prayed for the leaders of their country, they could have kept those evil spirits you saw in 1970 from operating in this nation. None of those upheavals would have occurred in your nation. You would not have had the political, social, and economic disturbances in this nation, and the President never would have made the mistakes he made. In fact, I’m holding the Church responsible for the President’s mistakes.”

Is this statement Biblical? Of course it is. God has given us the responsibility to pray for our nation and our leaders and when we don’t do so, what happens to our nation and to our leaders is our responsibility. We are the ones held accountable, not just according to the word of Jesus Christ in the vision that Kenneth E Hagin had, but according to the Bible itself (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

There’s more though to the conversation that Jesus had with Dr. Hagin. He continued, “Yes, the Church is responsible before God Almighty. I know when you tell that to some Christians, they will laugh. But you wait until they stand before My Judgment Seat and see if they laugh when they are the ones who will receive the judgment.”

Is this statement Biblical? Again – yes. Christians are responsible and will be held accountable for what happens in their nation. Jesus Christ has already delegated His authority to His body – to use His name to turn the direction of a nation.

So it is clear – just from 1 Timothy 2 that Christians are to pray for their nation. But how do we do it? How many does it take?

Can One Man Change His Nation?

How many people does it take to change a nation? How many prayer meeting do we need to have to turn our nation around and back to God? Does it take revival? Does it take a movement? The answer may surprise you.

If we look to the scriptures we can see that all God needs

And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” – Genesis 16:24-26

One person.

That’s all it took to stop judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. It doesn’t take a whole nation. It doesn’t take a huge prayer seminar. It takes one person to change a nation. As you see in the above scripture, the Lord was going to stop judgment according to Abraham’s own words. It just happened that Abraham set the goal a little too high. In fact, if Abraham had continued, it’s possible that the Lord would have stopped judgement on those two cities for just one person. But it’s not about how many righteous people were in the city. It’s about the one person who was in communion with God.

It only took one person to turn that nation around. Now the nations may not have been spared, but the righteous were. Lot and his wife escaped before judgment fell on the cities.This shows us that it doesn’t take great numbers to effect the course of a nation in prayer.

If you take a look at Daniel 10, you will see the story of Daniel changing his nation through prayer. One man changed his nation through the power of prayer. In fact, he change his nation even though it was under demonic control.

We can see in Numbers 14 and in Exodus 32 that Moses stood in the gap for his nation (the children of Israel). In both instances, the Lord wanted to destroy the children of Israel and raise up another people for Moses, yet Moses stood in the gap and the people were spared.

Psalms tells of the importance of Moses standing in the gap for the children of Israel. “Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.” – Psalm 106:23

God even tells us that He is looking for someone to stand in the gap, to pray, to push back judgment – to change the course of direction of their nation. “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” – Ezekiel 22:30

Our Power In Prayer

Now these examples have been in the Old Testament. They show that one man can change his nation through prayer. If one person under the Old Covenant could change their nation, how much more can we, under a better covenant, change our nation.

We can.

God has given us that power. It is through prayer. It is through the authority that is in the name of Jesus Christ. When we pray according to the Word of God, we can have confidence that we have what we have asked for. We can know that our prayers have been answered. Our power come through the power of binding and loosing.

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:18-20).

Anything.

Matthew 18 is telling us that whatever we allow on earth will be allowed in Heaven. The problem in our country today is that too many Christians have allowed thing to go on in our country. People want to be vocal and cry out over the recent decisions in the courts, but what about the decisions in the courts decades ago? Yes, Christians have allowed sin to be put on the same ground as something God calls sacred (in the eyes of the law), yet for years we have allowed unborn babies to be murdered in the womb. And still done nothing. We have allowed the devil to take our country away from us – because it is our country – founded by the will of God, by Godly men and women for His purpose.

Jesus Christ gave us the authority to bind and to loose. He told us to cast out devils (yes, they are just as real today as they were in His day). He told us to pray for our leaders so we – the church – could steer the course of our nation. And we haven’t and we are in the mess we are today.

We must realize that we aren’t fighting anyone. Unbelievers are not our enemies. Politicians are not our enemies. This church and that church are not our enemies. The devil is our enemy and he has already been defeated (see Ephesians 6).

In Daniel (even back in the Old Testament), we can see that he was not fighting against the devil. He was putting God in remembrance of His own Word. This is in accordance with what God tells us to do – Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified (Isaiah 43:26).

In the same manner, we are not fighting against the devil. But we are enforcing his defeat. We do that by using the name of Jesus. We’re doing so because without the freedoms that we formerly enjoyed – national prosperity, freedom of speech, favor among society – the Gospel can not be preached as freely as it once was. After al, the purpose of everything is to win the lost to Christ. The purpose of life is to help as many people to escape Hell. There is a Heaven to gain and a Hell to shun.

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”  – Ezekiel 33:11

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  – 2 Peter 3:9

Take Our Stand – And Kneel

Christians are the ones with the power to change the course of this nation. The recent court rulings did not come because we have the wrong Justices on the bench. They did not come because the wrong Congressmen are in Washington. And it did not come because the wrong person is in the White House. All of those are a result of the church’s failure to pray for our nation and our leaders.

If the church would have taken their place of authority – thing would be totally different today. But we didn’t. However, there is still hope. God is still on the throne. He still has a plan. And we still have the authority.

I urge you – I beg you – I plead with you – pray for our nation. Electing new officials will change nothing if they are not escorted into office by prayer. This nation will not be turned around from the White House, but from the Throne Room of God Almighty. Pray.

Pray for our leaders. Pray for wisdom, for guidance. Pray that men and women who will not follow after the plan of God would be removed and men and women who would will be put in their places. Pray for the President, Congress, the Supreme Court, the leaders in the military. Pray for state and local governments – state congressmen and courts governors, mayors, and their advisors.

Yes, it is best if we have leaders who will willingly follow after the plans of God, but the Lord can bless our nation no matter what leader is in charge. Throughout scripture, the children of Israel were blessed even though their leaders were not always following after God, even when being held captive in other nations.

The point of all of this is to pray. Pray. Because we haven’t been doing it. You can tell we haven’t because of the state of our nation. But God can do anything. He can turn things around when they look hopeless. He is the one who sets kings up and removes kings. He is the ones who hold the heart of our leaders in his hand. Bind the demons that are operating in our government, in the economy, in society (because it is evident they are there bringing much of this chaos and about).

Use your authority in Jesus’ name.

Stay with the Word of God and the Spirit of God.