I don't get up at 3:00 am without a good reason.
This was a good reason.
A small group of youth ministry leaders, many of us friends for decades through NNYM, agreed in November that we are desperate for God to do something supernatural in our nation, especially as it relates to students and their families. After meeting a couple of times on Zoom to pray, we considered next steps.
We wrestled to find an agreeable spot in our schedules, and one leader suggested that we move our prayer time to 4am. Yeah...we were all free then! No schedule conflicts!
As a group, we understood that if we are going to see spiritual awakening, we need to express our desperation in an extraordinary way. For us, in this season, it's 4am.
We agreed to meet twice a month. For now. One of our group, a young Cru staffer, offered three guidelines:
- Set a time for prayer. Prayer, not a discussion.
- Meet regularly (be faithful to the appointment).
- Invite others.
The First Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) was preceded by extraordinary prayer on both sides of the Atlantic. One revival historian has said, "When God is ready to do something, He sets his people praying." Some refer to that as "setting our sails" to catch the blowing Spirit of God. In the 1730s, people began praying, the Wind blew, and it changed the world; shifted the culture.
This happened again and again in our nation's history; but the most recent time of global spiritual awakening was in the 1900s (the Welsh Revival, which spread to the US and spread like wildfire).
It should be noted that all but one of the large revivals in our history had students at the forefront. They have been the vanguard in God's breakthroughs.
It's time to get back to this, friends. We need a culture change. We need the wind of the Spirit to blow. We need to trim our sails to be ready to catch what God wants to do, when He decides to blow.
After our first 4am prayer time, one of our group suggested that we challenge youth leader networks in every community to set a time and meet regularly, just to pray for the profound needs of our time:
- Workers to be sent out into the harvest of teenagers (Matthew 9:37-38).
- Jesus to build His church (Matthew 16:18).
- Justice and reconciliation in our culture (Micah 6:8; Amos 5:24).
- Unity in the church (John 17:20-23).
Here's the challenge: if God is confirming this need to your soul, then gather a handful of leaders (and students?) and covenant together to gather and pray: in person, on Zoom, six feet apart, WHATEVER. Follow the three guidelines that are numbered above. Set a regular time and keep it. Go deep, and go wider (invite others). If you want to align with our schedule, cool. We meet the first and third Thursdays of the month (Did I mention we meet at 4am?).
Make it extraordinary. The times demand it.