FIRST FRIDAY PRAYER AND FASTING

1974. A year of national trauma, disillusionment, and bitterness. Watergate was reaching its climax.

On April 30 that year many churches fast and pray at the unanimous request of the U. S. Senate.

At The Church On The Way, our pastor, Jack Hayford, prophesies: “An era turns on the strength of a day. This day is marked in the annals of eternity, a great turnabout, a day of enormous consequences. An unwritten history of doom and judgment is erased and a new history is being written. The powers of the heavens are being shaken. This is a day of great scattering and confusion among the enemy.”

A prophetic utterance is to be judged by whether or not it comes to pass.

Quick Answers
The very next day President Nixon releases the Watergate tapes and the debacle is on its way to a conclusion.

Almost immediately rain quenches the drought-stricken Midwest. Drought is one of God’s curses on a sinful nation, while rain in season is one of his blessings (see Deuteronomy 28).

In our state, terrorist groups and narcotics rings are destroyed, crime drops drastically, righteous legislation against hardcore pornography passes, along with many other victories. Great things quickly begin to happen.

But there’s more to Pastor Hayford’s prophetic word of April 30. It goes on: “The battle turns today, but the completion is yet to be carried out. There will be other days and other battles. There are mighty victories to be accomplished. The battle is the Lord’s.”

At this point, I sense the Holy Spirit is saying something momentous to me.  How long has it been since believers were called to a national day of fasting and prayer? A hundred and ten years—by Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War.

And how long before the next time? And who will call for it?

In my spirit the certainty grows: Once a month.  If once a month, on a day designated by Christian leadership across America, we would gather for fasting and prayer for the nation, we would see strongholds crumble.

I ask the Lord, How can such a thing happen? The assurance comes: If it’s born of the Spirit, he will lead.

I approach Pastor Jack. The church commissions me to meet with leaders throughout the country.

Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, later to become Chaplain of the U. S. Senate, volunteers, “Let’s convene ‘The Summit Conference of Church Leaders in America.’ Tell me who you want there and who you want to speak, and I’ll get them.” Carte blanche. Just like that!

On September 12 and 13, 1975, 130 leaders—heads of denominations and ministries, media and education and other leaders meet in Chicago. Together they strategize on how to mobilize their constituencies.

After a remarkable bonding move of the Spirit, they unanimously approve my proposal to call the Church in America to observe the First Friday of each month as a day of prayer and fasting, through the bicentennial year.

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That year yields dramatic results: Christians are elected to major offices, television noticeably cleans up, crime rates drop, awakening and spiritual growth blossom in churches. Even the Washington Postdeclares there is “a new spirit abroad in the land.”

But since the Bicentennial Year, although some great prayer movements have sprung up, relatively few have been ongoing. Intercessors For America adopted the First Friday as a banner and has never dropped it.

As the intercession vision faded, America’s morality, honor and strength faded too. Today we struggle for our national soul through crisis after crisis, from within and without, some even caused by our own government.

Our courts command us to do what God has forbidden. Judicial activists seek to criminalize Christian speech and punish those with deeply held convictions. One man’s pen and phone override the righteous will of millions.

Persecution of Christians has started in America. A dark force has been loosed into our society that can rip us apart or bind us together.

The good news is that intercessors are again rallying, as terrorists terrorize and governmental overreach galvanizes the church. Prayer ministries are proliferating, and the First Friday movement is growing again.

Just before the Turn of the Century the AD 2000 and Beyond Movement adopted it and spread it to many other countries.

On First Friday’s 30th anniversary, David Butts, Chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee said, “What God is looking for is the kind of consistent, persistent prayer that is the hallmark of the First Friday call to united prayer and fasting. Every church in America needs to join in calling their members to prayer and fasting.”

After 40 years the need for prayer is even greater. Join in!
For more on Intercessors For America click here.