Cities are Stopping…
Dear Friends,
Since 2004, I’ve been sharing this wild visionary experience I had with God. In it, during a 10 Day time period called the Days of Awe….
Businesses and schools were shut down
Entire Cities were shut down
Whole cities were united in seeking God as in Revelation 4-5 with worship and prayer, fasting, mourning, and repentance. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 was being answered!
The Presence of God was saturating entire cities with the result that unbelievers were repenting, fasting, and mourning like Ninevah in the book of Jonah
Today, as I read the news I see that schools and businesses are shutting down. I even saw an article entitled America Shuts Down... Sporting leagues are canceling games and suspending their seasons. Travel restrictions are in place. People are stockpiling and hoarding essentials like toilet paper (for some reason). Yesterday, after a meeting in Boston I made it out of the city in record time, due to about half the normal amount of traffic.
Many people have been calling me the last few days, asking,
“Jonathan, it’s starting to happen—is this the beginning of what you saw?”
I’d consider this to be more like the “beginning of birthpangs.”
I think like many of you, I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life before. Aside from the occasional snowstorm here in the northeast, normal life just doesn’t “shut down”…ever. Let me be clear, I am not saying “This is what I saw in my vision”, but it has enough similarity that it has my attention. I’d consider it more of a “beginning of birthpangs.”
Here’s my take on what’s happening from the perspective of the 10 Days vision
First of all, I interpret this as a wake-up call and a mercy from the Lord. For one thing, we are getting an opportunity to experience a shut-down that is not very deadly, and not very severe in terms of the pressure. This will prepare us for things that may be more intense in the days to come.
Secondly, this is showing that it is possible for schools, businesses, sports teams, and cities to stop. I know that has been the most difficult part of the 10 Days vision for people to believe or engage with, and yet, when we see even a few people “stop everything” to seek God, we always see God move in incredible ways. We are seeing a precedent established for cities stopping right now.
What if we could enter into this voluntarily, in obedience to the Lord, rather than have situations like this forced on us? Already, many people are doing this every year—why not make it our new normal?
Shaking is ahead for the earth—let’s understand it and prepare!
The Scriptures are clear—everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken before Jesus returns. When I look at myself, at the church, and at the world, I see lots of shakable things. The Scripture speaks of shaking so intense that even the elect would fall away if it were allowed to continue—that’s a strong shaking!
“Prepping” for this shaking does not mean stockpiling food, water, and ammo or hiding in a bunker somewhere. It means establishing our lives upon the solid rock of God’s word (Matthew 7) and ridding ourselves and our communities of compromise and unbelief! Keep that in mind—in the shakings ahead, the only safe place for anyone will be found in God Himself.
Holy and true preparation is
establishing our lives upon the solid rock of God’s Holy Word, and ridding ourselves and our communities compromise and unbelief!
External Pressure and Internal Hunger
God’s plan to prepare His Bride for His return includes both internal hunger and external pressures. He plans to use both to bring forth a beautiful bride, fully spotless and prepared for her Husband Jesus. The more we can be led by internal hunger, the less we need external pressure, but ultimately, we will have some combination of both. Even Jesus had to “learn obedience through what he suffered” (external pressure) and so if the master endured it, we know we will need it as well.
External Pressure can unveil Inner Hunger
At one of our first 10 Days gatherings in 2007, one of the participants testified how she had always wanted to pray for 10 Days like the early disciples had in the upper room, but normal life always seemed to get in the way. When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, all of that changed. She now had the time to seek God like she wanted. Miraculously, when she returned home after 10 Days, her cancer was totally gone. While she was given months to live, she’s still doing well today.
Many of us have an internal hunger to seek God – however the busyness of life chokes out that hunger. God will use external pressure as an aid to allow that hunger to come forth.
External Pressure gets the attention of the wicked
Others have no hunger for God. The god of this world has blinded their eyes, they are who the scriptures refer to as “the wicked”. God will use external crisis and pressure to get the attention of the entire earth, to give people an opportunity to repent! Ninevah was filled with 120,000 wicked people, and yet God spared her when the people repented!
The Church of Philadelphia:
We can be spared the worst of the trials to come
Finally, through obedience, humility, and perseverance, there is a precedent for us being spared the worst of the trials that are coming on the whole earth. We see this modeled in the church of Philadelphia. The Lord says to her, “you have just a tiny bit of strength, and yet you have kept my word and not denied my name…because you have kept my command and persevered, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
Let’s seek God like never before and prepare for this fall.
We are seeing an incredible convergence coming together for this fall, something that I’ll be sharing more about in weeks to come. Our vision for 2020 is to see 120 Upper Rooms around the globe, where believers are “stopping everything” and seeking God “continually” with 24/7 Prayer and “in one accord”.
We are also calling for 120,000 people to voluntarily consecrate 10 entire days to united fasting and prayer together.
10 Days is September 19th - 28th this Fall.
This is a special year.
Let’s seek the Lord together like never before!
- Jonathan Friz