A Nation on Fire...
I’ve just returned from the most amazing place.
In this place, there was an incredible and genuine love shared between many people from different races, ethnicities, nations, and languages. Even though we could not all understand one another’s words, there was a shared sense of love and friendship that glowed from the faces present.
In this place, we heard stories of personal revival and renewal, of experiencing the power and “liquid love” of God, of “pure joy”, miracles, salvation, and personal transformation. It was a place of continual prayer, saturated in the presence of God, where every person involved brought a meaningful portion, and we all received from one another. The most common story that we heard had to do with an incredible sense of "oneness" and love for one another.
Some participants even described this place as “heaven on earth.”
Just as Moses on Sinai walked out of God’s presence and into chaos, I walked out of this incredible heavenly experience of an on-fire 10 Day online prayer meeting (10 Days Pentecost, May 21-31) into a nation literally on-fire with protests, rioting, looting, and racially motivated division sparked by the unjust killing of George Floyd, stoked continually by a continual stream of divisive rhetoric and images from media outlets, celebrities, politicians, and from “we the people” via our social media accounts. This is on top of the Covid-19 pandemic and the social and economic damage wrought by the lock-downs. Yes, we are beginning to “open up” but seemingly not into a new normal, but into a new crisis.
I come away with one question: Does anyone know what will bring peace?
Do our Politicians know? Do our business leaders or educators know? Do our celebrities and sports stars know? Do our spiritual leaders know?
Is the answer to our problems to “burn it all down” and “to hell with the police” in some modern rehash of the Communist revolution?
Is it reparations for historic racial oppression, addressing “systemic injustice”, acknowledging our “privilege” and complicity, or yet another protest?
Is our solution to be found in calling out injustice on social media, and shaming, mocking, and pressuring those who don’t fall in line with our preferred agenda or political candidate? Will getting Trump out of office (or into office) make us whole again?
Are our problems political, and will the right new laws, policies, and technocratic solutions bring healing?
Maybe a return to “Law and Order” will heal our nation’s wounds, or at least stop the bleeding for a while?
Does anyone honestly believe that any of these options will accomplish peace? Some may even be good outcomes, but will they heal our real and deep wounds and divisions, or are they a superficial healing?
I don’t pretend to have the answers to these questions and the problems that are shaking our world, but this is what I have seen and experienced first-hand over 16 years of doing 10 Days gatherings, and most recently in the 10 Days Pentecost global online prayer meeting.
The problem of this world’s injustice is not “out there”—the problem is me. When I humble myself “in quietness and trust, in repentance and rest” (Is. 30:15) then God begins to make me righteous and just, and the kind of person who can live at peace with God and others.
When people from diverse backgrounds do this together, when they make Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, and the presence of God their focus for extended periods of time, and when they follow Jesus’ Commandment to “love one another as I have loved you”, a transforming work of the Spirit takes place and a heavenly Oneness falls on them (John 17:20-26). This reality is not humanly possible, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
This heavenly union, one with another and with God Himself, is the only antidote to the division and conflict we see and feel all around us every day. There is no humanistic, man-centered antidote to the raging of the nations (ethnic division). We can’t go back to some nostalgic past that wasn’t as good as we remember it to be and our well-intended attempts at progress and justice are loaded with unintended consequences. We need King Jesus to be at the center of our Unity, along with His truth, His standards, His love, and His justice. Our fake plastic replicas of love, justice, and truth just won’t do.
Sharing the vision for 10 Days 2020, 120 Cities praying "continually and in one accord" Sept 19-28, 2020.
Peace is Possible—Do we want it?
Based on an encounter I had with God in 2004, I believe God intends to bring this Heavenly Unity we just experienced in 10 Days Pentecost to cities around the world that are currently experiencing the fires of division.
How? By shutting down entire cities for 10 Days, not because of a virus, but because of the worthiness of Jesus Christ, the slain Lamb of God.
Why? In order to take vacation time for prayer, to humble ourselves before God to mourn and lament our current state, to worship and fast, to repent, to unite, and to exult God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ together.
Who? In order for cities to stop in this way, the Body of Christ needs to stop and step into the gap. Repentance has to start in the House of God.
Based on 16 years of experience, I can tell you that when a group of people stop “normal life” and seek God together, they begin to taste and see an answer to Jesus’ prayer, “let them be one as we are one.” They begin to move from hatred to deep love, from bitterness to forgiveness, from despair to hope, from the shadow of death to Revival and times of refreshing from the Lord.
An Unpopular Word, but is now the time?
The message of 10 Days, “stopping cities”, has been a hard word for people to grasp. Up until now, most believers and leaders in the Body of Christ have only received this message a little bit or not at all.
I don’t say that to bring guilt; I’m talking about people I love dearly, many of whom are better followers of Jesus than I am, but simply as a matter of fact. In the past, most people have simply been unable to even imagine what it would look like to stop cities for 10 Days. In fact, it’s very, very hard to get individuals to stop their normal life for 10 Days to seek God, much less whole cities.
I don’t know how to make it happen, but I know it’s something that Father God wants to see! And as many of us just experienced in the 10 Days Pentecost, humbling ourselves before God for extended seasons brings unity, revival, love, healing, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It brings the peace that we long to experience. It brings heaven on earth.
Conclusion: I just came out of an amazing 10 Day prayer meeting, an amazing encounter with the Love of God, and incredible love for one another among the ethnic groups, nations, and languages of the earth. The contrast between what I’ve just experienced and what I’m seeing happening now in the US could not be starker. What we’ve just experienced is what our world so desperately needs.
And so, I’m writing this as a love letter...
To a nation in crisis
To a world torn by disease, injustice, economic collapse, and violence
To a nation on fire
There is a better way. I’ve seen it and tasted it. And it’s nothing like what you’ve seen on Social Media or TV. It’s not like what you’ve known or heard, not a superficial healing. It’s deeper, and it’s there for us if we’ll seek it together like it’s the most valuable thing we could ever possess.
It’s real, more real than anything you’ve ever known. It’s the experiential love of God, joy inexpressible and full of glory! And it's the family of God, the Church, set-apart in the truth, washed in the water of the word, full of the Spirit, looking better than you ever imagined they would. And it’s God's promise for us, waiting for us, if we will reach out and lay hold of it together.
Coda: This fall, we have a vision to see 120 cities on fire with the love and power of God around the world through the simple power of stopping normal life for 10 Days in cities around the world, gathering together, and devoting ourselves to continual prayer in unity.
You can find more about that vision and how to get involved at 10Days.net.
Yours in Hope,
Jonathan Friz