A few days before this issue went to press, I had a conversation with a person who runs an anti-trafficking organization that will be featured in Citizen a few months from now. It’s a fascinating group that’s doing unique and vital work, and secular media outlets are starting to notice.
One of those outlets, the founder told me, is the award-winning Dateline NBC—a show which reaches millions each week and which has inspired me for years. He didn’t agree to let them do a story on his organization—but he didn’t hesitate when we asked, even though our readership numbers only in the tens of thousands nationwide 10 times a year.
Why?
It wasn’t because his mother subscribes to the magazine (though I was thrilled to learn she does). And it most certainly wasn’t because of anything having to do with me.
It was because of you.
“With Citizen, I get 40,000 praying people,” he explained. “That’s what we need, because we’re going into the darkest of the dark places.”
If I could only tell all of you one thing, it would be this: Know who you are and Whose you are! You have the unlimited resources of Heaven at your disposal. Because of the One Who lives in you, you are mightier than you know. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure,” says Philippians 2:13, and James 5:16 tells us that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (ESV). This isn’t just a good suggestion, by the way—it’s a mandate. (See Philippians 4:6)
If you want further proof, turn to page 12 and read this month’s cover story to find out what happened when people in Toledo, Ohio, prayed for an end to abortion in their city. They prayed for 30 years before the tide shifted—but when it did, it did so undeniably. The fight is still ongoing, but the momentum is now on the pro-life side.
We saw something similar happen with the most recent elections. As we told you last summer, Franklin Graham’s prayer tour criss-crossed the nation all year—and last November, evangelicals turned out in record numbers at the polls to vote their values at all levels of government.
The temptation, of course, is to sit back and rest after something starts to go our way, rather than continuing to press in until all the ground is taken. As we saw with the riots after the election, a defeated enemy can still cause plenty of damage, and the spiritual forces against which we battle don’t give up anything without a fight. The people in Toledo also know this, as they continue to pray over the one abortion facility remaining in their town.
But with God, all things are possible! And for reasons I will never fully understand, He likes to partner with us to see His own will done in the earthly realm that we occupy. Numbers don’t make the difference; the One standing behind us does.
So soak the ground and shake the heavens.
Originally published in the January 2017 issue of Citizen magazine.
