40 Days of Prayer

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"Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."

2 Chronicles 6:40 (NIV)

Solomon's heart cry to God during his reign as King of Israel.

If you carefully read the Old Testament you will find that most of the times the great movement of God among His people occurred because someone went face down or kneeling before Him in prayer. Read on...

God's response to Solomon's heart cry...

"14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place."

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 (NIV)

The book of James tells us that the prayers of the righteous are prevailing - they avail much - and are effective. We must be faithful to the call upon our nation right now to go face down before God and seek Him in national repentance, national fervor, a national heart cry.

George Barna, founder of the Barna Group, who does extensive research in religious trending both nationally and internationally has the following report posted at his website.

Here are the statistical reports from the Barna Group on Born Again Christians:

In Barna Research Group studies, born again Christians are not defined on the basis of characterizing themselves as "born again" but based upon their answers to two questions. The first is "have you ever made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in your life today?" If the respondent says "yes," then they are asked a follow-up question about life after death. One of the seven perspectives a respondent may choose is "when I die, I will go to Heaven because I have confessed my sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior." Individuals who answer "yes" to the first question and select this statement as their belief about their own salvation are then categorized as "born again."

Beliefs

Compared to 72% of all adults, 92% of born again Christians believe "the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches." (2007)

Three-quarters of born again Christians (74%) believe they "personally have a responsibility to tell other people their religious beliefs" compared to 52% of all adults. (2007)

Nearly all born again Christians (99%) say their religious faith is very important in their life, compared to 87% of all adults. (2007)

Half of born again Christians (46%) agree that Satan is "not a living being but is a symbol of evil." (2007)

37% of born agains believe that if a person is good enough they can earn a place in Heaven. (2007)

26% of born agains agree that "while he lived on earth, Jesus committed sins, like other people," compared to 41% of all adults. (2007)

Born again Christians are more likely than non-born again individuals to accept moral absolutes. Specifically, 36% of born agains said they believe in moral absolutes, compared to just 16% among non-born agains. (2006)

How Many

Looking across the past decade we find the following percentages of born again Christians:

2007 - 42% 2006 - 45% 2005- 40% 2004-38% 2002-40% 2001- 41% 2000- 41% 1999- 40% 1998- 39% 1997- 43% 1996-39% 1995-35% 1994- 36% 1993-36% 1992- 40% 1991- 35%

There are approximately 101 million born again Christians. (2006)

Who

Residents of the South are more likely than average to be classified as born again Christians. More than half of those living in the South (53%) are classified as born agains, compared to 45% of individuals who live in the Midwest, 34% of those living in the West, and 29% of individuals who live in the Northeast. (2007)

Half of all born again adults (50%) are married. (2007)

Protestant church attenders are more than twice as likely than are Catholic church attenders to be born again Christians (61% to 26%, respectively). (2007)

Religious Activities

More than three out of five born agains (62%) have read from the Bible in the past week compared with 42% of all adults. (2007)

59% of born agains attended church in the last week, compared to 43% of all adults. (2007)

Born agains are more likely than the average adult to have volunteered their time to help their church in the past week (32% to 22%, respectively). (2007)

Non-evangelical Born Agains

35% of the adult population is born again, but not evangelical. (2007)

86% are registered to vote. (2007)

65% likelihood of voting, compared to the national average of 67% among registered voters. (2004)

36% are politically conservative. (2007)

35% is associated with the Republican Party, while an even greater percentage is aligned with the Democratic Party 42%. (2007)

So what exactly does this mean? We need to be in prayer. Here's why:

George Barna also reports the following about the Generational Differences that exist in the lives of born again Christians:

The statistics and analysis in this archive come from national surveys conducted by Barna Research.

For more information about generational differences, be sure to check out the related resources and news releases featured on this page. Also, watch for new information to be added to this archive in the months to come.

Definition

Mosaics - those born between 1984 and 2002

Buster - those born between 1965 and 1983

Boomer - those born between 1946 and 1964

Builders - those born between 1927 and 1945

Senior - those born in 1926 and earlier

Activities

Mosaics are less likely than any other generation to volunteer time to their church (12% of Mosaics report volunteering). Conversely, 23% of Busters, 29% of Boomers, 34% of Elders

(Builders and Seniors) have volunteered at a church in the past week. (2006)
Small group participation appears to be positively correlated with age, with 26% of Elders, 24% of Boomers, 19% of Busters and 20% of Mosaics reporting that they participated in a small group in the past week. (2006)

Compared to 60% of Elders who have a "quiet time" during the week, 54% of Boomers, 39% of Busters and 35% of Mosaics do the same. (2006)

33% Mosaics, 43% of Busters, 49% of Boomers, 53% of Elders attend church on a given Sunday. (2006)

In a typical week, 32% of Mosaics, 42% of Busters, 47% of Boomers, 58% of Elders (Builders and Seniors combined) read the Bible. (2006)

Mosaics are the age group least likely than any other age group to pray to God. In a given week, we found that 65% of Mosaics, 82% of Busters, 90% of Boomers, 88% of Elders (Builders and Seniors) report praying to God. (2006)

Faith

Boomers emerge as more likely and Mosaics as less likely than any other generation to be born again (33% of Mosacis, 38% of Busters, 53% of Boomers are born again, compared to 48% of Elders). (2006)

Mosaics are the least likely age group to indicate that faith is a very important part of their life. Only 51% of Mosaics say their faith is very important in their life, compared with 62% of Busters, 73% of Boomers and 79% of Elders. (2006)

61% of Mosaics, 67% of Busters, 77% of Boomers, 74% of Elders believe that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator that rules the world today. (2006)

Self-Descriptions

Busters are more likely than the other generations to be searching for meaning in life: 44% of

Busters compared to 32% of all others are searching for their purpose in life. (2001)

Busters are the generation most likely to feel "too busy." Compared to 53% of Busters who maintain that they are too busy, 49% of Boomers, 32% of Builders and 27% of Seniors feel the same. (2001)

Older individuals are also more likely than younger individuals to describe themselves as a "born again Christian." 49% Seniors and 47% of Builders call themselves born again, compared to 42% of Boomers and 31% of Busters. (2001)

Financial comfort appears to come with age. We found that 38% of Busters say they are personally struggling with finances, compared to the 32% of Boomers, 23% of Builders, and 20% of Seniors. (2001)

Busters are almost twice as likely as are Seniors to indicate that they are stressed out (41% to 22%, respectively). Likewise, 32% of Boomers and 27% of Builders said that "stressed out" is an accurate description of them. (2001)

And when it comes to Goals and Priorities, George Barna's Group found the following information to be the trend:

The statistics and analysis in this archive come from national surveys conducted by Barna Research.

For more information about Americans’ goals and priorities, be sure to check out the related resources and news releases featured on this page. Also, watch for new information to be added to this archive in the months to come.
U.S. adults

44% of adults say that having a satisfying family life is their highest priority in life. (2005)

18% of people said that completely understanding and carrying out the principles of their faith was the highest priority in their lives. (14% of men versus 18% of women) (2005)

We have become a society driven by our wants and desires rather than our faith in the One True God - Yahweh Elohim. The God of the Bible, Maker of heaven and earth. We have traded our status as the most prosperous, God-honoring, free nation in the world to one of a bankrupt (financially and morally), dishonorable, mentally enslaved nation in the free world. We sell our soul for the things of this world - the "American Dream" they call it - of the bigger better house, the bigger better car, the bigger better job, the bigger better education, and more importantly for the Washington D. C. crowd the "Bigger is Better Government." The church has settled for the role of secondary, crisis intervention mode and has been neutralized by new age relativism and the imploding of the American Church as it is denominationally at war with itself. Political talking heads know how to speak our language.

They memorize Scriptures and shake hands with preachers.

They speak from pulpits about humanitarian issues without recognizing that God through His Son, Jesus Christ is the true solution to the human condition. We give them that role, we applaud them for it and then we wonder why it is that when they get into office they don't do what they say they will do from the pulpits of our churches.

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American politicians have sought to be the "Savior" of the world and have failed miserably at honoring the values - JUDEO-CHRISTIAN values - that this nation was founded on - so founded on that the founding fathers wrote it into every document, opened every governmental session by ininvoking not only the name of Jesus but the Name of Jehovah as well. Most of the founding fathers were Bible scholars and teachers and developed a Bible institute to perpetuate these values. As recently as the 1950s the Supreme Court ruled that taking prayer out of our schools would not only be unthinkable, but it would be detrimental to the core values and nature of our society.

Since prayer was taken out of schools, and has been challenged as "Constitutional" - a Constitution which would by the new definitions rendered by the Supreme Court be unconstitutional. The First Amendment says nothing of Separation of Church and State, and was intended to ensure that the government did not establish a "state religion" as was observed in England and many European countries at the time. (Check your history - there was a great war between Church of England and the Catholic Church that ended in a power struggle before the Golden Age of Queen Elizabeth) This amendment has been redefined to mean "Freedom from Religion" and it inherently means "separation of church and state." Okay, so the "Freedom from Religion" connotation comes from agnostics and atheists who are a small portion of our society with an apparent big voice in Washington via our Supreme Court and liberal politicians. Separation of church and state is found no where in the Constitution... as the first Amendment reads:

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"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

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So why are we as Christians laying down our rights --- our Constitutional, first amendment right. Children in this country are being persecuted for their Christian beliefs by being labelled offensive for wearing t-shirts proclaiming the name of Christ, for praying over their meals before they eat or talking or displaying their religious faith in classroom assignments. WHY? Because someone said that their "free exercise" of their religion infringes on someone elses right to be "free of it." WHAT? Where does the Constitution read that way?

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As a nation, we have stopped calling on God individually and corporately. We have told God to butt out of our government, our schools, our finances, our national security and most of us have told God to butt out of the lives of the unborn and our personal relationships. We tip Him at church on Sunday, we live like the devil the rest of the week and we wonder where He was when the Terrorists set their sites on our nation as their next target! Why? Because we told God we didn't need Him that's why. Our family values have disintegrated into broken families with fatherless homes and our children shooting each other in the streets. They are free to dress, live, have sex and abort their babies if they so choose and all sacrificed on the altar of freedom.

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What has happened to America? We bought it - hook line and sinker - so much so, some evangelical churches in this nation are selling it, too. A watered down, feel good "Gospel" about prosperity and problem free living without an emphasis on personal relationship and responsibility through our faith. The "American Dream" rooted in foundational faith, family values and a legacy we can be proud of has been traded for the "bigger is better" Spirit of Mammon and it robs God of His glory, robs God of His praise and it robs God of the opportunity to show Himself mighty among us.

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Dr. Richard Land and the International Mission Board is calling for Forty Days of Prayer from September 24th (Tomorrow) through November 2nd. They have a prayer guide - so we can pray in agreement, Scriptural support and they are asking for an even bigger committment of hourly prayer the last forty hours. We are on the cusp of history, my friends. A time when God is calling us to stand for what we believe, seek Him in humility and confess nationally the way we have allowed the voices of a few to cloud our judgement as His people and to shake things up in our federal government like it has not been done before the Revolutionary War.

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Dr. Land says that Washington will not change until we do. Praying for our nation, voting our religious and moral convictions based on the position of our faith and living up to being a good steward of the free-est society in the world is a place to start. A nation on its knees for forty days, wonder what God would do with that?

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I know what He did when the nation of Israel went "fly in God's face" for hundreds of years (sound familiar?)... He set up a pagan king to rule the world, and they lived in captivity for more than 400 years, with God being silent most of that time. By the time He showed back up in the person of Jesus Christ the nation of Israel and its leaders barely recognized their Messiah - why?

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Because they could not recognize the voice of God when they heard it.

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Because they were so sold on their own ideas of what being blessed looked like they missed the blessings of God all together.

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Because they had lived in "relative freedom" in their captivity for so long that they said to Jesus, "Why do we need to be set free? We've never been held captive."

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And, when they said that - they had been in foreign exile twice for more than 400 years AND were under the oppression of foreign government by way of the Roman Empire even while in their own country.

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What does that look like these days? Hollywood? Washington? The United Nations?

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The Roman Empire? What happened to the greatest world government system that ever existed? Well, you see they started feeding Christians to the Lions and they destroyed the Temple after persecuting and dispersing the Jews. They worshipped foreign gods and guess what - they were no more. Now, there is only the Roman Catholic Church, a city in Italy bearing the name Rome and the all encompassing catch phrase... "When in Rome..."

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Let's not do as the Romans did. Let's live above ourselves, beyond our limits and trust God to show Himself through our prayers.

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"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 (My memory)

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"Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." Matthew 6:33 (My memory)

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"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength." ~Jesus (Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 13:3, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27) All of these Scriptures sum up in their entirety the first four of the ten commandments... and "Love your neighbor as yourself" the other six.

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Finally, remember that no matter what happens, God is our source, His is our provider and protector and He will look after the faithful remnant no matter the outcome of any election or war.

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"The LORD your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

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And, He requires something of us...

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"The Lord has told you, human, what is good;

he has told you what he wants from you:

to do what is right to other people (do or act justice/justly),

love being kind to others (love mercy),

and live humbly, obeying your God." Micah 6:8 (NCV)

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Is forty days for the future of our children to much to ask... forty days for the future of our nation and our faith. Forty days for God. Please pray.