Joel 2:15-17

I know that sometimes I may sound like a stuck record – when I say we don’t pray enough. I lament that I don’t pray enough. Like you, I often think there is too much to do, and there is too little time in which to get it all done. This is especially so when I have early morning appointments or there is just a lot on the agenda, I omit to pray. The earnest intention is that I’ll get back around to it later. However, before you know it, the day is done, and the enemy rejoices that I didn’t get back to the prayer closet as I intended.

It is my strong belief that more than ever today, the Holy Spirit, especially during this Lenten season, is calling us back to the Prayer closet. Now more than ever, the Church of God is summoned to pray, “. . . Call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord” (Joel 1:14). It is really only the Lord who can help and save us in these perilous times of the eschaton (the last days). Things are too crucial – everything all around us tragically and frantically falling apart – for the church to continue with business as usual. There is indeed a compelling, driving urgency from the Spirit divinely leading us back into the wilderness to pray. May prayer fires continue to break out all around the environs of this church again. As Jesus saw the incessant need to pray, may that same spirit envelop and perpetually rest upon the leaders and members of the Church of God today.

In Joel’s prophecy, the calling of the solemn assembly is foreworded by the powerful imperative to “Sanctify a fast” – to deny the physical in order to strengthen and cultivate the spiritual. It is a direct call to leadership not just to talk about prayer, not just to go through the motions, not just to preach about prayer but to “Gird themselves, lament, howl: come, lie all night in sackcloth, declare a holy fast, call a special meeting” (1:13,14). This Biblical mandate is first given to the priests, the ministers of God, also known as the ministers of the altar (1:13).

Then it’s taken to an even higher level in chapter 2, where they were commissioned to “Blow the trumpet.” We must sound the alarm! Get everybody involved! Gather the people! Sanctify the congregation! Call the children! Even the recently married ones! No exemption! (Joel 2:15-17). All need to see the desperate urgency of these times! Now is no time to play and become light and giddy. We need a mobilization to the prayer closet like never before! May God help us!

The best thing we as pastors, leaders, and members could do for the Church of God is to pray. The best thing we can do for our world is to pray! The best thing we can do for America and the present state of affairs in our land is to pray. The best thing we can do for our families is to pray. Parents, the best gift we can give to our growing and already grown kids is to pray for them night and day. How the devil makes us so busy, too busy but we must unbusy our schedules to pray.

Sometimes we meet for prayer and spend more time singing than praying. We spend more time talking and exhorting than praying. We spend more time preaching than praying. Jesus solemnly instructed “Men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). I blow the trumpet in Zion. I return to the closet. I pray for a move of God like never before seen, felt, heard, or experienced. I long for change. I pray for restoration, supernatural deliverance, and healing!