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July 10, 2026

    A Lesson from King David

    Reading from 1 Chronicles 21:1-5 (NASB):

    “Then satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.  So David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, ‘Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me word that I may know their number.’ Joab said, ‘May the Lord add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?’  Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem.  Joab gave David the number of the census of all…who drew the sword.”

    The story of King David numbering the people Israel is a sad and sobering passage of Scripture. His actions brought severe judgment on Israel. At first glance, a census seems normal and harmless. However, Israel was instructed when and how they were allowed to do so in Exodus 30. Restricting them in this practice was because God did not want their trust to EVER be in their own strength and numbers, rather than Him.

    David’s action was a severe sin, first of all, because of his gross and willful disobedience. But his actions also revealed something else very troubling: pride had crept into David’s heart. Counting his army was a way of David saying, "Look at what I have built; look at my power.” By ordering a census without God’s explicit command, this once humble shepherd, was acting as if he were the ultimate owner and master of Israel, rather than God’s appointed steward. It was an act of pride and a usurpation of God’s ownership and authority.

    And lastly, numbering the army shows us that David was shifting his reliance from God’s supernatural protection to the size of his military. He wanted to look at a number on paper to feel secure.

    The irony of this is that when David fought Goliath, he had famously said, “The Lord saves not with sword and spear” (1 Samuel 17:45). He knew that the strength of the enemy didn’t determine victory or defeat, but whether or not the Lord was fighting for them.

    David later wrote Psalm 20: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Comparing this with the census narrative above reveals a change in David’s heart. His faith and commitment to God had suffered significantly. How did this happen?

    Psalm 20 was likely written when David was younger, at the height of his military campaigns. In those days, his army was small and had to win its battles through sheer faith and trust in God…just as the Lord wanted. In Deuteronomy 17:16, God gave a specific command for any future king of Israel: “He must not acquire many horses for himself.” God wanted Israel’s kings to remain dependent on Him, not the size of their military.

    When David wrote Psalm 20, I’m sure he truly believed what he was writing. He knew that earthly military might was nothing compared to the power of God’s name and His blessings. When he was an underdog facing a giant with nothing but a sling, it was trust God or die. But time and success can take their toll.

    Fast forward a few decades. The census took place during David’s twilight years. He was no longer a poor young shepherd fighting giants; he was an established, wealthy monarch. Decades of success, political security, absolute power, and, much learning had subtly eroded his reliance on God. David didn’t just wake up one day and suddenly decide to abandon his faith and trust; it was a gradual fade!

    By the time of the census, the temptation to count his “horses and chariots” (his military might) had finally won. But the census became inevitable the moment David stopped looking to God for security and began relying on his own abilities and numbers. Now that he had a powerful army, the underlying mindset was, “We can handle things ourselves.”

    David’s loss of faith in God serves as a powerful warning to all of us: Yesterday’s experiences, lessons, and spiritual victories can breed pride and self-sufficiency if we are not vigilant to guard against them. Humility is our responsibility, we must choose, not ask God for. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up” (James 4:10). Verse six of this chapter tells us He gives grace to the humble.

    This brings me to the primary purpose of today’s post. I feel a strong urge to pray for President Trump and his entire team. It would be quite easy for the most powerful person in the world to fall into the same trap that snared David. I quoted the beatitude from Matthew 5:3 in a recent post: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The New Living Translation states, “God blesses those who…realize their need for him.” We must pray that President Trump and all those in his administration are continuously reminded of just how much they need God’s guidance and help.

    America is great because of the great God she aligned herself with. And yes, we have begun our journey back to Him. But this journey could be sidetracked very quickly through pride, disobedience, and complacency. It is worth repeating what Ben Franklin said during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, after the delegates had neglected to corporately humble themselves and ask for God’s help. When failure seemed likely, and the struggle reached a desperate point, he stood and referenced God’s “superintending providence” in bringing the nation to liberty. Franklin then stated: “And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth–that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

    “We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building, no better than the builders of Babel…”(1)

    The same is true regarding America’s rebuilding in our day. Let’s pray.

    Pray with me:

    Father, America is without question the most powerful nation that has ever existed militarily. We are also the richest. Our blessings are beyond comparison. But we are blessed and prosperous because of You. Your Word says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12), and we are inarguable proof of this promise.

    Remind us that we can be patriotic and love our nation without succumbing to arrogance and pride. We can, and must, choose humility. In the past, we Americans, like David, have exalted ourselves and failed to remember that You made us great. Remind us of Christ’s words that You bless those who realize their need for You.

    And we pray especially that You remind President Trump and his team EVERY DAY of their need for Your guidance and wisdom. Only You can turn around our nation. Only You can heal our land and restore it to greatness. Only You know the exact path to ending Iran’s evil rule. And as our leaders humble themselves before You, give them the grace You promised. Think through their minds, download Your thoughts, release Your strategies. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

    Our decree:

    We choose to humble ourselves before our great and holy God, asking for and receiving His abundant grace.

    Click on the link below to watch the video.

     
     

    July 9, 2026

      Heaven’s Announcement Over America

      Yesterday I shared a post from Larry and Mercedes Sparks’ new book, The Fire that Forged America. This powerful book will help us prepare and pray for the emerging revival. Today, I am sharing from their book again.

      In Ezekiel 37, God both asks the prophet a question and gives him clear instructions:

      “…Can these bones live? …Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:3-4 ESV)

      There is a lie that has lingered too long in the imagination of American Christianity — and I want to confront it head-on today. The lie goes something like this: America is too far gone. The culture has drifted past the point of no return. The moral foundations are too crumbled, the institutions too corrupted, the next generation too lost.

      And so, if we believe America as a nation is too lost and too broken, we narrow the lie down to our zip code: this city is too secular, this campus is too hostile, this region is too dark. Either way — national or local — the verdict is the same. Written off.

      Can these bones live? Yes… If there are voices that agree with and announce what Heaven says about them. When the Word is preached with clarity and the Spirit is welcomed with hunger, we see Book of Acts results such as those in Ephesus: “the Word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20 ESV). It was true in Ephesus, it was true in colonial America, and it is true right now.

      God Places His People in the Valley

      There are territories throughout the earth that are written off as too hard and dark. And tragically, this can influence believers in those very regions, causing them to live under the deception that the forces of darkness are somehow stronger than the Spirit of the risen Christ living inside them.

      Notice that God placed Ezekiel right in the middle of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1).  I am convinced that if God has sovereignly placed you in a spiritually challenging territory—whether that be a neighborhood, a city, or a nation bearing the weight of cultural collapse—He has an assignment for you there. And it is not simply to announce how dry or dead the bones are. Like Ezekiel, your assignment is to prophesy life, breath, and wind over exceedingly dry bones. God often positions His people in dark, “written-off” places so He can move through their voices, prayers, lives, and influence.

      Let’s walk through what Ezekiel’s encounter reveals about our assignment in America.

      Three Things Dry Valleys Teach Us

      First: dark places do not take God by surprise. Whether you live in a spiritually resistant city, serve in a post-modernized institution, or simply feel the weight of a nation that seems to be losing its way—your location is not random. He placed Ezekiel in the valley, and He has placed you where you are.

      Second: God is not intimidated by dry places. I remember when a pastor told my friend and revivalist Miriam Evans that a certain city was a “graveyard for churches.” Instead of agreeing with that pronouncement, she went to prayer. The Lord gave Miriam a dream of an Angel of Awakening so massive she couldn't see beyond his feet into the Heavens. This mighty angel stepped onto the Southeast coast of the US, into the very city marked as a cemetery for churches. What had been spiritually dead was now pregnant with awakening. I believe the same angel of awakening is advancing across America right now.

      Third: our responsibility is not to agree with the bleakness of the valley, nor to abandon it for greener pastures, nor to retreat into silence. We are called to release God’s Word into what seems irreversibly dead. Joel 2 and Acts 2 make it clear: in the last days, God’s sons and daughters will prophesy. That is not limited to preachers behind pulpits — it is the assignment of every Spirit-filled believer. When God places you in a hard place, He is not punishing you. He is trusting you to be His voice to dry bones.

      The Gospel and the Glory Always Prevail

      Surprisingly, I am more hopeful about America than most headlines would justify. Not because I'm naive about the darkness, but because I’ve studied what God has done in America before, and I know that America's history is not a story of spiritual decline without recovery. It is a decline followed by divine interruption. Every time America has drifted toward moral collapse, God has answered—not with abandonment, but with awakening.

      Jesus never told us to avoid the gates of hell—He told us those gates would not prevail against His Church. The enemy doesn’t get to write the final headline of cities, states, or nations. God does. He is not intimidated by graveyards; He simply deposits prophetic voices into these places to declare His life and awakening over them.

      The key is prioritizing the Book of Acts strategy to spiritually transform territories: the gospel, demonstrated by God’s power and glory. A clear proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, then confirmed by the manifest power of the Holy Spirit: supernatural gifts in operation, demons cast out, bodies healed, atmospheres transformed. Unchurched people are not offended by the raw demonstration of God's power—if anything, those curiously visiting our Sunday morning sanctuaries are crying out for the authentic display of the supernatural.

      Hard Places That Became Harvest Fields

      Consider two “hard places” that became harvest fields throughout Scripture.

      Samaria (Acts 8) was defined by centuries of paganism and idolatry, yet when Philip preached Christ, demons shrieked, the sick were healed, and there was great joy in that city. God wants to fill broken cities with joy.

      Ephesus (Acts 19) was a headquarters of idolatry, immorality, and occult power—home of the temple of Artemis, which set the spiritual atmosphere for the entire territory. One could rightly call it a hard and dark place. Yet, the word of the Lord prevailed mightily, and revival came to the city. If Ephesus can experience this, any modern city can—and so can America.

      These examples don’t just confirm that revival is possible in hard and dark places—they should provoke us to agree with Heaven’s announcement and objective. According to Joel 2 and Acts 2, God wants all flesh to experience the outpouring of the Spirit. Is America part of “all flesh?” Yes. So we boldly announce: “America, it’s time for another great outpouring!”

      Pray with me:

      Father, forgive us for believing lies concerning “hard and dark” territories. Our standard is not to be how sinful a nation appears; our standard is Your Scripture. And Your Word invites us to believe that violent and oppressed cities will be filled with joy, entire territories will be transformed by the Gospel, and nations will be born again in a day. We commit to come into agreement with Your Word regarding America. Not the news. Not the naysayers. Not the negativity. 

      We pray as the church in Acts prayed: “And now, O Lord, give us great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30). Your Word says dry, dead bones can live, and so we declare: America, come alive in the name of Jesus!

      All of this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

      You can find out more about Larry and Mercedes Sparks at LarrySparksMinistries.com. Their book, The Fire that Forged America, is available on Amazon.

      Click on the link below to watch the video.


       
       

      July 8, 2026

        The Fire that Forged America

        I love sharing posts that prepare and help us pray for the emerging revival. Today is one such post. It is adapted from Larry and Mercedes Sparks’ new book, The Fire that Forged America. Larry and Mercedes tell us:

        History has a way of humbling our cynicism. Every generation that has declared a city or a nation too far gone for God to rescue it has eventually been proven wrong by the transformational move of the Holy Spirit. America is no exception. From the colonial era to the present, the places most often written off as spiritual graveyards have become the very epicenters of revival.

        Let me take you on a brief journey through American history—not as a nostalgia trip, but as a prophetic provocation. These are blueprints, not footnotes. They tell the truth about God and expose the lie about those so-called “hard places.”

        When Hard Ground Became Holy Ground

        The First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s). By this point in America’s history, strict religious devotion had given way to the compromise of the half-way covenant, producing generations who attended church as a cultural obligation rather than a heart encounter with God. Religious form remained, but spiritual fire had waned. Into that dryness, God thundered. Through the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, the Holy Spirit pierced complacent hearts, producing weeping, repentance, and radical conversions. God can rewrite the story of a people, even in an age of compromise.

        The Second Great Awakening (early 1800s). Following the Revolutionary War, moral decline, drunkenness, and lawlessness swept the new nation. Many predicted Christianity’s influence would fade entirely. Instead, God raised up revivalists like Charles Finney and Barton Stone. Camp meetings like Cane Ridge drew tens of thousands. What began as rural stirrings spread into cities, producing mass conversions, societal reforms, and the seeds of abolition. A nation once thought adrift was redirected by the Spirit.

        The Noonday Prayer Revival (1857–1858). On the edge of Civil War, Jeremiah Lanphier’s noonday prayer meeting in Manhattan seemed almost insignificant. But within months, prayer meetings multiplied across America, and thousands were being converted weekly. What started as a small group praying in New York became a nationwide prayer movement. Even commercial and cultural capitals can become houses of intercession.

        Azusa Street, Los Angeles (1906). In a segregated, suspicious, and spiritually parched environment, under the humble leadership of William J. Seymour, the Holy Spirit birthed a multi-ethnic, missions-sending revival whose fire has circled the globe, ultimately producing over half a billion on-fire believers celebrating the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit. If Los Angeles could become an altar, which city today would be beyond the Spirit’s reach?

        The Jesus People Movement (late 1960s–1970s). In the countercultural hotbeds of Southern California hippies, addicts, and spiritual seekers were baptized by the thousands. The generation many assumed was too far gone became burning ones for Jesus.

        The Brownsville Revival, Pensacola (1995–2000). On Father’s Day 1995, what began as an ordinary Sunday service ignited into one of the most significant outpourings of the last 30 years. Under Pastor John Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill, the Holy Spirit fell with convicting power. Millions visited over five years, with altars filled night after night as people wept, repented, and encountered the fire of God. In an age of growing cynicism, Pensacola became proof that revival was not a relic of the past but a living reality.

        The River Is Breaking Banks Right Now

        These snapshots from history bring us to the present moment — because the pattern has not stopped. In February 2023, the Asbury Outpouring reminded us that revival is not exclusive to the history books. Students filled a chapel in Wilmore, Kentucky, and what began as a simple time of prayer and worship stretched into days, then weeks. Thousands came from around the globe—not because there were big-name preachers or cutting-edge production, but because God's presence was tangible, the worship was pure, and the altar was open for people to have holy encounters.

        What Asbury signaled was not an isolated visitation. It was a signpost of what God is doing across America in our day. Since 2020, the ground has shifted. In the aftermath of crisis, confusion, and cultural upheaval, hunger has begun to rise again. Secularism has not delivered the utopia it promised. Atheism has not satisfied the ache for meaning. Postmodernism has only deepened the swirl of confusion. And in the middle of this disillusionment, a remnant is rising.

        Across university campuses, thousands are gathering—some in arenas, some in open fields, others in lecture halls. They are not satisfied with watered-down religion. They are desperate for bold answers, unapologetic truth, and encounters with the real Jesus. Multitudes of students are filling spaces to worship, repent, and be baptized—not because of slick campaigns, but because they have tasted the emptiness of the world and are desperate for the River of Life, the Holy Spirit.

        The Spirit Is Stirring in Unlikely Places

        But this stirring is not limited to campuses. It is showing up in the places that once seemed least likely—among Hollywood creatives and cultural influencers. Top podcasters are asking questions about God, Scripture, and the meaning of life. Some of the most listened-to voices in the digital public square are giving airtime to conversations about Christianity—not as an irrelevant icon of the past, but as an urgent question for the present.

        Could it be that God is seeding the next great awakening not only in church buildings but also in podcast studios, university stadiums, and on cultural stages? The places we are tempted to write off as too dark or too hostile are being invaded by light. Revival is erupting in a podcast. It is breaking out in a dorm room. It is whispering in the conscience of top influencers. It is stirring in the places most people thought were sealed to the Gospel.

        The River is not trickling quietly just within the four walls of the church. It is breaking banks—flooding campuses, flooding culture, flooding influencers with questions and convictions they cannot shake.

        You Carry the River Into Dry Lands

        Here is what I want you to carry with you: you are not a spectator to this story. You are part of it. Jesus' invitation still rings: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. …out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38 NKJV). People are thirsty—and the Spirit-filled Church carries the solution. You are filled with the River of Life that dry and thirsty people are desperate for.

        The River of God’s Spirit flows from within you into the world around you. The dryness of your environment does not threaten your fire. It is fuel for it. The very headlines that trouble your city, state, or nation may point to the specifics of your calling. You may be assigned to bring the River of God into those places. Don't curse the ground God called you to water. Speak life.

        The River of God is rising. Spiritual graveyards are turning into gardens. History prophesies to us about the future: what God did in times past through historic revival and awakening, He can and will do it again. And you—right where you are—are part of how revival history is written.

        Pray with me:

        Father, let Your river continue to rise. Renew the face of America by pouring out Your Spirit in a mighty way. No sphere or sector of society is beyond Your reach. And Lord, we say with the prophet Isaiah, Here I am, send me. Pour out Your Spirit through me. Use me wherever You have called and assigned me to be a voice and vessel of awakening.

        And we pray that Your fire would burn once again in believers across our nation. Continue building the glorious church You spoke of until it isn’t only a remnant that is on fire, but millions of believers are ablaze with Holy Spirit’s burning passion. Return leaders to their first love; baptize them afresh and anew with the power and passion of Holy Spirit. All of this we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

        Our decree:

        We decree that the present outpouring of the Holy Spirit is turning spiritual graveyards into gardens of life!

        Click on the link below to watch the video.

        You can find out more about Larry and Mercedes Sparks at LarrySparksMinistries.com. Their book, The Fire that Forged America, is available on Amazon.

         
         
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