DAY 2: America Is In A Nineveh Moment

By Chris Ngai (LoveUnited)

“The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.” — Matthew 12:41 (NIV)

Years ago, a pastor asked one of the most heart-provoking questions, in a room full of praying believers: “Is our level of prayer matching the level of the need of the hour?” While the quantity of prayer is increasing as never before in our nation, a greater question remains: is the depth and urgency of our prayers matching the level of need at this hour?

I’m stirred by the response of the people of Nineveh, in the days of Jonah. God gave Jonah a message to deliver in that urgent hour: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” Amazingly, there was no hope of redemption or a call to repent – it was simply a word of judgment, the final hour for Nineveh.

America is in a Nineveh moment. We are in the final call for repentance and revival as a nation! God is giving us a window of mercy, a season of time, to respond as the people of Nineveh did. We will either lose the promises of God as a nation, or we will see the rebirthing of the purposes of God in our nation. But God is looking for us to respond, in the same way as the Ninevites responded in Jonah’s day!

There are five key ways that Nineveh responded that brought in a great outpouring of mercy and revival:

1. They believed God: this is a profound statement – a completely godless generation heard the word of the Lord, awakened to the urgency of the hour, and believed God.
2. They declared a fast: giving up the enjoyments, pleasures, and distractions of this life, they humbled themselves and became wholeheartedly focused on their desperate need for God!
3. All of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth: they allowed themselves to feel uncomfortable continuously, so they would not forget, even for a moment, the urgency of the hour they were living in.
4. Everyone urgently called on God: this was a desperate, heart-wrenching cry for mercy, from all the people of Nineveh – knowing that if they did not catch the attention of heaven, in that window of time, there would be no hope for their people or their nation.
5. They turned away from their evil ways and violence: they gave up their offensive and grievous ways before the Lord, responding with a deep and life-altering repentance!

They did all of this, not even with the guarantee of mercy, but with the hope that God might have compassion and “turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” (Jonah 3:5-10)

How will we respond in this critical season of our nation’s history, to the invitation of heaven to return to Him with all of our hearts?

PRAYER POINTS:

• Pray that both believers and unbelievers would awaken to the urgent hour that our nation is in and that our eyes and ears would be open to the final call for repentance and revival that is sounding forth from heaven!
• Pray that both believers and unbelievers would respond with wholeheartedness in the way that God is looking for in this hour. Pray especially for His Spirit of repentance, humility, fasting, and urgent prayer to come upon His people like never before!
• Ask God how He would have you and your ministry respond specifically, to the call of God over our campuses and nation. What are the levels of prayer, humility, seeking, and repentance that He is inviting you into that are needed to match the level of need in this urgent hour? Write it down and commit yourselves, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to walk it out over these next 40 days!
• Pray for believers to be rooted and grounded in the love of the Father and be set free from all comparisons with others.