CONFERENCE CALL TONIGHT! Weds 9-10 pm EST. Conference call number: 805-399-1200 access code 552-690. Use *6 to mute/unmute. Invite your friends!

NOTE: Many are sensing a warning in the spirit for our nation. Be prepared to share, discuss, and pray!

Late posting, I know. Just arrived home from Philadelphia, and wrote this from the heart. Hope many of you can join us on the call!

On the evening of 12-12-12, Dr. John Benefiel asked me to share on the “New Birth of Freedom” word that Holy Spirit had given as a theme for 2013. Addressing his congregation and the HAPN leaders gathered in Oklahoma City for our annual convening, I shared how God wanted to fulfill a dream of Abraham Lincoln, “that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Especially in light of current trends and scandals, the message has proven very timely.

I also shared how the Lord wanted to bring a breakthrough on abortion in 2013. How this year marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade, and God was issuing His verdict regarding abortion in America. What an incredible privilege to stand together with so many of you to see the Lord bring the greatest governmental shift regarding abortion since Roe v Wade was established!

Newtown & God’s New Birth of Freedom
I will never forget 12-14-12. Two days after delivering this message on the New Birth of Freedom, HAPN leaders went by bus to a church a few hours away for a special baptismal service. A gregarious road trip suddenly turned somber as news broke of a massacre of children in Newtown CT.

The weight of the tragedy was first perceived by regional leaders riding with us, who were still wrestling with much the same pain after the Oklahoma City bombings almost two decades before. Together we wept and prayed through the remainder of the trip, seeking solace for the families of the 28 who died, and blessing and healing for the state of Connecticut. To me this instance seemed to be a direct assault from the enemy on God’s mandate for the year.

Have you noticed how God orchestrates the journeys of our lives in conjunction with our prayers? Unplanned intersections become signposts of His intervention. Eight months after this tragedy, our friend Janet Leboutillier planned a remarkable ministry journey through Connecticut, which ended with a home group meeting in Monroe. We soon discovered that Monroe was very close to Newtown—and that Sandy Hook Elementary School had actually been moved there.

And suddenly Jolene and I came face to face with the people and land we had been praying for. It was clear that Connecticut was somehow on the enemy’s radar specifically because of the work God had planned for this great state. The Lord quickened an extraordinary word to us about how He is releasing a “martyrs harvest for a martyrs seed” and forming the release of His new move in Connecticut. It was an incredible honor to share heart to heart with leaders and intercessors, and to present the “Life Decree,” God’s verdict on unjust bloodshed in the land.

Lightning at Gosnell Clinic
Then yesterday, another unplanned journey came upon us. We visited with Jamie Fitt, director of the Philadelphia Tabernacle of David. Over a spectacular lunch featuring home-grown philly cheese steaks, Jamie mentioned how he had prayed onsite at Kermit Gosnell’s abortion clinic just before Passover. It is this clinic that so penetrated the hardened conscience of America regarding the horrors of late-term abortion, and of abortion clinics.

Twenty minutes down the road. Would we like to go? I honestly did not know what to say.

Because of the great victory the Lord had granted in this season, I anticipated dancing down the sidewalk in front of the infamous clinic, shouting high praises to the Lord. But on the ground, a profound grief overwhelmed my spirit. I lost vigor, refrained from talking much or even praying.

A lightning bolt literally shook me out of this state, followed by a thunderclap that sounded like it was directly upon us. Jamie and I stepped out from under the power lines connected to the clinic, scanning the skies for a thunderstorm we had somehow missed. No rain, little wind, just a solitary flash of lightning and rolling thunder that momentarily shook the sidewalk.

No thunder or lightning followed. Just a solitary thunderclap, seemingly bearing witness to God’s judgment on abortion and unjust bloodshed. Revelation 8:5 later came to mind—where the prayer bowls are filled, and God pours out the overflowing bowls, releasing lightnings, thunder, voices and an earthquake!

Standing Against Injustice
On that Philadelphia sidewalk, struggling for words and seeking shelter from an unperceived storm, two things came to mind. First—we need to remember. Just as the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC bears witness to ensuing generations of the travesty of Hitler’s massacre, so we would do well to keep the remembrance of the horrors of this travesty continually before our minds and hearts—God forbid that history ever repeat itself in another American holocaust.

Second, it occurred to me that the outrage many people feel over the loss of Trayvon Martin should only be multiplied at the discovery of the countless babies massacred at this “family health clinic.” Hands and feet in jars scattered around the office. By a doctor who preferred to “abort” babies after their moms delivered them, after their first breath was drawn, after their cries for life could be heard as well as felt.

I mean no disrespect, but where were the fiery protests during the Kermit Gosnell trial? Why wasn’t Al Sharpton mobilizing massive marches on this horror-stained Philadelphia street corner—and a hundred other inner city clinics across the US?

Is not the sheer magnitude of loss and injustice at least as tragic?

Newtown, Philadelphia and Sanford all prove one thing. A supernatural enemy desires to abort the hopes and lives of all God’s children. The enemy is always threatened by a fresh expression of the image of God in this world.

Sometimes circumstances are more complicated than either the media portrays or our own biases allow us to admit. God is challenging us all, very simply, to a higher resolve. Choose life. Choose true justice. Choose God’s new birth of freedom.