John Hagee - The Weapon of Prayer
Today we begin a series of sermons titled "America's Answer". America is in the greatest moral and spiritual crisis in the history of our nation. American Marxism, which is communism... I want you to hear that, Karl Marx' communism, Marxism, one in the same thing, is a raging cancer, destroying our schools, our colleges and our universities, the press, which today is more propaganda than truth. Socialism is running rampant. Socialism is really communism with lipstick. Socialism will shut down the churches in America. Our children in public schools are being taught the critical race theory, which teaches your child that America's laws, our institutions, our values, our traditions, our language is racist: and therefore, must be destroyed.
How did we get from the founding fathers birthing America with prayer to a nation where principles of communism are being taught in our colleges, in our universities, and in our public schools? To those of you who have children in public schools, the members of the school board are really, in fact, public servants: they are not educational dictators. Your children do not belong to the school board: they belong to you. Get informed and get involved. What is America's answer? The answer is recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Let's read it together "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 heal their land".
Our land needs healing. But I want you to look at this text closely. This is a propositional revelation. What does that mean? That if you do this, God will do that. If my people will pray, if you will seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, if you can believe all things are possible, then I will hear from heaven and heal your land. That continues. Matthew 16:24, "If any man or woman will come after me, let them deny themselves and follow me". Matthew 18:19: if any two of you shall agree on anything, that God will bring it to pass. Matthew 21:21: if you have faith and doubt not, you shall say to this mountain, "Be removed and cast into the sea," and it will be done. America's answer begins with a national prayer meeting that binds the demonic forces that are now destroying our beloved nation. It begins with the house of God, praying to the living God of our nation. Let's pray together.
Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the Word of God that is the revelation of truth that will lead our nation that is now stumbling in darkness to the glorious light of perfect redemption. In Jesus' name, we pray. And all of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. Consider America's answer from our founding fathers. The Bible said, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord". America, as a whole today, has forgotten the God of the Bible. America began with the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth colony, Massachusetts in 1620, who came to America to found a nation based upon the Word of God. That is a fact of history. "The mayflower compact" is, in fact, a covenant between those people and God. It reads this way: "We solemnly in the presence of God (covenant) to bind ourselves together for the advancement of the Christian faith," end of quote. That's very clear. They formed a society built on the New Testament.
I could stand here for the rest of the morning and recite the gracious, holy words of our founding fathers taken directly from the Bible: that the principles of righteousness were the principles upon which this nation was founded. The reality of America being a Christian nation prevailed until the 1960's, when in the 1960's it was common for school days, and sporting events, and public events to open with prayer. The Ten Commandments were posted on public buildings, in courtrooms, in classrooms, on the grounds of the state capitals. The nation was shocked when the supreme court in 1962 ruled that prayer and Bible readings in public schools were now forbidden. How did that happen? It happened because in the 40's an organization called the ACLU, which was founded by a communist for the purpose of destroying constitutional freedom, finally got it done through the courts. God was kicked out of our educational process.
Today our public schools have absolutely become the laughing stock of the world. We are rated beneath third-world countries: yet, we spend more money on education than anybody in the world. We are graduating people who can't read. What's the advantage? Not to us but to people who are trying to control this nation, you can control an uneducated person. But a person, who reads this book, can know the living truth of God. You cannot lead that person into captivity. It is impossible. When I was going to school as a child, every day, we began a prayer and a Bible reading over the public address system. We proudly stood in honor of the flag of the United States of America, and every day, gave the pledge of allegiance. Today, that's illegal. Today, mobs in the streets are burning the flag. Professional athletes, who become millionaires, refuse to honor the flag. Hollywood movie stars mock patriotism and anyone who believes in patriotism. Anarchists are wiping their feet on the flag of the United States in the streets of America. They should be arrested, not applauded.
I say again, if you don't love this land of the free and the home of the brave, there are planes that are leaving this country every hour: get on one! We won't miss you and we don't want you! America's future for our children in our churches, our schools, and universities now hangs in the balance. How can we win this fight? America's answer is to have a national prayer meeting. I'm not talking about memorized prayers. I'm talking about prayer warfare against powers and principalities in the heavens. The Bible says, "What you bind on earth is bound in heaven. And what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven". Paul said, "Fight the good fight". "Put on the whole armor of God and go after the prince of darkness". You have that kind of fire power. The purpose of prayer is not to give orders to God. The purpose of prayer is to get orders from God!
Jesus did not teach his disciples how to preach, and they turned the world upside down. But he did teach them how to pray. They came to him and said, "Lord, teach us to pray". Why? Because when Jesus prayed, dead people got out of their graves and starting walking, because the lame walked, the blind could see, demons trembled in the presence of the carpenter. He had a power that they recognized. Prayer has the power to cure sickness and to heal every disease. Prayer can shatter the shackles of misery and habit that enslave you, and you, and you, and those of you who are watching by television, and the people who are in your family, or our nation. It can break the shackles in Washington, D.C.! Church of Jesus Christ in America and around the world, stop whining about the attacks on our life by the prince of darkness! Attack him! Bind him! Crush him! Put your foot on the head of the devil! No weapon formed against us shall ever prosper! Give the Lord praise in the house!
Here is one of the most powerful verses in all of the Old Testament, Isaiah 45:11. God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, and he says, "Command ye me". Say that with me. "Command ye me". Think about that. What you do on the earth determines what I can do in heaven. But until you speak it on the earth, heaven is bound. We cannot interfere. Why? Because God gave us a free-moral agency to make decisions. And he will not override that agency. You have the power to send your soul to hell, and some of you are going there if you don't find Jesus Christ. You have the power to literally knock the devil into the next county with the authority of the Word of God. You have that kind of power. The victory is ours. The fight is on. Put on the whole armor of God. Fight to win. When Jesus Christ comes back, he's not coming to take sides: he's coming to take over with absolute power! Give him praise in the house!
World-changing miracles happen when you pray. How can America be saved from political and moral corruption? How can we be saved from political harassment, from the corruption of racism, and materialism, and socialism, and the counterfeit Christianity? What is counterfeit Christianity? There is, in America today, a counterfeit Christianity that's teaching people how to adjust in their sin rather than confess and forsake their sin. If you don't confess and forsake your sin, I don't care how long you sing "Amazing grace:" you're still lost. That's counterfeit Christianity. How can we stop the intellectual and moral abuse of our children in public schools, the crime wave where policemen are murdered on the streets, without fear of the law? I say hire them back, hire more, and give them all a raise.
One word, the power of prayer, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, then, then, then will I hear from heaven and I will heal their land". When you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will never know who you're going to meet. You will go places you never dreamed you would ever go by circumstances you couldn't possibly fathom. If you establish a daily prayer time, your life will become anything but boring. You don't need to seek opportunity: opportunity will seek you. You don't need to worry about meeting the right people. When you meet God, he will bring the right people to you. I don't know anybody. You know God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are really wired to connection. You need to get to know those folks.
In June of 2017, in my morning prayers, praying about the peace of Jerusalem, I prayed, "Lord, give our president the courage to do what other presidents have promised since 1948, then failed to do concerning the City of Jerusalem and our embassy". A few days later in another city, talking to one of America's most powerful businessmen, out of the blue, he starts talking about Jerusalem. Boom! I heard myself saying, if I can get in front of the president for a few moments, I think I can make a compelling case for the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. To my shocking amazement, that man said, "I can make that happen".
Just a few days later, Diana and I were invited to the White House to have supper with the president of the United States of America, allegedly the most powerful man in the world. We went through three levels of security. We were ushered into the dining room. President trump entered. He clapped his hands. He smiled. And the conversation began. He was kind. He was gracious and he listened, something Washington is not doing now. A few days later, the president recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and then he moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. I was privileged to give the benediction. At the end of that benediction, the crowd stood up and they started chanting together, "Israel lives! Israel lives! Israel lives"! Heaven came down. Who made all that happen? God Almighty. Why did he do it? Prayer, specific prayer, anointed prayer, prayer that terrorizes the devil! Ask and you shall receive! I believe that! God wants to do amazing things through you and through Cornerstone Church. Joshua 3:5 holds the secret. "Consecrate yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord is going to do amazing things through you".
Dwight L. Moody has said, "The world has yet to see what God will do with the man or the woman for and through that person who is fully and wholly consecrated to him". The world is looking for that person. Why not you? Why not Cornerstone Church? Why not miracles as a regular basis? Why not an evangelism explosion that sees thousands come to Christ and that starts a third awakening in this nation? What is a consecration? Consecration is complete surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We surrender everything to God, our time, our talent, our treasures, absolute surrender. Hear this: nothing belongs to us, not even ourselves. The Bible says, "You were bought with a price", the price of redemption, the price of blood, "you are not your own". Consecration means to be completely dedicated to God. Jesus set the standard. He gave his all at Calvary, and he expects us to do nothing less. I want you to hear this. Coming to church 90 minutes on Sunday morning is not complete consecration. In America, July 12, 1723, Jonathan Edwards made a solemn dedication to consecrate himself to the Lord.
How many of you've heard of Jonathan Edwards? And in keeping with the scripture, "Write the vision down and make it plain". He wrote his consecration down on a piece of paper as a contract between him and God. The results of that consecration, Jonathan Edwards preached the sermon "Sinners in the hand of an angry God," and it started the first great awakening in America. Translation: it started a national revival where hundreds of thousands of people came to Christ. One sermon! Along with his pastorate, he served as the president of Princeton university. That's when the ivy league still allowed God to be there. Listen of his own descendants. This is what his descendants accomplished. There are more than 300 missionaries or ministers. They're 120 university professors. There are 60 authors. There are 30 judges. There are 14 college presidents. There are three members of congress, and one vice president of the United States of America. Why? One man's consecrated life did that. If we give more of ourselves to God, God will give more of ourselves to us. Consecration is total. It's absolute.
Write it down. Habakkuk 2:2, "Write the vision down and make it plain". Say that with me. "Write the vision down and make it plain". What do you want to accomplish with your life? What do you want for your family in the future? What do you want for your business? What do you want for your ministry? Write it down in this prayer diary. Write it down and write the date you write it down. And then when God answers prayer, come back and say, "Answered on this day". It may be years before it happens, but it will remind you that God answers prayer. Some of you are looking at me like, "He's far out now".
Let me tell you that Diana and I attended a Bible conference at oral Roberts university in the early 1990's. We heard Dr. Cho, a celebrated pastor in south Korea. He has a church with a membership of 480.000. He has a Sunday church attendance of 200.000. And he challenged those who were there to write the vision down that you want God to accomplish in your lives and your vision for the future, and God will give it to you. Brother, I took that up. I was sitting right on the front row. I took my Bible and my pen, Diana and I sat there, and we wrote this down, before we ever left that assembly, everything that's on this paper. At that point in time, it seemed like absolutely impossible, will never happen. But I'm here to tell you that everything we wrote on that page, God did it. And God has done far more than we wrote down.
So let me ask you: what's on your list? What's on your list for God to do for you? Don't say, "O God, do something some time". God's in heaven saying, "I wish that guy would learn to pray". Because until you pray right... There's a right way and a wrong way to pray. Don't say, "O God". Don't say just, "God". Say, "God, our father which art in heaven". There are hundreds of "Gods", but there is only one God which is in heaven. There's only one Jehovah God. "Behold, o Israel, the Lord our God is one! You shall have no other Gods before me". When you start praying, you identify. People ask me, "Why do you say, 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Creator of heaven and earth'"? I want heaven and I want the devil who's in the second heaven to know who I'm talking to. You'll be amazed at miracles that will happen if you think big. Think of what God has created. And he has said, "Command ye me". Think about that.
Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart". You need to put that on your refrigerator door. He's just waiting for you to ask and to ask big. The greatest tragedy in life is the prayers that go unanswered simply because they were unasked. You have all of this power available to you, and about all you can think of when you talk to God is, "Oh God, water the grass while I'm gone on vacation". "Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you". Why do you think God is offended by our prayers for the impossible? Why do you think that? It's not presumption: it is the faith enough to believe that he can do it. The truth is that God is offended by anything else. Mission impossible is God's address. This church building started in 1966. The dream was this, but it started then. Here we are! God has answered prayer. The impossible has become reality.
When we were a small church, and I said, "We are going to have a global evangelism television ministry," people laughed at me. My friends laughed at me. But we have it. CCS, our school, as it stands today, is a world-class, state-of-the-art education facility that in the 1990's was not even on our radar screen. There it stands today as a tribute to Almighty God for the preservation of our children and the next generation. Cufi started in the prayer chapel with 400 ministers. And when I told them I would like to start a national organization, organized in every state, in every city that has the capacity to respond to needs for the Jewish people, there were about a half a dozen that laughed and said, "This thing won't last six weeks". Well, here we are years later, ten million strong. And we're able to influence the powers of the United States government that the Jewish people may have comfort and consolation. "Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you". What do you need? Ask in faith believing, and you shall receive. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, I will hear from heaven and heal their land". Give the Lord a shout of praise in the house of God! Bless his holy name!