The Case for a Solemn Assembly of Prayer and Repentance

By David Hobbs

It started with a conviction: America can't exist as a nation apart from God. She will either come back to the God under whom she started or she will perish.

It continued with a letter-to-the-editor:

America Must Decide

(Printed in the Appeal-Democrat 12/12/15 under the Headline “Re: America and God”)

Dear Editor,

In the spring of 1789, the first American congress was constituted and George Washington was inaugurated as president. For the very first order of business, President Washington led the assembly on a short walk to a nearby stone church (still there to this day) where he led them in prayer, giving thanks to God and dedicating the fledgling nation to Him (as told in The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn). Because God blesses what’s His, since then He has blessed this nation enormously until we’ve become the richest, most powerful nation on the earth, perhaps ever.

God had once done the same thing with ancient Israel, as told in the Old Testament of the Bible. But Israel, in her prosperity, became proud and arrogant, claiming she had attained her greatness by her own efforts; and she refused the moral constraints of God’s laws that God put on her for her own good. As a result, after warning her repeatedly, God brought in the bloodthirsty Assyrians and Babylonians (from modern-day Iraq!), who destroyed the nation.

            America today is going down the same path, angering the God we once dedicated ourselves to with outrageous moral sins and the same pride and arrogance of thinking we have gained our great wealth and power by our own efforts. We think we can get out of our obligations to God by disavowing Him, but it’s too late. We’ve already filled ourselves with His blessings, now we want Him to go away and leave us alone? And after disavowing Him, we still expect Him to protect us from our enemies? Because we’ve turned our backs on God, He’s turned His back on us and we are starting to eat the bitter fruit of life without Him.

            Interestingly enough, the church itself has the key that could save us—invoking 2 Chronicles 7:14--yet has shown little inclination to do so.

            America can’t be a godless nation. It’s too late for that; the die has already been cast. The stark reality is this: America can either turn from her evil way and rededicate herself to God, or she will cease to exist.

But something about that statement "Interestingly enough, the church itself has the key that could save us—invoking 2 Chronicles 7:14--yet has shown little inclination to do so" struck a chord in my own heart. If we were ever going to do what God clearly prescribes in His word, should't we be doing it now?

This turned into an email to some pastors:

To the Pastors and Leaders of Yuba-Sutter

As part of my ministry of watchman, I write letters-to-the-editor of our local newspaper. My latest letter (attached) came out 12/12/15. As I was writing the words the Lord gave me about where this country is headed, I was struck by the truth that only the church has in its hands the power to alter the disaster we see so rapidly approaching. Yet just as striking was how little the church is doing corpo­rately to use our power of prayer and repentance in a last-ditch effort to stay the hand of God. I can only attribute this to the backslidden state of the church in this hour of crisis.

            The extent of the church’s backslidden state is indicated by the extraordinary lengths the Holy Spirit has had to go to awaken us to our need of corporate repentance. He told me recently that we are living in the time of the Book of Judges, when God repeatedly gave Israel over to her enemies until she cried out to Him. Whether that took 7 years or 40 years, things always grew progressively worse until this happened.

But many Christians today are sitting on the sidelines expecting to be raptured out of our growing crisis instead of following the dictates of Scripture in 2 Chron. 7:14 by crying out to God to heal our land.

At this moment millions of lives precious to God are hanging in the balance, depending on whether we have judgment or revival. God is looking for His church to rise up and stand in the gap, that He will not have to bring the overwhelming judgment the world is crying out for.

We are looking for pastors and leaders to help sponsor a Solemn Assembly of prayer and repentance to fulfill the directive of 2 Chron. 7:14. at the Marysville Arts Center at the corner of 7^th and E Sts. in Marysville on Saturday, Jan. 9th from noon to 4 pm. The building has been rented. As additional funds come in, they will be used to buy advertising to get the word out to as many as possible.

If not now, when? If not us, who?

Along the way there was a startling visionary revelation:

Vision of Impending Judgment

I got up in the morning and was getting ready to go out to Trinity Life Church in Olivehurst where the normal prayer meeting was being used to pray for Sister Joy’s revival which was starting the next week. As I ate my cereal I perused the morning paper. It had a brief article about an incident in Sacramento. I forget the details, but it was like someone on the street asked someone else for a cigarette. When the person refused to give him one he pulled out a gun and shot him and took the cigarettes. It was totally senseless, where a human life was devalued almost down to nothing. Something about the cavalier way it happened struck me and I thought about the days before Noah’s Flood, when violence filled the land, and the thoughts of men’s hearts were on evil continually. “Final judgment must be close, when things like this happen,” I mused.

Out at the prayer meeting I started to pray but thoughts of the story returned. Suddenly, in the Spirit I imagined God on His throne in heaven with the cries for judgment rising before Him, Cries from all the spilled blood, like the poor fellow in the paper, cries from people murdered day in and day out all over the land, added to the cries of millions and millions of aborted babies thrown away like cancerous warts. The cup of iniquity was so close to full--one little nudge would send it sloshing over the side! A deafening chorus for judgment was rising up—the land itself was crying out against its inhabitants—the pressure on God to respond was enormous! Where were His people? Where were the other voices crying out for God to stay His hand? God’s people seemed clueless, holding church meetings, happily talking about the Rapture they expected any moment, totally unaware of the cataclysmic scene playing out in the heavens above them, totally unaware of the millions of lives hanging in the balance if God brought judgment now while multitudes were still unsaved, unaware of how they themselves would fare in the judgment if it fell on them in their present, blinded condition.

I was overcome with emotion and began to weep This was the heart of God that I had prayed so often for; this was the reality of heaven, of the spirit realm above—Satan trying to provoke God’s judgment in all its fury, with his dragon-mouth open to swallow the multitude of souls that would fall when God’s judgment tore them from their bodies like figs shaken from a fig tree. Where was the intercession, the travail of God’s people? “My God, spare Your people, the ones You died for. Mercy! We cry out for mercy!” The noise and the tension seemed unbearable.

I shared what I saw with the group. One of the ladies prophesied over me, that I would carry the heart of Jeremiah the weeping prophet. Then it all faded, except the memory remains and I know it’s going on still. It’s a tension that can only be broken by massive judgment or massive revival.

Then a longer letter currently being mailed to a larger group of  pastors:

To the Pastors and Christian Leaders of Yuba-Sutter

Is the Church in America Facing Its Final Call?

Just like every sinner receives one final call before his life is lost forever, so the lukewarm church will one day receive its final call (before being spewed from the mouth of Jesus as in Rev. 3:16). The Northern Kingdom of Israel received its final call in 2 Chron. 30:5-10. Only a handful responded, the rest mocked. Within a few short years the nation was destroyed, and the survivors went off into captivity and were never heard from again.

            We never know when we receive that final call; we never know how far the patience and long-suffering of God will stretch. But God is calling His church in America back to Him: back to holiness and away from pursuing money, pleasures and the things of this world.

Yet many Christians are expecting to be raptured off the planet at any moment. But God is not interested in rapturing the church right now. He’s never going to rapture the lukewarm church, and He needs the rest of us down here crying out to Him. His throne is being bombarded with the cries of millions of the lost and the cries from the innocent blood of millions of babies and countless other murdered people in our lawless society. And He’s concerned about the powerlessness of His church, because He is not with them, and they won‘t turn back to Him so He can be. Business as usual is killing us!

            We’re losing the war. What is it costing us? This nation, our heritage, our prophetic voice in an increasingly sinful world…. Last week a principal in Brooklyn banned the celebration of Christmas, Santa Claus, Thanksgiving, and the Pledge of Allegiance, all in the name of multi-culturalism. After a public outcry, some of it was walked back, but not all. We’ve seen the same pattern for the last 50 years: two steps forward, one step back, over and over again. The spiritual ground the church has given up in my lifetime is astounding. Why has this happened? When will it end?

            Two weeks ago the Holy Spirit told me, “You’re living in the time of the Book of Judges.” That brought things into focus. In the Book of Judges there is a pattern: Israel forsakes the Lord and serves the idols of the nations around her. So the Lord raises up oppressors against her which often oppress her severely. The length of time she was oppressed varied, but it always continued until she cried out to the Lord. Then God raised up a deliverer and defeated the oppressing enemy and the land rested--until Israel turned back to the world!

            We are being oppressed, but are we ready to cry out to the Lord? A new election will not help us; the right president will not save us; defeating ISIS will not deliver us. God gave us the answer in 2 Chron. 7:14. Are we ready to follow it?

            When He put it on my heart to send out this letter and call the churches to come together and cry out to Him, as I was trying to figure out what to say, the Holy Spirit said plainly, “Don’t try and talk them into it! Unless it’s Me working in their hearts it won’t happen.”           

            For those whose hearts God has touched, we are having a Solemn Assembly of Prayer and Repentance on Sat., Jan. 9^th from 12-4 pm at the Marysville Arts Center, corner of 7^th and E Sts. in Marysville. I am working with a small steering committee of pastors and leaders, which we hope can grow like the Christ in Unity movement of two years ago.

            I don’t know if this will be your final call, but I do know we don ‘t have much time until our present window of opportunity shuts. Jesus said that spiritual night would come when no man could work [John 9:4]. We could be very close to that time now.

            One year ago, as a biblical watchman I sent out a letter to 170 area pastors saying that I saw a sword coming to devour the land. Now a year later I see that sword at the very gate. Please consider this carefully; many lives are hanging in the balance.

And an opportunity to write an article for our local Christian newspaper.

Solemn Assembly of Prayer and Repentance

In the spring of 1789, the first American congress was constituted and George Washington was inaugurated as president. For the first order of business, President Washington led the assembly on a short walk to a nearby stone church where he led them in prayer, giving thanks to God and dedicating the fledgling nation to Him (as told in The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn). Because God blesses what’s His, since then He has blessed this nation enormously until we’ve become the richest, most powerful nation on the earth.
              God had once done the same thing with ancient Israel. But Israel, in her prosperity, became proud and arrogant, claiming she had attained her greatness by her own efforts; and refused the moral constraints of God’s laws. As a result, after warning her repeatedly, God brought in the bloodthirsty Assyrians (from modern-day Iraq!), who destroyed the nation.

            America today is going down the same path, angering the God we once dedicated ourselves to with outrageous moral sins and the same arrogance of thinking we have gained our great wealth and power by our own efforts. We think we can get out of our obligations to God by disavowing Him, but it’s too late. We’ve already filled ourselves with His blessings, now we want to turn our back on Him? And yet we still expect Him to protect us from our enemies! Because we’ve turned our backs on God, He’s turned His back on us and this nation is eating the bitter fruit of life without Him.

            Is there any hope for the good old U.S. of A.?

            The church itself has the key to saving the nation—invoking God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14--yet has shown little interest in doing so.  Many Christians would rather sit on the sidelines expecting God to rapture them out before judgment hits.

            In 1980 a group of Christians started a movement called “Washington for Jesus” that sought to gather Christians to the nation’s capital to call upon the Lord and repent for the church and nation. On April 29-30 over 125,000 gathered in Washington to repent and seek God. In the Nov. election, God answered. Ronald Reagan won by a landslide over President Jimmy Carter, ushering in the “Reagan Revolution”-- the longest period of sustained prosperity in our history--restoring America’s power in the world, bringing down the Soviet Union and its Iron Curtain, and freeing the Soviet satellite countries. The 1980 election also saw the defeat of 9 liberal Democrat senators and a return of the Senate to Republicans control for the first time in 25 years.

            God does respond when His people pray!

            With this in mind, the National Governors Prayer Team is sponsoring a Solemn Assembly of Prayer and Repentance at the Marysville Arts Center at the corner of 7^th and E Sts. in Marysville on Saturday Jan. 9^th from noon-4:00  pm. .  It won’t be about worship or preaching. It will be about trying to save our land by following 2 Chron. 7:14--praying, humbling ourselves before God, repenting and turning from our wicked ways, and crying out to God to turn back the impending judgment and heal our land.

Just like a man has to hit rock bottom before he’s ready to cry out to God for salvation; just like he’s got to run out of every other option and excuse and admit his hopeless plight, so the church has to give up hope of something else saving us—like another election or the Rapture--and turn back whole-heartedly to the Lord. The days of half-heartedness, of trying to serve God and mammon, and of doing endless church meetings while society goes to Hell all around us, are over. Are we ready to cry out to God now, or will things have to get even worse?

There you have it--my case for the need of a solemn assembly and my attempt to organize one.