As the US marks the seventh anniversary of the infamous 9/11 terrorist attacks, Christians throughout the nation have been encouraged to cry out in prayer for America.
At 12 noon, hundreds of believers united in simultaneous nationwide prayer at their county courthouses to mark this significant day in America's history with powerful intercession for every state, every county and every citizen.
"2008 is a spiritually critical year for our nation," said Billy Wilson, chairman of the Awakening America Alliance (AAA), which organised a sacred assembly in New York on the eve of September 11. "The current condition of America demands united and decisive action. We need more than one positive election, more than one court decision, more than one good series of sermons - we must experience a new national awakening in our generation."
Ahead of Thursday's state-to-state prayer gatherings, the "Cry Out America" sacred assembly Wednesday night drew believers from across denominations and featured a number of Christian leaders, including Ron Luce, founder of TeenMania, and Larry Stockstill, senior pastor of Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In addition to those gathered at the Crenshaw Christian Center East in New York, many more in America and around the world were participating in the event live via broadcast on GOD TV.
"Seven years ago, on 9/11, America received perhaps the greatest physical wake-up call in our generation. In many ways, 9/11 - September 11, 2001, was the JFK assassination moment for our generation," Wilson told the sacred assembly participants.
"Almost every adult in America could tell you where they were and what they were doing on 9/11," he continued. "All of us were shaken to our knees. After what happened at the countryside of Pennsylvania, at the Pentagon and especially here in New York City, America and all of us were touched in a dramatic way."
But more than looking back at the events that forever changed America, Christian leaders at the sacred assembly focused on looking at the present and the future, encouraging sincere prayers of repentance and the many other prayers the country is in desperate need of.
"Tonight, we are here because the American church and the nation we live in is at a spiritual crisis. We need God," Wilson pointed out.
"Church attendance in America is at an all-time low. America is now the third-largest missions nation in the world. Ministerial resignations and moral failures are up, while ministerial commissionings are down," the ministry leader continued.
"One of the largest groups of teenagers in American history is also the most unchristian in our nation's entire history," he added.
At such a time, what's needed for a revival is a movement of prayer, as Dave Butts, chairman of the National Prayer Committee, pointed out. And at the heart of that is repentance.
