Cinco de Mayo: A National Day of Prayer

Today, on Cinco de Mayo and as part of the 60th annual National Day of Prayer in the U.S., thousands of intercessors will gather in Dallas and Mexico City and at the U.S.-Mexico border to cry out for a breakthrough of God’s power. The focus of our prayers will be to take down the drug cartels and secure our nation’s southern border against drug trafficking and violence.

In response to a prophetic directive given by Cindy Jacobs of Generals International, the United States Hispanic Prayer Network has spearheaded the implementation of a highly strategic 21-day prayer and fasting initiative that culminates today. We have contended in prayer for righteous trade, peace and security along the two nations’ border.

We are believing that God will throw fire on our sacrifice as national and state prayer leaders from across Mexico and the U.S. join us for a simultaneous prayer gathering with other National Day of Prayer events in cities across the U.S. In the coming days, weeks or months, we believe we will see drug-trafficking operations exposed and dissolved, prisoners of the drug war set free, and incidents of violence, kidnapping and extortion dramatically decrease. We need your help and participation during this critical time in the history of Mexico and the United States.

The violence along the U.S. southern border has escalated to unprecedented levels. The governments of both nations have worked diligently to stop the problems, and yet they still exist and are on the rise. We recognize that the drug trade is an issue of supply and demand. Both countries are culpable, and repentance and restoration are needed on both sides of the southern border.

Thus, we believe it is time for Christians from both nations to seize the responsibility we have before God and man to stand in the gap, according to 2 Chronicles 7:14, and to ask the Lord to heal our nations.

Why have we chosen the name “Cinco de Mayo” for the initiative?

Cinco de Mayo, or the “5th of May” in English, is often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day. It actually commemorates the day in 1862 in Puebla, Mexico, when 4,000 Mexican soldiers defeated the French army of 8,000. This victory kept Napoleon III from supplying the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War for another year, thus helping Union forces secure victory over the Confederate troops at Gettysburg 14 months after the Battle of Puebla, and essentially ending the Civil War.

We feel it is extremely significant to call the nation to prayer for the injustices taking place on the U.S.-Mexico border on Cinco de Mayo—and give the initiative the name of a battle from which we as nations became entwined in each other’s victories and forged a great friendship.

The United States later proved it too was a good neighbor after the French had taken over Mexico City and installed Emperor Maximilian. The U.S. provided both political and military assistance to Mexico to expel the French. Providentially God has made each nation part of the other’s destiny.

In addition to this shared history, our two nations made a covenant of friendship when the presidents of both countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Here is the preamble to that treaty: “In the Name of Almighty God, the United States of America and the United Mexican States, establish upon a solid basis relations of peace and friendship, which shall confer reciprocal benefits upon the citizens of both, and assure the concord, harmony, and mutual confidence wherein the two people should live as good neighbors, under the protection of Almighty God, the author of peace.”

As it was with the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, so may it be once again today, on May 5, 2011. Let our nations make history together, restoring peace and prosperity within our borders. Join us in praying for justice to run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24). Let’s make spiritual history together!

The Cinco de Mayo National Day of Prayer event in Dallas will be held at the Christ for the Nations main auditorium at 3315 Conway St. from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. For more detailed information, go to hispanicprayernetwork.com.

About the author: Mark Gonzales is the founder of the United States Hispanic Prayer Network and the United States Hispanic Action Network, and seeks to engage Latino intercessors nationwide to cover America strategically in prayer. He has been in leadership with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference for several years and serves with the Apostolic Council for the United States Reformation Prayer Network.