What CNN and Fox Won’t Tell You About the Move of God

You won’t hear this reported on CNN or Fox News because news programs sell spin and controversy. Good news won’t raise ratings.

You won’t hear this from America’s pulpits because America’s churches are in a state of separation. Her pastors have abdicated their biblical civic responsibilities to secular politicians in exchange for 30 pieces of tax-exempt silver.

Most pastors and church-goers can’t name their representative or senators, much less pray for them daily or name one piece of legislation they’re working on. Nor do they know that most likely the lawmakers sleep on their office couches because they can’t afford to rent an apartment in the nation’s most expensive city.

It upsets me when I hear all the doom-and-gloom “prophetic words” about how Congress is nothing but a bunch of crooks. Most of these spiritual giant slayers have never stepped a foot into the Capitol or visited their congressman. They have no clue of what God is doing in their government or that God has big future plans for it. Their opinions are shaped more from media spin and propaganda than a biblical worldview of God’s end-times agenda for governance.

Do I believe America is in a period of judgement? Yes! Most definitely. God has given us over to our selfish desires. Yet the biblical pattern for national revival is almost always preceded by a time of judgment. “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Psalm 72:16 and Micah 4:1-3, clearly state that in “the last days” God will take a remnant of believers (wheat) and plant them in the tops of world governments (tops of the mountains) and build “the house of the Lord,” beginning in the top levels of the world’s governments. The resulting consequences of God’s moving in world governments would then shake the earth with revival. “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the house of the Lord.”

I can confirm that this is beginning to happen in Washington, D.C., London, Ukraine, Poland, Moscow and several nations in Africa.

Add to this, when the “last trumpet” in Revelation sounds, “the kingdoms of this world” (governments) become the governments of the Lord Jesus Christ and He will rule them forever with His glorious church (Rev. 11:15-19). So much for “separation of church and state.”

Almost always, following these periods of captivity and judgment were times of transition to revival. These times of transitions were times of national repentance followed by “times of refreshing” or the latter rain. 

So could America be in one of these transitional times of repentance where our national sins are being exposed? Are the wheat and tares being exposed before a time to shine like the sun in righteousness?

How can a nation, which for years has been praying for revival, actually “turn from your wicked ways” until those wicked ways are openly exposed for all to see? Could this be what we are witnessing now in America—unprecedented exposure of corruption at every level of society and government—so God can heal us? So we know what to repent of?

If so, now is the time for the prophets to come forth and prophesy to the nation. Now is the time for the preachers to preach repentance and godly holiness to the church—to make herself ready to enter the kingdom.

Is God through with America yet? I don’t believe so. I think America’s greatest days may be just around the corner. I believe we’re in the first dawning hours of another Great Awakening.

In fact, I believe God has been silently, behind the scenes, answering our 2 Chronicles 7:14 prayers for some time now, not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the White House) but at First Street and East Capitol Street, in the heart of the U.S. Capitol with the 114th Congress.

Did you know, for the past two years, weekly Christian worship services for members of Congress and staff, called the Jefferson Gathering, are being held in the Capitol building after an absence of 144 years? More than 150 members have attend in two years and many now attend on a regular basis. Several people have given their lives to Christ.

Did you know there are more “passionate followers of Jesus Christ” (I prefer this to the overused sometime meaningless term, “Christian”) in the 114th Congress than at any time since President Calvin Coolidge? There are. We are working with close to 200 sincere followers of the Lord in the House and Senate.

Did you know, on occasions, as many as 90 pastors will be praying together in the Capitol Rotunda while the House of Representatives is debating controversial freedom of religion amendments on the House floor? Did you know that, on most Wednesday evenings, prayer for America is happening in the Rotunda? It is!

Have you heard? Beginning on Sunday, Sept. 4, three Christian worship services will begin in the Ways and Means Room in the Capitol building for all federal employees and Capitol Police. It’s been 150 years since regular Sunday church services were held in the U.S. Capitol. This is big news!

How did this all begin to happen? America has been praying, that’s how! And God is right now in the process of answering those prayers by raising up godly men and women in Congress, the most important branch of government.

Let me share our personal first-hand experiences of being a small part of what God is doing in Congress. I know there are other great ministries on the Hill reaching out to Congress in very influential ways, and we thank God for their work. But I can only share with you about what JoAnn and I are doing.

Though we may never agree totally with everyone’s politics, let me tell you why I’m thankful that Paul Ryan is speaker of the House and that he won his primary race. Speaker Ryan, a Roman Catholic, is a passionate disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. He is surrounding himself with godly spiritual pastors.

He said, “The only hope for America is a spiritual awakening. … We must have spiritual solutions to our problems, or we’re in for troubled times as a nation” (spoken to JoAnn and me alone in a private, 30-minute conversation). He asked that I help him invite pastors to the Capitol for spiritual advice. So far, we have had more than 200 pastors visit the Capitol, and we plan for many more for this fall.

Ryan makes meeting pastors a top priority in his busy schedule. JoAnn and I have an open working relationship with his staff. They told us that in six weeks’ time, they had to turn down more than 500 invitations to various important events (I saw the print out sheets), “but he’s doing the pastors briefings because he’s passionate about it,” a top staffer told us.

Speaker Ryan is an avid fan of historian David Barton. “I listen to him all the time, even in my car while driving,” he said. Because of Barton’s teachings, Speaker Ryan is very knowledgeable of the 1954 Johnson Amendment (putting political speech restrictions on pastors from their pulpits) and its devastating effects on our culture.

He understands “first causative principle”—that the 1954 Johnson Amendment eventually was responsible for prayer and Bible reading being taken out of schools in 1963, the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and redefining of marriage in 2016—all because pastors were silenced from speaking out politically. That’s why Speaker Ryan wants the Johnson Amendment repealed legislatively. He knows pastors being set free to preach again to the nation regarding these moral and political issues is a must to turn the nation around.

In early January at the Republican Retreat in Baltimore, Ryan and I began discussing how Congress could legislatively repeal it. Later, I spent one hour educating Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (chair of Republican Conference, whose husband is a pastor) and her entire senior staff on the Johnson Amendment toward the goal of repealing it.

Rep. Kevin Brady is chair of the Ways and Means Committee through which any legislation to repeal would have to come to the floor, and he is totally on board. Ryan directed me to Brady. Brady also gave me approval to hold three Sunday services (beginning Sept. 4) in the Ways and Means Committee room in the Capitol. Brady told me with a big smile on his face, “I’m thrilled you’re having church in the Ways and Means Committee Room. Glad to let you use it.”

So, long before Donald Trump said anything about repealing the Johnson Amendment, Speaker Ryan had been working on it. For the first time in 60 years, the opportunity to repeal the Johnson Amendment exists because of Ryan’s leadership, spirituality and love of Jesus! Now we need a Republican president in the Oval Office to sign a repeal into law (which is more effective than just an executive order)!

Speaker Ryan has formed a committee of five members of Congress (to which I was invited to participate) to report to him on inviting pastors to the Capitol to have lunch with him and arrange congressional-clergy townhall meetings in the Cannon Caucus Room. We are planning our second one in November, and we’ll form an email alert system so Speaker Ryan can contact pastors on how to inform their churches to pray for America.

This is unprecedented and historic! This is God answering our prayers.

In September, we’ll be hosting four worship services weekly in the U.S. Capitol with Ryan’s permission and blessing.

I know a lot of folks are critical of Speaker Ryan’s policies, but how many know what I’ve just shared with you? I pray for Speaker Ryan daily. Do you? I know he wants what’s best for America. Is he right on every issue? Who is?

But I am thankful God has him where he is. He is very open to the voice of the Lord. Pray that God will change his heart in those areas in which you don’t agree with him.

Let me ask you this question: Which is more important for America: Repealing the TPP, building a wall at our border, balancing the budget, restoring jobs or experiencing a third Great Awakening? Without a spiritual awakening, America will still go to hell in a handbasket. We must have revival!

I’m thankful that the top four leaders of the Republican Party in Congress (Speaker Paul Ryan, Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise and Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers) know this and are doing what they can to see it happen. They know that, without it, America has no hope. These are the leaders America needs now.

America’s political revivals have always followed spiritual awakenings. I am convinced the underpinnings for a third spiritual awakening are happening now, and the foundations for political renewal could be just ahead.

Keep praying, and keep voting. God is not finished with America yet. {eoa}

Dan Cummins is an Associate Pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego, originator of “Washington A Man of Prayer” and convening pastor of “The Jefferson Gathering” worship services in the US Capitol.