Why Pray in Front of the US Supreme Court for 10 Years?
Training for the Battles Ahead
Many people have referred to abortion as a Goliath. It certainly seems to have earned that title, challenging the church relentlessly for decades and leaving us feeling powerless before it. What I have learned, though, is that abortion is not the giant. It is, in fact, a lion or a bear—a training ground for something bigger.
Abortion is a proving ground for prayer, intercession and fasting. Put it to the test—I dare you.
Please understand that I’m not trying to minimize abortion in any way. It is a holocaust, and it needs to be a focus for the entire church right now. In the same way, I would never suggest that a lion or bear be taken lightly. They are very dangerous predators. Yet for young David they were an opportunity for courage: to train his hands for battle, to snatch his innocent lambs from the fangs of a fierce enemy.
Days are coming when the church will need much courage and conviction to stand in the face of opposition greater than anything we have previously known. We will need better understanding of spiritual weapons and how to handle them in the context of culture, government, public policy and the civic arena.
Praying for the ending of abortion is no simple matter. We must understand the enemy’s ever-changing tactics: the abortion industry’s racial targeting, sex-selective abortion, telemed abortion, one-child policies, abortion-inducing birth control mandates, fetal pain, post-abortion stress syndrome—the list goes on.
How can we reach people in love while at the same time opposing an antichrist status quo? How can we identify the enemy’s shrewd strategies and contend for the justice of Jesus to come? This is the challenge today, but it will be amplified in the days ahead.
Ten Years and Counting
So what has happened in the last 10 years? A lot.
I have watched the pro-abortion lobby grow gray hair, while pro-life advocates have an increasing youth and zeal on our side. 1970’s-era science is giving way to cutting-edge genetic research that demonstrates human life begins at conception—a fact now upheld in our courts.
I have seen four Supreme Court justices replaced in that time. Early on, one of our young people was told the name “John Roberts” in a dream weeks before President Bush ever nominated him. In another dream, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told us she was coming to help the cause. A few days later she unexpectedly resigned from the Supreme Court—a decision she later regretted—and made way for her replacement, Justice Samuel Alito.
While praying during Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings, one of my staff and I were unexpectedly seated right behind her. Right at the moment she was responding to a question about abortion, one of our Life Bands was clearly visible just over her head as the C-SPAN cameras rolled. I took it as an encouragement from the Lord: He is raising up a prayer movement to prevail even over the minds of judges.
I was praying in front of the Supreme Court late in the day on April 17, 2007. I looked up to see Justice Anthony Kennedy standing in one of the front windows looking directly at our small team in red Life tape. No one else was out front besides us, and I wondered what he might be thinking. The next morning the court released its ruling in Gonzalez vs. Carhart upholding Congress’s ban on partial-birth abortion, and Kennedy had written the opinion. Some time later I read an account of Kennedy standing in a front window looking at protesters in 1992 right before he surprised his colleagues by changing his position in Casey v. Planned Parenthood.
During the hot summer of 2008, the Lord led us to stand and pray 24/7 in front of the Supreme Court for nearly four months. We began on April 28, ended on August 15… and at the conclusion we were not able to discern any effect of the intensified stand in prayer. Yet one year later, studies and polling showed a sudden, dramatic shift in the nation’s culture. For the first time ever, the majority of Americans identified themselves as pro-life. A subsequent study by Pew Research in October 2009, entitled “Support for Abortion Slips,” confirmed the results, but no single cause for the shift could be identified. All the reports indicated, however, that the shift began in the first week of May 2008. Incredible!
The Supreme Court has heard abortion-related cases a total of five different times in the last 10 years. In all five cases, the majority has come down favorably on the side of life.
Gaining Momentum Through Air Power
Some might ask, “After 10 years, haven’t you run out of things to pray?” Not at all! I am so encouraged by the pro-life momentum that’s taking place in states all across the nation. I see the unjust props of the abortion industry being removed and their profit engine being dismantled. It is so important to pray for governmental leaders. Those who are taking a stand for babies in the womb, for mothers and fathers, need us to pray for them and contend for their success.
Ground battles can be won only when the battle for the air has been won. They need to know that, but so do you. Don’t think that the momentum we see right now is any indication or promise of success. Demonic adversaries are raging right now. The abortion industry is clinging to remnants of an ideology that has fallen out of favor and is grasping for new ground.
Today we begin our second decade of prayer in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. I’m excited to see what God wants to do next and to partner with Him in seeing His heart revealed in the Earth. I invite you to make this story your own. Join us in persistently praying for the ending of abortion. Visit us in D.C. Get a Life Band, an everyday reminder to pray, vote and obey. Join in with a Bound4LIFE chapter near you, or start one of your own.
“Jesus, I plead your Blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America.”
Matt Lockett is a full-time missionary serving as the director of Bound4LIFE and the Justice House of Prayer D.C. Follow @mattlockett on Twitter.
