You’re invited to join God in the vital work of intercession and to serve as beacons of light in a world profoundly in need of His grace and divine intervention. In this excerpt taken from Awaken Prayer by Jack Hayford, you will see how interceding for your city can change its trajectory. As the Church unites in fervent intercessory prayer, the kingdom of God advances, and the kingdom of darkness is displaced.

In 1984, Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympic Games. For a year prior to the Olympics, 300 to 400 leaders of various Christian ministries throughout the area gathered every month to pray for the upcoming event. At one point during the year, leaders from over 1,800 different churches were participating in these meetings. Along with my close friend Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, I served as honorary chairman of this Christian Olympic committee.

Everyone expected it to be a tumultuous time. So our Olympic committee came together to intercede. In the end, the games turned out to be one of the most peaceful in history, both uneventful and highly successful. I believe we can attribute the success of those games to a dramatic breakthrough in the invisible realm. Demonic spirits can bring about the kind of strife, crime, and disaster that everyone predicted. However, nearly a year of intercession by hundreds of churches across the city put us in a spiritual capsule that protected us from the works of hell. Not only did we avoid disasters, but the Olympics themselves were a great success. There were also great spiritual gains. Every day, for 10 days, there were more than 1,000 public decisions for Jesus all over the city. That was in just 10 days as God’s people joined together to pray.

As Christians, we are called to intercede for the cities where we live out our lives. Every city has its own personality, or what we would describe as culture, and their personalities bear similarities to human personalities. Just as a person might have a beautiful personality at certain times and, at other times, show an ugly side, the same is true of cities. Its personality is often the result of spiritual beings that manipulate the people who live there. The Bible refers to these spiritual beings as principalities, powers, thrones, and dominions. I believe that if we could peer into the invisible realm, we would see a great city, an administrative center from which demons and principalities mastermind and choreograph human activity and so influence people.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes about the people of that great ungodly city:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (2:1–3)

Paul means that there is a spirit that energizes the world order.

How do we change a city? We bring change by driving back those powers through spiritual warfare, which is composed of prayer for lost people, followed by evangelism, and culminating in care for the people who have become followers of Jesus. Those new believers then become part of the army that continues to drive back the boundaries of evil.

We can find five qualities that change the personality of a city by examining the stories of five cities in the Bible: the Power of Humility (Sodom), the Power of Praise (Jericho), the Power of Devotion (Jerusalem), the Power of Prophecy (Bethlehem), and the Power of Preaching (Philip in Samaria).

Let’s discuss that final quality: the Power of Preaching. Philip the evangelist carried the gospel to Samaria after persecution came upon the Christians. He realized God was allowing the persecution to spread out His people so they would share the gospel with the whole world. Philip moved with boldness and speed to carry out his ministry as an evangelist. 

Philip preached Jesus the Messiah to the people of Samaria. When I was in college, I had a professor who often said, “You need to preach Christ, preach Christ.” It meant that Christians should exalt Jesus and emphasize everything He accomplished through His work on the cross. Philip did more than proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah; he declared specific truths about the person and work of Jesus the Messiah.

Philip was a living witness to the gospel. When Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses,” He doesn’t mean that He wants us to memorize and recite formulas. We should develop and use our own individual approaches to presenting the gospel. However, God’s main calling is for you to go and let His life shine forth in you, and for you to make your presence count in your city.

That is what your city desperately needs—the presence of Jesus in you shining brightly in confidence—bringing great joy to its people.

God’s main calling is for you to go and let His life shine forth in you, and for you to make your presence count in your city. What might happen if all of Jesus’ followers united in prayer and purpose for their cities? Just as thousands of believers gathered together in unity in Los Angeles years ago and experienced something powerful and joyful, very much like what the people experienced in Philip’s ministry, how much joy might we experience today if we unite in prayer and purpose? We have an awesome privilege that such spiritual power and joy is within our reach.

Pastor Jack extends a poignant call to the Church, urging her to rededicate herself to her priestly calling as a genuine house of prayer. Such a commitment carries the potential to bring radical transformation in families, communities, and nations alike.

Copyright © 2024 by Jack Hayford