WHY OUR HOUSE of PRAYER IS CHOOSING TO BOW LOW BEFORE OUR ONE KING TODAY

Several friends have asked if I will be attending/endorsing the #NOKING rally today (Saturday, October 18). Observers estimate that the civil protest will be the largest series of protests in the history of our nation (built on protest).

My simple response is “No”.

I get the temptation. We’re Americans. Civil, (and uncivil) discourse is in our social-psych DNA. We have constitutional “rights” to bring our arguments to college campuses, arenas, and our city’s streets in order to protest policies, presidents, and ideologies that we disagree with.

And yes, it’s good and right for followers of Jesus to lift our voices to speak truth to socio-political power, whether the power wants to authorize abortion and gender confusion under the banner of humanism, or it seeks to unceasingly curse its enemies and hide its sexual perversion, under the banner of Christianity.

Truth-be-told, in our life-times, we have never seen a more prolific, and hostile attempt for two political factions to seize the moral, and religious high-ground in our nation. Through assassinations, racist rhetoric, violent raids, and riotous defiance, America is ablaze with uncivil fires.

So why then would we refuse to participate in what is planned to be a civil, and even peace-filled demonstration of opposition to the Trump administration?

Here are 7 reasons why our little House of Prayer in the Mountains of Arizona is pro-actively choosing to forego this massive protest, and instead give ourselves to praising ONE KING today:

1. THE PRIORITY and POWER of PRAYER
In an hour of enflamed zeal, we (especially followers of Christ) have no business bringing our voices to the civil arena if we haven’t first brought our voices into the chambers of the Lord. Most American Christians OVERESTIMATE the power of protest, and vastly vastly UNDERESTIMATE the power of prayer. The fact of the matter is, what we will gain through 3 hours of prayer will be monumentally greater than what we gain through any number of hours of protest. Our principled, activated stance in prayer on a day when many of our neighbors will protest, is a testimony to the truthfulness of this much needed spiritual reality in our world. What change (in ourselves, our communities, and our nation) do we hope for that doesn’t come through the Lord of glory Himself?

2. THIS IS AN HOUR of JUDGMENT
This is an hour of predominant judgment. The Lord is at work in the Church, and in our nation, to bring His truth to bear on our values, practices, beliefs and lifestyles. The pressure we feel in our national forum is a God-orchestrated pressure designed to force conversation with the Father Who wants to reward us, as much as He wants to rebuke us. He’s preparing a Bride for His Son, Who is returning to be joined with a people who will reflect His heart, His power, and His wisdom. In an hour of judgment, who has the right to “rise up” and protest? As followers of Christ, our primary response to the judgments on the earth is to adjust our hearts before God, not protest the inconvenience of the pressures themselves. Isaiah 26 tells us, “When the judgments of the Lord are on the earth, the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness.”As we experience the injustices and fire-storms of our culture, we do well to go into the courts of the Lord and receive His gracious, and patient instruction for our hearts, minds and ways. Above everything else, we Christians want to come through the tumult and trouble looking more and more like our King.

3. THE OPPORTUNITY to GIVE WITNESS of a PURE RESPONSE of FAITH to the LORD
In an hour of judgment, the Church is given both an opportunity to respond faithfully to the Father and simultaneously give a witness to the world about how to respond faithfully to the God they do not know. As we experience the contentious pressures in our culture, as the unbelieving world watches the people of God bow low before His sovereign pressures, we show them the way into humility, repentance, and contrition in the fear of the Lord. In the heat of our current context, as followers of Jesus make prayer our primary, and zealous response, we are declaring that there is indeed a God to Whom we are accountable, a King Who demands our loyalty, and a Father Who sees and responds to our cries for justice. This witness is vital to the well-being of the commission the Lord has entrusted to us. And, if I can be a bit provocative; it is a witness that we American Christians have enormously failed to issue through the great pressures that have come upon us as a culture. Our primary response to the conflict in this hour has greatly emphasized protest and politics, while nearly entirely neglecting humility and repentance.

4. THE TRAP of PROTEST
Again. We’re Americans. We’ve been built on the spirit of protest and revolution. Revolution is largely the spirit behind the thrust to Make America Great Again. Many picture our President as a type of “George Washington” who is bringing manifest destiny to the USA once again. Still others see his ways as despotic and authoritarian. Both perspectives clutch to the constitution of the United States to go to war against the other. Pastor Brian Drinkwine, in an excellent article entitled, “No Kings. No Idols. No Exceptions” writes: “We love the sound of rebellion, but rebellion without redemption just builds a new empire with different slogans. “No Kings” tears down the throne, but unless the crucified King takes His seat, someone else always will. History proves it. Every revolution that toppled tyrants eventually crowned new ones. The human heart cannot live without a ruler. The only question is whether ours wears thorns or gold.”
Simply put, we will not overcome a spirit of protest with a bigger spirit of protest. That’s not how the Kingdom of God works. The Lord visits the meek, the poor in spirit, and those who fast themselves from the world’s ways of gaining power.
We are a people who are prone to the idol of “demos”. Democracy is our “go to” idol when issues in our society are shaking. We reach for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, decide what is true based on our own internal evaluation, and then try to convince others that it’s true, until we have a critical mass of confirming assent. Pick ANY story from the Bible, and this power will be exposed for the (destructive) deception that it is. The Lord is looking for “faith”, not “correct perception”. He wants us leaning on Him, not on our own understanding.
If I may be so bold, and pentecostal – protest may also fuel a ruling principality of “revolution and protest” that can keep the heart and soul bound to an inordinate (even idolatrous) faith in the powers of democracy, rather than in pure, obedient submission to the Kingly authority of Christianity, and the claim Jesus has on the way we live our lives before God and others.

5. THE POTENTIAL for CONFUSION and COMPROMISE
Undoubtably, there are many who are keen to throw off the over-bearing ways of this administration. Many who will be protesting “No Kings” have no will or desire to be surrendered to any king, much less our King, Jesus. This is the atmosphere of Psalm 2, when the people “rage” against the Kingly order the Father has appointed over the whole earth. We’re not of that spirit. Neither do we want to give an indistinct witness to that kind of lawless spirit. The primary spirit of our witness is love, and allegiance, to King Jesus, not rebellion and rage against a carnal king. (Incidentally, this is the very issue that TPUSA fails to account for in its adulterous partnership with conservative Mormonism) Anything (plus much more) we hope to accomplish via standing with a sign in our arms before our neighbors, we accomplish bowing low before the Lord of glory, WITHOUT distortion, misinterpretation, or compromise. In the place of prayer, I greatly eliminate the potential of feeding a greater and greater spirit of rebellion. Rebellion is an enemy in the spiritual war that’s being waged, AND certainly in the Bride that’s being purified.

6. THE OPPORTUNITY to LOVE OUR ENEMIES
In the midst of great contention, the Lord is looking for a people that He can use to redeem souls, narratives, and lifestyles. His love and His grace rides on humility, tenderness, meekness and faith. He wants to clothe us with a supernatural, transformative winsomeness that bids even our enemies to find refuge in His wings of redemption. He’s not looking for the crusaders. He’s looking for the crucified through which He can release His resurrection power to conservative, MAGA, liberal, humanist, curse-laden humanity. Our protest greatly exacerbates the divide. It doesn’t greatly bring His transcendent mercy into it.

7. THE DECLARATION of ZEAL to ONLY “DO THIS” WITH GOD
As noted, we Americans are in a very unprecedented season of socio-political tribulation. We are in a battle to decide what kind of nation we will have. In Joshua chapter 5, in the hours before God’s chosen people were to attack the city of Jericho and begin their conquest of the land that had been promised to them, the Commander of the Lord’s Army comes to Joshua, and tests his heart with the revelation that He, Himself was neither on Joshua’s side, nor Jericho’s side. The question that confronted Joshua was: “Will you be on the Lord’s side?” And this is no less the question for us today. Joshua’s response is a good one for us to emulate. As he removed the sandals from his feet, he bowed low before the pre-incarnate King, Jesus essentially declaring, “I surrender myself to You. This is Your battle. No matter what else happens. I want to be found on Your side. I don’t want to do this without being with You where You are.”

CONCLUSION
Beloved. There’s something MUCH BIGGER than our democracy at stake here. If we don’t see the Lord’s hand in the pressure that’s being stirred within the church, and the nation, it’s all the more impetus for us to give ourselves to seeking out the Face of the Lord.

And yes, the call to prayer is wholly counterintuitive. It is only going to be heard and understood by faith in the place of our spirit. The call to prayer isn’t primarily to “change” government, or popular opinion. It’s to align our will, emotions, mind and spirit with the heart of our King as He’s bringing His pressure to bear on our society. He’s really God! And He’s really preparing the earth for His Son’s return. If we’re more angry, or defensive, or righteous about what’s happening in our nation than we are humbled, and prayerful about Who’s coming, we’re in urgent need of adjustment – adjustment that will only happen at the deep, thorough level that comes from having given ourselves to being in the audience of the King of the Universe.

Find the place of prayer. Be a woman, or man of authenticated faith in the transcendent power of God. Lift up your eyes to the Lord of a trillion galaxies. Lift your voice there – in His holy, and magnificent Presence – if you can.

Today. Saturday, October 18 – our House of Prayer will be engaging in 3 hours of dedicated space to simply adore the King the Father has ordained to reign over us. And we confidently anticipate that as we do, He will extend His majesty, power, wisdom and kindness over our lives, and our communities. The Lord does inhabit the praises of His people. (Psalm 22:3) 

This “trouble” in our nation isn’t going away anytime soon. If your church ministry doesn’t have a dedicated time, space, people who give themselves to seeking, humbling, worshipping prayer – start one. I promise you, the Lord will visit you there.

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JSB • October, 2025