The mobilization of monthly First Friday Fasting and Prayer by IFA has continued since 1974. This uniting of multitudes of Bible-believing Christians around common prayer points while fasting has proved to be an effective, strategic deployment.

Did you know that God used First Friday Prayer miraculously?

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And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace (Jeremiah 29:7 NKJV).

 

“I have often said it would be a thing very desirable, and very likely to be followed with a great blessing, if there could be some contrivance, that there should be an agreement of all God’s People in America, that are well affected to this work, to keep a day of Fasting and Prayer to God; wherein we should unite of the same day. … ”

—Jonathan Edwards, 1742

 

IFA intercessors engage in personal repentance, cultivate a worshipful posture of heart, and then offer thanksgivings, supplications, petitions and intercessory prayers, each in the style of prayer comfortable to them and/or common to their church backgrounds. For nearly 50 years, joining the webcast and/or using prayer points gleaned from the print or email versions of the First Friday Prayer Letter, this battalion of believers prays in one accord around appointed matters. Drawn from diverse backgrounds, they stand united on the ground of the revealed will of God for good government (1 Timothy 2:1–4, 1 John 5:14). It should not come as a surprise that this pleases God and prompts His release of redemptive grace and power.

Fasting amplifies the transformational potential of these times of corporate intercession. Many developments follow in the wake of a First Friday observance — spiritual shifts, unforeseen changes in domestic affairs and political situations, the exposure and cleansing of institutionalized corruption, and a clarification and resolving of perplexing matters. All are “answers” to the concerted prayers of God’s people.

Derek Prince often punctuated his IFA teachings and calls from 1 Timothy 2:1–4 to pray for America, for “all in authority,” and for the revival of the Church, with a sometimes pointed reminder that “as the Church goes, so goes the nation.”

The Background

The 1980 U.S. Census data underscored growing concerns for America’s cities and population centers. The combined population of the United States and U.S. Territories had grown to over 231 million. Americans were experiencing the effects of the 1970s recession, the 1973 oil crisis, and the decline of the global steel market with its gutting of the U.S. steel industry. “Globalization” began, and many regions watched manufacturing jobs move overseas. Multitudes of jobless workers were untrained or ill-equipped to find employment in new “information age” and “service industry” positions. Unemployment, poverty, economic struggles, racial tensions, decadence, drug addiction and alcoholism, violent crime, and high homicide rates were ravaging neighborhoods in many American cities. Consequently, IFA launched an American City Watch in 1986.

The following cities were systematically targeted with First Friday Prayer and Fasting over the course of the year: New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Houston, Pittsburg, Richmond, Seattle, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. During the May 1, 1986 National Day of Prayer observance, all IFA-associated churches and members were encouraged to intercede for the needs of their own locales, towns and cities in their regions, and across their states. All were encouraged to include these in their IFA First Friday prayer and fasting. A general “awakening” to the histories, migration patterns, racial conflicts, cultural conflicts, crises, and current conditions in need of prayer in America’s population centers spread across the nation.

Pastors and believers from a variety of church backgrounds began to network and to study the spiritual and social histories of their communities. Teams prayerfully discerned and began documenting negative elements and events in the construct of their regions. They investigated how Native American shamanism, Colonial American Freemasonry, slavery, wars, racial conflicts, injustice, prejudice, political divides, crime, and other corrupt practices became “enthroned” — established as “strongholds” through which demonic forces can inflict spiritual “wounds” and promote oppression and discord over generations.

These Christian research teams also documented positive historical elements, such as unique gifting and positive contributions from indigenous Native American people, from pioneers and settlers, and from church, civic, and business leaders. They drilled into times of revival and divine visitation, and they discovered significant “lost” prophetic utterance. These individuals and groups grew greatly in their understanding of the ongoing redemptive will of God for their areas. Many are still investigating and making prayerful applications from the data compiled.

Target: Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia, the Civil War Confederate capital, became one of the “seedbeds” for these teachings, prompting the restoration of New Testament church life. A citywide prayer movement began to form, uniting European American and African American pastors and believers from across the city and region. A multiethnic assembly, spearheaded by pastors Douglas McMurry and Wellington Boone, began to meet monthly. Leading pastors and intercessors repented for the initiation of slave trading in Virginia by Richmond’s founder, William Byrd II, for related injustices, for broken treaties with and the unjust treatment of the area’s indigenous Native American tribes, and for vice and corruption stemming from the trading of tobacco and liquor. Many historical “root” matters were addressed in intercessory prayer.

In a real and continuing way, spiritual “elders” were restored in the “gates” of the city of Richmond, Virginia. They began to “bind and loose.” Such a restoration of reconciled relationships and prayerful fellowship in Christ pleases God and invites His manifest presence.

The Miracle

During one First Friday weekend assembly, God showed up and surprised the city and the “Church at Richmond,” as many leaders and believers had begun to see and call themselves. In his book, The Church at Richmond, McMurry documented how God “went beyond words” and “bound the strongman of murder” (Matthew 12:29) in Richmond over the weekend of Feb. 9–11, 1986:

“At the invitation of two pastors, Louis Skidmore and Wellington Boone, Gary Bergel of Intercessors for America came to Richmond to lead an intercessors’ conference.  Some 700 Christian intercessors were gathered together at St. Giles Presbyterian Church, February 9–11.  The sanctuary was packed, including the balcony. Prayers for Richmond concentrated on the murder rate — Richmond had been identified as having the second highest per capita murder rate in the nation.

“Five weeks later, a news article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch appeared, announcing that an extraordinary month-long hiatus in murders, beginning on February 9, had been baffling police. Lieutenant W.E. Harver was quoted as saying, ‘Whatever forces are at work to keep the murders down, I hope they keep working.’

“The Church at Richmond had managed to produce a unified voice in prayer, led by pastors who were determined to see Richmond transformed out of its reputation as a murder capital in the nation. God had responded by cutting off murders, as a clear sign of His desire to answer the prayers of the saints.

“This unique occurrence in Richmond history tells us that God desires to act with power. … But He is looking for certain conditions. … He acts in response to a Church that is preparing a way for Him.”

God’s awesome demonstration of power and divine intervention over the First Friday weekend of Feb. 9–11, 1986, should not be forgotten — a model of working unity and fruit-bearing remain. Many pastoral alliances and intercessory prayer networks carry and labor at a continuing citywide focus. Many local congregations are vibrant. More have become multiethnic.

Assuredly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:18–20 NKJV).

(Article by Gary Bergel, former IFA president. Photo by Stephanie Rhee on Unsplash.)