First Friday Fasting – The Binding of Murder in Richmond, Virginia

“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

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“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

The mobilization of monthly First Friday Fasting and Prayer by Intercessors for America (IFA) has continued since 1974. This uniting of multitudes of Bible-believing Christians around common prayer points while fasting has proven to be an effective, strategic deployment. (www.f3rocks.com)

IFA partners-in-prayer 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. 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, 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 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 1970’s recession, the 1973 oil crisis, and the decline of the global steel market with its gutting of the U.S. steel industry. “Globalization” was beginning and many regions were watching manufacturing jobs move overseas. Multitudes of jobless workers were not trained or 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 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 Shamanism, Colonial 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 people, from pioneers and settlers, and from church, civic and business leaders. They drilled into times of revival, divine visitation, and 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.

Taking Our Cities for God (1989) and Healing America’s Wounds (1994), two strategic books by John Dawson, founder and director of Youth With A Mission – Los Angeles, and of the International Reconciliation Coalition, helped propel and root these practices across the U.S. As a native of New Zealand, John Dawson brought a fresh spiritual eye and imparted keen, redemptive perspectives on past and present affairs in America. In time, engaging in such historical spiritual studies for the purpose of redemptive intercession and community transformation came to be termed “Spiritual Mapping.” The practice, enabling effective intercession, is now commonplace in local churches, ministries, prayer groups, networks, and in both Protestant and Catholic evangelical movements around the world.

The teachings of the Chinese martyr, Watchman Nee (1903-1972), calling for a restoration of New Testament church life and discipleship, were circulating widely in church renewal circles in the 1970’s and 1980’s. IFA founders Derek Prince and Ern Baxter incorporated Nee’s insights, as did many other renewal leaders at that time. Pastors were reminded that, from an authentic biblical perspective, there is only one Church in any city or particular geographic area. Traveling teachers pointed out that the first New Testament churches identified themselves within their city/regional context. Some cited the Acts 11:26 reference that “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” Many noted that every translation of the New Testament includes letters the apostle Paul wrote to “the church at Corinth,” or Ephesus, or Thessalonica, or Rome, etc.

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 multi-ethnic 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 and 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.” This Old Testament phrase designated the governmental functions of the rulers of biblical cities. Situated in chambers built above the gates of walled cities, these “elders in the gates,” watched over all entry and egress, all commerce, and over the city’s culture and social life. They carried authority to limit entry and exit. Some acted at judges, adjudicating and resolving offenses. These ruling elders would “permit and forbid.” They would release or curtail, forgive or hold in debt.

These elders along with a growing body of unified believers in Richmond began to function as the ecclesia, an ancient Greek term denoting a body of citizens gathered to discuss the affairs of state, a governmental assembly. (Acts 19:39) This term is also used in the New Testament to define the nature and authority of Christ’s Church. (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22, 5:23) First century churches were assemblies in cities that had a company of ruling elders. One elder might apostolically preside, but together they demonstrated a composite of callings and spiritual gifts. (Acts 20:17; Ephesians 4:11) Today, especially in Western Christianity, the term “pastor,” used but once in the New Testament in Ephesians 4:11, has eclipsed and overshadows “elder,” the governmental leadership term common in all early Church congregations.

Such a restoration of ecclesia, and of koinonia – reconciled relationships and prayerful fellowship in Christ – pleases God and invites His manifest presence. 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, Douglas McMurry documented how God “went beyond words” and “bound the strongman of murder” (Matthew 12:29) in Richmond over the weekend of February 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 February 9-11, 1986 has not been forgotten—a model of working unity and fruit-bearing remain. Many pastoral alliances and intercessory prayer networks carry and labor at a continuing city-wide focus. Many local congregations are vibrant. More have become multi-ethnic. A strategic YWAM Discipleship Training School (DTS) has been established in Richmond (www.ywamva.org). This YWAM DTS, many collaborative local church outreaches, and other international ministries headquartered in Richmond are reaching the world for Christ.

A relational Transformation Richmond network is at work. Pastor McMurry declares: “We are coming to believe that God wants to visit Richmond as He has visited other cities both past and present during seasons of spiritual awakening.” Churches throughout Richmond are now using the documentary “Transformations” videos produced and released by George Otis, Jr. after he founded the Sentinal Group in 1990. (www.SentinalGroup.org) Intercessors for America is distributing these powerful videos as it works in partnership with the International Fellowship of Transformation Partners. (www.IFTPartners.org).

In this critical hour of U.S. history, as in past years, IFA invites you, your family, your church, and your community to engage in united First Friday Fasting and Prayer. (www.f3rocks.com) Engage in strategic spiritual warfare and evangelism on behalf of where God has called you to dwell. Embark on your own “Journey to Transformation.” All the tools and helps needed are available by clicking the “Transformation Resources” tab at www.ifapray.org.

“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

By Gary Bergel