I recently heard the Holy Spirit say: “Pray. Prepare. Proclaim.” As I asked the Lord about this and listened, I sensed a growing urgency to pray this into reality for the American Church — and to share this with you. God is warning and wooing us, calling us to come closer to Him. As danger approaches, the heavenly Father wants His children to be near Him. But there’s more.

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I believe that drawing closer to the Father means we are to adopt a lifestyle of prayer, preparedness, and proclamation.

Pray.

God’s will for His people is that we pray without ceasing: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). Prayer is what anchors us deeply in the fullness of God’s love. Not only did He give us prayer as a means of casting our cares upon Him (see 1 Peter 5:7), but also prayer is also the primary avenue by which the Scriptures come to life, transform us, and guide us. By prayer, we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us (see James 4:8). Through daily communion with Him, we receive strong faith, courage, wisdom, divine perspective, and indestructible inner peace. In other words, we receive everything we need for life and godliness in every circumstance.

Prayer is the taproot that extracts spiritual nourishment from the soil of God’s grace, by which we grow into oaks of righteousness (see Isaiah 61:3), mighty and unmoved by any storm, planted to display God’s glory. Putting off prayer until things go wrong amounts to doing too little, too late. Faith, courage, inner peace, divine wisdom, and spiritual maturity develop gradually through a life of prayer, not by means of an occasional prayer here and there or an emergency cry amid a crisis. The oak tree that sucks up nutrients only occasionally will never grow strong or have the fortitude to withstand storms, let alone to display any splendor. A life of constant communion with God is the foundation for our lives here on earth and the key ingredient to the second word I heard:

Prepare.

Preparedness is a mindset that covers three areas. First, spiritual preparation. Through a life of prayer, we become vigilant. That means we are attuned to warnings, admonitions, and corrections from the Holy Spirit, being quick to recognize spiritual attack and able to read the signs of the times (Matthew 24:33). This is the idea behind the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (see Matthew 25:1–13). The wise ones took extra oil with them. They made sure they could keep their lamps burning and be ready for the bridegroom’s return. The foolish ones did not; their lamps burned out, and they had to go get new supplies. They weren’t ready for the unexpected, so while they were gone, they missed the bridegroom’s banquet. Ephesians 6:18 warns us to be vigilant in our prayers. Vigilance is watchfulness and implies a mindset that expects the unexpected at any time and that has a plan ready for jumping into action.

Second, practical preparation. We know Jesus’ warnings about the Last Days (see Matthew 24:3–14), and also that Scripture describes the disasters poured out upon humanity to shake sinners into repentance (see Revelation 9). We are seeing all this unfold around us: natural disasters, violence, lawlessness, debauchery, societal upheaval, and economic and political instability. With that much instability and potential for disaster in our world, preparing our homes for emergencies is wise.

While living in Southern California, I learned to adopt that preparation as part of everyday life. Most of the people around us did so, because we never knew when the power grid might go out in a lightning storm, a wildfire, an earthquake, or a rolling blackout due to capacity overload. No power meant no water, heating, air, refrigeration, light, computer, or cell service. So, we had to have an “earthquake barrel” on hand, filled with potable water, blankets, batteries, dry and canned food, candles, flashlights, first-aid supplies, shortwave radio, and more — supplies sufficient to last for several weeks. Though we’ve been feeling safe and secure enough in Georgia, a few years ago the Lord pressed upon us to take in emergency supplies. Natural disasters are less common here, but lengthy power outages and interruptions in the flow of utilities are always possible. We haven’t had to use the supplies yet, but at least we’re ready. Ready.gov is one of many websites devoted to building emergency kits. This is no Chicken Little talk or mere fear-mongering. Our electric grid is vital to our survival, and yet it is aging, fragile, hackable, and under threat of overload because of the rapid shift toward electric appliances and cars. Loss of electricity is just one of the potential dangers we face. You can learn more about his from IFA’s recent webcast: Grid Down, How to Get Prepared.

Third, community preparation. This is related to my warnings of impending persecution. I hear increasing chatter from faith leaders that this is coming. Even Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has weighed in on the matter, saying that he thinks religious liberty will soon become a “disfavored right.” Civil rights are being shifted toward the protection of lifestyles and behaviors once considered perverse, while proclamations of biblical truth about these issues is reclassified as “hate speech.” And sure enough, an article on Fox News reports that the FBI has developed information sources inside Roman Catholic and possibly other churches, in search of ostensibly “traditionalist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.” The DOJ perhaps unsurprisingly denies these allegations, even as the Senate Judiciary Committee denounces them as reprehensible, but it should nonetheless alarm us that all of this is happening.

Does this sound familiar? It should. This is precisely what communist governments always do: They plant moles within any group suspected of bucking the party line, especially the churches. And now this is banging on our door. We know from Scripture that persecution is part of the Christian life and that God allows it to perfect us. So, it’s not a matter of if it becomes more widespread, but when. Perhaps it would be wise for every congregation to begin emphasizing small-group ministries, because the time may be nearing in which that’s the only way the saints will be able to gather for worship. Is this not already the reality for millions of believers around the world? It may become the reality for us too, and we should prepare for that.

An organization called the Underground Church Network, based in Tampa, Florida, has been doing this for over a decade. Its mission is to disencumber the Church from preoccupation with campus and organizational maintenance, and return us instead to the basics of worship, community, and missions, within small settings. Some of their “micro-churches” meet in store parking lots to fellowship and share the Gospel. A church here in Atlanta met for Sunday worship on the light rail. The congregants would ride the rail line up and down, while offering fellow passengers a listening ear and a prayer. Movements like these are growing. And they may well provide an answer for the time when churches can no longer meet in highly visible buildings and campuses without being watched and harassed by the government or anti-Christian elements in society. The Underground Church Network’s approach is especially significant because of its emphasis on missions.

Proclaim.

Persecution or not, God’s main priority for His Church is the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, what is known as the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:19–20). For that reason, the apostle Peter says: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). And the apostle Paul said this to the church at Philippi: Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life … (Philippians 2:14–16). St. Francis of Assisi put it this way: “Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.” Even when the Church has to go underground to avoid detection and persecution by a government, it can still shine its light.

Interestingly, the Church is growing fastest in Iran and China, where believers are persecuted mercilessly. In contrast, the Church is declining in countries that constitutionally guarantee freedom of worship. God’s desire for us is a clear, loving, and bold proclamation of the Gospel to go hand in hand with the shakings He is visiting upon the nations. As Paul explains: For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:12–14). Church-trend watchers and missiologists have noted that instead of shining our light brightly in our workplaces, neighborhoods, schools, and societies, we have circled the wagons and adopted a form of Christian isolationism that makes us feel safe from the increasingly evil world around us. But God desires that we shine our lights brightly amid all that crookedness and twistedness, and that we continue to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, who died for all. This is His chosen way for people to move from the kingdom of darkness into His glorious light. The failure to do our part and to remain a missional, proclaiming Church quenches the Holy Spirit.

I invite you to pray with me that a lifestyle of prayer, preparedness, and proclamation would become a reality in every church in America as the Holy Spirit broadcasts His call to draw near to the Father. This message is all the more urgent as the dark clouds of tribulation and persecution loom.

Father, only You know the times; only You know how the shaking of the nations as described in Your word will unfold. You alone know when and how persecution of the Church in the “free” nations will come. We ask that the Holy Spirit would call Your people — from the pastors in the pulpit to the people in the pews — to a lifestyle of prayer, preparedness, and proclamation. Through these, may we receive all we need in hard times, without faltering on the Great Commission to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Please give us the wisdom to put into place what we will need in hard times. Help us become a community of faith that can build up one another’s faith and shine Your light to those around us needing salvation. Revive in us a yearning to be close to You and to one another. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How can we strengthen one another? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and pastored his first church in Amsterdam. He moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs at www.deeperlifeblog.com and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: Canva.