THE FIVE-FOLD ACTION PLAN GOD WANTS FROM US
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in
sackcloth, you who minister to my God; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the
house of your God. Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of
the land into the house of the Lord … cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1:13-14)
I. WHAT GOD WANTS IS DIFFERENT THAN WHAT MAN SEEKS
A. Our God asks things of His people that are so simple yet they offend our pride. In 2 Kings we find a story that
illustrates this. A man named Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, had leprosy. “Naaman was a great and
honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given him victory over Syria. He was a mighty
man of valor, but a leper.” (2 Kings 5:1)
1. The Syrian army made many raids on Israel and on one occasion they brought back a young Israelite girl who
became the servant of Naaman’s wife. This young girl told Naaman about the prophet Elisha, who could heal him of
leprosy. Desperate for his healing, Naaman went to Israel. Reaching Elisha’s house, he stood outside the door. Yet
instead of coming out to greet Naaman himself, Elisha sent a servant with a message. The servant said, “Go and wash
in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean”. (2 Kings 5:10)
2. This infuriated Naaman who had anticipated a greeting from Elisha and an immediate display of healing power. He
couldn’t fathom such a ridiculous way of getting healed as having to dip seven times in a river that belonged to Israel,
Syria’s enemy. The plan was so simple that it was offensive. Naaman’s pride was severely wounded by having to wash
in the Jordan, a Jewish river, as though waters from his own country were not clean enough. Elisha’s proposal was too
absurd for Naaman; he turned away in rage.
3. Yet Naaman’s servants would not let him give up so easily. They urged, “…If the prophet had told you to do
something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?”
(2 Kings 5:13). Well, the servants prevailed. Naaman went to the Jordan, dipped in the river seven times and his
leprosy was instantly healed.
B. God’s answer is often so simple that it is offensive, and this is true of God’s plan for how a nation is to respond
to Him when it is in crisis. It is the only plan that works.
C. The five-fold plan, given by God through Joel, is so plain, yet it remains much neglected today. The Book of Joel
contains a radical paradigm of life. The divine plan Joel reveals is almost completely foreign to our natural mindset. It is
really a new, radical mindset to us, particularly as western Christians.
D. We find that our hearts do not immediately connect with it. Par of our distance from this message is how little
national crisis we have known. Many places of the earth are in such conflict that this is an easy message to relate to.
But for us, an extreme paradigm shift is needed.
1. The plan that God has laid out so clearly for us in the Book of Joel is so profoundly simple that it is offensive to the
heart of man. Just as Naaman was offended at God’s simple method of healing him, the human heart is prone towards
offense when it hears what God requires in the midst of crisis.
2. yet no matter how we feel about the plan, it is to our own peril if we add to or take from it. It truly is what God
requires of us and we cannot change it or improve upon it. God invites us to obey His word, and in exchange, he will
act on our behalf.
VIII. MINIMIZING THE CRISIS IN ONLY ONE WAY – WHOLEHEARTEDNESS
Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly … cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1:14)
A. Let us recall that after the four waves of locusts had passed, then they faced the aftermath of the invasion with
starvation, death, and disease. It was at this time that the crisis seemed to be in the past tense, yet Joel prophesied that
the crisis was not nearly over. The crisis in Israel was mounting up to a new level of intensity. Something much more
severe was planned by God to discipline Israel to wake her up. If we respond to God in God’s way, we can cut judgment short.
1. Joel’s burden was that he knew by revelation that Israel could minimize the devastation by responding in the way God
desired. They were still in the early days of the full crisis; starvation had not reached the level that it was going to disease
was not yet widespread. God was giving the people opportunity to minimize His judgments related to the locust plague as
well as the next one that would be caused by the Babylonian military invasion.
2. Joel prophesied that if the people gathered together in a solemn assembly, they could reduce the full ramifications
of judgment yet ahead (Joel 1:13-14). The coming military invasion would be far worse than the locust plague. God was
employing the current crisis in their food and economics (as caused by the locust plague and drought) to warn them of a
far greater problem ahead.
B. The first “day of the Lord” that Joel is speaking about consisted of three national crises; a locust invasion
(Joel 1:4-12), an accompanying drought (Joel 1:16-20) and raging fires (Joel 1:19-20). In light of these, Joel introduces
his urgent burden of a situation far more severe than the agricultural conflict of Joel 1, it was the Babylonian military
conflict of Joel 2, but ultimately, the end time global conflict.
C. Joel 1 is intended by God to show the model of how to respond to the Lord in calamity. Joel was teaching the
people of his day how to minimize these disasters God’s way, which is the only way possible. Another way of saying it is
that he was teaching them how to speed up the restoration process even after judgment has begun.
D. By responding right and cutting short the food and economic crisis, they would develop a history in God, a corporate
testimony, to draw on in the coming day of military trouble, as described in Joel 2:1-9. They needed to cry out to God
together. God was giving them opportunity with these smaller catastrophes to enter into a corporate pursuit of God
before the bigger ones came.
E. God wants us to recognize this pattern of Joel 1-3 for our generation. We will see a progression of His judgments
in the Book of Joel and the same is true in the Book of Revelation.
F. The earthquake or storm may suddenly happen. But there is a domino effect in the society in the aftermath of
the earthquake or storm that can seem to go on and on. When He is trying to get the attention of a nation, this progressive
intensity of disruption is not accidental but is purposeful. Its purpose is to shake a nation out of compromise and to cause
the hearts of His people to arise to Him in prayer. Though man’s sin and satan’s rage are factors in these disruptions,
God designs the dilemma to have no human solution other than the favor of one Man – the Man who sits at the right
hand of the Father. He wants His people to pursue the favor of this Man.
G. What Joel is saying, in essence, is “We can minimize the crisis and its domino effect by crying out to God. We can
reduce or completely cancel out some of the destruction through fasting and prayer.” Many times the aftermath of a
calamity is worse than the calamity itself, causing upheaval in many areas such as the shortage of the water supply,
electricity, economics and food supply causes social disorder. When a disaster carries such fallout, each wave of
increased pressure comes as a new invitation from the Lord to seek Him, to call upon Him and to minimize the coming
destructions as well as diminish the disruption that the prior ones have caused.
H. When we live through calamity, we should not imagine that because one wave has come and gone, and we have
survived it, that now the drama is all over. This idea misses the point. His judgments are not heartless or random. The
Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). It is in His heart to give life; He does not delight in the
circumstances that result in their death. The earthquake or the plague is not God’s ultimate aim – it is active relationship
with mankind. Until that comes into its rightful place, namely the people of God rising to partner with Him, the intensity of
the catastrophes will increase.
I. The only safety available in such crises is in the place of wholeheartedness. Fasting and prayer is not some
magical formula, like waving a magic wand at God and getting the answers we’re looking for. It is not the actual act of
fasting and prayer that moves the heart of God.
J. The false religions around the world do prolific amounts of fasting and prayer; their lives do not release the
blessings of God.
K. Fasting and prayer are only expressions of wholeheartedness and that is what God is interested in. Fasting
tenderizes our hearts, moving us into a posture of hunger before God; then, when our heart is moved, it touches God’s
heart. Fasting and prayer intensifies abandonment to God and agreement with His heart. These expressions of
wholeheartedness are about enriching and heightening our heart-connect with God’s heart. Intimacy with His people
is what God is after, and because He is a jealous God, He does not want only part of a people. He wants fullness.
II. THE MOUNTING CRISIS
A. The Lord wanted this to be their top priority. This was necessary if the situation was to change. The seriousness of
what was coming to Israel was compared to the death of a young bridegroom on his wedding night (Joel 1:8). In
Joel 1:13-15, God was bringing them warning about the next crisis to come, the Babylonian invasion that was approaching
in possibly ten to twenty years (Joel 2:1-9). The pagan power of Babylon was mounting up and getting strong and
organized. They already had their mind set on the countries in the west like Israel, Egypt and Syria.
B. We must realize that this horrific analogy of the bride in sackcloth was given to describe the Babylonian invasion,
but a Day is coming that is more severe than the Babylonian invasion! It is described in the Book of Revelation.
C. The Lord has warned the earth throughout history through His prophets about this Day of the Lord to come! We
have tremendous amounts of information in the Word about the generation in which the Lord returns. Enoch, who lived
before Abraham and Moses, got revelation of this Day (Jude 14-15). From the Psalms to the Major and Minor Prophets
to the New Testament, including the Book of Revelation, there is more information concerning this final generation than
any other time frame in all of natural history. Yet the Body of Christ in our day is living as though these powerful words
of God will be of no effect.
III. THE CALL TO THE PRIESTS
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth
(Joel 1:13)
A. Joel directs this exhortation first to the priest, the spiritual leaders of the nation. He summons them to gird
themselves and lament. The priests were those who ministered before the altar; they led the worship ministry before the
Lord. The required response of those positioned in leadership is “gird yourselves”. In other words, “Get up, put your belt
on, and get ready. Make the necessary preparations to answer this invitation”. Joel was exhorting them to do the work of
prayer knowing that the real issue and need was for them to do battle in intercession.
B. Jesus used this same language many times in His earthly ministry. In one famous parable concerning the end of
the age, He said, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning” (Luke 12:35). The call to gird oneself meant to count
the cost and prepare, get ready to work or get ready to go to war! Yet, it was more than the call of preparation. It was a
charge to action.
C. To gird oneself meant to mobilize the work force and to get into action. Joel was saying, “Change your schedule
and mobilize the people! Set your heart in a resolute way to go after this thing!” The direct application we take from this
charge of Joel to the priests is that it is not enough for leaders to preach on the message or to sign the document that
says they agree. They themselves must lead the people in it. There is no substitute for their own voices lifted to God in
prayer as a lifestyle.
D. This first exhortation of Joel to gird themselves in modern day language would be “Get out your daytimers and
rearrange your schedule. Rearrange the way that you spend time and money and energy. Prepare yourself for this
calling to a life of prayer.”
1. Most people rarely respond to this invitation to gird themselves and thus they do not make the necessary
preparations. They get caught in the romance of the calling to prayer but they never actually do the work of making the
necessary preparations. They sign up for it because they are excited at the idea of it. It seems novel, risky, dynamic and
extremely radical. They answer the call and then they hit the wall because they were not ready for the rigors of the long
hours of waiting on the Lord without seeing fruit.
2. Our initial excitement is not enough to sustain us in pursuing God in a lifestyle of prayer. We have to rearrange
our lives in a sober way, to consider the cost and make preparations.
E. You must be very intentional with how you spend your time in your desire to cultivate the spirit of prayer in your
life. To do this you must say “no” to most worldly invitations. If you travel too much in ministry, your prayer life significantly
suffers. You can travel a little. It takes time and energy for the spirit of prayer to be cultivated in your life. You cannot do
it effectively traveling.
1. Girding ourselves, establishing a lifestyle of preparation, cannot be done automatically or on the run. We must
intentionally cultivate the spirit of prayer in our lives, changing our schedules and making room for it. There is an element
of “spiritual violence” in this.
2. There are dimensions of the kingdom which do not come automatically but only to those who press in for them.
Jesus described the sort of person that will receive such things when He said, “The violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12).
Hecalled it “violence” because it is so intensely disruptive to really have a lifestyle of pressing in. When we determine to “lay
hold of that for which He has laid hold of us” (Philippians 3;12), we must make shifts in our schedules, finances, relationships,
spiritual life and more.
F. The decree to “gird ourselves” is not only speaking of looking at new priorities. He was imploring the people to
actually follow through. Though there are thrilling times in prayer when our hearts are fascinated in the encounter, there
are also times when our hearts are dull and our bodies want to give up. In these times, the Lord wants us to stay steady
and know that He has truly planned for us to live fascinated before Him. In my own prayer life, half of the time I find myself
sitting there all fidgety, spiritually bored and a little oppressed. Yet the Lord’s words to me in these times are, “Just stay
put”. Exhilaration in prayer comes and goes. It is not an unbroken fascination. Our invitation from God is to do the labor
of coming before Him in prayer day after day. We posture our hearts to not be thrown off by the delays, or feeling tired or
hitting the wall of spiritual boredom that sometimes sets in upon us as we labor to stay steady in prayer.
IV. THE CALL TO LAMENT AND WAIL
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you
who minister to my God (Joel 1;13)
A. Joel exhorts them to lament and wail or weep before the Lord as their society was in shambles. This is a step
beyond the action of “gird yourself”. Now, Joel calls them to a heart-connect.
B. The end-time Church will walk out this wailing and ministry to God even like Anna did.
Anna, a prophetess … did not depart from the temple, but ministered to (served) God with fastings and prayers night
and day. (Luke 2:36-37)
C. One reason to lament and wail is because the coming disaster is real. The grain offering and the drink offering
being withheld from the house of God was cause for much alarm and wholehearted response. The Holy Spirit will release
deep compassion, a heightened sensitivity, to the human suffering that will be all around us. We will not be disconnected
from the distress of others; in this place of compassion there is a real lament for the real pain of real people.
D. Joel calls us to lament before God, to not be content with seeking human strategies for the solution. When a crisis
is on the horizon, even God’s people will assume the ostrich position with their head in the ground, thinking avoidance will
minimize the coming disaster. In an effort to play down the reality, they will argue that nothing is really going to happen
anyway.
E. They will settle for human strategies instead of desperately seeking the Lord for His strategies. This is not the
response that God is after. He is calling His people to lament and wail, to enter into the truth of what He has spoken. Joel
wants us to feel the real pain involved in receiving revelation of the coming crisis and in watching God’s judgments unfold.
God’s people will experience God’s grief as well as His compassion (lamenting, wailing) for the pain that results from
judgment.
F. Also present in this lamenting is the desperate cry to possess all that God has ordained for us. We must have
more. We are pained over our weakness, compromise and powerlessness. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn”
(Matthew 5:4). It includes the desperation to enter into the things of God in a greater measure, as well as feeling the
sobriety of the hour.
G. We have pain about our current condition – individual and corporate. And this pain and desperation is of God.
It is called lamenting. Our cries to have more of God ascend to Him as a wailing. We cry out for a greater breakthrough
because we are not okay with “business as usual”. This dimension of lamenting is necessary before the breakthrough.
H. There is a stigma that comes with lamenting. You may have friends and family who say, “Why are you so intense?”
Some feel judged by your intensity, thinking that you see yourself as more godlier than they. Believers and unbelievers
alike respond with defensive frustration to those who wail and lament before the Lord. Yet, regardless of the stigma, the
burden on our social lives and the weariness we experience by laboring through the dry times, we must respond to this
directive from God to wail. It is one of the extreme measures required for extreme times.
V. THE CALL TO COME AND LIE ALL NIGHT IN SACKCLOTH
Lament, you priests … come lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God (Joel 1:13)
A. Joel continues his call to respond to God with “Come, lie all night in sackcloth”. In other words, “Humble yourselves
in the presence of God for the purpose of prayer”. It sounds so simple yet it truly is something that God’s people
throughout history have greatly struggled to actually do. To come and pray and lie all night before the Lord takes
significant effort and everything around us pulls us from actually doing it.
B. Joel tells the spiritual leadership to lie down in sackcloth. Sackcloth was made of goat’s hair, and thus, it was an
uncomfortable material to wear. Throughout church history, primarily through the Middle Ages, some would wear
sackcloth as a spiritual discipline. Some would actually live in the horrible discomfort of sackcloth for ten to twenty years.
Yet the point of sackcloth was not primarily the discomfort but the humility.
a. The priest’s typical attire was a beautiful priestly garment that was ordained and ordered by God in Exodus 28.
They were garments of status, honor and prestige. When God gave this call to dress in sackcloth, the main point was
not discomfort but laying down their position of privilege.
b. In lamenting the crisis, everyone was to be on equal ground before the throne. Joel was essentially saying, “Take
off your priestly robes; lay down your ecclesiastical titles, your positions and your degrees. Everybody is on equal ground
before the throne of God and there is no unique status according to what you have acquired or attained in your leadership”.
It was a call for everyone to come together before the Lord in humility.
C. The call to come and lie all night before the Lord is a divine mandate to leaders. Joel is not just preaching his
favorite ministry preferences. It is a mandate from heaven related to the coming crisis.
D. Since the call to come and lie all night before the Lord is a divine mandate to leaders, Joel was informing the priests
that there is no other option. He was crying out, “You have to act! You have to come near and actually lift your voice in
prayer!”
1. The Lord wanted them to hear His call to engage their spirits in prayer and do what He had commissioned them to
do. The charge is extravagant because extreme times require extreme measures.
2. Leaders are often eager to gather together when crisis occurs to discuss it and/or write positional papers on it
without actually getting around to praying about it.
E. It seems like the church will do nearly anything except pray and lie all night before God.
VI. THE FIVE PART ACTION PLAN
Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the
Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. (Joel 1:14)
A. It is God’s five-step program on how to respond to Him in the midst of crisis. This God-given, five-fold action plan is
one that everyone can do without regard to education, prestige, ministry platform, special talents or economics. Anyone
can do these things. These are simply profound, but profoundly simple parts to God’s plan for His people in the midst of
crisis. It is the required response God has given us an answer to the spirit of hopelessness and despair described in
Joel 1:12. This action plan is how we posture ourselves together for the future – before, during and after the crisis.
VII. STEP ONE – CONSECRATE A FAST
A. Consecrate a fast – Joel tells them to set apart unto the Lord a specific period of time in fasting and prayer and to
call the people to it. This is in essence a call to wholeheartedness expressed through fasting, a subject crucial to Joel that
is developed more (Joel 2:12-13)
B. The call to consecrate a fast is a simple requirement. There is nothing ambiguous about it. Yet it has been
ignored by many throughout history. People cannot imagine that abstaining from food could be so important to God.
Fasting increases our capacity to live wholehearted before God. We do not fast to move God, we fast to move our own
hearts in the grace of God.
1. The fasting under the grace of God tenderizes our hearts and God is moved by that tenderizing. He is not moved
by the actual act of fasting but by the movement of our hearts that occurs in the process. When we fast, we are refusing
to pacify our souls with food or other comforts. It is as though we are refusing to medicate a holy wound of longing. This
causes us to cry out to God all the more; hunger and desperation grows within us. In this way, fasting increases our
capacity to receive more from God and enhances our ability to give ourselves back to God in intimacy.
2. The call to fasting is the call to the grace of wholeheartedness. It helps us give ourselves to God more fully. We
do not earn a thing by fasting. Rather, we position ourselves to receive. It is about an increased capacity in our hearts
to experience more of God.
C. The essence of fasting is that we embrace voluntary weakness in order to embrace God’s strength as our solution.
We are not trying to prove to God or to people that we are dedicated. Rather, we are putting ourselves before God in
voluntary weakness because we are esteeming His strength as the solution to our problem.
D. Fasting is essential to the Christian life and is not optional if we want to experience the fullness of the grace of
God. It is absolutely mandatory for wholeheartedness. We cannot face the crisis that is coming to our nation and to the
earth without the protection of wholeheartedness expressed by a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. The grace of
wholeheartedness makes us a gift. A gift of God to one another, a gift of God to the city we live in and a gift of God to
unbelievers.
E. Though fasting is an odd message in America, where self-indulgence is nearly esteemed as a virtue, it is a familiar
message through the Word of God. The grace for fasting is available to everyone. We begin by asking the Lord for this
grace. We ask Him to help us desire it. We start off with fasting-prayer 101, which is “Lord, make me want to want to fast.”
The Lord esteems this kind of prayer as valid and if we continue to pursue Him in it, we will desire to fast. We pray for His
strength and His grace in fasting, and he really does cultivate it within us.
VIII. STEP TWO – CALL A SACRED ASSEMBLY
A. The second part of this divine action plan is to call sacred gatherings. The Lord wants whole communities to come
together and pursue Him in prayer together. Private devotion is critical, but it is not enough to answer the coming
international crisis. God requires corporate gatherings for prayer. There is something important to God about us
gathering together in prayer. God the Father has a family and the only place that He releases His fullness is in context
to His family. Because of the way He designed His Kingdom, we can go only so high in our individual consecration; there
is a ceiling in the Spirit until we come together. This is why we call sacred assemblies and why we join together to lift our
voices in agreement with the purposes of God.
B. There are many reasons why we gather together. A practical one is that the fire in our hears dies out when we are
alone. The Lord knows that the coming crisis is so great that we cannot afford to lose our strength in the race. We keep
our strength partially by clustering together with like-hearted people, people of like passion and like vision. There are
always the lone rangers who argue, “Well, the Lord is enough for me.” I have watched many prayer loners die out in
the long run.
C. The sacred or solemn assembly.
1. “Sacred or solemn” – speaks of its weightiness before God. Sacred in this context means, “dedicated” or “set apart”
to God. God calls it sacred, and therefore it needs to be important to us. What is weighty and of high priority to God must
not be casual or optional to us.
2. “Assembly” – a gathering in one place together. In Joel’s day they were gathering into the temple, the house of the
Lord.
D. When the assembly is sacred then there are no excuses for neglecting it. Often we imagine that we will give
ourselves to these kinds of things if our time permits or when we are in the right mood for it. Yet, this is the wrong position
to take about what God calls sacred. God is going to awaken the church to the revelation of the sacredness of these
assemblies. Then they will no longer be treated casually.
E. It takes effort and courage to call sacred assemblies. Lour Engle received this idea to call hundreds of thousands
of young people to Washington, DC in September, 2000. After a year of traveling the nation and rallying people, they
had 400,000 attend. Lou told me how he was scared that he would be the only one there. Oh, the effort it took to call a
nation! Sometimes it feels presumptuous to call such gatherings. It takes much work to call and organize a solemn
assembly. They do not happen automatically. They require persistent effort and courage. To get the word out is hard,
daring work.
F. Under the anointing of God, Joel told us that God requires solemn assemblies regardless of how much they cost in
staff salaries and revenue. It is ordained of God and He deems it more valuable than the work that is being left undone
and the money that it cost to fund them!
G. We must come to terms with the fact that solemn assemblies are a necessary part of God’s plan. We cannot
eliminate this part of the plan just because we’re not used to it or because it seems strange or costs too much.
H. God requires a corporate wholeheartedness.
1. Corporate blessing occurs in the midst of the corporate people of God coming together in wholeheartedness. This
is the biblical model; it is the place of commanded blessing (Psalm 133). God’s contingency for releasing this level of
revival is that many must seek Him together.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! For there the Lord commanded
the blessing. (Psalm 133:1, 3)
2. It takes a corporate, unified response over a period of time to reach the highest levels of God’s intended desire
and blessing.
3. The bible makes it clear that I as one individual can only release a limited measure of God’s blessing and
protection for my city and nation. There are significantly greater realms of supernatural activity, blessing and protection
that are only released in the context of corporation, unified wholeheartedness. This is just how God has ordained it. He is
a Father; He has family in His heart; and He gives far more when individuals come together as the family. I want to live in
a place where He opens the heavens, where the protection and blessing of God reaches the highest level that God has
ordained possible for this time-frame of history and in the particular geographic area He has set me in. I know that this
can and will only happen in the context of a corporate unity of wholeheartedness.
I. One devoted individual can touch just a certain level of God’s plan; there is a ceiling in the Spirit over one person.
Even the most anointed intercessors in Israel’s history could not stop the coming judgment without the corporate response
of many within the nation.
Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,
says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 14:14)
Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this
people. (Jeremiah 15:1)
J. We are at the beginning of the beginning of the end-time crises of the great and terrible Day. The Lord is inviting
us now, before troubles mount into greater and greater severity, to heed the voice of wisdom to develop relationship with
people who will gather together now and begin learning how to operate in the principles of the Book of Joel.
1. God wants to give us a history together before the crisis. There is a true place of safety in the coming crisis.
Though we will not be 100 percent immune from hardship, God will give notable protection to a people of long-term,
corporate wholeheartedness.
2. The preemptive mercy strike of the Holy Spirit is to raise up groups of people all over the earth who are committed
to wholeheartedness, which is expressed by fasting and prayer, and energized by intimacy. We do not want to wait until
we find ourselves in the hour of crisis to start figuring out if we believe that God delivers through corporate wholeheartedness.
We want to have corporate spiritual history in this issue. We want to have a corporate root system in our lifestyles
together in fasting and prayer.
IX. STEP THREE – GATHER THE ELDERS
A. The third part of God’s plan for His people in the midst of crisis is for the elders, or the leadership, to gather. In our
day, this would mean getting all of the full-time leaders in ministry on board. It is not enough to just have little side prayer
meeting without leaders. As a rule, it is mostly leaders who are able to impact other leaders throughout the body of Christ.
Joel is saying, “Go cast the vision and get all the other leaders to sow up as well. Call the leaders.” It is difficult to gather
and rally leaders because of how busy they are.
B. They have real burdens, responsibilities and mandates; their lives are full of very aggressive ministry agendas.
It takes much persuasion, vision-casting and relational building – along with a lot of time, effort and money – to gather the
elders of a city or nation. God is not unaware of all of the implications of this plan, the difficulties and the amount of
exertion it takes to consistently gather the leaders together. Yet this is the group that the Lord told Joel to convene, no
matter how arduous the task. He said to cast the vision and expend the energy necessary to convince them. Gathering
the elders is necessary in order to fulfill God’s action plan.
X. STEP FOUR – GATHER ALL OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND
A. The fourth thing we are summoned to do in this divine action plan is to gather all of the inhabitants of the land into
the house of the Lord. This comprehensive description leaves no one out. As the events surrounding the Second Coming
arise in intensity and God begins to pour out His Spirit in the great Day of the Lord that Joel prophesied, the stadiums
of the cities of the earth will be full of believers and nonbelievers (many of whom will get saved) gathering together.
B. In our context, we will have regional gatherings. There will be times when the Lord will give divine inspiration and
specifically commission us to gather together in these regional events. In these times, we will gladly sacrifice the time,
money, and tremendous amount of energy requires to gather all of the inhabitants of the region into the stadium. Though
it seems impractical and expensive, the Lord demands it as His plan for the end-time crisis.
XI. STEP FIVE – CRY OUT TO GOD
A. The final part of the divine mandate – we must cry out to the Lord. The Lord commissions us to lift our voices to
Him together. As simple as this is, it will not happen with a casual mindset; it is earnest and deliberate. It does not
necessarily mean we cry out loudly. It is not about volume, but about engaged hearts. To cry out means that we come
into deep agreement with what God is saying, what He has promised for our geographic area and we partner with His
heart in prayer.
B. When we gather together, God wants us to actually pray. We have to pray in the prayer meetings. Though that
sounds odd to some, but in many prayer meetings prayer is the least thing done. The curious thing about the human
heart is that we tend to do everything in the prayer meetings except truly pray. There is much preaching, giving
testimonies, ministry praise reports and just chatting that happens in many prayer meetings.
C. Imagine the difficulty of having to answer this five-part mandate and proclaim it to a frantic earth, believers and
unbelievers alike, in the hour of crisis. Imagine a CNN reporter puts the microphone in your hand and asks, “A terrorist
bomb just went off and thousands were killed. What do you think that we should do?” You respond, “First, we must set
apart a specific time of prayer and fasting, and we must weep and wail before God. Second, we must get the word out to
all the leaders because God has mandated that they gather. The leaders will meet together in one place, have prayer
meetings and not eat for a certain period of time. Then they will call the inhabitants of the land to do this also.” The
reporter responds, “Well, that’s wonderful. That’s really good that you are so religious. But really, what are we going
to do about this crisis?” You answer, “No, no. That is what we are going to do. That is the primary solution. It is not
secondary. It is the plan God has given us to follow, line upon line, in the midst of crisis.”
D. Beloved, entire populations of geographic areas are in the balance of the prayer ministries of those regions.
We cannot afford to do anything less than fully obey God. We must do it for our own sakes, and we must do it for the
sake of our children and grandchildren. God has invited us to be as a city on a hill, giving light to those around us.