Prayer Meeting at Yale University

Normally I say thank you, maybe seated, but I guess you can't, so I won't say that. I want to give a special, special shout and cheer for the Christian Union here at Yale University. Young people, young people that have been fasting, they've been praying, they've been standing, they've been believing for a spiritual awakening in this university. And can you and I believe with them tonight for that, and not just here, but for other colleges throughout the country, that God in his mercy would start to touch this generation in a way such as we've maybe not seen in our lifetime, you and I. Thank God for the songs, thank God for the prayers that have been prayed tonight. I have a word, it will only be very, very short, so please nobody panic tonight, you won't be kept here forever. But I want to share what the Lord's put on my heart for this event concerning Yale University. It is interesting that the church that's right behind us in the backdrop was built in 1638 by some of the original settlers, Christian people who settled this area of the country, and they called this area New Heaven, New Heaven. It's got changed to New Haven, but it's New Heaven, based on the scripture in the book of Revelation, I saw new heaven and a new earth. And they determined in their hearts that in this place that we believe that God has brought us to, to establish a new society where Jesus Christ can be worshipped freely according to conscience and according to the word of God, we need to have a Bible school in order to have our young people trained in the ways of God so they can adequately represent the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence the seed that formed this university called Yale University, where God has sent young people all over the world and blessed nations, not only this nation, but other nations over the centuries in what he has done. And the Lord put a word on my heart for this evening which I feel is prophetic in one sense, and I want you to give me your best year as much as you can tonight. Luke chapter 19 verse 37, talking about Jesus Christ, it says, Then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory highest. And some of the Pharisees, that would be the religious leaders of the day, called to him from the crowd and they said, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. In other words, stop these people from praising your name. We don't mind the system we have, we don't mind the religion that's being established, but we want to keep it to ourselves and we don't want this thing to be public and we don't want to be shouted out as a crowd. But he answered and said to them, I tell you, if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. The stones knew something that the religion of the day had forgotten. They had heard and understood the creation of God and the purpose of God. When he drew nearer, he says, he saw the city and he wept over it. And he said, this was his own city, Jerusalem. If you had known even you, especially in your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. He said to his own people, if you knew what my heart was for you, if you only understood why I've come to you, why you were established in the first place and what I have longed to do for you, in you and through you. But in the case of Israel of that particular hour, he said, now they're hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will build embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they'll not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. Then he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it. And he said, it is written, my house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. The whole of Israel with all of its magnificent architecture had been established by God for a divine purpose. In the book of Genesis chapter 12, verses one to three, God came to a man called Abraham. And he said to him, get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing. And has not God done that in the United States of America in only 400 short years. People came from other places trying to escape despotic leadership, trying to escape the inability to worship God freely. And they came to the shores of this nation were multiplied by God himself and made into a great nation. And he said, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And think of the numbers of places in the world. I know it hasn't been perfect by any stretch, but so many places in the world have been blessed because a people set out 400 years ago to find a place where they could worship God in freedom. And Abraham went out and obeyed and did as God had told him to do. And we think about the origins of Yale University. And I want to read to you from part of the founding charter of this particular university. Let me just read to you and you'd be surprised what it says. Yale's charter states that it was granted on account of the petitioner, petitioning founders sincere regard to and zeal for upholding and propagating of the Christian Protestant religion by a succession of learned and orthodox men. The desire to collegiate school wherein youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences who through the blessing of almighty God may be fitted for public employment both in the church and in the civil state. While the purpose of the school was to train not only pastors but civil servants as well. The goal was that all students to produce graduates that were zealous for Christianity and equipped and upholded to propagate it. The same could also be seen for the regulations that initial students copied among the following. Every student shall exercise himself in reading the holy scriptures by himself every day that the word of Christ may dwell in him richly and that he may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Every student shall consider the main end of his study which is to know God in Christ Jesus and answerably to lead a godly and sober life. Praise be to God. Seeing that God is the giver of all wisdom this this students in this school had to copy this out. Every student shall besides secret prayer wherein everyone is bound to ask wisdom for himself shall be present morning and evening at public prayer in the hall at the accustomed hour which is usually six o'clock in the morning from the 10th of march at sunrise and between four and five o'clock every night all year. This was the foundation of this university called Yale University. In Israel other generations had arisen and they forgot their history and they forgot their purpose. That's the dilemma of humankind. We can we can get so used to the blessing of God we can actually forget what the blessing of God was actually for in the first place. It had fallen so far from its origins that the open praise of the son of God was openly resisted within its own ranks. Teacher rebuke your disciples. Stop them from crying out. There is a cry even this day. There were many that some that stood against this meeting happening in this park tonight fearing that somebody might say the name Jesus. Fearing that we might praise God openly in a place like this. How far sometimes we can fall from our origins and from our roots. It actually broke the heart of Christ in the day of Israel which says he openly wept over the city and he he said to the people if if you only knew what I could do. If you only understood what my heart is for this place. Young people that are listening in the dorms tonight. If you only knew what God had for you. If you could understand that he has a purpose for your life that is so far beyond anything you ever thought your life could be. Giftings and abilities that can't be learned from a book. They can only be received by the spirit of God. If you could only understand that God himself is willing to forgive any wrong you might have done and remove every obstacle that separates you from him and become your God and become your song and become your hope and become your future and through you and through you become a blessing. Not just where you are today but where God is going to send you to go in the future. Every institution having started out to glorify God can become a place that actually steals from those that are in it God's intended purpose. That's what God said about the temple in Jerusalem. This place was supposed to be a place of prayer but you stole that from the children. You stole it from your next descendants by turning it into something other than what it was founded to be. Now Israel and Jerusalem's fate is now history. As Jesus once said every stone that was set upon another is now thrown down. That society was cast as it was into the sea of the nations of the world until God brought it back together again in 1948. The future of where we stand today still hangs in the balance. What God put on my heart to tell you tonight is that the stones of this university have borne witness to the prayers and the praises of thousands of believers in Jesus Christ. The stones of this university have recorded the prayers of the saints for 400 years. The stones of this university are hearing the prayers of the Christian union again today. The stones of this university have heard the cry of every young depressed person, every young person who doesn't understand what the future holds, every sigh, every cry in every dorm in every room. The stones of this university have heard your cry. Jesus Christ said to the people who wanted the praises of God stifled even among his own generation. He said to the people if these will not cry out, the stones will cry out. The stones in Yale have borne witness to the glory of God. Presidents have come out of here. Preachers have come out of this school. People have made a huge difference in societies not just in America but all around the world. They have borne witness and I feel as a yearning even in the stones to cry out and say will you not praise God again? Will you not lift your voices again? Will you not glorify God again? Will you not let God touch your life the way he longs to again? Do you know the things that could be yours? Do you fully understand what God is willing to do in each one of your lives? I don't know about you but no stone is taking away my praise of God. No stone is taking my place. I am going to lift my voice and praise the God of my creation. I'm going to cry out for him. I'm going to cry out until he touches your life, until he sets you free, until you understand who he is and what he longs to do in your life. I will not be silent until this nation sees a spiritual awakening in its generation. I will raise my voice. I will call out to God. I will shout into the heavens. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of God. We will not be silent and let this generation die in its sin. We will not stand still and see the presence of God stolen from our children. No matter how fancy our institutions have become, God is still God. There is no other name given under heaven whereby men might be saved and I'm not ashamed and neither are you of the name of Jesus Christ. I fully intend to call out and to believe God for a spiritual awakening until the day that I die. Will it ruffle a few feathers? Yes, you better believe it, but some feathers need to be ruffled. God is still God. Jesus Christ is still the only name given under heaven whereby people might be saved. He's still the way, the truth, and the life and no one can come to the Father except through him. By the grace of almighty God, we shall live to see a spiritual awakening in our time. Father God, in Jesus' name, we lift our voices tonight, God, collectively in this place and we ask you, Lord Jesus Christ, God, visit these institutions. Visit Yale University again. Let prayers be shouted in the marketplace. Let them be spoken in the chapels. Let them be spoken in the dorm rooms, in the classrooms. God, bring prayer back to this institution. Oh, Jesus Christ, let it never be too late for Yale. God almighty, we thank you for all that has been produced from this school, the great good that's been done all over the world, but there's more good that can be, the greater good that can be done in our time. And so, Father, we thank you. God, we thank you with everything that's in our hearts tonight. I'm going to ask you to stand. Pastor Jeff's going to come and lead us in prayer and every voice counts tonight. Every voice counts. Don't let a stone take your place. Don't let a stone do your crying out. Let's pray for the young people of this generation. Pray for our schools, our colleges, our high schools, our grade schools. Pray for our nurseries. Pray, pray, pray, pray. God, send a spiritual awakening to this nation. Join the hands with the person beside you, if you can, and start lifting your voice, and let's pray together and say, God, you got to send a spiritual awakening into this nation. We're asking you for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We're asking you for the mercy of almighty God to touch this generation one more time. We're asking you, Lord, like a river just to sweep over this society, oh God. God, give us a moment of mercy, Lord, in this last hour we're living in. Oh, Jesus Christ, Son of God, come and open every prison door. Give sight to every blinded eye. Heal every bruised and wounded heart. Oh, God, let the poor of the treasure of heaven open to them in Christ. Father, we thank you. God, we praise you. Lift your voice tonight. Lift your voice. Lift your voice to God, and let's pray together tonight. Yes, keep lifting your voice. Just lift it. Just pray out. Just as Elisha prayed, God, open their eyes, Lord Jesus. Open their eyes, Father, that they may see who is for them and who is not against them. Father, you are for them. You are for them, Lord Jesus. Father, your love pours out for them, Lord Jesus. God, just lift your voice. Lift your voice. Lift your voice to heaven. Father, let your presence come down on this campus, Lord Jesus. May people be saved in your name, Lord God. May anxieties be taken away, suicidal thoughts be taken away in Jesus' name as they bend their knee to you, Lord God. Lord, as we just pour out our love for you, Lord God, let them see the army is that is for them as Elisha's servant prayed, Lord, and he opened his eyes. Open their eyes that they may see that horses and chariots of fire, Lord God, are all around. Lord, you are greater for us than those against us, Lord Jesus. We love you, Father. We praise you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Lord God. Hallelujah. Let your kingdom come here as it is in heaven, Lord Jesus. Let it be so. Let the saints say it so, Lord God. Father, it is in your name. Lord, raise up men and women of you, Lord Jesus. Lord, raise them up, Lord God. Let there be no more suicides on Yale campus, Lord God. Let no one take their life in Jesus' name. Let your presence sweep through the halls, Lord God. Holy Spirit, as you went into Pharaoh's courts, may your spirit go through every dormitory, every area, Lord Jesus, every office, Lord God, every dean's office, all the president's office, Lord God. Holy Spirit, sweep through this campus in Jesus' name. We praise you, Father. We thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. We're just so appreciative. And for those who joined us on live stream, God bless you. What a wonderful, wonderful evening this has been. There's a lot of people here. I don't know how many. There's just a lot of us, but thank God that every voice has been lifted up and every prayer has counted tonight. So, Father, I do pray a blessing over this gathering. Blessing of your presence, Lord, in every life and every heart and every mind, God. Lord, there's a peace that passes understanding. God, let that be the portion that you give to your people. Take away trepidation about the future, troubles in the present, God. Help us to put it in the right perspective because one day we will be with you where you are forever and ever and ever. Until that day, God, I pray for an anointing of confidence in you. Lord, a peace in every heart, every home, every mind, every soul. And God bless this campus. Jesus, bless this campus with your presence, God. And do a work here that only you can do. And bring Yale back to its roots, oh God. Father, we thank you for the young people in the Christian Union. Strengthen them. Keep them, my God. And thank you for their fervency, for your kingdom, their ability and their willingness to be poured out for you for the sake of others. We give you praise and we give you glory tonight, God, for all that you have done here. In Jesus name, amen and amen. God bless you. God bless you.