The Power of On-Site Intercession

Intercessors for America ran this piece today:

Lord, direct us to pray with Your authority where You place us, and where we gather to pray, multiply the effectiveness of our prayers!

The importance of traveling to key sites to pray was reinforced the other night when we saw a solo performance in New York City called *mark ( a solo performance of the Gospel of Mark.). The actor, George Drance, draws a map of first century Israel on the stage floor in chalk, and takes us on the journey with Jesus and his disciples. It struck me that Jesus went out of his way to take his disciples to Caesarea Philippi. We’ve been there several times, and there are ancient altars to one pagan god after the next. The biggie is a tribute to the god Pan in a massive cave known as the Gates of Hell. That was where Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”

[Click to read the whole article...]

Here's the video they posted:

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I performed a scene from my one-man play, The Acts at Caesarea Philippi.

Springing to Action

On today's Headline Prayer Live we covered a great number of topics facing America and the world today, including two articles Joyce and I wrote.

Here's Joyce's:

Prayer for the Lost

Lord, point those who need salvation toward the mercies of the Savior. Let them mourn their sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration. In His Name. 

As we move from the blessed Holy Week, I am more acutely aware that millions do not yet know the love of God and the grace of Jesus. Millions passed through this past week unaware of the precipice upon which their souls teeter. For me, the joy of Resurrection Sunday is tinged with sadness for these many whose eyes are blinded to the horror of sin and its effects.

[Click for the whole article...]

And here's mine:

Film Inspires Prayers for Persecuted Christians
Lord, use this film about some who were killed in A.D. 203 for being Christians, to target our prayers for those persecuted today.
A film about Perpetua — who was martyred for her faith about 1,820 years ago — is now available to watch online and with your church. Not only does it bring to life the first book we know was written by a woman, but it also shines a spotlight on the 360 million people being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ today.

[Click for the whole article...]

My article is mostly an introduction to two videos of interviews. The first is with some of the creatives behind The Diary of Perpetua:

Nooshig Luz Salvador, whose grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide, is glad the film is giving her a platform to talk about today’s Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan. She and Father Andreas Garabedian did an interview to talk about the siege of an Armenian village that has lasted more than 120 days:

Nooshig sent a link to an organization that empowers you to send letters to our leaders urging them to stop the genocide. 

Here's the program: 

And here's the entire film followed by a discussion with the cast and crew: 

You can also order a DVD with extras from Still Small Theatre's Store, and also set up a screening in your area with a representative of Open Doors International, to help connect the dots to modern persecution.

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.

Filtering News Through a Biblical Lens

Joyce wrote this article, about the founder of one of the few news sources we trust these days. It ran on www.HeadlinePrayer.org recently:

Lord, thank You for Floyd Brown and The Western Journal. Please prosper his efforts to provide news with a Christian worldview. Amen.

Floyd Brown, founder and former publisher of The Western Journal and author of several books, joined Kris Kubal, IFA’s chief program officer; and Camille Solberg, IFA’s former director of government and media, on Pray with America’s Leaders on Feb. 2, 2023. They discussed the topic of presenting news from a Christian worldview.

[Click to read the entire article...]

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I play a lead in Providence, a feature-length music video about the intricate ways the Lord is involved in our lives.

The Call of God Upon the IFA Call Team, Part 2

Part 1 of this article explains what the Call Team is. Here's the rest of the story:

Lord, thank You for our wonderful IFA Call Team and all the ways You’re answering their prayers for our intercessors! We thank You for all the praise reports and prayers posted on Part 1 of this article. Breathe into those and our prayers prompted today, Lord.

IFA’s Call Team reaches out to our intercessors to thank them for their support and offer to pray for them. Read how the team was formed and about two other Call Team members in Part 1 of this article.

[Click to read the whole article...]

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.

Pfizer Leak Implies Admission

This is old news now, but I'm catching up on things I didn't report because we dropped everything to get to the Asbury Outpouring.

I wrote this before James O'Keefe was ousted from Project Veritas. He said, ""The only thing that has changed is that we broke the biggest story in our organization's history… with 50 million views."

Here's my coverage of that story...

Lord, thank You for organizations like Project Veritas that expose the dangerous and immoral practices of Big Pharma. Bring justice and a halt to putting profit over people.

On February 6 Project Veritas posted a leaked document implying Pfizer’s admission that Jordan Trishtan Walker was working for them when he was recorded revealing plans for directed evolution of the coronavirus and fertility issues related to their current covid vaccine.

[Click to read the whole article...]

I prayed outside Pfizer World Headquarters, where the LED van had just showed the undercover footage:

  

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who was exposing the injustice of slavery a century before our Civil War.

Greg Laurie Tells the Rest of the Story Behind Jesus Revolution

Jesus Revolution is in its fourth week in theaters nationwide, and Intercessors for America ran my introduction to an article telling the rest of the story about his parents...

Lord, thank You that Jesus Revolution is doing better at the box office than many of the films the world is celebrating! Thank You for the story told by Jesus Revolution and the bigger story it didn’t have time to tell. Continue to shift our culture back to You, and may legacy media acknowledge it’s happening!

Jesus Revolution grossed more than four of the films up for Best Picture at the Oscars combined, and Jon Erwin is the first filmmaker in cinematic history to achieve four A+ CinemaScores! During their prayer team’s call on March 3 Greg Laurie read a letter about worship, prayer, and evangelism that broke out in a theater when the film stopped showing after half an hour. He and the host of the prayer call, Kyle Thompson, told many stories of revival breaking out after the film ends. In one case someone was baptized in a fountain outside the theater! Thompson talked about how glad the team is that the film opened after the Asbury Outpouring (the film’s soft opening was within hours of the final public service at Asbury University), so no one can say that the film sparked the Outpouring! On March 10 Michael W. Smith was the guest on their prayer call, and he prayed these lyrics from Zach Reese’s “The More I Seek You” over the prayer team and those seeing Jesus Revolution:

The more I seek you
The more I find you
The more I find you
The more I love you
I want to sit at your feet
Drink from the cup in your hand
Lay back against you and breathe, feel your heart beat
This love is so deep, its more than I can stand
I melt in your peace, its overwhelming

In the article below, Laurie tells the rest of the story about his mom and stepdad, how they were overwhelmed by the Lord’s love so deep…

[Click to read the article...]   

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

The Call of God Upon the IFA Call Team, Part 1

A blessed St. Patrick's Day to you! If you haven’t seen it, or want to be blessed and recalibrated again, enjoy one of the one-man plays that launched my career: www.RichDrama.com/StPatrick.

Tuesday morning Part 1 of my article about Intercessors for America's Call Team posted to www.HeadlinePrayer.org and I got to talk about it on Headline Prayer Live: 

Lord, thank You for our wonderful IFA Call Team and for all the ways You are answering their prayers for our intercessors!

Intercessors for America has a Call Team that reaches out to our intercessors to thank them for their support and to pray by phone with them and for them, and for their families. Shortly after Dave Kubal became President/CEO of IFA in 2009, he began telephoning some of the intercessors himself. As the organization grew, Dave told the staff: “OK, this is what we’re doing: We’re calling everybody.” But by 2020, IFA had grown so quickly and so much that a specialized Call Team was needed to do all those calls.

[Click here to read about miracles...]

Join us in praying:

To get email alerts when we're going to be on Headline Prayer Live sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer.

Part 2 is now available.

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I play a pastor whose prayers are answered decades later in Providence.

Love: The Engine that Powered the Asbury Outpouring

Here's an article Joyce wrote for Intercessors for America about the chapel message that launched the Asbury Outpouring: 

Lord, pour Your Love through Asbury to Your people, and to the nations, and back again to You in worship and adoration.

At times, hushed whispers of adoration. At other times, exuberant praise and joyous refrains. Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University, in Wilmore, Kentucky, was host to an extraordinary visitation of the Holy Spirit for upwards of 370 hours — more than 15 days. This was a time of lingering and renewal that most had never experienced.

[Click to read the whole article...]

Pray for love to power the many revivals springing up all over America!

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

When Government Does Harm

Joyce's was the lead article in today's The Informer, sent out through Intercessors for America...

Lord, when government is dangerous, we look to You in Your temple; You test the righteous and hate the wicked (Psalm 11:4–5). 

Analysis. What are we to do when the government’s actions harm citizens? IFA’s Chief Program Officer Kris Kubal explored this on the March 2 Pray with America’s Leaders. Joining her were three IFA state prayer leaders: Dr. Susan Kess, a co-leader of the Nebraska group; and Bill and Betsy West, the co-leaders for Pennsylvania. 

The medical crises discussed — the February 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, which unleashed multiple toxins; and the COVID-19 pandemic — highlighted governmental incompetency and malfeasance.
[Click here to read the whole article...]

 Here's the program she wrote about:

 

 

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.

The Dead aren’t Prideful: Overcoming the Spirit of Offense

This article by Joyce was posted to www.HeadlinePrayer.org on February 14, and I forgot to share it in the excitement of the Asbury Outpouring! 

Lord, convict us of self-focus causing us to be sensitive to offense. Bind the spirit of offense away from us. In Jesus’ name. 

IFA: 

This article addresses one of the barriers to revival in us and in our communities. It also addresses one of the forces that quenches revival. 

When I was a young believer, I heard a noted preacher talk honestly to his congregation. “You are overly sensitive and hurt by so many things because you are focused on yourself” was the essence of his message. “Grow up!” might have been my exhortation.

[Click here to read the whole article...]

Pray the article leads many closer to the Lord and removes barricades to revival spreading.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Revival in Egypt Too: A Testimony

Posted to www.HeadlinePrayer.org on February 16 and reposted February 27 with the documentary...

Lord, thank you that You are pouring out your Spirit around the globe! Keep bringing people into the Kingdom and setting them on fire for You! 

While reporting from Asbury University’s outpouring we discovered that it’s spilling into local restaurants! We overheard Frankie Cortez tell this story about revival in Egypt at the next table over, and he was gracious enough to share it with you.

Later Frankie Cortez shared this video he filmed: 

He wrote this in his note about the event that took place in August of 2022: 

Many of the churches that participated in this move of God were the Sudanese churches in Egypt. We struggled to get many of the Egyptian churches on board. The Sudanese people are viewed as lower class people. Jesus used the least of these in Cairo to bring forth this move of God....There were Egyptians that did come. It was a bit of a struggle to unite the Egyptian churches due to a few different challenges on the ground.

 Pray the Lord waters the seeds planted in Egypt and for unity in the Body of Christ there!

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Asbury Revival! Daily Updates

We're still trying to figure out when the last of the worshipers from the Asbury Outpouring left Hughes Auditorium (post a comment if you know), but we connected with two people who left at midnight after the Collegiate Day of Prayer service ended, so that seems to have been the official close. That means -- if you count the Collegiate Day of Prayer, which flowed out of the Asbury Outpouring -- February 8th's chapel at Asbury University went at least 374 hours. 

Friday the last of our contributions ran on Intercessors for America's Asbury Revival! Daily Updates. You can visit that page to see them all, but here are highlights from ours:

Friday, February 24

Rich: While driving home to New York City from Asbury University we passed through the Washington D.C. area for a family event. We prayed into the commissioning we sensed we have all been given from Asbury. On the drive down we prayed for IFA state prayer leaders as we drove through their states [see below], so we also picked up Virginia and Delaware on the drive home:

[Read full update]

Thursday, February 23

Rich: On Thursday, Feb. 16, a speaker at Asbury University (they are intentionally not introduced to keep the focus on the Lord) read from John 15, focusing on verse 4 (ESV): Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

[Read full update]

I have to point out that those empty seats were about to be filled! There were hundreds in the line waiting to get in. 

Also, I found out later, the anonymous speaker was Zach Meerkreebs, who preached in the service on February 8. After he was done with that one he texted his wife: "“Latest stinker. I’ll be home soon.” Three hundred and seventy four hours later the University felt they had to close that service to get back to being a university.

Tuesday, Feburary 21

Joyce: My first day, Tuesday, February 14, at the Asbury Outpouring, I spent less than a minute in Hughes Auditorium, the main venue for the worship services. Even so, the presence of the Lord was so tangible, I burst into tears.

[Read full update]

Saturday, February 18

Rich: My favorite moment at Asbury University — and actually a favorite moment of my life — was early Tuesday morning, Valentine’s Day. I woke up and saw that it was 2:44 a.m. I remembered that Jeannine Brabon said she first experienced the Shekinah Glory fall at 3 a.m. on October 3, 1969, four months before the 185-hour revival. I wanted to be fresh for Tuesday’s Headline Prayer Live, so I asked the Lord if I should go. I just burst into tears remembering how I sensed Him say: ‘You need my permission?’

[Read full update]

Friday, February 17

Joyce: Yesterday Rich Swingle, IFA contributing writer and prayer leader, spoke with a man who had been a classmate of Jeannine Brabon, who was instrumental in the 1970 Asbury revival. The man made an interesting comment about the differences between the two outpourings: The 1970 revival was marked by testimony, usually focused on repentance, and then with worship: this current outpouring seems to be marked by worship, followed by testimony of repentance, healing, and deliverance.

[Read full update]

Thursday, February 16

Joyce: “Viral is not revival.” Joyce Swingle reports from on-site at Asbury University: We spoke to two professors. One mentioned that he realized he had assigned a group project for a Friday deadline and he thought it would be difficult for the students to get together to do the work. He queried his class and realized they were keeping up with the schoolwork. He also mentioned he and several of the professors were finding that the outpouring was not keeping students from their classes. Fewer were cutting than the professors expected. Seems this outpouring is not making the students indolent but industrious!

[Read full update]

Tuesday, February 14

Rich (My original article): Chapel on February 8 at Asbury University went long…and as I write it’s still going! In 1970, a chapel service in the same Hughes Auditorium went 185 hours. Ever since I heard about it circa 1987, I’ve been praying — as many of you have — for another revival to break out! I believe revival is breaking out.

[Read full update]

Praying Our Way to Asbury

Rich (this was a separate article): On our way to Asbury University for Tuesday’s Headline Prayer Live, we decided to pray over each state we drove through on the 11-hour drive from New York City. We also prayed for each of the state prayer leaders. It ends with us walking into Hughes Auditorium, where the revival went for 185 hours in 1970. This outpouring has been going over 150 hours as I write, and there’s a line stretching down the road to get in!

[Read full update]

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Collegiate Day of Prayer Is a Taste of Revival

On Friday I posted about the Collegiate Day of Prayer, but we were watching Jesus Revolution while it was being streamed Thursday night. Friday night we watched the CDOP service. WOW! It's a real taste of the Asbury Outpouring! We had revival break out in our living room! 

They included many of the same elements that we saw while we were there during the Outpouring: Students reading Scripture, testimonies, invitations to Salvation, and a commissioning to share what the Lord is doing! SO POWERFUL! Between Facebook and YouTube about 414,000 people joined the 1,500 in Hughes Auditorium and those in at least two campus chapels who were watching the live-stream. 

Pray millions eventually see this and that many souls are saved and many are commissioned for lives of ministry, no matter their career! 

In case you haven't experienced it yet: 

Don't forget to sponsor a college: www.CollegiateDayOfPrayer.org. There's no cost, just the commitment to pray for that school. 

If you don't have 3.5 hours to experience it now (we're already planning to watch it again with as many friends as we can pack into our apartment), here's a brief documentary (8m, 20s) that will give you a sampling:

It includes interviews with Asbury students Zeke Atha and Charity Johnson, who we had on Headline Prayer Live on February 14. That kicked off daily Live from Asbury updates for Intercessors for America. Joyce and I got to do two of those (February 15 and February 16) before IFA board member Jeremy Story took over. He was one of the founders of the modern Collegiate Day of Prayer (February 23 was the 200th anniversary of the original founding). You can see all of the daily Asbury Outpouring updates at www.IFApray.org/watch.

The update for February 16 was IFA's most watched Facebook livestream. I point that out not because Joyce and I happened to be on but because it shows that our intercessors were tapping into this answer to our decades of prayers, and they wanted to see what was happening on Asbury's campus. I wanted to repost it, because we filmed some of it near a statue of Francis Asbury riding his horse away from campus, commissioned to bring the Good News out across the land: 

If you've read this far, consider yourself commissioned! It may be challenging to lead into the Gospel by talking to someone about how they've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we've found it very easy to strike up conversations by telling people there was a chapel service that lasted for 374 hours because no one wanted to leave the presence of the Living God. Let's pray many desire to know more: www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

A Secret to Answered Prayer

I was mentioning this article Joyce wrote for www.HeadlinePrayer.org last year and realized I'd never posted it:

"A Secret to Answered Prayer"

Lord, please help us abide in You that Your Love and Joy flow through us. Let the very Love of God power our prayers so mountains move, the oppressed are released, and the millions upon millions saved unto eternal Life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Years ago, my prayer mentor — a dynamic, older southern woman — asked the Lord why He honored our little prayer team with answers to the prayers and petitions we made. The Lord spoke to her, saying in a Spirit-blown whisper, “Because you love each other unconditionally as I love My Son and He loves you.”

[Click here to read the whole article...]

Pray for our prayer communities to be marked by love!

The photo is Joyce with her prayer mentor. 

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Praying Over The Chosen on Times Square

Last night we were blessed to see The Chosen on Times Square at the AMC Empire Theatre. During the credits we noticed that three of the cast members had seen it with us! I was able to pray over two of them: Abraham* who plays Neshon, and Aalok Mehta (in the frame below), who plays Barnaby. Intercessors for America posted the video to www.HeadlinePrayer.org yesterday:

Some of you will remember that the AMC Empire holds a very special place in my heart since my prayer to be descending the escalator after seeing a film I was in was answered when Providence showed there. Last night that prayer was answered again:

*Abraham just gave me his first name, and they haven't added his only episode so far to IMDb, but if he's there now, please post in the comments. 
 

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I play a lead in Providence, which was in theaters on Valentine's Day in 2016.