A Call For A National Convocation of Repentance and Spiritual Renewal in Washington, D.C

To The Pastors, Ministers, Priests, Rabbis, Elders, Deacons, and Seminarians of The United States of America:

  Allow me to introduce myself. I am “nobody.” I am presenting myself in this way to get as far out of the way of my message as possible.  The message should and can stand on its own. I have not “dreamt dreams” or “seen visions.” The only thing I can tell you is that I have been robbed of sleep. I have been blessedly harassed by the Holy Spirit.

  Part of my message you are already aware of, because you are living it. I don’t need to tell you that this nation is going to seed, descending into a God-less and merciless selfishness, that gets almost orgiastic with delight in being cruel. Hate and oppression are downright fashionable. Someone is in charge and no one is in charge, all at the same time. Our political leaders are generally unreliable, and we have lost a great deal of faith in our spiritual leaders as well. Social Security, racial justice, your vaccinations, the cost of living, and even the weather are totally up for grabs. We have new wars and military conflicts baking in the ovens of Taiwan, Greenland, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela, served with Gazan/Israeli and Russian/Ukraine appetizers. The only thing we can depend on is that before the day is through, we will be bombarded with lies. The people need to hear the truth – a truth that goes in their ears but settles in their hearts.

   “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” asks the Apostle Paul in his Roman Epistle. The answer is that they won’t. The people aren’t hearing because the collective “preacher” isn’t speaking with a clear and collective voice. Yes, there are calls to justice and righteousness and love and mercy here and there, but because there is no palpable unity, the message is inchoate and devoid of power. But I am reaching out to you to change that.

  Reading the Word – especially the Old Testament, which is largely a document of indictments of the Israelite people in their conduct in their unique relationship with God – has allowed me to understand a lot about what is taking place currently in America. And while we keep railing at the gate about our nation’s leaders, with each major political faction pointing fingers at the other, I have been struck by the main theme of God’s accusations against His people Israel in the Bible. These accusations are for me best summed up by the prophet Daniel’s prayer in the ninth chapter of his Book (verses 5-11, excerpted).

“We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land…O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;  Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore, the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.”

The problem, according to Daniel wasn’t “them” – the problem was “we” and “us.”

  I did some math, and based upon Pew Research Center and Federal Election Commission data, somewhere between 72% to 82% of all of our voting electorate in the 2024 Presidential election - assuming that between 5% to 20% of the last election’s voters who did not vote for our current President this last election had voted for him in at least one previous election - either voted for the current President, previously voted for him, or didn’t care enough about who the President was in this last election to vote at all.

  In other words, the American people overwhelmingly have the leadership they demanded or made little or no effort to oppose, just as the Israelite people did what they wanted to do in their worship and fealty to other gods. We are doing the same things – worshipping gods of self, of greed and perversion, of violence and hate, and of racism, sexism, and cruelty - not just the President, or the Congress, or the Supreme Court, but the people. And this truth holds no matter what your political affiliations are. Simply put, we got who we asked for, but it is becoming clear that few people are getting what they wanted. They didn’t want prices to rise, civil rights abused and repealed, immigrants terrorized, federal workers furloughed, imperiled health insurance, and new wars, just like the Israelites didn’t want to be starved, attacked by armies, plagues or animals, or marched off against their will to Assyria or Babylon. But that’s what they got. They thought wrong and did wrong, and they got abysmal results. How can we expect a different outcome? America then isn’t getting bad things because of who our leaders are; rather, we are getting these things because of who we are and the leaders we have chosen.

  The things we are seeing and experiencing in this country are not subtle at all, but almost comically absurd, and we are presented with a new absurdity every single day. Many think it is because of the President, without stopping to consider what God Himself may be doing in all this. It is clear – at least to me – that God is orchestrating all this absurdity for His good and righteous purposes, just as He did in the Kingdoms of old of Israel and Judah. He did this before with the Prophets of the Old Testament, making people see and experience terrifying and outrageous things – multiyear droughts, storms, massive die-offs of soldiers in battle set against His will. He is slowly turning up the temperature every day, not to boil us to instant death, but to awaken us to His displeasure with our hearts and our actions. God made the prophet Hosea marry a prostitute. He made the prophet Isaiah walk around naked and barefoot for three years. He made Ezekiel eat bread baked over cow excrement. He even had the Israelites endure super-duper wrong Pharoah and many of the plagues the Egyptians endured, right alongside of them. In each case, the goal was to bring people to repentance, spiritual transformation, and reliance on Him. I believe that is the purpose and the goal of the Lord now in the current state of our nation.

  Men and women of God, ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ - we need a National Convocation of Repentance and Spiritual Renewal in Washington, D.C. at a time appointed by the Holy Spirit. It is ESSENTIAL that this NOT be a political rally with a cross or Star of David in front of it. The people will detect the manipulation, the Holy Spirit will be deeply grieved and offended, and the nation will be no better for the effort. Such a convocation may bring about profound political sea change, or it may transform the hearts and minds of the leaders we now have – which outcome manifests is up to God. Your job is to collectively preach a Gospel of self-examination and repentant transformation and renewal that helps our citizenry understand that God is not going to let us be satisfied in America until we make our thoughts, hearts, and conduct toward Him and one another satisfactory to Him.  I am urging Christian leaders nationwide to organize such a convocation. I pray the Holy Spirit will spur you to action as it has me in writing to you.

  America does not need a physician to be cured of its ills, nor does it need a charismatic politician, or technological genius, or a man or woman of untold wealth - what America needs is a word in season. It needs the preaching of a message that summons the Holy Spirit to move through the nation. America needs to repent and submit to the heart of Christ. It needs a preacher; in fact, it needs many. That is what many of you are. For the love of God (literally), come together and preach that repentant, transforming Word in Washington, D.C. and call Americans from every corner of America to hear it and act on it. It is the only way to defeat our current enemy, and that enemy is not any elected official in and of his or herself. It is the same enemy we have had since the Fall – it is the devil. Come against him with repentant hearts and prayerful action. And I wish you a “blessed harassment.”

Respectfully Submitted,

Darryl L. Fortson, M.D.

Las Vegas, Nevada