People of faith all over the world are entering the most holy and sacred part of the year as we prepare to remember what Jesus did on the Cross and celebrate His resurrection three days later. It’s safe to say that the Easter season, during Passover and the Holy Week, will see millions more attend week-long services and events than any other time of the year. While we can take every precaution that is recommended in the natural to deal with the Coronavirus — as people of faith, there is so much more we can do in the supernatural.

Throughout modern history, in every century and on every continent, when confronted with the dire tragedies of this world, people of faith have been compelled by forces in another world and have stood their ground in prayer and in deed. The spread of this deadly virus is the greatest threat of this hour and the church needs to rise up and respond.

Send the Paul Reveres

I am calling on all houses of faith to send out the Paul Reveres and call every believer and especially the intercessors to their post to pray for the end of this virus and for the healing hand of God to intervene. Don’t wait until it’s at the door of your house of worship or your flock, congregation, or parish. The time is now and the call is urgent.

In Numbers 16:46-48, we find a plague spreading throughout the camp when Moses called for swift action:

Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them…” So Aaron took the censer as Moses had ordered and ran into the midst of the assembly. And seeing that the plague had begun among the people, he offered the incense and made atonement for the people. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was halted.

The censer carried the incense which was a type and a shadow of our prayers, our praise and our worship. Please join me and hundreds of thousands of others this week as we lift our prayers, our praise and our worship to the God who hears and who is all powerful. Let us stand between the living and the dead, asking Him to halt the virus that is among us.

I am asking religious leaders and believers of all ages, creeds, and cultures from all over the globe to call your people to prayer for a miraculous end to this evil virus. And when it is ended, for all glory and credit to go to the God who stopped it in its tracks.

God Hears Our Prayers

Take courage knowing that we pray to the God who hears our prayers. There is no need for panic or despair. We don’t receive our peace from the evening news or the pundits and daily talk shows. We are a people of hope carrying a message of grace, mercy, and salvation to a world in desperate need of hope, grace, mercy and salvation.

There is a passage of scripture that believers throughout the centuries have embraced when trouble or darkness was crouching at their door. I think it is very appropriate for the situation that we face today:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly plague. He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the calamity that destroys at noon.

Though a thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, no harm will come near you.

— Psalm 91:1-7

An extraordinary problem requires a supernatural response. Fearless prayer and intercession is what is needed in this moment — and it’s what I am asking you to do until the plague has lifted and the threat has been subdued.

Jentezen Franklin is the Senior Pastor of Free Chapel, a multi-campus church. Each week his television program, Kingdom Connection, is broadcast on major networks all over the world. A New York Times best-selling author, Jentezen has written ten books — including his most recent, Acres of Diamonds, Love Like You’ve Never Been Hurt, the groundbreaking Fasting and Right People-Right Place-Right Plan.