PRAYER MEETING AT YALE UNIVERSITY

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at Yale University, and the Lord put a prophetic word on my heart to share. New Haven, where the college is, was initially called “New Heaven” by the Christians who settled in the county. It came from the book of Revelation, which says, "I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth." The people believed God brought them to establish a new society where Jesus Christ could be worshiped freely according to conscience and according to the Word of God. They were determined in their hearts that there would be a Bible school to train young people in the ways of God. They wanted their settlers to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ above all else.

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Beginning in Luke 19, verse 37, talking about Jesus, the Bible 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," 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 of religion we have, but we want to keep it to ourselves. We don't want this thing to be public and shouted as a crowd.

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“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 heard and understood God’s creation and purpose. “Now as He drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’”

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Jesus is saying to His people, “If you only knew what my heart was for you or understood why I've come.” He wants them to understand why they were established in the first place and what He has longed to do for them, in them, and through them. But in the case of Israel of that particular hour, Jesus said, “‘For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an 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, saying to them, ‘It is written, “My house is a house of prayer,” but you have made it a “den of thieves.”’”

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With all of its magnificent architecture, the whole of Israel had been established by God for a divine purpose. In Genesis 12:1–3, God came to a man called Abraham, and He said to him, "Get out of your country from your family and 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."

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Isn’t this what God has done in America? People came from other places trying to escape despotic leadership and the inability to worship God freely. They went to the shores of this great nation and were multiplied by God Himself. Verse three: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Our history hasn't been perfect by any stretch, but so many places in the world have been blessed because people set out 400 years ago to find a place to worship God in freedom.

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I want to read you a part of Yale University's founding charter. Yale's charter states that it was granted on account of the petitioning founders' sincere regard and zeal for upholding and propagating the Christian Protestant religion by a succession of learned and orthodox men. The desire for collegiate schools wherein youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences, which may be fitted for public employment in the church and the civil state through the blessing of Almighty God.

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While the purpose of the school was to train not only pastors but civil servants as well, the goal for all students was to produce graduates that were zealous for Christianity. The same could also be seen from the regulations that initial students copied among the following. Every student shall read the Holy Scriptures by himself every day so 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 their study, which is to know God in Christ Jesus and to lead a godly and sober life.

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Praise be to God. Seeing that God is the giver of all wisdom, 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 Yale University.

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In Israel, other generations rose and forgot their history and purpose. That's the dilemma of humankind. We can get so used to the blessing of God that we forget what it was for in the first place. Israel fell so far from its origins that the open praise of the Son of God was resisted within its ranks. There is a cry today; some stood against our meeting in this park tonight. There’s a fear that somebody might say the name Jesus. There’s fear that we might praise God openly. How far sometimes we can fall from our origins and our roots. It broke the heart of Christ on the day of Israel.

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If we all only knew what God had for us. If you could understand that He has a purpose for your life beyond anything you ever thought possible. These are giftings and abilities that can't be learned from a book and can only be received by the Spirit of God. Suppose 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. He wants to be your God and your song, to become your hope and future. Through you, He wants to be a blessing, not just where you are today, but where He will send you in the future.

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Institutions that started to glorify God can become places that steal God's intended purpose. That's what God said about the temple in Jerusalem. It was supposed to be a place of prayer, but that was stolen from the children. It was stolen from the descendants by turning it into something other than what it was founded to be. Israel and Jerusalem's fate is history. Jesus once said that every stone set upon another is now thrown down. That society was cast into the sea of the nations until God brought it back together in 1948. The future of where we stand today still hangs in the balance.

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God put on my heart to tell you that the stones of Yale University have borne witness to the prayers and praises of thousands of believers in Jesus Christ. They have recorded the prayers of the saints for 400 years. The stones of this college are hearing the prayers of the Christian union again today. They have heard the cry of every young depressed person who doesn't understand their future. The stones have heard every sigh and every cry in every dorm; they have heard yours.

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When Jesus’ generation wanted the praises of God stifled, He told them: "If these will not cry out, the stones will cry out." The stones in Yale have borne witness to the glory of God. Presidents and preachers have come out of this school. People have made a significant difference in societies in America and worldwide. I feel a yearning even in the stones to cry 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?”

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I don't know about you, but no stone is taking away my praise of God. No stone is taking my place. I will lift my voice and praise the God of my creation. I'm going to cry out for Him, and I will cry until He touches your life and sets you free—until you understand who He is and what He loves 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.”

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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. I'm not ashamed, and neither are you of the name of Jesus Christ. I fully intend to call out and believe God for a spiritual awakening until the day I die. Will it ruffle a few feathers? Yes, you better believe it; but some feathers must be ruffled. 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.