Is Roe v. Wade’s Reversal a Sign God Is Moving Again in America?
Less than a month after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, I had the opportunity to give a talk in DC on “The Judiciary.”
I was on a spiritual high still reeling with joy that the Supreme Court had voted to reverse the curse of Roe. During the talk, I went a bit off script and called out to a friend in the crowd. That’s not normal to do during a speech, but a point needed to be made and my friend in the audience could help.
Allan Parker is a dear friend, a brilliant attorney, and president of The Justice Foundation. He worked faithfully for decades to reverse Roe. In addition to being a national leader in litigation and policy, Allan loves the Father deeply and is a key leader in our prayer calls.
So during my talk in DC, I called out to Allan from the podium: “Hey Allan, if one year ago we had surveyed 100 top leaders in the pro-life movement and asked them if Roe would be reversed in the next year, how many of those 100 would have said “Yes?” He paused and said, “Probably not one of us.”
And he was right. His answer was not intended as an indictment of the pro-life movement, but rather as a way to recognize the absolute miraculous and merciful move of God to reverse Roe.
President Trump said the same thing after Roe was reversed. Fox News reported that “[w]hen asked whether he feels he played a role in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, after having appointed three conservative justices to the high court, the former president told Fox News: ‘God made the decision.’”
Trump was humble and refused to take credit because he knew this was a miracle of God. In fact, it was the mercy and grace of God.
There is a key difference between mercy and grace. Mercy occurs when we are spared a punishment that we deserve. Grace occurs when we receive a reward we do not deserve.
A wonderful picture of the mercy and grace of God is seen in the book, movie, and musical Les Miserables. Jean Valjean is a convict recently released from prison who is housed and fed by Bishop Myriel. During the night, Jean gets up and is in the process of stealing the church’s silver when he is discovered by the bishop. Jean beats the bishop to the ground and runs away with the stolen silver. When the police arrest Jean and return him to the bishop,
the bishop shows mercy on Jean by falsely claiming that Jean did not steal the silver but was given it by the bishop. Jean is spared punishment. That is the picture of mercy.
But then the bishop does something even more shocking. He shows Jean grace by falsely claiming that Jean forgot to take the bishop’s gift of the silver candlesticks. The bishop then proceeds to fill Jean’s sack with the candlesticks. That is a picture of grace.
Like Jean Valjean, the prodigal son was welcomed home by the father with both mercy and grace. He deserved punishment but was mercifully spared. He did not deserve a reward, but he was graciously kissed back to life and restored to sonship.
Father God did the same for the prodigal Supreme Court with the reversal of Roe. America deserved punishment for Roe’s government-sanctioned child genocide. But God was merciful and spared us the totality of the punishment we deserved and instead topped His mercy with the gracious undeserved gift of the reversal of Roe.
The Gracious Kiss of the Reversal of the Curse of Roe
On June 24, 2020, God reversed Roe via an opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. But back on January 29, 2006—two days before Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the US Supreme Court—I was thinking and praying about the day when Roe would be reversed. I wrote down my impressions that day. Of course, I had no idea then that Justice Alito would write the opinion reversing Roe, but God did. After Roe was reversed, I looked back at that 2006 writing and was struck by how the Father was encouraging us back in 2006 and how the ultimate reversal of Roe played out with Justice Alito writing the opinion.
The following are those prayerful impressions that were written in 2006.
Is God Breathing on America?
January 29, 2006
America is in desperate need of life. Our spiritual condition parallels our natural condition. Both conditions have experienced much death in the last few decades. In order to be renewed, we need God to breathe life into us.
God Brings Life Through His Breath
God is the same today as He was in the beginning. He always brings life the same way—through His breath.
Since creation God has always brought life through His breath. In Genesis 2:7, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Today, God still brings life through breath. Jesus Christ explains in John 3:1-21, that we must be born a second time of the Spirit of God, by way of spiritual breath. In verses 5, 6, and 8 Jesus speaks of birth by the Spirit. The Greek word for “Spirit” is pneuma, which is translated: “breath, or a current of air.” The root word pneo literally means “to breathe hard.” (The emphasis in this paragraph and throughout the below excerpt is from my writing in 2006.)
In the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, God shows us that He brings life to a Nation in the same way that He brings life to a person—by His breath. In verses one through fourteen, God takes Ezekiel in the Spirit and puts him in the midst of a great valley of dry bones. Our situation in America today is similar to the situation that Israel faced: “our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off” Ezekiel 37:11.
Ezekiel walked in the midst of the valley of dry bones and then God asked him whether the bones could live. In short, God asked Ezekiel whether he believed that God was able to make these bones live. Of course, the correct answer should have been: “Yes Sir.” But Ezekiel, like many of us, lacked faith and bashfully answered: “Oh Lord God, You know.” Americans, like Ezekiel, have had their faith weakened by their experience. We have walked a long time through the death and dryness of this Nation, and we should guard against having bashful faith in the ability of our God.
God wants to perform a “dry bones” level miracle in this Nation. He is able and the time is ripe, but He has ordained to first move His people to pray for the miracle in faith. We are praying for big miracles in America. It is one thing to ask God to perform a miracle and heal a virus; another to ask Him to heal cancer; another to ask Him to raise the dead; another to ask Him to raise the decaying dead like Lazarus. But the situation that Ezekiel experienced was far worse; he was asked whether God could breathe life again into not just one person but a whole nation of people who were dead, whose skin, flesh, and sinews had decayed to dust, and whose bones were scattered together in a valley.
In verses four through eight of the story, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones: “Again, He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know I am the Lord.’”’ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.”
In these verses God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them that—in the future—God would cause breath to enter them. God said: “I will (future tense) cause breath to enter you.” Ezekiel obeyed God and at the conclusion of verse eight, the bones, sinews, flesh and skin have come together. Like in Genesis 2:7 there is a body, but that body is still without life, because the breath of God has not yet entered the body.
In Ezekiel 37:9 God tells Ezekiel to prophesy (present tense) to the breath to enter the body and bring life now: “Also, He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’”’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army.”
God brings life through breath. America needs life, so America must pray for God to breathe life into our dead situations. In many instances, our dead situations have entered in through the wickedness that has been sanctioned through the Supreme Court. But God has called His people to pray over these dead situations and—like Ezekiel did in verse seven—they have. But now God is calling us to pray in the present tense—like Ezekiel did in verses nine and ten. God is asking us to pray the breath forth from the four winds to breathe into this Nation and into this Supreme Court so that these slain may live.
The Name “Alito” Means “Breath”
It is significant that we are now in the midst of the appointment, confirmation, and the coming investiture of Samuel Alito into the United States Supreme Court. The Court through its decisions represents the areas of this Nation that are most in need of the life of God. We need God to breathe life into the Court.
Judge Samuel Alito’s name is interesting. He is Italian and in Italian the name “Alito” means “breath.” While it seems that Samuel Alito will be a good justice, like all of us—he will have his good days and his bad days. Of course, God is not telling us to put our hope in any man, but rather He is telling us that now is the day that He wants to breathe life into the Supreme Court and this Nation. God is bringing renewal to this Nation and He is bringing it through judicial renewal at the Supreme Court.
God is directing us to pray now for the breath of life to enter the Court. God wants to send the breath, but He is asking us—like he asked Ezekiel—to tell the breath of life to enter this dead situation. We should pray now against the powers and principalities that have ruled over the Court and, according to Ephesians 6:12, we should pull them down in the spirit now.
History has its contrasting seasons of labor and victory. President Ronald Reagan endured a season of labor and spoke of the fall of the Berlin Wall before it ever happened, but there came a day of victory when it actually fell in the now. Likewise, generations labored against the Soviet Union, but there was a moment in time when it fell in the now. For over a generation we Americans have prayed for renewal in America and for life to enter the Court—and our day of victory in the spirit is now. Now is the day that God desires to breathe the breath of life into the Court and for the day of victory in the natural to come quickly.
The prayers of the saints have inflicted a devastating toll on the spiritual forces that have held this Nation in bondage by ruling over the Supreme Court. The spiritual forces of wickedness that have reigned over this Nation through the Supreme Court are reeling like a dazed boxer. The round after round after round pressing of intercessors has worn these forces down to the point that they are ready to fall to the canvas. Now is not the time to fight as we normally fight. Now is the time to go for the knockout. Now is the time to pray with ferocious force and confidence.
The Name “Samuel” Means “Heard by God”
Judge Samuel Alito’s first name “Samuel” literally means “heard by God.” In the Old Testament book of First Samuel, chapter 1, there was a woman named Hannah whose womb was barren and without life. Hannah was not satisfied with this curse of death, and she asked God for life in her womb. God heard her prayer and gave her a child and she named him “Samuel” because this name literally means “heard by God.”
In America, we have been praying for renewal in this Nation and, like Hannah, we have been praying for life in the womb. We too have been “heard by God,” and He is sending life to the womb and renewal to our Nation through the Judiciary.
Conclusion
God is directing us to pray now for the breath of life to enter the Court. Again, God is not telling us to put our confidence in Samuel Alito—God is telling us to go for the victory in prayer now. God wants to send the breath—but He is asking us like he asked Ezekiel—to tell the breath of life to enter this dead situation. We should pray now against the powers and principalities that have ruled over the Court and we should forcefully and with confidence pull them down now.
God is breathing life into America, and He has given us the honor of praying it forth.
In the ensuing 16 years, I did not think too much about what I wrote back in 2006. However, in 2022 when Justice Alito wrote the opinion reversing Roe, I revisited my old writing from 2006. For me, it was encouraging to remember that for 16 years before Roe was reversed, God was urging us to pray for Samuel Alito because God knew He would use a man whose name means “breath” to breathe life back to this nation by reversing the curse of Roe.
God could have reversed Roe in 2006, but He didn’t. He told us to pray for it, He wanted us to follow the lead of Ezekiel. God wanted us to:
Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’” So, I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army (Ezekiel 37:9-10 NKJV).
The reversal of Roe is just the beginning of the Supreme Court’s transformation. God is still moving at the Court and He wants to use our Supreme Court justices to raise up this nation from death to life.
