Lou Engle, a dominionist prayer warrior who believes it is the church’s vocation to “rule history with God,” will host a two-day prayer rally at Cleveland’s The Q sports arena this weekend. Engle’s event is being promoted by POTUS Shield, a group of Donald Trump-supporting “prophets” and apostolic Christian leaders who believe that the president was anointed by God. (Engle thought the same thing about Sarah Palin.)
Engle and his colleagues believe that this weekend’s rally in Cleveland will help bring about the fulfillment of the so-called “revival man” prophecy, promulgated by a late prophet Bob Jones. Jones envisioned a Gulliver-like figure laying across a map of the United States with his head in Cleveland. (Cincinnati got his reproductive organs.) Engle believes his rally will spark the next Great Awakening, a spiritual revival that will shake America and help bring about the return of Christ. POTUS Shield is planning rallies and organizing events around the country between now and the 2018 mid-terms, with some locations chosen based on the “revival man” prophecy.
Engle has made a name for himself over the years with huge prayer rallies in stadiums and arenas, often connected to upcoming elections, such as the anti-marriage-equality Prop 8 referendum in California in 2008. A 2011 rally in Detroit was designed as spiritual warfare against the area’s Muslims.
The 2013 documentary “God Loves Uganda” showcased Engle at his “The Call” rally in Uganda, standing with speakers calling for passage of the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Act. Engle believed that Africa was a “firepot of spiritual renewal and revival” and that Uganda had a special prophetic destiny. Engle told the crowd he was “called” to encourage the church in Uganda to take a stand for righteousness.
Earlier this year, Engle called on Christians to engage in prayer and fasting to protect President Trump from a global witchcraft attack. At a POTUS Shield gathering in March, he called for God to sweep away federal judges who uphold Roe v. Wade, suggesting that God could either convert or kill them.
