'Pray It Down': How Believers Looked to Heaven in the Midst of 'Monster' Storm Florence
At a time when all eyes focused on the skies watching for Hurricane Florence, believers across the country looked toward heaven for an answer to prayer.
From faith leaders like Paula White and Kenneth Copeland to school children at Wayne Christian School in Goldsboro, North Carolina, people asked God for a miracle.
Although forecasters predicted Hurricane Florence to be a so-called "monster" storm, many were asking God to do what might seem impossible to those who don't believe.
"At that point, they were saying it was going to be either a four or a five," Pastor Cyndi Foster told CBN News. "We began to pray specifically to bring it to a two because then it would not be one of the biggest ones in history."
Foster leads a church in Newport News, Virginia, and when parts of the state were put under a mandatory evacuation, she decided to stay and pray.
She headed to church to prepare her congregation to seek the Lord.
"Every believer has divine protection if they walk in their authority," she said. "And I thought, 'Let me teach these people how to make sure their homes are safe and their families are safe.'"
"The Lord began to speak to me towards the end of the message and He really put on my heart that this hurricane was going to come but that we can begin to pray it down," she continued.
It wouldn't be the first time God would answer prayer about a storm.
In 1961, CBN founder Dr. Pat Robertson gathered with other Christian believers to pray against a hurricane.
They watched in amazement as the storm moved out to sea.
Dr. Joel Palser, CBN's chaplain, says at times like these, Christians should believe God to move.
"It's our privilege to go to prayer with Jesus, our master intercessor," he said. "He lives to intercede. Shouldn't we follow Jesus in intercession?"
Apostle Guillermo Maldonado agrees.
Last year, his church, King Jesus International Ministries, faced potential destruction from Hurricane Irma, which was headed toward Miami.
"All the predictions were it was coming to hit Miami," he explained. "I gathered all my leadership and I gathered all my elders and we started praying."
Maldonado believes that Christians must understand the power and authority they have in order to see the miraculous, even when science and nature say otherwise.
"We started praying, commanding that hurricane to dissipate, disintegrate, and then we start praying and it slowed down," Maldonado recalled. "And little by little it went from 4, 3, to 2 and at the end it became a tropical storm."
By Sunday, Hurricane Florence weakened to a tropical depression but not before devastating parts of the Carolinas.
However, even in the face of death and destruction, people are still relying on their faith.
A photo of the Wilmington Fire Department praying on the scene of an accident has now gone viral.
The firefighters and rescue workers prayed after discovering the bodies of a mother and her 8-month-old who lost their lives after a massive tree fell on their home.
"These firefighters were out at the height of this storm working this rescue. (It's) very, very difficult," Buddy Martinette, Wilmington fire chief, told ABC News.
