A Million Women: An Esther Call on the Mall
- Claire Louise
- Mar 15
- 6 min read
Last year on October 12th 250,000 (mostly) women gathered to the DC Mall in Washington DC, USA to pray and fast together. Around 4 million people also watched the livestream from all over the world.
I was incredibly thankful to go with a team from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) and Bethel Church. The name of the event was an 'A Million Women - An Esther Call on the Mall'. It was organised by Lou Engle's ministry and partnered with many others. Lou Engle has a call from God to dedicate his life to praying and fasting for global revival, and to mobilise the church worldwide to join in prayer. For over 20 years he has organised mass prayer gatherings of tens and hundreds of thousands of people. You can see a short video on his calling here:
Lou visited Bethel Church in April last year and announced the Esther Call on the Mall. As he shared this, I was reminded of the countless prophesies I have been given about prophetically being an Esther. I also remembered back in 2016 whilst I was in a season of deep prayer and fasting, I had supernatural shadows appear all around my bedroom walls which looked like the shapes of many of the buildings in DC. I had never seen this sign and wonder before, and I have never seen it again. God also began speaking to me about Abraham Lincoln and I had visions of the Washington Monument. At this time, I didn't know who Abraham Lincoln was or what the Washington Monument was, nor that they were right next to each other. As I prayed God highlighted to me that Lincoln was an abolitionist who God used through politics. In this season God spoke so much about DC and politics that I wondered if I could end up in American politics. I am still unpacking the prophetic revelation from this season, but from it I knew there would be a time that I would go to the mall. When Lou invited us, I knew that I had to be at this prayer gathering.
Our teams were in DC for only two full days. The first day the BSSM and Bethel Church teams split into small groups, and we prayed, took communion and worshipped at different locations around DC. My team prayed over the White House, the Supreme Court, US Capitol, and the Washington Monument. It felt very significant. The following day I also had the opportunity to visit and pray at the Lincoln Memorial and pray more at the Washington Monument. I also had the opportunity to briefly join Nate Johnston's prayer gathering. Him and his wife Christy are prophetic voices from Australia to the nations and have been instrumental in this prayer movement alongside Lou in the USA. What God will do in the USA will also hit the shores of Australia. On the first evening our teams worshipped together on the DC mall with a ministry called 'Davids Tent DC', who have had a 24/7 prayer tent for 10 years on the DC mall.
The following day was the main event. As our teams arrived on the DC Mall at 8am, the sun was still low in the sky. As we walked towards the stage, behind the stage and to our places you could feel the great expectancy of what was about to happen. We were very thankful to have the honour of being in the front section for the whole day. We began to dance and worship as the fields became full of people.
Then for the next 10 hours we prayed, sang, danced, waved flags, shouted and read scripture together. It was incredibly powerful. It was hot and we were in direct sunlight, but it did not stop the fervency of prayer all over the Mall! At one point I looked down next to me to see my flags and silks, water bottle, shoes off, bible open and felt that it summarised my experience of the day!
We prayed into many global issues such as abortion laws, gender identity and sexuality, sexual abuse, USA politics, and the Gospel going forth. We repented on behalf of the nations. There were also calls to personal repentance and times we gathered around those to pray and release healing and deliverance.
One of the most impactful moments for me, was the personal calls to repentance and prayer. They asked those who had had an abortion to stand. We then gathered around these women to pray for them, for them to experience the love of the Father, and for Him to take away the guilt and shame of this. Another moment, women who had been sexually abused stood up all over the field, and those gathered around to pray for healing, and restoration. Then those who were struggling with gender identity and sexuality were called to stand, and again others gathered to pray for these people. These moments really touched me as I felt God's heart. There was no judgement, guilt or shame as thousands stood up for these things all across the mall but instead, they were met by love, acceptance and healing. You could see and hear people weeping as they received the love of God and received deliverance all over the mall.
Another significant moment was as they were calling out women evangelists who are called to go to the darkest nations of the world to rise. I felt the power of God rush through me in expectancy of what God will do through my life.
We sealed the day through taking communion together as the sun was setting. The leaders of this gathering felt to literally break down an altar which represented demonic worship and idolatry. We then worshipped together with the kids dancing on the stage leading the way. Over the last couple of years God has showed me how children will lead the way in this next revival. In the last few months, I have had many visions of seeing children all across the world taking the lead, having dreams and visions, prophesying and preaching. We as a global church need to take note of this and make space for the children. They are not to stay always in separate kids' church, but to release what God has given them to all the generations.
It was a powerful day, and one that is hard to sum up. Most prayers we see answers to and some we don't get to see the answer to because of time, or the testimonies not been widely shared. There were moments that I don't yet know the significance of but overall, I am thankful to be part of this.
A Million Women just released an hour long documentary that gives highlights of the day which I think will be encouraging to those who couldn't be there or watch the livestream:
Last week Lou came to Redding, California. He has felt God call him here for 40 days to pray and fast, and it will culminate with a day of prayer and fasting for revival in USA which will go into all the world from this place. In these last few weeks God has been moving very significantly here in BSSM and Bethel Church. Many of the leaders say they haven't seen this for many years. I really believe we are on the tipping point of the Great End Time Harvest, which the Lord spoke to me about in 2022.
See Lou's video and invitation of call to prayer in Redding next month:
"if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14
God invites us to not to be passive in global issues, but to pray and fast and to take a stand in the places God has called us to. I invite you to join with what God is doing throughout the world by gathering friends and your church to regularly pray and fast together for your cities, nations and nations of the world.