A number of faith leaders gathered around U.S. President Donald Trump, laying their hands on him and praying for "supernatural wisdom, guidance and protection" during a prayer session at the Oval Office on on Monday.
Evangelical pastor Rodney Howard-Browne shared a photo of the prayer circle, in which President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence can be seen closing their eyes and bowing their heads.
He captioned the photo: "Yesterday I was asked by Pastor Paula White-Cain to pray over our 45th President - what a humbling moment standing in the Oval Office - laying hands and praying for our President - Supernatural Wisdom, Guidance and Protection - who could ever even imagine - wow - we are going to see another great spiritual awakening."
Others pictured in posts from the Oval Office included Jack Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and Michele Bachmann, the former Republican congresswoman from Minnesota.
Johnnie Moore, a former senior vice president at Liberty University in Virginia, was also at the meeting and later told CNN that the gathering happened after a number of national faith leaders were invited to meet the President as they met with representatives from the Office of Public Liaison.
"We similarly prayed for President Obama but it's different with President Trump," Moore said. "When we are praying for President Trump, we are praying within the context of a real relationship, of true friendship."
The pastor described Trump as "absolutely confident, entirely in command" during the meeting.
"He was also in good spirits," Moore said. "He was as strong and focused as I have ever seen him."
The president won an overwhelming 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in the November election, notes the AP, and a recent Pew Research Center survey marking his first 100 days in office found three-fourths of white evangelicals approved of his performance as president.
In a speech delivered at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's annual conference in June, Trump vowed to "always support our evangelical community and defend your right and the right of all Americans to follow and to live by the teachings of their faith."
"And as you know, we're under siege. We will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever. You fought hard for me and now I'm fighting hard for all of you," Trump said.
Dr. Jerry A. Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), told The Gospel Herald evangelicals should be "excited" about the measures Trump has taken to protect religious freedom.
"It's very encouraging," he said. "There's a change of tone, a change of atmosphere, a change of direction. We had been going in a direction of discrimination against religion, against Christians, against Christian speech, religious speech."
"Religious freedom is clearly a high priority for this White House," he said. "That's new. That wasn't a high priority for the last White House."
