January 16, 2005 - Pray for the Nations
It’s exciting to look at what God is doing in the world and at the same time we can’t give up after the good things happen; there are many things that are not so good that still need prayer!! We need to increase our prayer for the upcoming elections in Iraq. Pray for the protection for those who are assisting in setting up the election facilities and pray for increased courage in the hearts of the Iraqi’s to press through the battle to vote.
Thank you for your continued prayer and intercession for events around the world,
Dana on behalf of the Martha Lucia and the Watchman Network
Government Officials and Elections worldwide
I have read many emails stating the need to raise our prayer coverage for President Bush. Please continue to pray for his protection and for the wisdom he needs as a national and world leader. Pray that the right people will be selected in the staff positions that need to be filled. Pray for his family. Just because the election is over, we can’t let down.
As Paul wrote to Timothy – pray for those who are in authority. Pray for those nations where there will be elections this year, praying especially the upcoming election in Iraq. We received an email from a soldier in Iraq requesting prayer coverage for their protection as they deliver the voting boxes throughout the country.
Chuck Pierce provided the following about the Iraqi elections:
We feel like the elections were a focus to defeat the hordes of hell that we find linked into the Babylonian structure. What we are seeing in the physical in Iraq is a picture of the spiritual.
Pastor Dutch Sheets said: “There is no doubt that much of what is happening currently in Iraq is spiritual in nature. Do not focus on the politics and do not expect our military to win this war on their own. We, the prayer army, will determine the outcome. Do not move on your own understanding but focus your prayers and thinking in a new way. Let’s break through this situation. The outcome will influence the courts for years, if not decades, to come.” The Babylonian structure is a satanic stronghold that affects the world.
Witchcraft is
coming against the soldiers in Iraq and affecting their ability to
war. Isaiah 47:9 talks
about the power of sorceries of Babylon being broken. This is
affecting how the war is being fought, how the elections of
government are being established, and how the harvest of the earth
and its riches will occur.
Jean Steffenson, who has worked with Native American leaders
for years over broken covenants and land issues in our nation, wrote
the following:
“Iraq has been constantly in my spiritual radar. I have been in
intense prayer regarding Iraq. I keep crying out for the Lord's
intervention. I sense a real urgency from God for His army to close
some ancient gates and advance on the kingdom of darkness.
The land of Iraq is soaked with blood and some of it with the
blood of the martyrs. I saw hoards of hell coming from the
underworld going through a conduit and forming a dark covering over
the land. As you well know this is a horrific spiritual battle and
it has been intensifying.
I keep thinking that this is the year for secrets and
mysteries to be revealed. There are some things that God wants in
place and established in this window of time. There must be a shift
now to create a clear sound. God made it very clear to me that this
is a governmental issue. It is not just the government that America
wants, the Shiites or any others in Iraq.
It is God's intended government for
Iraq, which will take the involvement of His Kingdom people.”
We must cry for the Ancient of Days to release ancient wisdom for this present day victory. A Scripture that has revolutionized my prayer life has been 1 Corinthians 2:6-10. “We speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of the age, nor the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. Eye has not seen or ear heard…the things prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit.”
Great Britain
A nation wide prayer vigil was held January 8 and 9th – a rallying of the troops – to pray for those involved in the BBC and the support of showing “Jerry Springer – the Opera.” The film accuses Jesus of being a sexual pervert. We have been told:
“People are inundating the BBC with complaints and also the Queen who (from 1521) holds the office of Defender of the Christian faith. The BBC was founded in 1923 "to sew seeds of decency" and this is on its foundation stone. Its first boss (Director General) was a Biblical Christian who set the highest moral standards and earned its reputation. In fact anti-telly preachers in the 1950s and 60s helped cause Christians to leave jobs in TV and the vacuum was filled by others. Sincerely, the BBC is now almost totalitarian in its being....anti-Israel, pro-evolution, anti-Bible, anti- Jesus, anti-USA, anti-President Bush, pro-abortion, pro-profanity, pro-gay marriage, anti-heterosexual marriage, etc. However, in January last year the Director General and Chairman of Governors lost their jobs within 24 hours. Prime Minister Blair is open to ending its funding (it has never shown adverts but been financed by the government through an annual tax on owning a TV).”
Ukraine
INFORMATION FROM OUR FRIENDS IN UKRAINE
DISTRIBUTED BY GLOBAL HARVEST MINISTRIES
We have received some incredible reports from Ukraine since the election. With the win of Victor Yuschenko the body of believers there is expecting good changes and that this win will send a positive signal to many other Soviet republics.
Believers are reporting that "Maidan" which was the central square in Rostov where the protesters were gathered was forever changed. In fact, Maidan became the name of the revolution with newspapers writing about the "spirit" of Maidan, which the believers are sharing was indeed the spirit of God. Reports are that even unbelievers, when visiting the site of the demonstrations asked each other about the unusual feelings they were experiencing.
Many believers were there day and night praying for Ukraine and because of the strong presence of God, many unbelievers heard about Jesus and the truth of the gospel. One pastor was allowed by Yuschendo to lead the entire square in prayer for Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands stood in this central square and prayed to God! What a cause for praise and celebration.
Many who visited the site of the protest in Maidan say they will never be the same. They experienced a spirit of unity, freedom, love and generosity that was an outpouring of the spirit of God. Expensive restaurants brought prepared meals to feed the people in the square and offices in the center of Kiev furnished hot tea and coffee.
President Kuchma did not resort to the use of military forces even though Yanookovich insisted on it. During the two weeks of revolution the crime in Kiev is reported to have been reduced by some 20% and although Kiev did not work for those two weeks the industrial output in November was reported by officials to be at a record high!
Please continue to offer praise to the Lord for what HE has done in this nation. Continue to intercede for this nation to become a powerful, shining example of the light of Christ among the former Soviet Bloc nations. Pray that all remaining corruption will be exposed and that many will find the truth, freedom and love of Jesus Christ.
THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR UKRAINE AND PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THEM!!
Tsunami – a response from a Moslem
Tsunami Report
Update From Ibu Hana Indonesia -January 4, 2005
By Hana Ananda
(Note: This is only a portion of this report for the full report, Go
Here:
http://www.openheaven.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000517.html )
Today, I received an email; forwarded to me from a Moslem who wrote it to counter what the radical Moslems do (we are facing a real spiritual warfare between the light and the darkness). Her email is so interesting that I will quote it here. (I can forward the email in Indonesian)
I cried when I saw such great care of the white people, the Jews,
the Chinese, even the Indians who are all heathens and idol
worshippers, who are often persecuted by the Moslems who have the
same religion as me.
I plead to you, all Moslems, learn from today's culture, which is
very different from the culture during the time of Prophet Mohammad,
who robbed the passing Jews! Let this earthquake and the Tsunami
that are so ghastly, and assume it, take it as Gods direction of
what we, as the Moslems should do to dedicate ourselves to humanity,
disregarding religions, without boasting that our religion is the
best and that people from other religions should be destroyed by
God.
Look at how all of them help us, wretched people who are disaster -
stricken, yet we are shamelessly ungrateful. They are the ones whom
we persecute; we close the doors of their churches, We force their
Christian schools to teach Islam religion, we burn their churches,
We burn their shops, we rape their virgins/girls, we even slander
them, accusing them saying that they are the enemies of our
religion.
Now, when we are punished by God, they are all united to defend us
and to save us, and yet they are the people whom we always hate and
treat as our enemies.
Al Quran has led us astray to destroy the idol worshippers who
actually have gracious and merciful hearts. Al Quran has deceived us
to destroy their innocent idols!!! Why should we hurt their feelings
in their belief towards their statutes? Why should we consider them
as our enemies because we do not worship their statutes? They do not
believe in God, but they never offend nor despise our God, and none
of tem has ever destroyed our mosques as what we have done to their
churches, temples and their statutes.
At this moment when we are mournful because of disaster, attacking
us, MUI (The Assembly of Indonesian Moslem) claimed that the ones
who go to heaven are only the Moslems, while those who are not
Moslems go to hell. Is that our attitude to express our thanks to
those who help us by cursing them only because they do not believe
in Islam, which we believe.
Have you ever heard the Hindus from India, who also help us now,
claim that only the Hindus go to Nirvana and those who are not
Hindus go to hell? Never do we hear any evil words spoken towards
us, the Moslems just as what we usually say to them. Why should we
not pray for the idol worshippers that they may go to the same
eternal heaven as we, the Moslems go ?????
Now, just watch on the TV, thousands of people whom you consider as
your enemies, and whom you persecute come together only to save our
lives, to ease our suffering. They even ignored their New Year
Celebration. They give their donation with their strength and their
money. The Japanese, the idol worshippers have donated 500 million
dollars that excel the Americans donation, which is $350 million
dollars. They compete to help us, to bless us and to make us happy,
while we always compete to curse them, to mock at them, to slander
them, and to persecute them. We danced , we rejoiced when one of our
brothers of the same faith purposely destroy WTC building on
September 11, 2001, then we slandered that the doer was a Jew, even
without any evidence , while the reality proved it otherwise, it was
done by our people who have the same religion as we.
Once again, my brethren from the same faith and religion learn from
this Judgment of God, that we are not supposed to do so cruelly and
inhumanly to them who consider us as their brethren, while we
consider them as our enemies.
Once again, I CRIED WHEN I WATCHED HOW MY BRETHREN WERE RESCUED BY
THOSE WHOM WE HAVE PERSECUTED ONLY BECAUSE WE OBEYED THE
COMMANDMENTS OF QURAN WHICH IS NO LONGER APPLICABLE NOW!.
My conscience knocks the hearts of all Moslems!!
-------------------------------------
This is very bold
of her to write such statement in the email, and website.
I believe God has His own way of using very simple people who are
obedient to do simple thing to change a nation.
Thank you dear partners, in the Body of Christ, whatever we labor
for the Lord, is never in vain, but in His own time, in His own way,
He makes is fruitful for His glory. To God be the glory!
HANA ANANDA
PHONE: 62-31-8415205; 8439189
FAX: 62-31-8414482
Gay Rights
The following highlight the magnitude of the gay and lesbian issues. We must keep praying as this is a major issue in the US and in other nations.
From American Family Association (January 5, 2005): Click here to get your copy of the Philadelphia 4 Story
On October 10,
2004, the four Christians were arrested in Philadelphia. They are
part of Repent America.
Along with founder Michael Marcavage, members of
Repent America—with
police approval--were preaching near
Outfest, a homosexual
event, handing out Gospel literature and carrying banners with
Biblical messages.
When they tried to speak, they were surrounded by a group of radical
homosexual activists dubbed the
Pink Angels. A videotape of the incident shows the
Pink Angels interfering
with the Christians’ movement on the street, holding up large pink
symbols of angels to cover up the Christians' messages and blowing
high pitched whistles to drown out their preaching.
Rather than arrest the homosexual
activists and allow the Christians to exercise their First Amendment
rights, the
Philadelphia police arrested and jailed the Christians!
They were charged with eight crimes, including
three felonies: possession of
instruments of crime (a bullhorn), ethnic intimidation (saying that
homosexuality is a sin), and inciting a riot (reading from the Bible
some passages relating to homosexuality) despite the fact that no
riot occurred.
You may think I am exaggerating.
I'm not. Our AFA Center for Law and Policy is representing these
four individuals at no cost. We will take this case all the way to
the Supreme Court if necessary to get justice.
Excerpts from the New York Times (January 11, 2005):
W
Florida's is the only such statute in the country, and the prohibition is the only categorical adoption ban on the state's books. Florida evaluates adoption applications from all other would-be adoptive parents, including those who have failed at previous adoptions and those with a history of drug abuse or domestic violence, on a case-by-case basis.