Prayer Of Intercession For Our Nation

Prophetic Warnings And Calls to Pray For Our Nation

Prayer Of Intercession For Our Nation

I was in a meeting recently where a prophet who is respected internationally brought a prophetic word to our nation of Australia.

Most of my readers do not live in Australia, but you may have heard prophetic messages this—containing warnings and calls to intercede in prayer—for your own nation.

How should we respond to a prophetic call such as this? Here are 3 ways that we can respond to a prophetic warning for our nation or region:

A. Weigh up the Prophecy and the Prophetic Ministry

One of the first questions I ask about a prophetic ministry is, ‘are they operating a New Testament (NT) paradigm?’

In the NT, prophetic warnings for individuals, groups and nations are given with the motivation of ‘prepare and protect.’ The heart of the Father shines through a NT prophecy. This is the way that prophetic ministries foretelling and warning of disasters should portray God today.

Prophets who are modeling off an Old Testament style of ministry pronounce threats of Divine judgment in the form of pending disasters. They portray God as a judge who punishes people through catastrophes. [1]

Other questions you can ask include:

  • Does this ministry exalt Jesus?
  • Is the ministry accountable?
  • Does he or she love the Church and its leaders?
  • What is the fruit of this ministry?
  • Who receives and endorses this ministry?
  • How are our own church leaders responding to this person and word? [1]

B. Remember that Prayer is about Intimacy and Being led by the Spirit

If we feel under heavy obligation or pressure to respond to a call to prayer, something is wrong.

An important part of intimacy is that God will lead you to respond in a unique way and relationship with Him, not pressure to conform.

Ask Father what your prayer assignment is. If you are a leader, ask God how you should call your church or group to respond—and pray for His anointing to be upon both your call and their response. Then, lead them to pray in faith and from intimacy with God, not fear or obligation. Remember, also, that every intercessor has a unique prayer gift and style from God.

Don’t feel inadequate or condemned if you pray personally, or as a group, for a short period and then do not feel led of the Holy Spirit to pray further. Remember that one brief, obedient and genuine faith-filled prayer is more effective than many fear-based, obligatory prayers!

Trust in the action and leadership of the Holy Spirit in and through you as you respond to God‘s call to intercede for your nation.

C. Respond and Pray in Faith, not Fear

When a respected prophetic minister calls us to intercede against demonic strategies, it is wisdom to pray—and not ignore, dismiss or shelve it.

Our initial response in prayer can be to:

  • Include prayer as part of the process of weighing up the prophetic ministry and the word.
  • Seek God for how He is calling you personally (or a group or church you lead) to respond.

It is never God’s intention for a prophetic word of warning to lead us to fear, or to pray a position of fear.

‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’ (2 Tim 1:7)

The right response is to pray in faith.

7 Faith-Filled Prayer Strategies

Some strategic ways that we can pray in faith in response to a warning such as the one we have just received in Australia are:

1. Think of ripples – pray for protection of our family and those close to us, and then our cities, and our nation.

2. Pray for God to expose and disarm demonic plans and strategies and bring them to nothing. (Eph 6:10-18) [2]

3. Pray for those in Government and those in charge of resources to be given timely wisdom, discernment and actions, so that God’s purposes are accomplished through them. (1 Tim 2:1-2)

4. Pray that people who are planning destruction repent and change their minds or are exposed before they cause harm. Pray for God’s mercy on them to draw them to faith in Christ. (2 Peter 3:9)

5. Pray for God’s purpose to be accomplished—for His Kingdom to be manifested, and for the opposite of destruction, which is salvation. (Matt 6:10, John 3:16)

6. Pray that God releases His angels to protect and help and to accomplish His purposes, including divinely positioning people. (Psalm 103:20)

7. Pray with praise and thanksgiving that God is at work, that He is in charge, that your prayers are effective (Phil 4:6)

 Notes:

[1] For Scriptural examples on this topic and enlargement on these questions, read the posts:

[2] For more thoughts on spiritual warfare and specific ways to pray, see:

  • Spiritual Warfare Strategies When Praying For Nations And Regions

Do you have any thoughts about responding to prophetic warnings for your nation or region? Leave a comment in the comments box – if this is not visible, click on this link and scroll down.

© Helen Calder Enliven Blog – Prophetic Teaching

On team with David McCracken Ministries: Prophetic Ministry That Empowers The Church

Did you receive this from a friend? Read more from Enliven Blog or sign to receive our weekly prophetic teaching updates at //www.enlivenpublishing.com/blog

Источник: //www.enlivenpublishing.com/blog/2014/07/03/prophetic-warnings-and-calls-to-pray-for-our-nation/

Prayer and the Nations

Prayer Of Intercession For Our Nation

Wars would be ended, ethnic hatreds tamed, politicians become honest, ecological restoration begun, global warming and AIDS halted, poverty reduced.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ would be provided with godly leaders, it would be renewed, revived, united in vision, mobilized for mission and readied for the return of its Head.

Jesus would return with the world evangelized and the Church complete! That is the wish.

How much of the earthly and how quickly the eternal agendas would be achieved depends on ONE activity – prayer in the name of Jesus to a loving, sovereign Father.

When man works, man works; When man prays, God works

The ministry of the children of God is not doing but praying, not strategizing, but prostrate before God seeking His will, not clever stratagies for manipulating people and events but trusting in God who moves in the hearts of even His most implacable enemies.

Through prayer Nebuchadnezzar, and today’s dictators get converted, Manassah’s and today’s persecutors repent and kingdoms of Babylon and Iron Curtains are torn down.

We do not engage in ministry and pray for God’s blessing on it, prayer IS the ministry from which all other ministries must flow.

Psalm 2 reveals the Father’s Great Commission to His Son and how the destiny of nations is tied in with their rejection of or submission to His Kingly Son. Look at the command and promises of Ps 2:8.

'Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, And dash them in pieces a potter’s vessel.'

Dare we apply this command and these promises to ourselves?

God spoke to me from Psalm 2:8 as a young Christian at university in Bristol, England. I heard for the first time of the work of the Dorothea Mission in the urban slums of Southern Africa.

I knew that God was speaking to me that this was His will for me, but I asked the Lord for scriptural confirmation, and it was this passage which spoke to me – South Africa was, for me, one of the ends of the earth for which I could ask.

I did not realize at the time that this “asking for the nations” would actually define a large part of my ministry for the next 40 years in successive editions of Operation World! Again this passage leapt to my mind. It was as if God was saying, “I called you to one end of the earth, but now I am giving you all the ends!”.

The content of this website give something of the needs and challenges of our needy, sin-sick, doomed world. The nations are there for the asking. God is calling you and me into the ministry of intercession for them.

Through these prayers much will happen – above all we could ask or expect. In this edition we have added a new feature of giving a few answers to prayers requested in earlier editions for which there has been some answer.

Daniel heard God’s voice in Daniel 7:27:

'The kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; Their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them. The cost is great, for these words were preceded in verse 21-22 by:
As I looked, this horn made war with the saints, and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgement was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints received the kingdom.'

The enemy will seek to frighten us and dangle allurements to distract us from the vision of a heavenly, eternal kingdom filled with people from every race, tribe, people and tongue. Yet Jesus offers you a share in his reign.

We may look up to Him in agony at times, but see your true position looking down with Him exercising the authority bequeathed to you by Him in the Great Commission He has given to you and every Christian.

May you become an intercessor with a world vision that prays Satan-defeating, kingdom-taking, people-reaching, captive-releasing, revival-giving, Christ-glorifying prayers.

Prayer not only changes people, situations and even the course of history, but also those who pray! It is dangerous for the enemy and also 'dangerous' for you

There is a price to pay to be a person who stands in the gap in prayer.

That price may mean becoming an answer to your own prayers in giving time, finances and even going out as a witness in your Jerusalem (where you now live), your Judea (your own country), your Samaria (the other ethnic groups in your own country) or even to the ends of the earth.

Our prayer is that many will give their whole lives for this most noble of causes – to obey Jesus’ last command in making disciples of all nations and so ready the Church and the world for the grand climax of His glorious return.

Patrick Johnstone

Источник: //www.operationworld.org/prayer-and-nations

Intercessory Prayer

Prayer Of Intercession For Our Nation

spiritual practices› Why Pray?› What Is Intercessory Prayer?

a downloadable PDF on intercessory prayer.

What's Different About Intercessory Prayer?

Intercessory prayer is not the same as prayers for yourself, or for 'enlightenment', or for spiritual gifts, or for guidance, or any personal matter, or any glittering generality. Intercession is not just praying for someone else's needs.

Intercession is praying with the real hope and real intent that God would step in and act for the positive advancement of some specific other person(s) or other entity. It is trusting God to act, even if it's not in the manner or timing we seek. God wants us to ask, even urgently.

It is casting our weakness before God's strength, and (at its best) having a bit of God's passion burn in us.

“I commend intercessory prayer, because it opens man's soul, gives a healthy play to his sympathies, constrains him to feel that he is not everybody, and that this wide world and this great universe were not after all made that he might be its petty lord, that everything might bend to his will, and all creatures crouch at his feet.”
Charles Spurgeon

Intercession In the Bible

The Bible has many cases of people standing up for others before God. The most striking example is Abraham. He took the initiative to step forward before God on behalf of his neighbors in Sodom and its area.

He cared enough to do it, even though he knew how thoroughly wicked Sodom was, and knew how furious God was about it (which explains why he was so careful in speaking to God about it). Moses also stepped in when God was angry, standing in the gap in the most literal sense : offering his own life for that of his nation.

(Thankfully, God didn't take him up on the offer.) It was part of the role of a prophet not just to speak what God speaks, but to speak with God for the people of Israel. A fine example is the exchange between the prophet Habakkuk and God, where the prophet asks for God to act against injustice, but God replies about a coming doom.

Isaiah prayed with King Hezekiah to save the nation from defeat and destruction at the hands of Assyria, and the armies were suddenly turned back (see Isaiah ch. 36-39). The master builder Nehemiah prayed to God to bring about the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of his people.

As they took their concerns to God, the key motivation behind these giants of faith was compassion. They loved the people, the culture, the faith with a love God's love, and it burned in them so much that they dared to take on God on their behalf.

Un the gods of the lore of most other lands, this God did not zap them with lightning or turn them into half-beasts. God listened to their cries — not by ignoring the wrongdoings which got the divine wrath kindled in the first place, but by saving at least some of the people and bringing them back to where they belonged.

New Testament Intercession

The New Testament has its cases of intercessory prayer. Jesus was the prime example of an intercessor. He interceded in prayer for God to bless and protect His followers. At the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

” Indeed, His whole life, His whole reason for being born, was to be a living intercession, a giving of His life to span the rift caused by our rebellion against God. Others followed Jesus' example.

Stephen's last words were an intercession on behalf of those who were killing him. Paul prayed constantly for the struggling young church, for character, behavior, witness, and wisdom.

It is Paul's regular intercession for the church and its people which sets the usual pattern for our own intercessory prayers. And Epaphras was the 'prayer wrestler' for the church in Colossae.

Even at its earliest, the young church was praying for people: for safe travel, praying that people might know Christ through other peoples' witness, praying for healing and health, for rescue, for wisdom, for childbirth, for spiritual growth, for marriages — asking God to bring benefit or blessing to people other than themselves. The others were not always beloved; they prayed for their political leaders, some of whom were out to kill them. But they knew their God was merciful and was intimately involved with what was going on in the world. And they knew they were called by God to share in that involvement.

Your Intercessory Prayer

The place where intercessory prayer must start is with you. It's great to know that others may be stepping up for someone before God, but God wants you to stand in the gap, putting something of yourself on the line. Otherwise, it's too cheap to be real. Your private devotions are not just for your own benefit.

If God's love is at work in you, you will care about others, and your love for them will lead you to take it to the ultimate Source of strength, healing, and love. Don't be fearful; be persistent and stubborn. God doesn't mind; God s to see divine love at work in you. God honors your part in the relationship.

You Never Pray Alone

It is best to always be aware that you never really pray alone. For when the honest love in you for other people causes you to ask God to act to strengthen, heal, defend, change, or bless them, there is someone else praying with you: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is leading you to pray.

When your love is not whole or your mind is not clear, the Spirit steps in for you, to express the intercession and draw you into it. Christian intercessors over the past two millenia have prayed their intercessions in a 'Trinitarian' manner : to the Father, through the Son, and in and with the Holy Spirit.

God isn't fussy about the pattern, but it helps us to see some part of how God works in prayer.

Prayer Changes As Needs Change

The intercessory prayer you first pray about someone may not be what God wants you to pray for. For instance, you might be praying to lift a burden, but the Lord might be using the burden to prepare them to do something for God. Then again, your prayer might be what God wants to happen. Thus, we are to pray listening for the Spirit, and pray that God's will be done.

I find myself concentrating better when I mutter the words; it gives my mind more focus. The mind may go off to explore something during personal devotions, but not while you're interceding for others — those others must be your first concern.

So, it's sometimes best to do it before you seek stillness (though God will sometimes lead you stillness into intercession — be open to it).

A Time For Prayer, A Time to Act

Don't be surprised if the Spirit starts tugging on your heart to take some sort of action about a matter you're praying about. You may be the answer God sends into their lives.

That's not a license to be a buttinski, stepping into everyone's private lives some sort of conquering hero. But the Spirit might be calling you to be more than a bystander. Be ready for it. Be open to it.

When you intercede in prayer, bring your knowledge, gifts, abilities, attention and energies before God and say, 'use these, if that's what it takes to set this right'.

Gifted Intercession

Anyone can pray for others and step in with God on their behalf. But some people are gifted at prayers of intercession. They have an ear and a passion for the needs of others, and take them before God even when those other people reject God.

An intercessor's heart is touched for those in need, not so much on their side as by their side and on their behalf. They have a burden for that person. They persevere. They let the Spirit give them comfort about it, instead of worrying.

And when word of results comes, they celebrate and are happy about it. If that sounds you, then you may be a gifted intercessor.

Sometimes, someone is led to be an intercessor for a specific person or mission or task. Such people are valuable even beyond donors.

Such intercessors sometimes get a strong sense of coming danger about whom they're praying for.

They often report they're driven to their knees to pray about something they can't otherwise have known was happening. Sounds weird, but it's true.

Intercessors also pray for world, national, and local political leaders. This follows in the tradition of the early church's prayers for the Roman authorities. Some people actually think it's good to pray against evildoers and oppressive leaders, even to pray for their death.

Not that God would pay any attention to you if you did. But such thinking poisons your attitude. Pray rather that the Spirit would lead them or change them.

When James and John asked for permission to do harm to their enemies by praying for divine acts of judgement, Jesus reminded them of why He was there (and they, too):

“For the Son of Man did not come to destroy peoples' lives, but to save them.”
(Luke 9:56)

Intercessory prayer aims to build people into what God wants of them, not to tear them down.

Thy Will Be Done

“Therefore faith prays in such a manner that it commits everything to the gracious will of God; it lets [God] determine whether it is conducive to his honor and to our benefit.”
Martin Luther, in a sermon on Matthew 8:1-13.

Will It Avail?

Some people claim we can ask God to do things on behalf of people, and know it will be done. It's understandable to think that, for Jesus promised that our prayers would cause things to happen, especially when we keep at it. But look again at the intercessors in the Bible. Their success was very real, but far from complete.

  • Abraham stuck his neck out with a rightly-angry God, but could only save his relatives.
  • Moses' people were spared immediate destruction, but his generation would not get the land God had promised — the next generation did.
  • All of David's deep and totally sincere weeping and begging could not save his baby son — though it did set up for the birth of his successor.
  • Jesus prayed for the unity of His followers, and the apostles prayed for the unity of the church. They gained much unity, but still had serious divisions.
  • The apostles prayed for each of their poor, but had more poor members by the day.
  • The apostles had hundreds of people constantly praying for their safety, but they died martyr's deaths.

In such cases, God's mercy does not override God's purpose nor God's justice, not to mention our own wills. We cannot fathom God's purposes or know for certain what God knows about what is to be.

God's love simply has a broader, deeper, longer work to do, and sometimes what we pray for simply cannot find a place within that work.

Intercessors sometimes must accept even the most bitter of losses, with the awareness that their prayers did not — and sometimes must not — avail. This is a hard mystery of intercession.

God Knows Best

None of us are fully aligned with God's purposes. There will always be a difference between the two. It's okay to ask for what you want from the situation; that's a part of being honest with God.

You can pray that your request somehow be found in the divine purposes, and pray for doorways to a better way if it can't be. (Maybe God will provide you a ram as with Abraham when sacrificing Isaac.

) But God may have other plans, and your part is to trust that God's plans will be best.

Intercessory prayer does not work by your own power, as if you were the Almighty. When prayer is answered, it is answered in God's way, and it may not be at all the 'victory' you are 'claiming'.

Most of the time, the Spirit's main work is to change you, to make you care more, and to get you to focus on what others are going through instead of only seeing life from where you are. Sometimes, something more happens.

“God, in giving us all free will, said to us: “Your will be done.” Some of us turn back to him and say: “My will is that your will be done.” That is obedience to the first and greatest commandment. Then, when we do that, he turns to us and says: “And now, your will be done.” And then he writes the story of our lives with the pen strokes of our own free choices.”
Peter Kreeft

Try these sites on spiritual practices :

Search this site, or other sites, for more on intercession.

Orig. 2000-01-14, ver.: 2016-10-15.
Intercessory Prayer. Copyright © 2000-2016 Robert Longman.

Источник: //www.spirithome.com/intercessory-prayer.html

Areas Of Prayer For Our Nation

Prayer Of Intercession For Our Nation

Living in the world we live in today, there are more than enough areas that need to be prayed for. I often reflect back onto what life would be without the news and media.

Would the people of this country have less anxiety, less depression and less fear of the future? Or does the media offer an awareness we have never had before? However you may feel about the media, and whichever way you think it helps or hurts this country, it is out there—and there is no turning back now.

Removing ones self from the media and ignoring how fast news travels now is almost impossible. Even when I go on long hikes, we document the weather before we go, and when we meet someone, we ask if anything has changed.

All of which has come from the news and media. The kind we no longer have to wait to hear about by word of mouth or mail. But the kind that can be found right at our fingertips.

The only way to truly get away from all communication is to go back in time, because there was none.

Since we can't go back in time, and I highly believe that the Lord has called us to live exactly in the time that we were born for a specific reason, the only way to handle it is to be wise and embrace it.

I realized just how much effect the news—or can I call it “bad news” because that is mostly what it is— has on us. It tends to cause an extra level of stress and worry that normally wouldn't be there. Instead of letting it fester and grow worse, I want to confront it with prayer.

I feel as if God has given Christians and His followers just the tool that can help and save this nation! That is: PRAYER

AREAS TO PRAY FOR OUR NATION

I want to write areas I felt led by the Holy Spirit to press into prayer! Let's not let the darkness and fear of this time hinder us! I want this to be for all believers of Christ that we can overcome these dark times through, and with Jesus.

Leadership

As everyone knows, election day is just around the corner. That means a extremely important decision has to be made. a decision that is made by the people, and for the people.

One area where I feel Christians need to press into prayer is for the future leaders, but even more so for the people voting for these leaders. I pray that people would start to see as Jesus would.

That they base their choices not on this world, but through the wisdom of Christ. We need a nation that is ruled with: truth, justice, love and peace.

Love

This is everywhere in the world. We often hear “We need more love” or “everything is about love.” Maybe terrorist attacks keep happening because we are after the kind of “love” found in this world, and not the true “love” that is found in Jesus Christ. It is a different love—but a love that conquers all.

Healing of people

The Bible is full of Jesus' testimonies of healing and transformation. These are miracles that not only happened then, but happen now. More and more people need healing that touches the inside.

We see anxiety, depression and fear taking over the people of this nation.

I pray for open hearts and a fresh release of His presence, that people's emptiness would be filled with His everlasting healing and love.

Truth

We need to pray for truth that can stand so firm that all confusion disappears. A truth that isn't just what we want to hear, but truth that is filled with Jesus' justice. I pray for eyes to be opened for more truth to be seen in this nation. A truth that doesn't just tickle our ears, but one that is firm.

Step out and add more!

These are only some of the areas that the Lord wanted me to share to pray after. I want to encourage everyone to read this list, and then step out and add more to your own! Prayer is such a powerful tool we have been given! Let's not let the darkness of our times overcome us! We are more than conquerors through Him!

He is the real leader of our nation.

He is real love.

He is healing people right now.

He is real truth.

He will lead His followers in areas to be aware, embrace and pray!

Let's be encouraged and cover these areas in prayer!

Behold the days are coming”, says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A Kind shall reign and prosper, and execute judgement and righteousness in the earth.” – Jeremiah 23:5

Источник: //www.theodysseyonline.com/areas-prayer-for-our-nation

Поделиться:
Нет комментариев

    Добавить комментарий

    Ваш e-mail не будет опубликован. Все поля обязательны для заполнения.