International Prayer Connect

July 16 is coming quickly, and it’s time to solidify your plan for joining us there!

Are you in?

http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=34774542&msgid=118171&act=GRWC&c=1576068&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpcudcfTExlY

Let us help you get to Together 2016! 

Plan your schedule 

You want to make the most of your trip to Together 2016, right? So do we! Head here to find sample schedules for a three, five, or seven day trip. 

Book your hotel

Together 2016 has partnered with hotels in the the National Mall area so that you can book hotel rooms at a group rate. Be sure to check them out soon as room blocks are going fast. 

http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=34774542&msgid=118171&act=GRWC&c=1576068&destination=http%3A%2F%2Freset2016.com%2Fhotel%2F

Transportation

Together 2016 has partnered with GO GROUND to be our official transportation manager so you can charter a bus to D.C. They also have the option for you to sell extra seats if you are unable to fill an entire bus. Check out their website as well if you are interested in booking a seat on someone else’s bus that is coming from your area!   

For those who are interested in flying to Washington, D.C., we suggest booking flights to: 

7   Ronald Regan Washington National Airport (DCA) (closest) 

8   Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)

9   Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI)   

http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=34774542&msgid=118171&act=GRWC&c=1576068&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.goground.com%2Ftogether2016%2Fhome

Momentum is building and we can’t wait for you to join us and the one million others gathered on July 16, 2016. Keep telling others about Together 2016 through our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages!  

Standing with you, 

The Together Team

Uniting as one, appealing to heaven to change the spiritual climate in our nation.

As One is a national call to prayer. The basic strategy revolves around two 40-day periods of prayer walking, fasting, and corporate prayer events. The first will start on Easter Sunday, March 27 and run through the National Day of Prayer on May 5.  The second begins on September 30 and ends on Election Day. In addition, there will be much collaboration with major national prayer events that are happening throughout the year.

Here is how it works:

1)  Join the 40-day Prayer Challenge and receive a daily prayer guide via email.

2)  Adopt Your Street in Prayer.

3)   Find or Host a Prayer Gathering on the National Day of Prayer, Thursday, May 5.

“So that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Romans 15:6

Click here to learn more about this united effort to call America to prayer >>

Pray for Election Day

On November 8, 2016, millions will cast their vote, selecting from an array of candidates - potential leaders who will impact the direction of the United States of America. This is a freedom that has come at a high cost for many over the 240 years since declaring independence from England in 1776.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States said, “If the people fail to vote, a government will be developed which is not their government… The whole system of American Government rests on the ballot box. Unless citizens perform their duties there, such a system of government is doomed to failure.”

Of the 52 million voter-eligible Christians in America, 10 million are not registered to vote for the elections, and over 20 million who were registered, did not vote in the previous election cycle. Quite simply, less than 40 percent of all eligible to vote Christians in America…voted.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States said, “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.”

So here is what you can do:

1      Register to Vote and make it a priority to exercise this freedom - Click here to get started >>

2      Pray: “Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” -Isa. 45:22

Download your FREE 2016 ELECTION PRAYER GUIDE: 1) E-version  2) Print Ready PDF   3) Spanish

3      Find your local Family Policy Council and download your regional voter guide

4      Join the National Prayer Call, November 8, 11 a.m. - 12 noon ET: 712-432-0075, PIN: 4961322#

5      Commit to Pray for all people in authority (download your prayer points here)

6      Commit to pray for 40 days beginning September 30 through November 8 (download your 40-Day Prayer Guide)

National Prayer Summit

http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/prayer_summit?e=d2fc44df9e8a17422c160d49c5f51628&utm_source=nationaldayofprayer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=group_2&n=14

Make plans now to join with thousands of intercessors at the National Prayer Summit. This special gathering will take place July 14-17 in Washington D.C. and feature an incredible line-up of speakers including Francis Chan, Dr. Josh McDowell, Dr. Luis Palau, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, Kirk Franklin and music from Hillsong United. Registration is only $89 per person, so get registered today >>

Host a Prayer Gathering

Now as never before, Americans need to be in prayer for our country and its leaders in all spheres of influence. Your partnership is vital to the efforts our National Day of Prayer Task Force as we seek to fulfill our ongoing mission of bringing millions of people throughout this land before God’s throne in humble intercession.

To assist you in promoting the cause of prayer, we have included a variety of helpful resources in our online store.  Whether you are seeking materials appropriate for a church setting or an event in a public venue, we have provided useful items that are both creative and practical.

Thank you for standing with us by lending your time and talents to this worthy endeavor. Your participation is key if we are to call every community in our nation to prayer!

Shirley Dobson, Chairman, NDP Task Force, http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/

As Pakistan began burying its dead Monday, authorities counted 29 children among those killed by an Easter suicide bombing in an amusement park, victims of a terrorist attack that has re­inforced growing feelings of dread here. Although 2015 was relatively quiet, horrified Pakistanis are again asking what their government can do to protect them from extremist violence. More than 70 people in all were killed in the devastating attack Sunday in Lahore. Officials vowed to hunt down the Islamist militant bombers who claimed they targeted Christians - yet killed many of their Muslim brethren in the bargain. 

Even after a week of terrorist violence in Iraq, Turkey and Belgium, the attack here nonetheless became a focus of global dismay. It was the country’s worst terrorist attack this year and the deadliest attack in Pakistan since nearly 150 were killed at a school in Peshawar in late 2014 — a shock to the nation that led to an unexpectedly peaceful 2015. That calm period now seems to be over…

A splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying, “It was our people who attacked the Christians in Lahore, celebrating Easter.”

Pakistan, a country of 190 million, has suffered for years from sectarian violence and Islamist militancy, including a Taliban-led insurgency in the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. Recent terrorist attacks targeting minorities and schools have left many ordinary Pakistanis scared and on edge…

At Jinnah Hospital in Lahore, where about half of the more than 300 injured were taken Sunday night, 67 remained hospitalized with a variety of injuries, including burns and shrapnel wounds, doctors said. Politicians and TV anchors weaved among the beds, where occupants were labeled “blast victim.”

Among them were two small children, their beds marked with signs saying “unknown.” Their family died in the blast, and they had yet to be linked with other relatives…

In Islamabad on Monday, thousands of Muslim demonstrators protesting the execution of Islamist assassin Mumtaz Qadri staged a sit-in inside the capital city’s “Red Zone,” which is home to a number of vital government institutions, including Parliament and the prime minister’s house. Qadri assassinated Punjab’s governor, Salman Taseer, in 2011 over the latter’s opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Most blasphemy cases are lodged against non-Muslims for violations such as desecrating the Koran, Islam’s holy book, according to rights monitors. The army was deployed Sunday night to protect government buildings after the protesters rampaged across the city, damaging property and setting buildings on fire. (Contributors: By Annie Gowen and Shaiq Hussain for The Washington Post – Erin Cunningham in Kabul, Babar Dogar in Lahore, and Haq Nawaz Khan and Aamir Iqbal in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.)

Pray for survivors and the victims’ families. There is worldwide confusion over international leadership’s failure to call these attacks “Islamist terrorism.” Pope Francis called the bombing “vile and abominable,” but last November he said Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters. And Pres. Obama to call ISIS “Islamic terrorists.” Pray for clarity and global cooperation to stop these terrorist attacks.    

Intercessors for America, On Watch in Washington, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Let’s also pray for the unity of the church leaders and prayer movement of Pakistan. Pray they will come together as one to pray for their nation and to withstand the powers of death and destruction that so often frequent their country through Islamic radical groups of various kinds.

As an often burnt-out mid-career missions leader in early 1990’s, I remember being deeply impacted by the writings of the Dutch theologian and contemplative, Henri Nouwen. His book The Way of the Heart describes the all important role of solitude and silence in our lives to purify us from being driven by the “false self”-- the constant need to conform ourselves to the expectations of those around us rather than living life from the inside out, from who we really are in the Lord.

 Ruth Haley Barton is an author and spiritual director who leads the Transforming Center, a ministry to pastors and other ministry leaders. I was refreshed and encouraged by her book Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership which is a take-off on Jesus’ warning, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Her insightful work examines the experience of Moses and how his personal encounters with God in silence and solitude both prepared and undergirded him for 40 frustrating and challenging years of leading his people Israel to door of the Promised Land.

 Here are some of the rich conclusions Barton comes to through her reflection on Moses’ long and quiet experience in the desert and how that experience made him fit to lead. She observes: “Moses’whole life can be viewed through the lens of his private encounters. He did not seem to have any great strategies for leadership except to seek God in solitude and then carry out what God revealed to him there. He routinely sought God (or God sought him), there was an encounter, and then Moses did what God told him to do. For Moses, leadership was that simple!”

 In emulating Moses’ simple leadership style, she advocates our leaving the company of others for a time, letting go of our need to fix things outside ourselves and attend to what needs to be done “in the deep interior places of our life” as “the most important work to be done right now.” It is essential to have such times of aloneness with God, otherwise “our leadership cannot be a force for good if it is not being refined by the rigors of true solitude, that place where God is at work beyond what we are able to do for ourselves or would even know how to do for ourselves.”

It is in such times when we open ourselves fully to the searching presence of God that we begin to see things about ourselves that were lurking beneath the surface. For Moses, it was his tendency to erupt with uncontrolled anger. She writes: “Only those who have been brave enough to ride their own monsters of anger and greed, jealousy and narcissism, fear and violence all the way to the bottom will find a truer energy with which to lead. Only those who have faced their own dark side can be trusted to lead others towards the Light. This is where true spiritual leadership begins. Everything that comes before is something else.”

She talks of the bondage of “Christian busyness” which most of us understand quite well but often are not disciplined enough to escape. She also covers the often difficult task of leaders to guard the unity of the spiritual community as their most important occupation as reflected in Jesus’ last prayer for the disciples (John 17:11) since it is the way that the devil (diabolos or divider) is defeated and the world comes to believe in Him.

Though Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land, she thinks that he had come to the point in life where for him “the presence of God was the Promised Land” so it was not a punishment but actually a blessing that soon followed with his exiting earth into the pure presence of the Lord. Her summary sentence captures the essence of being leaders whose souls have not gotten lost along the way: “This is a leader with strength of soul—one who continually seeks God in the crucible of ministry and for that reason is able to stay faithful to the call of God upon their life—to do their small part—until God calls them home.” I heartily commend this valuable book for your own rumination and edification.

 

John Robb

This week our co-worker here returned from a nearby country where there are countless Syrian refugees. He and his team went to the refugee camps to talk to and pray for the people there. He could not believe the spiritual openness and hunger! He said that probably half of those they talked to had had dreams of Isa (Jesus) ! They were able to share the love of God with these hurting people. They also saw God perform miracles of healing as this team ministered to the people there. What an opportunity! Pray for God to open more and more hearts and lives!

Many of these refugees have never heard the gospel and now they are in more open places like Lebanon and Europe where we have an incredible opportunity to share the good news with them!

  • Every single day refugees are pouring into Europe. Some are dying or being sent away, but many, many are still seeking to go.
  • There are 7.6 million internally displaced Syrians and 4 million refugees outside Syria. That's 51% of the Syrian population!
  • 36% of the refugees are children.
  • Sex-traffickers are luring people by meeting needs, sometimes by simply providing phone charging stations.
  • Most workers in this area are predicting an even greater outpouring of refugees in the coming months from Iraq, Syria Yemen and other places.

Pray Psalm 142 for refugees!
"I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; I tell him my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. Look, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me."

Partnering Strategies:

Unie in Prayer daily at 11:55 am

STOP what you are busy with,
FOCUS on the Lord and 
LISTEN to what He is saying to you,
FINISH with the LORD'S PRAYER at 12 noon.

Prayer Watch
Spending the 4th Watch (3 am - 6 am) as a watchman on the wall. Listening to the Lord, building relationships, and recording what the Lord is speaking. 

Inherit the Nations
Prayer Teams partnering with Field Teams focused on 250 unreached people groups for a year of focused prayer. 

  • JOIN THE MONTHLY CALL TO PRAY FOR THE REGION OF THE MONTH!March 10, 2016 (2nd Thursday) at 7:00 am – 8:00 am7am CST/1pm GMT
  • To Join Online: https://zoom.us/j/7867380647
  • To Join by Phone: Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for instructions. 

*  That Jews throughout the world will have revelation about the One portrayed in the Psalm 22; that they will “pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star arises in their hearts!”

*  For Orthodox Jewish women—who spend much of each day reading rapidly through the Psalter—yet without understanding.  Pray that they will slow down and pay attention as they read this and other Messianic Psalms.  Pray that the Spirit of Truth will awaken them to Whom  they are referring. 

*  That even as Gentiles saw a light from heaven which drew them into paths leading from the far East to Bethlehem, present-day Israelis will be guided by the light of God’s grace—by Yeshua—Ayelet haShahar—into the path of truth and righteous. 

“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day” (Proverbs 4:18).

“The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the Good News of the glory of Messiah, who is the image of God”  (II Corinthians 4:4).

“God’s own purpose and grace which was given to us in Messiah Yeshua before time began…has now been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour Yeshua the Anointed One, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News”  (II Timothy 1:9-10). 

*Exodus 32:11-13.    “Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God [Hebrew: ‘yearned after the face of YHVH his God’] and said, ‘LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people…Turn from Your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to Your people.  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.”’”  In Exodus 32:32 Moses continues to stand in the gap, pleading that they be forgiven for their sin. 

PLEASE PRAY:  for spiritual leaders to have the zeal, unction, love and grace to seek the face of God on behalf of errant Israel; to prevail in intercession to turn away His just wrath that His eternal will for her will be fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven.

*Exodus 32:19.  “So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing.  So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.”

PLEASE PRAY:   for the souls (Psalm 25:1, 20) of Israeli spiritual leaders—that they not be controlled by their emotions—that they allow the Holy Spirit to work His self-control. There is a place for godly zeal, but the “anger of man does not work the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).  It would be an eruption of this same anger some time later which would in the end bar Moses from entering the Promised Land.

PLEASE PRAY:   For Israeli believers, in all the rush and hurry, to go beyond ‘head knowledge’ of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel—and avail themselves of the privilege of setting aside a ‘place’ for private, intimate times Face to Face with God!

*Exodus 33:15.   “Then he said to Him, ‘If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here…”  Here the word “presence” is literally “Face”.  Psalm 44:3 says, “It was not by our sword that we took the land, nor did our arm bring us the victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the Light of Your Face, for You loved us!”

*Exodus 33:13, 18.  “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight.  And consider that this nation is Your people….Please, show me Your glory.” 

PLEASE PRAY:  for leaders in Israel (both believers and those still secular), to like Moses be moved to call on the LORD for guidance to be shown His way.  Pray that we find grace in His sight, that our leadership will be fueled and heartened by longings after his Glory and glimpses of His Beauty (Psalm 27:4).

 Martin and Norma Sarvis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

United Cry DC16 is a concerted effort to gather pastors, church leaders and intercessors, to help reclaim America's future through a bride that is re-firing in prayer and obedience to our God in the Lord Jesus Christ.   None is looking for an event, but for fully embracing His Kingdom come, His will be done, ongoing beyond any one day. We rejoice in the many ways God is moving this year. God bless the Kingdom work you are all doing for His great glory.   

See the link below and please forward to help invite those the Lord will assemble: 

http://unitedcry.org/

There is a great hope to stream some from Azusa Street for the CALL with Lou Engle, also on Saturday, 4/9.  Then coast to coast, east to west, the church of America is united on our knees.

United Cry DC16 seeks to assemble mostly from east of the Missisippi River, though the whole nation is invited to help bring a tithe of pastors-churches, 10% of the 300,000 churches in America.  Spread the word, save the date, pray…for the tithe…

Contending for Christ together,

Lisa Crump

Chief Operating Officer

National Day of Prayer Task Force

Cell: 719.482.8777

Office:  719.559.9573

http://NationalDayofPrayer.org/

http://www.facebook.com/TheNationalDayofPrayerTaskForce

Excerpts from report By Luis and Doris Bush

Missions to China have been going on for the last 200 years. Now is the time for Missions from China. We have been inspired by the Korean Church as they have engaged in missions for the last fifteen years. Mission China 2030 is the turning point because of the revival of the Church in China, because of the eighty million Chinese Christians in China. If there is one missionary in 1,000 Christians, there will be 80,000 missionaries. Furthermore, China's economic development has brought opportunities. The global technology revolution has brought opportunity for mission from China. Migration of the world's population brings opportunities. Universal Chinese network brings opportunity. This is the time to move together in faith.

"Our dream in a Song: Mission China finally achieved: In our generation fulfill the Great Commission; greet the return of Christ! We have a dream, a missionary dream. We have a dream, a dream from heaven. This is us, and we look forward to many years of dreams. Our dream embodies the missionary dream which brings with it blood and tears. Let's go out with a mission to each country."

Declaration of China Mission 2030

The declaration affirmed the following statements:

  • We are called to be a servant of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the foundation of our faith tells us that missionary mandate, but also refers to lead our missionary action. Gospel Back to Jerusalem vision is to continue to advance the gospel westward. We aspire to be committed to preach the gospel overseas, hand in hand with the universal Church, sending out missionaries to the unreached peoples, until the Lord returns.
  • A Mission China 2030 mission conference to be held each year to mobilize traditional home Church court, team-based house churches, city new house churches to Christian groups and professionals involved in world evangelization.
  • Release missionary publications to record the vision that readers may run with it.
  • Missionary Workshops to promote discussions related development mission God. Learn, discuss mission strategy, tracking missionary dynamic, exchange missionary experiences, and for helping missionary work.
  • Promote missionary prayer through a missionary prayer movement.
  • Nurture Mission capacity. Mission is a long-term comprehensive ministry; we must develop in various fields. Mission specialists, including missionary strategist, Missions Mobilization home. Missionary training of teachers, education, administration personnel, mission type pastors.
  • Raise up missionary churches. We seek to cultivate a missionary movement that has many strong mission-minded and mission oriented churches.
  • Development of mission trips. Continue to mobilize Chinese church into the missionary field, we expect Chinese church pastors and faith Christians, along with experience in the mission field ministry.
  • Development of the mission field focus. The 10/40 Window is our primary focus with other religions and many poor people.
  • Establish a mission network. We are willing to go on the road and collaborate with the missionary Church of the West, the South Korea Church, overseas Chinese churches, as well as other countries in the world. We are prepared to learn, seek guidance and help, and with overseas churches and missions. We look forward to agencies coming together to complete the mission mandate.
  • Carry out the business mission. Use "on the way" business opportunities arising from the development of business education model, and existing Chinese business endeavors that have begun. We seek to mobilize Christian businessmen, entrepreneurs with business to enter the mission field.

Conclusion: The trumpet is sounding. Now is the time. Now is the opportunity. Our Chinese brothers and sisters have come together and agreed on the vision the strategy and joint declaration of commitment. But what about us, those of us from other nations, are we ready to join them in their mission as partners? May it be so…

Let’s pray for our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ and for the success of this marvelous mission effort they are undertaking according to the elements of the declaration above.

Uniting as one, appealing to heaven to change the spiritual climate in our nation.

As One is a national call to prayer. The basic strategy revolves around two 40-day periods of prayer walking, fasting, and corporate prayer events. The first will start on Easter Sunday, March 27 and run through the National Day of Prayer on May 5.  The second begins on September 30 and ends on Election Day. In addition, there will be much collaboration with major national prayer events that are happening throughout the year.

Here is how it works:

  1) Join the 40-day Prayer Challenge and receive a daily prayer guide via email.

  2) Adopt Your Street in Prayer.

  3) Find or Host a Prayer Gathering on the National Day of Prayer, Thursday, May 5.

“So that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Romans 15:6

Go to PrayasOne.org for more information and a 40-day prayer guide to share with your prayer group and church to see His transformation come to your neighborhood, zip code and our nation.

Praying with and for Native Peoples

We are asking you to prayerfully consider joining us in keeping a 40 day prayer vigil for our tribal nations.

See the Intro below and we have attached the daily prayers and repentance points to consider daily.

Blessings to you for your faithfulness,

Ivan and Linda Doxtator

First Nations Counseling Ministries

fncm.us 

Forty Day Prayer Vigil Beginning With Ash Wednesday

Our Covenant-keeping God

This prayer vigil will focus on several things. First, we will center on the Lamb of God and His covenant with mankind which offers His life and salvation to all.  Entering into the season of Lent, as we meditate on Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross, we come before His throne with our prayers of repentance and healing for ourselves, and our families.

This year however, in preparing for celebrating the transforming power of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection in our lives our hearts are heavy for the grievous declining condition of our nation.  Therefore, we are also focusing on the state of the church and the spiritual repercussions surely affecting our nation. 

In bringing our prayers and petitions before the Lord, often times we neglect to consider the holy character and nature of our God.  In ignorance of His divine integrity we fail to realize that our spiritual fathers, by their actions, attitudes, and failures have profaned His holy name.  As result of their past participation with unscrupulous federal policy initiatives we are beginning to reap the results of the seeds of lawlessness and corruption sown over the last two hundred years.

We have failed as a church to adequately represent God’s holy name and nature to the Indigenous populations of our once highly favored and prosperous nation.  As a consequence over 90 percent of America’s Native people view Christianity as a part of European strategy to destroy and decimate their ancestors and steal their God-given resources and land.

Although many claim we are a Christian nation, our nation is not reflective of His nature and His person.  This is an outcome that can be laid at the feet of His church, which has historically neglected    to stand up for God’s righteousness and justice to prevail, beginning with the Indigenous people of America. 

As an act of repentance we ask you to join us in bringing the many Indigenous Nations before our Father in heaven.  We are uniting to ask Him to forgive His church for their role in decimating, destroying, and disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Native people during the founding, expansion, and development of our nation.

As a consequence of egocentric poverty inducing federal policies many tribal communities continue to exist in destitute third world living conditions.  After a hundred years of injustice and oppression they remain a forgotten people within our nation.  Isaiah said that “no one calls for justice” and that “the Lord saw it and it displeased Him that there was no justice.” (Isa. 59:4,15)

During this season of prayer and travail we want to stand in the gap for the church which collaborated with the federal government in acts so horrendous that even to this day America’s Indigenous nations are deafened to hearing of a merciful God who loves them. 

Instead, with suspicion, they push away the message of salvation, healing, and divine blessing.  Ask God to grant us the revelation and strength to carry out justice in this matter.  As we repent ask Him to lead us in bearing fruits worthy of repentance.  Let us seek His forgiveness in this matter and ask Him to have mercy upon us and our nation. Let’s pray As Daniel prayed:

And I, Daniel, set my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sack-cloth and ashes; And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, and said, O Lord the great and dreadful God, Who keeps covenant, mercy and loving-kindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned and dealt perversely and done wickedly and have rebelled turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. Neither have we listened to and heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land....” (Daniel 9:3 -14)

When the first man was placed in the garden and chose to be disobedient, God revealed His character of being a covenant-keeping God.  He came along side man and provided the sacrifice and garments to cover man's nakedness. 

He gave man the promise that although Satan had bruised the heel of man, Adam’s descendants would eventually crush the head of Satan.  God knew even then that man was incapable of fulfilling that destiny without His help. 

In His master plan God, through the blood sacrifice of His Son, restored man’s authority through Christ, empowering man to overcome, enter into intimate relationship with Him, and to participate with Him in redeeming the people groups of this world.  It is with this message of the kingdom that we join with our heavenly Father to see Him bring healing to our nation.

We must remember that never has God instructed His people to bring others to Christ through the use of force, threats, or other manipulative or intrusive techniques.  It is by pure preaching and teaching of the word and demonstrating His great love that potential believers are brought into the kingdom. 

As believers our responsibility is to speak the truth and warn of the consequences of following false religious systems or occult practices.  In the final day each person will give an account for their own religious beliefs or spiritual pursuits.  The importance of remembering this is critical.

Therefore, it is very serious when believers who claim to follow Christ, exhibit the opposite of His character.  It profanes His name.  It also makes the effort of the evangelist almost impossible in persuading one to desire a relationship with Christ.  Many within the church remain unaware of the horrid and treacherous track record of the church in America as it relates to the over 580 surviving Indigenous Nations in the U.S. today. 

For us to achieve spiritual breakthrough, to even have God begin to hear our prayers, the church must identify and repent of the sins of our church fathers.  This applies to all Christian groups, whether they be Charismatic, Pentecostal, denominational, or traditional.  In this prayer vigil we are bringing to remembrance the sins perpetrated against Native Americans, the tribal groups God appointed as the ancient people to steward and guard the gates of what has become the United States and Canada. 

Part of our hidden history sheds light on the Indian Boarding Schools and governmental policies that required Native families to give their children over to Christian organizations to methodically assimilate them into what was perceived as the melting pot of America.  Extensive documentation substantiates the church's collaboration with the federal government to use religious education as a key tool to culturalize and Christianize Native youth.

Forcefully removing children from their parents and using predatory and abusive methods and approaches, the priests, nuns, preachers, and ministry staff and personnel regularly punished children if they dared speak their language or even mention the traditional religious ways of their people. 

Besides using violent methods to silence the voice of the children, there was an all-out religious assault on the tribal belief systems the children brought with them to Boarding School.  Reports tell us that physical, sexual abuse and other daily hardships were merely a backdrop to a systematic assault on Native culture. 

Sad to say, almost all documentation of the Boarding School era identifies the church and its leadership as active participants in violating the God-given rights of Native children to freely speak their language and to practice their religion.  All the commandment violating procedures were condoned and carried out in the name of Christ by those claiming to be members of His Church. 

The grievous violating, intrusive, and abusive activity practiced by our spiritual forerunners must be acknowledged and confessed by the body of Christ.  We must stand in the gap for the church of North America and the future of our nation.  The justice God requires in such matters can only begin in prayer and intercession.

Over 370 treaties or covenants were made and broken by our government, yet we as a nation claim to worship the covenant-keeping God.  The tribal nations selected for this prayer vigil are few, but all were consistently deceived, defrauded, and betrayed by the empty promises of our government.  And it happened in the midst of God’s chief agent for justice and righteousness in the earth, Christ’s church.

The shedding of innocent blood occurred all too often when whole villages were decimated with children, women, and elderly being murdered by vengeance consumed soldiers or militiamen.  Yet, the tribal survivors of such atrocities, though a remnant, still remain a vital part of our nation. 

Although seemingly invisible they are testimony of a painful past, yet their resiliency and continued existence betrays the present assumed reality of America.  Whether we want to acknowledge them or not, their pain, suffering, and grief resonate in the heart of God.   

We pray that the 3rd world conditions that the First Nations people have endured for far too long will be brought to light and that true justice will finally prevail for their benefit.  Ask God to peel back the mantle of invisibility that has shielded their suffering from merciful intrusions. 

Petition our God to penetrate and dissolve the demonic conspiracy that has silenced the Native voice with hopelessness.  Ask God to remove the cloak of shame that has smothered the strength of their identity and sabotaged their destiny for over 170 years.

Ask God to open the eyes of His church to see the reality of impending judgment upon our nation and its future generations.  Pray that His church will not miss this present opportunity to execute true justice towards the poverty stricken tribal nations of America as His ambassadors of liberty and healing.

Ask God to open the ears of His church to hear the cry of the poor in the case of the many wounded and downtrodden tribal groups.  Pray that church leadership will be reminded that God promises to hear the cry of those who themselves hear the cry of the poor (Prov. 21:13) and that they will quickly and diligently respond with mercy and justice.  

Only God can show us how to rectify this in His sight, but we have an opportunity to be “repairers of the breach” through our intercession at this time. 

Islamic State is likely to step up “the pace and lethality” of its attacks in the months ahead as it seeks to fan the flames of international conflict, the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said on Monday.

Speaking to a security conference, Marine Corps Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart linked his warning to the militant group’s establishment of “emerging branches” in Mali, Tunisia, Somalia, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

He also said he would not be surprised if Islamic State, which has created a self-proclaimed Caliphate across swaths of Syria and Iraq, extended its operations from the Sinai Peninsula deeper into Egypt.

“Last year, Daesh remained entrenched on Iraqi and Syrian battlefields and expanded globally to Libya, Sinai, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Caucasus,” Stewart said, using a derisive Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

“Daesh is likely to increase the pace and lethality of its transnational attacks because it seeks to unleash violent actions and to provoke a harsh reaction from the West, thereby feeding its distorted narrative” of a Western war against Islam, he said.

Stewart’s comments came a day before he and other U.S. intelligence officials are set to deliver an annual worldwide threat assessment to Congress.

The Sunni Muslim militant group seeks not only to escalate conflict with the West, but also with Islam’s minority Shiite branch, just as Shiite extremist groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah are stoking tensions with Sunnis, Stewart said.

“These threats are exacerbated by the security challenges of the Middle East, which is now facing one of the most dangerous and unpredictable periods in the last decade,” he said.

Islamic State has as many as 25,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, down from a previous estimate of up to 31,000, according to a U.S. intelligence report revealed by the White House last week.

U.S. officials cited factors such as battlefield casualties and desertions to explain the roughly 20 percent decrease in fighters, and said the report showed a U.S.-led campaign to crush Islamic State was making progress.(Contributor: By Jonathan Landay for Reuters News – Editing by Warren Strobel and Tom Brown)

Pray into this sobering assessment of terrorist dangers, not only across the world, but also for the U.S. Pray for military leaders. Retired officers are warning about an insufficient infantry, fewer naval ships, women in ground combat, and our overall unpreparedness to defeat a growing ISIS army. Will our diminished military stand up against this growing threat? Intercede for all military personnel.

“Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:31)

IFApray.org