TODAY’S PRIORITY – PRAYING IN AGREEMENT WITH FAITH FOR THE IRAQI WAR ZONE

Hope Flinchbaugh, Lift the Cross of Jesus!, writes with concern and love…

This is the horrifying notice that came from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI, pronounced CRY. Links: http://criout.com / Email: info@criout.com ): ‘We lost the city of Queragosh. It fell to ISIS and they are beheading children systematically. This is the city we have been smuggling food to. ISIS has pushed back Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) and is within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working. Thousands more fled into the city of Erbil last night. The UN evacuated its staff in Erbil. Our team is unmoved and will stay. Prayer cover needed!”

What can we do?
The news was appalling, beyond horrible. What could I possibly do to help them with their gun-toting adversaries ten minutes away? Sign a petition to the president? Call for an act of congress? A few of the more compassionate souls may send in a donation, but a petition, an act of congress, the president, and all the money in the world had no power to help Sean when ISIS soldiers wielding swords were ten minutes away. What to do?

I will tell you what most people do. Most of us, even Christians, have trained ourselves to run to search for more information on Sean’s report and location from cable television news or a live report on internet.

There is this secure feeling we get when we ‘know’ what is going on. I call this grab for information, ‘the run to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.’ But I knew that my personal knowledge about the good or evil going on in the world would not help Sean or his team members.

Again I wondered, What to do?

Holy Spirit leading
Yesterday afternoon, before this shocking report came to me, I’d experienced an unusual awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence. He was close, so real. It was like I knew he was listening to each thought and so I made a more conscious effort to choose my thoughts carefully. I rarely experience such intensity of intimacy with God during the working part of my day. His presence is very sweet and so real in the early morning hours that we share alone together, but oftentimes I lose that high level of intimacy as I engage my focus in the work before me.

He spoke to my heart several times to read a particular novel called PUSH, a novel that points to what life may look like in the United States and the world just before Jesus comes. The fiction needed work and, as an editor, I cringed a bit. But the historical accuracy and the storyline itself were top notch and the book held my interest and put my heart in position for what was ahead that evening. I picked up the book after I finished cleaning up from supper. I was still reading PUSH after my husband went to bed …then  I received Sean’s report.

God had positioned me and prepared my heart to really listen, hear, and consider Sean’s email alert. Moreover, because I obeyed God, I was in a position to listen, hear, and consider what God wanted me to do in response.

A prayer angle rose up inside of me. What I mean by a ‘prayer angle’ is that I knew what Sean needed and I knew how God wanted me to pray at that moment because he revealed it to me.

Agreeing in prayer – with faith
If you intercede for others, you know what that feels like. It’s like you have to pray for a person or situation and until you pray you cannot think of anything else or engage with full concentration in any other activity. I was bursting to pray immediately! But prayer without faith is worthless and I wondered who I could call to agree with me in faith?

So I asked God, ‘Who has faith for this? Who can I call who will believe with me?’ He brought my friend Mary to mind. Now, Mary has gone on numerous mission trips and she is one who goes into a nation with God’s plan written inside her heart… so I called her.

I read the first few lines of Sean’s message and Mary interrupted me. She said, ‘Crisis Relief International is the organisation I trained with.’

‘You’re kidding!’ I responded. ‘No wonder I was led to call you. Do you know Sean Malone?’

‘Yes, I know Sean. I know the team,’ Mary sighed. She got quiet. Finally she admitted to feeling overwhelmed with the crises in Israel, Syria, Nigeria, and Iraq all going on at the same time. She was vacationing and hoped for a respite from the intensity. Of course, I didn’t know any of this when I called.

I said, ‘Mary, I just need the support of your faith. I think I know how to pray. Will you just agree with me?’ I heard that lilt in her voice as she agreed, ‘Yes! I can do that!’ and I knew she was on board. Wow, did we pray!

Here’s the key
I knew I had access to God Almighty even as Michelle, Malia, and Sasha have access to President Barack Obama. There was no doubting if I’d be accepted when I entered heaven’s gates with prayers. I knew I could walk right in and ask anything when Mary and I agreed together as touching this one request, God would answer our request. He promised!

‘Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven’ (Matthew 18:19 NASV).

If you are interested in entering into faith for the Christians and other minorities being brutally terrorised and chased in Iraq, email me and leave a comment below – I’ll share the prayer points we used last night.

That novel, PUSH? My mother would say:

• P =PRAY
• U =UNTIL
• S =SOMETHING
• H =HAPPENS!

Hope Flinchbaugh (Lift the Cross of Jesus!) is a prolific author/editor with a heart for troubled lands. Her personal blog of inspirational writings link is www.liftjesuscross.wordpress.com. See also Resources
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A KILLER AND MANY OTHERS CONFESS AS THEY FIND JESUS

ASSIST’s Dan Wooding reports this PNG mission’s mega-shift:

In the remote Papua New Guinea village of Karawa, on the Southeastern coast of Port Moresby, a mega-shift took place after prayer and fasting, according to a story from The Sentinel Group.
• Sins were publicly confessed
• A young man confessed to an unsolved murder
• People burned drugs and witchcraft charms
• Deep reconciliation took place between alienated families.

Pastor Walo Ani and his wife Namana, along with Pastor Vuniani Nakauyaca, his wife Betty, and son Savenaca, visited Walo’s home village of Karawa in August, 2006.

Prayer and fasting
Going through the ‘Healing the Land Process’ that God has used so spectacularly in Fiji under Nakauyaca’s leadership, the village prayed, fasted, and dealt with past sins.

The story goes on to say that Walo Ani, at that time Missions Pastor in Toowoomba City Church in Queensland, Australia, said, ‘After weeks of prayer and fasting by local young people, spiritually cleansing sites of known deaths and killings, and two days of home visitation by the team, a church service was held, drawing together most of the local people. The village elders and chiefs publicly did identificational repentance of the sins of their forbears, and each of them publicly gave their clans to the Lord.’

Sins and hindrances publicly renounced
That night around a blazing bonfire, the people began to confess sin publicly and renounce things in their lives that were a hindrance.

Namana Ani says, ‘It was a solemn night. The presence of the Lord was so powerful that people were coming forward and burning their witchcraft and charms publicly.

‘No one could hold back. Even the deacons and church elders, village elders, women, and young people were all coming forward. Young people started coming out and confessing their sins and renouncing and burning drugs, cigarettes, and things that were hindering their lives from following Christ.

‘A young man who had murdered another young man eleven years ago came forward, publicly confessed his sin, and asked for forgiveness from the family of the murdered man. That was a big thing. There was a pause, and we waited and prayed for someone from the other side to respond. Only the Lord could do this. Then the younger brother of the man who was killed came out finally, and offered forgiveness.

‘We could hear crying among the people. It was a moving moment where God just took control. Mothers, brothers, and extended members of both families came out and reconciled in front of the whole village. We could sense and feel the release come upon both families and the whole village.’

A changed village
In the days following, God continued to work in people’s lives. Many came asking for prayer. One young man brought two guns to the pastor.

There were also the signs of God’s blessing on the land following the meetings that normally accompany healing the land ministry. Larger crabs were harvested and large fish were caught on the shores of the village. Young people committed themselves to share the message with others.

Namana Ani says, ‘The village is not the same. You can sense the release and freedom of Christ in the lives of the people. God has birthed a new thing in our area and I believe many more villages will see the transforming power of God because they are hungry and desperate to see change in their communities.’

A service in Papua New Guinea (Photo: The Sentinel Group)

The Sentinel Group is dedicated to ‘helping the church pray knowledgably for end time global evangelisation and enabling communities to discover the pathway to genuine revival and societal transformation.’ It was formed in 1990 by George Otis, Jr. After working in ‘frontier’ evangelisation efforts for many years, George Otis Jr became concerned about spiritual oppression and its persistence. His investigation into this problem took him into more than fifty nations. Link: www.sentinelgroup.org

Dan Wooding is founder/director of  ASSIST News – articles link: www.assistnews.net