One of the countries that we often pray for is Afghanistan. This Central Asian land that has known awful invasions and bloodshed for hundreds of years has made considerable progress in national development since the Taliban were overthrown in 2002. Women have been able to go back to work, children back to school, and many other encouraging changes such as the opening of hospitals and universities and the building of new roads and infrastructure have occurred over the last decade. These gratifying changes have been brought about by the democratically elected government and a committed international humanitarian community. However, unfortunately, the Taliban have regrouped and with the drawdown of American and Coalition forces, they have become far more bold and aggressive in attacking the army and police as well as in launching suicide attacks in the capital.
We need to really adopt Afghanistan into our hearts for ongoing prayer so that the Taliban, so deranged and deceived by their radical Islamic ideology, will not be able to retake the nation and once again deprive its people of their hard-won freedom and dignity. Please join us in praying for the following:
1.Pray that the Taliban and those from ISIS that are increasingly coming into the country will continue to be divided and to fight one another until both these movements are devastated and driven out. That the Taliban’s current internal struggle over who should be their new leader will continue to undermine their efforts. May they become disillusioned and give up their destructive bid for power and control.
2.Pray for the Afghan government to be united and effective along with the army and police in combating the insurgents and also apprehending their leaders. Also, that a good defense minister will be agreed on and put into office ASAP.
3.That the Pakistan and Afghan governments will be reconciled and fight the terrorists together with full cooperation and sharing of intelligence and military resources.
4.For the local believers and those with the humanitarian community to be strongly protected and greatly strengthened. May they be encouraged to continue praying and working together for His breakthrough in the nation and for the Gospel of Christ to spread far and wide among the population.
5. For individuals and teams going in to serve and to pray in the coming months, that they will be kept safe and used in a mighty way to pray for the healing of the land and the breaking of strongholds caused by the centuries-old defilement of idolatry and the shedding of innocent blood.
May the Lord bring about an amazing, divine reversal of fortunes for this long-suffering country and may the hopes of its people for peace, healing and restoration be fully realized!
In the USA, prayer network and ministry leaders are feeling led of the Lord to connect in intercession for our nation every week by conference calls until October. October 18-20, as many of them as possible will gather in Colorado Springs for a face to face time of standing in the counsel of the Lord together to hear presentations on the current national security threats, to pray in response and to seek God for a united strategy of national spiritual preparedness. The details are attached below if you are a prayer network or ministry leader and would like to take part.
In our calls, we are utilizing 2 Chronicles 20 as the basis for our times of intercession, remembering how the Lord delivered His ancient people when they were attacked by a combined force of three enemy armies. The wise response of King Jehoshaphat was to seek the Lord first and then to call a fast and united prayer response. There are many wonderful and helpful principles from their experience that can guide us in praying for the security of our own nations in this time of special vulnerability to terrorism and other possible dangers.
Intercessors are the “last line of defense” for a nation as we see in 2 Chronicles 20, Isaiah 62 and Ezekiel 22:30. It is as if a mighty rampart begins to mount up larger and stronger each time we unite to pray together for our nation and the specific threats it faces. The Lord builds up a wall of protection, an invisible shield that disempowers the principalities and powers that under the “prince of this world” seek pretexts to sow chaos and destruction if they can. The discerning, Spirit-led prayers of intercessors keep them at bay and are used by God to even change the atmosphere and history of communities and nations.
These are some of the issues that we have been praying about in recent weeks and ask that you join us in this intercession for the peace and protection of our world:
1.For the church and its leaders and especially the prayer movement to become alert, listening to God and watching on the wall through prayer as Isaiah and Ezekiel remind us to do (Isaiah 62 and Ezekiel 22:30) to fend off the attacks of the enemy and the destruction he wants to bring on our nations.
2.For real clarity and good coordination among defense and intelligence agencies in our governments to perceive and counter threats of terrorists or other states with evil and aggressive intentions.
3.Radical Islamic groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda that are seeking to penetrate into many nations to cause chaos and disruption through terror attacks. That both lone wolves and cells of operatives will be discovered and stopped from undertaking such destructive plans.
4. Russia’s insecurity and attempts to bring former Soviet states like Ukraine back into its circle of control and influence are causing a showdown with the USA and its NATO allies. Its hundreds of muscle-flexing incursions into the airspace of Western nations with its strategic bombers.
5.China’s enormous military build-up and increasingly aggressive behavior in the Asia Pacific region that could spark conflict with SE Asian countries and the U.S. Navy.
6.North Korea led by Kim Jong-un, an unstable and possibly maniacal leader who routinely threatens South Korea and the USA with nuclear missile attack.
7.Greatly increasing cyber attacks by rogue nations, criminal and terrorist organizations on government and private sector computers and vital infrastructure like the national power grid.
8.Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction- North Korea’s export of ballistic missiles and related materials to several countries including Iran and Syria. Iran’s effort to build and deploy nuclear weapons on missiles that the recent deal does not prevent.
Thanks for your help in covering these matters in ongoing prayer. Here is the call information if you would like to participate each Wednesday.
Weekly Prayer conference calls with God's principles from 2 Chron 20: Wednesdays, 12 Noon CT,, 11 am MT, 10 am PT continuing 8/12, 8/19…through 10/1 712-432-0075, code 4961322#
By invitation only if you are a prayer network or ministry leader. Registration and hotel link for Colorado Springs gathering: http://nationaldayofprayer.org/event
In our monthly IPC leadership team conference calls, because of His promises in Matthew 18:18-20, we always have a good time of sharing and prayer and know that such agreement in prayer will make a crucial difference across the world. What can be more strategic for His Kingdom than to connect the leaders of international and regional prayer networks to share and pray together?
Here are some current prayer concerns that were raised that we would like to share with you:
1. Thanks be to God for the 40 senior Christian leaders from the nations of South Asia that met together in Sri Lanka a couple weeks ago to pray and share about the issue of confronting spiritual darkness and shining His light upon the massive, still unreached populations in that region. Praise the Lord that a good network was laid for future cooperation in the ministry of territorial deliverance prayer, and the participants hope to meet again in the next year or two. Please pray with them for His breakthroughs as they continue to work with others for His deliverance and salvation to come in their particular areas of the region.
Praise God also that the Sri Lankan election went very well with a peaceful environment and good outcome as we prayed with the locals for this. We now pray that a good cabinet will be appointed as our friends there have requested.
2. One of our colleagues is working to connect children’s ministry leaders and build up the Children in Prayer ministry across the vast nation of India. This is such a vital endeavor that is so full of God’s heart for the next generation. Please pray that he and others will be successful and get the support of a strong network or organization.
3. There are already about 100 registered for the European Trumpet Call, a Europe-wide prayer event to be held Aug 31 to Sept 4 in Timiosoara, Romania. It is not too late to register to participate if you or others you know would like to come.http://www.europeantrumpetcall.org
There are huge problems in Europe that will be prayed over during the ETC. One serious current issue is that tens of thousands of immigrants are coming into Greece and Italy, with thousands also having died on the open sea coming across the Mediterranean. Some of those coming are Muslim missionaries or terrorists. Please pray the authorities and humanitarian organizations to know what to do to help these desperate people and stop the human trafficking that accompanies it.
A prophetic word about the ETC from one of our leaders was received. He saw a cordon of God’s glory around the event and that it was going to be used of the Lord to “unleash a glorious future”. The Lord was saying, “Move on, I am with you… What you need to know, I will reveal…My word, power and presence will be there with a prophetic anointing…A great ingathering of people and angels, empowering you for something great.”
Let’s pray for the ETC leaders as they provide leadership for this crucial event and for the participants from across Europe that it will be a powerful time that God uses to bring breakthroughs in that continent.
4. The World Youth Prayer Assembly “UPrising” (United Prayer Rising) was successfully launched within the country of Malaysia a few weeks ago with approximately 70 Christian leaders and 700 youth participating in two gatherings in Kuala Lumpur. Please pray for Jerome Ocampo, the WYPA convener and the International Dream Team of youth leaders that are in the process of planning the event to be held next year in South Korea, July 26-30. You can find out more details and see a video about it at http://www.unitedprayerrising.com
As you can imagine, the evil one does not like such gatherings of young, on-fire Christians which will represent an enormous threat to his influence over the nations in the future. There are obstacles and battles that the IDT are experiencing as you can imagine in organizing such a world and generation-impacting event as this. Please pray for His close protection and clear guidance; that the right venue will be finalized soon; and that God will give His favor and wisdom in all the discussions and planning with the Korean leaders.
Thanks so much for your support!
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:15)
In December 2001, close to the time of the first IPC gathering near Ground Zero in New York, I was arriving with a team of prayer facilitators for a national prayer initiative in Monrovia, Liberia. As I entered the hotel entrance, a man selling mahogany wood carvings of all kinds, mostly of various African animals, excitedly handed me a different-looking one. “This one’s for you,” he proclaimed, no doubt anticipating he would make yet another sale to a foreign tourist.
The beautifully sculpted reddish wood depicted the large hand of God reaching protectively over the head of a small child and as I looked at it, I sensed the Lord was speaking to me again. On the same trip, I had become convinced that He was calling us in the international prayer movement to give special place to children and youth in the various initiatives that my colleagues and I were organizing around the world. This seemingly accidental reach for one of hundreds of different wood sculptures became one of many subsequent confirmations to me that the Lord was serious about this new focus.
After that time, both in World Vision International, the organization I served during those years, and in the wider Children in Prayer movement that I discovered had begun some years before, we began to prioritize the involvement of children and youth in various initiatives, both internationally and in nationally. Each time, we wondered at how God used the kids as His “secret weapon” in so many ways. They prayed for nations in conflict and suffering, with ambassadors at the United Nations, as well as for political leaders when we got that opportunity. Always, the Lord showed up in moving experiences so that we have been increasingly learning that tri-generational prayer is the way to go for the future-- adults, youth and children praying together for their nations and our world.
This became the guiding philosophy that led us during the World Prayer Assembly in 2012, in which tens of thousands of young people participated. Now, in the IPC and under the leadership of Pastor Jerome Ocampo from the Philippines, we are working with a team of international youth leaders to plan the World Youth Prayer Assembly. Supported by the prayers of children and the advice of the older generation, the WYPA will be called “UPrising” (United Prayer Rising) and will be held in Seoul, South Korea, July 26-30, 2016. Please see http://www.unitedprayerrising.com for more information.
Getting back to that 14 year-old Liberian wood carving. A couple weeks ago, it was my joy to present it to Father Anton Cruz and the Royal Kids, a wonderful ministry to thousands of orphans and children from poorer families in India and now other nations. As I was preparing to make the presentation that evening in honor of their 25th anniversary, I reflected again on the verse that was so roughly imprinted on the bottom of the statue- Isaiah 49:15. God’s reassuring words to His ancient people Israel in the midst of their great hardships that His love for them would go beyond the strongest of all human affection, that of a mother for her nursing babe, hit me powerfully. However, this time, I was especially struck by the next verse that I had hardly noticed before—“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” Suddenly, I realized that the hands of God Isaiah was describing were those stretched out for all of us on the cross of Calvary. The engraving was carried out with sharp iron nails in the sensitive palms of God the Son. Our faces and very lives were then and are now still engraved on His hands. You and I whether as a child or older adult will never be forgotten no matter what hard times we endure. When the Lord looks at His hands, He sees each of us in them- His exceedingly precious and beloved children. Whether we are cognizant of it or not and no matter what befalls us, we are always encompassed by those nail-engraved yet all-powerful hands, guiding us through life and into eternity.
John Robb
Invitation to pray with WPC for five nations
20 Aug 2015
We would invite our readers to join the rhythm of prayer at the World Prayer Centre this coming week, by praying for the countries listed below on the allotted weekdays:
Thursday 20 August: Persecuted church in Afghanistan More 1: | More 2:
Friday 21 August: Benin More 1: | More 2:
Monday 24 August: Persecuted church in Sudan More 1: | More 2:
Tuesday 25 August: Bermuda More 1:
Wednesday 26 August: Persecuted church in Iran More 1: | More 2:
China - Tianjin explosions: 112 Dead, 95 missing
20 Aug 2015
The number of people confirmed killed in Wednesday's blasts in Tianjin, China has risen to 112. Ninety-five people, 85 of them firefighters, are still missing (at the time of writing), and hundreds have been hospitalised. The explosions, in a warehouse containing hazardous chemicals, were so powerful that few of the recovered bodies have been identified. At a news conference on Sunday morning, officials said they had identified 24 of the dead. Experts are carrying out DNA tests to help identify the rest of the victims. At least 21 firefighters are among the dead. Of the 721 people injured, 25 are in critical condition and 33 are serious. Dozens of relatives of the missing and local residents have held a number of angry protests at a hotel used for official news conferences. They say they have not received enough information from the government about what chemicals are at the site. Homeowners are also demanding compensation for damage to their properties. Also on Sunday a senior military officer, Gen Shi Luze, became the first named official to confirm the presence of the toxic chemical sodium cyanide at the site, saying that ‘several hundred tons’ had been identified at two locations in the blast zone. Residents within a 3km radius of the blast site were evacuated on Saturday, amid fears of chemical contamination. However, Greenpeace said that surface water tests carried out at the site had not found high levels of the chemical.
Following a request for prayer for Burundi in last week's Prayer Alert, readers will be encouraged to hear there were only a few deaths after the assassination of Burundi's second most powerful man. Locals feared many more. Our contact in Burundi reports that most days in the capital there is gunfire and great fear, and the economy is totally decimated. Burundi is one of the world's poorest countries. It has one of the lowest GDP per capita of any country and has faced terrible genocides rooted in tribal tensions, like Rwanda but far less publicised. Over 300,000 people died between 1994-2005 in ethnic conflict. The country faces an ongoing battle with corruption, poor access to education and the effects of HIV/AIDS. We are asked to pray for the Great Lakes Outreach as they are sending out 500 Christian evangelists this week, into all but two of the provinces. Among the activities organised will be 75 outreach events, film showings and hospital/prison visits.
European Trumpet Call, Romania
20 Aug 2015
Intercessors and people of prayer from across Europe and beyond are planning to gather together in Timisoara, Romania, from 31 August to 4 September to sound the trumpet and to pray for the continent of Europe.
The invitation is to you, your church, your prayer ministry, your mission agency to come together and stand united on one great promise. ‘When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the LORD your God and rescued from your enemies.’ (Numbers 10:9)
A great shift is happening and many are aware of it.
It is time.
It is time to gather, to move forward together, to lift our voices and rejoice together in prayer.
God is calling His people to come together to blow the trumpets for the whole continent of Europe for:
PRAYER. There’s nothing more powerful than when saints pray and seek the Kingdom, standing in the gap for the lost. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
RECONCILIATION. We are ambassadors of Christ, coming in His name, calling out the lost to come into His marvellous Kingdom of light.
UNITY. In the mighty name of Jesus we will speak unity among brothers from different nations. 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is, for brothers to dwell together.. there God commands a blessing.' (Psalm 133)
ANTISEMITISM. We are not led by the world’s standards and thoughts but by the Bible that teaches us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So our focus will be to bless the nation of Israel.
THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP. Our leaders need wisdom and support from Heaven. “Prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings should be made for kings and all in high positions. It is pleasing in the sight of God, our Saviour.” (1 Tim. 2:1-3)