January 2012
Earlier this year, American Christian radio host Harold Camping stated that the Rapture and Judgment Day would take place on May 21, 2011, and that the end of the world would take place five months later on October 21, 2011. Obviously this didn’t happen, and he was wrong to try and predict it. However, 2011 was full of an intensifying number of catastrophic natural disasters such as the Japan tsunami and nuclear meltdown, the massive Thailand floods and the famine in East Africa. It was also a year of unsettling socio-political and economic changes like the “Arab Spring” of popular uprisings in the Middle East or the worldwide economic recession. Such developments do compel us to wonder if they might represent some of those “signs” of the end of the age and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2012 is also being hailed as a time of profound change. Though professional Mayan scholars and astronomers dispute this, some adhere to the Mayan calendar and December 21, 2012, as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in which the sun’s alignment with the center of the Milky Way will bring about the end of our world. One thing we can be sure of is that we are living in a time in which God is shaking the nations as foretold by Haggai the prophet. The good news is that the Lord ties this shaking to the coming of the “Desired of All Nations” (Hag. 2:6-7) and the filling of His house with greater glory. Another minor prophet with a major message says that indeed the whole earth will be filled with the glory of His presence (Hab. 2:14).
Jesus told us that when the nations give way to anguish and perplexity, with men fainting with terror over what is coming on the world as even the heavenly bodies are being shaken, we who believe in Him are to lift up our heads in expectation because our redemption is drawing near. He repeatedly warned that our posture should be prayerful watchfulness to be ready to respond to Him and also presumably, as urged elsewhere, to be His instruments in bringing transformation. For example, through Isaiah, the Lord said that the prayers of the watchmen/intercessors are critical to His transformation of the world (Is. 62:6-7).
The Apostle Peter echoes a similar theme when he writes: “The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” Even husbands are urged to be considerate and respectful of their wives so “your prayers will not be hindered” (I Peter 4:7, 3:7). Prayer is so important that nothing must be allowed to distract us from it even in the midst of the tumult and terror of a world that seems to be coming undone. Indeed, that is the reason we need to watch in prayer and partner with the Lord for the fulfillment of His purposes in it all.
Fortunately, the World Prayer Assembly is happening several months before the doomsday scenario of December 21, and you are invited to be there! Please see the attached invitation. Most importantly, the WPA will be a once-in-a-generation convergence of praying leaders, networks and movements from both church and marketplace along with a rising force of on-fire youth and children in prayer. It will be a time of deep encounter with the Lord and strategic planning for the future. Those of us in the IPC as well as our colleagues from the Indonesian and Korean prayer movements who are co-hosting the WPA believe that the Lord is bringing us all together in Jakarta to connect and expand a global, interactive movement of watching in prayer that He will use to reveal His glory to the nations.
Please use this issue of Connections to watch and pray for our world, and also we would appreciate your interceding for the arrangements and for the people from around the world that should be part of the World Prayer Assembly. If you haven’t seen it, check out the new video about the WPA and how it will reflect the pivotal time in which we live and respond to Christ’s global agenda.
Let not your heart be troubled and have an extraordinary 2012!
John Robb
IPC Chairman
“Musalaha’s women’s leadership committee recently decided to discuss forgiveness at their annual fall women’s conference. We spent time discussing what forgiveness is (a unilateral decision, an intentional process) and what it is not (a feeling, forgetting/avoiding, exoneration/excusing). …We also discussed the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Reconciliation entails the restoration of trust and a commitment to a relationship where both sides are willing to be vulnerable and allow the relationship to grow into something different than it was in the past; forgiveness can occur without reconciliation, but reconciliation cannot occur without forgiveness.
We also discussed intergroup forgiveness, redeeming violence and suffering, confronting issues, and bearing one another’s burdens. We then began to discuss intergroup forgiveness with each other, as we were divided into two groups of Israelis and Palestinians for separate discussion. We asked the Israelis to write how they have been hurt by the Palestinians, and then we asked them to write a list of how they think they have hurt the Palestinians. We asked the Palestinians to do the same – to write how they have been hurt by the Israelis, and how they think they have hurt the Israelis. Both sides honestly took time for self-reflection and self-criticism and came up with long lists of hurts and offenses.
We then brought the women back together to discuss this. Both sides brought up the issues of safety and security; both sides acknowledged the fear of the other. The Palestinian side expressed hurt at the imbalance of power, the misuse of Scripture for political purposes, the distortion and de-legitimization of Palestinian identity, and of land confiscation, among many other things. The Israeli side perceived that they hurt the Palestinians by treating them like second class citizens politically, socially, and through a flawed justice system, by being unwilling to listen to or believe their stories and history, and by confiscating property, to name a few. The Israeli side expressed hurt at the fear they live in due to Palestinian aggression, by the lack of understanding of their interpretation of Scripture, by Palestinian maps that make no mention of Israel’s existence, and by the fact that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are not denounced in Palestinian society, among other things.
The Palestinian side perceived that they hurt the Israelis by violence, through challenging Messianic Jewish theology, for those living in Israel refusing to declare their Israeli identity, and by downplaying the Holocaust, to name a few. It was striking to see that, many times, each side had correctly articulated how the other side had been hurt by them. This session was eye-opening, and the women were sincere and honest with each other, and they truly heard and acknowledged one another’s hurts…
This conference was a breakthrough for our women. The women felt heard and better understood, and they felt their hurt was acknowledged. This does not mean that they necessarily agree with each another, but that they learned to better listen to one another. The other side’s acknowledgment of one’s hurt is part of the forgiveness process, and it helps in the healing process. They left excited by the furthering of their relationships and the newly found openness they achieved as they were vulnerable with one another. The women are taking this teaching back to their own congregations, as they saw the fruits of acknowledgement and forgiveness in this conference. It was a huge step in our journey of reconciliation, and we truly feel that we were able to better understand and live out.”
Please pray for a growing reconciliation movement to arise between Israelis and Palestinians and that the cycle of hatred and mistrust will be broken.
In apparent reaction to the imposition of new sanctions by the West, Iran is asking for a new round of talks about its nuclear program with the United States and five other world powers. Tehran’s uranium enrichment program could result in the development of nuclear arms. It is important for us to pray because the last round of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany that happened a year ago were unsuccessful. The Iranian negotiator said, “We formally declared to them to return to the path of dialogue for cooperation.”
Please prayer that these talks will go ahead successfully and that the Iranians will agree to comply with concerns of the international community and discontinue any plans to build nuclear weapons which would destabilize the security of the whole region and our world. Pray that Islamic radicalism and apocalypticism would be discredited and rejected by the Iranian people and that moderate, good leaders will be raised up within that nation who will pursue the wellbeing of their own people and the region. God is able to bring change in this dangerous situation as we pray in faith!
“An Iranian pastor facing a death sentence for refusing to renounce his Christian faith and embrace Islam is expected to spend another year in jail, awaiting an appeal on his death sentence, while government authorities try to force him to convert to Islam.
However, the delay could be a ruse and the Iranian government could kill him in secret, warns the founder of Present Truth Ministries, which was the first to report on Pastor Yosef Nadarkhani’s arrest in October 2009.
Nadarkhani, who has been jailed since he was arrested and charged with apostasy, came within two days of being hanged in September until Iranian court officials — perhaps influenced by international outrage from the Rev. Franklin Graham, House Speaker John Boehner, and other notables around the world — decided to let him appeal the sentence.
The 34-year-old Nadarkhani, who became a Christian at the age of 19, was tried and convicted in December 2010. The pastor of several home congregations in a small Christian community called the Church of Iran, he has refused repeatedly to recant his faith.
The apostasy charge stems from the government’s allegation that he converted from Islam to Christianity, while his defense claims that he had not been a Muslim before becoming a Christian. The government contends that he was a Muslim because he was born into a Muslim household.
He refused three times during the three days running up to his execution date to recant, and his death appeared to be imminent until he received a reprieve of sorts.
The evangelical pastor’s lawyer was confident at one time that his conviction would be reversed. But he was told that Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of Iran’s judiciary, asked the presiding judge to delay judgment on his appeal and keep him in prison for another year, the Christian Post reported last month.
The deliberate delay is meant to let the case “slip away from international attention” even as the authorities continue to “use whatever means necessary to cause him to convert to Islam,” the Christian Post quotes Present Truth Ministries’ Jason DeMars as saying.
The case has taken several outrageous turns since Nardakhani’s arrest, including the arrest of his wife in an attempt to force him to recant, as well as the addition of other trumped-up charges of rape, security violations, and Zionism that Iranian officials added around the execution date. That was the first time in the two-year process that such charges had been mentioned, and many observers regarded the additional charges as an effort to rationalize the death penalty.
Various reports have indicated that his health is deteriorating in prison.
Although the Iranian court very well could wait another year before deciding Nadarkhani’s fate, “there are no assurances that he will not be executed,” DeMars warned. “It could happen at any time. This is the way that the Iranian government operates with executions. They do not give advance notice, and it is done in secret.”
Please pray for Pastor Nadadakhani that he will be encouraged and strong in the Lord, that the plots of evil men will be overturned and that he will be released from prison soon. Pray for his family as well and for the Iranian believers to not be intimidated but rather emboldened to bear witness so that the church grows greatly as a result.
“It is no more news that the Christmas in Nigeria was a black Christmas. On the 25th of December, 2011, as families dressed up to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, many never knew they were dressed up to die. Families lost loved ones to a war declared by Boko Haram which the Nigerian government has been treating with kid gloves. Like Job, what we feared most has come to us. Could this be a wake up call for the church in Nigeria?
Please join me in praying for Nigeria, that the wisdom of God will prevail. Pray that the Church will be driven back to her knees. We can stop Boko Haram with prayers – Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Mat. 19:26).
Many have called the church bombing as a declaration of religious war…Our leaders (political and ecclesiastical) need to do something because the worst is coming to happen soon. I am not a prophet of doom, but the worst will happen unless the government becomes proactive.
Please pray for families who lost their loved ones, that the Lord will encourage them and help them bear this loss. It is a colossal loss; it is unbearable without the grace of God.
Pray for our church leaders – that God will bless them with wisdom and sanctified lips.
It is only the Christians that can save Nigeria from this situation by praying. There is no political or religious remediation for this monstrous happening. Prayer and fasting is the solution. Our ecclesiastical leaders should call the Christendom in Nigeria to a day of mourning (prayer and fasting).
Pray for Christians in Northern Nigeria not to despair. Make a declaration: CHRISTIANITY SHALL NOT BECOME EXTINCT IN NORTHERN NIGERIA. IN JESUS’ NAME.
Thank you for praying for Nigeria.
Pastor Amakor
Open Heaven Intercessors
http://www.injesus.com/message-archives/prayer/openheavenintercessors/prayer-directivesnigeria-mourning
Update:
http://www.injesus.com/message-archives/prayer/openheavenintercessors/country-intercession-nigeria-breaking-news
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A South African sister in Christ has asked prayer about the following issues:
1. “There are plans to start a 24-hour pornographic channel in our country. We must stop this in Jesus’ name.
2. The British Prime Minister David Cameron has started what they call a “Gay Rights Crusade” in Africa. He decided to link financial aid to gay rights by insisting that African governments who do not embrace homosexual rights should either be denied financial aid or should be given drastically reduced aid until they embrace homosexual rights.
3. The Mr. Gay World competition is planned in Johannesburg this year over the Easter holidays. The intention is to remove focus on the resurrected Christ to the homosexual competition.
4. The ANC is planning to hand over South Africa to their ancestors during their centenary celebrations from 8 January 2012 in Bloemfontein. I believe intercessors must bring these urgent matters before the Lord in prayer as they will bring a curse on our country. We desperately need a mighty visitation from God and not spirits of the dead ancestors.”
Please pray for South Africa about these serious concerns.
Let the “New Wave” of His Glory Fill the Earth!
We acknowledge that God is at work in powerful ways all over the world. As a result we anticipate the following:
1. The World Prayer Assembly 2012 will be a “new wave” to strategically connect and empower the global prayer and mission movements. 5000-6000 Christian leaders from up to 220 nations will join with the Lord and each other through united prayer, leading to Spirit-inspired action to transform our world.
2. The World Prayer Assembly is being arranged and co-hosted by leaders of the Indonesian and Korean prayer movements, two of the most powerful prayer forces in the world, with the support of international prayer networks such as the International Prayer Council and the Global Day of Prayer.
3. The ultimate goal of the World Prayer Assembly is two-fold: to see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14) and to experience the fulfilment of Jesus’ prayer that His followers become one so the world will know He is its Creator and Saviour (John 17:21).
4. The WPA 2012 will learn from and build upon what the Body of Christ has experienced through the worldwide explosion of prayer efforts since the last International Prayer Assembly in Korea in 1984, by linking together prayer, mission and marketplace ministries from all church traditions, denominations and social spheres. In the spirit of Acts 13, together we will seek to hear from the Lord of the Church regarding His plans to engage and direct the global prayer movement. The goal is to see every nation, city and rural area throughout the world become filled with ongoing intercession and Spirit-inspired action until His Kingdom’s values are fully manifested.
5. Prayer networks and ministries worldwide will meet with those who are prayerfully working for transformation in all spheres of society such as government, education, business/marketplace, arts and media. Ministry leaders will learn from one another and plan new strategies. They will coordinate their efforts to advance world evangelization and the reaching of the unreached. They will work to ignite spiritual revival of the Church, as well as to champion social justice and humanitarian efforts - so that His glory will fill the earth.
6. The WPA 2012 will also encourage and serve to launch the next generation to become cutting-edge leaders for Christ’s global prayer and mission movement, as children and youth take their positions as equal partners in leading this event.
7. In fulfilment of Jesus prayer in John 17, the WPA will unite a large proportion of Christ’s Body to cry out to God for breakthrough in the urgent issues of our time. On the evening of May 17, during the WPA, 100,000 believers of all denominations, including 20,000 trained child intercessors and 20,000 youth, will gather together in the national stadium of Jakarta for a massive prayer meeting. This prayer event will be linked live to 200 cities of Indonesia where there will be similar gatherings estimated at 2 million or more. Combining with the Global Day of Prayer broadcast through satellite TV, tens of millions will take part from around the world, uniting their prayers to shape the history of our world!
Let the “new wave” of His glory fill the earth!
ONE MILLION Christians will be praying on April 14, 2012 for TWO BILLION children under age 15. These boys and girls represent the largest unreached people group in the world. Two-thirds live outside of Christ. Their eternity hangs in the balance.
Global 4/14 Day is April 14, 2012. This is an international day of pray and fasting for children ages 4 - 14. All kids in this demographic are known as the "4/14 Window." Why? Because during this decade or "window," most children develop their moral and spiritual foundations.
They are more open and receptive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 8 out of 10 people, who make a decision for Christ, do so between the ages of 4 to 14. A new website, www.Global414Day.com is now online and available in multiple languages. This is your invitation to join the movement and pray for children on Global 4/14 Day.
A coalition of Christ followers and Christian leaders from around the world, have partnered together to tell you about this event. Will you join us? Mark your 2012 calendar.
PRAY!
Steve Karges
Coordinator
Global 4/14 Day
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.