Rt Revd David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham, spoke about Friday’s terror attack from the House of Lords, where he is sitting this week. He said, ‘We have to face up to the next stages of rooting out the evil which is perpetrated through IS’. The Bishop said that Christians can help most in the local communities by making good personal relationships with those of other faiths and explaining how God and religion can promote peace and harmony. The Bishop’s comments follow David Cameron saying that Britain should attack the ‘head of the snake’ and that Raqqa (in Syria) is that head. He added that we should be doing more than supporting our allies with intelligence, surveillance and refuelling, and there needs to be comprehensive military counter-terrorism as well as ideological approaches.
The so-called Islamic Human Rights Commission
20 Nov 2015
An erroneous and seditious report published on 17 November claims that Muslims in the UK live in ‘an environment of hate’, and that the Government is to blame. The so-called ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission’ launched a report called ‘Environment of Hate’. It describes the UK as an ever-developing ‘Stasi’ state that is rife with hatred for the ‘suspect’ Muslim community, and says, ‘The authors examine the construction of an environment where Muslims are feared and loathed.’ They claim that the UK is like East Germany in its treatment of Muslims and Islam. This ‘Commission’ has been developing what it calls the ‘Domination Hate Model of Intercultural Relations’.
Scotland: guard the gates
20 Nov 2015
The following is a portion of Scotland’s ‘The Stand’ monthly prayer letter regarding recent events in Paris. ‘At such times the inevitable questions are “Why now? Why there? Why them?” and the danger is that we focus so much on the tragedy that we start to lose sight of the One who holds the nations in the palm of His hand - the One who knows the end from the beginning - Alpha and Omega - El Shaddai! We know Jesus broke the power of evil on the Cross, but we are still in that timeframe awaiting the ultimate end of our enemy, Satan, who is out to ‘steal, kill and destroy’. In the meantime we see lawlessness increase in every sphere of society, so what should our response be? PRAYER! Pray with an intensity as never before! Pray without ceasing - crying out to God to uncover and defeat the enemy’s plans.’
France: Church, arise - and pray
20 Nov 2015
Pope Francis condemned the Paris attacks. President Francois Hollande called them an ‘act of war’. We can join our brothers and sisters in France and pray for God's great mercy and compassion to be poured out on those who have lost a family member, friend or colleague. We can pray for this evil to be turned into a wave of salvation for the French. God has told French intercessors that there are other terrorist cells active in France; we can pray that they would be exposed to the authorities and dealt with adequately. Also, the intercessors believe that God has called His Church in France to repent for their silence as they have stood back and watched society slide into moral decadence. They believe God is saying that the ‘normalisation’ of immorality has destroyed His protection over the French nation, and He is calling His Church to repent. We are hearing of some French churches calling on the Body of Christ to repent and pray.
INSIGHTS into the various faces of IS
20 Nov 2015
The organisation called Anonymous has ‘declared war’ on IS in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks. They are leaking on to the internet the personal information of suspected extremists and have taken down thousands of accounts and sites associated with the terrorists. Globally the media and politicians are verbally and physically attacking IS, and the global Church is taking a spiritual stand against the evil of terrorism. What is needed at this time? Informed, wise, Spirit-led pray-ers, praying into terrorism’s sources of finance and the histories and mindsets of the primary game-changers. We need to be aware of the influences of various Islamic sects, and the different ideologies of individuals and groups such as IS. This week an INSIGHT article has been prepared that will give some of this information in concise facts to help with informed prayer. To read/download it click the ‘more’ button.
'International Day of the Bible' on 23 November
20 Nov 2015
‘International Day of the Bible’ is organised by the American Bible Society, Bible Gateway, Scripture Union, YouVersion, Bibles for the World, and the National Bible Association. It will take place this Monday, 23 November, giving Christians the opportunity to set aside a day to honour God's word and to show solidarity despite differing backgrounds, denominations, and political beliefs. A variety of events will take place - public readings of Scripture, breaking into a flash mob to read the Bible in unusual locations, singing and dancing Scripture, painting or drawing a picture with a few lines of verse, or capturing God's creation in photos (selfies included) and sharing them along with a psalm. A public Bible reading at the Capitol has already taken place, last Tuesday.
South African revivalist Lindy Ann Hopley recalls an incredible testimony of God’s faithfulness, mercy, kindness and love. ‘A month and a half ago at a meeting where I was preaching, Amanda Van Der Bank came to the front with her phone in her hand. She showed me a picture of her son and asked me to pray for him - he was addicted to marijuana. I prayed and asked God to reveal Himself in a dream. The next day she messaged to say, ‘He had a dream about Jesus!!! In the dream a man came and told him to remove a green bush from his back garden. It was difficult but it came out, leaving a large hole which he was concerned about. The man gave him a fully-grown palm tree to plant in its place.’ When he woke up he told his mother the dream, and that day he stopped doing drugs.’
How do we pray for ISIS?
18 Nov 2015
Most of us face news of the atrocities and inhumane things happening at the hands of ISIS on a daily basis due to our work/ministry; we are bombarded with prayer requests for the people suffering, who are being persecuted for their faith, taken as sex slaves and fleeing their countries. And because we are compelled to as Christians, by love for our brothers and sisters, we pray. We even heard how the family members of the 21 Egyptians who were slaughtered in Libya, ask us to pray for those who killed their loved ones. And as believers we are very aware of Jesus' command in Matthew 5:44 to pray for our enemies.
These words of Jesus became a real "challenge" to many of us when we heard about the attacks in Paris, France this week as we realize the threats are coming "closer to home". It is then when we ask: Should we pray for the defeat of ISIS, or their conversion? Our hearts and our minds tell us that we need justice, not mercy, condemnation not salvation!
Jesus says to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). BUT the Spirit of Jesus in the prophets and in the apostles also tells us that those who turn a blind eye to the killing of others are wrong. So how do we pray?
The main problem is that we sometimes forget that we are called to be a people of both justice and justification, and that these two are not contradictory.
It sounds awfully spiritual, to say that we should not pray for the defeat of our enemies on the field of battle. But that's only the case if these enemies are not actually doing anything. This terrorist group is raping, enslaving, beheading, crucifying our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as other innocent people. To not pray for swift action against them is to not care about what Jesus said we should seek, what we should hunger and thirst for, for justice. As Christians, we ought to be, above all, people concerned with such justice.
At the same time, praying for the salvation of our enemies, even those committing the most horrific of crimes, is not a call to stop praying for justice against them.
We ought to pray for the gospel to go forward, and that there might be a new Saul of Tarsus turned away from murdering to gospel witness. At the same time, we ought to pray, with the martyrs in heaven, for justice against those who do such wickedness.
Therefore praying for the military defeat of our enemies, and that they might turn to Christ, are not contradictory prayers because salvation doesn't mean turning an eye away from justice.
The thief on the cross—a Middle Eastern terrorist by Rome's standards—in his act of faith did not believe that his salvation exempted him from justice. He confessed that his sentence was justice, and that he was receiving "the due reward for our deeds" (Luke 23:41) even as he cried out to Jesus (and was given) for merciful entrance into the Kingdom of Christ (Luke 23:42).
Pray for 30 Days
May God give you HIS love for ISIS during these 30 days and that the body of Christ will pray through and into His heart. This Prayer Guide is a guide line for praying for ISIS.
Source: Jericho Walls International, Russell Moore