Displaying items by tag: prayer

Fox News, Dec. 29

“The major players involved in the long-running Syrian conflict have agreed to a cease-fire set to begin at midnight on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in the day.

The deal will be guaranteed by Russia and Turkey. It's set to be followed by peace talks between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and opposition leaders. The Syrian parties would meet in Kazakhstan for the talks, though no date has been set.

Some terror groups are to be excluded from the cease-fire, though, aside from ISIS, it's unclear which -- if any -- that refers to. The head of rebel group Fastaqim told Reuters the truce only excluded ISIS. The Syrian army earlier said the agreement would exclude ISIS, the group formerly known as the Nusra Front and any group linked to it.

Ahmad Ramadan of the Syrian National Coalition said the truce reached Thursday includes a halt to airstrikes and shelling.

Ramadan said in text messages sent to The Associated Press that members of the Free Syrian Army, a loose alliance of several moderate rebel factions, will abide by the truce -- but retaliate to violations by government and allied forces.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the truce will include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria, and that the Russian military has established a hotline with its Turkish counterpart to monitor compliance.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be welcome to join the Syrian peace process once he takes office.

Russia is a key ally of Assad, while Turkey is one of the main backers of the opposition. Several previous attempts to halt the civil war have failed.

Let’s pray for the ceasefire to hold and be observed by all parties and that these peace talks can go ahead and bring an end to this destructive conflict.

The Fall of Aleppo

December 13, 2016 

I sit in safety, less than one hour by air, only a few hundred miles from the besieged city of Aleppo that today has finally fallen to the forces of the Assad regime. I hear the cries of the innocent who wait for death even as they race to find a place of safety, a way out of the inferno of madness that is war. Their cries echo through the fractures of my breaking heart, tears fall and I grieve for the unjustifiable loss of life, for the children, for the men and women who will not see tomorrow. In the wrong place at the wrong time, some are simply civilians whose crime was that they lived in a rebel enclave. Others - aid workers, rescuers who sought to save and heal, remain alongside activists for freedom – all trapped together under the threat of indiscriminate armaments roaring over their heads, exploding in their streets. War, its strategies of conquest and death, its madness and sophisticated violence, its use of ever stronger force blindly focused to eradicate all resistance whatever the cost.

The world watches, waits for the aftermath when the last enclave falls. Breaking news informs of reprisal, the inevitable massacre has begun. The execution count unashamedly includes tens of women and children, all of them deemed enemies.

Helpless to help, I can but weep and plead for mercy

The Fall of Aleppo

We close our eyes

and think because

we cannot see the darkness

it is not our own.

War in real time,

voices emerge from the rubble,

disembodied cries rise amidst the ruins.

From under mounds of wreckage

telephones still beep their signals

to an anesthetized world.

Death-rattles tweet

into the hollow bright realm

of supercomputers,

thought-fast communications.

Their android voices twitter

through labyrinthine cyber-nets,

crossing continents

at the speed of light,

disseminating darkness

as multitudes fall, swallowed

in the maw of today’s real time war.

Lisa Loden ©

December 13, 2016

Sunrise Prayer Relay

As we wrote earlier in the week, many interdenominational groups of praying people will greet the dawn of the New Year with others from all around the world as the sun rises in your own community this Sunday morning, January 1. Please join with brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for your church, city, nation and our world, trusting the Lord to do new and extraordinary things in 2017.

For more information about participating now or next year, please see this brief video and website that our Australian friends have created:

New Year’s Day 2017 Sunrise Prayer Relay Short Promo Video 1:23 Secs:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0cvSl8UcE

 www.sunriseprayerrelay.org  

Great Commission Prayer Summit

Prayer and mission to those who have never heard the Gospel are integrally linked. All the great breakthroughs in mission have been preceded by united prayer from the book of Acts till the present. With this in mind, the Great Commission Prayer Summit will gather those with a heart for both prayer and mission in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Jan. 19-22. Please pray for a spiritual “critical mass”, a divine explosion of His presence and power that will propel a new thrust of taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to the unreached peoples of our world. Pray for all who will be speaking and those attending to be guided clearly and stirred deeply as we prepare to take part. Here is more information about participating on site if you are able to register and come:

Theme: "Contending For Global Harvest" Expectation is Rising! We are expecting a powerful time in the presence of God from January 19-22, 2017 as we discern His heart and learn more about how to align with Him in spiritually contending for global harvest. Plan to join us in beautiful Chiang Mai, Thailand and catch God's fire of devoted prayer and intercession for the nations

http://www.svm2.net/special-events/great-commission-prayer-summit/ 

Youth and Children’s Prayer Movements- A Request for your Prayer Support 

Please pray for crucial meetings that will be held in and near Jakarta, Indonesia, January 22-26, to plan for the further development of both the youth and children’s international prayer movements. International teams who focus on the Next Generation along with some from the IPC leadership will gather to seek the Lord together for the growth and expansion of both these movements throughout our world. Please pray with us for the following:

1. God’s wisdom, clarity and unity as we pray and deliberate together on the best ways to go forward.
2. The possibility of a world youth prayer assembly, including children, in 2018.
3. That Christian leaders and churches worldwide will realize the importance of nurturing the prayer experience of the Next Generation and partnering with children and youth in tri-generational ministry.
4. That as He has in the past, the Lord will move powerfully by His Spirit upon children and youth worldwide, calling them into relationship with Himself and using them to do great exploits in revival of the Church and reaching those who have never heard the Gospel.

Do you have a story to tell about how you prayed and God answered?

Our God is a good Father who wants what's best for His children. In Matthew 7:7 says, 'Ask and it shall be given to you', so when we are going through situations and we ask God for a breakthrough or a miracle and He answers, God wants us to testify for His Glory.

"Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world." (Isaiah 12:4-5)"

Our testimony of how God has answered our prayer can be just the encouragement that someone else in a similar situation needs to hear! It can help them to see that God is real, that He hears us when we call and if He did it for you He can do it for them too.

So... we want to hear about what answers to prayer you have had from God. We then want to share it on online so that others will be inspired to try prayer when there seems like there is nothing else to do.

If you have a story, send it to us along with your details to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can send via our social media with #shareprayer and we will contact you.

Let's start spreading some hope and love and the good news of Jesus through our answers to prayer!