My cell phone spurs me on each time it powers up with AT&T's motto, "Rethink Possible!" Marketers, in this case, are good theologians-and Christians in the Western world would do well to take this exhortation seriously.
When it comes to praying for God's miraculous intervention, why is it so easy for us in the West to default to the position of unbelief? Why do people in the Third World seem to experience more of the miracle-working power of God?
How can we grow in faith and pray history-shaping prayers for our community and nation and world-and rethink possible?
A few weeks ago, while I was pondering a new development that could result in a new ministry opportunity, some friends from Southeast Asia came to visit my family. I had pretty much concluded that this "possible opportunity" was a long shot. But in that moment of wondering, my visiting friends presented my wife and me with a beautiful pewter wall piece etched with the words, "Nothing is impossible." I had jumped to an unbelieving conclusion. And their gift was a loving rebuke.
Assume the Possible
Why do we so readily assume that things will not go our way or that they're impossible to attain? I can hear the Lord saying to me as He did to His slow, unperceptive disciples, "Where is your faith?"
Our same visiting friends had been in Myanmar in 2010 to help launch the Children in Prayer movement in that much oppressed nation. And in January 2011, I had the privilege of joining hundreds of ministry leaders for a second, similar effort. Out of those two events, an estimated 40,000 children mobilized to pray for their nation.
Nothing seemed to budge in Myanmar-spiritually or politically-until the children began to intercede. Then, in short order, the whole nation seemed to shift. The military junta, which had dominated the land with an iron grip, released political dissidents from prison, including the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Greater economic freedom was granted. Reconciliation efforts suddenly began between some of the ethnic groups that the government had been fighting for many years.
Political news commentators did not know how to explain such a precipitous turn-around in a nation so long accustomed to tyrannical oppression. But the prayer ministry leaders believed that "God's secret weapon," the prayers of children, were a major factor.
When I was with World Vision, an international humanitarian and childcare organization, we witnessed the same phenomenon. As director of prayer ministries, I asked field staff in five countries to have the children in the program pray for their very poor communities for one year. All of us were astonished by the miracles that occurred in those communities where the kids were praying for specific needs: the infrastructural changes, such as digging wells and establishing new clinics, resolving community splits, the healing of people with terminal illnesses, and the prevention of terrorist invasions in the places where the prayer was happening!
Staff people asked if we could renew the children's prayer effort for another year. After a second consultation, people recited an even longer litany of miracles to the wonderment of all. The Children in Prayer (CiP) effort spread by word of mouth to 20 national offices, and later about 50 of our World Vision national offices continued developing CiP efforts. Even after I left World Vision, the prayer movement spread beyond that organization with an estimated 75-80 countries supporting CiP efforts. This is all to the glory of the Lord who loves the prayers of children!
Learn the Children's Secret
Why are children's prayers so powerful? How can they serve as a model to us more skeptical, slow-to-believe adults?
Jesus taught that He has delegated authority to believers so we can even bring Satan down in our communities and nations. Jesus said He saw Satan "fall like lightning from heaven" and that the authority of Jesus will enable us to "trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy" (Luke 10:18-19).
Moments later, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was rejoicing as His people overcame the devil and brought deliverance. He joyously praised the Father for revealing these things to "little children" (v. 21). Apparently children have a greater openness to receiving such a revelation from God. The implication is that His adult disciples will be slower to grasp such a reality unless they cultivate the same childlike hearts. In other places, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God belongs to people who are like children, and that we adults should seek to be like them (Matt. 18:2-4, 19:14). Why? Because adults tend to be encumbered by the baggage of doubt, fear, and wrong belief systems that keep us from simply trusting God to do what He promises to do.
We have become captive to a materialistic and non-supernatural worldview. We may not realize how deeply we have become affected by this corrosive influence. But if we ignore God's promises to do the impossible (if we will simply ask, trusting Him like small children depending on their parents), it is as if we, in effect, have taken scissors to Scripture.
I believe this is a major reason why serious and persistent prayer is not on the agenda of most Christians and ministry leaders in the West. We live in a material world seemingly controlled only by laws of nature, so we have imbibed the idea that prayer makes little or no difference. Humanism's teaching that "man is the measure of all things" has also crept into our thinking. Both are false philosophical teachings that cut off the realization that God is the One in whom "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
For the rest of this article go to this link:
http://www.prayerconnect.net/magazine/issue-18-faith/why-not-here
Throughout 20-plus years of ministry, and in many diverse situations in 58 national prayer initiatives, my colleagues and I have found certain Scripture passages and principles to be especially helpful in releasing our faith-and the faith of the local people who have participated in prayer with us. It is the release of our faith together in unity, through the enabling and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that "moves mountains" and accomplishes astounding breakthroughs in prayer.
Here are some of those Scriptures:
John 14:13-14: "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
The sky is the limit. We can ask the Lord for anything. We can accept the invitation He has extended to us, releasing our faith in His enormous capacity to do the impossible.
Matthew 18:18-20: "Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
Praying with others in corporate unity, even in twos and threes, can change the atmosphere of what is possible in communities and nations. More than 30 times in the Book of Acts, and in all the great spiritual revivals and positive social transformations of modern history, we see that these movements have been preceded by united prayer. Theologian Walter Wink said, "History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being."
1 John 5:14-15: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him."
Praying according to God's will involves both hearing His Word and following the leading of His Spirit. Faith will gradually build within us as we listen to the Lord, follow His direction, and then see His wonderful answers. In this manner we also avoid the presumption and flakiness that sometimes characterizes overly subjective praying that goes its own way.
Matthew 17:20: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
God has enrolled all of us in the educational process of learning to trust Him with more and more of our lives. The Lord is always looking for faith, and He tries to draw it out from those who are with Him. Jesus did this with the Syro-Phoenician woman whose daughter was ill, the father of the demon-possessed boy, blind Bartimaeus, and Jesus' own obtuse disciples (me included).
I often take a bag of mustard seeds with me to hand out before we pray for breakthroughs in difficult situations. They come from a seed specialist in my church. The seeds are very tiny black objects, not the partially germinated yellow ones from the grocery store. As brothers and sisters in Christ hold these in their hands together, they realize it does not take a lot of faith. It takes only the willingness to exercise what we have. As we do, that faith unleashes God's hand to do His wonders.
Ephesians 2:6: "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."
Notice this is past tense. It has already been accomplished. We have been raised with Christ to sit in heavenly places with Him. Though we are still very much rooted in this material world, we are already joined through the Spirit to the One who sits on the throne of the universe. Through intimacy with the risen Lord, we share in His authority exercised by faith through prayer.
What an awesome position He has accorded us to rule and reign with Him! When we understand that and live in the presence of the supernatural, all-powerful Lord of eternity, trusting Him for miracles on earth becomes routine, normal behaviour.
Let's begin to live and pray from that position so we can see breakthroughs for our world we have not yet dreamed of!
-John Robb
Excerpt from
http://www.prayerconnect.net/magazine/issue-18-faith/why-not-here
Article Subheading
In Babylon, the prophet Daniel found the promise that God made through Jeremiah.
"in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years." (Daniel 9:2 ESV)
What did Daniel do when he received the words from the Lord? What he did was that he prayed before the Lord, asking for forgiveness. He humbled himself and prayed before the Lord, recognizing not only his sins, but sins of his ancestors that they committed before God.
There is a 70th year anniversary that has a significant meaning to Japan: the Pacific War. Recently, Prime Minister Abe went worshipping at Yasukuni Shrine, where approximately 2,100,000 soldiers who died in the war are worshipped. He also went to war memorials in other countries. In this time of increasing darkness, I sense that there is something that the Lord is saying to us, the churches in Japan. That is, the reality that there are "spiritual debts" toward Asian countries that have not been paid.
The 70th year anniversary of the Pacific War, we, SIR (Strategic Intercession and Research) Network have sent prayer teams to various places of the war on the days that have meanings in the context of the 70th year. Those teams stood on the land to pray with the local churches and Christians.
Below is where we have gone to pray. Starting out at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on December 8th (7th in Hawaii)in 2011, we went to Hong Kong (Dec 28th), Singapore (Feb 15th, 2012), Kalijati, Indonesia (March 8th), Corregidor Island, the Philippines (May 7th), the Battle of Midway (prayed at a ceremony in Hawaii, Kokoda, Papua New Guinea (Sept 8th), Tarawa and Makin, Gilbert Islands (Nov 23rd, prayed at a National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii), Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands (feb 7th, 2013), Singapore (the Shonan Shrite Site, Feb 15th), Buin in the Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea (April 18th), Dutch Harbor, Allusion Islands (May 30th), Kokoda and Sanananda, Papua New Guinea (July), Majuro, Marshal Islands (Feb 6th, 2014), Sandakan in Sabah and Labuan, Malaysia (April), Biak Island, Indonesia, and Imphal India (May), Guam (Aug 15th), Rabaul, Papua New Guinea (Sep 20th), Leyte Island, the Philippines (Oct 20th), and Clerk Air Base on Luzon Island, the Philippines (Oct 25th).
As we stood on these fields and prayed together with the local church and Christians in those countries, the Lord spoke to us the promise of "restoration and healing." Standing on the lands that were once battle fields where much blood was shed, I felt the responsibility of releasing the curses on those lands in the name of Jesus who died on the cross.
We also faced the reality that many of those battle fields had been kept tied in curses through groups of family members and relatives from Japan coming to the lands after the war. They built memorial monuments for the dead soldiers so that they could hold memorial services, but it resulted in inviting evil spirits to the lands by them praying to and calling down the dead spirits at those services. Without exception, that lands that were once battle fields were groaning under such curses, manifested as volcanic eruptions, conflicts, wars among tribes, and the prevalence of idol worship.
We prayed to the Lord on the lands, repenting of our sins, asking for forgiveness and reconciliation to the local people, and asking for the removal of the curses poured onto the lands. The Lord heard those prayers, and also the local churches and Christians accepted our repentance and forgave us.
I met many people who would point at us, Japanese, saying, "my family was killed by the Japanese. But today, I forgive the Japanese." There were also many people who would say in their prayer, "Heavenly Father, first, I forgive Japanese people, "I believe that the reconciliation was a gift given to us in the promise of "restoration and healing" through the intercessory prayer on the lands on the 70th year.
The "spiritual debts" the Japanese churches owed have already been paid off in the Gospel of the cross. And now, I feel the coming of "God's Time," the time when we shall be sent to those countries with the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul appealed that he was "under obligation"(Romans 1:14), having the responsibility of preaching the gospel. I believe that Japanese churches are "under obligation" to those countries that we hurt, infringed, and invaded during the Pacific War to deliver the Gospel. And, that is necessary for the revival in Japan.
It will have been 70 years since the end of Pacific War in 2015.
The battle of Iwo Jima, the battle of Okinawa, the air raids to around 130 cities, and the dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were events that took place during the last six months of war. We have already been led to careful and thorough research on those events through intercessory prayer, but on this 70th year, I feel that the Lord is laying His hands on the whole nation of Japan to give the "restoration and healing" through sending us to stand on the lands and pray.
Missionary work after the war in Japan was began by the missionaries sent from European and American churches right after the end of the war. The Gospel was delivered in the towns burned to ashes by the countries that were once enemies. It is not an exaggeration to say that churches in Japan were built up through those missionaries' tears and prayer in hardship and the support from their home countries that sent them.
For 70 years since the end of the war, churches in Japan have been devoted to preaching the Gospel and praying for the revival in Japan. The reality, however, is that the ratio of Christians to the whole population has not been changed; some say that it is declining.
There are words that are used to express one's refusal of Christianity. Those are words that Christians in Japan have heard at least once; that is, "Christianity is a religion of the United States." These words make me think what is behind them. Those missionaries came to the town that burned to ashes by the air raids, offered many supplies, and delivered the Gospel. It is said that Japanese people, in their extreme poverty, crowded around the supplies and surged to churches. Having lost in the war, many people who were disappointed at the gods they had believed in received the Gospel and became leaders of Christian churches later.
However, once the occupation, the so-called "seven golden years," were over, people started leaving churches. Now, more than one million people go to shrines and temples on New Year's Day for their first visit of the year, where Japanese people once went to pray for victory in the war. I cannot think but that there is a hidden "hostility", that turns into the resistance to the Gospel.
I believe that on the 70th year since the end of the war, we are asked to have intercession and prayer that bring "putting to death the hostilities" and the "restoration and healing". I am also certain that intercessory prayer from the United States, who was once our enemy, is needed in this process of reconciliation.
Finally, I believe that the time is coming, the time when Christians in Japan and countries of the Allies, including the United States, England, Australia and Holland, shall take each other's hands and bring "the Gospel of Reconciliation" to the countries that became the battle fields during the war.
The 70th year, to receive God's time.
SIR Network, Nozomu Takimoto - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please pray for the work of the Lord in Japan and that the hearts of the Japanese people will be able to respond to the Gospel, no longer thinking it is from the United States or is a Western religion. Pray also for the work of the SIR Network in bringing reconciliation and healing to Japan's war enemies and to the Japanese themselves.
"The recent suicide bombing at the main border crossing between India and Pakistan does not portend any new jihadist threat to either country. The Nov. 2 attack -- which follows attacks in Iran by Balochistan-based Pakistani jihadists -- shows that jihadists, although weakened, are launching attacks across a wide area. Striking at the jihadists on Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan is necessary but insufficient; Islamabad will have to expand its campaign against the jihadists into the Pakistani core and into regions along its borders with India and Iran...
On Nov. 2, some 60 people were killed and 130 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up on the Pakistani side of the main Wagah border crossing with India during the daily flag-lowering ceremony held by Indian and Pakistani security forces. Multiple groups including Jundallah and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar -- linked to both al Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan -- have claimed responsibility for the attack.
Both Pakistani and Indian security agencies had intelligence on a possible attack on the crossing. India's foreign intelligence service, Research and Analysis Wing, reportedly issued a warning about an imminent threat to the flag-lowering ceremony on Oct. 15. This warning came after India's Border Security Force personnel spotted their Pakistani counterparts building new fortifications on roads leading up to the border, which they interpreted as a measure to pre-empt a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack. It is unclear whether or not India and Pakistan shared intelligence about the threat.
This attack occurred in a different atmosphere than the one that existed in late 2008, when India and Pakistan nearly went to war after Pakistan-based militants staged attacks in multiple locations in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, killing 164 people and wounding more than 300 others. Since April 2009, Pakistan has been on the offensive against jihadists based in its northwestern Pashtun areas, especially the tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan. Just this past spring, Islamabad sent its forces into the last remaining jihadist sanctuary of North Waziristan. In the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Stratfor explained how Pakistan-based jihadists and their supporters benefit from conflict between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan's Jihadists Weaken
Pakistan's military and intelligence offensive against jihadist forces on its soil has disrupted Pakistani jihadists and their transnational allies' plans to trigger an Indo-Pakistani conflict, which they could exploit in their efforts to weaken the Pakistani state and establish an emirate or caliphate in the southwest Asian nation. Despite the blows to the jihadists -- including the Pakistani offensive and U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle strikes -- al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on Sept. 4 announced the formation of a new entity called al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. Although India has been alarmed at the creation of a new jihadist structure committed to attacking its territory, a spokesperson for the group said its priority is striking in Pakistan. Moreover, the central al Qaeda leaders' U.S.-born spokesman Adam Gadahn released a video Oct. 21 in which he urged Pakistanis to redouble their fight to overthrow their government...
That the jihadists have only been able to carry out one major attack in response to the operation in North Waziristan (now in its sixth month) underscores the weakness of the jihadist movement as a whole. That three separate Taliban splinter factions are claiming responsibility for the border crossing attack also highlights its internal divisions...
These jihadist flare-ups on multiple borders at roughly the same time are not part of a coordinated effort among the various jihadist groups operating in Pakistan. Those striking at Iran have their own logic and timing related to the threat Tehran faces from the Islamic State on its western flank. Meanwhile, the Pakistani offensive against jihadists on its border with Afghanistan has led to their displacement across the country.
Pakistan must follow through on its offensive in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, which will not be easy. Border operations, however, will not be enough to seriously damage Pakistan's complex jihadist enterprise -- a view shared by Lt. Gen. Khalid Rabbani, commander of the Peshawar-based 12th Corps of the Pakistani army who oversees the North Waziristan offensive. During a briefing on the operations, he said that intelligence-based operations throughout the country, particularly in Southern Punjab and Sindh (two provinces that border India and constitute the Pakistani core), would be necessary to eliminate terrorism.
The destruction of the jihadist facilities in Pakistan's tribal badlands, and the subsequent scattering of jihadists and their resources throughout the country, means that the next stage of Pakistan's fight against jihadists could take place in more densely populated areas. Many urban areas in the country's core between the Indian border and the Indus River could see more jihadist attacks at a time when Pakistani forces will be on alert on the country's three main borders."
Excerpted from Stratfor, Nov. 5, 2014
Please pray for further division and weakening of the various jihadist factions in Pakistan and that the government and military will be able to effectively combat them. Pray for peace between Pakistan and India and that the jihadists will not be able to exploit past differences between these two nuclear-armed nations causing any new tensions.
"Boko Haram insurgents have so far seized control of over 20,000 square kilometers of territory in three North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, Daily trust reports... The land mass under the control of the insurgents is about the size of Wales in the United Kingdom or the state of Maryland in the United States, and bigger than Northern Ireland. It spanned across ten local government areas and home to more than two million people.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has since declared the annexed territory part of an Islamic caliphate with capital in Gwoza. But Shekau is thought to be holed up in his Sambisa Forest sanctuary, from where he administers his own brand of Islamic law across the areas his fighters hold sway. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the occupied territory and are now sheltering in displaced people's camps in safer areas in the three states. Tens of thousands more have crossed the borders into neighboring Niger Republic and Cameroon. However a great deal of people, who remained behind, including women and children, are now trapped. Many among them are being killed in a systematic manner. First the insurgents seek out and kill community leaders and government officials. Next, they go after religious leaders and youth who don't share their world view.
"Life in Boko Haram land is brutish. They kill, harass and brutalise people for unjustifiable reason. They take away young women and girls; and they treat businesses left behind by fleeing residents as war booty," said a man who fled Bama when the militants struck in september. President Goodluck Jonathan revealed during his recent trip to New York for the UN General Assembly session that over 13,000 people have so far been killed since the Boko Haram violence erupted in 2009. Military authorities wouldn't comment on the number of troops so far killed trying to put down the uprising.
The conflict has taken its toll on all spheres of life in the region. Billions of naira in businesses have been ruined in the North East, especially in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Students have not been to school in many parts of the three states where insurgency is strong. In Borno state the government announced lately that schools will reopen this month after seven months of forced closure. The insurgents began to annex territory on the onset of the rainy season, and today the farmlands lay waste as residents fled for dear life from the affected areas. Commenting on the states of the military campaign against insurgency, two retired military officers told Daily Trust that both the government and the military high command must show greater commitment than they are doing at the moment. "The President must be sincere in his approach to the war. The country is losing territory; soldiers are being killed and losing equipment to insurgents. That does not speak well of the government and the country," said a retired colonel who preferred not to be named."
Daily Trust, Monday, 03 November 2014 05:01
Written by Abdullahi Idris
Please pray with our Nigerian brothers and sisters in Christ that the government and military will be able to find and overcome the Boko Haram terrorists so that people in the occupied areas can go back to their homes and normal lives. Pray also for the release of all who are being held and abused by the Boko Haram fighters.
An ambitious project that is on God's heart is the raising up of a whole new generation of leadership for Christ and His mission in our world. Consistently through Scripture and history, the Lord has called children and youth to unique missions in life through encounters with Him in prayer. This was clearly the case with biblical characters like Joseph, Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Esther and Mary, the mother of Jesus. God called them through personal prayer encounters with Himself for their particular missions that changed Israel and our world for great good.
Over 30 times in the book of Acts, it was times of united prayer by the early Christians that resulted in amazing signs and wonders and mission breakthroughs that ultimately brought the Roman empire and its emperor to Christ as the early church "turned the world upside down" for Jesus Christ. Connection with God through prayer ignites mission and results in the transformation of both individuals and the nations.
Two years ago, the International Prayer Council in cooperation with the Indonesian and Korean prayer movements and many other international networks and ministries, organized the World Prayer Assembly in Jakarta, Indonesia, It united more than two million believers in that country in 378 cities including tens of thousands of youth and children, and millions more through the Internet and satellite TV throughout the rest of the world. During the WPA, my colleagues and I saw the power of such united prayer.
The "My Home Indonesia" project that came out of the WPA continues to mobilize hundreds of thousands of believers there in practical loving service and sharing Jesus within this largest Muslim country on earth. As a result, many Muslims, including their spiritual leaders are coming to faith in the Lord now. Some estimate that 30% of the Indonesian population profess to be followers of Jesus.
We in International Prayer Connect believe with all our hearts that it is time to bring together the youth and children of our world for an international encounter with Him and one another that will mark and guide them into the unique missions and callings He has for them. In the summer of 2016, in alliance with many other youth movements and networks, we hope to bring together up to 8,000 youth and child leaders (under 35 years of age) along with a thousand senior mission and marketplace leaders to serve as mentors from every nation on earth to the World Youth Prayer Assembly. We believe that bringing together the future leaders of Christ's Church and mission will have an explosive impact on our world even for generations to come.
Many details need to be settled as far as venue and exact timing. Would you please pray with us and if you have any suggestions regarding the WYPA, please write to us.
John Robb
IPC Chairman
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I was recently in Nairobi, Kenya as one of speakers invited by the Prophetic and Intercessory group that wants to see Kenya reclaim its destiny as a nation. One of the strongholds that we are contending with in Kenya and Africa is the insurgence of extreme Islamic terrorist groups and the "oppression of women". You may be aware that recently, Kenya has been at the center of bloody attacks by the Al-shabaab, a terrorist group from Somalia which is linked to Al-qaeda and other international terrorism groups.
At this conference, I represented Southern Africa. There were other leaders from East and West Africa as well. We were all invited to speak on behalf of our continent and to help birth a new move of God in Kenya and East Africa. I was the only woman amongst the speakers, except for the local Host. I was also the youngest amongst them all. It was clear that God wanted me there for a very specific assignment so I prayed and trusted Him for a message to share with the believers in Nairobi, Kenya.
Africa is predominantly a patriarchal society. Women are usually found in subservient roles and in most cases, very oppressed. Any culture or nation that oppresses its women and children are "agreeing" or "subscribing" to the very stronghold that rules in some of these wicked terrorist organizations.
I had a sense God wanted to speak into this area, but I was also aware that it is usually a very touchy subject that may create tension if not handled well. So, I waited for the right time and for the right instruction from God on how to speak.
During one of the sessions, the Lord impressed on my heart that it was time to speak into this area of the nation. I spoke briefly about how God used the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of our faith to birth a new nation in the book of Genesis, and that if the nation of Kenya was to enter its divine destiny, men and women have to be released into their God-given destinies first. God then led me to do a prophetic act. I invited all the men to come forward, and face the women who were sitting down in the congregation. I asked the men to raise their hands towards the women and release the blessings of God upon them, and to call forth their destiny as mothers of the nation of Kenya. After the men prayed collectively, I asked if one of the men in front would pray out blessings over the women. A certain Pastor took the microphone and started to pray and asked for forgiveness on behalf of men for how women have been treated in the history of their nation. He cited rape cases, maltreatment of the older women and many more. It was so powerful. The women started weeping.
After that, I asked the women to rise where they were and raise their hands and voices towards the men and also pray for the men of Kenya to take their rightful place in God's plan. There was a senior and well-respected spiritual mother in the meeting, so I asked her to pray over for the men. She took off her shoes, fell on her knees and prayed a very potent prayer over the men.
After this, I felt God teaching me that what we did was a process of re-alignment and re-positioning. If He was going to move in a nation and birth new things, He needs the men and women working together side by side.
Here were some of the lessons I learnt through this process:
- Staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit - We need to learn to wait for the right time to release the word that God gives us during times of prayer and intercession. Sometimes we have the right message to share but the timing that we choose to deliver the message may not be appropriate.
- Sometimes we need to do things in the natural to help us shift in the spirit. This could be either a physical posture or doing prophetic acts like corporate prayer of identification and blessing.
- Boldness to share the word even if it doesn't make sense. It may make sense to someone else. This is where trusting the Lord is crucial. In order for us to be used of God on prayer assignments, we need to lay down our thoughts, imaginations and ideas for how things would or should work.
- Obedience to God - An example for me was when my husband and I felt strongly that we must travel together for this event, and initially we didn't understand why. When we got there and God started giving me the direction for what I needed to share, it was very clear that it was a picture that He wanted to portray to the nation. Without even saying much, so many people came up and told us that our marriage and standing together was a great witness. Let's trust and obey God as He guides us in small or big ways when going on prayer assignments.
We have prayed that these two nations can become united in their battle against the Taliban terrorists. Unfortunately, it took the tragic attack on the Pakistani school and the slaughter of many children to bring this cooperation about. Let's continue to agree in prayer that Pakistan and Afghanistan will work together closely and will subdue the Taliban in both countries effectively and totally this year.
25 December 2014 BBC News
[The military chiefs of Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to co-ordinate military operations along their border.
The move comes a week after Taliban fighters attacked a school in Peshawar, killing more than 150 people.
Afghan army chief Gen Sher Mohammad Karimi and his counterpart Gen Raheel Sharif met in Islamabad on Tuesday and announced their plans to co-operate.
In the past the two countries have accused each other of allowing cross-border attacks by militants.
The two generals met in the presence of US General John Campbell, who heads Nato coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Gen Karimi and Gen Sharif agreed their subordinates would meet immediately to discuss operations targeting Pakistani Taliban (TTP) bases along the border.
Last week Gen Sharif met Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul. The two countries agreed to "jointly take effective actions against terrorism and extremism".
Separately, Afghan officials said more than 150 Taliban militants had been killed in military operations in the border province of Kunar.
Turning point?
Taliban militants burst into Army Public School in Peshawar on 16 December, shooting children and staff members.
Security sources now say a total of 152 people were killed. Media reports suggest the attack could have been co-ordinated from Afghanistan.
Following the attack Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to rid his country of terrorism, and said there would be no distinction between "good and bad" Taliban.
Pakistan has previously been accused by the Afghans and Nato of allowing al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban to seek refuge and garner logistical support in Pakistan.
The city of Peshawar is close to the Afghan border, in a region that has seen some of the worst of the violence during years of Taliban insurgency.