Excerpts from an inspiring interview that John Robb did with Mission Frontiers Magazine (US Center for World Mission) recently...

We talked with John Robb, coordinator of the World Prayer Assembly, about the impact of this gathering and his life-long ministry of facilitating national prayer initiatives.

MF: In 2012, you were involved in coordinating what may very well have been the largest interdenominational prayer meeting in history. Can you tell us a little about the background of this gathering and its significance?

JR: The roots go back to the International Prayer Assembly that was held in Korea in 1984. It was such a major catalyzing factor for the world prayer movement—a huge ignition happened there. One of the fruits was the formation of the International Prayer Council (IPC), which is basically a set of relationships which connect prayer leaders and ministries in many different nations and regions of the world. In 2009 the IPC agreed to organize a second international prayer assembly, this time in Jakarta, Indonesia. The only problem was we had no money!

MF: No money for a major international gathering? What did God do?

JR: One of my colleagues is a gifted prophetic minister, who gave wonderful words of assurance from the Lord to us. Then, in August of 2011, we began to see the money flow in. The intercessors had said, “Don’t worry, God is going to provide.” And that’s exactly what happened. Some well-to-do people began to write big checks and many others gave generously too. One person donated the use of the national stadium in Indonesia. Another donated the use of a convention center outside Jakarta that seats twelve thousand. To the glory of the Lord, it was just a story of His miracles that all of us, including thousands of Indonesian children, prayed for!

MF: What are some takeaways from the World Prayer Assembly?

JR: About 9,000 ministry leaders and intercessors from 86 countries came for the conference part of the WPA. In addition over 100,000 additional local believers gathered in the national stadium to pray. It was connected live with satellite dishes to almost 400 cities in Indonesia, where about two-million others participated. The Global Day of Prayer and God TV linked in many millions more around the world. It was one big prayer meeting! However, for me personally, it was the palpable presence of the Lord himself that was the really moving thing about the WPA.

Also, the presence of tens of thousands of youth and children who took part as equal partners in the program, dancing, singing and praying. My colleagues and I believe a “tsunami of the Spirit” continues to flow out and that the Lord is particularly emphasizing the raising up of the younger generation in both prayer and mission.

Prayer is the way we connect with God and are guided and empowered by him. It is the real catalyst for all mission and ministry. If we are not intimately connected with God, the author of mission, we will not see his grace and power manifested in our efforts.

MF: How do you see God using the next generation?

JR: We believe that, as children and youth connect with the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer, God is going to use them in all walks of life. They are going to be great missionaries. They are going to be great political leaders, as well as lawyers, doctors, or whatever he calls them to do.  

If they become intercessors, God will definitely make them his agents of transformation. He did this with the child Samuel who became sensitive to his voice and later became one of the most influential leaders in history as prophet, priest and judge of Israel. Therefore, probably the biggest takeaway of the World Prayer Assembly, will be the impact the children and youth now in the prayer movement will have on the future of our world.

Our next major project will focus on this, so we are now moving towards holding a World Youth Prayer Assembly in 2016. It will be tri-generational like the WPA, but will be primarily led by the youth and children, with the older generations in supporting roles.

MF: What have been some of the results from this involvement of youth in the prayer movement?

JR: We had been praying for Myanmar for many years, but nothing much seemed to happen. It was such a spiritually dark place, as well as being oppressed by its dictatorial government. In January 2011, 200 Christian leaders came together within the country and decided to include the children as part of their strategy for national transformation.

A colleague and I were there with them for this purpose. They raised up many thousands of child prayer-warriors all over the nation, and within just a month or two, remarkable developments began to happen in the political situation.

In World Vision, a large international child-care organization, staff often observed the Lord’s miracles when the children participating in our projects prayed. We surveyed this phenomenon in five very poor countries where staff asked the kids to pray for specific infrastructural changes, such as the resolution of community splits.

They did this for two years, and all were astonished by the miracles that occurred. Our staff exclaimed, “John, this is so incredible, we have never seen anything like this. When the children prayed, the parents got healed from terminal illness, governments chose those villages for the wells or the clinics, or the terrorists were kept out of those communities where the kids were praying.” The results were so extraordinary that the Children in Prayer program began to spread more widely within World Vision, going from five countries to 20 countries.

Finally, 50 of the national offices wanted to investigate CiP as a resource for community transformation as well as for the spiritual nurture of the kids themselves.

MF: That’s really amazing. We are reading through your book, The Peacemaking Power of Prayer. Can you tell us how God has used prayer to bring about reconciliation and national healing?

JR: It has been my privilege with others to facilitate national prayer initiatives for over 20 years. During consultations and seminars for Christian leaders on mission to the unreached in many countries, I began to see amazing results when normally competitive and distrustful ministry leaders would begin to pray together. When they got into little groups to pray before planning their mission strategies, the Spirit of God came into the room and knit their hearts together.

All kinds of new mission partnerships were established for the unreached peoples in this way. Through observing this process over and over again, I began to realize that prayer is much more than just a devotional or liturgical exercise. It’s the way we connect with God for his direction and empowerment.

This gradual dawning of realization began to impact World Vision’s work in the midst of war and suffering in many countries. Colleagues and church leaders in those countries started inviting me to bring teams to pray because the situations were so desperate—awful atrocities and no hope of ending these bitter conflicts. Ministry leaders gathered from across the denominational spectrum for three days to seek God’s face for the healing of their land according to his promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14. As we did that, we began to discover that the participating tribes and denominations weren’t right with each other because of past mistreatment of one another. Because of this we began to facilitate times of reconciliation and repentance for historic, corporate sins so the participants and the groups they represented could confess and forgive one another, then pray in unity for God’s deliverance and restoration of their nations.

To the glory of God, over and over again, we have seen the Lord’s intervention, changing the headlines, sometimes suddenly, with resulting peace agreements, governments of national unity and removal of evil leaders from power.

MF: The story about Bosnia is really incredible. What happened there?

JR: During the Bosnian Civil War in August 1995, we formed a five person international team to facilitate a prayer initiative for Serbs, Croats, and those from Muslim backgrounds who had come to Christ. About 120 participants were all seated in separate ethnic enclaves within the gathering, and we were teaching about reconciliation and the need for confession and repentance of corporate sins. A Serb woman stood up with tears coming down her face, and said, “We Serbs have sinned against you Croats.”And then three Croats stood, replying, “No, we are worse than you Serbs.” And those from the Muslim background group also stood, humbly asking forgiveness for their people’s atrocities against the Serbs and Croats. At that point, they broke free of their own enclaves, running and throwing their arms around those from the opposing ethnic groups, weeping and asking forgiveness.

As heart unity was established, it was time to hold hands around the room and pray together. I reminded them of the Lord’s promise for such situations: “Jesus said if even two of us agree as to touching anything we ask the Father, it will be done. But the key thing is to agree in what we are asking, and we are really in agreement now.” So we agreed together, gripping hands around the room. “What do you want him to do for us, for Bosnia?” They all shouted: “Mir”—that means peace in Serbo-Croatian. “Mir, Mir” they again cried. So, I said, “Let’s all now agree in the name of Jesus Christ for peace to come to Bosnia.”   

Four days later, a peace proposal was on the table. It was from the Serbian dictator, Slobodan Milosevich, a hard, wicked man that everybody thought would never allow peace to come. Richard Holbrooke, the American negotiator, later wrote that he could not understand what made such a hardhearted man soften. To our and the Bosnian Christians’ joy, we began to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is one who can heal nations if his people will get right with Him and one another, then agree in prayer.

MF: That’s tremendous! Can you tell us briefly about what’s involved in organizing a national prayer initiative and how others can do this in their country?

JR: A national prayer initiative normally brings together ministry leaders and intercessors, sometimes with people from business and government, usually for a two to three day gathering. During those days, we are primarily seeking to identify, understand and pray for the issues of the nation. We have local people who have some expertise about the political, economic, and spiritual situation of the nation share.

Our team members who are experienced prayer leaders and facilitators also give various teachings to encourage and build faith and understanding in the participants. We also find that in every country there is a battle with the “prince of this world” and those spiritual powers Paul describes in Ephesians 6 that seek to deceive, corrupt and destroy. We need to stand with the locals, using the authority Christ has delegated to us to overcome evil spirits (Luk 10:19-21).

Humbling ourselves before the Lord and one another is very important because humility leads to unity and unity enables us to exercise his authority. In Philippians 2, we see that if we humble ourselves, we can come into unity, no longer competing. It’s not about me, it’s about the Lord, it’s about the whole church, and it’s about what he wants to do for the nations. When we are in unity, we can use the awesome authority that Jesus gave us.

MF: What are some lessons you have learned over the last thirty years and any advice for the next generation of intercessors?

JR: First, a key thing is to not to get too bound with your particular denomination or organization to the exclusion of connecting with the rest of the body of Christ. It’s so essential that we look beyond the labels that we all bear because ultimately, when we stand before Christ, all of that will be gone in an instant.

The Spirit of God is seeking to unite his people across denominations and traditions so they can be one body, connecting with him and one another in prayer that transforms us, our communities, and nations.

Secondly, there is the issue of praying with his authority because a lot of Christians shy away from doing that. I’ve heard so many say, “God, would you bind the devil in this situation?” But that’s not what the Lord said. He said that we his people are to do the binding: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.” We believers have been raised up and are seated with Christ, even now, in heavenly places.

Though we are not there physically yet, we are joined through the Holy Spirit to him. Because of that organic connection we can exercise his authority as he leads. He wants us to use that authority to break the influence of spiritual darkness in our communities and nations. This is not something we should undertake by ourselves, but when we get in heart unity with others, we can begin to pray in faith-filled, authoritative ways so as to see wonderful breakthroughs happen.

The spiritual atmosphere in our community or nation will change as we persevere. Dramatic increases in the receptivity to the Gospel among the unreached, spiritual revival in the Church, and real transformation in the midst of corruption or other social ills will result.

To the glory of God, you will see such shifts happen as you partner with others in ongoing prayer, starting with humility and proceeding through to unity and authority. Learning how to do this with other brothers and sisters is simply revolutionary and world-changing!

For more information about the International Prayer Council or the World Prayer Assembly, please visit www.ipcprayer.org and http://www.wpa2012.org

Original article: http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/national-prayer-initiatives

We are circulating an urgent appeal from Dr. Khaled Leon, one of the key prayer leaders in the Middle East. He is a dear friend and with others will be taking tons of supplies to help the Iraqi Christians that have fled to Kurdistan for refuge from the ISIS killers that have taken over their cities and towns. Please consider providing some financial assistance to this relief effort. Dr. Leon's message and email contact is below.
 
Thanks for anything you can do to help our Iraqi brothers and sisters, praying and serving in this way.
 
John Robb / IPC Prayer

To the body of Christ world wide:

It was a great cry in the heart of Nehemiah, that led him to the King's throne to ask for help for his fellow brothers, sisters and families that were desperately surviving the catastrophe in Jerusalem, the city was turned into rubbles, people were hungry, sick and no shelters whatsoever, the pain that turned to fire in His heart consumed him, and gave him that gravity to ask for the King's help (Neh 1).

Nowadays as we watch the news of our fellow Christians in Iraq, living in in-human circumstances, thrown out of their own houses, because of their love to the Lord, no food, water, shelter or medicines, robbed of everything they owned and was driven out walking to the borders tens of kilometers on foot. Their cry is reaching the Lord, and it's time to stand up and like Nehemiah not only pray & fast, but as well, think of how to practically relieve their needs.

A group of us are traveling next week (week of 18th August 2014) carrying 5 tons of medical supplies, canned food, and we really need Tents (water proof), sleeping bags, mats, covers, as winter will soon be here, and their situation will be terrible as they are scattered in gardens, church halls, school playgrounds etc. They will also need clothes and shoes.

As you pray and fast, ask the Lord what can I do? may be you could send money or goods.

Talk to your pastor, and gather whatever Jesus would tell you, to be ready to be shipped to Kurdistan Iraq.

Please, contact us if you need further details.

Blessings,

Dr. Khaled Leon
Crisis Relief Ministries
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Almighty God, creator of the Heavens and the Earth, as a nation and as a people we acknowledge that you are the true architect and designer of all nations. You are a loving father who created us out of your own image and likeness and have given us dominion to govern the earth, with power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of our enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us.  

You created us for a purpose and you have never deviated from it. In Acts 17:26-27, it is written “You have made from one blood every Nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings, so that we should seek you, in the hope that we might reach for you and find you, though you are not far from each one of us”.

My Father, Sierra Leone have emerged from one of the most inhu¬man, ferocious and cruel conflicts in the post-Cold war era. The scale of destruction, rape, mayhem, arson and torture perpetrated during our civil war was among the greatest in Africa’s postcolonial history. Women, especially adolescents and young adults, were exposed to extreme sexual brutality at a time when a growing heterosexually-driven HIV pan-demic was occurring in the West African sub-region. We have also experienced economic and social collapse that resulted in human development indicators on employ¬ment, income, health, education, women’s status and child well-being that are among the lowest in the world.

As a nation and as a people, we prostrate before you and confess that our actions of idolatry, witchcraft, occult practices, secret societies, murder, homosexuality, lesbianism, fornication, corruption, selfishness and every form of evil traditions were wrong, ungodly and unfair to the many loved ones we have lost during those times. Please Lord have mercy and exempt us from Judgement.  Sierra Leone is still trying to pull through, from the experience and harsh political, social, economic and environmental conditions of the past and have not yet fully recovered.

But your servant David keeps us assured in Psalms 91:3-6; 9-10 that: “Surely you will deliver us from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He said: you will cover us with your feathers, and under your wings we shall take refuge; your truth shall be our shield and buckler and we should not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday”. Because we have made the Lord our refuge and the most High our dwelling; no evil shall befall us and no plague shall come near our dwelling.

See Lord, we have been fast rated to be the Fastest growing economy in Africa lately affirmed by the IMF and, under the administration of our President have  earned the best African Leader 2013. Unfortunately for us today, EBOLA have emerged to be one of the most dangerous and deadly pestilence in human history and have swiftly hit the shores, regions and districts of our nation to abort this testimony, challenge and counter our political and medical strength and make us a laughing stock with our nation’s aspiration towards a middle income and a donor country. Ebola has almost brought us to the state of being a beggar and a mockery among nations.

My Father, My Father I submit to you that: My Country is under attack, My people are under attack, Our Faith is under attack, West Africa is under attack, My Continent is under attack and invasion of one of the most dangerous and deadly pestilence of our time. EBOLA have claimed well over 298 lives and 717 case detected since March 25th to August 6th 2014  totalling 961 deaths and 1,779 detected cases that includes Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria (CDC & WHO Ebola outbreak).

The authorities/leaders you have set over us were not pro-active enough; We are losing our Fathers, Mothers, Children, Families, Friends, Heroes and the engineers of Agenda for Prosperity; The rate of infection is spreading, the resources to contain the situation are still inadequate.

The information channels and education level of my people has misguided the battle against EBOLA, the sick are afraid to go to the Hospitals, our medical practitioners are been infected in the cause of service while many are refusing to attend to EBOLA and EBOLA free patients; Division is taking momentum among families, friends, relatives, workmates cause we no longer greet each other with hug, hand shake to feel the warmth; Victims of relatives and society are inevitably  abandoned; Insecurity is mounting so everybody is a suspect while many have devised new methods of dress code to be on the safer side.

My Father, there are still some widespread debate going on among so many school of thoughts on whether - Ebola exists or not? or whether Ebola is a biological weapon?; Nations are shutting their boarders against us and at the moment people are no longer allowed to move in and out to other countries; The authorities/leaders of my Country have consented and have quarantine the regions within the nation making livelihood for survival for the ordinary man more and more complex, prices for local commodities and food stuffs are artificially escalating by some of your untrue, ungodly, unpatriotic and exploiting sons and daughters; Whilst others are seeking for Ebola to go away others have resolved for Ebola to stay because their pockets are getting fatter.

My Father, My Father as the state and condition of my country exacerbates with this pestilence, I hereby stand this day as an oracle of Justice over Sierra Leone and echo my voice from the corridors into the chambers of eternity and summon the parliament of Heaven to rewrite an executive and judicial determination of eviction of EBOLA and other related infirmities from out of the territories, boarders, boundaries, regions, districts and streets of Sierra Leone, West Africa and the Continent of Africa.

Declarations

And so by this heavenly accreditation I declare you EBOLA and other related infirmities within the territories, boarders, regions, districts of Sierra Leone, West Africa and the Continent of Africa that you are a trespasser and you are in contempt of the word of the Lord and the decision of heaven and so I stripe you EBOLA and other related infirmities of all influence and authority over the nations;

In the name of Jesus, I relieve you off and dismiss you from ALL your duties, assignment and commission over the nations to the void of space, and I activate and deploy the Blood of Jesus to cleanse and heal us from every virus/diseases/infirmities and pestilence.

In the name of Jesus I assign and put in motion Angelic surveillance within nations to police, arrest and permanently confide every virus/diseases/infirmities and pestilence into gross darkness.

I proclaim and declare a restraining order by the blood of Jesus against further deaths and infections derived from any virus/diseases/infirmities and pestilence within the territories, boarders, regions, districts of Sierra Leone, West Africa and the Continent of Africa.

Towards this end, from on top of the mountains of Zion to the atmosphere, air waves, territories and boarders of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria: Let the high water, storm, thorns, prickly of EBOLA and other related infirmities be still. I declare permanent rest, stillness, tranquillity, calmness, repose, silence, inactivity and deadlock and my Father because of the voice of your manservant grant us this request in Jesus Name.

GOD BLESS AFRICA, GOD BLESS SIERRA LEONE, GOD BLESS GUINEA, GOD BLESS LIBERIA, GOD BLESS NIGERIA
AND GOD BLESS YOU

The WYPA will connect hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of youth and children around the world in prayer that they may find their unique missions and callings of the Lord and that a whole new generation of Christian leaders may arise in every walk of life.
 
Next week in Hong Kong, a planning team of 20-25 youth and senior Christian leaders will gather to do the initial planning for the event in 2016. Would you please pray with and for us?
 
1 For Jerome and Abel Ocampo and their family (leaders of Jesus Revolution from the Philippines) as they take on the leadership of such a major undertaking as the WYPA. Pray His protection, wisdom, guidance and provision for them.

2. For unity and clarity with creativity for the planning team and that each one will be able to give the time and help needed according to his or her gifts and contacts.

3 For the WYPA to become widely known and anticipated by youth and children around the world and  that it will catch on as a catalytic movement that is widely supported by Christian ministries and prayer networks around the world.

4 For generous donors to understand the significance of the WYPA and to step forward to provide the resources needed at each step in the process towards 2016 and for the event itself. An estimated $2 million will probably be needed.

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