Prayer Summary for Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Annie led in worship…

Pastor Ray shared…

Every knee will confess that Jesus is Lord! Before the meeting, Annie and I were talking about the power of prayer. Annie, I want you to share with everyone what you said about the power of prayer. Sometimes we can feel that our prayers are not reaching where they need to reach, making us feel inadequate. Go ahead and share what you told me.

Annie shared…

Several months ago, I happened to read a news story about the atrocities in ISIS territory. I read about a pastor and his family that disturbed me. I cried for days. It was hard for me to even talk about it. Today, I realized that one reason it was hard for me to talk about it was because it made me feel so weak as a prayer person. This pastor and his 12-year-old son were crucified. But first they tortured the boy in front of the father to try to force him to recite the Islamic declaration of faith, which is basically a denial of Christ. They say there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. Well, no. There is no God but Jehovah and Jesus Christ is His beloved Son.

Somehow by the grace of God, this father was able to not damn himself for eternity and stand strong. I know that had to be the grace of God. But that tormented me. I couldn’t imagine what this man had to go through but then I realized that the Lord had to have been holding him up. The Holy Spirit said to me, “That father and his boy, they are with Me in joy unspeakable and full of glory.” But what about the evil men who did this deed? What is happening to them when they lay their heads on their pillows at night? I saw them being tormented by the evil spirits who drive them to do this. Or they are being wooed by the crucified Jesus. And He’s saying to them like He said to Saul of Tarsus who was a blasphemer and tried to compel Christians to blaspheme: “Why are you persecuting me?”

So I started to pray for those evil men. “Jesus, reveal Yourself. When they put their heads on their pillows at night, reveal Yourself to them like you did to Saul of Tarsus and say to them ‘Why are you persecuting me?’” But through this whole thing, I felt so weak. I cried for days because I thought “Where is the power of God? How could this happen!” So this morning, I ended up reading this story about this ISIS guy. His mission in life was to find Muslims that converted to Christianity and kill them but first force them to deny Christ and recite the Islamic declaration.

There was a Christian pastor who was a convert from Islam, so this ISIS guy plotted to get him to recant. But he couldn’t get to this guy. All his plans kept falling apart. We know that has to be the hand of God in prayer. First, he found out they were low on food so he sent a woman with poisoned food. But on her way there, she was bitten by a dog and the food never arrived. Then he managed to get some more poisoned chocolate but his own children ate the chocolate and they were all poisoned. His sons were unharmed by the poison but his little girl was at the point of death and in the hospital. When they took her to the hospital, their plan was “We’re going to kidnap him and all his kids and we’ll get them to recant and then use it as an example.”

He was waiting outside the hospital, and he saw this bright light from heaven coming down toward the girl. There was a hand and blood was coming off the hand onto the little girl. And she was completely healed of the poison and she was raised up. He was just like Saul of Tarsus. He was so incapacitated by seeing this bright light that his friends took him away from the hospital. Then when he laid his head on his pillow at night, he had a vision of Jesus. He didn’t know that it was Jesus. He saw a man with bright light and the light coming out of His hand. He said, “Why are you nailing me?” That was the translation of the Arabic word. “Why are you nailing Me?” Nobody was allowed to have a Bible but he kept a Bible in his room so he could use it to refute Jesus. He opened it up and it was John 1:9, “The light has come into the world and men loved darkness more than light because their deeds were evil.” He was converted. Now he’s a missionary in ISIS territory, just like all the people he tried to kill!

When I first read about that incident months ago, I was in anguish. “What are our prayers doing? How could this happen?” But the Lord said to me, “All you have to do is get over on My side in the love of God.” When they nailed Jesus to the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” And God forgave them and forgave all of us. So He said to me, “That’s what that father and son did on the cross at that last moment. They were forgiving those wicked people and it released My power. I will back your prayers.”

Our prayers have power. The Lord said to me, “What happens to that guy when his head hits the pillow?” and He switched my heart. He flipped my heart from “nuke those people” to “forgive those people and pray that they’ll know Me.” When He flipped my heart, the power of God came behind that prayer and when that man’s head hit the pillow… We do have power in our prayers. We do! So we need to pray always and not faint.

The other scripture He brought up in my heart was Proverbs 25:15, a gentle tongue can break a bone. It’s like we don’t have to yell and scream. We need to have the gentleness and condescension of Jesus that makes us mighty in His love! We need to keep praying and not faint or get discouraged.

Prayed for persecuted pastor…

Father, we thank You for that pastor. We thank You for the precious blood of Jesus Christ that covers him from the top of his head to the souls of his feet. We thank You that no weapon formed against him or his family will prosper because greater is He that’s in them than he that is in the world. And God did not give him a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Sound minds built upon the rock, Jesus Christ, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. So, Father, we thank You for the revelation knowledge of who he is in Christ Jesus, walking in abundance of Your love and authority. Father, we praise You and thank You for him. We thank You, Father, and the angels that garrison about him.

Prayed for the new convert just like Saul…

Father, that new convert just like Saul who was converted to Christianity on the way to Damascus. This man, Father, that has been the ring leader persecuting the saints in that area of the world has now come in contact with You by a revelation. He has encountered the Godhead and has come to know You as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So, Father, as You schooled Paul, taking him out of the vicinity and giving him a chance to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, so that he was so schooled in the things of God he saw his identity in Christ and he came back saying that “I may know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death” that kind of translation and that kind of identity that causes a man to lay down his life to preach the Word of God all over the world. Let this come upon this young man that he would decide to stand with You alone even though those companions of his may desert him just because of his testimony. This will burn in him and be not just an occurrence of one day thinking that it was the food he ate but he will be so convicted and so transformed by the Word of God that he becomes a voice for you that will begin to transform the people around him. I pray, Lord, that you will protect him with the kind of protection you gave Paul. You give him the kind of insight that you gave Paul, the same revelation. Bring them out of darkness into Your marvelous light. I ask this in the name of Jesus.

Pastor Ray shared…

This is not such a dramatic testimony but something happened on Friday that I wanted to share. A few months ago, someone showed up at our door on a Saturday. It was a younger lady and she said, “Did you know that you have hail damage in your area?” “Uhhh, no.” I don’t even remember when it last hailed. She said, “Last June there was a storm that came through here and I can see on your window over here that you’ve got hail damage.” My mind is going, “Oh boy. Is this for real?” She said, “Would you mind if I just looked around your house outside?” Okay, fine. She did and sent another person representing their company. I called my insurance adjuster and it turned out that we have damage on almost every window on our house. And we have a lot of windows. So the total was 25-thousand dollars worth of damage. We had a thousand dollar deductible. We got 24-thousand dollars worth of windows. We had them installed in the last few weeks. That was a financial blessing.

There was another part to this; there were three men that were the installers and one was maybe 60 and he had his adopted son with him, around 30 years old. And then another burly guy, sort of a north-woods guy. They knew that I was a pastor so the father said, “My girlfriend thinks that we have some evil spirit in our house. What do you think I should do about that?” Plead the blood of Jesus! So I talk to him about the power in the blood. He had a really soft heart. He was open but I didn’t go any further with it. On the last day, they had to come back and install a sliding glass door. I was there and I started feeling an urgency knowing this was my last opportunity to talk to them about the Lord.

When they finished the door, it was nice but on the outside there was a gap between the door and our siding. Our siding is a darker color and the door is white, so the son was running in and out of the house. I was like, “What is going on?” I go out there and look at it and it was pathetic. I mean, he had gooped white caulking all over the siding and it was really bad. I wanted to go, “Excuse me!” But I’m standing on my deck and the Holy Spirit reminded me to stay calm. Basically, it was like this. “I’m expecting you to minister to them and you will not be able to minister to them if you speak too strong about this.” So I just waited. Finally, the father came out and says, “That looks pathetic. I am not satisfied with that.” And the son is still running in and out, trying to get some kind of stuff to clean it. Finally, they all decided, and I did too, that it needed to be painted. The father insisted that he would do the paint job. Then they’re on my driveway, shaking my hand saying “Thank you.” The younger guy is in his truck. The other younger guy is leaning on the van. The son’s mother died while they were installing our windows so he was gone for a few days and he had just gone through a memorial service. So I thought, “This is it. I have to do it now or never.” I said, “Excuse me, can I speak to you about one thing before you all leave?” The two younger guys were kind of horsing around and so the Dad says, “Excuse me. Quiet down, boys. He has something to say.” He got their attention so they would hear. So they all three got born again in the driveway!

I realized that God had a bigger plan in not just to bless us with some new windows but He had something for the three installers. All three of them prayed such a clear, clean, pure, soft-hearted prayer to be born again. When we were finished, the father said, “Oh… I feel so good inside right now.” And the one guy that was smoking, leaning on the van, he’s like, “Oh come on!” But especially the one whose mother had just died, he said “I just have the feeling right now that my mother was just believing for me to talk to you today.” You just go, “God! You’re so faithful and You have a bigger picture and a bigger plan than most times we have a clue about.” We were blessed about the first part but the second part was eternal!

Prayed for the installers…

We lift up this family, the son, the father and the other installer. We hold them up before You this morning. We plead the blood of Jesus over them for protection that what was sown and what they believed in their hearts that the devil would not be able to come and steal the seed that was sown in their hearts that day. We plead the blood of Jesus over all three of them and I pray for the company, other representatives from that company, the owner, the manager. They’ve all been at our house. I pray that they too will come in under the glory of God and also be saved. In Jesus’ name.

Father, we lift up souls right now in Jesus’ name. We plead the blood of Jesus over the laborers. The fields are ready to come to You. We pray for utterance by the power of Your Spirit and we pray for divine direction by Your Spirit. Steps, places around the cities here. We lift up the cities. We know it’s Your will that every man, every woman, and every child come to You. So we’re holding our cities up before You this morning. We plead the blood over the cities, over the positions in authority. We pray that what has been prophesied about these cities will begin to unfold now. That what You said through different men and women of God that revival, the awakening would begin up here in these cities and the northern part of the U.S.

Annie leads us in singing about the blood of Jesus…

Group prayed in the Spirit…

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