“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
1Corinthians 15:58
Thank You Father for the promise that what we do for You and for Your Kingdom will never be in vain. Thank You that You give our work for You purpose and meaning that outlives us.
I pray that You will give us a firm stance. Lord, make us unmoveable in our day. Let us not be blown about by the winds of changing opinions, or even by the persecution to come. I pray we will plant our feet firmly on Your truth, with our faces set like flint toward obedience to Your Word. Father, build up the resolve of Your Church in this hour to stand firm no matter what comes.
I pray for undivided hearts and minds to fill Your people, that we will be given fully to Your work. I pray nothing will be able to distract us or deter us from our calling and our purpose in our generation. Teach us God, to not look to the left or the right, but to keep our gaze upon You, unmoved from who You are and who we are as Your children.
May the work we do be for You and through You and unto You, Lord. I pray we will cease with the lesser works that are done for us, to build our own kingdoms. Let us not labor in vain for our own pleasures Lord, while the labor of Your Kingdom goes undone.
“After I made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.” When our enemies heard that we knew their scheme and that God had frustrated it, every one of us returned to his own work on the wall. From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and armor.”
Nehemiah 4:14-16
Lord God, I pray that in our day, we will remember Your greatness and let go of our “fear of them”. I pray we will take our stand, and fight for our children, fight for family.
Mighty God, would You rise up on behalf of the children in this nation and the insidious, evil attack on their identity?! We cry out to You to intervene, for “So great is Your power that Your enemies cringe before You.”
“Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered”!
I pray for a mighty move of Your Spirit in this land that will turn the tide of evil, scatter darkness, and rescue all of those who are held captive by ideologies of wickedness. I pray that, with holy indignation, You will establish truth in this nation, and tear down the stronghold of lies concerning gender, marriage, family, and identity. I ask that You call Your Church to stand firm in this hour, to give no ground to the enemy and to actually begin to take ground, as You answer from heaven.
We will remember Your greatness, and we will not fear. We will build and we will fight. We will restore and we will protect. By Your Spirit. And by Your power, the darkness will turn. By Your power, schemes are exposed, lies are laid bare, and truth will prevail.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.”
Psalm 32:8-10
Father, I lift up my family to You, and I pray that each of us will always come willingly under Your instruction and counsel. I pray that You will instruct, teach, and counsel my children and grandchildren all of their days. I thank You that, because we belong to You, Your loving eye is upon us. I come against any spirit of independence and rebellion that would attempt to lead those I love to turn from You, in the Name of Jesus.
The wicked will have their woes, but as for me and my house, we will trust You and we will be surrounded by Your unfailing love. Thank You for Your promises, Lord. Thank You for Your commitment of love to us. We can feel surrounded by many things in our world today, but I pray we will know and rest in the truth that, as we trust in You, we are surrounded on all sides by the great love of our God.
I pray also for Your Church, Lord, and I pray You will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go in this hour. Increase our understanding of our calling and our mantle. I pray that in these times of trouble, Your people will be found faithful, not fearful, fully surrendered, and unresistant to Your Spirit’s leading. I pray that it will be Your ways that we follow, and Your heart that we desire to please, above all others. May the hearts of Your people be found fully trusting in You, and fully surrounded by Your love.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Postscript: For the last two years or so, God has been calling me back to intercession. Learning to pray God’s Word back to Him in 2004 was an explosion in my prayer life, an explosion that set me on fire for prayer, and that lit up the darkness that surrounded me and my family at the time. I invite you to join me in this 40-day journey of fire, lighting up the darkness of our day.
Feel free to leave prayers of your own, or prayer requests in the comment section. I would love to pray with and for you!
“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me”
Genesis 16:13
You are the God who sees us! Thank You, Father, that nothing in our lives goes unseen by You! Nothing is hidden from Your loving gaze. You see every detail, every tear, every insecurity we cover-up. We are seen and we are known by our Father in heaven. Forgive us Lord, when that truth does not leave us undone.
I pray for fresh encounters for Your people, God. For those who feel unseen and unknown to encounter the gaze of the One who sees them. I pray that just one glance of Your eye will kindle again the fire of our love for You.
I pray that the God who sees us will also purify us with a gaze that misses nothing. I pray that hidden sins in Your Church will come under Your holy eyes of fire and bring repentance. See us o’ God. Search our hearts and reveal every lukewarm place, every idol that is hiding within us. We invite Your gaze, Lord. We need Your gaze.
I pray that Your people will recognize You, Lord. That we will see You amidst the chaos and the fear and the darkness of our day. I pray we will be Your witnesses in the earth, as we see and believe that You are moving in the nations. I pray that we will stop being distracted by darkness, and will once again turn our eyes to heaven.
You are the God who sees us. May we be the people who see You.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen
Postscript: For the last two years or so, God has been calling me back to intercession. Learning to pray God’s Word back to Him in 2004 was an explosion in my prayer life, an explosion that set me on fire for prayer, and that lit up the darkness that surrounded me and my family at the time. I invite you to join me in this 40 day journey of fire, lighting up the darkness of our day.
Feel free to leave prayers of your own, or prayer requests in the comment section. I would love to pray with and for you!
“As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?”
Psalm 42:1-2
Lord, I pray these verses over Your Church. I pray that those who belong to You through the blood of Christ will begin to long, to thirst for You. I pray that our souls will begin to feel parched for Your presence. I ask God, that You would move upon Your people to stop filling themselves with other things, even good things, so that they begin to thirst for the better thing – Your presence. I pray for a move of Your Spirit to begin to send the Church into the secret place of prayer and communion with You, a place away from the crowds of followers, away from the spotlights, away from the applause, and into the holy place of Your presence. I pray for a great wave of dissatisfaction with earthly pleasures to hit Your people, driving them to seek to be satisfied in You alone.
The power is Yours alone. We cannot muster the thirst, we cannot move our own souls to be dissatisfied. It is only by the move of Your Spirit that Your people will begin to long once again for the authentic presence of God that comes with no applause, nothing to entertain our flesh, but instead comes with the searing gaze of heaven, leaving us with a trembling of soul, with speechless awe and the low bow of a surrendered heart.
Come, Lord God, and make Your people long for You like never before.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Postscript: For the last two years or so, God has been calling me back to intercession. Learning to pray God’s Word back to Him in 2004 was an explosion in my prayer life, an explosion that set me on fire for prayer, and that lit up the darkness that surrounded me and my family at the time. I invite you to join me in this 40 day journey of fire, lighting up the darkness of our day.
Feel free to leave prayers of your own, or prayer requests in the comment section. I would love to pray with and for you!
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”– Luke 22:31-32
It’s one of my favorites verses on prayer.
He could have prayed against the sifting. He could have prayed all the things we pray when the enemy picks a fight with someone we love.
But He would have been praying “No”, while the Father was saying “Yes”.
What Jesus did pray is so very telling. It reveals what the enemy was after in his scheming and sifting and the arrows he aims.
{Our faith has a target on its back.}
As I said in my last post, the devil isn’t trying to get us to not believe in God, he’s going after our trust in God. Our confidence in His goodness and His faithfulness and all that He claims to be.
Jesus knew what satan was after, so Jesus prayed for what satan was after.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit knows what satan is after, knows what the Father has said yes to, and what He has said no to, and knows what needs to be prayed.
Romans 8:28 ~ “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
Ephesians 6:18 ~ “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Jude 1:20 ~ “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit…”
Satan wanted Peter’s faith. Jesus used prayer as a weapon against that scheme. Peter still got sifted, but discerning prayer protected what the enemy was really after, and caused that sifting to work for the good of not only Peter, but his fellow believers.
For some of us, our prayers are primarily requests for God to do what we think He should do, or, if we’re honest, what we want Him to do. And while we may follow it with ‘thy will be done’, our minds and our hearts are convinced, or at least hoping, that His will is the same as our will. I know this because I lived it for far too many years. Prayers that are motivated by the wants of our flesh are no kind of weapon.
Jesus knew that part of Peter’s sifting meant that Peter would deny Him. Deny even knowing Him, after everything they had experienced together. If it were me, I would have prayed that God would prevent the sifting, so that I wouldn’t endure the pain of the denial. Those are the prayers I prayed for years. Change him, so that my life will be easier and I won’t cry all the time. Let me get this job so that I can stop worrying about money. Get me out of this situation Lord, it’s so uncomfortable. Make them move so that I don’t have to deal with bad neighbors. Anyone else? No? Ok, just me then.
Our praying is a danger to the enemy when it is motivated by God’s heart, not our own. When it sounds like ‘Father, show him Your love for him‘ instead of ‘change him.’ When it’s our declaration of God’s provision and goodness instead of our fear of not having enough. His purpose vs our comfort. His love for our neighbor instead of their relocation. The plans and purposes of heaven instead of my politics.
This kind of praying doesn’t go unnoticed by heaven. Or by hell.
But I would rather be in the enemy’s crosshairs because I’m wrecking strategies of darkness, than be left alone because I pose no threat.
Be a threat, beloved. Pray fervently. Pray often. Pray His will, not yours.
P.S.– There is a place for praying for our own needs and even our wants. For casting all of our cares upon Him, in being anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. That is not the kind of prayer I am addressing here. We have a good, good Father who inclines His ear to us when we speak to Him, cry out to Him, or just want to pour out our heart to Him. But when it comes to spiritual warfare, to the battle that rages against us, our families, and the Church – we need weaponized prayer. Prayer that calls down the heart and will of God. Prayers that echo heaven.
Pandemic. Something (a disease) that is prevalent over a whole country, or the whole earth.
Maybe you’re thinking the title to this post says that I don’t believe there is a real pandemic going on. That would be untrue. I 100% believe that Covid-19 is real, it is deadly, and it is a threat to all of us. That part is very clear to me. After that, it gets a little murky.
I recently posted a video on my Facebook page called Plandemic, the interview of Dr. Judy Mikovits, a scientist. In the interview she basically asserts that corruption in high places muzzles the research of scientists who’s discoveries threaten agendas. She also dances around the assertion that Covid-19 was manufactured and released on purpose.
I received a lot of feedback from posting that video. I discovered that a LOT of people are thinking what I’m thinking and that is that something is afoot. Something doesn’t smell right to us, not just about this pandemic, but about the response to it. I also got other feedback using words like propaganda, and conspiracy theories. I received articles from a number of people that refute Dr. Mikovits, and I read them all. Somewhere in all of it, there is truth and I think only God knows what that truth is for sure. Maybe Dr. Mikovits’ story was missing some facts. That doesn’t mean that researchers are not being muzzled by corrupt people in high places. It also doesn’t mean that Covid-19 was intentionally released upon the world.
Maybe I’m just part of a generation that is naturally suspicious of big government, big medicine, big things that lean toward serving their bottom dollar or need for power more than they lean toward our best interests. Or, maybe I’m part of a generation that has seen its fill of corruption and greed and lies coming from people in positions of power, so we don’t fall for every sincere statement they make and when something stinks, we know something is rotten.
Somewhere in the middle of the ones who believe that things are what they appear and that fear is the appropriate response, and the ones who are refusing to be herded off the cliff they think is just up ahead, is the truth. But after having a few days to ponder all of this, I’ve decided it’s not that particular truth that I want.
The truths of man won’t bring peace to my soul. Only God’s truth will do that. So here is what I know:
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” {2 Timothy 3:1-5}
This world is not going to become a better place. The darkness will grow darker – that is an absolute truth and I will not be moved to believe otherwise.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” {Ephesians 5:15-16}
I have come to the conclusion that the best use of my time is not trying to convince people that the world is evil, but rather in reminding people that God is good. No matter how much power men wield on this earth, it cannot compare to the power of God, and it is God’s power that gives me comfort and strength.
I do believe we are called to expose the deeds of darkness, but not necessarily by posting a video that I cannot know with absolute certainty is completely true. It was my natural suspicions being confirmed that prompted me to “expose” the darkness by way of posting that video. But my suspicions, even the valid ones, are not what God has told me to put on a lampstand. The mistrust so prevalent in my generation, even when valid, is not what God has given me for making sound judgments.
It is the Holy Spirit within me and the Word of God that will enable me to speak truth amidst the swirling myths, half-truths, uncertainties and suspicions that are thick in the air around us right now.
God is good and He is in control and He will use everything for His glory. I have nothing to fear and He will lead me and guide me through this or around it, whichever He chooses. He will be who He has always been, regardless of who men have become. If I have come to a place of trusting no man, I know I can trust my God. He does not lie, He does not deceive. I never have to wonder about His intentions or His motives. He remains faithful, merciful, and full of compassion. He is light and in Him there is no darkness.
The Word of God tells me that I live in a fallen world that will progressively become darker, but even so, I have a great hope in heaven, and a great purpose in this world. I need not try to make sense of what is going on in the dark, but I do need to be alert, fully awake, and praying.
It is not the schemes of men that God has admonished me to recognize.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” {Ephesians 6:11}
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” {1Peter 5:8}
So for all of those who raised fists in the air in agreement with my suspicions, thank you for your solidarity. And for those who pushed back, thank you for your willingness to do so. It is because of this push and pull that I sat down with God to seek what is true and received His staff and His rod repositioning my heart back where it belongs. In His word, in His truth. Fighting the right battle, and the right enemy.
Because we are growing ever nearer to the end. Will it be in my lifetime? Maybe, maybe not. The time is not for me to know. But I can know the signs. I can know that wading into the muck and mire of what is happening in the physical realm, will not equip me for what is needed in the spiritual realm.
Karla Jo Wasion 