Prayer for Peace Initiative for Syria and Iraq
The time of prayer, November 10-12, with local people in Lebanon and four Syrian prayer group leaders from Damascus that ventured out to be with us was anointed and special. The great majority of them had never been exposed to transformational praying. Three generations- children, youth and adults- took part, most coming in from the surrounding area of Zahle, Lebanon and some from Beirut. Zahle is a short ways from the Syrian border and located in the Bekaa Valley where up to one million Syrian refugees are camped out. During part of the time in Zahle, we could hear the explosion of bombs and gunfire from just over the hills which dramatized the immense need, and so we prayed much for that land and also for Iraq and Lebanon.
Please do continue to pray with us in agreement for an end to the tragic civil war in Syria that has claimed the lives of 400,000, including 50,000 children. Let's fill up the bowls in heaven till they are poured out, bringing about His peace and healing for that deeply conflicted land. Pray that the Russians and Syrian government will stop their bombardment of the ancient city of Aleppo with over 200,000 civilians and their children huddled in hiding amidst the deafening and destructive bomb blasts. Pray also that the rebel groups will give up their fight and sue for peace. Finally, pray for the Lebanese and Syrian participants of the prayer initiative to act on the seeds sown into their prayer lives so that a real movement of transformational prayer will develop in both of their countries.
One of our team, Maher, came from his native Iraq to be part of our ministry team for this event. Let’s pray that the Iraqi forces will be able to quickly and effectively take back the city of Mosul (ancient Nineveh) from ISIS and that the remaining ISIS fighters would give up their resistance and surrender. Pray that further atrocities on both sides will be averted and that the civilians and their children will be able to escape to safer areas.
Thanks for keeping these nations in prayer for the coming days for His liberation from both spiritual and physical forces of darkness and that they will experience true restoration and renascence, recovering from so many years of war, death and devastation.
Praying with the Iraqis: Christ Day
The Christ Day in Iraq, Friday November 18th, went very well, actually much better than expected. Though it is in Arabic, you can watch a small report here to get an idea of what a triumph it was to get so many from different Christian traditions together along with many refugees and others from non-Christian backgrounds. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVVJ6Dbkis. One of the organizers describes what happened:
“We had two types of meetings, a small one on Thursday for believers, and a big one on Friday for everyone. The second one was attended by very few believers and majority of nonbelievers.
Saying all that, the Lord did not leave us without a blessing/surprise! A Christian singer from another background, gave a very bold simple message about giving ourselves to the Will of God. He led all the audience to pray with him, surrendering their lives to the Will of God through Jesus Christ, and then sang a beautiful song about "the Lord is near to all those who call upon Him”.
It was just marvelous, seeing everyone bowing down and praying that prayer, including many nuns and a couple of priests together with all the audience, praise the Lord.
As we were planning, Christ Day is not just an event but a start of a new era of the Iraqi Church. The Lord showed us that there were many young people very much touched by what was going on. He showed us a need to start a youth ministry among them!
Prayer concerns:
- To keep the good results of reconciliation and make progress for the prayer movement.
- To pray against the bad accusations/slander some people are trying to accuse us and the media company.
- To start a new ministry among the youth who participated in this event, Christ Day. They are about 350 people.”
Maher Barbary
Life Agape - Iraq
A Message of Awakening the Church:
The Lord Reigns Over All The Nations. “I am, that I am , the God of the Nations”
By Onassis Jeevaraj, IPC Leadership Team member from India
The awakening of the Church is not new but has been happening as a pre-cursor to every radical move of God. It has always come to wake up the Church - His body to the truth of the Kingdom and the move of God in that season. The message for each awakening has been strategic for each move and pivotal to the Kingdom of God manifesting on earth as it is in heaven.
The book of Revelation, so rightly starts with a message to the Churches to reveal the heart of God, to the body Of Christ.
Revelation 1:1 “The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.”
In submission to this word, the Spirit of God has impressed upon my (Bro Onassis’s) spirit, a message for the body of Christ for such a time as this.
Like all Awakenings are largely about an identity crisis. This one is too. God is moving in a very powerful way and ready to break forth a mighty outpouring. He never does anything without saying it to His prophets first, so,
“Wake up O Sleeper, Arise!! for the Lord Jesus Christ desires to shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14, Isaiah 60:1)
Wake Up To Happenings Worldwide
People are killed in masses in the Middle East and are being displaced from their lands. The people are therefore carrying the heart of a refugee.
Majority-ism is passing the rulings of the world. Shouldn’t it be the prayers of the humble people of God doing so?
Climatic changes are drastic and are causing unusual disasters and calamities. Jammu and Kashmir in India saw a disaster flood, North East US saw unusual snowstorms and Indonesia saw typhoons. The list is unending. These weaken economies and give rise to darkness rising in the hearts of man to manage survival.
Direct onslaughts against Churches in many nations with Witches and Corrupt leaders raising their heads against the knowledge of Christ.
Leadership of countries like in India, subtly penetrating the system of the country, trying to weave a impregnable cloud of deception by introducing many efforts to make the epic of religion a reality, masking truth with a lie spoken many times in many ways.
Amidst all of this, the Spirit of the Lord says, “Listen to what the Spirit says to the Church - Revelation 1:2-3”
Behold! The News of Heaven
God is going to showdown His glory like never before. No matter the things that are happening around, the Lord reigns over all the nations.
- God is raising up an army to awaken the Church - A rumbling.
- Do not judge the different parts of the body of Christ on how
they have invested in the Kingdom
- There is going to be a revival of expats in US
- God is going to re-ignite missions in Europe.
- Islam is not going to explode but is going to implode.
- Millions are going to reject Islam and shut doors to it in the West.
God is in the relentless process of plundering hell and populating heaven. You are invited to be a part of this magnificent move of God.
God’s Move - Many Roads To Damascus
In all spheres of influence, Media, Government, Education, Business, Religion, Arts, Entertainment, Family, etc. God is and has created many roads to Damascus experience for those Sauls who are currently on an assignment against the Churches. These roads are to be radical encounters with God and turn-arounds for these Sauls to become Pauls.
An Army of Pauls are going to overtake the Levites. The Church right now is asleep to this move and is going to be alarmed to see these radical Pauls take the world for Jesus.
God is looking for His sons and daughters to partner with Him in this move. So the question of His Spirit is, “Ananias - Where are you?”
Today the Lord is not thinking about the Damascus Road of Saul, as He on His own is revealing His mighty self and bringing the transformation of many numerous Sauls worldwide. But the Road of Ananias is the one that the Lord is looking at.
Saul will have all sorts of things to do in and for the Kingdom of God, but the man God relies upon in this hour is the child of God who has been trained for such a time as now - Ananias. How lovely that God would choose a man whose very name, in its derivative Hebrew form, means “the LORD is gracious” or “the LORD shows grace” to be such a lavish instrument of grace!
It was Ananias who revealed the abundant grace and love of God to embrace Saul into the fold of God - His body. Even today, God has not changed. He has created multiple Damascus roads in all spheres of influence and is orchestrating an encounter with all the Sauls on those roads. But where are the Ananiases of God? Are they ready?
Who are the Ananiases?
Ananias doesn’t need any help recognizing the LORD when he is spoken to. When the LORD speaks to this man, Ananias’ immediate response is “Here I am, LORD!”
Ananias receives great detail in the revelation of the journey to Paul. He is given the street name, the homeowner’s name and Saul’s name. He is told what Saul is doing at the moment and what Saul is being told by God. He is told what he is supposed to do and say. He is even told why his mission is so important – God Almighty lets Ananias in on his long-range plans for the life of Saul and in so doing the life of the Church itself.
The safety and security of Ananias are secondary to the importance of the mission. Faithful Ananias was listening and ready for the mission, because God amazingly allowed him to fully understand the mission, because Ananias allowed the mission to be more important than himself, this faithful, obedient and utterly wonderful guy Ananias got to see the miracle of grace in Saul’s life and harvested Paul.
If the mission isn’t more important than you, the mission will never be accomplished. This is the heartbeat of Ananias.
What must the Church do?
Sauls are ready to rush up to the Ananias. A great harvest of Sauls are present in India.
The body of Christ must reveal the heart of the Father (Luke 15), they must
- Prepare
- Sharpen their gifting
- Rise Up And Look to God
- Children and Young people have a great role in the coming revival--a generation of Josephs, Elishas and Davids.
- The global Church should connect with the churches that are broken and take responsibility for them.
- The Church should rise, not in fear but in radically taking their rightful possessions as sons and daughters of God.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
Iran: Prisoners for their faith
Nasim - serving a four-year sentence in Evin prison since 2013. Earlier this year Prayer-Alert readers prayed for her health after she went on hunger strike and the prison released her on temporary medical furlough to recover. She did not fully recover and has serious health problems, including a heart condition; pray for her health and for peace for her family.
Ebrahim Firouzi - in a particularly dangerous prison in Karaj, serving a five-year sentence for Christian activities. He sent a letter from prison to others in Iran, saying ‘If you are courageous in God’s way, God’s grace will be with you. Do not fear what you are doing and raise the banner of Jesus in the name of God.’ There are many others not serving sentences, but detained pre-trial. Among this unknown number, are Amin, Amir and Hadi - arrested on 26 August during a picnic with their families in Tehran province.
