It is often a good idea, when coming before the Lord in prayer and intercession, to remind ourselves who our God is!

So often our hearts and thoughts are bogged down by the daily life, daily battles, our natures, and inclinations, our troubles and worries…..so it's good to turn our hearts back to God and see Him as He is. The only place that I know of, where I can find the most accurate and true revelation of God, is in His Word.
Psa. 102:25  Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,  And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Psa. 102:26  They will perish, but You will endure;  Yes, they will all grow old like a garment;  Like a cloak, You will change them,  And they will be changed. Psa. 102:27  But You are the same,  And Your years will have no end.

God is Eternal: he has no beginning and no end, he depends on none for His beginning or being, there is no weakness in God and no corruption, and he is immortal. By nature (1Tim 6:16), He is the same; he does not develop, he does not change. His name is I AM. There is no past nor future with God. He is independent of all his creation. He has life in Himself. He gives life but does not receive it.

God is eternal, and therefore his covenant is too. Heb. 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

He is ruler over all; The Absolute King who rules absolutely. 1Tim. 6:15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

Now we are ready to pray.

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North Korea
Although out of the main news for a few days, North Korea presents a perilous and volatile situation. The UN has just voted to tighten sanctions against North Korea. North Korea has threatened in turn to destroy Japan and punish the US.
https://www.ft.com/content/f1fd455c-990a-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b

• We prayed for the God’s eternal purposes to unfold in the earth - as opposed to the enemy’s lust to destroy the earth
• We prayed for the Lord to break the axis between Iran and NK (in this way NK is in direct opposition to God’s intention and the promise of the restoration of Israel.
• We prayed that God would subdue Kim Jong Un. See Daniel 4:37
• We prayed from Psalm 76:10
• We prayed that God would deliver North Korea from her leader and open her to the gospel
• We prayed from Isaiah 26:9 when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
• We prayed for wisdom for the leaders of the nations in their dealing with North Korea
• We prayed for resoluteness and purpose for the leaders of the nations, as this evil is not just going to disappear all on its own. It has to be dealt with, but how? The stakes are extremely high.

Kurdistan
As some of you may know, when the nations divided the spoils after WWI the Kurds were left with no state of their own. Their area is divided today between Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. In 1970 The Kurds in Iraq gained autonomous status. There was going to be a referendum on Sept. 25 voting on Independence.

To read about the history of the Kurds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan
To read about the referendum:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan_independence_referendum,_2017

The Iraqi government has reneged on holding the referendum. The Kurds may declare independence anyway. Some in Israel have equated this time, to Israel’s declaration of Independence in 1948.

Israel supports an independent Kurdistan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/14/israel-becomes-first-state-back-independent-kurdistan/

A free Kurdistan in the heart of the Islamic world could be a real game changer, as far as Israel is concerned. It will be a democratic, secular state, friendly to Israel. We also feel that the Kurdish cause is just.

• We prayed for a free state for the Kurds as a just cause.
• We prayed that such a state would bring a shift and change of balance in the ME
• We prayed into the strategic importance of this issue
• We prayed for the blessings of the Kurds according to Genesis 12:3 (The Kurds have alway been friendly and supportive of Israel.

Israel
Besides the usual and needed prayer for Israel’s security and protection from her enemies on all her borders, we also prayed for a rising concern that has to do with corruption and the deep influence of the crime world on the Knesset (Israel’s parliament)
Please read this short article to gain an understanding:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/is-israel-becoming-a-mafia-state/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=d77feb2225-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-d77feb2225-54468053

We see it as a strategic threat.

None of this is new. Just read the prophets of the Old Testament, and you will see their scathing prophecies against the corruption of the leadership, the priests, etc. (Read Micah 3:1-3 as one example

We feel that possibly the answer to this need is two-fold: 1. A profound and ongoing “cleaning of the stalls” as they say. For that to happen, leaders, judges and men and women of caliber must araise. This is not about left or right leaning politics; it's about a tremendous threat to our nation. 2. A massive Aliya from the US that will change the scene in Israel.
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• We prayed into the promises of God concerning our people’s cleansing Ezekiel 36:35-36, Isaiah 4:3-4, Jeremiah 33:16
• We prayed for the Lord to raise people who can lead the cleaning up of our country
• We prayed for the providence of God in seeing this kind of a drive through
• We prayed for the protection of all those in the Police and other agencies as they deal with these issues
• We prayed for a massive Aliya from the US. Ezekiel 36:24 (The Aliya from Russia was massive and tremendously influenced Israel. We need another Aliya!)​

​Thanks for standing with us for all the will of God to be done in these last days. All for His Glory alone!

This past week, I was away on a short ministry trip in the U.K. The following is sent instead of the regular Prayer Direction Notes. I hope that you will be moved to pray along the lines we are suggesting here.

Sobering visit at the John Bunyan Museum in Bedford
While in the U.K. I had a chance to visit the John Bunyan museum in Bedford. Although the John Bunyan Museum is small and unassuming, it holds a powerful testimony, and that is: the Word of God is dangerous and powerful.

John Bunyan spent twelve years in prison because he refused to compromise the preaching of the Word of God. In those days, one could not preach without a license to preach from the Church of England; receiving a license meant adhering to the doctrines of the Church of England. This John Bunyan was not willing to do, and he paid a heavy price; twelve years in Jail.  

The Word of God is felt to be dangerous by the religious systems of the day, the Word of God is felt to be dangerous to the political powers that be.The Word of God is powerful to save and set men free. The Word of God is powerful to deliver men from darkness.

Although John Bunyan came from a poor background and had a very limited education, he went on to write, in prison, one of the most popular and influential books of all time in the English language, "Pilgrim's progress." 

Of him Spurgeon wrote: "I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean. Read everything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had studied our Authorized Version, which will never be bettered, as I judge, till Christ shall come; he had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems—without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. 

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Archibald Brown was “a student, friend, and associate of Charles Spurgeon; and from 1908 to 1911, pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, the church earlier pastored by Spurgeon” (1)

In 1988 he wrote a book titled, “The Devil’s mission of Amusement”, in it, there is an article titled: “Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats.”  In it, Archibald warns of an evil that had crept into the Church; that is of providing amusement instead of the preaching the Word of God.

He wrote: “Were the disciples persecuted because they amused the people, or because they refused? The Gospel of Amusement has no martyr roll! Providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and of Christ and His apostles. What did He say? ‘Ye are the salt,’ – not sugar-candy.” (2)

These words are as true today as they were in Archibald Brown's day.

Of ministers:  "Little is that ministry worth that never chides you. If God never uses his minister as a rod, depend upon it he will never use him as a pot of manna, for the rod of Aaron  and the pot of manna always go together, and he who is God’s true servant will be 
both to your soul.

"Faithful preachers are among God’s best gifts. Cherish them, and be obedient to their 
admonitions. I have known persons become offended when a minister is “too 
personal;” but wise men always prize a ministry in proportion as it is personal to 
themselves. He who never tells me of my faults, nor makes me feel uneasy, is not 
Likely to be the means of good to my soul. What is the use of a dog that never barks?" 

Oh, dear friends and fellow pray-ers,  are you not moved to pray for a mighty revival of the Word of God in the Body of Messiah, in the Church?

• Let us pray for a mighty conviction to fall upon the ministers of God, the preachers of the Day of the importance of the Word of God, first in their lives, then in their ministry.
• Let us pray together for fire in the pulpits of the land
• Let us pray together for the Word of God to go forth in a life-giving, soul-searching, spirit-reviving way.
• Let us pray for the people of God, that they might turn away from mere amusements to feed on the Word of God.
• Let us pray for the Lord to pour upon the Body in the land and upon the Church world-wide a fresh hunger for the Word of God.
• Let us pray that the Word will be eaten as manna from heaven

Let those of us who preach the Word, do so faithfully
Jer. 23:25-29 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.  How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;  Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. Jer. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
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I remain deeply moved and challenged by the testimony of Buyan's lif regarding the Word of God. I left the museum strengthen and resolved to, more than ever, love, read, study, obey, teach, and preach the Word of God as it is, for all that it is, to all who will hear. 

Let us pray together a mighty revival of the Word of God in the Church and in the Land. 

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(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_G._Brown
(2) ​http://pulpitandpen.org/2017/01/30/archibald-brown-feeding-sheep-or-amusing-goats-an-article-from-1889-about-gimmicks-in-worship/