AMAZING PRAYER AND ADMISSION BY JORDAN PETERSON

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“God lift me from the intolerable burden of my ignorance, arrogance, willful blindness, bitterness, and resentment. And I pray that others rise above the same faults and temptations.

I watched Fox News release this message: There are terrible things afoot under the surface of our society, and the perpetrators are coming for you and coming for us. And then I watched the Democrats respond in panic and anger, saying: There are terrible things afoot under the surface of our society, and the perpetrators are coming for you and coming for us.

Are there terrible things afoot, bubbling under the surface? Is something coming for you? And for us? Ask yourself how true that is of yourself and your own life. Have you addressed all that? Are you concerning yourself with the dust in your enemy’s eyes, instead of attending to the filth that obscures your own sight? Do we want accusation, suspicion, discord, derision, and hatred? Or the peace and prosperity and happiness that beckons to us at this moment like never before? Who’s the enemy here? Is it the basket of deplorables? Is it the freaks and the queers? Is it the plumbers and carpenters and tradesmen and managers who work honestly and diligently during the day and the soldiers who stalwartly defend the borders and protect us? Is it the artists and visionaries whose expressions of unbridled creativity entertain and rejuvenate us and who continually offer to us an unending panoply of technological miracle? Is it the institutions that guide and protect us that so many lived and died to erect and establish which for all their faults have served us so well?

Do we want revenge or justice? Do we want contempt or mercy? Do we want war—or peace? And what are you aiming at in your heart of hearts? I see even the best of men degenerating into the exchange of blows. I see even the best of men identifying the enemy in our neighbours and friends. I see even the best of men falling prey to cowardice and self-righteous anger. It needs to stop. I need to stop. You need to stop. Before it’s too late. Who is the enemy here? The snake in your heart? The lies on your tongue? The arrogance of your intellect? The cowardice of our refusal to see? The enemy is that which divides to sow discord. The enemy is the pride and fear that stops us from lending a hand across the divide. The enemy is the great and eternal adversary of mankind. And if we demonize our brothers, our comrades-in-arms, do we not precisely call that dread spirit forth? Have we not yet learned? courage, trust, truth, love, even unto your enemy. Which is you? God forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. May what is the highest guide our vision. May what is highest open our ears. May what is the highest guide our tongues. And may we pray fearful of the hell we could so easily and carelessly create. Deliver us from evil. Shine a light into the corners of our dark hearts. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever, Amen.“

ONE-THIRD OF AUSTRALIANS THINK MORE ABOUT GOD AS A RESULT OF THE PANDEMIC

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God uses catastrophes for His purposes. Since the Covid -19 pandemic started, Australians are experiencing a renewed spiritual awakening with three in ten praying more often now. Moreover, Prayer Groups are more active and growing.

Australian Prayer Network
Building prayer across the nation

A new report (McCrindle Research) has revealed that the experience of COVID-19 has caused many Australians to experience a renewed spiritual search. A third of Australians have thought more about God, while 28% have prayed more. During the pandemic, almost half of Australians have thought more about the meaning of life (47%) or their own mortality (47%). The collective experience of the pandemic has ushered in a return to a focus on the local community, with half of Australians (53%) valuing a strong local community more than they did three years ago. The local church is a key element of the local community with three in four Australians (76%) agreeing the churches in their local area are making a positive difference to their community.

The research, which was conducted by McCrindle Research and surveyed 1,000 Australians also found that two-thirds of Australians are likely to attend a church service either online (64%) or in-person (67%) if personally invited by a friend or family member. Far from religion and spirituality being only for older Australians, Gen Z (45%) are twice as likely as Baby Boomers (21%) to be extremely or very likely to attend an online church service if personally invited by a friend or family member. Mark McCrindle, Founder and Principal of McCrindle Research says, “This data is worth reflecting on a little longer: in this seemingly secular era, where the church is perceived by many commentators to be on the decline and culturally outdated, almost half of all young adults invited to a church service by a friend or family member would very likely attend.”

The report also found that Australians are accepting of others’ religious views. Nine in ten (90%) agree that in Australia people should have the freedom to share their religious beliefs if done in a peaceful way, even if those beliefs are different from mainstream community views. There is, however, wavering support for religious symbolism in public life. Almost two in five Australians (39%) agree that Christian practices in public life such as parliament opening in prayer, oaths in court being taken on the Bible, or Christian chaplains in hospitals or jails should be stopped. Three in five (61%), however, disagree and are therefore open to Christian practices in public life continuing.

Interestingly, religious discrimination is a genuine issue in Australia with almost three in ten Australians (29%) having experienced religious discrimination, this equates to about half of those who identify with a religion which is six in ten Australians. Australians who identify with a non-Christian religion are more likely to have experienced discrimination (54%) than Protestants (27%) or Catholics (32%). Religious discrimination is also more likely to be experienced by younger Australians who are four times as likely as their older counterparts to say they have experienced religious discrimination (51% Gen Z cf. 13% Baby Boomers).

Source: McCrindle Research

BEING OBEDIENT TO THE HOLY SPIRIT PROMPTINGS

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Faithwire screenshot
Tim talks about the importance of being obedient to the prompting of the indwelling Holy Spirit

Tim Halfin, a regional director for a pharmacy in Magnolia, Texas, is giving God all the glory after he miraculously found a little boy who had been lost in the woods for three days.

Halfin, who is a Christian, explained to Faithwire he was sitting in a Bible study on Friday when he learned about 3-year-old Christopher Ramirez, who went missing two days earlier after he chased a dog into the woods.

“During our prayer for this little boy,” he said, “the Holy Spirit just popped in me, ‘Tomorrow morning, you’ll go look for him,’ and I did. There’s been a few times in my life that the Holy Spirit has really spoken to me and I’ve obeyed and, of course, the outcome is always great.”

Christopher had been missing since around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Local law enforcement officials, community members, and the little boy’s mother had been searching for the toddler to no avail. Halfin joined the search just before noon Saturday.

As he was looking, Halfin recalled hearing noises in the woods, though he wasn’t sure if it was Christopher. He nevertheless called sheriff’s deputies, who arrived on ATVs, clearly discouraged by the lack of success they’d had in finding the lost little boy.

It wasn’t too long after that Halfin found Christopher, who had shed all his clothing, even his shoes. He had no protection whatsoever.

GMA/YouTube sceenshot

“When I saw him, it was immediately, ‘Praise God! This is answered prayer!’” Halfin said, adding that the look on the child’s face when he picked him up was, “I’ve been waiting for you, where have you been?”

“I think God had been protecting this little boy all along,” he continued. “I think Jesus had been talking to him for three nights and now going on four days.”

As a believer, Halfin said he always knew God could perform miracles; he’d read about them all throughout Scripture. But now he has been part of one.

Tim went on to say there is “no explanation” for the rescue, noting he believes God performed three miracles for Christopher.

No. 1, he was protected against all these elements. There are a lot of predators in those wood, wild animals.

No. 2, he would survive for as long as he did without water.

No. 3, he would be found really miles away from where they were even looking for him.

Halfin said, “My prayer is for those who don’t see this as a miracle, that they would come to know Jesus and then they would know that it only had to be a miracle.”

At the centre of the story, Halfin said, is God. He told Faithwire he’s “regretful” so many have focused on him in the story, saying the miraculous outcome for Christopher is truly about “what the Lord has done here.”

The little boy’s mother, Araceli Nunez, is a “strong woman of faith,” Halfin said.

“She knew from the beginning that God was gonna bring her son back to her,” he added. “In between that point, there was a lot of prayers lifted up … and then, at the end, the Lord led me to him and just answered everybody’s prayer right there.”

PRAY EXPECTANTLY

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Do you pray expecting God to answer? In this prayer, note what David says after pleading his case; he watches expectantly. David expects God to respond.

“Listen to my words, Lord; consider my sighing. Pay attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to You. At daybreak, Lord, You hear my voice; at daybreak I plead my case to You and watch expectantly.“ Psalms 5:1-3

Notice how specific David’s prayers were and how specific God’s replies.

“And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.” 1 Samuel 30:8

After this David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.” 2 Samuel 2:1

God always prepares His servants, His people to do the job He calls them to do. Note, how God prepared the people to follow Joshua just as they did Moses. Likewise God will prepare you and all those that are to work with you, to do the job He has called you to do.

“The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” Joshua 3:7

Just as God had Moses part the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to cross, he also had Joshua part the Jordan River to allow the Israelites to enter the Promised Land.

“Then Joshua told the Israelites, “Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” He said: “You will know that the living God is among you and that He will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites when the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth goes ahead of you into the Jordan... When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the Jordan’s waters, its waters will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.” Joshua 3:9-13

There is power in prayer. When men work they work but when men pray, God works,

Just as David is a great example of how to pray correctly, sadly he also shows us what happens to our relationship with God when we sin as grievously as David did. First, we notice it separates us from God. God uses Nathan to tell David about the extensive consequences of his sin of killing Uriah and taking his wife Bathsheba.

“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.‘ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” 2 Samuel 12:10-14

Note this prayer of thanksgiving by David well after the grievous sin involving Uriah and Bathsheba. He had learnt an important lesson: “kept myself from sinning“.

“He (Lord) rescued me from my powerful enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my distress, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out to a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; He repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not turned from my God to wickedness. Indeed, I have kept all His ordinances in mind and have not disregarded His statutes. I was blameless before Him and kept myself from sinning. So the Lord repaid me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His sight.” 2 Samuel 22:18-25

THE POSTSCRIPT TO ALL PRAYERS

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“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:42-44

This is the most challenging prayer of all. Here we have Jesus asking His Heavenly Father to remove the coming experience of suffering and death on The Cross. Thank goodness Jesus added the postscript, “not My will but Your will be done” otherwise all of us would be consigned to Hell on Judgement Day.

When the German Christian mystic Meister Eckhart would pray he would qualify whatever he brought before God with the following words. “Lord, give me nothing but what you will and do Lord whatever and however you will in every way”.

I was reluctant to quote Eckhart as much of what he had to say has been picked up and misquoted by New Age thinkers but this quote is Biblical.

According to Eckhart therefore, none of our prayers can insist that God give us this virtue, or this thing, or this way of life but rather “Lord give me nothing but your will, and do Lord whatever and however in every way..”

We truly have learnt how to live the Christian life when we come to the knowledge that we are not in control and that God is working out His plans and purposes on His earth. Moreover, in the Bible, His written Word, He has given us a history of His world from its beginning and with prophecy, what He is doing now and will do right up to its end. Our prayers need to get in step with what He is doing on this earth, particularly in our sphere of influence. All prayers need to have the postscript “Not my will but yours be done” and probably our greatest prayer is a simple “Thank You“.

GOD ANSWERED PRAYER FOR OUR NATION – REPORT FROM CANBERRA DECLARATION

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Last Friday, the Canberra Declaration (Protecting our Australian Values) launched the October Month of Prayer and Fasting for Family and Nation. The same day, Gladys Berejiklian resigned as NSW Premier. This was not an outcome we had specifically prayed for or foreseen. As far as Australia’s premiers go, we would have said that Berejiklian was one of the better ones.
Nevertheless, Berejiklian chose not to use her voice for the voiceless when it needed most. Almost exactly two years before her resignation, she had waved through horrendous abortion legislation that made abortion-to-birth legal in NSW. As Silvana Nile this week wrote, “It is a sobering reminder that we serve a God of Justice. He hears the cries of our hearts and He hears the cries of the blood on our land.”

On the 2nd of October, our 25-hour prayer event concluded. On the same day, the media began reporting that the most likely successor to Berejiklian would be Dominic Perrottet. Though the corporate press sought to smear him for his Catholic faith and large family, that is not God’s assessment.

Dominic and Helen Perrottet with five of their six children

Perrottet has an excellent track record on Christian values: he voted against the abortion bill and is a strong opponent of the euthanasia law that members of his party are seeking to push. New South Wales can only benefit from having a man of faith, a loving husband, and a father of six children at the helm.
Over the following two days, the Deputy Premier John Barilaro and senior cabinet minister Andrew Constance also resigned from the NSW parliament. Both of these men had been strong proponents of both abortion and euthanasia. As leader of the NSW Nationals, Barilaro oversaw an egregious erosion of values in what was once a Christian country party. We’re not sure how to summarise these events but to say that God has been cleaning house.
Early this week, Dominic Perrottet won his party’s ballot 39-5 to be confirmed as the 46th Premier of NSW. Normally we don’t comment in such detail on state politics, but it is hard not to see the hand of God as we have fasted and prayed for breakthrough in Australia and for Australia’s families.

Surely, this is enough evidence to encourage all Prayer Groups to persevere in prayer for their nation. I am confident that Kurt and Warwick of Canberra Declaration (www.canberradeclaration.org.au) are, as are their growing number of prayer warriors.

ALFRED DEAKIN’S LIFE AND PRAYERS

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How times have changed. Read about a wonderful leader of old. However, know for certain God appoints our leaders and we usually get the leader we deserve, certainly the leader that will fulfill God’s purposes. Even the Antichrist’s appearance will be at God’s appointed time.

Alfred Deakin was Australia’s second prime minister. He was one of two prime ministers who held the position three times from 24 September 1903 to 27 April 1904, 5 July 1905 to 13 November 1908, 2 June 1909 to 29 April 1910 Deakin was a founding father of Federation, along with Edmund Barton.

Older Sir Walter Murdoch - Melbourne Uni

Walter Murdoch (great uncle to Rupert Murdoch of News Corp) was a young man and a journalist for the Argus when he met Alfred Deakin. Deakin was also journalist for the Age during his 20’s.

In 1923, just 4 years after Alfred’s death, Pattie asked Walter to write a biography on her husband. “Alfred Deakin: A Sketch” became a masterpiece of writing. Murdoch who became a close family friend and admirer of Deakin writes:

“Some piece of writing of mine had the good fortune to please him; and it was entirely characteristic of the man that he should at once sit down and write me some generous words of praise; for he was ever the helper and encourager of young men…” “It was impossible to spend a dull moment in his company…he had the power of loosening the tongues of others…men showed themselves at their best in his presence. He understood before you had half finished your sentence… his talk, when at his best, was like sparkling wine. I think his charm as a companion was due not so much to the richness and brilliancy of his talk, but to the fundamental friendliness that shone through what he said, – there was something winning and affectionate in his nature” (page 289 “Alfred Deakin: A Sketch” by Walter Murdoch)

Walter Murdoch at Alfred's retreat - Pt Londsdale
Pattie, Alfred and grandson Wilfred - Pt Londsdale retreat

Alfred Deakin’s Prayer No 9

“God grant me the virtue of sincerity and the voice of truth that without fear or falsity I may speak the word and do the deed best for this country and its people. Let me shake off self and ignore success, let me be guided sufficiently to guide others and gifted to perform the most necessary service.”

“To this make my private aims absolutely subordinate and my private life sure and harmonious as a sure pedestal from which I may utter my message. Let this be Thy message and Thy will and grant that as it’s mere mouthpiece I may repeat it without admixture and without regard to the welcome it may procure for me. God help me to help” 13th Feb 1892″

Copyright © 2016. http://www.alfreddeakin.com, All rights reserved.

PRAY FOR OUR AFGHAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS

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Watch this short video given by an Afghan believer as the Taliban take over his homeland. Sorry, the video has already been taken off Youtube (censorship?). The message below it is still relevant.

Please pray for the Afghan Church to have strength and endurance so they may continue to lead Bible studies, prayer meetings, and are proactively evangelizing during the very events you are seeing in the news. Pray for them to be hidden supernaturally by the hand of the Lord just like in John 8:59 when Jesus disappeared into the crowd.

The Afghan Church and Global Catalytic Ministries (Frontiers Alliance) believe that the best days are before us, and we will witness the greatest movement of salvation among Muslims from the ashes of this catastrophe. It is already happening in Iran.

  • Pray for those fleeing to the hills to be protected (Psalm 73, Psalm 91)
  • Pray for miraculous protection for women and children being forcibly taken and those that have already been taken for their protection, salvation, and deliverance. (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5)
  • Pray that the Afghan Church steps into her identity in Christ and walks in unity with the Holy Spirit. (Ezekiel 37, Romans 15:5-6)

GIVING GLORY TO GOD

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Record-Setting Olympic Athlete Gives Glory to God

Tatjana Schoenmaker — an Olympic swimmer from South Africa — set a new record Wednesday in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, and she’s using her success to point others to God.

In all her competitions in Tokyo, Schoenmaker has worn — under her green South Africa swim cap — another cap proclaiming her faith. The white Speedo cap the athlete is wearing features a blue Jesus fish under the phrase “Soli Deo Gloria,” which means “Glory to God alone,” printed on the side of it.

In an Instagram post last week, she posted a prayer as she travelled to Tokyo for the summer Olympic Games.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

“Father God, may Your will be done, may Your peace fill us up, may we praise You no matter what the outcome, may we be empowered by Your strength to give our all and may we forever be in awe of Your goodness! Thank You for bringing us to this very moment.”

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31  

AMERICA HAS STAGE 4 SPIRITUAL CANCER

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Shane Idleman is right, America has stage 4 spiritual cancer. There is no doubt about it.

Shane shares how God took him to Isaiah 57 and challenged him about righteousness and the need for fasting and radical Christianity. This is a very short message but it is powerful because it is about God challenging Shane Idelman and his confessing to his congregation that he needed to be broken before he was going to be of any value to God or his congregation. It was of course a challenge to each person in the congregation to look at their own life and their relationship with God.

It would be a good time for us all to do the same. When was the last time you fasted and prayed?