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March 2, 2026

    My Thoughts Regarding the Iranian War

    This past Saturday (2/28/2026), Israel and the United States launched strategic air attacks on the Iranian government and military. And these attacks are ongoing. They were meticulously planned, strategically timed, amazingly coordinated, and have been tremendously successful. The initial strike by Israel took out the very evil ayatollah and up to 40 of his leaders, making the world a safer place.

    Don’t believe the nonsense that America was dragged into this war by Israel. We were dragged into it by the Iranian leaders. For a variety of reasons, I, like many, have seen the attack on Iran coming for some time. Iran, as part of what many refer to as “the new axis of evil,” along with China, Russia, and North Korea, has become the world’s leading sponsor of terror. I speak, of course, of the Iranian government, not the majority of the Iranian citizens. 

    This cruel, radical Islamist regime has not only spawned terrorism, it has brutally oppressed a once-prosperous Iranian people, turning it into a stronghold of suffering and tyranny. They killed tens of thousands of their own people in the recent protests that took place. Iran has also fomented instability in the Middle East region and throughout the world. 

    With a stated purpose of annihilating Israel and America, the ayatollahs and their followers have demonstrated for almost half a century (since 1979) just how serious they are about this, killing and maiming thousands of Americans and Israelis during that span of time. They tried to assassinate Trump. To have allowed such monsters to possess nuclear weapons would have been as foolish as appeasing Hitler turned out to be. 

    On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain received loud cheers when he returned to London after negotiations in Munich with Adolf Hitler. He and the prime minister of France, Edouard Daladier, agreed to Hitler’s demands that Czechoslovakia cede a portion of its territory, known as the Sudetenland, to Germany. (It is worth noting that although these talks concerned the future of Czechoslovakia, no Czech representative was present!) In return, Hitler assured the Western Allies that he had no further territorial ambitions. On his return, Prime Minister Chamberlain read from a statement he and the German Führer signed that morning, pledging that their new agreement was “symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.”(1) Speaking later that day outside his Office at 10 Downing Street, Chamberlain proclaimed, “I believe it is peace for our time.”(2)

    Chamberlain’s actions received wide acclaim throughout Great Britain and around the world. Following news of the Munich Agreement, an editorial in The New York Times proclaimed, “Let no man say that too high a price has been paid for peace in Europe until he has searched his soul and found himself willing to risk in war the lives of those who are nearest and dearest to him.”(3)

    While war is always to be avoided when possible, the words of Chamberlain and the New York Times proved to be utterly foolish, as Hitler’s forces seized all of Czechoslovakia six months later on March 15, 1939. And less than a year after Chamberlain’s announcement, on September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland and started World War II. 

    (Ditto)

    Not everyone was fooled by Hitler and in favor of the appeasement demonstrated by the Munich Agreement. One of its fiercest critics was future British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who loudly denounced Chamberlain’s deal with Hitler in a speech in the House of Commons. Churchill called the agreement “a total and unmitigated defeat” and warned his audience that “there can never be friendship between the British democracy and the Nazi power, that Power which spurns Christian ethics, which cheers its onward course by a barbarous paganism, which vaunts the spirit of aggression and conquest, which derives strength and perverted pleasure from persecution, and uses, as we have seen, with pitiless brutality the threat of murderous force. That Power cannot ever be the trusted friend of the British democracy.”(4)

    Churchill went on to warn, “And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning…You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.”(5) History has shown that war is sometimes inevitable, and that some leaders are so evil, they need capital punishment, not appeasement. The appeasement of Hitler cost the world an estimated 60-75 million lives.(6)

    President Trump and his team, the Israeli government, and other prudent leaders realized that attempting to appease the ayatollah and his evil Iranian regime - as Obama did by sending pallets of cash totaling hundreds of millions(7) - would be as foolish as Chamberlain’s attempted appeasement of Hitler. They knew that signing another treaty with this lying leader - while he continued making his nukes and funding terrorists, as Obama also did - would have been as naive and ridiculous as Chamberlain’s misplaced trust. The ayatollahs and their murderous Iranian regime should have been stopped long ago, not trusted or placated. 

    Trump did the world a favor by ending the reigns of Maduro in Venezuela and Khamenei in Iran. And in doing so, he has reset the entire world order. Russia’s and China’s cheap oil supplies have been hugely impacted, and they now know Trump won’t hesitate to protect America’s interests around the world. They have also seen America’s unequaled military strength demonstrated, and know that he can back up his promises to do so. 

    Another part of the international reset is not just the weakening of Iran, but also the realignment of the entire Middle East. Many leaders there were already coming on board with Trump’s leadership, then Iran foolishly attacked several of them in retaliation for America and Israel’s actions. Almost the entire Middle East is now aligned against Iran. If this trend continues, the realignment of the Middle East will prove to be unprecedented. 

    Finally, there is most definitely a spiritual element to what is occurring in Iran. For months now I have said that the influence of the “prince of Persia” (today’s Iran) is being removed (see Daniel 10:13-20). This principality mentioned in Daniel’s time has been exerting control over the region in our day, as well, through the evil regime of the ayatollahs. This is ending, and will increase the great harvest now occuring there. 

    In conclusion, I certainly do not want to see America drawn into another prolonged war. But I see that which President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu are doing as a deterrent to prolonged war. They are cutting off the head of a poisonous snake, putting fear in the hearts of our enemies, protecting our ally Israel, liberating an oppressed people (the Iranians), and though they probably do not realize it, are further opening the region to the gospel. 

    Pray with me:

    Father, we pray:

    • That the great harvest in Iran will continue. 

    • For this to spread to all the Middle East. 

    • For the complete end of the influence of “the prince of Persia”.

    • For the protection of innocent people in the Middle East. 

    • For the protection of Americans here and abroad. 

    • For the freedom of the Iranian people. 

    • For wisdom to be given to President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and both nations’ military leaders. Give them supernatural insight from on high.

    • For protection over both nations’ leaders, as well as our militaries. 

    • And that the war will end quickly. 

    We also pray for the families of the soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for this cause. May God be close to the brokenhearted and give them peace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Our decree:

    We decree that the strategies of heaven will prevail over the strategies of hell in the Middle East.

    Click on the link below to watch the full video.

    1. Annex to Cabinet Minutes, 30th September 1938—CAB 23/95/11, United Kingdom National Archives (UKNA). (URL: ). Accessed 8/27/24.

    2. The Times, October 1, 1938, quoted in Tim Bouverie, Appeasement: Chamberlain, Churchill, and the Road to War (New York: Tim Duggan Books, 2019), 287-288.

    3. “The Price of Peace,” The New York Times, September 30, 1938.

    4. Referenced: https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/appeasement-and-peace-our-time

    5. www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org  

    6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_evil 

    7. https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400998

     
     

    February 27, 2026

      "Are You God’s Wife?"

      “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” (Romans 15:1)

      “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

      Yesterday, we looked at “bearing” up others in the sense of staking ourselves to them and holding them up, much like one would stake up a tomato plant. This is actually one of the meanings of the word used for “bearing with one another” in Ephesians 4:2 and Colossians 3:13. 

      However, the Greek word used for “bearing” in our two opening verses is different. Those subtle Greeks!! This word (bastazo) means to lift or carry and can imply removing something or carrying it away.(1) Sometimes we carry another person’s load in order to give them a break. But when we bear someone’s burden through prayer, we are doing more than this; we are doing so in order to help them get rid of it! 

      Christ bearing our sins and diseases is a powerful example of this. Isaiah 53, verses 6 and 12 state the following concerning Him: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to His own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all... He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

      Christ “bore” our sins and iniquities, but he is not still carrying them! He removed and carried them away from us, “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). And somewhere, somehow, He disposed of them. This connotation of bearing something in order to get rid of it is extremely important in the context of prayer. It is imperative to know that we don’t simply carry someone’s burden just to give them a break. We stake ourselves to them, as discussed in yesterday’s post, and pray to remove that which is burdening them!

      The Scapegoat

      The concept of the scapegoat in Scripture illustrates this (Leviticus 16:8-22). A scapegoat takes someone else’s blame and the consequences that follow. In Old Testament times, two animals were used on the Day of Atonement. One was sacrificed; the other was used as the “scapegoat.” The high priest would place his hands on the scapegoat’s head, confessing the sins of the nation, after which it was released into the wilderness, never to be seen again. This symbolized Christ the “scapegoat” bearing away our sins and curses, never to be remembered again. 

      We don’t “bear” another person’s sin - Christ did this once, for all, removing them from us. We do, however, bear one another’s burdens and weaknesses through prayer, with the goal of removing them. At times when we do so, Holy Spirit will allow us to truly identify with the other person’s pain, being moved with compassion (See Matthew 9:36-38; 14:14; 15:32; and others).

      Dick Eastman shares a remarkable incident from his life that illustrates the extent to which God can allow us to engage in this type of intercession. 

      “Several years ago, Dick was interceding for 153 children who were being held hostage by terrorists in Holland. The news media provided day-to-day coverage of this situation, and one day, as the terrorists’ demands intensified, the Lord brought him to an entirely different level of intercession. 

      “While praying in his backyard prayer chapel, Eastman suddenly could see himself inside the schoolhouse where the children were being held. As he looked at them through his spiritual eyes, he was startled to recognize his own six- and nine-year-old daughters among those held captive. He knew his girls were actually sleeping in the house just a few feet away, but this mental picture caused him to enter into an entirely different intercessory burden of prayer. The Holy Spirit laid upon him an intensity of prayer like none he had ever experienced.

      “Trembling with indignation, he authoritatively commanded the terrorists to let the children go. Various emotions exuded from him as he, from the position of being a parent of these children, labored in intercession over them, demanding their release. Sensing victory, the time of intercession abruptly ended. He went to the office a few minutes later and didn’t give it another thought throughout the day.

      “That evening, while at the family dinner table, he happened to see out of the corner of his eye a television left on in the family room. Catching his attention was a news report that three of the Dutch children had been released. Rather than being thrilled with this victory, Eastman was surprised to find his eyes filling with tears. Jesus, he said in his heart, I didn’t ask for three children; I asked for all of them to be released. And that was a prayer born of Your Spirit. With a fresh burst of boldness, he pounded the table with his fist and declared, ‘And I claim the miracle now!’

      “At the exact moment he hit the table, a local reporter interrupted the news broadcast to clarify that the report just aired had been recorded earlier and was incomplete. He went on to inform the viewers that, actually, all 153 children had been freed early that morning.

      “Eastman’s amazement at the precise timing of this continues to this day. He knew beyond a doubt that his prayers had made a difference, as had those of other believers.”(2)

      “There’s a story about an occurrence in New York City on a cold day in December, some years ago. A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

      “A lady approached the young boy and said, ‘My, but you’re in such deep thought staring in that window!’ ‘I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,’ was the boy’s reply.

      “The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. The store clerk quickly brought them to her.

      “She then took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel. By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, ‘No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.’

      “As she turned to go, the astonished little boy caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked: ‘Are you God’s wife?’”(3)

      Just as this kind woman did, God wants to use us to bear and carry away the burdens, pains, and weaknesses of others. What an honor to be part of the bride of Christ. 

      Pray with me:

      Father, thank You for the privilege of partnering with You as intercessors. As we do, we become extensions of Your love and grace in the earth. Please mature us in this calling, enabling us to fulfill it much more effectively. We truly do want to be Your hands, Your feet, Your arms of love, and Your voice of healing. 

      You love people very much. Please impart to us Your heart, enabling us to love as You do. You desire to lift burdens and difficulties from them…and You want to use us to do so! Give us greater sensitivity as You alert us to pray for others. Not only will this glorify You, but it will also lift the burdens of many.

      We end our prayer today by asking You to show us anyone You would like us to stake ourselves to in this season. Who would You like us to pray for daily until their burden, difficult situation, disease, or mountain of adversity is gone? Who would You like us to strengthen and release to them Your provision? Whether a family member, a neighbor, a church leader, or a government official, we will do so. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

      Our decree:

      We decree that revelation regarding the church’s partnership with Christ is increasing, and that we will partner with Him at greater levels than ever before.

      Click on the link below to watch the full video.

      1. James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no. 

      2. Dick Eastman, Love on Its Knees (Tarrytown, NY: Chosen, 1989), pp. 35-37.

      3. https://littleganeshas.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/true-heart-opening-stories-about-children/

       
       

      February 26, 2026

        Lean on Me

        Charlie Brown is the principal character of the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles Schulz and syndicated in numerous newspapers worldwide. He is depicted as insecure, nervous, and lacking self-confidence, but is also very lovable. Lucy is the obnoxious sister of a friend, and Snoopy is Charlie Brown’s ever-faithful dog.

        In one episode, Charlie Brown was pitching baseball and doing a lousy job of it. Lucy was giving him grief, as usual. Finally, he could bear the misery and humiliation no longer. In an expression of exasperation that only Charlie Brown could think of, he stood on his head right there on the pitcher’s mound.

        As Lucy’s degrading mockery continued, the ever-loyal Snoopy did the unexpected. He walked onto the pitcher’s mound and stood on his head beside Charlie Brown, sharing his humiliation.

        You gotta love it. And Snoopy, by the way, was very biblical. The Bible says, “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) and “Bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). Snoopy decided it wasn’t appropriate to let Charlie Brown bear his embarrassment alone.

        There are two words for “bear” in the New Testament. One, used in Galatians 6:2 above, means “to carry.” The other, used in Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:2, means “to hold oneself up against, (in order to bear up, or sustain something),” much like a person staking a tomato plant to sustain it from the weight it carries. When doing so, the strength of the stake is transferred to the plant and thus “bears” or holds it up. When the Lord commands us to bear with one another in Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:2, He isn’t simply telling us to “get along, or forbear with one another.”

        Although we certainly should do that, He is also saying, “Stake yourselves to one another.” In other words, we’re to come alongside a brother or sister who may be in a weakened condition, “weighted down” by a difficult situation, and “stake” ourselves to them. They won’t fall and be broken or destroyed because we are supporting them. Our strength is now theirs.

        In 1972, Bill Withers wrote and recorded his great hit, “Lean On Me.” Like Snoopy’s comfort of Charlie Brown, Withers’s song was also very biblical. We all, at times, need someone to lean on.

        The following story portrays this truth, as well:

        Jackie Robinson was the first black man to play in Major League Baseball. At the time, America had not made the progress we have today regarding racism. While breaking baseball’s color barrier, Robinson faced jeering crowds in some stadiums. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. His own fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then shortstop “Pee Wee” Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that Reese’s arm around his shoulder saved his career. 

        Wow!!! Now THAT is staking oneself to a friend.

        One way we can stake ourselves to others is through prayer. Mike and his wife were friends of mine, serving as missionaries in Jamaica in the 1980’s. While there, they experienced a life-and-death situation when their son contracted a critical illness. The young child, two or three years old, had regressed for several days to a point of near death. Mike decided he needed to “lean on” a few friends.

        I knew something fairly serious must be happening when I was interrupted by an assistant while leading a prayer meeting, and told I had an emergency phone call from Jamaica. I excused myself and headed to my office.

        “I’m sorry to interrupt your meeting, Dutch,” my friend Mike began, “but I desperately need your help.”

        “What is it?” I asked.

        “It’s my son, Toby. He is deathly ill with a raging fever. The doctors haven’t been able to find the cause. They’ve done all they know to do, but nothing is helping. They question whether or not he can survive another night in his condition.

        “I have been praying and praying for him, but can’t seem to break through. The Lord has now revealed to me that his condition is being caused by a spirit of infirmity; He actually allowed me to see it as I was praying. I have not been able to break its influence over my son. But I feel the Lord has shown me that if some strong intercessors join me, we can break this attack.”

        Mike and his wife, Pam, were strong believers, people of prayer, and walked in faith. They understood their authority in Christ, but they needed help. We all do at times.

        I went back to the prayer meeting, and as a group we staked ourselves to the Andersons. I know Mike had called others, as well, and they, too, were no doubt praying. We interceded for this small child passionately until we sensed a breakthrough.

        Mike called back later and said, “Almost immediately after I contacted you and several other friends to pray with me, the fever broke, and my son began rapidly improving. Within a few hours, he was completely well and released from the hospital.”

        The Body of Christ had functioned as the Lord intended.

        Mike then spoke the following words to me, which I’ve never forgotten: “Dutch, I asked the Lord why I had not been able to break through for my son without help. His only reply was: ‘Sometimes My covenant is released to you through others coming to your aid!’”

        That is profoundly significant - Almighty God using us to administer the blessings of His covenant to others! And it’s what intercession is all about!

        Friend, stake yourself to someone who needs your strength.

        Pray with me:

        Father, it brings You joy when Your family treats one another as family. Today, we choose love, forgiveness, and unity, embracing the magnificent truth that You release Your covenant benefits through us. The fact that we can be Your feet, hands, and loving arms is an amazing truth. Please remind us daily to stake ourselves to those who are experiencing difficulties.

        We ask that our hearts be molded until we embody the truth that it is more blessed to give than receive. May we live to give, being like the “good Samaritan,” who went out of his way to love and serve another. Break us out of self-serving mindsets, making us more like Christ, who modeled true servanthood. In His name we pray, amen.

        Our decree:

        We declare that we will be the arms of the Lord, loving and supporting those who need His strength.

        (Now, ask the Lord whom He would like you to bear up in prayer. Take a minute or two and pray for God’s strength and blessing to be released to them.)

        Click on the link below to watch the full video.

        Today’s post was adapted from my book, Intercessory Prayer, published by Baker Books.

         
         
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