Some Good News on the Economy – Part 2 [This is a part of a speech President Trump gave on the Economy on July 2, 2020. You can read it in its entirety here.] “With us are workers who make decorative American flags from Virginia; fly-fishing reels from Florida; grills from Illinois; pies from North Carolina — they look very good to me; coffee from Oklahoma; ice cream from Maryland; and sunscreen and baseball bats from Texas. With unmatched skill and devotion, you make the goods and build the products that proudly bear the wonderful phrase, ‘Made in the USA’. You’re seeing that more and more: ‘Made in the USA’. “The small businesses represented in this room continue a great and noble American heritage. You’re entrepreneurs, artisans, creators, craftsmen who forge your own path, make your own products, and provide good-paying jobs for our citizens. Incredible jobs, incredible people, and they truly are artisans. And you’re doing it all with American hands, American heart, and American pride. “Several of these companies are entirely veteran-owned and operated. …I want to thank the courageous men and women who’ve served their country in uniform. We vow to honor your sacrifice by forever defending the rights, freedoms, and principles you risked your entire life to defend. “[Following the arrival of COVID-19,] we raced into action to save our nation’s small businesses. We passed over $3 trillion in historic relief measures — $3 trillion; think of that — including over $670 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, a tremendous success, as you can see by the numbers. To keep small-business workers on the payroll, I signed a bill providing federally funded paid sick leave and paid family leave for American workers. “Thanks to our efforts and the incredible resilience of our nation’s small businesses — and I really think we can add the foundation that we built. We built the greatest economy ever built, and that foundation was so strong that, instead of coming weakly back or going in the other direction — only that strong foundation allowed us to be up here today talking about these record-setting job numbers and other numbers that we’re producing, because America’s economy is now roaring back to life like nobody has ever seen before. “So I just want to thank everybody for being here. I want to thank all of these incredible artisans and business people for showcasing your amazing products. And I just want to leave you by saying very important words: God bless America.” “Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3; NET) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Thank the Lord for the nation’s artisans! Look at the list above and thank Him for all those amazing gifts. Bless every small business that comes to mind. Say, “May the businesses that are creating American-made goods honor the Lord in all they do. May they and their workers be blessed in every regard!” Intercede for American workers, especially those who are developing and manufacturing products for our citizens. Declare, “God, bless America and American ingenuity!” Commit to shop at your community’s small businesses as much as possible. A prayer you can pray: Father, we thank You for American companies, both large and small. They represent a great and noble American heritage. From the beginning when we had candlemakers, ship builders, clock makers, and other businesses creating the things our new settlers would need, American creativity and ingenuity has been on a strong path. American business owners are entrepreneurs, artisans, creators, and craftsmen who forge their own path, make their own products, and provide good-paying jobs for our citizens. They do it all with American hands, American heart, and American pride. May we never forget You in our business community, Lord. May the businesses that are creating American-made goods honor the Lord in all that they do. May they and their workers be blessed in every regard! We pray for American workers. We ask You to continue to provide venues for all to succeed in something they love doing for a living. Even make room for new businesses to rise out of this season where it looks like so much is shutting down. We know You are resetting some things. We know it is a creative season. Some dreams are coming to pass. Some new things are being invented. God, bless the ingenuity You have given our people. God bless all of our nation’s businesses and workers. God bless the U.S.A.! We bless them in Jesus’ name. Amen. Today’s decree: America’s small business artisans are bringing our nation’s economy back strong!

Some Good News on the Economy – Part 1 [This is a part of a speech President Trump gave on the Economy on July 2, 2020. You can read it in its entirety here.] “Today, we received outstanding news from all over our country, really. The United States economy has added almost 5 million new jobs in the month of June. That’s shattering all expectations and shattering all records — historic records. [In the] history of our country, we’ve never added anywhere near that. “And last month, we also broke the record, but now we shattered it. [It is] much higher than even last month. This is the largest monthly jobs gain in history. We added 2.1 million leisure and hospitality jobs, 740,000 retail jobs, 568,000 education jobs and healthcare jobs, 357,000 service jobs — and very importantly to me, because you know what’s happening with manufacturing, where we’re bring it back because we’ve made incredible trade deals — so manufacturing jobs are coming back, and we added 356,000 manufacturing jobs. Incredible. Incredible numbers. All records. “African American workers made historic gains, the likes of which we’ve never had before, with 404,000 new jobs in June. That’s a record, and that’s the highest number ever. We had 700,000 new jobs over the last two months for African American workers; that’s the highest ever. And both — both months are the highest. We shattered last month’s record. That was a record, and we shattered it. “Hispanic employment is up by 1.5 million jobs. “Eighty percent of small businesses are now open. New business applications have doubled since late March. America’s economy is coming back much stronger than ever anticipated by most people, almost all people, because these numbers are being doubled and tripled over what [was] thought would be possible. “Had we not been attacked by this virus, this horrible virus — we were doing things and had things planned that nobody else had ever even thought of: paying off debt; building numbers, the likes of which nobody has seen. And yet, next year, we’ll be in a position where, I believe, in a certain respect, I think we’ll even be stronger than we would have been because of what we’re doing. But only that strong foundation allowed us to be up here today talking about these record-setting job numbers and other numbers that we’re producing, because America’s economy is now roaring back to life like nobody has ever seen before. “We built the greatest economy in the history of the world, and we’re now doing it again.” “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity. (Deuteronomy 28:1, 10-11; NIV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Thank the Lord for our nation’s economic turn-around! Thank the Lord for a president who honors people of all ethnicities. Thank the Lord that President Trump makes American workers’ welfare a priority. Thank the Lord that He is the one ultimately turning this economy around! Intercede for everyone you know who is still out of work. Pray for the blessing of the Lord to come to their house and that they will acknowledge the Lord in the blessings. A prayer you can pray: Lord, this is a very hopeful report from President Trump. Thank you that you are quickly turning our nation’s economy around. You have not left us to starve. Things could have been so bad! With the economy crashing so hard and fast, I am sure that the nation’s enemies were watching like vultures waiting to pick us off. However, that was not Your plan, and we are grateful! It looks like we are headed back into a recovery as fast as we turned downward. We want to thank You in Your wisdom, for giving us a businessman as a President through this season. We are sure that politicians would not have known what to do to get us back on track. President Trump was not afraid. He has tried to navigate a very sensitive balance between opening things up economically and keeping people safe in their health. There have not been easy answers, but the numbers show us such a benefit. God, keep Americans well and whole as we go back to work. Let us be careful to follow the parameters we have learned, so we can prosper in the middle of this viral attack. We know that You are ultimately the one our praise goes to! We honor You in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Today’s decree: If we continue to humbly seek the Lord, He will bless our economy.

The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave [This is an excerpt from a speech by President Ronald Reagan on Independence Day 1986. You can find the entire speech here.] “It’s recorded that shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia celebrations took place throughout the land, and many of the former Colonists — they were just starting to call themselves Americans — set off cannons and marched in fife and drum parades. “What a contrast with the sober scene that had taken place a short time earlier in Independence Hall. Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the Crown. ‘We must all hang together,’ Benjamin Franklin said, ‘or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.’ And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without his spectacles. They were brave. They stayed brave through all the bloodshed of the coming years. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity, on the proposition that every man, woman, and child had a right to a future of freedom. “For just a moment, let us listen to the words again: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ It is a hope that someday every people and every nation of the world will know the blessings of liberty. “And it’s the hope of millions all around the world. In the last few years, I’ve spoken at Westminster to the mother of Parliaments; at Versailles, where French kings and world leaders have made war and peace. I’ve been to the Vatican in Rome, the Imperial Palace in Japan, and the ancient city of Beijing. I’ve seen the beaches of Normandy and stood again with those boys of Pointe du Hoc, who long ago scaled those heights. “And I’ve seen the successors to these brave men, the young Americans in uniform all over the world, young Americans like you here tonight who man the mighty U.S.S. Kennedy and the Iowa and other ships of the line. I can assure you, you out there who are listening, that these young are like their fathers and their grandfathers, just as willing, just as brave. And we can be just as proud. But our prayer tonight is that the call for their courage will never come. And that it’s important for us, too, to be brave; not so much the bravery of the battlefield, I mean the bravery of brotherhood.” “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7; ESV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Worship the Lord today over this free nation. May we never take that freedom for granted. Thank God for the brave young men and women who fought for our initial freedom and those who have helped us remain free. Where you feel afraid, take the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God – to the root of it. God’s people are not to succumb to fear. We are to lead people out of fear and to Christ. Declare the beginning of the Declaration of Independence into America, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” A prayer you can pray: God, we worship You as Lord over America. We exalt Your holy and magnificent Name and plan. We thank You for Your eternal covenant and Your goodness, which has no end. Our nation was founded on godly principles bought with a great price. We say that we shall not throw away what has been gained at such a great cost. The blood of our founders, together with so many thousands of soldiers mix together on battlefields across the globe and cry out for the freedom they fought and died for. We say we shall not treat their sacrifice lightly. Lord, forgive any fear we feel right now. It is so human to be afraid when our life’s circumstances are so unusual. It’s hard to know how to navigate all the news reports and things we see on a daily basis. However, we have put our entire hope and trust in You. You are our savior, healer, deliverer, and the anchor for our souls. Your grace is sufficient for us, Jesus. We look to You for the way forward. We humble ourselves and pray. We decree over the nation the wise words of our founders, based on Your truth, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” We commit to treat one another with respect and understanding, in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Today’s decree: America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Kingdom Thinking for Today – Part 3 [A few weeks back I released a teaching that feels like it was notable for this new era. I started sharing this with you on July 1st.] God is making leaders think differently – if they are really embracing God’s heart. God is talking to them about apostolic centers versus building in an old, local church model. These apostolic centers will be regional in vision and mission, not primarily congregational. They will love and pastor the city and region, not just a congregation. God had said to me, “You think I have 300 churches in a city, but I only have one. I understand that you see from an earthly perspective and even see reasons for many congregations to exist, but you need to know that in My heart, they are one. I see one church in the city with many parts. The well-being of one is not greater than the well-being of the whole.” So, I felt the Lord was saying that even though your own group is prospering, if the city is not prospering, don’t feel like you are successful. If you’re the father of a family with eight kids and one or two are healthy, you don’t feel like you have a healthy house. This is the way the Lord challenged me to begin to think. He challenged me to get out of my box that allowed me to measure success based on how well I could lead and how much success it appeared we had. Pastors and leaders are always measuring themselves among themselves. Corinthians says that if you do that you are a fool. When people asked me that question after the Lord taught me differently, I would look at them and say, “Not very well. We’re divided, not accomplishing very much, not getting too many people saved.” They would usually then ask what size my church was. I would reply, “Oh, I don’t know, probably a couple of hundred thousand.” As they kept probing, they would realize I was talking about the Church in the city and my region. God started forcing me to care as much about my city and my region, even the other churches of my region, as much as my own. He then made me do things to prove it. He didn’t let me give lip service to this. He told me that He would let me know when He determined that I had grasped the concept. He even had me give my salary to other ministries, evangelists, and intercessors who were watching over the city better than we were. He had me do this until I realized that the “whole” was more important than the part. “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ… The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ The head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’ In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary (1 Corinthians 12:12, 21-22; NLT).” Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Let us humbly repent for being very self-centered about our churches, only caring about our own church or ministry. Repent for any lack of Kingdom-focus, especially if you are a pastor or other leader. Repent for any speaking against other churches and ministries in your city, judging them or speaking ill about them to others. Repent as a leader if you thought of your own church as the best one in the city, but have ignored the smaller, weaker ones. Ask yourself if you did that instead of working with them to reach your city. Tell the Lord if you are willing to have Him change your mindset to a Kingdom mindset. Get ready to see His blessing come to you. A prayer you can pray: Father, today needs to be a day of repentance. We have come to a place in time where You are going to press us to think differently. We love You and want to follow fully in Your ways, so please change our thinking in this matter. Forgive us for only caring about the church we lead or attend. We repent for not having a Kingdom-focus, but limiting our focus to what we are a part of. How self-centered we have been! Forgive us for even speaking ill of other churches. That is not the kind of thing You directed us to judge. You want Your Church to work together to advance Your Kingdom in a place. Therefore, forgive us also for going too far with denominational preference. We have looked down on others and refused to work with them because we didn’t completely agree with their “flavor”. You see one church in a city meeting in many locations. The churches are filled with so many giftings given by the Holy Spirit to advance the Kingdom in our region. How would we ever think we could do that only with the gifts represented in our one congregation? Help us to see the big ones and the small ones as critical to the calling and mission of our area. There are so many lost to be saved that they couldn’t all fit in one church if they all began to come to Jesus. We need everyone on board to evangelize, disciple, teach, train, and counsel. The Church is the answer to society’s turmoil, but we are fighting with one another! We need to stop! Change our mindset, Lord. Make us Kingdom-advancers, not just church planters. Amen. Today’s decree: My church is only as healthy as the Church of the city meeting in many places.

Kingdom Thinking for Today – Part 2 [A few weeks ago I released a teaching that feels like it was notable for this new era. I started sharing this with you on July 1st.] The Church is a part of God’s Kingdom. A kingdom is the place where a king reigns. For our King, that’s everywhere and over everything, including hell. Christ has the keys to death, hell and the grave, remember? So, the Church is not synonymous with the Kingdom. It is a part of the Kingdom. Now, listen, those of you who love the local church. The Kingdom is not a part of the church. The church is a part of His Kingdom. So, when the Lord began to give me this revelation, I needed to search out and study and meditate on the difference between the two. I found myself thinking, “What is my part, and how does the Body and the Church fit into His Kingdom plan?” That led me to realize that what He was calling me to do was not just to build my little piece of it. I needed to know how my part fit into the whole. All this searching these things out began to radically change my thinking. So, God had told me He wanted me to build an apostolic sending center. “Apostolic” is the concept of “sending”. It’s not gathering as much as sending. The local church tends to gather. Sending requires you to think bigger and more outward. Thinking apostolically causes you to think of how your small piece fits into the whole big picture. We need to get ourselves to care as much about the success of the work down the street or across town as you do about your own work. Until we do, we will not be qualified to do everything He wants us to do. Otherwise, you are not apostolic or Kingdom-minded in your thinking. You are still focused primarily on your own house. The process the Lord began to take me through was painful. We don’t always realize what the ramifications of His instructions will be to our lives or the work we are doing until it plays out. We are forced to stop thinking about what is best for our church and start thinking about what is best for the Kingdom. “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” (Matthew 4:23; ESV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Thank God for saving you and making you a Kingdom advancer! Ask God to give you a revelation between the local church and the Kingdom. Ask Him to show You how the local church is a part of the plan to advance His Kingdom in the earth. Pray for the leaders of the local churches to receive revelation of this and make the shift while we are in this season of upheaval. Things don’t have to look the same as we come back together. Bless the local churches. Pray for as many as you can think of. If you can prayer drive the churches in your area and bless them today, do so. A prayer you can pray: God, make Your Church Kingdom-advancers while we live as local church builders. We can build the local Church properly only if we keep our eyes on the rest of what You are doing. Show us how our piece is connected to other works in our community. How do they work together to bring glory to Your Name? How do we help our part advance what You want to do as a whole big picture? Lord, we need to think very differently! Give us understanding of the Kingdom. How do we live in the righteousness, peace, and joy that Jesus talks about? How does that manifest in our families and in our cities, states, and this nation? People are hurting and we can’t just focus on a few dozen, or hundred, or even thousand of our own congregants. What have we been thinking? I intercede for church leaders. Make them equippers, not sheep herders. Make them senders, not gatherers. Grace them to stir up the miraculous gifts you have bestowed in the saints, so we have an army of miracle working power, not a handful of professional ministers hanging on the edge of burnout. Revelation, come! Kingdom of God come! Will of God on the earth, be done! Finally, Lord, I pray for the local churches. Grace, grace, grace to the small and the large, the rural and the city, the formal and the unstructured, the congregants and the leadership. Grace to learn what it means preach the Gospel of the kingdom. Grace, grace, grace, Jesus! Amen. Today’s decree: The local church will begin to advance God’s Kingdom!

Kingdom Thinking for Today – Part 1 [A few weeks back I released a teaching that feels like it was notable for this new era. I’m going to be sharing that with you over the next few days.] There is great change coming to the Body of Christ and to the Church. It will be fairly radical. I don’t think all parts of the Body of Christ will move fully into the new. That is typically the case. When revival or new moves of God come, not everyone participates. God just has to deal with them based on their past revelation. He will do His best to work with them in that way. However, there is a progressive, ongoing move of the Holy Spirit to mature the Church in areas where we have not yet been matured in. That maturity will allow us to accomplish things we have not yet accomplished. What we will be accomplishing in this hour will be something we have never seen before. I have gone through a radical change in my thinking over the last 20 years. God has done incredible surgery on me to transform my thinking, and I still have much to learn. As long as we keep moving forward, being flexible and willing to change, He can continue the process and move us from glory to glory and strength to strength. The Bible says, “The path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter.” We are always supposed to be moving forward into new ways of thinking and understanding Kingdom principles. So, let me share a few thoughts with you about what’s changing. What is God thinking and doing now? What will the evolving Church/Body of Christ look like in the coming days? We are beginning to think about extending Kingdom rule in the earth, not just building the local church. It’s not bad that we didn’t think like this before. We only had a “local church” grid at the time. God had us pastoring and building up His Church, teaching the Body who they are in Christ. Personally, I always struggled with being a pastor. I felt like I was being forced to be something that I’m not. I’m not really a pastor. I’m not a nurturer or a shepherd in the sense of caring for the needs of the sheep. That is a very important gift in the Church, but it isn’t who I am. I needed to be looking at the big picture and we didn’t have a grid for that yet. So, after a few years of “pastoring”, God began to give me revelation on apostolic centers. He gave it to me in a trance, and it was the first time I had ever heard the term. A lot of people are using that phrase now. What the Lord had specifically said to me was, “I didn’t call you here to build a local church.” That was radical to me. I didn’t know what to do with that statement, because that’s what I was doing. So, I said to Him, “Well, then what am I doing here?” He said, “I called you here to build an apostolic center of Kingdom ministry.” I didn’t have much of a paradigm to put that through. I think I did know the difference between the Kingdom of God and the local church, but it was all kind of tangled up and thrown in together in my mind. What I did realize when He said that, though, is that I had to start thinking “Kingdom”, not “my little part of the Kingdom.” “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9; NKJV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Put your hands on your head, over your mind, and say, “Lord, I give You my mind, my grid, my way of thinking about Kingdom things. Manifest Your will in my mind. By the power of the Holy Spirit, align my thinking with Yours in the Name of Jesus.” If you know you are often resistant to new ways of thinking or seeing, repent. God knows this about you, but it’s not time to be stubborn and set in your old ways. Tell Him, “Adjust my ways of thinking. I want to move into the new!” Say, “Your thoughts are not my thoughts, nor are my ways Your ways, Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are Your ways higher than my ways, and Your thoughts than my thoughts. Grant me revelation of what You are saying and doing now and as we move into the new.” Declare, “The path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter. I want to be on that path with You, Lord!” A prayer you can pray: Lord, I can see that we are in a season of Kingdom advancement. You have been gently challenging the Body of Christ to think about Kingdom matters, but now it is imperative that we do. Therefore, Lord, I say to You, “I give You my mind, my grid, my way of thinking about Kingdom things.” Forgive me where I have resisted You and wanted things to stay the same. Forgive me for demanding my local church pastor stays in that model, if You were trying to make us more Kingdom-focused. Forgive me for wanting my apostolic leader to pastor me. I wouldn’t want to be limited like that. Why have I been doing that to others around me! It is time to change! Manifest Your will in my mind. By the power of the Holy Spirit, align my thinking with Yours in the Name of Jesus. Adjust my ways of thinking. I want to move into the new! Your thoughts are not my thoughts, nor are my ways Your ways, Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are Your ways higher than my ways, and Your thoughts than my thoughts. Grant me revelation of what You are saying and doing now and as we move into the new. The path of the righteous gets brighter and brighter. I want to be on that path with You, dear Jesus. Amen. Today’s decree: God is adjusting the Church’s thinking so we can move into the new!

The Enemy Cannot Stop the Church [Joni Michele Jackson is the daughter of Bishop Harry Jackson, known for his ministry of racial reconciliation. Michele is one of the three lead-pastors at Hope Christian Church in Baltimore, MD. Last Thursday, she shared with Cindy Jacobs the perspective their team has taken to get their congregation through these unusual days.] “When this began we sought the Lord together and we decided that we were going to be people of the Word, people of His Power, and people of His Presence. So, like other places, Maryland closed down because of the coronavirus. People have been able to exercise their first amendment rights to protest against the racial injustices they have had or are experiencing. At the same time, we know that we are called to be an apostolic sending place of Deborahs, Esthers, Josephs and Daniels. So, we are doing what a multicultural set of believing people do who have encountered systematic racism, who have even come from foreign nations where they may have been oppressed, who have been set free and are being set free by the power of the Gospel. “Let me share a couple of scriptures with you. One is from Romans 12:3-6. It talks about the privilege we have to be a part of the equipping center of the Church. The Lord has granted us special functions and special gifts, special assignments, special graces and special anointings. While the churches have been closed, we, the Church, the people of God, have never been closed. This is our finest hour. “We could get on board with many messages right now. There are so many voices and so many faces, but the One that is eternal, the One that will never fail, the One that will accomplish what it was sent to do is the Word of God. So, we have determined we will be people of the Word, people of His Power, and people of His Presence. We still cannot meet in our facility until at least mid-July, but this has not stopped us from conducting Bible studies and honoring His Word among us. “The other scripture I want to share is Ephesians chapter 4:11-15. It talks here about the gifts—apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists. These have the responsibility to equip and build up the Church, the Body of Christ. A building has nothing to do with our assignment and our mandate. The anointing of God is able to reach people across distances. People need food and shelter and jobs. They need to see hope and a future for themselves. They need to see their gifts activated. People need to see Jesus. There are people in America that have never heard the Gospel. So, I think that it is strategic that the Lord would allow what the enemy meant to divide us, with coronavirus and all these other things, would be what would cause people to begin to search and find His message being ministered through the airwaves by true anointed leaders God has raised up for such a time as this.” “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13; NIV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Thank the Lord for the power of HIs Holy Spirit, which is not bound by our church buildings. Thank Him for the shutdowns, because He is using this season for His purposes. He is maturing His Church and prepping them for the work of service. Thank God that He is filling His people with the Word, His Presence, and His Power. Intercede for those equipping gifts He has called forth for such a time as this. Pray for those Esthers, Daniels, Deborahs, and Josephs. Pray for the Peters, Pauls, Timothys, and Marys. Pray everyone gets in their places and does their part. Ask the Lord what you need to be focussed on right now. Get ready! That harvest is coming in! A prayer you can pray: Father, thank You that Your Holy-Spirit-filled-Church is not bound by walls or buildings. We are finding this out in these COVID days. We have a mandate to share the Gospel with the lost, and You are drawing them to us by Your Holy Spirit. As we have had to get online, You are causing searching ones to find us. We can’t go seek them out, and they may never have walked into our buildings. However, in the privacy of their own homes and at a time convenient for them, they are finding You in our messages of encouragement to the Church. Lord, don’t let the Church forget our mandate as we navigate these rough and choppy times. You tell us in Ephesian 4:11-15, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Keep us equipping the saints, so that when we come through this, we will be stronger, filled with faith and sold out to You. We can hardly wait to see what the Ekklesia looks like on the other side of this. Thank You, Jesus. Amen. Today’s decree: God is quietly equipping the Church in America to be people of the Word, people of His Power, and people of His Presence.

The Women’s Voices are Being Heard! [Allan Parker is the President of the Justice Foundation. He is a constitutional attorney who has fought to overturn Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton. He and The Justice Foundation have founded The Moral Outcry, which seeks to petition the U. S. Supreme Court to reverse its abortion cases. I wanted to be sure all of you saw his latest request for us to press in and pray for a favorable result on a case at the U. S. supreme Court due out any day.] “Throughout our representation in the Louisiana abortion case, we have emphasized the message: ‘It’s time for the women’s voices to be heard!’ The whole pro-life movement took this approach in defending the Louisiana abortion case. It is the third major argument in The Moral Outcry Petition. The Louisianna case would ensure that doctors have admitting privileges with a hospital near their clinic, so that the life of a woman harmed by an abortion gone wrong might be saved. “Today, the voices of two of the women injured by the abortion industry were heard in Townhall.com. The voices of Cynthia Collins, Global Advisor to Operation Outcry, and Alveda King, in a beautiful OP-ED in the well-respected Townhall.com online forum, explain in great depth and eloquence why the abortion industry should not be allowed to speak for women. They also argue why the Safe Haven laws are a better alternative for women than abortion. Click here to read and please share the amazing Townhall article. The voices of the women of Operation Outcry were filed before the Supreme Court with 4,660 legally admissible, written testimonies of women injured by abortion. “We are still waiting for the Supreme Court to make its decision in the Louisiana case. It is already unusual in that the time on the Court’s calendar for issuing Opinions expired this past Monday. But in another ‘amazing, unusual and extraordinary’ occurrence, the pandemic has delayed the Court’s work. They still have many cases, including Louisiana’s Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, to release. “Will the abortion industry be allowed to continue to speak for women without having any actual women clients? “I believe a victory is coming, but please keep praying for the Court until the decision is released publicly, probably this week or next. It could be even later because of delays due to the ‘overwhelming scourge’ of coronavirus.” “Therefore, listen to this message from the Lord, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem. You boast, ‘We have struck a bargain to cheat death and have made a deal to dodge the grave. The coming destruction can never touch us, for we have built a strong refuge made of lies and deception.’ Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I will cancel the bargain you made to cheat death, and I will overturn your deal to dodge the grave. When the terrible enemy sweeps through, you will be trampled into the ground.’” (Isaiah 28:14-15, 16a, and 18; NLT) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer (Allan Parker): Read Isaiah 28:14-22. Allan is asking that we pray for the ending of abortion in America as we read through it. Thank the Lord for those fighting on the front lines for the ending of aboriton in this nation. Pray for Allan Parker, Cynthia Collins, Alveda King, and Melinda Thybault. (Melinda is the writer of The Moral Outcry Petition.) Thank the Lord that the voices of women who have been harmed by having abortions are finally being heard. Ask God for favor with the U. S. Supreme Court justices as they finalize their decisions on this case. Intercede for the ending of abortion in America. A prayer you can pray: God, abortion in America must end. It is a travesty that should never have been made law. We need the exact right case at the exact right time to come before the nine Supreme Court justices, so they can reverse this accursed thing. Forgive us that it has taken 50 years and over 60 million babies lost to get to today. That doesn’t even include the countless women who have been harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally by this barbaric practice. God, please intervene! In Isaiah 28 mere men decided they could outwit You and have their way. Well, making a pact with the devil always leads to bondage, not freedom, and it is always eventually overturned by You! So, we are asking that this be that time, Lord! Hear our cry! We intercede for Allan Parker, Cynthia Collins, Alveda King, Melinda Thybault, and so many others that are fighting to overturn abortion through the highest court in our land. It began there and now it must end in a spiritual showdown there. Let the voices of the women be heard and end abortion in America! We cry out for this verdict in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Life-Giving One! Amen. Today’s decree: Let the voices of godly women rise up and end abortion in America! Learn more about Allan Parker and The Justice Foundation here.

Stopping Witchcraft Against America – Part 3 [My brother, Tim Sheets, has been teaching his church about spiritual warfare. I agree that it is time for us to sharpen our skills in this area. We continue our series today from that teaching.] “The Holy Spirit is talking to the whole nation about the attack of Jezebel. He is telling us that the attack of witchcraft is rising. Be on alert. “We know that one of the ways demons enter and work is through the ear gate. The ear is often the door. The demonic seeks whom they can devour looking for a receptive ear. Once in they can cause havoc—and it’s not innocent. If you don’t immediately deal with what you are ‘hearing’ and if you permit that spirit entry, it will cause havoc in every area of your life. Remember, its goal is to destroy. This spirit is trying to destroy our whole nation right now. “Throughout history, the Church has had to deal with demonic attacks of witchcraft. This is not a popular thing, so the Church has more and more put its head in the sand and ignored it. However, the Bible tells us we are not to be ignorant of satan’s tactics. We are not to pretend that Hell isn’t real, that spiritual warfare isn’t real, and that the enemy hates us isn’t real. We are not to fear all this. In fact, I don’t know why we would fear it, because we have been given authority. We have the authority to bind it. We have authority to be free of it, cleanse it away, and cast it out. We can stop it from having any kind of activity in our lives. However, you cannot nap your way through it. It’s not just going to go away. You have to be alert for it and deal with it when you discern it. “The early apostles and the early Church had to deal with this. They had to deal with it in individuals’ lives, in the Church’s life, and in the nation. The Church had to guard against it. It can cause disunity, hinder prayer, and stop the forward momentum of Kingdom advancement in the earth. The Church is to keep the atmosphere uncontaminated from any witchcraft or demon influence. The Lord said to be on guard and watch for that.” “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8; KJV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Think about what you are listening to each day. Is the enemy gaining a foothold in your life through your ear gates? Cleanse them with worship. Read the Word of God aloud. Speak it out over yourself, your family, the Church, and this nation. Repent of any fear of lack of control, lack of provision, or any other loss. Those are Jezebel tactics against you. Declare, “Jezebel has been uncovered and will now be judged by the Church of Jesus Christ. I remove you and your influence from my life and from the areas God has given me authority in.” Pray over your family, church, workplace, city, state, and nation. Be confident and make your decrees! A prayer you can pray: Father, I thank You for exposing Jezebel and her ways in my life today. As I read the truth stated here, I can see better what is happening. Break the effects of witchcraft off of me as I repent. I listened to the enemy go on and on about terrible things happening. So, I have allowed fear to enter through my ears and affect my thinking, and ultimately affect my actions. I have been spiraling downward recently. But, today I get up! I shake it off! My eyes are opened to what’s happening. Forgive me my fear, doubt and unbelief. I will praise and proclaim Your goodness. I will declare Your Word and remind myself of Your love and care for me. I know You can take better care of my family than I can. You can empower Your church to get up and fight again. You can deliver America from the bondage of witchcraft. And You are! Jezebel has been uncovered and will now be judged by the Church of Jesus Christ. I remove you and your influence from my life and from the areas God has given me authority in. I declare freedom from your enticements and freedom from your lies over my life and over my nation! Thank You, Jesus! Let Truth prevail and overcome in Jesus’ name! Amen. Today’s decree: The Church has authority to deal with witchcraft in this nation!

Stopping Witchcraft Against America – Part 2 [My brother, Tim Sheets, has been teaching his church about spiritual warfare. I agree that it is time for us to sharpen our skills in this area. We continue our series today from that teaching.] “God’s grace is a conquering grace. It is more than sufficient for us. Paul wrote those words. He was under spiritual attack often and therefore had to learn to bind hell’s attack. He had to learn to bind witchcraft and lying spirits. He had to learn to deal with Jezebel. And, he did! He called it ‘the good fight of faith.’ We, too, must learn to fight the good fight of faith. “Our King Jesus, the Head of the Church, the Lord of Glory, says, ‘Bind Jezebel and her witchcraft from any workings in your church. Bind it from influencing you in your individual lives and in the corporate life of My Church, because that will hinder you from expanding My Kingdom.’ ‘In fact,’ He says, ‘I will issue a complaint against you if you allow Jezebel to lead My people astray.’ “The Church, of course, is Christ’s Body. So, it must be important if the Head of the Church addresses it and says, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t give it place. Don’t put up with any witchcraft going on among you.’ So, we see that judgement must begin at the house of the Lord. We need to inspect ourselves and the house of God and be sure we are not tolerating Jezebel in any way, shape, or form. We need to pray against witchcraft and we need to keep God’s house pure. “If we are going to deal with witchcraft in the nation, which He has clearly said to do, then we must lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting. There cannot be a complaint against us. If we tolerate Jezebel in our individual or corporate lives, then our authority gets hindered and our prayers can be hindered. I have been in hundreds of churches over 40 years and spoken to hundreds of church leaders. I have seen the Jezebel spirit destroy churches. I have seen the destruction of churches and leaders. I’ve seen the destruction of pastors’ homes. We have had to deal with it in our own home church. We don’t focus on it, but it is a part of demonic tactics, especially when there are apostles and prophets leading a place. So, you stay aware and deal with it when it manifests. Remember this, ‘Don’t listen to Jezebel, because it brings destruction. It opens the door to demon activity. It opens the door to witchcraft.’” “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21; NIV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Examine yourself today. Invite the Holy Spirit to come and highlight anything in your life that’s out of order, needs adjusted, corrected, removed, repented of, delivered of, etc. Let Him lovingly clean you up! Intercede for family members you know are affected by Jezebel’s witchcraft on either the receiving end or the oppressing end. Intercede for your pastor and your church and its leadership. Ask the Lord to uncover and remove any of these demonic influences. Ask Him to show you if your city, county, or state government has a witchcraft or Jezebel spirit at work in and through it. War for freedom for that realm of influence. Intercede for the United States of America. Identificationally repent on behalf of her sins, as Daniel did in Daniel 9. Ask the Lord for His mercy and to remember His covenant with us. Pray for full exposure of the witchcraft operating against this nation, as well as anywhere we are participating in such things against our own people or other nations. A prayer you can pray: Father, we feel a deep anointing of humility and grace upon us as we come before You today. Today is not a day of rejoicing before You. Today is a day of humility. We and our nation have sinned against You. We will begin with ourselves. We cannot fight against satan and his tactics, if we are participating in his sinful tactics. We do not want to operate in witchcraft in any way, shape, or demonic form. We are running to Your throne of grace today to find grace to help in this time of need. Cleanse us, Lord, from all unrighteousness. Don’t hold anything back in Your examination of us. Whatever needs to go, needs to go. Make us willing to repent and be changed even more into the image of Your Son, Jesus. Having become cleansed and free, we ask You to move in the lives of our families. Set our families free from Jezebel’s influence. Put our homes in order. We pray further for our churches. Protect our pastors and other leaders. Holy Spirit, convict them of any sin and draw them to repentance, as well. Clean up our congregation, so our leaders can help us intercede together with prayers unhindered in our corporate fight for our cities, states, and nation. It is not time to shrink back, but to press in all together! We have battles to be fought and won. We cannot tolerate Jezebel in our land. Cleanse our national government from the president on down. We must be a united front against Jezebel and her cohorts. We want to fulfill our side of the covenant You made with this nation to be a light to the lost in every place, and to share the Gospel from these shores. We want to remain supportive of Israel, a land that You love. Deliver, God, deliver us by Your mercy and Your grace in Jesus’ Name. Amen. Today’s decree: Overcoming Jezebel will establish the Kingdom of God in our nation!

Stopping Witchcraft Against America – Part 1 [My brother, Tim Sheets, has been teaching his church about spiritual warfare. I agree that it is time for us to sharpen our skills in this area. We’ll start a series today from that teaching.] “Witchcraft is rising in this nation. We saw that again this week in the news. It’s not something that we fear, but we also cannot be passive about it. We must be engaged as watchmen. The Holy Spirit has interrupted services across the nation in the last couple of weeks and has said, ‘Pay attention to this and deal with it.’ “I believe that God raised up President Trump at this specific time to uncover some things. He wanted to expose the Deep State. He needed someone that could uncover corruption, and an anti-Christ and anti-Church spirit, as well. That spirit has been trying to suffocate and silence the Church for many years. It has been trying to rewrite covenant history in America, and to rewrite or reinterpret laws. A Jezebel spirit, together with her cohorts, are behind this. The Church must engage and work together with the Holy Spirit to bind Jezebel in America. Jezebel, the spirit of divination, the python spirit, Leviathan, and Absalom are all working together against us right now. “When there is a fierce battle occurring in a nation the atmosphere becomes contentious. That is happening right now in the United States, in some places more than others. Hell’s kingdom begins to get empowered to be aggressive against and hinder God’s people. The Apostle Paul talks about this hindering in 1 Thessalonians. He explains that he had to learn to overcome it. In Ephesians 6, Paul talks about the armor of God and how to protect ourselves from the attacks of the enemy. Then, in 2 Corinthians 10:4, he tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of every stronghold. He further reminds us in Romans 8 that God loves us with an unconditional love and He has, and will, fight for us as we come to Him. “Paul also tells us that spiritual battles are real. There is tribulation and distress, persecution, trouble, hard times, hatred, bullying, threats, and back-stabbing. God’s love in contrast to that is constant. His mercy is never failing and follows us all through our days on the earth. His grace is sufficient for us and He has made us more than a conqueror. Knowing all of that, and resting securely in His love for us, we must learn to bind hell’s attacks.” “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation 2:18-20; NIV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Consider all the word curses coming against us on a daily basis through news reports. Consider the power of the Word of God against them. Arm yourself with a few key scriptures and get ready! Proclaim those scriptures now, as a sword of the Spirit against these demonic Jezebel, Leviathan, and witchcraft-level spirits. Call for God to arise with a two-edged sword in His mouth! Call for the prophets to arise and proclaim His Word! Call for the army of God to arise and speak His Word against God’s spiritual enemies! Repent when you have complained and used only your own earthly, human words to address some of the issues you see. Fear and complaining get us nowhere, Church! Declare, “God, expose, expose, expose evil demonic plans and strategies! Rip the covers off of them and give us victory over them! We command them to cease!” A prayer you can pray: Father, I thank You that Your Word declares that the truth sets us free. There are so many word curses blasting through the airwaves right now. There is so much cursing this nation with demonic words. Add our voices to those who are issuing a cry before You against the prophets of Baal; against the demon prophets. Reverse the word curses. Let them turn back and destroy the attack they planned. We bind those curses in the Name of Jesus. We bind them off of individual lives, off our churches, and off this nation. We do not permit them to alight. We pray that the strategies of hell would be exposed. Expose those princes of darkness, those spirits of darkness in the land that want to come against people’s lives, their children’s lives, against churches and this nation. Expose their strategies! Expose them! Tear the covers off! We are those who are on alert. We halt the plague of strategies against the people of God, against His heirs, our homes, and our businesses. We command the attacks against this nation to cease. You have taken enough from us, satan. Your strategies have been found out and we will pray to stop You and your cohorts in their tracks. God is our Deliverer and Him only shall we fear in Jesus’ Name! Amen. Today’s decree: Jezebel will no longer rule America. She will be thrown down!

Violent Praise is Building the House of the Lord [Wanda Alger shared the following Word with Intercessors for America on March 17, 2020. She updated it June 20th. Again, it is so timely for today.] “On Friday, March 13, I woke up with the word, ‘RIOT FOR THE LORD!’ The word struck me as extreme and I hesitated to embrace it until I looked up the word ‘riot.’ Though commonly understood as a ‘violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd,’ the Lord was highlighting another usage. A riot is also ‘an impressively large or varied display of something.’ In other words, it is the intense passion and conviction of a group of people that ultimately deems something a ‘riot’. “In Matthew 11:12 (ESV), Jesus stated that ‘…the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence (has been coming violently), and the violent take it by force.’ In the context of the coronavirus threat, I believe the Lord is calling the Church to rise up in this hour with a ‘VIOLENT FAITH’ that stops the enemy in his tracks. We are seeing the physical riots around us–violent, yes. ‘Displays of something’–chaos, anarchy, lawlessness, violence. The counterfeit. What does ‘violent faith’ look like? The ‘disturbance’ we are creating through our passionate praise and our faith-backed prayers has power to destroy the works of the devil! “This past Sunday in our own small congregation, there arose a passionate zeal of the Lord in our worship that stirred our faith and confidence in God’s overriding purposes. A righteous indignation grew as we beheld His glory and confronted this curse which seeks a foothold in our nation. I believe this is what believers must continue to do if we are to see the tide turn. Regardless of our proximity to one another in the natural, our combined faith in God and oneness of heart and mind will be our primary vaccine against this demonic disease and our greatest weapon in nullifying its effects. “The Lord is saying, ‘It is the Mountain of the House of the Lord that I am establishing in this hour! It is MY House that is being built up in the inner courts of your homes and dwellings. Seize this opportunity and use it to build up your faith, your worship, and your communion in the Spirit. For out of it, I am clothing My people in garments of praise and presence and restoring the true Fear of the Lord that will displace every other fear. Praise Me in the stripping, for that which has been covering you in comfort and convenience must be laid aside to reveal an inner WELLSPRING of LIFE that earth can never produce but heaven will never deny.’” “And he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.’” (Revelation 14:7; ESV) Give Him 15 minutes in prayer: Worship God with passion and power and expect His glory to fill the atmosphere where you are. Fill your home. Fill your property. Fill your business if you’re a business owner. Fill your classroom if you’re a teacher. Fill your church or ministry building if you’re a ministry leader. Fill the streets of your neighborhood, your city centers, and the places you go daily. Take the territory! Fill the atmosphere with the presence of the Lord! See every clap, every stomp, every beat on a drum or a tambourine as a brick being laid on the foundation of His Name. This is building, establishing, the “house” of the Lord in this nation. See the earthly violence and rioting pushed back to make way for God’s presence in your realm of authority! A prayer you can pray: Father, call Your Church to powerful passionate, worship warfare. We must meet the enemy in a place of riotous worship and praise! We will fear You  and we will give You glory, because the hour of Your judgment has come. We will worship You who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. We proclaim Your own Word from Psalm 149: “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful. O Israel, rejoice in your Maker. O people of Jerusalem, exult in your King. Praise his name with dancing, accompanied by tambourine and harp. For the Lord delights in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them. Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds. Let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands—to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains, to execute the judgment written against them. This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the Lord!” Today’s decree: We will establish the House of the Lord in the earth through passionate, even violent, worship!