The global landscape is becoming more problematic, so how do you pray for a world in crisis? Pete and Pippa Gardner joined us for our Global Prayer Day last Saturday to share from their book on the same topic. Here’s a summary of the prayer day.
There is never more of a time to pray for the world than right now! As we look with our natural eyes, the world is in crisis… But God! World Prayer Centre invited Pete and Pippa Gardner, authors of the book ‘Praying for a world in crisis’ to join us for a Global Prayer Day last Saturday. It was a powerful time of them sharing from their experiences on a global level, which inspired them to write the book.
We started the day making a spiritual declaration and Pete and Pip shared, inspiring us to continue to pray until the Lord returns. That will be the dramatic day of this age, when Jesus will press the reset button and it will be a pivot point and a transition from this temporary age to eternity.
Fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20) is key in these last days. The only reason why the world continues in crisis is because the Great Commission has not yet been completed. The devil ferments crisis to delay its fulfilment. It is therefore the most strategic directive for the church and therefore the sharp end of all spiritual warfare.
When Kenneth Bae was arrested in North Korea – he was told that his arrest was because he was trying to overthrow the government. When he asked his accusers how they thought he was attempting that, the North Korean prosecutor said “through worship and prayer. Prayer is a hostile act because it calls into question everything our system is based upon.”
Bae comments, “North Korean communists understand that if they allow the message of Jesus to spread, their government will collapse, along with every aspect of their society.” “They know how powerful faith in Jesus is, and it scares them to death.”
Here are five strategic prayer points shared:
- Praying for the church worldwide.
- Praying for the persecuted church.
- Praying for unreached peoples.
- Praying against geopolitical interference.
- Praying for the Middle East, Israel and the Jewish people.
We prayed for unreached people groups, using cards created using information from the Joshua project website which we use for our Tuesday unreached people prayers on social media. We prayed for these groups to hear the gospel and find Jesus.
Imagine how this could be accelerated if all Christians adopted an unreached people group in prayer. The Lord can enlarge our hearts to receive those we have no connection to or familiarity with as if they were our family. There are over 7,000 unreached peoples remaining yet raising such a prayer army on their behalf could bring a significant surge towards the Great Commission fulfilment!
We also looked at the current geo-political situation and the need to pray for world leaders, particularly President Trump, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin. Also, to pray for their gatherings – NATO global summit in The Hague, Netherlands, 24 – 25 June and the BRICS global summit (many nations not part of NATO) meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 6-7th July. We pray for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done.
Here are prayer points to pray for world leaders:
- Push back the powers for darkness from their minds. Haggai 2:20-22 / 1 John 5:19
2. Govern over the advice of their advisers. 1 Kings 22:19-23
3. Interject your purposes into their hearts. Rev 17:17
4. Bring the authority of your throne upon their thrones. Exodus 12:12
There is also a real need for President Trump, whose decisions can affect many around the globe. Pray for:
- Spiritual turbulence around his life and decision making
- Enemy taking advantage of vulnerabilities in his personality and character.
- Enemy wanting to seduce him to become a strong man like Putin and Xi Jinping (Lavish reception in Middle East)
- Enemy wanting to bring about a premature withdrawal of US support for Israel.
- Pray for the Lord to call him to himself and relinquish his office for his purposes.
- Pray for the Lord’s protection over his mind.
- Pray for the Lord’s purpose to work through him regarding Iran / Gaza / Israel / Russian Ukraine / Taiwan.
After lunch, we continued to hear encouraging stories from around the world shared by Ian Cole and we prayed into revival, like the rise of Christianity in Indonesia, India and China.
The world needs our prayers like never before. These are serious times, but Jesus is coming back soon, and we are on the winning side. Let’s continue to watch and pray for our world leaders and situations as they occur.
Don’t stop praying! Join our regular Wednesday morning prayer Zoom from 9.30 -10.30am – the Revival prayer hour. Join our mailing list to get Zoom details.
Source: Notes from Pete and Pippa Gardner’s slides.
