This morning when I woke up, I began to pray, as is my habit. The Holy
Spirit came on me in an unusual way, with a lot of intensity. This sometimes
happens when I'm fasting and praying (as I was this AM) and I believe that
intensity is an anointing for intercession.
Anyhow, I was suddenly reminded of the many prayer requests I've seen
lately of strong Christians who are terminally ill... the pastor who has
his aorta cut during surgery, the young mother of 5 who's been told she
will die of cancer before year end, and on and on. As memories of these
prayer requests (read on the internet) came over me, I became angry in
my spirit.. not angry at God, but angry at Satan who is the one who came
to kill and to destroy. Then I started thinking of some of my friends who've
died recently of cancer (a terrible way to deteriorate and finally die),
or a friend who was murdered shortly after Christmas last year and of other
strong Christian friends who've died in the last year or two, many of them
from "incurable" and horrible diseases.
Suddenly, I found myself immersed in a rather bold and blatant prayer
towards God...I don't normally talk to Him this way. But I found myself
crying out,
"Lord, You are supposed to be the God of all Power! You Yourself have
said that You are the Lord our God who heals us. We are not seeing Your
healing power in the Church, Lord! Christians are dying of diseases that
You should be able to heal. Lord, either You can't heal us (which I don't
believe) or You won't heal us for some reason or another. If You are a
loving and powerful God, which You are, then why won't You heal us?! God,
we should not be dying of cancer... we should be laying down our lives
as martyrs! We should not be withering away in sickness and becoming weak.
We should be strong in body and spirit and we should choose to lay down
our lives for You as You ask us to because we bear Your name and will not
renounce it! God, I challenge You to please come and bring Your healing
power to Your church .. let the world see that You are a God of all power
and that You can and do heal Your children! Release Your healing power
among us in great measure!"
Then, after the intensity lifted (and His peace settled on me), I thought
about this unusual prayer. I could be mistaken, but I believe this was
a spirit-led prayer. So I asked Him about the prayer. He said that for
a while, it "need be" that Christians die from sickness. But the time is
soon coming when He will release His live-giving healing into His body
(the Church). It will become normative to see God heal previously fatal
diseases as His people pray. But along with that will come religious persecution,
where He will be calling on some of His own to lay down their lives for
His name's sake. Along those same lines, I felt the Lord was saying that
He is indeed going to be sending great revival, but that along with that
revival will come persecution.. as it did with the early Church.
I'm not entirely sure why I'm sharing this with you... I know the people
on this list are fasting and praying for revival, and I truly believe God
will bring that revival. I guess I am starting to see some of what will
accompany that revival and I wanted to share it with you so you won't be
unprepared or caught off guard.
Lord, please send Your healing power to the Church and please send
a great revival, a harvest that will bring in the lost. If persecution
need come with this, then make us so strong in Your Spirit that we can
walk through it in a way that glorifies Your name!
Amen.
Teresa
Teresa Seputis
(TeresaS@xc.org)
WWW site: http://users.ccnet.com/~teresa
May the Lord God Almighty Bless and Keep You in His Perfect Will!