January 23 Prayer Initiative
Gwen Shaw
[Posted from Upstream Ministries]
Gwen Shaw has provided the following in response to the January 23 prayer initiative. Many of you have asked what happened on January 23 – as far as we know nothing happened. Was the planned destruction averted by prayer? Are specific dates generally given in prophetic words? Sister Gwen has answered all of these.
Also from her weekly newsletter is a message from The House of Peace in Jerusalem with their view of the results of the Palestinian elections. This is a time like no other that we need to be praying for the peace of Israel.
Blessings, Dana on behalf of the Watchman Network
Beloved Intercessors,
“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:6-8).
What a mighty wall of intercessory prayer the Holy Spirit raised up concerning January 23! It was very encouraging to receive all your positive reactions. I can see that God does have a mighty army of intercessors who are ready to fall on their faces in great and powerful intercession that the cities of America could be saved from destruction. God heard in the heavens and He answered! It is amazing to hear from many of you how God spoke to you concerning the same warning of imminent danger.
END-TIME HANDMAIDEN HAS TWO PROPHETIC DREAMS: Pamela White is the sister who had a dream from the Lord that she was called by Him to come and take care of me after my recent accident. She came immediately. She is an intercessor. Several days before she heard about the prophecy in last weeks prayer letter, she was given two dreams from the Lord:
1. In the first dream she and I were taken up into the Intercessory Throne Room in Heaven. We looked down on the earth and there were SIX GREAT FIRES BURNING ON THE EARTH. In the dream I opened up my Bible and quoted three Scriptures, I put three rings over her head and said to her, “Now, you go, tell the people!”
2. In the second dream, which the Lord gave her on the night of the 22nd, Pamela
told me on the phone, “A large group of women were praying in a big hotel which was situated on the East Coast right by the sea; we were interceding with a great burden on our hearts. A brown, hairy, spider (like a tarantula) with a fearful human face, came out into the center of the room. We got up and tried to trample it, with our feet, and it disappeared. So we did not know if we killed it, or it disappeared. We looked for it, but couldn't find it. A man (who seemed to be in charge) came to the door. He was wondering how we got rid of the spider. He said, “Ma'am, if you had gotten bit by that spider you would have died instantly. They are very poisonous around here. How did you kill it?” We answered, “With our feet! But we think it got away.”
I believe that this dream is a sign from the Lord that the intercessors have “trampled under foot” the evil plans of Satan for the time being. But that evil was only averted for now, and that it shall arise again. WE MUST NOT LET DOWN OUR GUARD! We must continue to watch for “spiders” and pray.
WE APPRECIATE ALL YOU FAITHFUL, DISCERNING INTERCESSORS who grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. Prayer is never in vain! I have prayed, travailed, and fasted for days for the salvation of souls who died, in the end, without leaving any positive witness of having been changed or born again. I went to the Lord and asked Him, “Were all those prayers, those tears, those days and weeks of fasting in vain?” He answered me, “Daughter, nothing that is done for Me and for souls is wasted. I use everything you give Me.”
GOD IS NOT AFRAID OF SETTING DATES: Only Eternity will reveal the mystery of January 23, 2006. We did what we could out of love, and not to create a sensational panic among God's people. So far, we have only received two letters questioning why we did what we did. To them I would like to ask, “Why did God say, “In forty days Nineveh will be smashed?” (Message Bible) It didn't happen! Was Jonah a false prophet? Or is God a liar? Or IS it possible for prayer to destroy the works of the devil who came to kill, steal and destroy?
Some people say they are afraid of setting dates! God isn't! All through Scripture He set dates.
Genesis 7:4 “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”
Genesis 15:13 “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years:” 16 “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
Genesis 18:10 “I'm coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son.” (p.p. 21:1) (Message Bible)
Genesis 40:13 “In three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place.” 19 “In three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee and hang thee on a tree...”
Genesis 41:26-27 “The seven good kine (cows) are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years;...And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.”
Genesis 45:6 “For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.”
Numbers 14:33 “And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.”
Jeremiah 25:11 “And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
THERE IS ONE DATE NO ONE DARES TO PREDICT: We do not have time nor space to quote the “date-setters” in the Bible; suffice it to say, Daniel, Apostle John in the book of Revelation, and Jesus gave dates. The ONLY DATE WE ARE NOT ALLOWED, NOR ABLE, TO SET IS THE DATE OF THE COMING OF THE LORD.
Matthew 24:30-31 “...they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other...” 36 “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.”
However, Apostle Paul taught the Thessalonians, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5)
Keep looking up. Love and Blessings, Sister Gwen & Papa Jim