Dear friends,
Thank you for your faithfulness over the last several weeks. We are at such a critical time in our nation and while it seems very difficult, it’s also exciting to be a part of this season in the history of the Church.
Last week, in “Grace to Die” Part C, Nita spoke about the cleansing God is doing in the heart of man today. He does His work in His Church and while it is a difficult process, the end result will be a powerful move of God. God cannot bring forth revival until He purifies His Church. The world looks at the condition of the Church today and sees no difference between them and us walks away feeling no need to give up sleeping in on Sunday mornings in order to have what we have. When God is done purifying the Church, we will be a sweet fragrance unto Him that will drift down unto the world beckoning them to come in and worship God along with us.
We all know that it is not easy having our cobwebs stirred up and swept out, but in the end, the Light will enter and fill every corner of our hearts, penetrating us to our very core in order to clean out of us that which is not of God. He has to clean us up before He can clean up the world because when Revival falls, the Church will not be able to contain the souls that will rush our doors. When that happens, if our hearts have not been adequately prepared, then we will not be able to properly disciple these young souls. As you read this final entry in “Grace to Die”, ask the Lord: “What is in me that you no longer want here?” and then beg Him to remove it from your life so that you can go on in Him in ways you never could have imagined.
Next week we will begin our teaching on “Union”, let’s get our hearts prepared!
In Him,
Ricci
GRACE TO DIE
Part D
By
Nita Johnson
Seattle
Let's believe God for revival. Let's believe God that He is going to send His Kingdom into the earth and produce in the Church what His lofty heart wants to produce. If there is any way you can come to the services to pray or pray along with us via the web streaming or the online intercessor's vault, come and pray. Tell your friends about it. Don and Lin Warner are heading our Joel's Army prayer ministry. By the help of the Holy Spirit, we are building an army of intercessors across this nation. Intercessors are calling us from other nations now who want to be a part, either of this army, or to set up and establish the same thing in their own country. This is wonderful, because now we have foreigners praying for America. We have a Church in Shanghai that prays with us. Whenever they find out that we are praying, they call their whole Church to gather and pray at the same time. When we had the Gathering here in Seattle last year about this time; their Church prayed in Shanghai during the entire Gathering. Isn't that amazing? To this day, they are keeping up with us in prayer. Why is it the people of Shanghai can do it, and the people of America just want to sit in an easy chair and pray a little bit?
When a woman goes into the labor room, she does not say to the doctor, “Look, I'll go through this if you'll get me out of here in an hour.” She does not even give the doctor three hours. She is in it until she hears that screaming baby. I cannot remember how many hours my daughter, Ricci, was in labor. I think it was three days with her youngest, and a lot of it was very painful, tough labor. The doctor said, “You know, it probably wouldn't hurt if you wanted to exercise.” Ricci was an avid exerciser. She was in labor, but she ran up and down the steps, trying to help Grant decide to come out. After a day and a half of labor, she couldn't say, “I don't like this. You come out now or Mom's out of here. No more pain!” The Church needs to bring forth the baby amidst the pain of change, remaining fully committed to stay the course until our prayers have accomplished God’s intended objective. What will happen when God really comes like that? I can promise you that life will change.
Let's look at Joel, because Joel tells us who is called to come and pray.
Joel 2:12-18 Amp. Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn and keep on coming to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning [until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship is restored.] Rend your hearts and not your garments and return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness; and He revokes His sentence of evil [when His conditions are met]. Who knows but what He will turn, revoke your sentence [of evil], and leave a blessing behind Him [giving you the means with which to serve Him], even a cereal or meal offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; set apart a fast [a day of restraint and humility]; call a solemn assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation; assemble the elderly people, gather the children and the nursing infants; let the bridegroom [who is legally exempt from attending] go forth from his chamber and the bride out of her closet. [None is exempt from the humiliation.] Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, Have pity and spare Your people, O Lord, and give not Your heritage to reproach, that the [heathen] nations should rule over them or use a byword against them. Why should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? Then was the Lord jealous for His land and had pity on His people.
See, the elderly are included. Gather the children. “The children; for an all-night prayer meeting?” The Bible includes them. It is a humiliation meeting. It is not a “bless-me club,” where someone prays for you and prophecies over you. No one is exempt from the humiliation. Who else is invited? The priests and the ministers of the Lord! In verse 18, it says that then the Lord was jealous for His land and had pity on His people.
Where are the weepers? Where are those who are not afraid to lay before the altar and moan, groan, weep, and wail? My dear friends, America is in trouble. God is the only one who can fix us. He is the only one who can come, visit His people, and save them from the terrors of the days ahead. Why don't we pray? Why don't we gather together the priests and the lay people? Why don't we gather together anyone we can find and say, “Come with us to the house of the Lord. Let us find His face while there is still time.”
Right now, we are looking down the barrel of the gun, and we still cannot see how serious it is. If we do not open our eyes and start doing the extraordinary, the gun is going to go off. However, we can stop it. He said He would leave behind a blessing. You have no idea how much we can stop if we will just pray and repent. Will a few people save a nation? No. He goes down the list, and He has the whole Nation included. You think you are exempt? No. Even the women who were not allowed in the deeper places of the temple were invited. No one is exempt.
How bad does it have to get before we will pray? The economy has come so close to failing so many times. I cannot tell you how many times the Lord has spoken to me, “I want you to stop what you're doing. Go into your prayer closet. I'll give you instruction when you get there.” Later, I found out that the instruction He gave me stopped the crash that was going to happen that day. What do we have to look at before we decide we do not want to entertain ourselves with Egypt anymore? We want to go in and give God the best of the priestly gift that He has given us, and we want to intercede for this nation so that we can stop the worst.
Some people say, “Well, why do you worry about it? Don't you know that the Word says that man will not learn righteousness until God's judgments are in the earth?” What you are trying to say to me is that God needs to send an earthquake straight through the middle of a city, tearing it to shreds, with thousands of people dying because we did not bother to pray. What about those who died and went to hell because they did not know the judgment of God? Is that okay for us? No. It is not okay for God, either. He does not want to send what He is going to have to send. Thankfully, we have come to a place in this nation through intercession that the worst is not going to happen for a long time. But still, He will have to discipline us to bring us into His best because we will not discipline ourselves. Because we will not do it, He will have to.
Get your friends, your loved ones, and the neighbor next door, and invite them to come to one of our prayer meetings, to join us online, or to come to a Joel's Army prayer cell. I have been feeling the tears of the Lord upon my heart over this. Pray like you have never prayed before. God is willing to listen. Hunger for Him like Finney did. Do not come out of the woods until you are changed. Pray so that God is moving to change this nation. You have that power with Him if you will use it.
In His Love,
Nita Johnson
You can read this message in its entirety on our website from our Browse Articles tab under “Teaching Articles”.
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Corporate Intercession
Wednesday 7/3/13 & No Sunday Intercession
Wednesday morning intercession will be held for one hour via FCC & Skype!
Time: 10:25 PT, 11:25 MT, 12:25 CT, 1:25 ET
Call in number: 559-726-1300 access code 182152#
Please join us as we intercede for the Nation!
WWW.WORLDFORJESUS.ORG
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Seattle Services!
No Seattle Services this week!
We will resume our normal schedule next week.
WWW.WORLDFORJESUS.ORG
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CedarWood Food Bank
As each CW Pantry opening brings with it an increasing number of families who are in need, we find ourselves more and more grateful for your support. Thank you for your contributions to this work!
CW Pantry will be open Monday, July 8th 10:30am-12pm and 5:30pm-7pm
WWW.WORLDFORJESUS.ORG
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DC Gathering of the Eagles, 2013! September 3-7, 2013!
Pre-registration required! Check out the itinerary page of our website for more information including the link for online registration. Keep in mind that there are limited on site rooms available so book your room asap! |
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