Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,
Please plan to join us tomorrow for intercession. Due to Passover this week, we will not have corporate prayer services Thursday, Friday or Sunday.
As a family oriented ministry, our desire is ensure that our staff has
the opportunity to spend time with their loved ones. Therefore, Wednesday morning will be a critical time for us to gather together and intercede on the Prayer Pionts as given by Nita.
Due to the seriousness of Nita's health,
we will spend a time of prayer on her behalf after we pray the prayer
points. Last week, it was a beautiful time of intercession and I was
deeply touched by your prayers for my Mom. God has promised to bring her
through, but it will take our intercessions. Thank you for rising to
the call!
Following is the second installment in "Pray to Prepare the Way" by Nita Johnson.
Blessings in Him, Ricci
Pray to Prepare the Way
Part B
By
Nita Johnson
New Orleans Revival Services
Now, it is true, He does like to heal His
people. He likes to heal anyone who has a need. One time, we were moving
in great power and authority in the ministry and we had two healing
lines in a particular service. I had the pastor go with a gal who was
traveling with me at that time to one line and the pastor's wife came
with me to minister in the other line. Everyone we prayed for was
getting healed of all kinds of things. We came to an old man. He looked
decrepit and was hardly able to walk or stand. I asked him, “What is it
you're wanting healing for?” He said, “It's my back. I am in so much
pain, day and night. I can hardly walk. I can hardly stand. I'm
miserable.” I said, “Well, the Lord loves you. He'd love to take care of
that for you.” Three minutes later, he was completely healed.
Suddenly, the pastor's wife walked away
from me. I wondered what was wrong. Wasn't she glad to see this old man
get healed? So I left the healing line and walked over to her. I asked
her, “What's wrong?” She said, “I don't understand this. I just don't
understand. God healed him.” I said, “This is true. We prayed. We asked
Him to heal him. Isn't it wonderful that He did?” She said, “No.” I
said, “Really? Tell me why.” She replied, “Because he's in so much sin.
If I were to tell you the sin he's in, it would hurt your heart.” I
said, “Well, do you think that God is reaching out to him in His mercy?
Maybe in His mercy, He will bring about change in this man's life.”
God wants to reach out in healings and
miracles to His Church and to those who have need of Him right now. I am
not down on healings and miracles, but there is something higher that
He wants to do. This is a dark hour into which we are coming. The clouds
are thick. They are looming with great trouble and perplexity. God
wants to strengthen the heart and soul of His Church. He wants to free
us from fear and doubt and fill us with divine faith. He wants to bring
us to a place where we can believe God for anything, knowing that He
will do it. He will. This is the Lord's desire. He wants to take the
lameness, the affliction, and the woundedness out of the soul. He wants
to heal His people. Why? Because He wants to give you His glory, and a
broken soul cannot handle much of it.
Number one, we must be seeking. I asked
the Lord, “When, Lord, are You going to come?” He responded by saying,
“They do not yet want Me badly enough. They are not yet passionate
enough for revival. They're not yet seeking Me enough for Me to visit.”
My heart ached and broke. I wondered how I could pull on people to pray
any more than they were already praying. But you know, the truth is that
we have a very small number of people coming into the sanctuary to pray
in the morning. We have a city here, and we have only a handful of
people who are willing to come here every single weekend regardless of
what it costs to get here. They come and pray and seek the face of the
Lord. God is going to come when there is a passion and a hunger. He will
come when you will not let anything get in the way of seeking His face
for His appearing.
Malachi 3:1 Amp. Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [the Messiah], Whom you seek
will suddenly come to His temple; the Messenger or Angel of the
covenant Whom you desire, behold, He shall come, says the Lord of hosts.
I have walked with the Lord for many
years, as have many of you, and I can promise you that every new place
and plateau I have ever achieved in God has been at the price of many,
many hours in prayer. I have gone to Israel and spent ten, twelve,
fourteen, sixteen, and sometimes eighteen hours a day in prayer. When I
left Israel, I was in a new place in God because I had spent so much
concentrated time in His Presence. Every time I have taken a leap
forward, it has been after hours and hours of concentrated seeking where
I will not be denied.
Are you at that place yet? Think about it.
What if He does not come? Do you know what is going to happen to this
great city if revival does not come? It is going to be buried under
water. I have seen it. You have one of two choices. What if He does not
come? What if in your heart you said, “Oh, let someone else pray. I
don't need to get up out of bed this morning to go pray. I don't need to
drive forty-five minutes across the city to pray. Let someone else do
it.” What if it does not come? What if revival does not fall because you
did not seek?
Why should He come to a city that has not
prepared the way for Him? He is the King of Glory. If a president were
coming, do you think that the nobles of the city would just sit at their
breakfast table and say, “Oh, let someone else take care of it.” There
would be fanfare and hoopla. The entire city would know the president
was coming, whether they liked him or not. Because he is considered to
be a noble, we would prepare the way for him. We would make him feel
wanted, accepted, and appreciated. We would get enough people out to let
him know that we really appreciate the fact that he is visiting our
city. We would do that for the nobles in the temporal world, but will we
do it for the most noble One of all—Jesus Christ?
The president could come and go, and this
city will be deluged by water. It will be. I can promise you that it
would have been already, except for those who have paid the price to
come into this place and pray that God would spare this city. When the
president leaves, no one is going to be healed. The Church is not going
to be restored or strengthened. We are not going to see people saved by
the thousands. The president cannot go into the areas where the youth
need the Presence and power of God so badly. He cannot rescue them from
the lives they will be living if they do not get saved. Presidents
cannot do that. He cannot restore the city. He cannot fix what is broken
in New Orleans.
There is only one noble who can come to
this city and make New Orleans the place we want it to be. He is Jesus
Christ. Only Christ can pour out His Spirit, awakening the hearts of the
people. But who is preparing His way? Who is waking up on Saturday
morning, saying in their heart, “I want to go pray. I want to pray for
revival. I want to go be with the saints who are praying, preparing the
way, and repenting on behalf of this city so that our Lord will come.”
Who is doing it? A small handful of people. There have been so few that
we opened up the internet to invite people who are aware of this
ministry to join us to help us pray for this city.
My dear brothers and sisters, the Lord is
looking for the seekers. He wants to come, and He wants to reveal
Himself to those who are seeking. He wants to heal this city. He wants
to honor and bless those who have paid the price to prepare His way, but
there must be a preparation, and the preparation is not yet complete.
It was supposed to have been complete by this time. We are the reason
that the breakthrough has not transpired. We must deal with that; we
must come to grips with it because we must stir up the flame.
People say, “I don't want to go pray. I'd
rather go do this or that.” Will doing this or that bring Jesus to this
city? In your heart of hearts, you have to make decisions that are going
to have a tremendous influence on your future. There is much need of
prayer and intercession. The prophet said, “Plow up your fallow ground.”
(Jer 4:3) You need to not only plow up the ground of your heart, but
you also need to plow up the ground of this city where there has been so
much shedding of innocent blood, so much witchcraft, so much tyranny,
and so much bitterness and brokenness because of wrongdoing. There has
been so much lawlessness, idolatry, and adultery. We must plow up the
ground of this city. We must plead with the Lord to have mercy upon this
city and upon the Church. There must be passion: passion for Jesus,
passion for His glory, and passion for revival.
Once Evan Roberts and that group of
ministers broke through for revival in Wales, the largest convention
center in the city was opened. The seats were filled with about eight
hundred people. People would come to Wales from all over the world.
Famous preachers such as F. B. Meyer, William Booth, and J. Campbell
Morgan would leave their pulpits to go and sit under this young man,
Evan Roberts, because of the glory of God that flowed through his
ministry.
One night, as the story goes, there were
these famous preachers throughout the auditorium. The place was filled
with about eight hundred people. They waited and waited for Evan to
come. Finally, he walked through the door. He went up to the front to
the only vacant seat left, saved for him. He got on his knees, and he
began to pray. He did not go in to preach. He went in to pray. He knelt
down at his seat, and he prayed for three hours. Then he arose. He
preached for only fifteen minutes when the glory came and swept through
the place. People were getting saved throughout the congregation.
I wonder if that would happen in this
city? How many men and women of God would, if the Holy Spirit prompted,
get on their knees and do nothing but pray when there were famous people
waiting to hear the word of the Lord? Would they disregard the
congregation and pray until the fire of God came? What He needs is a
passionate people, who will wait, even if it means three hours, for the
Word of the Lord to come forth. He needs a people who will not get
offended because the pastor does something different than what you would
expect. He is looking for a people who are so hungry for God, all they
want is His Presence. They want to see His holy face. They want to be
filled with His holy fervor. They just want God. He is all they want.
While Evan was on his knees praying, the congregation was praying, “Have
Your way, O God! Have Your way! Send the fire! Come down! Saturate our
souls! Make Yourself known! Help us to know You!”
He will come to a people who are seeking and waiting.
To be continued next week...
In His Love,
Nita
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