HOLY WEEK

Courtesy of H. B. London Jr. for The Pastor's Weekly Briefing.

"Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, 'We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, he will be raised to life'" (Matt. 20:17-19).

Well, the writing of this disciple pretty well sums up the events of Holy Week. However, the significance of those days cannot be contained in a simple paragraph. So much of who Jesus was, and the nature of man, was revealed from one Sunday to the next. Here is how the Bible describes each day of Holy Week.

SUNDAY — Triumph
Jesus enters Jerusalem (Mark 11:8-10, Luke 19:92-40) and returns to Bethany (Mark 11:27-33, Luke 19:45, 48) — but not before he predicts the demise of the Holy City.

MONDAY — Power
He chased the moneychangers out of the temple (Mark 11:12-17) and taught a lesson over a cursed fig tree (Matt. 21:18-19).

TUESDAY — Confrontation
Judas will betray his teacher (Luke 22:3-6); Jesus will be in conflict with the Herodians, the scribes and the pharisees (Matt. 24:3-25); and the conspiracy against Christ will continue (Mark 14:1,2).

WEDNESDAY — Together
Jesus' words test His followers' faith (Mark 13:3-14).

THURSDAY — Passion
This is the busiest day of all — from the preparation for the passover (Luke 22:7-23), to the last meal they would share (Matt. 26:21-24), to the garden where Judas denied Jesus (John 18:3-12), to the arrest, Peter's denial (Luke 22:60-62) and then to the appearance of our Lord before the high priest (Matt. 26:57-66).

FRIDAY — Suffering
In Mark 15, Luke 23 and Matt. 27, we follow Christ from early morning through the evening: from Pilate, to the cross, and then to the tomb. The film, The Passion of the Christ, makes this day come alive.

SATURDAY — Where? What? Why?
The body of Jesus requested by Joseph (Mark 15:42).

SUNDAY — ALIVE FOREVERMORE!!
The women visit the tomb (Luke 24:1-8), the disciples gather (John 20:2-10) and the resurrected Lord appears (Matt. 28:5-10). HE IS RISEN!!

Songwriter Brian Doerksen Shares on Leading Worship

The following interview is courtesy of Breaking Christian News published by the elijahlist.com

Songwriter Brian Doerksen Shares on Leading Worship, Communicating God's Heart and on Going Deeper with a Holy God

"I often say, 'I want to be like David,' a guy who was totally God-focused, but absolutely 'earthy' in his expression of it, and walking-out of it."

Aimee Herd (Mar 29th, 2007)

I have always appreciated the music of Brian Doerksen, a Canadian worship leader, songwriter and musician. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with him about his new CD "Holy God," on his view of living the life of a "worshipper," and what his journey-with-the-Lord has been like, so far. Below are excerpts from that interview, which is featured in this year's March/April issue of "Worship Musician" magazine.

Aimee: Brian, just going back a little bit—as a teen, you weren't really looking at being a songwriter or a worship leader as a profession...but you were pursuing sports when you began to feel that God was calling you into music...

Brian: In our part of the world, sports are really important in High School life. I was an All Star basketball player, a guard—I loved shooting the "3-point-shot" before there even was a "3-point-shot"—I wasn't very tall, but I mastered that one! As a result, there is a certain amount of popularity and attention you receive. In the midst of all that, one night the Spirit of God visited me. He said, "Will you give Me your whole life, to serve Me and to serve My purposes?" What choice do you have...it was such a powerful encounter. I said, "Okay, yes." Overnight, the Lord told me the sports thing was about me, about getting attention and being popular, He told me He wanted me to lay it down. I attended a private Christian school, but it was a Christian school where sports was still the pinnacle.

So I went to my coach and told him, "I feel like God has spoken to me, and I'm supposed to lay this down and pursue a completely different path. I don't know what it is yet...but in faith I'm gonna do it." They looked at me like, "What are you talking about?!" I was all of 16-years-old at the time. Within months I had an incredible hunger to worship. I picked up a guitar, (I knew a few chords) and I just started worshipping my heart out in private, where no one could see me. That's where the vision [was borne in me] of seeing the nations released to worship God intimately...to have a relationship with God. If music was a part of that, then I would use music, but it wasn't limited to music. And I would have never thought that I had the skill or the raw talent to make a go of it in music.

AH: How does a worship leader keep sensitive to the Holy Spirit?

BD: A lot of ways. One is staying anchored to a very real, local church situation. I think staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit is a matter of my own spiritual journey...to keep the well full, with my own devotional life, and my own devotional reading, and never going to the place where you assume that what worked last time will work this time.

Part of [staying sensitive] is that it is my nature. I'm a sensitive person, very attuned to spiritual atmosphere; I can pick up things when I walk in a room, I can sense God's presence, and also sense the presence of evil in a person or in a place. It's probably why I was called to write songs.

You know one of the most fascinating things about being a songwriter, is that we have to write songs before they're needed! We have to be ahead of the curve, we have to be listening. I think the first job of a writer is not to write, it's to listen. To pick up stuff that is happening, and then to write it in such a way that the song can become learned and familiar enough that when it's needed, it goes click, and comes along at the right time.

AH: You have two sons with Fragile X Syndrome...I've heard from other parents of special needs children that they (the parents) learn so much from their children...and how often God speaks through them. What things have you and Joyce learned from your sons?

BD: Well...simple things like...slow down. My 15-year-old son does nothing fast, everything is incredibly slow, and sometimes it can get so frustrating. When you have kids like this, you simply can't sustain a [hectic] pace. You must slow down and learn to walk with your kids, at the pace that they can handle.

The other huge [thing we've learned] is the unconditional love of God. How to communicate without words, because they don't really have any words, but they'll look you in the eye occasionally and give you a hug. You learn to communicate in ways that they understand, and that bless them. It was a challenge for me because I had always dreamed that I would have sons I'd talk theology with, I love to talk about theology and that kind of stuff. I can't have those conversations with my sons. Or, I might want to put all I have to say into a song and write a song for my son...but that means nothing to him. So I have to come up with other ways of communicating love.

One of those ways is, I put in a pool, and I did it for my boys. My boys just come alive in the water, they live in the water all summer, wherever we are. They've learned the basics of swimming...and they laugh.... One day I was feeling so frustrated because I couldn't tell my boys I love them. All of a sudden I thought "I know...I'll get them a pool!" I started scheming from that very moment how to get them a pool. Because I am a communicator, I look for ways to communicate with them.

And then my wife and I are very much in love, 22 years into marriage and we're more in love now. We have a weekly date night and a couple times a year we go away, just the two of us.

AH: Brian, in closing, what would you say to someone who wants to "go deeper" in worship, and really begin to commune with God?

BD: I would say, if they want to go deeper in worship, it's got to begin privately. Don't look for going to big events, even in your local church, and having public encounters with God—it's incredibly important that we gather together—but I think going deeper with God is truly found in the secret place, creating a secret history with God. Doing things [worshipping God] when nobody else is watching. And then I'd also say, don't separate your communion with God from your life of loving those around you. I've seen people go after God and separate themselves from their marriage and their kids. It breaks my heart. It's a kind of paradox where our communion with God is private and secret and it's unique to each of us. He has each one of us on a unique journey. He has a unique name for us—I believe we all have a unique name in God. And then there's a relational public component of that, that it cannot be separated from. It's the words of Jesus—love the Lord your God with all your heart, your affection, all your mind, with all your strength—and then love your neighbor as yourself. They're both connected. In our culture, so much emphasis is put on the big events, those events, and our Sunday gatherings, work powerfully; when people are communing with God privately.

Source: Worship Musician

A Time to Travail - Moving from Distress to Victory

The following is from Chuck Pierce -- a very timely word -- let's take this challenge for "10 Days of Travail" --- Go to http://glory-of-zion.org to find out more about Chuck Pierce's Ministry.

When it comes to bearing children, it's an interesting fact that there is a desperate, agonizing pain of the soul that comes with barrenness. Equally true, however, is that there is a desperate, travailing pain of the body that comes with giving birth. My wife, Pam, and I understand the agony of barrenness as it was ten years before we were able to have children. There were times of desperation in those years and times we agonized before the Lord. But God heard the desperate cries of our heart for children and brought a miraculous healing to Pam's body that allowed her to conceive. Since that time she has become familiar with the travailing pain of birth, having given birth to six children.
Because what we experience in the natural often mirrors that which we experience in the spiritual, we can see that there are times when agony and travail are appropriate precursors and responses to spiritual birth, just as they are to natural birth. We agonize when something God intends to be has not yet manifested, and we travail as we birth God's new thing into the earth.

When the Lord first spoke this season of travail to me, I was very unclear as to what He was saying. Travail connotes that we are at a narrow transition. This transitional place is a life and death intersection. The transitional place is a place of "crossing over". You can read about that in Possessing Your Inheritance and Releasing the Prophetic Destiny of a Nation. I believe we have entered a "Season of Travail". Travail means that we are in a "distressed" moment.

I do believe that during this month there are ten days specifically that the Lord will burden us for our future. Some of you are already feeling that distress. This travail season could take us through July. I sense that we are to pray specifically about Israel during March and watch carefully until June. I will send an Israel update to the whole list soon. I also think that the divorcing of the "Baal System of Worship" for this nation is a key to our future. (Please get Dutch Sheet's message from Starting the Year Off Right).
I just came home from Oklahoma last night, where we had an historic meeting with Native Leaders over the Baal system of worship. John Benefiel and Jerry Mash, two of the apostolic prayer leaders in our nation, located in Oklahoma, have written a legal decree of divorcement to release us from Baal. I would encourage you to keep this prayer focus as a reference point to use on and off through July as you establish the new thing in your life. Especially through June, pray for Israel!

Apostle Barbara Yoder, a dear friend and wonderful leader, defines TRAVAIL!
Travail is a specific type of prayer which both births (Is. 66:7-9) as well as wars (Is. 42:12-14). When a person enters a time, period or season of travail (birthing and/or warring), they will experience it as a heaviness, weight, burden, deep penetrating concern or unease over a situation or condition that they cannot shake. Sometimes travail extends to weeks or months particularly when God burdens a person over a nation.

Travail is defined as birthing, delivering; or to be disgusted, faint, grieved or weary, distressed, troubled. The old Latin word was used an instrument of torture composed of three stakes a person was tied to. To travail is to be troubled, sorrowful, in agony, intense pain or distress. In other words it is not a comfortable experience. Often times a person will initially interpret travail emotionally and become introspective, suspecting something is wrong with them. However it is not an emotion, it is the burden of the Lord, the voice of the Lord coming to a person as a burden to draw them into partnering with Him to birth and/or to war.

The only way travail will be released is through prayer. The person will feel weighted down by a situation until it is released through sustained prayer. It is during travail that people often experience a "Romans 8:22-26 time." The Holy Spirit within the person knows how to pray under this type of burden. As the person begins to pray, the Holy Spirit takes over and begins to travail within and through them with groanings that cannot be expressed in English words.
Isaiah 42:13 says that God Himself "will go forth as a mighty man, He will cry, yes, He will shout aloud, He will do mightily against His enemies." Verse 14 continues, "Thus says the Lord, 'I have for a long time held My peace, I have restrained Myself, now I will cry out like a woman in travail...'"

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW? Here are some keys that will help you to be victorious in this season:

1. Set aside TEN days of sanctification. Sanctification means to "set yourself apart so you are ready to move forward in God's purpose." Sanctification is a time of removal of impurities. Pray and fast for three days. Ask God for FAVOR.
2. Select seven days for a Jericho confrontation. This is the year of "7's". Watch your mouth for seven days. The Israelites had to circle for seven days without talking. Let the Lord develop a new sound of victory over the blockade that has seemed invincible in your life.
3. Be like Mordecai and listen at your gates! The gates of your life are the most trafficked and influenced places.
4. Pray for divine recovery. Make a list of the losses that have affected you most. Decree a new multiplication factor of increase.
5. Overcome distress and ANXIETY. Define what is creating anxiety in you. Praise to prevent anxiety every time you have an anxious thought.
6. Receive an ANOINTING! Pray Ps. 92 and anoint yourself. The anointing breaks the yoke.
7. Be like Hannah! Do not let those who mock you keep you from pressing through into new dimension. Travail past your reproach.

Hannah's Agony: Agonizing Produces Change!
One of the most poignant Biblical accounts of agonizing before God is the story of Hannah. As the story opens, we see that Israel was in its lowest moral condition as a nation. The priesthood had fallen into total disarray. However, individuals kept coming to Shiloh to offer sacrifices and worship to the Lord. As required by the Law, Elkanah took his entire family to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. Hannah, one of Elkanah's two wives, was barren and unfulfilled. She was a desperate woman because she knew that the destiny of her creation had not been fulfilled. This lack of fulfillment had led her into grief and affliction of spirit, which the Bible calls "bitterness of soul." In 1 Samuel 1:10-18 we see how Hannah agonized before the Lord to give her a child. Her agonizing gives us a great pattern to follow:

1. Pray to the Lord.

2. Weep in anguish (agonized).

3. Lift your affliction to the Lord.

4. Cry out: "Remember why I was created!"

5. Plead, "Fulfill my request and You can have my first fruit offering."

6. Go to the highest level authority in your life that can pray for you. (She told the priest her problem and expressed her emotion.)

7. Ask for favor to come upon you.

8. Press through and get up in victory.

9. Birth the new thing in your life (and perhaps, your nation).

10. Watch change take place!

Through her prayer of agony to the Lord, Hannah conceived and gave birth to Samuel. She then fulfilled her vow to the Lord by giving this child to the priest. This act changed the course of Israel. Samuel began to prophesy and the nation began to shift, although not everything went well. As the story progresses we see that Israel was defeated in war and, as a result, lost the Ark of the Covenant, which represented God's presence among them. This defeat, however, set the nation of Israel on course to restore the presence of God in the land, which David did when he returned the Ark to its resting place in Jerusalem many years later.

Travailing Produces Birth
"Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs. For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go. There you shall be delivered; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies" (Micah 4:10).
Travailing is defined as a painfully difficult or burdensome work, particularly the anguish or suffering associated with the labor of childbirth. You may be wondering, what does that have to do with prayer? If we stop to consider the story of Hannah, we realize that when she approached the Lord, she was in anguish over her circumstances. Her plea to God came from the very depths of her being. Her agony before the Lord did not come purely from the emotion of an unmet need or desire in her life. It rose up out of her spirit because, as we mentioned before, the destiny for which she had been created had gone unfulfilled. (At that time she did not know in the natural that she had been chosen to give birth to Samuel, a great prophet and judge of Israel.) But somewhere in her spirit she knew that she could not settle for barrenness. She knew that was not God's portion for her in life.

Before Hannah gave physical birth to Samuel, she travailed for and birthed something spiritually that overcame the curse of barrenness, not only in her own body, but ultimately for the nation of Israel through Samuel. When we travail in prayer, what we are doing is allowing the Holy Spirit to birth something through us.
In the nineteenth century, when Charles Finney was pondering travailing prayer, he wrote, "Why does God require such prayer-such strong desires, such agonizing supplications? These strong desires mirror the strength of God's feelings. They are God's real feeling for unrepentant sinners. How strong God's desire must be for His Spirit to produce in Christians such travail-God has chosen the word to describe it-it is travail, torment of the soul." [Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Revival (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany, 1988), p. 46.]

In her book Possessing the Gates of the Enemy, Cindy Jacobs says, "There are times when we are called by God to pray strong prayers and help to birth the will of God into an area. Usually there is a sense of wonder after the prayer, and a sense that God has done something through it. Here are four points to help you recognize the work of the Holy Spirit:

1. Travail is given by God and is not something we can make happen. Travail is often a deep groaning inside, which may be audible or which cannot be uttered, as described in Romans 8:26.
2. Travail sometimes comes as a result of praying in an area that others have prayed about before you. God then chooses you to be one the last pray-ers before the matter is accomplished. You are the one who gives birth to the answer.
3. Those with the gift of intercession will often pray more travailing prayers that those (without the gift).
4. The travail may be short or extended. Some prayers will be accomplished quickly and some will be like labor pangs at different times until the birth of the answer comes." [Cindy Jacobs, Possessing the Gates of the Enemy, (Tarrytown, NY: Chosen Books, 1991), pp. 115-116.]

How Does Travailing Prayer Work?
There is a tremendous power in travailing prayer because, as Cindy noted, it births the will of God into the earth. This type of prayer always outwits the devil because he is so strongly opposed by the new thing God is producing as a result of travail. We, therefore, need to have an understanding of what God is wanting to birth through us. We, like Hannah, need to be in tune with what God is ready to bring forth in that given hour. That can only be done through intimacy with God and through a willingness to allow Him to use us in travail.

Many times we have much that God has put in our spirits, but we don't have the strength to bring it to birth. Isaiah 60:1 says, "Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you." In the Amplified Version it says to arise from the depression and oppression that has held you down, arise to new life. This is the time to call upon the Lord to begin to break those things that have held down your spirit, for this is the time for the Spirit of God to begin to arise within us.
The word arise means to stand firm, to come from a lying down position to a stand. When we begin to arise and allow God's glory to arise through us, we will take our stand against the powers and principalities that have resisted us. As we allow the Spirit of the Lord to arise within us, we will find that He gives us the expectation of new life and the strength to bring that life to birth.

Once this process begins and we identify what burden God wants us to pray over, we begin to agonize and feel the urgency of seeing the burden birthed. The burden becomes our own "baby" as God's heart for seeing that thing brought forth begins to press down on our spirits. With it comes an oppression, but it's not the oppression of the devil. If your assignment, for instance, is a travail to break an oppression over certain people on God's heart, you can actually begin to feel the oppression they are under. That is the time to travail until the oppression breaks-until, as in natural childbirth, the heavenly opening is large enough so that God's will can come forth on the earth.

Linda Heidler, who understands and leads many intercessors through their travail says: "One of the most interesting passages about wailing is Jeremiah 9:17-18 which says to call for the 'skillful wailing women'. There are three words used for these women:

• One, 'qun' indicates the sound that they make in their wailing.
• The second word, 'chakam' is from the root word for wisdom or skill in living.
• The third word, 'nehiy' means lamentation.

Jeremiah 9 describes a time of great national distress. These women were called to help the nation weep. These women were skilled in releasing the sound which would cause the nation to weep - to grieve over its condition, repent before God and willingly yield to Him again." We must not fear travail. Men—do not think that travail is only a "woman" experience!

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Prayer Focus: 10 Days to Move from Travail to Overcoming!

Day 1. Read Genesis 31-35. Jacob moved from being a "supplanter" to a "contender with God." Ask the Lord to reveal the areas where He wants you to contend and birth in a new way.

Day 2. Sanctify yourself. Cross over into the new. Allow the Lord to bring you to a new vulnerable place! Read Joshua 3-5.

Day 3. Go up against your "Jericho" by the Spirit. Read Joshua 6. Memorize Isaiah 30:15a.

Day 4. Study the story of Hannah. Embrace a day of conception, birthing, and jubilation! Read 1 Samuel 1-3.

Day 5. Fast and seek God for help on your road ahead! There comes a time for the Lord to cause you to wait. Read Ezra 8, especially verse 21. Do not go any further without a reevaluation of your path.

Day 6: Ask the Lord to teach you to legislate the heavenlies! Read 1 Kings 17-18. (Also, look at the first 10 verses of 1 Kings 19 and do not let the enemy push you out of your abiding place.)

Day 7: Receive new FAVOR! Read Isaiah 60-61. Read Luke 1. Sing or listen to a new song! Exalt the Lord!

Day 8: Embrace a day of desperation! Be like the woman who pressed through. Read Matthew 9 and Romans 8.

Day 9: The most incredible example of travail is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, "the Oil Press." Press out everything that could keep you from completing your mission! Read Luke 9:51, John 18, and Luke 22:39

Day 10. Plead the blood of Jesus over what you are bringing forth new in your life. Embrace a day of overcoming! Declare that your enemy is overcome. Read Rev. 12.

Some Cautions

Because travailing is such an intense and often misunderstood form of prayer, there are some cautions for us be aware of:

1. Timing. We cannot enter into travailing prayer on our own any more than a woman can enter into labor before her time. It is something the Holy Spirit chooses to do in His time and through whichever ones of us He chooses, as long as we are open to allowing Him to work travail through us. If we try to bring something to birth before its season, like a baby born prematurely, it is much more susceptible to destruction and death than that which is born in the right season.
2. Becoming overwhelmed. Cindy Jacobs gives a good word on this caution: "Many times travail can be so strong that it seems to overwhelm the intercessor. Those around need to intercede for the one in travail if this happens in a group situation. We need to help bear the burden in prayer.We also need to bind the enemy from entering into the travail. One word of caution. The Holy Spirit will rule over our emotions in a time of travail. We must be sure that we don't let our emotions run wild. Intercessors need to walk in the fruit of self-control." [Cindy Jacobs, Possessing the Gates of the Enemy, (Tarrytown, NY: Chosen Books, 1991), p. 116.]
3. Bearing a false burden. If someone enters travail, but does not have God's burden, they will travail with the wind. Isaiah 26:18 says, "We have been with child, we have been in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth wind; we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen." Many well-meaning Christians travail with the wind because they do not understand God's heart in a matter and move forward in presumption. They either do not know or have not taken the time with God to identify with what He is doing. Instead, they go straight into intercession and get lost in it somewhere.
4. Not completing the assignment. "This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth" (2 Kings 19:3). There are instances in which the timing is right, the burden is right, but we have no strength to bring forth the new birth. We must not grow weary in spirit, but allow God to bring forth the strength we need to complete our travail.

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Moving into the Jubilee Season
"A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you" (John 16:21-22).

We have not been designed to stay in the place of travail either physically or spiritually. We have been designed to bring forth new birth and then move into the new season of life which that birth brings to us. After travail comes release. God has a jubilee season over every issue. For instance, if the issue you have been in travail for deals with financial supply, when release comes, God will give you or whomever you have been travailing for, incredible strategies over how to break debt structures to see increase and supply begin to flow. That usually includes two arenas.

• First there is a physical, financial arena. God will give strategic insight over how to be released from debt and increased for future advancement.
• Second, there is a relationship arena. If you or the one you have been travailing for have relationships that are broken, that is also a type of debt. God can begin to find supernatural ways to heal those relationships and cause them to flourish.

During a year of jubilee, there is a suspension of labor. The difficult things that you have been travailing for in the past-those things that have been so hard and unyielding, and yet in which you have faithfully pressed through-suddenly come forth and you are released from your hard labor. It is then that you enter into a joy and a faith that you didn't have, and many things start falling into place as a new order begins to come. As we agonize, travail, and labor for those things that God has laid on our hearts, remember there is a time when the birth comes and we are able to enter in our season of jubilee. (Excerpted from Prayers That Outwit the Enemy!)

During these ten days, remember that God has a covenant plan for Israel. Watch on behalf of Israel. Bless you! You will come through victoriously!

Chuck D. Pierce

St. Patrick's Prayer

It is said that St. Patrick prayed this prayer everyday of his life. An incredible man of God who performed many miracles -- even raising people from the dead. I'm sure if we were to give him praise for all the good he did as a missionary to Ireland, he would only direct that praise to Jesus Christ, the One for whom he did it all!
For His Glory,
Joe

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I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today through the strength of Heaven,
the rays of the sun,
the radiance of the moon,
the splendor of fire,
the speed of lightening,
the swiftness of the wind,
the depth of the sea,
the stability of the earth
the firmness of rock.

I arise today through the power of God:
God's might to comfort me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to lead me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's Heavenly Host to save me
from the snares of the devil,
from temptations to sin,
from all who wish me ill,
from near and afar,
alone and with others.

May Christ shield me today
against poison and fire,
against drowning and wounding,
so that I may fulfill my mission
and bear fruit in abundance.

Christ behind and before me,
Christ behind and above me,
Christ with me and in me,
Christ around and about me,
Christ on my right and on my left,
Christ when I lie down at night,
Christ when I rise in the morning,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone that speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

From Celtic Flames by Kathie Walters

Image courtesy of www.fantasy-ireland.com/legend-of-st-patrick.html

Happy Anniversary!

(Wedding Photo in Germany March 1988)



To My Love,
Nineteen years together has been a wonderful journey -- full of much joy and love. You have ravished my heart, with one glance of your eyes and I'll never be the same. I will always thank God for giving me such a woman as you.
All my love,
Joseph

Lou Engle: "HORTON GETS A CLUE--YOUNG ONES PRAYING AND PROPHESYING MUST BE HEARD!"

We have got to keep shouting until the "Kangaroo Court" hears us -- read this and ask the Lord how you can help the WHO!

For His Glory,

Joe

Courtesy of elijahlist.com

If you hang around the Dream King,
You get into His dream stream,
You join yourself to His dream team,
And you do the Martin Luther King thing.

This was the poem of our heart when we launched the Justice House of Prayer (JHOP) in DC. A band of young people dared to dream and pray that another great move of justice would roll down like the waters of justice that swelled and swept away segregation in the days of that great prophet Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, once again, like the sound of many waters, God is shouting: "I have a dream! Let the unborn go free! Let them be conceived in liberty, and let them be adopted in infancy."

Dr. Seuss Book

God is communicating His big dream of ending abortion in a most profound way through the dream stream story of Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. In February 2005, one of our youth, a 15-year-old girl at the Justice House of Prayer, had a dream. In the dream she saw a large, beautiful building with the words "The Who" appearing over it. She and her sisters entered the house and began to look throughout the building until they found the attic where there was a series of old books from the past that they knew would be needed for the future. She shared her dream with the JHOP team. I knew the dream was from God, but I wondered, "What is 'The Who,' and what are these old books?"

The next morning while pondering the dream, I received a remarkable email from a man in Kansas City that included a sermon he gave several years ago on what must occur for abortion to end. He felt led to send it to me, even though he thought it was unusual that the analogy the Lord had given him was based on the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who. When I read this, I instantly connected "The Who" in the dream with "The Who" in the book. I was immediately interested!

In this children's book written in 1954, we find an elephant whose name is Horton--and he is not a Republican! He is the prophetic Church with big ears and a large trumpet. He can hear what no one else can hear--the sound of these little people called, The Whos, who live in the microscopic town of Who-ville.

In the book, we also find a kangaroo who wants to kill all the little Whos, because he cannot see or hear them. He doesn't believe they exist. Immediately the thought came to me, "The kangaroo is the kangaroo court!"--it stands for the Supreme Court who issued the death decree of ’73 in Roe v Wade, and legalized abortion. Wow! I realized that what I was reading was a parable from the past that was now going to be used en masse, for the ending of abortion. The theme of the whole book amazingly is, "A person's a person, no matter how small!" And the remedy for the crisis is that every voice must be raised loudly and urgently to rescue all the little unborn Whos. With the kangaroo's death decree hanging over Who-ville, Horton implores the mayor "to CALL a big meeting, get everyone out, make every Who holler, make every Who shout!"

On 7-7-07, we are launching The Call again. We are summoning the church of the nation to cry out to God for the life of the unborn and the ending of abortion. So all the little Whos will gather at The Call and raise their voices, so that the kangaroo will hear and know that they are persons after all.

Quoted from Dr. Seuss' book Horton Hears a Who: (red color added by Lou Engle)

And Horton called back, "I can hear you just fine.
But the Kangaroo's ears aren't as strong, quite, as mine.
They don't hear a thing! Are you sure all your boys
Are doing their best? Are they ALL making noise?
Are you sure every Who down in Who-ville is working?
Quick! Look through your town! Is there anyone shirking?"

Through the town rushed the Mayor, from the east to the west.
But everyone seemed to be doing his best.
Everyone seemed to be yapping or yipping!
Everyone seemed to be beeping or bipping!
But it wasn't enough, all this ruckus and roar!
He HAD to find someone to help him make more.
He raced through each building! He searched floor-to-floor!

And, just as he felt he was getting nowhere,
And almost about to give up in despair,
He suddenly burst through a door and that Mayor
Discovered one shirker! Quite hidden away
In the Fairfax Apartments (Apartment 12-J)
(12 = government; J = Justice)
A very small, very small shirker named Jo-Jo
Was standing, just standing, and bouncing a Yo-Yo!
Not making a sound! Not a yipp! Not a chirp!
And the Mayor rushed inside and grabbed the young twerp!

And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower.

"This," cried the Mayor, "is your town's darkest hour!
The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
(A connection with the Blood)
To come to the aid of their Country!" he said.
"We've GOT to make noise in greater amounts!
So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!"

Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top,
The lad cleared his throat and he shouted out, "YOPP!"
(Young Ones Praying and Prophesying)

And that Yopp...
That one small, extra Yopp put it over!
Finally, at last! From that speck on that clover
Their voices were heard! They rang out clear and clean
And the elephant smiled. "Do you see what I mean?...
They've proved they ARE persons, no matter how small.
(I believe the crux of the Abortion issue is the deception
from satan that says the unborn are not people at all.)
And their whole world was saved by the Smallest of All!"

"How true! Yes, how true," said the big kangaroo.
"And, from now on, you know what I'm planning to do?...
From now on, I'm going to protect them with you!"
And the young kangaroo in her pouch said,...

"...ME TOO!
From sun in the summer. From rain when it's fall-ish,
I'm going to protect them. No matter how small-ish!"

This Book Speaks of Abortion

Graciously, The Elijah List blasted this story February 16, 2005 (click here to view). Amazingly, the next day I received an email from a woman who said she read The Elijah List article and received three confirmations the following day at her Day Care Center. One child came in with a Horton Hears a Who backpack, a second was carrying a Who-ville doll, but the third--a ten-year-old boy--came to her and said, "Ma'am, I had a dream last night. I dreamt of Horton Hears a Who, and all the little Whos were not saying YOPP; they were crying STOP!!!"

Oh, my God, there is a massive cry being raised up from the young ones of the earth, praying and prophesying, "STOP ABORTION, STOP! STOP! STOP!!!!!!!!!!" What are the chances of this divine confirmation? Those who read this are now held accountable. The whole Church must cry out now--STOP ABORTION!

Soon after, another man connected with me and said, "My ten-year-old daughter was reading Horton Hears a Who to her little brother." She came to her father and said, "Dad, I think this book is about ending abortion." That afternoon, he read The Elijah List article on Horton Hears a Who. This man now leads our Bound4LIFE ministry.

Again, amazingly, we found out that Fox Movies is doing a major motion picture in 2008, called, Horton Hears a Who, starring Jim Carrey--on the 40th year anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the year of our critical 2008 election that must bring forth a true Pro-Life president. The Lord is shouting to the nation! Will we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying?

A great convergence is upon us. If the Church understands the times and what God is seeking to bring forth, we can shout to the nation, before the movie comes out, that Horton Hears a Who is about the ending of abortion--so when millions of people watch the movie, they will all be thinking, "A person's a person, no matter how small--The Whos are the unborn!"

Can you see it? This is God's trumpet to the nation! God is marching out, shattering ideologies, and moving His great Mind and Heart into the earth. He moves the media and makes it His pawn. Oh, the brilliant Wisdom of God! He takes a book out of the archives of history that millions have read since 1954, pulls it out, and slams it into the present through a movie. The light penetrates the lie, the armor of the strongman is stripped away, the demon is named, and can now be cast out!

Oh God, we need a national exorcism of this spirit of death that has ruled over us for 34 years! Every voice must be counted. Buy the book! Spread it around! Start children's prayer meetings to end abortion! Support crisis pregnancy centers! May your voice be heard in your voting. Vote only for those who are truly pro-life, not those who flip-flop every few years for political expediency. Maybe God will use this movie to elect the next president of the United States. We believe the abortion issue could become the dividing line in 2008, and God will weigh every candidate in the balance on this issue. Don't vote for those who you think can be elected, vote for those who have a Wilberforce conviction. Pray for Jim Carrey to be radically saved--he could shout to the world, "This movie is about ending abortion!"

A young woman had a dream knowing nothing of the movie or Jim Carrey's involvement. She dreamt that Jim Carrey was a Christian and that he was carrying a briefcase with two books in it. The first one was called, Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, by Derek Prince, and the second one was a book called, Mobilizing The Army of God. Could this man and this movie mobilize a pro-life army of young people who will fast and pray for justice?

Even this week, the front page of Time Magazine shows a hand with four different-sized fetuses resting on it. The article is saying that there are more crisis pregnancy centers than there are abortion clinics in America, and that abortion is at its lowest rate since the beginning years of when abortion was legalized. In the same magazine, there is an article about Jim Carrey, and he is seeking spiritual enlightenment, but doesn't know Jesus yet. Save him, God!!!

"It is time for all the Whos who have blood that is red to come to the aid of their country, he said." Suddenly, Dr. Suess kicks out of Who-ville and into national prophecy, not even knowing it. Christians must come to the aid of America carrying the blood of Jesus, which alone can wash away our sins. It is not enough that Jesus died; the blood must be applied to the doorposts of our national guilt. Oh, that millions of Christians would plead, "Jesus, I plead Your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America." Go to www.Bound4LIFE.com to see how you can be a part of a mass movement of pleading the Blood of Jesus over our nation.

The YOPPS Must Be Heard

The voices of Jo-Jos just bouncing their yo-yos must now be heard. The Jo-Jos are Christians who are enjoying their comfortable careers, but are oblivious to the crisis. They are the youth in our Church youth groups who play with their iPods and who browse in their Windows. While living for entertainment, they have no idea that they were meant to be a part of God's great movement to end abortion! Their voices must be heard now!!! Let Myspace® and You Tube™ become their Eieffelberg towers from which they shout out their YOPPS and their STOPS.

Why would God give this dream stream to a group of young people who pray everyday in front of the Supreme Court calling on God to raise up righteous judges who will reverse Roe v Wade? To encourage hearts and release a movement through their prayers! So that it will be said:

"How true, yes, how true," said the big kangaroo, "and from now on you know what I am planning to do? From now on I am going to protect them with you!"

Brothers and sisters, let us believe that the Supreme Court will protect all the unborn little Whos, that God's big dream will come true, and that all the Whos' dreams could come true too.

It is profound that in the dream, the young lady saw not just one book, but a series of old books needed for the future. Read Horton Hatches an Egg. It is about a bird who wants to go play, rather than sit on her egg. So Horton, the elephant again, sits on the egg until the egg hatches. When the egg hatches, out comes, not a little baby bird, but an elephant with wings.

The moral of the story is this: he who cares for the unwanted child--that child will take on the nature of the one who cared for it. It is the spirit of adoption! God is calling the Church to adopt and care for the unwanted children in the nation. We have got to be Jesus' love answer. We can't just be pro-birth we must be pro-life!

Recently, a young man heard me preach on adoption. He came to me and said, "Two days ago, my wife and I adopted an African American child. Two weeks before, a lesbian couple was going to adopt that child, but the adoption process fell through." I was gripped by their testimony! That child's life will be changed forever!

God is shouting though Horton Hatches an Egg, "Who will care for the babies?" Homosexuals are adopting by the thousands. They believe that it is their time. Do they, perhaps, want the children more than we do?

Let the prophetic Church arise and carry the heart of Heaven! Let them hear The Call for united fasting and prayer on behalf of those who have no voice! Let the prophetic Church hear what the world can't hear, and may they blow the trumpet once again, declaring, "God has a dream, and we have His dream, and millions will be mobilized to become the river of justice rolling down again...."

Lou Engle
Justice House of Prayer
http://www.jhop.org
For more information on The Call 7-7-07, click here