Tag Archives: Intercession

April 2, 2020 · 9:20 am

70,000 Deaths in Three Days!

BASECO Slum, Manila https://markpedder.wordpress.com

God was angry with Israel in 970 BC. So, He allowed Satan to entice King David to take a census of the people in Israel.

Doesn’t a census sound harmless? But it wasn’t.

You see, Exodus 30:11-12 states that a census had to be ordered only by God because the Israelites were His people and not the property of any King. And if a census was taken, a ransom had to be given by each person to the Lord or a plague would hit the people of Israel.

When King David ordered the census to be taken, Joab, the commander of Israel’s armies, said to David, “But why, my lord the king, do you want to do this? Are they not all your servants? Why must you cause Israel to sin?”

King David ignored Joab’s advice and insisted on the census.

It took almost ten months to count the people.

And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

The Lord sent the prophet Gad to King David to explain just how David’s iniquity could be removed. Gad gave David three options to choose from:

I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.” (2 Samuel 24:14 NLT)

The Lord sent a severe plague on the following morning. 70,000 men died in Israel over the time of the plague. More would have perished, but King David interceded for Israel by saying:

“I am the one who called for the census! I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent as sheep—what have they done? O Lord my God, let your anger fall against me and my family, but do not destroy your people.” (1 Chronicles 21:17 NLT)

King David’s prayer becomes more amazing when you consider that David was willing to give up every prophetic promise for himself and his family if that would stop the plague. His promises included a Son of David promise that would arrive on the scene almost three thousand years later.

God saw David’s heart and stopped the plague.

(Read the whole story in 2 Samuel 24 or 1 Chronicles 21.)

What does this have to do with the Coronavirus, right?

I believe the Lord is looking for believers who are willing to intercede in the same way King David did by standing in the gap for their cities, states and America right now.

For those who are willing, all we have to do is ask the Lord what He requires us to do in this sad hour. If we each do our part, I believe this pandemic will end sooner…rather than later.

My Irish Story

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My roommate Tony and I enjoyed laughing in the midst of our financial struggles. I remember walking to Hy-Vee Grocery Store one morning and seeing a dead pheasant lying next to the road.

“Hey, we might be able to make a stew out of that bird,” said Tony.

“Really?”

“Actually, I’m trying to make up my mind whether I’m that desperate yet.”

Humor helps during bad times, but we were also serious prayer warriors, who believed God could use us to advance His kingdom. Each morning, we waited on the Lord to discover how He wanted us to pray.

Once, we felt He wanted us to pray for Northern Ireland and its violent unrest at the time. We began praying in tongues, waiting on the Holy Spirit to show us a clear direction on how to intercede for the war-torn area. I then had a vision in which I saw bodies of young people piled in heaps on the streets of Belfast, thousands of them. All had their lives snuffed out by the continued violence between the Catholics and Protestants.

The vision so disturbed me I could do nothing but weep. Tony and I eventually prayed as best we could to stop this vision from happening in Ireland, but we had no peace about it. I also felt there was an important prophetic word for Northern Ireland within my spirit, waiting to be given.

I went to my bedroom afterward and prayed, asking the Lord to give the prophecy to some well-known preacher. Who would listen to me? As soon as I prayed the words, I knew it was a bad idea so I repented quickly.

“Lord, show me how to speak the prophecy to Northern Ireland,” I prayed. With those words, peace settled over me.

The Lord impressed me to visit a Catholic church near the campus two days later. I walked in the door and asked if anybody knew someone in Northern Ireland. They all laughed, but one lady suggested I should talk with a secretary in the basement.

I went to the secretary. She did not know anyone in Ireland, but she knew the name of the Catholic Charismatic leader in Des Moines.

“Maybe that person knows someone in Ireland,” she said.

The next day, I phoned the Catholic Charismatic leader.

“I don’t know anyone in Ireland,” she said, “but my husband knows the head of the Catholic Charismatic movement in England.”

Her husband came on the line and gave me the phone number.

I phoned the number in England early the next morning because of the six-hour time difference. The leader’s wife answered and told me her husband was attending a meeting in London. I explained to her the reason for my phone call.

“Funny,” she said, “but I’m looking at the exact person you need. His picture is on the cover of a book.”

She gave me the information.

I sat down at the kitchen table and wrote the prophetic word for Northern Ireland, and then mailed it to the leader in Belfast.

This whole experience was by faith and after dropping the letter into the mailbox, all of my faith dried up. Every doubt in the world hit me. Who did I think I was anyway? A nobody. A failure. I didn’t even belong to a church. No pastor would ever vouch for me. The Irish leader would take one look at my name, my handwritten scrawl, and laugh. But even in the midst of these doubts, I knew enough to run to the throne of grace, asking for grace and mercy to help me through this trial of faith.

Two weeks later, the phone rang on a Sunday afternoon.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Larry, I’m Cecil Kerr from Belfast, Ireland. I’m calling to thank you for the prophetic word you sent me. Our prayer group had been waiting for just such a word. We are already praying it into fruition. So, from all of us, we thank you for your obedience to the Holy Spirit.”

We talked for a few minutes and then said our goodbyes. I fell on my knees and wept, realizing how big God is and, by comparison, how little I am. To think God would use me, to pray for such a far off place, which was going through such desperate life and death struggles, opened my eyes to the greatness of our God. Nothing is impossible for Him.

If there had been a contest for the two most insignificant Christians in America at the time, Tony and I had a chance of winning. My truck had been repossessed. Tony’s car needed a tire. We had no money and AT&T disconnected our phone the very next morning.

God never seems to be bothered by such trivial things as our insignificance in the world.

The above took place in 1995. The peace treaty between the IRA and Great Britain was finally signed on Good Friday, 1998, and continues today.

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Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Faith, Gifts of the Spirit, Intercession, Ireland, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, Spirituality

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November 28, 2015 · 11:35 am

When Prayer Fails…

Yes, I ate too much for Thanksgiving and when I finally stopped, I looked around the table at our family. As I did, I had a divine interruption.

In a nano-second vision, I saw America in much the same way Choi Ja-Shil saw South Korea in the late 1940’s: a nation under the control of Satan and his kingdom of darkness. She immediately made up her mind to make a difference, no matter what it might cost her.

Choi Ja-Shil ended up fasting often and interceding up to ten hours per night for South Korea for the next ten years after her revelation. She did all of this while raising three children, attending a Bible school, and working to support her family.

Choi Ja-Shil’s prayers resulted in a meeting with Pastor David Yonggi Cho and starting a church in May, 1958. Eventually, the couple’s efforts produced Yoido Full Gospel Church (830,000 members), prayer meetings of 300,000 believers, and Osanri Prayer Mountain which has one million visitors per year.

Today, South Korea has the largest percentage of Christians of any nation in Asia. Not only that, Korean Christians – corporately and individually – are committed to prayer. Early morning prayer meetings, evening prayer meetings, and all night prayer concerts on weekends.

Now, how much of this was due to Choi Ja-Shil’s efforts? Only heaven knows.

Okay, what will I do with my revelation?

To be honest, I don’t know, but I’m willing to seek the Lord on what I should do.

So, for the next month or however long it takes, I won’t be blogging or on Facebook because I want to focus myself on this and also on some outside writing projects. If you have the time, pray for me to hear the Lord’s voice and to obey Him.

“When prayer fails, intercession begins.” (Rees Howells)

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Filed under Christianity, Church, Intercession, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Tagged as Christianity, Church, Fasting, Intercession, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Spiritual warfare