Anne Graham Lotz's Prayer for Egyptian Believers

Anne Graham Lotz, internationally renowned Bible teacher and daughter of Billy Graham — and a speaker at the 2011 Epicenter Conference — has written an excellent column on “Prayer for Egyptian Believers".

Along with the rest of the Body of Christ worldwide, my attention has been riveted on the events unfolding in Egypt. My spirit resonates with the heart-felt cry for freedom of hundreds of thousands of people who have demonstrated in the streets. I have cried with them, danced with them, sung with them, and rejoiced with them as they have celebrated the unprecedented collapse of an oppressive regime. And I have prayed for them, that God in Heaven would keep His promise stated through the Old Testament prophet Isaiah: When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, He will send them a Savior and Defender, and He will rescue them. So the Lord will make Himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord…They will turn to the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them. How I pray that the Egyptian people will turn to God! And how I pray for the return of Jesus Christ to this earth, to rule in true righteousness and justice for all …especially the oppressed.

As a Christian, I am not only praying for the Egyptian people in general, but I am praying for the followers of Jesus Christ in particular who are living in a nation during a time of upheaval and uncertainty. I am deeply convinced that what Egyptians are looking for is ultimately found in a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, I am praying for Christians who have the Answer to speak up and speak out.

When Christians in the first century were arrested, warned to no longer speak of Jesus, and persecuted for their faith, this was their prayer in Acts 4:29: Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness.

My prayer for the Christians in Egypt as well as the United States, is for us to boldly speak up and speak out the name of Jesus! I pray that the followers of Jesus would seize the opportunity to tell people that God loves them, that their lives have eternal significance, that He has a unique plan and purpose for their lives that includes real hope for the future, that He has given them Jesus as The Way to come, not into a religion or a denomination or an organization, but into a personal, love relationship with Himself that is permanent. Please tell them, that they can know that this life is not all there is. The best is yet to come. Because Jesus is preparing a heavenly Home where they will live with Him forever.

One of the early churches was located in what is now Izmir, Turkey. The people were as poor then as those living in the garbage city outside of Cairo now. Yet they boldly proclaimed the Good News. As a result, one of their leaders was put to death, and others were severely persecuted. Jesus singled them out for worldwide commendation when He wrote a letter preserved in the book of Revelation. He encouraged them in this way: Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days (suffering is temporary, even if it lasts a lifetime). Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

The Crown of Life, as I understand, is the Medal of Honor for believers. It is the highest award God gives, reserved for those who do not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. One day, those who suffer for the sake of the Gospel here, will be honored there! On that day, all of us will join in the chorus that rocks the Universe, Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain (Jesus understands persecution firsthand), to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! On that day, regardless of what you have suffered, it will be worth it, because He is worth it. Lord Jesus, give us the courage of our convictions to exalt Your name until we see You face to face.

Pray for Egypt's Great Awakening

I knew after the events of yesterday, Joel Rosenberg would have quite a bit to say worth hearing. You may read all of it for yourself here, Joel Rosenberg, but let me give you a quick synopsis:

• Joel Rosenberg will be on Fox News Sunday at 12:20 pm central time, to discuss the fall of Mubarak.
• There are estimated 2.5 million followers of Jesus Christ in Egypt today.
• They are facing harassment and persecution.
• Our job as believers around the world at this moment of turmoil, change and uncertainty is to stand with our brothers and sisters in Egypt, encourage them, pray for them, provide whatever training or resources they need, and provide some funding if possible to help them proclaim the gospel, make disciples, train new pastors, plant new churches, care for the poor and needy, and minister to the people in many other ways.
• Read about the famous "garbage" church. Reading this makes me want to go there, makes me want to worship there!
  
• Mr. Rosenberg ends with this - We know through Isaiah 19 that the future of Egypt is going to get far worse in the last days before the return of Christ. We also know that eventually Egypt will experience a great national awakening.

Pull away sometime in the next few days to pray for believers in Egypt. The timing is crucial for our prayers - regimes are changing before our very eyes. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Greatest Threat Facing the World Today

My favorite place these days to put two and two together - biblical prophecy and current news - is Joel Rosenberg's blog, http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/.

Posted February 9, 2011

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an important address to a policy conference in Jerusalem on Monday of some 400 European lawmakers and dignitaries, organized by the European Friends of Israel.

Excerpts from PM Netanyahu’s address:

“Our commitment, our goal is the maintenance and the expansion of peace. But as we think about the dramatic events that are taking place in Egypt, let’s not lose sight of an even greater earthquake, greater than everything that I described, that could rock our region and rock the world and rock each of your countries and Europe if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons.

“Here’s what Iran is doing today. It’s in Afghanistan; it’s in Iraq; it’s in the Yemen; it’s pretty much taken over Lebanon; it’s taken over Gaza; it’s in the Horn of Africa; it’s even sending its tentacles to the Western Hemisphere, penetrating Latin America. This is what Iran is doing today without nuclear weapons. Imagine what they will do tomorrow with nuclear weapons. Iran already has missiles that reach well beyond Israel. They’re not developing these long-range missiles for us; they can reach us. They’re developing it for you, to reach you. With each passing day, those missiles bring more of Europe into range. And I have some bad news for you: Jose Maria, you’re in the caliphate. They talk about a new caliphate. There’s anyone here from Romania? Borderline. Sweden? You’re out of it for now. They say they can’t possibly mean this, it cannot be that in the 21st century people speak of caliphates, of new-found empires, of an ideology that is suited not for the 21st century but for the 9th century. I urge you not to underestimate this threat to our common civilization. It’s hard for people to understand, especially for Westerners. It’s hard for them to understand fanaticism – especially if sometimes it wears a suit and a tie, or a suit without a tie. It’s very hard to understand that. But it’s there.

“You ask yourself, for example, what was the Taliban thinking when they enabled the dispatch of al-Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they thinking that the United States would not send an army to bring down their regime? Could they have been that crazy, or that stupid? They weren’t stupid. They were totally irrational.

“Today there’s a competition between the militant Sunnis and the militant Shiites. The militant Shiites have a state. That state is developing nuclear weapons, with unbridled ambitions for power and dominance. They see the United States as the great Satan, we’re the little Satan, and you’re somewhere in between. You’re a middle-sized Satan. That’s how they view us. And there’s no room in the world, in their world, for us and for our societies.

“I believe that the greatest threat facing the world today is the possibility that a militant Islamic regime will meet up with nuclear weapons, or that nuclear weapons will meet up with a militant Islamic regime. The first is called Iran, the second is called Pakistan. Given the events that are unfolding in our region, there are other possibilities as well. This cannot be allowed to happen.

“The good news is that nothing is inevitable. We have the power to protect our common civilization, to roll back the forces of radicalism and to advance a secure peace. One of the keys to defeating this fanaticism is to be able to distinguish friends from enemies. In this battle between the 21st century and the 9th century, between freedom and despotism, between progress and primitivism, Europe and Israel stand squarely on the same side…..”