Persecution and Prayer
I think many of us witness the attacks on Christians in other countries with horror and dismay, when they defend and stand up for what they believe in. We share their beliefs, and of course, we deplore bullies.
I do think one way God sometimes intervenes is to come to us about a particular prisoner and give us a sort of compulsion to pray. I have known that on a number of occasions, where I suddenly knew I had to engage in intercession and spiritual warfare, accompanied by tongues, for a prisoner. Now I can have no idea exactly what God was doing in that, but I think prisoners sometimes have particular times of crisis in captivity (speaking as a former prison governor myself, which may be part of why I get prompted about prisoners - I don’t know).
Anyway, while we should be open to taking practical action as well, the least we may do is pray (and that is no small thing to be dismissed).
While some persecution is driven by religious fundamentalism (for example in the north of Nigeria) it’s important to recognise that a lot of persecution is because of a leader’s political agenda, and desire to eliminate opposition. They censor the media, they oppose true Christian values of decency and kindness, they are scared that true Christians may call them out. Therefore I think it’s also important for Christians to stand up for democratic principles, including the right to express opinions freely, and to oppose censorship.
There are helpful organisations who can keep us informed of persecution, murder, oppression, so we can pray for the individuals concerned.
Let us pray for ALL people being persecuted at this time. God have mercy.
I do think one way God sometimes intervenes is to come to us about a particular prisoner and give us a sort of compulsion to pray. I have known that on a number of occasions, where I suddenly knew I had to engage in intercession and spiritual warfare, accompanied by tongues, for a prisoner. Now I can have no idea exactly what God was doing in that, but I think prisoners sometimes have particular times of crisis in captivity (speaking as a former prison governor myself, which may be part of why I get prompted about prisoners - I don’t know).
Anyway, while we should be open to taking practical action as well, the least we may do is pray (and that is no small thing to be dismissed).
While some persecution is driven by religious fundamentalism (for example in the north of Nigeria) it’s important to recognise that a lot of persecution is because of a leader’s political agenda, and desire to eliminate opposition. They censor the media, they oppose true Christian values of decency and kindness, they are scared that true Christians may call them out. Therefore I think it’s also important for Christians to stand up for democratic principles, including the right to express opinions freely, and to oppose censorship.
There are helpful organisations who can keep us informed of persecution, murder, oppression, so we can pray for the individuals concerned.
Let us pray for ALL people being persecuted at this time. God have mercy.