Gap-standing
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Ezekiel 22:30, KJV; emphasis added
The recent turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri, has hit national and international news. And while pundits, leaders, personalities, and citizens give their opinions to awaiting microphones and cameras, another stream of focus has hit Heaven—men and women are taking their stand in the gap.
The last clause of Ezekiel 22:30 is terribly sad. “I found no one,” lamented the living God concerning His search for an intercessor. However, the seriousness of our times compounded by the critical events in St. Louis—the heart of America—have brought many sincere men and women to their knees, crying out to the God of all things to intervene with His mighty power and unquenchable love.
And I sought for a man among them…
God searches for people. One type of person for whom He looks is someone who will stand in the gap, praying and interceding for others.
… a man among them, that should make up the hedge…
God looks for a man (or a woman) who will make up the hedge. What is the hedge? According to Strong’s Concordance, this Hebrew word gader simply means a fence or a wall (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H1447&t=KJV). Enemies are deterred by hedges, walls, and fences surrounding those they seek to harm.
What is it that God wants the man or woman to do with the hedge? He wants them to “make up” the hedge.Gadar is the Hebrew word for “making up” and means “to wall up, wall off, close off, build a wall [or] to shut off” (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H1443&t=KJV).
Effective gap-standing prayer takes place right where the hedge has been trampled down.
Consider societal unrest. Somehow, violence and lawlessness exalts itself over a population, victimizing a community or region with anger, fear, and chaos. The restraining effects of discipline, decorum, and lawfulness have somehow fallen apart, and God wants the hedge of protection rebuilt and repaired because of His great protective love for the people. This is accomplished by walling up, walling off, closing off, and shutting off the community in question from the ravages of the destroyer—sometimes literally (as in the boarding up of broken windows in looted businesses). But this “hedge making-up” enterprise is also—and always—to be enacted in the realm of the Spirit as intercession is offered by someone on behalf of those lacking full hedge-coverage. Effective gap-standing prayer takes place right where the hedge has been trampled down.
…and stand in the gap before me for the land…
God has been talking about a hedge in need of repair. This hedge has a gap. Perets is the Hebrew word which is used, and it means a breach or a bursting forth—similar to when a dam breaks and water spills out (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H6556&t=KJV.) In other words, a gap in a hedge is a great big hole. And you know what holes allow: They allow that which is good on the inside to leak out and get lost, and they open the door to let the wickedness outside come flooding in.
What does the Lord instruct His man or woman to do about the gap? Does He lead them to wring their hands and worry? Does He tell them to condemn the hedge?
No. Once the intercessor is made aware of the gap, he is to stand in it. As the trampled hedge is repaired, the intercessor is to remain in the gap, plugging it up until it is rebuilt. This word “stand” is `amad which indicates to take a stand, to remain and endure, and to hold your ground (see http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5975&t=KJV). As you stand in the gap, you are blocking the devil from gaining continued entrance into a volatile or destructive situation. You are restraining him and his lawlessness as you stand in the hedge’s gap.
God is seeking today for a man among us to make up the hedge and to stand in the gap, and I believe that He is finding an army of us in this hour. In fact, I believe that every living member of the Body of Christ has gap-standing assignments every day on behalf of lost and hurting humanity. And despite the critical nature of those gaps to which you are led, the God before whom you stand is quite capable of shaping your prayers and granting you effectiveness in that gap in the hedge.
You are called to be a gap-stander in this hour. You are a repairer of the hedge. May God grant you effectiveness as you stand before Him.
Dorothy
Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell. Isaiah 58:12
Read MorePray for St. Louis
An ugly cloud has been cast upon this region of the nation with the shooting of an 18-year-old on Saturday by a local police officer. The young man, Michael Brown, was allegedly unarmed when the officer shot him, allegedly in the back, allegedly more than once. Details are unclear at this time; the FBI has been called in to help investigate. [Note: later reports revealed that Brown was not shot from behind; the shots were fired as Brown faced the officer.]
After a peaceful prayer vigil Sunday night, the protest that followed quickly deteriorated into chaos. At least sixteen stores were vandalized and looted; a Quik Trip was gutted and burned; and there have been dozens of arrests in connection with the lawless activities.
Pray. This part of St. Louis county has experienced renewal and a renaissance of sorts in recent years, and the tragic loss of this young man and the ensuing destructive bedlam has brought a cloud of suspicion, mistrust, “I-told-ya-so’s”, reawakened fears, and unnecessary and unearned finger-pointing both locally and nationally.
I have frequently shopped in the area. I have friends living in the area. I had lunch with my sister in the area last week. This area has been a success story of an integrated community working together to improve the quality of life for as many as possible. And one thing the devil despises is a harmonious success story; hence, he seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.
As for the looting, I felt I must give my opinion here, seeing as the mother of the deceased young man has publicly and very vigorously decried and denounced every bit of the destruction, calling it extreme disrespect to the memory of her son. And after watching the news Sunday night into the early hours of Monday morning, I developed a theory that may offer some insight as to how to pray.
The reports revealed that looters had removed or covered the license plates of their vans, SUVs, and large-trunked cars. Many also wore masks or covered their faces with cloths. As I thought about it, I realized that these were very likely not spontaneous crimes of grief or even racially-oppressed anger. I became suspicious that the looters—prepared with concealed license plates and roomy vehicles—were more than likely not from the immediate area, but might have arrived from other townships and cities. I have a feeling that many of these people pre-meditated their moves and used this tragedy as an opportunity to grab some goods to sell online. It’s my belief that few—if any—of the looters gave a second thought to the grief of Michael Brown’s family as they yielded to greed and violence, destroying businesses that contributed to the well-being of this community. When I hear people speaking ill of the region—and one area commentator not blaming QT or others if they chose not to rebuild there—I get angry.
And although—as of Monday night—unrest is still brewing, I am convinced that we are not really dealing with merely a racial issue. We are dealing with a sin issue. We are dealing with a devil who is taking advantage of anyone he can to stir violence, chaos, and destruction. Don’t join with the naysayers. Instead, pray for the grieving parents, family members, and friends. Pray for the authorities to work with integrity as they seek to learn the facts necessary to bring about justice. Know that the majority of souls living in this community despise the destruction; understand that Satan seeks to use anyone he can to steal, kill, and destroy. Use your authority to stand against the spirit of lawlessness seeking to control minds and behaviors. Use your faith to stand for God’s will to prevail in this region—and in yours.
I won’t stop believing that God can turn this around for good—as ugly and painful as it is—and to use it to bring men and women, boys and girls to a saving and healing knowledge of Jesus Christ. God will be glorified. To believe less is to doubt His almighty power and mercy. But—we must stand in the gap through which Satan seeks to enter, and pray—with the help of the Holy Spirit—to block, thwart, and restrain the enemy’s evil strategies.
Standing fast,
Dorothy
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Ephesian 6:10-13
Read MoreBack to school—praying about issues in education
Today is the first day of school for students in the district where I taught eighth grade for the last nineteen years of my thirty-two year career. Honey, they didn’t shrink the kids—they shrunk the summer!
Let’s face it. What’s been going on in public education has weighed heavily on many people’s hearts and minds. Movements have been underway this past year to attempt to wrest control out of the hands of “experts” who are enforcing the year-old nationwide implementation of Common Core curriculum. These “highly qualified professionals”—to state it bluntly—institutionalize ideologies which promote concepts, practices, and worldviews that undermine the heart of principles which have built American greatness and goodness for generations. We all know that our school systems are, to a large extent, sadly lacking; we know that they have been hijacked in great part by those who care more for their pet political agendas than for your child’s ability to read with comprehension and enjoyment or his capacity to calculate math with proficiency and ease.
However, as I read articles online about the latest indignities in our educational system, the comments that follow are becoming more and more insulting, accusatory, and malicious—and many of them are from conservatives and even those who identify themselves as Christians. The outrage against the educational systems in our nation is escalating, to say the least.
A huge divide has been forming within our country—a divide of ideology, morality, and vision. Unfortunately, Satan has put our children in the crosshairs of it all, and they go about their childlike and youthful pursuits oblivious to the warfare being waged around them.
And like I said, we know that our educational system is sadly lacking and has been increasingly guilty of undermining traditional values. But I want to challenge you: the animosity that you may feel in response to what appears to be the purposeful destabilization of academics and culture needs to be channeled in the right direction in order to accomplish meaningful reform—whether on a small scale or large.
Here’s what I mean. You need to know what your child is being taught. You need to make yourself known and available to his or her teacher and administrator. You need to talk to your teen about our nation, our culture, our history, and right and wrong. You need to work daily on fine tuning their moral compass—and your own.
And you need to pray—every single day. Pray for his teachers. Pray for her peers. Pray in the Spirit. Pray the Word over your school district and let the living God move through you on its behalf. Then allow your prayers to encompass the nation’s students, schools, and policies.
The Lord understands your frustration with the agenda of darkness that your children and teens are exposed to on a daily basis; He understands the intensity of the outrage you may feel. But you must pray. You must pray with as much passion in the Spirit as the passion you feel boiling up in your disgust with this system—or with specific people in the system—who appear to twist truth and teach lies.
Take every bit of your concern and angst to the Lord in prayer daily on behalf of the schools and your children. Pray for all those involved on the school scene and pray for all you are worth.
God will hear your prayers and use them to create questions that only He can answer in the hearts and minds of children, teens, and adults. He will use your prayers to protect your children, their friends, and their schools. He will take the substance of your prayers and use it to transport laborers to a reckless teen, conviction to a hardened teacher, or the revelation of truth to an administrator wrapped up in political agenda.
Don’t fall into the fatalistic despair of those who lament the undermining of our educational system. Yes, you must assess clearly its current dismal state, but be persistent and bold as you pray in faith and by the Spirit of God about all that He leads you to pray. And do not let up.
The soul your son’s teacher may be mere weeks or hours from coming to Christ. Your daughter’s classroom may be just this side of a move of God. Linchpins holding the entire ungodly system together may be closer to falling apart than you dare think.
Pray, and do not stop praying.
Dorothy
Read MoreAnother urgent plea for prayer
Another urgent prayer plea came through my email today from my trusted friend. Dr. Bob Bakke, a pastor in Minnesota received this urgent request from a believer in South Africa. In the email is correspondence from a senior minister in Baghdad, Rev. Farouk Hammo. Rev. Hammo wrote his email on August 7th, and although President Obama has since authorized some missile strikes to slow ISIS, the area is still in desperate need of prayer. I do believe some of the carnage has slowed down, but slowed down carnage is still carnage, not peace or security. May each of us find the grace of God to stand in prayer with brethren across the world and be effective as we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit on their behalf. As Jane Hansen Hoyt (of Women’s Aglow) mentioned in an email she attached to Dr. Bakke’s email, “Together, we rise up in the authority of the name of Jesus against the hellish works of darkness taking place in the world. He reigns!”
Dorothy
URGENT PRAYER NEEDED THIS SUNDAY!
Dear friends –
This urgent call to prayer comes via my friend, Bernie Mostert in South Africa. I’m sure you are hearing similar things. We will pray Sunday at my church, Hillside of Bloomington. This is a call to prayer everywhere NOW.
It could not be more heartbreaking, terrifying, or urgent. Please consider what you can do through your networks. The people on this email alone could mobilize millions of people across various parts the earth in the next two days. It necessary that we try.
Should Jesus tarry – and If this ISIS tide is not stemmed – a new darkness will settle upon the earth for hundreds of years. May I plead with you not to ignore this email. Do not forward it before you have prayed through it. THEN send it to as many people as possible.
- Send it to friends and Christians you may know.
- Send it to your prayer group.
- Send it to your pastor to pray on Sunday during the service – making a special time of prayer for this. You can be certain that by Sunday many more Christians will be dead. Not maybe. Many will be dead.
Here is my friend’s urgent email:
Date: 07 August 2014 at 1:30:10 PM SAST
Subject: Urgent prayers needed
Greetings in Jesus name.
The situation for the Christians has being deteriorated badly within the last 36 hours, as ISIS has overtaken new areas:
- Sinjar ( North west of Mosel) and around = 30,000-plus being scattered around and on mountains as they were fleeing for their lives.
- Telkeif; Batnai; Tel Esquff ( I.e. Bishops hill); Bartella; Qara-quash; Al Gure; Ba’ashiqa; Bahzani.
Apart from Sinjar which is a mix of minorities, all the above mentioned cities are mainly Christians. ISIS has attack churches and raise their flags on churches; and call upon their gods inside our churches.
There was a massive exile yesterday and all night as the the Kurdish army have left their position and fled for their lives, thence people walked out leaving every thing behind just fleeing for their lives – I mean everything.
I was on the phone all night on the phone with brothers and sisters trying to help them find some sort of shelters as Erbil and Duhok were over-occupied. Families covered streets; kerbs; schools & parks. All churches ground being occupied with families. It’s a symbol of the abomination surfaced and emerged recently in this land.
We have called for urgent fasting and prayers. I believe it’s a spiritual warfare more than a ground battle. During my personal prayer and the intercessory group’s prayers I found it’s the old days monster, the old stingy serpent filled with hate and poison.
In Sinjar, they kidnap young girls and women and sold them as slaves. Kids and seniors died of thirst and hunger on the mountains.
I trust the Almighty for a Divine intervention, yet we need an urgent move of the Holy Spirit to turn the scale & balance of the situation on the ground.
We need all sort of help:
- We need you pressing on your government and authorities to step foreword and get involved.
- We need NGO to mobilise their gears and move into the country to save life and treat the injuries.
- We need supports to provide: food; medications; shelters; clean waters; baby milk, etc.
- Your prayers and intercessors will make a big difference.
May the Almighty bless richly always, Amen. Thank you
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Farouk Hammo
Senior Minister/ Baghdad- Iraq
One of the things you can practically do is to replace the picture of your mobile phone, Twitter account and Facebook with the following picture – as a sign of solidarity. This is the Arabic letter “N” painted on the houses of Christians (marking them for destruction), which is the first letter of the the word Christian.
Under His mercy,
Dr. Bob Bakke
Senior Teaching Pastor, Hillside Church, Bloomington, MN
Executive Leadership Team, OneCry
The power of a praying grandma
I dedicate the following story to those of you who are laboring in prayer for your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters—anyone and everyone near and dear to you—who seem to be disinterested in the things of God, who might even appear to be growing more and more closed off to the Lord.
My grandma was the only light in the family for years and years and through her untiring witness and prayers, God supernaturally pulled me out of the darkness in which I was drowning, and set me upon the Rock of my salvation. And even though my grandma is no longer here, those prayers she prayed are still before God, still powerful, and still moving on the hearts and minds of her other grandchildren—whether they know it or not—and now this granddaughter is in full agreement with those decades-old prayers.
My grandma was a Southern Baptist dynamo. She was so passionate about her family having a saving relationship with Jesus that the majority of them despised her for it. Sure, they loved her, but they thought she was a religious fanatic, and she made them very uncomfortable. And they let her know it.
Grandma’s three daughters all pulled out of the Oklahoma dust-bowl Depression to put themselves through college. Each one married intellectual men—my mom married an engineer and my two aunts married professors (one of whom was rumored to be a card-carrying member of the Communist party). Grandma’s pleas of “Are you saved?” rubbed every one of them the wrong way, but she didn’t care. As a kid, I was fascinated by the dynamics and secretly admired her refusal to be bullied out of what was widely viewed by the family to be an offensive and ridiculous stance. I loved my grandma and never felt threatened by her faith.
Grandma, I am sure, prayed nearly as much as she preached, and years later, even though the others in my generation of the family seemed to embrace worldviews far different than hers, I was still seeking.
One night, during a particularly stressful Christmas break, I was sitting in a bar getting drunk as quickly as I could. My friends, all dolled up, were on the prowl for good-looking guys, but I wanted nothing of that. You see, my step-grandma (my dad’s step-mom) had just passed away, and days before Christmas I had surgery to remove a large mass from my breast. As a nineteen year old, right before I went into surgery, I was required to sign a paper stating that the doctors could remove the breast if cancer was found. Although I was relieved to learn that the mass was benign, I was not in a good frame of mind.
So there I was, in a bar that served 19 year olds, getting drunk and spiraling down into cynicism and despair. I absent-mindedly watched as the band played song after song and the patrons danced in front of the musicians. When I noticed that the revelers were swaying with their arms lifted up, I heard a voice in my ear, “Lifted hands are a sign of worship.”
I dropped my head and said, “I’m in hell.”
Days later, while alone at my parents’ home, Jesus visited me, and Grandma’s prayers were answered.
Don’t you give up on your loved ones. Prayers over distance and time are powerful tools in the hand of God. You can be sure that He is working behind the scenes on behalf of a loved one—or a nation—if you don’t grow weary and give up. Stick with it. Don’t quit!
Dorothy
Read MoreWhen death snatched my friend away
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Elaine was part of the Tuesday/Thursday Bible study I attended in college. I didn’t know her very well; she only attended the university for a semester, but after she entered the work world, she and another young woman from the group shared a home near their places of work for a short time.
Word started filtering back to me that Elaine and her friend were experiencing a “Euodia and Syntyche” situation. These were the women to whom the apostle Paul referred in his letter to the Philippians: “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord” (Philippians 4:2). Evidently, Eu and Syn were not getting along, and it appears that their issues were affecting the church. The same thing was happening with Elaine and the other gal.
Although I didn’t know Elaine very well, and the other lady was like Moses to me (she was the one who shared with me in-depth about water baptism and got the ball rolling for my “dunking”), I felt led to do what Paul admonished the Philippians to do for the sparring women: “Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3). Elaine and her roommate lived between my parents’ home in St. Louis and the little town in which I taught my first year after college. On the way back to my small town home following a visit with my parents, I decided to “help these women”.
“Euodia” wasn’t home, but “Syntyche” (Elaine) was. We sat and talked together for an hour or so and prayed that God would bring peace and harmony back into the household. And then I hit the road, clueless to the fact that God had just laid the foundation for one of the most solid friendships of my life.
I moved back to St. Louis after my first year of teaching while Elaine taught middle school math in rural Missouri. But the friendship thrived as we visited one another’s homes at least once a year, and as we grew older, we visited three, four, or five times each year. She was one of those rare people who “got” me; my penchant for analyzing and “solving” world problems and issues in Christianity—aligning the two with an eye to what God was saying and where we might be in relation to the end times—tended to wear on others; they wanted to chat about lighter, more relational things—who was getting married, who was doing this or that, who went to what church. Not Elaine; she and I discussed events and issues in light of the Word hour after hour, solving and re-solving—and praying about—everything that came to mind.
After nearly twenty years of friendship, Elaine was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Again, we prayed together—often—and dug into the Word of God together to retrieve her complete healing from the Author of its pages. Before she went into her first surgery, she wrote the word “Satan” on the soles of her shoes, just to remind him of his position—under her feet.
She battled valiantly for four years—even though initially she was given less than a year to live. Those four years were full for her; she continued teaching for the first three, wore a floppy hat over her bald head wherever she went (wigs were itchy), and lived in joy and expectation of a good outcome.
We discussed her walk of faith and how strong she had grown as a result of her determined stance in the Lord. The thing that amazed me about Elaine was that her faith was not a denial of reality, nor was it a knee-jerk reaction to a fear of dying. She was walking through both the cancer and her faith hand in hand with Jesus, drawing near to Him.
One day she shared this profound perspective with me. Unafraid of death, but desiring to live (she was in her forties), she said, “Dorothy, death is not failure or defeat. I see death as the safety net under this tightrope I am walking by faith. If for some reason I don’t make it to the end, I’ll fall into the loving arms of Jesus.”
She refused to fear, whether cancer, chemo, life, death, or failure. She walked by faith, and in October, 1999, she stepped out of her body into eternity—by faith.
I lost a key person in my life when she went to Heaven—a rare friend who “got” me and loved me even when I was unlovable. And I mourned. I needed to. A place in my heart was instantly vacant; my friend who enjoyed and accepted me was no longer available.
But I knew where she was; I knew that she now lived in the presence of the Lord whom she so intensely loved, respected, and enjoyed.
Paul wrote, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Some have interpreted this verse to mean that we should not mourn the passing of our loved ones. I respectfully and vigorously disagree with that teaching. We grieve; but we do not grieve as the rest who have no hope.
When your friend is snatched away from you, it’s agonizing. It’s painful and you need to mourn the one who meant so much to you. Death is a part of life; so is mourning. Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 4 declares, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Psalm 116:15 assures us, “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones.” God certainly understands our need to grieve; He Himself is touched by the preciousness of the saint who passes from earth to Heaven, and He does not take their death lightly. Neither should we.
We have freedom in Christ to grieve the departure of our loved one from our lives. But our grief is not the grief of those who are without Christ and devoid of hope, for we know that our friend is having the time of her life as she joyfully embraces the King of kings and rejoices in her new, eternal home.
After Elaine passed, I had uneasy questions. This is normal when a faithful believer dies, especially when they are way too young and are standing in faith. In it all, however, God comforted me and gave me peace about all of the whys and what ifs. I would like to share with you how He did it.
He gave me Psalm 131. Its simple message quieted and comforted my mind.
“O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever.”
The death of a loved one is a difficult thing to grasp, even for the most fervent Christian. On the other hand, I am convinced that every one of our believing loved ones now in Heaven are 100% clear as to the “whys and what ifs” of their death, and I firmly believe that each one of them is A-OK with it. They likely don’t give it a second thought as they live out the adventure in that world—an adventure far greater than anything we could ever experience here.
Because of the heavy and ponderous questions and my inability to comprehend what is private between God and someone else, I have learned to be like that weaned child resting against his mother. Some things are just too difficult for me, and I have given myself permission to be OK with that. My friend is in Heaven, embracing the Lord; I am on earth resting against His heart. Anyway you look at it, that’s a good place to be.
May the God of all comfort surround you with His peace at the time of your loss.
Dorothy
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