Time magazine

The Punch of Prayer

/ Jana / Leave a comment

I got this great response to  yesterday’s blog. She said, “I think I’m following you, but if you’re not familiar with the kind of warfare-pray-with-authority stuff that you do, it could sound to the average Jane like, ‘See! I told you. So now we’d better just love our enemies and pray.’ That’s NOT what you’re saying…”

She is so right. That is NOT what I am saying. That article is a living, color photo of abuse.  Just like the sex trade. Just like the raid and arrest on Papermill Drive.  Just like the women I talk to whose dads or brothers or mom’s boyfriends stole their innocence and childhood.

I go through a gamut of emotions initially when I see this myself. Shock, rage, revenge, despair. But then I have to remember that God has known about this problem all along. And He has decided that it is time I know about it. It’s time that you know about it. So what do we do?

We tend to do a couple of things: Get overwhelmed and do nothing. Or, get scared and do nothing. Or, start to engage, get pushed back and then quit. This is where the despair kicks in.

But when I look at the model of Jesus, and His instruction to us, He never lost sight of the enemy, the battle and who would win. He modeled for us “praying in the Spirit” and agreeing with God’s perspective. He is a God of Justice. The God of Vengeance. He doesn’t just get even, He overcomes the evil of the world. He makes wrong things right, either in our lives or in the life to come.

My bottom line is this, pray with the power-filled name of Jesus and pray against the evil of the day.

Lord,  You see and know more than I do, the lost, hurt, abused women and children of our day. Please show them that they are not forgotten. Please bring Your supernatural help to them.  Rescue them Lord, send people to them to rescue them from the evil they are facing. Give them hope. And Lord, I pray that You would raise up warriors who would intercede. I speak the name of Jesus into this world. Your name is poured forth like ointment. To Your name be the glory. Amen.

P. S. from Jana

For another way to intercede, read Psalm 140.  It’s is a comfort, but also a great thing to pray aloud.

P. P. S. from Laura

Be sure to keep an eye out for our new look!  The updated Women Getting Real website is coming soon…

Those who live by the sword…

/ Jana / 1 Comment

I know there is a flood of comments about the mutilated Afghan girl featured in Time magazine. My first response was: Now do you believe me when I talk about the heinous acts toward women worldwide? Now are we getting mad enough, or horrified enough, or outraged enough, so that we might pray and respond? But how?

Jesus said to Peter, one of his own disciples who mutilated a servant during His arrest,  “Those who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 36:52.)

Is that a threat? No, it is a promise. Because right after this statement Jesus asserts His own power and authority saying that He could call down legions of angel armies. Legions. Of angels. Angel armies. Let your mind soak in that. And what was His next action?

Jesus healed the ear. The ear of His enemy.

And so God calls us to this same place of grace. We seek healing for the perpetrators. We call down, with the same authority and confidence, angel armies to help us bring justice to this world.

Our enemy is not the Taliban. It is not even perverted, curse-bearing, female-abusing men. It is the devil who so hates the Image of God that we bear, that he will stop at nothing to distort and destroy it.

Oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we cry out to you to in the name of Jesus,
that you would bring set the oppressed free, and break every yoke,
that you would equip and enable us to bring justice in a depraved generation,
that you would bring beauty from ashes, and restoration from devastation.
You are our strength, our hope, our reward, and the only name by which we are saved.
In Your name Jesus, heal us.

Amen