It was an honor and joy for me to serve as a speaker for the United Prayer Movement gathering in Cappadocia, Turkey a couple weeks ago. About 500 Turkish believers, Christian workers within the country, and intercessors from outside spent three days covering this nation in prayer, asking for His breakthrough. This is one of the most unreached nations on earth with about 5500 evangelical believers amidst about 100,000 from the traditional Orthodox and Catholic churches living in a sea of 80 million mainly Muslim people, most of whom have never heard the truth about Jesus Christ. Modern day Turkey is the location of Antioch and the seven churches of Revelation where the Apostle Paul and others established many of the first communities of Christians and then used them as bases to go further afield in sharing His Gospel to the nations. Now this nation needs to be re-evangelized. Even during the event and during travel to and from, I found myself with numerous opportunities to bear witness to the Lord of life to Turks and Kurds (a large minority population), all of whom seemed open and some of which were even hungry to hear about Him.

During my message to the brothers and sisters there, I urged them to think of themselves as “world changers”. In the midst of my own Jubilee year in the ministry, I told them that the most exciting thing on earth is to connect with God and become His instruments for the transformation of Turkey, the Middle East and our world. What a staggering thought that Christ in us, in spite of our obvious human frailty, can enable each of us to become a powerful instrument to impact to our community, nation and world! After 50 years, I am still thoroughly convinced that nothing compares to serving Jesus in the nations. What a high privilege!

There are four practices I shared with the conference participants through which colleagues and I have over and over again witnessed God’s mighty working to bring His transformation to cities and nations. They laughed when I offered to bet them 10 million Turkish lira that these practices would bring about breakthrough in Turkey if they would implement them!

1. Confess and repent for sins of your ethnic group and nation

This is the principle of identificational confession and repentance in which individuals can represent their nation or people group as Nehemiah and Daniel did. This is also the principle of corporate solidarity as found when the high priest represented his people by going into the Holy of Holies to confess the sins of the twelve tribes. Daniel and Nehemiah confessed “we” have sinned. (Read Nehemiah 1 and Daniel 9) They were godly, sensitive men but identified with the corporate sins of their fathers and ancestors. Through the application of this practice God brought about the release of Nehemiah to go and build wall to save Judah from her enemies. The angel Gabriel was released to bring the end time vision to Daniel. Both of these experiences deeply affected the history of Israel.

In 61 national prayer initiatives over the last 25 years or so, colleagues and I have also witnessed many such releases that have brought unexpected breakthroughs at the political level-- the sudden end of wars through peace agreements, governments of national unity and the removal of evil rulers. At least eight wars and ethnic conflicts, six of them in Africa, that no one thought would ever end have been stopped this way, saving the lives of hundreds of thousands.

If we humbly confess and repent of our sins and those of our people, we will definitely get God’s attention. He is drawn to those who are humble and contrite in heart. The problem is that most people feel OK about their nation and culture, even believing that they are superior to others, and so are blinded and hindered by nationalistic pride. What a difference it would make if God’s people in each nation would identify the corporate sins of their nation and begin to confess those sins to God on behalf of their people!

What corporate sins do you observe in your own nation that are hindering God’s transformation? Are you willing to stand in the gap as a representative to confess them both privately and publicly so that His mercy may be released? 

2. Forgive and reconcile with all those who have offended you

Jesus commanded, “if you have something against your brother, go..” Before worship, get right with anyone you may have offended or who has offended you. Every one of those prayer initiatives that resulted in breakthroughs have been bathed in an atmosphere of prayer with the resulting manifest presence of God. In such an atmosphere, deeply moving times of asking for forgiveness by Christian leaders representing themselves and/or their institutions has followed. In the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001, one man under profound conviction cried out to others across the room, “Brothers, please forgive me that I split from you 20 years ago.” That led to a few hours of many others getting reconcilied, and our whole facilitation team wept along with them.

In Sudan, in 2002, church leaders went on for some hours publicly confessing, then asking forgiveness between their denominations and organizations. Then, they cried out in real heart unity for a breakthrough in the peace negotiations and a ceasefire was signed by the officials at the same time they were shouting together! In Sri Lanka, in 2001, Sinhalese and Tamil leaders confessing and praying in each others’ arms after deep reconciliation received the assurance that history would be changed and sure enough the next morning’s headlines proclaimed that the reclusive Tamil Tiger rebel leader for the first time ever wanted peace talks with the government.

Are there any individuals, churches, people from another ethnic group you need to get right with? Do you need to ask forgiveness or extend it?

Satan is the diabolos or divider. His main strategy is to split people and nations and if possible foment destructive violence and war so that he can destroy people as efficiently as possible. His strategy is to divide Christians so they cannot pray unitedly against him and his agenda. The way to counter him is to live in continual reconciliation and forgiveness.

3. Pray unitedly and authoritatively

The first two practices lead to this. Without humble confession and repentance, reconciling and forgiving, we cannot pray in the unity and authority that will for sure bring about God’s transformations.

United prayer is the way to see history changed. In 2 Chronicles 20, for example, King Jehoshaphat called everyone together, men, women and children to stand together in prayer and fasting. The three enemy armies coming against Judah were then thrown into confusion and defeated. Many other cases from Scripture could be noted. I am fond of quoting the theologian Walter Wink who said: “History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being… These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out of the future the longed-for new present. 

Jesus gives us absolutely staggering promises that are for us in a plural and united sense. Over and over again, He said “whatever… anything” you ask will be done (Matt. 18:18-20, John 14:13-14). When we pray with others in unity, getting on same wavelength with God and one another and listening with our hearts connected to His heart, we will see His amazing breakthroughs. I John 5:14-15, also written to a group of believers rather than to just an individual, tells us that when we pray like that, we will know how to pray according to His will and will also have the assurance that we will receive whatever we are asking. 

Such prayer unity takes time and can’t be rushed. We have to build relationships and pray with one or more prayer partners over time. Do you have one or more prayer partners that you are regularly praying with?

We also need to use His authority that has been delegated to us as His children. It is inevitable when praying unitedly that we will threaten the prince of this world. He will backlash to try and stop us. That is one of the reasons that prayer meetings (the most powerful church gatherings for effecting macro transformation) are usually the least attended ones. 

God gave dominion of the earth to humans (Gen 1:26). The devil is a usurper and deceiver. Through prayer, we can recover and use the authority the Lord wants us to have. Even children can use His authority as He taught in Luke 10:18-21. Tragically, many believers don’t ever use it. A converted witch once told a friend of mine that when she was practicing witchcraft she and her friends could see the power of God resting on Christians, but she and her companions were not afraid since the majority of those believers did not know how to use it! 

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-populated country. Much of Islam there is quite occult through trafficking with spirits. There are places and territories dedicated to evil spirits that historically have caused oppression and blindness to Gospel. For example, we heard that Suharto, the dictator-president of Indonesia in the 1990s drew spiritual power from a graveyard and also sought to protect himself by surrounding himself with 700 spirit mediums. However, he was overthrown as believers there with the support of others from abroad used Jesus’ authority to “tread on the serpents and scorpions and overcome all the power of the enemy”.

Indonesia now has perhaps the most powerful prayer movement on earth with many millions of believers involved; they have over 500 prayer towers and 24/7 teams; the country is now estimated to be 30% Christian. During the World Prayer Assembly that was held there in 2012, almost 400 cities and 2.5 million believers joined together in prayer through satellite TV and in the national stadium. 40 Muslim imams came to the Lord after the WPA through having the same dream! Over 200,000 trained child intercessors prayer-walk and close down places of corruption and immorality in various parts of the nation. The first Christian governor of Jakarta elected after the WPA has been cleaning up corruption and solving other problems, winning favor even in the eyes of the Muslim majority. This is the Lord and what He can do if we will take His promises seriously, praying with His unity and authority for our own nation.

4. Share the Gospel Boldly

Early Christians of Asia Minor (the present day Turkey) and especially the Apostle Paul, probably the greatest missionary who has ever lived, were bold in making Jesus Christ known. Indeed, they felt indebted to those who had not heard the Good News. They mainly were very simple, ordinary folks who used their marketplace connections as small merchants and artisans to spread the Gospel far and wide. The best opportunities to share with others come through such relationships of affinity, travel, etc. As we pray for “divine encounters” or engage in “prayer evangelism”, praying for neighbors, friends, family members and strangers, God will surely give such natural opportunities, preparing the hearts of those around us to hear and respond.

The simple believer, Ananias, heard God’s voice telling him to go to that fearsome persecutor of Christians, Saul. His obedience was used by God to launch the great apostle into a world mission, resulting in the spread of the Christian faith throughout the whole then-known world. Since the first century, prayer combined with the bold sharing of the truth of Jesus has been a powerful, transformational practice that has again and again profoundly changed communities and even whole nations. It is and will do so again in our own day.

For practical application:

1 Identify corporate sins, confess and repent of them on behalf of your ethnic group and nation.

2 Think of individual people, church or ethnic groups you need to get right with. Determine to go to them and ask forgiveness if you or your people have offended them, or if they have offended you.

3 Pray unitedly and authoritatively as He leads for specific things you want to see changed in your community and nation.

4 Pray for your neighbors, friends, cities and towns, and for His boldness to share the Gospel as He gives opportunity. 

John Robb, IPC Chairman