August, 2000

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
By Marilyn Conrad

Many of you feel like second-class citizens in the Body of Christ. Perhaps you don’t have family or a pastor who supports what you are doing. I say to you, “We are second-class citizens no longer!” We are pioneers who have walked out new territories. We have plowed new ground. We have earned our wings. We are vanguards in the area of marriage healing!

The fruit of our labors is evident. Not only do we have healed marriages, we have raised up an army of prayer warriors across the nation and around the world. Prayer warriors who will not let Satan have their marriages and families.

We have become mature believers who daily walk in love and forgiveness and experience a fulfilling, abundant life. No wonder the enemy wants to discourage us.

Following is a portion of a letter from a covenant keeper in Chicago.

One morning while I was praying Isaiah 59:20- 21 over my backslidden husband, the Lord gave me some new insights. This scripture states: “The Lord will come as a redeemer to Joseph who has turned away from sin. As for me, this is my promise to Joseph, says the Lord. My Holy Spirit shall not leave him and he shall want the good and hate the wrong; he and his children and his children’s children forever.”

The Lord reminded me that one year ago He told me that, from my husband and me onward, our family line would serve Him. So I asked the Lord, “Why does it take so long for many of us? And why is the battle so fierce?” He said, “Take an example from history. Look at the Revolutionary War. I used the people who lived that time in history to stand for certain beliefs that they held, and generations have been affected. Lives were changed and a course set forth for this nation. The battle for them was fierce and painful, and many questioned, ‘Why me, my husband, or my son?’ Because of them we enjoy freedoms that none of us fought for, and we have not experienced the pain that they suffered."

“Now look at the spiritual side. Those patriots fought to come out from under a tyranny and establish their own government; likewise you are now fighting to release your loved ones from under the power of Satan so they can be established under My authority.”

“Many of you ask, “Why my husband or my wife?” The battle is fierce and most difficult for you because you are a people chosen to stand at a pivotal point in the histories of your families. Because you stand firm on My Word, just as those in the past paid a price, you also pay a price. As they reaped generations of freedom in this nation, so you will reap generations of spiritual freedom for your families.”

“Your children will still need to make personal commitments to Me, but they will be blessed by growing up in homes where I am honored and My Word revered. They will be free from many of the encumbrances that others must fight.”

“The price is high and sometimes painful, but I will bless many generations to come.”

The promise is in Isaiah 59: 20-21. We can claim this promise because God is faithful to His promises.

Yes, God has given us an awesome responsibility. To fulfill this call on our lives, we must first of all be committed to Him, and then to each other. There must be unity and oneness in our groups.

My prayer for each of you is: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15: 5-6

David’s "Big Bully" Check-List

By Gerry Hiebert
Canadian National Director

God favors underdogs.
Do you feel small and insignificant? David was the smallest and least of eight brothers, yet who did God pick?

Make like a Boy Scout, be prepared.
David went from unknown shepherd boy to national war hero in one afternoon. God can change your life suddenly, too.

Righteous indignation.
What was it about Goliath that got David’s dander up? It was his blasphemous taunting. Are you fighting for God’s reputation or your own? 

Sword vs. sling.
Saul tried to burden David with a king’s armor and weapons, but David’s confidence was in God’s proven faithfulness.

Big stick theory snapped.
Contrary to popular opinion regarding the value of a big stick, a little pebble applied with faith is the better bet.

The measure of the man.
It’s not the size of the man in the fight, nor even the size of the fight in the man; rather it’s the size of the God in the man that counts.

The bigger they come….
Big man, big sword, big mouth, big CRASH... no big deal!

Just when you think you’ve got it made….
David was the toast-of-the-town one minute and running for his life the next. He learned that circumstances change but God doesn’t.

Adversity is a necessity.
If David hadn’t had difficulties in his life, how many Psalms would be missing from your Bible?

There will be a test.
The lion prepared David for the bear. The bear prepared him for the giant. The giant prepared him for the kingdom. Remember, you are being prepared.

THE WAILING WOMEN
By Marilyn Conrad

When I first began standing for the healing of my marriage, I was dismayed because many men would attend our group meetings for several weeks or months, begin to receive healing and get God’s revelation for restoration, then faint! Soon they began dating someone else and then remarry. Their reasons always included: “I am just too lonely…I can’t go without sex…I refuse to stand for a long time.”

Spending time in prayer about this matter, I asked the Lord why many men did not continue to stand. He showed me that women were created to “birth.” It was natural for them to spend the necessary time in prayer to birth their healed marriages.

It was revealed to us that women’s strength and tenacity intimidated the men, who for the most part had abdicated their God-given roles as priests of their households. The enemy informed them that they could never become intercessors like the women. It seems that very few men had pastors or other men in leadership to mentor them and provide role models.

I realized then that women must pray and call forth men who will intercede and stand in the gap for their marriages and families; men who will pray, who will be watchmen on the walls, and who will persist until their miracles become reality. (Isaiah 63:6 NKJ)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful wailing women, that they may come. Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run with tears, and our eyelids gush with water. For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been cast out of our dwellings.” Jeremiah 9:17-21

The Lord calls for mourning women, skillful wailing women, to wail so that repentance may come to the men—"that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids gush with water." We women must fulfill that call and pray for men to take their rightful positions as priests of their households, watchmen on the walls, protecting their families from the attacks of the enemy.

GOD RAISED UP LEADERS

Many of us have been faithful to pray and call forth men to become intercessors. We rejoiced as God began to raise up men to lead our nation in prayer. I was especially thrilled to see my own pastor begin to teach and preach about intercession and spiritual warfare, and then begin to train and lead us as a body.

In chapter nine, Jeremiah is speaking of Judah, but we can apply this principle to our homes and families. Verse 19 says, “How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been cast out of our dwellings.”

In Isaiah 62:4, land is translated as either Beulah or married. Divorce has caused many in our nation to be cast out of their dwellings. Women who are mature in the faith must teach the younger women to wail and lament over this tragedy (verse 20).

DIVORCE DESTROYS

According to verse 21, “…death has come through our windows.” Divorce can utterly destroy a marriage and a family if someone doesn’t understand that they have a covenant right to stand on God’s Word and stop the devil’s destruction. Divorce can kill the one-flesh relationship of a husband and wife. One-flesh is a living, breathing entity in the spirit, and when it is destroyed, the ripping and tearing produces much agony.

Equally devastating is what divorce and separation do to children (verse 21). Suicide and death related to the use of drugs and alcohol is at an all-time high among our young people. Teenage rebellion runs rampant across our land. A pastor once said that rebellion is the outer manifestation of a broken heart. Parents divorcing break the hearts of their children and many of these young people become open rebels.

Oh, our prayers are needed now for our mates, our children, and our nation!

GOD WILL HEAL OUR LAND

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

I want to encourage women to continue to become skillful in intercession. Wail and make petition for men to repent, to come forth, to fill their rightful places, not only as heads of their homes, but to man the walls and to stand in the gap.