Dear Intercessors:
The week of August 12-19 was a busy week in the heavenlies! There was a backing off of threats from North Korea to attack Guam, there were violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, there was outrage over Trump’s naming both sides as violent and hateful, and a major swell of confusion taking place.
In this Discerning the Times I am led to step right into what appears to be a demonically generated hornet’s nest and seek clarity in how we as intercessors may be called to pray.
All during the week I was engaged in the work of prayer, (mostly related to the PRMI Board meeting.) Prayers for the nation reached a crescendo on August 19-20 when I was called into prayer all night. During that time of mostly praying in the Spirit, I had a number of engagements as well as some dream/visions. The following is an After Action Review of the week of prayer from which I believe we may have been given some clear guidance as to the nature of the demonic strongholds involved as well as the prayer tactics we are being called to deploy.
I am thankful for the entire discernment team for helping me sort through all this complexity.
Praying for Piercing Satan’s Cloaking
The Holy Spirit has had me praying into the entire situation as seen on the ground as well as in the heavenlies—not just in the events in Charlottesville, but in all the swirling aftermath. I have been praying, “Lord, pierce the cloaking hiding what Satan is doing and expose his plans. And expose those who are involved.” (Piercing the cloaking is the term I use for the prayer tactic of exposing Satan’s lies and plans that are forming a demonic stronghold. )
I believe the Lord provided this first exposure of what Satan is doing through the following report from the Charlottesville House of Prayer intercessors who were there between the two groups praying:
“We are involved in a continually escalating clash of cultures in our nation right now. That clash is not one side “haters” and the other side “lovers.” It’s not that at all. What I saw at the rally is two types of haters because there were terrible things being said by the protesters, but … it was the same coming from the counter-protesters. They were shouting things that should never be said to anybody … there were fighters on both sides.”
( http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID=22173# )
This is confirmation of a dream/vision that I had on the night of the 19th.
Colliding tornado funnels
In the dream/vision, I saw in Charlottesville (but it was more than Charlottesville, it was the United States) what looked like two black evil tornados of hated and violence and deception. These two tornados were converging and fighting each other.
As I was seeing all this, I kept asking the Lord to reveal what was really taking place on earth and in the heavenlies.
The dream continued, and it was like I could see these two tornado funnels colliding on earth; but as you went higher up, they were actualy connected into one funnel cloud that was coming from one single hideous, black storm cloud.
I believe these tornados represent two demonic strongholds. On the outside they appear, in their various symbols and actors, to be very different, but actually have the same evil root. Both are being used by Satan to accomplish his evil purposes.
On the surface, as we see pictures of a KKK white racist or a man waving a Nazi flag, or a man with a baseball bat and a shield covered with the words “workers of the world unite,” they seem to have nothing in common.
But go deeper both into history and into the realm of the spirit. Look closely at the end results of both ideologies, and you will arrive at the same terrible spiritual and human results.
As intercessors, we must not be fooled by surface appearances. We must ask Jesus to show us the high level demonic entities who are in the dark cloud from which these two tornados are born.
So how may the Holy Spirit use our intercessory prayers to stop this dynamic and its consequences?
1. We must pray that this dynamic and Satan’s ploys will be exposed.
Our prayer strategy needs to be praying for piercing the cloaking that is covering up the evil on all sides.
We must pray against the threat that is real and dangerous which is embodied in the KKK and the Nazis. But we must not let ourselves be deceived into thinking that that is the only threat. The ire of the liberal press toward Trump when he named the KKK, the Nazis, and that this evil racism and violence was coming from many sides demonstrates Satan’s cloaking tactic of hiding the reality that the strongholds based on liberal progressivism are also part of his evil plans.
2. We are called to pray that Satan’s strategy implemented in Charlottesville will be exposed for all to see, and that the strategy will be broken.
What is Satan’s strategy in bringing together a collision and conflict between these two strongholds in Charlottesville?
To get to this answer, we must go back in history to the 1930s. Who was brawling in the streets of Berlin and generally causing chaos and making it difficult for the Weimer Republic to govern?
It was the Nazis and the Communists fighting; who in actual fact were both evil, both had chosen the means of violence, and both were leading to the same ends. And both were being used to implement Satan’s strategy of stirring up chaos and confusion so that tyranny in one form or another could be implemented.
The strategy here noted by Steve Aceto is as follows:
What you’re seeing is the Marxist/Hegelian religious imperative in operation, whose disciples use falsehood to create and exploit conflict as a path through apocalypse into transcendence. This is their understanding of history – drill a little deeper and you’ve got a near perfect analogue to jihad which produces a universal caliphate of Islam transcendent – nothing is new under the sun. Great that somebody is calling that what it is. (Steve is referring to what Dinesh D’Souza exposes in the video and his book The Big Lie.
“Glazov Gang: Dinesh D’Souza on ‘The Big Lie About Charlottesville.’” on YouTube
We are seeing this pattern played out again and again. And while one riot in Charlottesville, Virginia does not seem much of a threat, such violence opens the door for the Devil to work his plans. Our role as intercessors must be to break the power of what Steve has named, the Marxist/Hegelian religious imperative in operation, whose disciples use falsehood to create and exploit conflict as a path through apocalypse into transcendence.” I believe that this is the process by which Satan is creating the “Hour of the Power of Darkness” in which he can work.
If this dynamic of creating violence in order to further the advent of utopian ideals is not stopped, first in the spiritual realm and then later in the human realm, there will be catastrophic results. (To fully assess this discernment, you will need to understand how the Radical Left is deploying the tactics of the Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. See David Horowitz’s Freedom Center for full analysis.)
3. We are naming the high level demonic powers that are working through these two demonic strongholds. The Lord may be calling us to pray that they be exposed and bound.
An obvious one is a demonic power whose work is racism, embodied in the KKK and in Nazism.
Now whether “racism” is one high level demon or whether it is a configuration of demons may be difficult to clearly identify. It may be one of the most basic strongholds that is rooted in fallen humanity that is universal to the human condition.
The shocking revelation of Charlottesville is the reemergence of what many may have assumed were the discredited and vanquished expressions of racial hatred in the demonic strongholds of the KKK and the Nazism. To me it was a terrible and jolting experience to see this, as it was to the rest of the nation. These are manifestations of the demonic strongholds based on reactionary conservatism which are emerging not just in United States, but in Europe as well.
It is urgent that we pray that those strongholds will be defeated, and that we seek guidance as to who the leaders are around whom these strongholds are coalescing. I believe the Lord is calling us to pray that they will be separated from the demons that empower them, and removed from the role of leaders or as part of the creative minority through whom Satan is working.
A good starting point would be to do some research on who the leaders are of those who gathered at Charlottesville. Would one of you please do some research and recommend who we should focus our prayers upon?
Another set of demonic spirits which were exposed in Charlottesville are the strongholds formed from liberal progressivism embodied in the various expressions of the Radical Left.
From the press reactions to President Trump naming both sides as part of the problem, and the tactics of naming President Trump as a fascist and racist, it is obvious to me that Satan is seeking to cloak his intentions in these demonic strongholds growing out of liberal progressivism and the ideology of Marxism.
Demons that are being expressed through the strongholds based on the deceptions of liberal progressivism and the conflict with the KKK and Nazis are suggested by another intercessor:
“Thanks Brad. As I was reading this I was impressed to pray against the spirit of lawlessness and rebellious spirits. Then I followed the link you gave for the CHOP report and that mentioned lawlessness several times and it seemed to confirm my impression. I was then reminded of 2 Thess. 2:3
‘…that day (the Day of the Lord) will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed…'”
I’m with the above intercessor. “Tear it down” is about as obvious a manifestation of a lawless spirit as there is; not only is it a spirit of lawlessness, it is a proud spirit which emboldens those under its influence. Through intercession in response to a proud spirit such this, we ask the Father for his humble spirit which manifests as “do not take the high seat until you are asked,” which is at the heart of love for God’s lawful order, beginning in our own hearts.
We have already been doing the prayer and necessary research to confirm those who are the leaders and the creative minority of these strongholds based on the deceptions of liberal progressivism.
We will continue to name them. If you receive any guidance about who they are, pass that on to me and I will submit it to the rigorous discernment process before we go public with this.
4. We are being called to pray for the Lord to break the demonic power of those through whom Satan is working on earth to orchestrate this Marxist/Hegelian dynamic.
This will mean praying that those human beings that Satan is working through will be removed from the core of the strongholds in which he is working.
The key here is to not be deceived into thinking it is only one set of strongholds from the Right or the Left, but that both together are the means through whom Satan is working to accomplish his purposes. Recall again that the intercessor on site said, “That clash is not one side “haters” and the other side “lovers.” It’s not that at all. What I saw at the rally is two types of haters…”
I am working with Steve and others to first more precisely expose this Marxist/Hegelian dynamic, and then provide some of the prayer tactics the Holy Spirit may be calling us to deploy. This will be coming out in a future Discerning the Times.
(Please pray for me and the discernment team as we do this work as it is obvious that we are stepping into a very powerful and pervasive stronghold that Satan does not want exposed. Dealing with this dynamic is of utmost urgency. History demonstrates that Satan has effectively and quickly used this Marxist/Hegelian dynamic to destroy liberal democratic societies and impose tyranny.)
5. We may as intercessors be called to pray for a spiritual awakening which starts with repentance AND to step into the gap into the geographic location where Satan with his human agents are setting the stage for the next outbreak of violence for the perpetuation of the Marxist/Hegelian dynamic.
This strategy is modeled for us by those intercessors from the Charlottesville House of Prayer (C-HOP). Read their reports right here. Their interracial and intergenerational group of men and women stepped into the gap with songs of praise and prayer. The results were amazing! The evil was constrained.
a. Praying for spiritual awakening which starts with repentance.
Jon Quesenberry, C-HOP Director shared:
“There is no message that is going to overcome the divide between the clash in our nation. Education and empathy are not going to increase capacity for people to love one another. What’s purely needed now is spiritual awakening and it starts with mass repentance.
Quesenberry believes we have to repent ‘…not because we’ve done stuff wrong, but because we are a nation of sinners.’ He references Isaiah 6:5 where the prophet says, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” It’s this kind of repentance that identifies with the collective sin of a nation that has power in the Courts of Heaven to change things.”
I believe this is the call to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that starts with repentance.
b. The call to step into the gap both in the spiritual realm and at the actual location on earth of potential conflict.
This team of intercessors was praying and singing hymns between the two opposing sides. They provide both by their example and the following words the Holy Spirit’s call for some of us to do likewise.
“It’s time for Believers to come out of their prayer closets and into the streets as carriers of God’s presence. It is possible to change the atmosphere with our praises (1 Sam 16:23; Acts 16:25). It is possible to silence the voice of the enemy with the sound of worship. As we face continual threats, not only as a nation, but as local communities, let us not forget the power of God’s presence to disarm the enemy’s threats and shift the atmosphere towards Kingdom purposes.”
I hear this as the invitation to expect God to call us, His people, to step into the gap as those Christians did in Charlottesville.
No sooner had I read this than I was called to “leave my prayer closet” and to provide intercessory prayer cover at a Town Meeting in our area conducted by our congressman. There I saw gathered some of the same demonic spirits ready to cause conflict, confusion, and violence that had gathered in Charlottesville. I believe the Lord used my prayers and the presence of Jesus Christ in me to block Satan’s plans in the spiritual realm that had observable affects in the human realm. I will provide an After Action Review on that engagement later.
6. According to 1 Timothy 2:1-4, we are called to pray for President Trump.
During my Saturday night Aug 19-20 prayer engagment, I was praying intensely for President Trump personally, and for his administration. What I saw in the Spirit was a major demonic attack coming against him personally, and also against what God was planning to accomplish through him.
I had images of this whole event leading Trump to a greater dependance on God, leading him to a refinement that was spiritual, personal, political, and involving those around him so that there would be an even greater alignment with God’s purposes.
Praying this way is in obedince to what St. Paul says:
First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, (2) even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. (3) Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, (4) since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4 NET)
7. Pray that the Lord will use words that President Trump spoke exposing evil to bring healing and unity to the United States.
I was also called into praying that with Trump’s words of naming the evil and clearly countering the hateful ideologies of both the radical right and the radical left – that the basis for our unity would be heard, and his words used to bring healing and unity to our nation.
(From the spiritual perspective, Trump’s words may be used by the Holy Spirit to break the curses Satan is using to advance his evil goals of creating division and hatred, and to speak blessings that may be used by the Holy Spirit to create the reality envisioned in the US Consitution with liberity and equality for all. To understand this you will need to grasp the contrasting ways that Satan and God use the same spiritual dyammic of the spoken word to create their opposing realities.)
Here are his actual words from the transcript of the speech he gave:
“…But based on the events that took place over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, I would like to provide the nation with an update on the ongoing federal response to the horrific attack and violence that was witnessed by everyone. I just met with F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered. As I said on Saturday, we condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America.
“And as I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God.
“We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty, that bring us together as Americans.
“Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.
“We are a nation founded on the truth that all of us are created equal. We are equal in the eyes of our creator. We are equal under the law. And we are equal under our Constitution.
“Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America. Two days ago, a young American woman, Heather Heyer, was tragically killed. Her death fills us with grief and we send her family our thoughts, our prayers and our love.
“We also mourn the two Virginia state troopers who died in service to their community, their commonwealth and their country. Troopers Jay Cullen and Berke Bates exemplify the very best of America and our hearts go out to their families, their friends and every member of American law enforcement.
“These three fallen Americans embody the goodness and decency of our nation. In times such as these, America has always shown its true character. Responding to hate with love, division with unity and violence with an unwavering resolve for justice.
“As a candidate, I promised to restore law and order to our country and our federal law enforcement agencies are following through on that pledge. We will spare no resource in fighting so that every American child can grow up free from violence and fear.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/transcript-and-video-president-trump-speaks-about-charlottesville.html
We must take up this battle as intercessors and get past political divisions and opinions. We must not be deceived by anyone! I hope that this reflection has at least given a little guidance into a profoundly complex and deceptive situation.
In Christ,
Brad
(This is with input from others, but not from Martin Boardman our Prayer Mobilizer. He is on vacation and resting up from this intense work. Pray he and his family can be refreshed and rested.) As always, send your discernment to me. I really need it.
I feel called to pray for wisdom for President Trump and his administration. That he and his inner circle would wisely discern who in their ranks is detrimental to the care of our country and dismiss them from leadership.
Also, that this rethoric of hatred would fall on deaf ears and that the people of our nation would have ears to hear what the Spirit says to our nation.
Hi Brad
I’m hearing exceptional clarity and accuracy in this DTT. I think part of this is from being engaged myself in the discernment process for some time. Another part seems to be a greater sense of connection between yourself and the discernment team as expressed in your words. This may be from a maturing and strengthening of the cohort overall. Thanks for sharing your heart with us, and for giving yourself to intercession. To Jesus be the glory and from him the power to enforce his kingdom in displacing the evil one’s usurpation.
Kim
Powerful message and clearly presentation. It reminds what happened 40 years ago in China, when cultural revolution took place. When Mao called for the young people against “capitalist leaders”, Red Guards were formed and it had big fights nationwide between the leftists and “rightists”, which caused a great confusion to the nation. Who gained the most was Mao himself. Through cultural revolution, Mao was able to strength his power in CCP and became Chinese version of “God of Sun”. I am seeing that American society is moving toward the similar position, which is definitely the tragedy for USA and human history. Prays to God let it not happens the second time.
Friday I listened to the Intercessors for America national call to prayer broadcast. Bridgett Gabriel of Act for America was one of the speakers. She said ACT had to cancel their 9/11 “America First” rallies in 67 cities and 36 states due to death threats from Antifa. Also she said that the Islamics and Leftists are working together and are funded by George Soros.
I agree with your discernment that demonic forces are behind all the evil that is erupting in our Nation, and all the hatred toward President Trump. Prayer and intercession is our weapon of warfare.
“Corinthians 10:3-5
II Corinthians 10:3-5
Hello Brad!
This is Diane from Farmville, NC. I attended the COC Prayer Mountain this summer. What an amazing time of worship, fellowship and prayer it was.
I am overwhelmed with new ideas, so thoughts are swirling around in a disorganized manner.
But I am compelled to encourage you and thank you for leadership in how to pray about Charlottesville.. I will pray and think more before I share many thoughts, but I want you to be encouraged that I will pray about the points that you gave.
I prayed through the time of the Board meeting intently and worshipped with you in spirit several nights of your worship. Thank you for the schedule. I also prayed fervently through the Korean Mountain Top Prayer Endeavor. I want you to know that I am supporting you in prayer through these events.
I did have a short vision on the early morning of August 16th, just several days before your all night encounter. It is somewhat similar to what you described. I was just waking up, and was only partially awake when I saw in my mind slowly swirling black blobs. It appeared that they were trying to coalesce, but instead just floated around almost bumping each other. I discerned only that the blobs represented evil forces that were separate but were somewhat trying to merge. I wasn’t awake enough to be doing any thinking, so I know I didn’t make it up. I share this, as it relates to your vision of the tornadoes. I was puzzled about the purpose of seeing this, just knowing that it was evil. It makes more sense now as you have described and interpreted your vision.
I am hoping that you and Laura were able to get away for rest as Martin has. I have been praying about refreshment and rest for you.
I am rereading The Collapse of the Brass Heaven. I read it initially in the 90’s. It puts our world today in helpful perspective.
All this is overwhelming, as I have been involved only within church ministries, and not bumping into the worldview culture. I know I am called, so am on board in prayer with PRMI.
Peace and grace in our Lord to you and Laura,
Diane Bosley
Thanks for your comments on this Discerning the Times , so appreciate your discernment and your prayers. Right now I am seeking guidance about the prayer tactics and strategies the Holy Spirit is calling us deploy to over come this dialectic that Satan has used so effectively in the past. Brad Long