Praying For President Obama

8:28 min video : We must pray for overcoming any ground that Satan may have to deceive President Obama, Congress, or in ourselves so that there can be a moving forward in the debt crisis.

In my last Discerning the Times, I asked a question: “How do I pray for President Obama?” I have gotten an amazing response to that question with some guidance that I think needs to be passed on to all of us who are called into intercession for the strongholds being formed today to block the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

First, some background as to why I asked the question: I was not trying to offend anyone by suggesting that people should not pray for him or to put down those who do. I was just confessing my own struggle with getting any clear guidance as to how to pray for him. I know in general that we need to pray for government as Paul tells us.

I had a very special calling and apparently anointing to pray for President Bush. I would receive clear guidance of how to pray for him and the issues facing the country. This work of intercession included in 2005 an “out of the blue” invitation to come to the White House with about a dozen other Christian leaders to meet President Bush where I did have the opportunity to pray with him. I have gotten no such guidance as to how to pray for President Obama. That is why I was asking for input from those to whom the Holy Spirit has revealed such guidance.

The response from other intercessors has been really helpful. And as we are in the midst of the debt crisis it may be helpful in praying down whatever demonic stronghold is at work preventing a solution. (I believe a viable solution must ensure that the nation can pay its debts, but also reduce spending. Our current spending is leading us into unsustainable debt and creating the conditions for economic collapse and the fulfillment of Satan’s long-term plans of totalitarian oppression and death).

Here is some discernment:

From an intercessor in California: “Yesterday I read your Discerning the Times email re: the National Debt Debates and your request for input on how to pray for the President. Some thoughts immediately came to me, and I’d like to share them with you:

These thoughts come from a couple of books; one is a book that my husband, is currently reading, The Roots of Obama’s Rage by Dinesh D’Souza, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2010. Mr. D’Souza is a New York Times Bestselling Author, and has done a thorough job of researching Mr. Obama and his thinking. The author concludes that Obama is living out the dreams and mindset of his father (see Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father).

Bottom line, Mr. Obama has, by his own admission, been deeply influenced in his worldview by his “angry, socialist” father who hated colonialism, (though the U.S. is not into colonialism). I believe he has also been influenced by the church he and Mrs. Obama attended for so long, where the pastor called down curses on the United States. The book makes the point that Obama sees the world in terms of the “haves” and “have nots”. That leads him to want to “share the wealth” by taxing the wealthy and pushing spending for entitlement programs, all of this driven by the mind-set and rage he inherited from his father.

The second book details how to deal with the spirituality of Obama’s mind-set as a stronghold and “veil over the eyes” (as in 2 Cor. 3:14-18). This book is Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets, with forward by C. Peter Wagner. Chapter 10, “Most High Man” begins with a subtitle, “Peeling Off the Veils” and includes “The Male Pride Factor”, “God’s Holy Detonators”, which deals with “pulling down strongholds”, which leads to “mind-sets”, and how to, by prayer, pull down the strongholds that prevent a person from seeing truth.”

An intercessor in Alberta, Canada:

“I believe your call to prayer regarding the budget is both timely and accurate in focusing on President Obama. I believe your reluctance to pray for him is a problem generally in the church which needs repentance. Calling us to pray for him in particular and our response is part of a wholesome repentance…as we follow the Lord’s command to “pray for kings and all those who are in authority.” (I Tim. 2:2)

As I reflected on this prayerfully this a.m., I think I heard the Lord saying that we need to pray for the president to be healed from the damage of growing up in a society that was, and to a large extent is still, racist. (It would be good to pray for our own healing in this regard as well.) A text that came to mind was Proverbs 30:21f Under three things the earth trembles…:a servant who becomes king….”Although slavery was abolished long ago, the slave spirit still needs to be replaced with the spirit of freedom. My prayer is that the president may have that good spirit as well as the wisdom, humility, and resolve to address the current crisis.”

There were many more words given: But these two seem to go the heart of it: First we must pray down whatever deceptions may be in the President that are at work in him. Second, we must also pray for repentance from racism and others things that may be giving ground in our hearts, the President’s heart, and in the hearts of others which open us to deception.

Our task as intercessors is to step into the gap and to pray for the President and for both Houses and both parties of Congress. As far as I can tell the future hangs in the balance.

In Christ
Dr. Brad Long