Why We Need To Pray For President Trump?

I believe that it is urgent that as intercessors we pray that God’s plans through the election of President Trump are not blocked by Satan. But the reasons why are not simple to explain.

This is a long blog post because I wish to take these concerns seriously and give them the attention they deserve. I hope you will read it carefully and in its entirety, so as not to overlook crucial observations.

Each time I mention the need to pray for President Trump or hint that he may be used by God or suggest that I am seeing some hopeful signs of the Holy Spirit working in him, I get some interesting responses:

1. A barrage of outrage and protest:

These are usually anonymous and often unprintable, and feel like personal attacks against me. (I do not think these come from PRMI intercessors, but from those who must have read something on line.)

2. Struggles with the character of Trump and how is it possible for a Christian like me to support him:

“I’ve been disappointed by the support generally shown President Trump by a number of prominent evangelical Christian leaders. Trump is a man who proudly and lewdly brags about groping women’s “pussies,” as he vulgarly put it, a serious moral flaw made even more serious by the recent flood of revelations of sexual assaults by numerous men, Trump and Christians such as Judge Moore among them. And evangelical Christians still support them. Trump does not in any way demonstrate concern for Biblical commands to welcome the alien and the stranger. He will not be transparent about revealing his tax returns, as all previous Presidents have done. He regularly tells proven lies, bearing false witness. I could go on as to why I feel he is unfit for the high office he holds. Dear Brad, if I have misunderstood you or misrepresented, I stand corrected. But I’ve been saddened and, frankly, shocked by the support and approval a number of Christian evangelical leaders have shown Trump, and I’m very sorry to see your voice among them.”

3. Honest struggles by intercessors:

“Frankly, I feel embarrassed by President Trump’s social media antics. I am mortified by his crashing around and smashing things in the political and geopolitical arenas. Yet God clearly placed Trump in the presidency for reasons of his own choosing. I don’t think those reasons include judgment on the United States but rather are aimed at extending mercy and grace to the USA and peoples beyond our borders.”

“Do I like God’s chosen means? No. Do I accept them, submit to his guidance, befriend his strategies and tactics, and agree with them during intercession? I’m trying to.”

Others sincerely wonder,

“How can you possibility suggest that God is using such a man with such an ungodly character and obnoxious communication style?”

“Why do some evangelical supporters hold Trump absolutely above criticism of any sort?”

4. Awareness and affirmation of what God is doing through him:

“At some point the reality of how much Trump is accomplishing to turn the tide away from the destructive purposes of the radical left will have to be revealed to more believers.”

“In the global arenas filled with many threats, President Trump has finally ended the politics of appeasement and restored deterrence.”

“The large number of federal judges with values like Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch that Trump has already appointed will have a long-term effect on our nation. Add to that his stand FOR Israel and against abortion, and I can boldly say we do have a God fearing man in the Oval Office.”

Significant Issues

These various reactions, especially from intercessors who are genuinely struggling with these issues as I have, lead me to the need to further explore and explain the following issues:

• To explain more fully what it means to be called as a personal intercessor for a national leader.
• The dynamic of us sinful human beings cooperating with the Holy Spirit to defeat evil and advance the Kingdom of God within a fallen world.
• The need for a biblical and theological framework for understanding how God is advancing His Kingdom in a fallen world, working with sinful human beings, some of whom are being redeemed and some not.
• A theological framework for how God is working through imperfect mediating human structures such as cultures, organizations (including the church), and institutions of governance all formed of sinful human beings.

Presuppositions

As we reflect on these issues. I have some major presuppositions that I want you to be aware of:

1. I am a Calvinist and believe in the sovereignty of God.

Within that sovereignty is the essential role of the faith, prayers, and actions of us—Jesus’ friends and coworkers. We actually have the role of shaping history by cooperating with the Holy Spirit in defeating Satan’s plans and advancing God’s Kingdom plans.

However, it is the Lord God who chooses a strategy, and as intercessors our role is to follow in faith and obedience.  We must live in the terrible constant tension of both the sovereignty of God and our human freedom.

2. God’s invitation to cooperate with Him

Another assumption based on the first one is that those who have friendship with God and are called into His courts are given a role in the shaping of God’s work on earth. So our interactions with God in prayer, faith, repentance, obedience and so forth really do make a difference.

God has given us dominion, and by our faith and prayers may “turn the iron helm of fate.”[1]  This reality of our interactions with God is evident throughout the Bible and seen clearly in passages such as Amos 7:1-3.

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. (2) When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
(3) So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen,” the Lord said.  Amos 7:1-3 (NIV)

Or in Jesus inviting us into the dynamic of asking in his name.

I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. (13) And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:12-14 (NET)

Phillip Noordmans, PRMI Board member, just sent me the first chapter of a book on prayer in which after biblical study of how God relents, makes this summary:

“When God reveals through a prophet that He is about to judge an individual or nation, is there any point to asking God to change His mind and show mercy? Yes! Amos models the power of one person’s prayers to stall God’s judgment. Sometimes God acts unilaterally. More often than not, however, God links His next move, in part, on our prayers. More often than not, heaven and earth (God and man) are linked together in a symbiotic relationship.”

My application of all this to our present struggle of defeating Satan’s plans and advancing the Kingdom of God is that the Lord God has us in this dynamic of implementing His plans on earth not as hapless pawns, but as friends whose faith and prayers are woven in as strands of His actions.  We really are called by God to shape history, and if we abdicate that role through disobedience, lack of faith or prayerlessness, then Satan’s plans will for a season prevail.

Now of course in the end, God will gain the ultimate victory.  But in the season in which Satan’s plans prevail, if history is any guide, there will be billions murdered, nations wiped off the face of the earth, and millions subjugated.

3. God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways

As we face the issue of why God has chosen a particular sinful human being through whom to work, or allows a certain person to step into a position of power and authority, I am often baffled. But I assume that God is God, and He often makes decisions that seem incomprehensible to human beings when we are in the present struggle of obedience.

The Bible is replete with examples:  1) Choosing Jacob rather than Esau. 2) Abraham ordered to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice. 3) Gideon having to reduce his army. 4) God giving Moses a stick rather than an army of people to defeat Pharaoh. 5) Guiding Hosea to marry a prostitute. 6) Elijah anointing Jehu as King. 7) Jesus calling Judas as one of His disciples. Etc. Etc.!

Often, such choices only make sense to us when viewed through the eyes of faith AND the long-term implications for the Kingdom of God as seen in retrospect when the full story has unfolded.

Our Role In Intercession

When it comes to understanding what God is calling us to do as intercessors and who He has called into the drama of our times (including us), we have got to keep in mind what the Lord said: “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” Isaiah 55:8-9 (RV)

Our role at this point in the battle is not to justify God’s choices to a skeptical public, but to participate with Him in the unfolding drama of working out His plans and purposes through those He has chosen.

The challenge for all of us is that in faithfulness to Jesus Christ we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the moment with the best information and insight that we have.

Let me explain now in more detail my personal perspective on some of these issues.

Please receive this as some starting points of discussion to, I hope, deepen unity in Christ for the urgent work of intercession.  A work that I believe is THE starting point for seeing God’s Kingdom plans prevail over Satan’s plans.

My hope is that in this time of great division both in the body of Christ and in our culture, that we can move to the unity of heart and mind needed for effective intercession.  This does not mean that we need to agree on all points, but that at least we understand one another and have a basis for helping each other discern together how God is calling us to work together to advance the Kingdom of God.

We need to connect this present work of prayer for President Trump to the bigger picture of how the Lord has been calling us to pray.

First, my prayers long before the US election, or even before Trump started to emerge, was that the Lord would raise up for the USA, UK and Canada, and the rest of the Western world, but especially in America, political, military, cultural and spiritual leaders through whom God would defeat Satan’s plans to destroy both the Church of Jesus Christ and the political culture based on Judeo-Christian values.

My prayers were for leaders who could also bring the gifts needed to rebuild what had been lost, but even more to pass on to future generations biblical faith as well as a Judeo-Christian values-based society and political institutions that enable human freedom, justice and prosperity.

Defining what type of leaders are needed who can be used by God to accomplish these purposes

Out of my study of how the West had been able to defeat the onslaught of Islam, I realized that there were four characteristics of leaders that were needed.

As I have studied the history of the war to defeat Satan’s plans to destroy the West in the strongholds built on the cultural movements and ideologies embodied in Nazism, Fascism, the KKK, and Marxism in its present incarnation of the Radical Left, I realized that these same four characteristics are also needed by leaders to overcome and defeat the assault now from within our culture.

(Right now I am working on several books to address in detail these issues/strongholds just as I did with the demonic strongholds based on Islam.)

These four characteristics are for leaders who:

1. Can accurately assess and name the enemy. This is essential for having the right battle strategies and weapons,
2. Can gather a broad coalition based on mutual interest that is needed to defeat the enemy and retake that which has been lost,
3. Are warriors and/or can bring on the warriors who understand the tactics of the enemy and can fight and win.
4. Understand that the struggle we are in is both human AND spiritual. And know that the battle will only be won through God’s help and through incorporating God’s people, especially the intercessors, into the strategy for victory.

I was called myself and called intercessors to pray into these four characteristics in early 2016 when the primaries were just getting started and all was undecided. My focus at that time was on dealing with Radical Islam. https://discernwith.us/praying-for-national-leaders-with-the-qualities-needed-to-defeat-the-nemesis-of-radical-islam

As an intercessor, it was my role not to play politics, but rather to pray for leaders who would meet these criteria and therefore be God’s means for defeating the configuration of demonic strongholds that are working for both the destruction of the Church of Jesus Christ as well as our culture based on Judeo-Christian values—regardless of which party they came from.

(I did pray, by the way, that the Lord would use President Obama to accomplish these same four guidelines. To see that, just look through the archives of Discerning the Times.)

We must recognize that we are called to work within different spheres of reality that are in constant tension.

In our call to engage in this prayer work, we must recognize that we are called to engage in several distinctly different but interrelated spheres of reality[2] which play very different roles in the world and in God’s plans.

These involve us as Christians in, at times, similar but different responsibilities. As, for instance, carrying out our civic responsibilities as citizens of a nation in tension with our absolute commitment to follow Jesus Christ, having to vote when there are no angels on the ballot, but only choices between lesser evils.

In the spheres of government and the nation, we are called to articulate, work for, and defend the Judeo-Christian values upon which a culture of freedom, justice, diversity, and pluralism is built. But in the Church of Jesus Christ, we must be champions for a single-minded commitment to Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.

We must live in the terrible tension of the Kingdom as come and yet not fulfilled.  We must live in the dynamics of Christ transforming culture (which is the reformed perspective) without dissolving the tension between the Kingdom of God and the nation’s representative government and diverse pluralistic culture.

Ancient Israel was a theocracy, Islam’s Caliphate is a theocracy, but the stream of government that has arisen in the British Isles is not.   America, as envisioned by our founders and written into the Constitution, is not a theocracy either.

Rather our government institutions are based on a culture rooted and grounded in our Judeo-Christian values (and the Greco-Roman model of government).  If we do not understand that, we will not understand our role as intercessors and the nature of the war that we are involved in. Both our Judeo-Christian values as well as the biblical faith from which they come are under attack on all fronts.[3]

Two personal notes, so you will know exactly where I am coming from:

First personal note: I did vote for Candidate Donald J Trump.

I voted for him because unlike Candidate Hillary, I heard him making campaign promises and demonstrating a history that connected to fulfilling those four criteria for defeating Radical Islam and also reversing the replacement of our Judeo-Christian values system upon which a free society is built with the values of a liberal progressive essentially Marxist worldview leading to tyranny.

We cannot evaluate Trump in isolation from the other option that was presented to the American people and the consequences for a continuation of an ideology embodied in Candidate Hillary.

I also saw Trump him doing this in his actions.  These actions for me personally were as follows:

• In light of persecution of Christians by Muslims in the Middle East and attempts of liberal progressivism to silence and limit Christian witness and practice, Trump said he would be the “greatest representative of the Christians they’ve had in a long time.”[4] Trump did NOT say that he is a representative Christian, but rather he would if elected as president do what he could to protect Christians from those Islamic jihadists who are launching genocide against us, and from those on the Radical Left who are seeking to silence Christian witness in the public square.
• Trump chose a godly running mate, Mike Pence.
• He ahead of time announced the list of the people from which he would select his nominee for the Supreme Court. All of these have a philosophy and history of upholding the Constitution instead of revising it. It was the third Presidential Debate, which both candidates presented their opposing views of the US Constitution the type of people they would select for the Supreme Court that decided the issue for me.  If Trump accomplished that I was willing over look some of his stupid and immoral actions and words of his obviously unredeemed past.
• He boldly named the enemies working to destroy the foundations of America as Radical Islam, unfair trade practices, wide open unrestrained immigration, political PC culture, anti-Judeo-Christian values, and socialistic economic policies of the of the Radical Left.

I also saw in him a warrior who is tough enough, smart enough and just down right vicious enough to effectively fight with and prevail over the demonic strongholds based on liberal progressivism within the political and cultural realm. It would take someone like this because of the nature of the tactics that Satan’s human agents had chosen with the near complete complicity of the liberal –press—Saul  Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

Once you understand the true, vile, and terrible effectiveness of those rules for radicals that have been applied for many decades, you will begin to understand some of the reasons why God may have chosen a person with Trump’s personality, communication style, and experience. Only that type of person can prevail over Satan’s agenda to destroy America through strongholds based on Islam and Liberal Progressivism with the tactics they have chosen.

Now obviously such a personality suitable for defeating enemies is rarely the one for building the peace. And that is another reason why we must pray for Trump and the entire administration to have the gifts needed for both roles. Frankly, I see that happening both in Trump himself and also in the people and policies he is promoting.

Did I like Trump or approve of everything he did or said? “No!” But whether I liked it or not or approved or could justify everything he did, which I cannot, I was looking at the big picture and the master strategy behind even the tweets, which was necessary given the nature of the enemy and the tactics they are using.

During the long primary season, I was assessing everyone, coming to conclusions, and of course praying for Satan’s cloaking to be pierced. I was also praying for the people involved, including Trump. But then something happened; I moved from general prayer to being called into the gap for Trump.

Do not assume that I am governed by the Party Line. I was for years Registered Democrat

You need to understand that for me this vote for Trump was led by an assessment of these criteria as well as listening to the Holy Spirit and trying to be faithful to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To win the larger war Satan has declared on America and Western Culture, rather than on my political party affiliation.

Most of you do not know but need to know that until very recently I was a registered Democrat. My affiliation with the party was much deeper than just being registered and voting. My best friend growing up was Hank Wilson, whose father was appointed by John F. Kennedy to be the White House Liaison with Congress. Hank’s father was responsible during the Johnson Administration for getting through Congress John F. Kennedy’s civil rights legislation.

I lived in the Wilson home for five months in 1965 when my father was assigned to South Korea. I was taken to the White House with the rest of the family members for visits. I would often answer the phone only to hear President Johnson asking for “Henry!” I was sort of an adopted member of the Wilson family, while living in their home and then in years following was a part of the amazing often insider conversations about history and politics that constantly took place.

While in college I later worked for Hank’s father’s campaign for the North Carolina Senate. With my family living overseas, I was back in the home of the Wilson’s whose mansion was the hub of the campaign. We lost all districts to the Republican candidate, except the one where I was giving political speeches for him.

There I learned a lot about the inside nature of the political process,  I saw firsthand how political power can be and was corrupted and misused. I saw how that power attracts some good people but also many bad ones. I saw the complexities of those in leadership trying to sort all that out. I also saw clearly the personality flaws of everyone involved. For me all this was a school for leadership within in the Democratic Party.

Perhaps because of this experience in politics and the potential to be a political leader I was selected to be a “North Carolina Fellow” while a student at Davidson College. This provided me a formal way to continue to grow in leadership.  During this period of my life, I was seriously considering going into politics, and was encouraged to do so. But the Lord spoke to me saying that I was not to use my speaking gifts to promote any political candidate, but only the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

As a seminary student, I was invited to preach Henry Hall Wilson’s funeral. That included delegations from Congress, the White House, and the National Democratic Party. After leading all the service which included preaching and doing the gave side, the Democratic Government of North Carolina, Terry Sanford, took me aside and complemented on my powerful leadership not just demonstrated at the funeral but in Mr. Wilson’s campaign. He joked, but also with some seriousness said that if I flunked out of seminary I would be welcomed in his administration.

Then in 2008, even while being an intercessor for George W. Bush and having been invited to the White House, I was invited to do Hank Wilson’s funeral just as I had his father’s. Present was the national and local leadership of the Democratic Party.

After giving the sermon, I was told they had never heard such a powerful and clear statement of the core values of the Democratic Party. (Several of the leaders said they would welcome me to join them at the local North Carolina level.  Frankly, I was honored and tempted.)

I departed from the Democratic Party after I saw President Obama and the core national leadership overturning and replacing those core values of liberal democracy based on Judeo-Christian values that I had named at the funeral, with the values and tactics of the Radical Left.

I tell you, some of this deeply personal background so that you will know where I am really coming from to show you that this is more than just political affiliation or preference.

As we have entered this time in Satan’s war against the Church and Western culture, you need to know that I am not the only one who has received guidance that has pulled them in directions different from their past political associations and philosophy.

Here is a testimony from another intercessor who has also struggled, but in the United Kingdom, not in the United States of America. They struggled intensely to vote for a person at the guidance of the Holy Spirit and because of a deep appreciation of the big picture of the battle we are in. The person they voted for was neither their first choice nor a member of their political party. (They wish to remain unnamed at this time.)

“It is not just in the United States of America but in United Kingdom we are called to vote for a person not our first choice. My husband and I voted for the first time in 40 years for the Conservative party in the last election because God told us to vote for Theresa May. So other people in other countries are having to make decisions against their personal choice and not knowing why. I think my husband nearly choked as he put his cross on the paper for Theresa May. I suspect that some of you Americans had that same reaction when you were led to vote for Trump, right?”

Second Personal Note:  Two weeks before the election the Holy Spirit fell upon me calling me to be a personal intercessor for Trump.

This took place in an encounter with Jesus Christ, in which I was called to stand in the gap for Trump. When I said yes to that calling, I was then anointed to join in the heavenly battles that were seeking to prevent the fulfillment of God’s plans to defeat the demonic strongholds seeking to destroy the Church, America and Western culture.

I also had the word that the Lord had chosen Trump as His means of defeating enemies that threatened the Judeo-Christian values on which America’s liberal democracy is based, but that this would not happen unless I and others stepped into the gap as intercessors.

My role during the two weeks leading up to the election was a near continuous battle in the heavenlies fighting against the demonic powers seeking to work through the human structures to obstruct God’s plans.

This role has continued for me. With everything arrayed against him and Pence, I really did not think he would prevail against the odds. I was stunned when he actually won, and realized that it was the result of God working through our prayers.

This call has taken me beyond my general Christian duty to pray for our leaders as given to all Christians by Paul in I Timothy 2:1-2, into a very personal engagement in this battle which is similar to what happened to me as an intercessor for President Bush.

I did not choose this role. I did not say yes because I personally liked Trump or thought he was a godly man, or any of that. I did it because of obedience to Jesus Christ. I saw the Lord raising up the right kind of leader who would indeed fulfill those four criteria needed for victory over Satan’s well progressing plans to destroy both America and the Church of Jesus Christ.

 What Do I Believe Trump’s Role is in God’s Kingdom Purposes?

As I look at Trump I see him and his personality, obviously a tiger of tigers, mostly as the warrior. He obviously has a sinful past and demonstrates periods in his life when he was immoral. But to me who has also had a sinful past and a tiger who is also in the process of redemption, I can see beyond some of those moral failures into the potential for redemption as well as the possibly that those same very sinful tendencies that Trump obviously has may well be the down sides of the strengths that he brings to the leadership role.

In history, we see God using someone like Sir. Winston Churchill, General Patton, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., George W. Bush, and a host of others. All with profound moral flaws at various times in their lives which were overcome and which enabled them to be useful defeating evil or advancing the cause of justice.

I suspect that Donald J. Trump may be a Jehu like figure of the Old Testament. Jehu was a brutal, effective warrior who defeated the demonic stronghold of Baal embodied in the dynasty of Ahab and Jezebel. (I Kings 19:16-17, II Kings 9-10). I would not at this time call him a godly man at all.   And in the end, it did not turn out well for him, just like it may not turn out well for Trump either – which is why I believe the Holy Spirit is calling intercessors to pray for him to be protected from Satan’s attacks, and that he may be grow in the Holy Spirit both within him as well as upon him.

From all the evidence, so far in his administration, I do see him actually meeting these four essentially criteria. Not perfectly of course! And under terrible sustained opposition from many quarters. But it is really happening.  I will at another time go into detail giving the facts which verify that he is fulfilling those four criteria for victory.  But that would take us away from the focus on my point of this Discerning The Times which is defining our role as intercessors.

I believe that it is the role of intercessor to be in the gap fighting in the heavenlies for Trump and his administration to succeed.

We must pray that the words that he does speak that are speaking a new reality as he did in the United Nations speech and the ones in Poland and Saudi Arabia, will be empowered to shape reality.  He also spoke those up-building, healing, unifying words and called the nation to prayer after the Las Vegas shooting.

If you compare what Obama said and what Trump is saying in equivalent contexts, you will see a stark difference in what they are saying and the vision of the world they are casting. For instance, compare the Obama’s Cairo speech with Trump’s Saudi Arabia speech.

Our role in this as intercessors is to discern which of the words that Trump is speaking does God intend to use as words of blessing to create the spiritual, political, and cultural reality that overcomes Satan’s plans and accomplishes God’s Kingdom plans.

We must also pray for him to grow in wisdom and the ability to restrain some of his very worst tendencies that make him such a great warrior, but terrible builder. (Bringing General Kelly into the White House was brilliant!)

Why Do Some Evangelical Christian Leaders Support Trump?

One brother in Christ noted that Trump knew that he could not have won the election with out the Christian right – “Therefore it pains me to see evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, and others uncritically endorse Trump. Frankly, I think he’s playing them like a violin. For what I consider an insightful analysis and exposure of Trump’s actual religious beliefs, read this article from the Christian journal First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/08/donald-trump-man-of-faith”

I have often been asked this question and I am not them so you will need to ask them, why they support Trump? I have attempted to give you some of my reasons.

I do want to respond to this very real concern however.  I have been going past the sound bits into the actual statements being made my those Christian Evangelical leaders and find that they are much more nuanced in their support and are also far from uncritical in their endorsements.

I am finding that many of their reasons are like some of my own which are that Trump has the potential to meet those four criteria that I listed earlier for defeating both radical Islam as well as the cancer of the Radical Left. As I have been reading and hearing through many sources some public and some private of their personal knowledge of Trump. Giving a much different and frankly better picture of his beliefs, value system, character, personality and ways of working and so forth then that of the one created by the media.

It is a value system which I completely concur with that you see embodied in what I would identify as his “prophetic speeches” as well as in his spontaneous interactions with other people in his role as President. (See my article on Trump’s UN Speech – https://discernwith.us/an-analysis-of-president-trumps-un-speech-and-guidance-for-intercessors)

If you would like to see some of the inside story of some of those evangelical leaders then I suggest you read Stephen E. Strang’s just published book, God and Donald Trump. That is giving me some profound insights into what God may have been doing in this election, the role of prayer as well as glimpses into to Donald Trump.

Frankly to judge, dismiss and not pray for him, on the bases of some clearly despicable sinful things of his past,  is to miss the whole picture of who this man is,  and how and why God may be using him to defeat Satan’s plans.

Trump is Going To Lead To Nuclear War

Another word frankly I get all the time is this: “One [Discerning The Times] that shocked me, frankly, was your open support a month or two ago of President Trump and his (to me) inflammatory address concerning North Korea, bringing the U.S. (and the world) dangerously close now to the brink of nuclear war.

In terms of Trump’s statements and actions concerning North Korea, as well as with Iran and other enemies of the United States of America,  I think that must be viewed with in the context of undoing the policy of appeasement and restoring deterrence that was fatally degraded under President Obama.

As Victor Davis Hanson notes, the leader who follows an appeaser is always has a terribly dangerous job of ending appeasement and restring deterrence. In which everything could blow up and become all out war,  however it is not that leader who set up the potential for that disaster, it is one who destroyed our deterrence.

Telling Kim Jung Un that we will totally destroy North Korea if they carry through with their many and ever more strident threats of attacks against the USA and our Allies is the risky game of restoring deterrence.  Deterrence by the way does not depend upon the actual number of war heads, we have but the perception by those who threaten us  as to whether we are willing to use them or not.

For a way to understand what I believe Trump is doing and why it is very wise policy which will prevent war, I recommend you read the book, The Wages of Appeasement  by Bruce Thornton . Also here is the link to an important article by Victor Davis Hanson – military historian   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/446812/trump-restoring-deterrence-necessary-dangerous-corrective-obama-appeasement

Our role as intercessors is to not uncritically support Trump but rather to join in the intercessory prayer work of enabling what God is doing through him of defeating Satan’s plans in the geopolitical sphere.  This is what that Discerning The Times was all about when I was caught up in the heavenlies seeking to constrain the evil that was and is still about to break out.  (https://discernwith.us/urgent-call-to-prayer-to-constrain-the-evil-that-may-break-out-from-north-korea-by-april-15-2017)

To join in the prayer battle for Trump and for God’s plans to be accomplished through him, in no way means that I think he is “absolutely above criticism of any sort.”

Not at all!  I believe that God is calling some of us into the prophetic role of speaking those corrective words to President Trump and to the administration.  And there are many that I am getting both from the Holy Spirit and also from my own observations.  I see the flaws and the tendencies that Satan can so effectively use just as well as everyone else can.

However, the format and context for speaking those out is not this public context of the Discerning the Times. The reason is that if I do so, Satan would just take those words which God may intend for correction and upbuilding to accomplish His purposes, and use them as curses.   Satan would distort them to be a part of the massive, relentless, orchestrated strategy to prevent the fulfillment of God’s plans by destroying Trump, his presidency, and all those who are working to restore Judeo-Christian values to the culture and government of the United States of America.

In this present hostile milieu with much of the press captivated by the worldview of liberal progressivism, such prophetic words must be spoken in the right context.  This is the context of personal relationship and anointed spiritual authority within the inner circles around President Trump.

I have not been granted that access. (I was granted this access with President Bush, but only after I was invited to the White House in 2005. I that context of personal relationship and direct access I was called to speak some corrective “prophetic words” to the President which I saw from the news reports were acted upon.)

The very good news, however, is that there are a number of intercessors and anointed Christian leaders who have been given that access. Because of what I know of them, I do not doubt that they are speaking into him and the administration prophetic corrective but edifying words. (Know some of these people and have also seen in public actions and statements made by Trump that their influence is having a positive effect.)

It may well be that the Lord will at some point give me and us in this Discerning the Times network of intercessors this sort of access. But until then, we will continue to do this work of intercession within the sphere we have been given.

Now in all this I am speaking of the role of intercessors in prophetic speaking. The political commentators such as Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, David Horowitz, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Rilley, Ben Shapiro, and others are speaking clearly and decisively into this. And if you listen to them, you will find them speaking clearly those corrective words and voicing criticisms which are very much needed.  Their role and our role as intercessors serve very different purposes.

Discerning The Times is not political commentary, even if it is about political topics. Instead it is seeking guidance for intercession and spiritual warfare.

President Trump’s role in God’s plans, and why it is urgent that intercessors pray that those plans are fulfilled

Trump, of course, is not our savior. Rather, I believe that Trump and his administration is God’s answer to our prayers, and he is God’s means to give us a reprieve from the gathering storm of evil that is coming upon us.  This storm includes the fulfillment of the curses being spoken by the demonic strongholds of Radical Islam “death to America and death to Israel” and the Radical Left “No Trump, No Wall, NO USA at all.”

Given the reprieve that may happen through Trump fulfilling these four leadership criteria critical for victory over these strongholds, our role as intercessors is to pray that the potential for evil in the sinful human being that Trump is will be restrained and redeemed and that God’s plans in Trump are not blocked.

Second, it is our calling to urgently pray in a great out pouring of the Holy Spirit that will restore biblical faith, which in turn will revitalize our Judeo-Christian values upon which our liberal democratic culture is both based and defended.

Therefore, I am calling Christians into this urgent work of prayer. To pray for God’s means of defeating the demonic strongholds, and most of all to pray for a great out pouring of the Holy Spirit which will advance the Kingdom of God worldwide.

Please send any reflection you may have.

In Christ,

Brad Long

Learn More: Presbyterian Reformed Ministries International

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 [1] The Present Crisis,  by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891):

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—
‘They enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin

[2] See Abraham Kuyper who does a brilliant job articulating these different spheres.  Especially – “Lectures on Calvinism,” a series of lectures sponsored by the Stone Foundation, was delivered by Abraham Kuyper at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898.

[3]  (For the full explanation of the “Judeo-Christian values” that were held by ALL the founding generation even through some were deist we need to understand that these values are not the same as biblical faith.  To prove all this you need to know our history two books present that, Russel Kirk, The Roots of American Order and Rene de Visme Williamson’s Faith as Foundation: A Christian Reorientation of Church/State Relations in America.

[4] https://www.charismanews.com/politics/opinion/61362-donald-trump-i-will-be-the-greatest-representative-for-christians-they-ve-had-in-a-long-time