Eight Groups of People We Should Pray For

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

Paul wrote, “first of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men” (I Timothy 2:1).  We see from this verse that there is a sense in which our prayers must include the whole world.  They must go beyond our own families, our churches, our friends, and our country.  What a great and awesome responsibility we have.  And at the same time what a great privilege and honor God has given to us to be able to touch a soul on the other side of the world.

I have laid out for you what I have found from my study to be the main groups of people we should pray and intercede for.  Here are those groups, eight in all.

 

1.  Secular leaders (1 Timothy 2:2).  Under the heading of “all men,” the first group that Paul instructs…

View original post 1,834 more words

What Is intercession? A 7 Point Summary

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

BASICS OF PRAYERHere is a seven point summary of Intercession from this book Basics of Prayer

1.  It is standing in the gap or praying on behalf of a person who needs help, and in many cases, for whom Satan is trying to destroy.

2.  It is praying for those whom God has given to us—for those whom God has put on our heart; most often it is for those whom we have a ministry with.

3.  It is a particular kind of prayer that demands our unselfish devotion to God, to a pure life, and to those whom we pray for.  It demands our willingness to loose ourselves for others and for the will of God.

4.  To be an intercessor we must feel a concern and a responsibility for those we are interceding for.  We must associate with their sins and their needs.

5.  The prayers of an intercessor…

View original post 62 more words

Tragic Covid-19 Hospital Stories

I couldn’t hardly believe some of the stories about what has happened in some hospitals to covid patients—how they were mistreated. Read it for yourself—the article below. I’m sure there are many good hospitals. I guess it all depends on who the governor is—how that state is run and whether they are following the evil directives of the country. We certainly need a new President fast. We need a new system. We need someone who is not afraid to go against the World Health Organization and against evil global directives. But I suppose it is something that we should expect in these last days.  It will get worse and worst. As Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:13: “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

Please, as you read the article below, please pray that God will help and also show people the truth.

What Happened in Hospitals During Covid?

By Stella Paul, April 25, 2023

Hospitals should be places you can trust to provide comfort and healing when you’re most vulnerable. But that trust may have been shattered by brutal Covid protocols that critics claim turned many hospitals into hellscapes of systematic medical murder.

The victims’ stories have been muffled by the mainstream media, but they’re starting to break through. For one thing, lawsuits against three hospitals have been filed in California by 14 bereaved families who claim their loved ones were killed by a deadly protocol. Meanwhile, activist organizations like Protocol Kills, the FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation, and American Frontline Nurses are collecting and documenting stories from bereaved families about what happened to their loved ones when they entered a hospital hoping for healing and, instead, were led to bizarre and tortured deaths.

I find it heartbreaking to read their stories, which share a haunting similarity, a feeling of being trapped in a highly organized nightmare. The ritual progresses in predictable stages: first, the patient is isolated from family, who are unable to advocate for their loved one or monitor what’s happening. Next, the patient is diagnosed with Covid-19 or Covid pneumonia, even if they came to the hospital because of a broken arm. Then, they’re bullied into getting remdesivir, a highly toxic drug which killed 53 percent of Ebola patients who had the misfortune to take it. Next, according to the California lawsuit, “They are placed on a BiPap machine at a high rate, making it difficult for them to breathe. Their hands are often tied down so they can’t take the BiPap machine off their face.”

I know this is getting unbearably painful to read, but stay with me to the bitter end to memorialize the victims’ suffering.  As the patients writhe in agony, psychiatrists are brought in to diagnose them with agitation and sedate them. Now, shot up with remdesivir, sedated with drugs that make it tough to breathe against the BiPap ventilator, and strapped down in restraints, the victims are denied food and sometimes even water.  Should they try to summon help, they may find the hospital played a vicious trick on them, placing their phone and call button for the nurse out of reach. In the final stages, they are intubated and slowly die alone, left to rot into a skeletal corpse with bed sores. Is this America?

It’s almost impossible to comprehend the magnitude of this moral collapse. How did doctors and nurses who spent years studying so they could help people all of a sudden turn into ruthless sadists, presiding over enforced deaths? How did hospitals metastasize from places of healing into chambers of horror? According to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the answer is quite simple: money. The federal government incentivized this protocol with massive payouts to the hospitals. AAPS writes, “Our formerly trusted medical community of hospitals and hospital-employed medical staff have effectively become “bounty hunters” for your life.”

AAPS explains that two Covid emergency acts from the government created this catastrophic loss of life. The CARES Act, a $2 trillion stimulus package, was passed in 2020, purportedly to ease the financial impact of Covid on American families. It provided gigantic bonuses to hospitals to institute federal protocols on Covid, ensuring that Covid would be massively diagnosed and treated with deadly combinations of remdesivir, ventilators, and other lethal methods.

Now that this top-down death protocol was bought and paid for, the government made sure that patients and their families were helpless to fight against it. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) granted waivers to hospitals allowing them to remove critical patient rights. Your ability to give informed consent, receive visitors, and be free from solitary confinement – gone! Vanished, obliterated with a single magical government “waiver.”

These actions destroyed the ability of doctors to make independent judgements based on their patients’ needs and turned highly trained medical staff into killer robots obeying the federal government’s commands. If you want to understand the enormity of the government money gusher, here’s AAPS on what the hospital payments included:

  • A “free” required PCR test in the Emergency Room or upon admission for every patient, with government-paid fee to hospital.
  • Added bonus payment for each positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
  • Another bonus for a COVID-19 admission to the hospital.
  • A 20 percent “boost” bonus payment from Medicare on the entire hospital bill for use of remdesivir instead of medicines such as Ivermectin.
  • Another and larger bonus payment to the hospital if a COVID-19 patient is mechanically ventilated.
  • More money to the hospital if cause of death is listed as COVID-19, even if patient did not die directly of COVID-19.
  • A COVID-19 diagnosis also provides extra payments to coroners.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans may have died due to these protocols, and we urgently need an investigation into this butchery. Who designed this protocol, which forbade safe drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and incentivized known toxins like remdesivir? Who enforced it? Were hospital administrators personally rewarded for their participation in this scheme? Were patients illegally deprived of their constitutional rights and defrauded with phony medical information? Why were patients denied nutrition and water? How was hospital staff forced to comply? Where’s the money trail? Who signed off on it?

Understanding what happened in the hospitals is a crucial piece of solving the Covid puzzle. A vast ecosystem of confusion, manipulation, and artificially induced panic was created by the government and their media lackeys to stampede the public into welcoming soul-crushing lockdowns and dangerous experimental injections. Hospitals were shut down for elective surgeries, depriving them of their usual income and making them more desperate for government payouts. Covid patients were forced into nursing homes, immediately killing thousands of frail victims and terrifying the public with the skyrocketing death count. Safe, widely used drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were demonized, and studies were fabricated to lie about their effectiveness. Doctors and scientists who tried to speak the truth were fired, investigated, and censored. Why?

We’re living through a time of historic crimes against humanity, rife with atrocities that once would have been unimaginable in America. We don’t yet know how many innocent people were killed in the hospitals during Covid, but whatever that number is — some experts estimate hundreds of thousands — it’s too many. Every one of those innocent dead was someone’s son, daughter, mother, father, husband, wife, friend.

For all the faceless dead, let’s pause for a moment to pay tribute to Grace Schara, a sweet 19-year-old girl with Down Syndrome who died on October 13, 2021, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton, Wisconsin. Grace was injected with a lethal mix of sedatives and as she sank into death, her sister was prevented from seeing her by an armed guard. Her parents begged over Facetime for the nurse to save her, but they were told that Grace was coded DNR (Do Not Resuscitate), although they had ordered the hospital to take all life-saving measures. Alone, uncomprehending, and in pain, Grace slowly died as her parents watched on Facetime. Her father, Scott Schara, is now suing the hospital to “pave the way for thousands of other victims’ families to file similar claims.” Grace was loved. May her memory be a blessing and an inspiration.

Stella can be reached through twitter @StellaPaulNY

Graphic credit: Creazilla.com public domain

Daniel the Intercessor: Five Things to Learn from Daniel’s Intercession

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

 

Dan 9:3-19

3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day — to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and…

View original post 1,090 more words

What God Says about LGBTQ and Transgenderism

I have been somewhat surprised to hear of the support of trans-people lately, and generally all the LGBTQ people. Of course, since I am a bible believing Christian, I have a different perspective on it. All this kind of behavior is forbidden in the bible. In all of Paul’s teachings, sexual relations outside of marriage (of a man and a woman) is considered immoral. And in Romans chapter one, Paul explains how when a person rejects God and is not thankful to God, his heart is darkened and he will dishonor his own body and will do things that are not natural; and they will burn in their lust for one another—a man for a man and a woman for a woman. And God will give them over to a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:21-28).

No person is born a homosexual. They may have an inclination toward it (because of the sin nature), but they still have a choice to do what is right according to the bible, the word of God. We have seen in the history of the world and of nations how that when people have turned away from God and have slidden into all kinds of sexual perversion, that there is an implosion. This happened in Rome, as well as in Greece, Egypt and Babylon. Their immorality destroyed them.

We have seen also, in two cases, how when people became so sinful—particularly in homosexuality—that God Himself had to step in to destroy them. The first case, as you know, was with the great flood. Their sin was so bad that God decided to start over with only Noah and his family. In Genesis 6:5 we read, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Then a few hundred years later a similar thing happened in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18: 20 the LORD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.”

In chapter nineteen is a story of the kind of homosexual wickedness that was in Sodom. Terrible! In verses 24 through 28 is recorded what happened.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, 25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord; 28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace.

All homosexuality and what they call LGBTQ is entirely sinful and against God. It is dishonoring to the body and a total rejection of God and His creation. And this transgender movement is horrible—trying to change the way God made them. It is also dishonoring to God and to ourselves. These people have lost their way and are sick. They need help—to accept the way God made them. They in no way need to be encouraged to change themselves. This movement is entirely evil.

The Five Judgments of God

There are five judgments that we know of. Here they are.

Judgment #1: Of the Believer and Sin

The first has to do with the believer and sin. Will he be condemned or not because of his sins? How will God judge the believer? Well, right from the start we must say that God has already made a judgment on this. He has already declared every believer innocent based on Christ’s finished work on the cross. In 1 peter 2:24 it says,

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Then in Romans 8:1 and 2 it says,

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Here is a third wonderful promise as to this judgment; in John 5:24 Jesus says to us,

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Judgment #2: Of the Believer and his Works

This second judgment is in regard to the believer and his works. This judgment, often called the BEMA judgment, will be conducted in heaven, just after the Rapture of the church. This judgment is described in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Hence, the result of this judgment is a reward or loss. All our bad works will be consumed by fire, and our good works shall remain and we will be rewarded for them.

Judgment #3: Of the Jews

This is a judgment of the Jews. While the church is being judged in heaven, the Jews will be judged on earth during the Tribulation. The basis of their judgment is their rejection of God and of their messiah. For their sin they have been scattered among the nations until the Time of the Gentiles are fulfilled—at the Rapture. At that time, they will be gathered back to the Holy Land and will suffer under the Antichrist and under God’s wrath upon the earth, which is called the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer. 30:4-7). Many Jews will die, but a third will call upon the Lord and be saved (Ezek. 13:8-9).

Judgment #4: Of the Nations

This is the judgment of the nations, a judgment on all Gentiles who are still alive after Armageddon. This judgment is sometimes called the judgment of the sheep and goats. The sheep represent believers and the goats represent unbelievers. This judgment is well described for us in Matthew 25:31-46. Here it describes King Jesus as separating all the people as a shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats. And He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Here is the passage from verse 34:

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’  37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;  43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’  44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’  45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Notice the basis of the judgment of these Gentile peoples. It hinges on how they will treat Christ’s brothers. Most scholars would say that these brothers refer to Jewish believers, mainly the 144,000 Jews who will be His witnesses.

As you remember, during the Tribulation no one will be able to buy or sell anything without the beast’s mark. But since believers were not to take the mark, they will have to get food and anything they needed by other means. Since the Jewish witnesses were to commit all of their time on preaching the gospel, they could not spend much time trying to provide for themselves.

Those who were believing Gentiles, they were the ones that will provide for them. Even though they will not take the mark either, they will make the time to somehow feed themselves as well as the believing Jews. And God will help them do it. He will give them the heart and the knowhow to feed themselves as well as others. Moreover, this good work will reveal that they in fact are believers—that they are His sheep.

Judgment #5: Of the Unbeliever

This fifth judgment is called the great white throne judgment. The time of this judgment is immediately after the end of the Satanic rebellion, when the devil is thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-10), and just before the new heaven and earth comes into existence (Rev. 21:1). Hence, it will be during that time when there is nothing—when the old universe is “passed away” or “destroyed with intense heat” (2 Pt. 3:10), and when the new heaven and earth have not yet come (Rev. 21:1). There will be nothing but a “great white throne” with God sitting on it. This is the judgment of all unbelievers of all time. They will all be resurrected and will be brought here to be judged. The account of this judgment is in Revelation 20:11-15.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

A Picture of Intercession from the Book of Esther

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

Esther approachingThe story of Esther gives us a clear picture of how intercession works. In the story, Queen Vashti was divorced from King Ahasuerus because she refused to dance before the king and his guests at a banquet.  Later, after the king’s anger had subsided, a search was made for a new Queen.  Esther was chosen, and the king loved her.

 Soon afterwards, King Ahasuerus appointed a man named Haman as Prime Minister; and as the king commanded, all the king’s officials were to bow down to him.  But Mordecai, who was Esther’s cousin and the one who reared her, refused to bow down to Haman because of his Jewish faith.  Upon hearing this news Haman was furious and immediately began to plot the destruction of all the Jews, out of which a decree was issued and signed by the king that all Jews would be killed on the 28th of…

View original post 483 more words

Minneapolis First City to Allow Muslim Prayer Calls

Please read this article and then also read my comments at the end.

Minneapolis becomes first major US city to allow all five Muslim daily prayer calls

Story by Dave Orrick, April 13, 2023

Minneapolis on Thursday became the first major American city to permit unfettered broadcast of the Muslim call to prayer, allowing the adhan to be heard over speakers five times a day, year-round.

The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to amend the city’s noise ordinance, which had prevented some morning and evening calls at certain times of the year because they occurred at times of the day when tighter noise restrictions are in place.

“The Constitution doesn’t sleep at night,” said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), after the vote. He said Minneapolis’ action should show the world that a “nation founded on freedom of religion makes good on its promise.”

Thursday’s vote, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, marked the capstone of a years-long effort to allow more calls to be broadcast in Minneapolis, whose burgeoning population of East African immigrants has led to mosques dotting the landscape.

Three council members — Aisha Chughtai, Jeremiah Ellison and Jamal Osman — identify as Muslim. “In a body of 13, that’s a real caucus,” Ellison said before the 12-0 vote (Council Member Andrew Johnson was absent).

Not only was the council vote unanimous, the decision drew no organized community opposition. Mayor Jacob Frey is expected to sign the measure within a week.

Read the Full Article

My Comments

I live in Minneapolis, and, while I was working outside one day I happened to hear these prayer calls. One bold Muslim decided to do it on his own (with a loud microphone). I’m not Muslim, so I didn’t agree with it; but on the other hand, I thoiught this man was quite bold and dedicated to his religion; and I wished I was as bold as him. I wish more Christians would be more dedicated to prayer.

I recalled that Daniel prayed three times a day in his window chamber (Daniel 6:10). David also prayed many times a day. They were dedicated prayer warriors.

The Judgment of the Nations

After the Tribulation is over, and likewise, after the fall of Babylon (Rev. 16:19; 17 & 18), and after the return of Christ (Rev. 19:11-16), and after Jesus brings all the believing Jews to safety (Rev. 12:16; Zech. 12:9; 14:3-4), and after He casts the beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20), and after He goes out to kill all unbelievers who have gathered at Armageddon to do battle with Him (Rev. 19:21), Jesus will then gather all nations together (all gentiles that  are still alive), and will bring them to a certain place on earth, probably to a place near Jerusalem to be judged. It will be the place of His earthly reign in the Millennial kingdom (Matt. 25:31; Rev. 20:4-6).

This judgment is sometimes called the judgment of the sheep and goats. The sheep represent believers and the goats represent unbelievers. This judgment is well described for us in Matthew 25:31-46. Here it describes King Jesus as separating all the people as a shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats. And He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Here is the passage from verse 34:

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’  37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?  38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’  40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;  43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’  44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’  45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’  46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Notice the basis of the judgment of these Gentile peoples. It hinges on how they will treat Christ’s brothers. Most scholars would say that these brothers refer to Jewish believers, mainly the 144,000 Jews who will be His witnesses.

As you remember, during the Tribulation no one will be able to buy or sell anything without the beast’s mark. But since believers were not to take the mark, they will have to get food and anything they needed by other means. Since the Jewish witnesses were to commit all of their time on preaching the gospel, they could not spend much time trying to provide for themselves.

Those who were believing Gentiles, they were the ones that will provide for them. Even though they will not take the mark either, they will make the time to somehow feed themselves as well as the believing Jews. And God will help them do it. He will give them the heart and the knowhow to feed themselves as well as others. Moreover, this good work will reveal that they in fact are believers—that they are His sheep.

Now I want to write a little more on all the judgments—so that we can put this judgment of the nations in perspective. But that will be on a coming blog.

Four Ways the Holy Spirit Intercedes for Us

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

The Holy Spirit is the person of God who intercedes for us on earth.  Here is a picture of His intercession.

 1.  He prays for us.  A big part of the intercession of the Holy Spirit is His prayer for us.  While Jesus is praying for us in heaven, the Holy Spirit is praying for us here on earth in our hearts. 

Romans 8:27 says that He intercedes for us “according to God.” Most translations say that He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  However, a literal translation should read “according to God”, leaving out “the will of”.  William Newel states, “We feel that the introduction of the words ‘the will of’ before the word God, merely obscures the meaning.”  He states that the phrase “according to God” is a more “all inclusive” and “blessed expression.”  Newel says it this way: “We know not how…

View original post 819 more words