Big Prayers

During a conference in August 2023, Apostle John Alley prayed this prayer for New Life.

Part of the words include this:

I ask O Lord that you would you give them authority to rule the nations with a rod of iron as you speak of. Lord grant power to Keith and his people to overcome and to sit with you on your throne and to rule nations. That is, I ask O Lord that you would give them the ability, give them the insight, give them the grace by which they can pray prayers to touch anything in the world, shift anything in the world, heal anything in the world in the world, break the power of any wickedness in the world.

As a result, we are believing that God is calling us to pray for big issues in Australia and the world.

We will start with two points of prayer. This page will be updated from time to time with developments relating to these issues and any other issues that we feel the Lord is asking us to take on board.

1. Coburg Baptist Church

Coburg is an inner suburb of Melbourne (about 8 lm north of the CBD). Coburg Baptist Church was established around 1890. It thrived for many years, but with the post-war demographic changes, it has been declining for several decades.

One of the deacons, Marc Hudson, has been trying to encourage the church to comce under John Alley’s headship and to seek deeper community.

Other members and the pastor, Paul Reissen, are not seeing the same vision.

Pray for:

• Marc to be a gentle servant and not to put people off by pursuing his vision too assertively.

• Pastor David to be led by the Holy Spirit in all things.

• The church to nor be fragmented as it works out where God is leading them.

UPDATE 22/11/23

I have been told that a new couple has started attending the church, and they are committed to participating. He is favourable to the apostolic message.

2. Ukraine

From Wikipedia:

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa. Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.

During the Middle Ages, Ukraine was the site of early Slavic expansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century, but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire. Ukrainian nationalism developed, and following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. The German occupation during World War II in Ukraine was devastating: 7 million Ukrainian civilians were killed, including the majority of Ukrainian Jews.

Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, and declared itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in 1996. A series of mass demonstrations, known as the Euromaidan, led to the establishment of a new government in 2014 after a revolution. Russia then unilaterally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula; and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in the Donbas between Russian-backed separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Since the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine has continued to seek closer ties with the United States, European Union, and NATO Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine is a unitary state with a semi-presidential system. A developing country, it is the poorest country in Europe by nominal GDP per capita and corruption remains a significant issue. However, due to its extensive fertile land, pre-war Ukraine was one of the largest grain exporters in the world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, as well as a member of the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the OSCE. It is in the process of joining the European Union and has submitted an application for NATO membership.

The war with Russia has had severe ramifications for the people of Ukraine and for the world. Ukraine is a massive exporter of various food products including wheat.

In recent months, Ukraine has been making slow progress in repelling Russian forces. This map from the BBC shows the current state of Russian control in Ukraine as at 24/8/23

We need to pray for:

• peace and an end to all fighting

• withdrawal of Russian fighters

• reconstruction

• political freedom and an end to all corruption in both Ukraine and Russian-backed

UPDATE 26/9/23

From the BBC: 

UPDATE 4/9/23

From the BBC

UPDATE 6/9/23

On 29 August, Ukraine launched a drone attack on a Russian airbase in Pskov, over 400 miles from the Ukrainian border. Several enormous (and enormously expensive) transport planes were significantly damaged.

Just a year ago, such an attack beyond Ukraine’s borders would have been almost unthinkable. But no more. In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up its use of drones to strike targets inside Russia. Its recent attacks on military bases were preceded by drone attacks earlier in August on Moscow’s business district and on Russian ships.

For much of the war, Ukraine had restricted hostilities to Ukrainian territory. The only exceptions to this strategy were the strikes on key logistics routes, such as last October’s attack on the Kerch bridge, which connects mainland Ukraine to Crimea. Even then, it should be remembered that Ukraine sees the bridge as well within its own territory.

Part of the reason for restricting attacks on Russia to Ukrainian territory was a desire to avoid escalation – a concern voiced particularly strongly by the US, Ukraine’s biggest backer. So what do the recent drone attacks within Russian territory tell us about the course of the war?

Most obviously, they reveal the extent to which drones, even if they have not rewritten the rules of warfare, have changed how wars are fought. Last winter, the main concern for Ukraine was countering swarms of Iranian-made drones, which alongside cruise missiles were being used to attack key energy infrastructure and plunge households into sub-zero temperatures. Now, Russia faces a similar aerial bombardment from Ukraine.

Both Ukraine and now Russia have struggled to counter the attacks from drones. They are small, which makes them difficult to detect. And they’re cheap, which means they are more expensive to shoot down than to launch. According to many reports, Ukraine has been especially adept at deploying drones on the battlefield. Now it seems to be turning its attention further afield. New innovations – including making drones out of cardboard, rendering them even harder to detect – are already having an effect.

 UPDATE 17/10/23

UPDATE: 8/11/23