@Knittinggrace I believe we believers in the West need to start learning from the underground house church movement in the persecuted countries. It strongly looks like that's going to be also our future.
Throughout Italy we are witnessing a frightening increase in petrol, diesel, methane, electricity and basic necessities.
Many industries are temporarily (I hope) shutting down because they can no longer pay their electricity bills.
In the place where I live there was an entrepreneur who received a bill of 100,000 euros this month while up until now he had always paid around 35,000.
What is happening in your countries?
God bless you.
Psalm 145:2-3 NKJV
Every day I will bless You,
and I will praise Your name
forever and ever.
Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised;
and His greatness
is unsearchable.
Salmo 145:2-3 NR
Ogni giorno ti benedirò
e loderò il tuo nome
per sempre.
Il SIGNORE è grande
e degno di lode eccelsa,
e la sua grandezza
non la si può misurare.
Please PRAY urgently for Chinese Pastor Pan and The Mayflower Church. 🙏 🙏 🙏
Their testimony is incredible. Pastor Pan led his church of 28 adults and 32 children to pose as tourists and they fled China to the S. Korean island of JeJu, where they currently are. They have been denied asylum in S. Korea and unless they are accepted elsewhere (which they have not been up till now), they will be forced to return to China very shortly to face intense persecution and torture. They are submitted to the Lord's will in all things and are ready to face their return if need be. Pastor Pan is an amazing man of God and bold leader in the Chinese Underground Church. I'm posting an older article from Nov. '21 because it has great photos of them: This weighs so heavily upon my heart. Please pray. You will find out in the article how they got their name of "The Mayflower Church". https://vomkorea.com/en/2021/11/09/vomk-report-178/#comment-8637
We are living in an era in which there is no time to prepare for an event that happens another one even worse than the previous one.
May God prepare His entire Church to align with the prophetic times we are living in. It is no longer time to "be on a cruise ship".
Stiamo vivendo in un'epoca nella quale non si fa in tempo a prepararsi ad un evento che ne succede un altro ancora peggiore del precedente.
Che Dio possa preparare la Sua Chiesa intera ad allinearsi ai tempi profetici che stiamo vivendo. Non è più tempo di "stare su una nave da criciera".
My eyes are ever toward the Lord ,
For He shall pluck my feet
out of the net.
Psalms 25:15 NKJV
Meditate on the word "net". God has the power to take us out of the net, out of any net. Any network!
The whole world seems to be all embedded in the internet. It now seems that without the internet we can no longer live.
What will happen to the Church if the authorities decide to block the Internet for Christians?
Or how will Christians communicate without the internet if they are taken to places where it will not be possible to use the existing internet?
The Lord answered me with this verse. God has no limits. God has the power to get a message from one place to another even without the internet.
God is the almighty and he frees us from the net, from any net.
For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion: In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me; He will lift me up upon a rock.
Psalms 27:5 ASV
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, remember well these two verbs present in this verse:
1) to keep
2) to hide
God has the power to keep and hide his children redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
For in the day of trouble
he will keep YOU secretly
in his pavilion:
In the covert of his tabernacle
will he hide YOU;
He will lift YOU up upon a rock.
This is a promise to those
who feel in danger!
This was posted on Facebook by the ministry 8thirty8:
"Dear friends, as we pray for Ukraine, let's also lift up our brothers and sisters in Russia. We received this update from a Russian friend this week."
"Please remember to pray for us here in Russia too! We are broken and hurting. But there are many believers here. We are continuing to preach the gospel and comfort people and encourage them to look to God! We have to look at God and go through this fiery furnace. Please pray for us believers in Russia who are trying to change our country from the inside out. One person at a time. We will preach the Gospel and God's love!" Message clipped. I didn't post the prayer from 8thirty8 due to space constraint.
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
there is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not as Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
I received (yesterday) this forwarded message from a sister in Christ in Finnish, and again my own translation of it to English:
"We got a message yesterday from our friend in Kiev:
I want to encourage you with the words of our known soldiers and of other common people who are coming from different warfronts. They tell:
"We feel your prayers. Sometimes happens something very inexplicable, like an invisible hand really would direct the bullets and other ammunitions away from us so that they fly us by. We get victories in very difficult situations, like if someone was guiding them. We become invisible to our enemy, but we self can see them in complete darkness so that we know what and how to react. All of this is giving us courage and strenght. We believe that the Lord Jesus himself is protecting Ukraine. We ask you, please, don't quit your prayers, but keep on praying. We need you!"
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
— 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJV)
"One of the most basic mandates for the Christian is to pray for the government. God intends His church to exercise a decisive influence for good in the affairs of the nations".
From Derek Prince's book, Praying for the Government
I just a moment ago received a forwarded message in Finnish from Christians in Ukraine. I made my own translation of it to English (as best as I could) to post it also here:
An urgent message from
Vitaly Orlov
Sumy's Christian church's
Pastor/Bishop,
Verkhovna Rada, Kiev
Beloved friends, brothers and sisters from all over the world.
We appeal to you in this dark time for all of us, when the black clouds of bombs cover the sun over our capital city.
This night the elite specialforces of the Russian federation together with Tsetsenian units attacks one of the world's oldest (from 400 A.C) and most beautiful cities, the spiritual capital of East-Europe - Kiev🇺🇦.
At this moment there are streetfights going on in Kiev. Everyone who are able to hold a gun in their hands; even senior citizens, students and pupils, have raised up to defend the city.
(Continues...)
The coming night and tomorrow day are critical moments. At stake is everything, what the whole civilisized world believes and what it has built so far.
With tears in our eyes we request you, no matter on what time zone you are in, to spend time in prayer and fasting in front of God. 🙏
Pray the Lord to protect us from insane armies, which wants to mock at the cost of faith and God's truth.
We ask you to share this message to all your friends, relatives and acquaintances in Europe, Asia, America and all over the world!
Prayer is stronger than the strongest enemy🙏🙏🙏!
Your brothers and sisters from Ukraine 💙💛
I am a Christian saved by the grace of God.
My mission is to evangelize and disciple according to the "Great Commission" of Jesus Christ.
I am married to a woman of God who is a truly gift from God, and together we serve the Lord.
For over twenty years I have been engaged in preaching the gospel and teaching the Holy Scriptures in Italy.