PRAYER FOR THE NATION – JANUARY 2024

2024 THEME: POSSESSING THE GATES

“POSSESSING THE GATES” is an urgent and critical positioning the LORD requires of us as we enter 2024 as the body of Christ in Malaysia.

Why must we possess the gates?

  • To maintain open heaven for the King of Glory to come in.
  • Psalm 24:7-10 NKJV

7 Lift up your heads, O you gates!

And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!

And the King of glory shall come in.

8 Who is this King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

The LORD mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!

Lift up, you everlasting doors!

And the King of glory shall come in.

10 Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts,

He is the King of glory.

 

  • The power of darkness is intensifying, and we need to contend and possess gates.
    • Isaiah 28:5-6 NKJV
      5       In that day the Lord of hosts will be
      For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
      To the remnant of His people,
      6 For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
      And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

 

  • For waves of revival to sweep across the nation, leading to repentance and salvation of souls.
  • John 10:9-10 NIV

9 I am the Gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

  • Ezekiel 18:32 NIV

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

 

On 12 November 2023, in the MUFW 24-hour prayer altar, Pr Julius Suubi shared on “Open the Gates” from Psalm 24. He shared on the conditions to opening the gates. Clean hands and a pure heart is what God requires of us.

Pr Julius Suubi shared:

  • “Until we fix the issue of the heart, we are not going to have a powerful prayer that is able to shift nations.”
  • “The church must experience a WAVE OF HOLINESS before we can see that demonstration of the power of God taking place. We need to humble ourselves in humility to seek the heart of God concerning our nation at such a time as this. When the church gets back to our position (of holiness), God begins to shift things.”

MUFW would like to start 2024 by coming humbly before the LORD to consecrate ourselves to have clean hands and pure hearts, and to experience a wave of holiness unto Him who called us, “Be holy, for I AM Holy.”

 

PRAYER

  • Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For You chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in Your sight. (personalized Ephesians 1:3-4)

 

  • At the start of this New Year, we are here to present ourselves, our families, and our church before You to be sanctified to have clean hands and pure hearts so that a wave of holiness would sweep upon the Body of Christ across this nation.

 

  • We invite Your Holy Spirit to help us because we are unable to repent on our own, for we are prideful and stiff necked and dull in our spirit. Your word in Jeremiah 17:9-10 says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? You, the LORD, search the heart, You test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

 

  • Lord, Holy Spirit, come

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

[Take time to pause here to engage with the Holy Spirit concerning matters of the heart that we may have been unaware of or oblivious to.]

 

  • Lord, we acknowledge if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make You a liar, and Your word is not in us. [1 John 1:9-10] I thank You for Your gracious mercy and forgiveness upon me.

 


Psalm 51
1 Have mercy upon me, O God,

According to Your lovingkindness;

According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,

Blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,

And my sin is always before me.

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,

And done this evil in Your sight—

That You may be found just when You speak,

And blameless when You judge.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

And in sin my mother conceived me.

6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,

And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me hear joy and gladness,

That the bones You have broken may rejoice.

9 Hide Your face from my sins,

And blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.