PRAYER FOR JOHOR

Some Historical Facts on Johor

FOUNDATIONAL HISTORY

  1. Foundational History of Johor

Johor had a peaceful foundation but a history of bloodshed.

It was founded in 1894 due to trading in spices, quarry extracts, iron, pepper and vegetables. The present township was founded by Dato’ Bentara Luar, Mohamed Salleh bin Perang, acting on the orders of the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Abu Bakar.

But there was bloodshed. After a time of peace, came WW2 when there were bloody battles between the Allies and the invading Japanese in 1942. In the Parit Sulong Massacre, 145 Allies prisoners lost their lives. Many of the Indian prisoners were beheaded. During the Japanese occupation, many died in their hands from 1942 to 1945. Batu Pahat suffered ethnic clashes between the Malay (instigated by the Japanese) and Chinese, where 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese were killed or rendered homeless.

  1. Key Historical Leaders

Johor is the birthplace of some important political movements in Malaysia.

During the advent of Malays, it was ruled by various warlords over pieces of territories. Following that, the British colonised the land. The Malays stood their ground and following Malaysia Independence, the Malays became the decisions makers.  The early Malay rulers were basically Hindus. However, with the arrival of the Muslim traders and influence, they became Muslims.

During the early years of Batu Pahat (1894-1942), the dominance of British rule brought Christianity to the largely non-Malay population. But the British practised the policy of dividing the people by race and ruling over them.

The dominance of the Malay and thus Muslim influence since Independence till today see the “islamisation” in every sector of the rakyat – finance, education, business and families. Racial polarisation and disharmony continue due to the demonic practice of segregation by race.

It was in Johor that UMNO was launched on 3rd January 1946, attended by 3,000 men and women (in opposition to the Malayan Union which was initiated by the British).

Praying for Johor

In March, Johor will have her state election. These prayers help us pray into Johor’s destiny, not just for the election.

  

CALL ON THE LORD Jer. 33:3 –

‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvellous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’ Msg.

3 “Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you great things beyond the reach of your knowledge.” NAB

As we continue to seek the Lord for His ways and His thoughts, He promised to answer us to show us and to reveal to us His direction. We come humbly before Him to seek understanding, not what we know, not how we pray according to our understanding but beyond all that we know and understand. May He show us His ways which we will never figure out for our nation, the role Johor will play in the destiny of our nation and the role of the church in Johor as we call to Him.

 

Call on the Lord for:

  1. The Church in Johor

Pastors and leaders

  • In harmony and unity
  • Empower each of them to resist temptations and rise up in their authority to trample the deception of the enemies
  • Love the Word with strong spiritual discipline
  • Good shepherd in discipling members to honour God
  • Engage with the Holy Spirit to receive revelation and hear His guidance
  • Renew their minds to stand ready, resilient and reliant to move forward with God
  • Good transition in all levels of church leadership
  • Fill them with boldness and wisdom to do God’s will

All aspects of church ministries and small cell groups

  • Fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit to refresh with new life to minister; and for outpouring of the Holy Spirit over all of Johor
  • Remove the old wine skin (in maintenance mode) to a new wine skin (led by -the Holy Spirit to be on different mindset and on the cutting edge)
  • Raise up more emerging leaders to desire spirituality and to put on the armour of God
  1. Pray for All Families (Isaiah 54:17)
  • Strong loving relationships with harmony and unity
  • Resolution of conflicts and hurts, and breakthrough in finances, sickness, fear, doubt
  • Pray that Christian families will honour God, respect one another
  1. Johor State (Romans 13:1-7)

Johor is indeed a very critical state as far as we can see from the history of the politics of Malaysia. So let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us pray God’s will into Johor at this time.

  • Raise up political leaders that are righteous and bold to lead the nation.
    • Even as Johor is the state that started the major political movements, let us pray that Johor will now give birth to political parties that will seek righteousness above all other personal agendas.
    • Let us pray that these political parties will seek unity and harmony of races to break the spirit of divide and conquer that was part of the sad history of our nation.
    • Pray for the next generation. Johor is also going to exercise Undi 18 (about 750,000 in Johor State). May God raise the next generation of voters who will have the wisdom to choose the right person and party. May the next generation hunger for righteousness and value all races so that Malaysia can rise to its destiny as a rainbow nation.

 

  • Pray for deep healing of the land from wounds caused by racial divides, and breaking of the yoke of racism.

 

  • Repent from sins of idolatry, greed and corruption.

 

Yong Peng

In the town of Yong Peng, there was a curfew to prevent Communist Insurgency in 1950. In 1970, many youths were involved in gangsterism, drug addictions and gambling resulting in many gang fights. Fortune Dragon is the world’s biggest temple, and many people, especially Singaporean tourists, come.

Pray that the pastors of the churches can be united (British started racial

polarization through the system of divide and rule). Now pray that the people of God can come together and start a combined prayer altar so that the youth of the town of Yong Peng can be touched and set free from gangs.

Batu Pahat

Batu Pahat means “chiseled rock”. May Jesus totally chisel away the hard ground of idolatry. The town’s former name is Bandar Penggeram which means “salt” – may this refer to Batu Pahat Christians who will become the salt of Johor.

Let us intercede for the churches in Batu Pahat – to stand in the gap for the people and repent from idolatry.