Bound4Life Mercy Seat a Great Success
Over 100 Georgians stood together "in the gap" recently to pray for an end to abortion, for mercy and to plead the Blood of Jesus upon our state and nation as part of a powerful nationwide event, "The Mercy Seat". Make sure to check out the photos at http://bound4life.com/galleries/themercyseat!On Saturday, April 26th, I had the great blessing of being able to participate in the Mercy Seat prayer event at the Capitol in downtown Atlanta. It was an honor and privilege to pray and stand in the gap with so many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord, pleading the blood of Our Savior upon our legislative and justice systems, our whole state and the nation. I was deeply moved by the intensity of the prayer - there was something so powerful about praying in silence for 7 hours (intersperced with some guided corporate prayer) with so many other believers.
The suggested topics of meditation and prayers for each hour in the Prayer Guide were profoundly beautiful and inspired, focusing on the Passion of Our Lord and 7 key moments in which He shed His blood for us. I plan to use this Prayer Guide often now while praying outside the prenatal murder centers around Metro Atlanta, pleading His blood upon them. One of the most striking meditations in this Prayer Guide for me was the following:
Can you see yourself resting your head on Jesus’ chest like John did? Can you
hear his heartbeat? Shhhh–listen closely. What do you think is on his heart?
Today an estimated 50 million dreams of Heaven have been legally aborted in
America since 1973. Every baby in the womb first originated in the heart and
mind of God. How does the Father feel when His dreams are aborted? One
third of this generation has never had the chance to fulfill God’s purposes in
the earth.
As I meditated on Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, the thought struck me that the wombs of abortion-minded mothers are new Gardens of Gethsemane in which Jesus unites Himself with these children, these eternal thoughts of His Father. In the Garden, Jesus foresaw and awaited the pending betrayal by His friend and the horrendous suffering to follow. In the wombs of these women today, Jesus holds these little ones as He foresees and awaits the final blow of betrayal by their own mothers and the horrendous suffering to follow. He asks us, “Will you not watch one hour with me?” Bound4Life provided such a powerful opportunity to answer this call of Our Lord. I pray that I may be faithful in following His call to keep watch with Him in prayer and outreach at the centers of killing in our midst.
The heat that day and hard concrete in front of the Capitol certainly made for a challenging 7 hours, but they also proved a blessing for me in helping me to enter more deeply into the Throne Room of prayer, past the barrier that the flesh can be. As Jesus told the Apostles that night when He found them sleeping, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”. It’s easy to fall asleep and begin to lose that spiritual connection with the babies, moms & dads that you can only get by “staying here and watching with (Him)” at the places of killing. An event like Mercy Seat, in which the leaders had enough faith in us to ask us to stand, sit or kneel in silence in such harsh conditions for so many hours on behalf of the preborn and their parents and all who in some way condone or ignore this great evil, was a highly effective spiritual tool for disciplining the flesh, submitting it more & more to the dominion of Christ, so that we can be strengthened in our will to endure the hardship of continuing to go out to pray and sidewalk counsel at the mills, courthouses & Capitol as often as possible and in our homes and/or churches daily.
In these times that we live, I believe it is of utmost importance that we all stay close to each other in prayer, gathered around Our One Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the Garden, watching and praying for one another intently. May we have many more events like The Mercy Seat!
As Cathy mentions in her article above, the dancing in the Spirit at the end of our 7 hours was absolutely beautiful and a joy to the spirit --- seeing so many young people dancing in front of the Capitol - dancing in the triumph already won by Jesus over death and injustice - was a powerful witness to drivers going by to the JOY true believers have in Christ, our Victor and LIFE!
Lastly, it was a great encouragement to have one of our state legislators praying with us! I hope that many more will follow suit at future prayer events.
I highly urge you to check out the Bound4Life website: http://www.bound4lifeatlana.com, and here’s a link to The Mercy Seat website while it’s still up: http://bound4life.com/themercyseat/. You can download the Prayer Guide here: http://bound4life.com/images/mercyseat/PrayerGuide.pdf