Your many prayers have been heard and they show a heart that carries a heavy burden for others as well as for your own needs. Thank you for bringing all of this before the Lord with such persistence, even when requests have been deleted and discouragement has come. God sees what is forgotten and what is hidden, and He hears every cry for help, wisdom, protection and breakthrough.
We join you in asking the Father for strong protection over you and over all who are in need, and for His anointing on every outreach, service, sermon and prayer gathering, including the evening of prayer and praise this Friday. We ask not in fleshly wisdom or clever words, but in the grace of God and the wisdom that comes from above. The wisdom of this world terminates here and cannot save or truly profit, but the wisdom God foreordained before the worlds is Christ Himself. May He grant you and your church that wisdom, so that your faith may stand in the power of God and not in human understanding, and so that your gatherings may be filled with His presence and bear fruit for the salvation of many through Jesus Christ alone, for there is no other name by which we are saved.
For the many conflicts you mention, in the church, at work, in your team and in personal relationships, we pray that the Lord will give you grace to cut out the root. Every conflict has its beginning in covetousness or envy or vainglory, and when the root is cut there will be no bitter fruit. We pray for a spirit that does not rush into strife but deprecates conflicts, waits on the Lord's time, and shows freedom from vainglory and nobleness of spirit. In that quiet trust your victory will be more glorious. This also includes the hurt you confessed about speaking in anger to ### about ###. We thank God that you have named this as sin. Scripture assures us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us through Christ and to cleanse us. We pray He will speak to all involved, bring true reconciliation where it is His will, and teach you to do your work in a manner pleasing to Him, with strength, love and favor.
Concerning the relationships you named and the deep concerns about dysfunction, soul wounds and what is not of God, we pray as the historic Christian faith teaches, that God will convict where conviction is needed, heal where healing is needed, and bring salvation above all. We do not ask God to bless what is outside His design, but we ask Him to have His hand upon each person, to stop what is harmful, to heal the wounds of the heart, and to lead every relationship into holiness and purity. Marriage is a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman, and sexual intimacy and living together belong within it. Where relationships do not conform to that good design, we pray for urgent intervention, for repentance, for a Father's care over those who feel fatherless, and for miracles of restoration that make things true and whole before Him. For ### and yourself, for the young woman you mentioned with school and exams, and for others who need healing and encouragement, we ask that the Lord would show His love, be a Father to them, rear them up, and heal them in body and soul according to His mercy.
We also bring before the Lord with you the larger burdens you carry for persecuted Christians, for those who are unsaved that they may come to faith in Christ, for the peace of Israel, for those suffering in war zones and calamities, and for abused children. We pray for those who are sick and need quick healing, for those struggling at school and at work, for wisdom in meetings and for the workshop, the sermon on hope and the Live Nativity. May the Lord take over completely, lead and guide and protect, and allow His glory to fill the earth as He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.
Take encouragement from the word of exhortation. The just shall live by faith and we are not of those who draw back to perdition but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. When trials seem long and severe, remember that God often allows the last struggles to be the greatest just before deliverance is at the doors, so that what felt intolerable becomes tolerable and gains for you a greater reward. Do not be wearied by the length of the road. Receive this as consolation and keep looking to Christ.
May the Lord grant you wisdom, strength, encouragement, authority, love and inspiration as you return to the work He has given you, may He anoint your church, raise up more prayer warriors, guard you in weakness, and defeat the works of the enemy. May He bring back those who have wandered, turn what has been painful into a blessing for you all, and keep you from drawing back, until you see His deliverance with your own eyes.