Day 23: Choose Life, Not Death
Intention
We should not destroy what God has created and given life to. He is Life.
Scripture
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess… This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the LORD is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
—Deuteronomy 30:15-16; 19-20
Reflection
The Lord impressed on me in prayer recently that life and death are in the balance. He wants us to choose life. Yet we see around us mothers killing their unborn babies and saying they have the right to choose. They are “pro-choice”, not “pro-life.” The precious gift of life God has given them is rejected, and they will pay the price. We see families sick of waiting for elderly parents to die and looking to hasten their death through euthanasia.
There is a huge gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians when it comes to infant mortality, life expectancy and suicide — including child and youth suicide. Many of these children and youth have been sexually or physically abused and neglected. There is a hopelessness that can affect Aboriginal communities, with people constantly going to funerals.
Yet our society seems to not want to know about these things or to have seared consciences (1 Timothy 4:1-2). There is a lack of compassion and morality. This comes from a society divorced from Jesus, who is Life personified. He said He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). Our nation needs Jesus, revival and transformation.
The prophet Isaiah 5:20 says,
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Many seem to have made a covenant with death (Isaiah 28:18). We will not cheat death ourselves by making a bargain with it and allowing it to run rampant in our nation. We need to cancel any agreement we have made with death and pray others will also.
Prayer
We pray that Australians, and especially Christians, will choose life rather than death. We pray for protection of the life of the unborn, the elderly, the sick and disabled.
We pray for revival and transformation throughout Australia, including in Indigenous communities. We pray for better strategies for the Closing the Gap program so that the disparity between Indigenous and other Australians is no longer the case, and so that the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of Indigenous Australians improves to the point that we no longer see early deaths through ill health and child and youth suicide.
We prophesy to Indigenous Australians as in Ezekiel 37:10-11—
“I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.”
We join with Ezekiel in declaring, “Come out of your graves!”
We pray Lord that You will prick the consciences of those that are seared and bring compassion and morality to them based on Your Word and Your Holy Spirit that they would choose life.
Lord, we pray that You would turn around and change those who call good evil and evil good and bring our nation back to Your plumb-line of justice, righteousness, holiness and purity.
We take authority over any covenants with death made in our nation, our government institutions, our businesses, lobby groups and even our churches, and we cancel them in Jesus’ name by the blood of Jesus and the finished work of the Cross. Amen.
Prayer Points for October 2020
1. Pray for a Breakthrough for LIFE, specifically an end to abortion and euthanasia in our nation. Exodus 20:13
2. Pray for a Breakthrough for INDIGENOUS LIFE, specifically an end to high youth suicide and premature death due to ill health. 3 John 1:2
3. Pray for new POLITICIANS for LIFE, especially pray for the upcoming elections in Queensland (31st October), ACT (17th October) + USA (3 November) & New Zealand (17 October). Proverbs 29:2
4. Pray for the Revitalisation of SPIRITUAL LIFE, namely repentance, renewal & transformation, that our nation might return to God. 2 Chronicles 7:14
Ps Barbara Miller is a psychologist, sociologist, mediator, teacher and writer. She and her husband Norman, an Aboriginal artist, have a strong focus on spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare and are linked with the prayer movement worldwide. They work as an apostle-prophet team.
We invite you to join the daily 1-hour Zoom video National Prayer Call every night:
DATES: 1st– 31st October 2020
TIME: 8pm-9pm AEST
ZOOM URL LINK: https://zoom.us/j/776881184
ZOOM MEETING ID: 776881184
See Zoom tutorial here.
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