Month: April 2018

Where are the Priorities in our Public Schools?

April 23, 2018

On Nov. 7, 2017, the “News Journal” published an article titled: In Delaware, 1 in 6 Adults Struggle to Read. That’s about 13% of Delaware’s population—an astounding number but not too off from the rest of the US. The article piqued my interest since I recently conducted a prayer conference call with intercessors across the United States. One of the women on the call from Delaware, requested prayer because Delaware is joining the ranks of California, Washington State, and Oregon in integrating gender identity and sexual orientation into their school curriculum beginning at the kindergarten level. There is a connection between the “extra” material and illiteracy.

First—educational priorities are skewed. Where is the Common Sense in sex education? Where are our priorities as a society when 24% of the nation’s students graduate from high school functionally illiterate? Should we not teach the children the basic fundamentals of reading, writing and math with maybe basic American history and civics thrown in for good measure? It will cost millions of dollars for new text books and supplemental material that includes gender identity and sexual orientation.

Second—a larger political agenda is revealed. When common sense goes out the window with education, there is a larger and darker agenda at play—a different social structure is attempting a gradual takeover. Remember God’s words to Able in Gen. 4:7, “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must master it”

Third—future test scores will decline. Besides the fact that the students’ attention will be diverted from learning what they need in order to function in society—teaching “extra” material takes valuable time. Almost any teacher will tell you that there is not enough time in the day to assure that each student fully comprehends the basic material that needs to be covered for academic success. The article also said that one-third of the state’s third graders can’t read. It is a fact that reading levels are good indicators to project future poverty levels of the students once they are adults. If a student can’t read and do basic math by the time he/she reaches adulthood, they are most likely doomed to a life of poverty. So it stands to reason that if we want a prosperous nation, we absolutely must have students that can read, and read well.

The solution—prayer! It is important that we pray strategically for education—not just “throw a thought” toward the problem. The more we realize that any effort to change education will require prayer, the faster we will see the problem eradicated. Would you take a moment and pray for the Mountain of Education in America.

Here are a couple of points to pray:
Much of our curricula that promotes sex education and a global agenda comes from the United Nations. Pray that the source of the material that tears down our society will be revealed and destroyed at its roots. Pray Matthew 3:10 that every tree in our schools that does not bear good fruit will be cut down.
Pray that God would raise up people to rebuild the ruins of our educational system and would raise up to ancient foundations. Pray Isaiah 58:32

The Perfect Storm in Education

April 19, 2018

Over the past two weeks, we have been inundated with the news of school shootings. The most deadly in recent weeks was the shooting on the campus at Ompaqua Community College in Oregon, where 10 people were killed and nine were injured. The US has had an average of one school shooting per week since January 2012 when 20 children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. How did we get here? What happened in America that over the last 16 years school shootings have become common place? Who broke that dam of evil? And more importantly, how do we stop the killings? 

 

Below I’ve listed three historical events that led us to this place:

  1. The Theory of Evolution Introduced in Education—In the mid 1850s Herbert Spencer proposed that education should draw on new scientific principles to make teaching more efficient as well as pleasant for the child. He proposed that learning was subject to the same laws that shaped the evolution of human beings from simple organisms could be used to shape the development of each child from the earliest moments in life to adults. Out of these concepts, came a new branch of science called child psychology. New discoveries in child learning techniques should give helpful information on how to be a more discerning and caring parent or teacher. The problem with this new branch of science was that it was founded in Darwinism/evolution. Learning disabilities in children began to take names. Eventually, the medical community came up with a myriad of diagnoses for those disabilities, which leads us to the next issue—that of drugs.
  2. Drugs—What came in the 1960s and onwards were a plethora of new drugs on the streets of our cities as well as through the pharmaceutical industries. The street drugs appealed to those who desired to check out of a materialistic culture. The pharmaceutical drugs treated children’s psychological issues as well as learning disabilities. We became a nation that medicated her children.
  3. We Lost our Moral compass Meanwhile the school curricula was steadily undergoing a major shift with the removal of the God of the Christians from the classrooms. With no concept of a creator and therefore no accountability to a higher power, no value is placed on life. When life is cheap, killing the innocent becomes prevalent. When children who grow up deprived of knowing God as a creator are legally drugged there is a recipe for disaster.

These “winds” are some of the strongest influencers that created a “perfect storm” in our educational system.

The answer lies in prayer, but not just a blanket prayer that says, “our thoughts and prayers are with you.” The answer lies with those who know God and the power of the Name of Jesus. Now is the time for believers to come together in unity, in order to pray targeted, strategic prayers that will turn our educational system and consequently our children back to God. Jesus said, “If you believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”  Let’s come together in agreement to take the Mountain of Education!

 

Prayer for Oklahoma Education

April 16, 2018

This is the Hebrew month of Nissan, the month of Passover! Nissan is the time for redemption, miracles and a time for us to evaluate every political structure with which we are aligned.

With this in mind, I’ve put together some thoughts on the upcoming proposed Oklahoma teacher “walk out” scheduled to take place on April 2, 2018. I ask that you read the overview with discernment and determine to enter into praise so God can reveal His plans for the teachers of Oklahoma.

Teachers across Oklahoma have organized a classroom “walk out” on April 2, 2018, in order to bring pressure on the Oklahoma State Legislature to pass legislation that would give teachers a salary increase of $10,000 per teacher over the next three years. State employees also want higher base salaries and have plans to join the teachers on April 2.

As many of you have already recognized in the Spirit that the “walk out” has more to do with what is happening spiritually in Oklahoma and less to do with actual pay raises. While teachers certainly deserve a pay raise, there are people and organizations that are using this need for a pay increase to promote their globalist, humanistic mindset. They will do anything they can to continue to feed humanism to the students in our classrooms.

Two Organizations to observe and pray about are:

1. The Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) – The OEA is the state office for the National Education Association (NEA – the largest labor union in the US). Recently the OEA hired a Colorado consulting firm, Harstad Strategic Research, Inc. that specializes in getting liberals elected for positions as Governors, Senators, House Representatives, and getting liberal state campaigns passed. There is also a non-profit that is helping OEA to accomplish their goals – The Professional Oklahoma Educators.
2. The Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce – Two newly created Chamber of Commerce backed non-profits that are helping to push the legislature to pass a pay raise are: Step Up Oklahoma and One Voice. The Chamber of Commerce is a humanistic organization that repeatedly pushes its liberal agenda in education. The use the education platform to blame the current OK state legislature for everything going wrong in this state.

What do they really want?
The OEA and the Chamber of Commerce want two things:
1. These two organizations are humanistic and therefore globalists. In order to achieve their purposes, the Oklahoma Legislature must become governing body that aligns with their agenda.
2. They want the children in our state to be taught social curricula at the expense of their learning basic skills. This was John Dewey’s plan that Samuel Blumfiel called “dumbing down” America in order to make them better global citizens.

Unrealistic Request
The OEA and the Chamber of Commerce are both asking for $10,000 per year salary increase implemented over the next three years. With Oklahoma’s budget short-fall, this is unrealistic and will set our governing body up for failure, which is what the enemy wants.

The result will be:
1. The Oklahoma Legislature will fail
2. The OEA and the Chamber of Commerce will be able to point to the Legislature during an election cycle and cite lack of teacher pay raise, voting records, public statements, and the budget shortfall as reasons why they should not be re-elected.

The people of Oklahoma have voted down past initiatives that would increase taxes for the purpose of increasing teacher pay, because the increased revenue brought in from taxes would not be specified for teacher salaries – they were tied into additional administrative and higher education expenses.

What’s going on in the legislature that would help the enemy?
There are some in the OK legislature who are party to the one-world government agenda, and do not belong in our governing body. Some, both Republican and Democrat, are hirelings. There has been much contention within our government during this legislative session. With confusion and selfish ambition, the enemy has gained ground. Those who are not interested in furthering God’s agenda for our state are unaware that the enemy is crouched at the door poised for an attack.

Prayer and Praise Assignment!
As Nissan is also the time to enter into violent praise and speak forth what we want to see accomplished over this year in the Mountain of Education.

• The teachers in Oklahoma will not be used as political pawns in a humanistic battle for the minds of our children.
• The teachers will receive a fair, just and equitable pay raise!
• All ungodliness in our state legislature will be revealed and those who need to go will be replaced by Godly men and women who will judge righteously for the good of Oklahoma.
• Thank and Praise God for the unmasking/revealing of all those who have ungodly agendas for our children and our state.
• Our teachers will cry out to God and He will deliver them from their oppression. They will not be a slave to Pharaoh.
• Teaching in our state will revert back to the original intent our forefathers had in education – that they will be able to read God’s Word for themselves.

The Roar of Prayer!

April 11, 2018

 Many of us, when asked where God is, without missing a beat would reply, “He’s everywhere!” And of course that would be absolutely a correct answer. He IS everywhere. But I can tell you, that most of my prayer life has not reflected God was everywhere, because I had a predominate mindset that God was “out there” somewhere in heaven. I knew better, but wasn’t able to truly translate that into my prayer life.

I knew the scripture in Romans 10:6-8 where Paul said, “Do not say not in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming…’ ” (Romans 10:6-8). Somehow, I manage to ignored that scripture and continue to pray to a God in out there someplace. I continually asking Him to come down and hear my prayer.

I knew that I wasn’t the only one who felt the need to cry out to God in heaven. So many of the songs I hear Christians sing in worship, are directed to a God in Heaven. We are all probably familiar with the words of one familiar song, “God, hear us from heaven. Come down and heal our land.” Even when I Googled the word “Intercession” to find a suitable picture to share with you about prayer, most ALL of the pictures showed someone lifting up her hands to the heavens with a colorful cloud burst in the background. Do we have another picture of intercession that comes to our minds more than someone crying out to heaven? Maybe a picture of a lion?

One day as I was praying, and of course, I was crying out to God to come and help whatever situation I was facing. Tears were flowing. I heard the Holy Spirit say a phrase my mother used to say when I would cry without a reason. Simply put: she would say, “Dry up!” And around my house, when my mother issued a direct order. I obeyed immediately! But this was the Lord speaking to me, so I thought, “How does He know I’m sincere if I don’t cry and somewhat beg Him (I couldn’t admit that it was outright begging). I sensed His saying, “I will hear you when you pray out of your inner man with power and conviction.”

So that got me to thinking, Where is God? I mean, where is the God we pray to and go to in time of trouble and in time of worship? I’ve been a believer for a lot of years and this should have been settled a long time ago. As well as being “out there” He is equally “in there.” He is everywhere and as a believer I am connected to Him by His divine matrix.

We have the power and ability of God living inside of us. So next time I’m tempted to cry and beg God, like I have done so often, I will think of the Lion of Judah who lives on the inside of me. He wants me to pray with boldness that comes from the inside out. Let’s begin to roar like the Lion of Judah and believe God for miracles in America and in particular in America’s education. We can make a difference and we will when we come before Him in a Holy Boldness!!

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

 

 

Now is the time for Intercessors to Arise!

April 9, 2018

Judges 4 tells the story of one of Israel’s unlikely delivers. The Israelites had done evil in the eyes of the Lord. As a result of their disobedience, the Lord sold them to a Canaanite king who cruelly oppressed them for twenty years. They cried to the Lord for help. Deborah, a prophetess, told Barak, a warrior, what to do to deliver the people, but he refused to go without Deborah. Together they pursued the enemy and won the victory. In chapter 5 after the victory, we have the Song of Deborah. The last verse says, “So may all your enemies perish, O Lord! But may they who love you be like the sun, when it rises in its strength.” Today, let us rise in strength to overthrow our oppressors!

 Recently I read an article by Luis Durani, “The Closing of the American Mind.” Mr. Durani credits America’s faulty educational system as the major reason for the downturn in American society. We have a 70% graduation rate for our high schools and of those who do graduate, only 80% of them are college ready (that means they can enter college without having to take any remedial classes).

California who has one of the poorest educational track records in our country has come up with a novel idea proposed by Governor Jerry Brown. Governor Brown wants to give failing schools back to their communities. Basically, he is saying that the government has run California’s poorer schools in the ground and now they doesn’t know what to do— so simply return it to an already poverty stricken neighborhood that has no resources or track record for improving education.

While our schools fail, the powers over education, spend time, money and resources on making sure that transgender students have the right to choose a bathroom of their chosen gender. This is a prime example of the actions by the infamous Emperor Nero, who was said to “fiddle while Rome burned.”

Today, America needs unlikely deliverers like Barak and Deborah to rise up and lead the way in prayer and intercession. We cannot wait. In a few days, schools will be open and children will pour through the doors with hope of obtaining an education that will prepare them for life. But 21% of the students will never learn to read beyond a fifth grade level. In the natural, we are on the brink of sheer hopelessness.

But God…. Those of us who trust in God have a different kind of hope for American education. No matter how dismal things may seem, we know that if we don’t quit and we stand strong in prayer, we can transform American education! Let us resolve to make things better. We are not hopeless.  Neither are we hopeful dreamers, we stand on the Word of God pray and believe that things can, and will, be different. God isn’t finished with America and His desire is for the Mountain of Education to be transformed.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Hebrews 11:1-2