Category: Encouragement

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the Month of Av

September 13, 2018

Linked to the Tribe of Simeon, the month of Av (July 13- August 11, 2018) is associated with the time the twelve spies explored the promise land. Ten spies brought back a discouraging “evil” report, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is the fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there….” Two spies, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a good report, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

Av is the month:
• to believe the good report.
• for the divine will of the Father to be executed!
• to advance through partnerships.
• for a new level of discernment

Mountain of Education decrees for the month of Av:
• Although there are giants in the land we say with Joshua and Caleb, “Our God is mighty and although there are giants who have strongholds in the land by our God we are well able to overcome!” We decree that we are well able to bring education under the jurisdiction of the God and creator of the Universe!

• We decree that this month of Av is the time to turn the tide of unbelief – we no longer look at the Mountain of Education as unmoveable. This mountain will be transformed by the power of God!

• We decree that strongholds of humanism are broken over Americas Schools.

• We decree that Mountain Moving Faith will rise in believers across America to change education.

• We decree that as we start a new school year, this is the year for the divine will of the Father to be executed in the cultural Mountain of Education!

• We decree that divine partnerships are established this month that will advance Godly education and expose ungodly, corrupt, practices in American education.

• We decree that the Godly decision makers will rise to a new level of discernment that will penetrate and destroy the culture of death in our schools.

Why the Future is Better than We Think

September 12, 2018

It’s often difficult to see beyond the immediate problems of our planet to where we could be if God were to give us new innovations, new solutions and new horizons. We look at what the world is telling us and believe, like Chicken Little, “The sky is falling.” But if we believe that God is bringing solutions to every day problems we face, then we know there is no a problem that He can not solve and, frankly, our world is in very good hands.

Recently, at the recommendation of a friend, I purchased the book, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think. (Yes, another book!) Opening the book, I thought, “Yeah, I bet. Everyone knows the future is dismal and we are all in a grind. True to human nature, sometimes we all need a different perspective on life and although the book isn’t a religious book, it gave me a new perspective on what new possibilities lie before us, especially in regard to technology and how God is giving people on His earth the wisdom to solve problems of water shortages, infant mortality, poverty, famine, food shortages and a host of other issues our world faces. What if, God was looking for problem solvers who will advance His Kingdom on this earth?

One example was in Columbia South America. From 1999 to 2008, Columbia was ruled by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Force of Columbia) a Marxist-Leninist insurgency group that dealt in drugs, kidnappings, arms dealing, and terrorism. They were a force to be reckoned with, and anyone who spoke against them ended up dead.

A young man had the idea to One young man had an idea to set up a FaceBook Page and called it “A Million Voices Against FARC.” He had four simple pleas: NO MORE KIDNAPPING, NO MORE LIES, NO MORE DEATH, NO MORE FARC. He published the FB page one night and the next morning he had 1500 likes. Within a week, he had 100,000 likes. One month later he had 400,000 volunteers and was able to muster over 12 million people in 200 cities across the world who were willing to take to the streets. In Bogota there were 1.2 million to protest. News of the demonstrations penetrated the jungles and FARC, fearing for their lives, disbanded. There was NO MORE FARC. The lessons learned from Columbia.
We need each other.
We need a plan.
We need technology.
We need unity.
We need someone with the “juice” of the Holy Spirit to lead the cause.

All of the elements came together in one example from the country of Columbia.

We’ve all seen those pictures of busy little robots in a factory. They each do the work of one hundred employees and they don’t require health insurance, vacation pay or sick leave. They are just worker bees – toiling away and taking meaningful jobs from good honest people. While they may take those jobs, the people they replace are now able to take more meaningful jobs.

It’s easy to imagine that technology takes away jobs and sometimes difficult to see the next generation of jobs on the horizon.

If one believes in a good then the future is definitely better than we think!

Don’t Back Down – Your Prayers Change History

August 28, 2018
Standing for LIFE in front of the Supreme Court

Lately, I’ve been reminded of the first time I took fifteen intercessors to Washington, DC to pray. Early in the planning process I contacted Sandy Grady, who had worked for years as a key intercessor for David Barton of Wall Builders. As I shared with Sandy my desire to pray at educational sites in DC, she said, “Nancy, everyone who comes to DC goes to the same places. They go to the White House, the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, and other famous landmarks. But I’ve never known a group to go to the National Department of Education. Please go there and pray. Our schools need our prayers and intercessors don’t think to include education in their prayer trips to DC. What you want to do will be hard, but don’t back down.”

That was in 2001 and Sandy’s words never left me. That first time to pray at the Department of Education was every bit as difficult as she’d prophesied it would be. Over and over, I heard her words ring in my spirit, “Don’t back down. Don’t back down. Don’t back down.”

In order to go inside the Department of Education building one must have an invitation from someone employed there. Somewhere I’d been given the name of a man from Oklahoma—Jim—who worked in the Department of Education, so I called him a couple of weeks before my group was to be in DC. We had a nice chat. He agreed to host our group, give us a tour of the building, and allow us to have a brief moment in the building’s small auditorium to pray. I hung up thinking everything was all set.

I called Jim early on the day of our visit. He didn’t answer of return my calls. With our appointment “iffy.” I gave those in the group an option to stay behind if they wanted to not take a chance on whether or not the appointment would actually happen. Eight people decided to stay behind. To be honest, I was the most frightened of any one in the group, but I felt the need to go as Sandy’s words repeated over and over in my mind. “Don’t back down. Don’t back down.”

We entered the National Department of Education building, went through security, and asked to speak to Jim. Instead of Jim, two burley security guards came to greet us. They demanded to know why we were there and what our relationship was with Jim. I told them we had come to pray for America’s educational system and gave them the name of the man from Oklahoma. One man left and a few minutes later came back and told us that Jim was busy and couldn’t meet with us.

Scared, I then asked if there were a room we could use to pray. The security men ushered us to a small auditorium where we placed chairs in a circle and began to pray for America’s schools. They eventually realized we were harmless and disappeared. Twenty minutes later, “Mr. Oklahoma” showed up and confessed he had been afraid and had backed out (without telling me). He redeemed the time as he showed us around the building and introduced us to the head of the Department of Education as well as key people in the building. We ended up praying in every office, even the office of the head of the department. It was a victory that would not have happened without one seasoned intercessor telling me, “Don’t back down. Don’t back down.”

No matter what circumstance you find yourself in as an intercessor for you, your family or for the children of America, don’t back down! It’s not an easy task and certainly not for the faint of heart, but persistence and tenacity are paramount when taking on a spiritual giant.

The Tipping Point in Education

June 21, 2018

There are approximately 4 million teachers in the American public school system and many of whom are believers. The tipping point, or critical mass, for change would be 200 teachers. That’s not a huge number, but the secret is that this number has to be in complete unity. If 200 teachers all prayed in their classrooms, in one day, the results could be astounding. But teachers are trained to remain secular in their classrooms. They walk a daily tightrope to be politically correct and free of offense to any religion.
In the teaching profession, every teacher suffers his or her share of attacks as a usual routine of events. They assign too much homework and parents complain. They don’t stay after school to tutor those who were having trouble learning algebra. (Never mind that they may offer their services at noon for free tutoring every day.) They get in trouble for expecting projects and homework to be turned in on time because, after all, what has a deadline got to do with learning a subject? If the student did the work, why shouldn’t they get credit, even if it was late? The list goes on and on and every teacher who has ever tried to do his or her best has come under attack. These skirmishes erode the soul of teachers leaving them little energy to fight the big battles that change the system.
Teachers live in fear of being fired for praying over a student or even for putting up Christmas decorations in a classroom. They have no strength for losing a job over something as simple as ministering to a child. Getting a teacher to see the big battle when he or she is fighting multiple little battles every day is difficult. That is why we haven’t seen the critical mass we need to see for the change. A unified core mass is what we need and we need it now.
If Christian teachers unified to such an extent that they could define small actions that would change the system, the tipping point could happen. Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference shares his research into what will make changes in society.53 Gladwell proposes that it is the little things that make a big difference.
Liberal educators make claims that our schools are in such a state of decline because we don’t have enough money for education or because our students are economically impoverished. They say that if we just had more money for new curriculum or if we would just make sure that everyone has money, either through welfare or through giving someone a job, that would be the best way to create better schools. But there is another factor involved that Gladwell calls “The Power of Context,” which states that it’s really the little things that matter.
For instance, the crime turnaround in New York City occurred, not because of a huge war on crime, but because of what has become known as the “Broken Windows Theory.” This theory was the brainchild of two criminologists—James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. Wilson and Kelling argued that crime is a result of disorder. If a broken window in a house in a crime-ridden part of town is not repaired, the result is that more criminal elements will be attracted to that neighborhood and the crime rate will rise substantially. There will be more houses with broken windows. Drug dealers will move into the neighborhood and there is a general feeling that the neighborhood is bad and the crime rate skyrockets. Fix the broken windows, Wilson and Kelling said, and the bad elements will abandon the neighborhood. They believed that crime was contagious.
New York City tipped when the police began to issue citations for broken windows, giving owners twenty-four hours to make repairs. Graffiti also was cleaned up within twenty-four hours of when the artful designers had completed their work of art.
What if educational administrators and teachers began to do little things like pray with students, openly display scriptures in their classrooms, or refuse to call Christmas holidays by the secular name winter holidays? The educational system can tip in the direction of being restored back to a Godly system if enough administrators and teachers would aggressively live out their Christian faith.

Where is the Moral Outcry?

June 20, 2018

Convinced of the importance of religion in the lives of America’s new settlers, our forefathers refused to entertain any suggestion that the people who lived in this nation would be better off without Christianity. In 1794, humanists Thomas Paine, penned an anti-Christian book, The Age of Reason, there was a moral outcry among the citizens and leadership of colonies. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, as well as prominent Christians of the day refused to recognize Paine or his writings. While people may have read the book, because those of influence rejected the content, the book was not well accepted. When Paine passed away, no cemetery would give him burial space. He was buried in a cow pasture. The moral outcry of the people at all levels of education day refused Thomas Paine’s anti-god book. As a result the book had little effect on the beliefs of the people.
Almost 200 years later during President Reagan’s first term in office, a poll revealed that 85% of Americans were in favor of prayer being a part of a child’s school day. President Reagan, thinking he had grassroots support, secured a majority of votes in the House and the Senate to get the measure permitting prayer in school passed. He was stopped when the courts ruled against his efforts. Justice Antonin Scalia spoke out against the decision to not allow school prayer. Justice Scalia felt striking prayer out of school would please a few to the detriment of the majority. Justice Scalia also spoke out against abortion. He is credited with making the remark to a group of friends, “Where is the moral outcry against abortion?” Justice Scalia was asking: Where are the Christians who will do more than give a nod against evil?
A look at America’s Educational system today reveals how different our schools are from 200 years ago. Educators have led us down a path that has almost destroyed our culture, our religion, our families and ultimately our future. Yet, there is little moral outcry among those who hold to strong Christian beliefs.
I pray God gives each of us insight on how to participate in the moral outcry that is necessary to change this nation – in particular the Mountain of Education. No matter where we are or what station we hold in life, we can begin to take a stand against the tide of evil that has flooded our schools. Let every one of us participate in the outcry against the ungodly agenda in the American Mountain of Education!

Pray for America’s Schools Like You Would Pray for a Sick Friend

June 17, 2018

Many people are very concerned for the future of our children and our schools but feel that it is only a matter of time until our educational system will fail. The educational system is so bad that, “well, why even bother to pray for education?” The next comments that usually follow are about how the Lord’s return is so near, and after all things are just going to get worse and worse before Jesus comes back to earth and rescues us. End of discussion. They continue to worry and look for the rapture. In my opinion, the negative comments and the steady look for redemption in the form of rapture are a cover-up for lack of faith and prayer.
I agree that our educational system is in need of great help. It is sick. But how would those of us who are supposed to be faith-filled believers react if we had a good friend who was in sin and because of that sin he was sick? What if that person had turned his back on God? What if that person had done a lot of good deeds in the past and was trying to get well? What if you knew that if that person regained his health he could change this nation? What if that person’s friends had all turned against him and refused to pray? What if that person had been exploited by people who had taken advantage of him? What if that person had provided for the education of hundreds of thousands of children throughout the world and would do so again, when he recovered? What if you knew that friend, when recovered, would engage in even greater humanitarian acts than he had ever done before? Would you pray for that friend? Yes, every one of us would pray for such a friend. America’s educational system is that friend who needs our prayers for health and healing. Now is not the time to turn against our schools and the education of our children and watch the educational system go downhill – Now is the time to rise up in faith and believe God for her healing!

The School Alarm is Sounding!

June 11, 2018

In school, I never remember an emergency that triggered a school alarm. Today school is a different place. School shootings, fights, fires and lock downs are commonplace. The school alarm is going off in the natural, but there’s also a school alarm going off in the Spirit as well. The question is: will the intercessors heed the sound?

On April 20 1999, Eric Haris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. When it was over, the two boys had killed 24 students, one teacher and wounded numerous others. One month later, the community hosted a grief meeting that gave students, teachers, parents and local pastors a platform to express their feelings.

A friend of mine and I drove to Colorado to attend that meeting. As each person came to the microphone to speak, the underlying theme—almost without exception– was that each one had felt something was about to happen. No one had any clue what it was, but felt God told them there was some impending catastrophe on the horizon. One pastor related how he had se
en the boys dressed in their Gothic attire and knew God was telling him that the boys were planning some horrible deed.

Even though many people knew that danger was coming, not a one mentioned intercession as a means to avert a disaster. The deaths were laid at God’s feet but He was not given credit for possibly giving a way out by prompting those who knew Him to heed the alarm that was going off inside of them and pray that the calamity would not happen. We not only need prayer that will deal with education’s past and present, but we need preemptive prayer that will disengage the enemy in future events.

From that Columbine meeting, there were three ways God had given warning:

1. An inward alarm went off while in the presence of the perpetrators.
Many saw Haris and Klebold and sensed the evil. Both boys were avid fans of death centered video games and heavy metal music with lyrics of death and destruction. The boys carried the evil with them and those astute in the Spirit could sense danger.

2. An inward alarm sounded as they entered the school building. They “knew” danger was near.
Some of the speakers, on walking into the school building, knew that something was going to happen.

3. Alarming dreams were given—of being in a dangerous situation at school.
The signs were there but ignored. I don’t think the praying people in Columbine were oblivious to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but rather, they simply didn’t know how to intercede. Intercession is quickly becoming a lost art as not many are taught how to pray in situations where, without God’s intervention, disaster will happen. It’s time for the church to take up the mantle of Elijah and pray for our schools to not only avert danger, but change the entire structure of the Mountain of Education. We can see things change—if we pray. (Read more on this at takingthemountainofeducation.com)

Give it 10 minutes
I suggestion that you give the alarm you are sensing ten minutes of focused prayer as quickly as possible. See what the Holy Spirit speaks to you during that time. The burden may lift and that’s all that’s needed, but perhaps you’ll get direction on how and what to pray at a later time.

Often if we think something will require hours on hours of intense prayer, it will never get done. The task will look too overwhelming. It’s better to be instant in prayer. Hearing God’s voice takes time and practice and it is best not to let the task look too big in the beginning.

Intercession is an absolute act of faith – Faith in the ability of God to change the future is the driving force behind intercession. If anyone ever tells you that that kind of faith that changes circumstances, nations and hardened hearts is easy, they would be lying. It’s like a muscle that isn’t used very much and at first it’s extremely difficult but with continual use, it does get easier. That’s why it’s called “exercising your faith.”

“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Jude 20

Prayer for the Mountain of Education During the Month of Sivan

May 23, 2018

When settlers came to America in the early 1700s, they established schools with Judeo-Christian instruction that instilled in their children a strong Christian foundation. These schools taught individualism and personal responsibility, traits that prepared their children for the rigors of frontier life in the new world. It wasn’t until 1884 that the first public school was established as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to the Unitarians by Horace Mann, known as the Father of Public Education. As the newly elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Mann promised he would start schools totally funded by tax payer money without religious instruction. Beginning in 1884, America had two school systems. In the beginning, there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two because the teachers were from the local communities and were strong Christians, but over time the two systems have diverged with totally different objectives.

The month of Sivan is the month of twins. As a result of Horace Mann’s actions we now have twin educations streams – one secular and one religious. During this month, we choose to nurture America’s Godly educational inheritance with our declarations, prayers, proclamations and decrees. This is also the month of Firstfruits, cause, alignment, strength and clear vision.

• We decree and declare that the Godly stream of America’s education flourishes. We speak life into that Godly stream and command it to live, grow and mature so it will feed the minds of our youth with God’s Word.
• We decree that the Mountain of Education to come into alignment with the intents and purposes of God.
• We speak to schools, teachers and administrators who serve God in America’s schools and we decree that you go from strength to strength.
• In this month of Firstfruits, we decree that new revelation will be given to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. She will share her revelation with those in her team who are new wineskins and who will receive the Firstfruits of her revelation, and align themselves with God’s mindset.
• We decree and declare as this is a month of giving, our students will be given an education second to none in the world.
• We decree that Secretary DeVos and each member of her team will find his/her place of strength during this time, and they will move from strength to strength. That strength will open doors for them to share new battle plans.
• We declare that those in leadership will see clearly what needs to be done to reform education in America.

Nancy Huff
HAPN Mountain of Education Leader

When You Pray – Remember David and Goliath

May 16, 2018

Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” That has certainly been true in America as we see socialism and secularization of our educational system now as it is played out in our government and courts. To reform our schools by addressing the roots of our misdirection in prayer will also create a reformation of our nation.
Those of us who desire to restore God’s place in our education system are the Davids and the school system is the Goliath. The statement David made to Goliath in the valley of Elah applies to us in a very real way.
“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the Name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’S and he will give all of you into our hands.” 1 Samuel 17:45–47
The anti-God forces in our educational system are overconfident, over secure, and under effective, making the timing of a spiritual battle of utmost importance. Just as Goliath, they dare people to try to change the system. Yet, everyone from the office of the President of the United States to the classroom teacher knows that our education is a dismal failure when 25 percent of our public school graduates are illiterate. It is time to seize the opportunity. Intercessors can take back education from the domination of Baal and consequently the children of our nation from his influence.
Actually, our chances of felling Goliath, even in the natural, get better the larger Goliath grows. Best-selling author and military historian Max Boot in his classic book, Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, gives small insurgent groups a more than fighting chance of bringing down huge military operations. The smaller groups cost less money than larger armies to maintain. They can travel to a location undetected and make a strike, and quickly retreat.
A larger army relies on its reputation, technology, past victories, and often outdated styles to engage the enemy. Over the last one hundred years American education has promoted man-made doctrines and taunted Christians by daring them to attack their policies. With our band of prayer warriors, we can win, if we fight with nonconventional weapons, keep our ranks tightly knit around a common purpose, and engage the enemy on a level in which they are not accustomed.
The American educational system is huge with a budget of $591 billion annually. Its strength lies in the size of the institution. It cannot move quickly and is the epitome of the works of the flesh just as Goliath was. Daily the system promotes propaganda that is anti-God, anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-moral. But it has been ineffective. Too long they have taunted those who believe in God. It is time we took our place with full knowledge of who our God is and what He can do.
Os Hillman, a well-known author and speaker on faith at work, states in his book Change Agent, “It takes less than 3–5 percent of those operating at the tops of a cultural mountain to actually shift the values represented on that mountain.”
This small percentage is the sum total of the true decision makers in education. That means that we as believers let the top 5 percent of the over 3 million people involved in education in this country make all the decisions. The rest of us watch on the sidelines as decisions are made that take our country down a path of socialism and ultimately destruction to the way of life our forefathers intended.
The church has lost its vision for stewarding the territory God given us. We has have allowed the voice of God to be muffled as Goliath taunted us day after day. Christian teachers in the classroom have their hands tied because of the lack of prayer by apostolic prayer teams who know how to release the power of God in worship, intercession, authority of the Name of Jesus, and strategic warfare.
We have a purpose: to manifest God’s Kingdom on the earth today. In the past we have lost ground, but we can regain it if we fight. In her book, Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid, Mary Beth Hicks wrote:
“In 2007, while still a member of the United States Senate, Barack Obama said, ‘I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are just so ‘90s. Their days are growing dark.’ Obama was right. The culture wars are over: We lost. We are no longer fighting to uphold traditional social values. Now we’re fighting a battle over the very definition of what it means to be an American, and what America means to the world. A losing battle.”
I would say that Hicks is right—except that God is calling His people to come together to pray in a strategic way as never before in the history of the world. Kingdom-minded people are being called into place. We must follow the instructions the prophet Joel gave his warriors, “Do not break ranks.” (Joel 2:8.)
Until we are called by someone with an apostolic jurisdiction we do not know how to stand together and not break ranks. The apostle puts prayer warriors in position and gives the orders and teaches them how to stand together without breaking ranks. With such a dynamic prayer team, we can take back our educational system as well as the other cultural influences in our nation.

The Value of a Small Group

March 27, 2018

One of the best treats in this life is to enjoy a cup of coffee with a friend – to sit across the table from someone with whom I can freely share my hopes, dreams, and disappointments is a genuine treat. I had that treat recently when Sherry and I met for breakfast. As we sipped our coffee, we caught up with things going on in our lives. Sherry’s has been very busy with law school so over the past three years, the only time we had to meet were during her school breaks.

Our journey as friends started about 10 years ago. I desperately wanted a small group of women who would come together to dream about how we could make the world a better place. So, I held women’s meetings specifically for women in ministry. I discovered is that women are world changers who are often receive little to no encouragement to help them reach their goals. That was certainly true for me. Out of those large group meetings, I found two other women who wanted more accountability (and so did I). We began to meet and dream together about how we could help each other reach our goals. We held each other accountable to action plans and above all we prayed and encouraged each other.

We dubbed ourselves the Wilberforce Three (WF3) after William Wilberforce’s Clapham Circle, a group of committed believers in the mid 1800s who met every evening to dream about how England could be a better place. Wilberforce called it “The Better Hour.” They were responsible for founding over 120 non profits in England and eventually eradicating slavery.              

I asked myself, “Why couldn’t it work in Tulsa, OK?”

So we began. We shared our dreams and goals. Sherry wanted to become a lawyer. At the time, she had no college credits. Carol, a former singer with the Berlin Opera, wanted to take musicians to Israel to perform music that would inspire and uplift the people of Israel. I wanted to write books and I wanted to inspire others to pray for America’s schools.

Fast forward – Sherry finished law school Dec. 2017 and sat for the Bar exam Feb. 2018. This is a tremendous fete, since she started her undergrad work as an adult with no credit hours, plus she worked while she attended classes.

Carol now goes back and forth to Israel and Germany and has taken her first large group of musicians from Germany to Israel to perform. Carol also shares her talent at public venues in Oklahoma and Texas, where she now lives.

I recently finished my fifth book and have been able to do a lot of humanitarian aid. The help and encouragement these two women have given me over the years is invaluable.

It’s true, we need each other more than we could imagine. We need people in our lives who will hold us accountable and will encourage us along the way.

One biographer, John Pollock, said of Wilberforce: “Wilberforce proved that a man can change his times, but that he cannot do it alone.” I say a big “AMEN” to that!