Weekly Watch Focus—Raise the Shield! Wield the Sword! A Corporate Call to Pray and Fast—THURSDAY
 

Battle Lines Are Drawn—

The assault is on public confidence because panic creates chaos and shuts down love.
The assault is on love because that’s who God is.
The assault is on the FAITH of believers because we are the salt and light. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The Church is the only hope for the world.”
The assault is on the business community because it funds the work of God. We are set up for a massive display of God’s recovery!
 

We—the Church everywhere, believers on the earth—are the front line of defense and offense. Raise your shield and wield the sword of your word in agreement with God’s word in this moment.

Two things this week:

FAST

Following up with the President’s call and National Day of Prayer, we are calling you to participate in a day of fasting this Thursday, March 19. You may fast in any form you have grace for. We are asking everyone to participate. If you choose to fast food, some of all that stuff you may have packed into your cupboard will just go that much farther! For our ANC family local and abroad, we were going to “honor Pastor Bonnie” for her birthday coming up this Friday, March 20th. She asks that in lieu of gifts you join with her in the fast day this Thursday.
 
We are fasting according to Psalm 2:6-8: “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.’”
 

PRAY

For America. Fast and pray for America’s victory in the full-fledged battle against the coronavirus outbreak. Lift up a concerted prayer for our nation to be hidden in the shadow of the Most High. Lift up the name of Jesus and the Lord’s banner of victory over this disease. Pray for the administrations on national, state, and local levels to effectively cooperate and collaborate. Pray they mobilize our best reach and resource to turn the tide of infection and begin national recovery of health to our citizenry and economy. Bind spirits of panic, isolation, greed, and the kind of “self preservation” that disregards concern for a neighbor as well as one’s self. Ask for America!
 
For Italy. She is the spiritual mother of the faith of Christians around the world for generations. She has been put on display globally as an epicenter of celebrating Christ, specifically the sacred beauty and power of His death on the cross through the Eucharist. Regardless of your theology or ours, putting Jesus on display through faith appropriated in His body and blood is the demonstration of the gospel: “Every time you do this you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). It is the ultimate challenge to the kingdom of darkness and the kingdoms of this world. It is His “blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins...poured out for many...given for you!”
 
Italy is being crushed beneath the shadow of coronavirus. The infection rate has spiked, the healthcare system has been pressed beyond capacity and medical workers are now having to choose whom to save. Nearly a quarter of Italy’s population are octogenarians, the most vulnerable and highest risk for this infection.
 
In the midst of this crisis, we are also we are seeing the incredible love and resilience of the Italian people under lockdown quarantine out on their balconies filling their atmosphere with songs of love and solidarity for one another. Let’s join them, America.
 

 
Pray for supernatural turnaround. We lift up every aspect of Italy’s medical facilities and workers. Pray for the families being hit by this crisis, the governing agencies and decision makers, and their supply lines.
 
Bind fear and accusation.
 
Loose the consolation of the Holy Spirit and recovery of all that has been stolen from them as a people, as families, as a nation.
 
Pray for the Church and believers across the nation to be anointed with fresh healing power and testimony to proclaim the gospel in this hour of trouble.
 
Pray for the Vatican, Pope Francis, and Father Cantalamessa, the preacher to the papal household under the two previous  popes and current Pope. We have had the joy of meeting Father Cantalamessa on several occasions. He is a wonderful vessel of joy and love who was filled with the Holy Spirit in the U.S. during the Charismatic Renewal of the 1970’s in which Derek Prince, our spiritual father and your spiritual grandfather, played such a significant role.
 
As you pray for Italy, thank the Lord for your New Testament:
·      Apostle Paul’s “prison letters” written from Rome;
·      Ephesians, the great “Church” anthem;
·      Philippians, the affectionate brotherhood epistle;
·      Colossians, the majestic ode to the Son King;
·      Philemon, the appeal and plea for social justice and brotherly kindness.

Psalm 91:2-3;11-15:
“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence....For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”

Numbers 16: 46-48, “So Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun.’ Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.:

 Numbers 21:8, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”

Genesis 15:1, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’”

Matthew 16:19,  "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth [a]will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Exodus 15:26, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”

Psalm 20:1-2, “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob defend you; may He send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion.”