I Prayed have prayed
Lord, as a nation, we have strayed. We cling to Your promise to forgive and heal us if we return from wickedness. O God, heal our land!
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Hearing news reports from East Palestine, Ohio, recently, I felt overwhelmed during my prayer time. In pleading for the Lord to heal the land, I was reminded of a very familiar verse: 2 Chronicles 7:14. If you are an intercessor, you probably have that verse engraved on your  heart. It is our blueprint in praying for the nation.

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But as I prayed, my focus shifted to the prior verse, in which the Lord says: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people …” (2 Chronicles 7:13 NIV).

According to this verse, the Lord withholds His blessings from the land in consequence of our sinfulness. Our wickedness goes deeper than to merely affect us personally, it affects us nationally. The sins of the people directly affect the land, and therefore the land must be healed as well as the people.

The effects of sin in the land are listed in 2 Chronicles 7:13, but the solution is cited in the next verse: “ … if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV).

Our prayer strategy personally, corporately, and nationally involves humility, prayer, and seeking his face — in repentance and in forsaking our wicked ways. The Lord’s response: I will hear, I will forgive, I will heal your land.

In whatever way the Lord chooses to answer that prayer, we can be sure that His response will be to our actions. Prayer is the starting point, but obedience seals the deal.

While praying for East Palestine and the surrounding areas, I felt led to pray for the rivers that have been completely contaminated. As the rivers flow, they spread into surrounding cities where the rivers meet. That flow has been polluted, killing off fish, wildlife, and crops, all of which rely on that lifegiving water. The people are hurting, and creation is crying out.

Prophetic Acts in the Bible 

As I prayed, I remembered the story of the prophet Elisha:

Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke (2 Kings 2:19–22).

Something in this river was leading to unfruitfulness and death. We already know that there’s a connection between sin and land. Elisha cast the salt into the river as an agent of purification, and the waters were healed. The waters that had become barren became fruitful again. The curse was broken.

This is one of many examples in which the Lord commands His servants to complete a prophetic act and thus release His healing power. The Lord can do anything without any help from us, but He often does use us as vessels to carry out His plans.

In Exodus 15:22–25, Moses threw a piece of wood into the bitter waters of Marah, and the waters became sweet enough to drink. In 2 Kings 20:7, the prophet Isaiah applies figs onto Hezekiah’s boils, and the king recovers by the word of the Lord. Jesus had healed many people through His spoken words alone, but one blind man receives a mud paste mixed with the Lord’s saliva and is then told to go wash in the pool of Siloam before he is finally healed (see John 9:1–7).

The Believer’s Authority Over Our Land

I was speaking with an intercessor friend about the Ohio derailment and the resultant pollution of the rivers, and she said something that piqued my interest. In 2015, some Tibetan monks had visited a river in her city. There, they performed some religious rituals and then threw mandalas (a mandala is an intricate geometric display containing millions of grains of sand or crushed stones) into the river. She mentioned that one northern region would regularly experience periodic flooding. The following year, her husband, who is a pastor and an intercessor, began a study of mandalas. He prayed and was led by Holy Spirit to intercede over the river systems so that they would be delivered from the curses connected to the mandalas. The Lord gave him authority over the rivers and turned the curse into a blessing. My friend told me that though some cities in her state have since then experienced flooding, their particular region has not.

Why does this matter? Well, the word mandala means “world in harmony.” One mandala can take days to create, and each is used for guided meditation. They are said to contain a “lesson” that brings enlightenment, and they will often have themes of healing, prayer, and world peace. All of that may sound good, until you dig deeper into the purpose.

“Traditionally, mandalas are created for the purpose of invoking a specific deity and to assist meditators who are being initiated into the meditation on that deity,” said Geshe Nyima Tsering, a spokesman for the monks, as reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Prayers of protection and peace, and themes of kindness and compassion are woven within every mandala, but because a deity is centered within each one, the prayers are to foreign gods.  Upon completion of the ritual, each mandala is destroyed. The sand is often given in small bags as souvenirs to those who come to view the ceremony. The remaining sand is frequently poured into the rivers, with promises that the act will bring healing. Sound familiar?

Moved by what my friend had said, I researched my own city. To my surprise, in 2017, some Buddhist monks had created a mandala and thrown it into the main river in my city. Further searching revealed how widespread this practice is. Many states either have some type of mandala for the protection of a city, or they have them poured into the rivers.

The Potomac, Hudson, Ohio, and Savannah rivers, to name just a few, have all had mandala ceremonies performed over them.

This means that our waters have been dedicated to other gods under the pretense of healing and protection. Does this not put our land under a curse?

I believe this is a prophetic call to action. We as believers must ask Holy Spirit for strategy in praying within our cities and states. We must continue in the blueprint laid out for us in 2 Chronicles 7:14, but we must also be a people of action. Just as my friend’s husband had sought the Lord to take back the land, I believe we can and must do the same for our own regions, and we must continue to pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit.

Let There Be Rivers of Revival 

In Ezekiel 47:1–12, the prophet has a vision about the river of God flowing from underneath the temple. This is no ordinary river. It rises from ankle depth to knees, waist, and then depths that cannot be measured. It is a river of life that transforms and revives. Barren trees bear fruit again, salty waters are healed, and even sea life is revived. Although this vision involves a river of healing that points to a time yet to come, the river is also symbolic of Holy Spirit. He transforms and revives; He makes the barren places fruitful; and wherever He is, life flourishes.

This river also represents revival, and we desperately need that. In April of 2019, I had a dream that America was in trouble. The country was barren; the land was void and dark; America appeared to have been completely destroyed. All at once, a massive tidal wave swept over the land, and I knew this to be the glory of the Lord over the land. He brought the dead things back to life, and the rivers that had become dried up were then filled with clear, refreshing water. The scorched, cracked earth became lush and green. The dead trees bore fruit and green leaves again. He restored everything He touched, just as in Ezekiel’s vision — wherever the river went, life flourished. Oh Lord, revive us again and heal our land!

Let’s pray together:

Father, we look to You. We are in a time of great needs, but You are a great God. We seek your face. We ask for wisdom. We ask for a divine strategy in taking back our land and everything the Enemy has stolen from us. We recognize that this is a time in which the line has been drawn in the sand — and You are calling us to take a stand. You are calling us to be shining lights in the darkness. You are raising us up to be a city on a hill, which cannot be hidden. Give us the words to speak as we stand in the gap, and the courage to stand forth on the battlefield.

We know that You are with us, Lord, as we pray for You to heal this land. We ask You for signs and wonders in the land, to show forth Your glory in the sight of everyone. We pray that as Your people take back the land the Enemy has stolen, living waters will flow again. We pray that life would thrive where this river flows, bringing comfort, provision, and so much more. We pray that the Spirit of the Lord would come in like a flood: bringing revival, restoration, and renewal — spiritually and physically. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Will you pray for your own city to be delivered? Share your thoughts and prayers! 

IFA contributing writer Gloria Robles is a passionate intercessor with a prophetic voice for today. For more from Gloria, go to Spotify or Anchor and listen to her podcast, Something To Share.

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Georgia Turner
April 28, 2023

Our city of Cleveland, Ohio was also visited by Tibetan monks. They were given the use of the rotunda at Cleveland City Hall to build their sand madala. When finished, the sands were deposited in Lake Erie, which sits in close proximity to City Hall. While construction was going on, small prayer teams did on site prayer walking. The demonic presence was tangeble, oppresive and active. After the deposit in the lake, the Lord instructed us to take a pallet of fresh water, and one by one, with much prayer, we dumped these into our waters. Following that the Lord instructed us to rent a Lake Erie cruise boat, the GoodTime 2. From the lake we also have access to the Cuyahoga River, which eventually runs into the Mississippi. Worship, repentence and intercession prevailed. Following these, we No. E. Ohio Intercessors were given a mandate from God to “guard our northern shore,” (the Lake). That was about 20 years ago. Today in No. East Ohio, working with PATH (prayerattheheart.org), we are anticipating a great awakening here. In conjunction with prayer gatherings, prayer walks and extensive outreach for the physical and practical needs in N.E. Ohio, we are called to once again take a prayer cruise along our coastline and down our river. This prayer cruise will take place on Sunday, May 16,2023. I appreciated Gloria’s article. And N.E. Ohio covets your prayer backing.

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Lori
April 21, 2023

How can we find this out in the area where we live?

Grant Windholz
March 31, 2023

Yes Jesus, we have spent many years turning against you and your protective ways. Refocus our eyes on you and provide sacred wisdom. AMEN!

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Lori Meed
March 31, 2023

Upon returning from the Policy and Prayer event in DC, I did my homework and discovered that in 2015, that same delegation of Buddhist monks visited the Delaware River near Rutgers and threw in their mandala. I urge everyone reading this to do their own research for their region. We already have planned a trip for intercessors on the Delaware River on July the 6th to cleanse the waters. Thank you Gloria for this revelatory article. Father, continue to give us revelation as to how to apply the blood of Jesus, the blood that speaks a better word, to every curse and every ritual that has been performed to another God’s other than You. You will have no gods before you and we take authority over every one of these rituals breaking its power in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and canceling every curse. We forgive those monks and say over them Father forgive them for they knew not what they did. Save them, deliver them, and bring them out of the kingdom of darkness into Your glorious light. Amen

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Nancy L.
March 30, 2023

Agreeing in prayer for our land, for our national repentance, for a new U.S. that will honor God.

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Deborah Melicharek
March 30, 2023

Yes, amen!!! Spring up, oh Well, and make me whole, spirit, soul and body, give to us that life abundantly, as You do the work that only You can do, giving us life-giving waters that heal and deliver and save and make us whole, in Jesus name, Amen!!!

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Karen Peters
March 29, 2023

Father God, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit we pray for cleansing and protection for the Mississippi River from the Nuclear Power Plant leak in Monticello, MN upriver from the Twin Cities. Please have mercy on us and heal our waters. Thank you in Jesus Name.

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Terri
March 29, 2023

In 2021, God had me start praying over all types of bodies of water in California as we traveled, specifically praying for the drought to end. Whether it was a small stream or a large lake I prayed over it and connected it to God’s Spirit being poured out, that as the physical waters flowed, His Spirit would flow. Here in 2023, as we are dealing with flooding, I pray that His Spirit is flooding the region.

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Brian Friess
March 28, 2023

Some pastors and intercessors in our area (Montana) did a prophetic act back on the August 1, 2012. The hiked up to the Triple Divide (a place where water flows into three different drainages throughout the continental United States and Canada). They poured water down each divide and prayed for a cleansing down to ALL of the tributaries and drainages. The creeks and streams in the southeast section of the park feed into the Birch and Marias Rivers, then the Missouri and the Mississippi and empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The water in the northeast section feeds into the St. Mary River that joins the Saskatchewan River Basin. From there, some of the water flows into Lake Winnipeg, then into the Nelson River which drains into the Hudson Bay. All water west of the divide feeds into the Flathead River, which then flows through Flathead Lake and empties into the Clark Fork which joins the Columbia River to the Pacific.

This is from Pastor Brad Brittsan (Whitefish, MT):
“when a group of us went up to the Triple Divide in Glacier Park this summer, as we were praying for our nation I looked up and noticed an angel blowing a trumpet in the sky over us.”

You can see a short clip of it here:
https://youtu.be/qoz8Xn-pZqY

So we say, “Lord, let the fruit of this prophetic act come to full fruition.”

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Darlene Estlow
March 28, 2023

Father, continue to give us hearts to repent and pray. Thank you for your plans to heal our land! May we be faithful; you always are!

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David Ortiz
March 28, 2023

“A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High.”

That river runs through the New Jerusalem — God be praised …

“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.”

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Lisa M Foti
March 28, 2023

This type of prophetic act also took place in Missouri in July 2022 with profound immediate results that reverberated throughout Missouri and the entire 33rd parallel. This true story is too long to explain here, but demonstrates the power of aligning with God in repentance and prophetic intercession. Go to JillNoble.org to see. It would be a newsworthy story here as well.
Blessings, IFA Team, you’re the best!

Father, continue to lead us in prophetic acts of righteousness and cleansing throughout the earth! We love You! We desperately need YOU!

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Allena Jordan
March 28, 2023

Industrial Use
From early indigenous settlements to colonization and beyond the advent of railroads, the Savannah River has been an important transportation corridor. Today it is a source for municipal and industrial users, a vehicle for waste disposal, and a force for power generation. The Savannah River supplies water to Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a DOE reservation for the storage and processing of nuclear material which includes the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, a major electricity-generating facility operated by Georgia Power Company, depend on 43.2 million gallons of its water per day for cooling. The Middle Savannah River supports chemical plants and other facilities that discharge waste, “boasting” the third-highest number of toxic releases from its 48 municipal and industrial outfalls. On the coast, the Savannah River is a shipping channel and home to Savannah Harbor, the nation’s fourth-largest seaport for oceangoing container ships, which is currently being dredged from 43 to 47 feet. Taken from https://www.savannahriverkeeper.org/the-savannah-river.html
Father, I come to You, the healer of all things. The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof. Lord, You created this beautiful land, her rivers and creeks. Now, Lord, we have not cared for this land and her waters as we should have. Forgive our neglect, our pollution, our lack of oversight event o this day. Lord, pour Your cleansing into our polluted rivers, including the Savannah since it is in the state in which I reside.
Lord, I want to especially lift up East Palestine and ask that You would send a cleansing to the air, buildings, land, and creeks. Lord, we forgive those who were negligent in causing the train derailment and those who attempted the clean-up. We ask, Father, that neither the state nor the railroad company would neglect the cleanup after this tragedy. Heal the land, the people. Pour our Your great mercy, oh my Father. Amen.

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C
March 28, 2023

We in America that love GOD and are called to salvation in CHRIST have been repenting for years! FATHER GOD thank YOU for hearing our prayers and healing our land (including all waters)! Let us read our Bible and bind and loose, and speak blessings as we are commanded! YOU said that YOU would cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we confess our sins. We have confessed over and over, so now I receive YOUR cleansing for all land mass and all waterways in America in JESUS NAME! Amen!

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