The following is a transcript of Michelle Bachmann’s address at IFA’s 50th Anniversary Gala event in Washington, D.C., in November. We pray that it will bless, challenge, and inspire you. — IFA Staff

I sense the gravity of the moment that we’re in, and how important this organization has been. As others have said, we’re standing on the shoulders of the faithful ones who came before, who took the word of God seriously, lovingly, and decided to do what we need to do and what, hopefully, we are doing, which is to love the Word of God, elevate and lift up the Word of God. And we do that by surrendering ourselves to obedience to that Word and living out that Word. That’s the essence of Intercessors for America, because you can’t be an intercessor unless you know the Word, elevate the Word, and obey the Word — live it out.

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Because we are called in our lives to return to a holy God, to return to Him, we come to Him. But we are but flesh. We’re a bag of dust. And this bag of dust, for whatever reason, loves to wander and loves to seek its own way. And as a child who for a period of time falls away, so too we need to look in the mirror.

And we need to look in the mirror about our hearts and where are our hearts, in terms of our fidelity and our obedience to the things of the Lord. There’s a part of the Jewish calendar that is called teshuvah, and it means “to return.” And that Jewish calendar — some of you may know it from the “Ten Days of Awe and Wonder” that go from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur.

And the period known as teshuvah comes from Moses ascending Mount Sinai, for the 40 days when he receives the word from God, when he receives Torah, and he’s writing it down. Moses was receiving that, but he was returning to God. And that’s why on the Jewish calendar I think it is so important, this discipline, this exercise of returning to things of God.

And why is that? It’s because our God knew when he created man an individual and when He created the nations after the flood, that, again, He chose one nation that He would use to be a blessing to all nations on earth — that nation being the nation of Israel, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Amen!

Israel! That’s God’s chosen nation. And He uses that as the example. After the flood, there were 70 nations. Does God love the essence of the original 70 nations? Absolutely, He does! And so, through one nation, the least important nation that He says weren’t chosen for any reason other than that He chose them because he would entrust to them His law, He would entrust to them His glory — He would entrust to them the treasures of the kingdom of God so that they would bring those treasures to all 70 nations. Today at the UN, it’s 193 nations — it doesn’t matter: That’s the descendants of the original 70 nations.

Because God had a plan; because in the opening pages of the Word of God in Genesis, we see the beginning of this loving God, His character, His attributes — He loves man and woman so much! He created absolute perfection, where they would walk and meet with Him every day in the cool of the day; and He provided everything. There was literally nothing they lacked, nothing they needed. They didn’t need air-conditioning; they didn’t need a furnace; they didn’t need to go to the grocery store. Everything was literally provided for them. But the most important attribute was, they were living in His love. They lived in His protective arms.

And so should it have been. But so shall it be, will be, again one day, and for those who know the Lord, for those who have received the grace of His gift. And what is grace needed for? Because we’re sinful. Because, what happened in Genesis? Man and woman sinned. They turned away from the promise of God.

Perfect life? What could you possibly need besides the perfect life that God gave? There is nothing more. And God was so loving that He said: “I want to keep you, man and woman; I want to keep you from knowing good and evil.” Did they know good? Yes, they knew good. Did they know evil? They didn’t know evil.

Wouldn’t you love it if you didn’t know evil? Wouldn’t that be the greatest thing on earth: if we didn’t know evil? Well, again, one day we will not know evil. We will study war no more, and we will never know evil again. So this Redeemer God, when sin came into the world, He immediately made the way of redemption. He immediately made the way of escape and His covenant that he created for all of mankind — from the time of Adam and Eve to those who will be the last person born on this earth. Before the final chapter of history comes to its close, the Lord God Almighty created His covenant, and He created it with His people, with Abraham.

And that covenant is redemption. And you take the grand narrative through Genesis and it goes all the way through Revelation — the No. 1 character in the book being God Himself, and the No. 2 character being Israel, because Israel is the one who bears the covenant, brings the covenant — from who? The Jewish people; from King David, where God promised: “I will keep one of your descendants on the throne forever” — meaning no expiration date — and through his lineage came a couple of Jewish parents: Joseph and Mary — and through those Jewish parents came a Jewish Jesus who became the Messiah, who gave his life for all mankind on the earth with that precious blood.

And He became the Redeemer of the descendants of all 70 nations and fulfilled the covenant and the promise of the blessing, that God had a special chosen people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants, in a very specific land — Genesis 15:18 — that God wrote out the parameters of that land for the purpose of being a blessing to all families on earth.

There is never a bad day with our God. There is never a bad day in His covenant, because His face is always for us. Has He had wrath? Yes, He has wrath, and deservedly so. Why? Because His character and His attributes include His justice, which is based upon His love, which includes His righteousness, which is based upon His love.

There is no greater god than our God. And so we see a universe that was created in the image of God, as we, imago Dei, are created in the image of God for His purpose, for the purpose of redemption, and the heavenlies, His perfect created realm. And we see on this earth how that has been corrupted. And from the very beginning of the covenant, the very beginning, when God first created his chosen nation, the Jewish people, immediately, Satan, who was in the garden — and why was he in the garden? Because he hated God; because his jealousy overcame him. He hated that God was God. And he was a created being, an angelic being; and he decided he wanted to be God. He wanted to be God. So think about Satan. But then think about us: How often do we want to be God? How often do people in this world want to be God?

That was Satan’s error. And he was banished from heaven, he and his minions. And they fell from the perfect position that they were in. But Satan, from the very beginning — from the garden, from the creation of Abraham, from the creation of the chosen people, Israel — Satan’s purpose has never deviated; his purpose has been to devour and despise the fulfillment of the covenant that God began, even in the garden, when He promised that He would send a redeemer, that there would be the bruising of the heel and the crushing of the head. That’s really the foretaste and the foreshadowing of the covenant that would come through Abraham, because God was always for you and for me. He’s always been for us. And so, Satan has constantly come to stop and prevent that covenant.

And so that’s why you see, through all of time, going to Pharaoh in Egypt and all through the biblical stories, the purpose is that Satan uses his tools to defeat the chosen people and the fulfillment of the covenant. That is really the story of history. And when you come forward to the present day, we are standing in the 75th year of the reconstitution of the modern Jewish state. Seventy-five years! The 50th year of Intercessors for America, 75 years of Israel. It is the greatest event, I believe, in biblical history, to show that everything in the Bible is true and real and reliable, and you can count on this infallible word. Because from Genesis forward, God promised that He would return His people to the land, that it would happen.

And some of you people in this room today: Do you realize that you have been alive during the period of history when God promised the fulfillment of His word, that He would bring His covenant people back to the land? That happened on our watch! We live in the greatest time of history. It is the greatest time to be alive, because we are living in the era that the prophets longed to see!

Not only have we seen 1948, May 14th, with that fulfillment of what was prophesied thousands of years ago, but also, for those who are maybe a little bit younger than 75, you may have been alive June 6th, 1967, during the Six Day War, when Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jewish people. That was the fulfillment of the prophet Ezekiel, who said that once again Jerusalem would come back into the hands of the Jews. That has happened in our lifetime! Here we are. We get to be the ones who are alive in the most active moment of biblical history. We’re alive. And so, what does that say about this moment? Because we’re intercessors — because I’m one of you! — we are intercessors. And because of that, we need to look at God’s time clock, which is Israel. Israel is the time clock. So we see that Israel has come back to the land. Jerusalem has come back into the hands of the Jewish people. And as we read through the prophets about the last days and what will happen to the last days, we read about various wars that are going to come. We’re in the middle of a war right now.

There are rumors of war flying everywhere. And part of one of the predictions is that there would be an alliance between three nations that are named in Scripture: between Iran — Persia — Russia, and Turkey. Those three countries. That has never happened before in history; there is no recorded history of those three countries coming together at any time for a massive alliance. When I was in Congress, that hadn’t happened. But I sat on the Intelligence Committee; we dealt with the classified secrets of the nation. I felt like I was literally looking at prophecy being fulfilled every day as I sat on that committee. We couldn’t tell what we knew; I’ll never tell what I know on that committee.

But what I saw was the unfolding of what God was doing. And I will tell you: What I have observed is that we have seen the birth pangs. The frequency and the intensity of the birth pangs is pulsating before our eyes. And so, we need to know and watch what is happening in this hour. We can’t be ignorant of the moment.

There’s a lot that fills our eyes. But we need to take the biblical context and apply it to the newspapers today or your phone today, wherever you get your news, and take a look at this moment that we’re in. This particular war that just began, in the most brutal fashion, the morning of October 7th — I was in the airport hotel in Paris, making my way back to Norfolk, Virginia, where I’m dean, and I woke up to my phone ringing, and the executive director of the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, where I’m co-chair, called me. And he said: “Michelle, I want you to know, your kibbutz — I lived and worked on Kibbutz Berri, in Beersheba, in Israel, the site of one of the most brutal slaughters on October 7th; and he called me and he said: “I want you to know that there’s been an attack in southern Israel. And I know that your kibbutz has been hit, and there’s others, and there’s more information coming in.”

And we didn’t know how bad it was, we had no idea how bad it was at that moment. But three things happened to me as I lay in my bed in the hotel.

The first one is, I literally felt in my gut like a punch, and I knew that this attack was different than all the others. This wasn’t the same thing. The second sense that I had is that the Lord showed me a spirit has been unleashed upon the earth. Have you seen a spirit unleashed upon the earth in this last month? That spirit is none other than Satan himself — he’s unleashed upon the earth in a new phase. And the third thing I sensed the Lord speaking to me is that the hinge of history has turned. That hinge would be, prophetically, that we’re seeing a turn prophetically in history.

So we need to pay attention. We need to be in His Word more. We need to be in prayer more, on our knees more. Why? Frequency, intensity — it’s speeding up. And we better not miss it. Because if Intercessors for America isn’t there on the watch, who’s going to be there? The Lord will raise up his anointed ones, but we don’t want to miss this moment.

Well, things are heating up so fast that just this week, this is a crucial week for us, for the United States. Why? Let me just tell you about two scriptures. First of all, you’re all familiar with this, Genesis 12:3: Those who bless Israel, the people and the nation, will be blessed. Here’s the other half: Those who curse Israel and the Jewish people will be cursed.

There’s also — as we look forward to the very last times, this should always influence our view of the world — Joel chapter 3. In the last day, the Lord will bring all nations. Remember the creation of 70 original nations? And now at the UN, as I said, there’s about 193. God will bring all nations, whatever that number is, down to where? The valley of Jehoshaphat! And in that valley, He says that He will judge each one of us as individuals, based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross.

That’s it: Have you received Jesus Christ? Have you surrendered to Him? Then that is how we go into heaven; it’s His mantle of righteousness that He puts on our shoulders. Nothing we did; it’s Jesus Christ. But so, too, nations are judged. Joel 3 instructs how the nations will be judged.

And I know this is a room filled with intercessors, interceding on behalf of the nations, particularly this nation. And so, the nations will all be brought and they will be judged based upon one criterion, and one criterion only, and that criterion is this: How has the nation treated Zion? And the Scripture breaks it down from there, to say: Has the nation scattered the Jewish people from her Genesis 15:18 land? Have the nations tried to divide the land, the Genesis 15:18 land? And have the nations tried to cheapen or denigrate the Jewish way of life that God taught and instructed the Jewish people? Because again, Israel was meant to be a nation that was an example for all the other nations.

Israel’s flesh — bag-of-dirt people — just like we are. They failed in disobedience to be obedient to God, but God never failed in being obedient to the Jewish people. And so, He loved them. He forgave them in His wrath. He scattered them across the earth, because He said, if you are disobedient, this is what will happen. And because of His justice and His righteousness, He fulfilled His word. But He always said: “My beloved, I will gather you like a hen gathers her chicks, and I will bring you back to the land.” And that is the fulfillment I’m talking about, the greatest proof that the Bible is the infallible, trustworthy Word of God.

God did exactly what He said he would do — thousands of years later. And so they’re back in the land — 75 years. And in this very unique year of the 75th year, Satan had a birthday present for Israel, and that birthday present was given on October 7th. And it was the most pre-civilizational, barbaric form of slaughter you’ve ever seen in your life.

There’s a compilation of 43 minutes’ worth of video that the Israel Defense Forces have put together. And what was this? This is video footage in real time by Hamas terrorists who were journalists, men on the street — and now we find out this week they’re actually a reporter for CNN, a reporter for the AP, a reporter for Reuters, a reporter for The New York Times — embedded with Hamas as they go.

Now CNN fired the reporter. Oh, big whoop. We just found this out this week: They were embedded. There’s video footage of the reporter for — I think it’s for CNN — on the back of one of those little dirt bikes, heading into Israel. Gleeful, holding a grenade in his hand as he goes. The reporter! So, this is what we’re dealing with. And then this week, in our nation, our president — and I’m not being partisan; yes, I’m an admitted Republican; this is not partisan, this is being biblical. Can we understand? This is about being biblical. Are we going to bless, or are we going to curse? That’s all I’m talking about, not political parties, because who cares?

But this week, this is what happened in our country: I believe that we have turned from being in agreement with blessing Israel and being with Israel. We have turned to take the position of Hamas. We’ve taken Hamas’ side this week because our Secretary of State Blinken and our President Joe Biden came up with three things this week. You see Qatar, which is the largest terrorist financing nation in the world, they house the Hamas heads. Between the three heads of Hamas, the terrorists, we designate them a foreign terrorist organization in Gaza. They’re worth $11 billion. They didn’t invent anything; they didn’t do anything; they never lifted a finger — but they’re worth $11 billion. You know where they got that money from? You. You. Because we have been blindly giving money to these Jew-hating terrorists. Does that sound mean? It’s what? It’s a descriptor.

And so we’ve been giving this money to them. And they aren’t shy about their plans. All you have to do is read Article 7 of their founding charter, their document for Hamas. Article 7 says: “We call for the genocide of all Jews, wherever they live on the earth.” And we give these people $2 billion or more a year? Unbelievable. We do the same for the Palestinian Authority, the Arab governing organization over Samaria and Judea. Same thing. It’s like, do we have beans for brains in the State Department? I would say! But this week, Qatar and Hamas came up with their big idea, which is, they are saying to Israel: “You must have a ceasefire; you must stop bombing us.” Why? Because they’re surrounding the Hamas headquarters right now. Oh, yes! Keep praying! The Hamas headquarters are under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. And the IDF has completely surrounded that, and they’re ready to go in and get the headquarters.

So this week, it’s: “Red Alert! Red Alert, Biden administration — we have to have a ceasefire this week!” And so, as a token, we will give you about 10 hostages of our choosing. And so, then we want to have Israel ceasefire. Once Israel ceasefires, there’s going to be a million and twelve reasons why they’ll never be able to go back. By the way, October 6th was a ceasefire. That ceasefire was violated October 7th.

This isn’t about being bloodthirsty; the most humane army in the world is Israel. They notify before they ever attack: They send text messages; they send phone calls; they send emails; they drop leaflets; the first bomb that they drop is a “knock bomb” to tell anybody who might be in one of the buildings, in case they didn’t get notified: You better get out quick, because there’s going to be a bigger one coming.

Who does that? No one. We don’t do that; there’s no nation on earth. As a matter of fact, another provision that Hamas and Qatar are demanding — that the U.S. now is also demanding — is that all of the Gazans need to stay in Gaza. All the Arab Palestinians — Oh, you need to stay there! The most densely packed area on earth — you better stay there.

Hey, nobody objected when all the Ukrainians left the war zone, as they should; nobody objects when the Syrians leave Syria, the war zone. Why shouldn’t the civilians, if you care about them, why shouldn’t they leave the war zone? Because Hamas doesn’t want them to. Because the sooner the civilians leave Gaza, the sooner the IDF gets this over with and takes out Hamas — that’s it, that’s the story.

But this week, Secretary of State Blinken and Joe Biden said: “Oh, we think that it’s a good idea, what Qatar and Hamas are saying, that we need to have a ceasefire so we can get the 12 hostages of their choice.” By the way, do you remember? We had 31 Americans killed. Have you ever seen their photos anywhere? Do you even know their names? Has the State Department put their photos up on the outside of the White House? Or on the State Department? No, absolutely not. It is a disgrace! Do we even know the names of the American hostages that they’re holding now? No, we do not.

Here’s the second demand: This week, all this week — that’s why I’m saying we need to pray now — the United States, which forbade Israel from making and manufacturing their own armaments, we forbade them from doing that, so we’ve made Israel dependent upon us. “You gotta come begging and crawling to us for your armaments!”

Well, they’ve been using 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, because this isn’t a normal war; we’re not dealing with normal characters. This is a subterranean warfare. All these billions that we’ve been sending for years to Gaza to help them rebuild their economy, so that they could have cement and build up their buildings — all that cement went down a hole. That hole is called tunnels. And there’s 300 miles of subterranean tunnels that we’re dealing with now. And so, now the U.S. has said this week: “We’re not selling you any more 2,000-pound bombs.” Now, it’s 350-pound bombs — that will not penetrate the tunnels! OK, who does that? Ensuring — again, I’m not trying to be personal — but ensuring that Israel can’t defeat Hamas, and that Hamas stays in business.

That’s the side we’ve chosen this week: that Hamas will stay in business. Not we, they. The final one is that the U.S. this week — yesterday, as a matter of fact — in Japan and Tokyo at the G7, Secretary of State Blinken announced what our goals are for Israel: “Oh, by the way, when all of this is done, we want the Palestinian Authority to run Gaza.” The Palestinian Authority! — which is the same thing as Hamas. No difference. Not one Palestinian Authority official condemned what happened on October 7th. And by the way, in their clauses, they call for genocide of all Jews too. So, this is the organization that Secretary Blinken said: “This is who we want to see run Gaza” — after Israel expends their blood and treasure to wipe out Hamas.

This is an absolute fool’s errand, and they want to reward the terrorists with a state of their own. They “need to have a state of their own” — and our administration is promising that we’re going to pay to rebuild all of Gaza. So billions of dollars were lost in southern Israel, in that region.

Nothing there. There’s no promise there. We’re not going to be rebuilding Israel — but, oh yes, the biggest international welfare scam in the world, which is Gaza. You have 75 years of being refugees, and someone else has to feed you? This is the biggest shakedown campaign! You see, Hamas is the terrorist organization — a few very rich people at the top, then they’ve got 2 million people that they use as human shields to the world. They don’t take care of them. They don’t supply them. They expect all of us are going to feed them. They just came out in the last couple weeks and said: “We expect the United States — you will feed them!” And they also came out just last week and said: “We’re going to keep doing more October 7ths, more October 7ths, more October 7ths, more October 7ths — until we kill all the Jews that are in the Genesis 15:18 land!”

So we know what the position is of the terrorists. This week we found out what the position was of the United States and the administration, and it is to pursue the goals of Hamas at the expense of Israel. They don’t see it that way, but that’s actually what’s happening. So do you see what I’m saying? In real time, we’re in the most biblically active period of history there’s ever been.

It’s hard to keep up with it right now, but keep up with it we must. And so, there’s only one city that God has ever called upon us to pray for: Jerusalem. We’re to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. When you read the verses preceding and after, we’re the ones who are blessed — if we are the ones praying for Jerusalem, for their peace, their prosperity, so we can have peace and prosperity.

So, let’s land the plane, and let’s land the plane now, by praying together. Because we’ll take those of us in this room; I’d ask that you stand right now, hold hands, if you’re not too worried about that. If you don’t like to hold hands, OK, that’s fine, but this is the work that we need to do. This is the work that we must do. Because we’re living in this momentous moment.

And so, Father, we praise You; You are the God of Israel; You are Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace; You are Jehovah Magen, our Shield. I pray, Jehovah Shalom over Israel, that Your shalom would fall, that is unlike any other; and I pray, Jehovah Magen, that, God our Shield, over Israel — would You be their Shield, O Father?

Lord, You are Jehovah Jireh, our Provider; Lord, would You provide for Israel in our absence? If we won’t, You will. Lord, I don’t want to see America lose out on the blessing. And even more, I don’t want to see America suffer from the consequences of the cursing. So, O God, we pray for Your provision for Your people.

And Father, You are Jehovah Rapha, our Healer. And so, Father, I pray for Your healing; I pray for Your healing right now for the 241 hostages, some of whom are Americans. Lord, if they’re forgotten by our administration, You haven’t forgotten them. We haven’t forgotten them. And so, we stand in the gap as proxies, and right now we pray that the captives would be set free, in Jesus’ name.

We pray that they would be made invisible to the enemy. We pray that You would throw open the doors of the jail cells, supernaturally. We pray that You would cause the chains on their hands, on their feet, on their necks to fall, supernaturally. We pray that You would send Your seraphim and Your cherubim into those tunnels and give Your balm of Gilead and Your mercy and grace to those hostages: to the elderly; to those who are sick; to those who are wounded; to the babies missing their mother and their father; to the young girls for whom unspeakable acts have probably been done against their bodies — O God, we pray even now that You would extend grace and mercy and healing to everyone! But Lord, just as You write our names on the palm of Your hand, the name of every hostage is upon Your hand.

And I pray that You would not allow this demonic death cult to hold these innocent people anymore. And I ask, O God, that whatever power they derive from Satan himself, You would cut that power, in Jesus’ name! You are the God who strikes, and we ask that You would cut that demonic power; whatever stronghold Satan has over this, we call it to naught, now, in the name of Jesus!

Lord, the innocent blood that was spilt is crying from the ground. And so, we proclaim the blood of Jesus Christ over this matter and that there will be no hurt, no pain, that this blood cannot heal. And so, we thank You now, God.

And I pray that You would speak to our president, Joe Biden; I lift him up to You. I pray for him, O God. I pray for Joe Biden; I pray for Secretary of State Blinken; I pray for the House; I pray for the Senate; I pray for the State Department, the whole bureaucracy — that they would all come into alignment with Your Word, and that they would surrender, Lord, that they wouldn’t even know why they’re making the decisions they are, but that for Zion’s sake, for Jerusalem’s sake, they would make decisions in honor and glory to Your Word.

O Father, You hear us now in this moment; You are for Your people, and You hear us! We cry out as we repent for this nation and what this nation has done to contribute to this effort. We thank You; we praise You; we glorify You; we say and shout Your name to the heavens: O Jehovah, Righteous Judge! Mighty Deliverer! Savior! Counselor! Healer! Alpha! Omega! Beginning! End! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen! Amen! Amen!

You can watch the recording of this speech below.

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(Photo Credit: Intercessors for America)