IFA state groups are hearing from the Lord and obeying! This answered prayer testimony is written by Donna Peterson, leader of IFA New Hampshire. Read through to the end for encouragement that God is at work in our nation.

This past April, there was a bill being considered in the Statehouse that essentially would have gutted our Fetal Life Protection Act, if passed, by removing all civil and criminal penalties for late-term abortions after 24 weeks. We prayed, fasted, and then went to the Statehouse while the Judiciary Committee was hearing testimonies. Christians showed up at the Statehouse in force, and many, pastors included, testified against the bill.

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When the Senate voted, its members followed the Judiciary Committee’s recommendation and voted the bill down, so the Fetal Life Protection Act remained intact. (Our ultimate goal is for all abortions to be illegal, but this is nonetheless a step forward from the legality here of abortions through all nine months, as before Roe was overturned.)

On May 18, the state legislature was considering a parental bill of rights in education that would have required teachers to inform parents if a child were choosing to go by an opposite-sex name or leaning toward a desire for gender transitioning. This time, the outcome was very different. The House Education Committee had a tie vote, leading to no recommendation, despite some powerful testimonies about the dangers to children of gender transitioning — including testimonies from two women who had detransitioned. The state House of Representatives then voted to table the bill indefinitely. We were crying out to the Lord over why victories were so hard to come by.

Around this time, Holy Spirit led me to go to an evangelism-training meeting at a church in Concord, where evangelist Tommie Zito was teaching and leading the training for the week. After a teaching session, we were divided up into small groups of at least three members each to do street evangelism. The trainers carefully matched up those who had no experience with those who did have some. A young man in my group wanted to enter a café just down the street from the Statehouse, but he perceived a strong demonic presence stopping him at the doorway. We did manage to minister to others, but the young man still felt he was supposed to go into that café. He asked if I would pray and do spiritual warfare with him to bind up the demonic spirits. We sat down on a bench a little way down the street, where I recounted an experience I’d had in that place.

In February, Holy Spirit had told me to bring a bag lunch to give to some homeless person when I came to do errands in downtown Concord. I spotted a homeless woman with a shopping cart full of her belongings inside the café, where she was taking refuge from the cold. Holy Spirit told me to give her the bag. I did so, and she was very grateful. I asked if I could pray for her, and she was blessed. After sharing this testimony and praying with the young man, he said to me: “Now I have courage. Let’s go in.”

This time when I went in, I noticed the drag-queen show ads that were now all over the walls, something I had not noticed when I was last there, in February. Now, I attempted to share the gospel with one young woman who was behind the counter, while the young man planned to approach the other, since they had no customers to attend to at that moment. When I began sharing that Jesus’ death on the cross grants us the forgiveness of our sins and that our receiving this by faith is the only way to the Father and to heaven, she replied: “Well, that’s your religion!” I in turn asked: “What do you believe?” To which she responded: “I’d rather not say!” I had a strong sense that she was involved in witchcraft or some other form of the occult. I told her that, assuming Jesus is real, if she really wanted to know the truth, she could ask Him to reveal Himself to her, and that He would. I also told her that we as followers of Jesus are called to love everyone, and that it didn’t matter who or what they were — Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, LGBTQ. I then wished her a nice day and told her it had been nice meeting her.

At around this time, the IFA South Carolina state leaders had done their webinar about finding hidden prayer targets within our states. It was excellent! And I had been reading The Return of the Gods, by Jonathan Cahn. In that book Cahn discusses the high places and altars to false gods described in the Old Testament. He relates that God was displeased with the kings in Israel who had failed to remove those offenses. I also know that the New Testament tells us: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV). I felt the Lord prompting me to look up information on the café in downtown Concord. On the café website, the owner describes the place as a café that offers up not just tea and sweets, but also “advocacy” and “political activism.” And there are links from the site to some politicians in the Statehouse who are members or supporters of the LGBTQ community and who uphold that agenda. Clearly, the Lord was exposing a demonic stronghold supporting the LGBTQ agenda and influencing what was happening in our Statehouse and within the state. I shared all this with the IFA New Hampshire state intercessors. I requested prayers for divine direction as to what to do, and so we prayed on the call.

The Lord put it on my heart to do a Joshua walk around the block encompassing the Statehouse and the café, during which we prayed and declared that this was kingdom territory, that the demonic stronghold over the café needed to be brought down, and that any link between it and the Statehouse needed to be cut. I asked the Lord when we should do the walk, and He said it should be on a weekday before the weekend of the Sean Feucht concert. The other intercessors were in agreement. We started doing a quiet walk daily for six days, focusing only on worship of the Lord in His majesty and on sharing any impressions He might be revealing to us during the walk. We began a daily communion call at 7 a.m.

On the seventh day, we held an opening prayer, at the close of which a strong wind came up suddenly and swirled around us. We knew Holy Spirit was letting us know He was with us in this! We marched to the sounds of a shofar playing from one of the intercessors’ phone apps, going seven times around the block. We sensed Holy Spirit peace and joy, and we knew that the battle belongs to the Lord. We pronounced our declarations on the lawn in front of the Statehouse, and our intercessor with the phone app then blew her real shofar — with blasts toward the north, south, east, and west. We prayed together and then took communion.

When I returned home, our intercessor with the shofar phoned. She told me that after the rest of us had departed, Holy Spirit had prompted her to share the Gospel with someone who was seated near the Statehouse lawn. The intercessor asked this person whether she had ever received Jesus as Lord and Savior. The answer was no, but this person said she wanted to, and that she hoped the Lord could forgive her for being transgender. Our intercessor replied: “We are all sinners. Jesus can take care of your sin. He will show you what to do.” The transgender person then chose to pray the sinner’s prayer and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior! We are in such awe, praising the Lord for His leading and for this “first fruits” instance of a transgender person coming to salvation in Christ! God is so good!

May you all be blessed by this testimony of God’s love and faithfulness!

Share below your own prayers and concerns about the state in which you live, including its leaders.

Donna Peterson is the IFA state prayer leader for New Hampshire. Photo by Rosie Sun on Unsplash