One would think citizens could reasonably expect intelligence-gathering agencies like the FBI and the CIA to be watchmen on the wall, helping protect our nation against organized crime and maleficent foreign intrusion — and not that they’d be used as weapons to influence elections or protect the tenure of whoever is in power.

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But that is not the case, says Dr. John Gentry in his recently published book Neutering the CIA. Dr. Gentry is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and spent 12 years as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. In a recent interview with Fox News, he warns that “diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and the overall politicization of the intelligence community have become a ‘significant’ problem.” He says he is confident that those agencies will try to interfere yet again, with the 2024 election, as they did in 2020.

Political activism in our nation’s intelligence community is nothing new. An article from 2016 on Vox.com describes its history. It states that, even though intelligence agencies have been engaged in political spying since the 1950s, popular understanding of interference in election affairs is limited to J. Edgar Hoover’s surveillance of civil-rights groups and other leftist organizations. Subsequent agency leaders tried to establish a more neutral political footing, until FBI Director James Comey got involved in the email investigation of 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. And in the 2020 election, the CIA published a letter downplaying the Hunter Biden laptop contents, which was clearly political in Dr. Gentry’s mind and intended to protect Joe Biden’s image.

“My guess is that the proverbial deep state within the intelligence community will reemerge because presumably a Republican candidate will again be seen as a threat to the internal policies that many intelligence people like,” he says. He has recently seen signs that former and active members of the intelligence community will actively oppose the election of a conservative candidate in 2024, especially if that candidate is Donald Trump.

Former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were two of the main drivers behind the transformation of the intelligence community. They both supported President Obama’s policies to change the federal workforce. They pushed for new hiring policies and urged employees to be more concerned about diversity and inclusion issues and become politically active — something that had a negative impact on agency morale but will no doubt arise again in the upcoming elections.

For us who believe in truth and integrity as central to the Christian values on which our nation was founded, that poses a serious issue in need of fervent prayer. We need our intelligence community to be defenders of truth and justice according to our founding principles, even amid the cloak-and-dagger stuff that international intelligence requires.

And as intercessors, we recognize the spiritual battle behind these issues. Satan will use anything and everything at his disposal in our government system to attack, distort, and suppress truth while promoting lies and immorality.

We have been praying for election integrity for some time now, and the weaponization of the intelligence community is a key issue, along with the political pressures weighing on the Supreme Court, which I wrote about in a previous article for IFA.

Those prayers include intelligence agencies, in particular the CIA and the FBI, and this is implied in the Bible’s command to pray for “kings and all those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:2). Our intelligence communities wield an enormous amount of power, and in the wrong hands, that power can wreak havoc on our society.

Let’s pray for the intelligence community and election integrity:

1. that whatever is hidden in darkness (usually lies, distortion, and illegal activity) would be brought to light;
2. for guidance, wisdom, and insight for the Judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), that is investigating the politicization of the intelligence community;
3. for God’s work in the hearts of the agencies’ directors and staff, so that they might desire integrity and justice rather than political advantage and ideological positions; pray in particular for:
   FBI Director Christopher Wray;
   CIA Director William Burns;
   Attorney General Merrick Garland;
4.  for protection over the 2024 elections against manipulation, interference, misconduct, and problems with voting machines;
5.  for a general desire for integrity and honesty in our nation to supersede power struggles.

God of truth and justice, we ask You to protect the integrity of this year’s elections and to visit our nation’s intelligence agencies with a spiritual awakening that will set them on a path of honesty, truth, and justice. Touch the hearts of directors and staff alike to rise above political activism and woke ideology and to devote themselves to protecting our nation against crime and foreign interference. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How are you praying for the intelligence community? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and pastored his first church in Amsterdam. He moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs at www.deeperlifeblog.com and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: FBI.