VOICE OF THE PERSECUTED

(Voice of the Persecuted) We invite you to join us tonight in a prayer conference call for the persecuted church hosted by Persecution Watch.

Dear prayer warriors in light on what’s going on in the world, I’m sharing with you an overview by Frank Mceleny, a dear friend and brother in the Lord.

(A Call To The Remnant) 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧’𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐬?

War is not an interruption of history but one of its permanent features. Scripture teaches that we live in a fallen world, and history confirms the testimony. Nations rise and nations fall. Borders shift. People displace people. From the ancient empires of the East to the kingdoms of Europe, from Rome’s conquest of Britain to the Angles and Saxons, the Viking invasions, and the Norman conquest, the same pattern appears again and again. History is written in the language of struggle.

The American continent bears the same mark. The Cheyenne yielded the Black Hills to the Lakota through conflict, and the Lakota in turn lost that same territory to the expanding United States. This is not an exception but an illustration. War and power have always been instruments by which the political order of the world is formed. The world, as it exists, is not a garden but a wilderness, and it has been so since the fall of man.

Christians must begin here if they are to think clearly. This present order is not our home in any moral sense. We belong to another kingdom. Yet we are required to live in this one, and we are commanded to see it as it truly is. Sentimentality is no substitute for truth.

When tyrannies collapse and iron curtains fall, there is reason to rejoice for those who are freed from oppression. Such rejoicing does not sanctify the instruments by which that freedom comes, nor does it purify the motives of those who wield power. It simply acknowledges that relief has come to those who suffered under despotism. Imperfect instruments may still bring real deliverance.

Christians are called neither to blind nationalism nor to naïve idealism. The Scriptures command us to seek peace, yet they also acknowledge that rulers exist to restrain evil in a violent world. Power vacuums do not remain empty. If one nation withdraws, another will advance. The question is never whether power will shape the world, but whose power it will be.

Would the world be safer under the dominance of Russia? Or China? Or India? Or North Korea? Perhaps even Iran? Power will rule in this fallen world; the only question is which power, and to what end.

Many speak as though the exercise of power were itself the great evil, yet history teaches that the absence of ordered power often produces something darker still. Idealistic visions detached from reality offer little comfort to those who must live under tyranny. The world will not be governed by dreams but by forces strong enough to impose their will.

The Christian perspective is neither naïve nor despairing. Believers understand that they are in the world but not of it. They are called to see clearly and to judge soberly. Scripture does not promise that the present age will culminate in peace among nations. Rather, it teaches that the world will continue in conflict until the final kingdom of God is revealed.

Consider one final example. George S. Patton was by many accounts a flawed man can , proud, ambitious, and often harsh. Yet when his Third Army broke through German lines during the Battle of the Bulge and relieved the surrounded soldiers at Bastogne, the men who had endured the siege did not pause to examine his character or analyze his motives. They cared that relief had come.

So, it is in the affairs of nations. Men act from mixed motives, ambition, necessity, calculation, and sometimes principle.

The purposes behind intervention in places such as Iran may be complex and imperfect. Yet if the day comes when ordinary people find themselves delivered from the rule of harsh clerical tyranny, it is unlikely that they will trouble themselves greatly with the philosophical purity of those who brought about that change.

Christians therefore must learn to think with steady minds. This world will never be redeemed by political power, yet neither will it be preserved from evil by wishful thinking. We are called to live as strangers and pilgrims, seeing clearly the broken order around us while fixing our hope on a kingdom not made by human hands.

𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧, 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠.

Here are just some of the relevant Scriptures:

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” Matthew 24:6

 “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” James 4:1

“A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace”  Ecclesiastes 3:8

“1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” Romans 13:1–4

“13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 1 Peter 2:13–14

“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19

“33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

“1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy.” 2 Timothy 3:1–2

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20

“ 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” Psalm 146:7–9

“When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.” Proverbs 11:10

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:13–16

“44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” Daniel 2:44

“The Seventh Trumpet

15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:7

He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Micah 4:3

Frank Mceleny, A Call To The Remnant

Your sister in Christ

Nadia Dybvik, Persecution Watch Prayer Conference Call Leader

Please forward prayer points to your church, prayer groups and others who will pray.

Prayer Conference Call Details

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 4 nights a week on your phone

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Call in number: (667) 770-1476

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What is Persecution Watch?

Persecution Watch is a U.S. national prayer conference call ministry that prays specifically for the global Persecuted Church. For over a decade, Blaine Scogin led this national network of believers who faithfully pray for the persecuted and the global harvest for the Kingdom of God. The group meets via a free call-in service every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday night at 9pm Eastern time in the United States (please check your time zone). Blaine also served as Prayer Director for Voice of the Persecuted, and the two missions became one. Brother Blaine passed into glory on December 26, 2019. It was truly a blessing for all of us to serve alongside this dear man of God. The prayer mission of Persecution Watch remains an important part of our mission. The Voice of the Persecuted is committed to continuing the prayer conference call for the persecuted along with the dedicated Persecution Watch prayer warrior team.

Prior to the passing of Brother Blaine, he confirmed the passing of the torch as prayer conference call leader to Nadia Dybvik. Nadia has a burdened heart for the persecuted and is a prayer warrior standing in the gap for them. She joined the Persecution Watch prayer team in 2015 and has been part of the core ever since. Before becoming the prayer call leader, she served in the role of prayer moderator since 2016. Blaine chose Nadia for her faithfulness to pray for the persecuted and her strong commitment to the Persecution Watch mission. We are blessed not only with her gift of prayer, but her genuine love for every brother and sister in Christ that comes on the call to pray. May the Lord continue to bless Nadia, the prayer warrior team in the mission and their personal lives.

“Pray for us” is the number one request that we hear from the persecuted. As the members of the first century Church, the Holy Spirit moved them to pray. We too must continue to serve those suffering persecution by lifting them up to the Lord through prayer.

On occasion, persecuted brothers and sisters join the conference call and share the trials they are facing. The team serves to encourage them by washing their feet in Spirit led prayer. Time will be reserved for those on the call to ask questions. We believe this helps to gain a better understanding of the situation that persecuted Christians endure in their specific nations. Q&A helps us to focus our prayers based on their current needs.

Persecution Watch also hosts callers who want to pray united from other nations. If your heart is perplexed by the sufferings of our persecuted brothers and sisters, you no longer need to pray alone.

We welcome all who desire to pray for the persecuted church and consider it a joy to pray together with you. If you are new to the call and cannot find your voice, listen in, and pray silently or on mute. We are grateful and thank the Lord for bringing us all together to pray in agreement for our persecuted family in Christ. We can all be prayer warriors on this call!

God bless and protect you in your faithfulness to serve.

Lois Kanalos, Founder, Voice of the Persecuted, Nadia Dybvik, Persecution Watch Prayer Call Leader, and the Persecution Watch Prayer Call Moderator Team

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Note to Voice of the Persecuted (VOP) readers: The Persecution Watch prayer team is also the prayer team of Voice of the Persecuted. SIGN UP today.