Watch Focus, January 3, 2025: Enter His Courts with Praise, Deliver us from Terror

Part 1: Enter His Courts with Praise & See the Real Jesus

Let’s enter 2025 declaring Psalm 100, “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.” 

We lay hold of Paul’s Apostolic Prayer of encouragement in Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

May the Church in America see the real Jesus and walk in Ephesians 1:17, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.”

May the Lord increasingly reveal Himself to people who oppose Him in America! We remember Paul’s sudden and dramatic visitation from the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus where the Lord said in Acts 26:14, “…Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” We pray anyone kicking against the goads (see explanation note below) would have a mighty visitation from the King of Glory! In a time of moral bankruptcy and darkness we read in Genesis 4:26, “And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.” Through the Prayer of the Church may everyday people begin to call on the name of the Lord and call on Him again who once did.

Part 2 Deliver us from Terror

Just this week the United States has been hit with a number or terror attacks resulting in loss of life and injury. With threats from homegrown terror and terrorists crossing our borders illegally we step into this darkness remembering Pastor Bonnie’s prophetic word from 2005 ‘Code Orange’ that the ‘Hornets of God will defend His people to terrorize those who would terrify them also in America……..and the voice of the Lord shall rise like a mist over the land to make up a wall.’ We press into Psalm 91 for us, our children, churches, cities, regions, states and nation that God would deliver us from all threats and evil. We pray the Lord would anoint and empower our police, FBI, CIA and NSA to expose and combat any form of terrorism in our localities and across the United States. May the Lord give incoming President Trump and his Administration all they need for these times.

Goads Explanation: A goad is a long, sharpened stick that farmers used to prod oxen when they were hitched to yokes. The ox would kick against the goad to avoid being jabbed again. The more the ox kicked, the more the goad would stab into its flesh, causing greater pain. Eventually, the ox would learn that it was better to accept the farmer's direction than to kick against the goad.

Psalm 91:5-6, “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.”

Psalm 27:5, “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.”

Psalm 32:7, “You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.”

Psalm 149:6-9, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples; To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute on them the written judgment— This honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord!”