Prayer requests, the Spirit of the land, Decisions and Changes

Prayer requests, the Spirit of the land, Decisions and Changes

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Prefacing our prayer requests, here is some insight into the Spiritual climate around us: 

There is a big emphasis on the spiritual… which is really good cause people are so excited about what the Holy Spirit is doing but that can also lead to the spirit of the false prophet {Being prophetic and performance focused and getting the glory for yourself} And there is also a big issue with the religious spirit where people go to church as a tradition but do not know Jesus personally. There is also a Spirit of deceit where there is a confusion between Christianity and the Old ancestral religion or Mormon beliefs. There is a spirit of tiredness - laziness. Issues with miscommunication, lack of trust & a Spirit of judgement also seem to be common. The spirit of judgement and pride partially comes from the way people communicate here too.

When you're vulnerable it is easy to step into the attitudes of the spiritual climate around you. 

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Casia:

"Kelly and I both felt the exact same oppression of judgement separately and realized it was a spiritual attack… that it was one of the Spirits of the Island. The oppression of pride, feeling judged by others and judging others. The judgement we were both experiencing was ridiculous! It was almost every thought! I said: "Okay God this is not of you and this is not me either so what is this?!" God has been talking about armor to me in the new year as the season is shifting:

Yesterday and this morning I was really struggling with frustration and sadness… missing home… missing family.

It was cool what God spoke to me about it today though…

Beth was really struggling with the same thing this morning for different reasons and we were prayer partners. 

She was crying so I was holding her and praying for her.

God gave me the word righteousness but I didn't understand what it meant.

We went and sat down and I began speaking to her about asking God to put a border of protection around us when we are in a vulnerable place… And then I realized what the word righteousness was for.

We were meant to put on a breastplate of righteousness today...

It's really easy to be in a vulnerable place when you are sad and missing home…

It's really easy to step into wrong attitudes or the spirit of the land or people around you and agree with lies…

Really easy when you are vulnerable.

Things like anger, frustration, apathy, laziness, judgement…

Just some of the things that I've been attacked with…

God showed me his breastplate of righteousness.

A piece of armor that protects your heart

and righteousness - the opposite thing to step into than the attacks….

It's so cool how God puts me in a position where I'm speaking to someone with the same struggle I am having

 and then gives me the very words of encouragement that I need to hear for myself.

I love it when he does that!!!"

 

Ali:

"When I first planned our trip in French Polynesia, I planned for us to spend a month of our time traveling to some of the islands near Tahiti called the Windward Islands.

The boats that take passengers to the islands are actually freight boats that allow passengers to travel on the bridge. Because of this there are limited spaces on board - they advertise only 12 places. Unfortunately I didn't get to reserve tickets before the new year and the offices were closed for the first week of January. As a result, when we got to the offices to try and reserve tickets to go to three different islands, we were told there were no spaces until the end of the month. When we came 3 years ago, we were able to book tickets quite close to the date of departure and the captains weren't worried about having more than 12 passengers on the bridge. Unfortunately, now the government is giving fines regularly when the boats are overfilled, meaning the captains are more cautious about how many people they allow on at a time. Thus it's hard to book tickets for 7 people when they say they're already full!

This past week we've taken the half hour drive to the port several times in order to speak to the captains of two boats, to see about getting tickets for next week. We were told to come back ready to go on the day of departure to see if we could get spaces. With this as our option, we knew we'd have to start working on a back-up plan in case they decided not to allow us on. I felt uneasy about having to wait until the departure day to know if we'd be able to get the boat and then we didn't even know if we'd have the same problem for traveling to the other islands or even getting back to Tahiti in February!! 

We've been wondering if there's a reason why the door hasn't been open yet for getting tickets, especially as we keep being told to wait until the day of departure. We know that there is a heavier spiritual atmosphere on the other islands and we wondered if perhaps God was showing us that we're not ready as a team to face that kind of spiritual climate. Throughout the last 6 weeks we have been working through issues affecting the unity of our team, so perhaps there are still things we need to work through before leaving. 

We decided to set Thursday as a day of prayer and fasting as a team to seek what God wanted to say. There were several options to use as backup plans - there are so many ministry opportunities in Tahiti, even if you don't have a car to get around (we have to give our rental cars back on Tuesday and we don't have a budget to keep them longer if we have to stay in Tahiti). The problem is knowing which place we should go if we don't get to go to all of the islands (at this point, it may still be possible to go to Raiatea at the end of the month even if we don't go to the other two islands).

Before going to the port on Thursday afternoon, we discussed the different options and what our feelings were towards them. Unfortunately it felt quite confusing, as we were all feeling different things about different places - we weren't united on what path to take. It's also hard for me to know how to make the final decision when there is such discord, as I know I have my own preferences, but I don't know if that is God leading me. 

We decided to write all the options on pieces of paper, turn them over and give them random numbers, then each to pray and ask God to speak revelation over the different places without us knowing what they were. Some of us received words and verses, others of us didn't receive anything about specific places. Most of us felt drawn to one number (3). It was hard to know what to do with it though once we discovered which place it was - Was God telling us to go there and if yes was it only if it didn't work out to leave on the boats or was He telling us not to get the boat for Huahaine? I know on my part, I felt the options in Tahiti were only a backup plan if it didn't work out for the boats. Meanwhile, throughout the whole prayer time, Beth felt a very strongly that we needed to go to the port to ask again about tickets, if only to book for Raiatea at the end of the month before that was also fully booked. 

Eventually a few of us left to go to the port. For one boat, the office was closed and the boat had left for it's tour of the islands, so we couldn't speak to the captain again. When we got to the other boat, the Hawaikinui, which I took last time I was here, the boat was loading cargo and the passengers were waiting to board. We went to ask in the office about booking tickets, but the woman told us the first available spaces were February 6th! We explained that we planned to go to several islands and that we had planned to stay with people there already, so she told us to go and speak to the captain directly and get tickets through him. 

It was interesting to see that many of the people waiting for the boat didn't seem to have tickets either and they were just waiting to see if the captain would allow them to board. They even waved Beth and I onto the boat and even though we said we wanted tickets for Tuesday, they were saying we could go with them right then and there! That would've been great if we'd all been there together with our luggage! He told us to come ask on Tuesday to see if we could get on then. I explained that we needed to get tickets for several journeys for 7 people and that we wanted to be sure to get tickets as it was more complicated than just one journey! Eventually he told us to come back and speak to him on Monday morning and he'd see what he could do. This made me hopeful, as this way we would have our answer the day before we were supposed to leave (and give up the cars etc). I feel that whatever happens on Monday will show us if God is opening or closing the door for our travel to the islands. But I also feel that it would be a shame to miss out on going to visit the people there, as even with the spiritual heaviness, the islands are rich with wonderful people to meet and many more opportunities to share Jesus' love!."

PRAYERS REQUESTS

*Unity within the team

*Protection 

*That we would get the boat

*Clarity of Direction

{That God would clearly open and close the doors we are meant to walk through, or not.}

*Peace about a decision

And most especially that we would be a blessing and not a burden to the people we meet wherever we are, wether we stay in Tahiti or go to the Islands.