A Day in the Life of President Bush (photos)

President Bush congratulates the Gryffindor Quidditch Team of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for winning the recent all-school quidditch tournament.

ROFLOL!! That......is HILARIOUS!

btw, GREAT tagline!

Mary, just to let you know, over the past three years I've become convinced that God calls people to intercerssion as a specific ministry, and while all prayer is intercession, I believe that some people are given a special giftedness to be able to hear and pray very specifically for concerns, particularly when God is about to do something very specific. I need to tell you that this comes from someone -- myself -- who was raised in a liberal United Methodist church, who came to Christ while in college, and attended a conservative Baptist church for most of my adult life. So, while some may consider "intercessory prayer" or "Intercessors" a bit suspect...well, I did too over three years ago. No longer.

In short, I believe in the ministry of intercession; I believe God has called together certain people to pray specifically for this country and for its leadership which allows them to pray effectively and very specifically, and I believe that collectively these intercessors have an access into the mind and will of God on these particular matters that should be heeded by the larger church.

There is NOTHING like sitting in those 900 year old choir stalls in the abbey, listening to the Westminster Boy's Choir at a church service. Chills, tears, I can't describe how beautiful it was, and how lucky we were to walk in just in time to be invited to sit in the choir!!!

What a fantastic experience for you!

I am SUPREMELY jealous! :o)

It really was an incredible experience. My husband and I turned to look at each other while boys were singing and we both started to cry.

We took the Buckingham Palace tour, too. We were luck to be in London at the right time. It's only open for two months in the summer while the Queen is at Balmoral. Got to see that State dining room. We wondered what kind of polish they used on the table, or was it just hundreds of years rubbing oils into the wood!! LOL!! It was a great trip.

Sounds like it was a dream trip!

I've seen Buckingham from the OUTSIDE, but not in!

And I heard the boychoir at Christ Church in Oxford, which made me cry as well!

We also went to Whitehall Palace where Bush gave his speech. AND we saw Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater. (The hubby refused to go to London unless I could tickets. I don't think he realized I could get them so fast here in the States!! It was a lot of fun. It was my second time to London, so I got to show him around.

Mary, I've been feeling quite guilty about the tone of my posts to you on this thread, and I need to apologize.

We do disagree on this matter, but I should never be condescending (as I seemed here) about the subject.

I will be open to the possibility that there is truth in what these intercessors are saying, and pray for the Holy Spirit's giving me understanding if I am mistaken in my skepticism.

I will always test what I hear against Scripture, as we are commanded to do, but I will not dismiss them out of hand. I have always been a skeptic of self pronounced healers and prophets because in my lifetime I have seen so many imposters.

At any rate, I am sorry if I hurt you. It was definitely not my intent to do so, but I have been convicted that I may have done so. You are a dear friend, and I don't want to put that in jeopardy. Please forgive me.

Thanks for your note. Of course I forgive you. I understand how we can disagree but still remain friends. I appreciate your kind words, always. Love, Maryxxx

I do, too. There are the "generals of intercession" such as Cindy and Mike Jacobs, Dutch Sheets, Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner, Chuck Pierce, etc. who have been given the unction and anointing to pray over places like Washington (Dutch Sheets is the designated intercessor for Washington)D.C. and other cities. In fact, Dutch Sheets and others have been given the order to go to every state and pray, holding large prayer meetings.

I was brought up mostly in the Episcopal and Methodist Churches, got saved in a Baptist Church, filled with the Holy Spirit in a pentecostal church. So, I call myself an "episcamethabapticostal." I know that people are gifted with intercession. I have the watchman on the wall gifting and call others to pray as I see a need. We all have a part in praying and I do believe because of it, our President is safe today. We must never stop, no matter WHO the president is. Perhaps if we had prayed more and criticized Clinton less, things would have been different. Who will ever know?

Elijah List has a 24 hour around the clock prayer chain that people can join for the express purpose of praying for our president and his family, no matter WHO that president is.

Thanks for your post. I appreciate it. I sometimes feel like a voice crying in the wilderness (smile). Love, Maryxxx

Thanks for your comments, Mary. I believe God is in the process of purifying His church, and part of this involves large number of believers developing a hunger for the deeper things of God. Someone said yesterday at the church service we attended that as people hunger for God, denominational differences become trivial. I can tell you in addition to my own background of being raised in a Methodist church, and having been a member for years at a conservative Baptist church, we now attend a Pentecostal church, and yet I've never spoken in tongues, and have never received a specific "baptism of the Spirit," but I do acknowledge the truth of a "second blessing" and see it in the prayers of Paul in Eph. 1 and 3. Therein, Paul commends the Ephesians for their growth and love for one another and for all the saints, but he urges them on to discover the "height, length, breadth, and depth" of the love of Christ -- in other words, to go beyond what they had experienced so far in their Christian lives and move on to a deeper experience of Christ. We left the Baptist church we were attending because it is not a place where the centrality of Christ is preached from the pulpit, nor where prayer is encouraged. My wife and I determined to find a church where Christ is the center of all its ministries -- where Christ in all of His sufficiency is depended upon -- and where everything is bathed in prayer. It looks like this Pentecostal church is the place. (BTW, we found this church after visiting other churches over the course of a year. You'd be shocked to realize how many Christian churches do not preach Christ, but a kind of self-dependence and self-sufficiency.)

I'm familiar with those you mentioned in your previous post -- Dutch Sheets, Rick Joyner, Cindy Jacobs, and the others. We've read books by all of them. My wife and I pray with another couple each week for our national leaders, particularly for President Bush, for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the war on terror, for God's opening up of the nation of Iraq, for our nation to rise and see the big picture, and so forth. We have become convinced that we need to be praying more often for these things, so we added a second evening a week to our prayer times.

I am saddened that more Christians we know do not involve themselves in prayer for our leaders and the nation (but, then, most of our Christian friends are still back at our former church where spiritual mediocrity reigns). But we are not discouraged. I view the intercessors that God is pulling together for the spiritual battles now being waged as "special ops" -- specifically trained for a special purpose and focus. Their effectiveness is not determined by their numbers. I know that God is in the effort because if we were to have depended upon our own strength and determination, our prayer times would have fallen by the wayside years ago (we just past our third-year anniversary praying weekly for the nation and our leaders).

So, I believe in a specific gift, calling, and anointing for intercession, because my wife and I, and the other couple we meet with, have all experienced it. This is our calling, and I would not place it or expect it of anyone else. But I'm as sure about this calling as I am about anything else in my life.

I recently set up a discussion group on Yahoo where the members are essentially myself, my wife, and the other couple (we've picked up someone else along the way), in which I post items for all of us to consider as we move forward into this next election year. You're certainly welcomed to become a member, and to participate as much as you'd like, or simply to receive the posts I put up there. I'm calling the site the "Presidential Prayer Team," and so far the actual PPT hasn't reprimanded me for taking its name (but I am a member and supporter of the PPT, so I feel justified in borrowing the title for the discussion group -- we're all part of the same ministry, I believe). The group site is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/presidentialprayerteam/ . Feel free to join, or to invite others.

Thanks for the great message. I do believe God is calling us to experience intimacy with Him through prayer, scripture, just spending time in His presence. He's looking for purity, holiness, obedience--the whole nine yards! We've all been guilty of 'playing church' and virtually ignoring God and His commands. No wonder the church is in such a state today. We can't just do the same old same old, especially after 911. Intercessors can reveal what's going on and thwart the enemy's plans. When we don't spend time with Him, we not only cheat ourselves, but we cheat our nation. God's not done with us yet. He made American great because it was founded on Christian principles. We have been a friend to Israel and we must continue to do so. To do otherwise is to invite disaster to our beloved shores. We are in the spiritual battle of our lives.

I can empathize with your search for a Christ-centered church. I, too, was a Methodist for many years, then a conservative Baptist. It's not that I didn't learn anything from them, because I did, but I wanted to go deeper in the things of the Spirit myself. The church we go to now is pentecostal but not wildly so. Some speak in tongues, some don't. Some raise their hands to worship, others don't. Everyone is at a different place in their walk with God. Nobody looks around to see who is doing what. I like that.

I'll check out your site at some point. Thanks! Love, Maryxxxx

Mary, I could write for hours about what I've learned regarding prayer since the 2000 election. Suffice it to say that I've learned that God indeed cares about this nation and its direction; that He does make His will known to those who seek it (no more need to pray, "Lord, IF it be Thy will...." -- there's no more "if" about it when one gets serious about prayer); that God will do nothing in this world unless someone prays it down from heaven (but even here, God is sovereign, and will move one to pray according to His will); and finally, that prayer is perhaps the most important "work" of ministry because unless what the rest of church does is bathed in prayer, those efforts will have the stench of human effort and the will of man around them.

I, too, was a Methodist for many years, then a conservative Baptist. It's not that I didn't learn anything from them, because I did, but I wanted to go deeper in the things of the Spirit myself. The church we go to now is pentecostal but not wildly so. Some speak in tongues, some don't. Some raise their hands to worship, others don't. Everyone is at a different place in their walk with God. Nobody looks around to see who is doing what. I like that.

You and I have walked the same path. Amazing. This sounds like the church we are attending.

I'd be interested to hear more about how God developed a hunger for Himself in you. For us, He used an awful church situation, and a revelation of His deeper will for His people through the writing of people like Andrew Murray, A.W. Tozer, Charles Spurgeon, Watchman Nee, the life of Hudson Taylor, and the ministry of Ian Thomas of Torchbearers to awaken my soul to the possibilities of a deeper walk with Him.

Have you heard of Graham Cooke? I believe that Graham is truly an apostle of the deeper life in Christ. He splits his time between a church in his native England, and a church in the US. The church we attend now in California is his home church here, and he's technically on staff with the church. It's his base of ministry here in the US, and we first saw him at that church a year go this month. That's when we decided that if the church believed what Graham Cooke teaches, it is the place for us.

BTW, I consider Isa. 62:1, 6-7 as my "life verses": "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning....On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth." These are great verses which illustrate the ministry and purpose of intercessors, whom Isaiah refers to as "watchmen." Interestingly, I discovered a couple of years ago that my first and middle names -- Gregory Mark -- literally mean "Watchman" and "Warrior." I am pleased to offer myself to God to be an intercessor doing spiritual battle in our day, as He gives me the grace and power to fulfill that purpose.