So, we are here in Cambodia now.  It seems that Wifi is much harder to come by in the day to day happenings that take place than it was before.  We have been here nearly a week, but have not updated and for this I apologize.  However, such is the life of those who are on adventure for the Lord.

Our travels here were uncertain and unplanned. After trying to reach our contact for two weeks and still not hearing from him, we came knowing that this is where we were supposed to be. The Lord rewarded our faith and when we got here, we were able to get ahold of our contact Both, and he took good care of us in Phnom Penh.  Good Friday, we went out with some of his family to a nearby mountain and got to pray over the nation from a high vantage point. Here, every high mountain in covered with temples and idols to demons. However, we claimed this mountain and the area for the Lord, and prayed that He would change the hearts of the people from darkness to the Truth.

After talking with Both and his pastor, they invited us to share with their church on Easter Sunday what God revealed to us to be praying for Cambodia and lead the people in prayer.  At that time, I agreed to it even though God had not spoken anything yet.  But, the testimony of the Lord is that He is forever faithful to His word, and He revealed three areas that we are praying over Cambodia, and are important for all of us to pray for ourselves and our nations.

First, God spoke to me from Matthew 9:35-36 that Cambodia is the heart of Southeast Asia, and as such, the Christians should be praying that they would receive the heart of compassion of the Father.  Every time Jesus did miracles (feeding the 5,000, raising Lazarus from the dead, raising the widow’s son to life) it was because He was moved with compassion for the people. In the same way, we must be continually praying that God would give us His heart of love for Him and for His people.  I remembered that last time I was in Cambodia two years ago, this was one of the main things I was praying for myself.  It makes sense that this would be an important point of prayer for the nation.

Second, God continued speaking to me from vs. 37-38 of the same chapter in Matthew.  The harvest here is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  So, we need to be praying that God would send forth laborers into the harvest and be willing to go as He calls us to go forth.  It is interesting that the word Jesus uses here for sending forth the workers is the same one in Greek that is used when He is casting out demons.  God is calling His laborers to go forth with power and purpose into the harvest to reap the souls that He rightfully deserves and bought and paid for with His blood!

Lastly, God began to speak to me that we are all called to be martyrs!  For us, when we think of martyrs, we think of those who have died for being Christians.  But the Greek word we get martyr from literally means “ones who gives witness of what they know to be the Truth”.  We know more than anyone else what and Who the Truth is, and therefore, we are called to share it in the same way Paul was (Acts 26:16,18).  The Christians in the early church were so willing to share the witness of what they knew to be true that they did not care what persecution, trouble, life, or death became of them.  So many early Christians gave their lives as a witness for what they knew to be true, that we took the word and have used it for those who die for the Gospel.  This is how we overcome the enemy as it states in Revelations 12:11 “…By the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony.”  Jesus was The Faithful Witness unto death (Rev 1:5) and we must follow His example no matter what the outcome may be.  For the people here in Cambodia, surrounded by Communism and Islam, there is much more to lose than people in the US.

I want to call you to not just pray for Cambodia, though this is something I ask you to do, but to pray and apply all of these areas to your own life.

Pray that God will give you His heart of compassion and love and that everything you do will flow out of that same love!

Pray that God will send forth laborers with power into the ripe harvest, and be willing to be one of these, as He speaks, that He may receive the reward He bought and paid for with His blood!

Pray that God would help you to be a faithful witness to everyone around you of what and Who you know to be The Truth, and that He would use you just like Paul “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” Acts 26:18.

Jeremiah, Man on Fire!!!