I have a scarf that I wear at every Gathering of the Eagles (GOE); it was a gift from one of our intercessors and I cherish what that gift represents. Each time I see our flag, no matter where I am or what it’s on, I think of the vision the Lord gave me of “The Eagle, the Flag and the Weights” back in 2020. I know when this nation is set free, the Eagle will fly strong, our Flag will fly high, and tyranny will stand down.

At our Seattle GOE back in 2023, I held that scarf several times a day, longing to see it fly free, longing to see our nation set free from the oppressive regime it has been under.

During the first day of the Gathering, in the second service, while we were praying over governmental issues, I had a vision of our beautiful Flag…but it was upside down which, we know, means we are in distress. That has been the condition of our nation for years now.

The Lord then showed me a season of continued prayer and told me when we’ve completed what God assigned us to; He would turn this flag around and our nation would no longer be in danger or distress.

According to what the Lord showed to Mom and what He has shown me, prayer is, and always has been, the key.

This week while in prayer, the Lord told me our nation was still in distress. Let me back up a bit; I have some 3x5 cards with flags printed on the front. I have a couple in my office, at my study desk and so on. The presence of these little cards really stood out to me recently. Whenever I saw one of them, or picked one up to move it, it was upside down. They are little cards so normally I would not think much of it, however, when I picked one up that I use as a Bible bookmark up to move it over this Wednesday (7/9/2025), it was upside down and the Lord said clearly: “it’s still in distress.”

This may seem disheartening based on all the prayer we’ve done and the wonderful work we are seeing come out of the three branches of government these days, but bear with me, this message is very encouraging and for the warrior in you, it’ll ignite a fire in you to press through to victory!

So, with that in mind, this past month as we’ve prepared for GOEs, as well as our prayer calls, I continue to review the events around us, considering really, the absolute chaos we are experiencing in the nation, some good, some bad, and I’m going to be very transparent here, I’ve experienced quite a fair share of chaos recently in my personal life so I could not help but throw that into the mix... and I asked the Lord, “when will the chaos end? When will the distress our Nation is in be resolved? How much longer must the intercessors, the conservatives, the MAGA party endure?” The Lord responded clearly: “When we learn to lean into the chaos.” I said, “What?! When we learn to lean into Chaos?! What does that even mean? Why would we do that Lord? How do we do that?” I did not get my answers right away, He just let me stew.

Often when the Lord does this with me, I’ll pray over it to make sure it was from Him and to find out if it was for me, the Church, the nation, or perhaps all the above. I also want to know if it is for now or the future. I look up Scripture for Biblical examples. Depending on the issue, I’ll research it out on the interwebs. The point is, I don’t take these things lightly or proceed haphazardly.

I have considered the events taking place in front of our eyes. It’s really all just chaos, isn’t it? I’ll mention a few:

And, at the same time we have:

While my heart has been heavy, I was laying all of this before the Lord. Rejoicing and weeping, rejoicing and weeping… but the common thread was chaos. Chaos, chaos, chaos! UP and DOWN the chain! Chaos! I was crying out to the Lord over this rollercoaster, really feeling a need to pray for unity in the conservative base, especially considering some of the controversial issues, and He responds with “Rise up! Lean into the Chaos for your redemption draweth nigh!”

You know, He is so gracious and tender sometimes, often with Mom, there is such tenderness in how He responds to her. With me, He says what the angel said to Peter in Acts 12:8 when Peter was chained to the guards on either side, and the angel is sent to rescue him from that prison he’d been in since before Passover (so for days) right on the eve of when Herod planned to assassinate him: “Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals.” Why? Because it’s time to move! The angel could have picked Peter right out of that jail cell and dropped him into another city like he did Philip in Acts 8. But no, he walked him through the chaos, through the sleeping guards on the ground, through the guards outside his prison door, through each passage he had to until he took him right out into the center of the city and that’s when the angel left. Peter ran to Mary’s house and knocked on the gate, he even had to endure the chaos of the disbelief in the hearts and minds of the Christians praying for his release before they finally saw that this was the deliverance they’d fought for in prayer. Sometimes, we simply don’t realize the very thing we’ve fought for in the Spirit is here. We must learn to recognize when the pathway out of chaos and into victory is actually THROUGH the chaos, or else we will sit sandwiched between our captors waiting for miracles.

I believe the Lord is saying to us even now, “Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals! It’s time to move!” In other words, “Rise UP, lean into the chaos” why? Because our redemption draws nigh!

Friends, we cannot sit in the mire of the situation waiting… especially when that chaotic situation is a swamp!

As intercessors, we often prefer quiet solitude; we can pray more effectively into those critical issues in a place of solitude. So, leaning into the chaos may not necessarily be “our thing”. However, God is stretching us, preparing us.

I continued to pray into what the Lord said and finally, Friday, July 11 at 12:44 AM, the Lord gave me a vision. First, I need to present the prequal to Friday’s vision.

In 2017 I had a vision of President Trump. He was standing in the center of the nation. Our nation had sunk down about four feet from where it was supposed to be. Trump was standing right there in the middle of the country. He took hold of a chain that was threaded through the middle of the country and began pulling it up. He pulled and pulled, hand over fist, to bring this nation up before it sunk. He was sweating, his jacket cast to the side, his tie was loosened, and the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up. He pulled and pulled until he reached the end of this chain. He began pulling slower and steady, and as I leaned in, I saw he had hold of a steel rod. He pulled it up, slowly, steadily so it did not tip off balance. When he came to the end of that rod, he placed it in its designated lock, yes, it seemed to be a key, and he was inserting it into a lock specifically designed for that key. He had to maneuver it a bit as he positioned it just right so it would be secured. There was that final twist and that rod, the Lord referred to the rod as a “rod of righteousness”, was secured. President Trump stood back and smiled, he said, “There, that’s just as it should be.”

As I panned out from the scene, I saw that the nation had been pulled up, not just to the level it should be, but an additional four feet. So, eight in total. It’s obvious to see the two terms of Trump’s presidency –eight years—in this vision the Lord gave me almost eight years ago, but let’s look deeper. The number eight in Hebrew is new beginnings, not just new, but it refers to reaching new heights, completeness, and redemption. Remember, the Lord said, “Rise up! Lean into the Chaos for our Redemption draweth nigh!”

Now, to Friday’s vision:

I saw a map of the nation. The intercessors were lined up on the borders, as though they were the outline of the nation and each state. They were praying with great intensity. Then, as if on cue, they each picked up an edge of a creamy translucent fabric and began to run toward the center of the nation. They ran right through the chaos covering it with this fabric. They ran so quickly and with such agility, they were like deer or gazelles bounding over the various regions. The fabric, even though it came from so many different directions, never tangled, it was smooth, beautiful, as it draped across the land.

In the center was the Lord, and He was standing next to President Trump as he worked on the commission of the Lord for his life. He was pulling that chain up from the center of the nation and by this point, had almost reached the end of the chain.

The intercessors arrived at the center and laid the fabric at the feet of the Lord. He was pleased. He looked out over the landscape, then picked up the edges of the fabric the intercessors carried in and tucked them securely into the spot where the chain was, just before Trump locked in the Rod of Righteousness.

Things began to settle, the chaos began to dissipate, and the intercessors who were weeping and warring their way across the land stopped and with one voice, began to worship the Lord for the many victories He gave us. It was so beautiful, so powerful, it sounded heavenly.

-End of the vision-

In the 2017 vision, we were experiencing so much chaos, they were already trying to remove Trump from office. Today, we are seeing chaos of a different sort. So, if we lean into the chaos we are experiencing, and recognize that God is in the chaos, God is in the planning and hard work—indicated by Trump with his jacket off and sleeves rolled up—that it is taking to pull our nation up and out of that swamp the cabal thrust us into, can we then, as intercessors, stay that course?

Our nation was founded and grounded on Godly principles. If you read through the Federalist Papers and our Founding Documents, you learn how deeply rooted this is in our soil. It took tremendous uprooting and chaos to get us to that point. So, can we lean into the chaos now? Can we intercede to keep the nation from being ripped in two while God, using Trump, brings our nation up to a place where we then, lean on the Rod of Righteousness, our Redeemer, our Lord and Savior, once again?

I believe we can. We are not just intercessors, we are warriors my friends, warriors for the Kingdom of God!

Warriors do not run from chaos, we know when we can go around it, when to go over it, and when we have to pass straight through it because there’s a higher purpose to this pathway. Today, leaning into it to pass through it is the Lord’s directive.

It makes perfect sense, there are many times we are called to lean into it because the result of this chaos is not only freedom, but also justice and restoration of a nation, it’s exposing and resetting errors a nation has fallen into. In addition, it is God’s will for us as intercessors, to intercede for our nation as we pass through the chaos and into God’s planned outcome. I know it is tough on people to see the nation like this, people sometimes think it will be better with new leaders—which is why mid-terms often see a transfer of power in the house—but God is using this season to pull our nation up to the level He created it to be. We must stay on the course God has set for us!

Remember the steps I take when the Lord says something to me? Pray. Then go to His Word.

Let’s do that and get a Biblical perspective for what God is doing in our nation. Why? Because He is doing a new thing in our land and we want to be on board with His plans. Seeing examples of His plans in His Word helps us to stay the course.

The Lord is uprooting corruption and installing the Rod of Righteousness. The enemy is not happy about this at all, and he’s going to try to intensify the stressors because he wants to destroy this nation from within. We’ve seen this pattern before, look throughout the book of Acts and you will see profound examples of chaos with unprecedented results as God is bringing forth His Truth, His Word, and His Spirit in the earth.

Release of His Spirit: in Acts 1-3 we see the unity of intercession bring forth the Promise. Just as the Lord said, on Pentecost, the Promise is released and the initial fruit of the release of Holy Spirit in the earth occurs. Pentecost brings a massive revival which results in the panic of religious leaders. The response of the Apostles is to pray for boldness and to continue to release the Word of the Lord.

Persecution: Acts 4 and Acts 5 they are brought before the Sanhedrin, each time God is giving opportunity to open the eyes of these religious leaders. Once they are warned, the second time they are flogged, and instead of buckling under the pressure of flogging (Greek meaning for flogged is literally “skinned”) and running from the chaos, they ask God for more boldness and praise Him they are counted worthy to suffer for His names’ sake!

Martyrdom: Acts 6-8 we see the death of Stephen and the pre-salvation rampage of Paul on the Christians. With the death of Stephen, Christianity is forcibly dispersed over the land! This is followed by Herod’s violence upon the church.

Missionary work: Acts 9 we see the persecutor become the persecuted when Paul’s conversion rocks both the Judean and Christian world. He must flee for his life as he is pursued by the Pharisee’s with as much aggression as he once pursued the Christians. During this period, Acts 10-11, Peter’s missionary journey expands to the Gentiles opening a whole new element of chaos and adjustment within the body of Christ. Paul’s missionary journey resumes Acts 12-22 after a few years tucked away with the Lord, and ultimately Antioch is set up as another Christian headquarters. But along the path, Paul details his own persecution and suffering for the sake of the Gospel as he is “turning the world upside down!” (Acts 17:6) sounds like chaos to me.

The Protesters: Paul addresses mobs more than once, in fact, in nearly every city he must face an angry mob of what the media today would call “mostly peaceful protesters” as he releases the Gospel throughout the region.

The Political Climb: Paul, nearing the end of his walk, begins the evangelic work up the political realm. Acts 23-28 Why is this important? Because God does move in and through our leaders to impact city, states and nations. He does not expect us to omit them in our prayers, our testimony, or our influence. In America, that is even more relevant because we have elected leaders. It is a government for the people, by the people. Our leaders are a representation of the American people. And the Church just received her voice back; may we use it wisely.

We can see these events in every aspect of our lives today. There’s been persecution, missionary work, martyrs, famines, pestilence, riots, and in the midst of it all, God is moving! He’s reaching new heights with true change in our nation, lasting change, change that protects the life of the preborn, the young people, the church, and the nation. It’s been a chaotic eight years, but the work of the Lord never stopped because the intercessors remained faithful!

The first three decades of the early church were met with tremendous backlash, physical assaults, martyrdom, and so on. While there was political persecution, until the last couple years when Nero rose to power, that level of persecution was nothing compared to the persecution from the Jewish community.

Amid the chaos, they persevered because they remained people of prayer and trusted in God’s plans rather than men. While God raises up individuals who will protect the servants of God—who would have thought God would raise the Roman leaders and military men to protect Paul—there are times when the servants are called to sit in prison and write letters to those Churches to ensure they stay on track.

The book of Acts spans over 30 years, during which time the Gospel is spread 10s of 1000s of miles. 10,000 of those involve Paul’s missionary journeys with his various teams. For over 30 years the children of God did not run from the chaos. In fact, they leaned into to spread the Gospel. Remember, in much of their lives they had no control over, they had no nation to speak of, they were granted Jerusalem, but the Roman Empire controlled the realm, and often brutally. They did not have elections but in His mercy, God began to open the eyes of certain Roman leaders or their households, even some in Herod’s own household. Churches were in homes, prayer meetings were held along the rivers, in fields, and in the middle of town. They spread the Gospel, baptizing in the name of the Lord, and make disciples of men. The Apostles worked to thread God’s plans and purposes across Jerusalem, down to Libya and all the way up to Rome, and friends, it had the same impact as what the Lord showed me in that vision of the intercessors pulling God’s plans and purposed across our own nation today.

It is in God’s plans and purposes, to raise up a nation that is grounded and founded in Truth, a nation who looks upon the Rod of Righteousness for our rescue, a nation that spreads the Gospel everywhere they go, seeking to constantly thread God’s plans and purposes over the known world because that was, and still is, the Great Commission.

The beautiful work of our Lord often requires us to lean into the chaos we see before us to succeed, why? Because it’s going through the chaos that solidifies in the hearts and minds the need to eradicate corruption thoroughly. And, it’s on the other side of that chaos that we see our redemption draweth nigh!

Do not grow weary my friends, God will get us through, just keep leaning into the Chaos and trust that through this season, God is purifying our nation and establishing that Rod of Righteousness in our land!

This Friday, July 18, I will present part two of this message and discuss how to lean into the chaos.

Blessings & love,

Ricci Johnson-Wilson