| Preparing the Ground for the Awakening Ricci Johnson-Wilson June 5, 2026
Through the Scriptures, we read of powerful examples of people of God interceding for the nation of Israel. Whether Israel was in the process of becoming a nation as we read in Exodus through Deuteronomy, or a nation or under the judgment of God for rebelling against Him as in Daniel, He raises up those who will stand in the gap and ensure its destiny is fulfilled.
Hebrews 13:8 tells us that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. As such, we can learn how to pray for our own nation in times of crisis, whether it is to bring us out of crisis, stay the hand of judgment, or release the promises of God over the land, the Word of God teaches us how to truly seek the face of God for our nation and prepare the ground for the Awakening. Through Scripture we see how God uses: • Prophets to warn of impending judgment, to reveal His Divine will, to correct us when we get off course, and to share with us His plans and purposes for our lives or the nation in which we live.
• Intercessors to pray through that revelation, to engage in identificational repentance, and to pave the way for the fulfillment of His heavenly will here on earth
• Political leaders to implement and proclaim His will in the earth. It really is a God-ordained partnership between God and His people to release His heavenly will here on earth. If we pray in faith, God will move the necessary mountains to release His will. (Matthew 12:20)
Daniel 9 Daniel 9:1-2 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2 in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel was both a prophet voice in the nation to which God planted him, and a prophetic intercessor. Although he was taken into captivity at around 14 or 15 and educated by the Babylonians, the foundation of his faith, that which his parents gave him, preserved him as a servant of God and he stayed true. His unapologetic life of prayer is a running theme throughout the book of Daniel. The Lord developed and tuned his prophetic ear even as his people sat under Babylonian rule and when the Babylonian empire fell, he continued to serve in the Medo-Persian Empire as an instrumental political figure.
Why did God do this? When kingdoms rise and fall, God’s voice will remain.
Why did He orchestrate Daniel’s position in the courts of their captors? Because it benefited the people of God to have His man influencing their captors with righteousness. We can look at Esther the same way, they were “born for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)
Daniel remained a student of the Hebrew Scriptures keeping the promises of God tucked deep within his heart recognizing the political signs of the times that he might intercede effectively to see God’s heavenly will accomplished here on earth.
Daniel 9:3-4 3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4 and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession The Hebrew word for “set” is “nathan” it’s a verb meaning to fashion, to give, to apply, and it is used with the greatest latitude of application.
The Hebrew for “prayer” is tphillah (tef-il-law). This is a conscious God-directed response of faith that encompasses praise, confession of sins, thanksgiving, petitions and intercession. Depending on the nature of the tphillah, it can involve pleas for mercy, for deliverance, and repentance, and with the intention of seeking the face of God to avert or lift a judgment in accordance with the times. Daniel, seeing the time Jeremiah prophesied approaching, did this on behalf of himself, then Israel, that the fullness of God’s prophetic word through the prophet Jeremiah might be fulfilled.
When Daniel says he “nathan” he is saying that he gave himself unto the Lord to tphellah, to cry out to Him for mercy, to petition the Lord through repentance and intercession, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, laying his own personal needs on the floor to cry out to God. Why? So that anything and everything that could prevent the captives from being released according to the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah, would be adequately repented over and dealt with before the Lord. Repentance is key here as it comforts the heart of God.
Continuing with Daniel 9:4b-11 ..and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. This word “confusion” in verse 7 and again in verse 8 is “bosheth” and it means shame, disgrace or humiliation and presents the inevitable consequence of idolatry. Daniel is in anguish, his face to the ground, crying out that the nations hearts will be rent or torn due to their sin.
Daniel 9:8-11 8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; 10 neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. Daniel recognizes that they are in captivity because they sinned against God. They sinned against His written Word (Deuteronomy 4:25-30, Deuteronomy 28) and the many prophetic Words of warning which God mercifully gave through His prophets (Jeremiah 25:8-14, 29:10-14, Ezekiel 12:10-11, Isaiah 39:6-7, Micah 4:10). God warned them again and again that the curses of captivity were coming upon them because of their rebellion, and yet, they ignored the warnings and continued in their sin. Daniel’s cries acknowledge this because confessing and repenting of our sins to God is an essential step in clearing the path to redemption. Remember, Daniel was young, barely bar mitzvah’d when he was taken captive. Israel had centuries of sin that Daniel had nothing to do with, yet, he was called to be an intercessor who saw things through the lens of the Lord, and as such, he not only repented for the past sins, he repented of current sin as he held to the promises of God that would come.
God allows judgment to awaken people to their sin. When our hearts are hardened, we are numb to sin. He remembered the details of Jeremiah’s prophesy in Jeremiah 25:8-14 regarding the number of days, and he held onto Isaiah’s prophesy that the Persian ruler Cyrus would serve as God’s hand to deliver His people from the Babylonian captivity (Isaiah 45) and with these prophecies he came before the throne with great faith that the time of deliverance was at hand. Understanding prophecy and how it relates to where we are in history, is crucial for us as intercessors. Daniel wept before God and through identificational repentance—weeping on behalf of the sins of the nation before God—as though he himself had committed each sin. Why? His great desire was to see his people restored and the Word of the Lord fulfilled. Through tphillah, this intensive intercession, Daniel prepared the ground for both!
Daniel 9:16 16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. 18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Daniel closes with worship, crying out for the revival of the heart of his people to their God. It is a beautiful and complete prayer of identificational repentance before the Lord to prepare the nation for deliverance. This is tphillah.
Daniel 9 provides us with outline or guide for prayer as we repent for the sins of our nation to then prepare the ground for an awakening. Awakenings occur at both the spiritual and the political realm; both impact nations, both bring about lasting change. This is larger than revival, more significant than an election, it is an awakening!
In verse 4 Daniel begins with Praise and Worship to the One True God
In verse 5 Daniel moves into identificational repentance as he repents for the sins, the wickedness, the rebellion, and the departure from the Holy teachings of God, on behalf of the Israelites. What teachings? The Law. When we repent for the sins of the land, we repent for the rebellion to God’s Law. I’m going to spend a few minutes here because I’ve received emails about this subject reminding me that we are not under the Law but under Grace. I share this because it is important to remain united in our prayer and understanding as to why we pray the way we pray. This helps us remain a united front against the enemy.
What is His Law? The 10 Commandments. Daniel, even in a faraway land repented for their offenses to God’s Laws on behalf of his people.
We do the same, again, not because we are under the Law today, but because the 10 Commandments depicts sins that offend God. When asked which of the Laws—keep in mind there are 613 Laws—is the most important, Jesus replied:
Matthew 22:37-40: 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Where’d we get the 613? God’s Commandments are divided into 248 positive precepts (the things you do) and 365 prohibitions (the things you should not do). According to the sages, these are reflective of the 248 body parts that develop in the womb, 206 bones and 42 “organs”. The sages teach that the 248 “limbs” correspond to the 248 positive precepts. Each commandment pairs up with a specific limb or sinew, and just as we take care of our physical limbs and sinews, we also need to take care of our spiritual “limbs and sinews.”
In the Talmud, Rabbi Simlai says that the 365 prohibitions represent the 365 days in a solar year’s cycle. The famed commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known as Rashi, explains that the 365 days of the year should bring vigilance in fulfilling G d’s 365 prohibitions. (Chabad.org)
The Ten Commandments, as we spent our recent Passover Gathering covering, serve as a righteous guide for our relationships. Consider again, what Jesus said in Matthew 22. The first three involve the vertical relationship with our Heavenly Father. This involves us loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, our mind, our soul. (Matthew 22:37) The fourth one is a gift, to care for ourselves, the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), to provide rest for the people who’d been enslaved. The next six involve the horizontal relationships, our love of our neighbor. (Matthew 22:39) All the Law could be summed up in these as Jesus said.
As intercessors, when we repent for the sins of the land to prepare it for God’s divine will. The Ten Commandments guide us in our repentance because it includes our rebellion toward God, the bloodletting, injustices we commit, and so on. This is all in compliance with the Word of God. Not because we are under the Law but because we have the freedom to repent and comfort His heart for violating that which separated us from God to begin with—sin—and those sins are defined in the Law. Paul, who is adamant that we are no longer under the Law, breaks specific sins down according to what each church was battling in his Epistles, and each of those sins can be found recorded by Moses in the Law.
Daniel, who lived a life of prayer, began repenting through those things that were in violation of what the Scriptures teach and as intercessors, we do the same. Why? By comforting the heart of God through repentance, we’ve been preparing the ground for the Awakening.
Moving on… In verse 6 Daniel repents for rebelling against the word of the Lord through the Lord’s servants, the prophets In verse 7-11 Daniel cries out on behalf of the people, far and wide who have sinned against God acknowledging personal responsibility for the evil that has been done unto the nation of Israel.
Daniel 9:12-15
12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
Daniel continues to pray acknowledging that they cannot understand truth until they first repent, considering past and present sins, all the while keeping his eyes on the prize of God’s promises and God’s timeline, the one that marks the moment his people will be released to return to Jerusalem.
Fast forward to today in America: In 1989, my mom was given through a series of visitations, revelation of tremendous judgments that were coming because of America’s sins. She carried the burden of that revelation for a decade, delivering the message to church after church in the hopes that they might repent and turn from their wicked ways in preparation for that judgment. Not to avert, but to endure. This weighted heavily upon her as she travelled the country. IN 1999, the Lord gave mom the answer, the work of the Gatherings. The Lord called us to be as watchmen on the wall as in Ezekiel 33 and to avert judgment through prayer as Joel 2:17 teaches.
We have spent 26 years repenting for America’s sins under the detailed direction of the Lord. It was through visions and dreams, confirmed through long hours at libraries and reading actual books. This is before the internet took off and AI could summarize a book for you in 20 seconds. We were guided by the Lord on the issues that opened our nation up to judgment, the sins that weighted our nation down, and that which opened the door for the catastrophic level of judgment Mom saw and wrote about in her book “Prepare for the Winds of Change.”
We repented of the sins against the First Nations People, Slavery, Abortion, sins against Asian communities, the Destabilization of Nations, Human Trafficking, the History of the Cabal, Masonic Rituals, Garden of the gods, and so on. As the Lord unpacks additional points, we circle back around to ensure every sin is repented of.
I was asked recently; have we averted those judgments? To the degree that is depicted on the map on page 203 where the East and West Coasts, including Texas, experienced catastrophic earthquakes that dropped us off into our respective oceans, we have stayed that level of judgment. However, as you can see, we have seen a tremendous political darkness fall upon these shorelines and we must continue to press in through prayer. Still, God said, we would not see the devastation Mom was shown until long after Revival. I want to clarify, this is not simply a Revival, in and out in a week or two, this is a Revival birthed out of the Awakening, and it is something that transforms a nation from a nation of darkness into a nation of light.
Next week Darrell is going to share with us a powerful message on how God raised Trump up for such a time as this: “Recognition, Reception, Reward.”
The following week I will share about the Awakening. Stand strong and remember, we are preparing the ground for God’s plans and purposes to be released in the earth! And that my friends, is the Awakening!
Blessings & love, Ricci Johnson-Wilson ______________________________________________________ WFJM Website provides access to Paypal, Square, Venmo, basically any method you wish to donate through you can utilize from our website. Below are additional options you can use straight from this email. 1) Square: Two options available: a-use this link for one-time gifts SQUAREb-use this link to set up your monthly giving plan! SQUARE-MONTHLY GIFT OPTION2) For those who prefer to continue to use Zelle: ricci@worldforjesus.org
3) PayPal, that option is still available. 4) Reminder, we have a NEW MAILING ADDRESS! World for Jesus Ministries, Inc PO BOX 25187 Fresno, CA 93729 Make checks payable to “WFJM” or “World for Jesus Ministries” If you send checks out via Bill Pay, be sure to update our mailing address in that system as well. If you’d like to donate online, click here to be taken to our Donations page.__________________________________________________
We are now on Telegram! https://t.me/worldforjesusministries Click the link, sign up and join our channel to receive notifications on our upcoming prayer times, important links, etc.
If you’d like to contribute to our ministry online, click here.
If you’d prefer to mail a check to our office:
NEW MAILING ADDRESS!
World for Jesus Ministries, Inc PO BOX 25187
Fresno, CA 93729
Make checks payable to “WFJM” or “World for Jesus Ministries”
Reminder to please continue to pray for our finances, if you’d like to support us, click here to be taken to our Donations page. _______________________________________________________ Teachings: Just a reminder, all of our weekly teachings are uploaded to the “Prophetic & Intercessor’s Training Ground” Page of our website. These are timely messages given to prepare us for the days ahead. If you missed a Thursday or Friday night teaching click here.
Finances: WFJM stands in the gap for nations through the work of the Gatherings/Joel’s Army, we support missions world-wide, serve those in need through CedarWood, distribute books/CDs without charge, and so on. For more information on any of these outreaches, click here. We couldn’t accomplish this without you!
__________________________________________________
DID YOU KNOW?
We've added the download feature to our website! You can listen online or download from our media log and listen on the go!
You can find more articles and recordings of all our corporate prayer calls on our website?
We have a new section just for Joel's Army News in the sidebar of our e-news?
______________________________________
________________________________________________ |
| |
| |
_________________
This Week's Schedule:
We invite everyone to stand with us as we fight for the healing of our Nation. Click below for PDF with: Flash Phone Instructions
Flash Phone Access Then enter the number and access code for the any of the desired lines. _______________ Smartphone users (when connect to wifi) click here for instructions to download the FreeConferenceCall.com or FreeConferenceCallHD.com APP and start using the internet to join our calls instead of your minutes!
English-Speaking Corporate Prayer Call
717-908-1834
Access Code: 182152#
Chinese-Speaking Corporate Call
667-770-1488
Access Code: 188979#
Chinese speaking prayer call
720-716-7300
access code 800754#
Canadian Corporate Call
667-770-1260
Access Code: 949659#
Korean Speaking Prayer Call
667-770-1476
Access Code: 881779#
Korean Translation Line
667-770-1476
Access Code:349014
Tuesdays at 7PM PT
Spanish-Speaking Prayer Call
518-992-1202
Access Code: 609189#
______________
Thursday-Friday
4:20 - 7:00 PM PT
|
| |
Be sure to check the PCL/PCM section of our website for this week's Prayer Points and Resources!
Still experiencing WEBSITE LOGIN troubles? Contact the office and we'll get you set up!
Fill the Gap Campaign!
If you live in one of these states consider joining Joel's Army. Don't leave your state unprotected!! - Maine
- Rhode Island
- New Hampshire
- Wyoming
- Utah
- Puerto Rico
________________
|
| |
|
Thank you for your continued support of this outreach. Lives are changed each week through our CW Pantry and support team. Check out our FaceBook page for details. Every Monday 12:00-2:30 PM
Location: Bethel Chapel
23010 66th Ave W
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043
Here are some pressing needs our CedarWood department has:
- We provide weekend meals for 200 children monthly. Child Sponsorship - $34.99 per month provides essential nutrition to a child in need
- Shoes
- Blankets - All sizes
- Sleeping bags for the homeless
- Volunteers
- Diapers (Size 3 & up) & baby wipes
- Baby Food & Formula
- $5-$20 Gift cards for Gas for our volunteers who transport the food to and from the Pantry
Most donations can be dropped off during the Pantry or mailed into our office. Tax deductible receipts provided.
Coats & Clothes Closet:
Open Mondays and by appointment. We need volunteers to help organize and prepare clothing for visitors
The need is great and our numbers are increasing every week. Please pray that our volunteer base will increase as well!
If you would like to help, contact Adam Shephard at Cedarwoodpantry@gmail.com
We extend a special thanks to our CW Team and volunteers for their faithfulness every week.
|
|
|
