Our subject for the last several posts has been believing prayer for the nations. We talked about engaging in Fervent Effectual Prayer and then considered how our worldview affects our ability to believe in prayer for nations to come to God’s light. Then last week we talked about praying for people groups who have never heard the gospel in the 10/40 window, sharing a remarkable testimony of Fire From Heaven In Response To Believing Prayer.

Part of the reason I’ve focused on encouraging believing prayer for the nations is that I want to get friends praying with me for the Uyghur people, especially the ones in China.

China’s Persecution Of The Uyghur People

Some time ago I came across this heartbreaking video and shared it. I recognized the name “Uyghur” from years before. This was one of the people groups I had prayed for as a teenager. They were one of the people groups in a 10/40 window prayer publication that have been mostly without access to the gospel. Just as China persecutes Christians and people of many other religions, it has been severely persecuting the mostly Muslim Uyghur people. They are suffering torture, murder, and separation from family.

Saddening Responses To This Situation

Many of my friends joined me in prayer for the Uyghur people. But a few responses have been very saddening and eye-opening.

It broke my heart when somebody essentially said “They are Muslims. It’s what they do to other people and now they are tasting their own medicine.”

These are people who have never heard the gospel message that I first received as a child. Few of them are actually terrorists, although there are some small terrorist groups in the province. These are suffering people who are oppressed, and God is a rescuer of the oppressed. Can we not have compassion on them?

I realized how much some Christians have become bitter against Muslims. But even considering the Muslims who have persecuted Christians and shown themselves to be our enemies, we must remember that Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Jesus had compassion on his persecutors and cried out “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.”

Even considering Muslims who, unlike the Uyghur people, are known for persecuting Christians, should we not also have the Father’s compassion for them, knowing that they are blind and deceived by hatred? Do we so quickly forget that the apostle Paul was once a violent persecutor of Christians?

A few other responses seemed to be almost “So what? China has been persecuting Christians too for a long time. This is nothing new.”

Believing Prayer Changes Things!

This is one of the primary reasons I got into the issue of believing prayer for the nations, including eschatology. I saw how a certain eschatology and worldview hindered people from engaging in believing prayer for the Uyghur people.

This is why I have shared another worldview and eschatology in the last few weeks, and pointed out how the Iron Curtain fell due to believing prayer and obedience.

I read a lot of David Wilkerson books and sermons as a teen. I do have quite a different view now on some things than he did, but I still honor his life. One thing David Wilkerson got right was his prophecy of the Iron Curtain falling. He also prophesied the Bamboo curtain falling, meaning the fall of Communism in China.

Daniel understood the prophecy about the return from exile after 70 weeks, so he began to engage in prayer in accordance with God’s purpose. Can we do the same for China? And with that, for the deliverance of the Uyghur people as well as Christians and other groups that have suffered severe persecution?

I hope my posts in the last few weeks have encouraged you guys and given you some vision of how much God can accomplish through your fervent, effectual prayers. Let’s take the teachings of scripture as fact concerning faith and believing prayer. Take it as a fact that “My prayer can change nations!” Then act accordingly.

Some people have taught the lie that “We only pray because it changes us.” Don’t buy the lie. That’s just not what scripture teaches. Prayer certainly does change us as we fellowship with God, but it also changes situations!

Participating in God’s Love And Joining Our Will To His

Friends, let’s open our hearts and souls to the Lord and let Him love through us, cry through us, and pray through us for hurting people. There is a wonderful intimacy with God when we respond to the invitation he gives to participate in his work.

Here are just a few prayer points I can think of for the Uyghur people:

• Pray that key Chinese officials will come to salvation and/or have their hearts softened to the suffering of innocent people.
• Pray that the international community will not brush over these wrongs but will put pressure on China.
• Pray and declare that the spiritual eyes of Chinese officials to be opened so they would see the materialistic worldview as a lie and would come to understand the gospel.
• Pray that all attempts to deny, hide, or misrepresent what is happening would be in vain.
• Pray for a revelation of Jesus through dreams and visions, both for Chinese officials and for suffering Uyghur people needing hope and strength.
• Since a few Uyghur people have been radicalized, and many innocents have suffered because of it, pray that no more Uyghurs would be radicalized and the situation would be mitigated rather than worsened.
• Pray for every Uyghur to have opportunity to hear, understand, and respond to the gospel. Pray and declare that the eyes of their hearts be opened to see God’s glory revealed through Jesus. Pray that people would go with the gospel message to them.
• Pray for angelic intervention in the situations these people are facing.
• Pray that comfort would come and hope prevail for those who have lost family members or escaped. Some are in the US and other nations.
• Pray in tongues
• Pray not only as directed to God, but as declaring and joining our will to God’s towards the situation, as we discussed in Fervent, Effectual Prayer. Declare God’s good purposes for the Uyghur people. Declare scriptures into the situation. Many times as we pray in tongues certain scriptures or other things to pray and declare come to mind.
• Pray for the preservation of Uyghur language and culture, despite China’s attempts to destroy it.

If you’d like to learn more about the plight of the Uyghur people, a quick Google search of something like “China persecuting Uyghurs” will bring up some other videos and articles about what’s going on. This article in particular about why the Uyghur people are being persecuted may be helpful.

I like to look at pictures sometimes when I pray for people. Click here for some pictures of the Uyghur people.

Thanks guys for having the courage to engage by adding your will to God’s will in believing prayer, rather than just buying the lie “I can’t do anything about this.”