“Return to Me!”

Rebuilding a Holy Nation

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRAYER POINT BOOKLETS (Afrikaans & English)

Hos 6:1-3

1Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. 3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord…

1 Pet 2:6-9

6 … “Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” 7Therefore, to you who believe, Heis precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”…9But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Participants Prayer Guide

A Project by IFSA (Intercessors for South Africa)

A. About IFSA

Intercessors for South Africa (IFSA) was birthed out of the Uniting Intercessors for South Africa Conference that was held in Bloemfontein during November 2016. This was a historical conference that took place where intercessors and intercessory leaders of different Prayer Networks from around the nation joined together in unity to hear God for the future of South Africa.

IFSA is led by a strategic team of well known leaders in the nation, with a heart to see the Kingdom of God manifest in SA, through the 7 Mountains Principle.

In a consultative conference that was held by different prayer networks (18 in total – 8 national, 5 Provincial and 5 local) in Bloemfontein, South Africa on the 17-19th November 2016, the following resolution was made:

That a united prayer initiative called Intercessors for South Africa (IFSA) be established. IFSA would serve as a platform where all prayer networks in the country can come together to pray and strategise for various national issues in pursuit of a transformed nation under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. IFSA works to strengthen relational bonds among all existing prayer networks in South Africa whilst continuing to encourage unity in expressing the uniqueness of each of our gifts. The heart of IFSA is not to do away with all other intercessory networks but to encourage unity while promoting liberty and freedom of each individual network to do what God has called them to do.

For more information go to: ifsaprayer.co.za or email: ifsaprayer@gmail.com

B.      About the “Return to Me!” 2019 Project

Prayer Networks Consultation

Several prayer networkleaders came together from 3 to 5 September 2018 in East Londen to seek the Lord and consult together about God’s strategy and direction for intercessors in coming year. As 2019 will also be an election year in South Africa we were keenly aware that intercession for godly changes and interventions in governmental spheres would be an important concern for intercessors in the coming season.

During the consultation we were surprised as we became aware that God was not focussed on the sinful and unrighteous societal issues that we so easily get engrossed in. Rather, the words we received were about God’s greater concern, namely the Church that is not aligned to Him nor connected to His heart or His presence. Our Heavenly Father is focussed on the Holy nation (1 Pet 2:9) within the nation that does not stand before God with clean hands or pure hearts (Ps 24:4) and consequently our prayers have been unable to release the blessing and transformative power we so desperately need (Jam 5:16).

The Rock Jesus Christ

Trying to gage God’s perspective on what is needed to start changing this problem the following insights were received. In Matthew 16 from verse 18 Jesus speaks to Peter and declares that the revelation of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the living God is the Rock on which God will build the Church (Matt 16:18). The writing of the apostles clearly would later stipulate that Christ is the chief cornerstone (Luk 20:17, Eph 2:20, 1 Pet 2:6,7), the only foundation on which the kingdom is built. When we as the Church are not aligned to and built on the foundation that is Christ, the stone becomes a stone of stumbling and the rock a rock of offence to the very company of believers that were appointed by God and yet became disobedient to the word they were appointed to (1 Pet 2:8).

Waves of prayer to deal with false rocks

In an impression received it was felt that we, the Church and the nation of South Africa have built on and trusted in other rocks than Jesus Christ. Instead of fully trusting on and relying on the Lord (Ps 18:2), we have moved away from Him and we have trusted in alternative ‘rocks’ that this world endorses. In the vision received five waves of prayer swept the land, each wave with the purpose of destroying one of five false rocks that we trust in, as individuals, the church and the nation at large. We sensed that our focus must be to establish the kingdom truths that return us to right alignment with Jesus Christ, the immovable eternal rock, as we repent of our sinful and idolatrous hearts that found confidence in counterfeit and defective constructs.

Matthew 16:18 shows us that when the church is built on the rock that is Christ, the gates of Sheol will not prevail against it. We are convinced that one of the reasons that demonic gates are open in our society, inundating our communities with such perversion and death, is directly correlated to the Church not permitting God to establish it on and align it exclusively to the rule and order of Christ Jesus.

Five false rocks

The five false rocks that we identified from Scripture depict the false constructs we lean on and trust in our pursuit of well being. Trust in Scripture refers to what we have confidence in, what we gain security from, the things we hope in, lean and rely on. The 5 counterfeit trusts (rocks) we will be praying about are:

  1. Trusting in flesh / self i.e. Our own abilities, desires, lusts/pleasures, strength, wisdom, identity, opinion etc. (Prov 3:5, Jer 17:5, 2 Cor 1:9)
  2. Trusting in princes i.e. Leaders, politicians, influential people (Ps 118:9, Ps 146:3, Is 36:5, Jer 46:25)
  3. Trusting in wealth / riches i.e. All forms of greed, desire for money (Ps 49:6, Mark 10:24, 1 Tim 6:17)
  4. Trusting in false gods / falsehood. This includes: false Christianity, changing the truth to suit us, false systems of worship/religion, idolatry, philosophies etc. (Is 42:17, Is 59:4, Jer 7:4)
  5. Trusting in horses and chariots i.e. worldly systems such as political parties, government, government structures, judicial systems, cultural systems, United Nations etc. (Ps 20:7, Is 31:1)

Each one of the above topics will be unpacked and elaborated as we participate in the corporate prayer initiative that we call “Return to Me!”.

C:  Prayer strategy

Our Focus

Every one of the five waves of prayer will focuson dismantling a false trust issue in our lives and it will run for seven days. The weekly prayer subject will be arranged as follows:

  • Every prayer theme will start by focussing on and emphasising the truth and godly trust that we should cultivate by aligning to Jesus Christ as the only foundation that we must build on.
  • Then we will move into repentance where we will confess our waywardness, acknowledging our trust in other things instead of God. The repentance will be brought on three levels:
    • Repenting for my personal sin of putting confidence on things outside of God,
    • Repenting for the Church, the holy nation, that has gone astray by trusting in others rather than God,
    • Lastly, we will repent for our nation and its people running after other saviours instead of acknowledging Christ as the only trustworthy source

Joel 2:12-13

12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.

Lev 26:40-42

40‘Butif they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, 41and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt— 42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land

‘Return to Me’ Dates: 25 February – 7 April 2019

  • 25 February – 3 March 2019: Week of preparation.

The prayer initiative will start with a week of preparation during which we will invite the Holy Spirit to help us to effectively address these issues in our lives, the church and nation.

  • 4-10 March 2019: Prayer Wave 1 – Praying about trusting in flesh / self
  • 11-17 March 2019: Prayer Wave 2 – Praying about trusting in princes
  • 18-24 March 2019: Prayer Wave 3 – Praying about trusting in wealth / riches
  • 25-31 March 2019: Prayer Wave 4 – Praying about trusting in false gods / falsehood
  • 1-7 April 2019: Prayer Wave 5 – Praying about trusting in horses and chariots

How to participate

Individual believers, prayer groups, prayer networks and congregations are encouraged to seek the Lord for deep revelation on how to thoroughly bring these issues before Him in prayer so that power will be released to dismantle and weaken these carnal and demonic constructs that result in destructive consequences pulling our nation away from prosperity and life.

There are two ways in which we want to encourage people to participate in this five-week prayer initiative:

  • Individually or within existing prayer groups: Take initiative to pray through the guidelines as provided. Pray in your personal quiet time, or during regular prayer meetings that are already in place. Guidelines are available in a booklet format (which is this document) and weekly concise reminders can be received via WhatsApp that will be sent out once a week at the beginning of every next prayer subject.To receive the weekly WhatsApp messages please email the following details to ifsaprayer@gmail.com: Your Name, Surname, cell phone number, province and city.  In the Subject heading put: RETURN TO ME WHATSAPP GROUP

From the information supplied you can pray in one of two ways:

  • Individually
    • Pray about the false stone once in the week for at least 15 minutes.
    • Pray for one of the seven prayer points each day for between 5 and 15 minutes per day.
  • Corporate prayer organised specifically for the initiative. When we received the vision of five waves dealing with five false stones, the waves moved from South to North through the nation of South Africa. In accordance with this impression we want to challenge prayer networks and prayer coordinators to organise special prayer gatherings in their areas to pray about these obstacles to divine alignment. In order to facilitate this south to north wave we request that believers in every province organise prayer assemblies on the following proposed days:
  • Day 1 / Mondays:           Western Cape
    • Day 2 / Tuesdays:          Eastern Cape
    • Day 3 / Wednesdays:    Northern Cape
    • Day 4 / Thursdays:         Free State and North West
    • Day 5 / Fridays:              Kwazulu Natal
    • Day 6 / Saturdays:         Gauteng and Mpumalanga
    • Day 7 / Sundays:           Limpopo

Those who organise corporate prayer gatherings to facilitate this iniative can send feedback to the IFSA email address mentioned above.