Red Flag Flying Over Kathmandu
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Most of the photos in this blog are not mine due to pictures lost when my computer was erased.
Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal
Photo by: samratnepal.com
“Even the strongest will quake with terror, and princes will flee when they see your battle flags,” says the Lord, whose fire burns in Zion, whose flame blazes from Jerusalem.” Isaiah 31:9
“Holy Spirit, You are welcome here…,” I begin to sing as we leave our house and walk through the city. “Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere.” Hindu and Buddhist temples flood the streets surrounding us. Vendors line either side selling idols, flowers to offer idols, beads to pray to idols, and every other kind of paraphernalia you could need for worshipping an idol. My friend Sean says, “There is more iconography here for idols than there is in the United States for Christianity.” It is slightly overwhelming taking it all in.
Street Vendors by Pashupatinath Temple
Photo by: Getty Images
Streets rest in dirt. Bustling traffic whisks by with no mercy, threatening to take off a limb if you don’t move everything out of its raging path. Buddhist monks and Hindu sadhu’s walk intermittently through the traffic of people and rest by the entrance of the temples as those who walk by wonder at their holiness.
Hindu Sadhu
Photo by: befairbefunky.tumblr.com
Where am I? Eastern Kathmandu, Nepal. “Your glory God, is what our hearts long for,” I continue singing and simultaneously praying for the people we pass by. As we walk and as we pray, God shows me the power our prayers have. We have the love of Jesus Christ inside us.
We continue walking around a corner and up a hill that overlooks the city. Cows dot the landscape. I instantly think of dairy and beef farms in the states., but these cows are here for a different reason. They are here to be worshipped.
One step at a time, we walk around the hill in groups of two to pray over the city. I continue my prayer and my song. “To be overcome by Your presence, Lord.” As I sing, the Lord overflows my heart with passion for the souls in this city. He speaks to me of the power of these prayers. Not one of them will go unanswered. What we are doing is more powerful than we know.
An excerpt from my prayer journal:
“Do Your will in this place. You want this place. That is why we are here. I ask, plead, and beg for revival here. Lord, I want to hear Jesus name on the streets.”
We all meet together and walk up to a fence. As we stand there, I can see the mountains in the distance, the city in the middle ground and a temple immediately beneath us. Pigeons blanket the temple roofs. Monkeys play in the grass entertaining us on the other side of the fence. Then, an acrid smell charges through the air to our senses, unwelcomed. This is the smell of a body being burned and then the ashes scattered in the Bagmati River. We are looking at Pashupatinath Temple. The Hindu’s believe the spirit will exit the body and then enter another in the process of reincarnation.
Process of Cremation at Pashupatinath Temple
Photo by: commons.wikimedia.org
As I take in our surroundings, I hear our host say, “In Nepal, the color red means power.”
Power. That’s it. Team time from the previous night comes flooding to my mind. Danielle’s listening prayer for me said, “Red flag flying in the air over everything, mountains and buildings.” When I read it, I was confused, but this is it. These are the mountains. These are the buildings…temples and homes. The red flag is our prayer. Prayer is our weapon against the enemy. It is our weapon for this city, to continue to pave the way for the gospel to go forth.
EM Bounds said, “Prayer is our most formidable weapon, but the one in which we are the least skilled, the most averse to its use.” “The prayer closet is the battlefield of the Church; its citadel; the scene of heroic and unearthly conflicts.”
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:14
“Part of the blame lies at our door. If we do our part, God will do His. Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a God willing and able to save; it is ours to build the bridge that links heaven and earth, and prayer is the mighty instrument that does the work.” EM Bounds
Lord, this is my prayer for this city, for each city from my race, and for the United States. Remind us to pray. Show us how powerful it is. Remind us of the battle each day. Don’t let us fall into apathy and selfishness and all the things we can get today; but ignite a passion in us for You, Your Word, and for praying for our family, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, and those who have been forgotten by most in cities around the world. You want to change our world. You are not willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance. We just have to lay it all down, come to You and PRAY.
“A revival of REAL praying would produce a spiritual REVOLUTION.”
EM Bounds
