April 8 2023

PRAY THE PICTURE

Every day, we invite you into the ancient spiritual prayer practices of Lectio and Visio Divina. Each day you will be given a picture to meditate on in prayer, Visio Divina or “eating/digesting the image,” asking the Holy Spirit to prompt things from the image for you to pray into and to fill the image with spiritual meaning. Most of these visuals will connected to the concept of “Saturation” and will be connected to the insights included in each day’s prayer fuel.

We encourage you to start your prayer time each day by sitting in silence with the picture and listening for the Holy Spirit’s direction. It might also be meaningful to return to the image after you have read the additional pieces of the prayer fuel, using it to wrap up your time of intercession and giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to speak through it on even deeper levels. May you be blessed as you engage your Creator in visually inspired prayer.

PRAY WITH CULTURAL INSIGHT

When one begins to think about saturation, a natural connection is with the vital role water plays in our lives and planet. Water also plays a deeply significant role in Scriptures, literally and figuratively.  Water is required for things to live. When water is withheld, once vibrant, living organism begin to wilt and die. So, we pray for tall glasses overflowing with clean, cool water until thirst is sated.

Water is required for things to grow. The only difference between a dormant seed and a growing one, is saturation. The land and the people here desperately need rain, both physical and especially spiritual. Without the Lord sending the rain of His Spirit, there can be no new life, no salvation. So, we pray for gentle, falling rain.

Water is required for cleansing. When water is scarce, and cleansing is rare, diseases and infections run rampant, destroying people’s quality of life and turning community into a liability. We know that the justice and righteousness of God are important parts of His character we are meant to reflect to this world, and that His lavish grace in no way diminishes His holiness. A deep cleansing will be a significant part of His saturating work in this nation as He washes and redeems each of the 12 regions from their centuries of generational sins and inherited shame. So, we pray for fully sated sponges, dripping with soapy water, coming to provide a complete cleansing.

Pray for people to drink from the well that will fully satisfy their thirst. Pray for physical rain upon Morocco so that crops will flourish and the economy can prosper. More importantly, pray for spiritual rain and for Isaiah 41:18 to come to pass in this nation. “I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.” Pray for the humbled posture necessary for the Spirit to do His purifying work, especially among the Church in Morocco, foreign and local. May they long for holiness to such a degree that they are willing to endure the difficulties of being purged of self, pride, ego, and delusions of what they think remains hidden.    

PRAY THE WORD 

Each day, as we engage the practice of Lectio Divina, “eating/digesting the Word,” the Scripture we will pray comes from a community of prayer from within Morocco that has been praying Saturation over Morocco.

Adjective: “Saturated”—holding as much water or moisture as can be absorbed; thoroughly soaked
Noun: “Saturation”—the degree or extent to which something is completely absorbed

This group is daring to pray audacious prayers of saturation—asking for God’s Kingdom to come to Morocco to such an extent that it is completely absorbed in His truth, presence, and transformation. Keep this in mind as you pray these Scriptures and join with those who are already praying audacious prayers on behalf of Morocco.  

Ezekiel 47:1-12 “In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway. Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist. Then he measured another 1,750 feet, and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through. He asked me, “Have you been watching, son of man?” Then he led me back along the riverbank. When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river. Then he said to me, “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows. Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea. All the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim, the shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean. But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.”

Pray for the increase of the water levels of God’s saturating work as it brings new life, fruitfulness and multiplying crops.

PRAY THE SONG

Father, this is our heart cry – let your Spirit rain down his power and presence into the depths of Morocco, in Jesus name…

“Let it Rain” by Michael W. Smith