50 State Prayer Guide
------ Forwarded Message
From: "grover reid" <gcreid@ameritech.net>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 13:01:08 -0600
To: <phil@nppn.org>
Subject: Illinois Strategic Prayer Network - Delaware
Dear Pastor Phil:
We have been praying for each state over the
past year. During 2004, we will pray for each state not in alphabetical
order but in order of statehood. Therefore, our first weekly state
prayer focus will be for Delaware. Dale Mast, our USSPN State Coordinator for
Delaware, submitted the following points. To better assist you and in praying
for this state, we have also included with a brief overview of state history.
Blessings,
Christy Minger, ISPN Coordinator
DELAWARE PRAYER FOCUS
During the 50 State Tour, Delaware received
tremendous spiritual identity as the "First Fruits" state. Delaware is to be
holy unto God. Out of that identity flows the destiny of our state. If the first
fruits are holy, the whole lump will become holy.
1. Pray that Delaware would rise up and
stand in its spiritual identity and purpose as the "First Fruits" state.
Delaware was the first to ratify the
Constitution. Delaware is given first place in National parades and presidential
inaugurations. Dutch Sheets said, "When you were the first to sign a legal
document, it gave you rights in the spirit in this nation. You have enough
authority to break the impasse. You need to lead the parade of breakthrough! You
need to lead the inauguration of the new."
2. Pray that Delaware would rise up to lead
the parade of the breakthrough!
Chuck Pierce declared, "The First Fruits is
the Lord's, and the anointing to secure the First Fruits is now upon us. We've
been commissioned to secure the First Fruits, and when we secure the First
Fruits, the whole lump will become holy. Now say this, ‘The whole lump called
USA will become holy.’”
And the Lord would say to you, “This is
the time that I'm, rising you up to cross over. This is the time that I am
sending you forth. This is the time that I'm releasing My sound through the
cities of this state. For I'm going to pour my glory on this state. You'll have
a three-day prayer blitz across this state where you are praying strategically
as one, from city to city, and then you will begin to go like a procession from
city to city to worship. I called My people to pray three days before they could
see the way the ark was going. Pray three days, and you will move with My glory
in these lands. And your home will be unlocked, your people will be unlocked,
and this land and this nation will come under My authority again.”
We have had the three day prayer blitz. We
are planning our time of worship to be completed by the end of May 2004.
3. Pray that God would unlock the worship
strategy initiative for Delaware.
4. Pray for the release of His sound
through the cities.
During the first meeting of Delaware's 50
State Tour there were 100 ministries represented. This was an unprecedented and
tremendous response from Delaware. The level of anointing was absolutely
powerful. Yet that night the enemy visited Chuck Pierce and said,
"I'm keeping this gate in place, because if you unlock this gate, you're going
to unlock Philadelphia. Then you're going restore the government. Then the
government of this land will experience revival like never before and you'll
move forward." We have experienced the force behind these words spoken by the
enemy. It is critical that you stand with us for the spiritual breakthrough that
we need.
5. Pray that our efforts would not be
hindered any more by the enemy. We have experienced this already.
6. Declare that the gate in Delaware is
unlocked! (Eph 6:12-13).
7. Pray that Delaware would take on the
whole armor of God for this battle; for the God of peace will soon crush Satan
underneath our feet. (Romans 16:20)
Eph 6:12-13
Vs. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Vs. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole
armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to stand.
”And I would say to you, if you will rise
up, I am hovering over you in such a way that a new birth will be conceived for
this nation. But to conceive this new birth, you must reconnect into what I have
destined as the first fruits of this land. And the first fruits are Mine, and if
the first fruit in holy, the whole lump will become holy. So I would say to you,
I am reconnecting you into a place of holiness that this nation has not seen in
a hundred years. And by 2005, holiness will be known, the power of My holiness,
for I am holy. It will be known that I AM visited Delaware.
Your garment has grown dirty and dingy
over this state, but I have come here tonight to say I am going to remove that
garment that is like death. And where death has come and visited this particular
state and produced a shroud to this nation, I say I am removing that death
garment.”
8. Declare that God is reconnecting us into
a place of holiness.
9. Pray that our garments would be unsoiled
and holy.
10. Pray that the garment of death would be
removed.
11. Pray for the visitation of I AM to
Delaware.
12. Speak that the breath of God will enter
the dry bones of Delaware and that they would make a mighty army.
History: Every member of the first settlement
in Lewes, Delaware was killed and every building burnt. The first original
settlement is literally a graveyard today.
Dutch Sheets spoke a prophetic message on
Ezekiel’s dry bones hearing the Word of the Lord. "I prophesy to the state of
Delaware, to hear the word of the Lord; receive the coming together that is
happening in the Spirit right now. I command the bones of Delaware to rise up
from your dry, dusty places, from your wilderness graves, and I command you to
rise up right now, and allow the Spirit of God to join you and to bring you
together. Now I prophesy to the state of Delaware, and I say, ‘Receive the wind
of heaven, receive the breath of God that is coming to you, to give you life and
make you an army.’”
OVERVIEW OF DELAWARE HISTORY
Delaware's history is a long and proud one.
Early explorations of our coastline were made by the Spaniards and Portuguese in
the sixteenth century, by Henry Hudson in 1609 under the auspices of the Dutch,
by Samuel Argall in 1610, by Cornelius May in 1613, and by Cornelius Hendricksen
in 1614.
During a storm, Argall was blown off course
and sailed into a strange bay which he named in honor of his governor. It is
doubtful that Lord De La Warr ever saw, or explored, the bay, river, and state
which today bears his name. In 1631, 11 years after the landing of the English
pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, the first white settlement was made on
Delaware soil.
A group of Dutchmen formed a trading company
headed by Captain David Pietersen de Vries for the purpose of enriching
themselves from the New World. The expedition of about 30 individuals sailed
from the town of Hoorn under the leadership of Captain Peter Heyes in the ship
De Walvis (The Whale). Their settlement, called Zwaanendael, meaning valley of
swans, was located near the present town of Lewes on the west bank of the Lewes
Creek, today the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal. Arriving in the New World in 1632 to
visit the colony, Captain de Vries found the settlers had been killed and their
buildings burned by the Indians.
No further attempts at colonization were made
on Delaware soil until 1638, when the Swedes established their colony in present
Wilmington, which was not only the first permanent settlement in Delaware, but
in the whole Delaware River Valley and North America. The first expedition,
consisting of two ships, Kalmar Nyckel (Key of Kalmar) and Vogel Grip (Griffen),
under the leadership of Peter Minuit, landed about March 29. The location of the
first Swedish settlement was at "The Rocks," on the Christina River, near the
foot of Seventh Street. A fort was built called Fort Christina after the young
queen of Sweden, and the river was likewise named for her.
The most important Swedish governor was
Colonel Johan Printz, who ruled the colony under Swedish law for ten years, from
1643 to 1653. He was succeeded by Johan Rising, who upon his arrival in 1654,
seized the Dutch post, Fort Casmir, which the governor of the Colony of New
Netherlands had built in 1651, on the site of the present town of New Castle.
Rising governed the Swedish Colony from his
headquarters at Fort Christina until the autumn of 1655, when Peter Stuyvesant
came from New Amsterdam with a Dutch fleet, subjugated the Swedish forts and
established the authority of the Colony of New Netherlands throughout the area
formerly controlled by the Colony of New Sweden. This marked the end of Swedish
rule in Delaware, but the cultural, social, and religious influence of these
Swedish settlers has had a lasting effect upon the cultural life of the people
in this area and upon subsequent westward migrations of many generations. Old
Swedes (Holy Trinity) Church built by the Swedes at Wilmington in 1698 was
supplied by the Mother Church with missionaries until after the Revolution. It
is one of the oldest Protestant Churches in North America.
Following the seizure of the colony of New
Sweden, the Dutch restored the name of Fort Casmir and made it the principal
settlement of the Zuidt or South River as contrasted with the North or Hudson
River. In a short time the area within the fort was not large enough to
accommodate all the settlers so that a town, named New Amstel (now New Castle),
was laid out.
The year 1681 marked the granting of the
Province of Pennsylvania to William Penn by King Charles II and the arrival of
Penn's agents on the Delaware River. They soon reported to the proprietor that
the new province would be landlocked if the colonies on either side of the
Delaware River or Bay were hostile. As a result of Penn's petition to the Crown
for the land on the
west side of the Delaware River and Bay below
his province, the Duke of York in March 1682 conveyed, by deeds and leases now
exhibited by the Delaware State Archives in the Hall of Records at Dover, the
land included in the Counties of New Castle, St. Jones, and Deale. On October 27
of the same year, William Penn landed in America first at New Castle and took
possession from the Duke of York's agents as Proprietor of the lower Counties.
On this occasion, the colonists subscribed an oath of allegiance to the new
proprietor, and the first general assembly was held in the colony. The following
year the three Lower Counties were annexed to the Province of Pennsylvania as
territories with full privileges under Penn's famous "Frame of Government." Also
in this year, the counties of St. Jones and Deale were renamed Kent and Sussex
Counties, respectively.
After 1682, a long dispute ensued between
William Penn and Lord Baltimore of the Province of Maryland as to the exact
dominion controlled by Penn on the lower Delaware. The dispute continued between
the heirs of Baltimore and Penn until almost the end of the colonial period. In
1776 at the time of the Declaration of Independence, Delaware not only declared
itself free from the British Empire, but also established a state government
entirely separate from Pennsylvania. Delaware's boundaries were surveyed in
1763-68 by the noted English scientists Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon.
With the advent to the Revolution nearly
4,000 men enlisted for service from the small state. The colonial wars had built
up the militia system and supplied a number of capable officers who led the
troops of Delaware in all the principal engagements from the battle of Long
Island to the siege of Yorktown. The only Revolutionary engagement fought on
Delaware soil was the battle of Cooch's Bridge, near Newark, on September 3,
1777.
An important stimulus to the recovery of the
state's economy after the war was the invention in 1785 by Oliver Evans of
Newport, Delaware of automatic flour milling machinery, revolutionizing the
industry.
In the following year, John Dickinson of
Delaware presided over the Annapolis Convention, which called for the Federal
Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia the next year. When the new
Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification, Delaware was the
first of the thirteen original states to ratify the Constitution of the United
States. This unanimous ratification took place in a convention of Dover on
December 7, 1787, whereby Delaware became "The First State" of the new Federal
Union. Proud of this heritage, Delawareans continue to honor thetraditions which
made them the First State to ratify the United States Constitution, the document
that continues to protect our nation's justice, strength, and liberty.