If you have been following Bread for the Bride posts for a little while you will know that usually my posts try to focus on Christ-centred teaching and sharing aspects of biblical truth to encourage and equip the Bride of Christ in the wilderness.
This post is different.
I have not shared a prophetic word focused on a nation for several years and did not expect to be doing so today. Nevertheless, I find I now have such a word to share for Australia, and specifically for the Australian church. If you are not Australian, and most of my subscribers are not, you are invited to pray for this nation as we Australians enter into the final stages of an important upcoming election that will determine the future course of Australia for some time to come. If you are Australian, have an interest in praying for Australia, or are in touch with Australians who do, feel free to pass this message on.
Australians receiving my posts will be aware this country is facing a federal election on May 18th this year. Whichever major party wins that election will win the right to govern the nation for at least the next four years. The leader of the winning party will become Prime Minister.
This week, while in communion with the Lord I saw a prophetic picture of what at first seemed to be a treeless landscape with narrow dark lines criss-crossing it. As the picture became clearer I saw these lines appeared as many, many very deep rivulets etched into the landscape. As I continued to view this scene it became evident the landscape I was viewing was actually a beating human heart. The deep rivulets I could see cutting into this heart were filled with blood.
The Holy Spirit then gave me the following understanding of the prophetic picture:
This picture is the heart and soul of the nation of Australia that has now become very deeply divided. The rivulets represent these divisions in Australia’s corporate spiritual soul which are extremely deep and painful. The nation is now deeply divided on multiple levels: young from old, gender from gender, culture from culture, ideology from ideology, wealthy from poor, past from present, and many other divisions. Within these divisions are yet more sub-divisions cutting into the very soul of this nation and separating the people into myriads of groups, each with its own agenda.
The soul of this nation of Australia is now bleeding from these many deep cuts but few discern them because they are so caught up in their own small section.
This nation is in need of deep and lasting healing if it is to move into a unified and peaceful future.
The indigenous people of Australia are key to this national healing and can help lead the way, but only those among them who are themselves being healed from their historic and personal woundings and have received the peace of Christ in their hearts will be effective.
Healing can only come to the bleeding, divided soul of this nation through a national move of the Holy Spirit that will turn the hearts of people to the one true living God and His Son Jesus Christ. If hearts are turned, God is ready to meet them. Do not be deceived, the divisions in this nation have now been cut deeper than at any time in its history. Only the life of Christ poured as a sweet healing balm into the nation’s deep woundedness will overcome the divisions in the heart and soul of this bleeding nation of Australia.
And this message specifically to the church of Australia: do not continue to look either to this political party or that one, or to this political leader or that one, to bring unity or stability that you desire for this country. Again, the Spirit is very strong on this: do not look to current leaders for deliverance for the nation. Trust in Christ alone and let your allegiance be to Him.
Accompanying this prophetic vision there is a deep sense of the Father’s great sorrow over the woundedness the Australian people now carry deep within the national soul. Recent revelations of corruption, abuse, dishonesty, injustice and criminality at highest levels of government, sport, business and church have shaken the nation to its core and He sees the pain and discouragement as Australians find they are not who they thought they were. His heart towards the Australian people is for reconciliation, not condemnation. His heart is to gather, not scatter, to build up, not tear down. He yearns to heal.
How should we pray for this nation?
Firstly, for God to pour out His Spirit across this nation of Australia, once prophetically called the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit, that those who are disillusioned and disheartened may encounter the healing, saving, reconciling power of Christ. Again, indigenous Australians who know who they are in Christ and can walk without fear between black and white have a key leadership role to play in such an outpouring.
Secondly, pray for God to raise up just men and women He has specifically anointed for leadership in these days to help bring healing to this nation at a national political level. This is not a call to try to get a favourite candidate elected to office. It is a call to prayer alone. They will not necessarily be from the Christian community. God is able to raise up and anoint whomever He chooses with a mantle to lead with wisdom and integrity. Pray for such ones to emerge who above all have hearts to serve and heal the nation, rather than allegiance to their own party machinery. And when you see them, pray for them, for their paths will not be easy.
I commend this prophetic message to you for your prayerful consideration.
© Cheryl McGrath, Bread for the Bride, 2019 and beyond. Copyright Notice: Permission is granted to freely reproduce any Bread for the Bride articles in emails or internet blogs, unaltered, and providing this copyright notice is included. To permanently display an article on any static website please contact me for permission.
Bread for the Bride 
We will be praying for Australia as we do here in USA we too are bleeding we are living in strong spirit of ANTICHRIST, as you stated years ago. The temple that God is concerned about us this body and man will say here to be worshipped as God, that is where our battle is not in a temple in Jerusalem but here in our nation’s
On Sat, May 4, 2019, 1:00 AM Bread for the Bride wrote:
> Cheryl McGrath posted: ” If you have been following Bread for the Bride > posts for a little while you will know that usually my posts try to focus > on Christ-centred teaching and sharing aspects of biblical truth to > encourage and equip the Bride of Christ in the wilde” >
LikeLike
Thanks Willilam. Each must learn to pray as the Spirit leads us as individuals and corporately. We are learning what it means to be the temple of God on this earth, and as you say, it is not a building either in Jerusalem or anywhere else, it is a people.
LikeLike
Thanks Cheryl for your posts – I have been reading them here in the Phila area of the US and greatly appreciate your heart expressed in them. What I find so disturbing in the realm of politics is how we are missing so great an opportunity to be instruments of healing in our nations. Back in 2012 I was thrilled to see the beginning of something called election night communion. The idea of it was for Christians to come together, regardless of who they voted for – or didn’t vote if they felt that was the was to go – to repent of anything and everything they did that was mean spirited during the election campaign, acknowledge who our true king is and where our one and only hope is, and take communion together. It is an idea that hasn’t really grabbed hold of many Christians here in the US and so to a large degree we continue to turn people off to the gospel by identifying Jesus with certain political movements and we contribute to the deep divisions in our culture. We could do so much better than for the glory of our King.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Agreed Bob. Here in Australia voting is compulsory by the way. Jesus never identified with worldly kingdoms and yet the majority of church attending Christians in both our nations seems to be convinced He is on the side of their chosen political party. The scenario you described sounds like a good step in the right direction, but the fact that it has failed to find traction speaks volumes about the politicising of the church in general. As you say, we could do so much better, but that would take laying down our own agendas and humbling ourselves, wouldn’t it? Thankyou for your insightful comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A very timely post, Cheryl. I feel that the tragedy around the Murray-Darling River is one of the deep cuts you mention. The longest river in Australia is now devastated due to divisions and ‘personal agendas’. A call to prayer for this beautiful country, blessed abundantly by God with natural beauty and resources. thank you for sharing this vision and word.
LikeLike
A very insightful comment concerning the Murray-Darling problem as yet another sign of deep division and hearbreak in this nation Lynette. Thankyou.
LikeLike
A few hours after commenting, I heard a radio interview of South African journalists who had visited Rwanda. It gave me hope. As you know this tiny land-locked East African nation went through the atrocious Hutu-Tutsi genocide of 1994, in which close on 1 million people were slaughtered within 100 days. The majority Hutu’s had turned on the minority Tutsi’s in government, with even certain sections of the Church (institutional i.e.) echoing the cry to ‘kill the cockroaches.’ Since then the nation has been slowly re-building. Apparently, if one asks a citizen today whether they are Hutu or Tutsi, he/she will reply ‘We are Rwandans.’ They fly their flag proudly. There is hardly any crime (a huge issue in my country), people care for their neighbours, they clean their environment on Saturdays, they are poor but hard-working, each one growing some or other produce on their little plot. They regularly take their school children to view the genocide museum, ‘lest they forget.’ [PS, the movie Hotel Rwanda captured something of the genocide tragedy] I believe 1 Cor. 13:4-7, lived out, is the challenge for the Church today. May God indeed have mercy on our nations, wherever in the world. Pardon the rather long comment!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yes, there is always hope.. But what a cost the Rwandan peoples have paid! Your comments are always welcome whatever length. Thankyou Erroll.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cheryl…. Your issues sound quite similar to the very issues we re dealing with here in the United (really?) States… Of course I will pray for the healing of your land and for ours as well… Actually, the world in in such turmoil and seems to be more disregarding (read that hostile) of God in general and our Lord and Savior, Jesus, even more… Prayer works and I will certainly pray and encourage others within my sphere of fellowship to do so as well. But, overall, whatever happens, I know in Whom I have my trust and His plans will unfold.
God Bless You for your website and your posts which I enjoy so much…
Much Love in Him…
Bob
Colorado, USA
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thankyou for your comment Bob. There are certainly similarities between the two nations in many ways, but we also have our own historical, cultural and local issues unique to this country, as the USA also does. These are strange and unpredictable days we are living in and our only anchor is the one we follow, Jesus Christ. Thankyou for making contact and for your prayers. May both our nations’ diverse peoples know the healing and restoration that can only come through the love and grace of Christ.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cheryl, thanks for this. I think your grasp of the situation in Australia could apply, in many ways, to my own nation as well. We go to the polls on the 8th, so we’ll remember to pray for Australia also. My wife and I love your tender heart.
LikeLike
I didn’t realise South Africa also has an election coming up in the very near future. May the Lord have mercy on our nations Erroll. Bless you and Melanie heaps.
LikeLiked by 1 person