Day 9 Prayer Guide: Praying & Fasting Season 2020 (Sanitation and Community Health)

THURSDAY, 27^th AUGUST 2020 – SANITATION AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

PRAYER GUIDE

ISAIAH 51:15-16 (NKJV)

¹⁵But I am the Lord your God,
Who divided the sea whose waves roared—
The Lord of hosts is His name.
¹⁶And I have put My words in your mouth; [Emphasis Added]
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
That I may plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth, [Emphasis Added]
And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

JEREMIAH 1:9,10 (ESV)

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,
“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

GUIDING TEXT FOR THE FASTING SEASON

ISAIAH 32:1-8

¹Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
²A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And a cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
³The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
⁴Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
⁵The foolish person will no longer be called generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
⁶For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
⁷Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
⁸But a generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.

DATES TO NOTE

CONCLUDING VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
Monday, 5^th October to Wednesday, 7^th October 2020 (6 pm to 9 pm)

CONCLUDING NIGHT VIGIL & DEDICATION OF 2020/2021
Thursday, 8^th October 2020

SANITATION AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

Hygiene is defined as the science dealing with the preservation of health. It is the practice or principles of cleanliness. Reports from those who have had visions of heaven indicate that it is a clean, pristine environment (Revelation 21,22). In order to enter the gates of that environment, one is required to have “washed their clothes”.

REVELATION 22:14
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and
that they may enter the city by the gates.

While the language used in this scripture may be considered metaphoric, the message is clear: Heaven is a clean place. God’s environment is neither dirty, nor as inferred in other scriptures, is it messy and chaotic. Filth, chaos, and disorder are reminiscent of the kingdom of darkness both spiritually and physically. God communicated this to the people He had delivered from slavery to make His own people – the Israelites. Large sections of Moses’ writings especially in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are dedicated to sanitation and cleanliness and their relation to health.

Leprosy and other infectious disease rendered one unclean. Affected people were isolated from the rest of the community – quarantined for a while. It was because of this law of God that the Bible has accounts of lepers staying outside the gates or outskirts of towns (2 Kings 7:3; Luke 17:12). Before re-integration into society they had to wash their garments and bathe in water to be considered “clean.” Priests had to inspect even the clothes of the affected person and they were to be burned if infected but washed before reuse if deemed uninfected (Leviticus 13:47-58). The person with an infectious disease was required to announce to others that he was unclean. Anyone who touched a dead body was quarantined. The law of God on the isolation of those with contagious diseases is still being applied today.

Sanitation refers to measures to protect public health through proper solid waste disposal, sewage disposal, and cleanliness during food processing and preparation. Scripture is emphatic that worshippers of God must habitually maintain a high standard of cleanliness. Besides being a requirement for God to live among His people, it was also meant to forestall infection and disease among God’s people. To meet God’s standard of cleanliness, one must abstain from “all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Living and working in filthy disorderly environments does not bring honor to God.

SCRIPTURES FOR PRAYER AND PROCLAMATION

2 CORINTHIANS 7:1
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body
and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

NUMBERS 5:1-3
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.”

LEVITICUS 14:8
The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days.

LEVITICUS 13:45,46
“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:19,20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from
God? You are not your own, For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

DEUTERONOMY 23:12-13
“You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

EXODUS 19:9b -11
When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

EXODUS 30:17-21
The Lord said to Moses, “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”

EXODUS 40:30-32
He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses.

WORSHIP JEHOVAH RAPHA, OUR HEALER

Worship the God of wisdom who guides us in what we need to do to keep healthy.

THANKSGIVING

• Thank God for positive practices like frequent hand washing and burial of the dead with minimal human contact, that are being promoted in this pandemic season.
• Thank God for the generous contributions from the private sector towards improvement of sanitation and hygiene, during the fight against Covid-19. This was seen through donations of hand washing facilities and local community tippy taps.
• Thank God for the renovation and expansion of health centres at local level providing preventive and curative services.

PROCLAMATIONS ON SANITATION AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

God is raising leaders who will champion community health and sanitation. Through their
leadership, our communities will get enlightened to His requirements for hygiene and sanitation. Our cities and villages will become cleaner and citizens will be cognizant and aware of the need to keep body and environment clean. Orderliness and cleanliness are coming to our communities as these leaders lead by example in keeping their homes, churches, and work places clean. Littering and inappropriate disposal of rubbish will be a thing of the past. The use of plastics will finally be controlled and recycling plants will be established. Dumping of industrial waste and untreated sewage into our fresh water supplies will be stopped.

A new generation of children will be raised up for whom growing up in clean environments will be the normal.

As a result individuals and families will take responsibility for their health. The focus of healthcare will shift to households and the incidence of many communicable diseases will decline.

AMEN!

Day 9 Prayer Guide: Sanitation and Community Health

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