For those of you too young to remember building bomb shelters in the ’50s, and for whom the horrors of Stalin’s Gulags and the “iron curtain” have little impact, I would encourage you to look today at what Communism has done to the soul of North Korea.

I am calling you to pray for this nation, and I am planting antibodies in your bloodstream against the next wave of interest in the Communist dream, which for North Korea has been a nightmare.

The magnificent prayer guide, Operation World, has been leading us to pray for North Korea on August 3 and 4. Let some of its comments stir you to pray and be immunized against the devastating disease of Communism.

What if God blows the hinges off the iron door of this land in the next five years and we find that the church of Jesus had exploded by millions underground and no one knew? Would you not rejoice that you had prayed for this miracle?

Here are some comments from Operation World:

The “Hermit Kingdom” is a repressive nightmare, where the populace are kept ignorant of the outside world and forcibly indoctrinated into the bizarre doctrines and policies of the “Dear Leader.” He has made 70 bronze statues (total value over $1 billion) – and literally tens of thousands of other monuments, towers and figures – of his father Kim Il-Sung, the Father in the twisted Cheondogyo trinity of Father, Son and Juche spirit. . .  Pray for the leader and his cadre, that the Holy Spirit might bring them to repentance and belief.

North Korea’s economy and environment are in states of disaster, the former propped up only by illicit money-spinner ventures outside the country and by Chinese and South Korean generosity. . . . Pray for a watershed moment in God’s timing that will bring thorough change, freedom and complete transformation to this land.

Starving North Koreans, are forced to desperate measures to feed their families.

Most Christians fled to the south during the Korean War or were martyred and their churches destroyed. Very little is known about today’s underground church, only that it has survived and is growing amid great suffering and danger. There are four propaganda “show” churches in the capital, but up to 100,000 Christian are interned in labor camps. Possessing the Bible, saying “God” or “Jesus” and meeting as believers are all punishable by death.

Lord, you blew us away when China opened to the world — you had been mightily at work, and millions of people had come to Christ. Make it so, O Lord, in North Korea, and have mercy to give her freedom and righteous prosperity soon.