. . . those of us who serve the Lord in a ministry of prayer need to become more assertive.
In our desire to emulate our Lord's humility, many of us have failed to speak out during a planning meeting when human ideas require spiritual inquiry. While intently listening with a Holy Spirit sensitivity, many of us have failed to speak up and remained silent instead of suggesting prayer as a solution. Driven by a vision only for our Father's glory, many of us have failed to speak into a circumstance or process calling for a prayer pause.
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More and more these days I am learning the power of praise. When we can praise God in the midst of our circumstances that is a powerful thing!
Praise puts things into perspective. When we praise God simply for who He is, our situations and circumstance pale in importance. Many Old Testament intercessors knew this to be true. Often, as they prayed during a time of crisis, they would just start by reminding God who He was and the things He had done in the past. Sometimes they would forget to pray about the situation! Jeremiah did this when Babylon was about to overrun Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 32 he prays about the situation. But the vast majority of his prayer just focuses on God’s might and power.
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Pray Before You Walk
First Alliance Church in Mansfield, Ohio recently added a unique element to a prayerwalking plan—a twist that bought one more prayer element to a common prayer evangelism technique.
It had scheduled a Saturday morning in September when it would prayerwalk targeted neighborhoods around the church. The specific day preceded an upcoming fall outreach event for kids and families. First, it had located the names of all the people who lived in the homes the prayerwalkers would pass. Next, the family names were placed on sheets of paper—about 20 families per sheet, 18 different sheets. Enough copies of the different sheets were made so every family in the church could have one. A few Sundays before the prayerwalking event, near the close of the service, the sheets were placed on the altar of the church. An elder explained the whole prayerwalking plan that would occur three weeks later. He explained that we want to pray in a more concerted way for the homes we will be passing during the prayerwalk. Then he explained what the sheets were. Finally he asked if families in the church would commit to pray every day for the names on one sheet. Then people were given an opportunity—during the service—to come up and take a sheet.\Many responded.
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The 10th annual International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for the Persecuted Church is Sunday, November 12, 2006. What began through efforts of the World Evangelical Fellowship in cooperation with a variety of denominations and faith-based organizations has grown to be the largest prayer day event of its kind in the world. While the primary focus is the intercessory prayer for persecuted communities of the Christian faith, prayer is also encouraged for the souls of the oppressors, the nations that promote persecution, and those who ignore it. Persecuted Christians often plead for prayers to help them endure. The most we can do is the least we can do – pray. Christian leaders in restricted nations report that they are experiencing a new boldness in their witness to others.
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PrayerLeader OnLine Interviews Jim McConeghey a co-prayer leader at Meredith Drive Reformed Church in Des Moines, Iowa
Q. Jim how did the Lord lead you to becoming a prayer leader for your congregation?
About 10 years ago when my wife and I started attending Meredith Drive Reformed Church, we joined an adult bible study class. As the class started a member would lead us in prayer for those in our class, congregation, in the community and in global prayers. She was so peaceful, calm, and reverent while she prayed. I recall thinking that I wished that my prayers could be like that. At this time I only lifted up prayers in private and never aloud.
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Vol. 3, No. 9
Introduction
While the CPLN continues to grow by adding new members, each month we lose people who do not renew their memberships. Our member relations director, Sandie Higley often tries to find out why someone did not renew his or her membership. Often the response is that they didn’t use the member benefits enough to renew. They did not see its value.
We want to continue to remind you that your membership will only be as valuable as you make it. Are you taking advantage of your benefits? Do you click on any articles in this newsletter, or do you just glance at the home page when it comes to you? Are you coming to the website and downloading articles, checking out conferences? Are you purchasing discounted resources at our members-only webstore? Have you ever gone to a CPLN regional or national conference? Do you ask questions at our “Discussion Forum”? Have you ever participated in one of our phone-in seminars? We are trying to offer more and more benefits, but they will only be valuable to you if you take the time to use them!
Soon we will have a completely new look to our website. When this happens, we will finally have a seamless store—in other words once you have checked into the members-only section of the site, you will already be registered to shop. Just another thing we are doing to try to enhance your membership. We hope you will check it out.
Jonathan Graf
President, CPLN
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September 2006
