CONFERENCE EVENTS

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PRAYER FOR YOUR CHURCH

Growth through evangelism

Lord, I lift up our church growth to You. Add to our number daily through new converts. Birth spiritual children through us. Let our actions win people over without words. Use us as Your agents to rescue people from darkness and bring them into Your Son’s kingdom. We long to be worthy ambassadors in this ministry You have entrusted to us: that of proclaiming Your message of reconciliation to a lost world. (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 4:15; 1 Pet. 3:1-2; Col. 1:13; 2 Cor. 5:20)
 
Home arrow May 2006 arrow Seven Principles for Spiritual Cleansing
Seven Principles for Spiritual Cleansing PDF Print E-mail
Tips & Tools

By Dr. Joseph Winger

If you suspect that your church is laboring under a spiritual bondage, here are seven principles to help you cleanse your church campus:
 
  1. Build a team. One person alone usually can’t do it—united prayer is required. Remember the principle of exponential power in God’s economy (Deut. 32:30). Choose a late night or other “off time” to have the prayer meeting to minimize distractions and avoid attracting unnecessary attention. Ask the team to cleanse themselves of any impurities before they work on cleansing a building (1 Pet. 1:15). They might consider fasting before the prayer meeting.
  2. Pray with your eyes wide open. That is, open your natural and spiritual eyes. Expect God to draw your attention to areas or items needing prayer. Trust God to develop your discernment as a team. It is also good to research the land, previous tenants, and the actual planning and construction of the building for clues to the root of a problem. For example, maybe there were an inordinate number of disagreements and fights during construction.
  3. Overcome evil with good. Prayer will not always be enough. When necessary make restitution and amends if people have been hurt. Seek reconciliation.
  4. Accept your authority. By the power of the name of Jesus, break curses, negative words and witchcraft that may have been spoken against the people in the church.
  5. Receive forgiveness. Take communion at the end of your time of cleansing prayer to seal it. Go to specific places where there have been offenses or evil actions and ask God’s forgiveness. That would include any theft of funds, sexual sins, fights, child abuse, etc. We can engage in what some have called, “identificational repentance” by confessing the sins of our fathers like Daniel did (Dan. 9:3-19).
  6. Increase praise and worship. Where there is darkness in a building or ministry, the goal is to see restored glory. Exalt the Lord with vibrant praise. Consider playing worship music 24/7 throughout the building.
  7. Be proactive. Have an on-going cleansing team walk through the building on a regular basis. Take necessary steps to limit future spiritual issues. For example, one church witnessed several affairs on the pastoral staff. The elders awakened, owned up to their responsibility, and confessed the sin. They developed more concerted prayer for the pastors and established more accountability. Since that time, there have not been any issues in this area.
Here’s the key. Discover the root issues, pray with Christ’s authority, repent whenever appropriate and use common sense to build in safeguards to avoid future pitfalls. Then empower your church to boldly fulfill her mission!
 
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