Pray4Guam
Prayers of agreement are even more effective, so here is a place to share insights and revelation to increase our impact.Archive for kingdom
Strategic Prayer Initiative
2010 is to be a decade marked by abundant harvest! At least that is where our faith is focused. We want to see God’s Kingdom come and His will being done here on earth in the same way as it is in heaven. That means we want to see His power and authority in increasingly manifest dimensions throughout our community. To do everything that is necessary to allow souls to experience the tangible presence of Jesus. That is an exciting idea.
So what will that really require? Can we actually expect God’s power to increase if we continue to live life the same way we have in the last decade? Of course! We don’t create the presence of God with more spiritual activity or ministry. We simply open our lives more to make room for Him to occupy. We welcome Him into our world. We invite Him to come and rule and reign. That is where the adjustments come. Our priorities shift as we seek God more and respond to Him more fully. As we listen to His voice, truth fills our innermost being. Lies are exposed and replaced with Life-giving revelation. This becomes our new reality.
This year, we want to invite partners to adopt specific areas to collaborate with the Holy Spirit and intercede with Him that God’s Kingdom will be manifest in ever increasing dimensions in our community. Essentially, I am believing that places in our community will be transformed into places of communion with God. That means for me as we pray for a particular school, we will intercede for the eyes of each student and teacher to become enlightened to the truth of God’s Word. We will pray for righteousness to be exalted. We will pray that wounds of abuse and neglect will be healed and ministers will be raised up to serve in these locations. We will pray that a spirit of discernment will be poured out to cause young people to recognize the difference between truth and error. We will pray that a hunger and thirst for righteousness will be awakened in the hearts of each young person. We will pray for souls to respond to Jesus, to receive His mercy and be born again.
Spreading the Gospel or Strategic Expansion
I love the image in Daniel of the Rock of God’s Kingdom rolling down and growing as it moves through time. God is committed to his purpose that His Kingdom will come and get bigger and stronger throughout the earth. I want to be involved with this process rather than simply a spectator or bystander. Count me in for all of it!
I have been involved in cross cultural international ministry for over 20 years. We have worked with those who follow more of what I like to call a “traditional evangelistic style” as they endeavor to win souls, getting folks to pray the “sinners prayer.” I tend to fall into a different category of making disciples. Our thrust is “building relationships”. Our church planting is “building community” with a mission focus. That focus involves connecting with people in the areas of their felt needs. For us, that seem to be the area where we find a great opportunity to see transformation.
I think our personal shift of focus resulted from seeing many pray with us in prison and in the government-run drug rehab. Souls were saved but sadly, many of these ended up going back to their old way of life as they were released from these centers. How do we really measure our effectiveness in these ministry endeavors? We could simply leave the outcomes to the Lord as we do our part as best we can. Or, we can really evaluate the fruit of our endeavors.
I’d like to make a comparison here. I see the current economic crisis to be related so similarly to the traditional evangelistic style. Many have invested in stocks or let others invest for them through various managed funds. The dollars or credit committed to the stock or investment vehicles are only appraised at the front end. Shock or horror has hit many of my friends who now look at their investment portfolio to find that they have lost major strides in building for their retirement as the stock values continue to slide. The passive approach to wealth management is extremely risky and bites terribly hard. So too is the passive approach to kingdom investment.
I guess what it comes down to for me is that we are looking to see situations in our community changing as lives begin to be transformed. It is so exciting to see individual lives change as Jesus beings to make all things new. It is a process though that for some takes a long time. I think all of us wish we could use an approach ministry like the fairies who wave a magic wand and see complete changes occur. Sadly, those kind of changes rarely last. God works to transform people from the inside out. He exposes lies in an individual’s belief system and speaks His truth in its place. For paradigms, and well fortified spiritual strongholds to be dismantled, we need to build relationships that nurture and reinforce God’s truth.
