More than praying

As I continue to learn more about Operation Rolling Thunder, I see that it is about a lot more than just getting people to pray over this city. It is about recruiting training leadership in every sphere of influence in our city. But even if it was "just" about prayer, prayer is a fairly complicated matter if you are trying to get answers or project power.

I remember what it was like to pray and see amazing things happen. At this point in my life, I pray and good things happen, but they are not in the amazing class that they once were. So, I have been digging out my old Kenneth Hagin books that were so instrumental in teaching me to pray and get results. I even downloaded one that I didn't have onto my Nook!

Prayer is where we begin, and all that we do must be supported by prayer. And we must expect results! But we cannot expect results if we are unwilling to ACT on the things we believe. Faith without works is DEAD.  -James 2:17

Today, Operation Rolling Thunder/Gainesville has no sponsor for the 31st of every month.

Corrections

On Friday, the last post, I said there was no church sponsor. Actually, I was incorrect. Compassionate Outreach had the 29th. I had incorrectly identified them on the 26th as the sponsor of that day, when it was actually Countryside Baptist's day. Likewise, the 28th was not unsponsored. It was being observed by Grace at Fort Clarke. However, today had no sponsor, and neither does tomorrow. Please pray for the churches in our city.

We often have a tinted view of revival as a time of glory and joy and swelling numbers queuing to enter the churches. That is only part of the story. Before the glory and joy, there is conviction; and that begins with the people of God. There are tears of godly sorrow. There are wrongs to put right, secret things...to be thrown out, and bad relationships, hidden for years, to be repaired openly. If we are not prepared for this, we had better not pray for revival. - Brian Edwards

When prayers are answered

If revival is being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that, 'It is not by might, but by My Spirit.'

- Jonathan Goforth

There is nothing like it when you're back is against the wall, there is no other hope, and you cry out to God, and He answers.  I had come to realize that these things no longer happened quite as often, not as dramatically, as they did when I was much younger. I believe I have become reliant upon my own human schemes because I had gotten good at them. I had become accustomed to getting along without crying out to God. Yes, part of that is that I am better at planning, and I am in less trouble than I used to be. But that also indicates that I do not use my access on behalf of others as I should.

I long to see amazing things happen once again. And I want to be motivated by the welfare of others instead of my own. In turn, and indirectly, I know this will come back to me in amazing ways.

There is no church sponsoring today. Please start praying the list of ORT prayer initiatives today, and get your church on board tomorrow.

Praying for the Church

Today there is no sponsor for 24/7 prayer, so please feel free to take up the torch today and pray the list. Today I will share the prayer initiatives for the CHURCH segment of the list. After all, we really need it...

CHURCH

1 Peter 2:5,9
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ… ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;
(Other Scriptures: 1Cor.12:12-31; 14:26 Eph.3:10; 4:3-16)

Areas to consider: Unity of the brethren, outreach in the community including: prison ministry, feeding the homeless and poor, friends to the widows and orphans, focus on servant evangelism, supporting one another with kind words, thoughts and actions, building up one another in love; prayerfully and financially supporting church leadership and local houses of God, purity in the lives of believers, restored relationships in the churches, worship, prayer, the study of the Bible, the five-fold ministry, gifts and talents, vision and purpose, growth and protection, passion, balance, maturity, relevance without worldliness, focus on pleasing God in every area


Thank God for:

• • Knitting the Church together as He sees fit
• • Sharing His power, authority, wisdom & purposes with us
• • Devoted Church leadership and their families
• • Missionaries around the world spreading the love and gospel of Christ
• • Local church congregations & ministries, whether large or small, young & old, and of all nationalities
• • The victory we have in Christ
• • The freedom to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ freely

Repent for:

• • Disunity in the Body
• • Ungodliness in the Church
• • Not taking God's Word seriously
• • Placing God below other things in our lives
• • The Church not using the power & authority it has been given
• • Allowing confusion and foolishness to dwell in our lives and churches
• • Not fulfilling the Great Commission
• • Getting caught up in minor issues while ignoring the major issues

Declare:

• • That Jesus Christ is Lord of His Church
• • The Church shall glorify God
• • The Church shall walk in power, purity, unity, & love in and outside of their particular congregation
• • The Church shall delight in worshipping God and God will delight in the worship of His people.
• • The resources of this world will flow into God's Temple and will be used for His purposes

Pray:

• • That God's people would humble themselves and pray
• • That wise strategies for effective work to be down-loaded to the Church
• • For missionaries worldwide and those who support them locally
• • For brothers and sisters who are being tortured and persecuted for their faith
• • That God’s people would receive emotional and spiritual healing and walk in wisdom, power & character
• • That the Church would learn how to be salt and light in the world & souls would be saved
• • That the Church would bind the enemy and loose the prisoners
• • That the Church would cooperate with the Holy Spirit in Her preparation as the Bride
• • That we would have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church
• • That any special meetings in the State would be blessed
• • Deepening of spiritual walk
• • Salvation of souls from Scriptures distributed
• • For funds to translate and spread the Bible throughout the world
• • For expansion of personal witnessing skills
• • For all publishers of Scriptures, that the gospel would go freely throughout the world
• • That unsaved people will welcome the gift of Scripture, and that those already won to Christ will grow in grace and knowledge and share their faith
• • For continued open doors to hotels and motels, schools and colleges, prisons and jails, hospitals and convalescent homes, the military, and police and fire personnel
• • For congregations, pastors, missionaries, and Bible teachers to know God’s Word is inspired, inerrant, and infallible and to share the true message of salvation through the Blood of Christ
• • A closer walk with God through prayer and by reading, meditating on and memorizing His Word
• • To remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit

Resist the enemy:

• • Resist the temptation to complain or be disrespectful about God’s church
• • Resist the temptation to bring discord and division
• • Resist the enemy's attempt to bring oppression and depression upon the people of God
• • Resist apathy, hopelessness, doubt and unbelief
• • Resist the reasoning of man

See? That wasn't so hard! Have a blessed day. I leave you with this quote on revival:


Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility. - Charles Finney

Get your own oxygen mask first

First, I want to thank our brothers and sisters at Compassionate Outreach for praying this day.

On every airline flight, the attendant gets out the flotation device and the oxygen mask and reminds you to secure your own mask first, before helping your children with theirs. This is because an oxygen-deprived parent is not much good to his or her children. Likewise, we must pray for ourselves first if we are going to be effective at praying for others.

The ORT prayer list starts with our own repentance and desire to follow Christ more closely. It's a check list to remind us that it's not just those other people who need the Lord. He is a life support system to all of us. It is a humbling thing to start with self-examination that inevitably finds flaws. And it reminds us to be compassionate and diligent in our pursuit of the redemption of others.

Tomorrow has no sponsor. Literally. No church has signed up to pray for our city tomorrow. If you think your congregation might want to do this, let us know how we can help. If you think this is too short notice and want to pray about this yourself, why not download the list in the right sidebar and do just one hour yourself tomorrow?

Comments and prayer requests are appreciated.

A Community in Revival

First, I want to thank Oak Park Baptist Church for sponsoring this day by recruiting its members to pray for the City of Gainesville and the rest of Alachua County.

I make a point of praying the Operation Rolling Thunder initiatives every Sunday morning, and as I have done so, I have realized that if our prayers are realized, then God would be directing us and blessing us in every sphere of our community's existence. And I believe that would indicate that we were in revival.

I understand that most of us in the Evangelical Christian Community imagine revival as something particularly eventful. And that event might include a lot of rapturous emotion and large scale conversion of sinners to faith in Christ. But, what if those things seemed to be happening, but God was not directing us nor blessing us in all other areas of life outside of the church? Wouldn't we find this disturbing?

We should have feelings of discontent if all the "change" seems to be confined to our church buildings and our meeting times. This is the reason I am praying for God to move in all spheres of our city, and praying for more Christians to pray AND take action, no matter what sphere they inhabit. I believe that if His people, who are called by His name, shall humble themselves and pray, and turn from their own selfish agendas and devotion to idleness, then He will hear us, forgive us, and change our city. I believe we would have revival.

Vacancy: this day needs a sponsor

Good morning! I am looking at the schedule for the month of October and I see that there is no church sponsoring this day. That means if this does not change, there will be no 24/7 prayer on November 24th either. So, that is my prayer for today: that someone will see this and say, "Hey! I think my church could come up with 24 people to each cover an hour!" And if someone does, he or she should email Brenda Krames, our area coordinator.

"An awakening is ready to burst on the dismal scene when Christians have a deep, profound Spirit of prayer for an awakening." - Lewis Drummond

Praying and being organized

The point of this blog is to help ORT church connectors to have an idea of what local needs should be added to their prayer lists the day that their congregation has 24 hour duty. Of course, anyone who is looking for a local need to pray for at any given time should be able to come here and find something.

Right now, this post is just to create some sense of agreement about how this works. I have some ideas, but I am sure I only know in part what is really needful. Anyway, here is what I am thinking. I would like to give each connector author permissions so that you can post an article here whenever you think it's needed. You may just want to make sure something is posted on your congregation's duty day, and then other prayer warriors who join the blog can leave real-time prayer requests as comments to that article. Commenters must join the blog. Anyone can join, but trolls and spammers will be banned permanently. Any connector who logs in and sees such a thing could just clean it out immediately.

Prayer request guidelines should be created as a separate page and should help people understand that this is not a place for confidential information. A request may be kind of fuzzy and still be understood by God. The whole world does not have to know your struggle. Most of us know how to deal with those sensitive "unspoken" prayer requests. Maybe wwe need a page to explain that, too. Anyone who feels up to creating such a thing would be a blessing to us all.

So, do we have comments, suggestions? Join this blog, identify the church you represent, and we will start from there.

Thanks!
Don Marsh
Gainesville Vineyard