Focus: Prayer That Leads to Spiritual Movements August 2009

Transcription

1 Focus: Prayer That Leads to Spiritual Movements August 2009 The Great Commission Global Prayer Movement See each monthly issue at

2 Prayer When we think of the word prayer, different pictures come to mind: a prayer meeting, an extended time alone with the Lord, a particular how-to process. All of those are valid, but I would like to focus with you for a few minutes on a picture that does not always come to mind - continuous prayer. In Psalm 16:8 David says, I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. The apostle Paul said, Pray continually (I Thessalonians 5:17). After all, prayer is a major part of our relationship with God. It affords us the opportunity to tell God what is on our heart and listen quietly for His response. It is as important as talking and listening are to a human relationship. If I stay in touch, I feel close to Him; I am focusing on Him; I sense the normal informality of a comfortable relationship. One of the best contributors to Judy s and my relationship is when we have times when we just chat. It may be onehalf hour to an hour. Sometimes it is much briefer than that - a phone call or minutes redeemed in the car on the way to a dinner. It is the continuity of these chats that string together to contribute to our ongoing and growing relationship. So it is with God. If I stay in touch, I feel close to Him; I am focusing on Him; I sense the normal informality of a comfortable relationship. I encourage you to keep a high frequency of chats with God during the day. As you are walking along, driving your car or just relaxing a little on a break, take a few moments to pray. If you do, you will likely find yourself saying along with David, Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Steve Douglass President, Campus Crusade for Christ Saturday, August 1 Hebrews 10:1-10 Worship God for providing for us the once and for all sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. Sunday, August 2 Hebrews 10:11-22 Thank God for making possible personal prayer and our free access to Himself. Monday, August 3 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 Pray for president Steve Douglass as he provides Biblical, spiritual, strategic leadership to Campus Crusade for Christ. Tuesday, August 4 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Ask the Lord to bless Judy Douglass and Women s Resource Center initiatives to expand win/build/send, using the Internet. Wednesday, August 5 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 Pray for Campus Crusade s Board of Directors to exhibit wisdom, clarity of vision and great faith. Thursday, August 6 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 May the Lord grant our co-founder, Vonette Bright, strength for each day as she follows and serves Him. 2

3 Praying Prayers that Get Answers By Bill Lawrence President, Leader Formation International Praying prayers that get answers is amazingly simple. Jesus taught us to do this in John 15:7-8 through three principles of prayer. But never forget one core reality: To pray prayers that get answers, pray! No prayers, no answers. PRINCIPLE #1: Pray in the right relationship. Abide in Christ. Stay constantly connected to Him and desperately dependent upon Him. To stay constantly connected to Christ, confess all sin. To be desperately dependent upon Christ, confess your need for Him to enable you to pray. But His words must abide in us, so imbibe His word. Make His word such a part of your being that you pray His words, not yours. Be constantly disciplined to pray Christ s mind. If we pray Christ s mind we will get Christ s answers. The truth is that in times like these it is good to remember what your knees are for. - Rep. Mike Pence (Indiana) PRINCIPLE #2: Pray for the right results. Many times we don t know Christ s mind - frequently in the most confusing and uncertain moments of life. Remember then that Jesus taught us to pray for God s will. And remember also that answered prayer is a process that has far more to do with our growth than our answers. PRINCIPLE #3: Pray for the right reasons. What are the right reasons? God is glorified; we bear much fruit; and we prove to be Christ s disciples. If we pray this way, our prayers will be answered. It must be because this is the way that Christ prayed. Try it and find out. Vice President Dela Adadevoh tells his AFRICAME prayer coordinators, As a prayer coordinator, you are not just a prayer correspondent. You must model prayer for your teammates and mentor them in prayer. Prayer must be a priority of leadership in the Battle for Africa. Photos by Joel Dasalla Friday, August 7 1 Thessalonians 5:25 For funds for phase 2 of Josh McDowell Ministry s The Witness Movie Project, with all its potential for reaching truth-seekers everywhere. Saturday, August 8 1 Chronicles 4:9,10 Ask God to protect Campus Crusade prayer coordinators in every place and enlarge their territory. Sunday, August 9 Acts 2:42-47 Pray every day that unquenchable movements of prayer will form and sweep through every people group. Monday, August 10 Proverbs 16:8-10 For AIA film Prize II-The Dream: Financing, translation into 24 languages, broadcast/distribution partners to expose 200 million around the 2010 World Cup. 3

4 What it Will Take: Building Movements from our Knees By Milton Monell Director, Great Commission Global Prayer Movement, Campus Crusade for Christ How does God use prayer to ignite, launch and accelerate spiritual movements? In my earliest years on Campus Crusade staff the Lord began to show me that prayer makes a big difference in ministry. In 1983, I was on the staff team of an international summer project in East Asia. We had been successfully building relationships all summer long. As we came into the last week-and-a-half of the project, however, not many had seen their friends come to know Christ. The Lord gave us an idea: Call an allnight prayer time! It was challenging, but we did it because we sensed the Lord directing us to do it. And what happened the last week of the project? Almost everyone on the project saw one international friend come into a relationship with God, and some saw two! God was beginning to form in me a lifelong conviction that prayer makes a difference. In my ministry over the years following the project, I had multiple opportunities to test this conviction: We began to prayerwalk on campus the next year, and God did amazing things to open up dorms and hearts on my part of the campus. Within a few years my role became sending and leading short-term projects around the world, and God continued to change my skeptical heart. One project, The CoMission, involved working in public schools across the former USSR. The CoMission never would have happened without a 31-Day Call to Prayer for the USSR in the early 1990 s! God called His people to prayer. He opened a door that nobody could shut, for the gospel to repenetrate that land. In the late 1990 s and early 2000 s I was serving in The Macedonian Project, focusing on opening doors in the 10/40 Window. God challenged our team to integrate prayer into the heart of the strategy. Prayer was the place we started - with intercessors praying as the trips were planned, from home base as teams traveled, on-site during the projects, as part of our on-site strategy for reaching that region with the gospel, and at many other points throughout the entire project. Some project teams would have 500+ intercessors praying for their two-week ministry trip. We saw God begin to open doors and provide divine appointments to build key relationships. He gave supernatural protection to the travelers and allowed them to bring the good news into rarely reached places that had been much prayed for. Prayer was the foundation. Prayer led to opportunities to see the gospel transform Continued on Page 8 Tuesday, August 11 John 10:14-16 For God s watchcare over 15 Francophone Africa students raising support for three-year mission into restricted nations. Wednesday, August 12 1 John 5:1-15 Funding to give 10 million a clear exposure to the gospel through one of Global Media Outreach s 91 evangelism sites. Thursday, August 13 Matthew 9: ,000 additional online missionaries are needed by year s end to personally respond to seekers. Friday, August 14 Revelation 3:7-13 For development of a new Bible study curriculum to help produce godly leaders of African descent. Saturday, August 15 2 Timothy 2:1-7 For qualified online mentors and good publicity for 2Tim22.com student movements Web site (in Russian and Romanian). Sunday, August 16 Psalm 111:1 For East Asia to mobilize 10 million lifetime laborers and send 100,000 cross-cultural missionaries to the world before

5 BORN IN PRAYER I remember the days of old. I ponder all Your great works and think about what You have done. Psalm 143:5 (NLT) In the summer of 1948 I graduated from college and by summer s end was headed to Southern California for a visit with my brother. But most of my thoughts about the trip had to do with another individual there my fiancé Bill Bright. More than once since proposing marriage, Bill had told me that God took first place in his life. Before I left for California to clear up the plans for our wedding (or otherwise) I confided to a friend, I m either going to rescue Bill from this religious fanaticism or come back without a ring. Bill had left our small Oklahoma hometown in 1944, to create a business in Los Angeles. He reluctantly accepted an invitation to church from his new landlords and accepted Jesus Christ the following year. By the time of my August 1948 visit, this man I loved was a growing Christian and active in the young adult group at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. I arrived in California and off we went to their Forest Home Christian Conference Center for a church-sponsored meeting of several hundred college and career students. Dr. Henrietta Mears, the church s director of Christian education, spoke to the group of young people. Bill suggested I speak privately with her about our differences. As she and I talked, Bill paced outside the cottage for 90 minutes, praying his heart out! The Biblical thoughts she shared guided me into a prayer of receiving Christ, just as Bill had a few years earlier. For the first time God became a daily reality to me! As the weeks passed, God was adding a new dimension to my life. I was becoming as enthusiastic as Bill, Dr. Mears, and the others just as eager to share the good news of Jesus. Oh yes, on the next-to-the-last day of 1948, Bill and I were married! Now happily united and sharing a commitment to Christ, I was teaching in the L.A. schools and working on a Master s degree. Bill was building his business while working toward a seminary degree. We loved our church and senior pastor Dr. Louis Evans, Sr. Together with our young friends we continued to grow. We were learning to rely daily on Christ. Our church reached out to jails, hospitals and rescue missions. Our schedules were pretty rigorous, but we enjoyed these volunteer ministries. Then, we arrived at one of those special points in time you always look back to. At home in our Hollywood Hills cottage one Sunday afternoon in 1951, Bill and I were talking about our busy lives and our goals. We had been learning that our loving Heavenly Father s will was better than our own. It was new and exciting! Materialistic goals that had driven us had lost their luster. We so much wanted our lives to count for eternity, pursuing goals in line with God s will. So, we decided to separately make lists of the things most important to us and then talk more about our goals as a couple. I went to another room and asked the Lord to show me what He wanted me to do. I wrote down my ideas and came back to see what Bill had concluded. Bill and Vonette in front of their first home. As we compared notes and agreed on one list of several goals, we both sensed God leading us to make some sort of deeper commitment. My businessman husband asked, What if we put what we ve written in the form of a contract with the Lord, and surrender our lives, our goals, our material possessions, and our future completely to Him? That expressed exactly what I wanted to do. Prayerfully we signed our names to our contract with God. Over the years we shared together, we referred back to our contract. What are our goals? To what did we commit? Until Bill s passing in 2003, we often related many decisions to the irrevocable contract we signed together that afternoon. It sounds a bit dramatic, but many circumstances changed from that day on some almost right away. Only a few months later, one night in the spring of Bill s seminary senior year, I went to bed, leaving him and a friend studying late for an exam. He began to share with his friend about the need to reach students for Christ. Suddenly, he sensed the indescribable presence of God. He was given an overwhelming vision of the gospel going to the entire world, beginning on college campuses. The timing of this vision from God was not lost on us. Recently we had given ourselves unconditionally to Him and His great cause in the world. And here He was, revealing this new focus for our lives. When I awakened the next morning Bill told me what he had just experienced. We praised God for directing us so clearly Continued on Page 7 Monday, August 17 Psalm 111:2-10 For accelerated growth and reach of The King s College, preparing leadership for strategic private and public institutions. Tuesday, August 18 1 Timothy 2:1-4 Pray for God s mighty work at African Forum on Religion and Government (AFREG2), today through Friday in Kenya. 5

6 Wednesday, August 19 1 Timothy 2:5-7 For GAiN s partnerships with churches and ministries like Feed My Starving Children: 23 million Meals for a Dime in Zimbabwe, Somalia, etc. Photo by Carl Thomas Thursday, August 20 1 Timothy 2:8 For spiritual movements of students, leaders and churches to multiply throughout Southeast Asia with leadership of clarity and power. Friday, August 21 Matthew 10:28-30 For Here s Life Inner City plans to offer downloadable resources for more effectively reaching and ministering among the poor. Saturday, August 22 Matthew 25:34-36 For wisdom, compassion, perseverance in reaching internationals working or studying in North America. Sunday, August 23 Acts 6:1-7 That East Asian national prayer movement coordinators would be encouraged in Christ and thoroughly equipped to lead Vision Photo by Ted Wilcox, Worldwide Challenge Watercolor on paper 24K gold leaf and thread 72 x 10 phyllis thomas As a contemporary Christian, the Old Testament rhythms and practices of the Tabernacle are not part of my ordinary worship experience. But the beauty of those symbols and the reminder of the priests offering prayers morning and evening speak to me about obedience. In this piece, the royal colors overlaid with extravagant gold leaf on paper stitched together with my hands, bring together divinity, humanity, intimacy and community. The tzitzit and fringe from the Hebrew Tallit (prayer shawl), are references to the meditative manner in which most of my prayers are offered; verbally or silently. This work becomes an expression of a community of intercessors in the rhythm of prayer, like a sweet-smelling fragrance and sacrifice of praise as referenced in Psalm 141:2. References: Exodus 31:1-4; Psalm 141:2; 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, pp

7 Continued from Page 5 and prayed for His grace and strength in whatever lay ahead. You may have heard how Bill shared his vision the very next day with a favorite seminary professor, Dr. Wilbur Smith. After praying overnight Dr. Smith told Bill that God had given him a name for what he had envisioned: Campus Crusade for Christ. We asked the Lord to guide our baby steps in this new ministry on the college campus. We prayed and asked friends to pray about what to do next. The pieces of the ministry began coming together quickly that summer. God gave us a wonderful advisory board and official permission to work with students at UCLA, which many people considered an extra challenging environment. For at least a year Bill and I had gone with church volunteers into fraternity and sorority houses to talk with students about Jesus. Bill had never lacked for boldness and simply got us invited to dinner. The house mothers were usually thrilled about us bringing a spiritual dimension into their house. Some students were willing to talk with us about their church denominations, and we may have sown some spiritual seeds. But we never saw anyone come to Christ through these university meetings. Maybe you have read quickly through my story or jumped to this point near the ending. That is fine. Here is what I most hope you take away: God was answering someone s prayers in all those critical happenings, those lives and situations that He brought together to form what has become a worldwide movement. Even as we made ready to be faithful to our calling to the campus that fall, we made certain this new ministry would be bathed in an incubator of continual prayer. Dividing each day into 96 segments of 15 minutes each, Bill and I recruited everyone we could think of to serve as prayer partners. The plan was to have around-the-clock prayer, so we worked to fill every slot. Some people prayed every day. Others prayed at the same time every week. Always someone, somewhere was uniting in prayer for this ministry. Would I say there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the extra prayer and the extraordinary things that God did at UCLA? I think back to our attitudes in October 1951: We were convinced from the start that we would be only as effective as God allowed us to be. We knew that Scripture said to pray without ceasing. Our only desire was to glorify God through Christ. And we were depending upon the Holy Spirit to guide every step we took and work in students lives, in response to prayer. Never forget that Campus Crusade for Christ was born in prayer. I was there! Prayer is still our lifeline. Our health and future depend on constant, intimate communication with our Heavenly Father, the Lord of this movement. Monday, August 24 John 15:1-17 For development and launch of a FamilyLife program designed to anonymously connect people for ementoring on family-related issues. Tuesday, August 25 Acts 13:1-3 For cross-cultural missions to be deeply etched into East Asia s DNA, to become the world s biggest sending base by Wednesday, August 26 Acts 13:46-52 For the Forgotten Unreached Project, a proposal to impact lives of unreached 10/40 peoples in Western Europe with the gospel. Thursday, August 27 Hebrews 4:12-16 For DiscoverGod.com as it goes viral this fall, providing tools to help move people to a biblical view of God leading to real life change. Friday, August 28 Romans 12:1-3 That every staff member would have an accurate assessment of self, receive instruction and feedback with grace, and speak the truth with love. Saturday, August 29 Matthew 6:24-34 Pray the staff will be faithful and find our Father faithful to supernaturally supply all their financial needs by

8 Sunday, August 30 John 14:12-14 For preparations and peace for regional PAMOJA II, Ivory Coast, Dec 27 Jan 2. Expecting 1500 students, young professionals. Monday, August 31 Acts 4:23-31 May God s Word, the Holy Spirit and abiding in Christ with faith, hope and love mature the entire staff into people of prayer. Continued from Page 4 lives and impact certain communities. God was using us to build movements of prayer that opened doors for strategic ministry in hard to reach areas of the world! In December 2003 God began to move me out of 20+ years of directly sending others to the field. How? In the same way He gets undivided attention from most of us - He brought my wife and me to a breaking point. It actually started in 2002 when she was diagnosed with a large abdominal tumor. Surgery in July 2003 thankfully showed it was not cancerous! Then in December my 2½year string of four mild heart attacks began. Seven hospital stays, six heart catheterizations and eight stents later, I sensed God showing me He had been preparing me for a new role. Directing our Great Commission Global Prayer Movement, my calling was re-focused to help Campus Crusade keep prayer foundational in movement building. God has taken me on an incredible adventure, convincing me that without desperate dependence upon Him--which leads us to the place of prayer--we will not see God lead us into our vision of movements everywhere. Each of us has a personal story of God at work in our life. He keeps showing up at critical times to reinforce the truth that He answers prayer! Judy Douglass often shares some variation on this thought, The real work is done on our knees through prayer, and then we get up to see what God has done! So, how can God use prayer to ignite, launch and accelerate movements? The answer is up to you! It starts with us. Earlier this year Steve Douglass put it this way to all the staff, all or nothing! Apart from God we can do NOTHING! The vine is our source of life. Without the vine there is no life! If we abide in Him and His words abide in us then we can ask and it will be given to us (John 15). We must be desperately dependent upon our life source, the vine. What happens next will be the greatest adventure yet! My heart s desire is to be a true follower of Christ desperately dependent upon Him through prayer and to see His movements everywhere. PRAYING FOR YOU Our network interceding from the Prayer Center and around the world. PRAYING WITH YOUR TEAM Mobilizing a new 24/7 Prayer Movement. Helping provide on-site prayer for conferences and ministry events. TRAINING YOUR MINISTRY TEAM Prayer Leadership Seminars (downloadable) recently upgraded with revised manuals and visuals. Let s talk about ways you can see Global Prayer cultivating prayer in your movement! EQUIPPING YOUR TEAM FOR PRAYER Monthly Movements Prayer Journal highlights one geographic area or Campus Crusade global strategy. Now downloadable in English and Korean! us to subscribe to e-reminder service. Providing a selection of ministry requests online for use movement-wide. Send us yours! 31-Day Global Prayer Initiative: Daily prayer topics focusing on some of the most challenging situations in today s world. Download in English or Spanish! On the Web at: Global.Prayer@ccci.org (407) Woerner Great Commission Prayer Center Campus Crusade for Christ 100 Lake Hart Drive 2100, Orlando, FL 32832, USA Were these prayer requests helpful to you? Each monthly issue of Movements Prayer Journal offers current prayer needs from another part of the Campus Crusade for Christ worldwide movement. Get an reminder when the next issue is ready. Sound good? Just send your name and preferred e-address to: global. prayer@ccci.org, subject line: Subscribe. View some of the latest prayer requests and praise items from Campus Crusade for Christ ministries around the world and sign up for a one-hour slot in around-the-clock prayer for top ministry needs by visiting: Be certain to register, then click the 24x7 Calendar button Campus Crusade for Christ