Watching God from the Front Row

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Watching God from the Front Row"

Roy Allison
5 years ago
Views:

September 2011 We all love good books. A book can bring inspiration, encouragement, laughter, information, and help of all kinds. I love good books, but there is only one book that loves me back.

His promises are sure, and as you come to your place of prayer each morning and ask for His presence and special blessing, He will never disappoint you. What a loving and powerful God we serve.

So they called Him, "The God Who Provides," or "The God Who is My Peace," or "The God Who is my Banner of Victory," and there are many more.

1 September 2011 We all love good books. A book can bring inspiration, encouragement, laughter, information, and help of all kinds. I love good books, but there is only one book that loves me back. God's Word is alive and powerful, and as we pray for His Spirit, He does speak to us personally. He loves us through His word. He directs our lives through His word. His promises are sure, and as you come to your place of prayer each morning and ask for His presence and special blessing, He will never disappoint you. What a loving and powerful God we serve. No wonder the Hebrew people had so many names for God. As they encountered Him, and experienced Him in various times of need, they always found Him faithful. So they called Him, "The God Who Provides," or "The God Who is My Peace," or "The God Who is my Banner of Victory," and there are many more. He wants you and me to meet Him and in our daily adventures and discoveries in His Word, we meet Him, and find that He is there - willing and able to meet any emergency. Praise God! No wonder the Hebrew children didn't have a word in their language for coincidence. They knew their God was a God of miracles. We're meeting Him in our daily and weekly prayer calls. Your faithfulness makes a huge difference - not only in your life, but in the lives of the many you pray for. And isn't it a great encouragement and an uplifting experience to join in the prayers of others - to hear their prayers, and sometimes hear your name mentioned in their intercessions before the great throne of heaven? Only in eternity will we understand the full consequences of the prayers and faithfulness of God's people. I believe you'll find many people in heaven who will be thankful that you prayed for their healing, or their encouragement, or their leadership, or spiritual growth. God can do so much more when we pray and NOTHING is impossible with God. Thank you, Thank you, Be a Prayer Warrior for Net 2011 sign up at

Page 2 Two big dates to plan for: 1. January 7, 2012 - is the North American Division DAY OF PRAYER - The Theme is "TUNE MY HEART.

Use my voice to rejoice in my Savior, Tune my heart to sing praises to your name.

January 12-15, 2012 - North American Division Prayer Conference - at Innisbrook, Florida - Theme - REVOLUTION ON OUR KNEES The theme - Revolution on our Knees - was chosen because we want God to take

2 Page 2 Two big dates to plan for: 1. January 7, is the North American Division DAY OF PRAYER - The Theme is "TUNE MY HEART." The theme comes from a song that says: "Tune my heart to sing praises to You, Father, Fill my soul with a holy refrain. Use my voice to rejoice in my Savior, Tune my heart to sing praises to your name." Phil Cross Let's start getting the word out to every church in every conference so that plans can be made for a weekend of united and powerful prayer. 2. January 12-15, North American Division Prayer Conference - at Innisbrook, Florida - Theme - REVOLUTION ON OUR KNEES The theme - Revolution on our Knees - was chosen because we want God to take away any mediocrity, and take us to another level of faith and blessing. Ask God to recharge your prayer life, and as we experience time in God's presence together I believe we'll be challenged and equipped to go deeper in His will. God has provided amazing and wonderful speakers for us, Elder Dan Jackson, President of NAD, will be speaking, Jose Rojas, Pavel Goia, Jonathon Henderson and others, but the most valuable time will be in HIS presence because HE tailors His blessings to His dear children personally and individually. You'll be able to register in just a few days. Partial scholarships are available for Prayer Coordinators. Some will want to plan to stay through to Jan. 18 to the completion of the NAD Ministries Convention. There are Prayer Ministries Seminars and our Advisory Board, so we will need to have you there.

3 Page 3 The Time Is Now Ron Clouzet Admittedly, I feel we re at the stage of the journey that reminds me of when Jesus moved His ministry to Galilee. For about a year and a half, He worked mostly in Judea, with little to show for His efforts. People there were heavily influenced by the religious leaders of the day, none of whom would acknowledge Him as the Messiah. But when John the Baptist was taken prisoner, Jesus understood it was time to take it to the next level. The Lord decided to work in the coastal cities of Capernaum and Bethsaida, and as He did, His message was The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). Yes, Daniel 9 had now come true, and the end of the age was at hand. Similarly, after working hard and praying harder for so many months, the time is at hand to believe in the gospel. The new development with Direct TV carrying the meetings is a huge question mark full of possibilities. We ve implemented and continue to work on ways to reach those untold thousands that would watch without us knowing. But I must give you a brief report on the just-finished Astonishing Discoveries in the Land of the Bible archaeology series. If you tuned in eight days ago, you might have panicked just like we did. The production team at the Media Center always does a test an hour before they air something live. When they noticed our team in Nashville was not calling, they called at 6:05 inquiring about it. The person that answered misread the clock, thinking it was 5:05 and simply said it s not for another hour. That was interpreted by the person in California to mean the entire broadcast was an hour later, so he set the server for 7:30 CDT instead of 6:30 CDT. When 6:30 came, we started and thought we were live 625 churches had opened their doors to this event! Lo and behold, no archaeology program was on. So, the churches started to call us, frantically. Nashville called California to get us on satellite, but it took an extra six minutes because of the new server. So, 16 minutes into the program, we were finally on. As you can imagine, a number of guests and members had left by that time, which is extremely unfortunate yet understandable. How does one analyze such a far-reaching human error, something these professional people just don t do? Our leadership team believes perhaps the Lord does want to surprise us with unexpected good, because we ve met our share of difficulties and discouraging mishaps. I d like to think that God s power will be perceived as even greater when compared with so many things going. The truth is that in Nashville at least, people responded to the meetings very well. We had over 200 guests come, although we wished for more. But many told us how they are planning to be back for the main series next week. The meetings were an encouragement to the members as well. And one evidence that things went well in spite of that first night s disaster is the fact that we had a major spike in the order of Bibles and other resources for the meetings, in addition to new churches signing up. So, here are the matters that urge earnest prayer by everyone who loves God and His mission:

4 Page 4 The Time Is Now Ron Clouzet (Continued) 1. Pray for Net 11. We are getting ready for Net 11. Only a few days to go. Pray for the opening, for the handbills and all the advertising and the thousands who will be watching on Direct TV. This is the first time in the history of the Adventist church that we have presented an entire evangelistic series on a major television network, so the possibilities are enormous. 2. Pray for the Blimp. A large blimp is circulating over the Nashville freeways with a 74-foot long banner written in bold letters: PROPHECIESDECODED.COM. This is unusual advertising and a bit costly, but our hope is that a number of the 100 to 200,000 people that will see it decide to register and show up. Pray for good weather, and perhaps the opportunity for the city press to notice and write about it, thus giving us more exposure. 3. Pray for the Handbills. The handbills have begun to arrive in people s homes. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pieces all over the country. We pray for angels to go with them to impress people to respond. Pray that those most ready to receive the Three Angels Messages will be deeply impressed to attend. Pray that all the participating churches may have encouraging numbers on opening night. 4. Pray for the Church Members. Evangelism is hard work and we need many hands to make the work lighter. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send more laborers. Pray that Satan will be bound and the Spirit of Jesus will be shinning in each member. May they experience the joy of seeing people come to Jesus 5. Pray for the Music. We have secured the musical ministry of a number of good people, such as Committed, Charles Haugabrooks, Jennifer LaMountain, and Steve Darmody, among other artists from the Nashville area. Our prayer is that each song will be something the angels would sing along with, and that the Spirit may use music for salvation. Pray for Gale Murphy as she coordinates all this. 6. Pray for the Social Media Efforts. Facebook, You Tube, Vimeo, and other social media outlets to try to get the word out, especially to millennials (young adults). Please pray that a number of them can respond to the invitation to come to the church and not only watch it at home. When young people look to God to fill their empty hearts, God s miracles in their lives are nearly instant and often explosive. 7. Pray for the Nation. I have asked the Lord to move in our division in some way that people searching Bible prophecies may find answers. Remember that Adventist meetings for the weeks following 9/11 a decade ago were full of searching people. I m interested more in people seeking for lasting solutions than in curiosity seekers, but the Word sown is always better than the Word not sown. 8. Pray for Me. As Paul plead before the Ephesians, pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, (Eph 6:19) I ask you the same. A number have told me they are doing so. We knew a year ago that this would be an all-consuming project. Yet, I still planned to have some of August and some of September to work and revise my messages. Well, that time has come and gone, used with even more urgent matters. But Jesus can still help me. May His message and His love shine through and through. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for NET 11. The time is now. Let s storm heaven so God may open its windows and pour out a blessing beyond our expectations. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15)

5 Page 5

6 Page 6

Watching God from the Front Row

Watching God from the Front Row I wish you could have attended the NAD year end Meetings last week at the church headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. I have been attending these annual administrative sessions for many years, but I've never