prayer

Hay

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IMG_8397We left Narrabri at 7.30 this morning and drove through rain nearly all the way to Hay, some 800 km away.

Hay was where we started ministry in 1984. We lived in this house which is 100 years old now and is being restored.

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Hay has always been a unique place due to its isolation. All through the 20th century its population was stable at 3000. However the Murray-Darling Basin Plan ripped the heart out of the irrigation industry and the town is now down to 2500 people.

When we lived here, Hay still aspired to being a cathedral city. The Anglican church was designated a pro-cathedral and a residence for a bishop was built in the 1800s. The diocese was eventually centred in the much bigger city of Griffith and now the former pro-cathedral is falling down.

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The Baptist church looks quite well-maintained.

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The railway station is a grand building as befitted the terminus station. Trains no longer come to Hay, but the buildings are well used by the community.

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In the park opposite our former home I prayed an apostolic blessing on this town. I prayed for the Lord to restore its former grandeur, to place back the population ripped out of it by poor Government decisions and for all the churches in the town to be filled with people.

Tomorrow is a shorter drive, so a much more relaxed day.

Back of Bourke

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Today was the first day of my Prayer Tour of Western NSW. From today until Friday I am travelling to some key points on the map to pray blessing on the region and particularly on the churches in the towns.

Today, Tim and I took off early to visit Bourke. Bourke is one of the most remote towns in NSW and the term “Back of Bourke” is a vernacular phrase to describe a remote bush location. It has never been established which is the more remote of “Back of Bourke” and “Beyond the Black Stump.”

For the first time in my life, I have now been to the Back of Bourke and a photo to prove it.

IMG_8391This is the Back O’ Bourke Exhibition Centre, where they have a daily show, which we missed by about 45 minutes, and art exhibitions etc.

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The town is located on the mighty Darling River which is looking splendid right now, being full of water after good widespread rains last month.

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In the middle of town there is a tourist precinct featuring paddle steamer cruises, coffee shops and the like. The Crossley engine is a fuel oil engine nearly 100 years old, which found its way to a property near Bourke after starting its life producing electricity in Sydney. It has been lovingly restored and now the Shire pays someone to maintain it and run it for a short time each day. Doesn’t sound like much, but there were 50 people watching an old stationary engine turn over. this afternoon.

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From the stats on the notice board this engine produces about 138 BHP or 103 kW of mechanical power. The tiny engine powering Tim’s Hyundai i20 produces 55 kW. Engines have come a long way in 100 years!

I prayed by the river for apostolic blessing to be released in Bourke, for the Darling to always be a source of prosperity for the town and for the churches to grow in their love for Jesus and for their neighbours.

Seeing Bourke alive with hundreds of visitors made me realise what potential there is for development of the tourist industry in Narrabri. We are a bigger town with as much history as Bourke (albeit with a much less spectacular river) and we just don’t seem to do anything much to encourage people to stay in town.

Today was the north-western extremity of our Prayer Tour. Tomorrow we head south, again to pray blessing on God’s people.

Transition

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During our last Prayer Weekend, the Lord gave me this word for our church

Transition- a process of moving from one condition or state to another.

This is transition time, the butterfly is emerging. It is difficult, tough, confronting, uncomfortable and more.

There is a destination in view. That is the point of transition. It is not chaos for the sake of chaos.

The transition is not a change in structure, but a change in perception of the Lord. We are going to learn to hear the voice of the Lord, how to see what He is doing so that we can join in.

This is why it feels like there is so much passive resistance again. The enemy has amplified the chaos in people’s minds and blinded them to the destination.

We are walking through sand like in a desert. It is hard going, but we must keep going until the journey is done and we get to the green fertile valley.

Don’t be afraid. My rod and staff will comfort you in the journey.

Book Review: Prayer Shield by C. Peter Wagner

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There are lots of books, great books, about prayer available these days. This is the only one that I have come across that dissects the needs of christian leaders for personal prayer teams and offers help in putting such a team together.

Pastors, and other leaders are often targeted specifically by satan in order to limit their effectiveness or sometimes cause them to fall from leadership altogether. It is well-known that pastors in Western countries are lacking in their personal lives- on average about 22 minutes per day in the U.S. compared to 5 hours or more in China.

Wagner suggests that for a pastor to be effective, s/he  must determine to do two things:

  1. Increase their personal prayer times, aiming for something like an hour per day.
  2. Develop a prayer team consisting of people with various gifts of intercession- he uses the terms I-1, I-2, I-3 to describe people who are at various places of prayer and personal closeness to the leader.

Peppered with examples to illustrate his points, this book is inspiring and easy to read.

Over the last couple of years I have increased my personal prayer times. Now I am inspired to seek out the true intercessors in my church and community and start building a team.

 

 

Ralph Neighbour- The Power of Prayer

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Ralph Neighbour gives this stunning description of prayer in the Ukraine

The Power of Prayer

 

 

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by Ralph Neighbour

Perhaps a million pages have been published through the years on the subject of prayer. Men like E. M. Bounds and Watchman Nee are a couple of my favorites, and you have others to add to the list.

The problem is not that we need another series on prayer to be penned. It is the issue of praying where we are deficient. TOUCH Outreach Ministries surveyed 500 pastors from our mailing list of those purchasing cell materials in 1986 and we learned that they averaged, by their own admission, praying seven minutes a day!

I have been powerfully impacted by Pastor Vladimir Muntyuan who has founded and led the Regeneration Church in the Ukraine. He was raised in a communist city and had no contact with religion as he grew up, spending much of his youth in prison. At 19 he had so abused his body doctors sentenced him terminal and sent him home to die. It was then he met his first Christian who witnessed to him on the street and gave him a copy of the scriptures. As he read it he was thunderstruck with the God who healed. He determined to fast and pray until he met Christ. He had a Pauline confrontation with Him and was instantly restored to total health! From the start, prayer was precious to him.

I could write pages about this man’s ministry and how he now leads one of the fastest growing cell movements on earth. But I want to focus on his prayer life. On one of my first trips to coach his church I came to lead a major weekend training event. He greeted me by saying, “I will not be with you. I am going to the Crimea to spend this week in prayer.” I soon learned from his team that he spent much of his time alone in prayer, often sending for one or more of the team to join him for a period.

But this event blew me away: he said, speaking to 12,000 delegates who were together last year for a solid month in a cell church event they call “The Mountain of Moses,” where each day begins with 3 solid hours of prayer,

“I got so busy with the team preparing for this event I missed my prayer times. When I returned to meet with the Holy Spirit after those three days, He said to me, “Vladimir, I am glad you are back! I have missed you!”

Living among his team for weeks at a time has revealed their total focus on hearing the voice of God for the entire movement. Friday nights thousands of cell members gather to pray from 8 pm to 3 am. I spoke for an hour at one of those sessions and was deeply moved when at midnight, they packed up all the chairs against the walls so they could become one huge crowd, gathering with hands raised, praying aloud for the power to move in their midst. So precious are these sessions, so filled with His glorious presence, that the home cells are empowered for their weekly ministries to their unbelieving families.

We Americans have so much to learn from our Ukrainian brothers and sisters!

Megan Hill: I Don’t Want Happy Vibes, I Want Prayer

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In Christianity Today, Megan Hill writes:

 

We communicate that happy thoughts are a legitimate alternative to prayer. We incidentally equate the two. I doubt most of us would be satisfied if the boss chose to pay us in Monopoly money or the waitress delivered plates of plastic play food to our table. This kind of indifference—prayer or good wishes, take your pick—denies before our unbelieving friends the Bible’s rich teaching on what prayer really is.

Prayer is not a magic incantation or the smoke gone up from blown-out birthday candles. Prayer is substantive and effective and absolutely necessary.

Read this excellent article here

Doug Addison: Strategies to Get Healed and Out of Debt

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Doug Addison gives strategy for overcoming chronic illness and financial weakness.Strategies to Get Healed and Out of Debt

 

Success strategy and step by step business planning as a blue pencil drawing connection lines to connect the dots on a puzzle shaped as an arrow going up as a financial metaphor for a successful planned personal project.Are you struggling with things like debt, sickness or discouragement? If you are not seeing results in a particular area of your life it is really important that you press in until you do.

It is usually the times that you are sick or down that makes it the most difficult to battle through it. I know this because I have been struggling with repeated sickness for the past two years including Lyme disease and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. But in the midst of being very sick and nearly dying in 2013, I found strength in God and contended for my healing and breakthrough.

As I write this I am still suffering from the aftermath of this horrific attack on my life. I want to share with you and take what was intended for evil against me and turn it to good. My hope and prayer is that you will gain something for yourself or someone you know.

Time to recover losses

This is a season of time that you can recover things that were stolen from you over the past seven years or more. You have to press in and contend for it! I recommend reading 1 Samuel 30 where David had lost everything and his followers were ready to kill him.

In the midst of his distress, he inquired of God and got a strategy (verse seven). He was able to recover his losses and in chapter thirty-one his life destiny radically shifted. He went from running from the enemy to ruling as King of Israel. But it was not without a battle.

Contending for your breakthrough

I was healed of Huntington’s disease and Lyme disease as well as several other things that have come against me. To be honest I did not feel like I could go on one more day. But like David, I inquired of God and got a strategy. From there I took radical steps that eventually turned things around.

God also gave me financial breakthrough strategies that got us out of a major level of debt. This is not only for physical healing but also for financial, relational and emotional restoration. It’s time to recover it all!! I don’t know about you but I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! I’m sick and tired of financial losses, debt, and setbacks.

Read the full article here:

Postures in Prayer

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Christians tend to overlook the fact that people are physical as well as spiritual. The science of Neurolingiustic Programming has demonstrated that we can affect our own emotions, and those of people we are talking to, by consciously changing our body position.

I have felt for a long time that the traditional evangelical posture of sitting when praying is really unhelpful. It makes our body too comfortable and tends to relax our minds so that we can have a tendency to zone out rather than engaging with the Holy Spirit. My personal preference is to stand and walk when I am interceding because that really helps me to stay focussed. That is probably related to my choleric personality type.

This morning I decided to prostrate myself before the Lord, to get low in order to focus on His greatness. After a few minutes I clearly heard Him say to me “Stand up, you are my son.” Last night it was right to lie down in repentance but today He wanted to honour me as His son so I stood.

This made me think about the postures in which we approach God. We need to think about what our bodies say about our heart attitude to the Lord. This is not a religious thing in which we dictate what we pray in different positions. We do not have to kneel to pray or face a particular direction. We do not have to pray at particular times or use particular words. We are physical people and our bodies, whether we think about it or not, are involved in our praying and worshipping.

Here are some common prayer postures that are helpful at particular times.

Prostrate– lying flat on my face, arms wide open. This is a position of humility and vulnerability. It is a place for intense repentance and surrender. “I am no longer my own, but yours.”

Kneeling. Again this is a position of humility. I am weak but you are strong. I find this is a place for deep intercession and groaning before the Lord. It’s uncomfortable but it reminds us that this is the place of prayer.

Standing. This is a place of assertive intercession and spiritual warfare. I am ready to enter the battle with Jesus against demonic hordes. When we stand we can confidently and boldly declare God’s purposes. Of course, I can walk or even march in this aggressive style of prayer.

Raised arms- praise, celebration. Yes I am a beloved son of the Most High God and He has set me free from my sin.

Be free in your praying. If you want to dance then dance. If you want to sing then sing. If you want to kneel then kneel. Experiment with different positions and places for prayer. Go deeper with the Lord.

Listening Prayer

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EarOne of the keys to effective prayer is listening to God. If we pray according to His will not just what we think, then we will see marvellous answers to prayer.

People find it hard to listen to God. It does take practice and discipline, but Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice” so we should expect to be hearing the voice of the Lord often.

For listening prayer, we first ditch the prayer list. This is about communion with God, not shopping.

I find it helpful to have a journal so I can write things down. I also find it helpful to have a piece of paper to write down all the things that my brain comes up with in the silence- that way I can train myself to accept that those things that worry me will be dealt with.

I start by saying something like ,”Lord here I am ready to listen and to enjoy your presence.” Then I stop and sit still, allowing my mind to be quiet.

Sometimes I will bring some concerns to the Lord. I will write down my prayer, and what I hear as God’s response.

Other times I will come with no agenda at all. I have learned that the things I think about (other than the trivial things that I need to do something about) are often the things that the Holy Spirit is prompting me to pray about. This morning, for example, I found myself thinking about the Prime Minister so I spent some time praying for him and the Government. This is not something I do regularly but I believe God was wanting me to do that today.

The key to all this is to approach prayer as a conversation not a list of demands.