PrayerWorks!

A Prayer Support Ministry

Inside:

1. Teaching: God's Glory in Prayer

2. Strategic Prayer: God's Needs

3. Wanted: Prayer Captains and intercessors

4. A WORD for the Nations: China

5. Prayer and Praise

United Prayer Brings God's Glory!

The goal of any form of prayer is to meet with God and experience His Presence, His Glory!

The American Heritage Dictionary defines glory as: "Something meriting the highest praise or regard: • greatness • splendor • grandeur • magnificence • stateliness • nobility • majesty" and. . . .

"A state or position of outstanding power or importance: • eminence • preeminence • distinction • illustriousness • prestige • prominence • renown • standing • notability • fame • celebrity • note • repute • reputation.

God promises to manifest Himself in this way when we meet certain criterion. I call it the "Law of Gathering".

Matt 18:18-20

"Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." (NKJ)

Here Christ is talking about a studied, legislative decision made by the church. This is a weighty matter. Binding and loosing is to be done regarding a wayward member of the body only after all means to reconcile have been exhausted! The church was then to meet together and bind them over to the decisions they had made and loose the mercy of God to, hopefully, rescue them from the enemy.

Almost in the same breath, the Lord says the same principle applies to prayer: "again I say to you…". When we take a serious approach to the things we pray and, after consideration, we begin to pray God's agenda the Father will answer. The basis for the power is found in the relationship that the believers have with one another. Vines dictionary defines agree in the following way:

AGREE, AGREEMENT

A. Verbs.

1. sumphoneo, lit., "to sound together" (sun, "together," phone, "a sound"), i. e., "to be in accord, primarily of musical instruments," is used in the NT of the "agreement".

2. suntithemi, "to make an agreement, or to assent to"; translated "covenanted" in Luke 22:5: When we produce a symphony of believing prayer, Jesus said God would applaud us with a resounding answer from heaven!

The reason for God's answer comes next. When we are "gathered together' in His name, He says "there I AM in the midst of them." This gathering is not just physical proximity but a joining of our hearts together. When this occurs, Jesus, the Great I AM is in our midst! He was in the midst of the teachers in the Temple as a child and they were amazed at His wisdom. He was in the midst of the thieves on Calvary and forgiveness poured out. The disciples were hiding for fear after His death when, suddenly, He was in their midst. What revelation came when He appeared! As we meet for prayer in church or in our homes, we should make every effort to meet these conditions so that the living Christ can come and be "in our midst"!

Focus: God's Needs!

W hen it comes to prayer we often discuss our needs or the needs of those with whom we are praying. Did you ever think that God has an agenda? He has things on His heart which must be attended to in prayer!

Ezek. 22:30 "So I sought for a man among them who would make wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one." (NKJ)

Below are some suggestions on how we can focus on God's needs in prayer taken from an article by Justin D. Long called Prayer: The Foundation to Begin a Mission Program.

Statistics: 20 million in full-time prayer ministry, 10 million weekly prayer groups, 170 million praying daily for world mission !

"…Perhaps one of the key problems in the church today is a lack of prayer on behalf of the unreached. Despite the millions of people who have been participating in large missionary prayer programs, and the millions involved in regular denominational missions prayer programs, there is much left to do. Any church--or any church member, for that matter--who would like to see an increase in a church's focus on World A, or on missions in general, should begin in prayer. Interest cannot be commanded; it must be stirred by the Spirit of God. Seeking that stirring through intercessory prayer is a very vital first step to seeing a church's missionary program grow. There are plenty of resources available for equipping such a missionary effort. Operation World is a good place to start. Then there are newsletters, magazines, newswires, Internet e-mail mailing lists, and much more. The next logical step from forming a small prayer group is forming a regular missions group which meets to learn about and pray for frontier missions. Usually called a "Frontier Missions Fellowship," these are organized to attract Christians who normally aren't interested in frontier missions in the hopes of educating them and raising awareness and interest. The key is not so much the organization, but the gathering of people together to pray for growing interest in frontier missions. Out of these intercessors will come the new finances and missionaries needed to finish the task. But in the old acronym "Pray! Give! Go!" prayer is always the start.

Reality Check: Any church lacking a regular time for members to pray for missions ought to quickly move to facilitate such a meeting--even if it's just for two people.

Steps to take: 1. Individuals: approach your pastor and ask if a room in the church can be used for praying for missions. Place missions material in the room and organize a regular time when prayer can be held.

2. Churches: consider organizing a full time prayer ministry where missionaries are prayed for 24-hours-a-day by volunteers. This can be a prayer chain, prayer clock, or a prayer room.

3. Agencies: are you sending regular information to churches and intercessors to equip them for prayer? If not, you should be!

Wanted: Prayer Captains

My goal as Prayer Coordinator for World Harvest Now is to have a Prayer Captain and praying people in every time zone! This is a very challenging objective and we need the help of all praying people to succeed! If you or someone you know would like to participate, please contact us right away at Prayer@WHN.org. This is not a huge commitment of time or resources, it is simply a promise of availability. Being willing to be a channel through which our missionaries can receive the prayer support they so desperately need. Please prayerfully consider joining our team.

Focus: China

Testimony: Broken Hands Voice of the Martyrs: Mrs. Lu Ying had tears in her eyes when she received the Bibles from the courier. She clutched the books with a firm grasp. Holding the Bibles wasn't easy for this tiny woman: her hands were deformed.

She was not always like this. Her fingers once were straight and strong... but during the Cultural Revolution, the young Red Guards came to her home, just as they went to everyone's.

They took what little furniture she had, along with all her other belongings. Then they found her precious Book. The four soldiers could easily have pried it from her small hands as she grabbed it... instead, they mocked her, asking if she really believed in a "book of myths." "I told them the book contained all that I need to know about my dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that I did not want to part with it." So the Guards took her outside. For three hours they mocked her, spat on her, hit her so hard she could barely stand. Others joined in their cruelty. Then, for the second time, she was asked if still she believed. Clutching the Bible close to her heart, she gave the same answer as before. This infuriated the young soldiers. They threw her to the ground, trampling her. Then, with iron bars, they smashed her hands, causing the Bible to slip out of her grasp. She lost it, and ended up with crippled, deformed hands. Over 20 years would pass before she would once again cling to God's Word... and yet, all the time, she clung to the memories, to her faith, to her Savior. She had truly hidden the Word of God within her heart. In those twenty years, how many had she repeated the words of truth to, from memory? We don't know, but it wasn't a few. Her gnarled fingers are desert lamps--reminders of how precious the Word of God is.

Such is the experience in many sensitive countries. Pray for boldness, wisdom and supernatural discerning! One of our groups has been regularly investigated and was infiltrated by Secret Police posing as believers.

Prayer and Praise

Acts 4:29-31

"Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, "by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus."

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. (NKJ)

Vladivostok, Russia:

Mike and Susan church planters planting Salvation Church, and Christian City Church.

Igor Danelov potential pastor for Salvation Church, and his wife Ella.

Andre intern pastor for Christian City church plant.

Almaty, Kazakastan:

Praise God for K-6th grade school! Ask for His help for teachers and Administration

Middle East:

Praise God for major breakthroughs

Pray for persecuted church to be bold!

Please contact us if you would like to become a World Harvest Now Prayer Captain or intercessor. Email us at Prayer@WHN.org. Don't forget to provide your name and email address or street address.