At our most recent Vision & Information night, two of the things that were suggested from the floor were the need for "more training" and the need for "more prayer". Well...
ADVANCE. Last Thursday night we had an Evangelism Training night taken by the Boston YWAM Team. This was a good team. Not only did they put on an excellent production last Sunday night called Encounter, but they gave us a good night of training focused on evangelism using the "Wordless Book". Even without the book Jeremy shared good basic guidelines that make evangelism/witnessing so much easier. The "Wordless Book" is an excellent tool. Remember: Gold = Heaven; Black (or darkness!) = Sin; Red = the blood of Jesus: White = forgiveness; Green = Growth.
Our next Advance, Thursday 11 June, will be a night of training on Spiritual Warfare with special guest Dr. Bree Keyton from the USA.
PRAYER: We have had some fabulous prayer times on Thursday nights, but yesterday we had a day of prayer and fasting, concluding with a half-night of prayer from 10 pm - 2 am. Quite a number of people participated during the day and in the half-night of prayer. Let me give you some highlights from the prayer time:
We took time each hour to read and think about the first four chapters in Nehemiah.
Chapter 1: Nehemiah's heart was broken because of what was happening back in Jerusalem. He responded by praying and fasting for his city.
Chapter 2. After he prayed and fasted Nehemiah decided to do something about the problems in Jerusalem. He approached the king of Persia and asked permission to return to rebuild the walls of his city.
Chapter 3. Is what we called "The Jigsaw People" when "everyone" took their place in rebuilding the walls.
Chapter 4. Regardless of setbacks and opposition "The people had a mind to work"; they continued to be focused, and with sword on one hand and a trowel in the other, they completed the work.
We received several words as people felt motivated to share what God had laid on their hearts. These included:
The need to repent on behalf of the church (New Life); for wrong attitudes and undealt with sin.
The need to believe in revival in our nation that will match anything of the past (especially of 1859)
The need to remain humble before God as opposed to being wrongfully proud
The need to be broken before God and broken by those things that break the heart of God
Several people prayed, with some praying several times and including some I have never heard praying before. One of these was Israel. He prayed twice, and both times stirred our hearts as he cried out to God on behalf of the church and the Leadership.
While the 4 hours seemed to fly in, people came and went during these hours and participated by their presence and by their prayers. While the whole time was excellent, there were two amazing moments that stand out. One was around mid-night when we went into a time of praise and calling upon God for about 20 minutes. During this time it seemed like we walked in spirit throughout the community as we lifted the name of Jesus as a banner over every street as we called out the names of the different neighbourhoods in the community. The other time was just after 1.30 am when we went into a time of praise and thanking God for what he was doing and is about to do.
I look forward to our time of fellowship tomorrow (Sunday).
Stay focused; stay strong; and keep being a God-influence.
Pastor Jack
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