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“I
urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and
thanksgiving be made for everyone.”
1 Tim. 2:1
“He
is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the
will of God, mature and fully assured.”
Col.
4:12.
“With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek
You early; For when Your
judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9 (NKJV)
If
you are a church member…
For our members who visit this site, we
hope that:
1) you find it edifying, and
2) you will send us photos from your
church or region – your services, your seminars, outreaches, etc.
We receive many photos of people with
their friends, but we wish we had more that actually depicted different
aspect of the Lord’s Work – along the lines of the ones we have
here. Please send photos to the
“askapastor” email address (see the menu near the top of the
page).
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PRAYER MEETINGS
Very early
in the morning, while it was
still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where
he prayed.
Mark 1:35 (NIV)
O God, You are my God; Early will I seek
You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty
land Where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 (NKJV)
Many years ago,
the Lord revealed in our midst that the secret of our success- of our
growth and our ability to achieve everything the Lord wants for us- was to
pray early in the morning, while it is still dark outside.
These snapshots depict one
of our churches (in a town called Timoteo, in Minas Gerais, Brazil) in
different phases of an early morning prayer service. Notice how full the church is at such an
early hour (6 am) – this is a blessing in itself!
Usually a brother leading
the meeting (a worker, deacon, or pastor) opens the meeting asking everyone
to kneel in the Lord’s presence as we seek to renew the blessing of
Jesus’ redemptive blood in our lives.
[Read more about
this…]
(We apologize that the photos have a problem with the color
– the church was not brightly lit at 6 am when they were taken).
Everyone is
seated, sometimes singing a brief, prayerful song. Then members take turns standing and
praying about specific items mentioned by the meeting’s leader, as in
this photo. Notice that children
also participate in these meetings when possible.
These prayer meetings typically last 20-30
minutes. Some brethren go straight
to work or school from the church, while others return to their homes. To close the meeting, the brother leading
it often asks people to stand together for a closing prayer, and sometimes
reads a Psalm or other encouraging verse from the Bible before dismissing
those assembled.
Standing for the reading of a Psalm or similar passage.
Closing prayer led by the deacon or worker in front
Of
course, we should pray all throughout the day. Sometimes the Lord will calls us to have
a prayer vigil where we stay at the church interceding until it is late at
night, even midnight.
Even
so, there is a special blessing when we pray in the early morning, before
the sun rises. The Word of God
records specifically that Jesus prayed at this time. In Psalms and Isaiah it speaks of seeking
the Lord in these times. Many
stories in the Bible describe the Lord’s servants having special
experiences in the early morning- Moses, Joshua, Jacob, etc. Sometimes the Lord actually reveals that
it is important for the whole church to meet in the early morning to intercede
for a particular need.
We
have found, as a Body, that brethren have really wonderful and profound
experiences when they pray at this time.
The brethren seem to have more gifts (revelations and visions). The spiritual gifts are more detailed and
clear. There is often a stronger
feeling of the Lord’s presence and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
We
also know that throughout church history, many of the men used the most by
God prayed early in the morning.
Charles Finney, perhaps the greatest American revivalist (d. 1876),
would regularly rise at 4:00 a.m. and pray for two to four hours before he
began his day. Many others in church
history shared his experience- the Lord called them to get up at this time
to pray. And the power of the Holy
Spirit was released to accomplish amazing things.
We
live in a continuation of this project that God has been doing for many
years. It is now our turn to seek
the Lord and be used by him to reach this generation.
It
is a sacrifice for us physically to get up early. Everyone wants to stay in bed and sleep
more, especially at this time of day.
It is easier to stay up late than to get up early. This kind of physical sacrifice is
similar to fasting, in which we deny our desire to eat and drink. This sacrifice requires extra
determination on our part and demonstrates to God how serious we are about
interceding for a particular need.
There
are fewer distractions early in the morning. This enables us to have a more focused
prayer time that is richer and more fruitful. Even though we are tired and sleepy,
these things are not as disruptive to our prayers as the phone calls and
traffic we hear later, not to mention the frequent sounds of people
arguing, shouting, playing loud worldly music, etc. Also, most businesses
are closed and most of society is still asleep, so we cannot feel
distracted by our impatience to go do certain errands, talk to other
people, or complete certain projects.
It
is good for our hearts and minds to put God as the first thing of the
day. As we attend to the Lord first,
by seeking him before we go to work or do other things, we honor him. We will be more likely to give the Lord
the top priority in our decisions when we have put him as our first thing
we do each day.
See also:
2 Chronicles 29:20
Job 1:5
Luke 21:38
Exodus 24:4
Exodus 34:4
The Spirit of the Lord song
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service-smaller video
pleading
first song
kids' song
middle song
adolescents song
message
gifts
blessing
service video
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