On Sunday we were looking forward to our week of prayer. We considered briefly the question “Why pray?” and also “What will we pray for?”
We looked at two passages from the gospels to try and answer these questions. The first from Matthew and the second from Mark. In the Matthew passage we saw that Jesus looking at the crowds that wanted to hear him told the disciples to pray for God to send out workers to “gather in the harvest”. The second concerned a fig tree that was cursed by Jesus because it was not producing fruit. Consequently the tree withered and died. Jesus told the disciples to pray with faith and any mountain (obstacle to bearing fruit) will be removed.
We considered how the society we live in at the moment does not seem to be particularly hungry to hear the good news of the gospel. In fact it feels more like we are in a relatively unfruitful time compared to the vast numbers of people in the city who do not know the Lord. Then we considered a number of prophetic words that we have received recently promising a change in season. A time is coming when there will be a great deal of fruitful advance of God’s Kingdom amongst us. As we go into the week of prayer next week, like Elijah praying for the promised rain to come, we want to pray for these prophetic words to be realised.
Finally we considered how we should pray. We briefly touched on Elijah’s commitment to pray with his whole body and emotions and also made a few short comments on fasting. Small groups won’t be meeting next week to enable us all to pray together. Instead we have gatherings on:
- Sunday 12th (Powerhouse 7 – 8:15pm),
- Tuesday 14th am (9:30 – 11am),
- Tuesday 14th, Wednesday 15th and Friday 17th evenings (7:30 – 9pm),
- Sunday 19th at CLM with other churches in the city (6:30 – 8:30pm)
In your small groups this week you might like to consider:
- Have there been times that you have known where a prophetic word has been given that, after prayer, was fulfilled?
- How will you respond to the call to pray next week? Will you fast? Which meetings will you attend? What else can you do to join with us?