Howard Snyder’s biography on the lives of B.T. and Ellen Roberts, Populist Saints, gives us insight into the importance of prayer in Roberts’ life. He writes:
Benjamin asked for his sister’s prayers “that I may act well my part as a Christian, discharge every duty to the acceptance of my Heavenly Father.” He added, “I am happier than I ever was before, for I enjoy more religion. I have proven by experience the truth of that question, found in the excellent little treatise, Watts on the Mind, ‘Orasse est bene studiesse—prayer is the best studying.’ When my heart is often lifted up to God in secret prayer I meet with the greatest success studying. When I am happy in Christ my mind acts with vigor.” (p.109)
Let’s unite in praying that we as a church would be confident that prayer is the best studying and be a church invigorated and directed in thought and living as we are given to prayer. Let us pray, Holy Spirit come and help us to:
- act well our part as Christians
- discharge every duty to the acceptance of our Heavenly Father
- enjoy more religion (meaning — enjoying our relationship with the Lord as we engage in prayer, thought, study and acts, and partner with Him in the work of the kingdom).
July 4 – July 10
This is the final prayer guide before the beginning of General Conference 2011 on Wednesday, July 13. Using this guide, we are praying for the love of our Lord to empower and define us as a church — filling us in heart, thought, word and action.
Thank you so much for investing in the work of prayer. It has been vital and will continue to be vital in bringing our Lord’s purposes to GC11. We encourage you to pray consistently during General Conference. Get online and look up the schedule. Pray for all that is happening in the church during this time. And most importantly, pray that we as a church will be open to and overcome by the presence of the living Spirit of God. May we flow in the anointing and call of the Spirit for our church in the next 150 years.
To be filled we have to be in the Word. Go to Scripture. Use some of the prayer foci from past weeks to direct your prayers. Ask the Spirit to continue to direct your prayers. He will do it. He will unite our prayers as we each seek to do the same.
After GC11 please continue to pray for our church. We need to be a people calling on the Lord at all times so that we will be forgiven, healed, restored and empowered for the Lord’s purposes through His mighty, enabling presence.
As you approach these times of prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to help us as a church:
- To have a heart that yearns to go beyond salvation to the infilling and empowerment of His Spirit.
- To be filled with Christ’s love.
- To seek Him and not depend on our own thoughts.
- To not fear what the Lord will do or ask us to do but to trust Him as children trust a loving father to give us only what is good.
- To work boldness in us.
Monday – July 4th Prayer Task: Defining Love
Our Lead Bishop David Kendall encourages us in his annual conference messages to be a church that loves one another and the world. Love defines our God from the beginning of the Word to the end. We need to be filled with His love so that His heart and purposes are planted in the church. That love is seen in the church and meted out through the church so that the world may know Him.
Scripture: “If I (we) speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am (we are) only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I (we) have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I (we) have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am (we are) nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2).
“… in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scriptures. What do we need to do as a church to be built up in love? Pray these things for our church.
* Action Cue: Call someone in your church and unite in prayer together for the church.
Tuesday – July 5th through Saturday – July 9th: Focus of Prayer for Ministry Groups
The focus this GC11 is around ministry groups. Each group is asked to approach the
Lord in prayer. The bishops want our elected representatives to seek the Lord for His
direction as each question is posed for Ministry Groups 1-4. How does the Lord want us –
the arm of the church called Free Methodist — to fulfill these ministry foci in the next 150
years?
Each group has a leader and is divided up into three teams with questions to consider. Each leader and representative needs to be filled up with the Lord’s love and His purposes as they relate to one another and consider the tasks before them. We will be using scriptures on love to pray for this to be the case. That which is taught to us in scripture in meted out in our lives as we read, pray and believe that the power of the Holy Spirit can complete the work He has begun in us as we yield ourselves to Him.
Tuesday – July 5th Prayer Task: Ministry Group #1 – Filled with Love
Scripture: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud”
(1 Corinthians 13:4).
Ministry Group #1’s Focus: Every person: Empowerment of the Whole Church — Exercising their gifting and living their calling
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scripture. How will this kind of love need to be meted out in the group as members partner to consider their focus? How does the church need to show these qualities of love in response to the ministry groups’ proposals? How do we need to show these qualities of love in relating to one another as we continue to represent our Lord to the world? Pray these things for the groups and for our church.
Wednesday – July 6th Prayer Task: Ministry Group #2 – Filled with Love
Scripture: “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have
not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
Ministry Group #2’s Focus: Every church: Whole and Complete — Living in healthy, restored community
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scripture. How does it direct our sense of what love is? How does this kind of love inform the group as members partner to consider the focus they have been given? How does it inform us as to how we respond to the ministry groups’ proposals? How do we need to show these qualities of love in relating to one another as we, the church, continue to represent our Lord to the world? Pray these things for the groups and for our church.
Thursday – July 7th Prayer Task: Ministry Group #3 – Filled with Love
Scripture: “It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Ministry Group #3’s Focus: Every Means: Maximized and Legitimized – Encouraging and promoting all efforts that accomplish our mission and honor our values.
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scripture. How does this verse direct our sense of what love is? How does this kind of love inform the group members as they partner to consider the focus they have been given? How does it inform us as to how we respond to the ministry groups’ proposals? How do we need to show these qualities of love in relating to one another as we, the church, continue to represent our Lord to the world? Pray these things for the groups and for our church.
Friday – July 8th Prayer Task: Ministry Group #4 – Filled with Love
Scripture: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).
Ministry Group #4’s Focus: Every Place: Engaging Community and World — Impacting “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth”
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scripture. How does this verse direct our sense of what love is? How does this kind of love inform the group members as they partner to consider the focus they have been given? How does it inform us as to how we respond to the ministry groups’ proposals? How do we need to show these qualities of love in relating to one another as we, the church, continue to represent our Lord to the world? Pray these things for the groups and for our church.
Saturday – July 9th Prayer Task: Ministry Group Leaders – Filled with Love
Scripture: “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Group 1 Leader: Alex Shootman
Keynote Speaker (Wednesday 1:30-2:30): Larry Walkemeyer
Exemplar (Wednesday 2:30-3:30): Brandon Hatmaker
http://www.gc11.org/group-one
Group 2 Leader: JR Rushik
Keynote Speaker (Wednesday 1:30-2:30): Keith Cowart
Exemplars (Wednesday 2:30-3:30): Brenda Young and Leonard Moore
http://www.gc11.org/group-two
Group 3 Leader: Mark Adams
Keynote Speaker (Wednesday 1:30-2:30): Sab Prospero
Exemplars (Wednesday 2:30-3:30): Videos of Kathy Gaulton, Natura Wright, Amy Heath, Fred Lynch, Age Sandoval
http://www.gc11.org/group-three
Group 4 Leader: Matt Whitehead
Keynote Speaker (Wednesday 1:30-2:30): Richard Stearns
Exemplars (Wednesday 2:30-3:30): Dale Woods
http://www.gc11.org/group-four
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scripture. How does this verse direct our sense of what love is? How does this kind of love inform us in how we as the church and those involved in the groups relate to the leaders, speakers and exemplars for each group topic? Pray these things for the church and for those assigned to each group. How are these qualities needed for those leading? Pray for our leaders that this love will be meted out in their thoughts, hearts, preparation and leadership.
Sunday – July 10th Prayer Task:
Scripture: “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:8).
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Pray: Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in meditating on the above scripture. How does this verse direct our sense of the importance of love in us as individuals and in us as a church? Pray that we will allow the love of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and purify us as a whole church so that we will represent our Lord Jesus fully as we seek to bring the whole gospel for the whole person into the whole world.
* Action Cue: If your church is not uniting regularly to pray for GC11, call several friends and gather during the week of General Conference to pray for this historic time for our church.
Giving the Lord More of Your Sabbath:
Read all of 1 Corinthians 13. Consider what the Spirit has brought to your heart and mind this week as you meditated and asked that we as the church would be filled with the full love of our Lord Jesus.
As you finish considering these thoughts and asking the Lord once again for the infilling of His love, pray this prayer, believing with Paul:
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).
* “Action Prayer”: On occasion there will be an action cue intended to help us incorporate prayer in different ways throughout our day.
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