Facilitated
by: Dr. Sam Tillery and Harry Skandera
(Sam Tillery)
I would like to welcome you here to
City Reach Prayer. I have been blessed to be a part
of the Pastor’s Prayer and Ministry Alliance for
about 13 years, and so on behalf of the Alliance, united
pastors, leaders and churches, we welcome you to City
Reach Prayer.
It’s been about five years now
that we have been gathering the first Friday of every
month, giving the opportunity for the body of Christ
to send representation from the various congregations
that make up one church, the church of The Lord Jesus
Christ of whom we come to serve and honor, to seek His
will for the city.
Tonight we are going to hear some direction
of our prayer. What’s wonderful is the fact that
I have grown in my life in prayer because I’ve
interfaced with the broader expression of the body of
Christ, through City Reach Prayer being a part of small
groups and larger groups and the various complexions
of the body of Christ comes together and it deepens
us, it broadens us. It gives us a greater sense that
we are not in this battle alone. It is only together
that we answer the prayer of Jesus, His prayer that
we may be one, so that the world would believe and so
we come together as one in prayer.
We begin to function in ministries
as one, so that the world around us, Santa Rosa, Sonoma
County and beyond would come to know Him and so it is
only together that we answer His prayer. Tonight I believe
He smiles upon that we responded to that, and as we
represent different congregations. Our assignment is
that we go back to our congregations and express the
work of God in the uniting the body together. I have
had the privilege of working the past number of years
with Harry Skandera who partnered with me and many of
the other servant leaders through the Pastors Alliance.
Harry is going to come now and set
some direction for our prayer and then a little later
on it is our privilege to have Tom White with us who
will be facilitating and has been for the past 11 -
12 years our Pastor’s Prayer Summit which will
be Monday and Tuesday this next week out at Mt. Gilead,
so we’ll share a little bit more about Tom and
his ministry and he is going to share some encouraging
areas and give direction for prayer, so thanks for being
here. Mr. Skandera.
(Harry Skandera)
I think there is a clip board going
around somewhere out there and I hope that it is still
going around and we would like you to sign in, and we
do that because when we talk to God we want Him to know
that we have kept an account of who is present. Never-the-less,
we really want your e-mail and would like to know what
churches are represented when we come together to pray
together on the first Friday of every month.
This is a very interesting week in
that among the Jews it’s Rosh Hashanah which are
the ten days leading up to the day of Atonement, and
so there is a lot of prayer and soul searching, not
a bad idea for all of us at this particular time. The
Jews believe that the Lord Himself is reviewing the
year and He takes stock in what has been done righteous
and what was not, and the priests at the Temple in Jerusalem
have two shofar’s at this time of year. One is
silver and the other one is gold and if they believe
that the year has been one of God’s favor then
they blow the trumpet of Zion, the gold Shofar.
As they review the year, if they see
that it has been one of travail and not good, they blow
the silver Shofar. Just this past week I got news that
they are blowing the silver Shofar, because of the things
that have been going on. It has been interesting as
we have been gathering to pray, kind of like Elijah,
you never know who is praying for you. There are a lot
of people, and it turns out that this Rabbi is praying
for us, it just struck me that here these guys aren’t
praying for innocent people the world over, they are
praying for America, because we are a friend of Israel.
They are praying for a lot of things,
but I realized that we are included in those prayers
and it’s encouraging, but in the spirit of Rosh
Hashanah you may want to think over these next two days
about your own life and how it has been this past year.
Has it been one of a golden trumpet or has it been one
of a silver trumpet? The Jews of course do this, because
they often find things that they want to repent of and
the state of California,
Pray California is doing a 40 days
of prayer and fasting for the state, this being the
first week of that time. As I was thinking over this
year in Sonoma County, one of the significant things
that we have had in our county in July, we had the City
Reach out on one of the gates or borders of Bohemian
Grove. We were actually standing on the property of
Mt. Gilead, a Christian camp and conference ground.
It is interesting that it borders Bohemian Grove, a
place where world leaders meet, and although it is meant
to be a time of respite and kind of a holiday, we know
that many things that shape the world occur there.
Things like the decision for the Manhattan
project that produced the atomic bomb and who would
be the best candidate to run for president. These kind
of things and decisions are done in our county and of
course a lot of other things. But one of the other things
this summer at the July City Reach, the rest of the
state on that particular week happened to be praying
for Sonoma County. All the other counties, and 57 others,
were praying for us, and so we chose to meet up there
and a number of people came in around the state to pray
with us. It was a very interesting time.
Some of the Intercessors from our county
were there and an Episcopal Priest from Marin County
came (Jim Wilson) and led us in communion
and what was really on his heart was a time of repentance,
not just for Sonoma County. But since we were on the
border of very big decision making place, he felt
led to lead us in communion and then for us to take
what was left of the emblems and pour it out on the
ground and ask that God would cleanse the innocent shed
blood in our county and in our state.
Today as we sang about the blood of
Jesus, I began to remember the events of that day and
how as we pray for our state in this time that is a
very charged spiritual time, how much innocent blood
has been shed in our county and in our state and in
our country.
Tonight in these first three moments,
we want to take a few of those moments together and
ask the Lord for forgiveness, particularly we pray for
our state. California leads the nation in abortions,
over 260,000 per year of the 1.3 million babies that
are sacrificed. We are having abortions at the rate
of 31.2 for every 1,000 women. 71% of these abortions
are performed in abortion clinics, that currently is
1 in every 3 women will have an abortion by age 45.
A lot of us as Christians may think, “well, that
is them, we believe in life, we don’t do abortions”.
- 56% of the women who get abortions are in their
20's.
- 61% of them have had one or more children.
- 78% report a religious affiliation.
- 67% are not married.
The reality is that most of us know
someone, is related to someone, or has experienced in
a very direct way this sin and particularly in our state.
At this time when we have brothers
and sisters gathered from many of the congregations
in our city and in our county, we wanted to take just
a few minutes to pray. First of all to ask for the Lords
mercy and then to ask for His forgiveness for the sin
that is on our land. I’d like us to break into
groups of three or four. Part of what we are doing here
is we are beginning to readjust a mantel of light in
our state and we need to begin to carry this burden
in a fresh way, because many of us believe that we are
coming to a time of contending for reversing this sin
in our land.
As you know, the president is in the
midst of appointing supreme court justices and we might
be moved to pray for that as well, but tonight we need
to pray as we come closer to this day of atonement,
a day of becoming like the Father's heart. Let's get
together in our small groups and pray into this issue
of repentance, life and what God is putting on our hearts
about this.
(Harry Skandera prays)
We come to you Father in the name
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have sinned
in your sight since the beginning of our state with
the shedding of innocent blood. We thought it justifiable
to kill the host people that you have put on this land
and we shed the blood of their families and took their
land.
During the gold rush and the establishment
of the railroad in this state, we enslaved young girls
through prostitution by creating brothels resulting
in abortions in many places where the railroads stopped.
We have enacted laws making it legal for young girls
to abort their children. We now have passed laws for
embryos to be sacrificed in the name of science. Father,
we know that all life is precious to you, open our eyes
that we might see life as you see it. We repent of our
apathy and prayerlessness. Our land is defiled with
lawlessness and violence along with innocent blood,
rend our hearts so that the things that break your heart,
break ours. Amen.
I am also the Dean of a local christian
school called Santa Rosa Christian School. Every year
around this time we do a Christmas gift box outreach,
so the kids fill a shoe box with toys, vitamins and
other things like that and send it to kids, orphans,
other children in other countries and it's always a
warm and fuzzy thing in their hearts. This year we challenged
the kids, we said, " you know, all of us are against
abortion, but you probably think that there isn't much
you can do. Because your not ready to have children
and so-forth and your probably not going to try and
blow up an abortion clinic as a redemptive act. (which
we all know is not), But one thing that we can do is
to invest in life and to help widows and orphans."
This year when you fill the shoe box,
do it as an act of love and think of it as an act of
repentance, that in the state of California, your voting
and contending for the way that God feels about life
and about children. I want to challenge you that our
intent is not just to come a pray for a small amount
of time only. But we're with the almighty God and I
believe that He will continue to quicken your heart
to contend for life, because this battle is on.
There are many things that we could
talk about and pray about tonight, but we have an honored
guest from the Pacific North West and I'm sure he wonders
if that is still his home, because he travels so much.
I was just talking with Tom White tonight and he just
got in from Mexico. He could have been pretty much anywhere
in the world and he has given his commitment to our
Lord and has come here to be with us during this time.
He has had a lot of evolvement with us here in Sonoma
County through prayer summits and so forth and he is
in town here with us, so we want to now invite Tom White
to come and share with us some of what he has seen and
what is on his heart.
(Tom White)
I want to say that I feel very much
like I am on holy ground. I am very honored to be here.
Sonoma County has been very much a part of my journey,
so glad to be back here. I am going to be brief, we
are here to pray. I want to commend you. I am in and
out of a lot of cities, cultures and nations regularly
and to sustain a format of prayer for five years is
wonderful thing and for those of you who have held up
the nations and persevering in showing up on Friday's
whether it's 30, 150 or 300,
I know that it is a great pleasure
to the Lord and I just want to commend you to keep going
forward. I just want to share with you a few things
that are on my heart and then lead us in some prayer.
When I go back and forth over-seas and re-enter this
place, which I do quite often. I feel deep in my spirit,
a spirit of contention for the nation. I believe in
the last election we were given a reprieve, a responsibility
as Jesus' body in this nation to steward this place,
so I always want to challenge us to contend for this
nation and then some very, very specific concrete things
to contend for the city.
We then want to have time to pray for
Dan and Hope Chapel and pray a blessing on God's work
here. I have just been in the cities of India and Nepal,
30 days and then just 3 days home, just enough time
to go through mail, take care of stuff at the bank,
kiss my boy and be off again and then 4 days in New
Mexico. Honestly, I'm trying to figure out where the
greatest problem of oppression rests, over Calcutta
or Santa Fe, it's just one intense planetary stronghold.
I was sitting yesterday with about 25-30 men and women
contending for that city. There is a spirit of prayer
resting on New Mexico and that's why they asked me to
come, to come alongside some of the cities, and so that
is where I have been.
There is a word burning in me, so if
you would momentarily go with me to the book book of
Hebrews chapter 12. Just before coming here this evening
the Holy Spirit quickened this to me. The writer of
the Hebrews I believe is Paul is contrasting the disobedience
of Israel who did not listen to the word of the Lord
and forfeit their blessing, so we pick up in verse 25
of Hebrews 12, See to it that you do not refuse him
who speaks. They did not escape when they refused him
who warned them on earth, how much less will we if we
turn away from Him who warns us from heaven. At that
time His voice should be heard, but now he has promised,
once more I will shake not only the earth, but also
the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing
of what can be shaken. That is created things, so that
what cannot be shaken may remain, therefore since we
are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken let us
be thankful and so worship God acceptably and with reverence
and awe, for our God is an consuming fire. I re-entered
the United States, my nation, with a deeper burden than
I have ever had before and I hear the word of the Lord
saying to me to see to it that you do not refuse him
who speaks.
Unmistakably we are in a season of
sovereign shaking. It doesn't take a whole lot of discernment
to figure that one out. I believe that the sovereign
God's hand is upon the earth. I found myself in Jakarta
in January in a gathering of leaders that had come out,
a representation of 400 city prayer movements throughout
the nation. There is an explosion of prayer and faith
and zeal for the kingdom in 400 cities, now it's 500
and it's erupting. We are in the midst of the strongest
dominant Muslim nation by way of population, so as we
were in this meeting the first day, one week after the
Tsunami. There were three or four men and women there
who had been on sight the first day and the second day,
and so their hearts were broken for all of the loss
and grief there. So they began to pray, just like we
did after 9/11 hit us.
After that prayer time we broke into
smaller groups and when we finished praying there was
a business man from Jakarta who said, "This might
help you, because Muslims are trying to interpret. Muslims
are trying to interpret, Christians are all Theologizing
this, and is this just a build up of pressure of tectonic
plates that released, or is this the sovereign hand
of God doing this directly for His purposes," And
he said, " All I can say is this, the last five
or six months the lead intercessors of the nation have
been getting together and the reality is that there
are places where, well, they have burned 200 churches.
If they knew you were a believer of any sort they wouldn't
even let you in the door," He said. "We came
to such a point of frustration. The gate was closed.
Somewhere around the year 2004 a cry began to come out
in the hearts of the Intercessors, "Lord, break
down the gate and open the door". You can interpret
this any way you like, but the door is open and the
Lord is shaking the earth literally and yes, at great
cost. But all we know is that there were men and women
of God there on day and day two literally lifting people,
Muslims out of the mud and looking up at them and asking
them why they were doing this and they were able to
say that it was because of the love of God that they
were doing it. All of a sudden the gate is opened, 400
international flights a day and one relief group after
another coming in. It is a time of shaking.
I believe that we as a nation have
been given a reprieve. I think it is unmistakably, honestly
that there is a shaking going on. I don't think we're
through it. I think that our choice, and this is what
I want to bring to you just by way of preparation to
really prepare you to pray and cry out. I think the
choice is that we embrace brokenness, and Harry referenced
this, we say,"Lord, break us."
There is no alternative, as 2 Chronicles
7:14, to embrace repentance, to embrace a contrite spirit.
We can embrace brokenness as the body of Jesus and pray
into that, that the spirit cried, in dependence on the
good life. America is obsessed with the good life and
we are obsessed with protecting ourselves and I tell
you, there is a stark contrast between here, Asia, and
Africa.
The spiritual center of gravity has
clearly shifted outside of North America, and so when
you go to prayer meetings in Asia there is an explosion
of faith and fervency that comes out of desperation.
They are driven to dependence on God in prayer, because
they are indeed desperate. The question that I am wrestling
with and you are wrestling with all the time is, "how
does an un desperate people, us, become desperate?
I believe we can choose, friends,
to embrace increased brokenness, say, "Lord, we
are undone. Apart from your grace and your favor, we
are on the pathway to Europe, we are on the pathway
to Canada." And so for us to cry out in our prayers,
for us to embrace that, and to walk in that grace, or
there is just no other alternative. We are going to
be broken, so embrace brokenness, walk the way of the
cross, or I believe that the Lord will keep the pressure
up. We are obviously under assault from wicked power.
I caught bits and pieces of President Bush's illuminating
speech yesterday where he was getting quite explicit
about the concrete plans of Islam to wage Jihad from
Indonesia all the way through Europe.
I say that it is about time that there
is a clear, explicit briefing of what we are up against,
and so an assault from without is happening without
question and what troubles me even more deeply is the
assault from within. As I travel around North America,
I hear more and more about methamphetamines and losing
a generation, and more and more about what we are losing
from within. I think, and I ask you do you not agree,
that we are in that season now that we still have a
choice to stand and contend and say, "God, we lay
hold of you in our desperation and we ask for your favor.
Lord, in your anger and disciplinary shaking of our
nation, have mercy." I believe that we still have
the opportunity to stand in that place and stance and
cry out with the Psalmist in Psalm 85. Let me just go
there for one verse, because this is the heart cry.
Psalm 85: "You showed favor to
your land, You restored the portions of Jacob, You forgave
the iniquity of your people and have covered all of
their sins." This is what was on Harry's heart
this evening and very much on my heart as I returned
from Asia. So, here is the heart cry, verse 4 of Psalm
85: "Restore us again, oh God our savior and put
away your displeasure toward us." I was with a
brother in New Mexico, the pastor of the Church of the
Rock. He picked me up and we had a delightful time.
I am 58 and he is 54. We compared our journey's, we
compared notes about how we came into the kingdom. He
heard my story and I heard his story and he said, "Weren't
those astounding days? The late 1960's - the early 1970's",
and this is the words he used, "In a sovereign
way God broke through the heavens and apprehended us".
Can anyone else relate with that? I was arrested by
God. I was a foolish religious nut. I was wondering
around in Zen Buddhism and psychedelic drugs, spiritual
esoteric astrology, and studying with Harikrishna Visiting
spiritualist and I spent a month in a Buddhist monastery
in Vermont doing chants. So here I am bouncing around
the country in my own full hearted way trying to find
out the answers to life and I was apprehended by God.
My brother looked at me and said, "Brother,
I wasn't going to get there on my own." God stretched
forth his hand and he said, "Look at all of this",
you know, we would have been a mess. And then he said
this, which is pretty accurate information, he said,
"the current rating is that the current generation
of teenagers (12 - 17), only 4% of them will have a
viable, personal relationship with Christ. I find that
unbelievable. I hear that and I say to myself that,
that cannot be true, and yet the shocking reality is
that we might be losing a generation right before our
very eyes. So, here we are driving Route 25 going North
about 85 miles per hour and Jack's eyes begin to fill
with tears and he just begins to cry out spontaneously
saying, "God, if you do not apprehend this generation,
if you don't open the heaven's and break in, then they
are going to be lost!"
I think that this is the moment and
this is the time, whether it is crying out for mercy
or the shedding of innocent blood, the sacrificing of
our children. Whether it is the loss of our generation,
because of the powerlessness through the organized church
in America. I think we are there. I think we need to
cry out. I drew a picture, but it is challenging, you
know, the older I get, the dumber I feel, can anybody
say Amen?
(ha,ha,ha) I am reduced to a Kindergartens
level of drawing pictures, but I am going to hold it
up, because this is how we are going to pray. I am going
to keep to my promise and I am not going to talk a whole
lot longer, because I think that we are here to cry
out, but this is what makes sense to me. You have been
faithful to contend here Friday nights and Wednesday
prayer fellowship, there are mountains and there are
valley's, I'm sure, but if you are still showing up,
you are pouring out incense. I am going to write the
word incense here, because it is very Biblical. King
David says in one of the Psalms that his prayers come
before God like incense.
The book of Revelation describes the
scene in heaven, in the presence of God where the golden
bowls are being filled with the aroma of the prayers
of the Saints. Intercessory prayer offered in this place
tonight with a greater urgency and passion will be doing
that. I was in the South part of India, the temple city
of India, it has the largest single temple in the world,
Buddhist or Hindu, it has 35,000 idols, the greatest
number of idols in any city in the earth. There is a
guy named Dudley who is working with all of the other
pastors, they are praying together, walking together,
they have prayer walked around this temple. I was just
with them about three weeks ago at a prayer summit.
The first ten minutes I introduced the meeting and we
read a little bit of scripture and I said, "let's
just begin to cry out to God, that He would have his
way in this meeting and I was literally almost blown
back by the explosion of faith and fervency of prayer.
They were on their feet, some were crying out individually,
some immediately went into small groups, there was an
eruption of prayer. Because they believe the sovereign
God is going to send a lightning bolt down into the
midst of that idolatry and India is going to be filled
with the glory of God. I can't wait to go back. These
people got on their knees and begged us to come back
and help bring this to their city. Oh my goodness, that
was so humbling. When I came back here I said to myself,
"Lord, where is the cry here, where is the fire?"
We don't know how desperate we are and we've got a shot
at it. I am not here to step on anyone's toes, rebuke
anyone or make anyone feel guilty. I am here to say
that the Lord has given us a reprieve and I do not want
to go the way of Europe, is anyone with me? I am ministering
in Canada. I am doing prayer summits in Kingston, Toronto.
At the end of November, I will be facilitating a gathering
of emerging city leaders from the whole nation, because
there is a rising hunger in the hearts of the leadership
of Canada, because they are losing their nation, and
I will be together with them to cry out, so here is
where we are.
We have the privilege, it's a privilege
to pour out on Friday night City Reach Prayer or on
Wednesday morning and to ask God simply this. "Lord,
pour out your spirit. Break open the heavens."
When the bowls are filled, it's His prerogative to spill
the bowls. Friends, we have the responsibility to keep
filling the bowls of Santa Rosa and Sonoma county, or
the United States of America. It is a mystery. We don't
know where are, all we know is that the more we cry
out. Our prayers have value, our prayers have substance,
they fill the bowl. At some point this is a lightning
bolt, if I had a yellow pin, I would make this a glowing
yellow and I would want to put down here, "missional
obedience", because we don't just sit and contemplate
it.
I am not a quietist type of person,
I am an activist kind of person, so where I am at with
this, let me use the phrase, "anointed activism",
that describes my life, right? I love being out and
about. I love being a catalytic person. I love compassion
ministries. I love the those who are going to help with
Katrina relief, hey, we are to be about ministry. We
are to be Jesus' hands, feet and heart. Listen to Rick
Warren on Larry King, he was saying, "Larry, we
have been the mouth. We have been shooting off our mouths.
Everybody knows the words, we need to be the hands and
feet of Jesus." I think this is where we need to
be, but if this is in the power of the soul, we are
not going to get it moving, it's got to be anointed
by the Holy God were he pours out the power.
In Acts 4:29-30 they just cry out to
Jesus and say, "Oh God, just pour out your spirit
and shake this place", and I think that is where
we are. I want us to stand and I just want to invite
you for about the next 5 minutes.
I mentioned Psalm 85 and this is the
sound that I think that we want to bring to the Lord
and Harry has prepared the ground for us, but here it
is again. "Lord, restore us again oh God our Savior.
Put away your disappointment before us." It could
also mean the cry of Habakuk, "Lord, in your anger...".
You know, if you look at the obsession with money, obsession
with pleasure in our nation, and you know, the exploitation
of filth and violence and sensuality, it is all over
the airways, all through Asia.
India's middle class culture is being
corrupted now by all of the garbage that we are exporting
to them, so I believe that we need to be saying, "God
in your anger toward us, will you remember mercy, will
you take away your disappointment, and will you break
through?" I think that we are just needing to cry
out for a breaking in and even for the young generation
Lord, we can't do it. We are not going to persuade them.
Apprehend them God, set a Holy revival! Let's hear some
of you begin to cry out for these issues and for our
nation.
(Prayer and crying out for
Sonoma County and our nation)
( Tom White)
Go ahead and move back into your small
groups. I will be with the leaders Monday and Tuesday,
so just pray that the Lord will speak. I just sense
there is a rainbow word in season, that the Lord just
wants to release to the leaders. It's been a long journey
for the leaders, not only just for Santa Rosa, but Petaluma
and others in Sonoma County have been walking this journey,
I just hear the Lord wanting to release a fresh word.
I will be together tomorrow morning
with the marketplace men and women about three hours
at Sam's church. I want to challenge you at this moment
to call forth the Royal Priesthood. Peter talks about
us being not only a Holy Priesthood, but a Royal Nation.
Marketplace men and women are not just people in business,
these are people in government, medicine and education
and I believe that these are the priesthood of believers,
those in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County.
It is time for pastors of the churches,
for leaders of Christian organizations to walk along
side the Royal Priesthood, the men and women of spiritual
influence in this city and I just sense tonight, in
the Lords timing, that we are to call them forth. I
just want to say that it is time my friends, in faith
to call them forward, because this break through will
not occur just with pastors and leaders of Christian
organizations. It is the Royal Priesthood, it's the
whole family of believers, the body of Christ.
This is where God is taking us. Secondly,
I want us to pray for the release of power of the Holy
Ghost on the emerging leaders, those in their 20's and
early 30's. It's already happening, it's nothing new,
but I just feel that we need to pray and some of them
are right here in Hope Chapel. These are merging young
leaders and we older guys have to step aside, not out
of the picture, but step aside and release and bless.
It must be done, it is happening worldwide. This is
the work of the spirit of God. I challenge you as City
Reach Prayer, you who have travailed to do these two
things, call forth the Royal Priesthood out of the marketplace,
to raise them up and empower them, and to pray the release
of power of anointing of the Spirit of God on the emerging
leaders. Are you in agreement? Pray what is on your
heart regarding those two things and then we are going
to pray for Ron here at Hope Chapel.
(Prayer time)
(Sam Tillery - closing prayer)
City Reach Prayer has two priorities,
one is to pray for the city and to pray for the host
ministry. We are in a different location, different
host ministry each month and you can find out the location
by going to the web site, to find out, if you don't
see it there just keep trying.
We want to see what the Lord will
open up for us this next month. Before we begin to pray
for this ministry here, for Pastor Dan, I want to encourage
you to come tomorrow morning from 9:00 am - 12 noon
to Foothills Community Church and spend those three
hours with Tom White. Bringing a challenge and direction
as to what God is doing in the market place where we
all are, in some form of the working place and how we
can walk in His truth.
It will be a very powerful time, a
time to interact, a time to pray, to get direction and
be encouraged. Intercessors will have an opportunity
to very specifically meet with Tom tomorrow at Foothills
at 6:30 pm. So if your an intercessor or you know intercessors,
you can get on the phone and invite them. It's not good
enough to think that that would be nice, don't say no
for somebody. Many don't come because they don't know.
The enemy is trying to keep us from knowing about these
kinds of gatherings and he distracts us with a lot of
good things, but there is something different when we
look at this. It is so important that we pray as individuals,
but far too long we have prayed too much as individuals
and yes, God hears and He answers. An individual prayer
prays more about self and our self interests, in our
little fortresses. When we come together as the diverse
expression of the body of Christ, such as City Reach
Prayers with purpose. We are coming together and answering
the prayer of Christ.
There is a different dynamic, a different
power, a different release, and there is a different
fragrance that comes into the nostrils of God when we
pray in such a way as tonight as we represent different
expressions of the body of Christ. Does that make sense?
And there is different kind of power
and a releasing of God, when spiritual leaders come
together in agreement and when the people of God come
together in agreement, it's different. For me it is
a priority, because I see it as a priority in the scriptures.
Yes, we are different and diverse, we must function
in ministry individually, but we fit in something far
bigger than Foothills Community Church or Sam, is that
true? And we are not preferring one another when we
stay independent of one another, so as we come here
tonight. Something will be released in Hope Chapel that
has not been released to the degree that it will be
released, because for any one of us as churches to pray
for God's blessing on our ministry is one thing. God
hears and answers, but nothing like when we gather together
and now we represent a number of churches here tonight
and we pray God's blessing and power and authority to
be released.
Something will happen and will be broken
loose in the spiritual realm that will not have happened
until we gathered here. Does that make sense pastor?
So, we can look forward to that. We have seen that month
after month in the various churches and ministries,
that when the united body of Christ comes together it
takes all of that, that's the symphony of prayer, that's
true agreement.
Where two or three agree, or in other
words are in symphony, diverse, different coming together
for that beautiful fragrance that is not just one thing
or none, so tonight as we pray for Hope Chapel, we need
to pray with informed intercession. We are going to
ask that pastor Dan come and share what is the vision,
the passion, the challenges. We want to hear some
of the walls that are there so that we can agree with
you that God would tear down and open them up to you.
There have been some exciting things and there are blessings
and breakthrough in spiritual warfare which you have
been doing in some unique issues and such of actually
walking and we'll have you share a little bit about
that, and we want you to share overall, but clear enough
so that we can give ourselves over to praying for this
ministry. Does that make sense?
Also, Sunday night, Tom White will
be at Foothills church and it's an open forum, so invite
the whole county, your friends. Steve from C.L.C. will
be leading worship and then Tom will bring a challenge
and encouragement, it will be a great rally of the body
of Christ, so if your in a church, make sure they know
about it. Dan, would you come and share?
( Pastor Dan)
Good evening. Talk about missional
obedience, here at Hope Chapel we are on a mission from
God, and we are on a mission to de-populate hell. There
are too many people going to hell and we need to do
something about it. Hope Chapel is kind of like a fitness
center, you know those places you go to learn how to
get fit, and people come here in all kinds of spiritual
conditions and with needs. Some come in a little flabby,
some come in all broken up and need a lot of rehab.
Our mission is to love them in Christ
and to be a part of their restoration, their mending
and healing up, then train them in all that God has
for them and has called them to, and then sending them
back into their work place or back into the world. We
kind of have been focusing on the sending aspect with
the Katrina disaster and other places like that this
year. We have 18 people in Louisiana right now, 5 more
going in the morning and that is our 11th team that
has gone. We were there about 7 days after the storm.
I was telling someone here tonight that this is
the new Evangelism tactic that we have, is that we take
non-Christians with us. When we go on these and they
get saved while they are there.
We were in Mexico a few weeks ago and
Jessica just got saved Wednesday night. Her mom came
with us. We have a team going to Louisiana in February
and each person going is bringing a non-believer. I
think that that is pretty intentional, and so they go
there pounding nails or cutting trees down and somehow
Jesus gets a hold of them. I don't know if you noticed
our sign outside? Do you still love us? (ha, ha, ha)
You can pray for us. I had a pastor friend here in town
say, "Dan, your gutsy", but we are doing a
four part series on sex and it starts tomorrow night.
We have vision to expand ministry
here and be a resource church and that is how you can
pray. There is another picture behind Tom White's sketch
and that is what we want to do, but we need another
million bucks before we can even start, but it has been
pretty exciting how much money has come in so far, so
God is doing that. Besides being a pastor here, I oversee
about 20 other churches from the Golden Gate Bridge
up to the Oregon border in our four-square church family,
so I'm kind of busy.
We really have a vision to plant churches
and being a resource church, kind of a mama church here
for other churches, in fact we were just talking about
Sonoma the other day, Rohnert Park and San Rafael. Does
anyone want to try and plant a church in Marin County?
That is something that we can pray about, that God would
raise up a team and leaders for Marin County, that is
one lost place, but one influential place in the world
and we definitely have a heart for that.
(Harry Skandera)
Let's first of all pray for the folks
that are here at Hope Chapel. I would like it if everybody
who is here from Hope Chapel would stand if you are
able and so, if we could get all of the Hope people
standing in the middle isle and the rest of us to gather
around them.
Now, we have heard the vision that
was shared by pastor Dan. I am reminded of the disciples
in the boat during the storm and I relish the fact that
after the storm at sea had occurred. Immediately after
when Jesus had gotten back in the boat, He challenged
the disciples saying that they had forgotten the lesson
of the loaves and fishes. I am thinking that in Jesus
name that the body of Christ tonight, if we can bless
this one dollar bill, and I am going to pass it all
the way to the back, starting in the front here with
Dan. As you are blessing this money, because they need
this million dollars and what is that to God? Nothing,
but let's show our support for Hope Chapel and bless
this dollar. I believe that the Lord will do it. When
this gets all the way back to Steve Hargrove, if you
would bring it back up to Pastor Dan.
(Prayer - Financial blessing)
(Harry Skandera)
The second thing that God has been
blessing these people in is planting new churches. They
are coming up like mushrooms. What a blessing! And they
have a heart to see a church in Marin County. Some of
us have been there and that is a tough nut. But you
know what, many spiritual leaders believe that these
two counties are joined in some way, mostly by oppression,
but there is no question that we are to be connected.
Let's join hands in a circle and pray for our brothers
and sisters in this endeavor.
(Prayer)
(Sam Tillery)
I think an appropriate scripture as
we close is Philippians 1:3, Paul says, "I thank
my God every time I remember you, for your fellowship
in the Gospel from the first day until now". The
word fellowship can also be translated, "Partnership",
and we are a partnership in the Gospel, and as we partner
together in prayer and in functional ministries, it
is a beautiful. Something that we can remember, and
so I can't wait to be together with you again next month.
We don't know quite yet where it is going to be, but
for the past 5 some odd years, we have not missed a
City Reach Prayer meeting. The first Friday of the month
in this city, we gather and so, God will honor our fervent
and consistent prayer. Thanks for being here and make
sure to greet a few folks that you don't know and we'll
see ya next month, if not before.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document.
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