Lord, we ask that Your Word may chasten us whenever we go astray.
May it enlighten us whenever for a moment we get into darkness.
May Your Word be the supreme ruler of our being.
May we give ourselves up to its sacred law to be obedient to its every hint, wishing in all things, even in the least things, to do the will of God from the heart and to have every thought brought into captivity in the mind of the Spirit of God.
May the Proverbs furnish us with wisdom, the Psalms comfort us, the Gospels teach us the way of holiness and the Epistles instruct us in the deep things of the Kingdom of God.

Charles Spurgeon: Prayer and Spiritual Warfare-The Presence of the Word.
We stand again at a crossroads, and at each corner of this intersection are factions demanding to be followed with each pressing hard their ideology and raising their voices to drown out the other three and yet somehow they manage to find a common enemy – Jews and Christians. So it is that we watch and see today that many are struck with a heavy hand for not bending a knee to the prince of this world.

Even in the spiritual realm there are boundaries set upon those that would do the work of the devil. The four houseman of the Apocalypse have boundaries they cannot cross Rev.9:15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The devil must get permission to tempt to seek to destroy Job 1:12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

Evil has boundaries!  It is like the sea when God created the heavens and the earth Proverbs 8:29a when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command.  Reaffirming that God is in control of all of creation!

It is the chaos leading to those boundaries that consumes so much in only moments!
Job suffered great loss and Jesus gave warning to Peter to be aware.  Luke 22: 31:32 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Do we talk with each other about what concerns us?  We are where we are today because we did not want to talk about those same things. Many saw them coming down the track like a freight train but turned their head as it went by. Because of our decision to leave the decisions up to others; we no longer find that we have any say in matters of great importance.
Nothing that men want to hear anyway!

This is why there is such great need today for members of the body to come together to pray for one another.

The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings… If God be near a church, It must pray. And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of His absence will be slothfulness in prayer – Charles Spurgeon

 

Today more than ever in the spiritual battles being fought upon the earth it is very important to keep the Pastor in prayer, to keep the spiritual ministry leaders in prayer, to keep the Sunday school teachers lifted up ~ especially those who are teaching the next generations. It is important to keep one another lifted up and encouraged. One of the ways that we can do this is by coming together for a prayer meeting seeking God’s face and His hand.

When you come, do not come worried about what your prayer sounds like, come with a heart that is focused on God and speak to Him about the things that concern you, we are there to support your concerns and to petition God that His answers may come to whomever or whatever the prayer goes up concerning.

Do we believe that God is in control or do we mouth the words hoping that others will believe what we cannot?
In times like we are in, we should have more than a handful of people interceding, there is a world dying outside our doors and when we are silent, we have to ask: do we really care?

These are not questions of condemnation, but they are questions that we need to consider and take the time to talk to the Lord about. Together, with the Lord, we can move mountains, we can see people come on bended knee before the Lord, we can be a part of the healing of a community, and we can help one another find the answers to questions needing answering or give a hand in seeing answers being fulfilled. You never know how the Lord may choose to use you.

Lord, my prayer for each reading this letter is that they would be able to see how much they are needed as people of prayer. There are many jobs and many tasks that are presented before us and the laborers are few. Many Lord will feel that they do not have the gifts or the skills to speak, to write, to lead, to pray with others and so, Lord, I ask for courage for them. I ask that they be reminded that prayer is a time of sitting with You, and that they find that they get lost in prayer and forget that they are with others who have come together in agreement to present our concerns, requests and praises to You, our God and Father. Lord, may hearts be moved to speak, and freedoms come to those who feel bound to withhold themselves from meeting for prayer. May we give You our praise, may we worship You in all things, and may we understand what freedom in Christ Jesus means in our lives and then run to You, Father:; for by Your Word all things are, and will be, and there is not one thing in creation that does not submit to Your Word!
To our Almighty, Powerful and Great God and Father, I pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen