CONFERENCE EVENTS

PRAYER FOR YOUR CHURCH

Single parents

 

Lord, I lift up the single parents in our church. May they know You as father to the fatherless and defender of widows! Let us be a real family to them when they are lonely. Show us ways to include them and minister grace to them. Stir up practical ideas in us that show Your love and care. Help them relax in Your grace and provision which is more than enough for every weakness and need. (Ps. 68:5, 6; 25:16; Matt. 25:35-40; 2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 4:19)

 
Home arrow Incense Rising arrow What the Spirit is saying to the church:
What the Spirit is saying to the church: PDF Print E-mail
Our reader’s share what they hear in His presence.

Editor’s note: This is your section. We want to hear what the Spirit is saying to you while you’re in His presence that would be of interest/importance to the Body of Christ at large. We look forward to what you have to share.

From Ginny Kisling, San Jose, CA:

"Recently the Lord gave me a strong and encouraging word for the intercessor community. It started with this question from the Lord: 'What is the intercessor’s sacrifice?'


"That question actually came as I was seeking the Lord about a question of my own. I had just finished a time of prayer and had labored and agonized over a period of a few hours to get into and stay in His presence. In fact, that day I felt like I was literally dragging a boulder to the Altar. That boulder didn’t want to move. I had moved through confession, repentance, tears, heavenly worship, praise and adoration, but the boulder wasn’t budging. My heart still felt like anything but a soft, warm and inviting place for the Father to come. In desperation I cried out to Him and He redirected my attention to what was on His heart and mind for the day.

"As I pondered His question before me I began to think about the whole idea of sacrifice, what it is and what it isn’t. As I thought on it, I realized it is not a sacrifice for what I call the hard-wired intercessor to give his or her time and energy to prayer. It is not a sacrifice for the hard-wired intercessor to enter the Throne Room and stay there, in fact, its quite the opposite. It is pure joy—pure delight! Intercessors seem wired to fall at the feet of Jesus. They love their designer prayer closet. I’m reminded of Anna who stayed in God’s presence night and day, year after year after year:  'and as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day' (Luke 2:37). An Anna-type intercessor loves to come into the Throne Room. This is where he or she most wants to be! They often experience a calling to bear down in prayer until an item is prayed through. You might even hear them describe being in His presence as 'intoxicating.'

"In His presence they are filled with the Spirit as we are all encouraged to do in Ephesians 5:18 'and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit' and John 7:37-38 'If anyone thirst let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ The hard-wired intercessor knows how to drink to satisfy their thirst and out of their heart flows rivers of living water for the body of Christ through their intercession.

"But here is the funny paradox. One great desire of the intercessor community is to bring the whole church into deeper prayer.  But what they often do not realize is that while prayer comes easy for them, it does not for the average person. What is joy and fulfillment for them is sacrifice for others. The Lord showed me that the prayer experience of the average person more closely resembles what I experienced as I struggled to drag my own prayerless heart to His Throne that day. This lack of understanding on our part sometimes causes us to be judgmental and to give up trying to mobilize prayer. I sensed that God was about to show me an important spiritual reality that would be a key for unlocking the door of intercession for the whole church. If the intercessor community is asking something that requires a sacrifice, then intercessors must be willing to offer up an equal sacrifice.

"That became my next question. What would be an equal sacrifice for the intercessor? One that God would find pleasing and acceptable? I talked to other intercessors and didn’t find the answer.

Then it came to me early one morning as I talked with the Lord. He simply impressed me with the following:  'the intercessor’s sacrifice that I find pleasing and acceptable is loneliness, isolation, being invisible, misunderstood, rejected, seeing little or no fruit, feeling unappreciated, being without mentorship.' I knew immediately that this was a key for us in the prayer community. It was a key to unlocking the whole church for intercession. I felt like I had just unearthed a treasured jewel.

"The enemy has strategically taken out many gifted intercessors along the way through hurt feelings because they have been misunderstood, unappreciated or not grafted well into the Body of Christ. Maybe this describes you right now. If it does, I believe He is calling you to come back. Rejoin His army of intercessors to help break down the spiritual walls of the church.  When those rivers of living water are flowing into the Body of Christ from the intercessor community, the rest of the body of Christ can come into the Throne Room with greater ease and speed.

"The battle over intercession for the church is fierce. It is territory Satan will not give up without a fight. He’d much prefer to stir up conflict between the intercessor and pastor, between intercessors themselves and/or to simply take them out of commission. Why? Because in His Presence there is power. In His Presence there is victory. In His Presence the bride will be glorified. In His Presence the enemy will be defeated and overcome. And where does intercession take us? INTO HIS PRESENCE.

"Arise intercessor! Your role is vital. He has given you a heavenly marker to help you find your way in your service to Him. The next time you begin to experience loneliness, isolation, feeling invisible, misunderstood or rejected, our Heavenly Father wants you to bring it to Him as a sacrifice that is pleasing and acceptable to Him. 'Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness' (James 1:2).

Ginny is the Western Regional Director of the Church Prayer Leaders Network.  She would love to get feedback on this word she has shared!  Contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
 
< Prev   Next >