The Blog of Randy
40 Day Spiritual Journey
I want to welcome you to a 40 day spiritual journey. I trust that you will log on each day. Together we will enjoy a time of spiritual enrichment. Starting on Monday Jan. 5 each day you can log on and enjoy a short devotion. This daily devotion will continue through Friday Feb. 13. I want you to covenant with me to make prayer the heartbeat of this church.
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Day 40 - February 13th, 2009 |
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Written by Pastor Brooks
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Friday, 13 February 2009 00:00 |
PRAYING
......For the coming generation!
I, the Lord have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand: I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house (Isaiah42:6-7). See also John 12:35
Lord Jesus, You declared that we should be the light of the world. We attend churches where some envision themselves as barely hanging on. The darkness seem stronger than the light. We don’t feel as though we are making a difference. Frankly, the vision of Your brilliant glory dazzling our cities until shadows disappeared is not a vision that we have nurtured. O God, is it possible that the darkness could be pushed back? Help us believe in the power of Your light, the light that is in us, Your people, Your church. Give us a vision of a revival that breaks out of the church and fills the city with fresh illumination. Open the eyes of the blind. Let those imprisoned by darkness be liberates. A generation has been reared in the shadow of our steeples who do not even know the Ten Commandments. The Bible characters are unknown to them. They have only a vague sense of right and wrong. They are shackled, and unaware of how restricted they are without the liberty of grace. Some are loaded with feelings of guilt without a clear sense of why, and without the hope of forgiveness. Free us from such narrow thinking that disallows a brilliant manifestation of Your glory. Call everyone in our city to You. Penetrate the darkness. Break out of confines in which even we have held You. Walk through our city. Go where we don’t normally go. Amen |
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Today’s Quote
Neglected prayer is the birthplace of all evil.
-Spurgeon
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INTERCEDE
For Bible translators! Use a globe or a world map. Pray for the nations, and for a global awakening.
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Prayer Exercise:
Show your children the 10_40 window, the area of the world most unreached. Pray for the people who live there.
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Day 39 - February 12th, 2009 |
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Written by Pastor Brooks
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Thursday, 12 February 2009 00:00 |
PRAYING
......For fresh fire!
And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)
God, so many of our churches are decades old, planted by a revival long forgotten. Some stories still circulate among us. Others have been lost. Our grandfathers told us of the days when a Pentecostal pioneer came to town with a fresh message. City elders and religious leaders conspired against him, but their threats failed. Pioneer preachers heralded the gospel through cell bars, preaching to a handful of hungry hearts. Then you moved among them. With faces buried in fervent prayer, unschooled preachers wept and pleaded, “ Let a cripple walk out of this place whole tonight!” And they did. Whole cities were set afire. Where little tents were erected, a permanent church now stands. Instead of a handful, you compelled the whole city to inquire. You were the talk of the town. Do it again, God. Rattle the city with your glory. You are not an enemy of education. You don’t despise our stain-glassed windows and well adorned sanctuaries. But when you were all we had, we wept, we prayed more fervently, we cried out in desperation. Bring us again to simple dependence on you. Do it for the city. Do it for our children who have only heard the stories. Give them a story to tell their children’s children. Revive us again in the midst of the years. Amen. |
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Today’s Quote
Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers.
-Sidlow Baxter |
INTERCEDE
For unreached ethnic groups in your community! Gather a small group of people and each of you go to some corner of the community, some gateway. Drive a stake of prayer there. Connect with one another by cell phone. Mark off the city. Pray for a revival between the stakes.
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Prayer Exercise:
Do a prayer walk near a place that is notably resistant to the gospel.
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Day 38 - February 11th, 2009 |
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Written by Pastor Brooks
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Wednesday, 11 February 2009 00:00 |
PRAYING ......For power to witness!
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned…. They marveled; and took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 3:13) Lord, we see the biblical characters as towering giants and ourselves in a subordinate class. In truth, such thinking frees us from believing we can do what they did or be used in history altering ways, as you used them. James said, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (5:17). Ordinary. Extraordinary, only due to your anointing. By the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the 120 spoke in languages they had never learned. With eloquence not their own, they explained the inexplicable—the enthronement of Christ in heaven and the outpouring of the Spirit, the start of a new age. Give us such capacity. May we declare your reign and call others to your lordship with such compelling clarity that we ourselves know it is not us doing the speaking. It is not us doing the speaking. It is the Holy Spirit in us. We know it can’t be words alone. Your words are laced with your life giving presence. They are more than conjoined sounds, they carry the fragrance of heaven. You are the Word. Come alive when we tell your story. Step into history. May we no longer defer to professionals trained to offer theological language. May we not excuse ourselves from being storytellers. May we rush to join the likes of the New Testament disciples. You made fisherman articulate and powerfully convincing apologists. Make our speech compelling. Give us wisdom the know when to give an answer to open hearts. Amen. | | Today’s Quote There is no power like that of prevailing prayer—Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heart-broken, Jesus in sweat and blood….Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings life. It brings God. -Samuel Chadwick | INTERCEDE For evangelists! Pray near a college or university. Pray for this generation to be encountered with the overwhelming evidence that Christ lives. | Prayer Exercise: Pray for youth. Have a youth prayer meeting. |
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Day 37 - February 10th, 2009 |
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Written by Pastor Brooks
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009 00:00 |
PRAYING
......For boldness in witness!
And it shall be that… everything will live wherever the river goes… fishermen will stand by it…. Spreading their nets…. Along the bank ….will grow all kinds of trees…they will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. (Ez. 47:7-12)
Lord, there are places in my city that I avoid, areas though which I prefer not to drive. I do not want to live or shop in such neighborhoods. Yet, I rarely pray for such places. Forgive me. I need a vision for renewal. I need the eyes of Ezekiel. He saw a stream break out of the temple that flowed with increasing force through lifeless places to the Dead Sea itself. Wherever it went, it brought life. Trees sprang up, healing and feeding trees. Death disappeared. Fishermen were found in places where they had never been present before. Such a vision is almost too much for us. To see our churches as places out of which such a force of life flows that it changes the city is beyond what we have believed possible. Break forth, God. Make our churches forces of vital life-giving power. Let rivers of living water flood forth, unstoppable grace that causes the dead to live. May we catch fish in places where no evangelism has ever been successful. Alter neighborhoods. Impact crime levels. Recruit gang leaders as preachers. Let ethnic pockets of foreigners around us who have imported their gods find true life. Let nothing stop the river. Let it not be confined to the church. Let it break out into the city. Pick the darkest, deadest places—and let them live for your glory. Flow river, flow. Flow through me. Out of my innermost, flow Lord. Amen. |
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Today’s Quote
Nothing would turn the nation back to God so surely and so quickly as a church that prayed and prevailed. The world will never believe in a religion in which there is no supernatural power. A rationalized faith, a socialized faith, a moralized gospel may gain applause, but they awaken no conviction and win no converts.
-Samuel Chadwick
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INTERCEDE
For law officers. Go sit in the place of the person away from God. Pray for him there. Identify with the guilt and separation, Tell an officer, “Thanks for being a minister!”
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Prayer Exercise:
Have a candle-light prayer supper. Pray about letting your light shine. Talk about the pressure of “standing out” from others. Talk about the temptation to hide our faith. Pray that God could trust you with great resources for His Kingdom’s sake.
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