PRAYER EMAIL - MARCH 25

 Greetings,
"for, behold he prayeth,"  Acts 9:11
"A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway."  Acts 10:2

How many other verses, that match this same discipline of prayer?  Numerous times I come before you with this email, with that same calling and same directive, that God sees and knows our position, 'behold he/she prayeth'; and the time reference of Cornelius, 'he prayeth alway.'   Each one of us on this email prayer lists, at some point or another, we have had interaction to this mighty, powerful discipline of prayer.  Where God has birthed within us that passion, fervency, and desire to pray, so as to prevail.  And the great exploits of past, present and future have hinged on somewhere and at sometime that God has allowed us to break through.  Where we go beyond just praying, and we see the prayers answered.  Glory to His Name for such Divine moments in our life that brings Him glory and honor.

It is the consideration of prayer that I once again write and set before you.  That the church was born in prayer by Christ and the 120 in the upper room.  That every miracle was done in answer to prayer; every soul saved is the direct result of some one praying (thanks be to God for all those that prayed for my salvation); every work of God done in our lives and the churches is a direct result that someone was found in prayer (like Saul) and someone prayed always (like Cornelius); every revival that ever happened came about because God set someone to pray and pray always.  It is the most marvellous thing to know that at the center of everything done for God's kingdom come and God's will be done, is because God has ordained that men ought always to pray and not to faint.   And thanks be to God that He has allowed us to be a part of that.  

But as the confession of the churches, and of many Christians and far too many pastors, have declared, 'I/we have no prayer life".  They testify to this.  Knowing that they should pray, and men ought to pray and pray more; yet, they know the sin of prayerlessness is named among us.  Thus the reason for 'calls to prayer'; 'and challenges to make more time for prayer''; and conviction when prayer is absent and diminished.  If everything of God's kingdom and will is done through prayer and by prayer, then why is it such an issue among the church and Christians?  Is it not  the same as in most of the spiritual disciplines of bible reading/studying/memorizing and sharing; and church attendance/support and participation; and fasting; and evangelism;  Men know that they are supposed to do this, but the choice of actively doing it is far from them.  'To him that knoweth to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."    

Is it not the greatest restoration of these spiritual disciplines, and especially prayer, during these days of revival and refreshing?  Those that sit in the manifest Presence of God, testify of a renewed hunger and thirst after God through these disciplines.  In most recent weeks, several in our churches are confessing and declaring their renewed passion for Bible reading & study and prayer.  They hunger and thirst.  It is glorious to see.  Yet, I've been around long enough to know, 'that the test of time' will reveal in men's minds and hearts of how long they shall stay faithful.  The one thing that I can say, that I have remained faithful in all these years, is my bible readings.  I just completed by 60th time through Scriptures.  Faithful to read twice a year, faithful to do the word/phrase studies.  And I sorrow that I desire to say that I wish I could be as faithful in all the other disciplines as I have been to that for almost 40 years.

So if prayer be the power; if prayer be the means; if prayer be the Presence of God; ordained of God, by God, for God? Then why do we not seek to be more in prayer?  for no matter, how much you pray or talk about prayer, can it be said of you and me? 'They were found in prayer; they were always in prayer.'  I don't hear of any man that says, 'I pray enough.'   Many of the great saints in the latter part of their lives, were asked, 'if you could go back and do something different, what would you do?'  And they almost all answered the same, 'I would give more time to prayer.'  is it not the Scripture, the testimony and the witness that we be men and women of prayer and God's church, be a house of prayer?  Then it is needful that we be intentional about prayer.  Seek to faithful; learn how to pray, glean from others that are praying, and be accountable to this most intimate spiritual discipline - PRAYER. 

Brethren, I ask you, How is your prayer life?  and I ask, What is the Lord leading you to do to increase the prayer life of the individual and of His church?  Can there be any greater epitaph on our tombstone, "Behold, he prayeth. . . always praying unto God." 

"The hour is late, the need is great; pray so as to prevail."  

PRAYER TARGETS:
EPIDEMICS
1.  drugs/alcohol - 
2.  children -
3.  Pestilence - 
4.  LGBT - Uganda congress makes law that outlaws LGBT for their country;
5.  natural disasters - flooding in CA; tornados in south; 
6.  Great Evil -  as we come into the last week of March, I report that so far this month, we have had 2 police officers killed; the school shooting in Denver; a decrease in mass shooting and murde-suicdes; however, 6 mass murders, mostly domestic;  This trend has continued since October.  
7.  Economy - financial collapse imminent; banks domino effect watch and waiting;  reset of currency globally; shortages, impact is almost unfathomable to our current way of life;  Is the church ready? 

UPDATES:
--bible readings - FINISHED!!  60th time through; word study - wait and watch; working to complete all Scripture references;  I write these out by hand for my prayer notebook;   I will take last week of March to rememorize Psalm 119 and finish the word studies and then begin again on April 1;  
--- A Word blog - up through Jeremiah 29:21;  I have been able to back and finish all verses of chapter 29, still need to do chapter 26 & 27;
--Monday bible study - Deuteronomy 9;  finished up chapter 8, word throughout is 'remember' & 'forget not';
--Thursday Hour of Prayer - previous week did focus on petitions, supplications & intercessions;  this past week, shared new confession Scriptures of lists of sins, in Timothy, Peter and Matthew15;  
--Sunday church - Keyser church at 10 AM:  Fox's Hollow - SS at 2 PM, Romans 3; worship at 3 PM:
--1st & 3rd Sunday of each month Community Prayer with Pastors;  blessing last week to join for baptism services;  our 2 for baptism wanted a river baptism and we will hold off to warmer weather;

Until,
Dan

Started:  March 25, 2023

Finished:   March 25, 2023

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