PRAY FOR THE CHURCH

[Pearl]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German pastor, theologian, martyr, spy was asked in 1943 how it was possible for the Church to sit back and let Hitler seize absolute power. His firm answer: "It was the teaching of cheap grace."

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We live in a time and culture that not only teaches cheap grace but praises it.

 

[Pearl]

Exodus 33:14-16

The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?’

 

[Pearl]

 

[Pearl]

Church should not be a dead organisation run by men, but rather a living organism, a living body with Jesus as the Head, a beating heart, the breath of the Holy Spirit in her lungs, the power and the DNA of Jesus in every part.

 

[Pearl]

Until self-effacing men return again to spiritual leadership, we may expect a progressive deterioration in the quality of popular Christianity year after year till we reach the point where the grieved Holy Spirit withdraws - like the Shekinah from the temple. A. W. Tozer

 

[Pearl]

This morning as I was asking God how I should pray for the Church, I recalled the time Jesus entered the temple and threw out the people selling animals and changing money. These people were mis-using the temple and I wonder if I should pray about all the mis-uses of the Church. As Jesus said it should be a house of prayer.

Matthew 21:12-13
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.”

 

[Heart2Soul]

Father today is a beautiful day! For.this is the day that you have made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Father, as the world is falling into despair and darkness, I keep my eyes on you and know that it is well within my soul.
We eagerly and faithfully look to your Word that fills us with hope for your promises are sure and will be as you have spoken it.
Your Word says you will restore your church and that is our prayer today..Father, rise up Church! Rise up saints! Rise up children of God and be filled with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit! Be filled and minister to the world the Gospel of Jesus so that the world may have hope and be saved.
In Jesus Name!
Amen!

 

[Pearl]

Father today is a beautiful day! For.this is the day that you have made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Father, as the world is falling into despair and darkness, I keep my eyes on you and know that it is well within my soul.
We eagerly and faithfully look to your Word that fills us with hope for your promises are sure and will be as you have spoken it.
Your Word says you will restore your church and that is our prayer today..Father, rise up Church! Rise up saints! Rise up children of God and be filled with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit! Be filled and minister to the world the Gospel of Jesus so that the world may have hope and be saved.
In Jesus Name!
Amen!

Amen.

 

[Pearl]

I think this was a post by Helen on another forum a few years ago but it bears reiterating on this thread.

I think the church should be in panic mode but it isn't!

When will the church finally say to the people- " Sorry, it's not you it is me, I am the problem! Our Sunday 'productions' have worn thin. Our stage, and the lights, and the bands, and the video screens, have all just become an empty sound to those who are really seeking to encounter God. They are just 'ear and eye candy' for just an hour, but they have such very little relevance in people’s everyday lives that more and more people are 'taking a pass' on Sundays!

Our songs are cool and 'the show' is great, but ultimately... Sunday morning isn’t really making a difference on Monday, Tuesday and the rest of the week when people are wrestling with the awkward, messy, painful stuff in the trenches of everyday life.."

So, when WILL the church says.-" Sorry, but it isn't working. We are not imparting the anointed life of Christ. We are full of dead men’s bones. People come in empty, and they go out empty? "

Church, you have the big fancy buildings, the coffee bars, the cushy couches, the high tech lights, the funky Children’s wing and the cool Teen Centre are all top-notch … and costly. In fact, most of your 'time' church seems to be spent on getting money and spending your energy in luring people to where you are, instead of reaching people where they are.

"To me" what is called 'the church’ is pretty much a social club and business.

 

[Heart2Soul]

I think this was a post by Helen on another forum a few years ago but it bears reiterating on this thread.

I think the church should be in panic mode but it isn't!

When will the church finally say to the people- " Sorry, it's not you it is me, I am the problem! Our Sunday 'productions' have worn thin. Our stage, and the lights, and the bands, and the video screens, have all just become an empty sound to those who are really seeking to encounter God. They are just 'ear and eye candy' for just an hour, but they have such very little relevance in people’s everyday lives that more and more people are 'taking a pass' on Sundays!

Our songs are cool and 'the show' is great, but ultimately... Sunday morning isn’t really making a difference on Monday, Tuesday and the rest of the week when people are wrestling with the awkward, messy, painful stuff in the trenches of everyday life.."

So, when WILL the church says.-" Sorry, but it isn't working. We are not imparting the anointed life of Christ. We are full of dead men’s bones. People come in empty, and they go out empty? "

Church, you have the big fancy buildings, the coffee bars, the cushy couches, the high tech lights, the funky Children’s wing and the cool Teen Centre are all top-notch … and costly. In fact, most of your 'time' church seems to be spent on getting money and spending your energy in luring people to where you are, instead of reaching people where they are.

"To me" what is called 'the church’ is pretty much a social club and business.

Undoubtedly the pastors of the churches have become too soft, too lenient, too liberal with their messages.
But then there is the board of elders or deacons who dictate to the pastor what he/she can preach...and on top of that all corporate denominations are restricted to teach what the head of the corporation allows them to teach...(I remember getting our monthly Sunday School Books that had the whole months teaching in it)...(to insure that the church didn't stray from the doctrine of faith...this is what organized religion has done to the church....how can the Holy Spirit have any place within man's legalism.)
This is one reason the church is becoming dead...spiritually dead.

 

[Pearl]

Undoubtedly the pastors of the churches have become too soft, too lenient, too liberal with their messages.
But then there is the board of elders or deacons who dictate to the pastor what he/she can preach...and on top of that all corporate denominations are restricted to teach what the head of the corporation allows them to teach...(I remember getting our monthly Sunday School Books that had the whole months teaching in it)...(to insure that the church didn't stray from the doctrine of faith...this is what organized religion has done to the church....how can the Holy Spirit have any place within man's legalism.)
This is one reason the church is becoming dead...spiritually dead.

Absolutely true @Heart2Soul. The Church today is led by committees or dictator pastors neither result in a truly living Church led by the Holy Spirit. I left a traditional church so that I could be baptised. The church I joined believed in the verse that says,'Where there is no vision the people perish'. But even they lost their vision eventually. The pastor there now though seems to be seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the renewed vision that will bring it back to life.

 

[Mayflower]

Father, thank You for Your plans for the church of God in 2021. Thank You that You have plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Thank You that You have plans to give us a future and a hope. I pray power and awakening in the name of Jesus. I pray for unity of the church and for justice to be done quickly. I pray for many more to come into the army of God. I pray for the church to speak life instead of death, since life and death are both in the power of the tongue. In Jesus Name, all enemies are put down. In Jesus Name, we prosper in all situations. Blessed are those who walk in the Law of the Lord. Great are You Lord, and You do great and mighty things.

 

[Pearl]

Father, thank You for Your plans for the church of God in 2021. Thank You that You have plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Thank You that You have plans to give us a future and a hope. I pray power and awakening in the name of Jesus. I pray for unity of the church and for justice to be done quickly. I pray for many more to come into the army of God. I pray for the church to speak life instead of death, since life and death are both in the power of the tongue. In Jesus Name, all enemies are put down. In Jesus Name, we prosper in all situations. Blessed are those who walk in the Law of the Lord. Great are You Lord, and You do great and mighty things.

Amen!

 

[Pearl]

Heavenly Father, I humbly come before you to pray for your Church. Fill it with all truth and peace. If it is corrupt in any way, let it be purged. Where it may be in error, direct it. Where it is superstitious, rectify it. Where there is anything wrong or ungodly, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen and confirm it. Where it is in want, furnish it. Where it is divided and rent asunder, bring unity, O Holy One of Israel.

 

[Pearl]

This is an excerpt from 'Lucas on Life' by Jeff Lucas.

I am angry at the face, the facade that has been placed upon the most exciting and supremely beautiful person in history. We the church, the guardians and key holders of the Kingdom of God, have done something incredible. We have painted Jesus Jesus in boring colours. We have taken the Most Lovely and turned him into a wrinkled crone . . . . Angels must faint with shock as they consider what we have done. We, the church, have made Jesus seem predictable and boring . . . .

It has taken a long time, and a concerted effort, but somehow we have managed to take the author of colour and dance and variety, the master of spontaneity and humour, the one who calls himself 'The Life', and make him look like a domesticated 'godlet' who may be vaguely admired, sentimentally remembered when troubles are rife, but who is bland, insipid and vague - an anaemic Galilean.

 

[Pearl]

I read this a while ago in my 365 devotional: “Welcome Holy Spirit”

“The Roman emperor Constantine modified the religion of Christianity from a ministry movement involving every member to a spectator sport.

Where the church consists of an audience watching a few talented and often burned out up-front performers, there is much evidence of a lack of spiritual fitness. God’s will is that every Christian reveal the Spirit’s power through spiritual gifts so that the whole church be blessed. When this does not happen, because of Constantine’s model of the church, then it fails to fulfil it’s ministry in nurture, outreach and corporate worship.

For most of the first 300 years of its existence, Christianity was a small group house-church movement. As circumstances permitted the small groups would come together for a combined festival of prayer and praise, but it was only in the small group setting that every member of the body was able to use his or her spiritual gifts for the common good of the church. If the church consisted of ten members in a house, then at each meeting every member had an opportunity to minister with a song, message, special revelation, prophecy or tongue and interpretation. There were no spectators. All were participants.

The true gospel ministry in the spirit’s power involves people caring for people rather than the impersonal, formal gatherings that have come to characterise much of cultural Christianity. Spiritual gifts, whether they involve supernatural powers, practical Christian service, outreach, nurture or leadership are all part of a team ministry. They centre in small groups, and extend into individual, midsize and large group activities. If you want to see spiritual gifts flourish as they did in Bible times, now is the time to become involved in this part of real Christianity.

I think the future of the church has to be to place more importance on small groups where people are in an informal and relaxed setting and can discover and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to bless each other and the wider church. In these groups there is more scope for individual ministry, both to new believers as well as those in the church going through troubled times. They would be a much better place to learn and grow than in a large formal church meeting.”

 

[Pearl]

THE PULSE BEAT OF ALL WE DO

The Church is an institution, but it is not essentially an institution. Essentially it is a body, an organism, through which life and energy must continually flow if it is to experience vitality and health.

The Holy Spirit is more than an influence. He is a person who guides, counsels, cleanses, empowers, directs, and most of all, just abides with us.

The Holy Spirit is not a spiritual luxury to be imported into the unusual but a spiritual necessity at work in the usual. He is to be pulse beat of all we do – the Life in our living. Selwyn Hughes.

 

[Mayflower]

Father, I thank You that those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength. Thank You that we will soar on wings like eagles, we will run and not grow tired, we will walk and not faint. Give us wisdom and discretion to walk in Your ways and also make peace in the world. Give us wisdom in unknown territory when situations arise that what to do is unclear. As Your Word says, let us trust in You with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding. As we acknowledge You in all our ways, You will make our path straight.I thank You for that promise and for Your protection and saftey over us. In Jesus Name

 

[Pearl]

Father, I thank You that those who wait on the Lord will gain new strength. Thank You that we will soar on wings like eagles, we will run and not grow tired, we will walk and not faint. Give us wisdom and discretion to walk in Your ways and also make peace in the world. Give us wisdom in unknown territory when situations arise that what to do is unclear. As Your Word says, let us trust in You with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding. As we acknowledge You in all our ways, You will make our path straight.I thank You for that promise and for Your protection and saftey over us. In Jesus Name

Amen

 

[Pearl]

I have read all the Narnia Chronicles a number of times and went to see 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' at the cinema when it first came out. I watched the evil white queen/witch turn Aslan's followers into blocks of ice with a touch of her wand.

Sitting there in the dark of the cinema I realised that this is what Satan does to many followers of Jesus. He renders them ineffective and inactive so that they are unable to fight the spiritual battles.

Then Aslan finds them frozen and lifeless and breathes on them, bringing them back to life. And this is what the Holy Spirit does for us in real life. We used to sing, 'Breathe on me Breath of God, fill me with life anew.' But mostly without the understanding of what that really means.

To be effective as followers of Jesus, as the Church, we need the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us each day. And all we need to do is ask.


And this morning I was blessed to read about Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones and how God fleshed them out and breathed life into them so that they became a vast army.

Please God bring your Church back to life by breathing on what has become dry and lifeless so that once more your Church will be all you desire and be a light to those in darkness. Amen