Prayer Starters: From September 9, 2023

Prayer Guide

We gather on Saturday, September 9 for the most important gathering of each month to pray very specific prayers over a 3-hour period. Following the extended prayer meeting, we shall continue praying throughout the month of September using these prayer guidelines every day during our private and family prayer times.

Please feel free to add to the prayer guidelines as the Spirit of God lays things on your heart.

There are always 6/7 sections that can take you an hour or more to pray through. Attempt praying for 1 hour if you can make the time. In the event that praying for 1 hour daily is not realistic for you at this point, attempt a whole hour of prayer once a week using these prayer points and any other ones that well up in your spirit. PRAY AT HOME

If you are able, please come to the Prayer Summit meeting each month FASTING. You may have water tea or juice between the hours of 6 am and 3 pm.

This means we are encouraging fasting for all Prayer Summits. Prayer sessions are from Noon to 3 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month. Please note that some prayer points will be repeated as the Spirit of God may lead us from month to month.

1. Prayer of Repentance and Consecration.

Let’s begin with a prayer of repentance and consecration. Sit before the Lord silently for a few moments and let Him bring to mind things you need to deal with.

• Practice confession of known sins before the Lord
• Practice forgiveness by releasing those who have offended you. Mark 11:25-26
• Practice asking for forgiveness from those who may have been offended

Scripture Text Meditation and 1 hr Prayer Session:

The first hour is divided into 3 parts. We begin by giving praise to God our Father. We then engage in a journey through scripture meditation where we pray congregationally about the will of The Father as it is revealed to us.

Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving. Psalms 105:1-22

In this set of scripture verses the writer encourages us to sing sacred songs to God and talk of His wondrous works. In a few verses later on he describes the sacred acts of God towards His people Israel. Furthermore, he talks about the miraculous life of Joseph, first in how God promoted him while in Egypt despite all his struggles, and how he became a savior in a severe time of famine.

• What are you thankful for? Do not generalize. Be specific just as we see in Psalm 105.
• What wondrous works can we talk about?
• Take a moment to itemize things you can identify as God working in you and His church
• Praise Him for the things you can recall on your list

Praying The Model Prayer for 1 Hour

During this session please read meditatively for 5-7 minutes Ephesians Chapter 1. Make a note of what pops out to you. We will use the verses and messages that stand out to you as congregational prayer points.

Pray for One Another

During this session let us take a moment to pray for one another. What are the things you need prayer for? Let us take turns in praying for one another.

2. Praise God for Church Growth, Now! Ask for More

Only God can grow the church according to His own will. We must not take for granted what the Lord has done in response to past prayer requests for His church.

• In 2021 we specifically asked the Lord to add 10 new families to JFC. He did exceeding abundantly more. Then we asked for more and He answered.
• Let us NOW pray for 25 families who are seeking a refreshing to be added to the 12:30 p.m. service at Joy Fountain Church by His own power. We declare every seat taken in Jesus’ name
• We Prayed for more volunteers to help launch a children’s ministry for the second service, that’s happening. Praise Jesus!
• We Declared that Joy Fountain will continue to grow as a life-giving church. Let us maintain that declaration in Jesus’ Name.
• Lift up the First Nations, Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, and other such communities where there are people wanting to become Jesus’ followers but are being hindered by group pressure and threats of rejection
• Pray for God to answer the secret prayers of those who are religiously oppressed in our nation.
• Pray for the Lydias of our city. Read Acts 16:11-15
• Pray for revival in churches across Canada. Read Isaiah 32:12-15

3. A Righteous Church Seeking and Growing in God’s Love

Read Ephesians 3:14-19

The Church is not a human concept. She is God’s design, His family on Earth. For this reason, we must live and operate our lives within and outside the Church according to the will of God. If we do not know the will of God how can we live it? Paul’s prayer in the above verses of scripture is directed towards our knowledge of God’s love for the purpose of being filled with His love.

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19 NKJV

Pray using the verses above all of the same prayer requests Paul asks of the Father for His church.

The Lord wants His church to grow, He desires to see many saved. See 2 Peter 3:9.

4. Remember “The King’s RESET” 2023? Read Isaiah 43:19

Early in 2023, we defined a reset as “to make new.” Previously each Tuesday in November 2022, we had fasted and prayed for the King’s reset in our lives and our nation. As we stated then we restate even now that a reset can occur in our lives because God is our Father, and we have a covenant with Him. A Divine reset can also happen in our nation because He is the Judge of all the earth.

Using the verses of scripture included and other verses you would like, let us revisit the following prayer requests asking for Isaiah 43:19 in the following areas:

• Reset in families.
• Reset in homes and marriages
• Reset in our Canadian Government

In what small or major areas have you seen resets happening? Pay attention and you will be amazed.

5. “Casting Down Every High Thing…”

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV

• Pray that the citizens of this great country will grow in unity against any semblance of authoritarian evil.
• Use the authority granted us in Jesus’ name over the spirits of sorcery and sorcerers operating like Balaam seeking to hurl curses and hexes against the people of God.
• Pray against the works of satan and his minions
• Pray the prayer of the “Random Arrow” prophecy: that those who refuse the counsel of God (while hindering God’s work) like King Ahab be brought to swift justice.
• Use the authority granted us in Jesus’ name over the spirits of sorcery and sorcerers operating like Simon in our neighborhood and nation for the release of those whose minds are held captive. Acts 8:9-13, 1 Corinthians 4:4

6. Called into a Deeper Walk with God. Philippians 3:10 and Galatians 3:20

The Book of Ephesians calls us to a deeper walk with God. From the beginning of the Epistle, Paul makes it clear that we are blessed with spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Ephesians 1:3. The problem for us is living out the spiritual blessing in the natural. Paul gives the recipe in his epistle to the church in Galatia:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

A deeper walk with Christ is a call to the crucifixion of our flesh and its desires. We cannot experience the power of Christ on the peripherals of the concept. God forbid that the only experience we have as Jesus’ followers is soulish. The flesh (human nature) must be crucified daily to experience a deeper walk.

• Pray that the reality of Galatians 2:20 will occur in your life and mine.
• Pray that we become submitted to Jesus Christ as true disciples

7. Give Thanks and Praise for Answered Prayers

God chooses to answer our prayer in the way He determines to be best for us. He is always at work and what may appear like a delay with God is never a denial. Let us be encouraged by this scripture

“Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.”

1 Kings 8:56 NKJV

Look out and pay attention to see areas where the Father is moving and answering prayers. Give Him Praise! Amen!

Our next Prayer Summit will be held on Saturday, October 7, 2023. Remember a prayer gathering of the church of Jesus Christ is the most important gathering of any month. Our prayer gatherings set the tone for everything else that happens in the Church community. Please plan to attend. See you there!

MORE IMPORTANTLY GO DEEPER WITH GOD. PRAY AT HOME!