GOD HEARS Prayer Letters

While praying for Afghanistan in my weekly prayer group, I saw a picture in my mind's eye of a jet of water shooting upward like a fountain. It was coming out of what looked like the mouth of a bottle set into the ground in a barren place.

For a few years decades ago, I prayed with a national prayer team for the harvest in Canada. I grew frustrated when they seemed to pray more for the church than the harvest.

How many of us were praying for the Afghan church before August of this year?
How many knew that an Afghan church even exists? 
How many had put prayer concerns involving Islam on the back burner?

"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

"[T]he name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord is There.” (Ezekiel 48:35b) Jehovah Shammah is a symbolic name for Jerusalem used in Ezekiel 48:35b, following a description of the city according to its 12 gates, each devoted to one of the tribes of Israel.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (Jn 13:34). Most of us are very familiar with Jesus’ commands to love: love God, love each other, love your neighbor as yourself, love (i.e., forgive) those who have wronged you, love your enemy.

Wondering how to pray about the continuing conflict between Israel and Palestine? It seems very complicated! It’s tempting to choose sides, assign blame, compare firepower and death tolls, debate about mercy versus righteousness and so on.

Early this week I was privileged to join a national prayer Zoom call in which a family ministering in the Middle East related that what God has been doing in and through them has been “immeasurably more than” all they had asked or imagined (Eph 3:20 NIV).

House churches have much potential for this group. Hospitality opens their hearts. Everyone can feel like a contributor by doing something as simple as bringing food. All can be discipled, whether seekers, new believers or those becoming secure in their faith, because the setting enhances the feeling of family. 

The first Pentecost took place during Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, one of three Jewish pilgrimage festivals (Deut 16:16). Shavuot commemorates the giving of the law on Sinai and offers thanks for the spring harvest.