Windows International Network reported, ‘Christian churches are locked down, Believers are threatened and beaten, homes are invaded, Bibles are confiscated and destroyed, pastors are imprisoned’ and ‘the Muslim persecution of Christian Believers has drastically increased since 2017.’ Algeria is a former French colony, and the French government is so disturbed by this new intolerance that the French parliament has officially opened an inquiry into persecution of Christians in Algeria which has risen to number 22 on the 2019 Open Doors World Watch List of the worst persecutors of Christians in the world. Pray for Christian believers as they face increased persecution and the pastors who are imprisoned to be sustained by the Holy Spirit. Pray also for Muslim-background Christians to be strengthened in their witness to family and friends.
USA: Worker kills 12 colleagues
07 Jun 2019
A mass shooting is when two or more people are shot in one incident at one location at roughly the same time. Since 1 January 2019 Wikipedia reports 150 mass shootings, causing 161 deaths and 585+ people wounded in the US. The most recent saw 12 people killed and several injured at a government building in Virginia Beach Municipal Centre. This tragedy happened just before the National Gun Violence Awareness Day on 2 June. Many want to see an end to the easy access to guns which frequently brings schools and cities across America to prominence for all the wrong reasons. Pray into America’s gun law situation.
Dr Jason Hubbard, Director of the Light of the World Prayer Center in Whatcom County, Washington State, USA tells us about how God is answering prayers for Community Transformation in extraordinary ways.
Their 3 fold prayer strategy involves 30 churches taking a day of prayer, once a month. Its like a prayer relay, where a church takes the baton to pray for a day, then passes the baton to the next church. This means they have ongoing, unceasing prayer.
Secondly, Godly men and women gather together in 7 strategic teams seeking the Father’s will for seeing transformation taking place in their community across the seven spheres of society.
Thirdly, they have build a communications system with a prayer guide conveying specific, measurable prayer points. Alongside this, they prepare praise reports with details of answered prayers.
The result is a canopy of united, strategic, sustained prayer.
Jason tells us how 80 of the 100 local Pastors regularly gather to pray – with the outcome of deeper expressions of unity between the churches, a growing Church, impacts in the marketplace, the community, mission and much more!
Watch the video here (14:40): https://vimeo.com/334628060?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=29220
More: www.lowpc.org
As we approach Pentecost Sunday, June 9th, 2019, let’s ask the Lord Jesus for a fresh ‘infilling’ of the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. One of the keys to a powerful intercessory prayer life is ‘praying in the Spirit.’ Dutch Sheets states boldly, “Without a doubt the greatest single key to successful intercession is learning to co-operate with the Holy Spirit allowing him to be all he was sent to be in us!”
As John the Baptist stated,
“This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes in and with the Holy Spirit.” (John 1:30-33)
God-the-Son in our flesh who comes to take away the sin of the world, is also the One who comes to baptize in and with the Holy Spirit. The two works belong together. When these two titles are kept together the gospel is really ‘good news.’ Jesus-to-the-rescue takes away sin, and then baptizes humans in and with the Spirit of God.
The term baptize simply means to ‘immerse.’ The Greek text uses both ‘in’ and ‘with,’ the Holy Spirit. The ’in’ relates to that which we are immersed into, and the ‘with’ speaks of that which saturates us or literally, overwhelms us. Therefore, Jesus the Baptist dunks us in and drenches us with the very life of the Triune God!
Dallas Willard uses the word ‘engulfment’ to describe this experience. Jesus promises an engulfment in the Spirit of God. He promises to clothe us, or dress us with ‘power from on High.’ Jesus of Nazareth, God-in-flesh, redeems us from the power and grip of sin and then baptizes us, immerses us, soaks us, dresses us, saturates us, drenches us, and marinates us with the very Life of the Living God!
When the text says that Jesus ‘baptizes,’ it is in the present tense. In New Testament Greek the tenses of verbs speak of the time of action and the kind of action. The ‘present’ tense speaks of continuous action, literally ‘to keep on.’ Jesus is the one who keeps on baptizing in and with the Holy Spirit. In other words, He comes to keep on soaking us, keep on drenching us, keep on immersing us, keep on filling us with the Holy Spirit, until every fiber of our being radiates with the very presence of the Living God!
We see this confirmed in the story of the early church! Jesus promises, “in a few days you will be baptized in and with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). On the day of Pentecost, ‘they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”(Acts 2:4). And then a few chapters later in Acts 4:31, the text says, “the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31).
Paul says that it is God’s will that we ‘be filled with the Spirit.’ Not just once, twice, but over and over again!
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” (Eph. 5:17-18)
Whereas wine can ruin one’s judgment leading to debauchery, in contrast ‘being filled with the Spirit,’ leads to empowerment, self-control and a life exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit! It is the nature of Jesus to keep on giving his life to us. He fills us and keeps on filling us in stages, ‘grace upon grace’ as John puts it, transforming us from, ‘glory to glory’ as Paul teaches us (2 Cor. 3:18).
Barriers
I believe there are two common reasons why many do not experience the fullness of the Spirit in their lives. The first is fear. We fear that if we really open up to Spirit we might be swept up into something beyond our control. The fact it is, Jesus is beyond our control. We are talking about the Living Lord Jesus coming to occupy and possess us by the Holy Spirit! Out of fear we can settle for a form of religion devoid of power. We try to domesticate the One who is an All-Consuming Fire and settle for the predictable even if it is no longer satisfying.
The second reason is the lack of hunger. We think we have all we need. We are content with what God has done for us, and we no longer come to God desperately needy and poor in Spirit.
However, the reality is that we need the life of God ever-increasing, ever flowing like a river out of our innermost being (John 7:37-39). We need to come more and more under the sway and influence of the Holy Spirit!
We need to be invaded, and permeated, saturated, and flooded with the life of the Spirit in every aspect of our lives! From the very beginning, God has revealed his passion to give his Very Self to the world.
The Holy One intends to fill the whole created order with his Glory! The filling of the Holy Spirit makes fully alive, fully human! We are finally what we were created to be when filled with and animated by the life of the Triune God!
In Luke 11, Jesus writes,
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The Father is a good father and gives good gifts to his children. In our life of prayer we come to him in dependence recognizing we can’t do anything apart from Jesus.
We need HELP! As Alvin VanderGriend states, “The Father is in the prayer-assistance business. He has appointed his Son, Jesus to be our enthroned prayer assistant, and his Holy Spirit to be our indwelling prayer assistant.” Jesus is telling us to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking for the great Helper, the third person of the Trinity!
So this Jesus comes as a Lamb- to- the- rescue to take away the sin of the world. And He comes to baptize again and again and again in and with the Holy Spirit. And whenever he does “there enters into our helplessness and fatigue, ‘a surge of new life,’ and we are freshly empowered, “to do the undoable, to face the un-faceable, to bear the unbearable.” (William Barclay)
Let’s return to the Holy Spirit, turning away from our own works to a total dependence on the Holy Spirit!
Dr Jason Hubbard - Executive Coordinator
International Prayer Connect
We live in a historical time. Every single people group can be reached with God’s Word and kingdom within the next decade. Millions are still waiting to have access to the Gospel. What is Jesus calling us to do?
Well, there is one thing that we have seen God use over and over again to accomplish His eternal purposes: prayer. This upcoming Pentecost, God is uniting the international body of Christ to refocus on what matters. The unreached. Hundreds of like-minded ministries and thousands of churches are united under the Pray for ZERO banner so the unreached are no longer waiting.
Pray for Zero is an international prayer movement dedicated to the provision of God’s Word and kingdom among the remaining unreached, Bibleless peoples. There are currently over 2,000 people groups without access to any Scripture in their language. Through social media and regional prayer gatherings, we connect God’s people to the goal of seeing all remaining translation projects started within this next decade.
You are invited to unite with millions of others to pray for the number of unreached people groups to be brought down to ZERO. Each year we will gather to pray until we live in a world where every single person has access to the Word of God in their language and a local expression of the body of Christ.
If we love those still waiting for a chance to hear of Christ through His Word, then we should do whatever we can to raise awareness so that others will join us in this effort. We encourage you to adopt a people group, pray for them frequently, and post pictures and videos on the International Day for the Unreached — June 9, 2019.
Take a stand. Do your part. Pray for Zero. Visit prayforzero.com.
“Always pray and never give up.” Luke 18b (NLT)
Solomon Lujan
YEAR OF THE FRONTIER May 2019 through May 2020 is a previously unprecedented time of united, informed prayer for the largest gaps in work among the unreached around the world! For thirteen months starting May 2019, join prayer networks around the world coordinating with:
- The Alliance for the Unreached
- The Ethné Movement
- The 24:14 Coalition
- Joshua Project's "Unreached of the Day" (http://JoshuaProject.net/pray/unreachedoftheday)
- Frontier Venture's Global Prayer Digest
as well as many others to pray for every one of the 400 Frontier People Groups (FPGs) with an in-country population over 500,000 as field efforts collaborate to see movements to Christ in every people and place.
What are Frontier People Groups? These FPGs contain nearly all of the one-quarter of all humanity currently the most isolated from the good news that Jesus came for all peoples. Less than 1 in 1,000 are followers of Jesus in these groups. Only 1 out of every 100 cross-cultural laborers work among these groups! Until Jesus followers unite in obeying His commission, these masses have no hope of hearing about and being introduced to Jesus before they die! This unprecedented collaboration will focus on the fulfilment of God's promise to bless all peoples through Jesus movements healing and restoring broken families and communities.
Why is prayer important? Extraordinary prayer is foundational to every movement to Christ. Prayer is the first domino to fall leading to change in spiritual receptivity to the gospel and fruitfulness. Leviticus 26:8 “Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand…”—there is multiplied power in agreement. As intercessors faithfully lift up these specific people groups and believers reach out, God does what only God can do to release harvest.
Learn more about the "Year of the Frontier" at: http://Go31.org/yof
Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/frontier
“Reaching the Unreached” video https://vimeo.com/244739881 and
“The State of the World”video https://globalprn.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b371ecb81ea5dd83cb1ed45cd&id=b68ef93f6a&e=3ba0399bc5
Your prayers are vital to extending God's blessing in Jesus to all the remaining Frontier People Groups.
Draw close to God by embracing His passion to bless these Frontier People Groups. Invite others to join you in:
* Praying daily for every one of these 400 Frontier People Groups over this year:
To get daily prayer materials via email: https://joshuaproject.net/pray/unreachedoftheday/email or
http://www.globalprayerdigest.org Then submit your email in the top right box.
Apps to help you are available for Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=umot.tw.dgp
or iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/global-prayer-digest/id1181417800?l=es&mt=8
* UPG of the Day Widget to customize for your website: https://joshuaproject.net/pray/unreachedoftheday/widget
* On social media, use these hashtags to raise awareness: #YearOfTheFrontier, #FrontierPeopleGroups, #UnreachedPeopleGroups, or #RememberTheUnreached.
* Promoting the international Day of Prayer for the Unreached (http://AllianceForTheUnreached.org)
* Partner to focus on a specific people group through www.InherittheNations.net
* Preparing for the Global Outreach Day 2020 (http://globaloutreachday.com/2020), which will coincide with the culmination of the Year of the Frontier. During the entire month of May 2020, our goal is to mobilize 100 million Christians to pray for their neighbors and nations as well as to share the Gospel with them.
We believe that together with many denominations and ministries it will be possible to reach 1 BILLION people with the Gospel and for prayer-care-share to become an ongoing lifestyle for every follower of Christ.
More at http://go31.org/yof/
51 Nations gathering – For Prayer, For Unity, For a Continent.
United Prayer Rising - Europe is a prayer and worship gathering happening this summer at Ashburnham Place in Sussex, UK bringing together people from all over Europe to contend for an awakening amongst the next generation. We believe God is raising up an army of passionate worshippers who will pray together to see their continent saved. This is God’s time for Europe!
UPRising Europe is part of the global UPRising movement birthed out of the World Prayer Assembly in 2012 in Indonesia. The first UPRising event was held in Seoul, South Korea in July 2016. Since then, there have been UPRising events in the Philippines, South Africa, Mongolia, Bolivia, Malaysia, Canada, Chile and Jakarta, Indonesia.
We are excited to now host an Uprising event for the continent of Europe. This is such a critical time for the continent – much is being shaken whilst God is stirring the hearts of young people for radical prayer and mission.
The backbone of UPRising Europe will be 72 hours of non-stop worship and prayer led by worship teams from all over Europe. These are the grassroots, passionate worship and prayer leaders who are faithful to where God has placed them and willing to contend for Europe.
Out of this will flow prayer and intercession for Europe, with inspiration from speakers in our main sessions. We will be hosting practical seminars equipping young people in a lifestyle of prayer, fasting and evangelism. Finally we will be commissioning people to take this fire back to their nations.
Uprising Europe will be from the 8th to 11th July 2019 at Ashburnham Place, Battle, East Sussex. We want to invite anyone with a heart for Europe and the next generation to come and join us. Ashburnham Place, a retreat and conference centre, is set in beautiful grounds with lakes and woodlands. You can come and camp, or stay in the main house.
JJ Waters, Director of UPRising Europe said, “Following God’s lead, we are incredibly excited to gather together people from every nation in Europe to contend for an awakening amongst the next generation. This is such a critical time for Europe – God is moving powerfully but we know there is so much more to come. He is stirring the hearts of young people for radical prayer and missions, in what is now one of the most unreached continents on earth. Now is the time to come together from different nations, across denominations, honouring fathers and mothers, and to worship and pray for a mighty move of God in Europe.”
The ticket price for this event is generously subsided to make it affordable for delegates from across the continent. The UPRising Europe team would welcome offers of sponsorship from Churches, organisations and individuals who would like to sow into this event, for Europe.
Further details about the event, tickets, pricing or sponsorship can be found on our website https://www.uprisingeurope.org/ or please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Uprising Europe is working with partners including YWAM, Burn 24-7, the World Prayer Centre, Ashburnham Place, Elim Prayer, Maranatha, Crosswinds Prayer Trust and Interprayer UK. Overseeing, supporting and endorsing the United Prayer Rising Europe event are Ian Cole of the World Prayer Centre, Birmingham, UK and Brian Mills of Interprayer, UK. They are both respected elders of the movement for prayer in the UK and worldwide.
30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World - 6 May - 4 June 2019
Year of the Frontier – May 2019 to May 2020
http://go31.org/yof/
Pray for Zero – 9 June 2019
www.prayforzero.com
School of Prayer for the Nations - 9 Jun - 6 July 2019
www.allnations.ac.uk/courses/short-courses/school-prayer-nations
United Prayer Rising Europe – 8-11 July 2019
One God - One Day - One Africa – 31st May 2020
South East Asia Prayer Council Conference – 8-11 October 2019
https://www.seaprayer2019singapore.org/
Go 2020 May 2020