Vision Document and International Invitation

www.10DAYS.net

Already this year we're aware of over 30 locations around the US and the world that are planning 10 Days.   No doubt, we'll be adding new locations in the days and weeks ahead. More than numbers, I'm encouraged by the quality of what is emerging.  At our recent 10 Days Summit in Northfield, there was an incredible manifestation of love (John 13:34-35) and unity (John 17:20-23) in the Spirit.  This isn't just an endless quest--by God's grace, the Church is going to fulfill Jesus' prayer "let them be one as we are one."  And I think we're making progress!  

Check out these 10 messages that were shared at the Summit!

Do 10 Days in your area...

Many of you are already planning 10 Days in your area.    If you haven't already, would you take a minute to email Vi Tran (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and me about your plans?  As last year, we can provide you with a city-specific page on the 10 Days.net website. 

...or join us for 10 Days at Northfield

Some of you may want to get a better sense of 10 Days before you bring this vision to your nation, state, or city.  As a second option to launching in your city, we invite you to come and experience 10 Days for yourself with believers from around the world in a retreat setting at the Northfield campus (MA, USA) founded by evangelist DL Moody in 1879. 

Introduction to Northfield and 10 Days. 

Our hope is that 10 Days Northfield will be something of a "model" 10 Days, where people can come from around the globe, experience what this is all about, and then take that experience back to their nation, state, and city.  10 Days will be culminating in the "Restore and Revive Conference (Sept 29-Oct 2) with speakers RT Kendall and Heidi Baker.  

Share this Vision with your city...or internationally!

Finally, I'm attaching this year's "10 Day Vision" document.  It's a great 1 page document to use in introducing 10 Days to others in your city.  In addition, I've attached an "International Invitation" that can be used for introducing 10 Days to friends in other nations.  Other Resources for sharing about 10 Days are available at 10Days.net.  

Thrilled to be partnering with you again in prayer this year.  I'm going to seek the Lord, but it's so much better when we do it together! (Zech 8:20-23)

Blessings,

Jonathan Friz

The story behind Ceaseless http://ceaselessprayer.com

I’ll be the first to admit that I can be pretty selfish. Prayer isn’t something you’d normally think of as self-centered, but there was a time in my life when I managed to make it about myself. All of my prayers were about me—my anxieties, my problems and my desires.

I wanted to pray for others too, but it was hard and usually felt impersonal. Also it’s overwhelming! There are just too many people and needs to keep track of, much less pray for. And, let’s be honest, I knew that I couldn’t count on self-discipline to manage prayer lists that in the past would quickly be forgotten.

I was thinking about my selfish prayer dilemma one day, when I realized that I had easy access to a list of people to pray for: my Facebook friends.

And instead of praying for everyone in general, I could specifically pray for a few friends each day, which would eventually lead me to pray for everyone, including friends who would never ordinarily ask me to.

I spent a few weekends building an app that integrated with Facebook and sent me an e-mail with several friends to pray for each day. After spending some time using it, I was surprised at how easy and helpful it was. Every morning, I would look forward to discovering who to pray for that day. In a couple of cases I even felt prompted to reconnect with friends I had not spoken to in awhile.

Is it useful?

I named the product Ceaseless and shared it with my friends to see if it could help them too.

After about 6 months of praying for friends, I discovered that with 70 users we had prayed for over 20,000 people. Mind blown. I did a bit of math to see how high this number could practically go. Assuming everyone had completely unique friends (math stuff here), 10 million Christians could pray for the 1.3 billion people on Facebook in less than 2 months. How? 3 friends a day. Beyond that, it isn’t hard to see that if we can do this for the 1.3 billion people on Facebook, we could also pray for the 7.2 billion people on earth.

This realization opened my mind to thinking of Ceaseless as more than a product. It could be the start of a something much bigger. What would God do if we prayed for people we have never prayed for before? What might He do as we pray regularly for others with all the breadth and depth that he invites us to?

I’m excited to find out. You can too.

How:

Step 1: Pray for 3 friends a day

Download Ceaseless for iPhone or iPad and start praying for 3 friends each day! Without you, a lot of your friends may not be prayed for. But it’s more than just a responsibility—I’ve found praying for others to be a refreshing source of joy and love as well. (Add your name to this list if you need Android. Use this form if you need something else).

Step 2: Share your joy

If after using Ceaseless you’ve experienced more joy in God, the next step is to share it and invite others to join.

Step 3: Going above and beyond

Finally, if God moves you to support this mission beyond just praying for your friends, please let me know. It is my passion to see believers unleashed in using their gifts to advance the gospel and whether that be through financial investment, volunteer effort, collaboration, access to platforms to share the vision and inviting brothers and sisters to the task or anything else, I would be delighted to talk with you.

I close this letter with an invitation to joy. Jesus said:

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” 
(John 16:24, NIV)

Paul also taught:

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, ESV)

God wants us to be joyful and prayer is one way He shares His joy with us. Can you imagine the awesome experience of seeing God publicly respond to our prayers in ways we didn’t think were possible? Can you hear the inspiration of story after story of God’s abounding grace spreading to others through our prayers? Can you feel the deep satisfaction of knowing that God heard you and granted your request for someone else because He loves you?

The invitation to pray for others is nothing less than an invitation to joy. Let’s share it.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Christopher Lim

Founder, TheoTech

http://ceaselessprayer.com

The burden to pray in Europe was born around the year 2011 during one of my prayer journeys in USA. I have been praying in USA since 2009 following a burden placed upon my heart during a visit to the grave of David Brainerd and Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. But my visit to Europe came about only this year, 2017. Lord miraculously provided a family in Hamburg, Germany – Pavan and Hanna - to host me during my visit. This enabled me to attend the International Prayer and Mission Leaders Consultation in Herrnhut, Germany from 8 – 12 May.

Immediately after the Herrnhut meetings, I left on a six-nation prayer walking tour. I was able to visit 10 cities – Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Zurich and Copenhagen. I also had the opportunity to visit Wittenberg and of course I spent four days in Herrnhut earlier, the birth place of the Moravian Movement. It was a very solemn experience to be in Herrnhut and to reflect upon the vision, the commitment and the life of Count Ludwig Nicholas von Zinzendorf. 

This was my first visit to continental Europe and I could only visit six countries in Western Europe. I have no idea of how Eastern Europe is and its needs. Therefore it must be stated that this is by no means comprehensive of the situation in Europe. And I wish to add that it is more through the eyes of one from India, called to preach and teach the word of God and of one who has been following the Lord for nearly 44 years and has been involved in preaching and teaching the Word of God for almost the same number of years. 

At the outset I must state that, as in USA so also in Europe the main focus of my prayer was not so much those who do not know God, but my focus was the people of God, the Church – for God’s people to live lives worthy of their calling. If the Church is as she should be, then the world would be reached too. In my opinion the church at large has lost her witness and her authority as well through compromise with the world. 

1. Before leaving for Europe, I asked the Lord what I should be praying for in Europe. Lord answered that I weep for these cities and the people. This is what I did in each city I visited. 
2. My first stop after Herrnhut was Leipzig. I attended a Bible study with a small group of young people, all of them were in their 20s. After the study, I asked the group if there was one thing that I could pray for Germany, what that would be? One of the young men answered, “Pray for the burden of guilt that we carry. The guilt of what our ancestors did in the past.” This threw a totally different perspective for me on what some of the Germans might be going through. Another young man at the same group said that there were many who do not see any need for God in their lives and that there was a total lack of knowledge and belief in God or in Christ, These two statements expressed by two men in their 20s gave me an idea of what to pray and this became my focus in Germany.
3. One scripture passage that was brought to mind constantly as I walked through these cities, was Romans 1: 18 – 31. These classic words of Paul in Romans tell us the spiritual history of man. I began to understand how this probably came about in Europe, especially regarding the ‘suppressing of truth’ and the consequent ‘revealing of God’s wrath’ – God giving them over to: idolatry, irrationality, immorality and impurity of every kind. I then understood, why Lord wanted me to to weep for these cities and their people. 
4. In Amsterdam, as I was looking for the hotel where I was booked to stay for the night close to the Central Station, I strayed into the red light area. (I am not sure if this is the famous red light district of Amsterdam). As I walked through and prayed and observed the people, I began to have a sense of foreboding and a palpable sense of the presence of evil all around. It felt as if some one was driving me away to leave the place. I wept. I had the same feeling of foreboding in Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, Denmark. I felt totally uncomfortable and out of place walking through. I strayed into the place and did not know what it was until I read about it later.

5. While travelling by bus from Brussels to Paris, I felt the Lord telling me, “Speak judgement upon these cities”. All along the journey from Brussels to Paris, the route was dotted with small farming villages. And practically every village had a structure with a steeple. Obviously those were small cathedrals and that means there are or were Christians there. This gave me no joy. Unless there are dynamic groups of the body of Christ, cathedrals and physical structures of any kind were of no use. I wept.

Practically everywhere one can see tall physical structures, probably chapels and cathedrals. All these structures as well as the institutions they represent have actually obscured the knowledge of God. They neither represent Him nor His Son, Christ Jesus.  The urgent need of the hour is for dynamic groups of followers of Christ, who would truly represent Him in their lifestyles and not in their programmes and projects. I, then understood why I was to speak judgement upon these systems, structures, cities and people – they were not true representations of God. It was as if man erased God’s glory in His creation and built structures which represent his own image – the image of his fallenness. I wept! 

In general that was the burden of my prayer all over Europe – that God would raise not bannered groups but living and dynamic groups who would live as the Body of Christ, the way Christ lived. I believe unless such groups arise the world over, there is no hope for the world and the church as well! 

6. As I walked in Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt and Copen Hagen and as I looked upon the huge buildings – the financial houses, banks, malls, store-fronts, museums, the art and the architecture, Lord began to say to me, “These are the temples in these nations.”. These have become the source of sustenance, security and identity for hordes of people and thus have supplanted God in their lives. I wept! 

Idolatry in the West is not the same as in the East. In the East, they rejected God’s general revelation in His creation and began to worship the creature rather than the Creator. In the West, people seem to have rejected God’s revelation both in creation, His word and His Son and have begun to worship the creature. The only difference is that the gods were different. These gods were gods of money and matter. Ostensibly they appear neutral and innocuous. Yet these demand no less devotion and allegiance and one is as enslaved to these gods as the gods in the East. All these gods blind the eyes of the people from seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ. 

I began to sense the presence and the power of Mammon all around. And I began to wonder if Mammon has overtaken us all, both in the West and the East by surprise including many Christians and many churches. We seem to revel in our riches and our material affluence. We do not see money or Mammon as the single greatest rival to the worship of God, as Christ taught in the sermon on the Mount.Instead we think that money is needed to serve God and in the bargain we give more time to making money than to worshipping or serving God. Ofcourse we justify it by super-imposing our work upon worship lapsing into the eastern mindset of ‘work is worship’. I wept! 

7. Finally, in the midst of it all I prayed for the remanent faithful people of God, who already there sincerely living and following Christ all over Europe – that they would be a potent witness for His Kingdom. I believe they are already there. AMEN, LORD! 

'An attempt to overturn November's election and forcibly remove a duly elected president'

http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/new-warning-resistance-turning-into-american-coup/

Please pray that the human and spiritual forces of division and hate will be bound and overthrown in the USA and that the institutions of government and the media will serve the American people honestly and fairly.