The next phase of our move toward the Austin Ranch area is under way! God has seen to fit to answer our request for a meeting with the developer of Austin Ranch. The meeting is scheduled for 10/10 @ 11 a.m. That is the inspiration for my call for 10 minutes of prayer at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. for the next 10 days.
For many of you, praying for this meeting and now the meeting itself is something that you have been involved in all along. Let me challenge you to consider joining me in a whatever 10 day fast God may lay on your heart. A fast from coffee. A fast from lunch. Maybe even a fast from all food for the next ten days.
Consider sharing your stories of your fast and the results of your times of prayer!
8 comments:
John and I are in. In fact, we blogged about it. Read John's post at http://bigtea.blogspot.com/2007/09/big-tea-eschews-tea.html
This has been an amazing adventure. Kylie and I have been doing this, and it is awesome to think that so many in the church are stopping what they are doing and all praying together for this. We were with Dan the other night watching TV, and we all stopped at 10:00 and bowed our heads to pray. It was great!
Hi Dave,
First thing Monday morning , I had a young lady walk up to me at work . She is a Christian sister of mine, I know very well. But out of her mouth spoke " Hey do you know what the number 10 mean's in Hebrew ?" . Kind of stopping what I was doing...and turning to her in amazement I said "no...no I actually don't", "what does it mean" ?
She said to me " it means Transition, Rebirth". "But God always reminds me through that number ,that there is a light on the other side of the tunnel ". And she walked away.
I can't explain to you the goose bumps I had. Because I too took on the challenge of 10 @10 for 10. And it has been tough, but I have added my own prayers along with the church's, and the fasting.
Dave I just felt this was a whisper from God, saying the Transition for us is in effect. God is Asume !
Thank you,
Angela Smith -Reynolds
Dave's been keeping Christy and I up to date on what's going on, and we are excited to be back with all of you very soon and to be a part of this move to Austin Ranch.
I had a chance to read through Dave's notes on the message, and if there is one thing that has been engrained in me through our experiences with Sanctuary, it is this: when you make this sort of committment to pray for God to move it's not a matter of IF you'll be attacked by the Enemy, but WHEN. As you grow closer to the center of what God desires, the attacks will become so much more intense. Christy and I will continue to pray for you all over the next three days as the time draws near for the presentation.
We can't wait to be will all of you again!
Wise words, Tim, and we look forward to having you and Christy back too! And...we can use all the prayer support we can get so THANKS for praying with us.
And on to my experience...
During the prayer time at church yesterday evening (Mon), I tried what we're learning in our Copper Home Journey Team...just being quiet and listening to God. I read Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2, then spent some time being quiet in our space - with candles burning and soft music playing. God brought some interesting ideas to my mind through how Nehemiah approached the king.
What jumped out at me the most was how Nehemiah "wept and mourned and prayed and fasted" for the people he was going to help. I've been praying earnestly for THE MEETING and for our cool new BUILDING...but haven't given a thought to THE PEOPLE God will be reaching out to! Yikes!
There were lots of other ideas in being quiet and just thinking about what Nehemiah did and how he did it...hopefully you all are doing a better job than me at implementing them!! :-)
The 10 at 10 for 10 plus the fast has put new meaning to the verse "pray without ceasing"! I'm not sure if I can say what effect it has had on me personally except my life was crazier than normal Friday and Saturday... may be due to the fact I'm married to the person who called for this 10 for 10 at 10 thing. Tim is right, we should expect spiritual warfare.
Here's a story David didn't tell in his sermon... Friday morning a not-so-mysterious smell met us as we climbed down the stairs. The kids all verified my suspicion. There was a dead-something somewhere in our house.
After dropping the kids off at school I went back home to play Sherlock Holmes. We aired out the place found the exact spot the odor was coming from - in the wall of our family room next to the fish tank. There was no mistaking when we put our noses to the wall. Since David and I were both running late we decided to wait until the evening to cut the dry wall and get "it" out. I was off to Jody's house.
My appointment to go hang out with Jody began late but it was fun! We worked a little and then stopped at 10 for our prayer time. We went over the ten minute limit for sure. We prayed for safety and good health for the people doing our Austin Ranch presentation. It seemed quite powerful and included tears. Next, we needed to go out somewhere. We decided I would drive since she was feeling the effects of her chemo from Wed. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the empty gas signal on the way over. Can running out of gas during lunch hour traffic on Plano Parkway, while helping a friend be an attack from Satan? Yes, but maybe it's just God NOT enabling me to run my gas tank so low. If it hadn't been for the dead animal and me being in a rush I more than likely would have noticed the signal beforehand. REALLY! In the end it was a lesson learned. My arm hurt from waving traffic around my vehicle for an HOUR in the hot sun! Jody was exhausted from sitting there and I felt terrible for her.
When our comedy of errors was over, I returned home dreading the smell that would greet me. I knew the heat of the day had amplified the smell. Amazingly enough, I opened the door and the smell was totally gone! (and I must assume the dead animal with it?) Some mysteries go unanswered but this one is still driving me nuts...
The following day you all know David was rear-ended while sitting at a stop light in the rain. This was definitely not a lesson from God and created lots of drudgery, especially for him, but I must say I was the one running him for X-rays, then to three pharmacies (not all pharmacies are 24 hour - who knew?), going to pick up my hurt car and canceling my trip to see my parents in Longview Sunday and Monday.
Standing by the side of a busy road a weird thought came to me. God's work is messy and he doesn't usually clean up the dead animal smells while we are doing it. In my experience, he has put us here as caretakers of the earth. I am looking forward to our move to our new community where we can begin to be caretakers of the land and people there too.
Chris
The meeting is over, and we have our answer from God on the specific issue we prayed for, but when you think about it, was that all the prayer initiative was about?
David said something about how, throughout the Bible, prayer is what all of God's faithful people had in common. That means not just prayer for 10 days, but for a lifetime.
I didn't really get to pray at 10 like we were asked to just because of what's going on at those times of day for me, but I added it to my regular daily prayer. And during that time, God reminded me that our plans and His are not always the same. As Nancy mentioned above, it's the people who we reach who will be important, and if we are faithful, God will put us in the best situation eventually. Patience and remaining faithful may be the hardest parts.
I also went to the open prayer time on Tuesday night, despite the fact that I thought I was too busy. My life is more stressful right now that I can ever remember it being, but sitting there in the dark church, having a quiet conversation with God, I realized that I was whole-heartedly trusting God with the future of the church, but trying to hold on to control of my own life. It was only about 30 minutes, but I got more accomplished in that time with God than I had the whole day, running around everywhere trying to do things on my own.
We can plan things, we can ask God for things - and we should do both as He commands us to - but in the end, He will give us what we really need. And that's the best reason to stay faithful.
These stories are amazing (and we are excited about seeing all of you soon too!!!)!
I have to admit that I was disappointed when I heard the news, but then I got to thinking about Joseph and his brothers: "What you meant for evil, God intended for good." Without a doubt, the Enemy was busy. However, it seems to me that the end result was a deeper commitment to prayer and fasting that God has used to more strongly knit the ties that bind the CrossPointe family together. Not to mention what completely unexpected answer may come from this time of intense spiritual preparation.
The Enemy can bruise, but he cannot break if we all hold fast to the power of the one who liberates us.
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