A Common Theme

I love it when God brings about a common theme at our Monday Night Prayer gathering.  This past Monday it was the idea of selfish ambition versus Godly ambition.  It came up in prayer, in the songs chosen, and in bible verses read.

This week we began prayer by being thankful.  We had 21 first time commitments to Christ the previous weekend and we read stories of how people were being affected by our services each week.  Our adoration time we mixed with a confession time.  Before each song we read a related verse from the bible and let the person who read pray the theme of that verse.  For example our second song was "I love your presence" (on the last Bethel Cd).  Someone read Psalm 27:4 and prayed and then we went into the song.  It was a more acoustic intimate set and people at the gathering received it well.  After the last song (step by step) we read Phillipians 3 and opened the mics up to people who were willing to confess sins of selfish ambition for themselves or for us corporately.  I invited everyone where they were at to to confess any selfish ambition versus having Godly ambitions in their lives.

We then prayed corporately for salvations, for the services this coming weekend, for a missions team in China.  We then moved on to a prayer ministry time where we had people stand who were weary, feeling like they needed hope and strength.  Those around them gathered around and prayed over them.

We closed with having our prayer teams up front available to pray for people.

-------------------------------

Elements that worked tonight:

Having the verses read and people praying before each song of the worship set.

Having a slower more intimate set.  We try and do that the last week of each month as our focus that night is intimacy and revival.

Beginning the night with thanksgiving as opposed to how we begin sometimes with singing.

A memorable moment:

As people had stood that were weary and wanting prayer, I told them "Smart people stand for prayer"  Anyone who asks God to bring his super into their natural situation is smart"

One of our visitors tonight commenting to me after prayer "Pappa was there tonight"


A man who came to prayer and was not a believer telling me he had never been in a place like this.  There was a sense of awe as he took in being around the presence of God.