There Can Be No Revival, No Awakening Without Prayer

"There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer."  A.T. Pierson


The more we pray at Experience Life, the more we realize the necessity of prayer.  As we look at the New Testament and at church history we realize the quote by A.T. Pierson is so true.  Revival or Spiritual Awakening can not come except when it is proceeded by prayer.  In Acts we see the early church consistently in prayer.  The reason signs and wonders happened, the reason the gospel was preached with boldness, the reason the church exploded was that this early church knew the importance of prevailing prayer.


We opened Monday night prayer with thanksgiving.  Each week when we announce how many people have committed their lives to Christ the previous week we are celebrating how God has answered our prayers.


We prayed for a sister church in our city Trinity Church and asked Gods blessing upon a prayer time that they are having on Sunday nights as well as encouragement for their senior pastor Carl Toti and his family.


I told the story of a grandfather and grand daughter who were a reality cop show on t.v.  When a criminal came out of a house with his hands raised, the grand daughter said look grandpa he is worshiping.  The little girl recognized the man was in a posture of submission, I give up, I recognize you are the authority here.  This is how we wanted to enter into a time of worship tonight, surrendering and recognizing Gods as our authority.


We sang four songs finishing with "A beautiful exchange" and "the stand".  After worship Gary Galanos shared a couple of stories from the Hebrides revival that began in 1949.


Then we invited people to come up and pray for revival.  Young and old came up and called out to God to come.  Come in power upon us.  It is powerful to see them come and pray.  I have found that quickly after we pray corporately like this, something begins to happen.  I am excited and look in anticipation at what God is going to do with these prayers.


We prayed for people who sensed a call to be a person who helps pray in this next movement of God in West Texas.  We also prayed for people whose finances were jacked up.  We prayed for those who were dealing with depression.


We are praying that God will show himself great in our day and in our time.  We are praying for revival in West Texas.
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Elements that worked tonight:
Sharing a story of revival (Hebrides revival in 1949) and then inviting people to the mics to pray.
Having two men at both mics to adjust height of mic or to let anyone who went too long know.

Memorable moments & phrases:
Over 100 people stood as we asked for those who sense a call to be part of helping usher in revival through prayer to stand.

There has never been a revival or spiritual awakening throughout history that has happened without people who prayed.

Strong Presence of God - Monday Night prayer 101209

We continue to see a strong presence of God among us as we come together to pray on Monday Nights. Last night was no exception. One of our key prayer people told me that when they entered the room at 6:30 they were immediately struck by an awareness of Gods presence.

Worship tonight was two slower songs. "I exalt thee" which is a vintage song and "the more I seek you" from Gateway worship. The lights were dimmed and there was a incredible peace for me indicating Gods presence. I could hear sobs to my right and God was moving in someones heart and then someone to the left sobbing also.

Our prayer intern, Matt, really felt led to encourage people that God was there in a powerful way and that He was breaking chains upon people. I got up and had people linger more in Gods presence. I had Mark and Brandon sing I exalt thee again.

As we consistently do we went into a time of thanksgiving where we hear answers to prayer. Everyone gave a great round of applause for at least 30 seconds when the announcement came that we had 28 salivations this past weekend. David Eppler, a local pastor from Cityview Fellowship came and shared about 10 minutes on what it is to be an intercessor. An intercessor is one who stands in the gap and helps bridge the gap from a persons reality now to what the reality of Gods will is.

Tim led us in prayer for a young girl who was wrestling with the option of abortion, we prayed for David Eppler and the leadership of Cityview, we prayed for the prayer movements in the city: Pray Lubbock, 24/7 prayer, Remnant and all prayer gatherings of people, we prayed for people to come to Christ this coming weekend, we prayed for our lead pastor.

During our prayer ministry time we prayed for all public servants: mail, govt., police, fire dept, utilities, we prayed for all those who had gone through intercessory training, and then for any need anyone had.

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Thanks given for:

28 first time commitments.
20 people interested in baptism

Comments for the weekend:

I enjoyed it greatly and felt like God was talking to me through Chris.

THANK YOU! Amazing, Uplifting, Encouraging, Just what I needed!

What awesome worship time! Brandon thanks for reading scripture over us!

Awesome! I loved the loving atmosphere!

Off the chain!!!

A Night of Intimacy and Prayer - Monday Night Prayer 083109

Last night was a time where there was such a sense of Gods presence with us as we worshiped and spent time cleansing our hearts before God and then on to various prayer topics.

I was reminded last night of a time when I was about 27 years old. I had just broken up with a girl I was very serious with and was struggling knowing my next step in life. I was very discouraged and broken. During that season I was in church one night and the worship leader came back up to the platform after the service was over and continued to play and lead worship for anyone who wanted to stay. I stayed and soaked in the gracious presence of God that night. I thought to myself right before i left "God I don't want to go back out there to the real world and deal with what I am going through" and I heard in my mind "It's okay, I will be with you". I knew God was saying He would be there as I walked through this tough time. And that season passed and I made it to the other side. I sensed last night the Lord was encouraging some others who were going through hard times emotionally that He would be with them.

We prayed for revival in our midst and in our city last night. We prayed that our two year anniversary coming up would be an amazing time of being in Gods presence.

We prayed that God would make Himself known in our day and in our time.

We ended the time praying for those who struggle with anger.

Logistics that worked tonight:
Turned the lights down to create an atmosphere where people were not as conscientious.

Read through passages in 1 Peter and Ephesians 4 calling us to put away our former ways of life and spent time asking God to show us any ways we were not aligned with Him.

Had everyone envision other parts of the building and pray for the ministries invovlved there

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Thanks given for:
13 first time commitments this week
10 recommitments to Christ

Tim-I needed that laugh! Thanks a lot!

Greatest Experience of my life! (this was a person that committed his life to Christ!)

So very freeing. Grounding!

Very encouraged and pointed to Christ,

Save the Childrens!...Love it! I love how we can praise Jesus, and still have fun! :)

Here We Are Send Us - Monday Night Prayer 062209

Tonight,

The people really engaged in worship. I continue to be amazed at Gods presence that is so strong during our prayer times. Colby shared about his trip to Rwanda and how God used prayer with their team. He told of several people coming to Christ and one woman who was physically healed of a chronic stomach problem.

We spent time praying for people who don't know Christ in our city to come to know him and that God would bring revival to His people in Lubbock, Texas.

Closing prayer was about people who are called to pray. We had everyone stand who had a call from God to pray for our city. We probably had about 20 people who stood. It is encouraging to see God moving in peoples hearts to pray. We also prayed for anyone with a need they wanted specific prayer about.

Like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 "God here we are send us !"

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Thanks given for:
6 new committments to Christ this past week and 2 recommittments.
quotes:
• Life Changing! (this individual committed his life to Christ, also)
• I visited your church on the recommendation of a friend and it was the best advice I've taken in a very long time!