Prayer Network Newsletter - January 2011

Scripture for January: “What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” Isaiah 5:4 

Quotation for January: “[A] large percentage of “millennials”—people born between 1980 and 2000—don’t consider religion important in their lives. A new book, The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation, says only 13 percent of people in this age category consider any form of spirituality to be meaningful. . . . This must become a ministry priority for America’s churches.” Lee Grady 

Director’s Message: In America there are now more “millennials” than “baby boomers” (those born between 1945 and 1965). But do you have more “millennials” than “baby boomers” in your church? If you do, your church is bucking the trend. We have to go back over two hundred years to find a generation less influenced by church and biblical principles than the “millennials.” For the vast majority of them we have become irrelevant. Perhaps this is why only 15% of 18 to 25 year olds are married, and why 93% of unmarried young adults who describe themselves as “in a relationship” also report that they are sexually active. I share this not to discourage us, but rather spark us to action. “Millennials” may be “wild grapes” but they are the harvest field set before us. It is our calling to “thrust in the sickle and reap”—our responsibility to reach out to them with the love and truth of the Gospel. In the coming year, would you join with all of us in praying specifically that the burden for this generation will grow across our conference, and for the Lord to give our pastors and other ministry leaders creative ideas for engaging them? If we are to see “Kingdom Expansion” in 2011, reaching the “millennials” must be at the top of our priorities and in the forefront of our prayers. I believe that the Holy Spirit is poised ready to show us what we can do differently in our vineyards in order to bring in a bountiful harvest of “good grapes.”  

Daily Prayer Emphases for January:

MONDAY – Pray for ideas for reaching and discipling the burgeoning “Millennial Generation.” 

TUESDAY – Pray for the unemployed & underemployed in your community; pray for new jobs with good benefits to come to your town; pray for innovative business ideas to take root where you live. 

WEDNESDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials as they lead us in “Kingdom Expansion” during 2011.  

  

THURSDAY – Pray for each local church to have lively & impactful Women’s and Men’s Ministries. 

FRIDAY – Pray for the drug-addicted and for the victims of domestic abuse in your community; pray for children all around your church who live in danger because of their parents’ lifestyles.

SATURDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 112^th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

SUNDAY – Pray for an agonizing awareness of sin to overshadow our communities—especially on the young adults and teens. 

Prayer Network Newsletter - December 2010

Scripture for December – But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. I Peter 4:7 NKJV

Quotation for December – If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.  Charles H. Spurgeon

Director’s Message: One of the most precious intercessors at our church, Sister Lula Thompson, likes to pray that we would all be found "RAPTURE READY." Peter told us to pray always with the Lord’s imminent return in mind. When that Day takes place, only those who know Jesus as their Savior & Lord will be found ready. For the rest, it will be—as Bishop Leon Stewart once put it—Too Late. We need to live—and we need to pray—in the long shadow of the Second Coming. This is what Peter means by being “serious and watchful” in our prayers. The compound word in Greek that is rendered here as “serious” can also be translated “sober minded” or “right thinking,” but its most literal meaning (based on the root words it brings together) is “salvation-minded.” In the quote above, Charles Spurgeon shows us what it means to be serious—to be salvation-minded. 

The thought occurred to me yesterday, the first Sunday of Advent, that we would do well in the weeks ahead to be less focused on wrapping & more focused on the Rapture. How easily we can let the pressures of family & church holiday expectations sap our time & energy. But the baby we are celebrating came to die. He came destroy the works of the devil. He came to restore to sinners to right relationship with His Father God. He came to save souls from Hell. With great intentionality, we must keep our prayers “serious and watchful” during the Advent Season. Jesus came once. This we celebrate at Christmas. But He also is coming again. And this we must be ready for. Let us pray that everyone with whom we celebrate Christmas this year will be found RAPTURE READY when Jesus comes back again. 

Daily Prayer Emphasis for December:

MONDAY – Pray for the Lord to guide and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials and our local pastors as they lead us forward in Kingdom Expansion. May we be a “Spirit-fed” & “Spirit-led” people.      

TUESDAY – Pray for Biblical values to be respected by our national, state, and local politicians—and pray that each of them will know Jesus as Savior & Lord.  

    

WEDNESDAY – Pray that our “Sunday Morning Only” folks will develop a desire to attend mid-week Bible studies, prayer meetings, and discipleship classes.   

THURSDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

FRIDAY –  Pray for new IPHC churches to be birthed and for like-minded unaffiliated churches to seek fellowship with the IPHC.  

SATURDAY – Pray that this Christmas season will be a time of great conviction, repentance, salvation, & deliverance.  

SUNDAY – Pray that our people will be more unified & utilized in the work of the Gospel.  

November 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Director’s Message: If we are not careful, our prayer time can be so overwhelmed with crises—broken marriages, broken homes, broken bodies, broken ministries, broken churches—that we spend all our prayer energy on these emergencies. Sometimes I feel that my “secret place” has become a “spiritual ER” and my prayer life is in perpetual “Code Blue.” To counter this, I try to follow Paul’s example of “preventative praying”—asking the Lord to mature and establish believers before any crises develop. Here are some examples of what I like to call his “wellness prayers.” I find great encouragement in praying them over my church, family & friends.  

Philippians 1:9-11 – And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Ephesians 1:15-19 – Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power. 

Ephesians 3:14-19 – For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

   

Daily Prayer Emphases for November:

MONDAY – Pray that our single adults will not fall into sexual impurity—and if they have, that conviction will so overshadow them that they repent and change their ways.     

TUESDAY – Pray for Biblical values to be respected by our national, state, and local politicians. 

    

WEDNESDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials as they lead us forward in Kingdom Expansion.

THURSDAY – Pray for the adult children & grandchildren of our pastors & ministry leaders who are far from God. 

FRIDAY –  Pray for new IPHC churches to be birthed and for like-minded unaffiliated churches to seek fellowship with the IPHC.  

SATURDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

SUNDAY – Pray that sinners will be saved & believers discipled in our churches today.  

Prayer Network Newsletter - October 2010

Scripture for October: “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.” Hosea 10:12b (New King James Translation)

Quotation for October: “Many of us have no heart-sickness for the former glory of the Church because we have never known what true revival is. We stagnate in the status quo and sleep easy at night while our generation moves swiftly to the eternal night of hell. Shame, shame on us!” 

Leonard Ravenhill (Why Revival Tarries) 

Director’s Message: Like breaking fallow ground, praying for revival is hard work. But a “heart-sickness” over sin—over the souls all around us headed straight to hell & over the church’s fading compassion for the lost—will keep our hands on the plow of intercessory prayer. It will shake us out of our complacency and our self-centered tendency to strive primarily for our own creature comforts. It will get us out of bed at odd hours & drive us to our knees. It will cause tears to course down our cheeks at seemingly the slightest provocation. Such heart-sickness over sin will cause us cause us to hunger for the soul-winning power that our churches knew in past generations. I close by asking you to consider these hard-hitting questions posed by Leonard Ravenhill: “Do the Pentecostals look back with shame as they remember when they dwelt across the theological tracks, but with the glory of the Lord in their midst? When they had a normal church life, which meant nights of prayers, followed by signs and wonders, and diverse miracles, and genuine gifts of the Holy Ghost? When they were not clock watchers, and their meetings lasted for hours, saturated with holy power? Have we no tears for these memories, or shame that our children know nothing of such power?” 

   

Daily Prayer Emphasis for October:

MONDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials as they lead us forward in Kingdom Expansion.   

TUESDAY – Pray for a move of God among the foreign-born residents of your community. Pray that Christians will befriend them & show them the love of Jesus. 

    

WEDNESDAY – Pray for a revival of repentance—sparked by an agonizing awareness of sin—in our churches and in our communities.

THURSDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111^th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

FRIDAY –  Pray for new IPHC churches to be birthed and for like-minded unaffiliated churches to seek fellowship with the IPHC.  

SATURDAY – Pray for more of our churches to become passionate about supporting our missionaries with their prayers and their finances. 

SUNDAY – Pray that our pastors will preach with an increasing unction and that increasing numbers will be saved, sanctified, & filled with the Holy Spirit in our services. 

September 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Scripture for September: Then He [Jesus] came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Mark 14:37-38 (New King James Translation)

Quotation for September: “It has been said that the church advances upon her knees, . . .” Noel Brooks 

Director’s Message: I once heard Adrian Rogers say the following after quoting Mark 14:38: “Frankly speaking, we often do not pray as we should because we’re lazy.” I don’t know about you, but sometimes my spirit is more willing than my flesh when it comes time to dig in and pray. 

Noel Brooks, in his wonderful little book titled A Biblical Basis for Missions, explains as cogently as anyone I have ever read why the church must overcome this weakness of the flesh if we are to be mighty in the Spirit. I will turn the remainder of my column over to Brother Brooks:

“Almost every chapter in the Book of Acts has a reference to prayer. It has been said that the church advances upon her knees, and the Book of Acts certainly demonstrates this. The early church received the Holy Spirit through prayer. It received divine direction through prayer. It overcame opposition through prayer. In other words, it really did advance upon its knees. It’s an absolute must. A prayerless church will perish. A prayerless mission will surely fail. Prayerless people, prayerless missionaries, prayerless pastors, prayerless leaders, rather than helping to build the church, are helping to kill the church. This is a vital spiritual principle.”  

   

Daily Prayer Emphases for September:

MONDAY – Pray for new IPHC churches to be birthed and for like-minded unaffiliated churches to seek fellowship with the IPHC.     

TUESDAY – Pray for the victims of domestic abuse in your community; pray for children all around your church who live in danger because of their parents’ lifestyles.

    

WEDNESDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials as they chart our course for the next four years.  

THURSDAY – Pray for every local church to have a spiritual & productive Men’s Ministry, as well as lively & impactful Women’s Ministry. 

FRIDAY – Pray for the unemployed & underemployed in your community; pray for new jobs with good benefits to come to your town; pray for creative business ideas to take root where you live. 

SATURDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111^th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

SUNDAY – Pray for a revival of repentance—sparked by an agonizing awareness of sin—in our churches and in our communities.

August 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Scripture for August: “Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.” Ephesians 6:18 (New Living Translation)


Quotation for August: “Quit praying about yourself and be spent for others as the bondslave of Jesus. That is the meaning of being made broken bread and poured out wine in reality.” Oswald Chambers

Director’s Message: Back in the colonial period, New Yorkers used to make fun of their Puritan neighbors in New England by telling the Yankee Prayer: “Lord, bless me & my wife, my son John & his wife. Us four & no more!” At its best, this joke exposed Christians who put on a godly looking exterior and yet are completely absorbed in their own needs and desires. As I reflected on this humorous old saying, I realized that we are robbing ourselves and our families when we expend most of our energy in pray on “us four and & no more.”

Think about this: If ten church members pray just for their own needs, they each have one person presenting their case to the Lord. But if each would trust the Holy Spirit to put their needs on the hearts of the other nine and in turn pour themselves out in intercession for the needs of their fellow believers, then each person would have nine people taking their needs to the Lord. And nine beats one anytime!

Lord, never let my prayer life major in my needs and minor in the needs of others. Help me to trust you so completely that I walk in the confidence that You have placed my needs on the hearts of other Christians and am free to pray selflessly, as Paul instructed me, “for all Christians everywhere.”

Daily Prayer Emphases for August:

MONDAY – Pray for the safety our children and our teachers as they return to school, and pray for all our students (especially those going to college) to be protected from the grip of godless, secular ideas.

TUESDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

WEDNESDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials as they chart our course for the next four years.

THURSDAY – Pray for new IPHC churches to be birthed and for like-minded unaffiliated churches to seek fellowship with the IPHC.

FRIDAY – Pray for a revival of repentance—sparked by an agonizing awareness of sin—in our churches and in our communities.

SATURDAY – Pray for our missionaries and for our national pastors.

SUNDAY – Prayer for the pastors in your district by name—that God will encourage and anoint them.

July 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Scripture for July: Yes, and if I [Paul] am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Philippians 2:17 (NKJV)

Quotation for July: “I want to tell you a growing conviction with me, and that is that as we obey the leadings of the Spirit of God, we enable the Lord to answer the prayers of other people. I mean that our lives, my life, is the answer to someone’s prayer, prayed perhaps centuries ago.” Oswald Chambers

Director’s Message: I have been reading some of the surviving personal letters of Oswald Chambers, the great devotional writer, holiness advocate, and man of prayer. The paragraph I have quoted above, which comes from a letter written from America in 1907, challenged me to re-think my understanding about what it means to devote oneself to a life of prayer. It became clear to me that it is not enough to ask earnestly and to expect faithfully. I must go beyond expectant asking in order to complete the full cycle of prayer. I must make myself available to be part of the answer to my prayers—or to the prayers prayed by others. I must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to pour petitions and solutions out of my life. I must join Paul in rejoicing that God has seen fit to pour me out as a drink offering.

Use me Lord to offer up prayers that line up with your Word, to energize those prayers with faith that pleases you, and to be available to be lead of your Spirit as part of the answer to my prayers or the godly prayers of others.

Blessings, Dan

Daily Prayer Emphases for July:

MONDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials as they chart our course for the next four years.

TUESDAY – Pray for new IPHC churches to be birthed.

WEDNESDAY – Pray for children to be safe from evil this summer & that many will make life-changing decisions at youth camps, at children’s crusades, and at VBS. May many be saved, sanctified, & filled with the Holy Ghost, & and may an increased number accept God’s call to fulltime Christian service.

THURSDAY – Pray for our upcoming Camp Meeting services on July 29-August 1 Dr. Terry Tramel and Dr. Mark Rutland. Pray for new people to attend & for a record GO Offering to come in.

FRIDAY – Pray for every ethnic group in your community to be reached with the Gospel.

SATURDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

SUNDAY – Pray for pastors beginning new pastorates.

June 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Scripture for June: Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. Luke 12:37-38 (NKJV)


Quotation for June: “Are you an owl or a fowl? Israel divided their night into three watches; (1) from 6 to 10 pm, (2) from 10 pm to 2 am and (3) from 2 am to 6 am. Jesus promised special blessing for those ready at the second or third watch (Luke 12:38). If you are an owl, use the second watch for extra time you need [to seek God in prayer]. If you are a fowl, go for the third watch and get up earlier." Winkie Pratney (The Daniel Files)

Director’s Message: If you have been part of this prayer ministry since we began two months ago, by now you have received nearly one hundred prayer requests from me. I want to thank you for each and every time you have lifted one of these situations to the Lord in prayer. Prayer does indeed change things.

Additional thanks to those of you who stay up late or rise up early to pray when most everyone else is asleep. John Wesley rose at four to pray. Noel Brooks once wrote that he was least happy when life circumstances prevented him from being found at prayer “when the first song of the lark ascends.” I too am a “fowl,” enjoying my time with the Lord during the 3rd watch of the night. But not all are so called. My daughter Anneke often works and prays through the “2nd watch.” About 3:20 one morning we passed each other in the hall. She was headed to bed after wrestling like Jacob through the night. I had just popped out of bed (even earlier than usual) to head for my “secret place.” In passing she said, “I knew this would happen one day.”

Many battles are only won in the night watches. We need both “owls” and “fowls.” Blessings, Dan

Daily Prayer Emphases for June:

MONDAY – Prayer for discouraged pastors and for discouraged pastor’s spouses.

TUESDAY – Pray by name for backsliders to come home to Christ and to His church.

WEDNESDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

THURSDAY – Pray for such an outpouring of God’s Spirit at our Youth Camps that both campers & workers will leave walking closer to the Lord.

FRIDAY – Pray for the Lord to lead and empower our Cornerstone Conference officials.

SATURDAY – Pray for new ministers & for new churches.

SUNDAY – Prayer for close cooperation between all the churches in your district when it comes to reaching the lost.

May 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Scripture for May: So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. . . .” Mark 11:22-25 (NKJV)

Quotation for May: "Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part." Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

Director’s Message: I am delighted to report that we now have 160 members of our Cornerstone Conference iWIN ministry prayer network. And new members are joining their prayers with ours every week. Thank you for your active participation in April.

We all know that “prayer changes things,” but I am growing increasingly aware that prayer can also change me. I challenge each of us this month to practice prayer not only as a monologue—petitioning the Lord for particular needs—but also as a dialogue—taking time to hear God’s voice speaking in response to ours. When we allow the Lord to speak, He will reveal to us people we need to forgive (Mark 11:25), as well as many other instructions that have the power to purify us, guide us, and encourage us. In other words, prayer practiced as dialogue not only transforms the situation we lift up to the Lord; it also transforms us.

May we pray this month with our ears as well as our lips, Dan Woods

Daily Prayer Emphases for May:

MONDAY – Pray for increased economic opportunity & better jobs in your community.

TUESDAY – Pray for Lord to lead and empower Bishop McGhee and our other conference officials.

WEDNESDAY – Pray for our churches without pastors and for our pastors without churches.

THURSDAY – Pray that the decisions made during our Quadrennial Conference on June 11-12 will line up perfectly with the Lord’s will for us.

FRIDAY – Pray that every child who needs to be at one of our upcoming Youth Camps will actually attend.

SATURDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

SUNDAY – Pray for every church in your district by name & ask that people have authentic, lifechanging encounters with the Lord there today.

April 2010 - Prayer Network Newsletter

Scripture for April: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” John 5:14-15 (NKJV)


Quotation for April: "No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame." E. M. Bounds (1835-1913)

Director’s Message: Welcome to the Cornerstone Conference prayer network. I am delighted that you have chosen to be part of this ministry. This is our first monthly newsletter. Each newsletter will contain a Bible verse and a quotation concerning prayer to bring our hearts and minds to a place of agreement. Following a brief update form me, the bottom half of the page will feature a daily prayer emphasis for that will allow hundreds of us to petition Heaven with the same request on the same day throughout the month. Just print this newsletter, fold it in half, and use it as a marker in your Bible or in your praying through the IPHC 1010 Link Prayer Guide.

Between the monthly newsletters, you will receive from me specific prayer requests forwarded from the iWIN office at the Global Ministry Center in Oklahoma City. Most of these concern urgent needs of IPHC pastors, missionaries, and their families. I will also pass on similar prayer requests to you concerning our conference ministers, church leaders, and their families. Before sending such a prayer need to me, however, please be sure to verify it, as well as confirming that the individual(s) involved agreed to have this request shared within our network. Blessings, Dan Woods

Daily Prayer Emphases for April:

MONDAY – Prayer for the delegates to our upcoming Quadrennial Conference, that they will grow increasingly attuned to the mind of the Lord as they prayerfully prepare to come together in June.

TUESDAY – Pray by name for backsliders to come home to Christ and to His church.

WEDNESDAY – Pray for more dedicated & spiritual workers to agree to serve at our Youth Camps this summer.

THURSDAY – Pray that President Obama and the members of the 111th Congress will prove to be friends of Israel and friends of the innocent.

FRIDAY – Prayer for discouraged pastors and discouraged pastor’s spouses.

SATURDAY – Prayer for Lord to give Bishop McGhee—and our other conference officials—wisdom and strength.

SUNDAY – Prayer for decisions to be made at your church today that will bear fruit in Eternity.