Update from Pastor Phil – January 13, 2023
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Well, I’m sitting here in the studio here where the Morning Prayer meetings take place online, the 21 Days of Prayer. And what a blessing already. We’re a number of days into our 21 days and we’re really focusing on those three areas that you are believing God for, for breakthrough.
But there are a number of things I’d love to share with you. Of course this weekend we continue January’s focus which is on 21 Days of Prayer, and preaching about the power of prayer. Last week of course I spoke about how we’re in a battle and we have a very real enemy who comes against us. And yet in the place of prayer there is authority and there is faith and we can battle through those difficult issues and really see the Lord come to us and speak to us and minister to us in that place of prayer. It is quite remarkable and quite profound how prayer changes us.
But areas I’d love you to pray for as we look towards January. We have, of course, the theater production of “The Hiding Place” taking place at the end of the month, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There are going to be four shows. There’ll be a matinee on Saturday. This is a prime event to invite people you connect with to a powerful story about forgiveness, about resilience and about endurance. And I want to encourage you to really pray about who you can invite to this. At the end of it we’ll explain about the power of forgiveness and create a space where people can take a response pack if they want to go further in the faith and further on in exploring what it truly means to be a Christian. It is an event that we see as a place where people can be introduced to the very heart of Christianity, which is the power of forgiveness and grace. And of course Corrie Ten Boom lived that, having traveled through a concentration camp and later meeting a guard who was in that concentration camp. It’s a riveting and moving story. So will you pray about who you’re going to bring? Will you ask the Lord, you know, what connections there could be and just believe God that those people who are disengaged from faith or maybe not Christians would come along and hear a powerful story of the reality of the work of the cross in lives. So pray towards that, plan towards it. Please go online and book the tickets.
And then of course look forward towards our final prayer celebration that will happen at the end of of the month on the Sunday evening, WillowOne Prayer, which I always love and I think is absolutely fantastic.
Now one final thing I want to share with you is of course this week on Wednesday was our fast day as a church and next week, Wednesday and Thursday are the two fast days that we’ve set aside. So please, however it is appropriate for you take that time to pray for our church, to pray for our city, to pray for those three needs. And choose the way that you want to fast. Whether it’s a lunch, whether it’s all day, whether it’s for the two days, whether it’s other areas that you feel the Holy Spirit is asking you to abstain from so you can focus your heart and your mind on the goodness of God. Fantastic.
So we look forward to seeing you this weekend. Keep those things in mind, enjoy the devotionals that are going out every morning, join us online 7 am for half an hour of prayer focus. I know that January will prove to be a great month.
God bless you.