30 Minute Prayer Challenge

Pray with one or two Christians, where you live and/or work, for 30 minutes a week.
Gerard Long explains the 30DPC and briefly outlines his journey of suffering that preceded it.

Why

Because:

  • America desperately needs a great spiritual awakening – it’s our only hope!
    “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face (presence), and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)
  • Jesus commanded us to always pray. ( Luke 18:1, Ephesians 6:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 1 Peter 4:7 )
  • It will encourage the Christian unity that Jesus prayed for ( John 17:21 & 23 ), which will lead to a great awakening.

When and Where

An agreed time and place such as early morning or lunch time, in a home, conference room or office, community hall, school or other convenient venue.

How

Start with family (e.g. husband and wife) and invite friends, neighbors, etc. At work, invite friends and work colleagues. See Guidelines.

What

Pray through the Lord’s Prayer and seek His face (His presence) – See prayer points below

Vision

A great awakening with prayer in every community and business, with Christ first in every Christians heart and millions saved. A great awakening sweeping across America and around the world like a mighty Tsunami wave.

Guidelines

  • Keep it simple, be courageous – go for it!
  • Unity – pray with Christians in your community. Start with family (husband & wife), friends, neighbors etc. Ask God to for opportunities to invite others to pray.
  • Do the thirty-minute prayer challenge in addition to any other prayer you are doing.
  • Start and end on time. Welcome – pray – close the meeting.
  • Pray through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the love of God and from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
  • ‘Seek God’s face’ – this means, seek His presence. Ask God to manifest His presence in your community. It’s His presence that brings a great awakening.
  • Pray from the heart and be sensitive – keep the prayers short. Allow time for others.
  • Make this a special prayer meeting to pray and seek God’s presence together:
    1. Be kind, encourage, build up, strengthen and forgive one another.
    2. Be merciful and gracious to one another.
    3. Not all Christians are comfortable with the gift of tongues, so please be sensitive to others and the Holy Spirit.
    4. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit- Never criticize, back bite, judge…
    5. Don’t quench the Holy Spirit – be open to hear from God.
  • Avoid arguments on controversial issues which undermine love and prayer.
  • Prayer walk your community, asking for God’s blessing on your neighbors
  • Be alert to Satan’s attacks to stop you from praying.
  • Invite others to join the prayer group.
  • When the group reaches a certain number, multiply by starting new groups of two and three in your community, and grow again! We suggest a group should be no more than 12.
  • Every month, gather the groups together e.g. in a local elementary school, to pray and plan on how to share God’s love in the community in word and action.
  • Keep the groups local – Christians pray and work together to share God’s love in their community.
  • Pray the promises of God found in scripture. “Put the Lord in remembrance of His promises, keep not silence” (Isaiah 62:6 AMPC).
  • Never underestimate the power of prayer
  • Use www.prayerattheheart.org website for ideas on how to:
    1. Reach ‘lost and broken people,’ including a Tent of Meeting;
    2. Point people to a local Alpha course (or a similar course);
    3. Provide Foundations teaching for new believers; and
    4. Use on-line resources such as the BEH (Bless Every Home) App to pray for everyone in the community, Gloo and Rooftop Encounters.
  • Humbly, ask to link arms with churches, ministries and other Christians.

Pray through the Lord’s Prayer – spend 3/4 minutes on each section

1. Our Father in Heaven hallowed be your name. Thank and praise God for:

  • Being your loving Heavenly Father who deeply loves you.
  • He so loves us that He gave His only son to rescue us…!
  • His beauty as seen in creation – the sun, moon and stars, birds, animals etc.
  • His mercy and grace to human kind.
2. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Pray for:

  • God’s kingdom to come in your community and/or workplace;
  • The love and worship of Jesus Christ to be first in people’s hearts, including a love for His word – The Bible;
  • God’s blessing on every individual, marriage, family, community, business, school, government, hospitals, Police, First Responders etc.;
  • Prayer to be at the center of every individual, family, community, business, government etc.
  • Unconditional love between people, for forgiveness, mercy and grace;
  • Love, peace and joy to reign;
  • God’s light to drive out the darkness – for people to be set free from addiction, immorality, injustice, corruption, jealousy, pride…
  • Healing for the sick – name specific needs;
  • The needs of the poor, brokenhearted, lonely etc. to be met;
  • Marriages and families to be blessed;
  • Righteousness, justice and humility to reign; and
  • People to love the things God loves and to hate the things He hates.
3. Give us this day our daily bread. Pray for:

  • Specific needs for you and your family – forgiveness, love, joy… ;
  • The specific needs of people in your community;
  • The poor, the old, the weak and the sick; and
  • The needs of government, education, hospitals, Police and First Responders etc.
4. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Pray for:

  • The Holy Spirit to search your heart and bring to mind anything that needs to be confessed and repented of;
  • Courage to confess your sins to one another;
  • Courage and strength to decide to repent – turn away from the sin/s;
  • God to pour His love into your heart to give you the motivation to live with an attitude of forgiveness – to forgive people before an offense is committed;
  • Humility and strength to never take offense – “I have been crucified with Christ…’ and
  • For forgiveness, mercy and love to flow in your community.
5. Don’t let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one. Pray for:

  • Discernment, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and alertness to resist every scheme of Satan to ensnare you in sin;
  • The grace to say “No” to anything that will grieve, quench or resist the Holy Spirit;
  • Wisdom to avoid putting yourself in a position to be tempted;
  • Self-discipline to build yourself up in the faith through prayer, worship, meditating and memorizing scripture and fellowship with other Christians;
  • Strength to guard your heart from any roots of unforgiveness, bitterness, discouragement, disappointment, pride, jealousy etc. and
  • As above, for your community.
6. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Pray for:

  • Revelation and understanding that:
    1. God holds everything together by the power of His word;
    2. We live and move and have our being in Him;
    3. Everything is from Him and through Him and to Him and He gets all the glory; and
    4. God is outside time, matter and space and He is working His eternal plan and purpose out in and through the events in your life and on earth.
  • A willing heart to say “Yes” to whatever God’s will is for your life ; and
  • To have wisdom and passion to set your heart on the things of Heaven and to live your life as a sojourner fully surrendered to God’s will.

Record your Prayer Group

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“Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray” (C. Spurgeon). This reliable principle begs the question: “How does God mobilize his people to heartfelt prayer?” Most importantly, how does God move Christian leaders who shepherd His church to unite in fervent, persistent, biblically focused prayer for the fulfillment of His purposes? By two things mainly: 1) distress over the degradation of the church and the surrounding culture and 2) hope that God will pour out His Spirit on his church and fill it with His fulness until it overflows with transformative impact on society. Many believers are distressed at the current state of things. At the same time, there is much reason to hope for God’s divine intervention in response to passionate, biblically guided prayer.

Believers across America now mourn the debility of the church; its vitality is faltering, its impact fading, its mission neglected, and its devotion to God being undercut by love for this world. Right now we are enduring the largest and fastest religious shift in American history. Its scope is greater than every previous spiritual awakening in our history combined, only in the opposite direction. Christians are being confronted by “spiritual forces of evil” (Eph. 6:12) operating from the heavenly realms that boldly infiltrate every aspect of society, even the church. These dark powers aim to 1) frustrate God’s purpose to bless all peoples on earth through Christ with countless benefits, including righteousness, peace, joy, and justice, and 2)
inflict endless varieties of misery on everyone. When spiritual decline and cultural decay prevail, God’s people rise up to seek the Lord in prayer as the fountain of every blessing, asking him to fill the earth with his glory, pour out His Holy Spirit, inspire his church, and deliver people and cultures from innumerable troubles. Now is the time to pray with desperation for spiritual and cultural renewal, for divine intervention, for the fulfillment of God’s purposes for his church and his creation in Northeast Ohio.

Christian leaders, especially pastors, have a heightened responsibility to press into God with prayer for the church. Biblical precedent shows that gathering church leaders together to engage in heartfelt prayer for the welfare of their community often initiates widespread spiritual and social renewal both in church and society (2 Chron. 7:13-14; 15:8-10; 34:29-32). New Testament accounts show that when Christian leaders unite in prayer, often in response to social and/or spiritual crises, spiritual awakening and gospel advance follow (Acts 1:13-14; 2:1-4; 4:23-31; 13:1-3).

Jesus himself instills expectation of an outpouring of God’s Spirit in response to prayer with this promise: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). Our Father in heaven is especially ready to pour out upon us the blessing we most need and long for, the very Spirit of God who imparts divine life, wisdom, and virtue.

With all this in mind, now is the time for Christian leaders across Northeast Ohio to come together to seek the Lord with biblically grounded, Christ-directed, wholehearted prayer for a God-given spiritual awakening. The trumpet of God is blaring! He is calling us to pray! Join Christian leaders from across our region to humble ourselves, seek the Lord’s face, and be willing to respond through His intervening grace to any changes He calls us to make! (Psalm 110:3)

The Gathering is an extension of the nationwide PATH (Prayer at the Heart) initiative piloted recently in Northeast Ohio. Put The Gathering on your calendar: Sunday, September 24, 6 pm, Calvary Chapel of Cleveland, 709 Brook Park Road, Brooklyn Heights, OH.