Posts tagged ‘Prayer’

Last month I wrote about our first house of prayer. Before we could schedule our first visit to her home for prayer she tried to commit suicide again. She was at the beach with her son and took a bottle of pills (I don’t know the number) and drank a bottle of vodka to wash them down. She was lying on the floor nearly incoherent when she heard her five-year old son say, “Don’t go to sleep yet mommy. I’m asking Jesus not to let you go to sleep.”

Jesus answered her son’s prayer! We’re thankful to God for that.

She invited several people to her son’s birthday party, including one of our team members and his family. It was a very good time for the team member to get to know her family. There was a pastor there from some kind of church too. After everyone else left he spoke to her. He heaped guilt and condemnation upon her for all that she had ever done wrong. He will answer to God for that one day! This woman needs restoration, not condemnation. She needs mercy and grace!

She has kept the door open for us to enter her home and pray with her. Please pray for Lady V.

A second house has opened for prayer. This woman has a similar story, but we’re very glad that she hasn’t tried to commit suicide. She is finding hope and encouragement in prayer. She has also come to one of our home based Bible studies – it is a safe environment! Sadly, many institutional churches are not safe environments for people who have destroyed lives.

Our Houses of Prayer Ministry has two more members. One of them, a young lady who grew up in an institutional church, visited with these ladies and prayed with them recently. It was her first time to go. She visited with Lady V and prayed with her. When she left the home she was physically shaken. After visiting with in the second home and praying this young lady was physically sick. She is not yet accustomed to entering the world of those who do not know Jesus Christ.

We would appreciate your prayers for both of these homes – that God would bring salvation and restoration to these families.

Also, please pray for our team. A few more families have expressed an interest in having us come and pray with them. We are entering into homes in which only God knows what we will encounter. Also, we may be adding some new team members in another part of the city. So, please pray that God will direct us as these team relationships develop.

A few weeks ago I posted that our team will be starting a prayer ministry in Joinville. We want to start a network of Houses of Prayer, but we’re not planning to start with followers of Jesus. Naturally, if someone who already follows Jesus wants to participate we’re more than happy to have them. But, we’re looking for lost people to start this ministry.

Some of you may already be wondering whether I’ve lost my mind. I have not. Let me explain.

Prayer is our communication with God – we speak and we listen as God speaks. So, we want to teach people who do not know God how they can get to know Him. Many people in Brazil believe that there is a God, but they also believe that they have to have a mediator to go to God on their behalf. We want to teach them that there is just one mediator between God and man – Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2.5). The very simple truth is that they can know God and talk to Him and He will talk to them.

Our team spoke to about 70 people a couple of weeks ago offering to come and pray in their homes. Yesterday, we spoke with about 120 people with the same offer. We’re still waiting for people to accept the offer. So far, just one person has invited us to enter her home and pray for her family. Yesterday was her son’s birthday. One of our team members sent her a text message to wish her son a Happy Birthday. Here is her response:

Thank you but our life is self destructing, the devourer is having a party in our house, in our life! There is no more peace, love, joy. It is so difficult that there is no more will to live. It has been 5 years that my husband has despised me. He never wanted his son. We have lived as strangers under the same roof. He kicked me out of our bedroom and for 5 years I’ve been sleeping in my son’s room. I’ve fallen into deep depression and several times tried to kill myself. I spent the first year of my son’s life locked in the house crying. My husband doesn’t ever remember our son’s birthday. He says that I’m ugly, old, fat, etc and it is difficult to continue on with all of these humiliations. God bless you for remembering my son.

When we began training people to go into houses to pray for people we told them that they were about to leave the four walls of the church building and enter reality. Here is our first dose of reality. We’re trying to schedule the first visit in this home for this weekend.

Please pray for us as we begin this ministry. Pray that God will draw many people to Himself through prayer.

I can’t help but wonder how many people like this woman live in the shadow of your steeple. You are more than willing to pray for me, and for that I am extremely grateful. Are you willing to go find those around you like this woman and teach them how to have a relationship with God, with our Savior Jesus Christ?

Later this week we’ll be launching a new aspect of our ministry here in Joinville. We’ll be asking people to open their homes for teams to come and pray with them. In many places in the world, houses of prayer play a very important role in house church networks. I have not done any research to learn what exactly those houses of prayer entail. In fact, I had heard about two different places using houses of prayer. I thought, “That’s there. That isn’t here.” And, I did not pursue the idea.

After I had let the idea slip into the back of my mind (actually, I had completely forgotten about it), God brought the idea back to my mind. That’s when I knew it was God’s time for houses of prayer here. I didn’t know when, where or how we would start houses of prayer. That’s where it is good to have team members. God was giving those answers to members of our team.

A few years ago, when I was on staff at a church in the US I had a small group that met for prayer. Our prayer time there was developed from a prayer group in which I participated in Bulgaria. The houses of prayer that we begin here will be based on both of those prayer ministries, though it will not be a copy of either. “Prayer is learned by praying.” I do not recall who wrote that sentence, but it is true. So, we want to teach people to pray through houses of prayer.

I’m adding an article to the “Articles” page here on the blog. I wrote it in 2002 and never put it online. However, I’m making it available now so you can understand a little better what I hope God does through houses of prayer. Please read “How Our Small Group Prays” on the articles page or by clicking this link How Our Small Group Prays.

Blessings – Stan