Tuesday Prayer Room – 9am 

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance,[a] but not of my Spirit,
    that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
    without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
    and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
    and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

For though his officials are at Zoan
    and his envoys reach Hanes,
everyone comes to shame
    through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
    but shame and disgrace.”

6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish,
    from where come the lioness and the lion,
    the adder and the flying fiery serpent,
they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,
    and their treasures on the humps of camels,
    to a people that cannot profit them.

Egypt’s help is worthless and empty;
    therefore I have called her
    “Rahab who sits still.”

And now, go, write it before them on a tablet
    and inscribe it in a book,
that it may be for the time to come
    as a witness forever.[b]

For they are a rebellious people,
    lying children,
children unwilling to hear
    the instruction of the Lord;

who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
    and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
    prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
    and trust in oppression and perverseness
    and rely on them,

therefore this iniquity shall be to you
    like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
    whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel
    that is smashed so ruthlessly
that among its fragments not a shard is found
    with which to take fire from the hearth,
    or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
    in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
    therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
    therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
    at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
    like a signal on a hill.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 30:1-18

PRAYER GUIDE

God is a waiting God. In this passage, God is waiting to be gracious to Israel. He must wait because they persist in placing their trust in things that are not Him. They persist in looking to idols. In this case, to Egypt and Pharaoh’s protection. The people of God feel vulnerable and they look around them to find someone in whom they can trust. And they see Pharoah with the eyes of their flesh. And they make an alliance, but not by God’s Spirit. They carry out a plan, but not God’s plan. Their alliance in Egypt is ironically the very thing that prevents God from showing up on their behalf. It is the thing that makes Him wait to be gracious to them. 

Israel places their trust in horses also. Horses were the standard military technology of their day. “We are safe,” Israel thought, “because we have horses. We can flee on the horses.” God says, “therefore your pursuers will be swift.”

We also, the people of God in 21st Century post-Christian New England, are very tempted to place our trust in things other than God Himself. In a time of spiritual decline, with the trappings of Christendom falling away, many of us look to the possibility of political power as a way to regain our safety. It will not do. We are tempted to look to the latest strategies or technologies to preserve us and make us strong. It is all as useless as it was in the time of Israel.

Meanwhile, God is waiting to show us his mercy. He is waiting to rise up and show us compassion. What is he waiting for? 

He is waiting for us to turn to Him alone and to wait on him. To rely upon Him only. To relinquish all our substitutes. In an election year, this includes, by the way, any human candidate for office. We should all vote, but as the people of God we must not place our ultimate trust in any human ruler. 

Waiting on God is the most important activity the people of God can engage in. When we begin waiting for God, waiting on God, God stops waiting and begins to act on our behalf. As it says in Isaiah 64:4, “From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.” And again in Isaiah 40:31 – “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.”

PRAYER PROMPTS

• What have you placed your trust in that is not God? Let’s repent. 
• Where have we as God’s church placed our trust in things not God. Let’s repent on the church’s behalf.
• Where do you need to add space in your life to wait upon God?
• Let’s repent on behalf of the church for making alliances with modern-day ‘Egypt’ or trusting in the protection of modern-day ‘Pharaoh.’ Pray for the church to renounce all unholy alliances and turn to the Lord.
• Pray for the church, starting with ourselves, to wait on God.
• Pray for the Lord to rise to show mercy and compassion to his people and to establish and advance his Kingdom in our time, in our region.

Tuesday Prayer Room – 9am 

CONSECRATION is the voluntary giving of oneself exclusively to something”; an invitation to become an instrument of special purpose, made holy, and useful for the Master (2 Tim 2:20-21).  Consecration is not saying no to good things because they’re bad – its saying no to GOOD things because there are better, things you are hungry for.

It’s being driven by the question – am I really hungry for God to anoint me and use me.

Our secular culture fears a consecrated person. 

A busy, halfhearted, and distracted person is fairly easy to manipulate.  

Satan fears a consecrated person. He will do almost anything in his power to dilute the potency of a leader set on giving himself fully to Christ. 

But it’s hard to be a consecrated person 

It’s hard to give yourself fully to God when so many smaller things ask for parts of your heart. Most Christian men I meet don’t struggle with the idea of discipleship or the reality of Jesus’ call. They struggle with something harder. They struggle to commit to all of it. 

If we were to honestly lay our hearts before the Lord, I believe he would be more interested in the parts we are holding back than the parts we have already given. 

Like all relationships, God wants a full commitment. In the same way your wife appreciates when you buy her flowers but would much rather you stop looking at porn, God wants to get a hold of the things we hold back. We can see this when Jesus deals with the rich young ruler. Jesus wasn’t attuned to what he was giving; he was interested in the thing he held back. Rolheiser notes, 

That, nearly perfectly, describes the rich young man standing before Jesus. In essence, he is telling Jesus: “I have given up almost everything for God. What more must I do?” Jesus’ answer is simple and direct: “Give up the rest! You have given up almost everything, and that is good. But now, to move beyond your present sadness to a deeper joy, you have to give up everything! 

Give up the rest.  That is at the heart of consecration. 

Though it can be a struggle to the death to lay it all down, what we pick up is worth the fight. 

We pick up intimacy, power, confidence, and joy. Jesus is looking for leaders who will cut all other options off.

Oliver Burkeman notes, “The original Latin word for ‘decide,’ decidere, means ‘to cut off,’ as in slicing away alternatives; it’s a close cousin of words like ‘homicide’ and ‘suicide.’ Any finite life—even the best one you could possibly imagine—is therefore a matter of ceaselessly waving goodbye to possibility.”

So, this spring we want to call our church to a season of consecration.

A season of giving Jesus the rest. A joyful renunciation of all things to go deeper with him. It’s a season of suicide for the flesh, homicide for the ego, and the joyful resurrection of our hearts in its place. 

What is “the rest” that Jesus wants from you?  What “decisions” do you need to make in your discipleship right now?

Jesus doesn’t need more leaders; he needs more of the leaders he already has.

Tuesday Fast

FASTING  because hunger must be stronger than apathy

Base: Fast from lunch, taking time to pray during that time. 
Stretch: Fast for 24 hours 1x/month (i.e. break your fast with dinner)

• 9am – Tuesday, online only
• 3.8.23 – All City Prayer with the Asbury Team (registration required, spots limited)

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:1-13

PRAYER GUIDE

When the Bridegroom comes for the Bride, whether at the end of history or in a season of revival, like the bridesmaids, we will have one job to do. Our job will be to carry a flame for Jesus. A torch that will not go out. The flame will be our burning love for him. 

In past seasons of renewal, those God has used most have carried within them a burning love for Jesus. It infects those around them. It carries with it the atmosphere of heaven. It helps others to see Jesus, just as the flame of the bridesmaids illuminates the Groom in the parable. 

The flame of love for Jesus burns on twin fuels – devotion and surrender. It is the love that flows out of this devotion and surrender to Jesus that God has used in past seasons of revival and will use when it comes next. 

The Welsh Revival of 1904 was sparked by a seven year old girl named Florie Evans. After she was convicted of her need to surrender her life to Jesus, she looked for her pastor after church. He passed by her on his way out of the building and she wasn’t able to discuss the state of her soul with him. She finally couldn’t help herself, she walked over to his house later in the evening…walking back and forth in front of his house, hoping someone would notice her…and working up the courage to knock on the door. She finally was compelled to knock on the door and came in to see the pastor. Eventually, she shared with him her fear of fully surrendering to Jesus…what if he asked her to do something difficult. Her pastor said, “he will surely ask you to do something difficult, but he is worth following even so.” After wrestling with God, Florie gave her life to Jesus that week. The next day in Sunday school, the teacher asked the class what Jesus meant to them. Florie responded with eight words (in Welsh) that changed the course of a nation. “I love Jesus Christ with all my heart.” The room was silent. Then came sniffles. Then came tears. Then came the presence of God. These were simple words from a seven year old, but they were burning with devotion and surrender. The Welsh Revival went on to spark the Azusa Street revival and the Korean Pentecost and has reverberated throughout history. 

Devotion without surrender is empty. It is empty to say Jesus, “I love you with all my heart,” but I’m holding on to this thing, or that thing, or the other thing. During the Asbury outpouring, many students had the sense of Jesus saying to them, “I want all of you.” There is a beauty, fullness, and integrity in our devotion flowing out of surrender to Jesus.

Likewise, surrender without devotion is empty as well. Jesus says to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, that he appreciates their faithfulness, their perseverance for him…but “nevertheless I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first.” Many of us in our long obedience to Jesus, have lost the first love culture of our hearts. Jesus wants us to remember, and repent. The twin oils of our love for Jesus are devotion and surrender. 

If our one job will be to burn with this flame of love on the day the Bridegroom comes, whether at the end or in revival. Our one job now is to secure oil. We cannot burn on someone else’s surrender and devotion. We must have our own oil. The oil is not scarce, by any means. God will supply it to us, as he did with the widow through Elisha in 2 Kings 4. Our job, as this desperate widow’s was, is to bring our empty jars to the Lord. Fasting is an empty jar. As is prayer. As is worship and scripture and confession of sin. The Lord meets us when we approach him in faith and hunger, presenting these empty jars to him. He supplies us with oil. 

Though oil is never scarce, the time is coming when time will be scarce. If as we sense, revival is coming…we don’t want to wait until the cry rings out for the Bridegroom to go in search of oil. This is what the foolish virgins do in the parable. And Jesus doesn’t want us to repeat their mistake. 

PRAYER PROMPTS

• For surrender and devotion to Jesus to increase in your own heart. 
• For the courage to surrender everything to Jesus, whether it is sin, or good things that need to go to make room for more of God.
• For a restoration of first love in your heart for Jesus. For other loves to be dethroned and for a fresh revelation of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. 
• For our church and all churches in the region to be positioned properly to be used by the Bridegroom. For us to be ready for a wave of his presence to sweep in.
• For the All-City Prayer Event on 3/8/24.
• For God to have mercy on our region and pour out his Spirit and draw thousands, even millions, into the Kingdom of God.