Global Day of Prayer launch

In the end, two days took their toll. Jasmine and I were both not feeling well after insufficient sleep because of Saturate and early morning practice the next morning. We came at 8am and finished by 930am; we should've come at like 830 lor.

Anyway, Jasmine became feverish and literally had to nap in the National Stadium, and I had to be her pillow-cum-face sponger. I was feeling unusually itchy and so couldn't focus on the prayers at all. Was particularly irritated at a speaker's amazingly chiong hei description of post-event traffic conditions. Put those in the bulletin, for goodness sake! No one wants to pay attention to hear you ramble on! And he went on to refer to the hearing-impaired and mute as "deaf and dumb". How un-politically-correct can you get?!

Global Day of Prayer Day 10

Topic: Extending the Blessing of Christ [for promised blessing among all His peoples]
Concerning: hunger, warfare, gangs, corruption
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First, praise God for who He is, what He's done and what He's going to do. Spend at least 5-10min doing this, in tongues if you can. Then, we start our prayer. Try to claim God's promises from verses you know or have heard.

Adopt a position where you have been given authority by God to claim things in God's word. We are not minions and savants that we must meekly ask God for everything. In His word, God has already GIVEN us some things that all we need to do is claim them! Pray like you are a warrior of Christ tasked with taking down the strongholds of the evil one. Be forceful and aggressive with the devil as you can expect the same from him. Don't let him off lightly in your prayer. You can expect him to try to retaliate, so ask also for God's protection as you pray in this manner.

For the Glory of Christ:
Father, You say in your word of the prayer of Jabez as well as Your promise to Abraham, that You'd bless Your people abundantly.

We believe that You have only good things for us and so we want to claim all this in Your name. Bless Your children abundantly, that we can be an impact for You in our community. It is patently wrong that Your children should live in subsistence when we should be able to "export" Your blessing to people all around the world. Open the floodgates of Heaven that we might be a conduit to bless others.

Reveal Jesus Your Son to the world, that the world might hear of Your Name and believe on You. Raise up evangelists and missionaries to reach those who have not heard Your gospel, but most of all, imprint the Great Commission on the hearts of Your people, who should realise that evangelism is for all of us, as we can't wait to share the Good News we have received to others.

In doing so, I proclaim that churches of the world will not work independently, but learn to put aside doctrinal differences to come together as a united body of Christ, believing in Jesus Christ the Saviour, and work with You to impact the world for Your glory.

For the Blessing of the Nations:
May Your Holy Spirit touch the lives and hearts of our governments and authorities. Though they may be secular, we banish the scourge of corruption from the face of the Earth. It robs Your people of the money they need. Corruption and sin has no place in authorities that have been instituted by You and we condemn, rebuke and cast it out in Jesus' name.

Elevate God-fearing Christians to key positions in national governments and world organisations, that we can impact the world in a greater manner for You. The devil should have no place in the running of Your government and we cast him aside in Jesus' name.

As Your gospel permeates the Earth, shouts of praise will burst forth from every corner, praising You for who You are and the salvation that You have given to us through Christ Jesus Your Son.

In Jesus' mighty name I pray, Amen!

NB: Guys, feel free to add your comments and prayers!

How to pray

Just to share a few thoughts about prayer. Was having dinner with Pastor today and we shared a few things we learnt about prayer.

He said the greatest blueprint on how to pray was the example led by Jesus aka the Lord's Prayer.

A simpler version of this is the ACTS method:
Asking
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication

In these four categories are all you need to start your prayer.
We ask God for things, confess our sins to Him, thank and praise Him for who He is and what He's done, and intercede for other people's needs. That's basically prayer in a nutshell. This is derived from the Lord's Prayer, which I reproduce below. May this help you in your prayer life!

Our Father, which art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
in earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.

This can be found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.

Intercession

The GDoP video mentioned this that shows how important prayer is.

Intercession is holding the hand of God and holding the hand of the one you are praying for. You are the link between God and the person you are interceding for.

If we don't pray, that person is denied the chance to touch God.

Global Day of Prayer Day 5

Topic: Pursuing the Peace of Christ [for relationships to be transformed]
Concerning: racism, poverty, violence, crime
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First, praise God for who He is, what He's done and what He's going to do. Spend at least 5-10min doing this, in tongues if you can. Then, we start our prayer. Try to claim God's promises from verses you know or have heard.

For the Glory of Christ:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Lord, You say in Your word that we are one body in you, and you say that in 1 Corinthians that you cannot stand division in the body. So, Lord, we commit the body of Christ onto You, both here in Singapore and around the world.

We believe that Your church, when standing together, can be such a mighty Earth-changing agent for you. I pray you remove hostilities deriving from doctrine, custom and other beliefs, and infuse a spirit of peace into your people. Let us realise that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the devil. May the Church of God stand united against Satan that we might be stronger by doing so.

Then, people around the world will see you move through us so powerfully and clearly that they will be filled with awe.

Let us not focus on petty human differences, but instead focus our eyes on the common goal, which is to win souls for Your Kingdom. That alone is more important than our serving preferences.

For the Blessing of the Nations:
I also want to pray for your blessing and anointing upon your people. You say in Your Word that You have plans to prosper us and not to harm us: plans to give us a hope and a future. Lord we believe and claim this, but at the same time, let our head not be turned by material things, lest we hunger after that instead.

I pray we realise the importance of giving to you and storing up treasures in Heaven. Increase our genrosity in giving to You, that You might bless us even more abundantly.

Help us also to give to the poor and the needy. Help us realise that one reason why You bless us so richly is so that we can bless others in turn, by being a conduit or vessel for You. Use us mightily to help those around us through our generosity.

We also believe you are the all-powerful God, above any force Satan can throw at you. In this, I pray You bind the forces of corruption of the evil one, for example, terrorists who kill in the name of religion. I pray that Your will be done in all the wars and conflicts happening around the world, and I know that anything that happens has been orchestrated by You.

We believe You are the God of relationships and trust You will prevail in all these situations.

In Jesus' mighty name I pray, Amen!

NB: Guys, feel free to add your comments and prayers!