Pray Network Forum

New Year’s Day is coming and rather than just celebrating the turn of a calendar page, let’s make the day meaningful by seeking a fresh touch from the Lord!

Urge your church to become a part of, ’22 Days of Fire.’ It’s a Christ-centered way to start out the new year.

The first step this year is the New Year’s Day worship service, including prayer to rededicate your life and your church to the Lord and His purposes. A fellowship meal after the service would be a way to unify the people behind the vision for the fast.

The next step is a 21-day Daniel Fast until January 22nd.

A Daniel fast is patterned after Daniel’s fast in Daniel chapter one. Generally it consists of eating fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and dairy products, maybe eggs. While it’s not a rigid fast, to be genuine, you shouldn’t eat meat (including fish), junk/snack food, nor sweets (candy, desserts, donuts, etc.).

Each week has a specific focus:

+The first seven days of the Daniel Fast are to seek His mercy.

+The next seven days are to seek His wisdom and specific direction.

+The last seven days of the Daniel Fast are to seek His power and anointing for your life and for your church.

It’s recommended that everyone participating in this time of prayer and fasting have a prayer meeting during each week of the 21-day fast. Share what the Lord has shown you during the time.

If ever there was a time in our nation’s history when we need to seek the Lord it’s now! Let us join together to seek the Lord’s heart for our church, for our nation, and for our own walk with the Lord.

For more information, you can go to the web page http://www.ctknorthshore.org/22-days-of-fire.html

"If my people who Are called by name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land."

2 Chronicles 7:14

One of the most wonderful commands and opportunities in Scripture is God's invitation to seek His face. Christianity is not simply a collection of rules or guidelines for life. Nor is it primarily a set of abstract truths that we must believe. Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Hence the heart of prayer is not seeking answers to our requests. In prayer we do not seek God's gifts first. We seek God Himself. He is sufficient to our deepest needs whether or not He gives us what we ask.

Let me give you a picture. Suppose you have a significant inheritance from which you draw a regular income. And you meet and fall in love with a man and marry him. But after your marriage you discover that he is only interested in your inheritance. How would that make you feel? Suppose he discovered that he could not get his hands on your inheritance, so he divorced you as fast as he could. You would feel used, wouldn't you? You might say, "He didn't love me for myself." Are you seeking God or something you can get from Him?

I love the words of the hymn,

"I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in His arms. In the arms of my dear Savior, oh there are ten thousand charms."

Rightly we hear these words as the testimony of a lost person coming to Christ. But they also describe the genuine romance of prayer.

There is another important facet to seeking God's face. This entire verse is plural. We must seek his face together. We encourage one another, strengthen one another and help one another seek His face.  

In 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul assures us that we embrace the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

Let's seek His face.

It's no wonder so many people (and even pastors) are discouraged with prayer. Instead of a genuine encounter with God, prayer is little more than a grocery list of requests. Maybe you, too, seek God's hand rather than His face.

My newest book, Transforming Prayer - How Everything Changes When You Seek God's Face, we discover how to:

• Pray to seek God's face NOT just His hand.
• Pray with your heart fixed on God's glory NOT just for personal satisfaction
• Pray from the treasure of God's word NOT simply from a list of your own ideas
• Pray according to the Spirit's instruction NOT only from human reason
• Pray with a heart completely surrendered to His will NOT with a hurried personal agenda
• Pray in anticipation of living triumphantly in the war-zone NOT with a satisfaction with the comfort zone.
• Pray that God would change you NOT that He would simply change things.

Transforming Prayer presents life-changing truths and practical handles to get you started in a fresh adventure in your time with God. You will enjoy "trophies of transformation" throughout the book as individual stories of life-change are told. Discussion questions for each chapter are contained in the back of the book, making this a great tool for your next small group or Sunday School study.

For brief video introductions to each chapter, free downloads, and more information about the book, please visit www.transformingprayerbook.com.