A Prayer of Reckless Confidence

Prayer Team,

My third child, Trey, is in 6th grade this year and finally old enough to attend youth group with his older siblings. One of my favorite activities the youth group does, is circle prayer and prophecy. Both of my oldest, and their friend groups, have been deeply impacted by this act of faith, and now Trey is getting the opportunity to participate. The leaders have one student sit in the middle of the group and everyone prays over them. It starts quietly, asking God if there is anything he wants to say as encouragement or truth to the brave student in the middle. Then, as they feel led, the students speak out their revelations. This is one of those mutually amazing activities that edifies the recipient, the speaker, and the witness. It grows everyone in attendance. Those who share, experience the presence of God and the prompting of the Spirit, partnering with the Creator in declaring truth over his creation. The recipient is flooded with reminders of who God created them to be, and experiences the love of God through the mouth of community in a place where insecurity can typically be the atmosphere. The witness is building the power of testimony.  In future crisis, each one has a recollection to stand on of seeing and hearing God moving, as an anchor experience to hold when their own situation is turbulent.

This past Sunday as I walked through the Great Room, it felt as though I was standing there with all of our church body, hearing from God and speaking out the truth and encouragement he was declaring over our family. Like a youth group gathering, a building project can be a place of insecurity and uncertainty. Will we have enough resources? Are we honoring God in how we move forward? Are we over emphasizing one part or missing the need to highlight another? It may trigger difficult memories of church projects from our past. In the midst of those fears, love and power are being spoken out with written word. All over the floor are the prophetic and foundational declarations of God’s heart. It feels like the equivalent of the youth students tattooing their prayers onto one another’s skin. Sure it could be covered with clothing, or in the case of the building, carpet; but we know what’s there! This mutually edifying act is impacting all of us as we move forward, that if ever there was a turbulent time when we need an anchor, each of us has either written, read, or physically participated in the pouring out of God’s presence into the very ground we stand on. 

I encourage all of you to take a turn in prayer walking the building. Read the written words, add more of your own, participate in the room! Your footsteps around that floor are like the Israelite army around Jericho…making a worn path of faith that culminates with a shout of praise so empowered with the Holy Spirit the enemy simply collapses and the victory is just the outward expression of the inner heart. 

Oswald Chambers has a little book called “If Ye Shall Ask.” It is a collection of his thoughts and experiences on prayer and I read it repeatedly. He says,

“Our clingings come in this way— we put one foot on God’s side and one on the side of human reasoning; then God widens the space until we either drop down in between or jump on to one side or the other. We have to take a leap, a reckless leap, and if we have learned to rely on the Holy Ghost, it will be a reckless leap on to God’s side. So many of us limit our praying because we are not reckless in our confidence in God. In the eyes of those who do not know God, it is madness to trust Him, but when we pray in the Holy Ghost we begin to realize the resources of God, that He is our perfect Heavenly Father, and we are his children.”

I am praying with all of you this week, for reckless leaping and community growing and Holy Spirit inspired revelations and declarations.  

Here are a few specifics from Ryan and the Leadership Council based on the latest financial reports:

1. Pray for funds and resources to come available for the Great Room Project. We currently are praying for $50k to come in to wrap up this part of our building renovation project. 
   
2. Continued growth in monthly (faithful) giving. We have had 13 new (or returning) donors jumping in with us just in January. We are averaging a monthly shortfall of $3800.00 going back to the beginning of 2023, so we are believing for more finances to be unlocked to us on a monthly basis to get back to where we need to be. We are also prayerfully inquiring of the Lord what and where we are to cut if the giving doesn’t pick back up by June this year. 
   
3. We are pumped to have a growing team of people who have volunteered to pray through the Great Room between now and Easter. We asked for people to sign up who could come any time of their choice to “walk the room” and pray. So far we have 11 people committed to making time to pray over and through that space. If anyone would like to sign up for that, we can get you on the list and a key code so you can come in anytime that works for your schedule to pray in there. 

With Great Love,
Sommer