This week, we continue our nine-week series, 'Praying Together,' exploring the great power of communal prayer. Based on the teachings of Mike Betts and his book and course, 'The Prayers of Many,' our series aims to deepen our understanding and practice of praying together as a community.
In this week's devotionals, we draw upon the powerful analogy of uprooting a tree together to illustrate how praying in larger numbers has great power.
'After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.’ (Acts 4:31)
Summary: Vision inspires effort
You can watch this devotional at:
God asked the prophet Jeremiah, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” If I were to ask you about what you see for the church, what would you say? All effort is driven by a vision of a preferred future and God wants to envision us so as to energise and direct our effort.
Acts 4 gives us a vivid image of the transformative power that flows out of a church that is united in prayer. I believe that God wants us to share His vision for a united praying church. Mike Betts has a vision for a praying church and a praying community of churches. He writes:
‘When we pray in large numbers (our vision for Enough is that it will go to at least 20,000 people across the world), the increased leverage we have means we will begin to see enemy strongholds uprooted. The soil will be freed to be cultivated and to have the seeds of God’s kingdom planted.’ (Betts, Mike. The Prayers of Many)
Do we have a vision for the church? What do we want her to become? God puts differing passions on our hearts but we are all, surely, to be united in having a vision for a praying community. A church that doesn’t have prayer at its heart has lost its way. Prayer is like the heart to the body, we die without prayerful connection to God.
If we have any compassion on our lost communities and any zeal for the glory of God, united prayer must become the beating heart of our churches.
RESPONSE
Vision inspires effort. Ask God to give you His vision for His church. Whatever we want for our lives and our church, imagining, praying for and working for a praying church should surely be a vision that we all share.
COMMUNITY GROUP NOTES AND STUDY
1. NOTICES
It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News.
2. ICEBREAKER
What has God been speaking to you about from His Word this week and how has this helped you / affected your life?
3. STUDY AND PRAY TOGETHER
During this series, we will be using the 'Prayers of Many' course by Mike Betts.
I encourage you to buy a copy of the book from: https://prayersofmany.org/book#buybook
If you need assistance in buying a book please send an email to the church office and we will happily purchase you a copy.
Please download the course handbook from: