Why I pray for my church using the prayer booklet

This message will be preached on May 3.

5 reasons for praying through the booklet:

1.   Delight & love

Belum rasa belum tahu, sudah rasa lagi mahu

Award winning Fanta slogan. 

In order to participate in the Fanta Grape contest offering as first price a free trip to Disneyland in US, I had no choice but to drink as many Fanta drinks as possible in order to collect the inner caps. In the process of drinking Fanta drinks, I developed a likeness for the drink.

Belum doa belum tahu, sudah doa lagi mahu. This applies very much to my prayer life too.

Falling in love with HGC is falling in love with God

I realized that this slogan reflects my approach to the prayer booklet and the church (because the booklet contains many prayer points on the church).

If I did not pray through the booklet, I would not have developed a delight or love for the church! 

You have to pray through it to experience falling in love with the church. You have to practice doing something over and over again before you fall in love with it or become attached to it.

Ask the exercise, hiking and marathon kaki, you will know the importance of doing something over and over again until it becomes like a second nature to you!

When I fell in love with this church praying for the church using the prayer booklet, I fell in love with God all over again. Why? Because God loves this church so much. He gave His life to save each one of us. We are so precious to Him, so greatly loved by Him.

This is what I call a delightful obedience. An act of obedience soon becomes an act of joy and a delight.

Delightful obedience – obedience blossoming into a delight and love for the church and God

To me praying through the booklet is DELIGHTFUL OBEDIENCE. It started with obedience, an intentional act but it blossomed into a delight, a joy and a love affair. 

It started as a task but it blossomed into a delight. 

It started as something structured but it blossomed into a joy.

It started as a task but it blossomed into a joyful assignment.

Praying through the booklet will cause us to fall in love with the church. Falling in love with the church is falling in love with God. This is because the church is God’s idea in the first place. The church is His Bride. The church is His hope to reach the perishing world. The church is precious and important to Him.

If you feel nothing for this church because you are new here then take this spiritual prescription - pray through the booklet following the prayer focus for each day. In just a week, you will fall in love with God and with HGC! Guaranteed!

Praying for someone we hate will fill us with God’s love for them

Obedience brings about great spiritual breakthrough and deliverance!

In the same way, when you don’t seem to like a person in church or a person in your family or even your colleagues or bosses, there is a simple solution. Pray, pray and pray for them. 

Pray positive prayers; pray prayers of love and blessing for them. The next time you see them, you will find the feeling of dislike gone from you! I would even say that you will begin loving them with the love of God!

2.   Deeper insight

Deeper insight into the prayer needs of the church

I find that when I actually pray through the prayer focus for the church, God will show me more things about the church. It has to be in that atmosphere of prayer that God gives us deeper insight of spiritual things.

Praying for the vision and mission of HGC

One morning I was praying for HGC to fulfill her vision and mission. Suddenly God showed me the vision of a huge eagle – one wing is vision and one wing is mission. The eagle can fly higher and stronger when both wings are in sync with one another. 

The church vision and mission statement is very important for the church. A people without vision will live carelessly. I later saw this giant eagle leading other smaller eagles all over the sky of Ampang.

With us propelled by the vision and mission that God has given us for HGC, we can be a blessing to our community.

Pastor’s deep insight on Joseph like a father to Pharoah

When pastor prayed for Christian leaders following the booklet, he received the insight that Joseph was like a father to Pharaoh.

I thought to myself, I cannot imagine myself being like a mother to my boss! It seems impossible because of the age gap but all things are possible to those who believe in prayer!

Old Folks Home – a house of prayer

There was also a time when Pastor was praying for the Old Folks Ministry and he received the insight that it was to be a house of prayer/a prayer altar for Ampang.

Mark as a father to the children in CC

One Saturday morning we prayed for the CC and pastor also received the insight of praying for Mark and the other youth leaders in the CC being like a father to the little children! I recalled that we were praying for more men teachers for the CC.

Insight on the Chinese Church 

When I pray for the Chinese Church I can see that God is so pleased with me. I receive the insight of God’s great desire to see true spiritual unity in the church.

Insight on the church kindy

I love praying for the church kindy because many insights will flow:

- Parent’s salvation (the kindy being like a place for the parents to seek for answers to life for themselves and for the children)

- Children’s salvation to stay with them until adulthood

Insight on the Community Center

The vision of the Community Center being a place where sweet food was available that will attract ants to come was received during corporate prayer.

Ants speak of hardworking young people who will come to learn at the Center and to receive coaching. They do not come just to play but they come to work because ants are diligent insects.

 It is indeed exciting to receive vision and insights during prayer time. It is fresh and refreshing and assures me that God hears our prayers.

On this rock I will build my church

Scripture insight on Matt 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”. I received an epiphany (a spiritual inspiration) when praying this scripture for the church. 

Today the church in Malaysia may be under attack by demonic forces from the pit of hell but no matter because of this scripture which assures us that JESUS will build His church despite the onslaught of the enemy.

3.   Determined to pray

Luke 18:1 – Men ought always to pray and not grow faint

We know the parable of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18. She was determined to get a breakthrough in her prayers so much so that she kept coming again and again to the unjust judge to present her petition for help against her adversary.

We have an adversary, he is the devil

The enemy seeks to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly.  His influence in our lives and the lives of the members in our church can be pushed back and nullified through prayer and our faith in the Word of God. 

Share Matthew 16:18 – “On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.

When you think about this, we can rest securely in the knowledge that God will advance and grow His church even when the gates of hell and all manner of demonic forces is unleashed against the church!

Qualities of the widow

She was determined and desperate. She was sincere and fervent. She was full of faith and persistence!

Story of Joash and Elisha

2 Kings 13:14-19

^"Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”

And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. And he said, “Open the east window”; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.” 

Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”

I realized the symbolism of this story when I was praying through the booklet a 2^nd time and a 3^rd time. Time and time again, this story would come back to me.

Joash only struck the arrow 3 times and stop. He made Elisha angry as Elisha’s instructions to him were “you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them”.

Noticed that Joash had not even gone out to fight the Syrians yet, he was only instructed to strike the arrows on the ground but he only struck it 3 times. Even in carrying out this simple act, he had already shown his true colors.

He was not desperate enough.

He was not determined enough.

He was not persistent enough.

Elisha was so angry that he declared that Joash would only be able to defeat the Syrians 3 times.

The enemy will come in to attack us time and time again.

When we defeat him in prayer and the word of God one time, he will find a chance when we are weak to come and attack us again. He will do this relentlessly as we can see him doing so in things happening in our nation.

Let us be like the widow who will pray until something happens.

Praying through the booklet 3 times

We started in February, praying through the booklet 7 days a week, 4 weeks in a month, 28 days in total. At the end of May, we would have completed praying through the prayer booklet 3 times.

Praying through the 2^nd edition of the booklet another 3 times

Lest we become like Joash and strike the arrows only 3 times on the ground, we will strike our arrows on the ground another 3 times till the month of August thus fulfilling what Elisha said to Joash “you should have struck 5 or 6 times then you would have destroyed your enemies”!

Theme of the 2^nd edition – praying for the community and flowing with church activities

The 2^nd edition of the prayer booklet may be different from the 1^st edition in terms of the prayer items but the overall emphasis is the same – praying for our church and the community/nation.

This time our arrows will be sharper as we will flow with the daily activities of the church for e.g. on Friday we will be praying for life groups, on Saturday for KENG youth, on Monday for our response to the Sunday sermons.

The emphasis on the Ampang community in this 2^nd edition is to align our arrows to flow with the church theme for 2015!

4.   Designed for spiritual unity

How do we esteem others better than ourselves?

Practicing humility through prayer

This is a verse on humility.

I often wonder how this verse works for me. How to work it out on a practical basis?

It dawned upon me while praying through the prayer booklet that we need to start with prayer. Prayer for others will give us the grace to esteem better than ourselves.

Praying for a wide variety of prayer items

Imagine for a moment – youths praying for young adults, youths praying for children, youths praying for the elderlies. The English Church will be praying for the Chinese Church and the Chinese Church will be praying for the English Church. Imagine the blessings that will flow as declared by Psalm 133 “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity….”

Yes, the booklet will soon be translated to Chinese and the Chinese Church will join us in praying for our beloved church. The same prayer items will be prayed over on the same day simultaneously up to 28 days by both Churches.

Unity through prayer

Can you imagine the strengthening of the joints and the unity that will come about as a result of this simple act of prayer?

Humility = Unity

While praying for the church anniversary, I saw this vision of a huge earthenware with the words HUMILITY & UNITY written on both sides of the pot and water flowing from this huge earthenware flowing into the smaller pots all around the huge earthenware.

It speaks to me that if we walk in humility and unity, the anointing of God will flow down from the top leadership of the church down to the ordinary members of the church.

5.   Destined for glory

Do you believe that prayer will prepare you for the return of Christ?

 Prayer is an act of faith

As I read the parable of the persistent widow, I was puzzled as to its ending “When the Son of Man comes back to earth will he really find faith on the earth?”

How come the return of Christ is mentioned in the same breath as the parable of the persistent praying widow? It seems that the Lord was trying to link the preparation of His return with persistent prayer.

Church core values

I remember when we were developing the Church Core Values at one of our Leaders’ Retreat that the Lord dropped into my heart to highlight that one of our Core Values should be to value the Hope of His Return.

If you have been praying through the booklet you will note that one day is set aside to pray through the church core values.

Watch and pray for you do not know when the time is

Mark 13:32 - 37

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.  It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

I invite you to take up your prayer booklet (2^nd edition) one hand on it and the other on your heart….let us pray….