On Friday evening at 6:00pm I was in the worship center at North Raleigh as the 24 hour prayer vigil began. There were 3 other people with me as took a few moments to prepare for prayer and share together. Julia Buzzard shared that a friend had been looking for a job for an extended period of time and as she prepared to leave her home to come to the church that friend came over to tell her that they had just gotten a job! Julia shared that she had written that prayer request on a card that was placed upon the altar last Sunday and gave praise to God for this answer. As Bob and Patty Benzie listened I noticed tears in Patty's eyes. She then shared that she had a prayer request on a card last Sunday and already God has answered that request! I prayed and decided NOT to say amen at the close knowing that prayers from God's people were only beginning for the next 24 hours. Within an hour, over 12 people were scattered throughout the worship center in prayer. I had the privilege of anointing a person with oil for the healing of their son during one of the late night sessions of prayer. It is with a heart filled with hope and faith that I believe this prayer vigil will become a change point in our ministry at North Raleigh. We are trusting God for His presence to fall upon us with power and the results will be changed lives!
Tonight we close the prayer vigil with a time of anointing individuals with oil for healing. We are careful to follow the directions in scripture found in James 5:13-15: "Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out."
On Sunday I plan to continue in our series of messages as we travel to the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is located just outside the walls of Jerusalem. It was here that Jesus would go often to pray. I have stood upon the Mount of Olives several times and have memories of praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here is a short visit for those who have not had the opportunity to go there:
"Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed Him. On reaching the place, he said to them, 'pray that you will not fall into temptation.' He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed." Luke 22:39-41
These are indeed, Trustworthy Sayings. PR
1 comment:
I was so blessed to have been one of the first at the prayer vigil and as you read in the blog I had already gotten an answer before it started...God is so faithful...and Gary and I want to be that faithful to North Raleigh..NRN came to us at a time when we really needed a church family and although alot of those particular people are now not serving at NRN the church is just as dear to us and we want to be "the people," we "found," when we started to NRN.
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