“Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man and say to it, ‘This is
what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these
slain, that they may live.’”(Ez.37:9)
In a vision, Ezekiel the prophet, saw Israel as valley full of dry bones. He was told to prophecy to those dry bones so that they would be filled with life. But when he did, they only received flesh on those bones. They remained lifeless corpses. So, God told him to prophecy to the Spirit to come and fill those corpses with life and when he did they became a mighty army. A pastor familiar with revival in South Africa, Andrew Murray, points out that while preachers may speak to the people their sermons, as Ezekiel did to the dry bones, their messages are comparatively powerless to bring new life if not combined with prayer.
Just as Ezekiel said, “Come, O Spirit”, pastors and the whole Body of Christ must learn to wrestle in prayer seeking the Spirit’s help to breathe life into the dead. We need to do that in every dimension of the church, whether it be preaching, counselling, Sunday School, youth ministry, appointing pastors, developing leaders, planting churches, outreach, discipleship, finances, or church health. We can try to find out how to communicate the gospel in the most relevant language of our culture, but only the Spirit gives life. We need to long for the Presence of God like Moses did who said, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” (Ex.33:15).
“Noon hour” Prayer Meetings Continuing Throughout January….and beyond!
During one of the “noon hour” prayer meetings we held this past week, as part of the Bishop’s call to start the year with a week of fasting and prayer, a “noon hour” prayer meeting was called for the second week of the month. During one of them, a participant received a mental picture of some strong farmers raising a barn. The implication was that what we were doing was helping to build the FMCIC into a house of prayer and that it takes many of us to do it. We are sensing that God is in these prayer meetings and so we want to move with His Spirit and continue them as part of the “house raising”.
We are continuing them throughout January, but also throughout 2023. We will be sending out a signup sheet asking each church to encourage their congregation to participate and to help give leadership to these times of prayer for our movement for at least one day of each month.
Prayer Cohort Newsletter (December 2022)
An update on how cohort members engaged their churches and communities with prayer in unique ways: https://fmcic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Prayer-Newsletter_December2022.pdf
