40 Days of Prayer

The Lord has laid it on my heart to fast and pray for the next forty days for our mission to Belize. Lately I
have had a renewed sense of the importance of prayer. Throughout scripture we are reminded to pray
continuously. Please feel free to join me in this journey I will email you the prayer guide I have put
together if you like, or you can just pray for what the Lord lays on your heart. If you are going to join me
in prayer I would strongly urge you to fast as well. While it is not a very common practice today, in the
early days of the church fasting was quite common. You dont have to fast from food; it could be
whatever takes up your time. You have the opportunity to deny yourself and focus on what the Lord has
for you.

For us to be effective for Christ it is important that we are in close fellowship with Him. For the first few
days I think it is important that we focus on our own spiritual development. If you look through the
scriptures God led people through a refining process before He used them. Noah spent years building a
boat on dry land; Abraham was 99 and childless while waiting on Gods promise; Joseph spent years in
prison before he was set in pharaohs house; & Moses spent 40 years tending sheep in the desert before
he was sent back to Egypt. We have to allow God to first work in us if we ever want to see Him work
through us. You will find the common theme through the first few days is conforming to the likeness of
Christ. If at first glance these things seem difficult to grasp it is because they are actually impossible, but
what is impossible with man is possible with God. In John chapter 15, Jesus tells us apart from him we
can do nothing, but thankfully just a few verses later he says if we remain in him we can have anything
we ask. Through this chapter we are compared to branches. If you have ever sat and watched a branch
you were probably bored within a very short time because branches dont really do anything. They hang
on to the tree on one end and sprout shoots at the other. Just as the branch only needs to stay
connected to the trunk to fulfill its purpose, all we have to do is cling to Jesus and He will do the rest.
Only submit yourself to him and daily bow humbly at his feet and you will see these thing begin to see
these thing take shape in your life:

Spiritual fitness of team

1. Absolute surrender

Php 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient
to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Luk 22:42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My
will, but Yours, be done."

If we are to do Gods will we must be willing to give up our own so that we may be free to follow His
leading. It is not possible to fill a cup that is already full. Before we can be filled we must first be emptied
of ourselves. Then God will be free to fill us as He desires.

Pray that we may be completely surrendered to God

 2. Humility

Mat 5:5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.
Mar 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His
life a ransom for many."

Christ was creator and ruler over all things yet He became subject to shame and eventually death. His
entire life on earth was an act of humility. If we are to show Christ to the lost we must first be like Him in
His humility.

Pray that we would exemplify Christs humility in the way we live.

3. Purity in heart

Psa 24:3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?
Psa 24:4 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell
lies.

In order for us to be able come to God with our petitions, we must have a clear conscience. Not that we
can be righteous on our own but we must come under the cleansing blood of Jesus and allow his
righteousness to fill our hearts we do this through repentance.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin we need to repent of

4. Hatred for sin

We often under estimate the damage sin does to our relationship with Christ

Isa 64:6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are
nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away
like the wind.

If our righteous deeds are infected with pride and repulsive to God, can you imagine what our sin looks
like? I believe it is time that we the church took our sin seriously. Yes Christ died for us that we may
receive forgiveness, but that does not give us a license to sin. You will find it impossible to abide in Christ
if we do not hate that which he hates.

Pray that God would show us the repulsiveness of sin so that we can see through satans lies
 5. Unity among team members

Joh 17:20 "I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in Me
through their message.
Joh 17:21 I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are oneas You are in Me, Father,
and I am in You. And may they be in Us so that the world will believe You sent Me.

In the upper room after the last supper Jesus prayed for his disciples and then prayed for future
believers. His prayer was for us to be unified, but not just for the sake of unity, for the purpose of
evangelism

Pray for our team that we would be united together by our common goal to share the message of Christ
to all.