Promoting a passion for Jesus, intimacy with the Father, the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, renewal in the church and revival
in the land. E-MAIL EDITION, Published by Keith Allen,
keithanliz@patash.com.au
As almost the entire mailing list of the PJ has been lost due to a disk failure, it would be great if you could send
on any e-addresses that have been omitted or would benefit by receiving the PJ. Blessings to all! ALSO
GREETINGS TO JOY BUTLER FROM KEITH ALLEN ( AWAKE! ARISE! EVANGELISE!, JOY: DO I HEAR AN
AMEN TO THAT??!!)
GETTING STARTED
STRAIGHT FROM THE SHOULDER
The Bible calls the church a 'House of Prayer'(Matt 21:13). I believe that if a church is not known for the power of
its prayer, then it is not truly the House of the Lord. The way people pray determines the kind of work God can do
for them, through them and to them. In our church we pray with the voice of authority. Everyone has the mandate
to pray. We teach our people the varieties of prayer and expect them to live accordingly.
Roberts Liardon in, THE NEW APOSTOLIC CHURCHES, C. Peter Wagner, Ed., Regal, 1998.
AN INVITATION TO PRAY FOR REVIVAL · AN INVITATION TO PRAY
FOR REVIVAL· AN INVITATION TO PRAY FOR REVIVAL· AN
INVITATION TO PRAY FOR REVIVAL
Please consider making the following points a matter of prayer in your homes and churches.
That God will lift the persecution of Christians in Vietnam.
That God will bring his peace and reconciliation in Jesus to the peoples of the Baulkans.
That the Holy Spirit will renew our churches and bring revival and awakening to the unsaved of our lands.
That we will receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit into our churches on his terms, rather than our own.
That we will seek the face of God in prayer.
That we will put Jesus first in our lives.
That we will worship God rather than our ideas about him.
That God will give us a gift of repentance.
That we will worship him as he is rather than what we in our pride and unbelief have made him out to be.
That we will read God's word in the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, rather than in the dimness of our
denominational bias.
That God will remove the fear and pride in our hearts that stops us living in his will and experiencing his power
today.
That we will seek his will for our lives and churches rather than our own.
That our churches will be energised and directed by Jesus testimony, which is the Spirit of Prophecy.
That we will learn to listen and hear God's voice today.
That under the power of the Spirit, Jesus will make his will known for our lives NOW with impressions, dreams,
visions, words of knowledge and words of prophecy.
That we will believe and act on this promise of Jesus. 'I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do
what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father' (John 14:12).
THIS MONTH
IN THE PRAYER JOURNAL
There are four themes in this month's Prayer Journal.
The first is seeking God's face. This involves the kind of intimate communion lovers have; an attitude of seeking
God for himself, rather than what he can do for us.
The second theme is repentance. True repentance is the door to renewed intimacy, blessing and fruitfulness.
The third theme involves seeking to know God as he is rather than what we have made him out to be. This
involves turning away from 'us' centred worship, and from worshiping the truths of God as if they are God. It
involves the rejection of a secular view of God with its 'scribish' literary Christianity. It means drawing near to our
supernatural God and seeking his manifest Presence.
The fourth theme has to do with authority. This flows from the themes above. Our intimacy with the Father
means that we learn to do only what the Father wants us to do. We act in his will, power and authority. God bless
you as you step out in faith as ambassadors for him to act in his authority and power!
SEEK MY FACE!
AND I WILL HEAL YOUR LAND
God loves us passionately. He delights in each of us. He longs for our company and desires that he be
experienced as he is. The Prayer Journal is designed to help as enjoy union with God. God is saying to us today,
'Seek my face and turn from your wicked ways.' The Prayer Journal is not published to make us feel good,
although God does bring peace and joy. It's not put out to help us be religious and it's not sent abroad to fill us
up with spiritual sentiment. It's not meant to pander to our religious prejudices or indeed boost our
denominational ego. It's purpose is to connect us to God, so that churches can be renewed, so that Christians as
a whole can be revived and so that the unchurched can be evangelised. The Prayer Journal has a purpose and
that purpose is to provoke nothing less than a new visitation of God in the manner of the Great Awakening. May
God bless you as you seek his face.
LET YOUR GLORY FALL
SINGING IS A KIND OF PRAYING.
SEEK HIS FACE IN PRAISE AND ADORATION!
The following song by David Ruis is sung in many churches today as an invocation. The infilling of the Holy
Spirit has the same effect today as he did at Pentecost. Groups of praying people are empowered. Marriages are
saved, churches are renewed, missionaries are sent out, conversions are made, the Kingdom of God spreads and
the social structure of nations becomes imbued and changed by the presence of The Holy One. The presence of
evil is often thought to be overwhelming. Yet the truth is that that evil will be overwhelnmed by the might of God.
Pray God's sovereign will, his grace, his love and his restorative, healing power into every situation you find
yourslef in, as when the first Christians prayed this prayer: 'Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your
servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs
and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. 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 4:29-31].
LET YOUR CLORY FALL
Ruler of the nations
The world has yet to see
The full release of your promise
The church in victory
Turn to us Lord and touch us
Make us strong in You might
Overcome our weakness
That we can stand up and fight
Let Your glory fall in this room
Let it go forth from here to the nations
Let Your fragrance rest in this place
As we gather to seek Your face.
Words and music by David Ruis
TEN GOOD REASONS TO PRAY!
From the book by Elizabeth Alves entitled, BECOMING A PRAYER WARRIOR, Renew, California, 1998.
SEEKING HIS FACE IN DAILY PRAYER
God's word tells us to pray. Prayer is entering into a relationship with God so that we can determine his will in
the matter and call his will into existence in the earth. Eph. 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all
kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Jesus considered prayer more a priority than physical rest. He also made it a priority over his appetite. Luke 4:1
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, Luke 4:2 where for
forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
April, 1999
Ministry to God must come before ministry to people. The role of the priest is to minister first to God and then
to the people.
THE PRAYER JOURNAL #6,
Intimacy with God is cultivated as we invest time in our relationships with him. The result will be knowing his
will and making his will known to the people. The Lord longs to speak with us today just as he did with Moses,
face to face. The more our spiritual eyes are opened, the greater understanding we will have of the natural
circumstances around us.
Prayer is a love response to the burdens of others. It is an unselfish work that is often unseen and
unappreciated; they only experience the results!
Pray the things God brings to mind as a result of reading the Scriptures. Your prayer will then become God's
word alive in your mouth. Praying God's word brings results and answers, because God himself said that his word
will not return to him empty.
Prayer makes a way for God to act sovereignly on earth. Heaven waits for us to pray for things to happen.
Prayer starts with you and what you know to be the obvious facts as you bring them to God. Intercession is
different to prayer in that that it starts and ends with God. God prompts you to pray about matters, even if you
are not sure why at the time. Be open to what he wants you to intercede for.
Prayer can cause God to relent. And you can influence society as did Abraham, Daniel and others. Not only
does the Lord change his mind when people pray. He also gives revelation knowledge and the mind of God
through the Holy Spirit. As you continue in prayer the Kingdom of God will become real through the miracles of
God operating in your life.
Prayer is war on the kingdom of darkness. Jesus had to battle Satan for his ministry and other situations. The
success of Christianity depends on winning in prayer.
CHURCHES WITH CLOUT!
In a remarkable new book by C. Peter Wagner entitled, THE NEW APOSTOLIC CHURCHES, the author writes,
The majority of the new apostolic churches not only believe in the work of the Holy Spirit, but they regularly
invite him to come into their midst to bring supernatural power. It is common place in fact to observe ministries of
healing, demonic deliverance, spiritual warfare, prophecy, and prophetic acts, fervent intercession and travail. A
basic theological proposition in these churches is that supernatural power tends to open the way for applying
truth.
PRAYER
The actual number of prayer times and the cumulative number of minutes spent in prayer during the worship
services in such churches far exceeds the prayer time coverage in traditional churches. Worship leaders weave
frequent times of prayer into singing worship songs. Many of them believe that true worship is itself a form of
prayer, so that the blending is natural. At times in some churches, each will begin singing a prayer [singing in the
Spirit] creating a loud harmonious sound, not unlike a Gregorian Chant, observes Wagner. Performance is a
naughty word for many of these worship leaders as their goal is to help every person in the congregation to
become an active participant [See coming article entitled, THE GIFT OF WORSHIP LEADER]
WARFARE PRAYER
In addition forms of prayer are practiced outside the church in the community itself, such as praise marches,
prayer walks, prayer journeys and prayer expeditions. These pave the way for evangelism.
THE VINE AND THE BRACHES
Yet the most interesting thing about these churches is their authority structure. The main difference between
these churches and traditional churches is THE AMOUNT OF SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY DELEGATED BY THE
HOLY SPIRIT TO INDIVIDUALS.
We are seeing a transition from bureaucratic authority to personal authority,
from legal structure to relational structure, from control to coordination and from rational leadership to
charismatic leadership. Many traditional churches are heritage driven. They look backward. The new churches
are vision driven. They are drawn into the future by a Spirit led destiny.
having
A FORM OF GODLINESS
but denying its power. Have
nothing to do with them (2Tim. 3:5).
Prayer is a state of being as well words we say or songs we sing. Prayer is relational and flows from a relationship
with a supernatural God. God's supernatural power is recorded in the Bible, it birthed the Bible and impelled many
of the characters who appear in the Bible. God's supernatural power started the earth and it will finish it. God is
supernatural in nature and the Bible illustrates that he has always touched the lives of his people in supernatural
ways. But one of the favourite sayings of many church-going anti-supernaturalists is that 'Satan is transformed
into an angel of light.'
Satan is transformed into an angel of light, but not in the way these people think. Satan has transformed himself
into an angel of light in the form of the barren (yet hallowed) weekly man centred/God absent church service.
Satan and his life-denying ways, are transformed into an angel of light by those who 'worship' religious habit and
traditional religiosity as if it is light and truth. Paul says, 'Have nothing to do with them.' The following articles are
designed to help us live in a state of prayer and experience the presence of God in our churches..
GOD IN CHURCH
Churches that make an impact have God in them. I did not say they have Bible stories about God in them. I am
saying that these churches experience the presence of the living God. They have stories about what God is doing
in their churches that are similar to the stories of what God did in Bible times. The Gospel gets preached, the sick
are healed, and demons are cast out. In some instances the presence of God is so 'thick' and so powerful that
people fall to their knees in repentance.
Tommy Tenney has experienced the awesome presence of God in church. In his book, THE GOD CHASERS, he
observes that the Godless are not stupid. They stay away from some Christian churches in droves because the
manifest presence of God is not there. The churches are filled with the presence of man. Yet unbelievers are
drawn irresistibly by the Spirit to those churches were God's presence can be experienced in power.
