Weekly Inspiration

Dear Friends,

This Easter we will again dedicate ourselves to an intentional focus on living the life of prayer. We invite all to participate in the 24-hour prayer vigil, April 10 through 11, at Phoenix Light & Life Church. Our prayer team is serving us by carefully preparing the prayer chapel with "stations of prayer" that are designed to give us opportunities to open our hearts and minds to God's presence and guidance. We will celebrate an International Prayer & Praise gathering Saturday, April 11 from 4pm to 6pm featuring Prayer, The Word, Worship, Music, and Friendship with loving Christ-followers from around the globe! You are invited to participate in this life-changing, inspiring experience.

The Psalmist prayed, "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long" (Psalm 25:4-5). Our life flourishes when we're touched by the Holy Spirit during our times of opening to God in prayer. The presence and power of God are released into our reality in the experience of prayer. God shows us, teaches us, and guides us.

Last Wednesday night in our weekly adult Bible Study, a precious member of our church prayed for her pastor that God would bring people alongside him to "hold up his hands" as was done for Moses when he prayed on the hilltop for Joshua to defeat the Amalekites. This prayer strengthened my heart and encouraged me to follow Christ more fully into the life of God. Let's pray for each other!

When the early church was developing in the first century, 120 disciples prayed during the days between Jesus' ascension and the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:4). On the day when the Holy Spirit come with special power, a simple fisherman named Peter gave his testimony, and 3,000 people were converted!

In 1949 Billy Graham and his team held an evangelistic campaign in Los Angeles that reached thousands of people for Christ and lead to a new era of mass evangelism. Graham had conducted similar campaigns but with much smaller results. He later realized that the main difference between the L.A. crusade and all the others before it had been the intention and amount of prayer he and his people had invested in it.

John Wesley recognized the power of prayer when he said: "Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergy or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer." Through prayer God makes the impossible possible. Through prayer, God focuses and greatly multiplies our efforts. C. H. Spurgeon said, "Whenever God determines to do a great work, He first sets His people to pray." Spurgeon had recognized that neither his sermons nor his good works accounted for the spiritual impact of his ministry.

Prayer changes us by drawing us closer to God's heart.

I feel convicted that God desires us to increase our intake of spiritual nourishment that comes through the experience of prayer. Will you join me in this exhilarating adventure of opening our lives and our church to God in prayer? God will bring us and our church revival and the joyful energy to reach the potential he has for us!

Joyfully in the mission of God!

Duff Gorle