Steve Hawthorne 3

When we begin an movement we should pray. It can be a throw away idea, “We pray before anything.”

But a prayed for city, brokering with God, running that out over time.

What kind of city could we live in. Ernie Fredreick: every person prayed for every day by caring Christian neighboers. Any thing good, they will blame God for it. Anything bad they will seek God through it.

Asking God to help people to look God’s way. Praying with people over time for a future and a hope. We must have an expectation of a transformation in our prayers.

We need to equip every Christian to pray like this.

We can’t fear dishonoring God (or ourselves) if the prayers weren’t answered. Sometimes when God doesn’t answer our prayers, he more perfectly accomplishes his will (e.g. Rich Bledsoe).

Eric: We ask city officials come to our city wide pastor’s prayer meeting. One person asked to pray for tolerance. One pastor prayed to go beyond tolerance to Shalom, peace. They also prayed for this leader’s longevity. “I feel like I’m among friends”.

One leader, who was suspicious of evangelicals, received a public rebuke in the community, and the pastor’s rallied around this leader admitting that all of them had faced the same things and that they were friends and wanted to pray. The leader broke down and within a short time was converted.

Prayer is not the thing we do at first, and then we get to work. Prayer is the matrix were we co-labor with the living God.

Steve Sjogren and I talked about prayer walking. Of all the ways people can be served, Christians should be involved in them all whether its’ job counseling or compassion service. But there is one thing that only Christians can do is pray in Jesus’ name.

We need a different identity for our people so they can realize that they are the ones who can pray. People need to be encouraged to pray.

There’s a vision of transformation where God’s name is great and everywhere. He’s not just known, he’s followed.

We need a different way of praying. If you just say pray, they do it the same old way of request management.

To do that we need to demystify intercession and demilitarize it.

Diagram:

Most people are having good days and bad days but no real purpose.

Most evangelism techniques are truth encounters that say that you’re going the wrong way. Repent; turn around and go the right way.

What if we came along side people and praying with them for the purpose and destiny of their life? They may not be connected to their purpose or hope. If you pray purpose into people’s life by having hope for them, you could help connect them their purpose.

This is not what saves a person. But God is also involved and has been involved before you. God is already working in their live, but it’s invisible.

A Christian is connected to purpose, even if there are ups and downs.

What will make God visible in the life of someone unconnected to their purpose? Prayer.

Joan’s next door neighbor was crushed because her husband lost her job. Joan prayed that her husband would get a job. He did the next day. Suddenly prayer made God’s hand visible.

Instead of evangelism being a truth encounter that is combative, but praying companion prayers as a friend can make God visible in their life. Salvation is not just going to heaven, but a fulfillment of God’s design and purpose for life.

We need an agrarian model of prayer that produces fruit over a long period of time. Not just fighting to win today’s battles.

from an article in the perspectives book:

Truth Encounter (the usual mode)

Power Encounter: Some people are moving along and what is assailing them is evil. You come along with God on your side and you help them overcome the evil that assails them. You ask God to deal with the evil that oppresses them. We have to be careful because our spiritual warfare language is misunderstood. Conquest language is misunderstood. We must pray against evil, not against people.

Allegiance Encounter

The needs and dreams of the city overlaps with the calling and capacities of the church and the desires of God (diagram in The Externally Focused Church). What if the spheres were on an ongoing timeline? God gives us a mandate to fulfill within his purpose. God will always do more than our mandate. We do what God calls us to do, but God will always do more because he is not limited by our capacity. What he wants to do is beyond what we can do, but he doesn’t need us. He includes us. This is a relief to those who have tried to be the messiah but have discovered there is only one Messiah.

Out of the things that our capable of finishing, there are also pursuables. Pursuables are things that we can’t finish but we can pursue. Peace in culture is something we can pursue but we can’t finish. But by doing it we give glory to God even if it is his to finish.

We can finish objectives like planting a Gospel community within a cultural setting. Unreached people groups are not the neediest; they are those remaining who have no access to the gospel.

Eric: Like and MRI, wherever you slice the work of God you should see the three spheres, but it is only a slice of an ongoing process.

The Berbers have within their community, a witness for Christ, which is finishable. Now we can go after the pursuables of bringing the kingdom of God to pass.

The prayables, how are they associated with the finishables and the pursuables.

Rich: This is confusion because it is a liminal time. The Lutheran gospel said here’s the law and you are wicked, and faith is the entrance to the kingdom of God. Everyone knew they were sinful so this message was received. Now, noone knows that they are sinful, but they do know that they are hopeless. Preaching justification by faith will get you nowhere, but preaching hope can move people out of their circles of hopelessness. They respond to this.

A finishable is describing the fulfillment of the Great Commission: having a disciplemaking process establish in a community. A

Pursuables are things that cannot be finished until the Kingdom is consummated (e.g. peace, justice).

Sam: Eric and I have stopped talking about the transformation of the city. We can’t control that. But we can change the way the church views the city.

In Morocco, a missionary wanted to do a Palm Sunday worship service. He wanted to prayer walk to. We prayer walked the city. The Anglican Church asked to do a worship service to pray blessings for everyone. No one said no so we did it. We trained 500 people to pray blessings. I will not proselytize; speak badly about Muslims, etc. The police were included to help supervise. Many were moved with joy about the hope of the blessings prayed. Morocco has dreams and visions, praying blessings open people up to God’s role in their dreams and visions.

Conversion, Evangelism and Church planting are skipped over in our prayers, and we prayed for their destiny of joy and hope in blessing.

Page 2 in the Ways to Pray in Hope: Blessings booklet. This booklet is helpful to ordinary people to pray with scripture toward what God is doing, on mission with God in prayer for our city.

Eric: When you read the genealogies, God is all about the long view. Evangelism is changing the end of the story for people who have lost hope. Praying blessing is praying for the ending to change.

Prayer walking is simply praying in the places where we expect God to do what he is going to do.

Some of the most difficult prayer walking is around your home and the office because you “know” how things are there. It’s harder to believe God in your own spaces. Familiarity frustrates faith. Often we start praying in other spaces to learn how to have faith for change in our own spaces.

City prayerwalking: In San Diego churches came together to pray. Identities were moved, “I am part of a church that does this kind of thing.” People will say, “Did it help, is the city changed.” Your job is to help people take the long term view and make it an ongoing pursuit of God’s blessing and God’s future. Otherwise prayer warriors will make it bad news and a combat action.

One pastor told me, “I would prayerwalk even if God didn’t answer these prayers.” How could he say this? He said, “Because we gain vision by seeing the needs of our cities and praying in hope. It changes us.”

Rich: The whole problem solving mentality comes out of hoplessness: giving condoms instead of praying for purity.

I ask myself, “What part of my endeavors are actually organized despair.”

Eric: my wife started a Mom’s in touch group. We decided to prayer walk the school one Sunday. The principal happened to be there. We prayed for him. He was not converted but later he opened up the campus to gospel workers.

Page 6 and 7 of the Open My City booklet: Pray for a situation that defies a human solution.

This is not evangelism. It is modeling a friendship with God. It prepares people for evangelism.

Spiritual Mapping. Most spiritual mapping is a reduction of events apart from context. What people hope for is a simple action that will get all the great stuff in the future.

The power to change the past: we are going off half mapped. We need to understand the past in context in order to understand its effects on today.

Jesus was asked, “Did this happen because of his sins or the sins of his parents?” Jesus answered with the future, not the past: to demonstrate the glory of God.

Booklet: The Global Day of Prayer

Perspectives Book and workbook.