Fall 2011 Challenge

As  Matt Chandler challenges us in the prayer jam below, God petitions us to be devoted in prayer! 

He states, "Let every amen be a 'so be it' and not just an ending to our prayers."

Prayer ministry has some exciting things planned for this new semester.   As you may have seen at CRU the last few weeks, we have been hard at work with prayer request cards.  CRU affords us a unique opportunity in fellowship to not only pray for each other, but pray for our mission as a whole.  Imagine the multiple ways God will work through our ministry if we are united in prayer!  If you are looking for ways to get involved, please consider participating in 24-hour prayer, every Monday night.  The online sign up is available, and the link is listed for your convenience.  You can find more information regarding the goals of 24-hour prayer and the prayer room by exploring our blog and visiting older posts.  

We have a unique opportunity to grow not only as individuals in Christ, but grow as an overall body of Christ to generate big changes on UW-Stevens Point Campus.  Hope you can join us in "Kneeling Before the Father," this Fall!

Matthew 21:22 - "You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it."

Let's bring a united front to praying earnestly for the continued growth of our mission! So Be It. AMEN.

Check Out Matt Chandler's Prayer Jam!

PRAYER JAM!

David's Story--Amazing!

This was written by Edwin, a Brother in Christ.

I met David a little over a year ago. His friend Jeff is a classmate of mine and introduced us at a club outing. I remember David’s kind personality and his infectious sense of humor but it was the fact that, despite the tragedy of his condition, he still kept a positive attitude. David was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer 3 years ago after he moved here from Orange Co. California, after meeting his girlfriend on World of War craft video game site and decided to come live with her here in Wisconsin. David never knew who his father was and his mother, as he put it, was (and still is) an alcoholic and drug attic. His “rock” was his older brother Steve, who would tell you himself that he was not the best role model for David, having been in and out of prison his entire life.

Needless to say, David hasn’t had the easiest upbringing. The atmosphere that he lived in (if I could apply a single word) was dark and his only experience with having a personal relationship with God was not good. It was by the pure grace of God, and His perfect planning that I and others were convicted to enter his life after hearing that he had anywhere from a week to a month to live. I and others started going over there a couple nights a week, hanging out with him and getting to know him and those around him on a more personal level. When we talked with him a personal relationship with God, he had a lot of questions and was not sure that he even deserved that kind of life. However, he was sure that he was scared and of sure of where he was going and found comfort in the idea of heaven. We started telling this story to people on campus and to churches back home and it was amazing to see how got put it on the hearts of so many people to be praying for David and his family.

It was by all means hard to watch David a, 20 year old boy, suffering through each day with such fear of where he was going when it was all said and done. It was hard to know that the results of what we did was completely out of our control, that there was so little time and the atmosphere around David’s life was screaming all things opposite of a life surrendered to God. However, God was good and completely sovereign and about a month or so after visiting him regularly and being in constant prayer, my friends and I had the incredible opportunity to witness David except Christ into his life, just over a week before David passed away.

Now this story is much larger than I can put in a couple paragraphs, however I hope you get an idea of some of the amazing, and God directed miracles that still happen today. This situation is far greater than we could ever wrap our minds around but God used multiple gifts by multiple people that all came served their purpose in David’s story;  (and God is still at work in this).

Some Shared Thoughts and Celebrations

Here are just some written words from students out of our "Share Journal" and a few answered prayers from the "Celebration Wall."

"I know it is Your plan to have me in a place where Your work is thriving and growing. I feel so close to You an am wanting to know You so much more."


"My Lord, words cannot express how good it feels to be finally walking with You. I've been running away since I was a little girl, but You kept chasing me..... I hated my life so much that I often thought about taking it. Finally, through a seemingly random chain of events, You brought me back to You."


"I feel this incredible joy inside. I feel loved like never before and it brings me to tears when I think of you much You love me and that I know I do not deserve it."


"You have done great things, God!! I mean seriously, this whole coming together and praying business...one of the most beautiful things I have ever been able to be part of."


"Lord, I'm sitting here, nothing to say but You are so close in this room."


"As I came into this beautiful room and sat in front of the prayer requests on the wall, I began to see how many people were being named. Lord, if only these people knew how many people-even strangers- send a prayer to You for them."


"Wow. I am just amazing with the power of Your love on this campus."


"Thank You so much for being here with us, for leading us in this prayer room. It is ONLY because of You that we have been able to do this!"


A few answered prayers on the celebration wall:

-Our new Brother in Christ, Dave
-Our new Sister in Christ, Ali
-Our new Brothers in Christ, Brian and J.B.
-Joel was returned to Emmanuel's Children Home alive and unharmed.


Thank You Father, for continually revealing Yourself to us and this campus.  We believe that You are All Powerful and Mighty God. Your plan for us and this campus is absolutely perfect. Thank You for continually shining Your gracious light that is constantly filled with mercy. We love You, Lord!

The First Monday of 24 hours of Prayer

After being contacted by Wisconsin's state coordinator from Campus America Dayn Lukes, we decided to first commit to every other Monday. UWSP has not really seen a committed 24-7 prayer movement so we as "the prayer team" decided we would start out with every other Monday. Our first Monday would be October 18th.  We were blown away with what God was starting to do.

We had about a week and a half to set everything up after committing to every other Monday starting the 18th of October. The week before the 18th, God supplied everything we needed and more in just 2 1/2 days. The girls that live in the house where our basement room prayer room is made a final decision to allow the basement room to be used as "the prayer room." The next day, an anonymous donor left an envelope of almost $200 on a wall used for prayer requests at our fall retreat addressed solely for starting up our vision of an actual prayer room. The day after that, a leader in our movement had a chance to get FREE furniture from his boss. This was crazy, God supplied everything in less than 3 days! We set up the room with the furniture, blankets, verses on the walls, a paper wall for prayer requests, pictures and souvenirs from other countries, a map of the world, bibles, books, writing utensils, and special journals for sharing writing and sharing art. Our hope was to see at least one person fill every hour of the first day of 24 hours.

God showed up so much more than we had expected. It was definitely a lesson learned about how much we doubt our Father. Throughout the first day, between 60-70 students went in and out of the room to pray for revival on our campus and things going on in their own lives. The last two hours of the first Monday, there were 20-25 students packed in this small little room worshipping the Lord through prayer.

After this first Monday, we decided that we could easily do every Monday instead of every other and we changed our commitment. We continued to pray for our students' hearts to be penetrated with the need for prayer and continued to hope for momentum to eventually do a full week of 24-7 prayer and continue even further after that. We are continually trusting in God's plan for this room and our campus.

Pray?

Importance of Prayer?

All throughout scripture prayer is essential in the lives of those who follow the Lord. Prayer is needed to be filled with God’s Spirit and when we are filled with the Spirit God gives us knowledge of how to live a life worthy to Him and how to be prepared for battle against the enemy.

We can only know and understand God’s commands and how to stand against the enemy when we fill ourselves with Holy Scripture. We are not going to understand God’s Word if we are not filled with God’s Spirit, we will not be filled with God’s Spirit unless we are in prayer taking the time to form a relationship with our Heavenly Father, and we will not understand how to come before the LORD in prayer if we do not indulge in God’s Word. With all of these things being so closely intertwined, prayer is essential.

Not only is prayer essential for this reason but it is one of God’s commands for us. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 states in simplest terms, “pray without ceasing.” God wants us to continually be praying. This can be on our knees crying out for help to Him or it can simply be resting in His presence as long as we are acknowledging God in our lives at every moment and giving Glory to Him and Him alone.

Why do we need to have a 24-7 prayer movement? Can’t we just pray on our own?

Praying alone is definitely an essential part of our lives as we live to bring Glory to God. Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus going off by himself to pray. We need to take our time one-on-one with God to deepen our own personal relationships with Him. However, God tells us there is power when more people come together. Matthew 18:20 says, “For when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” When we come together lifting the same prayers to God, there is more power in that.

Also, we want to see the Body of Christ come together in Unity and this is a perfect opportunity to do so. Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” God created us to follow His commands but also to be in unity. It is pleasing to Him when brothers and sisters come together to lift up His name.

We pray for this unity to be true of UWSP, this city, state, nation, and world.

One last question to address: Why a specific prayer room?

We already know that God is glorified when we come together in unity. Having a specific prayer room gives us even more unity. If you didn’t already know, God blessed us with our room to pray in, an anonymous donation for all the supplies we needed, and free furniture in just 2 ½ days! It was incredible how quickly God provided and in the amount that He did. God has blessed us with this opportunity for us to utilize. In Acts 1:12-14, Jesus had just been ascended into heaven and the apostles return to Jerusalem. The verses say that they went upstairs to the room where they all joined together constantly in prayer. The original text actually uses the word “the” instead of just a room. It shows the apostles so to a specific room where they were in constant prayer. When we unite into one room, God’s presence shows up with fire. Our vision is that we will have passionate hearts that believe when we constantly call on the name of the Lord in one specific place, God will overwhelm us with His Holy presence, give us the desires of His heart and then bless us with answers to huge prayers.

God is all powerful and Mighty God. We cannot change people’s lives but we can and are commanded to ask and trust for God to change people’s lives. We trust the Lord to change lives here on this UWSP campus but also believe that God will answer prayers in bigger ways and bless us more when we actually humble ourselves and come together in unity as we pray continually to see God’s power work in amazing ways in the students’ lives here at UWSP and in this community. We pray that you will allow God to continually give you a bigger passion for how essential prayer is for God to change the lives here on this campus.